It is Bad and Getting Much Worse
August 31st, 2005 - by: danny
NEW ORLEANS: GOING, GOING…
The humorist Roy Blount had written a paragraph that now seems not so much funny as prophetic:
“New Orleans is nobody’s oyster. It is situated, however, like a served-up oyster – the half-shell being the levees that keep Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River from engulfing the city. New Orleans lies several feet below river and lake level, and it sinks a little farther every year. When the big hurricane hits – and it will, New Orleanians assure you, with what suffices locally for civic pride – the waters will finally rise over the shell and inundate the town, killing tens of thousands.”
From Raymond P. Ward’s, blog “Minor Wisdom”
NOLA.com, the “Everything New Orleans” website this AM: reports a “desperate” situation with chaos, looting, and levee repairs failing… They carry a story on “What Hiroshima Looked Like.”
NEW YORK TIMES: This morning: “Floodwaters were still rising as much as three inches an hour in parts of New Orleans late Tuesday.” In other areas, “Death was only part of the devastation along the Gulf Coast. There was also the hunger, the thirst and the homelessness.”
QUOTE: ’11:15 PM: STATE OF DEVASTATION’
We have gone from the eve of destruction to a state of devastation.
“‘We probably have 80 percent of our city under water,’ Mayor Ray Nagin said after breaches in levees protecting the low-lying Louisiana city sent lake water into the streets. ‘It’s almost like a nightmare that I hope we wake up from,’ Nagin told local WWL-TV. ‘Our city is in a state of devastation.’
InMississippi: “It looks like Hiroshima is what it looks like,” Gov. Haley Barbour said, describing parts of Harrison County, Mississippi. (NYT)
Da’ud X Mohammad:
“You didn’t hafta have been there in the past two days to be stung by what happened. Anyone who walked the streets or partied in NO, or watched Angel Heart (the movie), or walked the dusty roads along the Gulf saw an America that won’t ever be again…”
Robert Polhemus:
“I cannot begin to tell you Danny my utter frustration and Outrage as I watch the devastation taking place down South. The day before Katrina struck I watched as SUV after SUV cut into lanes of outbound trafficking future refugees from New Orleans. No talk of global warming (Bush right now is sitting in the White House terrified that the real reason for katrina is his administrations outright attack against the mere mention of the word Global Warming) I wish to go further here. I worked for GreenPeace in Los Angelos in 1990/91. People laughed at me when I warned of the potential Catastrophe of Global Warming.”
WHEREAS, August 29, 2005 AD
“WHEREAS, the National Weather Service has indicated that Hurricane Katrina will likely affect the Louisiana coast with hurricane force winds and heavy rainfall by this evening;
“WHEREAS, because of anticipated high lake and marsh tides due to the tidal surge, combined with the possibility of intense thunderstorms, hurricane force winds, and widespread severe flooding, Governor Kathleen Blanco and I, New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin, have each declared a State of Emergency;
“NOW, THEREFORE, I, as the Mayor of the City of New Orleans, pursuant to the authority granted by La. Rev. Stat. 29:727, do hereby promulgate and issue the following orders, which shall be effective immediately and which shall remain in effect until the earlier of five days following the date of this issuance or the declaration by the Governor that the State of Emergency no longer exists:
“1. A mandatory evacuation order is hereby called for all of the Parish of Orleans, with only the following exceptions: essential personnel of the United States of America, State of Louisiana and City of New Orleans; essential personnel of regulated utilities and mass transportation services; essential personnel of hospitals and their patients; essential personnel of the media; essential personnel of the Orleans Parish Criminal Sheriffs Office and its inmates and essential personnel of operating hotels and their patrons. Unless covered by one of the aforementioned exceptions, every person is hereby ordered to immediately evacuate the City of New Orleans or, if no other alternative is available, to immediately move to one of the facilities within the City that will be designated as refuges of last resort.
