Support for Bush Continues to Drop, Poll Shows(NY Times): http://tinyurl.com/dbexw
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There's an electronic chapbook and a list of web appearances by an excellent poet, George Kalamaras, here at THE DRUNKEN BOAT: http://tinyurl.com/9hz6k
*

Thomas Wiloch writes marvelous poems and prose vignettes like this:

THE GARDEN'S GIFT
She came back from the garden with a single red rose in her hand. The long stem was studded with thorns. "For you," she said with a hint of a smile, and before I could thank her, she pressed the thorns against my face until they drew a sprinkling of blood. Only years later did I realize the single, sad word she had cut into me.

and this:

MEMENTOS
She collects mementos from the beach: a seashell, some driftwood, a bit of coral. Her room is a museum of what the ocean brings forth from within its hidden depths.
"In like fashion," she muses, "I also bring forth strange icons from within my soul to be displayed before the world." And her fingers played with the pearls of her necklace, the diamonds on her fingers, the gaudy baubles of her dangling earrings.

He has a book called MR.TEMPLETON'S TOY SHOP and a couple more poems appear in the August '05 GOTHIC REVUE here: http://tinyurl.com/b7d7x
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At Home and Abroad, Bush Has Wrought Devastation
What’s so frightening about George W. Bush? His faith-based decision making has led the world into a series of wars, environmental degradation and sky-high energy prices. Worst of all, according to this op-ed article from Israel’s Haaretz newspaper, he has badly tarnished America’s image and deprived the world of an essential role model. http://tinyurl.com/7dmza
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The Man Beneath The Hood Speaks Out: “They tortured me, they humiliated me"
An interview with Shalal el Kaissi, who has become a symbol of U.S. torture:http://tinyurl.com/cw65f
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Rescuers collect dead, Cheney sounds upbeat :headline from this news service:http://tinyurl.com/czgqu . I don't think they wanted it to be THIS true.
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Ignorance and abdication that amounts to madness
All political leaders sometimes parry with the truth, but with Bush the disconnections are systematic
(Guardian):http://tinyurl.com/d46lq
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End of the Bush Era

By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Tuesday, September 13, 2005; A27

The Bush Era is over. The sooner politicians in both parties realize that, the better for them -- and the country.

Recent months, and especially the past two weeks, have brought home to a steadily growing majority of Americans the truth that President Bush's government doesn't work. His policies are failing, his approach to leadership is detached and self-indulgent, his way of politics has produced a divided, angry and dysfunctional public square. We dare not go on like this... http://tinyurl.com/atkpz
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SATAN BUSTED & BEATIN' FEET FROM EDEN

Art by John Martin. Titles by me channeling Lord Buckley.
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Game Over
September 14, 2005
By The Plaid Adder

...You can't even say 'blame game' without sounding like a child. "Blame game, blame game, let's play the blame game! La la la la la la!"
This is not a game. The dead do not come back. Suffering cannot be undone. There are no do-overs.
This is not a game. It is a crime. So I do not blame.
I accuse.
I accuse George W. Bush, along with every high-ranking member of his administration, of parlaying the tragedy of September 11 into a massive con game whereby, over the course of four years, they robbed us of our freedoms, our money, and our soldiers in the name of security, without doing a single thing that would actually make us safer... http://tinyurl.com/alxkj
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A heck of a job (US News and World Report): http://tinyurl.com/7wqqb
If you want to know what went wrong with the federal response to Hurricane Katrina, just examine the following statement by Dick Cheney.
When asked by a reporter why he did not return from his vacation earlier than last Thursday, three days after the hurricane hit, the vice president replied: "I came back four days early."
And you can see why Cheney is so testy. He had to miss four days of his vacation to help a bunch of people who probably had never voted Republican in their lives.
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The Assuaging of the Waters

by John Martin

Sun Has Binary Partner, May Affect The Earth (Space Daily): http://tinyurl.com/a8fdo
"The ground-breaking and richly illustrated new book, Lost Star of Myth and Time, marries modern astronomical theory with ancient star lore to make a compelling case for the profound influence on our planet of a companion star to the sun.
Author and theorist, Walter Cruttenden, presents the evidence that this binary orbit relationship may be the cause of a vast cycle causing the Dark and Golden Ages common in the lore of ancient cultures..."
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A Fatal Incuriosity by Maureen Dowd (NYTimes): http://tinyurl.com/an7ge
"The president should stop haunting New Orleans, looking for that bullhorn moment. It's too late."
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Bush vows action over Iran(Daily Telegraph): http://tinyurl.com/a64a8
(Oh good! Another invasion or maybe a tactical nuclear strike. I feel safer already.)
(PS: Note from rational self. Does it ever occur to you that sovreign nations want to acquire nuclear arsenals in order to keep the 'American hegemon'(and the 'Greater Israel' crowd) outside their borders?)
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From the 'Last Throes' Dept:( WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The insurgency in Iraq is "in the last throes," Vice President Dick Cheney says, and he predicts that the fighting will end before the Bush administration leaves office .)
IRAQ WRAPUP 5-Bombs, gunmen kill over 150 in Baghdad (Reuters):http://tinyurl.com/7ew5c
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(Now this is what I call 'starving the beast')
Letter to the editor from Florida Today:

Republicans not showing ability to rule the nation
I have been a registered Republican for more than 30 years, and it is well past the time to admit the Bush administration is simply small-minded, inept, mean-spirited, vindictive, incompetent and inarticulate.
Please join me in voting out all remnants of anyone who has supported this administration.
While it is obvious that we must continue to support our troops, now that they have been placed in harm's way, most of the splendid National Guard members who would have significantly lessened the tragedy from Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast are immersed overseas fighting the Bush family's private war.
I pray the Democrats, or others, will finally field viable candidates whom open-minded and free-thinking Americans, including moderate Republicans like myself, can finally support.
And if I hear just one more radically conservative Republican imply that they are more spiritually pure or patriotic than I am, I will implode from a blend of frustration, aggravation and disbelief.

