This will be a short diary, because I really just want everyone to know that Democratic Representative Howard Berman (CA) has caved to the corporate bosses, and introduced legislation that will legalize corporate appropriation and theft of the creative work of individual artists, writers and musicians.

(excerpts from "full" article on Sancho Press)

I have considered writing this article for nearly six months. The only way for me to write this is to reveal very deep, emotional and private details of my life. To lay myself open for all to see. The good, the bad and the ugly of nine years of living with TBI, the side effects it created, the results of the chronic pain from breaking my back in 3 places, the numerous other aches and pains that begin to set in four, six, nine years after a truamatic injury that added to my chronic pain. I have laid my self out there in a few articles but this goes beyond any I have done before.

I have been clear to all who know me, about my sincere desire to help our troops and veterans. The "full" article is another attempt at doing so. I started a website/blog solely for this purpose. A place to unite our citizens (many are unaware how massive the problems are) with our troops and veterans. I often spend 12 hours in a day on this cause. I want to and I have the time, so I should. My higher power ahs blessed me and I need to help others with the same problems I had. There are others who do the same like NamGuardianAngel.

The burgeoning economic crisis in the country is an easy road to the White House for Democrats.  But there is increasing likelihood that the economic downturn is not going to be shallow or mild, and that necessary steps to resolve the crisis may disappoint some key constituencies.

My diary last November  wondered why the candidates were missing in action on the kitchen table economy.  No longer a problem.  But the full scale of the economic situation has not come into full view for either the candidates or their constituencies.  There are multiple risks — big risks — political and economic risks — of doing the wrong thing, congratulating the Fed for doing the wrong thing, not maneuvering so as to enable the right thing to get to the table, and ultimately of being branded as inept because the problem was not solved.  

The big three risks are:

Every year at Mardi Gras, the troops of Mardi Gras Indians dance under the Claiborne overpass on the edge of the Treme neighborhood, one of the oldest African-American neighborhoods in the country. Thousands of people eat and dance as the colorful troops show off their intricate hand-made costumes of thousands of feathers and beads. The troops originated when Mardi Gras parades in the rest of the city were a white only affair and the African-Americans in the city celebrated Mardi Gras while giving a tribute to Native Americans that housed run away slaves.

This, not the huge floats that roll down Canal Street is seen by many as the real Mardi Gras in New Orleans. You won't find drunk tourists flashing for beads here. This is where you go to dance and sweat and experience the incredible culture that has grown out of neighborhoods that are still struggling to rebuild and bring those culture bearers home.

More on the flip side...

Crossposted under slightly different titles at Docudharma and at the Blue House.

The day after Christmas, I'm heading back to the Gulf Coast for a week
with the volunteers. If The Muse doesn't run out on me, this will be the first in a series of short and easy reads on what it all means. Or doesn't.

This trip came about because we had some money left over from the last one. After three trips with no skills other than strong backs, it was becoming pretty clear that unless we could kick it up a notch, there wouldn't be much use in returning.

Cross-posted on the Drum Major Institute's blog

The New York Times yesterday fronted an intimate look (and equally compelling video report) on the slow pace of housing recovery in New Orleans. As FEMA readies to evict thousands of low-income residents from their trailers and bulldozers warm up to demolish salvageable public housing, the reality is that very few families are able to find an affordable place to rent back in their home city.

UPDATE: As pointed out in the comments, rebuilding must not only be affordable, but environmentally sustainable. Check out this NYT piece on Brad Pitt's effort to "Build Green" in NOLA, and his "Make It Right" campaign site. Very cool.

I just want to send get well wishes to Senator Kennedy.  It is great that he was able to catch this before it did any real damage.

Rest well, heal completely, and go back to the Senate where we need you to keep fighting the good fight!

"Senator Kennedy was released from Massachusetts General Hospital today following Friday's successful surgery to remove blockage in his carotid artery. After a few days of rest at home in Hyannis Port, the senator will return to the Senate," said Melissa Wagoner.

Kennedy's office said the blockage was discovered "as part of a routine evaluation of Senator Kennedy's back and spine."

OK, so this time it is Dodd to the Rescue with what he can do in his current position.  Just because the man is a candidate for another office doesn't mean his on-going efforts should be overlooked.

