I heard via Al Frankin yesterday that apparently there were not 2000 busses of any kind on NOLA. This number, which has been repeated by so many people on both sides by now, seems to have come out of the thin air that wingers often fly in.
...dramatically overstated the number of New Orleans school buses. As of 2003 ... New Orleans' public schools, owned only 324 school buses. In addition ... RTA owned 364 public buses, bringing the total of the city's public transit and school buses to fewer than 700 (assuming the fleet of school buses has not been dramatically increased since 2003), far fewer than the 2,000 Pruden claimed."
The 2000 busses talking point is echoing through water cooler conversations and email debates and soforth all across the country. It is being used as one more way to shift blaim to the local level*. And it is B.S.!
Please recommend so we can at least get the thousands of Kossacks aware of this lie!
and including "blogurl:www.dailykos.com" in the search string.
Kos -- you need to get this tied directly into the search options on the site, under "Menu" should be "Google Search".
As typical with Google beta's this isn't 100% yet, for example it seems to have trouble finding posts if you include too many keywords or quote a long phrase. But I bet over the next few weeks you will see vast improvements.
if you want to have this search functionality tied in and you can get ahold of Kos, please do so (although I'd wager he will become aware of it soon enough).
The conservatives have taught us by example, and Lakoff illumniated the fact that if something is repeated often enough, it becomes "common sense" to many people.
We need 5 Katrina talking points which we can all say, with almost the same words, again and again in all conversations regarding it. Let me put forward some ideas and you can help me hone them.
[1] This is what happens when you have a federal government run by people who do not believe in the federal government
[2] No matter what actions local and state officials took, that does not absolve President Bush of being AWOL 5 days into the emergency
[3] The inneptitude was colorblind
[4] Bush quit one vacation on the spot to save one white braindead woman, but did not even say anything about Katrina publicly until 3 days after the storm hit
[5] This is not a game. This is about responsibility for disatrous ineptitude that cost American lives
Do you live in the Houston area or other areas where large numbers of Katrina Survivors are located? Do you have a laptop with 802.11 (wireless web)? Might you be able to spare a half a day or so sometime next week?
There are so many things those displaced by Katrina will need. A job will be one of those things. Hopefully many will be able to be employed rebuilding the effected areas. Many more will be able to locate jobs elsewhere. But some will, in the mix of grieving, finding loved ones, getting basic services, finding a place to stay, etc., be behind the curve on finding a job.
Meanwhile I am certain that across the country there are thousands of people who are in a position to hire one or two of the displaced, and would love to help them get back on thier feet.
I want to help them find each other. WOULD YOU HELP ME? unfold for more...
I had not heard about this. Unfortunately I have no miles to donate but I am sure someone does. Please recommend this diary and if you have miles, donate them! And tell everyone you know about it, including your employer if they have staff flying a lot!
Donate Miles to the American Red Cross
Alaska Airlines & Bank of America Team Up to Aid in Relief Efforts
To help support the relief efforts of Hurricane Katrina, Mileage Plan members can donate miles to the American Red Cross. The miles donated will be used for current needs as well as for future disaster and relief efforts.
Donations may be made in any amount, with a minimum of 500 miles, through December 31, 2005. For every 5,000 miles donated, Alaska Airlines will donate 1,000 miles, and Bank of America will donate an additional 1,000 miles.
To donate miles, send an email including your Mileage Plan number, first and last name, and the number of miles you would like to donate to red.cross@alaskaair.com. Or call Mileage Plan at 1-800-564-5669.
I had not heard about this. Unfortunately I have no miles to donate but I am sure someone does. Please recommend this diary and if you have miles, donate them! And tell everyone you know about it, including your employer if they have staff flying a lot!
Donate Miles to the American Red Cross
Alaska Airlines & Bank of America Team Up to Aid in Relief Efforts
To help support the relief efforts of Hurricane Katrina, Mileage Plan members can donate miles to the American Red Cross. The miles donated will be used for current needs as well as for future disaster and relief efforts.
Donations may be made in any amount, with a minimum of 500 miles, through December 31, 2005. For every 5,000 miles donated, Alaska Airlines will donate 1,000 miles, and Bank of America will donate an additional 1,000 miles.
To donate miles, send an email including your Mileage Plan number, first and last name, and the number of miles you would like to donate to red.cross@alaskaair.com. Or call Mileage Plan at 1-800-564-5669.
I have not been reading Kos nearly as much as I like for the last few months, due to being tied to some insanely time consuming projects at work. But, I still read magazines and papers in the morning and sometimes at lunch. Printed, because its easy on the eyes and I don't have to make a mess at my computer(s).
I was waiting at the hair place the other day (had a real Bevis looking big hair going on due to waiting too long because of the crazy work schedule) reading news magazines that were about 2 or 3 months old.
It occurred to me that while much of what goes by on Kos is very temporary, some of it could easily be read and have relavence much later.
What about a Kos magazine, which would print the best and least-transient of the front page and recommended diaries of the month?
I'm about to register my new (political, so not totally off topic) band's domain name, looking for a cheap but reliable domain registrar, with a bit of web space.
Anyone recommend one? Include the link to your website and to the registrar
Thanks, sorry if this is too OT. I just figure I should use the community I have...