“2. In order to effectuate the mandatory evacuation, at the direction of the Mayor, the Chief Administrative Officer, the Director of Homeland Security for the City of New Orleans or any member of the New Orleans Police Department, the City may commandeer any private property, including, but not limited to, buildings that may be designated as refuges of last resort and vehicles that may be used to transport people out the area.
“The City Attorney is directed to file this declaration promptly in the office of the Clerk of Court and with the Secretary of State.”
WATCH AND WEEP
The pictures are hard to believe and the heartache is hard to live with. A great city going down, evacuated in more ways than one.
At first, New Orleans seemed to have been spared this time, spared one more time. At lunch yesterday with a friend who grew up in the Big Easy, I was told that everyone there knows it is coming in the same way people in San Francisco live in dread of “the big one,” the earthquake to come that many fear will someday destroy the city everyone loves.
IT HAPPENED
And then some levees were breached, and then the waters came, and then the folks in the Super Dome realized it wasn’t so super being there as water rushed in there too, while others clamored for rescue on their rooftops, hoping to ride it out. In the end, the surges of water drove them out –a nd we still don’t know, as of Tuesday night, how many didn’t make it in a town of great beauty and pervasive poverty down on the bayous.
DOA
The death count in the region will rise. It has passed 100 in Missisippi with hundreds more expected. (Five confirmed dead in Louisiana as I write.) And somehow, these folks who have lost everything will need to rebuild their lives. The lights are not on, and supplies are dwindling and, yes, there is some looting — an outrage perhaps, but the kids I watched on TV doing it were hauling food back to the projects, trying to make it through another day as the rescue effort cranks up another notch, nowhere near what’s needed.
MEDIA TROUBLES
The TV stations can’t be seen. The electricity is still out in many places. The newpaper went online but who in town can read it? Only a few. (“Hurricane Katrina may have literally stopped the presses of New Orleans’ newspaper, The Times-Picayune, but it couldn’t stop the paper from publishing an electronic PDF edition.”)
Eweek.com reports:
“But the damage done by the 135 mph winds and subsequent flooding disrupted electricity to the Times-Picayune’s presses, making it impossible for residents to, among other things, get timely and accurate news of the storm’s aftermath.”
Go to nola.com for what they can tell us.
The breeched levees couldn’t be closed. The water poured in, enGULFing cars and homes and businesses and hotels and you-name-it. Twelve, fifteen feet of water. Bucktown was gone. The West End was hit hard. Ward 9 was going. And then — coming up from under or being helicoptered to safety — powerful pictures on Keith Olberman’s show on MSNBC. You saw the faces of people of color, the poor who can barely afford to live, now coping with THIS! (Oddly, Rita Cosby’s program which followed was coming to us live from ARUBA — they had planned another exploitive story on that missing blonde tourist. Pathetic. Bob Costas had the day before refused to do a Larry King show on the topic. See below.)
DID IT HAVE TO HAPPEN?
This was not a question I saw explored on the TV news programs I watched last night. DXM sends these links:
www.phxnews.com
From “How Bush’s policies doomed New Orleans”
AND
www.bestofneworleans.com
[No title]
“Beginning in 2001, the Bush administration has consistently cut federal disaster mitigation programs run by FEMA…”
AND
www.findarticles.com
New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers faces
“Additionally, a study to determine ways to protect the area from a Category 5 hurricane was canceled.”
AND
www.mediainfo.com
Did New Orleans Catastrophe Have to Happen?
From the Center for American Progress:
“In 2001, the Federal Emergency Management Agency ranked a major hurricane strike on New Orleans as ‘among the three likeliest, most catastrophic disasters facing this country,’ directly behind a terrorist strike on New York City… New Orleanians were grimly asking each other, ‘So, where did you used to live?’ (To donate to Red Cross disaster relief, call 1-800-HELP-NOW).
“While it happened, President Bush decided to… continue his vacation, stopping by the Pueblo El Mirage RV and Golf Resort in El Mirage, California, to hawk his Medicare drug benefit plan. On Sunday, President Bush said, “I want to thank all the folks at the federal level and the state level and the local level who have taken this storm seriously.”
