From: owner-joni-digest@smoe.org (JMDL Digest) To: joni-digest@smoe.org Subject: JMDL Digest V2005 #341 Reply-To: joni@smoe.org Sender: owner-joni-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-joni-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk Unsubscribe: mailto:joni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe Archives: http://www.smoe.org/lists/joni Websites: http://www.jmdl.com http://www.jonimitchell.com JMDL Digest Monday, September 5 2005 Volume 2005 : Number 341 ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- differnt worlds njc ["Kate Bennett" ] Re: (NJC) Political content ["Bree Mcdonough" ] Re: njc Rehnquist is dead [Em ] Re: But be prepared to bleed ["Arkay O'Malley" ] Re: Nothing wrong with BSN [Nuriel Tobias ] Re: MIchael Moore's letter - njc ["Marian Russell" ] Re: MIchael Moore's letter [Lori Fye ] Re: MIchael Moore's letter, njc [LCStanley7@aol.com] Re: NJC White House phone number [Lori Fye ] Re: MIchael Moore's letter - njc [Lori Fye ] Re: njc Rehnquist is dead [vince ] Re: NJC White House phone number [vince ] RE: NJC White House phone number ["Gerald A. Notaro" ] Re: Alanis [Nuriel Tobias ] Re: VMA's/Vince/Mingus [Nuriel Tobias ] Re: VMA's/Vince/Mingus [Bob Muller ] njc, supreme court nominees ["Patti Parlette" ] homelsss vs. evacuated, & lessons learned njc ["Jim L'Hommedieu, Lama" ] (NJC) News Flash: What God really had in mind when He sent Katrina [Lori ] njc Frank Rich's column [vince ] Rose Polenzani and Sharon Lewis njc ["Sue Cameron" ] nolo musicians njc ["Kate Bennett" ] Re: njc Frank Rich's column [Catherine McKay ] RE: and a little more, just a little NJC ["Azeem" ] Re: njc Frank Rich's column [Smurf ] Re: NJC White House phone number [jrmco1@aol.com] Re: white house phone number, njc [LCStanley7@aol.com] Katrina - NJC [hell@ihug.co.nz] Re: Michael Paz (JMDL content!) [PassScribe@aol.com] Re: NJC White House phone number [Lori Fye ] Re: VMA's/Vince/Mingus [Lori Fye ] Re: NJC White House phone number [Lori Fye ] njc katrina one last thought. ["gene mock" ] Update (NJC) [michael@thepazgroup.com] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2005 01:10:08 -0700 From: "Kate Bennett" Subject: differnt worlds njc >I think..at least when I last checked... that the U.S. is still the richest country on earth.> bree you should check in on this again... you will find out that a small percentage of our country own the majority of the wealth... >SO I think we can handle both.< But we're not handling either of these situations at all very well & I wonder how you've missed all of the news of how badly things are going in iraq & in new orleans... ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 04 Sep 2005 01:08:16 -0400 From: "Bree Mcdonough" Subject: Re: (NJC) Political content Did you see FahrenHype 9/11? So you believe in helll? Bree >Oh! I like unicorns, rainbows and little cute puppies! >Jeez, take your head outta yer ass, will ya? >This is SERIOUS SHIT and you wanna talk about sunsets?! >My hero? Michael Moore, because he's not afraid to show everyone (in >Fahrenheit 9/11) what a complete douchebag and moron Bush is. >W's not qualified for dog-catcher, much less the leader of the "free" >world. >There's a nice room in hell that awaits his cabal. >JR in NH ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 04 Sep 2005 07:41:45 -0400 From: Deb Messling Subject: Re: njc Rehnquist is dead As far as Roe v Wade and other issues, Rehnquist was usually on the right-wing side anyway, so we haven't *lost* a vote with his passing. If another moderate leaves, we're screwed, more than we already are with O'Connor leaving. - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Deb Messling -^..^- dlmessling@rcn.com - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2005 06:47:28 -0700 (PDT) From: Em Subject: Re: njc Rehnquist is dead thats what I thought too. I remember in Gore Vidal's "Myron" where he assigned the name of a Supreme Court Justice to an specific on of the publicly "un-utterable" words...and a "Rehnquist" was a dick. Em - --- Deb Messling wrote: > As far as Roe v Wade and other issues, Rehnquist was usually on the > right-wing side anyway, so we haven't *lost* a vote with his passing. > If > another moderate leaves, we're screwed, more than we already are with > > O'Connor leaving. > > > > > > > - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > Deb Messling -^..^- > dlmessling@rcn.com > - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2005 09:01:35 -0500 From: "Arkay O'Malley" Subject: Re: But be prepared to bleed as long as i have a sitter for the week-then im THERE! lool - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Lori Fye" To: Sent: Friday, September 02, 2005 11:30 PM Subject: Re: But be prepared to bleed > Personally, I'd like to partcipate in the truly old fashioned gathering of > "besmirchers" (great word, Em), sitting naked on moss covered rocks, > sipping > tea and whiling away their 5 to 7 days chatting and singing and > celebrating > together. > > Anyone up for it? ; ) > > Lori ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2005 10:04:15 -0400 (EDT) From: Catherine McKay Subject: Re: - --- Patti Parlette wrote: > Kate B., another mother for peace, wrote: > > >How come I knew but Bush > >didn't???????????????????????????????????????????? > > You know how to read. > > [...]So, I will add that > he may know how to read, but REFUSES to. His > advisors will tell him him > everything he needs to know. How stupid is THAT? > Uh oh...don't get me > going again. If any Homeland Security people are > infiltrating our JMDL, > we'll all be on "No Fly" lists. Another thing it shows (sometimes) is how much a politician's handlers hide from him or her. Tell him only what he needs to know (in other words, what the spin doctors decide they want him to know.) It makes you wonder who really runs the show, although I guess none of us are so naive as to believe that the person that gets elected to the post is doing it all on his own. Too many times we've heard from top leaders: "I didn't know." But then again, are they kept so busy by their handlers that they're never allowed to read a newspaper, listen to the radio or watch the TV news? Catherine Toronto - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- __________________________________________________________ Find your next car at http://autos.yahoo.ca ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2005 