TMI a little place to whine

So why does it take so much longer to make a rich man who is politically connected to be indicted for breaking the law than it does for a poor man with no connections?

Why could the people essentially fire Spiro Agnew from the office of Vice President and yet we allow all kinds of" rule bending" and manipulation of the law by our own legislature to go on?

Just because a man doesn't admit guilt does not mean he is not guilty. It may mean he is in denial, or he's just a liar thinking that if he doesn't admit a mistake he can't be blamed for it.

Since when did the word "intelligent design" enter the vocabulary of the politician to mean "I am too smart to admit to anything so I'll create my own story and people will believe it because if they were stupid enough to believe my campaign promises they'll believe anything"?

I hope the Tom DeLay indictment is the first step in getting the country back to requiring all politicians to show honesty, ethical behavior and responsibility for their actions. I hope that the truth will out at last.

For the life of me I can't keep up with dust anymore.

It's everywhere, on the ceiling fans, window ledges, floors, books, furniture - everywehre I look there lies a layer of dust.

I recall in my early married life that dust was under control. How I dont' know, I mean I had my first child just after my first anniversary, and the second 3 years later. I had lots to do, lots to clean, lots of responsibility and the housework did get done.

Now I have grown kids, a job and supposedly free time of my own. So why can't I keep up with the dust? Is the world suffering from a dust invasion? Is dust in Florida worse than Pennsylvania dust? I can't put my finger on why I am now overwhelmed with dust.

Perhaps as I asg dust particles travel at an increased speed, and I can't catch them as easily?

Whatever the reason...I just want it resolved. I want the dust to go away so my house looks relatively clean at least one day a week. Is that too much to ask?

When I hear people talk about math as if it's the only real science I laugh.

Math a science? Math finite? Oh come on.

I watched a tv show last night on Discovery Science. The program was talking about the theory of everything, and the beginning of our universe. At first physicists thought that string theory was the answer to that question...how to our universe begin. But it turns out to NOT be true. Instead they now think the answer is M theory "or membrain theory."

I won't go into it but I will tell you that to get to this new "M" theory was thought up when thee math guys were on a train on the way to see a play in London. They were making up stuff, you know just as if they were writing a science fiction story. Then they decide after an hour on the train that what they made up was right they went to the play.

So on the basis of some fantasy they have decided that they found the secret of the universe.

Heck, if they wanted an answer to how the universe began (big bang caused by a collision of membrains that are part of the 11 dimensions, whch now proved that Time existed before the big bang) I could have made that stuff up on my own. But because the guys who did have PhD's in physics and did some mumbo jumbo with x's y's and math junk it's now thought to be proven.
So all that finite stuff they keep telling you math is turns out to be nothing more than some story that 3 guys on a train just made up. Somehow that doesn't seem very finite to me.


And in the long run why bother? Creationists won't believe it anyhow.

So I was treated well by the family. Had a nice day filled with good wishes and food. Lunch at Red Lobster, dinner at Tony Roma's and then ice cream cake for dessert with family at home.

I'm only 57, I say only because I was calculating my retitement and realized only recently that I have one year longer to work than I thought. Oh crud.

Rita was a rather mild hurricane here but she's a category 5 now and headed for Texas. God help those in her way.

Another hurricane in the active season of 2005.

We are preparing and waiting to see how long it will take her to get here and how strong she will be.

The season is very tiring and we only have gotten weak storms so far this year. I can imagine how the people in New Orleans feel, no I know how they feel. For years after hurricane Andrew it was like driving a nail into my heart just thinking about the hurricanes forming.

Sue Ann

Why now?

Why only now is the media exposing the emperor who is wearing no clothes?

Why didn't the liberal media have the b*lls to do it forcefully before so that people would understand what they were seeing?

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/18/opinion/18rich.html?ex=1127707200&en=f564b5fc80890ef1&ei=5070&emc=eta1

The Republicans always blamed the liberal media for saying things that were untrue about the George W. Bush. But not me. I blame advertising.

Americans have been more inclined to believe what they are told if it's packaged well, even to the point of believing sheer nonsense as long as it has a catchy phrase and a smiling face behind it. We've been spoon feed opinions how how to dress by the fashion advertisers, on how to eat by food suppliers, on how to take care of our health by the pharmacudical industry advertisers, and on how to consume things we don't want or need by almost every other advertiser, like big tobacco, and Walmart.

