President Obama's Weekly Web Address

Transcript:

This week, I spent some time with Americans across the country who are hurting because of our economic crisis -- people closing the businesses they scrimped and saved to start; families losing the homes that were their stake in the American Dream; folks who've given up trying to get ahead, and given in to the stark reality of just trying to get by.

They've been looking to those they sent to Washington for some hope at a time when they need it most.

This morning, I'm pleased to say that after a lively debate full of healthy differences of opinion, we've delivered real and tangible progress for the American people.

Congress has passed my economic recovery plan –- an ambitious plan at a time we badly need it. It will save or create more than 3.5 million jobs over the next two years, ignite spending by business and consumers alike, and lay a new foundation for our lasting economic growth and prosperity.

This is a major milestone on our road to recovery, and I want to thank the members of Congress who came together in common purpose to make it happen. Because they did, I will sign this legislation into law shortly, and we'll begin making the immediate investments necessary to put people back to work doing the work America needs done:

The work of modernizing our health care system, saving billions of dollars and countless lives; and upgrading classrooms, libraries, and labs in our children's schools across America.

The work of building wind turbines and solar panels and the smart grid necessary to transport the clean energy they create; and laying broadband Internet lines to connect rural homes, schools, and businesses to the information superhighway.

The work of repairing our crumbling roads and bridges, and our dangerously deficient dams and levees.

And we'll help folks who've lost their jobs through no fault of their own by providing the unemployment benefits they need and protecting the health care they count on.

Now, some fear we won't be able to effectively implement a plan of this size and scope, and I understand their skepticism. Washington hasn't set a very good example in recent years. And with so much on the line, it's time to begin doing things differently.

That's why our goal must be to spend these precious dollars with unprecedented accountability, responsibility, and transparency. I've tasked my Cabinet and staff to set up the kind of management, oversight, and disclosure that will help ensure that, and I will challenge state and local governments to do the same.

Once the plan is put into action, a new website -– recovery.gov -– will allow any American to watch where the money goes and weigh in with comments and questions –- and I encourage every American to do so. Ultimately, this is your money, and you deserve to know where it's going and how it's spent.

This historic step won't be the end of what we do to turn our economy around, but rather the beginning. The problems that led us into this crisis are deep and widespread, and our response must be equal to the task.

For our plan to succeed, we must stabilize, repair, and reform our banking system, and get credit flowing again to families and businesses. We must write and enforce new rules of the road, to stop unscrupulous speculators from undermining our economy ever again. We must stem the spread of foreclosures and do everything we can to help responsible homeowners stay in their homes.

And in the weeks ahead, I will submit a proposal for the federal budget that will begin to restore the discipline these challenging times demand. Our debt has doubled over the past eight years, and we've inherited a trillion dollar deficit –- which we must add to in the short term in order to jumpstart our sick economy. But our long-term economic growth demands that we tame our burgeoning federal deficit; that we invest in the things we need, and dispense with the things we don't. This is a challenging agenda, but one we can and will achieve.

This morning, I'm reminded of words President Kennedy spoke in another time of uncertainty: "Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks."

America, we will prove equal to this task. It will take time, and it will take effort, but working together, we will turn this crisis into opportunity and emerge from our painful present into a brighter future. After a week spent with the fundamentally decent men and women of this nation, I have never been more certain of that.

Thank you.

Bipartisanship: The Enduring Myth

Obama put $300 billion in tax cuts into his economic stimulus plan, cut funds for family planning and refurbishing the National Mall, all to appease Republicans, and guess what?

Not one Republican voted for his "bipartisan" stimulus plan.

In Washington, "bipartisanship" is doing what the Republicans want.

They're not going to vote for your bill, Obama. Just craft the best stimulus possible and forget them. They want the economy to fail. They've been working hard at that for the last eight years.

I don't need $500. I need you to fix the bridges I drive across every day. Get to work the smart way. You don't need those bozos.

