Author: tribe34

I posted this at our Progressive Bloggers site, but Susan Hu read it and encouraged me to post it here… so here goes:

I’ve been watching the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina’s horrific damage and I’ve been stunned by the magnitude of the destruction. The reporters who are at the scene in New Orleans and Biloxi and in Alabama are finding it hard to remain the “neutral observer” a reporter is supposed to be when covering a story. Something else has happenned as well – the normally docile mainstream media in the US has gotten a spine and is criticizing this administration at an unheard-of level.
I have seen scores of newpaper editorials slamming the Bush Administration for its slow response and its even slower attempts to get aid and help to the victims. Not just liberal papers like the NY Times, but conservative papers like the New Hampshire Union-Leader. I have seen anchor after anchor on CNN blast the absence of the National Guard, the Army, FEMA and so on.

I have just seen Anderson Cooper on CNN openly challenge Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu, (a conservative Democrat) who was in the midst of handing out platitudes to President Bush and the Congress for reconvening, telling her that he’s sick and tired of politicians glad-handing other politicans when he’s seeing dead bodies lying in the streets for 4 days getting eaten by rats and no help in sight for survivors.

I am seeing people in New Orleans and Biloxi crying out “where is the Army, where is the National Guard?” The answer that doesnt need to be said because everyone knows it is that a lot of them arent around to help – they’re off in Iraq, along with a lot of equipment that could have been used to help save lives.

I have seen Republican House Leader Dennis Hastert get publicly skewered for suggesting that maybe New Orleans shouldnt be rebuilt and it might be a waste of funds to allocate money for it.

I’ve seen Jack Cafferty, a curmudgeonly rightwing-leaning commentator on CNN, say this:

The thing that’s most glaring in all of this is that the conditions continue to deteriorate for people who are victims and the efforts to do something about it don’t seem to be anywhere in sight. […]

The questions that we ask in The Situation Room every day are posted on the website two or three hours before we go on the air and people who read the website often begin to respond to the questions before the show actually starts. The question for this hour is whether the government is doing a good job in handling the situation.

I gotta tell you something, we got five or six hundred letters before the show actually went on the air, and no one – no one – is saying the government is doing a good job in handling one of the most atrocious and embarrassing and far-reaching and calamatous things that has come along in this country in my lifetime. I’m 62. I remember the riots in Watts, I remember the earthquake in San Francisco, I remember a lot of things. I have never, ever, seen anything as bungled and as poorly handled as this situation in New Orleans. Where the hell is the water for these people? Why can’t sandwiches be dropped to those people in the Superdome. What is going on? This is Thursday! This storm happened 5 days ago. This is a disgrace. And don’t think the world isn’t watching. This is the government that the taxpayers are paying for, and it’s fallen right flat on its face as far as I can see, in the way it’s handled this thing.

Cafferty then says, “you know, when they were removing Terry Schiavo’s feeding tube, Congress got back in session on a Sunday night to pass some sort of a resolution. Here, they might get back on Friday — the storm hit Monday. I guess it’s all what’s important to you…”

And even more remarkable.. the FoxNews reporters – some of the biggest apologists of Bush and the Administration anywhere – are also angrily asking where is the federal aid… where is the help for these people? Shep Smith is most notable among this group.. so much so he is taking grief from the wingnuts at FreeRepublic, upset that he’s making their hero Bush look inept by interviewing the desperate people, showing dead bodies and asking hard questions.

As an outside observer of your political process, I find it extremely ironic that it may not be the Iraq war or PlameGate that ends the Republicans dominance in the US government.. but Mother Nature.

People are angry and upset. They cant vote Bush out.. but they might remember what Party he belongs to in 2006 and 2008. That goes for people in the other Party who might be perceived as being too close to this Administration and supporting their incompetence (this means you, Senator Landrieu).

I posted a diary here yesterday about Canada’s offers of aid. Well.. the Canadian military is now offering to send troops to the diaster area to help in any way possible. (Why do I get the feeling that this wont be accepted?)

Also, Canada’s DART unit, which was sent to Bangladesh during the tsunami aftermath, which is able to set up a mobile hospital and create several hundred thousand liters of clean drinkable and pottable water a day, has also been put on standby for immediate assistance

Canadian Forces are on standby to help the United States deal with the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, Chief of Defence Staff General Rick Hillier announced Thursday.

Gen. Hillier said he spoke with his counterparts in the U.S., Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard Myers and commander of the U.S. Northern Command.

“Whenever there is a need … they have but to ask and we in the Canadian Forces will have it rolling or sailing or flying southward as quickly as possible,” he told reporters in Ottawa.

He also said the Disaster Assistance Response Team would be ready to respond as soon as it was needed.

