Connecticut Color

Thanks for sharing, dw.

I used to frequent the Stamford area when I went to college in NYC, so the Connecticut fall foliage is a familiar sight to me. Not just Stamford proper, but the back woods of High Ridge Rd. near the NY state line, where the real good stuff is.

I almost feel nostalgic at the sight of these photos... once again, thanks for sharing.

This was just north of there. The lake is Lake Waramaug State Park.

Fantastic Pics Dwah,really beautiful, love scenery pics.

Dw, those are fantastic!

Wow.

Them's right purdy pitchers, ma'am.

Dwahzon

Those photos are gorgeous - worth a whole lot of words. Thanks!

Maybe I will not talk about zombies on this thread.

Nice pics--makes me feel normal.

But these are not good times.

Tomorrow is the No War, No Warming day of action and tonight, while we were meeting about nonviolence and peace and all, four kids from Canada had their car taken by the police. One young woman was arrested for asking for directions (not one of the Canadians).

The police are wary because another group threw bricks at the police last weekend, at the IMF actions. But these kids came into the country this morning (an easily checked fact), and it would seem the main purpose for the police actions was to break up the training sessions and to see if they could escalate the people into arrestable offenses.

The four Canadians are staying at our house, because all of their ID and clothes were in the car. They are great kids, bright and quite sane. I would hope that this incident does not put them off peace and democracy.

But me, I miss America.

Karen, sorry to hear about the Canadians, though you must ask them "what the HELL were thinking when you voted for a Harper government?"

I'm still cranky about CodePinkers not being allowed into Canada.

As for missing America - I don't have much to miss, because America was already f'ed up when I came. (Thanks, Reagan.)

Switzerland is the latest to turn hard right, based on result projections of the latest election:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7054932.stm

The left is doomed to be exterminated, unless it can form a global coalition, like the right-wing parties worldwide (Republicans, Australian Liberals, British Tories, Japanese LDP, etc.) have done. Consider this a final warning.

Karen's post about frat boy Rohrabacher got a very prominent mention by dk diarist Eternal Hope.

Go give it a read and a recommend.

Great post at dk, Karen... I'd love to see Rohrabacher get ripped to shreds in perpetuity, figuratively speaking of course...

Hmmm, I could call in my homeys...
Monkey attack leads to top India official's death
New Delhi deputy mayor falls off balcony after attack by gang of macaques

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21415039/

dw:

read and recommended. Thanks.

reading up over lunch...

Karen... these are indeed, not good times.

Sanity is in short supply everywhere you look, and while running the risk of sounding like Debbie Downer, reality tells me the future is really, really bleak.

The pics above are awesome, but leave me even more melancholy for the America I learned to love as a child, and makes me long for the country I put on a pedestal for over 4 decades.

Fall colors are red, white & blue these days... wait til ya get a blast of the winter.

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Before her latest film, if anyone had asked Reese Witherspoon what the term "extraordinary rendition" meant, she might have answered with a blank stare.

The words could be bureaucratese for something as innocuous as a tax deduction. But as Witherspoon's "Rendition" spells out darkly and melodramatically, the term actually stands for a U.S. government practice of transferring terrorism suspects to other countries, where their interrogations could subject them to abuse and torture.

"I don't think I realized what the term was called," Witherspoon told The Associated Press at September's Toronto International Film Festival, where "Rendition" played in advance of its theatrical release Friday. "The term is not really in the popular vernacular.

"It sounds like public-policy rigamarole. It doesn't sound like anything that you would connect with the torture and detainment of innocent people."

In "Rendition," Witherspoon plays the wife of an Egyptian-born man (Omar Metwally) suspected of involvement in a Middle East terrorist bombing who is abducted by U.S. authorities and sent overseas for questioning at a secret facility. Jake Gyllenhaal co-stars as a CIA analyst who comes to question his government's sanctioning of such abusive interrogations.

As her character begs for answers from government officials, including a cold-hearted intelligence bureaucrat played by Meryl Streep, Witherspoon transforms into a desperate, emotional wreck.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/Movies/10/22/film.reese.witherspoon.ap/index.html

Hey Pat Robertson...

