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September 4, 2005
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well…..i guess there is a god….robertson’s praying wasn’t for naught after all!
Posted by: lenin’s ghost | Sep 4 2005 6:28 utc | 1
is this important at all ? he was old and ill, so it was a matter of (short) time until he left for valhalla. his successor has in all probability already been determined.
Posted by: name | Sep 4 2005 6:42 utc | 2
yes, i think the timing is important. sure he was going to knock off soon and we all knew it.but the timing now, with all the rage may add to the tipping point. for chimp to ask for 2 confirmations, i don’t know. seems to me that the reception is not going to be good. i’d say any time for him to go in the next couple of years, he couldn’t have chosen a better moment. this fall, i want to see a pile on. hatred, i am just trying to not let it infest my life.it is a huge sacrifice the people of new orleans have made. let it not be in vain. the ‘death tax’ , roberts, iraq, fitzgerald, the press showing a little balls, the masses aren’t just restless they are furious. a good time for the bastard to die. pardon my french
Posted by: annie | Sep 4 2005 6:59 utc | 3
@annie:
Much though I hope you’re right, I’ll believe it when I read that Europe has seized the local assets of Halliburton and China has established a beachhead. (Actually, the latter would be pretty easy right now. If they just picked a spot that was poor, black, or liberal, it would be a week before Bush would send the army in…)
I don’t know which I fear more, that something terrible may happen or that things may continue as they have been…
Posted by: The Truth Gets Vicious When You Corner It | Sep 4 2005 7:22 utc | 4
jm:
Ok… so is that someone famous or what?
Are you advocating that sort of violence or opposing it?
Posted by: John Francis Lee | Sep 4 2005 11:50 utc | 7
John Francis Lee,
I am not advocating any violence. Part of our whole human problem is the endless battle between the expression and suppression of our rage and all the dangerous impulses every human posesses. Hurricanes are Nature’s expression of fury. Now people are at a total loss as to what to do, where to go, what to say, what will happen. It is an extremely intense moment in this country.
I have been shocked and disturbed for a long time at the hate and rage coming from all sides of the poltical spectrum. People spit hate and blame incessantly toward the government but that doesn’t seem to be working. Even as an easing of personal fear and frustration. Maybe the attempt we are making in the blogosphere to express ourselves and make sense of our experience is helping. I don’t know.
I used to be much more angry than I am now. I believe the entire collective is responsible for the society it finds itself in. Knowledge, understanding, and wisdom are the best ways to deal with it as far as I can see.
Not violence. Only as a completely natural response to self defense in a pure survival situation.
In all the swirl of emotion I find myself in, and the feeling of the criminal element so dominant, I thought maybe this verbal release I posted might help. It is not directed at anyone. Just a gutteral release.
Posted by: jm | Sep 4 2005 12:26 utc | 8
Anyone paying attention has been sickened to the core by what we just witnessed and it is hard to find a way to express it. We will figure it out once past the initial wounding.
One thing I want more than anything in life right now is not to be afraid of anyone.
Posted by: jm | Sep 4 2005 12:41 utc | 9
for jm,
“However critical the situation and circumstances in which you find yourself, despair of nothing; it is on the occasions in which everything is to be feared that it is necessary to fear nothing; it is when one is surrounded by all the dangers that it is not necessary to dread any; it is when one is without resources that it is necessary to count on all of them; it is when one is surprised that it is necessary to surprise the enemy himself.” Sun Tzu, The Art of War.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Sep 4 2005 13:58 utc | 10
uncle scam
thank you – i too, needed to be reminded of that
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Sep 4 2005 14:02 utc | 11
Yeah, my thanks also Uncle. My predominant emotions this week have been rage and frustration but have bordered on hate and fear. Maybe even sometimes over the border. My solace is found in my practice that reminds me that where there is fear there is not love. It’s been difficult to imbue. I have a copy of Mastering The Art Of War on my desk but rarely consult it. I will more often thanks to your prompting.
Posted by: Juannie | Sep 4 2005 14:38 utc | 12
i am taking another breath. thank you everyone for being here. and thank you uncle
Posted by: annie | Sep 4 2005 15:06 utc | 15
How “Horizon” theory ties into present tragedies…
Does the betrayal of New Orleans mean that government is incapable of coping?
