frankilin roosevelt

It's not about being liberal or conservative anymore y'all. That is a hype offered by the fascist whores who want to confuse the people with lies while they turn this country into an aristocratic police state. Some people will say anything to attain power and money. There is no such thing as the Liberal Media, but the Corporate media is very real.


Check out my old  Voice of the People page.


Gino Napoli
San Francisco, California
High School Math Teacher

jonsdarc@mindspring.com




Loyalty without truth
is a trail to tyranny.

a middle-aged
George Washington



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Saturday, 10 September 2005 at 20h 16m 15s

Other FEMA appointed officials

There is a list provided by David Allen here.


Saturday, 10 September 2005 at 21h 23m 42s

The media double standard

From the Rolling Stone : [LINK]


. . . The press also went into a tizzy over Gore's casual comment during that first debate that he had traveled with James Lee Witt, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, to Texas during a spate of wildfires. As vice president, Gore had traveled with Witt seventeen different times, but not on the date in question. Gore corrected the record the next morning, but the press treated his slip of the tongue as wildly important.

. . . During the debates, though, Bush made a handful of blunders regarding military operations in the Balkans and Haiti, about the facts surrounding Texas' most celebrated hate-crime trial and about his own tax plan. Bush was free to botch facts about central policy issues and the press wouldn't question his intelligence. But if Gore were to misstate nonessential details, such as how long a student had to stand in a crowded Sarasota classroom, he was tagged a liar who couldn't be trusted.

Few journalists saw anything wrong with this double standard. In fact, some found it amusing. "You can actually disprove some of what Bush is saying if you really get in the weeds and get out your calculator, or you look at his record in Texas," Time magazine columnist Margaret Carlson told radio morning man Don Imus at the height of the campaign. "But it's really easy, and it's fun, to disprove Gore. As sport, and as our enterprise, Gore coming up with another whopper is greatly entertaining to us."

Who decided that covering presidential politics was supposed to be "entertaining" and "fun" for journalists?


Answer: the corporate exec's and proprietors who got the word out : make Dubya look like an easy-going honest man of integrity, and make Gore look like a stiff, humorless, slick bureaucrat. Those who heeded the call got the big spots and the promotions.

Bastards.


Saturday, 10 September 2005 at 19h 12m 31s

Can you tell the difference?

Thanks to Billmon.


Organizers of the Pentagon's 9/11 memorial Freedom Walk on Sunday are taking extraordinary measures to control participation in the march and concert, with the route fenced off and lined with police and the event closed to anyone who does not register online by 4:30 p.m. today. The march, sponsored by the Department of Defense, will wend its way from the Pentagon to the Mall along a route that has not been specified but will be lined with four-foot-high snow fencing to keep it closed and "sterile," said Allison Barber, deputy assistant secretary of defense.

The event, the America Supports You Freedom Walk, is billed as a memorial to victims of the 2001 terrorist attacks and a show of support for those serving in the military, topped off with a concert by country singer Clint Black, known for his pro-troops anthem, "Iraq and Roll."

Organizers said they expect 3,000 to 10,000 participants.

Washington Post
Tight Constraints on Pentagon's Freedom Walk
September 9, 2005

...

Pyongyang, North Korea -- Organizers of the Democratic People's Republic's memorial Slavery Walk are taking extraordinary measures to encourage participation in the march and concert, with the route fenced off and lined with secret police, and the event closed to anyone who does not have the slogan "Long Live Dear Leader, Glorious Light of the Proletarian Masses" tattooed on his or her forehead by 4:30 p.m. today. The march, sponsored by the Ministry of Defense, will wend its way from People's Tractor Factory No. 438 to the People's Palace of Democratic Torture along a route that is classified as a state secret and will be lined with 16- foot concrete walls topped with broken glass and razor wire to keep it "ideologically pure," Dear Leader Kim Jong-il said.

The event, the We Will Gladly Lay Down our Insignificant Lives for Dear Leader Slavery Walk, is billed as a memorial to victims of imperialist aggression and a show of support for those serving in the People's Army, topped off with a concert by folk singer Klint Black-il, known for his pro-government anthem, "Without Your Brilliant Dialetical Thought, Our Petty Lives Are Empty and Meaningless, O Wonderous Dear Leader."