Ray Hovland
Indian Harbour Beach
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F.A.A. Alerted on Qaeda in '98, 9/11 Panel Said (NY Times): http://tinyurl.com/7sg3g
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Chertoff delayed federal response, memo shows (Knight Ridder):
http://tinyurl.com/93qze
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The Political Damage Bush Faces From Katrina: http://tinyurl.com/ctyaz
Good post. Seems like even party insiders are starting to tire of the royal f_ck-up.
*

From an interview w/ Ed Sanders (Patron saint of Investigative Poetics. Poet, Fug, Yippie, journalist, newspaper editor, all-around fantastic human being.)
...So I began to evolve and to become a Social Democrat, and I point out in my book on 1968 that it took 1968 in all its moil and toil and boil to realize that that's really where I was. I believed in voting. Like Sweden in 1968 voted to have 25 percent of their economy controlled in the interests of the people, by the state, and I realized that I believed in that, and the nationalization of certain key industries, while allowing for some entrepreneurial activity, what they called a mixed economy. And I realized that's what I believed in when I was running through the tear gas of Chicago with Allen Ginsberg...http://tinyurl.com/cy3qs
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Two DeLay associates indicted;Charges focus on campaign donations; pair deny wrongdoing(Dallas Morning News): http://tinyurl.com/3gurs
More here:http://tinyurl.com/9kv55
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TOMORROW, HITCHENS-GALLOWAY DEBATE ON THE 'NET
'You're a drink-soaked former Trotskyist popinjay,' Mr Galloway informed him. 'Your hands are shaking. You badly need another drink,'
details here: http://tinyurl.com/bcdp9
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Religious conservatives claim Katrina was God's omen, punishment for the United States(from Media Matters): http://tinyurl.com/dcwb2
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Bush Is Fooling Nobody Now (Robert Scheer in The Nation):
There's never a terrorist around when you need one. Even a couple of suspicious-looking foreigners playing soccer near the Superdome as Katrina began to make landfall might have done the trick to get this easily distracted President focused. The war on terror is, after all, George W. Bush's obsession, obliterating any other consideration of the nation's well-being...http://tinyurl.com/advlr
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Right-Wing Myths About,Katrina,Debunked:
http://tinyurl.com/cc6nh
Print it and keep it handy, then watch FOX NEWS and realize their ads are the closest thing to truth they broadcast because the ads merely twist the truth rather than making it up whole cloth.
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His primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.-From the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) psychological profile of Adolph Hitler.
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Two American Painters:

The Gold Diggers by John Quidor (1801-1881) & Through the Night by Albert Bloch (1882-1961)

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Bush's trail of death and destruction by Jason Leopold:
... “I don’t think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees,” President Bush told Diane Sawyer in an interview last week in response to questions about the reason federal authorities took two days to aid the victims of Hurricane Katrina...
...No one "could have predicted that they [al-Qaeda] would try to use a … hijacked airplane as a missile," Rice told the commission investigating the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2003.
Wrong and wrong. Or rather, liar, liar.
There were warnings, memos, emails, phone calls, newspaper reports, meetings, threats, and cries for help. They were just ignored by the president and his administration... http://tinyurl.com/bg524 .

O the many ways of viewing GWB, the enigmatic imbecile.
Some(himself included) think his pResidency was ordained by God. Others (the neocons, the Israel lobby, the military-industrial complex) see him as a valuable tool for their plans, both ideological and commercial.
I don't know...
I just want him to be out of a postion to hurt us anymore.
His record will stand. He should forget about a legacy as anything other than a criminal puppet of forces beyond his understanding.
They say he reads an occasional biography. I wonder what he'll think of his own. Of course maybe by the time it comes out he'll have drank himself to death.
I hope all the people who've fallen for the 'bumper sticker' and smear (and fraudulent) politics that have secured him his place in history are now or will be deeply ashamed. I'm not big on shame at all, but in this case I make a major exception.
GWB is truly one of the worst pResidents ever and everyone should be able to see that. Stupid, evil or both are the only choices I can see.
*

A Major Test for FEMA And Its Contracting Crew (WaPo):
The Federal Emergency Management Agency will receive most of the $62 billion Congress has approved for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts...
... The agency has already begun awarding hundreds of millions of dollars in no-bid Katrina contracts under loosened government rules...
http://tinyurl.com/9gyhr .

