The travelers from West Africa are easy to identify. The medical workers are easy to identify. The people who get infected along the way are the unknown killers.
thestand_0_00_38_PDVD.JPG
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hepatitis
Hepatitis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hepatitis (plural: hepatitides) is a medical condition defined by the inflammation of the liver and characterized by the presence of inflammatory cells in the tissue of the organ. Hepatitis may occur with limited or no symptoms, but often leads to yellow discoloration of the skin, mucus membranes, and conjunctivae, poor appetite and malaise. Hepatitis is acute when it lasts less than six months and chronic when it persists longer. The condition can be self-limiting (healing on its own) or can progress to fibrosis (scarring) and cirrhosis.
Signs and symptoms
Acute
Initial features are of nonspecific flu-like symptoms, common to almost all acute viral infections and may include malaise, muscle and joint aches, fever, nausea or vomiting, diarrhea, and headache. More specific symptoms, which can be present in acute hepatitis from any cause, are: profound loss of appetite, aversion to smoking among smokers, dark urine, yellowing of the eyes and skin, and abdominal discomfort. Physical findings are usually minimal, apart from yellowing of the skin and conjunctivae, tender enlargement of the liver, enlarged lymph nodes in 5%, and enlargement of the spleen. Acute viral hepatitis is more likely to be asymptomatic in children. Symptomatic individuals may present after a convalescent stage of 7 to 10 days, with the total illness lasting weeks.
A small proportion of people with acute hepatitis progress to acute liver failure, in which the liver is unable to remove harmful substances from the blood (leading to confusion and coma due to hepatic encephalopathy) and produce blood proteins (leading to peripheral edema and bleeding).
Chronic
Chronic hepatitis may cause nonspecific symptoms such as malaise, tiredness and weakness, and often leads to no symptoms at all. It is commonly identified on blood tests performed either for screening or to evaluate nonspecific symptoms. The presence of jaundice indicates advanced liver damage. On physical examination there may be enlargement of the liver.
Extensive damage to and scarring of liver (i.e. cirrhosis) leads to weight loss, easy bruising and bleeding, peripheral edema (swelling of the legs) and accumulation of ascites (fluid in the abdomen). Eventually, cirrhosis may lead to various complications: esophageal varices (enlarged veins in the wall of the esophagus that can cause life-threatening bleeding), hepatic encephalopathy (confusion and coma) and hepatorenal syndrome (kidney dysfunction).
Causes
Viral hepatitis is the most common cause of hepatitis worldwide. Other common causes of non-viral hepatitis include toxic and drug-induced, alcoholic, autoimmune, fatty liver, and metabolic disorders. Less commonly some bacterial, parasitic, fungal, mycobacterial and protozoal infections can cause hepatitis. Additionally, certain complications of pregnancy and decreased blood flow to the liver can induce hepatitis. Cholestasis (obstruction of bile flow) due to hepatocellular dysfunction, biliary tract obstruction, or biliary atresia can result in liver damage and hepatitis.
Viral hepatitis
The most common causes of viral hepatitis are the five unrelated hepatotropic viruses hepatitis A, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, hepatitis D (which requires hepatitis B to cause disease), and hepatitis E.
Hepatitis B, which causes between one and two million deaths per year, is most often transmitted sexually. The disease does not affect the sexual organs, but is highly contagious in its early stages, especially from sexual intimacy, and even kissing.
http://www.cdc.gov/knowmorehepatitis/timeline.htm
CDC
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Hepatitis C: 25 Years of Discovery
2014 marks the 25th anniversary of the discovery of the Hepatitis C virus. Since the virus was discovered in 1989, significant public health and research advances have led to great progress in curbing new infections and developing life-saving treatment options. Unfortunately, millions of Americans continue to live with this disease and most don’t know they are infected. Explore this timeline to learn more about the highlights and milestones from the past 25 years of Hepatitis C discovery.
http://movie.subtitlr.com/subtitle/show/597599
Database of Movie Dialogs
Twilight Zone, The (1959)
The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank
How do we know the man who got up
and crawled out of that coffin
is really jeff myrtlebank?
I wouldn't talk like that, gentlemen.
It could cause a lot of trouble.
Well, i don't know.
My grandma, she used to tell me
about evil spirits roaming around the world
trying to find a body to take over.
She said that they'd steal a corpse sometimes
before a man was good dead.
That kind of talk's dangerous, peters.
Although i must confess this throws a lot of dry kindling
on the fire that's been smoldering
http://www.cdc.gov/knowmorehepatitis/learnmore.htm
CDC
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Hepatitis C Overview
Hepatitis C is a serious liver disease that results from infection with the Hepatitis C virus. Hepatitis C has been called a silent epidemic because most people with Hepatitis C do not know they are infected.
While some people who get infected with Hepatitis C are able to clear, or get rid of, the virus, most people who get infected develop a chronic, or lifelong, infection. Over time, chronic Hepatitis C can lead to serious liver problems including liver damage, cirrhosis, liver failure, or liver cancer. But many people can benefit from available treatment options that can eliminate the virus from the body and prevent further liver damage.
Hepatitis C and Baby Boomers (Born 1945-1965)
In 2012, CDC started recommending Hepatitis C testing for everyone born from 1945 – 1965. While anyone can get Hepatitis C, up to 75% of adults infected with Hepatitis C were born from 1945 - 1965
Why should people born during 1945-1965 get tested for Hepatitis C?
Most people with Hepatitis C don’t know they are infected so getting tested is the only way to know.
Baby boomers are five times more likely to have Hepatitis C than other adults.
The longer people live with Hepatitis C undiagnosed and untreated, the more likely they are to develop serious, life-threatening liver disease.
Liver disease, liver cancer, and deaths from Hepatitis C are on the rise.
Getting tested can help people learn if they are infected and get them into lifesaving care and treatment.
Why do baby boomers have such high rates of Hepatitis C?
The reason that baby boomers have high rates of Hepatitis C is not completely understood. Most boomers are believed to have become infected in the 1970s and 1980s when rates of Hepatitis C were the highest.
Transmission
How do you get Hepatitis C?
Hepatitis C is usually spread when blood from a person infected with the Hepatitis C virus enters the body of someone who is not infected. This can happen through multiple ways.
http://www.e-reading.org.ua/bookreader.php/80261/King_-_The_Stand.html
Stephen King
The Stand - The Complete & Uncut Edition
Chapter 29
At just past noon on the twenty-fourth, Elder and two male nurses had come and taken away the television. The nurses had removed it while Elder stood by, holding his revolver (neatly wrapped in a Baggie) on Stu. But by then Stu hadn’t wanted or needed the TV—it was just putting out a lot of confused shit anyway. All he had to do was stand at his barred window and look out at the town on the river below. Like the man on the record said, “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.”
Smoke was no longer billowing from the stacks of the textile mill. The gaudy stripes and eddies of dye in the river had dissipated and the water ran clear and clean again. Most of the cars, glittering and toylike from this distance, had left the mill’s parking lot and hadn’t come back. By yesterday, the twenty-sixth, there had been only a few cars still moving on the turnpike, and those few had to weave between the stalls like skiers in a slalom race. No wreckers had come to remove the abandoned vehicles.
