No one seems to care about either of them

This morning, a Washington Post reporter was on CNN saying that in much of Iraq, there was still no power, people were homeless, and they had lost their jobs. If you substitute the word "New Orleans" for "Iraq," it rings just as true. The only difference is that at least the Bush administration didn't bomb New Orleans to smithereens before not rebuilding it.

It's a sad thing to lose your roof

It's a much sadder thing to lose your sense of humor.

Martina Hingis returns to the tour, so why don't I feel better?

For three years, I have waited for the great Martina Hingis to say "I'm back!" Now that she has said it, I feel some anxiety. Hingis has been off of the WTA tour since 2002, when foot injuries forced her to retire. Her detractors said the real reason for her retirement was that she was losing to power players and didn't want to be humiliated, but I never bought into that.

Martina Hingis is, simply put, a tennis genius. Nicknamed "Chucky" by sports commentator Mary Carillo because she would smile like the doll in Child's Play (or so Carillo thought) right before she destroyed an opponent, Hingis is considered by many to be the best point constructor of all time. Because she was so adept at strategy, however, she allowed her physicality to lapse. Admittedly lazy about training, she did not get her body in the shape it needed to be in for her to fulfill her potential. Hingis also had a serve that left something to be desired, and she will definitely need to improve it if she expects to get herself back to the top level of competition.

I let my enthusiasm for women's tennis lapse for a while several years ago, and it was the amazing Hingis who brought me back into the fold. I regret that I didn't keep up with her career from the very beginning, and feel that by not closely watching her evolution, I missed something really big. It is my biggest tennis fan regret.

It has been fun watching Hingis play in World Team Tennis matches, especially since she has teamed with her former doubles partner, Anna Kournikova. But returning to the WTA is a whole different matter. Hingis hasn't said how active she will be in 2006, so her thousands of fans must wait nervously to see what happens.

In the meantime, one of my other favorite players, Hingis's Swiss compatriot Patty Schnyder, has blossomed and achieved her highest ranking ever, so Switzerland should be a country to watch next year.

Landrieu considering blocking Senate holiday recess

Louisisana Senator Mary Landrieu said yesterday that she is giving some thought to blocking the U.S. Senate's holiday recess until the government has agreed to pay for flood protection improvements along Louisiana's coast. There has already been considerable talk of a Louisiana citizen march on Washington, which might get more attention if Landrieu prevents the Senate from going home for Christmas.

(Continue reading at MoJo Blog)

Talk about the good old days

Jack Valenti is on C-Span, talking about his inspiration for creating a film-rating system: the film version of Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? "They were saying things like 'hump the hostess,'" Valenti reminded the Congressional panel.

I had to laugh. There is no way any kid, other than a highly intellectual one with a knowledge of absurdist theatre, would sit through the first ten minutes of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, much less stick around for "hump the hostess" and "angel tits."

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, remarkably, was the first film the great Mike Nichols ever directed, and it is stunning. This is the film in which Elizabeth Taylor showed a sometimes-doubting world that she was an actor of the highest caliber. Though plays with limited sets are usually not chosen as film material, it is the very claustrophobia of the film that makes the dialogue so terrifying. In fact, the one scene that is set outside of the house is the weakest scene in the film.

Taylor's character, Martha, also utters one of my favorite lines in all of film: "I am the earth mother, and you are all flops."

Honey: Oh, I don't know, a little brandy maybe. "Never mix, never worry!"
George: Martha? Rubbing alcohol for you?
Martha: Sure! "Never mix, never worry!"

When all you need is a picture

From today's Times-Picayune, Senator Landrieu tours the 17th Street Canal levee area with the ambassador from the Netherlands.

Supreme Court rejects Edmonds appeal

Today was one of the blackest days in recent American history, for today, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected, without comment, Sibel Edmonds' appeal following the dismissal of her lawsuit against the FBI.

If you are devoted to the mainstream news media and have never read Edmonds' letter, here it is.

It's a good thing I don't have any rotten fruit

I'd be hurling it at my television. Barbara Walters was just on, explaining to us that George W. Bush didn't intend to mislead the American people about Iraq; it just sort of happened.

And that John McCain is much less conservative than his colleagues. Pehaps we should send her his voting record.

