I remember seeing the prototype for the Osprey twenty or so years ago at North Island, I knew the Marine Colonel relieved over that Maintenance records incident ivolving the V-22 a couple of years ago, so I've always been a bit interested in the whole VTOL/Tilt rotor Osprey concept. The Osprey is basically the Undead Budget Item, no one can drive a stake through its heart and it just keeps on sucking out money, year after year.

Unfortunately, (or fortunately depending on your POV), it looks like the V-22 is going to be a production bird.

It took twenty years and $19 billion. But at 4pm today, I'm told, the Pentagon's Defense Acquisition Board will announce its recommendation to go ahead with "full rate production" of the once star-crossed, accident-prone Osprey V-22 tiltrotor craft.

The fate of the hybrid aircraft has been very much in question, ever since a pair of Ospreys crashed in 2000, killing 23. This decision "gets the program off probation. It can't be summarily cancelled now," a source close to the program says.

But Lehman was smitten. "It was very easy to fly," he says, "far more stable than a traditional helicopter, and simpler and safer than a Harrier. I was convinced it was what we needed." Lehman pushed the plane through the Navy's acquisition process.

It's been 22 years, and the skies aren't exactly crowded with Ospreys. After more than two decades and $16.4 billion, the history of the V-22 is a sorry tale of cost overruns, shoddy construction, and managerial incompetence. Thirty people have died in four Osprey crashes, making the V-22 one of the killingest experimental planes ever. The program has teetered on the brink of elimination since almost the beginning.

One other side note: anyone out there know what the Osprey's deck multiple is? Just curious.

Well, it's really the same fine mess, just looking a little more dismal now. As the days have turned into weeks have turned into months, Preznit Pinocchio has stepped up at almost every available opportunity to proclaim how the Iraqi Security Forces have been readying themselves to have it "Brought On" to them. Uh-huh.

The number of the Iraqi army's 86 battalions that can fight insurgents without U.S. and coalition help has dropped from three to one, top U.S. generals told Congress yesterday, adding that the security situation in Iraq is too uncertain to predict large-scale American troop withdrawals anytime soon.
...
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and his commanders yesterday publicly hedged their forecasts of U.S. involvement in Iraq, leaving it unclear when troops will be able to come home or how long it will take before Iraqi security forces can defend their homeland.

And in the Day Late and Billions of Dollars Short Department, here are some of our noble republcian Senators either asking questions, or grandstanding for C-SPAN, you decide:

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said he believes the United States has not had enough troops to fend off insurgents permanently. McCain also chastised Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, who retires as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff today, for being overly optimistic because "things have not gone as we had planned or expected nor as we were told by you, General Myers."
...
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said she was discouraged by the lack of readiness by the Iraqi security force. She said that it "contributes to a loss of public confidence in how the war is going," and that "it doesn't feel like progress when we hear today that we have only one Iraqi battalion that is fully capable."
...
Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) said he doubts that U.S. commanders have a clear handle on the nature of the insurgency and said the war has been more difficult than he expected.

It's hard to give these folks any credibility now, not that I ever did before. McCain lost my respect when he went spelunking up Preznit Endless Anus' rectum, Lindsay Graham has been a tool and a half for years and Susan Collins, reliably wishy-washy...is she a moderate? Is she a conservative? Stay tuned, tomorrow she's something different!

The only sure facts in Mess O'Potamia, no one has fucking clue about what's going to happen when the sun comes up every day except for two things: it's gonna be hot, and the sun will set in the west. Hopefully.

Tom Delay's indictment ought to provide so much fodder for the DNC it's not funny. Howard Dean, yo, are you listening? And you know what? I don't give a rats-ass if the republicans are going to go tit-for-tat on "charging" Democratic members with "alleged" crimes. If our guys in fact did something wrong, fuck 'em. Regaining the public trust by casting out ignorant Democrats who held themselves above the law is more important than protecting the jobs they used to get their stupid asses into trouble in the first place.

The indictment points out one thing very, very clearly: the GOP-controlled Congress is unable to police itself. Yeah, what House Ethics Committee? Which leads to the inevitable question: how can they be watchdogs for the rest of the government? Especially the Executive Branch?

Preznit Cowardly Asshat's voluntary war has given them (and the courts) cover to grovel and whine and say "but we're at waaaar". No, we've been dragged into a conflict that Beloved Leader had fantasized about since before he was inaugurated after the stolen election of 2000. The War of Amorphous Syllogisms has been going on purely at the whim of the folks in the GOP who need to keep the level of fear up in this country to stay in power. If we're at War, why hasn't one Congressman, of either party stood up once a day and asked in the well of the House and Senate: "Where is Osama bin Laden today?" Why not, because gosh, we can't be mean to the Preznit...waaaah, we're at War.

What they've done with that power instead is to first pervert and then corrupt the republic for their own ends: enriching their friends, ending inconvenient civil liberties, abrogating the Bill of Rights and demagogery, lots and lots of demogogery to keep their "base" loyal.