The downtown area was spread out below him like a relief map, and it seemed totally deserted. The town clock, which had chimed off the hours of his imprisonment here, had not tolled since nine this morning, when the little tune that preceded the striking had sounded draggy and weird, like a tune played underwater by a drowned music box. There had been a fire at what looked like a roadside café or maybe a general store just outside of town. It had burned merry hell all this afternoon, black smoke etched against the blue sky, but no fire engines had come to put it out. If the building hadn’t been set in the middle of an asphalt parking lot, Stu supposed that half the town might have gone up. Tonight the ruins were still smoldering in spite of an afternoon spat of rain.
http://www.austincc.edu/microbio/2993p/hav.htm
Hepatitis A
By John W. Wood
Hepatitis A is referred to as one of the oldest diseases known to humankind by the World Health Organization (WHO) (1). HAV was first discovered in 1973 by Steven M. Feinstone as a nonenvoloped, spherical, positive stranded RNA virus (1). HAV was an unidentified viral disease prior to this discovery. Hepatitis A is a disease caused by infection from the hepatitis A virus (HAV) (1, 5, 8). HAV has been called epidemic hepatitis, epidemic jaundice, infectious hepatitis, catarrhal jaundice, HA and type A hepatitis in the past according to the WHO (1). The term hepatitis refers to having inflammation of the liver. This inflammation can be caused by any strain of hepatitis. These strains include hepatitis A, B, C, D or E. Virulence factors associated with HAV include viral agents that produce an immune response (6). These antibodies become present five to ten days after the initial infection. HAV is absorbed into the bloodstream from the small intestines and reaches the liver through portal circulation (6). HAV is classified to be in the genus of hapatovirus, and belongs to the picornavirus family (1). Due to the multiple possibilities of infection it is vital that HAV be singled out as the cause. A patient’s sera must be tested for the presence of specific anti-viral antibodies to detect the presence of HAV (1). A positive test for anti-HAV means that the patient has either been exposed to HAV in the past, or is currently infected.
http://consumer.healthday.com/encyclopedia/hepatitis-c-23/hepatitis-news-373/hepatitis-c-part-2-evading-discovery-645356.html
HealthDay
Hepatitis C: (Part 2) Evading Discovery
Hepatitis C uses guerrilla tactics. It often slips into the bloodstream without provoking noticeable illness and lurks for decades. Its sneakiness is frustrating for clinicians and patients alike.
By Judith Horstman
Hepatitis C has been called a silent epidemic for its stealthy progress and -- until recently -- incognito status. Though it's the most common cause of chronic hepatitis in the United States, many people -- including some health care professionals -- still connect hepatitis with type A, the treatable virus contracted by ingesting feces-tainted food or water. Some Americans first heard of hepatitis C when it was reported that baseball great Mickey Mantle, and later beat poet Allen Ginsberg, died from complications wrought by the virus. Others may have heard that guitarist David Crosby of Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, diagnosed with hepatitis C in the 1990s, is still flourishing after receiving a liver transplant.
The hepatitis C virus first showed up in the 1970s post-transfusion population. It was named for what it was not: NANB (non-A, non-B) hepatitis. Before 1992, when doctors began screening all donor blood for hepatitis C, it is estimated that about 10 percent of those who received transfusions acquired NANB. In 1989 the virus was isolated and dubbed hepatitis C. But HCV has actually been around for at least 50 years. Leonard B. Seeff, senior scientist at the National Institutes of Health and a pioneer in hepatitis C research, looked at blood samples taken from 10,000 US Air Force recruits in 1948 and found about the same level of HCV infection as in the blood donor population today.
Hepatitis C uses guerrilla tactics. Typically it slips into the bloodstream without provoking noticeable illness and lurks for decades. A single-stranded RNA virus, it doesn't integrate into the host genome (the complete set of genes in the chromosomes of each cell), a process that would give it a biochemical "address." Instead, it continuously mutates into different forms of hepatitis C, which can coexist in the body, evading discovery and attack by the immune system.
Researchers have identified at least six genetically distinct types (called genotypes) and more than 50 subtypes of the virus. An HCV infection can involve several genotypes, so antibodies to one don't appear to protect against others.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11555188
NCBI
PubMed.gov
US National Library of Medicine
National Institutes of Health
J Viral Hepat. 2001 Sep;8(5):311-21.
Diagnosis and management of pre-core mutant chronic hepatitis B.
Papatheodoridis GV1, Hadziyannis SJ.
Author information
Abstract
Chronic hepatitis due to pre-core hepatitis B virus (HBV) mutants presents as hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)-negative chronic hepatitis B (CHB). HBeAg-negative CHB represents a late phase in the natural course of chronic HBV infection that develops after HBeAg loss and seroconversion to anti-HBe. It is usually associated with pre-core stop codon mutation at nucleotide 1896 (mainly selected in non-A HBV genotypes), but also with other pre-core changes or with mutations in the basic core promoter region (mainly in HBV genotype A). In chronic HBV infections, pre-core mutants can be detected both in patients with HBeAg-negative CHB and in inactive hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) carriers. The diagnosis of HBeAg-negative CHB is based on HBsAg positivity, HBeAg negativity, and mainly on increased alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and serum HBV-DNA levels and exclusion of other causes of liver disease. The differential diagnosis between patients with CHB and inactive HBsAg carriers can be made only by close follow-up of aminotransferase activity and viraemia levels, although the cut-off level of serum HBV DNA has not been definitely determined. IgM anti-HBc levels have also been suggested as an index that increases the diagnostic accuracy for transient hepatitis flares, while liver biopsy confirms the diagnosis and evaluates the severity of the liver disease. Interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha) and lamivudine are the two drugs that have been tried, mainly in the management of HBeAg-negative CHB. A 12-month course of IFN-alpha achieves sustained biochemical remission in about 20% of patients, which has been associated with improvement in the long-term outcome of this subset. A 12-month course of lamivudine is rather ineffective, maintaining remission in less than 15% of patients after cessation of therapy. Long-term lamivudine is associated with progressively increasing rate of virological and subsequent biochemical breakthroughs due to YMDD mutants, with approximately 30% of patients remaining in remission in the third year of therapy. Several other antiviral agents are currently being evaluated in this setting with combined regimens being the most reasonable step for the near future.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0465538/quotes
IMDb
Michael Clayton (2007)
Quotes
Arthur Edens: Yes! Here we are, all together. Is everyone listening? 'Cause this is the moment you've been waiting for, a very special piece of paper, so let's have a big, paranoid, malignant round of applause... for United Northfield Culcitate Internal Research Memorandum #229! June 19th, 1991. "Conclusion: The unanticipated marketing growth for Culcitate by small farms in colder climates demands IMMEDIATE cost-benefit analysis." Hah. Would you like a little bit of legal advice? NEVER let a scientist use the words "unanticipated" and "immediate" in the same sentence. Okay? Okay. "In-house field studies have indicated small, short-season farms dependent on well water for human consumption are at risk for toxic, particulate concentrations at levels significant enough to cause serious human tissue damage." Well, this is a long way of saying that you don't even have to leave your house to be killed by our product, we'll pipe it into your kitchen sink. "Culcitate's great market advantage that it is tasteless, colorless, and does not precipitate, has the potential to mask and intensify these potentially lethal exposures." Now, I love this. Not only is this a great product, it is a superb cancer delivery system. "Chemical modifications of Culcitate product, or the addition of a detector molecule such as an odorant or a colorant, would require a top-down redesign of the Culcitate-manufacturing process. These costs, while assumed to be significant, were not summarized here." Which, loosely translated, means "it's going to cost a fortune to go back on this, and I'm just an asshole in a lab, so could someone else PLEASE make the decision?" "CLEARLY, the release of these internal research documents would compromise the effective marketing of Culcitate, and MUST be kept within the protective confines of United Northfield's trade secret language." You don't need me... to tell you what that means.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0465538/quotes
IMDb
Michael Clayton (2007)
Quotes
Marty Bach: We've got 600 attorneys here. We've got to find out who's an expert on psychiatric commitment statutes.
Michael Clayton: I can tell you who that is: Arthur.
From 6/13/2005 To 9/24/2007 is 833 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official Deputy United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 2/13/1968 ( premiere US TV series episode "I Dream of Jeannie"::"Please, Don't Feed the Astronauts" ) is 833 days
From 6/29/1995 ( the Mir space station docking of the United States space shuttle Atlantis orbiter vehicle mission STS-71 includes my biological brother United States Navy Fleet Admiral Thomas Reagan the spacecraft and mission commander and me Kerry Wayne Burgess the United States Marine Corps officer and United States STS-71 pilot astronaut ) To 9/24/2007 is 4470 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official Deputy United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 1/28/1978 ( premiere US TV series "Fantasy Island"::series premiere episode "Escape/Cinderella Girls" ) is 4470 days
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0465538/releaseinfo
IMDb
Michael Clayton (2007)
Release Info
USA 24 September 2007 (New York City, New York) (premiere)
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/baguette
Dictionary.com
baguette
a long, narrow loaf of French bread.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0465538/quotes
IMDb
Michael Clayton (2007)
Quotes
Michael Clayton: You are the senior litigating partner of one of the largest, most respected law firms in the world. You are a legend.
