“I wanna go supersonic before I die and time’s a-wastin’!”

Finally, « some visionary thinking », which has been in major short supply here in the 21st century:

‘Barely two years since the last Concordes were retired, Airbus, the European aircraft consortium, is looking at plans for a new generation of supersonic passenger jets. The manufacturer, in which Britain’s BAE Systems is a partner, is drawing up designs for a 250-seat plane with a range of up to 6,000 miles that could reach speeds approaching 1,500mph. It believes that rapid growth in the aviation market means that by 2050 there could be demand for supersonic travel on hundreds of long-haul routes. Corinne Marizy, an Airbus researcher, told a conference at Cambridge University last week that by 2050 supersonic travel could account for 10% to 20% of flights. Airbus’s design is one of a number of blueprints being drawn up around the world for supersonic jets, the first of which Marizy said could be in service by 2015. By 2025 the market would be growing fast, she added.’
London Times

Well, get after it! I wanna go supersonic before I die and time’s a-wastin’!

Dear Fascist Michigan Voters-For-Prop-2: « Screw. You. »:

‘A Michigan judge ruled on Tuesday that a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage does not prevent the state from offering health insurance benefits to the same-sex partners of state workers. Ingham County Circuit Judge Joyce Draganchuk said health care benefits are benefits of employment, not marriage. Twenty-two same-sex couples filed suit against the state in March after Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D), acting on the advice of Attorney General Mike Cox ®, terminated domestic partner benefits that had been won by state unions. One partner of each of the 22 couples works for the state of Michigan.
‘In a legal opinion to the governor, Cox said that the constitutional amendment passed by voters last year bars all public employers from providing domestic partner benefits. But, although Granholm removed the benefits from the contracts she disagreed with Cox’s interpretation of the amendment and in July she entered the case on the side of the gay couples. Cox was obligated to argue the case against benefits as Attorney General. “Health care benefits are not among the statutory rights or benefits of marriage,” Judge Draganchuk said in her written ruling. “An individual does not receive health benefits for his or her spouse as a matter of legal right upon getting married.”
‘The twenty-two couples were represented by the American Civil Liberties Union. “Today’s ruling affirms what we’ve believed all along — Michigan voters never intended to take health insurance away from families,” said ACLU attorney Deborah LaBelle. The case was closely watched by municipalities across the state. After telling Gov. Granholm the benefits were illegal, Cox warned several cities that benefits packages they were contemplating were also illegal. Cox’s office has not said if it will appeal the ruling.’
—365Gay.com

I’ll bet the pig appeals. And I hope he and his ilk get slapped on their asses again.

(Or was that all too passionate?)

« Jeff Sessions and Jon Kyl = Despicable Low Lifes »:

‘Federal troops aren’t the only ones looking for bodies on the Gulf Coast. On Sept. 9, Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions called his old law professor Harold Apolinsky, co-author of Sessions’ legislation repealing the federal estate tax, which was encountering sudden resistance on the Hill. Sessions had an idea to revitalize their cause, which he left on Apolinsky’s voice mail: “[Arizona Sen.] Jon Kyl and I were talking about the estate tax. If we knew anybody that owned a business that lost life in the storm, that would be something we could push back with.” …
‘It’s been hard. Only a tiny percentage of people are affected by the estate tax—in 2001 only 534 Alabamans were subject to it. And for Hill backers of repeal, that’s only part of the problem. Last year, the tax brought in $24.8 billion to the federal government. With Katrina’s cost soaring, estate tax opponents need to find a way to make up the potential lost income. For now, getting repeal back on the agenda may depend on Apolinsky and his team of estate-sniffing sleuths, who are searching Internet obituaries among other places.’
—Time

Disgusting.

And whoever still believes that old 80s fairy tale about the Fascist Republican Party being the Party of Fiscal Responsibility needs to go back to grade school. I’m teaching second graders who are smarter about money than these people.

« Bill Maher has a message for the Failed Boy Emperor »:

‘You’ve performed so poorly I’m surprised that you haven’t given yourself a medal. You’re a catastrophe that walks like a man. Herbert Hoover was a shitty president, but even he never conceded an entire city to rising water and snakes. On your watch, we’ve lost almost all of our allies, the surplus, four airliners, two trade centers, a piece of the Pentagon and the City of New Orleans. Maybe you’re just not lucky. I’m not saying you don’t love this country. I’m just wondering how much worse it could be if you were on the other side. So, yes, God does speak to you. What he is saying is: ‘Take a hint.’‘
—Huffington Post

Something tells me the Failed Boy Emperor has selective hearing when it comes to conversations with the Invisible Cloud Being.

