disaster capitalism

* xymphora has a must-read post based on naomi kleins 'disaster capitalism' - i wont even bother trying to grab-quote

* "During negotiations (at the UN) the prior night, Iran and Syria were being intransigent on one point and the deputy French ambassador, out of frustration, accused them of behaving like the right wing of the Republican party. Apparently, that's among the worst slurs that can be hurled in these parts. But John Bolton was in the room and obviously wasn't amused at being confused for a Syrian, so he stood up and left." (link)

* "So if in fact Michael Brown padded his resume to get his job at FEMA, he committed a felony. Since his incompetence at that position obviously cost many lives, perhaps the ordinary prosecutorial reluctance to criminalize resume-padding ought to be overcome in this case. At least, someone in Congress should ask the Attorney General to have the matter looked into." (link)

* ron has a great post about the euthanasia in LA. when i first wrote about it, i mentioned that the source was a bit dodgy.

* the nyt ed team writes an interesting piece about a federal shield law for journos - the interesting thing about it is that they have stopped harping about judy miller.

* chris bowers: "I think it is particuarly interesting that as Roberts begins to speak, the news wire has Brown resigning from FEMA. This is not the same Bush administration of even four months ago. "

* some wag over in digby's comments: "Actually, I remember seeing that boat crashed on Bourbon Street and thinking, 'that's some terrible captain'."

* "The Bush administration's top envoy in Iraq warned Monday that U.S. "patience is running out" with Syrian interference across the border, and refused to rule out either a military strike...
"Our patience is running out, the patience of Iraqis are running out. The time for decision ... has arrived for Damascus," Khalilzad told reporters at the State Department." (link)
the good news is that america hasnt invaded syria yet. the bad news is that the threat is omnipresent

* driftglass wrote a post last week which was based on a pink floyds "Us and Them". its been put to music by this person - and a nice job too.