Organizers said they expect 30 million to 100 million participants.

Pyonyang Post
Unprecedented Freedom Allowed For This Year's Slavery Walk
All Hail Dear Leader!
September 9, 2005



Saturday, 10 September 2005 at 3h 28m 53s

President Gore acts like a president

... while presidential thief Dubya pretends he has a clue, and pats his lick-spittles on the back, mangling his speech in between cocktails at Ptomkin villages created by the crack white house spin machine, a real man gives an example of how to be a leader -- and doesn't request any spotlight.


From CNN : [LINK]


KNOXVILLE, Tennessee (AP) -- Al Gore helped airlift some 270 Katrina evacuees on two private charters from New Orleans, acting at the urging of a doctor who saved the life of the former vice president's son....

On September 1, three days after Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast, [Greg] Simon, [ president of the Washington-based activist group FasterCures,] learned that Dr. David Kline, a neurosurgeon who operated on Gore's son, Albert, after a life-threatening auto accident in 1989, was trying to get in touch with Gore. Kline was stranded with patients at Charity Hospital in New Orleans.

"The situation was dire and becoming worse by the minute -- food and water running out, no power, 4 feet of water surrounding the hospital and ... corpses outside," Simon wrote.

Gore responded immediately, telephoning Kline and agreeing to underwrite the $50,000 each for the two flights, although Larry Flax, founder of California Pizza Kitchens, later pledged to pay for one of them.

"None of the airlines involved required a contract or any written guarantee of payment before sending their planes and volunteer crews," Simon wrote of the American Airlines flights. "One official said if Gore promised to pay, that was good enough for them."

He also recruited two doctors, Spickard and Gore's cousin, retired Col. Dar LaFon, a specialist in internal medicine who once ran the military hospital in Baghdad.

Most critically, Gore worked to cut through government red tape, personally calling Gov. Phil Bredesen to get Tennessee's support and U.S. Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta to secure landing rights in New Orleans.


The country wanted Gore to be President in 2000, but Dubya had to be a big baby and steal it. And now 5 years later, the country is a mess.


Saturday, 10 September 2005 at 6h 26m 43s

Clinton did something

Clinton explains why he decided to stop appointing political hacks to FEMA.

"... I went to Florida [after Hurricane Andrew in 1992] a few days after President [George H.W.] Bush did to observe the damage from Hurricane Andrew. I had dealt with a lot of natural disasters as governor, including floods, droughts, and tornadoes, but I had never seen anything like this. I was surprised to hear complaints from both local officials and residents about how the Federal Emergency Management Agency was handling the aftermath of the hurricane. Traditionally, the job of FEMA director was given to a political supporter of the President who wanted some plum position but who had no experience with emergencies. I made a mental note to avoid that mistake if I won. Voters don't chose a President based on how he'll handle disasters, but if they're faced with one themselves, it quickly becomes the most important issue in their lives."

-- Bill Clinton, My Life (p. 428)


Keep in mind, that this was written before Hurricane Katrina occurred, and so must be considered a sincere reflecion upon an event that Mr. Clinton himself observed.


Saturday, 10 September 2005 at 18h 26m 5s

What red tape are they talking about?

From the NPR Katrina timeline Transcripts. [SOURCE]

SULLIVAN: On Saturday, the Louisiana Guard calls up 4,000 troops, every Guardsman in the state. But almost half of its force is out of the state and out of the country. Three thousand Louisiana Guard troops are in Iraq, along with most of Louisiana's heavy equipment, including its watercraft, high-water vehicles and generators. Lieutenant Colonel Schneider says the troops fan out to staging areas across the state. According to the emergency plan, they're to wait there until the storm passes. Their job is to distribute supplies and maintain order. The plan anticipates there might be some looting and violence.

...

SULLIVAN: That same Saturday, Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco says the storm will be so big that state and local governments won't be able to handle it. She asks President Bush to declare a state of emergency. Later that day, he does.

The next day, on Sunday, at 9:30 AM, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin issues the first ever mandatory evacuation in the city's history.

