Canadian Looking South

Mardi Gras

2006-02-28T10:16:00.000-08:00

On Septmeber 16, 2005 I was wondering about the debacle that would be debris removal from Katrina.

On the Ellen Show Mardi Gras celebration the issue of debris was a focus. She could barely restrain herself that it was all still sitting there 6 months later. She spotlighted people who have taken the matter into their own hands. A teacher from California who brought her students to New Orleans for three weeks in January and cleared the debris from 23 properties. And the woman who started the Katrina Crew, spending Saturdays clearing debris with their bare hands. Started with 15, grown to 1,000. Their biggest problem: supply of garbage bags. You might think that if the feds were not up to managing and financing the debris removal themselves, they might have at least arranged for some emergency garbage bags. But, no. 10,000 industrial bags were donated on the Ellen Show.

There are currently 6 city garbage disposal workers in all of New Orleans. So many unemployed and all that debris to remove and nothing. What a waste.

From My Favourite Blog-towleroad.com

2006-02-27T17:36:00.000-08:00

The Military's Ugly Double Standard on Gay Porn

A noteworthy if sad junction of events happened last week. It was the release of some FBI memos regarding the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, and the announcement that seven paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division would be charged with engaging in sex for money on a website.

Here's one revelation from the newly released memos:

"Military interrogators posing as FBI agents at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, wrapped terrorism suspects in an Israeli flag and forced them to watch homosexual pornography under strobe lights during interrogation sessions that lasted as long as 18 hours, according to one of a batch of FBI memos released Thursday."

And here's a point brought up in an opinion piece just published in The Nation.

"This confluence of events presents the unlikely but completely plausible scenario in which 1) military boys star in gay porn which is 2) subsequently used by military interrogators in Guantanamo to torture prisoners in violation of international law then 3) these same military boys are prosecuted for acts which are perfectly legal under civilian law but remain punishable offenses under a silly and discriminatory set of military policies while 4) the torturers and their supervisors get off totally scot-free. Ain't that America."

The Pessimism Deficit By Sarah Vowell

2006-02-19T10:51:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago, I was doing a reading at one of those bookstores on the West Coast where at least five people will hiss like snakes and radiators if an author even mentions the names of certain senior administration officials. And that was back before members of the executive branch actually started shooting their friends.

The question-and-answer period included the usual random lineup of what I call the "Garry Wills questions." They're the sort of undignified "What historical figure would you like to make out with?" queries my way-more-upstanding-nonfiction-colleague Mr. Wills never has to endure. Probably because everyone knows the Socratic author of "Lincoln at Gettysburg" and "Why I Am a Catholic" would answer with another question, namely, "Do you consider Snoop Dogg to be a historical figure?"

Then a man raised his hand and asked me to give him a reason to be "optimistic" about America. Huh. That was a new one. That's how depressing things are in this country right now — citizens are coming to me for optimism. And I'm the person who came to town to read from a book that ends with me walking across Union Square from the Lincoln statue toward the Gandhi statue and noting, "They shot him, too."

I was so taken aback by the optimism request I think I mumbled something about seeking solace in art and the land, culminating in a drippy anecdote about my sunrise flight over Mount Hood and Crater Lake while listening to "Adagio for Strings." But that question keeps dogging me.

My go-to worldview is pessimism. I see a Times Square billboard promoting a musical that has its audience "dancing in the aisles" and I can't help but think, "That is a fire hazard." But it has been my happy experience that if one moves through life in a constant state of low-key dread, then one gets to be continually pleasantly surprised.

Like, suppose I was to be asked to write a guest column for a newspaper I find consistently infuriating because, for example, its arts section prints claptrap proclamations like "No woman really loves Bob Dylan," thereby making me want to jump in a cab with a boombox and my two copies of "Blonde on Blonde" and plant myself on 43rd Street, blaring "Most Likely You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine" at said newspaper's windows. I would dread such an assignment until I felt the glee of getting paid to carp at said paper within its own pages. See? Pleasant surprise.

Sure, there are reasons to be hopeful about the United States. And most of them do involve art or the land. Like those Ed Ruscha paintings representing the nation at last year's Venice Biennale. There's something so true and rebellious about his skies; to look at them is to get that same smiley, breathy relief a Westerner feels the second she crosses to the left bank of the Mississippi.