"Starving the beast" the Halliburton(Cheney) way=award yourself a no-bid contract and then DON'T do the work. It's a 'values' thing. It's pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. It's 'free' market...no, wait a minute...it's...CRIMINAL!
O well: 'it's hard work', 'good heart', what-f_cking-ever...
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Hollywood – Pat Robertson on Sunday said that Hurricane Katrina was God’s way of expressing its anger at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for its selection of Ellen Degeneres to host this year’s Emmy Awards. “By choosing an avowed lesbian for this national event, these Hollywood elites have clearly invited God’s wrath,” Robertson said on “The 700 Club” on Sunday. “Is it any surprise that the Almighty chose to strike at Miss Degeneres’ hometown?” ...http://tinyurl.com/corta
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`Minnesota Nice' goes to war ( Knight Ridder Newspapers ): http://tinyurl.com/9ffvw
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Ethical question for you.
This test only has one question, but it's a very important one. By giving a honest answer, you will discover where you stand morally. The test features an unlikely, completely fictional situation in which you will have to make a life-or-death decision. Remember that your answer needs to be honest, yet spontaneous. Please scroll down slowly and give due consideration to each line.
You are in Florida - Miami to be specific. There is chaos all around you caused by a hurricane with severe flooding. This is a flood of biblical proportions.
You are a photojournalist working for a major newspaper, and you're caught in the middle of this epic disaster. The situation is nearly hopeless. You're trying to shoot career-making photos. There are houses and people swirling around you, some disappearing under the water. Nature is unleashing all of its destructive fury. Suddenly you see a man floundering in the water.! He is fighting for his life, trying not to be taken down with the debris. You move closer . . . somehow the man looks familiar. You suddenly realize who it is . . .it's George W. Bush!
At the same time you notice that the raging waters are about to take him under . . . forever. You have two options -- you can save his life or you can shoot a dramatic Pulitzer Prize winning photo, documenting the death of one of the world's most powerful men. So here's the question, and please give an honest answer:

Would you select high contrast color film, or would you go with the classic power and simplicity of black and white?
*

NBC Anchor Says Reporters Feisty Again(Editor and Publisher):
NEW YORK (AP) NBC's Brian Williams says the lasting legacy of Hurricane Katrina for journalists may be the end of an unusual four-year period of deference to people in power.
There were so many angry, even incredulous, questions put to Bush administration officials about the response to Katrina that the Salon Web site compiled a "Reporters Gone Wild" video clip. Tim Russert, Anderson Cooper, Ted Koppel, and Shepard Smith were among the stars.
The mute button seemingly in place since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has been turned off ...http://tinyurl.com/dzwhm
I'm ever hopeful...and also cynical. When centrist Michael Kinsley began 'representing the left' on CNN's CROSSFIRE one could truly measure how far the shift to the right in the US had gone. It's easy to measure, also, by taking note of the representation of right and far right 'think tanks' on news shows. It's overwhelming. The outrageous claim of a 'librul' bias in media is a prime example of the 'big lie' (" people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one ") pioneered by Goebbels. Mainstream media has been a joke for quite a while now. Not at all what a free society needs from the fourth estate: someone to be our eyes and ears in the Capital(s). They've been more a part of government than the necessary critics democracy requires.
Can it change?
Only if the audience does. It's seems to me a lot of people have forgotten or never knew that they ARE the government. The people in office work FOR us. Not the other way around.
It was a truly appalling moment when John Ashcroft spoke of 'giving' us rights shortly after 9/11. What part of 'inalienable' didn't he understand?
But I'm hopeful. A lot of people seem interested in being better citizens by virtue of the fact of the abuses of the Bush administration and their media whores. I can see a resurgent free (and critical) press leading us back to our foundational 'American' values and principles. Faster, please.

Link to Reporters Gone Wild: http://tinyurl.com/ccgbj
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Never lose sight of the fact that all human felicity lies in man's imagination, and that he cannot think to attain it unless he heeds all his caprices. The most fortunate of persons is he who has the most means to satisfy his vagaries.-Marquis De
Sade

Drawing:Sade in Prison by Andre Breton

Katrina Leads a Lobbyist to Reevaluate His Priorities(WaPo): http://tinyurl.com/8wc4e
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Some GOP Legislators Hit Jarring Notes in Addressing Katrina(Washington Post)
Some lawmakers are still struggling to find the sympathetic but diligent tone that a disaster such as Hurricane Katrina -- and the lagging government response to its victims -- would seem to call for... http://tinyurl.com/b76rj
(note to self & others: Vote these bastards OUT!)
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Congress probes hurricane clean-up contracts(The Observer):
A powerful investigative agency of the US Congress is to investigate the award of contracts by the Bush administration for emergency and reconstruction work in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
The Government Accounting Office, which monitors public spending, is to audit the contracts won by the US firms. Already contracts have been given for repairing New Orleans' flood levees, rebuilding naval facilities, providing temporary housing and removing debris.
Companies winning work include US contracting giants Bechtel and Halliburton. Halliburton, formerly headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, is facing questions for allegedly overcharging on work done in Iraq. The Department of Defense was criticised for awarding Iraq reconstruction contracts to these two companies without competition. Other groups include Fluor and Shaw Group, a Louisiana engineer. The move comes as leading congressional figures express concern over the contracting process...http://tinyurl.com/8d782
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Missed opportunities for Osama(Newsday):
WASHINGTON -- In the four years since the Sept. 11 attacks, the United States has had only one precious opportunity to capture or kill Osama bin Laden. It blew it, according to the Long Island native who led the CIA's efforts...http://tinyurl.com/befo6
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Cover-up: toxic waters 'will make New Orleans unsafe for a decade'(The Independent):
Toxic chemicals in the New Orleans flood waters will make the city unsafe for full human habitation for a decade, a US government official has told The Independent on Sunday. And, he added, the Bush administration is covering up the danger...http://tinyurl.com/97pwt
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Patients put down (Daily Telegraph)
September 12, 2005
DOCTORS working in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans killed critically ill patients rather than leave them to die in agony as they evacuated... http://tinyurl.com/aa7oj
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BBC:
Crew plans new Bronze Age journey. The crew of a reed boat which sank after leaving Oman en route for India say they plan another attempt to recreate the Bronze Age-era voyage:http://tinyurl.com/clws9
Reeds, not hollowed out logs. Early humans went all over the world in reed ships.
THE RA EXPEDITIONS REVISITED :http://tinyurl.com/89xz3
Thor Heyerdahl (Guardian Obit from'02):http://tinyurl.com/ajk3z
More on Thor:http://tinyurl.com/8pr4a
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More on (moron?) the 'Bubble Boy' pResident: How Bush Blew It:
It's hard to get him away from his Gameboy to watch the news. He "doesn't like that show". http://tinyurl.com/ddkh7
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More from the 'Values' and 'Personal responsibility' Party:
This from an email 'Brownie' wrote last week:

