AddieStan

From the Fabulous Frankie G., your blogstress's partner in musical crimes, comes this thought: The great state of Texas; The land of MILLIONS and MILLIONS of acres of luxury "ranchions" (ranch-mansions), and they cannot take in any more refugees from Louisiana. Perhaps they're thinking, who needs African-Americans when you've got Mexicans (who work much more cheaply)?

Yes, there is more going on in the world than the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, but your blogstress finds it difficult to focus on anything else, for nothing illustrates the dire straits in which the whole nation finds itself better than the administration's callous and craven response to this disaster. As the water recedes, along with the bodies of New Orleans' beloved, perhaps the American people will find themselves staring the corpse of their own republic in the face. Note to the American people: This is not your country. It belongs to to the corporations and their largest shareholders. You pay the freight for the pleasure of living under their hand. And the saddest part of all this? This is still one of the best places to live on earth. So imagine the hell lived by far too many of the earth's people, all for the beast's feeding pleasure. In today's Washington Post , we find an amazing piece by Elizabeth Williamson that tells of aid offers ignored by th...

WASHINGTON, D.C.--If anyone had any doubt of the deep corruption and criminality of the Bush administration, your blogstress suggests that the reader consider this series of news stories in combination: Red Cross Turned Away from New Orleans FEMA turns back water trucks, diesel fuel; cuts emergency communications lines, says Jefferson Parish president Halliburton gets Katrina contract, hires former FEMA director Houston Finds Business Boon After Katrina Brown pushed from last job: Horse group: FEMA chief had to be `asked to resign' Via Evan Derkacz at AlterNet’s blogs , we learn of the American Red Cross being turned away from the devastated birthplace of jazz, a city awash in bodies, water-borne disease and stranded people still clinging to life. Here, direct from the Red Cross’s own Web site, we find this under the headline, Hurricane Katrina: Why is the Red Cross not in New Orleans? * Access to New Orleans is controlled by the National Guard and local authorities and while we ...

The incomparable J. Scales reports that Andaiye of the New Orleans singing group, Zion Trinity, has been found--safe and sound so far.

WESTFIELD, N.J.--Tonight as your blogstress ponders news of the death of William Rehnquist, chief justice of the Supreme Court, she finds it difficult to avoid stumbling on the possibility that the apocalypse may just be at hand. On the heels of the destruction of the Gulf Coast and the administration's callous response--or virtual lack thereof--the political dynamic is itself one of chaotic and unpredictable outcomes. The currents are swirling against each other, and who knows what may emerge from the chiascoros. The incomparable J. Scales writes of a musician friend still stranded in her New Orleans home, awaiting rescue. Her name is Andaiye, member of Zion Trinity , to which J. has lent her trademark basslines. J. is still awaiting word of another member of the group. Your Webwench's new friend, Mr. Furley, has recommended some somber listening that has now become your écrivaine 's soundtrack for this challenging time--two tracks by Bob Marley: "Natural Mystic...

Via DavidCorn.com we learn of possible collusion between Bush's FEMA and the religious right: The website sploid.com noticed that FEMA (which has been decimated by the Bush administration) has been directing concerned Americans to make Hurricane Katrina relief donations to Pat Robertson's Operation Blessing. At one point, Robertson's outfit was listed second on a list of suggested recipients, right under the Red Cross. I doubt Hugo Chavez will be clicking on that link. And maybe if the Mafia sets up a relief organization, FEMA will endorse it as well.

For those of her readers perplexed by the slow response of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to the disaster on the Gulf Coast, your blogstress suggests a look at a prescient piece of journalism done nearly a year ago by Jon Elliston in the Orlando Weekly. In his article, Disaster in the Making , Elliston reported: [L]ong before this hurricane season, some emergency managers inside and outside of government started sounding an alarm that still rings loudly. Bush administration policy changes and budget cuts, they say, are sapping FEMA's long-term ability to cushion the blow of hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, tornados, wildfires and other natural disasters. Among emergency specialists, "mitigation" – measures taken in advance to minimize damage caused by natural disasters – is a crucial part of the strategy to save lives and cut recovery costs. But since 2001, key federal disaster mitigation programs, developed over many years, have been slashed and tossed a...

