Army Times: "Troops begin combat operations in New Orleans"
Army Times, September 2:
NEW ORLEANS — Combat operations are underway on the streets “to take this city back” in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
“This place is going to look like Little Somalia,” Brig. Gen. Gary Jones, commander of the Louisiana National Guard’s Joint Task Force told Army Times Friday as hundreds of armed troops under his charge prepared to launch a massive citywide security mission from a staging area outside the Louisiana Superdome. “We’re going to go out and take this city back. This will be a combat operation to get this city under control.”
...
Dozens of military trucks and up-armored Humvees left the staging area just after 11 a.m. Friday, while hundreds more troops arrived at the same staging area in the city via Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters.
“We’re here to do whatever they need us to do,” Sgt. 1st Class Ron Dixon, of the Oklahoma National Guard’s 1345th Transportation Company. “We packed to stay as long as it takes.”
While some fight the insurgency in the city, other carry on with rescue and evacuation operations....
NEW ORLEANS — Combat operations are underway on the streets “to take this city back” in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
“This place is going to look like Little Somalia,” Brig. Gen. Gary Jones, commander of the Louisiana National Guard’s Joint Task Force told Army Times Friday as hundreds of armed troops under his charge prepared to launch a massive citywide security mission from a staging area outside the Louisiana Superdome. “We’re going to go out and take this city back. This will be a combat operation to get this city under control.”
...
Dozens of military trucks and up-armored Humvees left the staging area just after 11 a.m. Friday, while hundreds more troops arrived at the same staging area in the city via Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters.
“We’re here to do whatever they need us to do,” Sgt. 1st Class Ron Dixon, of the Oklahoma National Guard’s 1345th Transportation Company. “We packed to stay as long as it takes.”
While some fight the insurgency in the city, other carry on with rescue and evacuation operations....
posted by Jeff Wells at 11:34 a.m.
54 Comments:
Jesus H Christ! Somebody needs to get some real reporters down there before these assholes shoot everyone. disgusting. even the sick, dying people at the convention center were able to chase away the big bad looters on their own. this is sickening...
uh..woah. holy crap. no amount of punctuation or bold font capitals can begin to convey my reaction to what i just read above. Been hangin on to a thread of "rational distance/hope/denial" in regards the rise of "my" police state. fuck. fuck. fuck. see the soldiers...they're the subjects of this psy-op...oh fuck. indoctri-nation,
the enemy is US.
Gone from citizen soldier to soldier citizen.
The new caste.
but no splint or plaster
for our ladys
broken arm
WARNING: indulging in lame poetry...
muster, wi lu duncer
enjoy the ploy?
don't dare relax
your attacks.
make the man from the boy',
give em hell killroy.
destroy begot toy
but it seems
less ability to employ
like fishermen-less streams
or empty horse in troy
all reap by mere show
the only seed you sow
the sub supply side scream
uheard with plugged up ear
from all that rising cream
land locked marine
another absent teen
where you stoop to preen
you kneel
before the queen
go give em hell killroy
get yerself
a little "joy"
awash in dream
of oceans ever yet unseen
stillborn yet still
born but
soon
machine
by trainables
This is just a training excercise for the Pentagon using live humans to 'blood' their troops on fellow Americans the way the invasion of Panama prepared officers for Gulf War I.
We must continue to focus on humanizing the poor of America who the White House wants us to loathe and fear.
The School of the Americas teaches governments in Central and South America how to suppress their poor people. The same tactics are used here on Americans first.
Because this is what the neocons learned during Vietnam: America must be successfully occupied in order to conquer other countries.
The anti-Bush anti-war movements need to understand that we are the first targets of the Pentagon.
We are a fascist-occupied country.
I think we're seeing more ineptitude than calculation so far, in this case, BUT; the *next* time there's a disaster, natural or man-made, real or "imagined" ... ( "We have reason to believe there is a terrorist device of the "dirty bomb" type in the financial district..." for example ), most of the American sheeple will stand there with tears of joy in their eyes when the tanks & Hummers roll in... "Oh thank God they got here so quickly this time!!"... and the Bill of whatever-those-were gets used for emergency buttwipe!
On another note, the race note , speaking with a black lady friend in Atlanta yesterday and feeling poorly about the (apparent) racial divde, she told me "It's NOT Whitey versus the blacks , it's RICHIE versus all the rest of us!"
If we stop feeding the wealthy do you think they'll go away...?
DaveinCali
I think we're seeing more ineptitude than calculation so far, in this case,
=====
Not unless it is calculated ineptitude, and a calculated decision to Triage the poor. Face it, Americans are simply one more subject people to be controlled by the NWO. Disasters help cement NWO power. The most fascinating question is where will be say 100 days from now. Is it even possible that this will be a Chernobyl for the the Republican-Democratic elite?
