Untold Stories

Preface: I was gonna spend some more quality time with Gwen, her daughter Maud really, but there will always be plenty of time for that. Time I must always personally make, absorbent as I am, so that I don't go crazzzy.

+Let me get this straight: "it's hard out there for a pimp" but it's easy for a Hurricane Katrina survivor?

From Steven Ivory's Open Letter to Terrence Dashon Howard:

I enjoyed your interview, during which you emphasized that "Hustle" is not just about a pimp trying to become a rapper, but the saga of a man trying to make a better way for himself.

Then you brought up New Orleans.

Principally, you remarked that the Hurricane Katrina victims in that city were waiting on someone to give them something, instead of doing for themselves.

I noticed both how Mr. Letterman looked at you as he graciously wrapped the interview segment and the deafening, momentary hush that befell the audience. Perhaps they were shocked by what you said. I was.

Click here for the letter in its entirety.

+Watch this. Cheney gets cursed out. Listen to the protesters in the background. They are my heroes. And surprisingly CNN sprouted some temporary ovaries and reported it.

+Jada asked "Why did Bush knock down the towers?" Will we soon be asking "Why did Blanco blow up the 17th St. Levee?"

Evacuee Dianne Stafford: "They blew the levee to save the city…" Saying a barge broke the levee. She is from St. Bernard Parish. "More expensive places were saved at the expense of the neighborhoods that aren't as valuable… Rebuilding Bourbon Street matters more to the government… that's what mattered to Governor Blanco…"

+Govm’t sanitizing Katrina reportage?! Yes, we already knew that but now even seeming Hawaiian Tropic spokeperson, Brian Williams of NBC, among others, is speaking up.

+I have met so many people while down here -- people who were at Ground Zero at 9-11, people who have done tsunami relief, tours in Iraq -- and every one of them has said this is the worst thing they have ever seen. It's unanimous, and these are some battle-worn veterans of every kind of disaster you can imagine.

+A few Katrina Timelines (in progress)

+Where does a Gulf Coast college student go in the shadow Katrina? Disneyworld.

+The images FEMA does not want you to see. (Mysteriously inaccessible) America Blog swiped one of them 'fore the site got jammed.

+FEMA "Detainment" Camps.

+ If you can offer housing to queers displaced by Katrina, please go here to post your offer. (Friendster Ellen brought this to my attention)

Mined from America Blog, Crooks & Liars, Boing Boing, Eshcaton, The Raw Story, Uggabugga & Wonkette.

Though this life keep getting me down
Don’t give up now
Got to survive somehow
Could go on and on and the full has never been told

Buju Banton