White vs Black - Midwest Vs New Orleans

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlargeIs it just me or is the Midwest getting more Federal help, got Federal help sooner than the Katrina victims received? No problems with ice. I haven't seen any issues with getting aid into the much larger effected area. People from other states, Florida, North Carolina, California, are not being denied access to the victims of the Midwest flood. International aid is not being turned away this time. In 2004, FEMA had no problems with four hurricanes in a row - Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne pummeled Florida in August of that year. It has even been alleged that FEMA delivered Florida for Bush in 2004. But somehow, a year later FEMA totally fails when it comes to Hurricane Katrina. Not only did it fail, it was an epic failure and collapse of nearly every segment of Federal government. The Canadian Mounties got to New Orleans before Government relief got there. Bush can't say the government was caught unaware. Video proof shows Michael Brown warning Bush about the levees and the looming disaster to come. But the Midwest flood response? It looks as organized as the choreography of the The Lion King. You just got to wonder about the racial element to the still lagging response to New Orleans - almost three years later. SPECIAL REQUEST FOR TCD FANS: The San Francisco Chronicle is pondering the addition of new cartoons for their paper - a process that seems to be initiated by Darren Bell, creator of Candorville (one of my daily reads - highly recommended). You can read the Chronicle article here and please add your thoughts to the comments if you wish. If anything, put in a good word for Darren and Candorville. I am submitting Town Called Dobson to the paper for their consideration. They seem to have given great weight to receiving 200 messages considering Candorville. I am asking TCD fans to try to surpass that amount. (I get more than that many hate mails a day, surely fans can do better?) This is not a race between the two of us, it is a hope that more progressive strips can be represented in the printed press of America. So if you read the San Francisco Chronicle or live in the Bay Area (Google Analytics tell me there are a lot of you), please send your kind comments (or naked, straining outrage) to David Wiegand at his published addresses below. If you are a subscriber, cut out your mailing label and staple it to a TCD strip and include it in your letter. candorcomment@sfchronicle.com or David Wiegand Executive Datebook Editor The San Francisco Chronicle 901 Mission St. San Francisco, CA 94103

John Edwards and the Standoff in New Orleans

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlargeRumors this morning is that John Edwards will quit the campaign today. Only time will tell. I am unsure if this is true or not - it may be. I think if I was John, I would at least wait until after Super Tuesday to make the decision. If he does quit so soon before Super Tuesday, then a great majority of people will not get the chance to vote. Time will tell. If he does leave the campaign trail today, I will miss him - his message resonated with me and many times, he was the only adult running. We shall see.

What we have lost under BushCo.

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlarge The laundry list of things BushCo has done against us is pretty staggering and can even make real Conservatives (honest-to-God Goldwater folks) cringe. But seldom do we look back at what we have lost under this regime. We have lost more than we have gained as a Nation. If we could just have these four things, Bill of Rights, The Twin Towers, the lives of our soldiers and New Orleans, what would we give up in hindsight? And what are we willing to do about it? From If This Be Treason: Given the continuing unwillingness of our federal representatives to end the war, restore Constitutional protections or address the high crimes and misdemeanors of a lawless leadership, 911truth.org urges all freedom-loving Americans to spend September 11, 2007, rediscovering the compelling democratic history of people’s movements and the general strike. In response to increasing calls for a general strike on this year’s sixth 9/11 anniversary by grassroots coalitions such as www.strike911.org, 911truth.org is encouraging participants to maximize the transformative impact of the day with a few inspiring hours of study. Janice Matthews, executive director of 911truth.org, states, “We face a grave array of dangers caused, exacerbated and/or ignored by a non-responsive government, and we must therefore remind ourselves how victims of other authoritarian regimes rose up to reclaim basic democratic rights and popular sovereignty. Not all succeeded, of course, but we can learn from their mistakes as well as their victories, and considering the rate our Constitutional protections have been evaporating, the nation needs a crash course in peoples power right now.” I know what I WON'T be doing, how about you?