We only really need food, shelter and clothing. We have been told that we need fast food, 5 bedroom 3 bath homes and designer sneakers. With that kind of ingrained acceptance it's no wonder so many Americans fell for the advertising about George W. Bush. "I will keep you safe?" Safe from what? The terror he made sure every American knew that was around the corner because he TOLD us it was there?

George Bush took the tragedy of those falling twin towers from 9/11 and used it against us.
He exploited the fear he and his advertisers instilled in us all and made many Americans believe that without him we would be subject to a danger worse than we could imagine.


It was all a sham.

We didn't imagine the worst could be a storm - not man made but nature made. Americans expected to be protected, lulled into a sense of security by the catch phrases and jingles that elected George W. Bush to a second term.

Some of the media tried to point it all out before the election, unfortunately no one followed through, because people wanted to believe that there was some kind of magic that he possessed to keep the America they love safe. No one semed to be listening to what was behind the slogans.

I listened. I fought hard against George W. Bush's campaign of fear and his slick smarmey smile. I read the articles and saw what he really was - naked in front of the world.

I am not the smartest person alive. I know that. What I don't understand is that if I am not all that smart and I got it, why didn't everyone else?

When I wrote about madder and madder a week or so ago I didn't "verify" where I had heard or seen about the incidents I wrote about.

Well call me a little slow. I was cuaght up in the euphoria of Paul McCartney lately and haven't posted on anything that was not related to him lately or checked my blog for commets very often.

If that person is still interested in sources then he should know that one story was reported on TV, a local Mami station WSVN channel 7 (I think that was the flat boat one). The other one was reported by Channel 4 the NBC affiliate in Miami. However at this late date I am really unsure of which was reported on which station.

Thank God for a professional newspaper review of the concert, because without it I would never remember all of the songs Paul McCartney sang last night. I'll post the link to the Miami Herald article so you can get the review from someone younger and not as emotionally connected to Paul as I. http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12668203.htm

But let me get to the personal stuff first.

My daughter was supposed to take me to dinner before the concert, but the wait at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company was 1 hour to be seated and if we did that we would have missed the concert (supposedly). So we stood in line outside the American AirlinesArena, along with about a thousand others (it was about 6:40) The line was already pretty long, a second one formed and some people were sitting on the walls instead of standing. It looked like a Beatles concert was supposed to look, only most of us were well over 40. I ended up eating over price Papa Jonh's pizza ($7 for a personal pepperoni pizza) in my seat while waiting for the show to start.

They started letting us in at 7:00, and the line was SLOW because we all had to have our bags checked and we had to be wanded with a metal detector so we wouldn't take in any guns, knives, bombs or anything. Once inside Annie and I decided to buy our shirts first, so we got in line at the vendor...I did buy one for Tom, because I promised sicne he bought me my tickets, and Annie got one with sparkles that spelled out Paul McCartney (so that way Tom wouldn't steal hers) and I got one in red that reminded me of Peter Max stuff (Paul seems to like that color best, it was prominent on stage, his towels, and in his wardrobe), all of our shirts are different so we can't get them confused.

Then came the treck to the seats. Remember mine were sold as "behind the stage" seating so they were the really "cheap seats." Section 401, row 5 seats 5 and 6. Well, it turns out they were NOT the highest seats in the AAA there are seats to that actually went about 20 or 30 rows farther up than we were and behind actually meant beside. Yeah, they were really good seats. The only thing we couldn't see on stage was the drummer and the backdrop (we had a good view of the back of that). I didn't go to see the backdrop anyhow I went to see Paul and it was like watching Paul perform from above him, like looking out a 4th floor window at him performing in the yard below. GREAT VIEW!! We also didn't get blasted by the sound system, because we were behind the directional noise, but we heard very well. The big screen was near enough to catch "close ups" of his expression, but we had the advantage of seeing some "behind the scenes" working - like when the piano came up from below the stage so Paul could play . And we got to see him talking to the two other guitarists (who were younger and enregetic, and had voices so similiar to John and George that it was unbelievable) One guy Randy, with thick dark hair, had a haircut that fell in his eyes and he looked like he had a "Beatles" cut. The other guitarist Brian was a cute blonde, but a little shy.

