Morning News Roundup (29 August)

Katrina

• President Bush’s trip to Biloxi, MS, yesterday was “carefully scripted by the White House” and “left little possibility of the president encountering much anger over the federal reconstruction efforts.” Several of the people with whom he met were “clutching pictures of themselves being consoled by the president in the aftermath of the storm last September.” [ThinkProgress' ThinkFast]
  
  
• For the tens of thousands of people who are still displaced by the storm, moreover, the possibilities of getting back home may now seem more remote than ever. Fewer than 5 percent of the thousands of destroyed homes are being rebuilt, local officials said. Most of the affected homeowners in Mississippi and Louisiana have yet to see any of the billions in federal money approved to help them get back home. [WaPo]
  
  
• The late-night bars and jazz clubs are open in the French Quarter, as are the cafes in the elegant Garden District. One year after the worst natural disaster in US history, New Orleans is gamely giving the impression that the good times are rolling again. But a couple of miles to the north or east, the Cajun bravura falls away like a cheap carnival mask, the streets fall quiet and the Crescent City becomes a dead zone.
  
  Hurricane Katrina left behind less than half of New Orleans. The storm killed 1,500 people and scattered the rest. Out of a pre-hurricane population of 450,000, so far just over 200,000 have returned to build their lives, according to independent estimates. The others have either found better options elsewhere or are waiting in trailers for government reconstruction assistance and a development plan that has so far failed to materialise. [The Guardian]
  
  
• When the horror that was Katrina unfolded in front of us all on television, depraved indifference seemed to be a perfect description of the regime that didn't want to interrupt its vacation or restaurant dinners. On the other hand, for once, most, if not all Americans were anything but indifferent. Pity, if not exactly empathy, flowed freely, as did contributions to a variety of relief funds. For once, an amazingly large percentage of white Americans seemed willing to entertain at least the notion that daily life here in the land of the white and home of the rich was savagely unfair to the black and the poor. [...] For once, it seemed, the truly depraved indifference of the monsters who claim to lead the country, to be responsible for it's safety and well being, to be the government of, by, and for the people was finally revealed to all for what it was. Surely, surely, SURELY many, if not all, of us felt, surely these vile liars, thieves and murderers would finally be held accountable for some, if not all, of their crimes.
  
  Well, a year later, their precious poll numbers are certainly down for the count. Brownie (the former director of the Federal Emergency Management, Michael Brown) has had to find another high paying job. But everyone else from the homeland security secretary, Michael Chertoff, on up, through George Bush, and all the way to Dick Cheney at the top are still in place, still waging their criminal war against Iraq, still arming and encouraging Israeli butchery, still bamboozling everyone from Fox News to the New York Times with their bullshit about Iran and "the terrorists" being a threat to "us." Meanwhile the poor and black people of New Orleans are still out of their homes, out of jobs, out of luck. [Jeremy Pikser in The Guardian's Comment Is Free blog]
  
  
• A team of political hoaxers fooled New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin, Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco, and a thousand construction-industry members today.
  
  Posing as fictitious senior HUD official Rene Oswin, Andy Bichlbaum -- a member of the group the Yes Men -- promised big (and unlikely) changes in New Orleans to a privately-organized conference in Kenner, Louisiana. Among his expansive promises, according to CNN:
  
  - Energy giants Exxon and Shell would spend $8.6 billion "to finance wetlands rebuilding from $60 billion in profits this year."
  
  - Wal-Mart would withdraw its stores from poor neighborhoods and "help nurture local businesses to replace them."
  
  - the federal government would spend $180 million to fund "at least one well-equipped public health clinic for every housing development."
  
  - the feds would reverse plans to replace public schools with private and charter schools, and instead create a national tax base to supplement local taxes.
  [...]
  "It's really a sick, twisted -- I don't even want to refer to it as a joke," HUD spokeswoman Donna White told CNN. "At this point, it's not funny." [TPM Muckraker]
  
  For a bit more on the Yes Men, check out this trailer from the documentary about the group released a couple years back.
  
  

Middle East Sturm und Drang

• Dozens are killed in a pipeline explosion outside a southern Iraqi city after militias loyal to Moqtada al-Sadr and Iraqi Army soldiers clash in Diwaniya. After soldiers left their posts at the pipeline, looters moved in to siphon oil and caused a large explosion. The US turns Abu Ghraib over to Iraqi forces. A group of Iraqi soldiers refuses to go to Baghdad. Alberto Gonzales visits Baghdad to meet with Iraqi legal officials. [Foreign Policy's Passport]

Climate Crisis

• “With parts of South Dakota at its epicenter, a severe drought has slowly sizzled a large swath of the Plains States, leaving farmers and ranchers with conditions that they compare to those of the Dust Bowl of the 1930’s.” [ThinkProgress' ThinkFast]

Domestic Potpourri

• The battle for Christmas is beginning already. The Carpetbagger points us to this story from the American Family Association ("America's Pro-Family Action Web Site"):
  

  It appears the battle against what some call the politically correct title for Christmas has already begun. A pro-family group is highlighting ad on page 69 in the Sam's Club in-house magazine, Source, that promotes "holiday" cards, ribbons and gift bags, despite all the products obviously being designed for Christmas.
  
  Randy Sharp, special projects director for the American Family Association, says it looks like Sam's Club parent company Wal-Mart is adhering to the same "holiday" policy in the 2006 season as it followed in 2005. "Last year," he says, "Wal-Mart refused to use the word Christmas in their advertising, and they were inundated by angry customers. And already this year they're showing their true colors by again refusing to acknowledge Christmas." [hat tip to The Gadflyer]

Big Blue Marble

• Sen. Barack Obama urged Kenyans to take control of their country's destiny by opposing corruption and ethnic divisions in government during a speech Monday in Nairobi. Kenya and other African nations will never thrive if their citizens cannot count on government to deliver services fairly, regardless of their tribal background or ability to pay bribes, the Illinois Democrat told about 600 people at the state-run University of Nairobi.
  [...]
  On Monday, Obama acknowledged the irony of a politician from Chicago, known for its long history of public corruption, talking about good government. But while corruption is universal, he said, in Kenya it amounts to "a crisis that's robbing an honest people of opportunities they have fought for." [WaPo]
  
  
• A blast in the center of Antalya, a popular resort town on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast, killed three people and wounded 20 on Monday. Three explosions in another popular tourist destination on Sunday injured 21 people, including 10 Britons. The Kurdistan Liberation Hawks, a hard-line separatist group linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, claimed responsibility for the bomb attacks in the coastal resort of Marmaris on Sunday and for another blast in Istanbul the same day that wounded six people, according to a statement on its Web site on Monday. [NYTimes]

And finally... Wardo strikes to the heart of the Jesus Presidency in his latest Sutton Impact strip at the Village Voice.