Im experimenting with some new looks this morning… maybe shield your eyes. Should be back to normal shortly.
I’m Done With Ray Nagin
You remember Ray Nagin right? The mayor of New Orleans during the largest humanitarian crisis in the history of the United States? The guy who you hear in that radio clip where he starts crying and yelling at the rest of the country for not doing anything while people were dying while staring up at the sky begging for help. Her earned alot of respect for his directness and honesty during that disaster. Hell, I respected him for it.
Of course that was before I knew more about the man and what he had done with the city. Mostly nothing if you don’t count fostering curruption and fiscal irresponsibility. But still I held out hope that Nagin might be a changed man, having seen bodies of his own voters floating around face down throughout his streets. I still wanted to cheer for him… until now.
I’m done with Ray Nagin. Besides the numerous episodes that had shown he was two faced and a typical wishy washy politician, this latest appearance on Meet the Press did me in… or rather.. him in.
Anytime the man was asked if the federal government had failed him, a government that took over a week to respond, and when they finally did it consisted mostly of private contractors and overzealous military police, he refused to acknowledge it. As if someone is pulling his strings or controlling his speech, he refused to admit the the US government has a double standard when it comes to saving the lives of black people. To his credit, he did acknowledge it was a matter of class. Still, a man who once sounded unafraid to speak his mind and admit what a disaster his city had become, now he chose his words carefull, dodged criticizing anyone in particular, and pretended his city was doing rather well in terms of recovery.
Sorry Ray, you’re pathetic and I’m over you. I hope you fall into obscurety after serving your zillion terms as mayor of a city that will never recover, and will never have a leader who will push for a true investigation and trial for the crimes against humanity resulting from the neglect of the federal government, as well as that of the state and local governments.
About the only cool thing I could find in his whole interview, was when he called the site of the former WTC in NYC, a big hole in the ground and Tim Russert got all preachy and bitchy like it was a sin to say so. Of course he backed down on that one too, even though it is, when it comes down to it, a big hole in the ground.
Poor New Orleans. First Katrina. And then this fakester gets re-elected.
bm151 An activists story, from Lebanon to Jerusalem
It was early July and she was invited to a camp in southern Lebanon. A very special camp. Many nations, cultures, religions, all gathered to work for one common goal. This is my friend Elise’s story of being at the camp as the bombs began to rain down on Lebanon.
No links, listening is all that’s necessary.
The Night Before the American Invasion
They’re coming.
They’re using planes as their method of transportation.
They leave from various US cities, often travelling alone or in groups of 2 or 3.
They travel with a great deal of electronics, mostly ipods, laptops, and other personal devices.
They are very well financed, with enough money to run their operations in Europe for at least 5 months.
They tend to look suspicious, easily identified by speaking loudly in their distinct accent.
And they will stop at nothing, until they can move into our neighborhoods, put up some posters of the icons their worship, and infiltrate our higher education system, posing as students.
… They are the American exchange students. And they arrive in T-Minus 9 hours.
My mission, which few would be brave enough to accept (I need the money and I’m mentally unbalanced), is to assist in this process. I must not show signs of weakness if they complain or make demands of me. I must be stoic and in control. Although they may be determined to disrupt my freedom and way of life, I must meet them head on, for my mission is noble and I will not give in to their desctructive, my-closet-isn’t-big-enough ideology.
What About Tasini
Today I’m coming to you from the suburbs of Brussels, Belgium, where I’m staying this weekend in celebration of my godson’s 12th birthday. But now onto more serious matters:
I tend not to talk about US senate races and republicans versus democrats and crap like that. Mostly because there are a zillion blogs working for either party fulltime, so why bother further beating one very dead horse.
Yet for all the bla bla bla about this guy named Lieberman who is a disgrace of a human being even though all the haters voted for him oh-so-often, and how he was beaten thanks to the internets, you don’t hear much about one Jonathan Tasini. Even though he puts the small d back in democrat.
Honestly, I could care less if the democrats take back the senate or the house, as they are as guilty of being the architects of all the death, destruction, and decieving as their republican counterparts. But when it comes to upsurping the comfy two faced democrats who think they’re going to cruise to victory just for having the big D next to their names, I’m all for that.
But what I really wish is that more people took Jonathan Tasini seriously. Who you ask? Jonathan Tasini.. former leader of the National Writers Union, who is running against Hillary Clinton for the democratic nomination in the state of New York. It should be a “slam dunk” for Tasini, since he’s running against a senator who supported the war in Iraq, and has generally betrayed the principals of civil liberties, human rights, and international law, since the day she got into office. Hillary Clinton hasn’t respected democracy or the values of a real “Democratic” party since her early days as the first lady. She is fake as fake can be, and lets be honest, her speeches have that terrible tone like listening to someone scrape their nails against a blackboard.
Yet the bloggers aren’t talking much about Tasini’s challenge. They’re too scared to attack their most well known senator… everyone knows the name Hillary Clinton. So much for independence and the freedom to be critical on the blogosphere.
Therefore I’m delving into the senate races from now on, to give much deserved attention to senators who need to be sent packing. And I’ll be very busy, since an overwhelming majority need to be replaced.
bm150 Direct from Afghanistan
The news reports indicate the that Taliban is alive and well in Afghanistan. Meanwhile life goes on, the militaries of various nations work in the country, and we are left wondering what is going on. In this program I speak with an Afghani translator for the US military, and ask him what changes he has seen.
No Links Today, interview speaks for itself.