Met by Despair, Not Violence
As they begin to patrol the chaotic city, troops are surprised by what they don't find.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-troops3sep03,1,3550798.story?coll=la-headlines-nation
The truck lurched through the streets, past buildings burning unabated and MPs in gun turrets. When they stopped to gear up for their arrival at the New Orleans Convention Center, where more than 15,000 people had been living in squalor since Katrina, these words echoed — for the first time, one would imagine — through the intersection of Poydras Avenue and Carondelet Street: "Lock and load!"
"Sixteen in the clip!" one Guardsman shouted, a common refrain used to indicate that rifles are fully loaded.
But when they arrived, they did not find marauding mobs. They did not come under fire. They found people who had lost everything in the storm and, since then, their dignity.
"we're here to do whatever they need us to do."
um, who's "they"
o.k.. stooopid question.
please world, every camera trained on this. don't let them light that match.
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=282&sid=101778
Guard Sees Parallels to Iraq in Louisiana
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A month ago, this steamy riverfront offered Michael Rogers a much-needed vacation after a year's tour in Iraq. His head was spinning when he returned in his National Guard uniform, unable to shake the similarities to his time on the streets of Baghdad.
An angry crowd. A hot blazing sun. A murky mixture of resentment and gratitude.
...
"This right here I'd have to say is very similar to Iraq, the way the people are _ hungry, very angry," said Rogers, a 33-year-old specialist.
...
"They're clapping on one side, because they see the security. On this side they're not clapping, they're hungry and thirsty," Richards said. "It's like Baghdad all over again ... The only thing different about this is there's no car bombs, no IEDs, nobody shooting at you."
they may have lost everything else in the storm, but NOT their dignity.
look at their faces. look into their eyes. listen to their voices. observe their demeanor.
that's phenomenal resiliance of dignity under phenomenal conditions.
it's the perceptual levees that need to be breached.
you can't kill that spirit and your sacrifice will be found wanting.
know that shrub & co., and anyone else who comes near finding it "unbelievable ... to see poor black folks and poor white folks helping each other"
I am,like you all, appalled and overwhelmed by this horror happening in NO. Can we get every radio station we know to play Eliza Gilkyson's cut "Man of God" form her new album Paradise Hotel? Here are the lyrics:
the cowboy came from our of the west
with his snakeskin boots & his bulletproof vest
gang of goons & his big warchest
fortunate son he was doubly blessed
corporate cronies & the chiefs of staff
bowing to the image of the golden calf
startin up wars in the name of god's son
gonna blow us all the way to kingdom come
man of god, man of god
that ain't the teachings of a man of god
man of god, man of god,
that ain't the preachings of a man of god
coalition of the fearful & the judgmental
patricians, politicians and the fundamentalists
you never have to tell them how the money's spent
you never have to tell them where their freedom went
homophobes in the high command
waitin for the rapture like it's disneyland
hide all the bodies from out of view
channel all the treasure to the chosen few
man of god, man of god,
that ain't the teachings of a man of god
man of god, man of god,
that ain't the preachings of a man of god
if I could I surely would
stand on the rock where Moses stood
look out people now we're gonna get fleeced
by a wolf masquerading as a man of peace
jesus said blessed are the meek
jesus said you gotta turn the other cheek
jesus said help the poor and the weak
if he lived today he'd be a liberal freak
all the money changers would be out on the street
weepin & wailin & gnashin their teeth
me I'm waitin on the reckoning day
when the whole world gonna rise up and say
man of god? man of god?
that ain't the teachings of a man of god
man of god? man of god?
that ain't the preachings of a man of god
Play it loud, play it often and God help us, I hope someone is listening!
Connut
sometimes i watch stuff on C-Span while i cook or wash dishes. 2 or 3 weeks ago there was a conference called "The Future Of The Marine Core". As the mother of 2 teenagers i am naturally very concerned about and interested in whatever the DOD is weaving into it's dark tapestry.
Anyway, at one point a General(forget his name, but 3 stars on the shoulders)was talking about a urban warfare training facility currently under construction at 29 Palms. (this is a military area in Southern California) He said that phase one of the project was either complete, or nearly so, and that phases two and three are soon to follow. phase one has either 100 or 200 buildings, (please forgive my memory)and the next two phases,when completed,will bring the total up to 1500 buildings! ... a huge simulated urban environment. And get this: every building/module is designed to be easily moved around and reconfigured into an endless variety of architectural "combat theaters" if you will, to enable training for any possible urban situation.
