this diary is dedicated to all who suffer because of war and other disasters
special thanks to ksh01 at dKos who said ” My frustration tells me your title should still have Iraq in the title, as I feel that if the people and equipment and money that’s currently in Iraq were here in the US, the federal government would have responded in a more effective way.”
cross-posted at DailyKos, Booman Tribune, European Tribune, and My Left Wing.
image and poem below the fold
Two photos taken on the same day last week — one of a grieving New Orleans survivor, the other of President Bush in flagrante photo opp in San Diego. Photoshopped together, they reveal what the horrific scene at the Superdome might have looked like had the president actually shown up there… (Thanks T. bias, via Wayne Correia’s list)
photoshopped image via boing boing
I Want You To Hurt Like I Do
by Randy Newman
from Land Of Dreams
I ran out on my children
And I ran out on my wife
Gonna run out on you too baby
I done it all my life
Everybody cried the night I left
Well almost everybody did
My little boy just hung his head
And I put my arm – I put my arm around his little shoulder
And this is what I said:
“Sonny I just want you to hurt like I do
I just want you to hurt like I do
I just want you to hurt like I do
Honest I do, honest I do, honest I do”
If I had one wish
One dream I knew would come true
I’d want to speak to all the people of the world
I’d get up there, I’d get up there on that platform
(First I’d sing a song or two you know I would)
Then I’ll tell you what I’d do
I’d talk to the people and I’d say:
“It’s a rough rough world, it’s a tough tough world
Well, you know
And things don’t always, things don’t always go the way we plan
But there’s one thing, one thing we all have in common
And it’s something everyone can understand
All over the world sing along –
I just want you to hurt like I do
I just want you to hurt like I do
I just want you to hurt like I do
Honest I do, honest I do, honest I do”
– – –
support SassyTexan’s humanitarian work by donating to the Houston Red Cross and being sure to indicate that it is in honor of MLW SassyTexan
give to the American Red Cross
support the Iraqi people
support the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (CIVIC)
support CARE
support the victims of torture
support the fallen
support the troops
support the troops and the Iraqi people
read This is what John Kerry did today, the diary by lawnorder that prompted this series
read Riverbend’s Bagdhad Burning
read Dahr Jamail’s Iraq Dispatches
read Today in Iraq
read this soldier’s blog
witness every day
I don’t try to be cute with this diary series, because there’s something about grief that, to me, is sacred and beyond snark.
I also swore that I’d never – ever – feature an image of that absolute waste of skin who currently takes up space in the White House.
Having said that, I’m breaking both of my pledges today because I’m at my wits’ end in a way that I haven’t been since I started (today’s entry is #251 at dKos), and the songs of Randy Newman, along with humor – that most serious of emotions and close cousin to anger – have been getting me through the news lately.
The images and events in Iraq, and New Orleans, are as heart-ripping as they are relentless. But what brings me to the brink is not just the thought, but the very clear realization, that the people we depend on to help us through times like these simply do not care.
.
Although focused on the tragedy and thousands of American lives lost on Gulf Coast, the Iraq War has worsened this week in the region of Basra.
The explosion took place on Wednesday evening outside a restaurant near the city centre which was packed with members of the Iraqi security forces. It was the worst car bombing in Basra since the US-led invasion in 2003.
The attack follows the killing of four US security guards and two British soldiers in separate incidents near Basra earlier this week.
Virginia-based security guards die in attack on convoy. A second bomb explodes on busy street.
BASRA Sept. 8, 2005 — Two bomb blasts shook the southern Iraqi city of Basra on Wednesday, killing at least 17 people, including four American security contractors traveling in a U.S. diplomatic convoy.
The first attack came in the morning, when a makeshift bomb was detonated as the U.S. convoy was traveling in the city, according to a statement by U.S. Embassy spokesman Peter Mitchell in Baghdad.
An armed Westerner and Iraqi policemen and soldiers secure the scene after a convoy was hit by a roadside bomb in the southern Iraq city of Basra. A car bomb shattered the relative peace of the southern Iraqi city of Basra after dark on Wednesday, killing 12 people and wounding 22 in a district packed with restaurants and a market, hospital sources said. A Reuters journalist saw at least five bodies at a local hospital. Atef Hassan/Reuters▼ ▼ ▼
I think the use of devastation alongside the guitar photo shows the complete lack of humanity there is in this administration.
I think the comparison and use of humor can help open some eyes and some minds.
I think we are all feeling the crunch of this.
My wish is that today you’ll find something to fill your heart up with hope 🙂 I know I could use some today, too 🙂