RappCity

"Goobye Yellow Brick Road"

(Note: The  fourth anniversary of September 11th is today, and still deeply felt by all Americans. I'm a native New Yorker, who worked right across the street as they built the South Tower of the WTC in 1969-70 . It's hard.  But, right at this very moment,  Six Hundred of NY's Bravest (FDNY) are in New Orleans fighting fires and saving lives!  That's New York!  Many of my friends and relatives are still in NY.  My prayers and thoughts go out to my home town, and to all those, everywhere, affected by what happened that day.)

Split Brain
This odd phenomenon happens when the brain is split, or separated down the middle from (disease, trauma, etc.), leaving the left and right hands not working well together.  In my case it causes the humorous and serious sides of my brain to act independently, as in, "The left hand didn't know what the right hand was saying" (OH WAIT..that's the Federal and State Governments)! See what I mean?

Today, my right hand is very serious.  But my left hand is forcing jokes and making me poke fun at "pious pundits" who have so totally screwed up (and us), that they ought to just do us all a favor and leave quietly.   The world is sad, gone mad, and yet, the Divine Comedy of our lives (Through the incompetence of elected morons and appointed a-holes) has got to make us smile  occasionally, through our tears.  If not, we would all lay down and die.

The Blame Game
~FEMA FEMA, Bo Beeble, Banana Fana Fo Feeble = FEMA~
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and the ensuing mismanaged disasters that followed, the Director of the (The Federal Emergency Management Agency) FEMA, Michael Brown has been fired.  Wait, that's not right.  He's been retired.  No, no..that's not it either.  He's been...um...returned?  Wait, OK, wait...I've got it now:  Mr. Brown has been "Recalled" (Like the CORVAIR and PINTO with their exploding rear-ends).  Replacing him will be Coast Guard Admiral,  Fat Albert (oops) I mean Thad Allen (It truly took me four or five times to get that name right).    Are you still wondering WHY?  Well, it beats me.  Just because the man did a lousy job, had no skills and lied on his resume', is it really fair to remove him (Especially if he is the President's friend)?  But here's more:

FEMA Faux Paus
Ted Koppel/Nightline (9/3): Koppel reports that US Special Forces were available.. sitting around, doing nothing and waiting for orders.  A guest on the same show also said,  "Two trucks of food were sitting and not moving for over a day because no one was there to help move it."
Anderson Cooper/CNN (9/4): After having walked in and through, then boated around the waters of New Orleans Cooper noted that troops were, "Milling around with conflicting orders and doing nothing."  
(This report reminded me of the TITANIC....where everyone rushed to one side of the ship and crammed into the few lifeboats, while on the others side, lifeboats were being lowered with more than half the seats empty!  The captain?  He killed himself).
Brian Williams of NBC: He too, was there when it all happened.  He was in the Superdome, with all the other evacuees, reporting all the way.  He claimed everyone there was forgotten.  As the power died, and the water started leaking in around 5AM they left, to check for others as they watched the waters rising.  He said that a few days later, the Armed Forces, with M-16's just sat around doing nothing..awaiting orders.  He saw looting, heard shooting and said it was the worst thing he had seen in his life!  "There are now more M-16's in new Orleans than anywhere else in the world,"  he added.
Sen. Mary Landrieu CSPAN 9/8/05:   She lost her home to Katrina, and stood on the floor of the Senate, speaking to whomever would listen (I did), telling us that even the cartoon character Mr. Bill had been doing PSA's on TV for over two years now about the dangers of levee breaks in New Orleans.  She said President Bush had a video conference with state officials only one day before Katrina hit land, "Yet Bush and FEMA did nothing." "It seems Mr. Bill knew more than Mr. Bush," she added.
Trent Lott, National News: The Republican Majority Leader from Mississippi lost a home and was "outraged" (although I am still not sure he would have been as outraged had it been MY home on Cape Cod).
President Bush:  "We could have done better."

Perhaps the words I enjoyed the most this week, were part of the verbal exchange between House Minority Leader, Nancy Pelosi and the President. It began with her asking him if anyone at FEMA would be fired.  He said, "For what?"  She said, "For what did not go right."  Bush quickly replied, "What did not go right?"   Pelosi has since been quoted saying, she finds Bush, "Oblivious, but dangerous."

Haven't you wondered (I have) what our reaction would have been if it had been Cape Cod flooding that fast, and as we were drowning, the powers that be were standing on shore fighting over who was in charge of what?  "Someone just toss me a life preserver while you chat please!"  Good riddance Mr. Brown.