THE FACE OF POVERTY
I am sure it was no consolation to learn that, as disaster was striking, the Census Bureau released a report on another disaster, announcing that the nation’s poverty rate rose to 12.7% of the population last year, the fourth consecutive annual increase. Overall, there were 37 million people living in poverty, up 1.1 million people from 2003.
We don’t usually see the faces of America’s poor in the sanitized environment of American TV. Their images don’t sell and they can’t buy. But there they were last night, clinging to their homes and watching what they did have sink into the Big Muddy.
WE ALL WILL BE AFFECTED
Many Americans will feel the economic impact of this, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, which reports, according to the Danny Cassidy News Service:
“gas prices in sf cd hit $3.50 gallon or higher:
“A string of refineries lay in the hurricane’s path, facilities that together produce about 10 percent of the United States’ gasoline supply. The extent of damage to refineries unclear Monday, but with gas prices already at their highest level in decades, adjusted for inflaion, and the Labor Day holiday fast approaching, the loss of even a single refinery could send prices soaring. (may have lost all of them)
“‘Crude’s only half the story,’ said James Burkhard, director of global oil market research at Cambridge Energy Research Associates. ‘We can not replace a refinery quickly if there’s a refinery that sustains significant damage.’
“The storm struck at a time when gasoline prices finally had flattened after months of steep increases. The nation’s average price for a gallon of regular peaked Aug. 22 at $2.61 and has barely changed since, remaining at $2. 60 Monday according to the AAA auto club. California drivers now pay an average of $2.80 per gallon.”
THE ‘FRUITS’
Our economy may soon be sinking too… But back to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast:
I am not sure where I read this, but our esteemed Treasury Secretary, John Snow, noted recently that the fruits of economic growth are not being shared equally.
In New Orleans, many such low wage earners have congregated at the Superdome. Their stories reveal the conditions faced by the poor in America:
Americans Living Paycheck to Paycheck
“If I hadn’t had to work last night, you wouldn’t be seeing me here,” said Arthur Simpson, 46, an Uptown resident who left his job as a printer in Harahan on Sunday at 6:30 a.m. and headed north.
Fending for Themselves
“he people arriving on this side of the building are expected to fend for themselves,” said Terry Ebbert, the city’s homeland security director.
Queueing up for Basic Services
They were the poor, homeless, frail or forgotten, those without the means or inclination to go anywhere else. They waited in blocks-long lines outside the massive indoor football stadium. Once inside, they were told, they couldn’t leave, possibly for days.
Families Dependent on Government Assistance
“No funds,” a 41-year-old woman surrounded by four children, ages 2 to 14, said when asked what brought her to the shelter. The woman didn’t want to give her name as she waited with stacks of bedding and a few children’s toys resting on the sidewalk.
“I know they’re saying ‘Get out of town,’ but I don’t have any way to get out,” said Hattie Johns, 74. “If you don’t have no money, you can’t go.”
POOR WHITES
Despite what we see in New Orleans, poor whites are driving up the number of the poor.
“The U.S. poverty rate rose in 2004 for the fourth year in a row, driven by an increase in poor whites while the median income for Americans as a whole remained roughly flat, the U.S. Government said overnight.”
finance.news.com.au
CLIMATE CHANGE
Yesterday, based on my limited monitoring of the media coverage, I was struck by the absence of commentary about how these severe storms are related to climate change — something our government does NOT want talked about. (Just last week, the Bush envoy to the UN, John “recess appointment” Bolton, was proposing amendments to UN recommendations that the world do something together. John, like his boss, sees no problem. Perhaps a trip to New Orleans would enlighten him, if such is possible.
Anyway, as many readers reminded me, many journalists HAVE been making this connection, and the very name KATRINA was chosen by the weather service because that is what they call the climate change issue. If I didn’t know that, perhaps others didn’t as well… My point was: Yes, there have been features in the past, but by and large they are not part of the BREAKING NEWS. In any event, we know it now. But will it be more widely reported. Stay tuned.
