Hot button items

I happen to be a big fan of the Bill of Rights.

The Tenth, as used, is problematic. The Ninth, as ignored, is also problematic.

The Second has some contentious issues (What defines militia? What is meant by well organised? I hold it's an individual right, there are interesting; but to me, non-compelling, arguments to be made it's a collective one).

The First, on the other hand, is pretty damned clear (well, the whole debate about what constitutes political speech, and Holmes' sad use of, "fire in a crowded theater," notwithstanding) and the freedom of the press ought to be cut and dried.

Used to be it was.

Yesterday I linked to Reporters Without Borders talking about a couple of cases of photographers being abused. One had not only his images stolen but his equipment smashed and his press pass destroyed. Given that he was from a local paper, this may not have been the best tactical move those cops made, but that's not the point.

Now I find this from Rueters, which says FEMA is barring reporters from moving freely, to prevent them from taking pictures of the dead.

Brian Wilson, of MSNBC said he saw, what I can only describe as intimidation, a cop pointing a weapon at reporters, as well as being told to cross the street when an Oklahoma Guard sergeant got annoyed.

An interesting dynamic is taking shape in this city, not altogether positive: after days of rampant lawlessness (making for what I think most would agree was an impossible job for the New Orleans Police Department during those first few crucial days of rising water, pitch-black nights and looting of stores) the city has now reached a near-saturation level of military and law enforcement. In the areas we visited, the red berets of the 82nd Airborne are visible on just about every block. National Guard soldiers are ubiquitous. At one fire scene, I counted law enforcement personnel (who I presume were on hand to guarantee the safety of the firefighters) from four separate jurisdictions, as far away as Connecticut and Illinois. And tempers are getting hot. While we were attempting to take pictures of the National Guard (a unit from Oklahoma) taking up positions outside a Brooks Brothers on the edge of the Quarter, the sergeant ordered us to the other side of the boulevard. The short version is: there won't be any pictures of this particular group of Guard soldiers on our newscast tonight. Rules (or I suspect in this case an order on a whim) like those do not HELP the palpable feeling that this area is somehow separate from the United States.

At that same fire scene, a police officer from out of town raised the muzzle of her weapon and aimed it at members of the media... obvious members of the media... armed only with notepads. Her actions (apparently because she thought reporters were encroaching on the scene) were over the top and she was told. There are automatic weapons and shotguns everywhere you look. It's a stance that perhaps would have been appropriate during the open lawlessness that has long since ended on most of these streets. Someone else points out on television as I post this: the fact that the National Guard now bars entry (by journalists) to the very places where people last week were barred from LEAVING (The Convention Center and Superdome) is a kind of perverse and perfectly backward postscript to this awful chapter in American history.

These are not good signs.

Yes, I can hear the counterclaims... respect for the dead, and all. Well we didn't show that sort of tender feeling for the tsunami victims. Right now, painful as it is, the dead are the news. The people who were trapped in nursing homes, who couldn't break out of their homes, who were swept away. The ones who are sitting by the side of the road, waiting to be picked up. The how and the why of their demise, as well as what is being done about it, and how to prevent its like again. Those are the stories we need to hear, and read, and; yes, see.

The people who are going to get dysentery, or cholera, or God knows what from contact with the water sloshing around New Orleans (and no one can say what's going to happen to Lake Pontchartrain when the city is emptied into it, but there's no other place to put the water, and leaving it there to fester is a worse option) are the story.

Those are the stories we need to hear, and read, and; yes, see.

The people who refuse to leave, what happens to them? And who will tell the tale? The Administration isn't happy with the press right now, in part because the press has started to do it's job (the press always needs to play the role of gadfly to the occupant of the White House, by definition the president is one of the Comfortable; since he is also the employee of every single person who lives in the US, has his salary, his rent, and his [not-inconsiderable] household expenses paid for by them; while doing things which directly affect them all, he needs some oversight, and probably some afflicting).

For those who want to see what an active press corps might, and should, have been doing for the past few years, this press gaggle shows something which has been rare, of late, penetrating questions, and an unwillingness to accept pablum as caviar.

My favorite piece of it is,
Q I just want to follow up on David's questions on accountability. First, just to get you on the record, where does the buck stop in this administration?

MR. McCLELLAN: The President.

