"For G.O.P., DeLay Indictment Adds to a Sea of Troubles"

"This is not what the Republicans envisioned 11 months ago, when they were returned to office as a powerful one-party government with a big agenda and - it seemed - little to fear from the opposition."

So sorry, but...we deserve this. And they deserve this.

I just went online and gave $100 to the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee. You should too. It's early, but giving early means more credibility for them.

A yes on Roberts is not the only "right vote"

I'm tired of having letters not printed, so here they are.

---

September 24, 2005

To: the Washington Post

While I agree with your view that there should not be a
"strongly partisan component" to the Supreme Court
confirmation process, I think you are missing a critical
factor in the decision of five of the eight Democrats on the
Senate Judiciary Committee to vote against the nomination of
Judge John Roberts for Chief Justice ("The Right Vote," Sept.
24). That factor is President Bush's broader relationship to
the judiciary, a record of genuinely unprecedented partisanship.

Judge Roberts is a qualified nominee with decades of excellent
service to his corporate and Republican Party clients, but he
has limited experience as a judge and simply has not faced a
range of cases approaching that which he will encounter if he
spends the foreseeable future leading the judicial branch.
The current Republican assault on the independent judiciary is
so dangerous to the nation's legal system that I find it easy
to understand the Democrats' reluctance to confirm a candidate
for Chief Justice with no discernible track record and no
professed views on the most important issues.

Your editorial complains that Democrats "will oppose any
nominee from this administration" and that the pressure from
liberal lobbying groups is "truly intense." By contrast, I am
impressed that leaders of nonprofit organizations that work on
behalf of civil rights, consumers, women, gays and lesbians,
immigration rights, disability rights, environmentalism, and
public-interest law have finally managed to persuade our party
to stand up for us. President Bush should not appoint another
stealth candidate for the Court's second opening.

---

Friday, September 2, 2005
To: Time Magazine
Subject: President feels pain...of those overpaying for gas?

You say that Bush "stumbles in his initial handling" of the
crisis in New Orleans, but "has a history of righting itself"
(Sept. 1). That's like saying that Janet Reno "stumbled" in
responding to Waco. President Bush's speech Thursday was
astonishing---with his palpable sympathy toward those of us
paying fifty cents extra for gas, and his profound lack of
basic compassion for Americans living without food, water, or
sanitation. For Bush to say on national television that help
is on the way, "but the private sector needs to do its part as
well," goes beyond abdicating leadership; it is obscene. I
feel ill imagining Karl Rove's efforts to arrange a Friday
photo op in New Orleans.

[That one produced a letter back the next day saying basically "we paid attention to your letter and we are thinking of maybe printing it but we're not sure yet."]

---

Monday, August 29, 2005
To: the New York Times
Subject: Women's peace activism is nothing new

In her timely look at the role of mothers in the resurgent
antiwar movement, Elisabeth Bumiller is right to point out
that in Vietnam, “the demonstrations were largely led by young
men, who were subject to the draft” ("In the Struggle Over the
Iraq War, Women are On the Front Line," Aug. 29). But when
she attributes this “striking change" to events that have
"happened in 40 years," Bumiller would do well to brush up on
her history.

Women were highly influential peace activists in the World War
I era. The first Congressional vote cast by a woman was
Jeannette Rankin’s vote against entering World War I, at a
time before federal woman suffrage. Rankin cast the only vote
in Congress against World War II; she went on, at age 88, to
lead over 5,000 women in a 1968 march on Washington against
the Vietnam War.

Massachusetts lawmakers have changed their minds

Today, 6,500 marriages later, the Massachusetts legislature defeated by a stunning 4-to-1 margin the "compromise" constitutional amendment that it narrowly passed last year, which would simultaneously ban gay marriage and create civil unions. Many legislators who voted for the amendment last year say that they've simply changed their minds in the past year.

Because the measure did not pass the legislature two years in a row, it WILL NOT go to the voters next year. The religious right is now collecting signatures in an effort to get an amendment banning both gay marriage and civil unions on the ballot in 2008 - when thousands of same-sex couples will be celebrating their fifth wedding anniversaries.

Wednesday vote may doom MA marriage ban effort

Same-sex marriage may stay legal in Massachusetts (The Advocate)

A fragile coalition of lawmakers cobbled together to support a Massachusetts constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage is falling apart, virtually assuring that for now same-sex marriage will remain legal in the state, according to an Associated Press poll. The survey, conducted September 6–9, found at least 104 lawmakers who plan to vote against the proposed amendment, which would ban same-sex marriage but create civil unions.

Levee funds diverted to Iraq

The following are excerpts from an article by Sheila Grissett published in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 8, 2004:

For the first time in 37 years, federal budget cuts have all but stopped major work on the New Orleans area's east bank hurricane levees, a complex network of concrete walls, metal gates and giant earthen berms that won't be finished for at least another decade.

"I guess people look around and think there's a complete system in place, that we're just out here trying to put icing on the cake," said Mervin Morehiser, who manages the "Lake Pontchartrain and vicinity" levee project for the Army Corps of Engineers. "And we aren't saying that the sky is falling, but people should know that this is a work in progress, and there's more important work yet to do before there is a complete system in place."

...

"I can't tell you exactly what that could mean this hurricane season if we get a major storm," Naomi said. "It would depend on the path and speed of the storm, the angle that it hits us.

"But I can tell you that we would be better off if the levees were raised, . . . and I think it's important and only fair that those people who live behind the levee know the status of these projects."

...

The Bush administration's proposed fiscal 2005 budget includes only $3.9 million for the east bank hurricane project. Congress likely will increase that amount, although last year it bumped up the administration's $3 million proposal only to $5.5 million.

"I needed $11 million this year, and I got $5.5 million," Naomi said. "I need $22.5 million next year to do everything that needs doing, and the first $4.5 million of that will go to pay four contractors who couldn't get paid this year."

...

The challenge now, said emergency management chiefs Walter Maestri in Jefferson Parish and Terry Tullier in New Orleans, is for southeast Louisiana somehow to persuade those who control federal spending that protection from major storms and flooding are matters of homeland security.

"It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay," Maestri said. "Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us."

...

Levee-raising is only part of the flood-related work that has stopped since the federal government began reducing Corps of Engineers appropriations in 2001, as more money was diverted to homeland security, the fight against terrorism and the war in Iraq.

More articles from before Katrina:

Repair the marshlands or rebuild New Orleans, Rocky Mountain News, July 16, 2005


New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers faces record $71.2 million federal cut, New Orleans City Business, June 6, 2005

Coastal advocates dismayed by Bush's opposition, The Courier (Houma, La.), sometime in 2004

See also these stories posted since Katrina:

No one can say they didn't see it coming, on Salon, August 31 (this is an excellent article, well worth the commercial required of non-subscribers)

Funding cuts led way to lesser levees, Chicago Tribune, August 31

Intricate flood protection long a focus of dispute, NYT, September 1

And search for the latest on levees on Google News