Obama's Weekly Web Address

We start this new year in the midst of an economic crisis unlike any we have seen in our lifetime. We learned yesterday that in the past month alone, we lost more than half a million jobs – a total of nearly 2.6 million in the year 2008. Another 3.4 million Americans who want and need full-time work have had to settle for part-time jobs. And families across America are feeling the pinch as they watch debts mount, bills pile up and savings disappear.

These numbers are a stark reminder that we simply cannot continue on our current path. If nothing is done, economists from across the spectrum tell us that this recession could linger for years and the unemployment rate could reach double digits – and they warn that our nation could lose the competitive edge that has served as a foundation for our strength and standing in the world.

It’s not too late to change course – but only if we take immediate and dramatic action. Our first job is to put people back to work and get our economy working again. This is an extraordinary challenge, which is why I’ve taken the extraordinary step of working – even before I take office – with my economic team and leaders of both parties on an American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan that will call for major investments to revive our economy, create jobs, and lay a solid foundation for future growth.

I asked my nominee for Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, Dr. Christina Romer, and the Vice President-Elect’s Chief Economic Adviser, Dr. Jared Bernstein, to conduct a rigorous analysis of this plan and come up with projections of how many jobs it will create – and what kind of jobs they will be. Today, I am releasing a report of their findings so that the American people can see exactly what this plan will mean for their families, their communities, and our economy.

The report confirms that our plan will likely save or create three to four million jobs. 90 percent of these jobs will be created in the private sector – the remaining 10 percent are mainly public sector jobs we save, like the teachers, police officers, firefighters and others who provide vital services in our communities.

The jobs we create will be in businesses large and small across a wide range of industries. And they’ll be the kind of jobs that don’t just put people to work in the short term, but position our economy to lead the world in the long-term.

We’ll create nearly half a million jobs by investing in clean energy – by committing to double the production of alternative energy in the next three years, and by modernizing more than 75% of federal buildings and improving the energy efficiency of two million American homes. These made-in-America jobs building solar panels and wind turbines, developing fuel-efficient cars and new energy technologies pay well, and they can’t be outsourced.

We’ll create hundreds of thousands of jobs by improving health care – transitioning to a nationwide system of computerized medical records that won’t just save money, but save lives by preventing deadly medical errors. And we’ll create hundreds of thousands more jobs in education, equipping tens of thousands of schools with 21st century classrooms, labs and computers to help our kids compete with any worker in the world for any job.

We’ll put nearly 400,000 people to work by repairing our infrastructure – our crumbling roads, bridges and schools. And we’ll build the new infrastructure we need to succeed in this new century, investing in science and technology, and laying down miles of new broadband lines so that businesses across our nation can compete with their counterparts around the world.

Finally, we won’t just create jobs, we’ll also provide help for those who’ve lost theirs, and for states and families who’ve been hardest-hit by this recession. That means bi-partisan extensions of unemployment insurance and health care coverage; a $1,000 tax cut for 95 percent of working families; and assistance to help states avoid harmful budget cuts in essential services like police, fire, education and health care.

Now, given the magnitude of the challenges we face, none of this will come easy. Recovery won’t happen overnight, and it’s likely that things will get worse before they get better.

But we have come through moments like this before. We are the nation that has faced down war, depression and fear itself – each time, refusing to yield; each time, refusing to accept a lesser fate. That is the spirit that has always sustained us – that belief that our destiny is not written for us, but by us; that our success is not a matter of chance, but of our own courage and determination. Our resources may be finite, but our will is infinite. And I am confident that if we come together and summon that great American spirit once again, we will meet the challenges of our time and write the next great chapter in our American story.

Obama Economic Recovery Plan

Excerpts of Obama's speech outlining his plan to end the Bush Recession, via dailykos:

Bridge Repair on the Cheap

Photo by Jim Gehrz, Star Tribune

Divers continued recovery efforts Friday at the scene where the I-35W bridge collapsed.


Minneapolis Star Tribune: MnDOT chose 'most cost efficient' of 3 options

In lay terms, they picked the cheapest fix. Bridge fell down. You get what you pay for.