07:11:58 -0700 (PDT) From: Nuriel Tobias Subject: Re: Nothing wrong with BSN I was only kidding, Bob...I know this song is damn briliant, and i like what you wrote about it very much. At least we've earned that. Respect, Nuri Bob Muller wrote: Nothing wrong with BSN at all; in fact it may be one of a handful of "perfect" songs in terms of its structure. Three verses, each similar but each one building textually/emotionally to the next. A chorus that also varies and musically complements the sonics of the verse in flawless fashion. BECAUSE of its perfection as a popular song, many many many people did it who had no business doing it (or anything, for that matter). When a lame performer does anything, it'll be lame. If a lame cast did "Jakob the Liar" and their performance stunk, you wouldn't blame the script, would you? Bob NP: Death Cab For Cutie, "No Joy In Mudville" Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2005 10:20:49 -0400 From: "Marian Russell" Subject: Re: MIchael Moore's letter - njc please use njc tags thanks Marian ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2005 10:59:21 -0400 From: Lori Fye Subject: Re: MIchael Moore's letter Bree wrote: > Yeah...and you can blame some of the tolerance down there on their inept > mayor. The violence that got so out hand is because he chose to look the > other way. Before any help could be given it was up to him and the > governor to get things under control. So Bush is blamed and the mayor is > given a pass. I wonder why? Because Ray Nagin is black, I guess. Yeah, that must be why. Hey, did you know ... (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Nagin) ... "Before his election, Nagin was a member of the Republican Partyand had little political experience; he was a vice president and general manager at Cox Communications, a cable communications company and subsidiary of Cox Enterprises . Nagin did give donations periodically to candidates, namely President George W. Bushand former Republican U.S. Representative Billy Tauzin in 1999 and 2000, as well as to Democratic U.S. Senators John Breaux and J. Bennett Johnston earlier in the decade." "Shortly after taking office, Nagin launched an anti-corruption campaign within city government, which included crackdowns on the city's Taxicab Bureau and Utilities Department. Nagin also made a controversial endorsement of current Republican U.S. Representative Bobby Jindalin the 2003 Louisiana Gubernatorial Runoff over current Democratic Governor Kathleen Blanco , and only reluctantly endorsed U.S. Senator John Kerry in the 2004 Presidential race." And now (from the same source, which is admittedly disputed): "Both Nagin and Lousiana Governor Kathleen Blancohave quickly become targets for Republicans , looking to bouy [sic] failing support for George W Bushand his administration's widely criticized response , which left tens of thousands of Louisiana's poorest residents stranded without food or water for more than 4 days after Katrina had hit." Yep, Nagin is black and Blanco has a Spanish last name (her own or her husband's, doesn't matter does it?). Those damn brown people. It's all their fault. Or maybe it's the fault of the brown homos. Because that beacon of intelligence and hope in Washington DC, George W. Bush ... well, no responsibility for *anything* rests with him, ever. Right?? Lori ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2005 11:03:46 EDT From: LCStanley7@aol.com Subject: Re: MIchael Moore's letter, njc Bree wrote: Many of those stuck people could have gotten out. Did you know at least the day before the hurricane...and maybe even several days before.. busses roamed the neighborhoods looking for people to bus out of New Orleans proper? Hi Bree. "Many?" How many many busses I wonder? The people in need were in the thousands, mostly from the projects in New Orleans... thousands of people. Bree: Yeah...and you can blame some of the tolerance down there on their inept mayor. The problem with drugs was/is huge. It takes more than one man or woman to deal with it. I would have preferred to see an increase in the national war on drugs rather than the rich man's war in Iraq. Bree: SOOOO..it's no longer the twinkie defense but the HOT defense...THE HEAT MADE ME MURDER....RAPE......hi-jack Heat, hunger, thirst, entrapment... all of it together. This is just the opposite of the "Twinkie Defense" actually. Bree: I think..at least when I last checked... that the U.S. is still the richest country on earth. Sure. I wasn't debating this. Poor planning and use of what we have is the issue. Bree: SO I think we can handle both. Nobody can disagree we didn't "handle" the immediate crisis in New Orleans very well. We can do the after care of the people just fine and are doing a lot in Arkansas. You might think we can handle both the war and the crisis in New Orleans at the same time, but the fact is we didn't provide the necessary immediate relief, and the question remains... "where were the helicopters?" Bree: This tragedy of nature is being taken care of...... Where is your hope and optimism? It is right here. Smile. I have great hope and optimism. I know New Orleans will be rebuilt even stronger than it was before. And my optimism toward change has grown because our country's preparedness for national disaster will have to increase now, and bad decisions like going to war with Iraq have never been more obvious than right now. People won't forget the tragedy upon the tragedy of the hurricane. We are going to see some awesome revolutionary type changes. That is my hope and my dream. Love, Laura ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2005 11:05:56 -0400 From: Lori Fye Subject: Re: NJC White House phone number > he can't possibly do his job anywhere BUT from the Oval office. He doesn't do his job when he's IN the Oval Office, so you're right, Bree: it doesn't matter where he is. On the other hand, people take great comfort in the notion that someone is at work in their office, even if they're not doing a damn thing. That's kind of those point of all those fancy white buildings in DC. It's a perception thing, you see. According to the Republicans, most of us common people are too stupid to think for ourselves, and we don't know what's best for us. We believe everything we see and hear on Fox News. You would think they would play to that belief by having the Prez in the White House -- or maybe at the scene of a disaster -- where he at least APPEARS to be in charge of things. Who is stupid?? Lori ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2005 11:08:19 -0400 From: Lori Fye Subject: Re: MIchael Moore's letter - njc > please use njc tags Sorry Marian, you're right. I didn't realize the tag was missing on the subject of my last response, and I read your note afterwards. Forgive me? Hope you're well, Lori ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 04 Sep 2005 11:34:50 -0400 From: vince Subject: Re: njc Rehnquist is dead O'Connor's was the pivotal vote and we are losing her with Roberts nomination. A new chief justice who has an agenda can steer the court in ways that Rehnquist had stopped doing. Deb Messling wrote: > As far as Roe v Wade and other issues, Rehnquist was usually on the > right-wing side anyway, so we haven't *lost* a vote with his passing. > If another moderate leaves, we're screwed, more than we already are > with O'Connor leaving. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 04 Sep 2005 11:50:29 -0400 From: vince Subject: Re: NJC White House phone number Bree Mcdonough wrote: > > Just like if one's a lawyer or an accountant they absolutely can > NOT..no way.... do any work from home. It MUST be all done at the firm. Oh? That will be most surprising news to every lawyer in the firm I work for, every lawyer I know, and a number of the accountants that I know. (Bree, someday remind me to let you know about things called "laptops" and "technology" and before that, forever before that, "files" that lawyers took home and "books" that are portable and "paper" on which one can use a "pen" or "pencil" to "write" things, make notes for trial preparation, brief preparation, review of documents, etc., using the "books" and also "law journals." My former partner would put his "files" in his "briefcase" and take the ""briefcase" home in the "car" just like Lincoln and the circuit riders of the last century carried on "horse," and we would spend hours at home many nights and every Sunday doing law work.) As for Bush, he is as Bree suggests incapable of doing his job anywhere so what the hell difference does it make where he is? Yesterday the Navy is a rare word of explanation said that they were ready to go since the hurricane but the White House did not give the order. Let us repeat. The Navy was ready to go to aid but the White House waited five days to give the order. And it took six days thus to reach the hospitals and the Convention Center where people died waiting for relief, people without food, water, in the midst of a cesspool. Vince ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2005 11:59:10 -0400 (EDT) From: "Gerald A. Notaro" Subject: RE: NJC White House phone number Bree Mcdonough wrote: > Just like if one's a lawyer or an accountant they absolutely can NOT..no > way.... do any work from home. It MUST be all done at the firm. Sorry, Bree. My best friend owns a very successful CPA firm in Tampa that he runs from their home in Collobrieres, France 8 months of the year. It is very possible using the internet and PC Everywhere softare. Jerry ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2005 09:06:55 -0700 (PDT) From: Smurf Subject: RE: NJC White House phone number My friend Bree and I are at opposite ends of the political spectrum, so I cannot defend her political views. I *can*, however, defend to the death her right to be sarcastic. I think people are not closely reading what she wrote. Here it is: << I mean ..you know it's not like we have mass communications and the President is still the president ..well ..if he's in Crawford ..Texas or Xenia..Ohio... he can't possibly do his job anywhere BUT from the Oval office. Just like if one's a lawyer or an accountant they absolutely can NOT..no way.... do any work from home. It MUST be all done at the firm. >> - --Smurf ____________________________________________________ Start your day with Yahoo! - make it your home page http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2005 09:35:51 -0700 (PDT) From: Nuriel Tobias Subject: Re: Alanis Mike and Alice Hicks wrote: I think she has a little Joni in her. Mike You know, Mike, that when JLP (The original) was released, Joni (So i was told) said that she totaly dislikes Alanis, and that Alanis, when hearing that, burst into bitter tears. The album is C-H-A-R-M-I-N-G. You should go and get it as fast as you can. Respect, Nuri - --------------------------------- Start your day with Yahoo! - make it your home page ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2005 09:41:06 -0700 (PDT) From: Nuriel Tobias Subject: Re: VMA's/Vince/Mingus Speaking of rap, i never understood where Joni got the idea to call the spoken words by Mingus - rap. What did she mean by that? Nuri vince wrote: http://www.jahsonic.com/Rap.html Read only the mail you want - Yahoo! Mail SpamGuard. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2005 10:13:52 -0700 (PDT) From: Bob Muller Subject: Re: VMA's/Vince/Mingus Prior to its present-day connotation defining a genre of pop music/culture, it implied simple conversation, like back in the 70's when groups would have "rap sessions" where they would talk/debate about things. So, in the latter 70's, when Mingus was released, Joni used the phrase "rap" to define the moments when Mingus was just talking. Bob NP: Steve Hall & Steve Donovan, "Both Sides Now" - --------------------------------- Start your day with Yahoo! - make it your home page ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 04 Sep 2005 18:17:15 +0000 From: "Patti Parlette" Subject: njc, supreme court nominees From a recent (8/19) AP article: - ------------------------ WASHINGTON -- Supreme Court nominee John Roberts disparaged state efforts to combat discrimination against women, and wondererd whether "encouraging homemakers to become lawyers contributes to the common good", in Reagan-era documents made public Thursday. - ------------------------ We walked on the moon -- you be polite!? That's all I need to know about THAT one. Next? Madonna mia -- it sure does take a heart like Mary's these days! Patti P. (I worry sometimes.) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2005 14:32:17 -0400 From: "Jim L'Hommedieu, Lama" Subject: homelsss vs. evacuated, & lessons learned njc CNN has some figures on the homeless (sometimes called refugees) and how many people evacuated willingly. >CNN.com says, > More than 220,000 hurricane refugees are already in Texas and thousands more are coming. Gov. Rick Perry of Texas said yesterday that local officials were reporting "they are quickly approaching capacity in the number of evacuees they believe they can assist."