"I don't mind the negative press (well, actually, I do, but I try to ignore it) but it is really wearing out the family," Brown wrote. "No wonder people don't go into public service. This country is devouring itself, the 24-hour news cycle is numbing our ability to think for ourselves."

Well, Brownie at least you didn't have to spend anytime on a roof without food and water waiting for a rescue that may or may not arrive in time, you pathetic little weasel.
Email quoted in the Rocky Mountain News: http://tinyurl.com/8z8em
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POEM

A baroque trapazoidal marble flicked

onto Flatland splats

Janus-style

a Mulligan Stew

of wet spots

and rear-guard orisions

the room hums

back at my head

my eyes find their own

way thru a wait-

a-minute minute

when the four-squares

tremble with dusted sunlight

& angels blow their horns

and on the inside

of my eyelids begins

the latest chapter of

Zombie Super Models

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i•ma•gi•nal-Pronunciation: (i-mā'gu-nl, i-mä'-), —adj. Entomol. of, pertaining to, or having the form of an imago

Some links to material on the Web dealing with the Imaginal:
Henry Corbin on Mundus Imaginalis:http://tinyurl.com/75udf
The Imaginal World by Steve Beyer:http://tinyurl.com/byu9j
Engaging the Imaginal Realm: Doorway to Collective Wisdom: http://tinyurl.com/dwzrc (Warning: a bit 'new age'-y)
The Imaginal Realm:http://tinyurl.com/9okxh http://tinyurl.com/docxl
Review of Green Man, Earth Angel:http://tinyurl.com/d6478
Promotion for a scholarly conference that already happened: http://tinyurl.com/7njd8
Recovering a Visionary Geography: Henry Corbin and the Missing Ingredient in Our Culture of Images:http://tinyurl.com/ceyoj
The Dream Scene: The Imaginal Landscape:http://tinyurl.com/draqq

The photo is Henry Corbin:famous French philosopher, professor of philosophy at Sorbonne University & orientalist who spent most of his life in Iran & other Middle East countries.
He spent more than 25 years of his life in doing research & scrutinizing the Islamic world especially Islamic Philosophy and Shi’ite beliefs. His main achievement was the introduction of Mulla Sadra & Suhrawardi to the West. One of his masterpieces is History of Islamic Philosophy. He had a close relation with both Allameh Tabatabaei and Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr.
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A collection of links : that begins with a...
Note: It's 9/11 +4. At first the Bush administration didn't want any inquiry or investigation into the events of that day. It's so much easier to present an ersatz version without any pesky facts getting in the way. Then, succumbing to public opinion spearheaded by the survivor's families they appointed HENRY KISSINGER(!!!) to lead an inquiry. Mr. K. didn't want to reveal his client list or something and a new chairman was appointed (http://www.9-11commission.gov/).
Their findings have been disputed by credentialed experts and common sense.
It's always time for the truth. It's time for a real inquiry. A dispassionate search for the real story of 9/11.
The 'official' story IS a 'conspiracy theory' by definition. It is now and always will be time to set the record strait no matter who is hurt politically or otherwise.
*
The links that follow do not relate to the above note.

9/11 and Manipulation of the USA by Norman Solomon: http://tinyurl.com/8z633
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Bush Losing Support From His Base by Dan Froomkin: http://tinyurl.com/bmaed
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Will FEBAR Bring Down the House? by Stirling Newberry: http://tinyurl.com/85drh
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Woe to whistleblowers by Thomas Oliphant: http://tinyurl.com/awmt9
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FEMA Chief Brown Paid Millions to Fla. Residents Unaffected by '04 Hurricane to Help Bush by Jason Leopold:http://tinyurl.com/czs66
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Thumbing Nervously Through the Conservative Rulebook by Robin Toner:http://tinyurl.com/84yn2
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People sense president's soulless sensibility by Marianne Williamson: http://tinyurl.com/b5bjo
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Cronyism Kills by Anthony Wade:http://tinyurl.com/ak56t
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Bush's "Christian" Blood Cult; Concerns Raised by the Vatican by Wayne Madsen:http://tinyurl.com/csxge
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Dealing with Dull Minds by Christopher Brauchli: http://tinyurl.com/c2fw9
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Move Over, Adam Smith: The Visible Hand of Uncle Sam by Sprott Asset Management ofToronto http://tinyurl.com/bfdwv
*