How Many Bridges in Your State Are 'Structurally Deficient'?

ABC News: Minn. Bridge Collapse: Survivors' Photos
A side view of the I35 W after it buckled into chunks.
(Kimberly Brown and Kelly Kahle)

MSNBC has posted a chart that shows bridges that are "structurally deficient" for all 50 states:

MSNBC: State by state: 'Deficient' and 'Obsolete' Bridges

Massachusetts and Pennsylvania are the worst with over 50% of bridges "structurally deficient" or "functionally obsolete".

For Massachusetts, that's what 20 years of tax-cutting Republican governors gets you.

Security Camera Records Minneapolis Bridge Collapse

Bush Politicizes Minneapolis Bridge Collapse [Updated, below; Update Two]

The Chimperor is using his free cable time commenting on the Minneapolis bridge collapse to criticize Congress for not passing spending bills. He barely spoke on the bridge collapse. Of course, he doesn't really care about anyone. Psychopath.

Politicizing the bridge collapse less than 24 hours after happened. He is shameless.

Impeach his cold, lying ass.

UPDATE: RenaF at dailykos is far more eloquent than I: The Utter F---ing NERVE. She has a transcript of his absurd statements.

UPDATE 2: Somebody was counting: Bush used 139 words to address Minneapolis, then spent 509 words blaming the Democrats.

Minnesota Bridge Collapse

The collapse left vehicles scattered along the rubble of the bridge.

Photo: Heather Munro/Star Tribune, via Associated Press


CNN interviewed the Minnesota governor this morning, and he said well, this bridge did show structural issues in an inspection last year, but there are 80,000 other bridges in the country with the same level of deterioration; and that's not the worst ranking. Apparently there's a list of tens of thousands of other bridges that are even more structurally deficient.

ABC News says that more than a quarter -- 27% -- of the country's 600,000 bridges are structurally deficient:

According to the Center for International and Strategic Studies, more than a quarter of the country's bridges are structurally unstable. A federal report in 2005 said Minnesota's Interstate 35W bridge was structurally deficient and may need to be repaired.

Ron Beasley at Middle Earth Journal puts it this way:

[W]e should be looking at the revenue starved collapsing infrastructure of the United States. A much greater threat than al-Qaeda could ever be.

And why is our infrastructure revenue starved? It's the crazy Republican fetish for tax cuts. And the absolutely insane Iraq war, where we will spend more than a trillion dollars according to the Congressional Budget Office. Imagine if we had used that money to repair our crumbling infrastructure. Some people in Minneapolis might be alive today.

Massive Bridge Collapse in Minneapolis

This video frame grab taken from KMSP television shows the scene of a freeway bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2007. The entire span of the 35W bridge collapsed about 6:05 p.m. where the freeway crosses the river near University Avenue. (AP Photo/KMSP-TV)

WaPo (AP): Bridge Falls Into Mississippi River

MINNEAPOLIS -- The entire span of an interstate bridge collapsed into the Mississippi River during evening rush hour Wednesday, sending vehicles, tons of concrete and twisted metal crashing into the water.

The Interstate 35W bridge, a major link between Minneapolis and St. Paul, was in the midst of being repaired when it broke into several huge sections.

"There were two lanes of traffic, bumper to bumper, at the point of the collapse. Those cars did go into the river," Minneapolis Police Lt. Amelia Huffman. "At this point there is nothing to suggest that this was anything other than a structural collapse."

I heard a Minnesota-based Foxbot talking to Shepard Smith about the bridge collapse. She said, in essence, that she didn't know if this was a factor, but Minneapolis has been in the grip of a heatwave all summer. They quickly took her off the air!

The collapse is much more likely due to the fact that it's a 40 year old bridge (opened in 1967) which, when inspected in 2006, was found to have "cracks in bridge superstructure that needed attention."

Best comment on the bridge collapse, from commenter xxdr zombiexx at dailykos:

Things crumbling was a hallmark of Soviet-era incompetence and dereliction of duty.

