(no subject)

[rhiannonmr]

I'm just numb now. Rehnquist is dead. Died at home. Lost his battle with cancer. Justice O'Connor has stepped down so I can see that bad excuse for a president really getting his hooks into the Court now. It won't be as easy as he thought it would be, because oh yeah his approval ratings just hit the dumpster and I hope they stay there for a good long time, myself.



I just warned Roomie that I will be loudly cursing this developement for a while. I am angry that in the richest country in the world we are seeing such awful conditions as we've seen in NOLA. I can't read anymore without cursing. I am not crying over this anymore, I refuse to cry. I am enraged at the mess. I am furious that this situation which may not have been preventable was never planned for when we knew as far back as 2001 that it was possible. I em enraged that the cuts in funding were done knowing that the warnings of reputable scientists, not those 'intelligent design' people were already out there on record.  I am scared to death that more of my rights as a citizen will be infringed because some wingnut hits the Court and votes fot that. I hope the backlash from Katrina and the political shitstorm that should happen hits the conservative movement and the ultra religious right hard. By ultra religious right, I mean the guys who are saying NOLA bought it because the city is full of sinners and deserved it. NO ONE deserved that, NO ONE.

These nutjobs and there are more of them than I care to think about give organised religion a bad name to many. This is the time when we as people should be showing compassion for those in need and some are using it as a bully pulpit to kick on someone because they do not share their beliefs. Last I heard the First Amendment gave us all freedom to believe or not believe as we wished. It gave us the right to worship or not worship as we wished. It also stated no ONE religion could be established as the national religion, unlike what was happening in European countries at that time.

This was a country where people came so they could practice their religions openly without fear of persecution. Some of our early colonies were established for precisely that reason. MA comes to mind here with the Puritans. Maryland is another. So too is Pennsylvania. But some would like to make sure their beliefs color our lives for a long time to come and that annoys me.

Democracy in the US is supposed to be representative and from what I can see, it hasn't been for a while. The special interests get what they want. The rest just make do. That hasn't been good enough for a long time. It moit definitely isn't good enough now. Agh! I am just as inarticulate as I was before. Rage is just clouding my brain or I just can't write clearly.

Comments

[straussmonster.livejournal.com]

Fuck all the religious nutjobs. Fuck them all. We need to help those people, and pay some goddamn attention to the scientists who have been telling us about what we've tried to do to the Mighty Mississippi. She's so much more badass than we are, we cannot abuse her with impunity.

[avus.livejournal.com]

Ah, dearest straussmonster, I saw your posting, here, and took heart -- this after my own posting. If you don't know the recording I refer to -- that wonderful Smithsonian/Folkways recording of "We Shall Overcome", I highly recommend it. My good wishes & love to you & yours. May you never lose your clear-sighted common sense.

[rhiannonmr.livejournal.com]

I just want to scream STFU at all of em myself. I am so enraged to see the comments I've seen saying NOLA deserved it. The scientific community has warned for yrs that something like this could happen. LA has tried for yrs to get funding and raise funding for the levee system and got nada, zilch, zip. I want to see Ray Nagin go off at the president and his cronies so bad.

I want to see a very 'uppity' congress when they return to session and I want to see confirmation fights that make Bork and Thomas look like lover's spats myself. I want the rescue and salvage operations to work in NOLA. I want to be able to go back there some day and party my ass off like I used to. I don't think I am alone in those wants tonight.

[avus.livejournal.com]

It would be hard for Bush to appoint a Chief Justice who would be worse than Rehnquist. Therefore, the issue isn't what to do w/ the Rehnquist appointment, but w/ the O'Connor appointment, who was the swing vote. And this, too, misses the point.

Weren't we all clear, after the disaster of November 2004, that many of our rights were dead? Weren't we clear this meant that abortion was to be decided not by individuals & their doctors, but by religious pressure groups? Weren't we clear that drastic curbs on what we have come to believe as Bill of Rights freedoms (actually, most were greatly expanded in the 19th & 20th c's. by the Supreme Court) were on the docket? Weren't we clear that once again, the rich & powerful had duped just enough of the working & middle classes that their program of hate & fear (the highly successful Republican "Southern Strategy" writ large) to ensure that our attention went not to the economic giveaway to the rich purchased by the economic disaster of everyone else was the real issue, that the environment was the real issue, not hating gays, blacks, Moslems, etc.?