> But just because they're in Texas doesn't mean they're homeless. Some may have evac'ed themselves and their homes may be intact. >More than 120,000 refugees were in 97 shelters in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and other cities, according to Governor Perry's office, with an additional 100,000 in hotels and motels.> >The American Red Cross reported Saturday night that it was housing more than 96,000 refugees in nine states.>> Yesterday, as Cincinnati went on its Saturday errands, firefighters collected $ for the American Red Cross relief efforts. I don't see any evidence of the poor in New Orleans being ignored here. In defense of FEMA, they were the people in helicopters, pulling survivors from rooftops. FEMA was in powerboats, looking for people trapped in attics. FEMA was responsible for treating the surviving diabetics, the pregnant, and those in need of venilators. FEMA took them to the Astro Dome. I hope they learned to "ramp up" more quickly the next time one disaster is compounded by a second. I pray that we never again put a rookie in charge of the entire country's disaster relief agency. That position is too important to be filled by political appointment. Jim Covington, KY ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2005 20:37:11 +0200 From: "John van Tiel" Subject: Joni in the Hague 1983 ... and the lucky winners are Hi all, I received some 25 requests for the 1983 Joni concert that was broadcast on Dutch radio for the first time last month. As promised I have randomly picked out 10 people. The packages will go out tomorrow and may take 4-10 days to reach you from the Netherlands. It would be nice if some of you could reoffer it on the list. And the lucky winners (apart from Laurent in Paris) are: Rick in CA Brian in NJ Sabrina in Canada Patrick in NY Jimmy in FL Mona in CT Jonathan in NH Jamie in London Smurf in MA Duarte in Portugal Hope you will enjoy the concert. Please send me a confirmation of arrival off list. John aka Dutch Uncle ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2005 16:45:29 -0400 From: Lori Fye Subject: (NJC) Real news from up close and personal About an hour ago I spoke by phone with the mother of my friend Jim, whose wife DeMarias used to work at my company. They left Virginia about a year ago to move to DeMarias's home town of Mandeville, which is on the north side of Lake Ponchartrain. Jim's mother Carol and her husband (Jim Sr.) were vacationing in Myrtle Beach, SC, when the storm hit. Jim and DeMarias, and DeMarias's sister and her new husband, chose to ride out the storm, believing it would never reach them in Mandeville. After the storm had passed, Jim drove to Baton Rouge before he could get a cell phone signal to call his mom and dad to tell them they had survived. Carol and Jim Sr. decided to drive to Louisiana. They took a generator, 25 gallons of gasoline, food, water, and other supplies with them. Carol told me on the phone, "You cannot believe the devastation. They aren't showing half of it on television; it's MUCH worse than anything they've shown." Amazingly, Jim and DeMarias's house survived. Most of the houses in their development have "been cut in half," according to Carol. "They'll have to be demolished," she said. DeMarias's sister's house is gone, as is the restaurant where her husband was employed as a chef. The business Jim and DeMarias own -- a small company that makes labels for sheet metal products - -- survived. They are very lucky. Many of the neighbors in that Mandeville neighborhood are now staying with Jim and DeMarias. Everyone was grateful for the food and supplies Carol and Jim Sr. brought; they had been living on canned chili for the last several days. (Of course, they were lucky to have that much.) Completely unsolicited by me (as I don't believe in aggravating the suffereing during such times of awful stress and uncertainty), Carol also had this to say: "You know, I supported Bush. I voted for him in the last election. I don't support him anymore. I can't believe the way this thing has been mismanaged, how he doesn't care. Jim Sr. has been a Bush supporter all the way, no matter what. He's angrier than I am, and he has nothing good to say about Bush anymore. If Bush ran for office today, I don't think he would get 1% of the vote." I told her I thought there might be backlash against the GOP in the 2006 elections, even though it's not necessarily the fault of the Republican congressmen and women. Carol disagreed: "Oh, yes it IS their fault! Carol and Jim Sr. are (or were) die hard Republicans of Virginia, older white folks of the Old South. I would never have expected them to feel differently about Bush and the party than they did before the storm. Yet, they do. As the eye of the hurricane turns ... Lori ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2005 16:48:12 -0400 From: Lori Fye Subject: (NJC) News Flash: What God really had in mind when He sent Katrina "Let me show you what the people who profess to believe in me are REALLY made of." ~ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 04 Sep 2005 17:01:16 -0400 From: vince Subject: njc Frank Rich's column from today's NY Times and this is so worth reading Falluja Floods the Superdome By FRANK RICH Published: September 4, 2005 AS the levees cracked open and ushered hell into New Orleans on Tuesday, President Bush once again chose to fly away from Washington, not toward it, while disaster struck. We can all enumerate the many differences between a natural catastrophe and a terrorist attack. But character doesn't change: it is immutable, and it is destiny. As always, the president's first priority, the one that sped him from Crawford toward California, was saving himself: he had to combat the flood of record-low poll numbers that was as uncontrollable as the surging of Lake Pontchartrain. It was time, therefore, for another disingenuous pep talk, in which he would exploit the cataclysm that defined his first term, 9/11, even at the price of failing to recognize the emerging fiasco likely to engulf Term 2. After dispatching Katrina with a few sentences of sanctimonious boilerplate ("our hearts and prayers are with our fellow citizens"), he turned to