Although there is no shortage of Bush administraton shenanigans on which to report, your blogstress finds it impossible to do in the wake of Katrina's gruesome destruction of the birthplace of jazz. Jazz is not just a form of music, it's a kind of people--of which the people of New Orleans are the progenitor. People descended from a blend of Yoruban Africans and American Indians--with a dash of French European--gave us our national classical music, however neglected and unappreciated by its nation it may be. Today those people are drowning in the neglect of a government that looked away from their imminent doom, just as it has turned its back on nurturing the art form their ancestors gave us. Shame on us--all of us. And let the dirge begin.

Your blogstress was much amused to find yet another reference to her American Prospect piece on John Roberts , this time by the eminent scholar George Weigel on a Web site called Tidings. Weigel writes: Shortly after Judge Roberts' nomination, President Bush was accused of "playing the Catholic card" in an opinion piece widely circulated in the blogosphere. "Playing the Catholic card" is, to be frank, either a vulgar appeal to ancient prejudices or code-language for "someone who can't be trusted to take Planned Parenthood's position on abortion." Well, Mr. Weigel, if you're going to bandy about accusations of vulgarity, it is only fair to credit the blogstress with her craft. Another curiosity of Weigel's piece, written in the form of "An open letter to Patrick Leahy" (the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee), is his apparent lifting of central argument from a press statement issued by the far less eloquent Wil...

While your blogstress was dallying in her summer doldrums, all manner of remarkable developments have occurred without her sage comment. Truth be told, your Webwench seems to be suffering some form of outrage fatigue. Happenings which, under any other administration but Bush II, would have elicited great hue and cry, are met with a wimper by your cybertrix, who has been known to mutter, "Well, that's just what they do." How else to explain the failure of your net-tête to note, last week, the reported firing of a career employee of the Justice Department for daring to challenge the demands of higher-ups to downplay a study that revealed aggressive police tactics used against black and latino drivers? Here, the New York Times ' Eric Licthblau reports : The demotion of the official, Lawrence A. Greenfeld, whom President Bush named in 2001 to lead the Bureau of Justice Statistics, caps more than three years of simmering tensions over charges of political interference a...

Your blogstress is, admittedly, a few days late bringing the latest antics of her co-religionists on the right to her readers' attention. From your Webwench's dear friend, St. Jacques du Fenway, we learn of an attack by right-wing Catholics on faculty at Catholic Colleges who appear not to be toeing the line. On Wednesday, Ralph Ranalli and Michael Kranish of the Boston Globe wrote: A conservative Catholic group billing itself as a "movement to rescue Catholic higher education" has called for the ouster of three Boston College professors who it says supported removing the feeding tube of Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman whose parents fought to keep her alive. A spokesman for Boston College, Jack Dunn, issued a statement criticizing the group, saying, ''The publicity-seeking rhetoric and unfounded accusations of the Cardinal Newman Society are a disservice to Catholic colleges and universities and the church that they proudly serve." From...

From your blogstress' new friend, Caesarshead, comes this: Subj: Revelation: Put it on a bumper sticker Jesus is a Liberal Actually, La Tête du Caesar has a point. Jesus counted women among his disciples, never said a word against homosexuality and intervened against the death penalty (stoning of the adulteress)--not to mention all of that stuff about the poor.

Just up on The American Prospect Online is your blogstress' latest take on last weekend's right-wing hatefest, Justice Sunday II. Here, your cybertrix calls on Democrats to craft a bill for a constitutional amendment that would create an explicit right to privacy. How fun it would be to watch righties vote "no" on what the American people think is a God-given right.

NASHVILLE, TENN.—-The discipline was dazzling--everybody on the same page. The usual rhetoric was deployed--the railing against "activist judges," waxings on the "originial intent" of the Constitution’s framers; abortion defined as baby-killing; the horror of "homosexual sodomy." It was a typical assemblage of speakers for a right-wing confab: 10 men, 2 women, all but one of them white. As usual, a couple of right-wing Catholics made common cause with right-wing Protestant evangelicals. Yet, for all that, this second incarnation of the Family Research Council’s second "Justice Sunday" simulcast fell a bit flat. Perhaps it was the lack of zealous enthusiasm for the nomination of John Roberts to the Supreme Court, most probably due to the revelation that, while in private practice, Judge Roberts did pro bono work on behalf of gay rights activists who ultimately prevailed in overturning an anti-gay Colorado statute passed through referendum, a...