This raised the hairs on the back of my neck. And now, post the weather part of Katrina, i see clearly that which my body intuited while i was listening to C-Span, chopping vegetables at the kitchen sink.
Troops begin COMBAT operations in New Orleans
"While some fight the INSURGENCY...."
At last the iron fist begins to emerge from the velvet glove. If anyone had any remaining doubts, they are quickly being erased. With each passing day it is becoming increasingly clearer exactly where we stand.
There are three things you can count on.
Death.
Taxes.
And the utter ignorance of history on the part of Americans.
SOMALIA?
SOMALIA????????????????????????
This wouldn't be the same Somalia referred to as "one of America's biggest modern military blunders" would it?
When we got our ASSES HANDED TO US on the streets of Mogadishu until reinforcements including Malaysian and Pakistani U.N. forces showed up to help bail us out?
Will you people WAKE UP? BushCo's goons are so lame that in some strutting dumbass macho dickbrain struttingly alludes to...a bloody disastrous clusterfuck that turned Americans against involvement in Somalia. (If you can't handle reading real history and rent "Black Hawk Down" be advised it's a Hollywoodization, but hey, you'll get to watch Legolas in a bit part). For the truly historically illiterate and lazy, here's a summary from Amazon.com:
"With exacting detail, the film re-creates the American siege of the Somalian city of Mogadishu in October 1993, when a 45-minute mission turned into a 16-hour ordeal of bloody urban warfare. Helicopter-borne U.S. Rangers were assigned to capture key lieutenants of Somali warlord Muhammad Farrah Aidid, but when two Black Hawk choppers were felled by rocket-propelled grenades, the U.S. soldiers were forced to fend for themselves in the battle-torn streets of Mogadishu, attacked from all sides by armed Aidid supporters."
We should APPLAUD if the rag tag survivors of the City that federal idiocy slaughtered that little National Guard fuck who didn't pay attention in high school history class and TOOK the food and water to which as American citizens they were entitled from the minute that Katrina hit.
Somalia?
Here's what gets the little dickhead's dick hard:
"According to the American soldiers, Aidid's forces used civilians pushed out in front of their fighters as a screen. However, these civilian screens were reduced after the Americans soldiers showed repeatedly that they were willing to fire and kill the screening civilians in order to reach their opponents."
After the pictures that have been beamed all over the planet of poor people mostly black ones left to rot in a watery hellhole, do you think anyone but the worst racist wingnuts are going to sit still while Mr. Macho shoots down starving civilians?
Well...based on my PERSONAL experience of the last week, in which 99% of the people I know did not want to hear about what was happening in EITHER GULF because it's 'too depressing'...maybe they'd get away with it. In any case, they THINK they're going to, and so far, this Nation of Good Germans and its Quisling 'opposition party' has given them carte blanche to do whatever they frickin' feel like.
Christ on a cracker. What have we come to.
The fires are coming. It's their only way out. Hope I'm wrong.
"I have reports from 3 different police sources that 2 police officers have committed suicide..."
http://www.livejournal.com/users/interdictor/
I was a physician, Navy flight surgeon, with a Marine helicopter squadron during Desert Storm. Long before that skirmish, our squadron, along with other military units conducted urban warfare training, yes, with helicopters, in..........................(wait for this).............................. downtown New Orleans and other cities throughout the south. I thought this information was common information available to the general public.
I love to connect seemingly disparate events. What's playing through my head is Matt Cooper's description of the good citizens making up the Grand Jury. I paraphrase, but there's a lot of middle aged black ladies on that panel.
They may have read on the Internet that they are the Fourth Branch of the US Government. A most public spirited, for the general good demographic.
THEY are looking into the faces of the victims-painted-as-villains, just as we are.
I wonder what they're thinking?
I read that story last night and was also terribly confused by the "This place is going to look like Little Somalia" quote.
What the hell could that mean? And this wasn't some illiterate teen-aged grunt soldier saying this -- it was "Brig. Gen. Gary Jones, commander of the Louisiana National Guard’s Joint Task Force."
I sat outside and had a smoke in the blessedly dry desert night -- the horror in my native New Orleans has made me fall in love with the dusty American desert all over again -- and tried to make sense of it. "Little" Somalia, first of all. There's a Little Somalia in south London, famous for its (obviously) Somalian & Ethiopian restaurants and grocers, and most big cities have one of those "ethno-burbs" where Somali & Ethiopian & Yemeni people and businesses collect.
But again, that makes no sense. The General wants to make New Orleans look like a pleasant ethno-burb where you can have a tasty dinner?