And of course, it wouldn't be Walters without a sexist comment. This one was directed at Condoleezza Rice, who Walters said has accomplished much "without being shrill about it."

Jane Austen not good enough for Margaret Cho

I am a huge fan of Margaret Cho's comedy and of her writing. It always puzzles me that she is so compassionate about everything else but continues to support the eating and wearing of animals, but that is the way she is, I suppose, and we must wait for her to become enlightened.

However, in her latest blog post, Cho infuriates me in a way I never dreamed she would--by dismissing Jane Austen. How dare she.

The everyday effects of Katrina

For thousands of homeless people in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and beyond, every moment of every day is a reminder of the force of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and the obscenity of a government that did nothing while people and animals died, economies were wrecked, careers ended, and family members were separated.

For the rest of us in the hurricane zone, it isn't that bad, though thousands more of us are still waiting for insurance checks, waiting for the contractor, waiting for the stump grinder, waiting to find out what new damage has been discovered. Every time I look at the stack of logs in my driveway or see the pile of cable left next to our wrecked mailbox, I am reminded of Katrina. I see the big blank spaces in my back yard and I think of Katrina. I look at the plants that died, the crack in the brick wall, and hole in the fence, and Katrina is with me.

As relatively insignificant as these things are, there are many more things that have caused our lives to be changed--not in terrible ways, just in ways that make us realize the consequences of a natural disaster. For example, it took me weeks to get a plumber to come to our house and replace a toilet that was no longer functioning. The plumbers we used to use would not return our dozen or so calls. Almost all of the plumbers in the parish are working on new construction and can't be bothered to replace our toilet. The rest are patching the hundreds of leaks that occurred when people turned off their pumps, causing corroded pipes to get washed out to the point of total destruction.

It is hard to get to places because of the traffic. Though the re-opening of the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway helped a lot, there are now so many people living here temporarily that our highways are jammed with vehicles.

We can no longer be certain about the closing times of restaurants and other facilities. They change from night to night, depending on how many employees can be located on a given day.

We cannot get the things we used to get easily. I took some posters to my frame shop to have them framed. For some, there was an option of using mats and putting them in standard size frames, only there were hardly any standard size frames available because the supply houses were flooded during Katrina. Same with custom work--not enough employees to do the jobs, and a lack of framing materials. Using other supply houses is not much of a solution because delivery services like UPS are still not delivering in a timely manner because of the backups. An employee told me that the usual reaction from customers was anger, as if it had not occurred to them that their holiday plans would be obstructed by a Category 5 storm.

Last week, I referred a client to a doctor, and then found out he had moved to Houston after Katrina. When I went to the suite of offices in which he used to work, I discovered that everyone there had moved away. I no longer know who is in my community, who has gone away, and who is making plans to leave. Just about all anyone talks about is fallen trees, insurance issues, and FEMA.

Things are going to be different for a long, long time.

U.S. farmers ignore international treaty on methyl bromide

Methyl bromide, a pesticide, fungicide, and herbicide used primarily in the growing of strawberries, tomatoes, and bell peppers, has been found to rapidly deplete the ozone layer, and is toxic to humans and animals. Because of the harm done by methyl bromide, the Montreal Protocol Treaty--signed by the United States--to phase out its use, except in the most extreme cases, by 2005. But here it is, almost 2006, and methyl bromide use in the United States is still going strong. In fact, the Bush administration plans to protect its use at least through 2008, and will not commit to a termination date.

(Continue reading at MoJo Blog)

At my wit's end

Right here.

Sometimes you just can't wait until lunch

So it turns out that inspectors from the Orleans Levee Board, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development didn't just hurry through their inspections of the region's levees so they could get to lunch on time. On their last cursory inspection--the one before Katrina--they also took a mid-morning coffee break.

A spokesman for the Corps of Engineers calls what happened a "good 'lessons learned'." I call it a destruction of one of America's leading cities and the collapse of a state's economy.

New Mexico State football coach accused of religious discrimination

According to ACLU attorney George Bach, New Mexico State University football coach Hal Mumme had his players recite The Lord's Prayer after every practice and before every game. Three of the team members were Muslims. When Mumme saw them praying differently from the other players, he asked them what they were doing (apparently Mumme lives in a cave and has never been exposed to any information about the outside world). They explained to him that they prayed differently because they were Muslims.