his more important task. The war in Iraq is World War II. George W. Bush is F.D.R. And anyone who refuses to stay his course is soft on terrorism and guilty of a pre-9/11 "mind-set of isolation and retreat." Yet even as Mr. Bush promised "victory" (a word used nine times in this speech on Tuesday), he was standing at the totemic scene of his failure. It was along this same San Diego coastline that he declared "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq on the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln more than two years ago. For this return engagement, The Washington Post reported , the president's stage managers made sure he was positioned so that another hulking aircraft carrier nearby would stay off-camera, lest anyone be reminded of that premature end of "major combat operations." This administration would like us to forget a lot, starting with the simple fact that next Sunday is the fourth anniversary of the day we were attacked by Al Qaeda, not Iraq. Even before Katrina took command of the news, Sept. 11, 2005, was destined to be a half-forgotten occasion, distorted and sullied by a grotesquely inappropriate Pentagon-sponsored country music jamboree on the Mall. But hard as it is to reflect upon so much sorrow at once, we cannot allow ourselves to forget the real history surrounding 9/11; it is the Rosetta stone for what is happening now. If we are to pull ourselves out of the disasters of Katrina and Iraq alike, we must live in the real world, not the fantasyland of the administration's faith-based propaganda. Everything connects. Though history is supposed to occur first as tragedy, then as farce, even at this early stage we can see that tragedy is being repeated once more as tragedy. From the president's administration's inattention to threats before 9/11 to his disappearing act on the day itself to the reckless blundering in the ill-planned war of choice that was 9/11's bastard offspring, Katrina is dij` vu with a vengeance. The president's declaration that "I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees" has instantly achieved the notoriety of Condoleezza Rice's "I don't think anybody could have predicted that these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center." The administration's complete obliviousness to the possibilities for energy failures, food and water deprivation, and civil disorder in a major city under siege needs only the Donald Rumsfeld punch line of "Stuff happens" for a coup de grbce. How about shared sacrifice, so that this time we might get the job done right? After Mr. Bush's visit on "Good Morning America" on Thursday, Diane Sawyer reported on a postinterview conversation in which he said, "There won't have to be tax increases." But on a second go-round, even the right isn't so easily fooled by this drill (with the reliable exception of Peggy Noonan, who found much reassurance in Mr. Bush's initial autopilot statement about the hurricane, with its laundry list of tarps and blankets). This time the fecklessness and deceit were all too familiar. They couldn't be obliterated by a bullhorn or by the inspiring initial post-9/11 national unity that bolstered the president until he betrayed it. This time the heartlessness beneath the surface of his actions was more pronounced. You could almost see Mr. Bush's political base starting to crumble at its very epicenter, Fox News, by Thursday night. Even there it was impossible to ignore that the administration was no more successful at securing New Orleans than it had been at pacifying Falluja. A visibly exasperated Shepard Smith, covering the story on the ground in Louisiana, went further still, tossing hand grenades of harsh reality into Bill O'Reilly's usually spin-shellacked "No Spin Zone." Among other hard facts, Mr. Smith noted "that the haves of this city, the movers and shakers of this city, evacuated the city either immediately before or immediately after the storm." What he didn't have to say, since it was visible to the entire world, was that it was the poor who were left behind to drown. In that sense, the inequality of the suffering has not only exposed the sham of the relentless photo-ops with black schoolchildren whom the president trots out at campaign time to sell his "compassionate conservatism"; it has also positioned Katrina before a rapt late-summer audience as a replay of the sinking of the Titanic. New Orleans's first-class passengers made it safely into lifeboats; for those in steerage, it was a horrifying spectacle of every man, woman and child for himself. THE captain in this case, Michael Chertoff, the homeland security secretary, was so oblivious to those on the lower decks that on Thursday he applauded the federal response to the still rampaging nightmare as "really exceptional." He told NPR that he had "not heard a report of thousands of people in the convention center who don't have food and water" - even though every television viewer in the country had been hearing of those 25,000 stranded refugees for at least a day. This Titanic syndrome, too, precisely echoes the post-9/11 wartime history of an administration that has rewarded the haves at home with economic goodies while leaving the have-nots to fight in Iraq without proper support in manpower or armor. Surely it's only a matter of time before Mr. Chertoff and the equally at sea FEMA director, Michael Brown (who also was among the last to hear about the convention center), are each awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom in line with past architects of lethal administration calamity like George Tenet and Paul Bremer. On Thursday morning, the president told Diane Sawyer that he hoped "people don't play politics during this period of time." Presumably that means that the photos of him wistfully surveying the Katrina damage from Air Force One won't be sold to campaign donors as the equivalent 9/11 photos were. Maybe he'll even call off the right-wing attack machine so it won't Swift-boat the Katrina survivors who emerge to ask tough questions as it has Cindy Sheehan and those New Jersey widows who had the gall to demand a formal 9/11 inquiry. But a president who flew from Crawford to Washington in a heartbeat to intervene in the medical case of a single patient, Terri Schiavo, has no business lecturing anyone about playing politics with tragedy. Eventually we're going to have to examine the administration's behavior before, during