Catskills Flash Flood: More Video, Photos

From the Middletown Times-Herald Record, video taken driving down what's left of Route 206 towards Roscoe. The damage from the storm is almost entirely within the Town of Colchester. It's the town's fourth major flood in the past two years.

I drove to Coach Mom's house today and to avoid all the emergency vehicles going from Route 30 to Holiday Brook and Cat Hollow, I came down 88 instead. I watched horizontal lightning from the exits for Cooperstown until I got off at Oneonta to go to Brooks' BBQ (sorry guys). At Brooks' takeout window they had the Weather Channel on overhead, which had the orange bar at the bottom for a severe thunderstorm warning for Franklin (where I was headed) and a tornado warning for Ithaca. Luckily for me the storms were already passing and stayed ahead of me as I headed south. There are currently at least three people missing from the flash flood in Colchester, and one of them was reportedly swept away in a car. I thought about that all the way home.

recordonline.com - The Times Herald-Record, serving New York's Hudson Valley and the Catskills

Photos submitted by THR readers:

recordonline.com - Article Photo Zoom

THR: Flash Flood Day Two: recordonline.com - Article Photo Zoom

midhudsonnews.com: Search continues for missing as damage toll is in the millions

Delaware County 911 Coordinator and Deputy Emergency Services Director Steve Finch told MidHudsonNews.com today that early assessment of property damage just to Delaware County exceeds $5 million. That just pertains to county roads, bridges and other infrastructure that was damaged or destroyed. The raging floodwaters were so intense that they tore large slabs of pavement off roadways.

Route 206 is also County Route 7, and is the most traveled road in the county. Bizarrely, in the past few years the county has posted signs designating it as a seasonal road, meaning that it doesn't get priority plowing for snow and that you are at your own risk traveling.

'The Earth todays stands in imminent peril'

Terrifying article. Is anyone in power listening?

The Independent (uk): The Earth today stands in imminent peril
and nothing short of a planetary rescue will save it from the environmental cataclysm of dangerous climate change. Those are not the words of eco-warriors but the considered opinion of a group of eminent scientists writing in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.

The unnatural "forcing" of the climate as a result of man-made emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases threatens to generate a "flip" in the climate that could "spark a cataclysm" in the massive ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland, the scientists write.

Dramatic flips in the climate have occurred in the past but none has happened since the development of complex human societies and civilisation, which are unlikely to survive the same sort of environmental changes if they occurred now.

"Civilisation developed, and constructed extensive infrastructure, during a period of unusual climate stability, the Holocene, now almost 12,000 years in duration. That period is about to end," the scientists warn. Humanity cannot afford to burn the Earth's remaining underground reserves of fossil fuel. "To do so would guarantee dramatic climate change, yielding a different planet from the one on which civilisation developed and for which extensive physical infrastructure has been built," they say.

Dr Hansen said we have about 10 years to put into effect the draconian measures needed to curb CO2 emissions quickly enough to avert a dangerous rise in global temperature. Otherwise, the extra heat could trigger the rapid melting of polar ice sheets, made far worse by the "albedo flip" - when the sunlight reflected by white ice is suddenly absorbed as ice melts to become the dark surface of open water.

The glaciers and ice sheets of Greenland in the northern hemisphere, and the western Antarctic ice sheet in the south, both show signs of the rapid changes predicted with rising temperatures."

Independent (uk): Climate change brings early spring in the Arctic

The Arctic spring is coming two weeks ahead of time compared to a decade ago, with birds, butterflies, flowers and small animals all appearing earlier in the year as a result of climate change.

A study of a range of animals and plants living in the high Arctic has revealed that many of them are responding to the earlier spring by flowering or laying their eggs significantly ahead of their normal times of the year.

On average, the breeding and flowering seasons in the Arctic have shifted by 14.5 days but some species of mosquitoes have begun laying their eggs 30 days earlier than in the mid 1990s, Toke Hoye, of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, said.

