Morning copy 9.1.2005

New Orleans

Inside the Superdome, with the Washington Post: "We were so grateful," said Montrel, 35, "and now we are in hell." LINK.

New Orleans as of now: looting and violence, NY Times LINK.

What awaits New Orleans, Washington Post LINK. Excerpt:

By that time, a lot of people won't care because they will have taken the insurance money and moved away -- forever. Home rebuilding, as opposed to repairs, won't start for a year and will last for years after that.

Even then, there may be nothing normal about New Orleans, because the floodwater, spiked with tons of contaminants ranging from heavy metals and hydrocarbons to industrial waste, human feces and the decayed remains of humans and animals, will linger nearby in the Gulf of Mexico for a decade.

David Brooks of the New York Times, LINK, closes his Op-Ed with this:

What's happening in New Orleans and Mississippi today is a human tragedy. But take a close look at the people you see wandering, devastated, around New Orleans: they are predominantly black and poor. The political disturbances are still to come.

The derth of National Guard soldiers at Salon.com, LINK.

A "rogue" bus makes it to the Houston Astrodome, Houston Chronicle LINK.

The political challenge ahead for George W. Bush, NY Times LINK.

While oil prices get the attention, other supply lines are disrupted, Washington Post LINK.

Iraqi stampede

800 to 1000 Shiite pilgrims have died in a stampede provoked by earlier mortar fire and then rumors of a suicide bomber, Washington Post LINK.

More links

Washington Post (LINK): A prominent Turkish author may face prison time for saying this:

The charge stems from an interview that Pamuk gave to a Swiss newspaper in February in which he said certain topics were regarded as off-limits in Turkey. As examples, he listed the massacre of Armenians in 1915 and the ongoing war between Turkish security forces and Kurdish guerrillas.

"Thirty-thousand Kurds were killed here, 1 million Armenians as well. And almost no one talks about it," Pamuk told the newspaper, Tages-Anzeiger. "Therefore, I do."

An FDA official has quit over the delay in approving the "morning after" pill, Washington Post LINK.

Believe it or not, the probe into the death of al Hariri may go into Syria, al Jazeera LINK.

A museum featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger will close it's Austrian doors, SF Gate LINK.

Intelligent design rebuked in the Guardian, LINK. Excerpt:

It is not a scientific argument at all, but a religious one. It might be worth discussing in a class on the history of ideas, in a philosophy class on popular logical fallacies, or in a comparative religion class on origin myths from around the world.

George Will in the Washington Post, LINK, Excerpt:

There are, however, impeccably conservative reasons for regarding judicial review as a valuable restraint on majorities, and hence for having high regard for some judicial activism.