mood: 
better
bettermusic: The Alan Parsons Project - Games people play
nihilistic_kid punctures the 24-hour cable news monster, which needs it some puncturing.bearsir's peptalk (via misia)scott_lynch on largesse, not.Tobias Buckell on hurricane relief in the Caribbean.
From the Times-Picayune, officially the best newspaper in America as of today:
National Guard caravans are coming in. (for those who asked, there are updates on the fires in this article.) Rescuers have made it to the Convention Center and Charity Hospital. A refugee bus from the Superdome overturned on the highway, killing one. Houston opening more refugee centers, Texas being in a position to remember Galveston as well as the Alamo. The only time you will ever see these words here: Go, Texas.
Various other stories here. Including Forest Service plans to fight fires in the affected areas, and Hastert's attempts to rescind yesterday's bon mot.
The worst may, in fact, be over. Now the heartbreak and the hard work begin.
More:
copperwise on disaster planning for the poor.stwish on Black Americans: "for good and sufficient reasons, hate, fear and distrust white Americans in general and the government in particular. If this is news to you, you need remedial brain work."klostes: disaster guidelines. This makes a nice double bill with copperwise's post.batagur reprints Leon Wynter.
http://www.livejournal.com/community/alchemylab/1538654.html
Which falls into the category of jesusfuck, and I'm a pagan.
People.
Heh. I may not be very fond of my elected government (I didn't vote for all those young conservative white guys!) but the people here, the people are grand! How 'bout Go Texans?
Damn, but I hope this administration goes down hard for this criminal incompetence. It won't make up for any of the loss and suffering, but... damn
Helping them survive until the means to evacuate arrive seems to be a lesser priority.
Perhaps they should take control of the situation and walk to Memphis, like responsible refugees..
Stop Death Tax Repeal: Is this the time for a tax cut?
From THINK PROGRESS:
Senate Finance Committee members were informed this morning that Sen. Bill Frist will move forward with a vote to permanently repeal the estate tax next week, likely on Tuesday, ThinkProgress has learned.
One stands in awe of Sen. Frist's timing. Permanently repealing the
estate tax would be a major blow to the nation's charities. The
nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has "found that the estate tax
encourages wealthy individuals to donate considerably more to charity
, since estate tax liability is reduced through donations made both
during life and at death." If there were no estate tax in 2000, for
example, "charitable donations would have been between $13 billion to
$25 billion lower than they actually were."
ADDED: Take a moment to read this Newsweek article: A Colossal Failure of Leadership. You'll note a mention of the death tax repeal at the bottom of the article. Mind you, it's the ONLY mention I've found on any major media sites today.