Get to know
David Brin , you’ll be glad you did…
p.s. Just giving back whats been given to me, this place, you people, have salved my wounds, my heart and saved my sanity countless times.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Sep 4 2005 15:33 utc | 16
I read on Democratic Undergound that at 6 AM Sat. US (place unknown) time Bush was on the TeeVee and suspended “some law” .. Posse Comitatus. The people discussing it didn’t really know what it was and weren’t clear.
???
From Press Room Dpt. of Homeland Security, Sept. 1, quote, my bold:
Assistant Secretary McHale: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My words will echo those of the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and the Attorney General. It is a fundamental responsibility of government at every level — local, state and federal — to ensure the physical safety of our fellow citizens.
For the past 125 years, approximately, it has been the public policy of our nation, reflected in numerous statutes, but most particularly the posse comitatus statute, that our active duty military forces ordinarily do not engage in law enforcement activity. We’ve decided, as a matter of public policy, that our police officers will normally protect us. Our law enforcement officials will provide the security that we reasonably expect. And so, in this circumstance, and all circumstances, we turn, first and foremost, to civilian law enforcement to protect the American people.
The Department of Defense does have statutory authority to provide assistance, military support to civilian law enforcement authorities, and that often involves training and equipment and other forms of assistance that enable police officers to better do their jobs.
And under truly extraordinary circumstances, occurring once in a generation typically, when there’s a civil disturbance, the President does have the legal authority to make certain declarations and use the active duty military to restore civil order. And so there are things that we in the Department of Defense can do to contribute to that climate of safety and security.
But more often than not, when military support is needed to ensure the effective execution of a law enforcement function, it is the National Guard, rather than the active duty military, that is more useful. Frankly, our National Guard, in many cases, is better trained. The National Guard is forward deployed throughout the nation. Our Guardsmen, men and women, are of the communities that they serve. Often they have ties to local law enforcement; certainly they have ties to local families and businesses in the community to be protected. Moreover, the National Guard is exempt from posse comitatus, and the National Guard can work side by side, therefore, with law enforcement officials in ways in which active duty military forces cannot.
Link
Background and other numbers from the Baltimore Sun:
National Guard to double relief forces
Link
Excuse if already discussed somewhere – I did check the four top threads for “posse.”
Posted by: Noisette | Sep 4 2005 16:19 utc | 17
@Uncle $cam:
The “Horizon” link is not working, but I’m having a wonderful time hopping around on David Brin’s site, looking for the reference.
Nice way to spend my Sunday morning, after I spent too much time yesterday wallowing in hapless frustration over the FEMA farce.
Posted by: catlady | Sep 4 2005 16:36 utc | 18
Thanks for the Brin site Scam, also thanks to everyone else – I too sometimes feel the need to reaffirm my own sanity by reading people continents away, over the ocean, or peole closer by but whom I would never meet in the ordinary way. Merci.
Posted by: Noisette | Sep 4 2005 16:47 utc | 19
Brecht, second stanza of ‘To Posterity’`:
I came to the cities in a time of disorder
When hunger ruled.
I came among men in a time of uprising
And I revolted with them.
So the time passed away
Which on earth was given me.
I ate my food between massacres.
The shadow of murder lay upon my sleep.
And when I loved, I loved with indifference.
I looked upon nature with impatience.
So the time passed away
Which on earth was given me.
In my time streets led to the quicksand.
Speech betrayed me to the slaughterer.
There was little I could do. But without me
The rulers would have been more secure. This was my hope.
So the time passed away
Which on earth was given me.
Poetry Connection
Posted by: Noisette | Sep 4 2005 17:24 utc | 21
I understand the fact that the poor of the city should have been evacuated ahead of the storm, I do.
I understand the fact that global warming is a disaster to make this disaster forgettable except as first shot over the bow, I do.
I understand the administration was scattered and on vacation and clueless for an eternity before even returning to Washington, I do.
I understand the head of FEMA is a horse’s ass, I do.
I understand the roles of race and poverty need once again to be examined, I do.
I understand the whole nutty Republican ‘drown the government in a bathtub’ routine, I do.
I even understand that there’s a difference between looting and shooting at the cops and rescuers, and that made the job of relief and rescue tougher, I do.