ART by MARJORIE CAMERON



Links: http://tinyurl.com/9bjp6 , http://tinyurl.com/dz6ej , http://tinyurl.com/84fqh , http://tinyurl.com/cplue .
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'Katrinagate' fury spreads
Gabrielle Chwallek
Washington - "For God's sake, are you blind?," a woman shouts at the head of the federal emergency management agency (FEMA), Michael Brown.
"You're patting each other on the back, while people here are dying."
The woman is not a victim of Hurricane Katrina. She is a reporter with US television network MSNBC who is so affected by the misery she has witnessed she can hold back no longer...
... A number of US journalists who cover federal politics, especially television presenters, had become part of the political establishment, says Wells.
"They live in the same suburbs, go to the same parties. Their television companies are owned by large conglomerates who contribute to election campaigns."
It's a "perfect recipe" for fearful, self-censoring reportage, he says, but thinks "since last week, that's all over"...http://tinyurl.com/9vhan
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It's Time for a New "New Deal":http://tinyurl.com/a76rk :

...The Administration's ineptitude, as New York Times columnist Paul Krugman put it, was "a consequence of ideological hostility to the very idea of using government to serve the public good."
The government's failure was the result not of "simple incompetence" in the Administration but "of a campaign by most Republicans and too many Democrats to systematically vilify the role of government in American life," LA Times columnist Robert Scheer argued. And as the Financial Times observed, "For the past quarter-century in Washington...US politics has been dominated by the conviction that what was wrong with America would be solved by getting government off the people's backs"--an attitude that contributed to the criminal inaction on the part of the federal government.
Indeed, you could see what the dog-eat-dog, antigovernment philosophy of the far right has reaped in the bloated bodies and raw sewage in New Orleans's flooded streets....
... Here's one answer: Let's seize this moment by launching a twenty-first-century New Deal--with programs modeled after the Works Progress Administration, updated for these times. Why?
A modernized version of the WPA would help our nation to rebuild New Orleans and Mississippi's Gulf Coast, and repair the racial and class divides that we saw in such dramatic relief these past few days. It would rebuild and improve our nation's public infrastructure and (hopefully) alter the terms of our political discourse in the years ahead.
After all, Roosevelt's New Deal was so much more than simply a vehicle for providing economic relief to citizens in need. It gave Americans a sense of solidarity, a new social contract, as well as the chance to go to work. It also helped bring the country's infrastructure into the twentieth century....
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From the Sept. AMERICAN PROSPECT:
Day 1,461 And Counting
It's the fourth anniversary of September 11 -- and Osama bin Laden is still at large.
By Michael Tomasky

This September 11 will mark the fourth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the United States. The media will focus on the ceremonies at the former World Trade Center site, the Pentagon, and other cities and towns around the country that will honor the dead. The Bush administration, meanwhile, will do its best to remind Americans that today’s George W. Bush -- except for the Watergate-era Richard Nixon, the most unpopular two-term president, at this point in his tenure, since scientific polling began in the 1940s -- is the same man who led the country through tragedy.
In truth, the anniversary should be the occasion for a thoroughgoing discussion of how America has combated terrorism in the last four years. And on that front, even the disaster Bush has created in Iraq takes a back seat to one overwhelming fact: By the time night falls on September 11, Osama bin Laden will have been at large for 1,461 days.
America vanquished world fascism in less time: We obtained Germany’s surrender in 1,243 days, Japan’s in 1,365. Even the third Punic War, in which Carthage was burned to the ground and emptied of citizens who were taken en masse into Roman slavery, lasted around 1,100 days (and troops needed a little longer to get into position back in 149 B.C.)... http://tinyurl.com/7t57m
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Juan Cole on Christopher Hitchens & Iraq at the History News Network: http://tinyurl.com/c45uj .
Professor Cole's site is here: http://www.juancole.com/ . It's hard not to learn something from him regarding the Middle East.
*

LOOK! BILL! FALAFEL!!!!

Eye of the Political Storm- A new NEWSWEEK poll suggests President Bush could become Katrina’s next casualty.
WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Marcus Mabry
Newsweek
Updated: 1:31 p.m. ET Sept. 10, 2005
http://tinyurl.com/dowr6
*

Laura Bush visits Tiny Town and noted lesbian novelist listens to a crooked mouth sack of sh_t explain how to play pocket pool.
*

Use of a Private U.S. Corporate Structure to Disguise a Government Program
Thursday, Sep 08, 2005
By: Philip Agee