One letter from David White made this point:
“I charged up to 7/11 to check out the Boston Globe and low and behold on Op Ed page I find — Katrina’s Real Name (It’s Global Climate Change!) by Ross Gelbspan (www.heatisonline.org) a former editor and reporter — and there are as you know many NYT articles by a guy named Andrew Revkin (see www.massclimate action.org science articles) but I agree, most of media has its head up its ass on this and many other important issues- so keep it up, Iggy! Someday someone will come up with a whole online subscription newspaper for those of us who want straightshooting! ”
I was very saddened to watch the faces of the Louisiana National Guard watching the devastation of a part of their state — while “defending” IRAQ.
ALSO ‘BREAKING’ THIS AM
CNN reports:
“At least 635 people killed, 237 injured as a crowd of Shiite pilgrims stampede on a bridge near a mosque in Baghdad, police say.”
FIGHTING THE IRAQI CONSTITUTION
Jill Carroll of The Christian Science Monitor reports:
“Factions join hands against constitution
“BAGHDAD — Several Sunni leaders drafting Iraq’s constitution staunchly object to provisions included in the document and have found common cause with an unlikely ally: radical Shiites. Sunnis and supporters of firebrand Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr have said they will rally supporters to reject the constitution in October’s national referendum.”
U.S. AMBASSADOR NOW HINTS CHANGES POSSIBLE
It turns out that the final draft, the absolutely FINAL draft, may not be so final — at least if the U.S. says so. FOX was reporting last night that the U.S. ambassador is saying that amendments may soon still be considered. So much for Iraqi sovereignty!
PRO-WAR BUT VOTING NO
Interestingly, the right-wing, pro-war New York Sun carries a piece by an Iraqi expert, Nibras Kazimi, who says he will vote against the Bush-backed pro-SHARIA LAW CONstitution:
“America gambled away irreplaceable political capital in the last two weeks by betting on a series of lame horses. In a bid to counter growing antipathy toward the Iraq project back in America, the Bush administration really stumbled this time.
“And yet it was simply a question of giving the whole matter some more time. America should have been more patient with its investment in Iraq before cashing in. Instead, driven by irresponsible rhetoric and partisan account-settling in an increasingly shrill Washington, the administration leapt into a hasty an ill-advised venture, thus exposing a weakness to the anti-democratic forces at play in Iraq – the Islamists and the Baathists. America hedged all its bets on its sworn enemies in a Faustian bargain to get the constitution written, signed, and delivered.
“A bogged-down constitutional process would have been the badge of shame for Baghdad’s politicians, who were elected to this purpose, not Washington’s. Instead, the Islamists and the Baathists toyed with brinkmanship in order to nibble away at American objections to their agendas.
“I am voting no on referendum day. I refuse a constitutional text that contradicts itself in its opening clause, stating that no law can be promulgated contravening the fundamental judgments of Islam and ditto should it contravene the principles of democracy.”
DEBATING MORALITY
From Digsbyblog:
“Peter Daou has written a very interesting piece today about how the left and right philosophically differ on Iraq. He points out the overlooked fact that the left views the war from a moral standpoint – indeed, the left views our relationship with the world from a moral standpoint – while the right sees both those things from a material standpoint. It seems obvious now that he’s brought it up, but I’ve never actually thought about it quite that way before:
“The right (broadly speaking) can’t fathom why the left is driven into fits of rage over every Abu Ghraib, every Gitmo, every secret rendition, every breach of civil liberties, every shifting rationale for war, every soldier and civilian killed in that war, every Bush platitude in support of it, every attempt to squelch dissent. They see the left’s protestations as appeasement of a ruthless enemy. For the left (broadly speaking), America’s moral strength is of paramount importance; without it, all the brute force in the world won’t keep us safe, defeat our enemies, and preserve our role as the world’s moral leader…..
