Celebrity Sighting: Levees Not War Meets FEMA’s Fugate
Tomorrow we’ll post some comments on President Obama’s remarks at Xavier University on the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. But first, allow us to babble excitedly about the public-safety-and-disaster geek’s idea of a celebrity sighting:
After all the luminaries at the fab Rising ...
Live-Blogging from Rising Tide 5 in New Orleans
Winner of the 2010 Ashley Morris Award: Clifton Harris of Cliff’s Crib
New Orleans blogger Clifton Harris, right, receives the Ashley Morris Memorial Award from emcee George “Loki” Williams, center, and Mark “Oyster” Moseley. Photo courtesy of M. Styborski. Cliff Harris’s writing also ...
Come Surf the Rising Tide : Aug. 28 in New Orleans
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We’ll be in New Orleans for Rising Tide 5—and you’re invited too. First, on Friday afternoon, we’re embarking on a boat tour of Barataria Bay southwest of New Orleans—thanks to friendly connections at the Plaquemines parish government, Loyola University, and the EPA—to see the BP oil ...
Anti-Islamic Furor Helps al Qaeda, Endangers America
“The World Trade Center Site will forever hold a special place in our City, in our hearts. But we would be untrue to the best part of ourselves—and who we are as New Yorkers and Americans—if we said ‘no’ to a mosque in Lower Manhattan. . . . We would betray our values—and play into our ...
As Combat Troops Leave Iraq, Where’s Our National Security?
Out of Iraq, on to Afghanistan
The last combat troops have left Iraq, as a convoy of the 4th Stryker Brigade rumbled in the wee hours of August 19, 2010, from Iraq toward U.S. bases in Kuwait. At the end of August, Operation Iraqi Freedom will end and 50,000 advisory and security troops will ...
Disarmament Experts Clarify Film’s Position on Nuclear Power
Last week we reviewed the excellent new documentary Countdown to Zero, released in late July, just in time for the Hiroshima and Nagasaki anniversaries (Aug. 6 and 9). While we praised Countdown and hope everyone will see it, we had some questions about the film’s stand on the safety or ...
Melancon Blasts Vitter’s Worse-Than-“Serious Sin” Record of Voting Against Women
We’re Levees Not War, and We Approve This Message:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BfjpU_yHw0&feature=player_embedded
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The text of the commercial, running in various media markets in Louisiana, goes like this:
We know how David Vitter handled his “serious sin.” And when David ...
Nagasaki, Not Forgotten
Today, Aug. 9, is the 65th anniversary of the atomic (plutonium) bombing of Nagasaki. (Hiroshima was bombed first, with a uranium bomb, on Aug. 6, 1945.) Some 60,000 to 80,000 civilians died, most of them instantly; others, like Sumiteru Taniguchi, pictured below, suffered lingering deaths ...
Hiroshima, 65 Years On: “Countdown to Zero”
Today, August 6, is the 65th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan. Nagasaki was nuked on Aug. 9. The bombs killed some 90,000 to 160,000 in Hiroshima and some 60,000 to 80,000 in Nagasaki, with half the deaths occurring in the first day, even the first millisecond, of the ...
WikiLeaks’s Afghan War Diary:
A “Pentagon Papers” for Our Time
“In releasing the Pentagon Papers I acted in hope I still hold: that truths that changed me could help Americans free themselves and other victims from our longest war.” —Daniel Ellsberg, Papers on the War (1972)
There’s a kind of appropriate, ironic justice that the Internet, which was ...
Rising Tide 5 Is Aug. 28 in New Orleans: Register Today
A Conference on the Future of New Orleans
The Rising Tide Conference is an annual gathering for all who wish to learn more and do more to assist New Orleans’ recovery. It’s for everyone who loves New Orleans and is working to bring a better future to all its residents.
Fresh back from one ...
Drew Landry Sings “BP Blues” to Presidential Commission
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52am1DN_svA&feature=player_embedded
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“Just Do the Right Damn Thing”
Some of the most sensible and melodious testimony we’ve heard in a long time was given yesterday in New Orleans by crawfisherman and singer Drew Landry before the Presidential ...