All this, and more, I thought, was entirely understood by thinking & caring Americans the moment it was clear who controlled the White House, Congress and most of the Supreme Court, and just how they did it. There are no surprises here, only the reaping of what was sown. And, if I may mix a metaphor, didn't we all know that we would have to drink this cup to the dregs, that the suffering, impoverishment & death of our most vulnerable would be that cost? And only then, and only maybe will our poor nation wake up, as they once did in 1932, and take back what has been stolen from them.

I recommend purchasing a CD in the Smithsonian Folkways catelogue, Songs of the Civil Rights Movement, these period recordings. On that very dark day, in early November 2004, after having walked the streets, knocking on doors, trying to make a difference & failing, this time, I listened to one song, over & over, "We Shall Overcome", w/ tears running down my face. And deep in my heart, I do believe, we shall overcome some day.

Just not this day. And for that, I both rage & grieve. And wait in the darkness for the next time.

[rhiannonmr.livejournal.com]

Dude you are preaching to the choir here. Preaching to the choir. I live in a 'red' state, in a 'blue' county and yeah I am enraged at this right now because I see a place I loved looking like some ragged assed shanty town and people dying there purely because they were too poor, too old, too whatever to get out. And I wonder about the folks who did get out who are maxing out credit cards just to survive while their homes are underwater or destroyed.

I think the backlash against this regime will come, and when it does they will all scramble for cover. I really hope there will never be another member of that family ever elected to public office. This started with Ronald Reagan and it needs to end.

[avus.livejournal.com]

I live in a red state in an even redder county. I, too, share your hope of No More Bush, and even more, no more of the arrogant uncaring, that the backlash will sweep away that particular type of asshole for a few decades, and they will all crawl back under the rocks from which they came.

They'll be new assholes, that's certain. But even that change would be welcome.

And I share your hope that even te uncaring & dimwitted fools who are dominating our gov't are finally getting prodded, maybe cattle-prodded into action, and that their suffer will begin to be addressed, this on all levels.

[gillieweed.livejournal.com]

It would be hard for Bush to appoint a Chief Justice who would be worse than Rehnquist.

Bush does things worse than anyone else in his sleep. He's a savant at it.

He's already jumped on the Supremem Court vacancy, because that's Oh, so much more important that drowning sinners.

[rhiannonmr.livejournal.com]

Yeah I saw that myself and it was a WTF moment here. And he might just succeed at this as we are all focused on NOLA. We need Congress to grow a backbone and use said backbone to protect the US. He's using NOLA to divert attention from the Court right now and hoping like hell it works. I hope like hell it doesn't.

[avus.livejournal.com]

While diverting attention from the real issues, or the most pressing issues into something that can be manipulated to his advantage is the basic Carl Rovism, I would like to believe that even Carl Rove at its best won't be able to shove the greatest natural disaster in American history under the rug, keeping it there w/ an on-going war.

Dear rhiannomnr, I think it's less that Congress needs to grow a background than at least part of the "other half" of the American people needs to grow a brain and get treated for Attention Deficit Disorder. If they do, Congress will follow. Congress follows polls, mostly, not the other way around.

It reminds me of a comment by Twain: "America has no native criminal class. Except Congress." I suspect Twain & I are referring to much the same thing. And we get what we elect, though not necessarily what we want, and certainly not what we deserve.

[rhiannonmr.livejournal.com]

At this point I am seriously thinking of returning to Ireland myself. I was at their website yesterday translating their governmentese to see if I fit the rules for citizenship. I do which for some reason did not surprise me. But part of me really wants our country to work the way it's supposed to. My roomate is buying the shift of blame to local and state government. And I am furious that he is. Something like this is so much bigger than the state or local level can handle and we got the fools at the top who look at skin color and income level as if that should make a difference. I'll tell ya one thing, if it had been Corpus Christi or Houston The Bushies NEVER would've dithered on it, they would've been there and the rescue would've been working better than this. I am tossing the race card now. I do think it was a black thing.

Yes we need to send a msg and Cormyn and Hutchinson got my emails this morning and last week. I have them in my address book now. I don't have much respect for Cormyn, he was a lousy attorney general, but Hutchinson is effective and despite being a republican I have voted for her. My congressman is someone I don't know anything about since I did not vote for him, another republican and my district is very much a gerrymandered one. I do tend to send email when outraged at them. And I get the 'canned'answers back.

[avus.livejournal.com]

Please get Irish citizenship, and please retain US citizenship. Right now, the balance in the country is very close. We cannot afford to lose anyone whose caring extends beyond members of their racial & economic class.

Of course this is a Black thing. None of those people voted for Bush; none of them would ever vote for a Bushite candidate. They were concentrated in New Orleans, and break up that concentration, disperse them, and you water down their political power. Also discourage them, and they stop voting -- even better.