The US military response?

“Their message back to me was very clear. Firstly it was a heartfelt thanks from their part,” Hillier added.

Well.. at least they’re grateful we offered.

Another interesting part of this story:

Senior Canadian civilian and military officials have had talks with their U.S. counterparts about offering aid, but have yet to receive a formal request for help.

Folks, Canada doesnt have a very big military as it is.. and a lot of them are in Afghanistan, but after seeing all these scenes of despair and anarchy today, surely every little bit helps?

Anyhow, as with yesterday’s diary, we stand ready to help any way we can if the US government decides to ask us.

A lot of us dont like Bush up here.. but this event overshadows any political ideology.. we WANT to help you! Canadians are asking our government why we arent doing more.. but how can we if no one gets back to us to tell us how we can help?

And as I type this, unfortunately this might be the answer; President Bush apparently doesnt think he needs help from anyone else and that the US can handle it just fine on their own:

Still, Bush told ABC-TV: “I’m not expecting much from foreign nations because we hadn’t asked for it. I do expect a lot of sympathy and perhaps some will send cash dollars. But this country’s going to rise up and take care of it.” “You know,” he said, “we would love help, but we’re going to take care of our own business as well, and there’s no doubt in my mind we’ll succeed. And there’s no doubt in my mind, as I sit here talking to you, that New Orleans is going to rise up again as a great city.

So apparently its not American to accept help from others? I dont doubt America will have to bear the brunt of recovery, but whats wrong with every little bit helps?

Hi guys and gals.. this doesnt appear to have made much news either on the blogs or on the media.. so I thought I’d post this:

August 30 – The Government of Canada today issued the following statement in support of those who have endured the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina in the United States:

“On behalf of all Canadians, I wish to extend our heartfelt condolences to those who have lost loved ones as a result of Hurricane Katrina, as well as our sympathies to those who have suffered great losses and personal hardship,” said Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan. “During this difficult time, we are offering our support to our friends and neighbours.”

The Deputy Prime Minister added that she has contacted U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and advised him that Canada stands ready to provide assistance if needed. In addition, the Minister of Health, Ujjal Dosanjh, has directed the Public Health Agency of Canada to contact the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and offer any assistance that may be helpful, such as emergency medical supplies contained in the National Emergency Stockpile System.

In short, if you guys need any help in the Gulf Coast and/or New Orleans, just ask.

Update [2005-8-31 22:47:32 by tribe34]: I just saw this story on Yahoo.ca giving more
specifics on what Canada can offer.. and also that individual Canadian provinces and relief agencies are now waiting to help:

“Yesterday, the Department of Human Health Services in the U.S. contacted our public health agency and asked for an inventory of emergency supplies that, if they need them, we could send at a moment’s notice.”

That inventory was completed Wednesday.

American officials are still assessing their needs, but in coming days Canada will be prepared to send everything from water purification systems to the Canadian military’s Disaster Assistance Response Team.

According to the story, the Canadian provinces of Ontario, British Columbia, Manitoba and their respective Premiers are offering aid, and the Canadian Red Cross is ready to go as well.

We are ready to help.. I hope you folks will take us up on the offer… I’m a bit worried that pride might stop you from asking:

Officials in McLellan’s office said there had been no official request from the U.S. for help.

I talked about this at Progressive Bloggers and at BlogsCanada E-Group in the politics thread, but I thought you guys might be interested in it here.

In today’s (July 8) edition of the Toronto Star, Rosie Dimanno wrote a column titled, “The British Are An Inspiration”. No complaints from me on that, but unfortunately, Rosie decided to use this column to also take cheap-shots at the Spanish and to repeat the old neo-con/George Bush line that the war on terror and the war in Iraq are somehow connected.
Let’s take a look first at the Spanish line… she writes in her column about this here:

Pogge, One of our Progressive Blogger affiliates, quite rightly objects to this:

Later, in comments at the Progressive Blogger site, he expands on the Rosie argument about Britain not recalling 9000 troops.. when in fact, they are already planning to do exactly that:

Here is another part of Rosie’s column I shook my head at:

Dimanno seems to be presuming that a terrorist bombing in London will somehow make people believe the Iraq war and the War on Terror are somehow now connected and that everyone in Britain will now leap to supporting the Iraq war effort.

This is nonsense – Bush and Blair never went to Iraq to fight terror or because Saddam was supporting Al Queada – they went on the basis of the now discredited charge that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. The line about “freeing the Iraqi’s” got inserted by the US after it was becoming apparent no such weapons existed. As for the terrorists, these people who never were in Iraq in the first place are only showing up there now precisely because the Americans and British are there.