According to the lawsuit filed by Muammar Ali, the team's star running back, things got bad after that incident. Muume called Ali in for a private meeting, and questioned him repeatedly about Islam and its ties to al-Qaeda. Following the meeting, Ali says his coach never spoke to him again. Ali's role on the team became smaller and smaller until he was cut completely. The other two Muslin team members were cut, also.

This is not the first time Mumme has been involved in an incident that smacks of wrongdoing. When he was the football coach at the University of Kentucky, the school was placed on probation for three years and had its football scholarships stripped because of three dozen recruiting violations. Mumme then resigned from the university.

That terrible French government is at it again

France and Louisiana have a strong bond that goes all the way back to the Louisiana Purchase. Until lazy, racist, redneck governor Mike Foster came along and snubbed Chirac because of the Iraq invasion, things went quite well between us. Now, France is putting together an arts program to help Louisiana recover from Katrina and Rita.

Through this program, Louisiana musicians will be able to live in France for three months and perform, and their room and board will be paid for. The French government is also putting together packages to promote the Louisiana-France connection, and the Louvre, Musee d'Orsay, and the contemporary art collection of Centre George Pompidou are providing the New Orleans Museum of Art with a major exhibition in 2007.

Thousands of people visit the Louvre, where the "Mona Lisa," among another 35,000 masterpieces, is shown

A Katrina story

You may not have heard.

It isn't important until men want it

Pinko Feminist Hellcat has a great post on a Fortune Magazine article about the plight of American men who are working 80 hours a week and have discovered that the quality of their lives is very poor. They are now complaining about what women have complained about for decades, but the difference is--someone is listening to them. PFH makes the point that a woman who appears to put her career over her family would be in for harsh criticism, and that a man who cannot seem to leave his office is never accused of "trying to have it all."

The killer sentence, as PFH points out, is: "It's hardly news that accomplished women are desperate for a new deal at work. But anyone who understands America knows that unless men want something, too, not much will change."

Aside from the obvious issue of sexism--women are both ignored and criticized for having ideas that are attended to and praised when men have them--the Fortune article brings to the surface a particular peeve of mine--the sickness of the American corporate workplace. Knowing that you have to put in 80 hours a week in order to "succeed" should be a gigantic clue to say "hell, no" and find another job or another career, But for many attorneys and corporate executives, alienation from family, extreme stress, physical deterioration, and the development of mental illness are the prices they are willing to pay to have a lot of money, and--perhaps more important--career status.

Poor Ugandan women raise money for Katrina victims

In the Kireka region of Kampala, Uganda, the women work hard, breaking large rocks into small rocks. For this labor, they are paid $1.20 a day. Most of them are HIV positive and have been driven from their homes by their country's civil war.

Two hundred of them somehow raised $900 for the victims of Katrina, an act of such generosity, it is diffifult to fathom.

"When I die," a Kampala woman with AIDS said, "my children will be left like those in America. Someone will have to care for them. I want to care for someone also."

When woodcocks fall from the sky

This morning, I was in my home office, checking my email, when I heard a big thud on the front porch. I looked out the window, thinking a squirrel had experienced a clumsy moment trying to attach itself to a bird feeder, but what I saw instead was the rarely observed American woodcock. Apparently, it had fallen from the roof. The bird didn't move, though when we went outside, it took a few steps. But then it kind of froze, allowing me to get very close. The next step, of course, was to take it to the bird rehab place, so we prepared a lined carrier for the trip. The woodcock then walked onto the grass, where I wanted to take another photo in order to get some contrast. But then there was a flapping of wings and a shrill goodbye, and off it flew. The fall stunned it, but it recovered nicely.

Several years ago, on Good Friday, I came home from a mesmerizing, multi-colored exhibit of Haitian art to find a painted bunting on our front porch. Unfortunately, it was dead; our best guess was that it had tried to fly through the glass window. I have never seen another one.

Michael Brown wasn't the only one who was worried about getting to the restaurant

The Orleans Levee Board, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development were supposed to inspect the levees, but they never got around to completing their inspections because they were in a hurry to get to lunch.

