Quick stuff

I'm preoccupied elsewhere at the moment, and likely for the next few days. Here's some stuff worth noting in the meantime. I'm literally cobbling this together in five minutes, so I apologize if it's curt and sloppy:

* Here's a succinct article on "New Orleans' Tragic Paradox." News from the Big Easy has dominated Katrina fallout reporting, for the most part. Don't overlook Mississippi, though.

* Norman Solomon: "The National Guard Belongs in New Orleans and Biloxi. Not Baghdad." Simple enough. Via Cursor, also note this August 1 story from a Louisiana ABC News affiliate, which reported, "When members of the Louisiana National Guard left for Iraq in October, they took a lot equipment with them. Dozens of high water vehicles, humvees, refuelers and generators are now abroad, and in the event of a major natural disaster that could be a problem." The Army Times has more on the dialectic of war abroad/weakness at home, particularly as it relates to the situation now.

* LA Times: "Is the rash of powerful Atlantic storms in recent years a symptom of global warming?"

* Poverty's up in the US. Again.

* Here's the beat-back-Cindy meme: the anti-war movement is anti-American. You're going to be hearing a lot of this; even more so than usual.

* Justin Raimondo's happy. There's new info afoot about the Israel-9/11 connection.

* From RSF: "The war in Iraq : the most deadly one for the media since Vietnam"

* Tragedy in Iraq is omnipresent. Also, a few days ago, the US claimed to have struck at terrorist "safehouses" near the Syrian border, killing many bad guys. As usual, the overwhelming majority of those killed were civilians.