What did San Diego do to deserve this?

Bush wants another $42 billion for wars

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Bush administration on Monday asked for an additional $42.3 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, bringing the 2008 request for total war funding to $189.3 billion.

The request comes on top of $147 billion already sought for in the wars. Most of the money goes to Iraq, which is costing the Pentagon an estimated $2 billion a week.

"Parts of this war are complicated, but one part is not -- and that is that America should do what it takes to support our troops and protect our people," President Bush said in an appearance with members of veterans groups at the White House.

Bush said the money will cover basic operating expenses, plus additional armored vehicles and countermeasures designed to protect U.S. troops from roadside bombs.

"Congress should not go home for the holidays while our troops are still waiting for the funds they need," he said.

The president also called on Congress to finish the appropriations bills that fund the Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs before lawmakers' holiday recess, set to begin in mid-November.

The request is bound to kick off another debate on Capitol Hill over the course of the Iraq war. Bush's last supplemental spending request led to a showdown with the Democratic leaders of Congress, who pushed for a withdrawal of American combat troops in 2008 -- a demand dropped after the president vetoed the measure.

Minutes after Bush spoke, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, warned the president not to expect Congress to "rubber-stamp" the latest request.

"In the coming weeks, we will hold it up to the light of day and fight for the change of strategy and redeployment of troops that is long overdue," Reid said.

He said the new request means the overall cost of the widely unpopular war now approaches $650 billion since the March 2003 invasion that toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

"The entire war in Iraq is being paid for with borrowed money," Reid said.

He contrasted the Iraqi funding with Bush's October 3 veto of a $60 billion children's health care bill that had bipartisan support and would have been paid for by an increase in cigarette taxes. Bush called the bill too expensive and a step toward government-provided health care.

"It's no wonder the American people are frustrated," Reid said. "We've been fighting for America's priorities, while the president continues investing only in his failed war strategy. He wants us to come up with another $200 billion and just sign off on it -- that's what he said today."

more...
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/22/war.spending/index.html

zombie protest, click on my name

Bloggers Without Borders...
Riverbend, Baghdad Burning
...Within a month of our being here, we began hearing talk about Syria requiring visas from Iraqis, like most other countries. Apparently, our esteemed puppets in power met with Syrian and Jordanian authorities and decided they wanted to take away the last two safe havens remaining for Iraqis- Damascus and Amman. The talk began in late August and was only talk until recently- early October. Iraqis entering Syria now need a visa from the Syrian consulate or embassy in the country they are currently in. In the case of Iraqis still in Iraq, it is said that an approval from the Ministry of Interior is also required (which kind of makes it difficult for people running away from militias OF the Ministry of Interior…). Today, there’s talk of a possible fifty dollar visa at the border...
http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Police on Monday arrested dozens of protesters who blocked the doors and streets outside congressional buildings near the U.S. Capitol.

Nearly 60 were arrested on various charges, including unlawful assembly, said Sgt. Kimberly Schneider, spokeswoman for the U.S. Capitol police.

Police handcuffed a female protester dressed in a black pullover emblazoned with "Blackwater" and the U.S. security contractor's paw print symbol.

"Step back, a member of Blackwater is being arrested," one of the woman's fellow protesters shouted, while others chanted, "Arrest Bush."

Earlier, police had warned the protesters dressed in Blackwater gear, as well as others in military fatigues, not to block the doorway or they would be arrested. They sat on the steps pretending to hold weapons in their hands.

More than 100 people were protesting both the war in Iraq and U.S. policy on global warming. Some were dressed as polar bears and danced on the sidewalk, while others shouted, "No war" and "No warming."

Two protesters paraded through the streets outside the Capitol building, one wearing a large George W. Bush mask and a black-and-white prison outfit, while the other wore a Condoleezza Rice mask with an "Arrest Bush" T-shirt

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/22/capitol.hill.arrests/index.html

monkey,

Good question.

San Diego is your typical God-fearing reactionary Southern California city, a far cry from the heathens of San Francisco and Northern California (which we should leave to the terrorist vultures, if Bill O'Reilly and BMW are correct).

