And yes I wept again, as I watched the conclusion of Spike Lee’s opus 4 Act Requiem on Katrina on HBO last night and realized again how much our media WAS NOT reporting this past year. Somehow we could track the daily body count in Iraq, but not the day to day betrayal and anguish of the people in our own Gulf Coast. Recall how early on Mediachannel feared a lack of follow-up and called on the media to “keep the light on injustice”—and some outlets did.

But as I watched his spare no angle indictment of governmental failure and FEMA failure, I also saw a massive MEDIA FAILURE to pursue the aftermath in all of its desperate detail and delay and death and decay and demoralization. Despite the many fine reports and retrospectives during the storm and all the anniversary coverage, we in the media have to accept our own responsibility for our part in this under investigated and reported ongoing disgrace and shame…..


INFLATING THE IRAN THREAT
ASSESSING THE DECLINE OF THE NEWS
BUSH’S MONUMENT TO HIMSELF

The Hurricane watch is on, with “Ernesto,” in CNN’s phrase, “sloshing ashore” but where is the next war watch, the reading of the tea leaves by expert spy watchers who decode us all the maneuvers, signs, warnings, and indications that the misnomered intelligence world is being pushed into forecasting the need for an attack on Iran, perhaps to take our minds off of Iraq, or Katrina or the big set back in Lebanon. The fear machine doesn’t work without alarm bells being rung constantly.

Could it happen again? Would the American people fall for it? Would the media line up the way it had before? Just look at the page on stores Tuesday in the NY Times and Washington Post—all foreshadowing a repeat performance.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/24/washington/24intel.html

and

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/23/AR2006082301309.html>

My own advisor at the SIA (the Saugerties Intelligence Agency), not all that far from the mysterious Iron Mountain, concludes that the Bush administration has begun to apply pressure on the U.S. intelligence agencies to pump up the Iran threat

Matthew Yglesias, guest-blogging on TPM, warns that “Democrats had better be prepared to confront this business aggressively.”

“So should the press. Because while both the *Times* story and the *Post*story make ample, if measured, reference to what happened the last time Cheney and Co. insisted on getting the "right" answers to their intelligence questions, neither reminded readers of how little skepticism we in the press brought to claims that Iraq had WMD, that Saddam's henchmen had gone to Niger and secured "yellowcake," that those aluminum tubes really were trouble, and that there was a 9/11 connection.

Nor did those stories go far enough in putting this latest bit of White House maneuvering into its proper context. The country is less than three months away from a crucial mid-term election, and with the GOP facing the distinct possibility of losing its majority in Congress, the administration is desperately trying to play the only card that has worked repeatedly with the voters -- fear of terrorism. It needs a new villain, and Iran's persistent thumbing of its nose at the West over its nuclear program provides the perfect opening to elevate one.

Finally, there was scant outrage expressed anywhere in the press today (perhaps tomorrow?) over the fact that, despite all we've learned about this administration's willingness to say whatever is necessary to get what it wants, here, it seems, we go again.”

http://www.cjrdaily.org/politics/psst_iran_helped_plan_septembe_1.php

WHAT IS AN “ISLAMIC FACIST?

Eric Margolis writes in the Toronto Sun:

”The term “Islamo fascist” is utterly without meaning, but packed with emotional explosives. It is a propaganda creation worthy Dr. Goebbels, and the latest expression of the big lie technique being used by neocons in Washington’s propaganda war against its enemies in the Muslim World. “

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14743.htm

IRAQI FREEDOM: W’s MONUMENT FOR HIMSELF

Paul McGeough reports from Baghdad on the building of what locals call “Bush Palace.”

The plans are a state secret, so just where the Starbucks and Krispy Kreme stores will be is a mystery. But as the concrete hulks of a huge 21-building complex rise from the ashes of Saddam’s Baghdad, Washington is sending a clear message to Iraqis: “We’re here to stay.”

“It’s being built in the Middle East, but George W’s palace, as the locals have dubbed the new US embassy, is designed as a suburb of Washington.

“An army of more than 3500 diplomatic and support staff will have their own sports centre, beauty parlor and swimming pool. Each of the six residential blocks will contain more than 600 apartments.

“The prime 25-hectare site was a steal ? it was a gift from the Iraqi Government. And if the five-metre-thick perimeter walls don’t keep the locals at bay, then the built-in surface-to-air missile station should.”

