Finally, a word that rhymes with...TiVo?

Pivo: The car of the future is here. Not only does it look crazy, it acts crazy as well -- making 360 degree it'll make your head spin.
The Pivo (named after the word "pivot") operates on "drive-by-wire" technology, enabling the driver to operate the car through electronic signals. The "drive-by-wire" technology is similar to the "fly-by-wire" technology that pilots have used to fly commercial jets for years.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/AUTOS/09/30/nissan_concept.reut/index.html

for whom my blog is named....

If you're a Napoleon Dynamite fan, check out this ND video on KDWB's website:
http://www.kdwb.com/pages/dave/index.html

Sweeeeeeet!

Poll of Katrina victims

CNN posted an article today summarizing a recent poll of victims living in the Houston area. The poll was done by the Washington Post and the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

Of those surveyed, less than half wish to return home. Many wish to permanently relocate to the Houston area. Moreover, two-thirds of respondents were renting their homes (rather than owned), almost 75% had no insurance to cover their losses, and more than half didn't have a usable credit card, checking, or savings account. A whopping 55% of victims said they didn't evacuate the city because they had no car or no way to leave. Unfortunately, these are yet more statistics to point out why the poor and disadvantaged victims were the ones who were the most affected.

Read the full article at
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/16/katrina.poll.ap/index.html.

The Wal-Mart debate

Some more resources to fuel the fires of the great Wal-Mart debate:

http://walmartwatch.com
www.wakeupwalmart.com

Wal-Mart counters the criticism with their own site:
www.walmartfacts.com

Wal-Mart in the news:
http://www.startribune.com/stories/1405/5608958.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/05/AR2005090501598.html

Micahel Brown's resume....

TIME Magazine's website has a special web-exclusive article revealing some of the discrepencies in Michael Brown's (head of FEMA) resume. Quite interesting.
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1103003,00.html?cnn=yes

Storm Aid, Minnesota's River of Relief

Listen to one of many MN radio stations this Friday morning, Sept 9th. Over 30 radio stations will be broadcasting from the Washington Ave bridge to raise money and support for the hurricaine Katrina damage.

http://ww2.abc7chicago.com/global/story.asp?s=3801920&ClientType=Printable

Barbara Bush's comments

CNN has an article on their website today outlining some recent comments by former first lady Barbara Bush. Read the entire article at http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/06/katrina.presidents.ap/index.html.

The article states:
Barbara Bush, who accompanied the former presidents on a tour of the Astrodome complex Monday, said the relocation to Houston is "working very well" for some of the poor people forced out of New Orleans.
"What I'm hearing, which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality," she said during a radio interview with the American Public Media program "Marketplace." "And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them."

Oh-my-GOSH! I am outraged at the sheer ignorance of her comments. Unfourtunatly, Barbara Bush's comments are representative of our country's overall attitude towards poverty. Many people are very ignorant when it comes to issues of class and poverty. Many others, even when trying to understand such matters, are not provided with a true and representative picture of these people by our media.
No matter what class or income bracket you belong to, I think it is safe to say that living in your OWN house/apartment, in the city you call home, with your friends, family, and neighbors, is much preferred over living as a refugee in a dome somewhere in Texas. While many of the Katrina refugees were already poor and by no means lived a life of glamour, it was life and these people got by, somehow. Perhaps they couldn't afford brand new cars, designer clothing, and expensive foods, but they got by. Just as their parents and grandparents did. And here goes Barbara Bush saying that living in a dome is a better life than these people ever had before.
SHEESH.
I'm amazed. I'm saddened.
As a nation, we still refuse to understand our neighbors and fellow Americans who live in poverty.

UPDATE: Great editorial from NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/06/opinion/06kristof.html?ex=1126152000&en=53293edd6324afa1&ei=5070

From Leon Wynter's 'The American Race'

Katrina, the Perfect Storm (reprinted from http://theamericanrace.typepad.com/)

There is this one, fat, black, woman who keeps wading across my TV screen. Or maybe there’s a hundred of her. She drags her belongings in a gym bag through chest- deep oily water. Her arms are as fat as thighs. Her THIGHS are churning all that’s foul beneath the surface.