And for that matter, what's with the Bible Belt drought?

monkey,

It's a stretch for W to ask me to support the most homophobic institution in the US government (the military), when it wants none of me, and when it is busy taking an ever bigger slice of my premium-level tax money (the money that can, and must, be used for my healthcare instead).

I was going to vote as a Democrat in the presidential primary, but if Pelosi stays complicit in this, and if the Dems pass the non-trans inclusive version of ENDA, I'm gonna scratch all of that, and the Dems will lose me for life.

Is it just me, or do all of you feel like any moment we are going to learn Turkey invaded Iraq and we are bombing Iran?

I look around and everything is peaceful and calm, but it just feels like a calm before a bad storm.

Maybe it is just me with the heebie-jeebies.

Open Letter to the Government from an AWOL Soldier

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/circello

Dwazhon:

There was a young cowboy
That lived on the range.
Horse and the cattle
Were his only companions.
He worked in the saddle
And he slept in the canyons,
Waiting for summer
His pastures to change.

And as the moon rises
He sits by his fire.
Thinking about women,
And glasses of beer.
He closes his eyes
As the doggies retire,
And sings out a song
Which is soft but it's clear,
As if maybe someone could hear...

[SKIP THE CHORUS AND GO RIGHT TO THE RELEVANT PART]:

Oh the 1st of December
Was covered with snow.
And so was the turnpike
From Stockbridge to Boston.
Oh the Berkshires seemed dreamlike
On account of that frosting,
With ten miles behind me
And ten-thousand more to go....

(James Taylor, a couple months early.)

Chuck in Houston

Dwahzon:

OK, I may come across as a flake (appearances aren't always deceiving), but here's another one:

Country roads
Take me home
To the place
I belong
West Virginia
Mountain mama
Take me home
Country roads

I've never been to West Virginia, even though I've been to about 44 out of the 50 states, and even though all my mom's people are from Braxton County. At least all my great grand parents on my mom's side are buried there I think (Hopkinses and Squires on the patriarchal side, Butchers and Benders on the matrilineal).

Chuck in Houston

Chuck in Houston

So anyway, when I see those picture I can sort of smell it. Or maybe breathe it. Visio-Aroma-Therapy? Whatever it is, thanks!

Chuck in Houston

PS: When I was a kid, we lived in Plattsburg NY and Holyoke, MA as my dad was USAF SAC. Also Oscoda, MI for that matter. He retired to Portland, OR, which has an NE flavor.

Oh the 1st of December
Was covered with snow.
And so was the turnpike
From Stockbridge to Boston.
Oh the Berkshires seemed dreamlike
On account of that frosting,
With ten miles behind me
And ten-thousand more to go....

(James Taylor, a couple months early.)

Chuck in Houston
October 22, 2007

Oh Chuck, We got to hear and see JT do that song at Tanglewood last June. It was magical, and EVERYONE sang along for that verse! Of course, EVERYONE appeared to be my age too...

And I went to sleep my entire freshman year at Boston University, 1969-70, listening to that song (along with a good dose of Santana...)

Thanks.

Karen:

And here I was thinking you were U of O not BU?!

Chuck in Houston

PS: Hosford GS Cleveland HS Reed College

PPS: Grad School near Somerville

BU = Getting lost on Storrow Drive

Or was that BC?

I hate that when that happens. It's like when I forget if Animal House was filmed in Eugene or Corvallis.

Also, if you are from Oregon, take a look at this, and note the absence of lip-synch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mlJjBYllQY

Lip-synch is so LA IMHO.

I actually like this one better:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMqRErUVt4A

Is that John Kerry playing base or what?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FhwTZPSe0c&eurl=

Just kidding....

Then of course Iggy Pop takes it some where completely else:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5nppa3cEjM

Hi Chuck!
Can't think of music because there are people playing live synthesizers in my house and it kind of sounds like Devo - it's making its way up the stairs.

Headed to bed but Hillary Clinton was the headliner for the Magnuson awards here and seemed ready for primetime. I took photos of the protesters too, who were from a group called MoveRed, who are rightwing. Didn't see leftwing demonstrators, which rather surprised me, but did see the Ron Paul people.