Or there's the current Broadway revival of "Sweeney Todd," with its strange rhythms and cheeky poetics and actors playing instruments, making a listener wish she'd never given up the baritone horn. Or there was last week's "Inside the Actors Studio" with Dave Chappelle, in which Chappelle was funny, of course, but also so self-possessed and thoughtful and morally outraged he had a kind of biblical grandeur.

And what about the glory that is Glacier National Park? Or the good news that bald eagles are no longer an endangered species?

I got the feeling, though, that the man asking for optimism at that bookstore wasn't looking for raves about paintings or ice age deposits (especially since global warming is likely to make Glacier National Park glacier-free by 2030). I got the feeling that he was asking for reasons to be optimistic about the government.

Alas, I see my initial worries about the current administration as the greatest betrayal in my whole life by my old pal pessimism. I attended the president's inauguration in 2001. When he took the presidential oath, I cried. What was I so afraid of? I was weeping because I was terrified that the new president would wreck the economy and muck up my drinking water. Isn't that adorable? I lacked the pessimistic imagination to dread that tens of thousands of human beings would be spied on or maimed or tortured or killed or stranded or drowned, thanks to his incompetence.

I feel like a fool. All those years of Sunday school, and still the apocalypse catches me off guard.

Published: February 19, 2006 New York Times

On the Report by House Republicans (Yes, Republicans) That Excoriates the Bush Administration for Its Fumbling Response to Hurricane Katrina

2006-02-19T10:27:00.000-08:00

by Calvin Trillin

Though Bushmen had claimed that word never reached
The White House that levees had finally been breached,
The White House was told, all the evidence shows.
Yes, this report shows that it's doubtless that those
In charge of tornadoes and floods and nor'easters
Had all been informed and then sat on their keisters.
And Chertoff was sluggish and clueless and worse.
It's in the report, all in chapter and verse:
His failure to get what the crisis demanded,
Like buses and boats, meant that thousands were stranded.
While Bush, at the ranch, kept on cutting out brush,
His gaggle of clowns seemed to be in no rush.
So Brownie is hardly unique in this mob.
No, others as well did a heckuva job.
It's easy to blame one incompetent slob,
But others as well did a heckuva job.

US-Canada Relations & the Election Rhetoric

2005-12-13T14:10:00.000-08:00

Lay off U.S., ambassador tells Martin
U.S. is 'walking the walk' when it comes to environmental issues, David Wilkins says
Dec. 13, 2005. 03:29 PM
CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA — The Bush administration issued a sharp, public rebuke today to Prime Minister Paul Martin for dragging the Canadian-U.S. relationship into the federal election campaign.
Ambassador David Wilkins said Canada risks damaging one of the world’s best relationships by focusing on short-term political gain.

“It may be smart election-year politics to thump your chest and criticize your friend and your No. 1 trading partner constantly,” Wilkins said in a speech to the Canadian Club at the historic Chateau Laurier Hotel, next door to Parliament Hill.

“But it is a slippery slope, and all of us should hope that it doesn’t have a long-term impact on the relationship.”

America may be an easy target, said Wilkins, adding he understands “political expendiency.

“But the last time I looked, the United States was not on the ballot for the Jan. 23 election,” he said to scattered applause.

It was the only applause from a crowd of several hundred throughout the 20-minute speech.

Wilkins did not name the prime minister directly but it was clear from the context of the remarks that he was referring to Martin.

Speaking on the campaign trail in Surrey, B.C., Martin hotly denied he was being overtly anti-American for electoral purposes — even as he used Wilkins’ comments to impugn Conservative Leader Stephen Harper.

“I will defend the Canadian position and I will defend our values and I will defend our interests against anybody,” said the prime minister.

Without prompting, he added that “if the thesis of Mr. Harper is that the only way to have good relations with the United States is to concede everything to the United States, then I do not accept that at all.”

Martin, who touted a more mature relationship with the United States as one his priorities when he became prime minister in 2003, has been talking a hard line against Washington throughout this autumn’s heated election run-up.

The prime minister has been particularly critical of the U.S. position on softwood lumber duties and failure to ratify the Kyoto accord on greenhouse gas emissions.

Wilkins, a long-time supporter and confidant of President George W. Bush, left absolutely no doubt the Bush administration was sending a message directly to Martin.

Less than a week after the prime minister raised hackles in Washington by specifically naming the United States for lacking a global conscience on climate change, Wilkins threw the words back at the prime minister.