The "Somalia" line itself did start to make sense. Just as New Orleans rescues were suspended because of fictional "shots fired at rescue helicopters," what would really let the military go crazy against the survivors is for a Mogadishu incident to go down. Ah, right ... because if a *National Guardsman* is killed in the line of duty, you may as well roll in the bulldozers and make the Superdome lock from Outside ... eventually you can just drop the "enemy combatants" from choppers into the holes in the Dome's roof.
But who's going to tolerate a planned "mission" to murder 18 Guardsmen? There are too many cracks in the White House armor right now, too many loose cannons like Ray Nagin and (surprisingly) tv newsers Shepard Smith and Anderson Cooper, too many recently fired whistleblowers from the Army Corps, DHS, CIA, FBI, etc. ... and too many blood-sniffing Republicans anxious to get themselves in place for 2008 by distancing themselves from the current disastrous leadership. So what would be ideal is for a "Little Somalia," just a couple of Guardsmen shot by a crazed negro sniper, who can then be paraded around for the news cameras before vanishing forever.
I personally think it's way too dangerous for Them to try to pull this off. The climate right now is insane. TV tragedy news is supposed to produce feelings of sympathy and helplessness, not furious anger towards the government. But the News Clones have been released from their air-conditioned studio prisons and they are stunned & appalled by what they see. The disgust is palpable. And it has spread like a fast-rising flood across the United States.
Army Times is used to "float" various things, by the way. They ran some interesting stuff suggesting various higher-ups be prosecuted for the Abu Ghraib torture, for instance ...
One poster suggested there were Agent Provocateurs on the ground in NO who were most likely responsible for sniper attacks. I had thought of that as a possibility, as well.
So, not too long ago (an hour, or so), on MSNBC, it is revealed that the FBI has been on the gorund since Sunday, in secret, securing certain, unmentionable, security assets.
If the FBI was on the ground unbeknownst to all but a select few, who else was on the ground. Perhaps the CIA, or members of other off-shoot black-ops intelligence organizations?
Either way, The Pentagon is now going to control the story from here on out. The rogue reporters have had their "day in the sun," and in due time will be dealt with for their transgressions. Aaron Brown and Anderson Cooper will be gone within the year.
The Big Easy has taken on a whole new meaning. It was like taking candy from a baby.....The Big Easy, indeed. I bet they even named the campaign The Big Easy, because they're sick like that. No doubt they got their chuckles out of choosing 911 as the date of the first assault.
So, here we are, at their mercy, in waiting for the next sadistic blood-letting.
If you haven't started buying guns and ammo by now, you're an idiot. Fuck gun control, and I'm a liberal. You can buy very nice AK-47 knockoffs for under $500.
Rather than "Little Somalia," I think this should be called the "NOLA-caust."
Condi Rice was asked yesterday whether or not the major passport-issuance office in NOLA had been secured.
I’m not sure what that could portend, but her “answer” was that “We know the location it is in.”
?!? what a relief. they know where the building is.
what am i missing here?
I'm not sure I should be posting this, as I'm not sure exactly what it means. A week ago Monday (a week before the storm) my neighbor, who is in the reserves, informed me that she would be leaving in a couple of days for an extended training exercise in the south. (We live in the NE). I didn't think much about it at the time.
I just thought of it today. Could the catastrophic path of Katrina be predicted so well a full week before it happened?
I'm not inclined to believe the speculative posts about HAARP and intentional direction of Katrina towards NO. But now I wonder. Please tell me I'm wrong.
You're wrong. Okay? :-)
Seriously though, weather is a chaotic system. You can't steer a hurricane any more than you can steer a runaway wagon hurtling downhill. It may be possible to make storms stronger or weeker but that's about it.
Shrubageddon wrote:
"So, here we are, at their mercy, in waiting for the next sadistic blood-letting."
I've said it before, and I'll say it again and again until it gets through:
The only thing we are at the MERCY at is our own gullibility, laziness, greed, cowardice.
We have as a people surrendered to BushCo without a fight. We let them steal 2 elections, engineer 9/11, wreck the economy, go to war for trumped up reasons, steal TRILLIONS. At most I would guess most Americans' resistance so far has consisted of MAYBE working for Gore and/or Kerry, writing a few LTE's, blogging, and donating some money to various progressive causes.
If you think this is how you take back your country from genocidal kleptocrats...then I suggest instead of spending this weekend having beer and weenies at the beach, or even giving blood to the Red Cross and reading Rigorous Intuition, that you hole up with some HISTORY BOOKS and find out what the real meaning of RESISTANCE TO TYRANNY means and what it is going to cost all of us but also how throughout history the seeming underdog has triumphed, whether it's David against Goliath, the American colonists against the British Empire, the VietCong against the might of the American Army, or just Joseph Welch starting Joe McCarthy's decline with one question: "HAVE YOU NO DECENCY, SIR?"