Jay Inslee from up in Snohomish area is in Iowa helping Clinton, which was news to me.

Watching all that, I've got to say:

Portland Oregon Rocks! That's MY town baby!

I sure do miss the fall folliage down on the Alsea about now going after the sea-run cut-throats. I mean blue-backs.

Chuck in Houston

NMP:

Senatour Clinton is most definitely ready for prime time, IMHO. Of course, I like Obama and Edwards as well. In fact, I like Kucinich, but, and I hope you will forgive me, I could never visualize him as POTUS in my lifetime (if he wins the nomination, he has my support 100%). Biden has been my favorite Republican, along with Chuck Hagel, for some time. I like Dodd too but he needs to learn to speak without shouting, IMHO. I will, of course, support the one that wins the Democrat nomination, because on the GOP side, no one excites me. And after Gingrich and DeLay and Lott and Bush and Cheney et al, and all the crap they have pulled, they would have to LITERALLY walk on water (or get down on their knees and ask forgiveness) before I would ever even consider voting for anyone but a Democrat. Yes, that is stupid and irrational and biased of me. And so by God be it.

Chuck in Houston

NMP:

Actually, reading what I posted above -- that really sounds stupid: me and my one vote, as if it matters. But it matters to me, and that's all I can control, so, stupid or not, here I come.

Chuck in Houton

Companies Seeking Immunity Donate to Senator
By ERIC LICHTBLAU and SCOTT SHANE
Published: October 23, 2007
WASHINGTON, Oct. 22 — Executives at the two biggest phone companies contributed more than $42,000 in political donations to Senator John D. Rockefeller IV this year while seeking his support for legal immunity for businesses participating in National Security Agency eavesdropping.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/23/washington/23nsa.html?_r=1&ex=1350792000&en=fcb15e126d147579&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin

A family in need of lots of Prayers I think?

Source: Houston Chronicle
DALLAS — Two children of a Fort Bliss soldier flown back from Iraq with combat injuries are dead and a third is on life support following a car accident on the way to visit their father in the hospital, Army officials said.
Army Spc. John Austin Johnson was waiting for his wife and three kids to visit him at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio Oct. 13 when another soldier told him his family's car had rolled over four times on Interstate 10 about 12 miles east of Ozona on the gusty West Texas plains.
. . .
Schmidt said Johnson's wife, Lisa, overcorrected the steering in her sport utility vehicle after encountering a blast of wind on the drive from El Paso. The couple's youngest children, 2-year-old Logan and 5-year-old Ashley, died at the scene.
Tyler Johnson, 9, suffered massive head injuries and remains on life support at Children's Medical Center in Dallas. He was listed in critical but stable condition Sunday, a hospital spokeswoman said.
. . .
Schmidt said Johnson has survived five brushes with improvised explosive device blasts during two years in Iraq. The latest left him with a traumatic brain injury, and he speaks with a severe stutter.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5232805.html

Cheney, Howard 'did deal on Hicks'
Source: Big Pond
US Vice-President Dick Cheney agreed to a deal with Prime Minister John Howard to release former Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks, a US media report says.
The report, published in Harper's Magazine, cites an unnamed US military officer saying that a military staffer was present when Mr Cheney interfered directly to seal Hicks's plea bargain deal.
"He did it, apparently, as part of a deal cut with Howard," the unnamed source is quoted as saying.
"I kept thinking: this is the sort of thing that used to go on behind the Iron Curtain, not in America.
"And then it struck me how much this entire process had disintegrated into a political charade. It's demoralising for all of us."
After five years of detention in Guantanamo Bay, a deal was sealed for 32-year-old Hicks to serve a nine-month prison sentence in Australia, subject to him pleading guilty to a charge of providing material support for terrorism.
http://www.bigpond.com/news/topstories/content/20071023/2067496.asp

Report: Most of $1.2 billion to train Iraqi police unaccounted for

(CNN) -- The U.S. State Department is unable to account for most of $1.2 billion in funding that it gave to DynCorp International to train Iraqi police, a government report said Tuesday.