“War hawks squeal about America-haters and traitors, heaping scorn on the so-called ‘blame America first’ crowd, but they fail to comprehend that the left reserves the deepest disdain for those who squander our moral authority. The scars of a terrorist attack heal and we are sadder but stronger for having lived through it. When our moral leadership is compromised by people draped in the American flag, America is weakened. The loss of our moral compass leaves us rudderless, open to attacks on our character and our basic decency. And nothing makes our enemies prouder. They can’t kill us all, but if they permanently stain our dignity, they’ve done irreparable harm to America.”
digbysblog.blogspot.com
REACH OUT TO ALL
Todd Gitlin has issued a call to anti-war activists to appeal more broadly to the american people. The former SDS president, who once led an anti-war march on Washington ,writes on TomPaine.com:
“As opposition to the war grows, protestors would be wise to dissent in ways that increase — not narrow — their base of support.”
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20050830/antiwar_america.php
OTHER VIEWS:
Bush appeals to public to support him on Iraq
www.alertnet.org
Also from Helen Thomas: ‘I hope the Dems are listening…’
Democrats Must Call For Pullout
www.thebostonchannel.com
REMEMBER SOLIDARITY
The story of the Polish Solidarity movement in the 1980s illuminates lessons for democratization, says Norman Birnbaum on Open Democracy.net:
“Twenty-five years ago, the workers of the shipyards at Gdansk, Poland, went on strike. A few years earlier, in the same city, the police of the Communist regime had murdered strikers on the streets. This time, the workers locked themselves into the yards -— and dispatched emissaries throughout Poland to ask for support. Their leader, a devout Catholic electrician with nine children and a record of stubborn opposition to the government, was Lech Walesa -— who at once became an international media star. Support came, in the form of demonstrations and strikes throughout the country.”
www.opendemocracy.net
MORE TO COME…
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Mind Over Media (continuing)
August 31st, 2005 - by: danny
Something to admire from Bob Pitts of the Miami Herald:
“And then Bob Costas said no.
“Maybe you didn’t hear about it. There’s so much news to keep track of, after all, what with Paris Hilton maybe or maybe not getting married, Angelina Jolie maybe or maybe not sleeping with Brad Pitt and Sean ‘P. Diddy’ Combs announcing to a breathlessly waiting world that henceforth he will be known simply as ‘Diddy,’ because the ‘P’ was ‘getting between me and my fans.’
“So maybe you missed Costas’ modest stand for principle. It seems he was scheduled to guest-host Larry King’s program on CNN recently on a night when the agenda included yet another discussion of Natalee Holloway, the Alabama teenager who disappeared in Aruba.
“When he found out the program’s planned focus, Costas asked the producers whether they would find another topic. They refused, and Costas declined to do the show.
“‘I didn’t think the subject matter of Thursday’s show was the kind of broadcast I should be doing,’ he said in a written statement. That’s as specific as Costas has chosen to be in explaining why he wouldn’t do the show, which leaves plenty of room for conjecture. You’ll pardon me if I take advantage of it.”
JOURNALISTS HELD IN IRAQ
This just in:
“Re: the case of Reuters cameraman Ali Al-Mashhadani — a secret tribunal has ordered that he be held, without charge, in Abu Ghraib for up to 6 months. Reuters is extremely concerned at this development and is calling on the US military to release him immediately or publicly air the case against him and give him the opportunity to defend himself.
“The U.S. military have also confirmed that five journalists for major news media are in detention, including Mashhadani and another freelance cameraman who has worked for Reuters, as well as a cameraman for the U.S. television network CBS. ”
TRUMP THIS
TV show inspires Russian copycat:
“…shows on TV today are vulgar, filled with lies like in Soviet times… In Chance, five groups of four individuals try to build a small business from scratch…”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=3&ObjectID=10343215
HOW WOULD JESUS POLL?
On new Pew Center findings:
“Both major political parties have a problem with their approach toward religion, in the eyes of many Americans. More than four-in-ten say that liberals who are not religious have too much control over the Democratic Party, while an almost identical percentage says that religious conservatives have too much influence over the Republican Party.