Yes, the underdogs didn't always win, but sometimes they put up one hell of an heroic fight: the Warsaw Ghetto fighters held out longer than the whole of Poland had and forced the Nazis to fight house to house. "Chinese" Gordon stood his ground to try to hold Khartoum against the Mahdists until relief could arrive--which it did, two days after his death and the fall of the city. The 300 Spartans under Leonidas fought to the last man and managed to delay the Persians long enough that the Greeks won at Salamis and turned the tide against Xerxes.
Anything worth having has a price and anything worth keeping is worth fighting for.
If we had a real opposition party instead of a bunch of Quislings like Bill Clinton and the Democratic NOTE THE QUOTES "leadership" they might quote Churchill:
"We shall not flag nor fail. We shall go on to the end....We shall defend our island whatever the cost may be; we shall fight on beaches, landing grounds, in fields, in streets and on the hills."
Churchill also said:
NEVER GIVE UP!
Your comfort with guns, and decisions about whether this situation is one that suggests that it is time to get a gun, will be something you'll have to decide based on your own condition.
Just make sure that everyone in your household is someone you'd trust with a gun if some nasty shit started coming down. I think we all know someone who is just holding it together because of Prozac or some other psychoactive drug. Are they going to be someone you'll trust with access to your gun if they are forced off their medication in an inherently depressing and scary situation?
"TV tragedy news is supposed to produce feelings of sympathy and helplessness, not furious anger towards the government."
CHERTOFF OUTRIGHT LIES: “Katrina scenario did not exist”
Defending the U.S. government's response to Hurricane Katrina, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff argued Saturday that government planners did not predict such a disaster ever could occur.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/03/katrina.chertoff/index.html?section=cnn_us
Defending the U.S. government's response to Hurricane Katrina, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff argued Saturday that government planners did not predict such a disaster ever could occur.
"That 'perfect storm' of a combination of catastrophes exceeded the foresight of the planners, and maybe anybody's foresight," Chertoff said.
He called the disaster "breathtaking in its surprise."
------------
Oh, yeah, lying dickhead Chertoff? Feast your eyes on this:
http://www.mrbill.com/MBReed.wmv
[A Louisiana wetlands public service announcement before hurrica Katrina. It stars Mr. Bill (of all things)]
I was ten years old when my father unlocked his gun chest and taught me gun safety. Then he locked it up again.
I was 11 when I got my marksmanship medal for riflery.
In my 30s I learned to shoot a 20 gauge shotgun.
No one will have access to my gun except me. I know how to use a gun safely--heh heh, safely for me and anyone on the side of the angels.
The situation determines how it goes for someone on the Dark Side, whether I fire a warning shot over their heads, shoot out their patella, or shoot to kill.
I would never recommend that anyone be careless about guns, and I definitely wouldn't recommend having one if you don't intend to use it. As my dad told me when I was ten, if you pull a gun on someone and then freeze, they'll just take it away from you and use it against you.
Guns don't kill people. Careless or evil people with guns kill people. By being a responsible gun owner and being prepared to use it against evil people, I am protecting myself and the good people around me. I'm sorry if that offends a certain segment of the liberal/progressive community. Some day when they're on the wrong end of a gun, whether that gun belongs to a criminal or to an agent of a rogue government, they may rethink their position.
"God made men, but Colonel Colt made them equal."
There is a measure of hysteria creeping into these posts. You may be assured that our "leaders" are not hysterical. They understand this situation and its implications quite well. Raving about acquiring and using weapons is not really all that useful. By all means, acquire weapons and be prepared to use them, but understand the larger political forces at work here and begin to think about how to turn them back, and then punish them for their crimes. See, for instance, the recent post entitled Denny Hastert's Dark Calculus by John Nichols at The Nation online:
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?bid=1&pid=19659
This is what we have to contend with. This and rigged voting machines, newly gerrymandered districts, and thinly veiled schemes to turn away black people and other likely democratic voters at the polls as was done in Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004.
Rehnquist has died, apparently at his home and surrounded by his children; in times like these the circumstances need to be mentioned as this administration has shown itself capable of any act in its pursuit of power. The President will now be able to consolidate his hold on power by appointing still another Justice to the Supreme Court. For those not already aware troubling questions of Judge Roberts observance of basic tenets of legal ethics have now emerged, in what at best appears to be a quid pro quo litmus test afforded him by the administration months ago. See "Roberts, Without Illusions," also at The Nation http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050919/editors
(One wonders how much longer publications like The Nation will be permitted to publish articles like this)
So things are not good. Figure into this the fact that we face an imminent financial crisis sometime in the months ahead as the housing bubble implodes and the dollar eventually crashes, and things really look pretty bad.