So what was it like? How did I feel?

When the curtain came up (almost 45 minutes AFTER the posted ticket concert time) and I saw Paul I cried. It was not intentional, I was singing the song from the Sgt. Pepper album with 99.9% of the rest of the audience, (Roll Out for the Mystery Tour) but tears were rolling down my cheeks. It was Paul, and it brought a rush of memories of youth and of loss because I thought briefly about John and George and the brevity of life. But he sang, and I sang and I was filled with the joy of life. Paul was on stage and I was there. God's in His heaven and all is right with the world.

Paul looked a little stunned, as if he didnt' know what to expect - after all we were the first stop on this tour - it was like a runthrough I guess. He looked around and smiled and looked at us as if he'd come home. The two other guitarists looked psyched, I mean really psyched. After all, there they were on stage with Paul McCartney and the crowd was going wild. By the end of the song you could see that Paul was absorbing energy from the crowd and we from him, and that symbiotic exchange just got better and better all night.

There were a few first night glitches. As I said, a piano magically appeared from below stage so Paul could play and sing a few times. The first time it came up it was over amplified so that Paul's voice and the guitars were drown out, however they corrected that the next time the "magic piano" appeared for later songs. Also, when Paul sang one of his new songs, Jenny Wren, from the new CD, alone on stage playing accustic guitar the sound was off and some of the lyrics were lost. He also sang three other selections from the CD, but he sang songs from EVERY aspect of his career: Pre-Beatles, Beatles, solo career with Wings, and with Linda and now. It was a good mix. He sang "'Til there was you" and I think every female there thought it was intended just for her.

He said as the Quarrymen he and John and Duff and two other guys, I can't remember their names, went to record something, and it cost 5 pounds. So each of them chipped in a pound and they did the recording. They decided it was only fair that since there was only one copy each of the 5 of them would keep the record for 1 week each on a rotating basis. He said the two other guys took it for their week, Paul got his week, John got his week and then Duff, who kept the record for 23 years. That got a big laugh from the audience. Then he sang the song "In Spite of All the Danger". Not a memorable song from a Beatles standpoint, but historically significant.


As I said, it was a first night performance, I guess they hadn't worked out all of the kinks. He started telling us about how he and George played some classical guitar pieces for some gigs in their early years and he played a bit of one of them by J.S. Bach, as he called him. Then he said he wanted to tell us that because the first three cords inspired him to write the next song he sang "Blackbird". My daughter said that song alone was worth the concert because she REALLY wanted to hear him play that in person, and she got her wish. Blackbird is her very favorite Beatles song.

But as the the newspaper story will tell you he forgot the words in one part, yeah, Paul forgot which verse he was singing and since most of us were singing along with every song we knew the right ones and he stopped playing and made a comment about it. But he laughed it off and said "Well at least you know it isn't on tape". Then he finished the song with the right words.

Paul played until nearly midnight. Two encores, yeah, Paul played. Twice in the performance the "support band" went off stage and it was just Paul and us. The man is going to be 64 on his next birthday and the 30 year olds couldn't keep up with his pace. They had to rest ( so much for those youngsters, but then again Paul wasn't jumping around as much as they did). We all sang "Hey Jude" and I was amazed at how many male voices there were singing, when Paul made us break up and sing by gender the male voices were much stronger and louder. "Back in the USSR" was fan double damn tastic. The man can really rock!

Actually Paul played some really good stuff. The newspaper said he played "yeah yeah yeah" but that was incorrect, what he did play is that early Beatles song that goes " Imagine I'm in love with you, it's easy 'cos I know. I've imagined I'm in love with you many, many, many times before. And I'm telling you, my friend, that I'll get you I'll get you in the end. Yes I will I'll get you in the end, oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah." I can never remember if it's called "I'll get you" or "Imagine I'm in love with you" and right now I am too lazy to look it up. My daughter calls it the "stalking song" because if you really listen to the words it's sounds like a young male who is so intent on getting his love that he's not above "wearing her down" by stalking. Very un PC for this day and age, but then in the 1960's it seemed like a young man determined to have his love despite her protestations to the contrary.

That is NOT "She Loves You" which is the yeah,yeah yeah song.