He pointed out that America’s record is far superior to Canada’s on curbing greenhouse gas emissions.

“I would respectfully submit to you that when it comes to a `global conscience,’ the United States is walking the walk,” said the ambassador.

Liberals have denied they are using anti-American rhetoric as election fodder. But a senior Liberal campaign organizer was clearly delighted at news coverage last week that suggested Canada’s ambassador in Washington, Frank McKenna, had been called on the carpet by the Americans over Martin’s undiplomatic climate change talk.

Wilkins also mentioned the softwood dispute, noting that the U.S. Commerce Dept. cut the contentious tariffs on Canadian lumber in half last week.

He defended the continuing American occupation in Iraq, saying ``freedom is on the march.”

And on looming passport requirements for Canada-U.S. travellers, Wilkins said the two countries can work together to mitigate the impact but that Canadians have to appreciate the new American mentality.

“Bottom line: Canada should understand that 9-11 forever changed my country,” Wilkins said of the September 2001 terrorist attacks.

Canadians Await Word of Hostages

2005-12-10T15:15:00.000-08:00

PHOTO: LUCAS OLENIUK/TORONTO STAR
Haithem Al-Hassani holds up a sign at the corner of King and John Sts. last night, where many Iraqis were among the crowd that rallied in support of the release of the Canadian hostages in Iraq.

Still Looking

2005-12-02T16:06:00.000-08:00

Looking South

2005-11-16T21:27:00.000-08:00

This photo is taken at Humber Bay Park in Toronto, on the shores of Lake Ontario. Looking out from the beach while walking with the dogs each morning, I am literally a Canadian Looking South to the USA. On the other side of the horizon on the far shore is New York State. What's a little water between neighbours?

Home, USA

2005-11-10T16:27:00.000-08:00

It was great to spend some time at home in the Bay Area recently. My son and I celebrated his 16th birthday visiting with friends and family. Going to our favourite places. Played a memorable round of golf at an amazing course way up in the Berkeley hills above Cal. Back here in the St. Lawrence Lowlands you really appreciate what you're missing in the topography of California. I was pampered with a trip to Big Sur and the memories of a night spent on the cliffs overlooking the ocean will sustain me through a winter that is fast approaching.

Fall

2005-11-03T19:46:00.000-08:00

The Fall (or falls, both autumnal and republican),
truly a beautful sight.

Debris Management

2005-09-16T12:14:00.000-07:00

We had a flood in the basement this summer and have been dealing with the fallout ever since. The sewage pipes gave out, like the roof did last year flooding the top floor. While we are re-cementing the basement floor after completion of the Big Dig, we are taking on some other pressing projects: an energy-saving floor in the basement, the removal of the ramshackle porch and awning out back and the conversion of the garage to a home office.

My approach is to undertake debris removal as its own major task rather than throwing eveything into a bin and having it carted off to who knows where in the ecosystem. I break it all down, separate and recycle everything possible. One of the perks of my neighbourhood is a small family scrap metal operation located just up the block. Everything possible was transported there. I tried to go the extra mile and let a guy who makes some money hauling scrap to take a load or two in his shopping cart. But the next morning while walking the dogs to the park, I discovered some of the materials from my house dumped by the side of the road. I was aghast. So I won't be letting my debris out of my sight again.

2500 pounds of dirt was my biggest disposal problem. Luckily there is a road improvement project on the street which involves mounds of dirt so I was able to just add mine to the load.

Where is all that debris covering so many square miles of the Gulf Coast going to go?

Entrepreneurship + Faith-based Relief = Corruption

2005-09-15T18:27:00.000-07:00

No reason to be surprised that this pair are presented as the cornerstones of the recovery and re-development approach by Bush in his New Orleans speech tonight. They are the foundation of Bush's own personal recovery.

The speech is reported to be receiving favourable reviews, though when the point of comparison is the dreadful showing as the parishes perished, is that saying much? The insidious ultra-conservative agenda being masterminded by Rove is just par for the course.

Paul Krugman writes in his NYT column following the speech (9.16.05):

"It's a given that the Bush administration, which tried to turn Iraq into a laboratory for conservative economic policies, will try the same thing on the Gulf Coast. The Heritage Foundation, which has surely been helping Karl Rove develop the administration's recovery plan, has already published a manifesto on post-Katrina policy. It calls for waivers on environmental rules, the elimination of capital gains taxes and the private ownership of public school buildings in the disaster areas. And if any of the people killed by Katrina, most of them poor, had a net worth of more than $1.5 million, Heritage wants to exempt their heirs from the estate tax.