Increasingly it looks like we are going to be living in a state of emergency (in the martial law-government sense of the term), which was not so much manufactured as stumbled into due to ineptness and incompetence, but guided nonetheless by political calculation and retribution of the sort demonstrated by Representive Hastert in his remarks above.
This is convenient for the administration because it allows them to plausibly claim, and to believe, that none of it is their fault and that they are just responding to circumstances to "protect" the country.
That's the mantra we'll be hearing again and again, as we have heard it so often in the past. That everything that they are doing, the invasion of Iraq, the destruction of our economy, the revocation of our civil rights under the Patriot Act; it's all to protect us; from terrorists, from socialism, from sexual immorality and eternal damnation.
We will be protected in a new hell-on-earth of fundamentalist Republican making.
I don't know the answer. I am not sure that there is one. I am over fifty, but if I were younger I think that I would find some way to get out of this country. I will be doing my best to do that anyway.
Unfortunately, I have been finding that the government is protecting our financial assets as well, so well that is difficult to transfer them out of the country to reliable banking authorities without breaking the law. And even then one's assets, meager though they may be, still must be reported to the government annually - as you remain an American taxpayer for life no matter where in the world you are.
The world banking system is essentially under the control of the United States, so years after you leave it is entirely possible that your government could decide to reach out and touch someone, you, by freezing your assets if you should try to evade taxes. But you really wouldn't even have to do that.
If there were, or rather when there is a balance of payments crisis and interest rates shoot to the sky the our government might decide that it sure could use the foreign currency that your new account is denominated in. They might even find that you were a "financial terrorist" for being so unpatriotic as to expatriate your assets. Now that would certainly make sense to anyone who listens to Rush Limbaugh.
All in all, it looks like the easy way out is to gain citizenship somewhere else. Where? Unless you are wealthy or have useful skill and are young, there aren't many places that seem good candidates.
Best of luck
This is the most intelligent blog I've found so far and I like to read Jeff's writing and the ensuing discussion - but I'm convinced that working oneself into a state of hopelessness is counterproductive.
Just like many long time New Orleans residents who had an evacuation plan in case "the big one" arrived, I too have a back-up plan to leave the country. This said I am committed to do everything I can to turn the situation around as long as I remain.
Yesterday I went to the "The World Can't Wait -Drive Out the Bush regime" conference (see www.world cantwait.org for more info). Judging from the energy and enthusiam of the representitives from universites, Irag war veterans, and people from all over the country plus the reactions of people in the streets of New York to the tragic turn of events in New orleans, I anticipate that 2005 will be the new 1968, and that, as someone said in a previous post, New Orleans will prove to be the Chernobyl of the Bush administration.
Getting involved in some local political activism - just being around these enthusiastic and determined people -young and old - can be a healing balm for our weary souls.
What use is political activism when there is popular agreement that we have a democracy, but as a practical matter we cannot vote?
Once again I have to ask: Do you folks read history?
Some of your own ancestors probably fled the 'old country' with chump change in their pockets if they were lucky and in the hold of a slave ship if they weren't. In my family tree alone were Jews forced out of Spain by the inquisition, Huguenots forced out of France by the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, Anabaptists forced out of Switzerland by Calvinist persecution, Prussians fleeing the Kaiser's conscription, Catholics forced out of Ireland by poverty created by the English occupation, Baptists forced out of ENGLAND...you get the idea.
My blood is the blood of exiles. Brave exiles who chose a new life instead of a living death.
If the time comes when the choice is to run, plan or no plan, or stay and die, the brave will run and and the sheep will...stay and die.
And if there is no way out the brave will stand and fight and the sheep will kneel and die.
We've lived a charmed life in this land, most of us. The charm most likely's worn off and the fell hand of History is going to smack out of us the childish idea that it is a spectator sport.
If the only thing you can do is pick the hill you're going to die on, then do it with some dignity.
Of course you're afraid. I'm afraid. Anyone with any sense...or even sentience...is afraid. Courage isn't freedom from fear, it's doing what has to be done despite the fear.
History abounds with role models from King Leonidas to St. Joan of Arc, from Thomas More to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, from William Lloyd Garrison to Martin Luther King, from Emma Goldman to Cindy Sheehan. Men and women who when the vicissitudes of history prevented them from having a nice quiet comfortable life stepped up to the plate and became heroes and heroines.
We may not all be able to equal them--but isn't that what we should be aiming for? Otherwise how do we look the children we've brought into the world in the eye? For that matter--how do we look ourselves in the eye in the mirror?