"The bottom line is that State can't account for where it went," said Glenn D. Furbish, who was involved in putting together the 20-page report for the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction (SIGIR).

The Department of State's Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) "did not have the information needed to identify what DynCorp provided under the contract or how funds were spent," the report said.

As a result, the audit agency announced it has suspended its oversight of the agency's project until INL gathers the information.

"Their records are just not detailed," Furbish said Monday in a telephone interview. "From an audit perspective, we've identified the problem; they're working to rectify the problem."

Though Iraqi police have indeed been trained and equipment has been provided under the contract, invoices and supporting paperwork submitted by DynCorp "were in disarray," the report said.

In addition, INL "had not validated the accuracy" of invoices received prior to last October, and "INL does not know specifically what it received for most of the $1.2 billion in expenditures under its DynCorp contract for the Iraqi Police Training Program."

The lack of controls "created an environment vulnerable to waste and fraud," the report said.

Furbish, an accountant by training who spent two years in Iraq, added, "It's like so much else that happened in Baghdad ... there was just a massive quantity of work and too few people in place to do it. They just essentially did not have the staff to monitor what was going on.

"Bills came in; they paid the bills, but they don't know what they paid for and they don't know what they've gotten."

more...
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/22/dyncorp.spending/index.html

Ben Dover for President

check it out, this new book says georgie himself ordered the torture of detainees

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/General_claims_Bush_gave_marching_orders_1022.html

Finally. A DIRECT accusation.

That little bastard! No more wiggling away from it.

HAHAHAHA!

NAPLES (Reuters) - Ecuador's leftist President Rafael Correa said Washington must let him open a military base in Miami if the United States wants to keep using an air base on Ecuador's Pacific coast.

Correa has refused to renew Washington's lease on the Manta air base, set to expire in 2009. U.S. officials say it is vital for counter-narcotics surveillance operations on Pacific drug-running routes.

"We'll renew the base on one condition: that they let us put a base in Miami -- an Ecuadorean base," Correa said in an interview during a trip to Italy.

"If there's no problem having foreign soldiers on a country's soil, surely they'll let us have an Ecuadorean base in the United States."

http://uk.reuters.com/article/reutersEdge/idUKADD25267520071022

HAHAHA!

I love irony.

So, if Ecuador sets up a base in say Florida, and I rush in from say, North Carolina, to save neighbors and my home, that would technically make me an insurgent, no?

The irony is, even Latin American dictators are making sense.

Fidel Styx

Dear American Media,

When will the hundreds of thousands of residents fleeing the fires in San Diego go from being "evacuees" to "refugees"?

My brother in New Orleans, who used to live in San Diego, wants to know.

Hatch Closed and Locked

Technicians working at Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida have closed the hatch, or doorway, leading into space shuttle Discovery's crew compartment. The shuttle’s seven astronauts are running through pre-launch tests and checks. Technicians are putting the finishing touches on the white room itself so it can safely fold away from Discovery in the last few minutes before launch.

The countdown is proceeding towards an 11:38 EST a.m. EDT liftoff.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

From David Swanson:

It has been over 4 ½ years since the invasion of Iraq. Since that time we have
discovered more evidence of what was already obvious: that the reasons we were given
for going to war were lies. We have lost the lives of over 1 million Iraqi
citizens, and 3,833 U.S. soldiers. Over $600 billion of US taxpayer money has been
spent on this illegal occupation, and Bush is asking for billions more.

The time has come for the occupation of Iraq to end. Congress is not doing
anything, so it is up to us to make a difference. Over 100 groups have come
together under the United For Peace and Justice banner to take a stand and have
their voices heard. Those voices are saying loud and clear - END THE WAR!
http://www.oct27.org/brave_new_video
http://www.oct27.org/brave_new_video

Robert Greenwald's Brave New Foundation has created a short video which will reach
hundreds of thousands of people just like you who want to do something. You can be
part of the effort by signing up to take part in one of 11 events taking place
across the country this Saturday October 27th.
http://www.oct27.org/brave_new_video
http://www.oct27.org/brave_new_video

I'm marching on the 27th in Los Angeles, with the CodePink delegation.