and after this storm as closely as its history before, during and after 9/11. We're going to have to ask if troops and matiriel of all kinds could have arrived faster without the drain of national resources into a quagmire. We're going to have to ask why it took almost two days of people being without food, shelter and water for Mr. Bush to get back to Washington. Most of all, we're going to have to face the reality that with this disaster, the administration has again increased our vulnerability to the terrorists we were supposed to be fighting after 9/11. As Richard Clarke, the former counterterrorism czar, pointed out to The Washington Post last week in talking about the fallout from the war in Iraq, there have been twice as many terrorist attacks outside Iraq in the three years after 9/11 than in the three years before. Now, thanks to Mr. Bush's variously incompetent, diffident and hubristic mismanagement of the attack by Katrina, he has sent the entire world a simple and unambiguous message: whatever the explanation, the United States is unable to fight its current war and protect homeland security at the same time. The answers to what went wrong in Washington and on the Gulf Coast will come later, and, if the history of 9/11 is any guide, all too slowly, after the administration and its apologists erect every possible barrier to keep us from learning the truth. But as Americans dig out from Katrina and slouch toward another anniversary of Al Qaeda's strike, we have to acknowledge the full extent and urgency of our crisis. The world is more perilous than ever, and for now, to paraphrase Mr. Rumsfeld, we have no choice but to fight the war with the president we have. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2005 17:14:24 -0400 From: "Sue Cameron" Subject: Rose Polenzani and Sharon Lewis njc "Azeem" wrote: >I went to see this two-for-the-price-of-one gig on Monday on the basis >of my unstinting admiration for Sharon Lewiss sadly defunct duo >Pooka. >Rose Polenzani may well be known to some of you on the other side of >the Atlantic, though she was new to me. And I was mightily >impressed: she has a beautiful, mellifluous voice and writes >musically rewarding and lyrically acute songs. She tours a lot in >the US, and I can only say, go and see her. I echo Azeem's words. Our own Dr. Yael hosted a house concert with both Rose and Sharon. Sharon was sick so it was hard for her to hit the high notes, but she was still great. Suze ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2005 14:39:02 -0700 From: "Kate Bennett" Subject: nolo musicians njc A friend emailed to say that the The Neville and Marsalis families lost most of their homes (and instruments) but all escaped safely, mostly to Memphis and then to NYC. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2005 17:51:45 -0400 (EDT) From: Catherine McKay Subject: Re: njc Frank Rich's column - --- vince wrote: > from today's NY Times and this is so worth reading > > > Falluja Floods the Superdome > > By FRANK RICH > Published: September 4, 2005 [...] Did you notice *this*...? > But as Americans > dig out from > Katrina and *slouch toward* another anniversary of Al > Qaeda's strike, we > have to acknowledge the full extent and urgency of > our crisis. That almost makes it JC, doesn't it? or, at least, WBYC? Catherine Toronto - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- __________________________________________________________ Find your next car at http://autos.yahoo.ca ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2005 22:53:24 +0100 From: "Azeem" Subject: RE: and a little more, just a little NJC I'm deeply jealous Yael! I must check out when Feist is next playing here, I adore her album too. And you HOSTED a Rose/Sharon gig? I'm impressed! Azeem in London - -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.344 / Virus Database: 267.10.18/89 - Release Date: 02/09/2005 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2005 16:13:15 -0700 (PDT) From: Smurf Subject: Re: njc Frank Rich's column - --- Catherine wrote: > That almost makes it JC, doesn't it? or, at least, > WBYC? Bingo! Some of us have still never forgiven Joni for stealing "The Second Coming" from Mr. Yeats. After all, it's self-absorbed and obnoxious behavior like that that's turning the poetry biz into a cesspool! I'm not a huge fan of poetry, but this one always takes my breath away. I have had a few of its lines rolling around in my head since the storm. The Second Coming Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all convictions, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity. Surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the Second Coming is at hand. The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert A shape with lion body and the head of a man, A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun, Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds. The darkness drops again; but now I know That twenty centuries of stony sleep Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? I really do wish Joni had never recorded "Slouching." - --Smurf ______________________________________________________ Click here to donate to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort. http://store.yahoo.com/redcross-donate3/ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 04 Sep 2005 19:34:06 -0400 From: jrmco1@aol.com Subject: Re: NJC White House phone number Please read this article from the Washington Post, Bree and anyone else who can't fathom why so many remained. Thank you. - -Julius - ------------------- Living Paycheck to Paycheck Made Leaving Impossible By Wil Haygood Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, September 4, 2005; A33 NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 3 -- To those who wonder why so many stayed behind when push came to water's mighty shove here, those who were trapped have a simple explanation: Their nickels and dimes and dollar bills simply didn't add up to stage a quick evacuation mission. "Me and my wife, we were living paycheck to paycheck, like most everybody else in New Orleans," Eric Dunbar, 54, said Saturday. He was standing on wobbly, thin legs in the bowels of the semi-darkened Louis Armstrong Airport, where he had been delivered with many others after having been plucked by rescuers from a roadway. He offered a mini-tutorial in the economic reality of his life. "I don't own a car. Me and