"Our study confirms what many people already think, that the seasons are changing and it is not just one or two warm years but a trend seen over a decade," Dr Hoye said. "This is the most extensive study of its kind in the Arctic in terms of the number and variety of species and the replication of the observations."

His Lips Are Moving

Guardian (uk): Bush set for climate change U-turn

George Bush is preparing to make a historic shift in his position on global warming when he makes his State of the Union speech later this month, say senior Downing Street officials.

You can only believe that Bush is serious about this is if you ignore his long history of prevaricating on issues relating to climate change, energy conservation and his beloved oil:

ThinkProgress: Bush Promises To ‘Knock Our Socks Off’ At SOTU With 5 Year Old ‘Energy Independence’ Pledge

In every one of his previous State of the Union addresses, Bush has promised to push America towards energy independence:

- 2006: Keeping America competitive requires affordable energy. And here we have a serious problem: America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world. The best way to break this addiction is through technology. [1/31/2006]

- 2005: To keep our economy growing, we also need reliable supplies of affordable, environmentally responsible energy. … I urge Congress to pass legislation that makes America more secure and less dependent on foreign energy. [2/2/2005]

- 2004: Consumers and businesses need reliable supplies of energy to make our economy run — so I urge you to pass legislation to modernize our electricity system, promote conservation, and make America less dependent on foreign sources of energy. [1/20/2004]

- 2003: Our third goal is to promote energy independence for our country, while dramatically improving the environment. …Even more, I ask you to take a crucial step and protect our environment in ways that generations before us could not have imagined. [1/28/2003]

- 2002: Good jobs also depend on reliable and affordable energy. This Congress must act to encourage conservation, promote technology, build infrastructure, and it must act to increase energy production at home so America is less dependent on foreign oil. [1/29/2002]

- 2001: We can produce more energy at home while protecting our environment, and we must. We can produce more electricity to meet demand, and we must. We can promote alternative energy sources and conservation, and we must. America must become more energy-independent, and we will. [2/27/2001]

Operation Ignore

The Iraq Study Group issued its report yesterday (I saw a caption of Bush holding the report on some blog yesterday with the caption "Iraq for Dummies").

It's not going to affect anything Bush does. Why?

Because, as Philip Slater says on HuffPo today, Bush is a lunatic:

One of the main reasons we should keep troops in Iraq, the neo-cons say, is that if we leave, it will de-stabilize the Middle East. This is hilarious, considering the fact that it was the Bush administration's boneheaded adventurism that has de-stabilized it already. Only a lunatic would think that bombing and invading a country, destroying its infrastructure, and firing its entire security force would bring stability to the region.

He's never leaving Iraq. All the studies in the world won't make him leave Iraq. Iraq is the next President's problem, and of course thousands of innocents will die for C+ Augustus to get his lunatic way.

We're Tanned, Rested and Ready

2010, too?
Could the men's World Cup be in the USA in 2010? There's precedent -- FIFA hastily rescheduled the 2003 Women's World Cup from China to the US when the SARS epidemic threatened.

Sunday Times (uk): Struggling South Africa raises fears over hosting of World Cup

WHEN South Africa won the right to stage the 2010 football World Cup — the first country in Africa to do so — there was national rejoicing. The country had placed such importance on winning that Nelson Mandela and a raft of ministers were sent to Geneva to lobby Fifa, the game’s world governing body.

Now, however, serious doubts are emerging about the country’s readiness and ability to stage the event.

[]

Fifa demands that all host cities sign contracts guaranteeing dedicated traffic lanes for its officials and players, the cessation of all building work throughout the tournament, free office space, telephone, internet and communications equipment and large-scale infrastructure works including back-up power grids — not just to keep the lights on in stadiums but to ensure that street lights, traffic lights and hotel lifts are fully functioning. Currently no South African city can promise this.

South Africa’s infrastructure is decaying. In Johannesburg street and traffic lights do not work in large areas of the city, weeds grow in the road and routine maintenance has all but ceased. Public transport is virtually nonexistent and the roads are quite unable to cope with traffic volumes.