Ragin' Cajun
When "DUBYA" really gets in it over his head you can always tell.  Dick Cheney appears out of nowhere.  Cheney, on his way to the "Big Easy" mugged and waved for the camera's as he drove downtown accompanied by a brand new face to the National scene; Three star General Honore' Russel (who is also Black, a War Hero and a, "Cajun from the streets of New Orleans," according to Cheney's PR people. Look for this guy.  He is destined for great mediocrity (Hanging with this group anyway).   A General is a terrible thing to waste....

The American Diaspora
Now, let me take a fresh breath  ...and offer a belated, but hearty welcome to our guests at Camp Edwards.  All 208 of them hail from Louisiana.   I don't know about you, but I'm proud to be their host, and plan to show them some real "Northern" hospitality.  I'm also glad these people are finally being called "Evacuees" ... and not "Refugees" (that was really messing with my head)!  The local papers say the kids from this group will attend school in the town of Bourne.  A new life on the Cape always begins with being, "Bourne Again."   (Ohhh...forgive my left hand).

When the Hebrew people were forced out of their original homeland (Judea and Israel), it was termed the Diaspora (From the Greek word for disperse).  But, as the dispersed and displaced Jews wandered the earth, settling in many new places, they tried (as much as possible) to stay connected to each other -- no matter where they landed.  Most hoped, as dispersed people do...to eventually return home.  Some finally did.  But the rest, did manage, no matter what, to still maintain their identity. Many Gulf Coast residents, descended from long ancestries in that area, are now hoping for that same thing.  Let's hope they make it.
There are now over one million displaced people in America due to Katrina. It is the largest displacement of people since the Civil War.  It even beats the Dust Bowl migrations during the great depression over 70 years ago.

Follow the Yellow Brick Road
Although its been a busy news week, It was also reported that the famous "Ruby Slippers," from the WIZARD OF OZ were stolen from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids Minnesota (Where Garland was born).  There is something eerily ironic in those shoes being stolen now.  Everyone knows you can't get down the road to Oz (and home) without them. 

Personally, I believe, the Wicked Witch of the West stole them.  And, I think she walks among us in the form of Ann Coulter (Republican "Strategist" and media hound... "woof woof").  These (always blonde) "strategists" (What are "strategists" anyway, and where are the brunette Democratic "Strategists"...and redheaded Libertarian "Strategists?"), make my skin crawl anyway, but Coulter takes the cake. She is so obsessively Anti-AnythingButBush that she could find a partisan position against Lassie!

I only bring this up today, because actor Sean Penn spent last week wading through diseased muck, mire and sewage in New Orleans, helping people get food and waterand shelter.  Asked by a reporter if some might consider his involvement a "publicity stunt," Penn, well known for past charitable work (and direct demeanor) answered, "People will say what people will say," as he turned back around, and lifted another heavy bag of food onto someone's porch.

Well, Coulter (Who should have taken Bill Maher's offer to smoke a joint with him and just "Chill"), had something to say.  Appearing on the "Double Right Handed" Sean Hannity show on FOX (where else), with her freshly done manicure, she spewed mucho drivel about celebrities doing nothing to help during this disaster (what was she doing to help?), and then specifically singled out Penn and sneered, "And what has Sean Penn actually given (she meant in dollars)?  Folks, this was one of those few times when I totally understand why Elvis shot his television!

Do people really take this "Witch" seriously?  Penn may need a Typhus, Cholera and Hepatitis shot after what's he's been through, but we all need an anti Coulter shot!
Click, Click, Click.  We need those "Ruby Slippers" Ann!  Some people want to get home!  I can almost hear Coulter's screeching voice in the horrific person of Patty McCormick's murderous child in the THE BAD SEED....  "Give me back my shoes!!!"   (Yikes)

Roosevelt, Bush and the WPA
Bush asked Congress this week for $40 Billion more for disaster help (they have already given him $62 Billion).  He (we) will need much more before this catastrophe is over.  Where will it come from (Halliburton does not work cheap). Hey, we could stop the war...  Nahhhhh.  They'd call us "Chicken." So, I came up with another idea this week.  How about if Bush formed a type of WPA (WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION) similar to what President Roosevelt initiated during the Great Depression?  

FDR was smart enough to realize during those dark days that "personal dignity" as well as money was important. His WPA gave jobs (and dignity) back to people by hiring them to build roads, bridges and dams.  People grabbed a shovel, a pick, or a trowel and laid brick, drove trucks and learned new skills right on the job!  I'm sure, some of the good people currently displaced by Mother Nature (with no other particular profession to go back to) would eagerly want to join in rebuilding their own hometowns without corporate friends (halliburton etc.) of the Bush family telling them to, "Go home, we've got it covered."   Go home where?  Since we need to rebuild three states, why not put the people who live in them back to work and send Halliburton home!