So, it's not surprising that Tom Delay, the man who once told a restaurant employee "I am the Federal Government" so he could smoke in a smoke-free restaurant, got indicted. He did what he did, because he knew (in his mind) he'd never be called to account. Apparently it's rumored he's going to plead nolo contendre to that conspiracy charge, he's agreed to waive the statute of limitations on it to take the plea. Why would anyone do that? Because they're trying to avoid what the prosecutor really has in their briefcase.

I hope that at his plea hearing, they make Delay allocute to the charges and it's on camera, live. I also hope they sentence Mr. Law-and-Order Delay to all two years of his time in prison. After all, he's led many a charge to punish criminals. Now that he might be one, why should it be any different for him? Oh, he's a republican.

Remember the story a little while back about Mark Maida, a Marine who was killed in Iraq? His parents apparently joined Cindy Sheehan in her protest outside the White House, and here's what happened:

Madison's Ray and Diane Maida say they were treated to an example of how President Bush just doesn't get it as the participated in the anti-war protest in Washington.

The Maidas, who lost their son, Mark, to a roadside bomb south of Baghdad last May, were standing outside the White House Monday morning when they saw a motorcade approach. The quickly donned T-shirts emblazoned with pictures of their dead son as an act of protest.

The president, spying the couple on the sidewalk from his limousine, smiled and waved.

"He was waving like a maniac," Ray Maida said. "He thought we were there to support him. He was clueless that we were there to show him the face of war."

Damn incompetants. They can't even get Preznit Misinformed the right set of memos from his boss, Dick Cheney before he trots out to the Rose Garden and opens his yap.

President Bush on Wednesday warned there will be an upsurge in violence in Iraq before next month's voting, but said the terrorists will fail. "Our troops are ready for them," he said.

He's such a Hero. I'm just waiting for the press conference where he comes out and says he'd rather "have a bottle in front of me, than a frontal lobotomy". Too late, I think.

Farnsworth over at One Pissed Off Vet has a pretty good account of his activities last weekend, and some wonderful pictures. Go check it out, if you've got a minute.

AssRocket:

The Democratic Party is committed to the view that there is no such thing as going too far.

Awesome.

A Texas grand jury on Wednesday charged Rep.
Tom DeLay and two political associates with conspiracy in a campaign finance scheme, an indictment that likely will force him to step down as House majority leader.

We have been touched by the noodly appendage of the Flying Spaghetti Monster today, yea verily.

Man, sometimes you just wait for the stories to write themselves. Seems that Michael "Not Me!" Brown somehow managed to sign a deal for $236 million in cruise ship space on three Carnival ships for six months.

On Sept. 1, as tens of thousands of desperate Louisianans packed the New Orleans Superdome and convention center, the Federal Emergency Management Agency pleaded with the U.S. Military Sealift Command: The government needed 10,000 berths on full-service cruise ships, FEMA said, and it needed the deal done by noon the next day.

The hasty appeal yielded one of the most controversial contracts of the Hurricane Katrina relief operation, a $236 million agreement with Carnival Cruise Lines for three ships that now bob more than half empty in the Mississippi River and Mobile Bay. The six-month contract -- staunchly defended by Carnival but castigated by politicians from both parties -- has come to exemplify the cost of haste that followed Katrina's strike and FEMA's lack of preparation.

Coburn and Obama disagreed. "Finding out after the fact that we're spending taxpayer money on no-bid contracts and sweetheart deals for cruise lines is no way to run a recovery effort," they said in the statement.

Gee, sometimes those damned facts are just so inconvenient and shit, aren't they?

We're getting underway over at the new blog. Several of my buddies from out here on the Internets have posted their first posts. Drop on over. Featured will be Fixer from Alternate Brain, Terry from Nitpicker, and Lurch. It's Lurch's first time as a blogger, and he's got the first post up there. Go on over, check it out. We'll be adding more contributors over the next days and weeks. Thanks!!!

The fun starts in earnest next Monday.

Blogroll us and stop by often and tell your friends!

Gosh, they're compassionate over at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. They just can't stand to see a white guy out of work. Look at Michael Brown. Now there's perhaps another opportunity for more consulting work for the guy who was head of the FDA for two months.

Catherine W. Crawford, the wife of Lester M. Crawford, who resigned abruptly as commissioner of food and drugs last week, said on Monday that he had stepped down voluntarily and "was not fired."
...
Mrs. Crawford said she "knew everything" about her husband of 42 years, adding, "There could not be a more moral, upright person." She rejected suggestions by a government official that her husband had omitted material information from his financial disclosure statements.

She said it was not true that "we had stock that should have been sold quicker."

Dr. Crawford, 67, resigned on Friday, just two months after he was confirmed by the Senate, on July 18. He gave no reason. But a government official said on Friday that the resignation was related to Dr. Crawford's not fully disclosing information about his finances to the Senate.

A senior Republican senator told the White House on Friday that President Bush should cancel his plan to allow the director of the National Cancer Institute, Dr. Andrew C. von Eschenbach, to serve simultaneously as acting commissioner of food and drugs.