And then there’s the brother. He’s a do-ragged, unshaven gangsta from central casting with a case of beer on his shoulder. Maybe he’s her nephew. He doesn’t have a record deal—yet— but he does have a nasty hard core rapin’ and robbin’ video out on cable news right now.

Auntie and nephew are the worst possible sterotypes of black America. America sees them playing on an endless loop on TV this week. We haven’t seen this many black folks acting out this much pain since the rebranded Rodney King uprising in L.A.
All I can see are metaphors, blowing in the wind from Katrina, the perfect storm.

Forget forest and trees. On TV we can’t see the class for the race.

Last Saturday the ‘official’ evacuation looked like nothing more than the start of a very long weekend--people with available credit, mostly white, stuck in traffic. Or was that the ‘60’s white flight to the suburbs. No, no, it was the stampede of white Dixiecrats into the party of small government and big oil, AFTER they got to the suburbs. But where is THAT video?

Instead, we’ve got talking heads. The FEMA director insisted to CNN that he makes “no judgement” as to the reason why Auntie and nephew stayed sadly behind. He didn’t want to “second guess” them. That’s a euphemism for saying they had no good reason at all. Not when tax cuts have brought so many new jobs and so much prosperity.

Another TV ‘relief official’ said Auntie was just plain unplanned. Unplanned —like what happens--who happens--when you’re too dumb or lazy to use birth control. If you’re poor, that is. As if there was still anybody planning for the black and the poor in America.

Someone said the unplugged black folks in the street in New Orleans have no idea that the whole world is watching them do whatever it is we THINK we see them doing. I saw Auntie and her nephew on a roof, desperately moving her mouth up to the air at a news helicopter shooting video down. But, of course, I didn’t hear a thing. What DID she want, anyway? Her nephew has been reported shooting BACK at a helicopter-with bullets. Great- Now we’re in Somalia.
Or is it Baghdad? There just aren’t enough boots on the ground to do the job. Soon the soldiers may be outgunned by a growing insurgency. Nahh, couldn’t be. This is just black culture outta control—keepin’ it real, real.Still, I wonder what a black Louisiana national guardsman in dusty Iraq is making of this.

In my metaphor, what we are seeing is the SS Deep Dixie. It has been gored by an iceberg that everyone saw coming. It’s poorest blackest passengers are trapped in the steerage of political minority, going down slowly, but not without putting up a dirty fight. And sometimes they come up, treading water, like rats in an oil-slicked sea.

My Auntie. If she were not poor and black, this would not be happening to her.

Today the president finally toured the area. All it took was an act of God to get him and Fox News together to look my Auntie in the eye. When she looks back, I hope she shoves her soggy shoe wherever she thinks they should put THEIR metaphors.

KATRINA

I am really quite speechless in the face of the devastation and tragedy going on in the South. My heart goes out to everyone in New Orleans and all those who have been affected by the Katrina storm.

I could choose to write a long post on my reactions to the storm and flooding. Instead, I will focus only on what we can do to help.

From now through September 30, visit a Best Buy store and make a donation to the American Red Cross for Katrina relief. Best Buy will match all in-store and online donations, up to $1 million dollars.

UPDATE:

KARE 11 is teaming with a local organization, Hope for the City, to collect food, water, and personal hygeine products to be shipped to the hurricane refugees. Collection sites are the Mall of America, Edina Realty, and certain Car-X stores. Go to http://www.kare11.com/news/katrina/hopeforthecity.aspx for more info.

Minnesota Helpers is a brand-new website established for the preparation of the 3,000+ Katrina refugees that will be temorarily re-settled in Minnesota. Go to http://www.minnesotahelpers.com/ to make a donation, offer to volunteer yourself or your vehicle for transportation needs, offer your home as a shelter for Katrina survivors, or offer to volunteer your time.