Looking forward to overpowering the SoCal red tide, if only for an afternoon.

monkey,

The difference is that most of the evacuees are upper-class white and Asian elites.

"Refugee" is too black/Latino and too working class a term for the media.

This is a short video I threw together last night - the pictures come from DCP and a network news website:

BTW: above video: The Protest at the Capitol yesterday...

Yes, but they are being "housed" in a football stadium just the same, let's see what happens in a few days...

Oh, where's Barbara Bush when you need her/him?

More Video of protest yesterday:

more on protest:

Chuck,

While I agree with you that the Dems are the only way to stop the Republican onslaught, I still have reservations.

The Dems are virulently anti-business, at least in California. I don't know of anyone among my business clients and suppliers, who votes Dem; they're all Republicans. And it's more than just SoCal red regionalism at work. And if you are in the business of car sales (which I am not in, btw), you will NEVER vote Dem again, thanks to Gray Davis tripling the car tax and destroying car sales in CA (and the Governator reversing it).

And then there is the issue of ENDA, where Dems are happy to backstab transgenders and gender-variants just so that they can pass a watered-down version for the upper-class white gay male elites. No wonder so many transwomen, including Mann Coulter, are conservative Republicans.

These two factors, in the past week, have really dampened what little enthusiasm I once had for Dems.

Let me also add that as much as I don't like the Governator, he did cut the out-of-control workers' compensation rates by half, at least for my business.

The state Dems have been caught red-handed recently, trying to undo the reforms and jack up the rates once again. Of course, all businesses in CA are up in arms.

He will make a formidable challenger to Barbara Boxer come 2010. After all, Boxer represents the Bay Area liberalism, something that's very resented and rejected in the rest of the state. And remember that the conservative southern 1/3 of the state has 2/3 of the population, and can easily overpower the Bay Area.

The Republican Party is anti-worker and anti-union and anti-consumer protection...

so we are down to lesser of evils...

Southern California on fire:

Ralpheh

Other states (Washington, for example) have brilliant pro-business Dems.

California is sadly lacking in them. Either you vote anti-business (Dem) or you vote Christo-fascist (Rep).

Umm. WTF is this...?

Courtroom Drama, Mistrial, in Terror Case

By: bluegal @ 10:39 AM - PDT

Reason why we aren’t trying more terror cases? The jury comes back to courtroom with verdict of not guilty and three jurors allegedly jump up and say “that is not the verdict!”

AP: …chaos broke out in the court in Texas when three jurors disputed some verdicts that had been announced.

Weirdness in the court. NBC:

“I thought they were not guilty across the board,” said the juror, William Neal, a 33-year-old art director from Dallas. The case “was strung together with macaroni noodles. There was so little evidence.”

Read more….

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/10/23/courtroom-drama-mistrial-in-terror-case/

Hmmmmmmmmm.

Ok so I'm pissed off, so I'm going to say something. I apologize in advance if it's a bit angry.

I've read way too many ignorant and uninformed posts on way too many blogs that are comparing the SoCal fire situation to NOLA & Katrina. Most of the comments run along the theme of "there must be some sort of government conspiracy going on because San Diego, with all its white, rich, important-electoral-state people has been so well taken care of in this emergency, whereas in New Orleans, with all of its brown, poor, nobody-gives-a-damn-state people, everything was a complete cluster and a bunch of people died."

Ok that's total crap. And it pisses me off to read it over and over from people who should know better.

Allow me to explain. Because there's one big huge overwhelming difference and it has nothing to do with the demographics of the population.

California's wildland fire personnel are the most highly trained disaster response personnel in the country. They pioneered the Incident Command System (now mandated as the government's response structure in any type of emergency) back in the 70s. They train exhaustively. People have assigned disaster roles, assigned teams, assigned areas, assigned equipment. There are pre-existing contracts for equipment and support services for all the firefighters. Pre-existing agreements across the country for fire teams, aircraft, and military units (particularly the National Guards) to provide support. Detailed computerized networks for ordering equipment, tracking the progress of the fire teams, calling up reserves, filling contracts with civilian companies. The Wildland Fire folks are experts at this and yearly, they hold training and conferences to improve their expertise and share their knowledge with other agencies. I had the privilege of attending training two years ago and it was absolutely top-notch.

