Never mind their names, never mind how they escaped, let's call it a covert operation, they know what they escaped, they know what they saw, what they lived. The television screen that a few weeks ago, told the world of their plight, today says it never happened. Just hysteria. The mother watches, her face expressionless, instinctively she reaches for them, her children who will never again be children.
First of all, thank you for your service. Thank you for having the moral courage to stand up and represent to the world that not every American prefers to be represented by a warlord posse.
In the current climate, opposition to crimes against humanity is no small act of Resistance, and in the current meterological climate, it is unlikely that your sacrifice will receive the attention it deserves.
I posted the big list below originally as a comment elsewhere, but under the circumstances, I decided to make it a diary, so people can add to it more easily.
My Uncle Israel Chideya was missing for a while, lost in the maelstrom of post-Katrina evacuations from New Orleans. Well, we found him. He is good...and mad.
Here's just a snippet of what he told me.
"I do agree that the tsunami was a wonderful opportunity to show not just the US government, but the heart of the American people, and I think it has paid great dividends for us."
Condoleeza Rice
As the Washington warlords seized the wonderful opportunity provided by a meterological event which even the US figurehead acknowledged was "not a normal hurricane," and the heart of the American people in what one TV commentator called a "Pavlovian response," wrote out checks to behemoth charities unable and/or unwilling to present any serious opposition to US policies for the disaster region, no one can question that Katrina will be paying great dividends to Halliburton, Bechtel et. al. for years, maybe decades to come.
"Like a third world country." It's been quite a favorite phrase with the TV reporters. It's become a meme.
It has punch, impact, it gets attention. What it doesn't get from the overwhelming majority of the US public who don't get it, is reflection, a light bulb over the head moment.
What do you think that means, a third world country?
Immediately after issuing the comforting decree that the death toll from Katrina would be far less than previously anticipated, the US acted quickly to sidestep any skepticism from anti-American elements with agendas by ordering an additional 50, 000 body bags. Some, they said, were for Iraq, which was consistent with news stories of plans for a new massacre there.
Frustrated by failure to keep the discovery of 45 corpses* in Memorial Hospital out of the press, the gunmen who now occupy the former New Orleans went on the offensive:
New Orleans has a long and close relationship with its ghosts, its restless spirits reeling through the ether throughout eternity.
As anyone who has ever stood before the house of Madame LaLaurie can attest, even if you feel it nowhere else, even if you do not feel it in the slave market, you will feel it here, the suffering, the agony, the unspeakable testament of man's inhumanity to man, and woman, and child.
We must be fair and balanced. The first debunking efforts were undertaken under the most inauspicious conditions. Officials were only accorded one side of a TV screen to explain to Americans that the live feeds taking place on the other side of the screen showed not truth but rumors, reports unconfirmed by authorities.
Only in America would the citizenry watch thousands upon thousands of their countrymen die a slow agonizing death, some penned by armed gunmen in filthy enclaves with murderers and child rapists, and accept it as the will of their government.
For Americans who may have some misgivings, or feel the stirrings of some gentle questioning of their government's policies, the choices are somewhat limited.
For example, few Americans can truthfully say that they would welcome the invasion and occupation of the US by a foreign country, if pressed, most will be obliged to acknowledge that they would indeed resist such an occupation, and would have little sympathy for their neighbors who signed on with the invaders and for a few coins, hauled off their sons for "interrogation."
First, let me briefly state the case FOR the ratings system:
Due to the alarming number of families who have failed to make the best choice with respect to the important question of unsupervised computer time for teens, the ratings system is intended to be a valuable tool in reducing the trollage level.
Some individuals receive a psychologial benefit from getting "high scores" and this encourages more participation.
It's not abortion. Or Palestine. Or even Howard Dean. In fact, all of those topics fall by the wayside and out of the discussion whenever the Big Issue raises its head. Blood boils. Passion rages, pitting blogger against blogger in a seething conflict that threatens to rend the very fabric of Kos...
We asked several people, on both sides of the issue, and as you can expect, responses were pretty inflammatory. More sensitive readers may wish to use their browser's back button before reading further. User names have been changed for reasons of privacy and the respondents' safety.
Reliable sources in the Saudi capital Riyadh said Friday King Fahd is dead.
King Fahd of Saudi Arabia has been dead since late Wednesday, according to several well-placed sources in the capital Riyadh who spoke to the Saudi Institute, a Washington think tank, on condition of anonymity.
A prominent figure in Riyadh said, "I am confident he is dead."
The government also canceled all military leave. There was no confirmation of heightened security alert reported by some western media and denied by the government, who also denied the king is dead. link
With the world abuzz over the reported injury and subsequent flight into seclusion of twice-killed composite character amputee Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, the US has tapped Abu Hafs Al Kurani to assume the important duties of the Great Crusade Land's Emmanuel Goldstein.
A prisoner at Guantanamo Bay who complained that a military guard threw a Quran holy book in the toilet has since recanted the story, senior Pentagon officials said Thursday.
World War III is a religious conflict, though not in the way you may think.
It is also a war of survival, but again, not in the way you may think.
The first step in understanding WWIII is to acknowledge that it is currently taking place. The easiest way to do this is to make a list of all countries on earth who are not currently engaged in armed conflict, either inside or outside their own borders, either directly or in a "support" capacity.
While top Israeli and Palestinian officials discussed security at a Middle East forum Saturday, an American senator advised Arab leaders to focus on injustices in their own countries and reminded them that U.S. policy is security for Israel first and justice for Palestinians "if possible."
