It's been less than two months since I had to make a trip up GA 400 from Atlanta to Roswell, a very white, very upper-class, very Baptist suburb 25 miles or so north of town.

Last time every other SUV that flew by me had either a "W" or Bush/Cheney sticker, or both. Today?  I did not see a SINGLE ONE.  And believe me, I was looking hard.

Just thought I'd share a little good news from the south, diary worthy or not.

By the way, I wonder how they liked my bumper sticker.... it says "STOP THE MADNESS (with crossed out Bush sign)."

All morning, every news program has been talking about the "next big problem" -- getting out the people who refuse to leave.  Dozens of families have been interviewed at their homes -- houses that have not been that damaged, some have generators and hot water -- and I am getting angrier and angrier.
If they don't want to leave, if they want to stay in their own home in their own bed with their  family members and pets -- certainly they can see the circumstances around them -- WHY CAN'T THEY STAY?  One family, when asked where they got their food, said "We sent our son down to market (?) yesterday to buy some."  What's going on?  I think we know....

We can not let Bush force these people out of their homes.  I have a terrible feeling the homes -- some of them are historic shot-guns over 100 years old and not very damaged -- will be mowed down.  Bush and the military are exaggerating how bad living will be for these people if they don't move out.  And even if it IS bad, if these people want to chance staying, LET THEM, it's their choice.  What, suddenly Bush is so concerned about saving lives???

NBC nightly news and Lisa Myers just did a piece that raked Michael Brown across the coals.  They started out talking about his past as an Arabian Horse Judge, with some people still there saying he was forced to resign and they all wondered how he could've been put in charge of FEMA.  They went on to say his online resume DID NOT mention this job.  

Then a former FEMA officer said the only time Brown had experience with disasters was briefly in the 1970's in a section of Oklahoma City.  Lisa Myers went on to say that he had been the college roomate of Joe Allbaugh, and when he left, Brown was made FEMA director.  The former FEMA employee also said "Brown's inexperience just may have had something to do with the lack of response."

Everyone needs to email CNN and recommend he stays on the Katrina story (he may already be planning to).  He's reporting right now from a New Orleans street and he is still fired up about what's happened, you can see it in his eyes and feel it in his voice.  

Before this, I was just neutral in my feelings toward him -- another rich boy playing reporter -- but now I'm in love.... and yes, I know, he's not attracted THAT way to woman, but who the fuck cares. Email CNN now.

I can't believe what I'm watching -- how can this blundering idiot be in charge of anything?
He's been on for at least 15 minutes, I turned to it already in progress, and he sounds  incredibly smug and insisting they haven't done anything wrong... coming up with excuses about why it took FEMA so long to get organized, saying Katrina is "much more than we ever expected"...  He is such a bloated asshole and looks and sounds like the rest of Bush's incompetent annointed frat buddies that have no business running anything, except for maybe an ice cream stand.

This is not worthy of a diary but I wanted to alert everyone he was on CSPAN and being questioned by reporters.  Maybe they'll show it again and put it on their website.  The poor child, he just said he's "so frustrated."  Right.

Why suddenly are all the news programs and papers talking about Saddam's trial and showing horrible footage of how he tortured people?  I've just watch the first segment of the Today show and I'm suspicious -- so of course, I thought I'd share my thoughts here, knowing how much dkos likes speculative thinking....  

After talking about Hurricane Emily, they moved on to at least a 10 minute segment about Saddam's trial coming up and how evil he was, with HORRIBLE footage of the gassed kurds, large hanging "people" hooks, Iraqis being executed...... Why NOW?  I'd say it's because all the shit is hitting the fan for BushCo (misleading us to war), and they're trying to reinforce why the war was the right thing to do (removing Saddam).  Seems to me the BushCo sent the word out to get his trial started SOON, and made sure the press talked about it NOW.

After that segment, they went on to Rove -- "The Republicans are demanding an apology -- this is a smear campaign -- Democrats hate Rove because he's so effective... blah, blah, blah."  

Wow, BushCo must be really, and I do mean REALLY, terrified.

I have just now discovered one of my favorite writers, who I have enormous respect for, is one of the featured posters at TPM Cafe!!!  And that she, like me, occasionally (regularly?) dons a tin-foil hat .... we share the same stomach-wrenching paranoia about this corrupt administration.  I can't tell you how comforting this was for me to find out...

So, for all you "conspiracy theorists" (I prefer "open-minders") who don't feel at home here, I suggest you venture over to TPM Cafe and check out her posts (there are comments too).  She's an extremely entertaining writer, you'll be laughing your head off while nodding in agreement.

Here's a great sample of Too Good To Be True:  (sorry, no box)  more.....

I don't write diaries very often, but this subject just infuriates me to no end and I've yet to see a diary on it.   As you've probably heard in the news, 68 dolphins recently beached themselves in Key West, near Marathan. Twenty have died, some were euthanized because they wouldn't survive.  To me, this is one of the saddest things to happen on our planet.... especially when it probably can be prevented.  It was proven some time ago that Sonar waves from submarines can cause dolphins and whales to surface too fast, getting the bends which causes  decompression and hermorraging. And they can become extremely disoriented. Protests were made by Greenpeace and others to get the Navy to stop, but I can't remember how successful they were... I think the Navy said they would try to be more careful.... yeah, right.

Sub Scrutinized After Dolphins Beached

more....

 

Riverbend has a new diary entry, go read it if you have the nerve:

Samarra Burning

When is this insane killing going to stop???? I honestly don't understand how the Bush people can sleep at night knowing they have caused such tremendous loss of innocent lives.  Ashamed, we should all be so ashamed.

The Nation's cover story, "How They Could Steal The Election This Time" is a MUST read for anyone concerned about paperless electronic voting machines.

 http://www.thenation.com/issue.mhtml?i=20040816

I sure hope Kerry and his folks are up on this and have made plans to keep an eye on the machines in November.  Hate to be a downer, but I live in Georgia's Fulton County and have nightmares from November 2002.  Also, everytime I see Bush strutting around acting so damn cocky about knowing he's going to win, the alarms go off in my head.  Wish they would stop.

This is my first diary entry (I'm more of a reader than a writer) and most of my replies/comments have been about Diebold (I live in Georgia), but after reading today's Badgdad Burning post, I wanted to alert everyone else to read it also. It's a must read today, she really tells it like it is:

http:// www.riverbendblog.blogspot.com