One song, "Live and Let Die" he did with the new fangled pyrotechnics, firweorks, loud explosions, the works, like you'd expect from a James Bond Movie. (Or a KISS concert) Now that's when my seat was too close..those loud bangs were a bit much, but quite effective for the venue, and I did like the fireworks.

He also played, he said, for the first time on American soil "Helter Skelter" - shades of psycheledic! It was like a trip without the acid! The screen was all flashing geometric shapes colors, the lighting was wild and the cameras shot quick shot glimpses of all parts of the stage and all aspects of the performance and the music was perfect. Loud, at times discordant and perfect.

His first call back to the stage was expected because he had material perpared. But the second call back seemed to amaze him. As I said we say the behind the scenes stuff, and at one point he was ready to leave when one of the crew handed him another guitar (he changed a few times alternating accustic, base and lead) and Paul sort of questioned him when the crewmember pointed to the audience and then Paul gave in and did another song. Finally though he just came right out and said, hey we really gotta go home and so do you (and he was almost booed for that) but the group started the Sgt. Pepper song that included the lyrics "we're sorry but it's time to go" so we knew that that was the end.

As they started the instrumental only part of it Annie and I got up and left so we coudl beat the crowd to the escalators and to the metrorail to get home. We didn't miss anything, we could hear the music all the say down the 4 floors and even out of the building on the front stairs.

It was a great concert. Everything I expected and MORE. If you get a change when he gets to a city near you (and you can score some tickets) then by all means go. It is worth every penny even from the cheap seats.

I drove to the other side of the tracks today, to deliver a check for rent for a homeless crack addicted man who has come to our church for the last 20 years for handouts. He is not even Catholic, but he comes to us because we apparently have enough people who see him and think we should take care of the least, even if they aren't our own.

The church has helped him again and again over a period of years and through many pastors, and even when he messes up again he is forgiven and we feed him or clothe him or house him. It's what Christians do, forgive sinners and help them - at least the Christianity that Catholics follow.

But that's not the point of this .

The point is that our ministery demands that when we go to help people we travel in pairs. So I drove to the home of another member and we drive in his pickup truck. His wife thought I was being brave to take the ride with him because his pick up is his joy, but not quite his pride. It was bought out of an auction, and it works but it's not any luxury vehicle. He uses it for hauling things to the dump and picking up gardening things at the Home Depot.

When I got into the truck I had a thought. Had this been 40 years ago I might have been hauled out of the truck by a cop. Why? Because the other person was a black male, and I am a white female. Back then white women did NOT travel in the company of black men. And I thougth to myself, look how far we have progressed. Look how we care little for the color of skin and only judge by the content of character.

Then I thought of New Orleans, and I was saddened that although I have learned it, it's obvious that everyone in government has not.

I tried to buy tickets to the Paul McCartney concert in Miami on 9/16 when they first went on sale,back in April or May but the website sold out in less than 20 minutes, I never had a chance.
So today they reconfigured the seating at the American Airlines Arena once the exact location of the stage was determined and they released more tickets for sale.
My loving son, Tom, made me go on line and use his credit card and buy two tickets so me and my daughter could go.
They are nosebleed, and "cheap seats" at $84 each, but hey........I'M GONNA SEE PAUL FOR MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!! (excuse the screaming, it's the Beatle maniac in me.) My birthday isn't until the 21st, but hey, the 16th is close enough. What kills me is back in the 1960's I paid $6.50 a ticket to see the Beatles at the Philadelphia Convention Center.
I wonder if I'll get kicked out for screaming "PAAAAAAAUUUUUUULLLL" and crying?

Sue Ann

When your son does something naughty and gets caught, part of his punishment, hopefully, is to make him admit that he was at fault and to apologize. However, if he doesn't really believe he did anything wrong he will not look the person to whom he ows an apologize in the eye. He will fidget and look around, or lower his eyes although his words may sound controlled and sincere but you can tell by his body language that the apology is forced from him.

So, did you watch the President accept responsibility for the post Katrina disaster? Didn't he remind you of that little boy? Don't you wonder who made him apologize? I kept waiting for VP Cheney to be standing off to the side with his arms crossed urging the President on with his "It's my fault and I accept responsibility."

President Bush has to say no more. His body language said it all. He was annoyed and petulant, like the spoiled child he is and I fear always will be.