Arthur Edens: I'm an accomplice!
Michael Clayton: You're a manic-depressive!
Arthur Edens: I am Shiva, the god of death.
http://www.epidemic.org/thefacts/hepatitisc/anatomy/
Hepatitis C
An Epidemic for Everyone
Anatomy of the Hepatitis C Virus
The structure of the hepatitis C virus is like that of most complex viruses - a core of genetic material (RNA), surrounded by a protective shell of protein, and further encased in a lipid (fatty) envelope of celluar material. However, the fact that the genetic information of the virus is stored in RNA, not DNA, has important consequences in the life cycle of the virus, and gives hepatitis C its dangerous ability to mutate.
All organisms, with the exception of the RNA viruses, store their permanent information in DNA, using RNA only as a temporary messenger for information. DNA is quite a stable molecule, not particularly reactive with other molecules, and the processes which reproduce it make very few mistakes in the process of copying the molecule (between one in 1 million and 1 in 10 million). Most of these mistakes are normally corrected even when they do occur. This makes DNA an ideal format for the storage of information, for mutations (errors) only rarely occur, and most are not significant.
RNA, by contrast, is a quite reactive molecule, capable of reacting even with itself under the correct conditions. It also makes frequent mistakes during copying - averaging one mistake per 10,000 nucleotides each time it is copied. These properties make RNA very poorly suited for the storage of information.
However, these very propeties make RNA ideal for the storage of viral information. Once the immune system has learned to recognize an infecting virus and create antibodies against it (developed an immunity), it can quickly destroy it, so the virus can no longer use that host for reproduction. In order to reinfect a host - it must first change its nature enough that the immune system will no longer recognize it - in other words, it must mutate.
http://news.yahoo.com/us-ebola-patient-not-boarded-plane-cdc-173300884.html
YAHOO! NEWS
Second US Ebola case 'very concerning,' more possible
AFP
By Kerry Sheridan
28 minutes ago [ Retrieved 4:10 PM Wednesday 15 October 2014 Pacific Time USA ]
Washington (AFP) - The second infection of a Texas health care worker with the dangerous Ebola virus is "very concerning," officials said Wednesday, warning more US cases were possible in the coming days.
Both became infected while caring for a Liberian patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas.
The second woman should not have boarded a domestic flight in the days before she was diagnosed, though there was an "extremely low likelihood" that she could have infected fellow travelers, said Thomas Frieden, the head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"She was in a group of individuals known to have exposure to Ebola. She should not have traveled on a commercial airline," Frieden told reporters.
CDC guidelines outline the need for "controlled movement," and that does not include taking any kind of public transportation, he said.
He also noted that the woman was self-monitoring for signs of Ebola symptoms, and that she found her temperature to be 99.5 Fahrenheit -- short of the 100.4 fever threshold that would have required her to seek medical care given her recent exposure to an Ebola patient -- but that her colleague's diagnosis was not yet known when she boarded the plane.
"At that point it was not yet known that there had been exposures in the care of the patient," Frieden said.
The second health care worker had flown on Frontier Air from Dallas/Fort Worth to Cleveland Ohio, on October 10 and returned on October 13.
She discovered she had a fever on Tuesday and was immediately isolated in a hospital. Her diagnosis was announced Wednesday.
JOURNAL ARCHIVE: October 05, 2007
JOURNAL ARCHIVE: 10/05/07 12:04 AM
I wonder if I used to ever worry that I left my campfire smoldering on the Jupiter moon Callisto.
[JOURNAL ARCHIVE 05 October 2007 excerpt ends]
2008 TV miniseries "The Andromeda Strain" DVD video:
01:11:55 Part 1
Jack Nash: [ telephone ] Stone! I've been trying to reach you, man. Where the hell are you? You sound like you're at the bottom of a well.
Dr. Jeremy Stone: [ telephone ] You can say that.
http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/w/windtalkers-script-transcript-wind-talkers.html
Windtalkers
You're a mess, Joe.
You're not fooling anybody.
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ebola-virus-outbreak/ebola-search-widens-flight-taken-infected-nurse-n226471
NBC NEWS
Ebola Virus Outbreak [ Retrieved 8:30 AM Wednesday 15 October 2014 ]
550 STORIES
STORYLINE
Continuing coverage of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa
Ebola Search Widens to Flight Taken by Infected Nurse
Federal officials are tracking down people who were on the same flight as a second health care worker diagnosed with Ebola virus in Dallas. The woman was isolated Tuesday after she developed a slight fever, but she’d flown to Dallas from Cleveland the day before her temperature rose.
Health officials stress that you cannot spread Ebola before you have symptoms, and that people need close contact with bodily fluids to catch it. But they’re nonetheless tracking everyone who was on the flight. “Because of the proximity in time between the evening flight and first report of illness the following morning, CDC is reaching out to passengers who flew on Frontier Airlines flight 1143 Cleveland to Dallas/Fort Worth Oct. 13,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement.
“The healthcare worker exhibited no signs or symptoms of illness while on flight 1143, according to the crew. Frontier is working closely with CDC to identify and notify passengers who may have traveled on flight 1143 on Oct. 13.”
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069768/quotes
IMDb
Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973)
Quotes
Virgil: Teacher only reverted to type under provocation. He... he spoke like a slavemaster in the old days of our servitude when we were conditioned to mechanical obedience. He, uh, he uttered a negative, uh, imperative.
Caesar: Could you put that into words which even Caesar could understand?
Virgil: Uh, he said, "No, Aldo, no!"
thestand_0_00_02_PDVD.JPG
JOURNAL ARCHIVE: posted by H.V.O.M at 6:54 PM Saturday, September 03, 2005
Henry laughed defiantly.
Literature Network>Jack London>White Fang>Chapter 2
Henry laughed defiantly. "I ain't been trailed this way by wolves before, but I've gone through a whole lot worse an' kept my health. Takes more'n a handful of them pesky critters to do for yours truly, Bill, my son."
[JOURNAL ARCHIVE 03 September 2005 excerpt ends]
JOURNAL ARCHIVE: posted by H.V.O.M at 6:54 PM Saturday, September 03, 2005
I can live through this I think, but damn, you spying bastards could at least do something to take the edge off all this. I can visualize you all out there scratching your heads saying to someone else "We've tried nothing and we're all out of ideas."
[JOURNAL ARCHIVE 03 September 2005 excerpt ends]
JOURNAL ARCHIVE: 9/6/2006 1:19 PM
I keep trying to resist writing about this, but I everyday recently I have been feeling compelled to write about it. I have been thinking about those comments that were attributed, rightly or wrongly, to Barbara Bush after Katrina. Who knows if she really said that or what she even said, but I was thinking about how those words applied almost precisely to my experiences in that gulag at Pioneer Square. Specifically about some of the people I not only had to interact with reluctantly, but the ones that seemed to have way too much interest in my life. I can’t quite find the words to articulate what I am thinking, in many ways it reminds me of every day at Microsoft. But it was worse there in that forsaken place. It wasn’t about poor people. It was about people with no sense of respect for other people’s privacy because they couldn’t imagine living a life of hard work and accomplishment. There were some of them there that had worked hard and had simply fallen on hard times, like the guy from Michigan. There were others though, and I think they were the majority, like the ones smoking crack cocaine in the cubicle next to mine, people like that loser Harold. And there was just the ever present oppressiveness of zombies interfering with my life and coward losers nosing into my business.
[JOURNAL ARCHIVE 06 September 2006 excerpt ends]
JOURNAL ARCHIVE: posted by H.V.O.M at 3:41 PM Saturday, September 03, 2005
This is just insane.