Mayor RAY NAGIN (New Orleans): Make sure that you check on your neighbors. It's very important, particularly the senior citizens, that we check on them to make sure that they're OK and that they're not too frightened, and that we assist them before we take off.

ZWERDLING: Meanwhile, next door in Jefferson Parish, Walter Maestri is sending fire trucks to the streets.

Mr. MAESTRI: And the fire department went through the neighborhoods, `Alert! Alert! For your information, you live in a low-lying area that is highly prone to flooding. And it is the recommendation of your parish government that you immediately evacuate.'

ZWERDLING: The state's deputy director of emergency planning, Jeff Smith, says almost one million people do leave.

Mr. JEFF SMITH (Deputy Director, Louisiana Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Planning): Everyone is kind of focusing on response at this point in time. I don't hear anybody talking about how successful that evacuation was. It probably saved hundreds of thousands of lives, and nobody wants to talk about that.

...

SULLIVAN: All weekend long, key officials coordinate their disaster plans in almost constant conference calls. There are staff members for more than 40 state and federal agencies camped in one room at the state's emergency planning center in Baton Rouge. FEMA's there. They're supposed to make sure that the food gets to hurricane survivors. The US Army Corps of Engineers is in the room. They're in charge of water and structural damage. The National Guard is at the center. They're supposed to provide the troops and trucks and boats to forge through the flood. And they're all on the line with local managers like Walter Maestri to confirm that they'll move in as soon as the hurricane passes by.

Mr. MAESTRI: All day Saturday and all day Sunday and all day Monday, until the winds got so high that the phone lines blew down, we were in constant contact. Every two to three hours, we were talking.

... More than 40 emergency agencies--local, state and federal--were meeting almost every two hours in the days leading up to Hurricane Katrina. They were planning for a storm that could devastate the region. But as soon as Katrina hit, those plans started to unravel....

[Tuesday] morning, Walter Maestri follows the disaster plan to rush help to Jefferson Parish. He gets on his shortwave radio, and he calls the emergency command center in Baton Rouge. He talks with FEMA and the National Guard and the Army Corps of Engineers.

Mr. WALTER MAESTRI (Emergency Management Center, Jefferson Parish): We made the request Tuesday morning. We went through the state Office of Emergency Preparedness. I am requesting the water and ice, the meals, the demax(ph)...

ZWERDLING: The medical--the Mobile Medical Unit?

Mr. MAESTRI: The medical--the Mobile Medical, the DMORT, the mobile morgue and so forth. They said they would place the orders and that they should be here within 12 to 36 hours. That's Tuesday morning.

ZWERDLING: And Mayor Nagin says he's confident that help is about to pour into New Orleans. He says an official at FEMA has just briefed him.


Let's reiterate.

"All weekend long, key officials coordinate their disaster plans in almost constant conference calls."

75% of the Louisiana National Guard was in Iraq, along with "most" of their equipement.

I suppose the "red tape" to which the talking heads that read the memo refer was the "war" in Iraq, and the inability of the feds to stick to the decisions made on those conference calls because the feds had other priorities.

And they scream about people playing politics, while they play politics themselves.

Fucking assholes.


Saturday, 10 September 2005 at 18h 4m 46s

Transcripts of the Katrina response timeline

Check out these transcripts of an NPR radio show that did an audio version of the timeline. They are quite stunning.
part one

part two

A special thanks to Duncan Black, the blogger journalist at Atrios.com for putting these transcripts together, and making them available on the web.


Friday, 9 September 2005 at 4h 38m 48s

This is too unbelieveable

On August 26, 2005 Kathleen Blanco, Governor of Louisiana issues a detailed legal declaration of a state of emergency. here

The next day, President Bush declares a Federal Emergency.

[LINK]

For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary August 27, 2005

Statement on Federal Emergency Assistance for Louisiana

The President today declared an emergency exists in the State of Louisiana and ordered Federal aid to supplement state and local response efforts in the parishes located in the path of Hurricane Katrina beginning on August 26, 2005, and continuing.

