I didn't listen to or watch the SOTU. I read about it, here at dKos, while it was going on. Other folks subjected themselves to the direct radiation, and I thank them for sharing with we who were unwilling...

One Kosmo in particular, Bob Johnson, posted 37 comments during roughly 50 minutes of the SOTU, providing a virtual running transcript - a stunning accomplishment. A highly appreciated accomplishment.

'Course, Bob preceded each quote with the phrase "Did he really just say..." - which might lead one to acknowledge that Bob's quotes might not sum to be an exact transcript...

In a diary earlier this evening, Nightprowlkitty wrote of New Orleans and the need to do something more, she wrote of lagniappe, the New Orleans expression that means a little something extra. NPK also wrote of Jean Lafitte, the New Orleans pirate and arguably a significant savior of the city during a misguided British attempt to take New Orleans in the War of 1812.

Embellished or not, I have never forgotten the image of pirates coming to the aid and assistance, struggling with their longboats and cannons through the swamps, heave ho and up she rises, we've a job to do me hearties, dregs of society, chers amis we may be, tho' we'll look Fear in the eye and come through to our salvation, aaarrgh...

Some say that if we're gonna have politcal theatre, we may as well send the professionals.

Please note: Luckydog does not advocate violence of any sort. This is intended to be an illustrative example of "aggressive interrogation methods", which Luckydog also does not advocate.

We Still Need You.

There's still alot of work to be done - for real people. It's not over - the republicronies have not won. I'm gonna say that again...louder...

THE REPUBLICRONIES HAVE NOT WON.

If you ever wanted to get into this fight, if you still want to get into the fight, if you want to be a part of making the good thing happen, there are opportunities. It ain't over...

Still, and again still, we must remember that in some of those stories of lives, there is an ending of sorts, there is an ending for some, there is living pain and there is living destruction and there is a sort of ending, there is a sort of proof of an ending, for some...

Two days ago, I went to Beenie's house, at least it used to be Beenie's house...

Some of those photos are bound to be heart-breaking...there is so much that is undone, left spoiling in the elements, lives undone and not put right. Some of those photos are heart-breaking and uplifting at the same time...people struggling against all the odds that have been stacked intentionally against them.

If I can, I wanna find some of those photos. And forgive me, please forgive me...I wanna push any that I find right in the face of the assholes who let Katrina happen, those who keep Katrina raw for folks...in the face of Heckuvajob Georgie and the Heckuvajob Boys.

I got something to tell you. Something you already heard, 'cause I've told you before. Something you already know, something you oughta know...and know deep in your bones.

I've stared you in the eye and made you blink. More than once.

I've driven your ass off - from a buncha people. More than once.

And I'll do it again. Get it?

Nothing personal, and all. Just saying.

From the beginning Spike Lee knew that Hurricane Katrina was a story he had to tell. Watching the first television images of floating bodies and of desperate people, mostly black, stranded on rooftops, he quickly realized he was witnessing a major historical moment. As those moments kept coming, he spent almost a year capturing the hurricane's sorrowful consequences for a four-hour documentary, "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts," to be shown on HBO this month.

Yesterday, some folks discussed having Katrina diaries as a feature this month. This one may be a bit...intense.

I was here before the storm. I was here during the storm. And I am here after the storm.

I will try to tell some bits and pieces of what it was like for some of the folks down here. I cannot tell it all. I'm glad there's others to tell their bits and pieces. I cannot tell it all.

On the front of the shirt is the logo of a well-known humanitarian assistance organization. On the back, the printing reads...

Pixing the froblem in South Sudan

As I said, the typo is intentional. It means that we - the humanitarian community - cannot do it all. It means that we try, that we can do some things to help. Still, we cannot do it all.

There is a photo below - that's what the warning is about. There is no gore, no torn limbs, no bloody ambulance. Just a bird and a child, during wartime. It is a disturbing photograph.

It is in that light...