Recent blackouts in the Cape resulted in huge jams as traffic lights failed and saw hundreds trapped in office lifts, billions lost in agriculture and industry and horrific sewage spills that have made the water dangerous to drink.

Despite steeply rising demand, not a single power station has been built since the ANC came to power in 1994.

I *Heart* Will Durst

I saw Will Durst in a comedy club in Cambridge during the administration of Bush-my-son-makes-me-look-smart, back in the 80s. I laughed so hard and so loud that he kept looking over at me, like, who is that loon?

He's still at it, and he's still got it.

Impeachment? Hell, no. Impalement.

I don't know about you guys, but I am so sick and tired of these lying, thieving, holier-than-thou, right-wing, cruel, crude, rude, gauche, coarse, crass, cocky, corrupt, dishonest, debauched, degenerate, dissolute, swaggering, lawyer shooting, bullhorn shouting, infrastructure destroying, hysterical, history defying, finger-pointing, puppy stomping, roommate appointing, pretzel choking, collateral damaging, aspersion casting, wedding party bombing, clear cutting, torturing, jobs outsourcing, torture outsourcing, "so-called" compassionate-conservative, women's rights eradicating, Medicare cutting, uncouth, spiteful, boorish, vengeful, noxious, homophobic, xenophobic, xylophonic, racist, sexist, ageist, fascist, cashist, audaciously stupid, brazenly selfish, lethally ignorant, journalist purchasing, genocide ignoring, corporation kissing, poverty inducing, crooked, coercive, autocratic, primitive, uppity, high-handed, domineering, arrogant, inhuman, inhumane, insolent, know-it-all, snotty, pompous, contemptuous, supercilious, gutless, spineless, shameless, avaricious, poisonous, imperious, merciless, graceless, tactless, brutish, brutal, Karl Roving, backward thinking, persistent vegetative state grandstanding, nuclear option threatening, evolution denying, irony deprived, depraved, insincere, conceited, perverted, pre-emptory invading of a country that had absolutely nothing to do with 911, 35 day vacation taking, bribe soliciting, incapable, inbred, hellish, proud for no apparent reason, smarty pants, loudmouth, bullying, swell headed, ethnic cleansing, ethics eluding, domestic spying, medical marijuana busting, kick backing, Halliburtoning, New Deal disintegrating, narcissistic, undiplomatic, blustering, malevolent, demonizing, baby seal clubbing, Duke Cunninghamming, hectoring, verbally flatulent, pro-bad- anti-good, Moslem baiting, photo-op arranging, hurricane disregarding, oil company hugging, judge packing, science disputing, faith based mathematics advocating, armament selling, nonsense spewing, education ravaging, whiny, unscrupulous, greedy exponential factor fifteen, fraudulent, CIA outing, redistricting, anybody who disagrees with them slandering, fact twisting, ally alienating, betraying, god and flag waving, scare mongering, Cindy Sheehan libeling, phony question asking, just won't get off the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge drilling, two-faced, inept, callous, menacing, your hand under a rock-the maggoty remains of a marsupial, oppressive, vulgar, antagonistic, brush clearing suck-up, showboating, tyrannizing, peace hating, water and air and ground and media polluting which is pretty much all the polluting you can get, deadly, illegal, pernicious, lethal, haughty, venomous, virulent, ineffectual, mephitic, egotistic, bloodthirsty, incompetent, hypocritical, did I say evil, I'm not sure if I said evil, because I want to make sure I say evil...EVIL, cretinous, fool, toad, buttwipe, lizardstick, cowardly, lackey imperialistic tool slime buckets in the Bush Administration that I could just spit. Impeachment, hell no. Impalement. Upon the sharp and righteous sword of the people's justice.

The Sky Is Falling

For real. Scientist James Lovelock says that over the next 96 years, global warming cannot be stopped, and will kill billions of people and send the few remaining survivors to the Arctic to live.

