Kanye West and other performers at tonight’s multi-network telethon for hurricane relief have been warned to keep their political views to themselves.
“I think people understand that politicizing this will certainly not be a smart thing to do as far as inspiring people to call in and rally around this cause,” executive producer Joel Gallen said.
That may be true, but live television does seem to invite people to do stupid things. I wouldn’t count it out.
Posted by Melissa Cooley
On The Trump Blog, The Donald recently suggested that the money going into the space program should be redirected to alternative energy research. And he’s fed up with Washington’s wimpy attempts to coax Saudi Arabia and other countries into lowering oil prices. Trump’s answer will surprise no one: Let him (or someone like him) negotiate. “A seasoned business negotiator could do some serious talking,” he wrote, “and those prices would drop like a rock — guaranteed.” Or what? He’s fired?
Posted by Rhonda Holman
There are many consequences to losing an entire city . Here’s one that I hadn’t thought much about: The court system in New Orleans and many of its records are gone. The New York Times reported: “More than a third of the state’s lawyers have lost their offices, some for good. Most computer records will be saved. Many other records will be lost forever. Some local courthouses have been flooded, imperiling a vast universe of files, records and documents. Court proceedings from divorces to murder trials, to corporate litigation, to custody cases will be indefinitely halted and when proceedings resume lawyers will face prodigious — if not insurmountable — obstacles in finding witnesses and principals and in recovering evidence.”
The article also noted that some prisoners had been moved to other detention facilities, but that: “They have no paperwork indicating whether they are charged with having too much to drink or attempted murder. There is no judge to hear their cases, no courthouse designated to hear them in and no lawyer to represent them.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
This is an Opinion Line comment that came in this week:
“I’m deeply sorry for the hurricane victims who were told to evacuate but couldn’t. I hope the ones who wouldn’t and then later cried for help rot in hell. I would take in all the homeless dogs if I could, and I hope every damn cat there drowned. I’m not heartless, but I am sick of people costing us money and lives because they are stupid and cats running wild because there is no leash law.”
Perhaps this person should have put a period after “sick” and ended the comment there.
Posted by Melissa Cooley
Robert Bork, who says having his name become a verb has given him “a form of immortality,” offered some novel ideas this week on how to ensure that John Roberts wins Senate confirmation next week. Among them, as reported in The Hill: Ban cameras for the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. Roberts shouldn’t say anything about the Constitution or how he’d vote on any issue. And “don’t make it obvious that you think some of the senators’ questions reveal that they have not a clue about the Constitution,” Bork said. Just think — if he’d made the bench in 1987, Bork might be up for chief justice now.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Some of the most tragic stories coming out of Katrina have been about elderly citizens left in nursing homes while the water was rising. Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish, broke down on NBC’s “Meet the Press” last weekend talking about the death of the mother of one of the parish’s employees. The New York Times reported on the drowning of 32 nursing home residents in St. Bernard Parish. Here’s part of the heartbreaking account: “Nails were pounded through a table. Dressers were thrown against windows. Several electric wheelchairs were gathered near the front entrance, perhaps in hopes of evacuation. They simply ran out of time.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Agriculture will be one of the industries hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina. The disaster could cost farmers an estimated $2 billion nationwide, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation. Besides direct losses, the costs include higher prices for fuel and transportation (much of U.S. exported grain was shipped on barges to the New Orleans port). This hardship will likely cost the U.S. government, too, as it will make it harder for the Bush administration to push through proposed farm subsidy cuts.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
The United Way of the Plains’ $16 million fundraising goal is big, but so are the needs facing this community. So those who are able, particularly businesses that haven’t been part of the campaign in the past, need to give what they can. As Pat Hanrahan, president of the United Way of the Plains, noted: “There’s a lot of people depending on us, and we just have to step up and do it.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