Roles are clearly defined, however. The Wildland Fire folks and all their associated support - they know that their job is just to fight the fires. They are not supposed to evacuate civilians or provide food to them or anything else. That is the role of the local and state governments. They, also, are well prepared. They have evacuation plans. Everyone regularly goes through extensive fire and earthquake drills. Full blown ones that simulate mass casualties, closing of major roads, loss of electricity & water, evacuations, etc. Since the last devastating fires, they have implemented a reverse-911 system which was used to great effect this time around. Furthermore, state and local governments have coordinated with the National Guard to again clearly define roles and pre-plan for emergencies - the National Guard is assisting at evacuation centers and with traffic control.

Finally, the Governator, for all his many other faults, was completely on top of the situation, immediately declaring certain counties disaster areas and pushing the President to do the same in order to clear the red tape and open up federal disaster funds.

So what is different here? The starkly glaring difference is that in New Orleans, there was a complete lack of preparation on all levels. There was no self-supporting, highly trained "hurricane team" that could be compared to the Wildland Fire folks. (In fact, the Wildland Fire folks were brought in to run logistics for emergency personnel, since it was a slow fire season, and were astounded by the complete lack of organization, training, and preparedness they found.) There were no coordination plans drawn up. What sketchy contingency plans did exist were incomplete, outdated, and never tested. Nobody ran drills, or if they did, they were incomplete and limited so they did not expose any problems. There was no effective way of notifying the whole city of a disaster. The mayor, the governor, and the president all delayed and delayed and delayed and thus hindered the ability of any federal aid to flow (which requires red tape to be "cut" in the form of a simple disaster declaration). I could go on.

Yes, there were racial issues in New Orleans dating back certainly to the 1927 Mississippi River flood, when the levees were blown up south of New Orleans to save the whites at the expense of flooding the blacks. When blacks were told to lay down on top of overtopping levees when the sandbags weren't tall enough. When whites forced blacks at gunpoint to shore up levees.

But it would be equally easy to try and throw a race card in San Diego where at least 50% of the population is Hispanic. In fact the last devastating fire a few years ago was started by a Hispanic man who was trying to signal when he got lost in the woods on a hunting trip. A lot of the folks at the shelters are poorer and browner, because the richer, whiter folks can afford to stay in hotels and fly out of the area and whatnot.

But not a single story is focusing on race with the fires right now. And with good reason. Because the real story here is about preparedness, not race or government conspiracy. And shame on us for not being able to see it. Because as long as we keep blaming problems on things other than what they are, it will take that much longer to be able to actually fix those problems and avoid them in the future.

V,

Thanks for the scoop. And it relates to the main thread header today, which is about how we come to believe what we believe, and how much it takes to change beliefs.

I think we can all benefit from the type of examination-of-belief that keeps our minds growing, as opposed to becoming victims of mis-information.

Having achieved a state of skepticism about everything that is written, spoken, and sometimes even directly observed, I welcome the level of information that gets shared on this website and I urge us to not get lazy.

Good analysis is always welcome.

V, thanks for the clarification.

The Governator does deserve credit where it's due.

Moreover, you are right on the point that CA wildfire preparedness is top-notch, especially considering that this happens more or less every October. Four years ago this time, the fires were so bad that a week later I was still coughing up the ashes - in England, days and miles away from California fires.

Race card is a lot harder to play in California, given that race is more than just black and white in California, and the various minorities have different political allegiances - sometimes conflicting allegiances even within a given group/demographic.

It's never simple in California.

And speaking of four years ago... Gray Davis had been recalled, but Ahnuld had not yet taken office, so we had a sitting governor and a governor-elect. Both coordinated very well during that disaster, and we were thankful to have two excellent governors at work at the same time.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/10/23/4767/
Kucinich Pushes Bush Impeachment

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/10/23/4763/
Pierre Tristam | The Spies Who Shagged Your Fourth Amendment

V,

I'm not disagreeing. But don't you think that the level of preparedness has something to do with the majority race/socio-economic status of the locale?