my wife, we travel by bus, public transportation. The most money I ever have on me is $400. And that goes to pay the rent. And that $400 is between me and my wife." Her name is Dorth Dunbar; she was trying to get some rest after days of peril. Dunbar estimated his annual income to be about $20,000, which comes from doing graphic design work when he can get it. Before the storm, when he and his wife estimated how much money they needed to flee the city, he was saddened by the reality that he could not come up with anywhere near the several thousand dollars he might need for a rental car and airfare. "If I took my wife out to dinner, it was once a month," he said, sounding as if even those modest good times had come to an abrupt end. "We'd go to Piccadilly's. Never any movies. Really, it's a simple life. I go to work, come home, talk to my wife, go to bed, then back to work again. A basic existence." He was rolling two quarters around in his hand, short 50 cents to make a long-distance call to his son. As his eyes began to water, he repeated himself: "Just a basic existence." The two smooth-faced boys on the floor, sitting on their backpacks, looked more energetic than most. Corey Wise, 17, and Jermaine Wise, 18, were once residents of New Orleans's 17th Ward. "Our family was already in a financially depressive situation before the hurricane," Jermaine said. He calculated where the family -- their mother, Marie, is divorced -- stood financially before the wind, water and destruction. "We had $300 between us," he said, nodding toward his brother. "Mom had about $225 worth of savings. That was our emergency savings for anything. And that was a blessing." Their home was in a New Orleans neighborhood called Holly Grove. "A lot of drugs and violence in our neighborhood," Corey said. "It's hard to just get up and go when you don't have anything," Jermaine said. "Besides, everything we know is in New Orleans." They went on their way in tandem in search of their mother, somewhere upstairs in the terminal. A 47-year-old grandmother was rocking a grandchild. "These people look at us and wonder why we stayed behind," said Carmita Stephens. "Well, would they leave their grandparents and children behind? Look around and say, 'See you later'?" She gave a roll of the eyes behind the raised voice. "We had one vehicle. A truck. I wanted my family to be together. They all couldn't fit in the truck. We had to decide on leaving family members -- or staying." She shifted the grandchild in her arms. "I'm living paycheck to paycheck. My mother passed away this year. I was helping take care of her. My real job was as a private-duty caregiver. I had one patient. He died two weeks after my mother passed, on May 6." She calculated that the family made a little more than $2,500 a month -- but that included help from her son Jamel's job. "He's missing now," she added. "So is Eric Stephens, my husband." They were soon to be Texas-bound. "And I don't even like Texas," she said. All morning, they kept arriving, walking as if through a morbid dream. "I got $3.00 on me now," said John West, 39, formerly a resident of the Sixth Ward here. "I'm serious." He said he has never had a savings account in his life. "I make $340 a month," he said. "I stay with my mother. I give her about $150 of that. His income is from a disability check. His hands got badly burned in a 1993 fire. "I lost a little nephew, but I saved two kids," he said. West said he has never owned a credit card -- not even before the fire. He said he figures $500 was the most money he could have come up with on such short notice, with the hurricane bearing down. "And that would have come from my daddy. But he's always been skeptical about giving me any money. And his people got money! He could have given me $1,000, and it wouldn't have hurt him." So he did not even ask, instead lowering his economic aim by simply wishing he could get his $340 monthly check. "My mother and father don't even know if I'm alive or dead." There were a few lucky souls yesterday sitting at the Shoney's restaurant on State Highway 30 in Gonzales. Karen Lavalais, 37, and a friend, Patricia Jones, 39, and various relatives. "I only work part time at a janitorial service," Jones said. "I make $6.00 an hour. If I didn't have my mama, I'd be one of those victims still trapped in New Orleans." She works 17 hours a week. "I had $80 when I got out of New Orleans," Jones said. "And I wouldn't have had that if payday hadn't been that Friday. Eighty dollars with two children." Lavalais, who formerly lived in the 10th Ward, said that when the hurricane struck she had a total of $94 in the bank, which constituted her life savings. "And I couldn't even get to that," she said. "So thank goodness I had some gas in my car." ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2005 20:02:22 EDT From: LCStanley7@aol.com Subject: Re: white house phone number, njc Bree wrote: ...he can't possibly do his job anywhere BUT from the Oval office Hi Bree, When has he done his job from anywhere, including the Oval office? What has been accomplished by this administration? Love, Laura ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 05 Sep 2005 11:47:49 +1200 From: hell@ihug.co.nz Subject: Katrina - NJC I've been reading many reports about the devastation wrought by Katrina, including this one: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10344061 but particularly this sentence: "But many are critical of the slow reaction to the disaster, which last Monday laid waste to an area the size of New Zealand." The size of New Zealand? My entire country?! That puts it into context - a very, very large context. The cartoon that appeared in this morning's NZ Herald sums things up pretty well too... http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/500814/story.cfm?c_id=500814&ObjectID=10343985 Hell ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2005 22:00:28 EDT From: PassScribe@aol.com Subject: Re: Michael Paz (JMDL content!) Hi to all and sorry I've been out-of-touch for a while. After hearing of the recent destruction in New Orleans, I remembered Michael Paz (who I met at the 2003 JoniFest) and that he lived in the affected area. Although I have been absent from the JMDL activities lately, I checked to see if there was any word of him and read his note from earlier in the week, describing the situation there. I am concerned for ALL the people who's lives have