Local companies from these devastated areas should be hired.  The "homeless evacuees" with the "Debit cards" could use some of these jobs. Bush could save a lot of face (and other parts of his anatomy) and actually do some good for a change by considering such a plan.  Mobile homes (like after Hurricane Andrew) could house people... as the government (Federal, Sate and Local) all chipped in to pay a decent wage for a decent days work.
I bet it would still cost less than if Halliburton did the cleanup and billed the Feds at 10 times market rate! Some basic medical care, a few community food pantry's and some temporary schools and day care centers could be set up for the approximately 298,000 kids (ABC news figures) who are now homeless.

All week I've heard talk of the Louisiana National Guard troops returning home from Iraq, some without jobs and now without homes. This might be an answer for them too.  Let's even go National.  ALL vets,  returning from the war...and even those who did not serve overseas (If you served this country in a uniform...anywhere) should be offered a paying job! THAT would do more for Homeland Security and FEMA than just hiring another bunch of incompetent department heads. Go ahead....call me a "Commie."  Call me a "Liberal."  But If what I said above earns me those titles...I'll be proud to wear the badges!

Take my Life, Please (Rimshots)

The way this Administration is going, the DIXIE CHICKS should start practicing for the Democratic Inaugural Ball in 2008!              Let me also take this moment to also say how glad I am that the recent "Tropical Depression" named Hilary disappeared without a trace.  I wonder who picked out that name?  Ya  think a Republican meteorologist? Can you imagine if Katrina had been named Hilary?  NOT nice kiddies! To even the score, I suggest that next year the National Weather Service be forced to name hurricanes, Condaleeza, Dick, George and Rummy!                                 

Cape Cod and Recover 
The Discovery Channel ran a special last week on how ocean temperatures in the northern hemisphere are 1 degree centigrade warmer than they have been in many years.   It goes like this:  Warmer ocean waters, spawn more Red tides and Fishkills, especially in abused and overbuilt marshes and wetlands. Warmer temperatures also cause higher evaporation rates, which casues more rain, which makes heat rise and get picked up by wind spinning it up inside a vortex.  This creates a kind of  "perpetual motion" steam engine that just keeps feeding itself, causing more frequent and severe hurricanes and other storms.  Heavy stuff folks...heavy. They also explained how temperature changes occur in twenty-five year cycles. This last cycle started about 1995.  So we have about fifteen more years to go folks.  So, let's be EXTRA careful what we do in the meantime.

Take heed Cape Cod.,..experts looking at the Gulf Coast disaster are finally discussing all the overbuilding on the coastal plains and marshes that once protected the region.  Overbuilding did not cause ...but certainly was partially to blame ... for much destruction and more than a few deaths.  In the end, the overworked dams and levees, along with the fragile coastline were just not strong enough to hold back the tides.

Good People and Goodness
Many of those devastated by Katrina and her aftermath are now being taken in and/or helped in other ways by many kind people, out of the "Goodness of their hearts." But, human nature still being human nature, I must wonder how long those "Good hearts" can last.  Eventually even the  "Goodhearted" find their own problems taking over center stage.
So, as we all push our way through the tragedy, heartbreak and chaos of the past two weeks (amidst nightly finger pointing over "Who did, or didn't do what," and repeatedly debating, "Looting" versus "Foraging" (depending on skin color), ...we should  all  just stop for a minute and take a lesson from fifteen year old Anne Frank. Hiding from Nazi's for over two years in a cramped, cold attic, she just kept writing in her now very famous diary. Right before she and her family were arrested and ultimately murdered, her last entry read: "It’s a wonder I haven't abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical. Yet I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart.  It's utterly impossible for me to build my life on a foundation of chaos, suffering and death. I see the world being slowly transformed into a wilderness, I hear the approaching thunder that, one day, will destroy us too, I feel the suffering of millions. And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that everything will change for the better, that this cruelty too shall end, that peace and tranquility will return once more" - July 15, 1944 -   ##JC
*NOTE from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services   Physicians and other medical professionals  with any state license who can commit to short-term, long-term or rotating coverage are urgently needed in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.  If  interested in volunteering your  services to the relief effort, visit the Health Care Professionals and Relief Personnel Volunteer Page (above link)to sign up.You can also call (866) 528-6334.