They are still maintaining that the New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board never told them about the water in people's yards in Lakeview, and said that next time, the residents should call them directly. Sure.

Friday cat blogging bonus

By popular demand, here are Roxie and Velma sleeping in the bedroom. Roxie is in their kitten bed, where she still likes to hang out, and Velma has made a bed of some gym shorts and an athletic support.

Bravo!

Thanks to Shakespeare's Sister for leading me to Amanda's post at Pandagon (though I would have wound up there eventually, anyway).

With his resume, why shouldn't he do well?

Former FEMA director Michael Brown, whose callousness and cluelessness left hundreds of people and animals dead, thousands of people homeless, thousands of people without jobs, and which wrecked the economy and ecology of New Orleans, southwestern Louisiana, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast, has set himself up as a disaster preparedness consultant.

Any why not? Brown says he can teach communities to avoid making the "mistakes" that cost him his job. "I'm doing a lot of good work with some great clients," Brown says. If that is the truth, we have to ask two questions: Who would be stupid enough to hire him? And who would be ammoral enough to hire him? This is America, so I have no doubt there are people to fill both categories. Still, it boggles the mind.

Something worth reading

A former New Orleans history teacher wrote this piece for the Times-Picayune, and it sums up quite well the reason people love the city. As a person who both loves and hates New Orleans, I found it good reading.

Friday cat blogging--the Paris series

Cats on Quai d'Orsay

The danger of faith-based prisons

When I first saw the term "faith-based prison," I burst out laughing. What the hell, I wondered, is a faith-based prison? To get my question answered, I turned to Florida governor and Constitution-basher Jeb Bush, who has opened Wakulla Correctional Institution in Crawfordville (not making this up), Florida. Wakulla's 1,600 inmates are expected to have low recitivism rates because they have regular prayer sessions, religious studies, choir practice and life skills training.

Naturally, people who care about church/state separation are upset by the existence of Wakulla, which purports to serve inmates of any religion or no religion, but of course, it's all about Jesus all the time.

There is another danger to operating such a prison, however, and that danger has to do with addiction. An extremely high percentage of prison populations suffer from alcohol and drug addiction; indeed, many inmate are behind bars because of their drug habits. People who suffer from serious addictions often temporarily put aside the addiction that has gotten them into trouble and substitute it with another, "acceptable" addiction. One of the most popular of these is compulsive religiosity.

When I was in the alcohol and drug treatment profession, I saw a great number of people "cured" by "finding God," only they became very extreme and dysfunctional about their new-found religion, and it caused them to do many of the things they did when they were drinking or drugging. Their thinking was warped, they hurt those around them, and they neglected their social and psychological growth. And, as I have already mentioned, the "cure" was temporary.

Teaching life skills is a good idea, and of course, inmates should be permitted to visit with the clergypeople of their choice. But introducing a number of addicts in a closed setting to regular prayer meetings and Bible study is a sure-fire formula for creating an addiction to religion.

Who is thankful today? The people of Jackson, Mississippi

By the time Hurricane Katrina reached Jackson, Mississippi, its winds were only 47 mph, with occasional gusts of up to 74 mph. These gusts knocked down trees and power lines, and damaged some roofs. Only 50 or 60 houses in the Jackson area were declared uninhabitable. Right after Katrina hit, the Bush administration declared 15 Mississippi coastal counties disaster areas. By September 7, at the request of the state of Mississippi, this disaster zone was extended 220 miles inland, and later, it was extended to include 47 counties, some 200 miles further north than the northernmost disaster area in Louisiana.

(Continue reading at MoJo Blog)

Before the animals of Katrina and Rita are forgotten

Please sign the Best Friends petition.

Quote of the week

From a letter to the New Orleans Times-Picayune: "The motto of the Corps of Engineers should be, 'If you can't come to the lake, we will bring the lake to you.'"

My turkey's photo arrived today

In a nice frame, just in time for the big day. Her name is Pumpkin, and here she is.

Sexist quote of the week--probably of the month

Louisiana state representative Troy Hebert, in urging the House not to go along with a compromise version of a bill granting tax breaks on natural gas and electricity to some industries: "Just reach down in your Fruit of the Looms and find something."

Once again, courage has to be found in male genitalia because that's where it apparently resides.