been shattered by the natural disaster, as well as the terrible response from the State and Federal governments (and our sorry excuse for a President), so I will be donating something to the overall relief efforts. However, I know the kind of person Michael Paz is, and all he's done to help other people, so I will be happy to also contribute to the fund that is earmarked for him and his family through the JMDL site. Kenny B ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2005 22:54:09 -0400 From: Lori Fye Subject: Re: NJC White House phone number Smurf wrote: > My friend Bree and I are at opposite ends of the > political spectrum, so I cannot defend her political > views. I *can*, however, defend to the death her right > to be sarcastic. I think people are not closely > reading what she wrote. Thank you for pointing that out, Bob. I was just sitting here amazed that folks didn't understand what Bree was trying to see. I thought it was pretty clear (even if I didn't agree with her). Lori ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2005 22:58:00 -0400 From: Lori Fye Subject: Re: VMA's/Vince/Mingus > So, in the latter 70's, when Mingus was released, Joni used the phrase "rap" to define the moments when Mingus was just talking. Yes, like when someone wanted to talk with you, they might say, "Let's rap." Oh, the forgotten slang of yesteryear! Lori ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2005 22:54:47 -0400 From: Lori Fye Subject: Re: NJC White House phone number I wrote: > what Bree was trying to see I meant SAY, of course. Oy. Lori ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2005 20:50:48 -0700 From: "gene mock" Subject: njc katrina one last thought. hello all, one last thought on katrina. they're doing the body counts now. what a shitty job. i hope they break it into two categories. how many during katrina and how many after katrina left the area. how many katrina killed and how many we killed. friendly fire, how i hate that term. take care gene ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2005 23:07:25 -0500 (CDT) From: michael@thepazgroup.com Subject: Update (NJC) Hello Everybody- Thanks again for the continued support. I thought I would take some time and update you on what's happening in our world. My friend and partner in the mobile recording studio wnet back to Kenner today to see about his business (Festival Recording Studios see Pazfest and Jack Neilson Here I go Again). My phone rang at 6am and woke us all up. He was sitting in front of my house and was calling to give me a report. We do have some damage but it is not that bad. A tree fell from my neighbours house and fell on my shed and the back part of my house. Most of my fence is down and some roof damage. All in all it is not that bad. He moved on to his studio where I house some of my mobile gear (the big consoles) and while they seem to be fine with no water damage, he did have some extensive damage to the structure and his own equipment. If that wasn't enough for him at that point, I called him and asked him to do me a big favor and go on a search and resuce to find a dear old friends mom and brother. She had called me to ask me what to do and I advised her first to call the authorities and report them. They said they would get there when they could. Rick managed to get there first and is evacuating them tomorrow with a help of another old friend Marshall who will meet him at one of the check points to drive them to Houston so they can get out to L.A. and meet up with my friend Susan. A similar story was told to us yesterday at a refugee party we went to where my friends aunt was rescued by a man who then drove her to Houston and we were able to have a meal with him and hug his neck. So many stories. Jack's sister died of cancer in Natchez a few days ago and he went there to bury her. He was very upset and is having a very hard time dealing. He is on his way to Colorado now with another friend and is at a loss for what to do. Les has offered his place and he is friends with John Magnie (subdudes) so I pray he will be ok. If you don't have his record please purchase a copy at cdbaby.com/jackneilson. He also managed to drive a truck loaded with gasoline and supplies for the people in Bay St. Louis. The stuff was donated by a friend of his who lives in a small town in Texas and decided to adopt a small town in Mississippi. Amazing people amazing things. I took the kids to a 6 flags water park here in Houston to try and distract them for awhile and those wonderful people did not charge Louisiana residents admission. Texas is also not charging for toll roads which is a real blessing here cause $1.25 about every 3 miles on the damn beltway. Dennis Quaid called me last night and is committed to doing whatever he can to raise a bunch of money with a group of his Hollywood friends. My friend Len from Meridian Mississippi is driving down the same day we go home to meet us with a generator, 55 gal drums of gasoline, and other supplies to help us out and help us start helping others. So many friends so much love. There is a little group called the JMDL who has been sending donations to the Paz Family and we are so grateful and I know you will understand if I share that with people less fortunate than ourselves. I would like to give some to Jack as well as Rick who mixed and saved most of the Pazfest recording for me real good for free. It is probable that his home in Crown Point (outside the levee system down by Laffitte see the map) is gone. Oh there is so much more but I am so tired now and I have to lay my weary ass down. We have buy supplies and prepare to leave Houston and face the music on Tuesday. I will try and touch base again soon. BTW please please don't fight too much about the politicians and media and other obstacles we have. We need to focus on prayer and hope that we can save many more people still missing. We can argue later about who the biggest asshole is. I am actually quite proud of Mayor Nagin and the way he has not been afraid of speaking his mind and screaming for help. My best to you all. Love Paz ------------------------------ End of JMDL Digest V2005 #341 ***************************** ------- Post messages to the list by clicking here: mailto:joni@smoe.org Unsubscribe by clicking here: mailto:joni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe ------- Siquomb, isn't she? 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