How United States Intervention Against Venezuela Works

Venezuela: Some Examples of the Current U.S. Intervention Against the Bolivarian Revolution
In Venezuela the administration of George W. Bush is intervening in the political process with a combination of activities very similar to those the U.S. carried out in Nicaragua in the 1980s, but without a terrorist war on the scale of the Contras, and—at least until mid-2005—without an economic embargo. These activities, with a 2005 budget approaching $10 million, masquerade as “civic education,” “support for the electoral process,” and “strengthening the democratic system.” In reality, all these programs, carried out almost silently, support the opposition against President Chávez and his coalition....http://tinyurl.com/d3twp
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Conyers rises to take on Bush
BY RUBY L. BAILEY
DETROIT FREE PRESS
September 10, 2005
WASHINGTON -- At age 76, U.S. Rep. John Conyers -- long a hero to civil rights activists -- has grabbed a new torch: darling of the antiwar, anti-Bush far left
Conyers, arguably President George W. Bush's harshest congressional critic on Iraq policy, openly proclaims that his goal is nothing short of impeaching the president.
That kind of rhetoric is fueled by his embrace of the Downing Street memos -- the eight British intelligence reports that activists from Rochester Hills to London believe are the smoking gun that proves Bush misled Congress about the case for war against Iraq.
Conyers, who is expected to speak outside the White House at a Sept. 24 antiwar rally, has had his staff feverishly working to complete a comprehensive report about the memos -- something he knows many of his colleagues won't read...http://tinyurl.com/dnh8
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The Disaster President
...But the incompetence revealed by the response to the hurricane is deep-rooted, and can be traced to the twenty-five-year project, begun in the Reagan era, of discrediting government, "starving the beast" of resources and exalting private markets and faith-based charities. Tax cuts for the wealthy and Congressional corruption have drained government of the imagination and resources to address human needs. Katrina has brutally exposed Americans to the costs of this folly...http://tinyurl.com/7ltzr
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...And I have a simple solution: Vote the bums out in '06. In '08 we could elect a ham sandwich who could do a better job than GWB.
*

From EDITOR & PUBLISHER:
Conservative Pundits Reluctant to Criticize Bush's Katrina Response:http://tinyurl.com/abbrb
*

The following is circulating among traditional conservatives in an email:
Here’s how OTHER leaders have handled a crisis like this:
President: Nixon
Danger: Category-5 Hurricane Camille (August 1969)
Area: About the same area as that affected by Katrina
Response: Nixon prepared the National Guard in advance, ordering rescue ships from Tampa, FL and Houston, TX to stand waiting along with over a thousand regular military, 24+ helicopters to assist the Coast Guard and National Guard about as soon as the hurricane passed.

President: Bush the Elder
Danger: Hurricane Andrew (August 92)
Area: Florida
Response: In the middle of a re-election campaign, Bush ceased campaigning the day before the hurricane, went to Washington, and assembled one of the largest military forces ever mustered on U.S. soil. Seven thousand National Guard and 22,000 regular military were sent in with the necessary equipment shortly after the hurricane passed through.

President: Clinton
Danger: Category-3 Hurricane Floyd (September 1999)
Area: Virginia and Carolinas
Response: Meeting with China's president Jiang in New Zealand, Clinton immediately declared the hurricane-affected areas as federal disasters, allowing the military and National Guard to move in and help. Clinton flew home immediately, one day before the hurricane hit, to help coordinate the rescue.

President: Bush the Lesser
Danger: Category-5 Hurricane Katrina (August 2005)
Area: Gulf Coast
Response: National Guard troops are down about 8,000 members because they are in Iraq with much of the necessary rescue equipment needed. Bush was on vacation, riding his bike for two hours the day before the hurricane lands. On the day Katrina landed, Bush attended a birthday party for John McCain. The levees began to crack. While emergency 1.5-ton sandbags were ready to be placed to steady the levee and absorb water, there were insufficient numbers of helicopters and pilots to set them before the levees break. Nagin, the mayor of NO, pleaded for federal-level assistance and got none. Bush went to San Diego to play guitar with a country singer and end his vacation early -- but not until the next day, because he had tickets to a San Diego Padres game.
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From Todays WICHITA EAGLE: Letter to the editor:
Not worth respect
President of the United States is a title, just like captain or den mother or judge. It entitles the holder to common courtesy and the benefit of the doubt, but respect is something that must be earned.
Had not George Bush's father ridden Ronald Reagan's coattails into the White House, there would have been no second President Bush. His candidacy would have been ignored, his nomination impossible and his election unthinkable.
He is a smirking elitist, a grasping opportunist, an unabashed shirker and a proven incompetent. I see nothing in him to merit a shred of respect.
ALAN HURLBUT
Wichita
http://tinyurl.com/b3vl4
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From the 'go figure/who knew?' dept:
UN raises alarm on death squads and torture in Iraq
by Mussab Al-Khairalla
BAGHDAD, Sept 8 (Reuters) - The United Nations raised the alarm on Thursday about mounting violence in Iraq blamed on pro-government militias and urged the authorities to look into reports of systematic torture in police stations. :http://tinyurl.com/9auab

washingtonpost: Security Contractors in Iraq Under Scrutiny After Shootings:http://tinyurl.com/afkbe
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Hmm, Iran/Contra war criminals in the Bush Administration, death squads operating in Iraq...I wonder how that happens.
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Paul Kahn reviews three books by James Koller:
Poets write poems. They write poems for their own reasons: to communicate, to record, to remember, to perform in language an event that occurs inside a human brain.People who read poetry often carry poems with them, in their brain, perhaps some lines imperfectly caught in the ganglia that merges with a time or place in their life. Like the lives of saints or the legends of heroes, tales of poets are taught to us in a narrative that is means to connect a state of grace from somewhere inside a culture, a state we need to give meaning to our daily lives... http://tinyurl.com/8mrfu
Publisher's link for SNOWS GONE BY:http://tinyurl.com/btbf4
The Koller papers at UCONN:http://tinyurl.com/aep8d
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O Thou Sovran Archer of the darksome regions, who shooteth forth from Thy transcendental crossbow the many-rayed suns into the fields of heaven. I know Thee! O Thou eight-pointed arrow of light, who smiteth the regions of the seven rivers until they laugh like Maenads with snaky thyrsus.- J.F.C. Fuller