Q All right. So he will be held accountable as the head of the government for the federal response that he's already acknowledged was inadequate and unacceptable?

It isn't just the pleasure of seeing a pair of politicians skewered (because McClellan was run through on the way to the President) but because the people in office keep talking about accountabilty, but none of them ever seem to be held accountable for the failures they admit to happening, on their watch, by their underlings, or even by themselves.

Blacking the press out of New Orleans, intimidating them into not taking pictures; or notes, is the sort of thing which is meant to reduce accountability, because what is not seen, just isn't. If people don't know, they can't be offended. If they aren't offended, nothing will change.

And looking at the mess which was one of the prettiest, most interesting cities in America... it makes me think something has to change.

God I wish I had something else to write about.

An author friend of mine once said he wrote about things which pained him, this seems to be one of the times this is what moves me.

What we did on our vacation by way of Making Light

Words fail me.

Gretna, well right now I want to wipe them from the face of the map. It's not a good response, nor a rational one, and one which; if induldged wouldn't really make me feel any better; but the more I see of the venality of those who might have helped the colder runs my blood, the more coherent becomes my rage and the more I want an Old Testament God of wrath and smiting to manifest himself and show these people how they have failed their fellow man.

"If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am for myself alone, what am I? If not now, when?"

When indeed, and what are they?

Must be amused

I have been catching up on Making Light, but y'all knew that.

For those who don't read them, I offer Jim McDonald's Patented Folksong Method of Childrearing

A bit from the front:

Folksongs Are Your Friends
Posted by Jim Macdonald at 12:50 PM * 249 comments

I have four children, two daughters and two sons. Naturally, I worry about their moral upbringing. As everyone knows who’s paying attention, “Just say no” doesn’t work. Instead, I made sure they were constantly exposed to the traditional folksongs and legends of Great Britain. Nothing’s more certain to give you a strong sense of the negative consequences of immoral or imprudent behavior.

Things I’ve learned from British folk ballads


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Don’t ignore warnings. If someone tells you to beware of Long Lankin, friggin’ beware of him. If someone tells you not to go by Carterhaugh, stay away. Same goes for your mother asking you not to go out hunting on a particular day. Portents about weather, particularly when delivered by an old sailor who is not currently chatting up a country maid, are always worth heeding.

If someone says that he’s planning to kill you, believe him.

If someone says he’s going to die, believe him.

Avoid navigable waterways. Don’t let yourself be talked into going down by the wild rippling water, the wan water, the salt sea shore, the strand, the lowlands low, the Burning Thames, and any area where the grass grows green on the banks of some pool. Cliffs overlooking navigable waterways aren’t safe either.

Broom, as in the plant, should be given a wide berth.

Stay away from the greenwood side, too.

Avoid situations where the obvious rhyme-word is “maidenhead.”

If you look at the calendar and discover it’s May, stay home.

Read, and pay attention, there is a quiz at the end.

More cribbed from Making Light

I'm going to filch this in its entirety, because some of you may not follow links.

In this hour

The emotional symptoms of stress include, but are by no means limited to, moodiness, irritability, and anger. Physical symptoms can include headaches, nausea, insomnia, and all manner of physical pain. (Here’s a link to a detailed list of symptoms, just in case.)

If any of this sounds familiar, congratulations, you have been keeping well informed on current events. There is enough grief in the atmosphere to suffocate anybody. There are a lot of other, equally intolerable emotions, but if you’re still reading this I don’t need to catalogue them for you.

May I suggest that everybody here who is not physically in the front lines stop for a moment and take inventory: are stress effects starting to have a constant, or even just a distracting, effect on you, or somebody near you?

I don’t mean “are you depressed,” or frustrated, or angry. It would be a much bigger warning sign if we weren’t. I mean, is the depression coloring everything you see, whether it’s related to these events or not? Is the frustration keeping you from things that would normally define you — work, pleasure, ordinary conversation? Are you constantly angry, and is the anger spilling out onto people who did nothing but be in range?

If this is happening, then I would quietly ask you to take a step back. Turn off the television, shut down the computer. They, and the crises, will still be there. Go do something else, now.

—Find a distraction and allow it to distract you. Pick up some unfinished work. Go for a walk and pay attention to every detail, even the ones that remind you of Topic A; this is about coping, not pretending it’s not there.