JOHN LE CARRE ON LEBANON

If traditional journalism doesn’t explain the middle east very well, perhaps a best selling author can do better. John Le Carre argues that “Lebanon’s people are the latest victims of a global catastrophe inflicted by deluded zealots”
http://venus.opendemocracy.net/t/3332/38637/2187/0/

ON PALESTINE TODAY

Amira Hess, an Israeli journalist

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=756413

Dr Ghazi Hamad, a critical Palestinian politician

http://www.memri.org/bin/opener_latest.cgi?ID=SD126806

CUE THE BRASS BAND

Now, back to the USSA: As New Orleans commemorated the Katrina anniversary with a jazz funeral, the debate over responsibility continues. The NY Times reports today:

”President Bush said he took “full responsibility” for the slow federal response to the disaster as he made a choreographed trip to the city that suffered most.

REPORT ON KATRINA: CONSERVATIVE POLICIES FAILED IN THE RESCUE AND REBUILDING OF THE GULF COAST

”NEW ORLEANS, LA. – Conservative policies turned the natural disaster of Hurricane Katrina into a year-long tragedy for the Gulf Coast and the nation, according to a new report released today by the Campaign for America’s Future. House Democratic Caucus Chairman James Clyburn, D-S.C., endorsed the report’s findings from New Orleans, La., on a news conference call conducted today by the Campaign for America’s Future.

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., joined Rep. Clyburn on today’s call with Campaign for America’s Future co-director Robert Borosage and ACORN New Orleans lead organizer Stephen Bradberry.

A VIEW FROM ENGLAND: KATRINA’S FALLOUT - JIM GABOUR

”The city’s breakdown continues to rip through each resident’s heart

http://venus.opendemocracy.net/t/3332/38637/2188/0/

ITS NOT JUST KATRINA: POVERTY IS UP

The Progress Center reports:

This morning, the Census Bureau released new poverty, income, and health insurance figures for 2005. Through 2004, the poverty rate had increased each year of George W. Bush’s presidency — from 11.7 percent in 2001 to 12.7 percent in 2004. New 2005 data released this morning shows the problem didn’t get any better. The numbers “mark the worst performance in recent decades for poverty and median income during an economic recovery.”

“The Bush administration “dropped the ball entirely” on poverty since the issue “forced its way to the top of President Bush’s agenda in the confusing days after Hurricane Katrina.” (”Does [President Bush] often talk about poverty? No,” Tony Snow admitted recently.) But in a “sign that the income inequality may rise higher on the US policy agenda,” Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson admitted this month that “many Americans simply aren’t feeling the benefits” of economic expansion. Now it’s time for Bush to take action.”

http://www.progressreport.org

AND IF THAT’S NOT BAD ENOUGH: HOUSING BUBBLE CONTRACTS

Nouriel Roubini says the housing slump is getting worse:

”The Biggest Slump in US Housing in the Last 40 Years: These are not my views but those of the Toll Brothers, the famous luxury McMansions homebuilders, as CNN reported last week. Also, as reported by the WSJ today: In his 40 years as a home builder, Mr. Toll says, he has never seen a slump unfold like the current one. “I’ve never seen a downturn in housing without a downturn in employment or… some macroeconomic nasty condition that took housing down along with other elements of the economy,” he says.

“This time, you’ve got low unemployment, you’ve got job creation, you’ve got a stable stock market and relatively low interest rates.”. This followed last week’s CNN headline: “Builder: Oversupply slump worst in 40 years. Toll Brothers slashes outlook on new homes as orders plunge and revenue misses forecasts.” Indeed, yesterday’s sharply falling profit results from the Toll Brothers confirmed their view that this is the worst housing slump in decades.

Similarly, Angelo Mozilo, the CEO of Countrywide — the country’s largest independent home mortgage lender – recently stated: “I’ve never seen a soft-landing in 53 years, so we have a ways to go before this levels out. I have to prepare the company for the worst that can happen.”

“So, effectively the only debate now is whether housing conditions are the worst in the last 40 years or in the last 53 years. So much for the bullish soft-landing wishful thinking coming out of Wall Street these days…”

DEMOCRACY DENIED: SAN DIEGO JUDGE DISMISSES DISPUTED BUSBY/BILBRAY ELECTION SUIT
http://www.bradblog.com/