Snowfall

It looks like Tony Snow isn't doing too well. A growth near his abdominal area has been determined as cancerous, and has spread to his liver. Too bad, huh? What? Do I sound cruel? Insensitive? Yeah, I know I do; but I can't help it. No, I'm not proud of it, but I can't summon much sympathy for Mr. Snow. Bad as it is for Tony Snow right now, he still has it better than most of us. He's wealthy (which we're not), so he can afford to take the time off from his job as long as he needs to (which we can't), and get the best doctors and medical treatment available (and there's a big difference between what he gets and what the rest of us get). Being Bush's hand puppet is a well-paying gig, and Tony is great at it. Cancer doesn't discriminate, but you don't want to be in the ER with a tin cup either. Maybe to his rich white Republican friends sending him "Get Well" cards Tony Snow is a good guy, but he hates the rest of America, and he lets us know it. As a newspaper columnist, a talking head on Fox, or press secretary for the President, Snow has been nothing if not consistent: a smug, narrow-minded bigot. But because Tony Snow is articulate, and handsome and has a nice smile, he gets a pass. Hey, if you're not parading a Confederate flag or wearing a swastika, you can't be racist, right? Just ask Ann, or Rush, or Sean. He didn't build the GOP's Pretty Hate Machine, but he certainly helps keep it running and well-oiled. And Tony Snow never met a queer, tofu-eating, dope-smoking, Bible-burning, terrorist sand nigger he couldn't beat up on. And he liked it. I'm not enough of a bastard to wish him dead, but only because of his wife and children. Nobody deserves to be a widow. Nobody deserves to be a orphan But say a prayer for him? Sorry, but I don't have the time. I'm busy. I'm saying prayers for the soldiers fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Walter Reed. I'm saying prayers for hundreds of thousands of Iraqis trying not to get raped, tortured, shot or blown up. I'm saying prayers for the people of New Orleans who helplessly watched their friends, family, jobs, homes, neighborhoods, culture, and future drown. I'm saying prayers for all the besieged working-class heroes of America who are one paycheck away from bankruptcy, unemployment, poverty and homelessness. So, you want me to waste a prayer on Tony Snow, one of the grinning cheerleaders whose relentless parroting of the party propaganda propelled us into Dubya's incompetent, blood-soaked obscenity of an administration in the first place? God forgive me, I can't. I can't.

Blues for New Orleans

In a just world, folk singer Mary Gauthier would be making Britney Spears money. Unfortunately, we’re living in a world where pop music has been kidnaped by teenagers. Instead of hearing adult music informed by hard-earned experience, we’re subjected to smug children rummaging in Mommy and Daddy’s closet and wearing clothes much too big for them. Sure, they work hard pretending they’re grownups, but how much does Justin Timberlake really know about loss, betrayal and heartache? Or Pink? Or Christine? Mary Gauthier does. This songwriter from Louisiana has been around the block a few times. In a husky growl sandpapered by shots of whisky, cigarettes, and yelling at the backs of lovers walking out the door, Gauthier sings bleak, unsentimental tales shimmering with a haunting beauty. Drunks, losers, and abused wives live in her songs, and Gauthier’s sorcery keeps these broken people lost in America chillingly authentic. And tragic. Speaking of tragic, Mary Gauthier’s song “Mercy Now” is a grim soundtrack to this video directed by Demetria Kalodimos. It’s about what happened in New Orleans after Katrina came. What Katrina did was bad. What the government didn’t do (“You’re doing a heckuva job, Brownie!”) was worse. Other than making rich people richer, the Bush Administration has been monstrously incompetent. And seeing New Orleans slowly drown as dozens of stupid politicians did nothing but make useless speeches was, and is, an American tragedy that will haunt this country for years. Because of what happened at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, 9/11 aren’t just numbers anymore. We have new numbers now to think about now: 8/29/2005.