Consequences

From Editor and Publisher, which I’m reading more and more:

On June 8, 2004, Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; told the Times-Picayune: ‘It appears that the money has been moved in the president’s budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that’s the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can’t be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us.’

–and–

The 2004 hurricane season was the worst in decades. In spite of that, the federal government came back this spring with the steepest reduction in hurricane and flood-control funding for New Orleans in history. Because of the proposed cuts, the Corps office there imposed a hiring freeze. Officials said that money targeted for the SELA project — $10.4 million, down from $36.5 million — was not enough to start any new jobs.

Meanwhile, much of Louisiana’s National Guard is in Iraq… and FEMA has been all but dismantled, with no immediate replacement. Truly a visionary administration. Ready for anything.

Meanwhile, the news just gets worse.

I know we all think of donating to the Red Cross in times of disaster, but two other effective agencies are Lutheran World Relief and Church World Service.

Finally. Bush admits the war really was about oil.

Here. You’ll find the rationale tucked along with his more customary hubris.

"Fewer See Dems As Religion-Friendly"

It’s hard to believe the right wing noise machine is still working this well, but there it is:

Fewer people see Democrats as friendly to religion now than felt that way a year ago, according to a poll released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.

That number has dropped from 40 percent in August 2004 who thought the Democrats were friendly to religion to 29 percent now.

Says it all

From the Times:

Even as the economy grew, incomes stagnated last year and the poverty rate rose, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday. It was the first time on record that household incomes failed to increase for five straight years.

(Emphases mine.)

This explains a lot

You could wonder, like Helen Thomas, why so many Democrats are “still backing (a) senseless war,” OR you could just read Fafblog’s hilarious “interview” with those Democrats (if you haven’t already read it here, here or here, where I’ve seen it) and experience a singular “a-ha” moment. (I was at a church retreat this weekend… I’m a little late passing these things along!)

"Statistics are numbers with the tears washed off"

If you ever get a chance to watch “Coming to Say Goodbye: Stories of AIDS in Africa,” I hope you’ll take it. The stories are of those who are suffering and those who are caring for them and trying to stem the epidemic, but the DVD also includes a discussion guide, fact sheets, and links to various resources (a leader guide is available at http://www.afrusaids.org). The quote above came from Dr. Brigid Corrigan, a physician working in Kenya, who remarked - of trying to put a “figure” on the magnitude of the crisis - “someone said statistics are numbers with the tears washed off… We’re dealing with the tears.”

I ordered the DVD months ago through some lay leader resource, but hadn’t yet watched it. I was compelled to by this story, documenting the completely unsurprising effect of Bush’s insistence that money for global AIDS-prevention favor those programs emphasizing abstinence over condom use: That policy is threatening the continued success of one of the few countries making headway in the crisis.

Another Republican for Sanity

Russ Feingold to the contrary notwithstanding, it’s pretty frustrating to be a Democrat (as I am) these days. How come it’s Republicans like this one that are talking common sense about Iraq? Where is any kind of moral leadership in my own party? With 57% (and rising) of the country now thinking that invading Iraq was a really bad idea, you don’t even need courage to take a stand. Come on, folks, we’re waiting for you to claim what the majority already has figured out. (Or, as Jim Wallis quotes in God’s Politics, it might be that “we [emphasis added] are the ones we have been waiting for.” Not that I want to run for office, but I need to do more to light a fire under our so-called leaders.)

No particular reason for this post

I just found this entertaining.

A dangerous man

Juan Gonzales’ latest column explains why Hugo Chavez is so threatening to Pat Robertson and his ilk: “Unlike Exxon/Mobil and the Big Oil fat cats, who wallow in their record profits while the rest of us pay, Chavez is spreading the wealth around.” (I recently mentioned Greg Palast’s The Best Democracy Money Can Buy; coincidentally, he also has an entertaining chapter on Robertson’s appetite for gold and diamonds and the African mines his company runs.)

More on exit strategies

Here’s Tom Hayden (another blast from the past) on getting out of Iraq.