Have you noticed that the 4th Anniversary of the terrorist attacks is today? There is coverage, but it's not getting the news it once did, and that's a good thing. President can't stand in front of a memorial with grief stricken relatives and wrap himself in a flag of patriotism urging the country to support his war. Intead, the dead are being respectfully remembered, but it a low key way that allows us to realize that if closure isn't here, it's near enough to be seen.

Mr. Bush can't remove the scabs and open the wound again to suit his purposes. Instead he has to face the devistation his own shortsightedness has caused in New Orleans. He can try for as many of photo ops as he wants, but this time the country isnt' buying it. He can't lay the blame on someone else. Why? Because the people who know they did something wrong on the state and local level ADMIT it, an although people will be angry about that I think they are glad that someone is taking responsibility for their action (or inaction).


Yet the President and his apointees do the photo ops patting each other on the back and saying how great the federal response was. Does Mr. Bush have no sense of reality at all? Does he think we can't tell the difference in a sincere admission of guilt with an apology and a finger pointing "it's not my fault" smarmie smile?

Why do I keep asking questions like that? The answer is always the same. Mores the pity.

So Mr. Brown is gone back to D.C. with his tail between his legs.

Did Mr. Bush finally own up to his mistake? Nope. Word is that VP Cheney sent him packing.
The spin doctor's couldn't make people beleive what bull Bush was shoveling, so Cheney took matters in hand and ordered him to be releived.

I am not a fan of Dick Cheney, and God forbid he should ever have to take over as President, but at least he had the guts to admit that Mr. Brown was the wrong person for the job.

Now, if he could only get Cherkoff fired too we'd be all set.

What? Ain't going to happen? Well I can beleive and hope can't I? I mean I buy lotto tickets every week, so why can't I believe that the odds against my winning are no worse than the odds of George W. Bush every admitting he made a mistake?

Don't you just hate it when people who don't know how to drive or don't knowthe directions of where your are driving give you their advise?

Well, hurricane recovery is like that.

The people who don't live in the region and have never experienced any loss due to such storms suddenly have become experts on how things ought to be done. Unfortunately they are the people who have been put in charge of the recovery process from Hurricane Katrina.

Leave it to the Federal Government to put the people with the least knowledge and experience, like Mr. Brown, in charge. Thank God he was found out to be a liar and a fraud and removed from the front lines of this disaster. He is still employed by FEMA though, and I don't think it's fair. If IBM, Dell, Microsoft or Donald Trump found out that a person hired LIED on his resume about prior experience he would be immediately fired. Instead this President, who by the way also knows little about natural disaster recovery, thanks him for a job well done.

Is Mr. Bush so stupid as to think we can't see the truth? Apparently so.

I wonder why we elect presidents who don't know the cost of anything?

Would it make more sense to make ever presidential candidate spend the year before the cacuses and primaries living as if they made minimum wage? Maybe if we had leaders who knew what it was like to live without health insurance, enough food to eat, a descent place to live, designer clothes and fancy coffee we woudl have someone who knew how to treat people with compassion. The only candidate who looked like he might understand what a middle class or working family had to go through was John Edwards, and even he was from a life of comfort and wealth. But at least he didnt' go to an Ivy League School and pledge his soul to the devil in some campus club.


Being a leader doesn't mean designer suits. Being a leader doesn't mean your wife can walk around observing the poor from her manicured and sterile vantage point in her silk suit and perfect pearl necklace. Being a leader means knowing what the suffering is like. It means getting your hands dirty helping, not advising and not making promises and throwing money out to the unwashed masses trying to look generous and caring while staying far away from them.

It means being non-judgemental about those who are survivors of tradegies such as Hurricane Katrina. It means knowing that although Prayers are helpful they shouldn't be mentioned as if the prayer alone will save the survivors from peril. Sure God will help, but you know the saving, "God helps those who help themselves." A real leader knows how to help God help others and themselves, not just asks people to pray. It means being willing to get out of the sterile box and DO something.

Crawford TX is a place that has a big ranch which, as far as I can determine, is only used as a hideaway for some government officials. If Mr. Bush and his family are seriously concerned about the plight of those made homeless by the hurricane why hasn't he offered his own ranch as a place to relocate people?

Are the evacuees that are several rungs below the Bush family on the social and economic ladder "beneath" the Bush family? Are they unworthy of consideration and aid on a personal level? Are only people of "like" socio-economic brackets supposed to help each other?