On Beliefnet today, you will find your blogstress's rejoinder to the nasty bit of business published on that otherwise laudable site by William Donohue, president of the Catholic League.

If the Roberts nomination finds itself in the teeniest bit of trouble, it's the righties and not the Democrats who pose the threat. The news earlier this week, as reported by Richard Serrano of the Los Angeles Times , that Judge Roberts, then a private attorney, performed pro bono work for gay rights activists who challenged--and won before the Supreme Court--the statute championed by James Dobson that would have sanctioned all manner of discrimination against non-heterosexuals, has caused a bit of discomfort on the right. At the Web site of the Agape Press, Bill Fancher interviews Paul Weyrich , who expresses his dismay: The revelation that Supreme Court nominee John Roberts was instrumental in a homosexual rights ruling has stunned his supporters. The Romer v. Evans decision, which overturned a Colorado initiative that denied special rights to homosexuals, is considered among the most egregious examples of judicial activism ever. Paul Weyrich of the Free Congress Foundation, who...

Having cast her customary spell of glamour over all her endeavors, your blogstress now finds herself in much excellent company--including that of writers much better-paid than she--in the conduct of alleged anti-Catholic bigotry. Christopher Hitchens has kicked up quite a bit of dust on Slate with a harangue about the John Roberts nomination and the Church of Rome, a piece that encompasses an amusing aside about the Vatican's rescue of Cardinal Bernard Law, the discraced former archbishop of Boston. (A similar rescue was made for Father Paul Marcinkus of Chicago, who was wanted for financial shenanigans in that toddlin' town, so, at the pope's invitation, he secreted himself away in some catacomb off St. Peter's Square.) A very sane young man, James Joyner of Outside the Beltway , has taken up Hitchens' larger argument, engaging in a go-round with Ramesh Ponnuru of the National Review. Click here to read Joyner

Oh, how it pains your blogstress to contemplate the Specter of traffic being driven from her erudite site to something called RedState , however, she finds herself driven to taking the high road on a bit of low culture executed rather brilliantly by State author Mark Kilmer, in his review of the Sunday talk shows: Arlen Specter might have violated his leash law, made when the Senate GOP agreed to let him be Judiciary chairman in January despite strong objections, that he would support the President's nominees. With Judge John Roberts, Specter says that he will make up his mind when the process is complete. Those of you who remember Specter taking a licking from the values crowd back in January will know what Kilmer is talking about. Specter committed the infamous crime of predicting that an anti-abortion Supreme Court nominee would be unlikely to make it out of committee. We'll see about that, hmm? To read more about Specter's lonely choice in the GOP, click here.

Used to toiling in obscurity, your blogstress is amazed at the continued attention her July 20th piece for The American Prospect Online has continued to attract. Who knew that pointing out the shrewdness of the president's men in their choice of a Supreme Court nominee could be so controversial? Yesterday's Boston Herald carries this piece , blessedly judgment-neutral. The Sunday Boston Globe offered this op-ed column from Cathy Young of Reason magazine.

In the Los Angeles Times , Margaret Carlson offers up a clear-eyed assessment of the current brouhaha over the religious background of Judge John Roberts, President Bush's nominee to the Supreme Court. She rightly deduces the distilled argument to be over who is and is not a good Catholic: So who are the bad Catholics? The easiest way to describe them is that they are … well, liberal Democrats. Remember when Wolf Blitzer introduced conservative Robert Novak and liberal Paul Begala on CNN for a segment on the new pope? "I am sure Bob is a good Catholic," Blitzer said. "I am not so sure about Paul Begala." Begala shot back, "That annoys me," and mentioned that his oldest son was named after Pope John Paul II. "I don't think anybody should presume that a liberal is not a good Catholic." But they do, even though frequently the Vatican agrees with liberals. It's just that in politics, the Vatican's agreement with conservative Catholic...