But…
If it’s true that the beginning of fixing up of the 17th st canal breech was staged for the cameras, then basically all equipment was removed and work stopped once Bush left…
And if it’s true that food and water were used as props for another Bush photo op, then taken away after he fled the scene…
And if it’s true that supplies were made available at the outskirts of the city from early on, and that FEMA blocked local authorites from accessing them…
Then isn’t this mass murder?
I don’t know any other way to ask the question, and much as I’ve been against what this administration has done from even before they were handed the 2000 election, I must say I’m stunned to see these words on the screen.
And if that question is on the table, then isn’t it time – for now -to stop talking about all those other things listed above, and keep repeating only this question until there is an answer?
Posted by: mats | Sep 4 2005 17:55 utc | 23
i wanted to say a more formal thank you to both uncle $cam & noisette for their offerings – it is exactly through this benjaminian offering of citations that i try to offer my participants hope in the middle of the nightmare
but on this day – feel so overwhelmed by it all – & it is exterieur to me – it is these events which have their accumulative effect. the effect is to diminish & to degrade & in the end to make a mockery of what aspires to hope in us all
i am learning day by day that ii have more of the idealist in me than i ever expected – that the materialist thinker – is sometimes incapable of blocking or absorbing/transforming – this obscenity we have to live through
i envy my friend slothrop – who is capable of approaching this matters with a certain distance & as i understand it a necessary distance
i am simply incapable of that distance – distance is not my métier – & that is why when i post there is so much that is furious & that which is not furious is extremely melancholic. it is not my intention to be evangalical for either position. but that fury & that melancholy are my reality & it is how i experience what is happening
normally i suppose it is mediated by working with the communities i work with – but we have hadd a summer break longer than expected & when i return there will be 50 hours of workshops a week which is almost double the amount i have done so far. normally the workshops mediate coldly the events we are living through — because i have immediate obligations to transform them
but this summer i have taken a physical pleasure in writing & have already filled three notebooks – all from the falling from fallujah….work i have spoken of here but it is an extremely dark dark work & i have experienced the force of events like a semi triler being knocked into me
sometimes i feel i am barely standing upright
but these oferings of brecht & lao tzu remind me we have been here before – & that we willl learn new ways of fighting – that we will learn to do away with these monsters
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Sep 4 2005 18:29 utc | 24
The USAPATRIOT Acts (I&II) have been fairly roundly ignored by the MSM and blogosphere alike. The only group of people to my knowledge who have consistently tried to educate the public about the dangers of these pieces of legislation have been derided as hysterical librarians.
Even the The federal government has not been able to defend the monstrous implications of this anti-democratic legislation; their only hollow reassurances so far has been that parts of it (specifically section 215) has never been used.
Not only is this a lie, it’s not even a reassurance. One might as easily release a hungry lion into a crowd of people and expect to reassure them with news that its teeth have never actually been used. If provisions of this monster act require the suspension of Constitutional liberties in order to be effective, then those provisions must be be essential to the operation of the act as a whole. If they are not essential, they can safely be struck. To put it simply, it is no reassurance to wastefully include dangerous sections in these acts that nobody has any intention to use. Even if it were true, they reveal the ugly spirit in which the legislation has been forced upon us. However, since the very provision (215) in question comes with a built-in gag order, it was never intended for us to be able to verify the how often it has actually been employed.
As I stated above, it is a lie that the federal government has not used this hideous provision, and there is currently one known case in which a US citizen is facing prison for exercising their first amendment rights. Because those prosecuted by provision 215 of the USAPATRIOT Act II are not legally allowed to discuss it (even with an attorney), it is too late to oppose the legislation by the time it actually affects you. If you have nothing to say about this issue, you either support it or are in the process of being prosecuted as a domestic terrorist under its provisions.
I do not want this matter taken off the table.
Posted by: Monolycus | Sep 4 2005 20:16 utc | 25
Monolycus,
I, too, have been profoundly disturbed by the Patriot Act. It reminds me of the Sedition Act which we got past. The Patriot Act is coming up for revision or whatever, I believe, in the upcoming session of Congress. Maybe there is something that can be done.
Posted by: jm | Sep 5 2005 3:07 utc | 26