Environment in crisis: 'We are past the point of no return'

Thirty years ago, the scientist James Lovelock worked out that the Earth possessed a planetary-scale control system which kept the environment fit for life. He called it Gaia, and the theory has become widely accepted. Now, he believes mankind's abuse of the environment is making that mechanism work against us. His astonishing conclusion - that climate change is already insoluble, and life on Earth will never be the same again.

[]

The world and human society face disaster to a worse extent, and on a faster timescale, than almost anybody realises, he believes. He writes: " Before this century is over, billions of us will die, and the few breeding pairs of people that survive will be in the Arctic where the climate remains tolerable."

[]

Professor Lovelock draws attention to one aspect of the warming threat in particular, which is that the expected temperature rise is currently being held back artificially by a global aerosol - a layer of dust in the atmosphere right around the planet's northern hemisphere - which is the product of the world's industry.

This shields us from some of the sun's radiation in a phenomenon which is known as "global dimming" and is thought to be holding the global temperature down by several degrees. But with a severe industrial downturn, the aerosol could fall out of the atmosphere in a very short time, and the global temperature could take a sudden enormous leap upwards.

Lovelock's prediction:

Over the coming decades soaring temperatures will mean agriculture may become unviable over huge areas of the world where people are already poor and hungry; water supplies for millions or even billions may fail. Rising sea levels will destroy substantial coastal areas in low-lying countries such as Bangladesh, at the very moment when their populations are mushrooming. Numberless environmental refugees will overwhelm the capacity of any agency, or indeed any country, to cope, while modern urban infrastructure will face devastation from powerful extreme weather events, such as Hurricane Katrina which hit New Orleans last summer.

The international community accepts the reality of global warming, supported by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In its last report, in 2001, the IPCC said global average temperatures were likely to rise by up to 5.8C by 2100. In high latitudes, such as Britain, the rise is likely to be much higher, perhaps 8C. The warming seems to be proceeding faster than anticipated and in the IPCC's next report, 2007, the timescale may be shortened. Yet there still remains an assumption that climate change is controllable, if CO2 emissions can be curbed. Lovelock is warning: think again.

Howard Dean, a Real Leader

I received the following email from Howard Dean last night (I'm on the national Democratic Party email list, as I am a congenital Democrat. I'm also on the Republican Party email list, just so I can see how the re-thugs address their constituencies.) The Democrats are cancelling all fundraising events, cancelling their fall meeting, released DNC staff to participate in relief operations, and urging people to open their home to flood victims.

As reported here earlier, the Republicans intend to respond to the disaster by eliminating the estate tax and cutting Medicaid.

By giving us the "Dean Scream" (as well as "Swift Boating", and other atrocities) the media also gave us the Hurricane Katrina disaster. Can you imagine Howard Dean staying on vacation during a Category 5 hurricane? I can't even imagine Howard Dean on vacation, to be honest. He's a bulldog, and I say that with great admiration.

The Deaniacs were right. Send Bush back to Crawford. Impeach the incompetent b@st@rd.

Dear [truth],

In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, you mobilized to make sure that the Red Cross had the financial resources it needed to respond swiftly. The response was literally overwhelming -- so many donations poured in that their web site struggled to process them.

Since then Americans have seen another kind of disaster unfold. The irresponsible lack of attention by our federal government has led directly to the devastation of communities and the loss of American lives.

The federal response over these crucial first days has been totally unacceptable. There will be a time for a full accounting of the preventable part of this disaster, and those responsible will be held accountable. It will be soon.

But there are lives to save right now and our focus must be steady. People need help right now. And you can be a direct participant in the relief efforts by providing housing for a victim of the disaster.

The vast number of evacuees has triggered a cascading crisis -- the first group of evacuation centers in the Gulf States has been overwhelmed, and the surrounding states have seen their capacity exceeded as well.