Beck is one of the many mini-Rushs that litter the airwaves:
Glenn Beck called hurricane survivors in New Orleans "scumbags," said he "hates" 9-11 families:
http://tinyurl.com/al5nb
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Clarification of terms: Jeff Gannon/Guckert=Mandate; Below 40% approval rating doesn't.
From AP: President Bush's job approval has dipped below 40 percent for the first time in the AP-Ipsos poll, reflecting widespread doubts about his handling of gasoline prices and the response to Hurricane Katrina.
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Physician who told Cheney to go F*ck Himself Lost his Home in Katrina, Detained, Cuffed by Cheney's M-16-carrying Goons: http://tinyurl.com/98pza
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Tha Abandoned City

by

Fernand Khnopff

Indictments come down on reptilian POS:
DeLay's PAC Charged With Taking Illegal Contributions : http://tinyurl.com/cv9wz

Howard Zinn calls for Iraq pullout, 'Same arguments for Vietnam are being made now in Iraq' : http://tinyurl.com/ax6d9
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From the 'values' party: from Wall Street Journal's Washington wire today:
Rep. Baker of Baton Rouge is overheard telling lobbyists: "We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did."
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Two Storyville photos by Ernest J. Bellocq:

http://tinyurl.com/9jkly

"What's all this I hear about finger painting and the name game? Don't you people in Washington have more important things you should be doing? "-Emily Litella
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TO THE NEST
Distance yourself from all that.
You bunk in your head,
Your head that pays its debts
And gives good weight.
So that your head loses its weight,
Squanders its vibrant birds on the wing;
So that you forestall your shadow,
So that you maintain your night,
And dine on the black widow's legs.
And leave behind the cares,
The wedding veil
Raising your head, preserving
Your flock of shadows.
At the hour of emptiness, your share of the void,
War of silences, war of mattress stuffing.
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Jean-Pierre Duprey (1930-1959)
Translation by me
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Two more stills and a few links:

IMDB:http://tinyurl.com/do3ge

Kinoeye article:http://tinyurl.com/7532l

Horror-Wood article: http://tinyurl.com/c6vz3

Images Journal (w/stills gallery):http://tinyurl.com/79lhg

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EYES WITHOUT A FACE
Another tale of cinematic love and a well-spent, mis-spent youth. Midnight movie,
SURF Theater, '68 I think, maybe '69, double bill: Georges Franju's 'classic' austere and elegant horror masterpiece and a new film about which there's some buzz. It supposedly shows what earlier low-budget horror films only suggested and is called NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD.

The Surf was a great night out. The Pacific Ocean a few blocks away. Golden Gate Park a few blocks away. At a certain point the proverbial espresso machine in the lobby morphed into a full-fledged cafe next door. All the main ingredients: art, coffee, cigarettes, privacy, etc etc.

This was the first time I saw EYES. Instant love. Several years later I caught it(unaware) on Bob Wilkin's channel 40 late night creature feature as THE HORROR CHAMBER OF DR. FAUSTUS.

I have a tape compilation that I think of as my 'how to make a horror movie fan' tape. It starts with the anthology film DEAD OF NIGHT, proceeds to EYES and ends up with Mario Bava's BLACK SUNDAY/MASK OF THE DEMON. If after seeing these three a film fan is not also a horror film fan it ain't gonna happen. I envy people who haven't done or seen certain things because they have the experience ahead of them.

There are 'moments' in EYEs that are truly among the most exquisite in the rarified field of 'art' horror film.

And NIGHT was pretty good too. It was amazing how shocked the audience was in the late '60s at the 'gore' considering the evolution of that particular wing of horror film. I do like some 'gore' films, but in general I'll take Val Lewton's atmospherics anyday. Franju managed to combine both schools in a brilliant way. Major work.
http://www.jahsonic.com/GeorgesFranju.html