LAKE PROVIDENCE, La. -- At barbecues, ballgames and funerals, cotton gins, service stations, the First Baptist Church, the pepper-sauce factory and the local private school -- the men in orange are everywhere.

Many people here in East Carroll Parish, as Louisiana counties are known, say they could not get by without their inmates, who make up more than 10 percent of its population and most of its labor force. They are dirt-cheap, sometimes free, always compliant, ever-ready and disposable.

You just call up the sheriff, and presto, inmates are headed your way. "They bring me warm bodies, 10 warm bodies in the morning," said Grady Brown, owner of the Panola Pepper Corporation. "They do anything you ask them to do."

...The factory owner sings [an inmate's] praises, calling him reliable, trustworthy, honest. The inmate, Roy Hebert -- he says he is in for forgery -- beams. "Mr. Brown, he takes care of me," Mr. Hebert said.

This week...the rebublicronies...the ponies...

They. Are. Eating. The. Ponies.

And Heckuvajob Georgie is even servin' up the ponies to the troops. To. The. Troops. I dunno, a big steamin' hunk o' roasted pony after a hard, gritty day dodging IEDs and RPGs...well, as Heckuvajob Georgie says, "Come and getchu a nice slice of good ol' American Velvet! Heh!"

Folks, they will not stop. Never. It will only get worse.

Rumsfeld kicked-off the onslaught with this gem...

As we know,
There are known ponies,
There are things we know are ponies.
We also know,
There are known Unponies,
That is to say,
We know there are somethings
That are not ponies.
But there are also unknown unponies,
The ones we don't know,
If they are unponies.

And just after he finished saying that, it got bad.

'Cause republicronies...Don't. Like. Ponies.

It is entirely true.

It takes place in a humanitarian outpost in the deepest bush in South Sudan. It takes place among the worst kinda misery known to human-kind.

I work for no man. I have no name.

You seek a great fortune, you who are now in chains...

And you will find a fortune - though it will not be the fortune you seek...

...But first, first you must travel a long and difficult road - a road fraught with peril, uh-huh, and pregnant with adventure. You shall see things wonderful to tell. You shall see a cow on the roof of a cottonhouse, uh-huh, and oh, so many startlements...

...I cannot say how long this road shall be. But fear not the obstacles in your path, for Fate has vouchsafed your reward.  And though the road may wind, and yea, your hearts grow weary, still shall ye foller the way, even unto your salvation.

IZZAT CLEAR?

And actually, this sorta thing happens fairly frequently here at dKos.

When front-page or rec-list figures are taken to task for their comments, when alotta folks step-up and clarify issues...well, to me, this seems like dKos is "working" in a fairly effective fashion. At least for dialog and awareness.

...I suppose I could have posted this in one of those threads or the response-threads, but I'd like to acknowledge it in a broader sense, ya know?...

[Paraphrased]

For Sale: One major American city, in need of repairs. This prime real estate is being offered to DEVELOPERS ONLY - for further inquiries, please contact the Republican National Committee's corporate contributions office.

Representative Richard H. Baker, a Republican from suburban Baton Rouge who derides Democrats for not being sufficiently free-market, is the unlikely champion of a housing recovery plan that would make the federal government the biggest landowner in New Orleans - for a while, at least. Mr. Baker's proposed Louisiana Recovery Corporation would spend as much as $80 billion to pay off lenders, restore public works, buy huge ruined chunks of the city, clean them up and then sell them back to developers....

Food Force is an attempt to make children, who can be fundamentalists about saving the world, aware that one person every five seconds dies of hunger, most of them children. It also tries to demonstrate that concrete steps can help, and that working on hunger is exciting and cool.

"We're looking with intensity at the next generation, trying to engage them early," says Jennifer Parmelee, a spokeswoman for the World Food Program in Washington. "We need people who will stand up and say, 'This is not acceptable in the 21st century.' Right now, this is not a battle we're winning."

I don't have much comment to make upfront, in general humanitarian work is something that I can get pretty much on a soapbox over. I hope that folks will look over the editorial, check out the game, and all.