Please email Representative Hebert at larep049@legis.state.la.us and express your displeasure. Especially if you are from Louisiana. Emails from men would be especially helpful, too.

Why do people always laugh when I say I boycott Wal-Mart?

It happened again this morning, as it has happened countless times--someone asked me if I had seen the lines at Wal-Mart, and I said no, I've boycotted Wal-Mart for many years, and someone standing nearby began laughing. As always, I asked "Why is that funny? They do terrible things to people." And as always, the laugher said "I know they do; I've read quite a lot about it."

So could someone please let me in on the joke?

My existential angst takes on a new twist

The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and the Church of the Mouse and Disco Ball... Can they co-exist for the good of humanity? Will they bring about a new ecumenical movement? Will they ask me to adopt a starving child in Ethiopia or produce television shows so they can talk about their building funds? Is that old-time religion good enough for me?

Al-Jazeera memo leak heats up in U.K.

It is always dangerous to be a news reporter during a war, but it has been especially lethal during the Iraq war. Today, the British government confirmed what was rumor--that when George W. Bush met with Tony Blair in the spring of 2004, he talked about targeting the headquarters of Al-Jazeera. A source for The Daily Mirror insists that Bush was joking, while another source claims he was quite serious.

(Continue reading on MoJo Blog)

Mongolian women should talk to someone who gives a damn

Mongolia, a supposedly democratic nation (we know about those), is a place in which women say they do most of the work, but men make all of the decisions. Mongolian women are significantly under-represented in the political field (still familiar, isn't it?), and face serious issues of poverty and domestic violence (well, there you are).

Apparently, the women in Mongolia are not aware that American women face many of these same problems. At any rate, they wasted their collective breath yesterday when they appealed for help to...Laura Bush. Maybe they should have checked first with Afghan women or Iraqi women, or for the remaining non-brain-dead women in America.

If there are any Mongolian women reading this, take heed: Laura Bush is the number one supporter of the man whose policies opened the door for the deaths of thousands of African women and children, and for the poisoning of thousands of American children. This is the man whose mission is to make the rich richer, chip away steadily at women's rights, and kill and maim unknown numbers of Iraqi women and children.

Maybe you need to think this through.

Paulie, you're doing a heck of a job

The president of St. Bernard Parish called in to a radio show today with some interesting information. First, the number of houses found to be habitable in his parish: one. That's right. In a parish of 680 square miles with a former population of around 65,000, there is one house in which people could live.

The parish president said there was a large area that had to be cleared of damaged trailers before new ones could be brought in, but no one hired by FEMA ever showed up to do the job, as contracted on October 21. Now the lot is being cleared, anyway, and could hold about 800 trailers, but FEMA has not brought them in to St. Bernard. He knew of 3,000 trailers lined up and ready to go. He also said he had yet to lay eyes on Donald Powell, who is overseeing long-term hurricane recovery in the Gulf region.

Meanwhile, back in my parish, I went to the grocery store where I heard temporary Baton Rouge residents chatting about those, you know, St. Bernard people who were invading our parish. They spoke in whispers and laughed among themselves. Why they were putting on airs, I don't know, because their other topic of converation was how put out they were that the local Wal-Mart is currently open only 12 hours a day.

Poll shows people in Britain still believe rape victims "ask for it"

A poll commissioned by Amnesty International reveals that British attitudes toward women who are raped have not changed over several decades. One third of those responding to the poll believe that a woman is "partly or completely responsible" if she is raped after she has been flirtatious or if she is drunk. More than one quarter believe that she is partially responsible if she is wearing sexy or revealing clothing.

(Continue reading at MoJo Blog)

"It seems like a lot of the chicks are covered"

Poor Scott Counts, a 45-year-old Florida roofer who has come to Gulfport do hurricane reconstruction work and has encountered a city newly filled with men like himself, who now greatly outnumber the women. "It seems like a lot of the chicks are covered. I'm not the kind of guy who will stand in line with ten other guys to talk to a woman," Counts said in an interview with the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

"We may be devastated, but we're not desperate,"one of the local women told the newspaper. Another Gulfport woman said "All these guys are either married or they're lying."