With great sadness, I am posting theSun Herald editorial which addresses the divide and conquer approach to reviewing what is needed to ensure the recovery of the entire Katrina-ravaged region. My sadness comes from seeing a tremendous amount of dissension among all of us who are trying to go beyond merely surviving Katrina's wrath to gloriously flourishing in her aftermath.

Whether pitting the Lower 9th War against the totality of the City of New Orleans, or the smaller towns outside of New Orleans against the city itself, or Louisiana against Mississippi and Alabama, the dichotomy is false, hurtful, painful, and unproductive.  

August 28, 2005...  Katrina off Mississippi
14 hours before Landfall.

Recently a young Belgian filmmaker asked me to share some thoughts about modern chaos. A few days later a Texas artist with close ties to the UK suggested I might commemorate the anniversary of the car bombing in London two years ago—after all I’d written about New Orleans the year after Katrina broke the levees. First, I thought about the courageous families of the innocent people who died or were injured in the car bombings. The senseless attack obviously brought them indelible grief and pain. But the disaster did something more: it imbued every person in London (and beyond) with an intrinsic sense of horror. As time passed, the shock wore off, yet for many people there was no return to life-as-usual. Like most of us, they could not escape the truth that what we now experience instead is life-in-chaos. Grasping this insight, I knew there was no need to write one piece about chaos and a separate memorial for London’s disaster of July 2005. From this new perspective, the two melded to become one and the same.

[Cross-posted at The Left Coaster.]

Quick hits from a sleepy quiet NorCal morning:

*/  After being dismayed all day at the juvenile fear mongering from television networks who were trying to scare me with this ridiculous burning car halfway around the world while the loathsome Yanquis lost and it rained on Wimbledon, I was at least mollified later in the evening that at last some serious pushback is hitting back hard at this absurd, pathetic and dangerous behavior.

I am not scared.  Wasn’t scared before 9/11, haven’t been since and this reflexive compulsion to scream endlessly about what some comically stupid idiots did at an airport where the only persons hurt where the chumps who did it has...got...to...stop.

The wheels of Congress turn slowly, but two HUGE roadblocks to rebuilding have finally gone away.

Tucked into the new supplemental funding bill are provisions waiving both the 10% local match on federal money AND the repayment of federal emergency disaster loans.

Cross-posted at Facing South

Since Katrina, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour has been lavished with praise for his supposed political savvy -- and ability to use his GOP connections to get a lion's share of federal relief funds for his state.

But with all the honors and money, how is the Mississippi recovery going? My colleague Sue Sturgis and I investigate in a special report published at Salon today.

One eye-opening item we found is just how lopsided Mississippi's take of Katrina relief has been:

My daughter had a tumor taken out of her skull last year.

They're back. I say "they" because now there are two, one on either side of her skull. Generally inoperable, and chemo doesn't work on these kinds of tumors, so radiation is her only plan at this time. She may die.

And I'll never know how it comes out.

In a corner of New Orleans, next to the infamous 17th Street canal breached during Hurricane Katrina almost two years ago, there are signs of hope and grief – and evidence that so much more needs to be done.

Volunteers who come to this city acquire some understanding of American history circa 19th century, as well lessons in failed 21st century domestic policy, while lending a hand in the enormous rebuilding process that daily confronts New Orleans residents.

On a recent Saturday morning, I accompanied a group of ACORN volunteers who gutted a small, one-story brick house in the Gentilly neighborhood. Fourteen were students from Elon University in North Carolina and a dozen were bloggers from all over the country who post and contribute to First Draft, a progressive blog, averaging 2,500 readers a day.

Benjamin Banneker high school students fundraise and gut homes for Katrina victims

When high school English teacher Terry Samuel returned to New York from a trip to New Orleans, she told the assistant principal of Benjamin Banneker Academy for Community Development she wanted her students to learn about volunteerism. As an ACORN volunteer, Samuels had helped gut a home damaged during Hurricane Katrina.

New Orleans was no longer in the news, Samuels said, but it needs to be. "New Orleans is close to home and not close to home at the same time," Samuels said. Eighty-five percent of Banneker’s students are African-American, so they strongly identify with the residents of New Orleans’ Ninth Ward, which was devastated during the storm.

So for Black History Month, her students pledged to raise and donate $5,000 to New Orleans ACORN's organizing.

Monday was a treat in Americana.  It was Norman Rockwell type Americana.  The setting was rural and small town America, the neighborhood diner and the local boy who ‘made good’.