Bush and his Administration have been subtly and openly trying for 2-3 years now to ingrain in the American people that the War on Terror and fighting in Iraq was one and the same – but that is finally, I sense, beginning to be discredited by the American population.

The people in Britain are smart enough to know this, despite Dimanno’s hopes they’ll have collective amnesia. Dimanno is the one person at the Toronto Star (a generally liberal paper with the largest subscription in Canada) who was always spouting off the neo-cons’ version of the events leading up to and after the Iraq war, and she has shown that she continues to do so now in columns more worthy of being in the right-wing rantings of the Toronto Sun or the National Post, rather then the Star. I wont go so far as to call her a “hack”, as Pogge does, but I believe she’s let her personal views get in the way of the facts.

To be sure, the English ARE an inspiration..I have no problem with Rosie lauding their reaction and their resolve to the crisis,  but Dimanno needs to be called out on the parts of her article which simply arent reality-based and are trying to re-write history.

Both to Canadian Boo-Men/Women and to all the rest of you, I want to wish everyone here a Happy Canada Day to you. We are 138 years old today.

I was trying to think of something good to say to sum up what it is about our country that I love. What I found however, is a piece from one of our Canadian Progressive Bloggers that seems to speak for me and probably a lot of us. A Little Bit Left wrote this piece, and I quote from it:

A shot of the Canada Day festivities at the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa.

Hi Folks:

Yesterday, I wrote a journal diary on the formation/creation of IWT – Independent World Television – which had several former strategists of Howard Dean and other very prominent people on its advisory comittee.

I am following with an update to this story. BlogsCanada, which runs an ‘E-Group’ for multi-partisan political punditry, had a Vancouver correspondent attend an informational screening + a question and answer session in Vancouver Tueday evening. This is a summary of what he found out.
James Burns is the name of the fella who covered the event (nice guy – I also write online columns for BlogsCanada as well, and he always writes good editorials). Here is some of what he discovered:

A 15 minute introductory video was played, briefly explaining the reasoning behind IWT. As mentioned in the prior diary, Paul Jay is the mastermind of this concept; he is a former executive producer of CBC Newsworld’s debate program Counterspin.

What is Paul Jay’s goal?

Testimonials in the video included statements from Naomi Klein and Lewis Lapham on why they wanted to put their name behind this effort. Besides repeating Jay’s statements above, they condemned the current state of North American journalism.

Following the video, a Q & A session ensued with Paul Jay from the gathered crowd.

On where it would be based  – Jay said probably Toronto:

Another question asked was concerning the Tyee’s feature article about trying to build ‘a left-wing CNN’ and if that was an accurate statement of IWT’s goal. Jay’s response:

Our intrepid BlogsCanada correspondent decided to ask a follow-up to that question:

And what about blogs… would they play a role in the new IWT network? According to James Burns,

Obviously he didnt know about the diary I had posted at Daily Kos or here, but I wont begrudge him that 😉

James personal view was that he was enthusiastic about the project, but that they were still in their early stages and still planning how best to implement ‘citizen journalism’. He also mentioned Jay is currently tourning Canada and the US to provide info sessions and to lobby for seed money. If they can raise the stated goal of money in their 2006 drive, their aim is to be on the air to do 6 hrs of initial daily programming in 2007.

IWT’s website has also been revamped for the official launch, and that URL is here. I’ve been there and you’ll see they’ve decorated the page up quite a bit from a couple of days ago.

James and BlogsCanada will continue to follow the IWT story as it develops, and I’ll provide updates here as interest warrants. James’ original story is here

I posted about this at Kos, so forgive me if you’ve read this, but I thought there would be many people here who didn’t read this who would find this important…  so I hope you dont mind a re-post.
I wanted to give a tip of the cap to the blog Accidental Deliberations, a member of our Progressive Bloggers group, for alerting us to this story.

This was one of the main stories found yesterday at The Tyee, which is an alternative new-media left-wing source based out of British Columbia, Canada:

The creator of this is Paul Jay, who was a former excutive producer of CBC Newsworld’s debate program “CounterSpin”.

According to the article, IWTNews is aiming to get its own digital TV channels in Canada, the U.S. and elsewhere. Programming will also  be offered at their  web site. The article says that  Link TV will carry IWT programming. “ensuring that 25 million U.S. home will have access to IWT shows”.

Here’s one interesting statement in the article that really caught my eye:

The article doesnt really state if they are former or current strategists… but whoever they are, they want that expertise of fundraising over the internet to help them get started.

The article lists a pretty impressive list of who’s who on the advisory committee of IWT:

And what of its plans? Fairly modest for the moment:

If you want to look at its prospectus and think its worthy enough to donate to the cause, go to its main website here.

I was asked about who the Dean people (or former Dean people) are on this group.. Here are some from the website that I can find: