Necessary News

All you need to know to sound brilliant

The State Of Katrina Recovery

• The blog Think Progress offers a look at the real state of Katrina Reconstruction. Warning: It ain’t purty. [Think Progress]
• Less than half of the city’s pre-storm population of 460,000 has returned, putting the population at roughly what it was in 1880. [NY Times]
• Nearly a third of the trash has yet to be picked up. [Washington Post]
• Sixty percent of homes still lack electricity. [Civil Rights.org]
• Seventeen percent of the buses are operational. [Civil Rights.org]
• Half of the physicians have left, and there is a shortage of 1,000 nurses. [Civil Rights.org]
• Six of the nine hospitals remain closed. [CBS News]
• Sixty-six percent of public schools have reopened. [Brookings]
• A 40 percent hike in rental rates, disproportionately affecting black and low-income families. [Washington Post]
• A 300 percent increase in the suicide rate. [Houston Chronicle]

People Are Talking: Katrina’s Anniversary

With the President’s trip to the Gulf Coast, and the anniversary of hurricane Katrina upon us, the air waves are buzzing with talk of one of our nation’s most tragic disasters. Here’s what people are saying:

• President Bush, from The Most: “This federal government has made a commitment to help. And it starts with a large check.”
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• President Bush, from The Most: “...You had to see it for yourself to fully understand the nature of this storm, and the damage done.”
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• President Bush, from The Most: “But in every state hit by last year’s storm it was the bravery of the local citizens that meant the difference between life and death. It was the bravery of the first responders on the scenes.”
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• President Bush, from The Most: “This is my 11th visit since the storm hit. Each visit you see progress.”
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• New Orleans Resident Robert Thomas, from CBS Evening News: “I’m not sure where the federal dollars are going, but they don’t seem to be on the streets when we’re cleaning them up and trying to return to our homes.”
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• Former FEMA Chief Michael Brown, from Hardball: “They give you the talking points. Whenever you go out to do these interviews, they always have the talking points. Here’s what the message for today is. Here’s how we’re going to spin everything. That’s just the way Washington, DC works, and that’s just wrong.”
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• Senator Landrieu (D-LA), from Lou Dobbs: “It’s passed time that we hold government officials accountable. Not just for their policies, but for their follow-through and their competence.”
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U.S. Planning Unilateral Track On Iran

• As they say, it’s deja vu all over again. With the clock ticking down to a U.N. deadline for Iran to suspend nuclear activity, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton said that Washington was prepared to act unilaterally if a resolution against Tehran was vetoed by Beijing and Moscow. [Middle East Times]
• According to Bolton, the U.S. is working on a “parallel diplomatic track,” which will go forward with sanctions against Iran, even if the U.N. isn’t on board. (Russia and China have been standing in the way of further U.N. actions.)
• More Bolton: “You can envision sanctions being imposed outside of the [UN] Security Council, as the United States has unilaterally imposed sanctions on Iran pursuant to its own statutes and other governments can do the same. So, the question what to do about Iran is certainly not confined to the Security Council.” [Radio Free Europe]
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• Iranian government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham told reporters that “such statements are a blatant insult to the United Nations and the Security Council. They stem from bullying and a lack of principles.”

What did you expect from the guy who said if the U.N. lost 10 stories, it wouldn’t make a bit of difference?

Productivity Increases, Your Wage Doesn’t

• Feeling like the Man’s keeping you down? Unfortunately, you’re right. [New York Times]
• Turns out that — once inflation has been factored in — the median hourly wage for the American worker has declined 2% since 2003.
• What makes this especially notable? According to economists, productivity — the amount that a worker produces in one hour — has risen steadily during the same period. Read: working hard, being paid less.
• The numbers: Worker productivity rose 16.6 percent from 2000 to 2005, while total compensation for the median worker rose 7.2 percent, according to Labor Department statistics analyzed by the Economic Policy Institute.
• More bad news: the value of benefits being given to workers (things like, say, health insurance), has also failed to keep pace with inflation.
• Not surprising: CEOs at the top of the income spectrum have continued to receive raises that outpace inflation.

Time to stick it to the man.

Secret Senator Blocks Pork Bill

• A single Senator is secretly blocking a bill which would create a searchable database of federal contracts and grants. The game in Washington this week is finding out who’s behind the hold. [The Washington Times]
• Sponsored by Senators Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Barack Obama (D-IL), the bill would require the administration to create a searchable Web site that would list the name and amount of any federal grant, contract or other award of money amounting to $25,000 or more. The Bush Administration supports the bill as well. So where’s the problem?
• The Federal Times reported that one senator has a “secret hold” on the bill. Yup, holds are an unofficial part of Senate parliamentary tradition that allow a single senator to delay action anonymously.
• Sen. Frist has said on his blog he’s against the hold, but has yet to call for a filibuster to override it.
• Now Porkbusters.org, a Web site dedicated to exposing wasteful government spending, is conducting a public campaign to smoke out the obstructor or obstructors. So far, the site has already cleared a little more than a quarter of the Senate of suspicion. The remaining three quarters: beware!

