albums i kind of wish i had

patrick wolf - wind in the wires
coldplay - x&y
death cab for cutie - plans
decemberists - picaresque
gorillaz - demon days
my chemical romance - three cheers for sweet revenge
incubus - enjoy incubus (i have all of their CDs except this one, the first EP)

Speaking of Incubus, here's a quote about "Favorite Things", one of my favorite Incubus songs:

"'Favorite Things' Is my personal beliefs about religion and how it oppresses the things I enjoy the most. Unfortunately, the simplest things, such as thinking for myself, creating my own reality and being whatever the hell I want to be each day of my life, are a sin. To be a good Christian basically means to give up the reigns of your life and let some unseen force do it for you." -Brandon Boyd, lead singer of Incubus

The Homosexual Agenda

6:00 AM Gym
8:00 AM Breakfast (oatmeal and egg whites)
9:00 AM Hair appointment1
0:00 AM Shopping
12:00 PM Brunch
2:00 PM
__ 1) Assume complete control of US Federal, State and Local Governments as well as all other national governments.
__ 2) recruit all straight youngsters to our debauched lifestyle.
__ 3) destroy all healthy heterosexual marriages.
__ 4) replace all school counselors in grades K-12 with agents of Colombian and Jamaican drug cartels.
__ 5) bulldoze all houses of worship.
__ 6) secure total control of the INTERNET and all mass media.
2:30 PM Get Forty Winks of Beauty Rest to prevent facial wrinkles from stress of world conquest .
4:00 PM Cocktails
6:00 PM Light Dinner (soup, salad, with Chardonnay)
8:00 PM Theater
11:00 PM Bed (du jour)

(meme via xerofilter)

fiddle while Rome burns

It was Monday night that the levee broke around New Orleans, causing the city to flood.

The levee broke because it was only strong enough for a category 3 storm, not a category 5. There were plans to build the levee up to support a category 5 storm, but the Bush Administration diverted that money towards the war in Iraq.

I would really, really like to say that there was no way of knowing a storm of Katrina's magnitude would come along and tear the wall apart. I would like to think that it was an honest mistake... money was needed elsewhere and the levee could wait.

On June 8, 2004, Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; told the Times-Picayune: "It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us."

Well, Iraq (read: the Army and Halliburton) got that money instead, even despite warnings from weather experts about big storms coming this year.

Fast forward to Monday night again. After MAJOR warnings from the National Weather System calling for "most of the area" to be "uninhabitable for weeks" and "water shortages" to "make human suffering incredible by modern standards", the levee broke, as expected.

As the President of a country that's in the middle of major devistation, on Tuesday President Bush gave another speech about killing social security, drummed up support for the war in Iraq at a military base, and got himself a geetar:

President Bush plays a guitar presented to him by Country Singer Mark Wills, right, backstage following his visit to Naval Base Coronado, Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005. Bush visited the base to deliver remarks on V-J Commemoration Day. -AP

Ironic, given the history behind the idiom "fiddle while Rome burns":

fiddle while Rome burns: To do something trivial and irresponsible in the midst of an emergency; legend has it that while a fire destroyed the city of Rome, the emperor Nero played his violin, thus revealing his total lack of concern for his people and his empire.

4 days and thousands of lives later, Bush finally toured the area and spoke about it. (Also read: Trent Lott's new house)

I hope survivors are able to continue making it, even if that means "looting" some food or clothes from grocery stores in the area, given the slowness to help from their own government.

Kanye West tells his opinion on live TV

Mike Myers and Kanye West appeared together on NBC's live concert relief effort on Friday night. Their job was to simply read from the teleprompter about the devistation in the South.

Kanye West didn't read the teleprompter, however:

I hate the way they portray us in the media. You see a black family, it says, "They're looting." You see a white family, it says, "They're looking for food." And, you know, it's been five days [waiting for federal help] because most of the people are black. And even for me to complain about it, I would be a hypocrite because I've tried to turn away from the TV because it's too hard to watch. I've even been shopping before even giving a donation, so now I'm calling my business manager right now to see what is the biggest amount I can give, and just to imagine if I was down there, and those are my people down there. So anybody out there that wants to do anything that we can help -- with the way America is set up to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off, as slow as possible. I mean, the Red Cross is doing everything they can. We already realize a lot of people that could help are at war right now, fighting another way -- and they've given them permission to go down and shoot us!

