from huffingtonpost.com: Republicans gathering to formally nominate Mitt Romney in Tampa are having to grapple with a media that has one eye trained firmly on Tropical Storm Isaac — and is sending many of its biggest stars to cover the extreme weather.
15,000 journalists have traveled down to Florida to cover the Republican convention -- large parcels of media stars on the same plane was not an uncommon sight -- but, as of Monday, they don't have much to do. The storm has already forced the GOP to cancel the first night of its convention, and has the party worrying about how to get their message out if things get worse. As Reuters noted, "Romney could be robbed of some media attention - or worse, have images of convention festivities juxtaposed with searing split-screen television images of the storm's onslaught if Isaac dominates the news this week."
On Monday, at least, Isaac appeared to be winning. The morning's Washington Post was dominated by a huge picture of ominous waves. "Republicans gather, and so does the storm," a headline read. "All eyes on Isaac," an Associated Press article blared.
The network morning shows reflected the preeminence the storm has taken, leading their programs off with multiple packages of coverage. The choice between a potential hurricane passing through the Gulf Coast and a drama-free, stage-managed convention was a seemingly easy one.
"Isaac is the story of the morning," Robin Roberts observed on "Good Morning America." On "Today," Matt Lauer, who had been sent to Tampa for the Republican gathering, was taping outside the Tampa Bay Times Forum, outfitted in a classic storm-covering windbreaker.
On "GMA" and "CBS This Morning," Diane Sawyer and Charlie Rose reported from an empty convention center. Anchors openly speculated about the potential media schizophrenia.
"They're going to be sharing the screen all week with the possibility of a hurricane hitting New Orleans on the anniversary of Katrina," Stephanopoulos said to Sawyer, who had just shown footage of herself trapped in a howling gust of wind earlier in the day.
On "Today," Lauer asked RNC chair Reince Priebus if he was worried about Isaac competing for headlines with the convention.
"It is what it is," Priebus said. "Our message is still going to be the same ... you have to report on this storm."
There was another more ominous sign for Republicans that Isaac was going to take precedence as the week drew on when CNN announced that two of its biggest names, Anderson Cooper and Soledad O'Brien, were headed to New Orleans to cover the storm's potential effect on the city. Both gained new prominence in 2005 when they reported on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Sam Feist, CNN's Washington bureau chief, was very direct in a tweet:
video: timeline of the dougherty gang's week on the run* from abcnews: The three bystanders who chased and helped capture a member of the fugitive Dougherty Gang after Wednesday's high-speed police chase ended in a crash had no idea who they were helping to apprehend, they said on "Good Morning America" today. "We heard the shots, we see all of the officers coming down the on-ramp with the guns drawn and the M-16s out, surrounding this car that's up on the guardrail, and we're like, 'Man, what's happening?' You don't hear that every day," said Dave Dallaguardia, one of the three highway workers who helped catch the runaway Dougherty. It's unclear which brother they captured. Lee Dougherty, who is a 29-year-old stripper, and heavily armed brother Ryan, 21, and half-brother Dylan Dougherty Stanley, 26, had become the focus of a manhunt that stretched from Florida to Colorado in the past week.
from 24/7 wall st.: The population of the United States has increased steadily by roughly 2.5 million people every year since World War II. Throughout prosperity and hard times, Americans continue to have families. Many of the country’s regions have expanded to accommodate this population increase. Some cities have grown faster than others as the result of being at the center of some important new technology or job market. Others have lost residents because of failing industries and migration. Nevertheless, some of these cities have continued to grow slowly, or at least remain relatively stagnant, buoyed by the rising tide of the national population. There are some cities, however, which have experienced such severe hardship and decline that their populations have actually decreased significantly. New Orleans has lost more than a quarter of its population in the past ten years as the result of Hurricane Katrina. The rest of the cities that have lost major parts of their population have seen their flagship industries which include coal, steel, oil, and auto-related manufacturing fall off or completely collapse.
The somber ceremonies commemorated for occasion started on Saturday and in Louisiana residents staged a symbolic burial of their loved ones. President Obama is scheduled to visit New Orleans. He will deliver a speech at Xavier University which was also flooded during the Hurricane Katrina.
A district where many houses are still vacant will hold a march and a healing ceremony and many of these houses have a circle painted on them to ensure that these houses have been searched for victims.
While President is visiting the area, the doubts about spending of the $20 billion in direct federal relief after Hurricane Katrina are still looming as much of this money is still unspent even after 5 years. The fact is given due consideration by one of the congressmen who wants to spend this money somewhere else.
the militarization of emergency aid to haiti: is it a humanitarian operation or an invasion? from michel chossudovsky: Haiti has a longstanding history of US military intervention and occupation going back to the beginning of the 20th Century. US interventionism has contributed to the destruction of Haiti's national economy and the impoverishment of its population. The devastating earthquake is presented to World public opinion as the sole cause of the country's predicament. A country has been destroyed, its infrastructure demolished. Its people precipitated into abysmal poverty and despair. Haiti's history, its colonial past have been erased. The US military has come to the rescue of an impoverished Nation. What is its Mandate? Is it a Humanitarian Operation or an Invasion?
The military component of the US mission, however, tends to overshadow the civilian functions of rescuing a desperate and impoverished population. The overall humanitarian operation is not being led by civilian governmental agencies such as FEMA or USAID, but by the Pentagon. The dominant decision making role has been entrusted to US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM).
disgusting war criminals peddle 'humanitarian' aid for haiti from kurt nimmo: On Sunday, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush mounted the corporate media propaganda platform and complained about the politicization of the Haitian relief effort... The disaster “reminds us of our common humanity. It reminds us of needs that go beyond fleeting disagreements,” said Clinton. Fine words coming from one of the world’s foremost war criminals... If you really want to know what’s going on in Haiti, read John Maxwell’s article, No, Mister! You Cannot Share My Pain! The corporate media sheds crocodile tears over Haiti (between bank and big pharma adverts) and tells us about the country’s immeasurable poverty while providing zero background on why Haiti is a hell-hole of misery and destitution.
from raw story: A doctor who was working the rounds at New Orleans’ Memorial Medical Center during Hurricane Katrina has admitted euthanizing patients during a crucial shortage of energy and supplies at the hospital. Despite the revelations, the state prosecution service in Louisiana says it will not re-open an investigation into the matter, the Associated Press reports.
The doctor’s admission comes on the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina making landfall on the Gulf Coast, an event that would lead to the death of more than 1,000 people and the displacement of a city of one million.
It also comes at a time when the US is busy debating fundamental reforms to the country’s health system. The specter of “rationed health care” has been raised during the debate. But in the panic and chaos of Katrina, the notion of “rationed care” was taken to a brutal new level.
Dr. Ewing Cook told ProPublica’s Sheri Fink that he gave the order to give an elderly patient a dose of morphine he knew would kill her.
‘‘Do you mind just increasing the morphine and giving her enough until she goes?’’ Cook says he asked the patient’s nurse. In a sign of his certainty the patient would die under the morphine overdose, Cook penciled in “Pronounced dead at” on the patient’s chart and left it blank to be filled in later.