From AMERICAblog:
Zogby: Bush's approval rating at all-time low, 41% -- Public would vote for Jimmy Carter before voting for Bush again
by John in DC - 9/08/2005 11:48:00 AM
And note that Bush's rating on Katrina is 36% positive, 61% negative. Those are the REAL polls, folks. The only people supporting him are the FOX News/Pat Robertson borg. Screw them, we don't need more than 61% to win, and we need to stop focusing on the fact that 36% of Americans like Bush - they'd like him even if he ate their children ... http://tinyurl.com/csffw
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Dick Cheney: "Go F--k Yourself"
Vice President Dick Cheney, in Gulfport, Mississippi on a tour of the Katrina hurricane zone was cursed out as he answered questions from reporters...link to WMV @ Crooks and Liars:http://www.crooksandliars.com/
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More tales from the crony administration:
Two Bush 2000 Florida recount aides were rewarded with top FEMA posts:
Reversing an eight-year crusade to rid the now-embattled Federal Emergency Management Agency of political patronage, a newly elected George W. Bush in 2001 named two key players in his Florida recount fight to important FEMA posts.
Neither man, Jacksonville attorney Reynold Hoover and Miami lawyer Mark Wallace, had any experience in emergency management before they were named by the Bush administration to FEMA, now under fire for its botched response to Hurricane Katrina ...http://tinyurl.com/cn9us
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The Power of Outrage:
...But a better historical analogy, although not one that immediately springs to mind, may be the Lawrence strike of 1912, best-known for giving the labor movement the slogan "bread and roses." Thousands of poor immigrant workers walked off their jobs in the city's giant woollen mills to protest a wage reduction. Bill Haywood, leader of the Industrial Workers of the World, who had been invited in to help direct the strike, devised a plan to send the workers' children to live with sympathetic families in other cities for the duration.
By 1912 the Progressive Era was well under way, but the sight of the pale, emaciated children marching up Fifth Avenue transformed public opinion regarding the strike...http://tinyurl.com/79knb
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Between the perception and the reality falls 24/7 cable news:
Nice little article from Slate that shows why people who watch cable TV news seem to know less about the world than those who don't.

News You Can Lose.What I hate about cable TV journalism.
By Jack Shafer :http://tinyurl.com/d3op5
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Katrina Timeline (from Think Progress):http://tinyurl.com/b7389
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POEM

round bone, square bell
figment of flesh
flashes across a zone between
flung sea
(whose ape shadow jumps roofs
after this deluge)
and arboreal nova
the sky etches on eyes
strange scenes from cellular mem-pools
ripple-whips away the throng of gibbering
demonovox
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VALERIE AND HER WEEK OF WONDERS http://tinyurl.com/9sn82
was released on DVD early last year. I remember very well seeing it back in the day at the Surf Theater in SF ( http://tinyurl.com/bfjfa.) A movie you remember for over thirty years with extreme pleasure is a good movie. Write that one down and/or think of it the next time a movie passes out of your mind upon walking out of the theater as they so often seem to do these days. AND there's more VALERIE news...Twisted Spoon Press (http://tinyurl.com/dm2kd) has recently published an English translation of the novel (by Vitezlav Nezval) upon which the movie is based. I'm looking forward to seeing the film again and reading the book for the first time. Surrealism was relatively new to me in 1970 and is one of the only things I can think of that remains new to me thirty-five years later.
There's an essay/review of the film here:http://tinyurl.com/8uxkc
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Posters and stills from one of my favorite horror films, Mario Bava's The Whip and the Body, sometimes rather stupidly retitled What..? in American release (Don't ask. I don't know why.) Christopher Lee gets to be a sadist and the ghost of a sadist. Daliah Lavi gets to be almost Barbara Steele (and does a pretty good job of it) in the victim/lover role. From the great era of Italian gothic horror films (1956-c.1974).

From the 'why do they hate us?' dept: The company we keep.

Published on Tuesday, September 6, 2005 by the Guardian
Israeli Soldiers Tell of Indiscriminate Killings by Army and a Culture of Impunity
...It was not the first time that Assaf had killed an innocent person in Gaza while following orders, but after his discharge he began to think about the things he did.
"The reason why I am telling you this is that I want the army to think about what they are asking us to do, shooting unarmed people. I don't think it's legal."...http://tinyurl.com/cz6s6
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by Robert Scheer
The Real Costs of a Culture of Greed

"...For half a century, free-market purists have to great effect denigrated the essential role that modern government performs as some terrible liberal plot. Thus, the symbolism of New Orleans' flooding is tragically apt: Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal and Louisiana Governor Huey Long's ambitious populist reforms in the 1930s eased Louisiana out of feudalism and toward modernity; the Reagan Revolution and the callousness of both Bush Administrations have sent them back toward the abyss ..."
http://tinyurl.com/angh4

From The Daily Show.
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Meditation No. 1
The Neophyte should learn, regularly practice, and master the following simple technique of the Fourfold Breath:
Empty the lungs and remain thus while counting four.
Inhale, counting four so that you feel filled with breath to the throat.
Hold this breath while counting four.
Exhale, counting four till the lungs are empty.
This Fourfold Breath technique should be practiced by the Neophyte while he or she is composed in a basic posture or Asana, counting slowly or quickly till s/he obtains a suitable rhythm. This simple technique will help to still the body and quiet the mind of the Neophyte.
Having attained this, the Neophyte should consider a point as defined in mathematics — having position, but no magnitude — and let him or her take note of any important ideas which arise during this simple meditation. Concentrating his or her mind on this point of meditation, let him or her endeavor to realize the Immanence of the Divine Wisdom throughout Nature, in all Her aspects.

Fox's Hume, Wilson take cue from conservative blogs, repeat unfounded claim that Bush "pleaded" with New Orleans mayor to evacuate city...http://tinyurl.com/dlpoj

Watch FOX NEWS. They get their 'info' from blogs who get their 'info' from Rush who gets his 'info' from out of his butt (which is where Karl Rove stores it.)
No wonder the right wing echo chamber stinks.
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The "city" of Louisiana (Keith Olbermann)

SECAUCUS — Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff said it all, starting his news briefing Saturday afternoon: "Louisiana is a city that is largely underwater..."

Well there's your problem right there... http://tinyurl.com/4sv9q
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The original POS...