—Read, watch a movie, put on some music. It doesn’t have to be “happy.” This is what catharsis is all about, and why there’s been a word for it for so long.

—Talk to someone about something else that matters to both of you. Or, perhaps better, talk to someone you care about who’s also stressed — I doubt you’ll have much trouble finding someone — about how you both feel. Talk each other down. If you need to hug or cry, let it roll. In this hour, the trolls of damned-lie stoicism have no claim on your soul.

I am not asking anyone to stop assisting with relief efforts of any kind. Was that understood? Good.

All this assumes that you or yours are dealing with the effects of “ordinary” stress. If something more serious is going on — deep, unrelievable grief or depression — find counseling, sooner, not later.

Unfortunately, stress doesn’t end with the event. The present crises have already created a great number of people with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and there will be more, not all of them direct victims. (One powerful reason for taking time out now is to avoid being in this group.) Most of you will be aware of PTSD; dealing with it is beyond my scope here. Here is one source, with specific observations on the Here and the Now. (Yes, it’s from a Federal agency. If that bothers you, there are many other sources.)

A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.
To live in one of those times need not mean turning one’s back on the other.


++++

I've been too much in this thing for the past too many hours, and I'm starting to get overwhelmed. On That Tuesday I was uplifted by Winton Marsalis playing Haydn's Trumpet Concerto. It is time for me to recharge.

Look after yourselves, there will days, even weeks, to ponder all of this. Letting yourself become an emotional wreck, about things you didn't do, couldn't have helped and can't change now, is no good to you, nor anyone else.

Croggled

I volunteered to go to Louisiana.

I volunteered more than a week ago.

I am not, all things considered, surprised that I've not been called up. The problems (in all the states affected) are far away, logistics are complex and it won't be cheap to send a bunch of Calif. Guardsmen to the places hardest hit. The 82nd is already being paid, and they have lift, so shipping them in seems reasonable.

But this (and another hat tip to Making Light who are going gangbusters on Katrina) apalls me.

Blackwater, yes Blackwater, the contractors/mercenaries who are famous for losing four guys in Iraq, is, apparently, patrolling New Orleans.

For corroboration, all one need do is visit their web site.

An extract from the piece linked to above

How do you know that we're finally taking the situation in New Orleans seriously? We're sending in the private mercenaries -- the very same folks we've called on to do the dirty work in Iraq. Reports are beginning to surface that New Orleans and environs are crawling with armed private commandos from Blackwater USA, the North Carolina-based security firm that has risen to prominence with its highly visible role in Iraq. The slide show at the top of this entry comes from their Web site.

A Georgia-based doctor and military veteran who blogs under the name Otter has been down in the disaster zone the last few days, and he has seen the private Blackwater security forces everywhere. He wrote yesterday from a police precinct house in New Orleans:

Blackwater Security is here--clean, well-equipped, and armed to the teeth.

The New York Times has seen them too:

No civilians in New Orleans will be allowed to carry pistols, shotguns or other firearms, said P. Edwin Compass III, the superintendent of police. "Only law enforcement are allowed to have weapons," he said.

But that order apparently does not apply to hundreds of security guards hired by businesses and some wealthy individuals to protect property. The guards, employees of private security companies like Blackwater, openly carry M-16's and other assault rifles. Mr. Compass said that he was aware of the private guards, but that the police had no plans to make them give up their weapons.

The company acknowledged yesterday that it has about 150 people in New Orleans so far:

I'd like to think a lot of things, that this will cost less than twice that many guardsmen from other states, that these guys are actually trained (really trained, like with POST Certification and the like) in police procedure. That they have good weapons discipline and restrictive rules of engagagement. But from what I've heard, and read, of them, I don't really have a lot of hope for that.

They actively sought this out too, and FEMA, or someone, decided they were a better fit for the job than guardsmen.

WTF?

(Edited to add) looking around it seems these are being paid privately, to protect the wealthy, and businesses. If this is the case (private money) I'm not sure how I feel about the passage which gives them the right (as civilian employees of people who are supposed to be evacuating) to stroll around with 1: guns and 2: no direct governtmental oversight. Call me funny, but being allowed to hire one's private army, a la the barons of medieval Europe (with liveried servants) strikes me as a less than ideal circumstance.