‘‘To me, it was a no-brainer, and to this day I don’t feel bad about what I did,’’ Cook told ProPublica. ‘‘I gave her medicine so I could get rid of her faster, get the nurses off the floor.’’ He added, ‘‘There’s no question I hastened her demise.’’
from usatoday: Hurricane Katrina, which struck the Gulf Coast four years ago, was an eye-opener for all Americans. The inability of New Orleans to cope was shocking. The levees built to protect the city were failures. The follies of the Federal Emergency Management Agency were maddening. Surely a tragedy of this scale (more than 1,600 deaths in Louisiana and Mississippi), a humiliation of this magnitude, would prompt officials to prepare better for the next major hurricane. With Tropical Storm Danny threatening the Northeast this weekend, and other storms potentially to come this hurricane season, it would be nice to believe that Katrina's lessons have been learned.
from raw replay: President Bush answered questions asked by the White House press corps for the final time today. RAW STORY has more details here. This video is from CNN.com, broadcast Jan. 12, 2009.
bush: 9/11, 2 wars, katrina: 'we had fun' from guardian: It was eight turbulent years: 9/11, two wars, Hurricane Katrina and the worst recession since the 1930s. But President George Bush's verdict at his final press conference yesterday was: "We had fun." He and his team had many joyous days in office, he said. "And people, they say, I just don't believe it to be the case. Well, it is the case... In the darkest moments of Iraq and every day when I was reading the reports about soldiers losing their lives, no question there was a lot of emotion, but there were times where we could be lighthearted and support each other."
and the panic grows, this time in platteville, colorado... from washington post: A farm couple got a huge surprise when they opened their fields to anyone who wanted to pick up free vegetables left over after the harvest - 40,000 people showed up. Joe and Chris Miller's fields were picked so clean Saturday that a second day of gleaning - the ancient practice of picking up leftover food in farm fields - was canceled Sunday. "'Overwhelmed' is putting it mildly," Chris Miller said. "People obviously need food." She said she expected 5,000 to 10,000 people to show up Saturday to collect free potatoes, carrots and leeks. Instead, an estimated 11,000 vehicles snaked around cornfields and backed up more than two miles. About 30 acres of the 600-acre farm 37 miles north of Denver became a parking lot. Miller said they opened the farm to the free public harvest after hearing reports of food being stolen from churches. It was meant as a thank-you for customers.
update: hard times & long lines for southern californians from latimes: Some sought a cart of groceries the week before Thanksgiving, others sought a way to keep from losing their homes in the new year. By the thousands, a diverse group of Southern Californians converged on two events Saturday aimed at helping families in hard economic times. The problems, and the aid offered, were vastly different. But both reflected the worries and needs of many. In Montebello, nearly 5,000 turned out for a food giveaway, a number that stunned organizers who had tried to keep it a low-key event, targeting publicity to several churches and schools...
In Van Nuys, about 2,000 homeowners attended a workshop promoted as Home Preservation Day. But this was not about how to lay tile or install plumbing. A bank had mailed notices to homeowners in trouble with their mortgages, and Saturday offered them a chance to rework the terms of their loans. Bankers had hoped 100 would turn out, and planned for 200. Loan counselors had time to meet with a fraction of homeowners and some were turned away.
americans’ food stamp use nears all-time high from washington post: Fueled by rising unemployment and food prices, the number of Americans on food stamps is poised to exceed 30 million for the first time this month, surpassing the historic high set in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina. The figures will put the spotlight on hunger when Congress begins deliberations on a new economic stimulus package, said legislators and anti-hunger advocates, predicting that any stimulus bill will include a boost in food stamp benefits. Advocates are also optimistic that President-elect Barack Obama, who made campaign promises to end childhood hunger and whose mother once briefly received food stamps, will make the issue a priority next year. “We soon will have the most food stamps recipients in the history of our country,” said Jim Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center, a D.C.-based anti-hunger policy organization. “If the economic forecasts come true, we’re likely to see the most hunger that we’ve seen since the 1981 recession and maybe since the 1960s, when these programs were established.”
experts warn of food shortages from george washington: The headline of an article on Bloomberg warns "Food Prices Will Rise, Causing Export Bans, Riots". Leading economist Nouriel Roubini warns of possible food riots. The Financial Times points out that farmers rely on credit, and credit is drying up. One of the top experts on derivatives, economist Nassim Nicholas Taleb, warns that supermarkets may not be able to borrow against their inventory, and will thus be forced to shut down. I hope they're wrong. But when experts like Roubini and Taleb warn of a potential problem, I have to listen.