Still, even conservatives admit that deregulation, tax cuts and privatization won't be enough. Recovery will require a lot of federal spending. And aside from the effect on the deficit - we're about to see the spectacle of tax cuts in the face of both a war and a huge reconstruction effort - this raises another question: how can discretionary government spending take place on that scale without creating equally large-scale corruption?"

If the experience in Iraq is any indication of what can be expected, it will take alot more than the "inspectors-general" Bush referred to in order to prevent the reconstruction money in the American Gulf from flying out the same window as the Iraqi Gulf $$.

From the truthout.com interview with Karpinski from Abu Ghraib:
Karpinski reveals that there was "no sustainment plan" because "there were a lot of contractors - US contractors exclusively - who realized they could make a lot of money in Iraq." At the Coalition Provisional Authority, Karpinski "saw corruption like I've never seen before - millions of dollars just being pocketed by contractors. Everything was on a cash basis at that time," she said. "You take a request down - literally, you take a request to the Finance Office. If the Pay Officer recognized your face and you were asking for $450,000 to pay a contractor for work, they would pay you in cash: $450,000. Out of control."

African American Idol

2005-09-15T16:20:00.000-07:00

I wept again last night. It started when Deborah Byrd, the music coach for the Canadian Idol contestants, performed during the finale show. Following her outstanding performance, the contestants gathered round to serenade her. Their love and admiration for this woman was overflowing. She was so obviously their tower of strength and inspiration.

After weeks of images of African-Americans in distress, I found it heartbreakingly touching to see these young people honoring Deborah Byrd, an African American woman of such integrity, for teaching them "even more about life than music."

Diaspora Drug Addicts

2005-09-15T12:12:00.000-07:00

Mayor Nagin said today that the City of New Orleans should be considered armed and extremely dangerous to "thugs" who may be hoping to return to NO. He seems to take particular glee in these criminal elements being flushed out of the city and pledges they will never return, itemizing the list of law enforcement and artillery on active duty.

Since the beginning of this ordeal, I have been tracking the impact on community services, particularly addiction services and the New Orleans AIDS Taskforce.

Three questions:
Will the experience in New Orleans prompt Emergency Response Planning and Implementation to identify the many issues relating to drug addiction that must be addressed in any disaster emergency?

Who will assume responsibility for public oversight of what is happening with disaster victims who have drug addictions? There's more to this story than the thugs. How is the disaster relief dealing with drug addiction issues? Whay isn't anyone talking about it or reporting on it?

Will the US, especially in the South, be taking a look at disaster management requirements for gunshops and drug and alcohol supplies? Do owners and public services have a responsibility to develop a different response than what we witnessed?: caches of weapons and ammunition left unattended and openly accessible and entire stocks of drugs and alcohol ready for the taking. A deadly cocktail that gets mixed long before anyone with addictions arrives on the scene of the disaster.

He Who Hesitates

2005-09-13T13:05:00.000-07:00

Louisiana Sen. David Vitter, a Republican, said he initially was impressed by how quickly federal authorities mobilized before the storm. But after it hit, nothing happened for days.

"There was absolutely no execution," Vitter told CNN.

"I was very happy with how quickly the president had signed his first emergency order," he said. "The FEMA director was on the ground before the storm. FEMA teams were on the ground. But then Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, absolutely no execution. I don't know what they were doing."

Desertion

2005-09-13T10:15:00.000-07:00

Staying on vacation schedule like Bush & Cheney. Going shopping for shoes like Condi Rice & Kanye West. Essential service personnel disbanding. Private sector hitting the road. Those who did not desert are entitled to a full appreciation of their perspective. To date, only Kanye West is down on record as assuming responsibility for his early desertion and his renewed conscription to the ranks.

In failing to deploy the nation's leadership assets, both in cronyism appointments to critical positions in the federal emergency response apparatus, and in needlessly and thoughtlessly diverting the leadership of the Commander-In-Chief during the most crucial hours of the disaster thereby undermining the entire chain of command, President Bush is a deserter.

