Who Do We Attack for Katrina?

Saturday Night Live had an opening sketch that sticks in my mind. In it, Bush wins the 2000 presidency and he’s commenting on the state of our nation: “The Great Lakes are on fire – even I know that’s not good.”

On September 11, 2001, 2,819 died in a terrorist action on our soil. Bush responded by focusing his energy on attacking Iraq. The grounds for such a move have been debated and debased elsewhere many time since. Still, we are in the middle of that uncomfortable decision, with our progress debatable. And a handful more of Americans dying on foreign soil each day.

On August 25, 2005, Katrina devastated Louisiana. Destroying one of the largest, most American of cities. Thousand are likely dead. Drowned in their own homes. From flooding caused by slashing 80% of the maintenance funding on weakening levees. The thousands that made it out of their homes watched each other starve and die while waiting for our over-stretched National Guard to rescue them (aren’t they in Iraq also?). The million that evacuated prior to this disaster are now looking for a home – any home – anywhere in the nearby states. Alabama, Texas, Tennessee are simply the first to be asked.

This is far, far worse than the World Trade Center. The entire population of New York City didn’t have to relocate. With nothing. Albeit with a heavy heart, the city that never sleeps picked itself up and continued onward. Even now.

New Orleans does not share that fate. Right now, it’s somewhere under 20 feet of sewage, corpses, and flood water. It will be years, if not decades, before that city is more than a shadow of itself. Until then, we have lost. Lost friends, lost homes, and lost a great American city.

Who do we attack for this? God?

There is no one to blame except ourselves. We weren’t prepared. Aside from the fact that the damage is greater and the number of lives affected is greater, what makes New Orleans more painful than 9/11? New Orleans was self-inflicted.

We elected Bush.

“New Orleans is more devastated than New York was.”( – even I know that’s not good?)

Jeneane Sessum, “President Bush Declares “War on Weather”

I quite like the War on Error

Happy Blog Day

In continuing the Blog Day 2005 meme (Tim, thanks for the head’s up), here’s a trio of blogs that have pulled me in recently:

  • The Philosopher’s Almanac podcast, a very enjoyable listen on philosophical issues from Peter Shea at the U of M. Yeah, he’s in PodcastMN now also.
  • Connecting the Dots with Steve Borsch, in addition to being another fellow PodcastMN-er. Steve and I share a mutual friend. While I was following his podcast, Doug recommended I follow his blog also. Good stuff, especially the recent bit on hating rebates.
  • I’ve also been spending quite a bit of time at Norwegianity lately. Glen Mark is to politics what Hugh is to advertising. By that, I mean they both know how to curse.

Using Search Engines and Tags to Get A Specific Someone’s Attention

Scoble pointed out this Google search for Susan Dumais, look at the ad in the right-hand column. It’s less of an ad and more of a unique recruiting method. I hope this is the future of Google Ads – very specific messages targeted to a single individual.

This reminds me of the how venture capitalist Fred Wilson is using del.icio.us tags.

“He also has created a specific del.icio.us tag (“fred’spodcast”) that allows you to tag MP3s you think Fred will like and those MP3s will automatically download to his iPod courtesy of a del.icio.us RSS feed…..and created the tag “fred’selevatorpitch” for anyone who cares to push a podcast elevator pitch his way”

It’s how Feedburner got Fred’s attention.

This is method is an extension of Doc Searls’ statement on the evolving RSS subscription behavior:

“Mostly I subscribe to searches, and I keep changing those.”

I’m subscribed to Technorati searches for myself, this blog, all the software I develop, and a few keywords (like “attention.xml”). I know mentioning one of those things in a blog post is the easiest way to get me to pay attention to what you have to say.

Welcome to the direct-est of direct marketing.

WP-iPodCatter Now v1.0

I’ve cleaned up a few things based on the feedback from the 0.9a version, and tweaked a couple more things. Decided “0.9” wasn’t as round a version as I’d like and v1.0 felt better.

The Biggest Changes:
– Comment-cast is now a checkbox option (there were some problems with it being supported on earlier versions of PHP)
– The non-iTunes Channel-level Category tag can now be set.
– All the iTunes categories are listed in the plugin, now more digging around for that PDF.
– all the other stuff you loved from 0.9a

Download WP-iPodCatter v1.0

House is Better than Boston Legal

When James Spader started on the Practice, his dialogue transformed the show into something worth watching. The same is true of Boston Legal, well, was true. The “We’re firing Alan Shore” storyline is tiresome. Firing Alan Shore would make all the fans stop watching. The threat alone turned me off.

Fortunately, Jen introduced me to House. Gregory House has the same snappy, off-color, well-written, adult dialog as Alan Shore. The shift from law firm to hospital gives us another show with disgusting zooming-into-the-human-body special effects, a la CSI.

Tonight’s episode answered why House needs a cane. Great story. Until tonight, I was completely uninvested.

From Podcast to Publish

If you’re in the Twin Cities, head on down to your favorite coffee shop and grab the Sept. issue of the Rake. Then turn to page 18, second column. Yep, that’s an article by yours truly.

Sure, you could stay indoors and click this Prairie Home Companion Production Assistant link, but it’s a beautiful late summer evening.

Neither the Rake article or the original podcast would be possible without Jon Steinhorst – cause it’s his story. Thanks again Jon.

And thanks to the Rake’s editor, Hans Eisenbeis, for suggesting the text version of the story.

First Crack 60. Shellie Gonzales on Borrowing a Porsche Boxster for the Weekend

Would your boss loan his car out to you for the weekend?

In the finale of the 6 part series on the life passions of Parsinen Kaplan Rosberg & Gotlieb’s partners and staff, Shellie Gonzales talks about borrowing David Gotlieb‘s Porsche Boxter for the weekend.

Listen to Shellie Gonzales on Borrowing a Porsche Boxster for the Weekend [17 min]