‘I’ll send my sons if he sends his daughters. Put those two drunk bitches on a plane and let them go fight. At least I know my sons would be getting some on the way.’
—Comedian Damon Wayans, quoted by the New York Daily News, on the conditions for the Emperor to send Wayans’ sons to fight in Iraq.

I think Cornel West « perfectly sums up the state of the Empire »:

‘What we saw unfold in the days after the hurricane was the most naked manifestation of conservative social policy towards the poor, where the message for decades has been: ‘You are on your own’. Well, they really were on their own for five days in that Superdome, and it was Darwinism in action – the survival of the fittest. People said: ‘It looks like something out of the Third World.’ Well, New Orleans was Third World long before the hurricane. …
‘Poverty has increased for the last four or five years. A million more Americans became poor last year, even as the super-wealthy became much richer. So where is the trickle-down, the equality of opportunity? Healthcare and education and the social safety net being ripped away – and that flawed structure was nowhere more evident than in a place such as New Orleans, 68 per cent black. The average adult income in some parishes of the city is under $8,000 (£4,350) a year. The average national income is $33,000, though for African-Americans it is about $24,000. It has one of the highest city murder rates in the US. From slave ships to the Superdome was not that big a journey. …
‘Bush talks about God, but he has forgotten the point of prophetic Christianity is compassion and justice for those who have least. Hip-hop has the anger that comes out of post-industrial, free-market America, but it lacks the progressiveness that produces organisations that will threaten the status quo. There has not been a giant since King, someone prepared to die and create an insurgency where many are prepared to die to upset the corporate elite. The Democrats are spineless.’
—The Observer

To which I can only add, amen.

In among all of the commentary and images over the past few days about Katrina, I’ve noticed a recurring strain along the following lines: the people who remained in New Orleans during and after the hurricane were too stupid, lazy, or both to leave; and nobody who lived in a place like New Orleans (either because it was too sinful, too corrupt, or not located in the “right” spot geographically) deserved to be helped or saved anyway.

It’s funny, I’ve never heard these sorts of statements made about other parts of the United States that have been subject to natural disasters (with the exception of San Francisco, which always gets hit by earthquakes because it “deserves” it). Nobody ever rages against the residents of Midwestern states for living in the paths of tornadoes. Nobody ever quarrels with the environmental choices of residents of Florida, which got smashed by a total of 4 major hurricanes last year alone. So why pick on New Orleans?

This snazzy « diagram » by Troll Princess sums up the feeling I have about the above arguments excellently.

The other thread of argument that astonishes me is the argument I’ve heard made that people shouldn’t expect the federal government to come to their aid in natural disasters because that’s not what government’s for.

Well, in that case, why do we have a federal government at all? If the government isn’t constituted to summon assistance to citizens in times of national crisis, what is it constituted for?

Oh, that’s right, I forgot: it’s there to be “drowned in the bathtub.” Grover Norquist was more of a prophet than he may have thought.

On top of all the shameful and outrageous things we’ve seen this week, comes « this »:

‘House Speaker Dennis Hastert dropped a bombshell on flood-ravaged New Orleans on Thursday by suggesting that it isn’t sensible to rebuild the city. “It doesn’t make sense to me,” Hastert told the Daily Herald in suburban Chicago in editions published today. “And it’s a question that certainly we should ask.” … The Illinois Republican’s comments drew an immediate rebuke from Louisiana officials. “That’s like saying we should shut down Los Angeles because it’s built in an earthquake zone,” former Sen. John Breaux, D-La., said. “Or like saying that after the Great Chicago fire of 1871, the U.S. government should have just abandoned the city.” … Hastert questioned the wisdom of rebuilding a city below sea level that will continue to be in the path of powerful hurricanes. “You know we build Los Angeles and San Francisco on top of earthquake issures and they rebuild, too. Stubbornness,” he said.’

And then somebody else chimes in from the cheap seats:

‘Hastert wasn’t the only one questioning the rebuilding of New Orleans. The Waterbury, Conn., Republican-American newspaper wrote an editorial Wednesday entitled, “Is New Orleans worth reclaiming?” “Americans’ hearts go out to the people in Katrina’s path,” it said. “But if the people of New Orleans and other low-lying areas insist on living in harm’s way, they ought to accept responsibility for what happens to them and their property.”’
—New Orleans Times-Picayune

Good god.