“The public also has distinctly different perceptions of both parties when it comes to dealing with religion and personal freedoms. By a wide margin — 51% to 28% — the GOP is seen as the party most concerned with protecting religious values. By a nearly identical margin (52%-30%), the Democratic Party is perceived as most concerned with protecting the freedom of citizens to make personal choices.
“Yet the Democrats’ strength in this area is overshadowed by a sharp erosion in the number of Americans who believe the party is friendly toward religion. Only about three-in-ten (29%) see the Democrats as friendly toward religion, down from 40% last August. Meanwhile, a solid majority (55%) continues to view the Republicans as friendly toward religion.
“However, independents are more critical of the influence of religious conservatives on the Republican Party than they are of the influence of secular liberals on the Democratic Party. Most independents (54%) think religious conservatives have too much influence over the Republican Party, while fewer, 43%, think secular liberals have too much sway on the Democratic Party.
“The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, conducted July 7-17 among 2,000 adults, finds deep religious and political differences over questions relating to evolution and the origins of life. Overall, about half the public (48%) says that humans and other living things have evolved over time, while 42% say that living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time. Fully 70% of white evangelical Protestants say that life has existed in its present form since the beginning of time; fewer than half as many white mainline Protestants (32%) and white Catholics (31%) agree.”
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001050465
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Letters and Laments
August 31st, 2005 - by: danny
Lynne Glasner writes about our esteemed Vice President:
“Did anyone else hear a report on Cheney’s health? WINS (AM in NYC) on Friday or Saturday reported that Cheney was ill and no one seems to know of his whereabouts. Nothing but Silence since then, either on WINS or other. No mention at all in Google to suggest it’s been picked up, denied, confirmed or other. Even if it was an ‘error’ it seems awfully strange.
“Another buried item that should raise hairs: Cheney’s daughter Elizabeth has quite a job in the Bush administration. Buried, of course, in their coverage on the Iraqi constitution, today’s NY Times quotes her:
“You have a real constitution that protects freedom of religion, freedom of association, freedom of speech and freedom of conscience,” said Elizabeth Cheney, principal deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs. “These protections are among the most far-reaching of any in the region and probably around the world.”
“At least the Times injected this: ‘But it was notable that on a day when many Iraqis expressed concern that the document could limit women’s rights by empowering Shiite clerics, the administration made little or no reference to that issue.’
“Apparently the whole Cheney family has carved itself a comfortable niche in Bushworld. With a little digging I came up with this on Elizabeth, from an editorial in the Claremore Progress, Ap. 8, 05, apparently a small town Oklahoma daily:
“‘The nomination of Vice President Dick Cheney‚s son-in-law as top lawyer at the Department of Homeland Security, coupled with the appointment of Cheney‚s daughter to a senior State Department post, are a strain of nepotism not usually seen in American government…
“‘Last week [April 2005] President Bush nominated Philip J. Perry, Elizabeth Cheney‚s husband, to be general counsel at Homeland Security.
“‘… Elizabeth Cheney also feeds at the government trough. She is currently principal deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs and coordinator for broader Middle East and North Africa initiatives. She was appointed to that post in February by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.’
Apparently hubby Phil is a former lobbyist for Lockheed Martin. The doors just keep turning. Elizabeth, meanwhile, apparently held that position earlier, left to work on the election campaign, and then returned to her former job. (No penalties here of course for taking a leave of absence. Only American soldiers lose their civilian jobs when they are shipped out to Iraq ) According to Wikipedia, the position was created just for her – how convenient. And just how are these neocons trying to shrink the federal government, again?”
Steve Souza writes on climate change — with a resource:
“Re: Global climate change has always been talked about from — Dr. Glen Barry below. I received his email before the storm hit. He’s always on it. Thanks for ALL that YOU do!