The Politics of Chronology

2005-09-12T19:07:00.000-07:00

Every effort is being made by the Bush Administration to obfuscate the chronology of events in New Orleans. (Dodged a bullet! as opposed to The levee has burst! Came back from vacation early! as opposed to Continued on western campaign swing, returned to vacation property before proceeding the next day to Washington, taking a peek at the devastation below from several thousand feet in the air en route!) Rove has a critical problem to deal with on this spin cycle however. Usually he successfully and perhaps even criminally, uses the low-rate of media literacy in the US to confound people about who did what, where, why and when. They promote attention deficits to their own benefit. But with Hurricane Katrina they have some unprecedented demographic obstacles to overcome if they hope to succeed in establishing their self-serving version of the chronology of events.

The first, of course, is the overwhelming number, both in percentage and in sheer numbers, of African-Americans who were stranded in New Orleans as victim-witnesses.

The municipal and state public service employees, including the Mayor, Governor, and a limited and inadequate number of security, fire, emergency and medical personnel provide too tempting a target for the White House to restrain themselves from taking aim. They cannot comprehend the concept that these people, whatever their performance, are distinctly different from the rest of America, including the administration, in one crucial way: they were responding from inside the traumatic environment. I'm never really very sure where the compassionate comes into play with the conservative, but it is quite possible that this absolute failure of empathy, devouring from their outside perch for the most political of self-interests, even as their prey were in the midst of the onslaught. The lines between those who were screaming from within and those who have pointed fingers at them from afar, are not drawn cleanly between Republican and Democrat and will cut deep.

And along with these souls, the place was crawling with news media and the cameras were rolling. Cut-off from the world physically, New Orleans had a live feed, not only through CNN but also print and digital media. Usually it is the government who is on the inside of what's goin' down and the media and public straining for a view which is itself determined, or at least powerfully influenced by the insiders.

The problem now permeates the entire affair as it unfolds simply because the press were already onsite and, in a complete inversion of roles, the media were the first responders. Once they did show up, one of the first failed federal government responses was an attempt to institute censorship of the press. The War President himself was forced to withdraw the order to restrict reporting the recovery of the dead. They didn't even fight--as soon as the opposition screamed, they retreated.

The Bush Administration must rely upon an embedded media to communicate their version of the chronology of events, including their conduct and whereabouts. Precisely for the length of time they were not on the scene, much was put on the public record before Rove, Inc. could assume control of the agenda. Today, Anderson Cooper told the NYT that he is in the Gulf Coast to stay for the forseeable future. His extremely influential CNN program is among the participant-witnesses to the traumatic events and they are staying put deep inside the eye of the storm.

Literacy is another word for historical memory and for all the talk of leaving no child behind, acquiring the literacy of historical memory is precisely the enemy of conservatism. The contemporary media have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be amongst the insiders and this has the potential to confound Rove, Bush, Cheney and the rest of the crew who have come to be accustomed to being in control of the story line .

It may be the only time in history that a citizen of the United States will ever be in a position to say Fuck You to Cheney's face, up close and personal. And live on CNN. In times like these, we cherish those moments captured in the horrific chronology of events that is now our past, our present and our future.

It will not be the last time that the real-time citizen reporting enabled by the internet and hosted by the totally free and unregulated emerging blog communications system, is many steps ahead of the chronology-busters like Rove and the rest of the suits in that White House of Cards.

9-11

2005-09-11T19:58:00.000-07:00

Yet another amazing photograph from Towleroad in NYC, consistently one of the very best of the blogs.

Universal Precautions

2005-09-10T16:51:00.000-07:00

Based on my experience, I would say that disasters happen little by little and then all at once. Little by little our society's vulnerabilities remain unattended and then come a storm, whether hurricane, earthquake, violent attack, meth or crack, and the house of cards is sure to tumble. "I told you so" offers absolutely no satisfaction when that day comes, as it has, as it always does.

The NYT early compilation of the disaster response efforts points to many of the problems known to date, including:

"With the new emphasis on terrorism, three quarters of the $3.35 billion in federal grants for fire and police departments and other first responders were intended to address terror threats, instead of an "all-hazards" approach that could help in any catastrophe."

This is exactly the same policy problem we encounter in the AIDS epidemic: a battle between identifying a certain threat population and building the response (including the exclusion, prejudice and the perception of them as threatening) around that target and alternatively, proceeding with universal precaution principles in all aspects of response--from dealing with blood and fluids to prevention education approaches.

The belief that poverty, like AIDS, can be, must be embraced as everyone's concern and reponsibility, is the most radical way to live day by day.