My daughter-in-law is dual -- Irish & US, and I'm trying to push both of my grandchildren as dual & my stepson as dual. (I don't qualify, though my wife might -- need to check that out.)

Yes, we should be citizens of the world, first. But the US is the 800 pound gorilla. Nothing that happens in Ireland is likely to have the world impact as almost anything that happens in the US -- sad, but true. Here's where the change needs to happen. And only those who can vote can have any hope of making that change. Not that simple that voting=change. But not voting definitely equals no change, the most horrific future of all.

[avus.livejournal.com]

While I don't argue w/ the reality of much of what you say, I hope, but no more than hope, that his current choice will be scrutinized sufficiently, especially now w/ the quesitons being asked by Arlen Specter, a Republican, so that will not happen. Obviouly, it could be worse. He could have appointed Scalia. But then, of course, it might be rather hard to find someone even die-hard conservative Republicans would support who was that whacko. While Bush never has to run for re-election, and so doesn't give a damn, the same is not true of the Republicans in Congress, who must keep an eye to the polls in their State.

There is, however -- and as I pointed out in my original post -- a part of me that believes we will get horrors. Awful, no -- terrifying & horrifying as it is, that may be what's needed to wake up enough of the US electorate to a position of "Never Again!"

[rhiannonmr.livejournal.com]

Specter pissed me off during the Thomas hearings yrs ago. But since then I have seen the man change and yes I do respect him highly because he has had the courage to change. God help the administration when he gets going he can bring 'smoke' as we called it in the military on someone and do it well. He also has enough seniority to make it count.

I just hope it's enough.

[avus.livejournal.com]

Whether it's enough is certainly important. But we both know it is a start. And we're so far down that "starts", while not as important as "enough", need to be made for us ever to get to "enough". If nothing else, the Republican party is so extreme at this point, that there is no longer anything that could be remotely called a liberal wing (and I remember, fondly, liberal Republicans), and the moderate wing is hanging on only by a thread. They & political defeat will be the prime source of change on that side, which is needed for the protection of us all.

[rhiannonmr.livejournal.com]

I miss that liberal wing very much myself. They got silenced when the word liberal was demonised. Remember that? Back in the 80s They turned it into an insult as bad as calling me a mick or shanty Irish would be. Or calling my exspouse boy or the 'n' word. The consulate just promised me lots of paper and told me I need a certified copy of my birth certificate indicating my parents were born in Ireland. That is definitely doable. Just gotta send money to Sacramento to get it now. My daughter was doing volunteer work in the Astrodome yesterday along with her brother and both of them tell me it's a heartbreaking scene there. The exbf was also there looking for people he knows. Me and Roomie hauled furniture yesterday and sunday to a complex that is giving up 80 units around town to Katrina refugees. We went out on sunday and cleared out old stuff from storage, and the neighbors in our hood saw us doing it, and asked. Word got around and we ended up bringing stuff from all over our neighborhood, as one remarked the neighborhood garage sale next month won't have as much but this is worth it. Individually we as Americans rock, we have so much generosity and courage yet our leadership shames us. And the news I just read is Bush is gonna run the investigation into the failure himself?? My first thought there was the short soldiers answer to lies and coverups: Bullshit.

[avus.livejournal.com]

Here in Colorado, we're more at a distance. My wife, who's 78, and I were gieving that we couldn't open our spare bedroom up -- there were people collecting "room"s here in town. She just doesn't have the energy, and I'm not around enough, w/ my job. American's, generally, are fairly generous in spirit. But our leaders are behind us. There's an old military saying, "You lead from the front." Not happening.

As to liberal being a bad word -- I never bought that. But then I know too much about the word, what it means & has meant. I come, actually, from an old-fashion conservative family -- conservationaist -- the early environmentalists. Wasn't a bad word, either. And calling a viewpoint bad b/c it can be woefully misused, misrepreseted or, even, b/c it was once a source of problems, while a long-time rhetorical devise, isn't very honest intellectually.

But then honest or intellect is not what we're dealing w/ here. Mostly greed & self-centeredness, butressed up with a short-sighted sense of, 'If it's good for today, to hell w/ tomorrow. That's our children's problems.'

But I shouldn't ramble on. On my better days, I really am more charitable and reasonable. There's more, there, than that. Not to Bush & Cheney -- they're lowlifes. But to that majority who used to support them.

My wife & I truly hope that your friends & ex's find all those they love. Keep us posted.

avus