This administration loves to claim it's Christian. Am I mistake? Didn't Jesus say "Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers, that you do unto me." If so, when does this administration want to acknowledge the least? The reaction from Mr. Bush so far seems to say that they are so far away from knowing not only who the least are but what the least need.

In all my years of reading the New York Times I never had the nerve to write a letter to the editor. I figured, who was I? Some little no alphabet behind my name to prove that my ideas have merit? Well, today I got the nerve to write, not that what I said has a chance of being printed, but I HAD to say it.

I read an article, buried in the National news section, not any front page stuff, and easily overlooked. Trying to find it online took several clicks, from one section to another - through news, national news, more national news and finally all the headlines. There it was, I couldn't beleive what I read. "Navy Pilots Who Rescued Victims Are Reprimanded".

It seems that two navy pilots who sent to deliver water to New Orleans, stopped to pick up over 100 civilians trapped on their roofs. It appears they had done their duty and were returning to their home base in Pensacola, FL when they spotted several groups of civilians on rooftops in need of rescue. Being out of touch with their command center, Lieutenants David Shand and Matt Udkow took it upon themselves to rescue those civilians, thinking their effort would be lauded. Instead the two were reprimanded by their Commander, Cmdr. Michael Holdener.

Cmdr. Holdener's reasoning was just too much to take. He said, and I am paraphrasing here, that everyone wants to be the guys who rescue people, but that was not their priority.

Excuse me? It's not a priority to rescue humans from a life and death situation? For pity's sake they delivered the water already, they were on their way back to their home base with EMPTY choppers and they saw people in need. What were they supposed to do, obey orders and have nightmares about the people frantically waving them down? Were they supposed to ignore the pleas for help because some idiot in some operations room says that the "orders" are more important then saving lives?

Oh please. Is our military so entrenched in a don't think for yourself - don't have feelings or morals - mentality that they are punished for doing the right and honerable thing? If that is what our military has come to then it needs to be disbanded. When orders come before logic, compassion and common sense then it is time to get rid of it.

I was outraged at the callous disreagard for human life at the expense of following orders and protocol and I wrote an irate letter complaining to the Judge Advocate General saying that Cmdr. Holdener should be demoted. And as I said, I wrote to the NYTimes as well. I know my letter is one of thousands received every day, and the chances of it ever seeing print are slim to none, but I just wanted to voice my concern that men like Cmdr. Holdener can be so insensitive to the plight of others while those with the sensitivity and fortitude to help are punished.

It makes about as much sense as Bush telling the FEMA director, Mr. Brown, that he did a good job.

On Wednesday 4 private jet ambulances left Miami to respond to the direct pleas of 4 New Orleans Hospitals that had requested help transporting ventilator patients from the evacuation area.

The jets landed in NO and waited 7 hours on the tarmac then were REFUSED and turned back by the National Guard. No patients were transported. The planes next went to Baton Rouge and picked up whomever they could.

A Florida man who spent his own money to buy 150 flatboats to help with the evacuation was REFUSED again by the National Guard. The would not allow him to give the boats to aid the rescue efforts. He turned back and gave them out in MIssissippi which isn't as flood damaged.

Food being shipped to the area is also being turned back. Caravans of individuals can't donate food. If it's not done through the proper channels of some "approved" religious organization you can't help. I guess only fundamentalist Christian's know how to pack boxes of food for distribution and give out bottled water that they bought in the same Wal-Mart, BJ's or K-Mart as the "unchurched". Apparently if you haven't taken the plunge and accepted the Bush administration version of God as your personal Savior you can do no good for anyone.
It sure looks like if you are not a fundie they won't let you do anything to help.

Now the idiot in chief wants Roberts to be the Chief Justice of the Supreme (Being) Court? Now is his chance to make the world a better place for neocons everywhere. Bush can rule the world even after he's booted out of office because he will have set up a control of the courts. And the Conservative Republican's with their less government intervention means less government help but more government control of your life situation will have won. So even if Bush is being bashed for his non-responsiveness to the Hurricane it's playing into his plans. The hurricane was obviously a "sign from God" that Bush is on the right track because God gave him the opportunity to screw us all again by setting up his own private judgement seat right here on earth for the non-believers.