Hundreds of thousands of survivors are being transported in small groups to cities and towns across the country. A coalition of groups has put together a web site to collect offers of housing and provide a place for victims to search for help. You can offer shelter -- whether for a few days or a few weeks -- by signing up here:

http://www.hurricanehousing.org

To support your volunteer housing operation the following steps have been taken:

We are briefing Democratic elected officials on the HurricaneHousing.org program and asking that they treat this as the front-line network of volunteers who are ready and waiting to provide shelter in their jurisdiction.
We have asked outside organizations to direct their members to HurricaneHousing.org to volunteer; those organizations with representatives on the ground have been asked to help victims connect with the housing bank.
We have directed the staff at Democratic Headquarters in Washington to use local volunteers signed up on HurricaneHousing.org as they work with DC emergency response officials to assist hundreds of survivors being transported to the DC Armory, which is located nearby.
In addition to mobilizing our infrastructure to support the housing drive, we have also taken the following steps in the last week:

All DNC fundraising events have been cancelled until further notice and donations are being directed to relief organizations.
The DNC Fall Meeting that had been scheduled to take place this week has been postponed.
All staff have been given leave to participate in relief operations (many are completing Red Cross training this week and will deploy shortly).
The Democratic leadership in Congress has proposed a comprehensive policy package to ensure that victims receive health care, financial assistance and educational and employment opportunities during the crisis (go to www.democrats.org/reliefplan for more). But more than anything our organization has done, the thousands of acts of compassion by ordinary citizens and a renewed sense of common purpose will be the legacy of this effort.

Our American community will emerge stronger from this crisis.

Thank you for doing what you can.

Governor Howard Dean, M.D.

P.S. -- A number of organizations on the ground still need financial support. You can learn about them here:

http://www.democrats.org/reliefgroups

Paid for and authorized by the Democratic National Committee, www.democrats.org. This communication is not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.


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Hurricane Katrina was a Political Epiphany

James Carroll
Katrina's truths

[The first epiphany is American poverty exposed.]

The spectacle of failure, how for days the government was powerless to help such people, only put on display how government was already failing them and everyone else. Here was Katrina's second main epiphany -- what it means that the United States, after a generation of tax-cutting and downsizing, has eviscerated the public sector's capacity for supporting the common good. The neglect of civic infrastructure, the destruction of social services, the abandonment of the safety net, the myth of ''privatization," the perverse idea, dating to the Reagan era, that government is the enemy: It all adds up to what we saw last week -- government not as the enemy, but as the incompetent, impotent bystander. The bystander-in-chief, of course, is George W. Bush, whose whining self-obsession perfectly embodies what America has done to itself.

One cannot see the devastated cities or that river of refugees or those harried National Guard soldiers without seeing something even more disturbing -- Katrina's third epiphany. This is what war looks like, and the harsh reality is that the United States has been the source of exactly such devastation elsewhere. Obliterated cities, populations pushed into refugee camps, young American soldiers overwhelmed by the impossibility of their mission -- this is Iraq today. Oil is part of the Gulf Coast story and part of Iraq's story, too. We are at war for oil, a war we cannot win. Four dollar gasoline. The truth is crashing over us, a tsunami of it.

James Carroll is an interesting guy. He was ordained as a priest in 1969, worked as chaplain at Boston University from 1972-1974 where he was also an antiwar protester, left the priesthood in 1974 and has been a writer ever since. His father, Joseph Carroll, was a lieutenant general in the Air Force who was director of the Defense Intelligence Agency during the Vietnam War, a top advisor to former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, and a key figure in the US Air Force bombing campaign in Vietnam. James Carroll has written an autobiography about his struggles with his father, entitled God, My Father, and the War that Came Between Us, which received the 1996 National Book Award in nonfiction.

Bush Spent Levee Money in Iraq

Budget cuts delayed New Orleans flood control work

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Bush administration funding cuts forced federal engineers to delay improvements on the levees, floodgates and pumping stations that failed to protect New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters, agency documents showed on Thursday.

The former head of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the agency that handles the infrastructure of the nation's waterways, said the damage in New Orleans probably would have been much less extensive had flood-control efforts been fully funded over the years.

"Levees would have been higher, levees would have been bigger, there would have been other pumps put in," said Mike Parker, a former Mississippi congressman who headed the engineering agency from 2001 to 2002.