Harriet Tubman Hurricane Railroad

2005-09-10T14:55:00.000-07:00

My wife heard a debate on a Toronto Radio talkshow yesterday about whether Canadians should be offering refuge to disaster victims. No debate--everybody thought it should be done. Not to romanticize the experience for Underground Railroad sojourners who made it all the way to Canada in a previous mass migration of African Americans. Our nation's first population of Diaspora Africans, who settled in Nova Scotia, are still coming to grips with the legacy of racism they experienced settling here.

We have a garage we're going to get around to renovating when we can. A solid structure with a high ceiling. What about if we did an Extreme Makeover: Garage Edition and offered the place to a displaced hurricane survivor to use while they await their return home? we're wondering. It would have to be a Southerner who wanted to have the wild experience of a Canadian winter. Which may just add insult to their already profound injuries.

It is so difficult to be living outside the US right now. So close and yet so far.

Digital Divide

2005-09-10T12:02:00.000-07:00

Living in the African American city of Oakland in the Bay Area/Silicon Valley during the height of the boom and the bang of the bust in dotcom, it was amazing to witness the vastness of the digital divide. Just this week, my godson was introduced to a blog I set up for him to be able to get homework help from me long-distance. In order to access the internet, he writes things down and has a guy at the store where he works go home and send me an email. He goes to a computer place where his peers are gaming and goes online to reach me with his academics. I've been thinking about ways to get him a computer and internet hookup at the apartment where he lives with his mother, grandmother, sisters and nieces.

The many implications of the racially segregated digital divide are beautifully addressed in the first-known blog by a Katrina survivor sheltered at the Astrodome--from the severity of the loss of digital materials to so many now being exposed to computers for the first time as a result of the central role of digital communications in the emergency responses.

From Note from the Book There are lots of us who've lost computers in this disaster. Im just one of the few who used mine wisely . I had a 2002 model windows xp SP2 Compaq Pesario. with that blue plastic cover & I updated frequently I had my own modifications such as a bigger hard drive and a DVD burner... dang I've even left the software to my Cameras at home ...That PC was good though . I had so much info & media stored on those things

Heres what I have to day about Access to the PC's and a good reason to donate
when i leave this place; i wont have access anymore. this would mean that I wont be blogging or anything at all. .. same with the people looking for missing members ... if you cant find them while you're here at the dome (where access is).How could you if you dont have a personal computer or net access?

I haven't heard anything about computer donations and I know there will be a need There are so many people from N.O who were just introduced to the Internet by learning how to access mail and go to websites for help & assistance.
It was so fun to see how frustration became excitement in a few seconds.

2005-09-10T10:57:00.000-07:00

(Cartoon: Cagnat / Le Monde Paris)

Pointing Fingers

2005-09-08T17:00:00.000-07:00

As we all point fingers, it's good to look up each other's sleeve.

As winter approaches across North America, in what state of preparedness is my city, your city?

A record number of Emergency Cold Alerts during the past two winters have sent my city into a state of chaos, bumbling to secure sites to shelter the homeless, most experiencing mental illness and drug addiction. Living in California, I witnessed the devastation that came with the El Nino winter. It never rains in California, it pours, man it pours, overwhelming the homeless, the poor and the infrastructure ill-equipped to respond.

Churches and synagogues in Toronto opened their basements 15 years ago on an emergency basis and find themselves all these years later, still doing the heavy lifting when it comes to disaster relief.

And then look down their noses at the Bush American faith-based initiatives policy. On both sides of the border, we witness the hijacking and erosion of our (once) democratic public service institutions. Unionized public services addressing poverty and its various pathologies have been deemed a bad investment. By design in the USA and by default in Canada, community organizing and prevention program and policy designers, substance abuse intervention, nurses, geriatric and medical practitioners, along with mental health professionals are pushed to the margins of the day-to-day, year-by-year labour of it all.

Our cities remain unprepared to shelter the poor and homeless during the cold weather that arrives like clockwork each winter--so who is really in a position to only point fingers?

Where were they exactly?

2005-09-06T12:33:00.000-07:00

Calling for the August 27-September 2, 2005 itineraries of the POTUS, the VP and Secretary of State to be released to the public immediately.

For an amazing look at Bush's schedule on Monday August 29, 2005 read The day Arizona was in the eye of Huricane George by E.J. Montini. Think Progress has developed a timeline that begins to tell the story.