Hurricane Katrina and Catastrophic Climate Change
Deadly Storm Provides Vision of the Human Family’s Future
“Earth Meanders by Dr. Glen Barry
August 28, 2005
“Extraordinary storm events such as Hurricane Katrina now battering theUnited States’ Gulf Coast are becoming more commonplace in an Earthundergoing climate change. This historic event foreshadows globalecological collapse and suggests we are at or near the tipping point of abrupt climate change…”
http://earthmeanders.blogspot.com/
Joe Dunphy adds:
“Another topic not covered by mainstream media is how the intelligent design crowd failed to provide meaningful warning data before the storm, in order that all people could be properly evacuated. The science-based community provided plenty of warning.”
HELP NEEDED: CREDIT STORIES
Yesterday, I made this request to readers: “I am doing a new film project on credit. If you have had serious credit card problems or worked for a credit card company and have a story to tell, please get in touch.” A few of you have written, including one man whose name I won’t use now:
“I am a ‘professional’ (software developer), and am –Hallelujah!–more-or-less free of debt now (we have one auto payment, and that’s it).
“However, time was when we had *many* credit card payments, totalling THOUSANDS of dollars a month. Silly me, I had thought that 12% interest meant that if we borrowed $1,000, we would pay back $1,120.
“I learned the reality of credit math (‘userer’s voodoo’) the hard way. To make a long story somewhat short, we got to a point where we could no longer pay several hundred dollars per month on each of several credit card bills, while only seeing a small fraction of those bills reduced with each payment. Sometimes we would pay $800, and only $80 or so went toward the principle!
“In the year 2000, we finally filed bankruptcy. There really was no other choice at the time. In fact, we probably should have done so earlier. We felt terrible about it, but I’m sure each one of those companies got their money’s worth out of us even as it was.
“The only thing we’ve purchased on credit since then has been the truck my wife drives–and even that I want to pay off as soon as possible. I now try to live by the mantra ‘Neither a borrower nor a lender be.’”
CONFLICT OVER CINDY
Nancy Morgan, writes about coverage of Cindy Sheehan:
“Yes, I did notice how the MSM latched on to the ‘conflict’ generated by the pro-war caravan in Crawford. The telling thing, however, is this fact: Cindy Sheehan has been in Crawford for about 3 weeks, and there have been no violent outbursts from thousands of people, er… peacemakers. But let the pro-war people roll into town, and we get violence, among themselves!!! Yup, these people love violence as a way to get their message across, but hey, doesn’t Bush also love violence and bullying? Listen to his words, look at his snicker, watch his stiffened body as he talks about it….he loves it.”
MOVIE TIME
Other Cinema DVD releases Russ Forster’s SO WRONG THEY’RE RIGHT: This award-winning documentary chronicles a 10,000 mile journey around the U.S. in search of “trackers” — fanatical collectors of 8-track tapes, those funky clunky pre-recorded plastic cartridges from the 70s.
VIA Dahr Jamail: New on DVD: Falluja 2004
*A film by Japanese independent journalist Toshikuni Doi*
“Falluja, April 2004. A documentary by Japanese independent journalist Toshikuni Doi Fallujah has become a symbol of the resistance movement against the U.S. occupation of Iraq. In April 2004, the U.S. forces invaded Fallujah with severalthousand soldiers. Why did Fallujah become a base of the resistance against the occupation? How did the U.S. forces attack? Who fought against them? And what damages and injuries did people suffer? Ten days after the siege of Falluja was lifted, Toshikuni Doi, a Japanese independent journalist, went into Fallujah. His documentary investigates the causes of, the conditions during, and damages from the siege. The documentary is primarily in Arabic, with English subtitles. DVD, 55 minutes.”
http://www.progressiveportal.org/store/
That’s it for now.
Keep your letters coming. Still need help on my Microsoft Word refusal-to-launch problem. Received one tip that was promising, but I think it was for a PC, not a MAC. Sorry to trouble you with all these minor woes given what else is going on…
Comments to: Dissector@mediachannel.org
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About Danny Schechter
Danny Schechter is an Emmy award winning journalist, television producer and independent filmmaker who also writes, blogs and speaks about media issues.
His latest film is PLUNDER The Crime Of Our Time.
Mr. Schechter is NOT the Godfather of Soul.
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