2. Far from performing incompetently, the Bush administration and reactionary forces in local government were extremely effective in attaining their aims.
Specifically:
1. The Bush administration did an extremely effective job of withholding vital "life and death" information that levees had not only topped, they had also catastrophically collapsed.
2. FEMA did an extremely effective job of discouraging qualified relief workers from coming to the area, going so far as to turn many back at gunpoint. They also turned away much needed supplies like water and fuel and sabotaged local communications lines.
3. Thousands of flood victims were very effectively herded and held in concentration-like conditions within the city for many days after the flooding.
4. Though it claimed to be unable to bring food, water, medicine or transportation into the flood zone, Homeland Security did an extremely effective job of quickly hiring and deploying highly paid gun thugs to the region who were employed by companies that had made massive contributions to the Bush campaign.
5. The Bush administration and their friends in the news media did an extremely effective job of painting the victims of the flooding as dangerous and not worthy of being helped.
6. The Bush administration did an extremely effective job of erasing a carefully researched and thought out evacuation plan developed over many years by LSU and replacing it with NOTHING.
7. Post-flood law enforcement did an extremely effective job of illegally seizing fire arms from hundreds of law abiding citizens while allowing criminals to run amok.
Incompetence? Poor planning? You've got to be kidding....
from collateral news: If there's another Katrina-like disaster, says John McCain, he'll use the private sector as a model to make sure emergency supplies get where they're needed. Why not privatize disaster relief altogether, John?
study says antidepressants ok for fetuses from wnbc: Expectant mothers can safely use prescribed antidepressants during their first trimester, according to a new study from the Université de Montréal and Ste. Justine Hospital. "This is the first study to investigate the impact of antidepressant use during the first trimester of pregnancy in mothers with psychiatric disorders," said Dr. Anick Berard. "In terms of birth malformations in this population, we found no difference between women who used antidepressants and those who did not use antidepressants during their first trimester."
fema may use trailers again from ap: The government may house disaster victims in trailers again this hurricane season as a last resort, despite promises never to use them again because of high levels of formaldehyde found in trailers used after the Katrina catastrophe. Only the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency can approve the use of such trailers, and they must meet the agency's requirement for minimal levels of formaldehyde, according to a draft of the agency's five-page 2008 hurricane-season plan, obtained by The Associated Press. Also, disaster victims could stay in the trailers for only six months.
canadian bill c-51 pits 'big pharma' against natural food from community press: Natural food vendors in Canada may have to turn to their own shelves in search of a stress remedy as bill C-51 awaits its second reading in Parliament. The federal government says the bill is designed to prevent problems from the use of vitamins and natural remedies. However, the natural foods industry says the bill's intentions are purely for profit. “The health food industry is growing constantly and I think we are taking a piece of the pie from big pharma,” said Cindy King, who owns Natural Sequence, a natural food store located in Trenton. “Big pharma and government go hand-in-hand.”
freemasons want children's dna from walton tribune: Nothing can strike fear into the heart of a parent faster than the thought of a missing child. While Walton County’s Masonic lodges cannot do much to prevent a child from going missing, they can provide parents with valuable tools if such a tragedy might happen. As part of the Georgia Child Identification Program, or GACHIP, sponsored by the Grand Lodge of Georgia, Freemasons across Walton County are working to help parents avert their worst nightmare.
from ap: A parish priest was arrested and charged on Friday with stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from church accounts, including a fund for victims of Hurricane Katrina. The priest, the Rev. Patrick Dunne, 63, was arraigned on a grand larceny charge, Janet DiFiore, the Westchester district attorney, said. If convicted, he could be sentenced to 5 to 15 years in prison... The theft occurred between 2002 and 2007 and involved the church building fund, the regular Sunday collection and the Katrina relief fund.
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