After throwing it back to Myers, who read the teleprompter, it went back to West for a short moment:

George Bush doesn't care about black people!

I applaud you, Kanye West. I'm tired of the media controlling what is said and supressing opinions.

WATCH IT: quicktime, wmp, torrent

Oh, and an update from BoingBoing on this:

Comcast is currently censoring CNN Headline news right now because they are showing the Kayne West clip. Every half hour the last 8 minutes of the CNN broadcast is being replaced by public access TV.

You've got to be fucking joking me.

Hero or Felon?

Eighteen-year-old Jabbor Gibson jumped aboard the bus as it sat abandoned on a street in New Orleans and took control. "I just took the bus and drove all the way here...seven hours straight,' Gibson admitted. "I hadn't ever drove a bus."

The teen packed it full of complete strangers and drove to Houston. He beat thousands of evacuees slated to arrive there. Authorities eventually allowed the renegade passengers inside the dome. But the 18-year-old who ensured their safety could find himself in a world of trouble for stealing the school bus.

"I dont care if I get blamed for it," Gibson said, "as long as I saved my people."

I call that fucking heroism.

via BoingBoing.

The Red Cross is not allowed in New Orleans.

Homeland Security has told the Red Cross that they're not allowed in New Orleans.

How many more ways can we not help those affected by the storm?

pictures

deliberate131, a writer for Rock Music Review (the site I run), lives in Mississippi and just got power back...

So he posted pictures.

Check them out.

BREAKING: Chief Justice Rehnquist dies

Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who helped shift the U.S. Supreme Court toward a more conservative ideology and strongly supported states' rights during his three decades on the bench, has died. Rehnquist was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in October 2004, not long after the 2004-2005 court session began, and received outpatient radiation and chemotherapy treatments.

FULL STORY from CNN

Sorry for interrupting...

It's amazing what happens to a journalist when they leave the scripted set and enter the real world. They'll even ask the tough questions and put people on the spot.

Here's Anderson Cooper putting a politician on the spot about the situation in the South.



I kind of want to marry Anderson Cooper.

via Spokey and Slate

Morons.

1. Yesterday on NPR, Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff said he didn't know there were 2,000 people and many bodies at the convention center in New Orleans.

Yesterday, on NPR's All Things Considered, Robert Siegel didn't get medieval on Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, in part because the microphones there are specially fabricated to decant all emotion from the voices of their reporters. But Siegel aggressively blocked every escape route that Chertoff took to evade hard questions about "corpses" and "human waste" piling up at the city's convention center, where thousands were stranded without provisions. (Siegel gets tough at about minute four in the audio clip.)

Siegel kept asking Chertoff how long it would take to serve or rescue these people, and a couple times Chertoff answered that the government was doing a great job at the Superdome.

When he cautioned Siegel about the danger of relying on "anecdotal" "rumors" of people in dire straits, Siegel said, no—these are facts presented by reporters who have covered war zones. There are 2,000 people at the convention center in need, he said. Having finally broken through the steel plate that is Chertoff's skull, the secretary confessed he hadn't heard those reports—reports that the television networks were documenting, live, with their cameras. Chertoff promised he'd look into the matter.

-Slate

2. President Bush on the tragedy:

"We've got a lot of rebuilding to do. First, we're going to save lives and stabilize the situation. And then we're going to help these communities rebuild.

The good news is -- and it's hard for some to see it now -- that out of this chaos is going to come a fantastic Gulf Coast, like it was before.

Out of the rubbles of Trent Lott's house -- he's lost his entire house -- there's going to be a fantastic house. And I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch. (Laughter.)"

I'm sure his new house will be quite marvelous (Laughter). Too bad a large majority of the people that are in this tragedy right now are fucking homeless and were poor before the tragedy and will most likely not get a porch to sit on.

Well now that this 'responding to tragedy' thing is out of the way, anyone up for some golf and caviar?