The train they call the City of New Orleans

2005-09-05T12:04:00.000-07:00

The City of New Orleans
by Steve Goodman

Riding on the City of New Orleans,
Illinois Central Monday morning rail
Fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders,
Three conductors and twenty-five sacks of mail.
All along the southbound odyssey
The train pulls out at Kankakee
Rolls along past houses, farms and fields.
Passin' trains that have no names,
Freight yards full of old black men
And the graveyards of the rusted automobiles.

CHORUS:
Good morning America how are you?
Don't you know me I'm your native son,
I'm the train they call The City of New Orleans,
I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done.

Dealin' card games with the old men in the club car.
Penny a point ain't no one keepin' score.
Pass the paper bag that holds the bottle
Feel the wheels rumblin' 'neath the floor.
And the sons of pullman porters
And the sons of engineers
Ride their father's magic carpets made of steel.
Mothers with their babes asleep,
Are rockin' to the gentle beat
And the rhythm of the rails is all they feel.

CHORUS

Nighttime on The City of New Orleans,
Changing cars in Memphis, Tennessee.
Half way home, we'll be there by morning
Through the Mississippi darkness
Rolling down to the sea.
And all the towns and people seem
To fade into a bad dream
And the steel rails still ain't heard the news.
The conductor sings his song again,
The passengers will please refrain
This train's got the disappearing railroad blues.

Good night, America, how are you?
Don't you know me I'm your native son,
I'm the train they call The City of New Orleans,
I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done.

©1970, 1971 EMI U Catalogue, Inc and Turnpike Tom Music (ASCAP)

Commander-in-Chief

2005-09-03T16:35:00.000-07:00

The United States of America urgently and immediately needs a new
C-I-C. I nominate the Honorable C. Ray Nagin, Mayor of New Orleans to finish out the current administration's term.

Then, let's move along to bigger and better minds. Barack Obama 2008. There's the ticket.

Halliburton receives hurricane response contract

2005-09-03T14:37:00.000-07:00

ZERO TOLERANCE FOR LOOTING!

Another Great Migration

2005-09-02T11:18:00.000-07:00

We witness the traumatic commencement of the Next Great Migration, with a view of the previous.

The Great Migration listing at Wikimedia.

Can barely look/Can't stop looking

2005-08-31T14:13:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, in the early stages, my wife said, "It's going to be Black faces they are showing throughout this disaster."

A black child, submerged in water, a plastic bag being dragged through the water. Captured on camera and posted around the world with the caption designating him as a "young man looting." Two white adults in waist-high water carrying plastic bags are captured on camera and posted around the world as victims who had been able to get needed-resources from the shelves of a store.

Race is America.

From ThinkProgress.com

2005-08-30T22:33:00.001-07:00

Heartened to see some critique of the President's business as usual schedule during this unprecedented US disaster. From Arizona, where Bush spent his time while the South was drowning.

Looking East

2005-08-26T13:54:00.000-07:00

china comrades
Originally uploaded by strandedobjects.

Gay revolution puts Red China in the Pink
by Hamish McDonald Herald Correspondent in Shanghai

The word "tongzhi", or comrade, used to be the unisex, equalising term of address in the socialist world of Mao Zedong's New China. Type it into an internet search engine now, especially in a Chinese-language
version, and today's China emerges in a whole new light - pink rather than revolutionary red. In one of the more delightful linguistic subversions of this fast-changing country, the term has been appropriated by China's male homosexuals to refer to themselves and has spread widely into the general community with the same
meaning. Read the full article

More on mourning

2005-08-26T12:31:00.000-07:00

How can we sustain ourselves as the United States of America given the stupid and ineffective warmaking, the constitutionally insensitive lawgiving, and the monarchal economics of this president? He cannot mourn but is a figure of such moral vacancy as to make us mourn for ourselves.
E.L. Doctorow
From Rosie.com, a most interesting blog, featuring the prose, photos and art of Rosie O'Donell. This utterly personal-political public site of an American celebrity is so intriguing.

The Sacrament of Marriage

2005-08-22T11:56:00.000-07:00

"When you think of gay marriage, think about this woman." This column is really worth reading.

Bible Thumping

2005-08-22T11:00:00.000-07:00

W's speech in defense of a good offense, given to Vets in Utah, was followed on CNN by an ad for the Bible on DVD. Good marketing and symbolic of the clash of fundamentalist religious fanaticism that legitimizes international conflict between Christians, Muslims and Jews.

