Queer Open Mic on Friday with DAVID WEST

QUEER OPEN MIC
featuring David West
Friday July 27, 2007
8pm
Three Dollar Bill Cafe
1800 Market St in SF

Queer Open Mic (QOM to the thrifty), the virtually venerable open mic hosted by Cindy Emch and Sherilyn Connelly, is proud to feature local poet David West on Friday, July 27. Open mic participants are welcome to perform art of any style as long as it is one (1) piece that is five minutes (5) or less.  Open mic sign up begins at 7:30 sharp. Cost is a $1 - $5 suggested-but-not-required donation which helps pay the artist.


Feature Bio

David West has been reading in SF since the mid 70's and his books are all either out of print or very hard to find, so there is no point in listing them. He doesn't do readings very often anymore, but then again, West Nile disease is rare in San Francisco and you don't rush out looking for that, do you? Would you hire the person who wrote this bio to draft YOUR resume? Then again he is going to read poems, not resumes.

Bush admin cuts Katrina loans - FYI - from Salon.com

War Room

<noscript><a href="http://judo.salon.com/RealMedia/ads/click_nx.cgi/www.salonmagazine.com/warroom.html@x11"><img src="http://judo.salon.com/RealMedia/ads/adstream_nx.cgi/www.salonmagazine.com/warroom.html@x11" width="336" alt='' /></a>

Pouring saltwater in Katrina victims' wounds

As if the delayed response to Katrina itself weren't bad enough, some months ago an acquaintance of mine sent me an e-mail telling me that staunch Republican family members in Mississippi were up in arms at the Bush administration for insisting that they return government loans or provide impossible to obtain documentation.

I don't know if this is the same circumstance or yet another one, but the New York Times reports today that the Small Business Administration just canceled a bunch of Katrina loans without giving any notice:

The agency canceled nearly 8,000 loans without calling the borrowers or mailing them a notice, according to the audit by the agency's inspector general. The homeowners did eventually receive a letter contending that they had voluntarily given up their loans, the report says, even though many told auditors that they actually needed the money. The loans were canceled last year, after the agency had come under fire for being slow to give out rebuilding money, according to the audit. Former agency employees have complained that they were pressured to withdraw the loans to cut the number of applicants whose loans had been approved but not paid out.

Does the Bush administration just cheat reflexively or is cheating something it plans in advance?

My friend whose family lives in Mississippi said he thought Bush's reign was going to cut into the Republican brand loyalty on the Gulf Coast. I suppose we'll see about that. But you have to wonder: If the Katrina response didn't do it, what would?

-- Digby