People are so enraged at W's inability to lead, and so focused on the Survivors of Katrina that Bush is quietly behind the scenes doing exactly what he wants to do, and people are too busy to stop him. George W. Bush makes me ashamed to be an American. He makes Warren G. Harding look like a good president.

I sincerely hope you are all on the same page as me and write to your congressmen that Roberts was not suitable for the Supreme Court as an associate and he certainly is NOT a suitable candidate as a Chief Justice.

Pass it on; the list of "faith based" organizations from the FEMA website that may or may not actually give a helping hand to those affected by Katrina without taking a huge portion of the donations for their "missionary" work of converting the rest of us non ASP Gof fearing, Bible thumping heathens.

Notice no "fait based" Catholic, Jewish or Muslim organizations made FEMA's list. But of course that's not discrimination, now is it?


Here's the link:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/sunfell/561704.html?#cutid1
the bad guys include:
Operation Blessing (Pat Robertson's charity group)
Southern Baptist Convention Disaster Relief and its International Mission
Board
Convoy of Hope (Assembly of God)
Christian Disaster Response (part of One Way Ministries, from the American
Evangelical Christian Church)
World Harvest (not the same as the food bank Second Harvest) Mission of Mercy (a Dominionist children's charity associated with a group
of Colorado Springs Dominionist churches)
World Relief (promoted by Focus on the Family and the American Family
Association)
Samaritan's Purse (Franklin Graham's charity group)
Mercy Ships (the Dominionist answer to Doctors Without Borders) Global Hope Network (another Focus of the Family group) International Foundation of Hope (associated with the Colorado Springs
Dominionist group)
Christian Emergency Network
There's more info at the link.
She says she would add to the "good groups" list the American Friends
Service Committee, which is the most visible social action organization
affiliated with the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). They can be
reached at http://www.afsc.org.

Now that Reinquest has died and the focus on the nation is on the Katrina recovery and bungling of the US government I can see "W" wringing his hands with glee because he can push through the "fundie" nominations for the Supreme Court he's always wanted.

Why hide the real intent of these nominations? It's not to balance the court, or to bring the courts views in line with the democratically constructed ideals of the constitution, it's to create a state based on the fundamentalist principles of the only religion that counts in America - The white bread Anglo Saxon Protestant Christian religion that is the only sure means of getting to heaven (so they say).

I wonder if God knows about this, and what's He is going to do when the current leaders get to heaven's gates and demand that non-believers be cast into hell? I wonder what the current leaders will do when they find out that they are not and never have been the "spokesperson" for the Supreme Being?

Mr. George W. Bush has the guts to tell other countries how to handle natural and manmade disasters, yet he can't get his head out of his butt long enough to do something about the disaster here at home? He looks like more of an ass than he ever had, not like more of a leader.

I'm just waiting for the news that Halliburton has been given the no bid contract to help rebuild New Orleans.

I works with a church ministery. We help the needy. (Political correctness for poor).

Since the hurricane we've had a few calls - all from people we have helped before.

Hurricanes cost money. Evena category 1 hurricane like Katrina was when she hit us in Florida. You need to prepare, even if they are not a category 4. You have to prepare for the evenual power outages and no food, or spoiled food. You have to have canned food, water, candles, batteries. Sun block and insect repellant, fill the tank of the car with gas, and if you are lucky have gas for cooking on a propane stove or gas grill. All of that in addition to paying the normal bills that the poor can't pay very well without the stress of a storm.

So I called these people who request help and what do they say? "I really don't want to bother anyone, but my kids need milk (food, etc.)" Why don't they want to bother anyone? Because after seeing the TV news coverage of Katrina's aftermath in LA, MS and AL they feel like their needs are petty.

Petty? A woman with a family of 4 kids at home ( and one in Iraq), whose husband works but who also needs to work too to pay the bills (but lost her new job after quiting one that didnt' pay enough) is living on beans and rice because all the food in her refrigerator went bad. Then she didn't want to call the church about it. Why? Because they were blessed, meaning they didn't suffer the total devistation that Katrina brought .

So suffering survivors guilt they are reluctant to ask for help.

And yet some people who had the minor inconvience of power outages (and have more than enough money to prepare and recover) are moaning about how they have suffered.

I don't get it. Does having money make you stupid or something? Or does being poor make you more compassionate?