Hooters is full all the time now, and bar fights, parking lot fights, DWI's and drug arrests have dramatically increased. It's just one big testosterone-filled, sex-crazed good time, but not for everyone.

Lapham does it again

In his December Harper's "Notebook," editor Lewis H. Lapham provides what is, for all practicial purposes, a sequel to his unforgettable November column. "The Simple Life" is a summary of federal corruption and cronyism in the Katrina/Rita recovery business.

Paris photos are online

You can see a few of our recent Paris photos here.

Hispanic post-Katrina workers said to be living in terrible conditions and cheated out of pay

Hispanic workers who went to the Mississippi Gulf Coast to do hurricane recovery work after Katrina report that their employers sometimes disappear without paying them, that they sometimes have to wait a long time for a complex web of contractors to pay them, that their paychecks are sometimes smaller than promised, or that those paychecks never arrive at all.

(Continue reading at MoJo Blog)

Misogynist quote of the week

In speaking of RSS supremo K S Sudarshan's suggestion that Hindus have at least three children to multiply the community population, VHP leader Acharya Dharmendra "when we cannot control the population of the minorities, to maintain the balance between the minority and the majority, Hindu women should be prepared for more labour pains."

Dharmendra's remarks came about while he was criticizing Indian tennis player Sania Mirza, who is now being accused of trying to destroy the institution of marriage.

Most sickening car sticker I've seen in a while

Today, I was behind an SUV that had a Christian fish sticker with a cross inside it; the whole thing was red, white, and blue with stars and stripes.

Friday cat blogging--disgusted sister edition

Problems with 17th Street Canal levee were reported a year ago

About a year ago, a woman who lives near the 17th Street Canal in New Orleans noticed there was water in her yard. Then more water. Soon, her neighbors noticed there was water in their yards, too. The woman called the New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board, who came out, tore up the sidewalks and driveways, and corrected the problem--somewhat. The yard continued to be wet, only not as wet as before. The woman assumed, as would anyone, that the Sewerage & Water Board had contacted the Army Corps of Engineers about the issue, after confirming that the water was coming from the canal.

The Corps, however, says it was never contacted. Considering the monumental inefficiency of the Sewerage & Water Board, this is very likely the truth. On the other hand, considering the monumental inefficiency of the Army Corps of Engineers, it is entirely possible its office was indeed told about the problem.

A man in the same neighborhood noticed his townhouse was shaking as a construction crew next door drove piles for a new project. The crew had demolished two houses and uprooted two giant oaks at the site, which--just weeks later, would prove to be the center of the levee breech.

We have already learned that the levee was poorly constructed and should never have been approved. And now we know that pre-Katrina warning signs were ignored. Because of inefficiency, unprofessionalism, bureaucracy, amorality, and probable corruption of those in charge--and the inefficiency and callousness of those charged with disaster management-- hundreds of people and animals are dead, and thousands are homeless and jobless.

Sania Mirza condemned for promoting safe sex

Once again, rising Indian tennis star Sania Mirza is in trouble in her home country. Already having had a fatwa issued against her because she wears regulation tennis clothing and western-style sportswear, now Mirza has dared to promote safe sex in India. She told the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit: "So there are two issues here, safe sex and sex before marriage. You don't want me to tell you that you have to have safe sex, whether it is before or after marriage. Everyone must know what he or she is doing."

Mirza's remarks have now somehow been morphed into a promotion of sex before marriage, and protesters have burned her posters on the streets. Some have demanded an apology from her, and others have called her "un-Islamic." Mirza made her comment about safe sex only a day after she publicly supported Tamil film star Khushboo, who was taken to court for talking about pre-marital sex.

Remember Afghanistan?

Via Patriot Daily, a report from USA Today reveals that U.S. Special Forces soldiers say that a more organized enemy than they faced last year. The report of the 1st Batallion, 3rd Special Forces Group, is that includes the fact that this year in Afghanistan has been the bloodiest since 2001. 87 troops have died, and the insurgency is not about to collapse, as predicted by Army Lt. Gen. David Barno.

(Continue reading at MoJo Blog)

Holla Back!

Thanks to Pandagon, I visited Holla Back, a blog in which women of New York City photograph men who harrass them. It is totally pathetic that in 21st Century America, there is a need for women to holla back, but--as we all know--that is reality. So a shout-out to Holla Back, and a plea for feminist men to help us put an end to the constant harrassment.