By which I mean....

The level of support the government provides to more affluent and white societies equals higher levels of preparedness, infrastructure, etc.

I can see the comparison to Katrina by way of the numbers of people evacuated, the stadium as shelter, etc.

What doesn't compare is that the Katrina disaster could have been prevented. The experts and the govt. knew it was inevitable, and they did nothing.

Comparing the wildfires to the hurricane makes it seem as if lack of preparedness in New Orleans wasn't a huge factor. Yes, V. You are correct.

'Nobody ran drills, or if they did, they were incomplete and limited so they did not expose any problems. There was no effective way of notifying the whole city of a disaster. The mayor, the governor, and the president all delayed and delayed and delayed and thus hindered the ability of any federal aid to flow (which requires red tape to be "cut" in the form of a simple disaster declaration)."

Yes drills were ran. By the National Guard, who were specifically outfitted with highwater equipment, which is in Iraq and was at the time of Katrina. The Corp of Engineers were responsible for shoring up the levys, but hard to do with virtually no money. The levys are under the full control of the government.

As for notifying the city in time, they were notified and Blanco and Nagin successfully evacuated 99.6% of New Orleans before the storm struck.

It was bushes delay trying to federalize Louisiana and his refusal to send the troops the governor requested that caused the aftermath.

I personally have not seen anyone comparing Cali with Katrina yet, but regardless, holding the govanator up as all on top of it while trying to blame New Orleans on Blanco is not really fair. Had she been a republican they would have called her a hero for what she did do AND sent help.

I don't know how much race plays into the Cali response, but it does make me wonder when Barbra Bush will appear to tell us how 'they were all poorer than me anyways, so this works out well for them. Teehee!'

"they were incomplete and limited so they did not expose any problems."

They knew EXACTLY what the limits were, bush was informed the levys would be breached BEFORE they faltered.

Nagin and Blanco also knew it would be breeched.

The Corp of Engineers has been testing those levys for years and they NEVER passed the test. They knew the levys could not withstand above a catagory 3.

Is this what you were talking about V?

The AP has a good story today contrasting the treatment of the Southern California wildfire evacuees who’ve been forced to take shelter at San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium with the notorious conditions at the Louisiana Superdome after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005…read on

SAN DIEGO (AP) - Like Hurricane Katrina evacuees two years earlier in New Orleans, thousands of people rousted by natural disaster fled to the NFL stadium here, waiting out the calamity and worrying about their homes.

The similarities ended there, as an almost festive atmosphere reigned at Qualcomm Stadium.

Bands belted out rock ‘n’ roll, lavish buffets served gourmet entrees, and massage therapists helped relieve the stress for those forced to flee their homes because of wildfires…….read on

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/10/23/la-wild-fires

I am glad they are being well cared for. Honestly I am. What a horrible situation.

Why was the shrinking government not assuring that all 50 states were disaster-ready, especially after 9/11?

Why should California be more prepared than New Orleans?

Why shouldn't all 50 states be progressive for health care, environmentalism, women's rights and on and on?

It's like we're 50 different little countries.

Where is our national government? Do we have one other than for warfare and warmongering?

Where is it?

Playing the devil's advocate again.

- California IS well prepared. We better be well prepared, because otherwise it's nonstop disasters here - mudslides, earthquakes, fires, flooding, you name it.

- It doesn't matter if the governor is Gray Davis or Ahnuld Schwarzenegger. And the state legislature is doing its job in this matter as well, even though it's otherwise split between extremist ideologues of the two major parties (as opposed to moderates). This is one of the few things California does well, in fact.

- California does have a larger tax base, because average incomes are higher. This is despite the fact that Proposition 13 property tax freeze has clobbered the state's education system.

However, NMP does have a point. Affluent states like California and the Northeast pay more into the federal government than they get in services, so that the less affluent states, like Louisiana, will be able to catch up, with federal help. This is where the feds have failed.

Christy,

What happened at the Superdome is CRIMINAL.

I don't care if a Dem or a Repuke was in charge. Whoever was in charge, at all levels of government, are guilty of criminal negligence at least, and manslaughter/murder at worst.