Saturday, September 3, 2005 · Last updated 3:28 p.m. PT
New Orleans left to the dead and dying
By ALLEN G. BREED
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
NEW ORLEANS -- Thousands more bedraggled refugees were bused and airlifted to salvation Saturday, leaving the heart of New Orleans to the dead and dying, the elderly and frail stranded too many days without food, water or medical care.
No one knows how many were killed by Hurricane Katrina's floods and how many more succumbed waiting to be rescued. But the bodies are everywhere: hidden in attics, floating among the ruined city, crumpled on wheelchairs, abandoned on highways.
And the dying goes on
[JOURNAL ARCHIVE 03 September 2005 excerpt ends]
http://www.snpp.com/episodes/8F03.html
Bart the Murderer
Now, in light of the damning testimony from your fellow gangsters, your father, your teachers, and the seemingly endless parade of emotionally shattered babysitters...
But before he passes sentence, Principal Skinner bursts in, disheveled. He tells his story: Tony and his goons came to talk and he threw them out. He went home and began bundling his old newspapers, but the stack fell on him. (``Let this be a lesson to recycle regularly.'') Trapped until the pile of papers, he survived the week by eating his mother's preserves and preserved his sanity by dribbling a basketball that was barely within reach of his one free hand. (``I made a game of it. Seeing how many times I could bounce the ball in a day, then trying to break that record.'') When the police came to search the house...
Wiggum: Find anything this time, boys?
Cop: Uh, no sign of him, Chief.
Wiggum: Princess Opal?
Opal: I see nothing here, but I'm afraid it's splitsville for Delta Burke and Major Dad.
Wiggum: But they seem so happy!
JOURNAL ARCHIVE: posted by H.V.O.M at 11:44 AM Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Today
I've got some other thoughts to express but it's hard to dwell on my problems with all this stuff I see in New Orleans. I find it especially hard to imagine what it is like to have to stay in that Superdome. I am reminded of my own experience with Hurricane Hugo in Charleston, SC, in 1989. But we endured nothing like these people are going through now. I lost my pickup to the storm surge, but other than that it wasn't so tough. Thinking of those people in the Superdome also makes me think of something I went through recently when I was homeless out on the streets of Seattle. I'll write about it later. I'm still hoping today is the day I get some answers from the people that are keeping me in the dark.
[JOURNAL ARCHIVE 31 August 2005 excerpt ends]
thestand_0_00_13_PDVD.JPG
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=97098
The American Presidency Project
Barack Obama
XLIV President of the United States: 2009 - present
Interview With Brian Williams on "NBC Nightly News"
August 29, 2010
WILLIAMS: Just a block from here, you may not have known it, you drove by houses with holes still in the roof, where there'd been live rescues. There's still FEMA markings in spray paint. And yet, New Orleans is like this. This is a symbol of recovery. Katrina was about so many things. It was about class and race and government and — and the environment. What ever happened to that national conversation we were supposed to have about it?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think that we're still having it. I — I don't think that conversation happens in — one instance. I think that there's a constant evolving debate about what are our obligations to each other. How do we make sure that in moments of devastation that we are looking out for one another? How does government organize itself, both at the federal level interacting with state and local officials?
How do we make sure that folks who were already vulnerable before a catastrophe hits aren't made worse off as a consequence of it? And, you know, what you've seen I think in New Orleans is steady progress. But, you know, we've still got a long way to go. And part of the reason that I wanted to come down here today to mark the fifth anniversary, was just to send a message to the people of New Orleans, but also the entire Gulf Coast, that they've, you know, gotten hit pretty good over the last several years. And all of America, not just people here, not just folks in the White House, but all of America, remains concerned and remains committed to their rebuilding.
WILLIAMS: Do you still get driven to anger over it when you see those pictures again after five years?
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, absolutely.
WILLIAMS: The — the children, the old folks, the people suffering in this city?
From 8/17/1960 ( premiere US film "The Time Machine" ) To 6/13/2005 is 16371 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official Deputy United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 8/29/2010 is 16371 days
From 8/17/1960 ( the Soviet Union trial of the United States Central Intelligence Agency pilot Gary Powers begins in Moscow Russia Soviet Union ) To 6/13/2005 is 16371 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official Deputy United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 8/29/2010 is 16371 days
From 8/26/1976 ( the first known human case of Ebola ) To 8/29/2010 is 12421 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official Deputy United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 11/5/1999 ( premiere US TV series episode "Stargate SG-1"::"Foothold" ) is 12421 days
From 6/4/1982 ( premiere US film "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" ) To 8/29/2010 is 10313 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official Deputy United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 1/27/1994 ( Claude Akins deceased ) is 10313 days
From 10/7/1953 ( premiere US film "Botany Bay" ) To 8/3/1998 ( Tom Clancy "Rainbow Six" ) is 16371 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official Deputy United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 8/29/2010 is 16371 days
From 10/7/1953 ( premiere US film "The Veils of Bagdad" ) To 8/3/1998 ( Tom Clancy "Rainbow Six" ) is 16371 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official Deputy United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 8/29/2010 is 16371 days
From 1/17/1991 ( the date of record of my United States Navy Medal of Honor as Kerry Wayne Burgess chief warrant officer United States Marine Corps circa 1991 also known as Matthew Kline for official duty and also known as Wayne Newman for official duty ) To 8/29/2010 is 7164 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official Deputy United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 6/14/1985 ( premiere US film "D.A.R.Y.L." ) is 7164 days
From 1/17/1991 ( RACKETEER INFLUENCED AND CORRUPT ORGANIZATIONS US Title 18 - the Persian Gulf War begins as scheduled severe criminal activity against the United States of America ) To 8/29/2010 is 7164 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official Deputy United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 6/14/1985 ( premiere US film "D.A.R.Y.L." ) is 7164 days
From 6/15/1973 ( premiere US film "Battle for the Planet of the Apes" ) To 8/29/2010 is 13589 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official Deputy United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 1/16/2003 ( premiere US TV series episode "ER"::"A Saint in the City" ) is 13589 days
From 6/15/1973 ( premiere US film "Battle for the Planet of the Apes" ) To 8/29/2010 is 13589 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official Deputy United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 1/16/2003 ( the launch of Columbia STS-107 ) is 13589 days
From 6/5/1995 ( premiere US TV series episode "Biography"::"Genghis Khan: Terror and Conquest" ) To 8/29/2010 is 5564 days
5564 = 2782 + 2782
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official Deputy United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 6/15/1973 ( premiere US film "Battle for the Planet of the Apes" ) is 2782 days
From 12/5/1959 ( premiere US film "Operation Petticoat" ) To 8/29/2010 is 18530 days
18530 = 9265 + 9265
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official Deputy United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 3/16/1991 ( my first successful major test of my ultraspace matter transportation device as Kerry Wayne Burgess the successful Ph.D. graduate Columbia South Carolina ) is 9265 days
From 1/23/1952 ( premiere US film "Cry, the Beloved Country" ) To 11/18/1996 ( premiere US film "Star Trek: First Contact" ) is 16371 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official Deputy United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 8/29/2010 is 16371 days
[ See also: To Be Continued? ]
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=88365
The American Presidency Project
Barack Obama
XLIV President of the United States: 2009 - present
Remarks at Xavier University in New Orleans, Louisiana
August 29, 2010
The President. Hello, everybody. It is good to be back. It is good to be back----
Audience member. It's good to have you back!
The President. I'm glad. [Laughter] And due to popular demand, I decided to bring the First Lady down here.
We have just an extraordinary number of dedicated public servants who are here. If you will be patient with me, I want to make sure that all of them are acknowledged. First of all, you've got the Governor of the great State of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal is here. We have the outstanding mayor of New Orleans, Mitch Landrieu. We have the better looking and younger Senator from Louisiana, Mary Landrieu.
I believe that Senator David Vitter is here. David, right here. We have--[applause]--hold on a second now. We've got--Congressman Joe Cao is here. Congressman Charlie Melancon is here. Congressman Steve Scalise is here.
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, who has been working tirelessly down here in Louisiana, Shaun Donovan. We've got our EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson here--home girl. Administrator of FEMA Craig Fugate is here. The person who's heading up our community service efforts all across the country, Patrick Corvington is here. Louisiana's own Regina Benjamin, the Surgeon General, a Xavier grad, I might add. We are very proud to have all of these terrific public servants here.
It is wonderful to be back in New Orleans, and it is a great honor----
Audience member. We can't see you!
The President. It is a great honor--[laughter]--you can see me now? Okay. It is a great honor to be back at Xavier University. And I--it's just inspiring to spend time with people who've demonstrated what it means to persevere in the face of tragedy, to rebuild in the face of ruin.
I'm grateful to Jade for her introduction and congratulate you on being crowned Miss Xavier. I hope everybody heard during the introduction, she was a junior at Ben Franklin High School 5 years ago when the storm came. And after Katrina, Ben Franklin High was terribly damaged by wind and water. Millions of dollars were needed to rebuild the school. Many feared it would take years to reopen, if it could be reopened at all.
But something remarkable happened: Parents, teachers, students, volunteers, they all got to work making repairs. And donations came in from across New Orleans and around the world. And soon those silent and darkened corridors, they were bright, and they were filled with the sounds of young men and women, including Jade, who were going back to class. And then Jade committed to Xavier, a university that likewise refused to succumb to despair. So Jade, like so many students here at this university, embody hope. That sense of hope in difficult times, that's what I came to talk about today.
It's been 5 years since Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast. There's no need to dwell on what you experienced and what the world witnessed. We all remember it keenly: water pouring through broken levees, mothers holding their children above the waterline, people stranded on rooftops begging for help, bodies lying in the streets of a great American city. It was a natural disaster, but also a manmade catastrophe, a shameful breakdown in government that left countless men and women and children abandoned and alone.
And shortly after the storm, I came down to Houston to spend time with some of the folks who had taken shelter there. And I'll never forget what one woman told me. She said, "We had nothing before the hurricane, and now we've got less than nothing."
In the years that followed, New Orleans could have remained a symbol of destruction and decay, of a storm that came and the inadequate response that followed. It was not hard to imagine a day when we'd tell our children that a once vibrant and wonderful city had been laid low by indifference and neglect. But that's not what happened. It's not what happened at Ben Franklin. It's not what happened here at Xavier. It's not what happened across New Orleans and across the Gulf Coast. Instead, this city has become a symbol of resilience and of community and of the fundamental responsibility that we have to one another.
And we see that here at Xavier. Less than a month after the storm struck, amidst debris and flood-damaged buildings, President Francis promised that this university would reopen in a matter of months. Some said he was crazy; some said it couldn't happen. But they didn't count on what happens when one force of nature meets another. And by January, 4 months later, class was in session. Less than a year after the storm, I had the privilege of delivering a commencement address to the largest graduating class in Xavier's history. That is a symbol of what New Orleans is all about.
We see New Orleans in the efforts of Joycelyn Heintz, who's here today. Katrina left her house 14 feet underwater. But after volunteers helped her rebuild, she joined AmeriCorps to serve the community herself, part of a wave of AmeriCorps members who've been critical to the rebirth of this city and the rebuilding of this region. So today, she manages a local center for mental health and wellness.
We see the symbol that this city has become in the St. Bernard Project, whose founder, Liz McCartney, is with us. This endeavor has drawn volunteers from across the country to rebuild hundreds of homes throughout St. Bernard Parish and the Lower Ninth Ward.
I've seen the sense of purpose people felt after the storm when I visited Musicians' Village in the Ninth Ward back in 2006. Volunteers were not only constructing houses, they were coming together to preserve the culture of music and art that's part of the soul of this city and the soul of this country. And today, more than 70 homes are complete, and construction's underway on the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music.
We see the dedication to the community in the efforts of Xavier grad Dr. Regina Benjamin, who mortgaged her home, maxed out her credit cards, so she could reopen her Bayou La Batre clinic to care for victims of the storm, and who is now our Nation's Surgeon General.
And we see resilience and hope exemplified by students at Carver High School, who have helped to raise more than a million dollars to build a new community track and football field--their Field of Dreams--for the Ninth Ward.
So because of all of you--all the advocates, all the organizers who are here today, folks standing behind me who've worked so hard, who never gave up hope--you are all leading the way toward a better future for this city with innovative approaches to fight poverty and improve health care, reduce crime, and create opportunities for young people. Because of you, New Orleans is coming back.
And I just came from Parkway Bakery and Tavern. And 5 years ago, the storm nearly destroyed that neighborhood institution. I saw the pictures. Now they're open, business is booming, and that's some good eats. I had the shrimp po'boy and some of the gumbo. But I skipped the bread pudding because I thought I might fall asleep while I was speaking. But I've got it saved for later. [Laughter]
Five years ago, many questioned whether people could ever return to this city. Today, New Orleans is one of the fastest growing cities in America, with a big new surge in small businesses. Five years ago, the Saints had to play every game on the road because of the damage to the Superdome. Two weeks ago, we welcomed the Saints to the White House as Super Bowl champions. There was also food associated with that. We marked the occasion with a 30-foot po'boy made with shrimps and oysters from the Gulf. And you'll be pleased to know there were no leftovers.
Now, I don't have to tell you that there's still too many vacant and overgrown lots. There's still too many students attending classes in trailers. There's still too many people unable to find work. And there's still too many New Orleans folks who haven't been able to come home. So while an incredible amount of progress has been made, on this fifth anniversary, I wanted to come here and tell the people of this city directly, my administration is going to stand with you and fight alongside you until the job is done, until New Orleans is all the way back--all the way.
When I took office, I directed my Cabinet to redouble our efforts to put an end to the turf wars between agencies, to cut the redtape, and cut the bureaucracy. I wanted to make sure that the Federal Government was a partner, not an obstacle, to recovery here in the Gulf Coast. And members of my Cabinet, including EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, who grew up in Pontchartrain Park, they have come down here dozens of times. Shaun Donovan's come down here dozens of times. This is not just to make appearances; it's not just to get photo ops. They came down here to listen and to learn and make real the changes that were necessary, so that Government was actually working for you.
So, for example, efforts to rebuild schools and hospitals, to repair damaged roads and bridges, to get people back to their homes, they were tied up for years in a tangle of disagreements and byzantine rules. So when I took office, working with your outstanding delegation, particularly Senator Mary Landrieu, we put in place a new way of resolving disputes so that funds set aside for rebuilding efforts actually went toward rebuilding efforts. And as a result, more than 170 projects are getting underway: work on firehouses and police stations and roads and sewer systems and health clinics and libraries and universities.
We're tackling the corruption and inefficiency that has long plagued the New Orleans Housing Authority. We're helping homeowners rebuild and making it easier for renters to find affordable options. And we're helping people to move out of temporary homes. You know, when I took office, more than 3 years after the storm, tens of thousands of families were still stuck in disaster housing, many still living in small trailers that had been provided by FEMA. We were spending huge sums of money on temporary shelters when we knew it would be better for families and less costly for taxpayers to help people get into affordable, stable, and more permanent housing. So we've helped make it possible for people to find those homes, and we've dramatically reduced the number of families in emergency housing.
On the health care front, as a candidate for President, I pledged to make sure we were helping New Orleans recruit doctors and nurses and rebuild medical facilities, including a new veterans hospital. Well, we've resolved a longstanding dispute, one that had tied up hundreds of millions of dollars, to fund the replacement for Charity Hospital. And in June, Veterans Secretary Ric Shinseki came to New Orleans for the groundbreaking of that new VA hospital.
In education, we've made strides as well. As you know, schools in New Orleans were falling behind long before Katrina. But in the years since the storm, a lot of public schools opened themselves up to innovation and to reform. And as a result, we're actually seeing rising achievement, and New Orleans is becoming a model of innovation for the Nation. This is yet another sign that you're not just rebuilding, you're rebuilding stronger than before. Just this Friday, my administration announced a final agreement on $1.8 billion for Orleans Parish schools. This is money that had been locked up for years, but now it's freed up, so folks here can determine best how to restore the school system.
And in a city that's known too much violence, that's seen too many young people lost to drugs and criminal activity, we've got a Justice Department that's committed to working with New Orleans to fight the scourge of violent crime and to weed out corruption in the police force and to ensure the criminal justice system works for everyone in this city. And I want everybody to hear--to know and to hear me thank Mitch Landrieu, your new mayor, for his commitment to that partnership.
Now, even as we continue our recovery efforts, we're also focusing on preparing for future threats so that there's never another disaster like Katrina. The largest civil works project in American history is underway to build a fortified levee system. And as a--just as I pledged as a candidate, we're going to finish this system by next year so that this city is protected against a 100-year storm. We should not be playing Russian roulette every hurricane season. And we're also working to restore protective wetlands and natural barriers that were not only damaged by Katrina--were not just damaged by Katrina, but had been rapidly disappearing for decades.
In Washington, we are restoring competence and accountability. I am proud that my FEMA Director, Craig Fugate, has 25 years of experience in disaster management in Florida. He came from Florida, a State that has known its share of hurricanes. We've put together a group led by Secretary Donovan and Secretary Napolitano to look at disaster recovery across the country. We're improving coordination on the ground and modernizing emergency communications, helping families plan for a crisis. And we're putting in place reforms so that never again in America is somebody left behind in a disaster because they're living with a disability or because they're elderly or because they're infirm. That will not happen again.
Finally, even as you've been buffeted by Katrina and Rita, even as you've been impacted by the broader recession that has devastated communities across the country, in recent months the Gulf Coast has seen new hardship as a result of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. And just as we've sought to ensure that we're doing what it takes to recover from Katrina, my administration has worked hard to match our efforts on the spill to what you need on the ground. And we've been in close consultation with your Governor, your mayors, your parish presidents, your local government officials.
And from the start, I promised you two things. One is that we would see to it that the leak was stopped, and it has been. The second promise I made was that we would stick with our efforts and stay on BP until the damage to the Gulf and to the lives of the people in this region was reversed. And this too is a promise that we will keep. We are not going to forget. We're going to stay on it until this area is fully recovered.
That's why we rapidly launched the largest response to an environmental disaster in American history--47,000 people on the ground, 5,700 vessels on the water--to contain and clean up the oil. When BP was not moving fast enough on claims, we told BP to set aside $20 billion in a fund, managed by an independent third party, to help all those whose lives have been turned upside down by the spill.
And we will continue to rely on sound science, carefully monitoring waters and coastlines, as well as the health of the people along the Gulf, to deal with any long-term effects of the oil spill. We are going to stand with you until the oil is cleaned up, until the environment is restored, until polluters are held accountable, until communities are made whole, and until this region is all the way back on its feet.
So that's how we're helping this city and this State and this region to recover from the worst natural disaster in our Nation's history. We're cutting through the redtape that has impeded rebuilding efforts for years. We're making government work better and smarter in coordination with one of the most expansive nonprofit efforts in American history. We're helping State and local leaders to address serious problems that had been neglected for decades, problems that existed before the storm came and have continued after the waters receded, from the levee system to the justice system, from the health care system to the education system.
And together, we are helping to make New Orleans a place that stands for what we can do in America, not just for what we can't do. Ultimately, that must be the legacy of Katrina: not one of neglect, but of action; not one of indifference, but of empathy; not of abandonment, but of a community working together to meet shared challenges.
The truth is, there are some wounds that have not yet healed. And there are some losses that can't be repaid. And for many who lived through those harrowing days 5 years ago, there's searing memories that time may not erase. But even amid so much tragedy, we saw stirrings of a brighter day. Five years ago, we saw men and women risking their own safety to save strangers. We saw nurses staying behind to care for the sick and the injured. We saw families coming home to clean up and rebuild not just their own homes, but their neighbors' homes as well. And we saw music and Mardi Gras and the vibrancy, the fun of this town undiminished. And we've seen many return to their beloved city with a newfound sense of appreciation and obligation to this community.
And when I came here 4 years ago, one thing I found striking was all the greenery that had begun to come back. And I was reminded of a passage from the Book of Job: "There is hope for a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again and that its tender branch will not cease." The work ahead will not be easy, and there will be setbacks. There will be challenges along the way. But thanks to you, thanks to the great people of this great city, New Orleans is blossoming again.
Thank you, everybody. God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.
NOTE: The President spoke at 1:50 p.m.
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=97098
The American Presidency Project
Barack Obama
XLIV President of the United States: 2009 - present
Interview With Brian Williams on "NBC Nightly News"
August 29, 2010
WILLIAMS: Just a block from here, you may not have known it, you drove by houses with holes still in the roof, where there'd been live rescues. There's still FEMA markings in spray paint. And yet, New Orleans is like this. This is a symbol of recovery. Katrina was about so many things. It was about class and race and government and — and the environment. What ever happened to that national conversation we were supposed to have about it?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think that we're still having it. I — I don't think that conversation happens in — one instance. I think that there's a constant evolving debate about what are our obligations to each other. How do we make sure that in moments of devastation that we are looking out for one another? How does government organize itself, both at the federal level interacting with state and local officials?
How do we make sure that folks who were already vulnerable before a catastrophe hits aren't made worse off as a consequence of it? And, you know, what you've seen I think in New Orleans is steady progress. But, you know, we've still got a long way to go. And part of the reason that I wanted to come down here today to mark the fifth anniversary, was just to send a message to the people of New Orleans, but also the entire Gulf Coast, that they've, you know, gotten hit pretty good over the last several years. And all of America, not just people here, not just folks in the White House, but all of America, remains concerned and remains committed to their rebuilding.
WILLIAMS: Do you still get driven to anger over it when you see those pictures again after five years?
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, absolutely.
WILLIAMS: The — the children, the old folks, the people suffering in this city?
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, well, you know, I still remember — I was in a London hotel room. I had just come back with Republican Senator Luger on a fact finding trip on nuclear issues. And we had gotten in — into London, we were at the hotel, and we suddenly we just saw this thing unfold. In ways that were searing to anybody with a conscience. And, you know, frankly, were a shock, I think, to many of us who didn't think that something like that could happen in America.
And you know, I meant — I meant — I referred today in my speech, immediately afterwards I flew back, went down to Houston with President Clinton and the first President Bush. And talked to folks who were — at that point — and I don't think even at that time we realized the full scope of the — of the disaster. But what — what it did do, though, was reawaken, I hope, a sense that we're all in this thing together. That, you know, we may be divided along political lines. We may have arguments, ideologically, about the best way to approach this or that problem.
But when you've got something like a Katrina happen. When you've got major disasters. When you see people who are doing their best, but have just been overwhelmed that we've got to put all that stuff aside. And come in and make sure that we get the job done.
WILLIAMS: The folks here still want a lot from you. I've been talking to them for a week. What would they ask you? They want you to come spend the night. They want you to treat their wetlands like an emergency, like the TVA or the Marshall Plan, because as they always say, they're losing a football field an hour.
THE PRESIDENT: Right.
WILLIAMS: Perversely, could BP money pay for the — the reengineering and the preservation of the wetlands potentially?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think what everybody's understood is that we can build the best levees in the world. And we — we are going to be be on schedule for next year having gotten — all the levees strengthened, so that they can withstand a hundred year surge.
WILLIAMS: You're confident?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I — we are on schedule right now. And I'm going to be keep on making sure that we stay on schedule. We've already fortified 220 miles of levees. But the — the real protection for New Orleans and for the Gulf are the wetlands. And that is an environmental disaster that had been occurring long before Katrina. And I think in light of what's happened with the oil spill, this is an opportunity for us to take a look comprehensively all along the coast and say, "How do we do things better? How do we do things smarter than we've done before?"
I assigned Secretary of the Navy, Ray Mabus, who is a son of the Gulf. Former mayor, former governor of Mississippi. He's been traveling and listening and talking to folks all across this region. He will be working with our EPA director. All of our various agencies that are involved. To find out ways that we can leverage as much as possible the money that's going to be but needed for short term repair to make sure that we're doing things smarter over the long term.
WILLIAMS: This was, of course, New Orleans' Katrina and Mississippi's Katrina. And you're familiar now that it's getting baked in a little bit in the media that BP was President Obama's Katrina. And it's also getting baked in that the Administration was slow off the mark. Is that unfair?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I — it's just not accurate. If you take a look at our response the only thing in common we had with — the Katrina response was Thad Allen, who came in and helped to organize rescue efforts — and he did so under Katrina, he did so for us. But if you look, we had immediately thousands of vessels, tens of thousands of people who are here. And what we're seeing now is that we've got a lot more work to do. But the fact is because of the sturdiness and swiftness of the response, there's a lot less oil hitting these shores and these beaches than anybody would have anticipated, given the volume that was coming out of — the — the BP — oil — oil well.
WILLIAMS: You believe it's still out there, though?
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, absolutely. It — there's no doubt, but what we've seen is — is that the skimming, the burning, all the efforts that took place in coordination with local folks here, who often times new the landscape and new the waters better than any federal official did. As a consequence of that not only have we been able to stop the well. But we've actually seen less damage than might have occurred had we not had that kind of a response. Now, the key is to make sure that we're monitoring it carefully, based on sound science. And that it's a sustained effort over time. That's something that I'm committed to.
WILLIAMS: Let's talk about another topic that's part of the firmament here and everywhere. And that's the economy. The New York Times said this weekend, "President Obama has another new plan on the economy. Now would be a good time to find out about it." Do you have anything new on the economy? And while you've been away, we had a horrible GDP number last month.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, look, we — we anticipated that the recovery was slowing. The economy is still growing, but it's not growing as fast as it needs to. I've got things right now in — before Congress that we should move immediately. And I've said so before I went on vacation, and I'll keep on saying when I — now that I'm back. We should be passing legislation that helps small businesses get credit, that eliminates capital gains taxes so that they have more incentive to invest right now.
There are a whole host of measures we could take, no single element of which is a magic bullet but cumulatively can start continuing to build momentum for the recovery. But look, the — this was the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, and the worst recession since the Great Depression. And so, what we know is that we are going to have to slowly, steadily build confidence. Push more investment out there. Target areas like clean energy that we know are going to be be growth areas in the future.
Look at how we're doing our infrastructure, so that we can maximize the amount of jobs that are created. So, there — there are a range of steps that I hope we can get bipartisan support for. But right now, we're still — we're in the season, political season, which means that for the next two months there's going to be be constantly a contest in the minds of Members of Congress. And my Republican friends in Congress, between doing what the country needs and what they think may be advantageous in the — in terms of short term politics.
WILLIAMS: Since you weighed into the Islamic Center near Ground Zero controversy, it — it's gotten larger. It's been nationalized, the debate. Will you revisit that topic?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, look, I think my statement at the IFTAR dinner in the White House was very clear. And that is — is that if you can build a church on that site. If you can build a synagogue on that site or a Hindu Temple on that site, then we can't treat people of the Islamic faith differently, who are Americans, who are American citizens. That is central to who we are. That is a core value of our Constitution. And my job as President is to make sure in part that we're upholding our Constitution.
WILLIAMS: Respectfully, the next day in Florida, you seemed to walk that back. So —
THE PRESIDENT: No, I — actually, let — let me be clear, Brian. I didn't walk it back at all. The — what I said was I was not endorsing any particular project. I was endorsing our Constitution. And what is right. Now, the media, I think — anticipating that this was going to be be a firestorm politically — seemed to think that somehow there was inconsistency and there wasn't. And I was very specific to my team and will be very specific to you now. That the core value and principle that every American is treated the same. That doesn't change.
I mean, think about it — I — at this IFTAR dinner I had — Muslim Americans who had been in uniform fighting in Iraq. Some of whom have served over 20 years. How — how can you say to them that somehow their religious faith is less worthy of respect under our Constitution and our system of government? You know, that's — that's something that I feel very strongly about. I respect the feelings on the other side. And I would defend their right to express them just as fiercely.
WILLIAMS: Mr. President, you're an American born Christian.
THE PRESIDENT: Uh-huh.
WILLIAMS: And yet, increasing and now significant numbers of Americans in polls, upwards of a fifth of respondents are claiming you are neither. A fifth of the people, just about, believe you're a Muslim.
THE PRESIDENT: Keep in mind, those two things — American born and Muslim — are not the same. So — but I understand your point.
WILLIAMS: Either or the latter, and the most recent number is the latter. This has to be troubling to you. This is, of course, all new territory for an American President.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, look, the — the facts are the facts, right? So, we went through some of this during the campaign. You know, there is a mechanism, a network of misinformation, that in a new media era can get churned out there constantly. We dealt with this when I was first running for the U.S. Senate. We dealt with it when we were first running for the Presidency. There were those who said I couldn't win as U.S. Senator because I had a funny name. And people would be too unfamiliar with it. And yet, we ended up winning that Senate seat in Illinois because I trusted in the American people's capacity to get beyond all this nonsense and focus on is this somebody who cares about me and cares about my family and has a vision for the future? And so, I will always put my money on the American people. And I'm not going to be worrying too much about whatever rumors are floating on — out there. If I spend all my time chasing after that then I wouldn't get much done.
WILLIAMS: Even a number as sizeable as this — what does it say to you? Does it say anything about your communications or the effectiveness of your opponents to —
THE PRESIDENT: Well, look, Brian, I — I would say that I can't spend all my time with my birth certificate plastered on my forehead. [laughs] It — it is what — the facts are the facts. And so, it's not something that I can I think spend all my time worrying about. And I don't think the American people want me to spend all my time worrying about it.
WILLIAMS: What does it say to you that Glenn Beck was able to draw a crowd of perhaps north of 300,000 people on the anniversary of Dr. King's speech, on the site of Dr. King's speech? Message appeared to be, at times, anti-government, anti-spread of government. Anti-Obama administration. And in favor of — I guess — re-injecting God into both politics and the American discourse.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I have to say, I — I did not watch the rally. I think that one of the wonderful things about this country is that at any given moment any group of people can decide, you know, "We want to — our voices heard." And — and so, I think that Mr. Beck and the rest of those folks were exercising their rights under our Constitution exactly as they should.
I — I do think that it's important for us to recognize that right now, the country's going through a very difficult time, as a consequence of years of neglect in a whole range of areas. Our schools not working the way they need to, so we've slipped in terms of the number of college graduates, you know?
A financial system that was not, you know, operating in a way that maintained integrity and assured that the people who were investing or who were buying a home or were using a credit card weren't getting in some way cheated. We had a health care system that was broken and that was bankrupting families and businesses. All those issues are big, tough, difficult issues. And those are just our domestic issues. That's before we get to policy issues in two wars. And a continuing battle against terrorists who want to do us harm.
So, given all those anxieties — and given the fact that, you know, in none of these situations are you going to be fix things overnight. It's not surprising that somebody like a Mr. Beck is able to stir up a certain portion of the country. That's been true throughout our history. What I'm focused on is making sure that the decisions we're making now are going to be be not good for the nightly news. Not good even necessarily for the next election. But are good for the next generation. And I'm very confident that those decisions are the ones that we've made.
WILLIAMS: As you note it ties into an economy in down times. Do you have a message for the disenchanted? The angry? The angry who are unemployed and feeling victimized by this economy?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, look, I think they have every right to be frustrated. And they have every right to be angry. And I think the message that I will continue to deliver in the months ahead and the years ahead is it took us a long time to get into this hole that we're in. This was the worst economic crisis that we've seen in generations. And we are making progress. We are steadily moving forward.
