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The New York Times has a story this morning about Thune and Ellsworth:He pulled out all the stops and virtually camped out at the commission hearings being held at a hotel just outside Washington, buttonholing anyone he could to make...

Washington Post reports:Steve Hildebrand, Daschle's campaign manager, said Thune, who won by two percentage points after losing a Senate race two years before, is likely to have a strong challenger when he seeks reelection in 2010. He's still going to...

New Orleans has entered one of those "worst case" scenarios: The City of New Orleans Is Devastated. Those were the words of Mayor C. Ray Nagin and based upon a major breach of a levee system, water is flowing into...

A USATODAY report quotes Tom Daschle as he reflected on the 1995 BRAC process:Fueling Republican resentment: The feeling that political favoritism was allowed to influence decisions during the last round of base closings in 1995, when Democrats were in charge....

Carried Away

This WaPo coverage of looting in the wake of Hurricane Katrina has more than a little sympathy, rationalization, and justification for much of the looting going on.

...as we are also learning from the post-Katrina chaos, what we think of as looting may be more complicated than it seems.

No, it's NOT complicated, moonbat. Stealing stuff, is stealing stuff. And most of the stuff being taken is NOT survival supplies!

Benigno E. Aguirre of the Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware has been watching and reading about looters in Louisiana. "It may look from the outside as if they are stealing or breaking the law," says Aguirre, "when in fact some of them are trying to survive."

Yep - it DOES look that way, maybe because what's happening IS bad. If some ARE trying to survive, this isn't the prevailing behavior. For instance when a Wal-Mart was invaded by the latter-day barbarians, the guns, and electronics were the FIRST targets of opportunity, followed by other consumer items. The food, and (non-alcoholic) beverages were largely ignored. Yep, survival is insured by a new plasma HD TV!

On the other hand, he says, some of the thieves are garden-variety crooks. "There is always a very small number of people that are predisposed to crime, and they see a disaster as an opportunity to act." There are the disenfranchised who jump at the chance to get even with those who have more stuff than they do. "Disasters can become opportunity for class warfare, and that kind of appropriation of other people's property should be prosecuted," he says.

"Class warfare"? Sounds like our academician has been imbibing wisdom from the fountain of Marx. At least he concedes that they should be prosecuted, thanks be for small favors.

Many may be people taking drastic measures required by drastic times. And some, he says, are the in-an-emergency equivalent of hunters/gatherers, foraging for food, fresh water, medicine, matches, batteries, everyday essentials that are just not available. Not at home, not at shelters.

Again, the Wal-Mart case (as well as others) would be a counter-indication of the validity of this statement.

The images are played on TV over and over: Windows are smashed. Huge dudes muscle into an abandoned store and hustle out with stolen TVs and boomboxes. Women hoist unwieldy packs of diapers and cartons of baby formula. Run-amok hooligans snatch up jewelry and electronic gizmos. Other things are stolen: shopping carts of soda pops and snack foods, clothing, bicycles. There are survivors, scavengers and criminal looters, and it's hard to tell the difference.

No, the distinction is too fine. If someone breaks in to get some bottled water, or food to survive, the Chief would say OK. ANYTHING else - including "scavengers" are thieves. That's it. Comprende?

Somehow, unimaginable as this is, my fellow bloggers will have to get along without me....

Malaysia Targets 2020 for Possible Manned Moon Mission

FOr crying out loud! If MALAYSIA is planning this, why haven't we been back up there yet?

The freaks from Stormfront, a neo-Nazi cabal, are heading to Crawford to join in the fun. More from Crawford: One thing about it, Cindy doesn't need to hire a PR mouthpiece. The AP is doing a fine enough job....

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