PS After our ancestors fled here it was no piece of cake either. One ancestor fought in the French and Indian Wars and then was the oldest private to enlist in the Revolutionary Army; his son and grandson fought in the War of 1812, the former wounded at the Battle of Lake Erie. The Anabaptist's son fought in the Revolution as well.
They'd run once and found something worth fighting for so they stood and fought.
And some died in the new world they'd come to to escape the hell of the old one.
Life is not a TV movie, everything wrapped up in a bow in time for the 11 o'clock news.
"Lord of the Rings" is a fantasy but it's about what happens when history catches up to little people who didn't make it but have to make things right.
NOW WE COME TO IT.
The battle for the SOUL of America.
Morituri te salutamus.
You guys need some real news, from someone on the ground.
http://www.livejournal.com/users/interdictor/
The transnational corporate kleptocratic system is one big global plantation now and we are all runaway slaves. There is no way to fight it at this stage. The only option is to elude its pernicious grasp: by flight, camoflauge, deception, playing dead, or what have you. There is no North Star to run for nowadays, no clear physical route to safety, freedom and hope. Each person must make their own provisions to accomplish these goals in their own ways but however they attempt it, it can no longer be accomplished in Amerikkka, where the boom is lowering more each day.
Walter Hawkins preached the eternal truth when he said that "there arose in some an irrepressible desire for freedom which no danger or power could restrain, no hardship deterred, and no bloodhound could alarm. This desire haunted them night and day; they talked about it to each other in confidence; they knew that the system which bound them was as unjust as it was cruel, and that they ought to strive, as a duty to themselves and their children, to escape from it."
But the hardest part was leaving family and friends. Then and now, many of those nearest and dearest to our hearts think the desire to run is foolish, faulty and selfish. Henry Bibb wrote that "one of the most self-denying acts of my whole life, to take leave of an affectionate wife, who stood before me on my departure, with dear little Frances in her arms, and with tears of sorrow in her eyes as she bid me a long farewell."
Nevertheless, those running or about to run know that they must run. It is never an easy decision but once made, irrevocable. Those who counsel for continued sufferance of a regime of tyranny typically do not have full posession of all the facts. Let me kick some your way.
How ever you slice it, Amerikkka is bankrupt. As with a headless chicken running around the barn yard, it is only a matter of when the few seconds of residual oxygen finally runs out and the body finally slumps over to bleed a last few pulsations into the dirt.
I would say this: it is about time to figure out where your North Star points and set out on your way.
Scott my friend,
I have spent up to 18 hours a day for a week reading and copying every article I can cram into my eyes, brain and puter on this subject, so I'm not sure who you think needs 'real news from the real world.'
By the way, are you the same Scott Rassbach who posted at the following URL, a site called FREEMASONRY 101 The Rite of the Cross of Gold, the post below identifying yourself as a Master Mason?
The same Scott Rassbach who in his user profile for the Forward Motion writing community lists his hobbies as "Writing" and "freemasonry"?
And would that "interdictor" be one Michael Barnett who sounds a bit like a White Supremacist given his motto ("Fighting for the preservation of civilization against the barbarian hordes") and his interests ("Interests:5: assassination, crisis management, rescue operations, target interdiction, termination")? Nice photo of a knife on the user info page too. Caught the reference to Ludwig von Mises too. I'm not as dumb as you think, or as dumb as you are.
http://www.rrcg.org/Freemasonry/
_disc4/00000090.htm
Re: Esoteric Freemasons.
From: scottrassbach@charter.net
Date: 5/28/2003
Time: 12:24:00 PM
Remote Name: 12.21.93.6
Comments
"esoteric" also means "private" or "confidential", and as we are a society with secrets, it could be used in that meaning as well. Check Merriam Webster. >
Scott M. Rassbach, Master Mason Union #32 G.L of Wisconsin, F. & A. M. "Remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth.
MOVE ALONG, FOLKS. Nothing to see here but one of those DISINFOTROLLS and he's been neutralized.
What does this "interdictor" thang sound like to you folks? Some kind of urban guerilla warfare deal? Just who are they planning to assassinate/terminate?
This is from the FAX on the photo site he links to, www.nola-intel.org
http://www.nola-intel.org/Q&A.html
Q&A
Snapdragon asks: another big question is concern over their safety with lights being present from the streets.. with looters with guns, etc.. what are they doing to keep safe.. are they in a secure room, is the building secure on the ground floor, have they covered the windows, are they in a closed room of the building?
Answer: We are not going into detail about our security measures, except to say that are armed, patrolling, and secure.
colin_ asks: Given your newfound popularity, are you considering writing any sort of book/article/whatever about your experiences during Katrina?
Answer: I can't even begin to worry about that stuff until this is all over. This might not have the happy ending everyone is hoping for.