A year ago today, we were still losing jobs, we're now gaining them. The economy was still contracting, it's not expanding. It's not happening as fast as people would like. But it's moving in the right direction. And the thing we can't do is to try to go back to the same policies that created this mess in the first place.
Now, part of the — I think the balance that we're going to be have to strike is the fact that, you know, we've got huge debt, huge deficits that amounted as a consequence of this financial crisis. A consequence of this incredibly deep recession. And that means that we're going to be have to do two things at once. We've got to keep on pushing to grow the economy. But we've also on the medium term and the long term have to get control of our deficit.
And it would be ideal where we didn't have to worry about one and could just focus on the other. But, you know, this generation, it's fallen on our shoulders to make some very tough decisions. The one thing I guess I would say to the American people is that we've been through tougher times before. And we always come out ahead. As long as we stay united. As long as we stay optimistic about the future. As long as we stay innovative. As long as we work hard and we apply ourselves. We've still got the best universities, the best workers, the best business climate of any economy in the world. And so, I have no doubt that we are going to be rebound and rebound strong. But when you're in the middle of it. And if you don't have a job right now. It's — it's a tough, tough situation.
WILLIAMS: Finally, sir, because I see fidgeting — on Iraq. You're speaking on that subject this coming week. We watched the last of the combat troops leave live on on television. Our own Richard Engel wrote along with them. The end of Operation Iraqi Freedom. What would it take to send combat troops back in? A real and present threat to the 50,000 or so that remain in the so-called noncombat role would General Ordierno have to call you and say, "We need more firepower back here." There were what? Fourteen coordinated bombings on one day.
THE PRESIDENT: You know, Brian, I'm not going to be speculate on what scenarios might occur. Here's what I know. The trend lines have been steadily declining violence. Even after we left the cities. What you've seen is lower and lower levels of violence. The Iraqi Security Forces are functioning at least as well if not better than any of us had anticipated.
And there is great confidence on the part of the commanders on the ground. That even though you're going to be see some efforts at any given time for remnants of A.Q.I. and terrorist organizations to try to stir things up. That in fact you are not going to be see the kind of sectarian war break out in Iraq that had occurred.
That doesn't mean that it's going to be be smooth sailing from here on out. That's why we've still got a training operation there. That's why we're going to be continue to conduct joint counterterrorism operations. That's why we've got to make sure that we have the troops there to protect our civilians who are really taking over the lead there. But the bottom line is — is that we have been able to successfully transition and turn over sovereignty and security operations to the Iraqis.
Their job right now is to make sure that they get a government completed. And they're going through a political process that is natural in a fledgling democracy. But we're confident that that will get done. And that we're going to be be a long term partner within Iraq. But we're not going to be be operating in the same combat role that we have in the past.
WILLIAMS: And finally, I'm hoping to find you in a reflective mood on a cloudy day. We're the first to speak to you coming off your summer vacation. How does it recharge you? What do you think about? What do you see? What do you read about? How are you thinking about your job these days?
THE PRESIDENT: You know, we went through the last two years of as intense a set of problems as I think any President's faced in a very long time. And I can look back and say we got some really tough stuff done that needed to get done. And as I look forward, my central focus is going to be be to make sure that I'm constantly communicating with all segments of this country about why I feel optimistic about our future.
You know, one of the — one of the actual great things about America as I was doing some — some — historical reading, during the break is we kind of go through these periods during difficult times where we think we're falling behind. You know, nothing's going right. We do a lot of soul searching. And then usually we come out of that funk and it's precisely because we do some self reflection. And we ask tough questions. And we have these contentious debates.
And there's — you know — a lot of folks who have very strong opinions about various issues. That process helps guide us in a better direction. That's part of the reason why this is a more dynamic society than others. This is one that is adaptable. That can change. That can recover. That is resilient. And, you know, the one thing that I have never felt more confident about is that America will continue to lead the world, will continue to be resilient.
And we are going to be just have to make sure that we stay steady and don't lose heart as we transition into a better future. And that means we're going to be have to make some tough choices now. But you know, we should — you know, we should constantly have our eye on — on that longer term price.
WILLIAMS: What are you thinking about your jobs these days?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, you know, I think that the first couple of years were, as I've said, about getting some very hard things done and contentious things done, but that needed to be done. I think the next couple of years, we've got to focus on debt and deficits. We've got to focus on making sure that we make the recovery stronger. And a lot of that is attracting private investment. Making sure that these companies who are making good profits are actually seeing the opportunities out there in a whole range of new areas and new ventures. So, there was a lot more implementation, management — probably less of the constant legislative functions that we had. But I — I'm confident that both things are necessary. Both things are important.
WILLIAMS: Enough work remaining to seek a second term out of.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, you know, the — I — I'm not spending a lot of time thinking about a second term. Right now, I'm spending a lot of time thinking about what I got to do next week.
http://www.tv.com/shows/stargate-sg-1/foothold-7376/
tv.com
Stargate SG-1 Season 3 Episode 14
Foothold
Aired Friday 8:00 PM Nov 05, 1999 on Syfy
SG-1 returns from a mission, and needs to report to the infirmary to see if they brought back any illnesses. Meanwhile they hear there's been a chemical spill somewhere in the complex. Once in the infirmary, every team member needs a precautionary injection, but Dr. Fraiser injects them with a sedative, rendering them unconscious. Teal'c's symbiote protects him though - he wakes up and sees General Hammond and Fraiser in a conversation with a few unknown aliens. Teal'c escapes and manages to wake up Sam. Sam makes her way out of the complex unseen, while Teal'c distracts the enemy. Once outside, Sam calls Colonel Maybourne, which she meets in a cafeteria. He is accompanied by Jack and Daniel, who explain Sam that she has been exposed to the chemical spill's gas and has been hallucinating since. Has she really, or are there indeed aliens impersonating everyone in the SGC?
AIRED: 11/5/99
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043436/releaseinfo
IMDb
Cry, the Beloved Country (1951)
Release Info
USA 23 January 1952 (New York City, New York)
http://www.tv.com/shows/er/a-saint-in-the-city-210824/
tv.com
ER Season 9 Episode 12
A Saint in the City
Aired Thursday 10:00 PM Jan 16, 2003 on NBC
AIRED: 1/16/03
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088979/releaseinfo
IMDb
D.A.R.Y.L. (1985)
Release Info
USA 14 June 1985
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046497/releaseinfo
IMDb
The Veils of Bagdad (1953)
Release Info
USA 7 October 1953
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088979/quotes
IMDb
D.A.R.Y.L. (1985)
Quotes
Daryl: Doctor, What am I?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Chiefs_of_Staff
Joint Chiefs of Staff
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) is a body of senior uniformed leaders in the United States Department of Defense
The composition of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is defined by statute and consists of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS), Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (VCJCS), and the Military Service Chiefs from the Army, Navy, Air Force, the Marine Corps, and the Chief of the National Guard Bureau
The Joint Staff (JS) is a headquarters staff in the Pentagon, composed of personnel from each of the four Department of Defense armed services, that assists the Chairman and the Vice Chairman in discharging their responsibilities and is managed by the Director of the Joint Staff (DJS) who is a lieutenant general or Navy vice admiral.
http://www.azlyrics.com/b/barenaked.html
AZ LYRICS UNIVERSE
BARENAKED LADIES
album: "Stunt" (1998)
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/barenakedladies/oneweek.html
BARENAKED LADIES
"One Week"
It's been one week since you looked at me
Threw your arms in the air
and said "You're crazy"
Five days since you tackled me
I've still got the rug burns on both my knees
It's been three days since the afternoon
You realized it's not my fault
not a moment too soon
Yesterday you'd forgiven me
And now I sit back and wait til you say you're sorry
Chickity China the Chinese chicken
You have a drumstick and your brain stops tickin'
Watchin' X-Files with no lights on
We're dans la maison
I hope the Smoking Man's in this one
- posted by H.V.O.M - Kerry Wayne Burgess 4:56 PM Pacific Time Spokane Valley Washington USA Wednesday 15 October 2014
