A new ceasefire agreement was announced today between Israel and Hamas…

Hamas: We agree to stop as soon as they stop.

Israel: We agree to stop as soon as they stop.

Hamas: You first.

Israel: No, you first.

Here’s a story that roiled my blood.

CNN.com’s article “FEMA gives away $85 million of supplies for Katrina victims” is just the thing to make Friday the 13th luck seem not so bad. It is my impression that it is common knowledge that the plights of many Katrina victims are far from over. Stories are still coming out of the New Orleans area about families displaced and homeless, communities still trying to rebuild. Yet FEMA claims to not have known the supplies were needed. I find this highly suspicious. Another story by ABC News, “FEMA Boots Katrina Victims From Trailers,” leads me to believe that FEMA is in some way actively impeding the recovery of the area, either that or extreme incompetence. According to the ABC story the reason for asking displaced families to leave the trailers set up as temporary homes is because they cannot withstand hurricane season. If that is the case why are these families still in these trailers almost three years and two hurricane seasons later? The other explanation is that the formaldehyde used in making the trailers is making people sick. If the levels of formaldehyde were that high, then why were these trailers used in the first place? Some of the families may be able to find homes, but as ABC quotes ‘ “The government had no plan for long-term planning of folks, and this is in the midst of an affordable housing crisis that the country has never seen the proportions of,” said Judith Browne-Dianis, co-director of the Advancement Project, a legal action group founded by a team of civil rights lawyers in 1998.’ The article postulates that many will end up in the infamous tent city under the I-10 interstate where many displaced individuals and families are already living.

It seems to me that there never was much intention of helping out these victims of Katrina, who are mostly the poor and minorities. FEMA didn’t do much in the first days of the disaster, and they are continuing to not do all they should. Instead, the burden falls on individuals and NGOs willing to help out and give their time, which I’m sure is much appreciated. But isn’t the duty of our government to maintain the well-being and sense of security of its people (and by security, I mean knowing that I’ll have a roof over my head tomorrow, not protection against some ambiguous terrorist threat). Isn’t that what we pay tax dollars for? Where do all our tax dollars go to? Oh that’s right, to Iraq. I hope the Iraqis are enjoying the services our government has to offer them.

This is worth looking at.

http://www.freepress.net/node/41347

States what many of us know, but eloquently. Let me know what you think of Dan Rather's overview of the state of mainstream media today.

Here's another example of the absurdness of the Israel-Palestine Conflict. The New York Times published an article today entitled "State Dept. Reinstates Gaza Fulbright Grants."(If you are not signed up for a NYT online account, you might as well. It's free.) Apparently , Palestinian recipients of the Fulbright were told last week that they were not going to receive the grant after all because of Israel's ban on travel for Palestinians in the Gaza strip. Fortunately, the State Department saw the error of this fairly quickly and got special permission for travel for the Fulbright scholars, after they go through rigorous security checks (who knows what that will involve). But, as the article points out, there are still close to 600 other scholars in the Gaza strip who have received scholarships to study abroad, who are, as it currently stands, unable to take advantage of these prestigious opportunities they have been offered. If Israel is looking for ways to escalate violence and garner support for Hamas, this is certainly a good stepping stone towards that goal. Imagine working hard for an opportunity such as a prestigious scholarship to study abroad, receiving it, then being told you can't use it because you happen to be a Palestinian student, who also happens to live in Gaza. That might piss me off a little. How about you?