So I sent a little letter to the editor to the following e-mail addresses (and encourage my faithful readers to do the same): [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]:

Letter to the Editor:
RE your editorial of 31-Aug-05, specifically this quote: ‘But if the people of New Orleans and other low-lying areas insist on living in harm’s way, they ought to accept responsibility for what happens to them and their property. … And if the government insists on rebuilding ravaged homes and businesses along Gulf Coasts, it should stipulate that the next time a hurricane blows through, it will be up to the people living there to make themselves whole.’
People who live in glass houses really shouldn’t throw stones, dear Waterbury, CT. I haven’t ever been to Connecticut, but I wasn’t aware it was high and dry. Let’s review Connecticut’s hurricane history since you apparently haven’t, shall we?
Great Atlantic Hurricane, 14-Sep-1944 ($100 million in damages to the state). Hurricane Carol, 31-Aug-1954. Hurricane Edna, 11-Sep-1954. Hurricane Diane, 18-Aug-1955. Hurricane Donna, 14-Sep-1960 (3 dead and large crop losses). Hurricane Gloria, 27-Sep-1985. Hurricane Bob, 19-Aug-1991.
Or how about we talk about the Great New England Hurricane of 21-Sep-1938 which brought to Connecticut winds of 120 miles an hour and a storm surge of 12-16 feet. Whole beach communities in the state were washed away without a trace. A week after the storm, Connecticut reported 97 people killed, over 1000 injured, and several dozen missing. The 1938 hurricane did more damage than the San Francisco earthquake in 1906. According to several publications, ‘the total property damage was the greatest of any natural disaster ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere up to that time.’
I see that the City of Waterbury has been a member of FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program since 1-Nov-1979, according to FEMA’s website. You take government assistance provided by taxpayers like us in the rest of the country but write pompous and judgmental editorials like this? Wow. You guys are showing some chutzpah while working that Federal Gravy Train!
Sounds as if New Orleans is not the only place where people shouldn’t be living. I propose that we rewrite your snide, compassionless and self-absorbed editorial thusly: ‘But if the people of hurricane-prone Connecticut (particularly Waterbury) and other low-lying areas insist on living in harm’s way, they ought to accept responsibility for what happens to them and their property. … And if the government insists on rebuilding ravaged homes and businesses in Connecticut (particularly Waterbury), it should stipulate that the next time a hurricane blows through, it will be up to the people living there to make themselves whole.’ Wonder how your neighbors would feel about that if it you dared to publish that?
And be sure and cancel your National Flood Insurance participation and write FEMA, the National Guard, the Red Cross and the United States Army that, after the next devastating Connecticut hurricane hits, that you, the Waterbury Republican-American, won’t be needing the rescue assistance, policing, tax dollars or donations of the rest of us Americans to rebuild your newspaper … and your flood- and hurricane-prone city and state.
Meanwhile, I encourage you, the editors and publishers of the Republican-American, to stop being ridiculous and join me in turning off the self-centered political rhetoric and sending whatever we can afford to help rebuild the hundreds of thousands of shattered human lives on the Gulf Coast of our country. It’s the humane (and American) thing to do.
With all due respect,
Steve Pollock
Ann Arbor, MI

And thoughts and prayers to the people of the Gulf Coast. Our friend Steve, who lived in downtown New Orleans, was able to escape through a sea of floating bodies to a shelter in Jackson, MS, and is now on his way (hopefully) to his parents’ house in Alabama. He’ll be looking for a job in North Carolina, but won’t be able to return for his belongs for at least four months. Still, we’re extremely grateful he, his roommate and his dog, Gibson, are safe and well. More on this stuff by Frank is on « Asquared AirBeagle ».

UPDATE:

I received the following reply from William J. Pape of the Waterbury Republican-American:

‘Our rational realistic thinking got out of hand with the New Orleans editorial, and we have been chastised in spades for it, justifiably so. It is unfortunate that some thought we were blaming the present citizens for the terrible calamity which has befallen them. Not so. My younger son is a graduate of Tulane and visiting New Orleans was always a pleasure. The food was the best I’ve even had without question. WJPape’

Well, that’s something … except it’s still deeply disturbing to think that he thinks the editorial reflected ‘rational and realistic’ thinking.

My friend phoned late last night (Wednesday) — he and his dog got out of New Orleans okay.

Here is a list of « FEMA-approved relief organizations » if you are interested in donating to the effort to save the glorious city of New Orleans, which from the looks of things is descending into unimaginable chaos.

Another story, one that is understandably going untold with everything else that’s going on, is the fate of the animals in the region. « Noah’s Wish » is an organization dedicated to saving and helping animals in disaster zones. Consider donating to them or helping in other ways. (Thanks to « A Socialite’s Life » for these links.)