The President's action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures, authorized under Title V of the Stafford Act, to save lives, protect property and public health and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in the parishes of Allen, Avoyelles, Beauregard, Bienville, Bossier, Caddo, Caldwell, Claiborne, Catahoula, Concordia, De Soto, East Baton Rouge, East Carroll, East Feliciana, Evangeline, Franklin, Grant, Jackson, LaSalle, Lincoln, Livingston, Madison, Morehouse, Natchitoches, Pointe Coupee, Ouachita, Rapides, Red River, Richland, Sabine, St. Helena, St. Landry, Tensas, Union, Vernon, Webster, West Carroll, West Feliciana, and Winn.


Know whats strange.

Missing from that list of affected parishes : Ascension,Jefferson, Lafourche, Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard,St. Charles, St. James,St. John, St. Tammany,Tangipahoa, Terrebonne, and Washington Parish.

Notice where all these not included parishes are located (colored reddish.)

Why would the President NOT INCLUDE these Parishes on the federal list "to avert the castrophe" that hit them ?

I am so pissed off.


Friday, 9 September 2005 at 0h 38m 59s

The UN for food scandal report

Read the synopsis here. The entire report is 1,000 pages long.

Interesting that despite the bloody red screed of the manufactured right-wing passion against the UN scandal, Kofi Annan was only reprimanded for his lack of "oversight." According to the synopsis (link above):

...the report declines to endorse allegations of [Kofi Annan's] personal involvement in the scandals, and does not consider the evidence of his knowledge of his son's activities to be conclusive.

Most of the companies who benefited were American companies, who themselves profitted by reselling the oil. The so-called UN forces that were monitoring (guarding) the area were actually Americans and American officers, with the exception of a tiny 4 British commanders.

Jordan was also exempted from the restrictions on Iraq oil sales. Wink, wink. Consultants from major US Oil companies had offices in Amman,Jordan.

The 661 Committee,created by the Security Council to oversee the Oil For Food Programme, had an undefined and unclear mandate -- at the insistence of the United States officials!! Indeed, the U.S. was responsible for some 98% of the 'holds' placed on contracts in this committee.

How come the companies which made these deals aren't under the same scrutiny?


Thursday, 8 September 2005 at 23h 50m 16s

My letter to MSNBC (that will never be read)

you people really suck.

Since when does the truth supported by irrefutable facts become "an opinion" ?

(At the very least) all you folks have to do is compare what happened in Florida September 2004, and what happened during Katrina 2005? There are plenty of newspaper articles and legal documents, so you won't have to worry about those gosh darn difficult facts you want to call "opinions."

Oh, and did you know that President Bush -- in responding to Governor Blanco's formal declaration of an emergency on August 26th -- did not include in his federal disaster area the parishes of Orleans, St. Bernard, Plaquemines, and Jefferson.

Those are the 4 parishes south of the Lake by the way.

And why not fire Brown, and all of the other Public Relations hacks Bush staffed the agency? How can we expect the same blind mice to see any better during the recovery process? Would MSNBC keep corporate executives who are incompetent.

Don't answer that. This is why Governor Blanco hired ex-Clinton FEMA head DeWitt PRO BONO to oversee the reconstruction process.

Now certainly, those corrupt contractors wouldn't repeat the same mistakes of the last 3 years in Iraq?

And why was the USS Battan that followed the hurricane (which is standard procedure) waiting for the President to give the order to act if indeed President Bush gave them permission to act. Are we supposed to believe that the Navy commander disobeyed his President and waited off-shore with lotza helicopters for 3 days after Katrina hit New Orleans?

Opinions? Wake up please. This really is fucking obvious.

But go ahead, spread this corrupt administrations lies. Feel self-satisfied that what you call "opinions" are left out of the news, or dismissed by the lipstick airheads, puff-daddies, and pompous morons you hire to do the news.

Those of us who count have never forgotten how your brilliant CEO's canned Donahue, the highest rated show on your network, for ... ex-nutritional supplement salesman, Michael Savage.

Smooth move.

It is quite obvious that you are more of a propaganda machine than a cable news network. I suppose you will enjoy the slow encroachment towards dictatorship and fascism, that you helped create.

Thank you.




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