NPR produces a riveting piece

I was fortunate enough to be in my car with NPR on when "My Lobotomy" was aired. The "All Things Considered" feature tells the story of 56-year-old Howard Dully, who received a transorbital lobotomy from Dr. Howard Freeman when he was 12 years old. Dully was not mentally ill; rather, he was considered a nuisance by his stepmother, who arranged the surgery.

"My Lobotomy" covers Dully's two-year search for information about what was done to him, and ends with his finally talking to his father, whose denial is bone-chilling.

You can download the feature and see and hear a lot of Web-only features here.

On doing things in a timely fashion

In the next week or so, Louisiana will receive bills from FEMA for its share of post-Katrina/Rita recovery. The total of all the bills is expected to be $3.7 billion. The federal agency has made it clear to state officials that there will be interest, penalties, and possible ineligibility for other federal funds if the state does not pay the bills in a "timely fashion."

Sure. Like FEMA responded to the hurricanes in a "timely fashion." Will Louisiana be billed for the rows of buses ordered by Governor Blanco but not allowed to enter the state until days after the storm hit, and which then entered from the Arkansas end of Louisiana? Will the state be billed for the multiple trucks of ice that were sent to Maine and South Carolina, where they are probably still sitting? How about the telecommunications equipment ordered by the governor that was never received at all? Or the truckloads of food that had be parked on the side of the road until George W. Bush could make his round of "I knew a storm was comin'" speeches and advise evacuees to go to Goodwill centers that had been blown to oblivion by Katrina?

What about the share of Michael Chertoff's and Michael Brown's hefty salaries and consulting fees that Louisiana's citizens helped pay for? Can that be deducted?

People died in the Superdome and the Convention Center. They died on the street. They died after they finally reached Houston. Their pets were tossed into the street like garbage by "rescuers." Because everything was done in such a "timely fashion."

Congress takes back September 11 aid money

For some time now, New York officials have done their best to hold on to $125 million in aid that was originally intended to help cover increased worker compensation costs originating from the September 11 attacks. The city was saving the money to use for the first responders who are likely to develop long-term lung problems from working around the debris, as well as mental health problems from working at the disaster site.

(Continue reading at MoJo Blog)

The best place to get a Thanksgiving turkey

I took Kathy's lead and adopted a turkey for Thanksgiving. You can adopt one, too, which is a lot nicer than eating one.

Happy Birthday, Harriet!

I hope you enjoyed your party.

Time Magazine slaps Blanco 3 times--once would have been enough

Time Magazine has just named Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco one of the five worst governors in the United States, based on her post-hurricane reponse. The writers went out of the way to say they found Blanco blameless in every aspect of hurricane preparation and government performance. The low rating was because she failed to appear "decisive, steadfast, and capable" during the days after Katrina and Rita hit Louisiana, and because it took her seven weeks to establish her Louisiana Recovery Authority.

The governor's failure to establish the LRA in a timely fashion deserves a big media slap, in my opinion. But her failure to have a bullhorn moment shouldn't come as a surpise to anyone who has followed her career. She is the most low-key politician imaginable. And besides, we know what can happen when people are sucked in by the ersatz leader appearing "decisive, steadfast, and capable," so perhaps that routine is a tad over-rated.

The third slap? Time didn't take into account any other part of Blanco's governorship. I am no fan of Blanco, but she was certainly the better of the two choices we had, and she is certainly better than the last governor we had. Since she took office not that long ago, she has done some good things and she has done some stupid things. If I were giving grades, I'd probably give her a C+, though it may be too early to be handing out grades. She is a tireless worker, she understands what the state has to do to attract business, and it appears she is a bit of a closet civil libertarian. On the down side, she has established strong alliances with the wink-nudge legislative crowd of old, she has hardly mentioned the state's massive environmental problems, and she is going to task-force us all to the edge of reason.

She has also been the chief scapegoat for the Bush administration in its desperation to appear competent in the aftermath of the hurricanes. The White House mud machine worked overtime to spread huge lies about her, and much of the mud stuck in a state where people were angry and in total denial that the "man of God" could possibly have done these terrible things to them.