Google news bases its front page news list on computer algorithms. Popularity of the story seems to be a factor (though not explicitely mentioned). Hundreds of thousands of people see this newsfeed. SO, if we get this up in peoples faces it could make a difference. We could use this technique a few more times (before Google catches on and changes algorithms:). So, click the links, recommend this diary and watch news.google.com
The other day I had someone ask me how, as an Atheist, I seem to always do the right thing and so on. I wrote a response that I think is good, so I thought I'd share:
Doing the right thing without God: a few years ago, somebody I know mentioned how some philosopher essentially said: either God arbitrarily came up with the rules, in which case he's just a twisted control freak (who I would not respect); or, right and wrong is more fundamental, a part of the universe, like basic math, so you don't need God to fill you in on them (though perhaps he could give you a shortcut by laying them all out), you just need to discover them. I'm not willing to consider the first option of arbitrary rules, because it how could you ever know you were actually doing what God wants? Maybe the game is actually to do everything the opposite of what the Bible (or Koran or Vedas or whatever) says, and then you get rewarded? How could you know?
OK, so I generally listen to Air America on my commute, but today I was listening to KVI, the Seattle conservative talk station, just to make myself nice and angry. The host (Brian somebody or other, subbing for Kirby Wilbur) was talking about that someone who was an Iraqi suggested (I can't recall now whether he just read about this or was talking with this person), said something to the effect of:
A) We should start burrying suicide bombers in pigskin bags, because Wuhabi Muslims would believe they would not go to "heaven" if they were burried such, and so would immediately help.
OK, this suggestion may be offensive, I'm not sure, it is at least trying to be pragmatic, but, then he said
B) Airlines should make their seat covers out of pigskin and advertise the fact, if that were the case 9/11 would never have happened.
I am just BLOWN away that he would even suggest such a thing. So, essentially, he does not want Jews or Muslims flying at all. Nice. Reallllly nice.
I have been a Moby fan since I ordered "Move" off Columbia House in like '93. My oldest daughter still responds primally to the "Play" album that my wife overplayed while pregnant with her. Anyway, he is (still at this moment) on KEXP radio (based in Seattle). He is doing an acoustic set, which is interesting since much of his catalog is electronic.
Anyway, the reason I am posting it here is he does drop a few political comments. He mentioned playing on a campaign tour for Kerry, and that he taught Johny Cash's "Ring of Fire" to John Kerry. He also said "Plain Talking", the track from his new album which is currently getting radio play, is about how he feels the election was stolen and the right wing controlled media distorted everything. Anyway, great set. To listen to it, go here: http://www.kexp.org/streamarchive/streamarchive.asp and enter in today's date, time 3:12 PM. Then click Go (gotta have windows media player). It may not be available for a little bit...
Ever since my political switch was turned on by losing to Bush in November (it feels like I personally lost) I have been flailing about trying to figure out what I can *do*. Not even just what I can do today but how I can stear my life towards political activism and involvement, but also giving back in ways outside of direct political involvement that will help progressivism and human beings in general. I was thinking lately about the school board (which I know little about other than from my uncle who served in his kid's district). My daughter enters kindergarten in the fall, and though I would probably not be up for it next year, after that, I would be interested.
If you have or are serving on a school board, tell me about it. What good things have you been able to achieve? What losses demoralized you and made you feel like you were wasting your time? How much of your time did it take? How did you get the post? How did your political views fit in with what you were asked to work on?
Am I the only one that sees things like this and feels like its like your (Parent/Pastor/Employer/Mayor, insert authority figure you ought to be able to respect) holding hands with a drug dealer? Instead of thinking "crap, oil is going up, lets focus effort on kicking this addiction, finding alternatives", its "oh please, dealer, give us a cheap joint"... makes me sick!
A buddy and i are going to start a "band". It will likely go nowhere but fun anyway. Anyone want to help name it? If we chose your suggestion, and ever cut an album, we'll credit you in the liner notes.
The songs will run the gammut but will often be progressively political, overtly or not so.
In terms of style/genre, we're aiming in the area of recent stuff from Radiohead/the Flaming Lips/Beck/the Sleepy Jackson/, some rock elements and also some electronic elements, a little bit of everything else, very wide possibilities...
This will be a bit of a disorganized rant... I've been reading books about the looming oil crisis as we hit and pass peak oil, and Jerome a Paris's and other diaries which highlight just how much the developed world's relationship with oil is like a crack adicts is with crack. Oil creates such a massive skew in our domestic politics, international relations, individual ways of life, effects of our society on the environment, etc.
It is pretty plain to see that if our civilization does not commit strongly and soon to replacing oil with better alternatives, that we are headed for disaster. When there is only half (and then a quarter, and eventually none) the oil flowing through our worldwide machinery as is demanded, it really won't matter very much if we've won all the other battles we are fighting today. You don't do yourself much good putting on your nicotine patch when your house is on fire...
This could be a duplicate to some earlier diary, if so, let me know and I'll delete it.
It begins with a scene familiar in suburban America -- school girls in soccer uniforms climb out of their family SUVs and rush out onto the field, pony tails bobbing behind them, as parents shout encouragement.
But just as the game gets under way, a blast pierces the excitement.
...
The United States is the only NATO country not party to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, and the Bush administration is under fire for backing away from a U.S. presidential directive to eliminate land mine use by 2006.
Damn it! What did I tell you kids?
CRAWFORD, Texas (CNN) -- President Bush welcomed Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah to his Texas ranch Monday for a meeting likely to focus on soaring oil and U.S. gas prices.