Contracts + federal money + anonymity = shady stuff.

Cheney’s New Bio

• Vice President Cheney, a man famous for wanting to rewrite history, is now working on an official biography.
• The author is Cheney crony (and widely discredited journalist) Stephen Hayes, of the Weekly Standard.
• Unlike many official biographers, Hayes is no historian.
• Hayes wrote a widely discredited article (titled “Dick Cheney Was Right”) about the links between Saddam Hussein and 9/11. When Cheney was asked by then-Fox News radio host Tony Snow, “Were there links to — between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda?” Cheney answered, “Well, I think Steve Hayes has done an effective job in his article of laying out a lot of those connections.” Even President Bush admits Iraq had “nothing” to do with 9/11. [White House] [ThinkProgress]
• In 2003, Hayes declared “case closed” in an article purporting to show the links between bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. In it, Hayes relied on a classified Defense Department memo produced by Douglas Feith. The Defense Department shot down Hayes’ article, stating the Feith memo was “not an analysis of the substantive issue of the relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda, and it drew no conclusions.” There was also question about how Hayes got his hands on the supposedly classified memo. [Weekly Standard] [MSNBC] [Defense Department]

This one is sure to be chock-full of truthiness!

Good News, Bad News

Recent consumer reports show that more and more people are using their cell phones to tell time, instead of their watches. In fact, in 2005 alone, watch sales dropped by a whopping 4.9%. Let’s look at the pros and cons. [CNN]

GOOD NEWS

Just one more reason to pick up the latest incarnation of the Razr. It rings, it plays music, it tells you what you wear, it gives you your horoscope, and it’s the latest trend in telling time!

BAD NEWS

Face it, folks: we don’t care how sleek and shiny that Motorola is — it’ll never be a Rolex.

Quote Of The Day

“I’m not sure to this day that I actually saw her. She looked different. I had seen pictures of her before she went to that diet”

— Justice Sam Alito, on trying to spot Anna Nicole Smith in court. It’s TrimSpa, baby. (And somebody’s been busted watching The Anna Nicole Show.) [The Star Ledger]

Speed Round

JOHN MARK KARR

The American Media can be released from captivity: John Mark Karr will not be charged with the murder of JonBenet Ramsey. [CNN]

AUDIO — KARR

Karr’s attorney, from CBS Evening News: “The warrant on Mr. Karr has been dropped by the district attorney. They’re not proceeding with this case.”

AUDIO — KARR

Karr’s attorney, from The Situation Room: “We’re deeply distressed by the fact that they took this man and dragged him here from Bangkok, Thailand with no forensic evidence confirming the allegations against him.”

AUDIO — IMMIGRATION

Pat Buchanan, from The Situation Room: “I do believe we should favor folks from cultures and civilizations that have been assimilated before.” Oh, Pat.

AUDIO — PLAN B

Bill Kristol, from FOX News Sunday: “I came into FOX this morning and one of our younger colleagues who works here, a guy just out of college a couple of years, said all of his friends who are still in college, all of his guy friends, his male friends who are still in college, are very happy about this because if they have a wild night and precautions aren’t taken the burden’s now totally off them. They just tell their girlfriend to go out and get this drug and no problems at all. And I don’t think that’s a very good thing for this country.”

STORMS

Bad news: tropical storm Ernesto hit Cuba, and is on track for Florida. Worse news: forecasters expect it to strengthen to a hurricane just in time to hit the SunshineState. [AP]

WEATHER

NASA cancels Tuesday’s planned space shuttle launch as tropical storm approaches. [BBC]

IRAQ

At least 40 people killed in clashes between Shiite militia gunmen and Iraqi soldiers, just south of Bagdad. [CNN]

HEMP

California seeks to bypass the Drug Enforcement Administration and make the cultivation of hemp legal. [New York Times]

RACE AND POLITICS

Black candidates for major political offices are at a record high. [Christian Science Monitor]

WOMEN AND ISLAM

The largest Muslim organization in North America elects its first female president. [AP]

DARFUR

The violence continues. The UN’s most senior humanitarian official warns that Sudan’s embattled region faces a new humanitarian disaster. [BBC]

BLACK DEATH

13 plague cases reported in 4 states. Yes, *that* plague. [AP]

FORMER PRESIDENTS

Former President Ford is released from the Mayo Clinic. [Reuters]

TURKEY

Blast kills 3 at Turkish resort. [AP]

GLOBAL WARMING

Good news: energy companies get some sense slapped into them, start supporting limits on greenhouse gas emissions. [San Francisco Chronicle]

WEATHER

U.S. farmland slammed by drought. [New York Times]

SYRIA

Koran schools for girls pepper Syria. [New York Times]