Gyrax asks: For a minor point, what is the feed running on?
Answer: Primary feed is Win Media Encoder. I think the mises.org supplemental feed is using Win Media Server.
DrFlip asks: What kind of military presence have you seen down there?
Answer: Military presence has been mostly National Guard troops driving down the streets to parts unknown.
cr0bar asks: What are y'all going to do first thing when this is all over?
Answer: When this is over, I am going to try to locate my parents who I still have not been able to contact in Harahan.
lilan asks: Hi, could you guys give some details on what if any type of aid [food/water/etc] is coming into the deeper parts of the city? Thanks.
Answer: We have no info about aid at this time.
CompWizrd asks: How's the stock of deoderant?
Answer: We're set on hygiene needs.
chuck5345 asks: What's on that TV? I think I remember seeing a radar image a while back... are any TV stations in the area broadcasting?
Answer: TV is set to news channels.
Herschel asks: Just curious, do the police know that you're up there?
Answer: Yes, the NOPD are aware of our presence... well some of them anyway. Read the blog to understand what I mean.
dre^^ asks: How many people are there keeping things running at your location?
Answer: Not giving details about our numbers.
paygun asks: Is it true there are looters shooting at cops down there?
Answer: Yes, cops are under fire -- so is the National Guard.
math asks: What is interdictor and friends doing for showers and what not? Do they have a plan of action if the generator goes out - extra batteries, flashlights in known places? Answers: Field expedient showers and hygiene, military style. If power goes out, we will work in the dark.
joel asks: Michael Brunson == Mike/Interdictor?
Answer: Michael Barnett = Interdictor
simishag asks: It looks pretty clear that you will be in this situation indefinitely. have you considered long term needs, resupply, etc, and what can we do to help?
Answer: We are constantly working on improving our long term situation.
BeanFriedPork asks: What are y'all doing recreationally to keep sane?
Answer: The only recreation we have is the internet.
enwilson asks: We were hearing Mayor Nagin on a few of the cable channels saying that 1,500 NOPD cops were being pulled off the search and rescue beat to help control the looting. How well do you think that's going to come off, considering what you've seen out there so far?
Answer: I don't think the cops can control the looting. I think it will take the US Army.
joel asks: Do you guys know of any other ISPs still operating in NOLA?
Answer: I don't think any other ISPs are here.
raghragh asks: I'm sure people are intrested in knowing- has any of the looting, esp. police looting, or any other intresting web-cam footage been recorded/archived?
Answer: Yes, lots of looting recorded from here.
lilan asks: I came in late to the blog. Why did you decide to hunker down in your office building initally?
Answer: We hunkered here for safety and power.
DerekNJ asks: Have any looters tried coming into the building?
Answer: I cannot answer that question at this time.
Dash asks: How is the use of the bathroom being worked without a steady water supply and based on your food stores, how long can you guys keep going without outside assistance?
Answer: Rather not discuss hygiene specifics. We're making out ok and we will be able to maintain our status indefinitely.
Oh, Crikey, Scott's a Crowleyite.
Check out his blog at:
http://eighthsermon.blogspot.com/
Where he approvingly cites this 'hot tip'....
"I find Freemasonry to be a good way to meet trustworthy men."
and states
"Of Occult Interest
Note: I'm not a practicing occultist myself, but I do have an interest in it
* Thelema Coast to Coast "
=====
Is Cassie missing something? Aren't the Free(k)masons and the Worshippers of the Great Beast the bad guys here?
Remember Professor Pan who melted down when I pointed out the spelling 'magick' generally pointed to a Crowleyite, and got all up in my face about having called him a Satanist which I didn't?
What are Scott's pals holed up in a building in downtown New Orleans with the knowledge of the cops who are doing their best to get everybody else out actually doing?
Hey...maybe we've found out who those snipers actually are, trying to start the race war to clean out the barbarian hordes! What do dyou think, Jeff?
Nice catch Cassie, job well done.
It's called "Helter Skelter"..
You win the prize, cassandra.
MAD sonic weapons are being deployed to the disaster zone:
http://wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,68732,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_1
The military/industrial complex has a perfectly cultivated testing zone now fully equipped with starving desperate 'insurgents'..
Anybody know who to report these people to? Anyone trustworthy who cares that they're holed up there probably doing sniping that they want blamed on the victim, and maybe even KILLING people on their so-called 'rescue missions' instead of rescuing them. Why are THEY allowed to stay when the poor people who stayed are being vilified and blamed for their own misfortune?
If I'm wrong about you and your Interdictor friend, Scott...where's your rebuttal, you've had all day. If you don't explain by tomorrow, I'm calling the SF Chronicle.
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