I turn immediately to the BBC to hear an update of the Constitutional negotiations in Iraq. Will they be able to reach an agreement or compromise on prayer in the schools of Baghdad? We'll stay tuned.

Mourn & Organize

2005-08-18T10:52:00.000-07:00

Before his state execution, labour and human rights activist Joe Hill wrote to his comrades seen carrying his casket in the photo above, "Don't Mourn, Organize!" Camp Casey at Crawford, TX, Presidential Vacation, 2005, beckons us to do both.

MOURN & ORGANIZE
Are you blind to the people who march for our rights?
Are you deaf to the sound of our cries?
Are you haunted at all by a death in the night?
And we who mourn and organize
We Mourn and Organize

Votes can be taken and bills can be passed
You say it's a fair compromise
But everyday our future looks more like our past
So we mourn and organize
We Mourn and Organize

Did you sign the marching papers with blood as your ink?
Cross all of the T's, dot your I's
There's more to consider than you care to think
So we mourn and organize
We Mourn and Organize

We've watched as you've taken our children away
We've listened to all of your lies
We'll be here tomorrow as we were yesterday
To mourn and organize
We Mourn and Organize

written by Laurie Bell, Toronto, Canada

Skin In The Game

2005-08-17T21:08:00.000-07:00

Whenever Cindy Sheehan, down in Crawford, TX, talks about having "skin in the game," you can't help but wonder what would be brewing in the US if all families had to face the prospect of military service in order to prosecute Bush's campaign in Iraq.

Bob Herbert puts it this way in the NYT:

If Mr. Bush were willing to do something he has refused to do so far - speak plainly and honestly to the American people about this war - he might be able to explain why U.S. troops should continue with an effort that is, in large part at least, benefiting Iraqi factions that are murderous, corrupt and terminally hostile to women. If by some chance he could make that case, the next appropriate step would be to ask all Americans to do their part for the war effort.

College kids in the U.S. are playing video games and looking forward to frat parties while their less fortunate peers are rattling around like moving targets in Baghdad and Mosul, trying to dodge improvised explosive devices and rocket-propelled grenades.

There is something very, very wrong with this picture.

If the war in Iraq is worth fighting - if it's a noble venture, as the hawks insist it is - then it's worth fighting with the children of the privileged classes. They should be added to the combat mix. If it's not worth their blood, then we should bring the other troops home.

If Mr. Bush's war in Iraq is worth dying for, then the children of the privileged should be doing some of the dying.

A Progressive Draft

2005-08-11T10:22:00.000-07:00

I keep waiting for the anti-war movements in the US to start calling for a military draft instead of calling for the Troops Home. It Mark Shields, who I enjoy on the News Hour with Jim Lehrer every Friday when he squares off with David Brooks, has written a sensible column about military service. The poor and working-class will continue to be killed and maimed, continue to be sent to kill and torture, while those in the middle-class and on up the socio-economic ladder remain insulated from the true costs of the military invasion.

It will be impossible for US citizens to confront their commitment to this war when only the most vulnerable are suffering the losses. Make the rich pay!

Mark Shields excerpt:
The people who make the fateful decision for the nation to go to war are, themselves, subject to no personal consequences. Their children and the children of their friends are not at risk. Without apparent embarrassment, they champion a policy of military escalation with no personal participation.

As of this writing, 1,827 Americans have been killed in Iraq -- 1,686 of those deaths have occurred since President George W. Bush landed on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln under a banner proclaiming, "Mission Accomplished."

Military service in wartime is not a "job." Recruitment in peacetime mostly emphasizes the benefits of valuable training, college tuition, self-improvement, pay and adventure. Combat and casualties are not part of the pitch.

Not surprisingly, the overwhelming majority of enlistees come from the lower-middle-class and blue-collar families. The affluent stand above and apart from military service, especially from the enlisted ranks -- the privates and the sergeants, from whose ranks have come more than 90 percent of the casualties and fatalities. This class exemption from service and from sacrifice produces an ethical failure that a democratic and moral people cannot tolerate.

Neighbours

2005-08-10T11:11:00.000-07:00

Peace Bridge, Canada/USA

As a Canadian married to a nice jewish girl from the NYC-Boston corridor who has lived and traveled extensively in the USA, it seems the neighbourly thing to do to convey some of what things look like from here--so close and yet so far from American interests.