The senator, Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, chairman of the Finance Committee, said that an acting commissioner must be willing to "dedicate 100 percent of his or her time and talent to the nation's public health and safety agency."

Mr. Bush said on Friday that he intended to name Dr. von Eschenbach to the position. Dr. von Eschenbach, a longtime friend of the Bush family, had been executive vice president of the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

In an interview Saturday, Dr. von Eschenbach said he would keep his job at the cancer institute while running the Food and Drug Administration. He reaffirmed that plan on Monday in a memorandum to outside experts who advise the cancer institute.

Dr. Eschenbach is undoubtedly a qualified physician, but WTF, over? Are there no other qualified men or women who could the job of FDA boss, or is Dr. Eschenbach going to go all Porter Goss on the FDA and start hacking away at the disloyal FDA staffers on behalf of Preznit Nappy Time?

Even Chuck Grassely is starting to break from the party line and is opposing this guy for all the right reasons. FDA is not a part-time job, and running both large organizations is not fair to either of them, however easy it is for Preznit Shrunken Brain to make that decision.

Apparently a suicide bomber was stopped at a Marine checkpoint in the Green Zone before he could detonate his bomb. Officials in Baghdad are for some reason expressing surprise that it could have happened.

A car bomber penetrated the heavily fortified Green Zone in the center of the capital on Tuesday but was stopped by U.S. Marines at an "internal checkpoint" before he was able to detonate the vehicle, the military said.

U.S. troops destroyed the explosive-rigged car and detained the bomber, a military spokesman said.

Although the breach did not result in any deaths or injuries, it raised alarm about how the bomber was able to enter the most secured compound in Iraq.

And in other news.

Meanwhile on Tuesday, U.S. and Iraqi officials announced that Iraqi and American security forces killed the No. 2 al Qaeda leader in Iraq, Abdallah Najim Abdallah Muhammad Juwari, also known as Abu Azzam.

I guess they must be warming up the auto-pen to sign that Medal of Freedom certificate for the Ol'Arabian. He's doing the Loyal Vassal dance even as we speak over on Capitol Hill, trotting out the 1600 Crew talking points, with enough deliberation that even the stupidest members of congress can get them written down.

The former head of the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency, who resigned under a hail of criticism about the slow response to Hurricane Katrina, on Tuesday blamed local officials and said his agency had done a good job.

"My biggest mistake was not recognizing, by Saturday (before the storm made landfall), that Louisiana was dysfunctional," Michael Brown told a House of Representatives panel looking into the aftermath of the catastrophic storm.

"I very strongly personally regret that I was unable to persuade (Louisiana) Governor (Kathleen) Blanco and (New Orleans) Mayor (Ray) Nagin to sit down, get over their differences and work together," he said. "I just couldn't pull that off."
...
"It's my belief that FEMA did a good job in the Gulf states," Brown said. He said most of the problems were due to a failure of state and local officials to order a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans earlier than Sunday, the day before the storm hit land.emphasis added

Another mistake, Brown said, was not setting up a system for media briefings to respond to all of the interview requests during the storm.

For a guy with no resume, he sure lies convincingly, gee he must be a hack attorney or something.

Well, at least no prize Arabian Horses were lost in the hurricane, so he's still got that going for him. Gotta have something to write on the MoF commendation certificate narrative.

After all, all this fuss about pictures of dead brown people shot up and mutilated. Those pictures traded for porn by troops in Iraq (and Others, I'm sure). Geez c'mon, Abu Gonzales is gonna protect us from the old in-out and some good old girl-on-girl tongue'n'titty action. As for the other stuff, heck, it's just quaint. Ask Alberto. He knows. He encourages it. He probably goes home and looks at that site, a kleenex in one hand and his pathetic little soldat in the other while moaning, "Quaint, Fuck, Fuck, Fuck the Geneva Convention, Arrrrrghaaaaa".

He'll be sad on the day that they take that site down. And it's gonna cost us all more, because he'll have to go to GITMO for some good old fashioned brown-person abuse, live and in-person. It's such a republican thing to do. Heck, it's almost like that frat initiation he never got to come...to.

What Fixer said over here. And what this OP-ED in the Post says:

It doesn't help any that the Democrats haven't been able to speak plainly in decades. Because if under George W. Bush the Republican Party has become heartless, the Democratic Party has become spineless. Republicans like my neighbors look at left-leaning candidates and see nothing but a blur. (I myself went hoarse last year during the presidential debates, screaming, "Stop hedging and say what you mean!" at the television set.) Or, as my friend Mark, a lifelong liberal, put it: "I'm so disgusted with the leadership from both parties that I'm going to become an anarchist."

Bye, bye DINO's. Bye Bye DLC'rs. It's time to Bring It. Or be doomed to being inconsequential forever and ever.

Another round of wasting taxpayer money in an effort to promote a state religion, the Constitution be damned.

Lawyers for a group of parents Monday challenged the teaching of intelligent design as nothing more than an old argument for God wrapped in new cloth, as a new legal front opened in the evolution wars.
...
"This clever tactical repackaging of creationism does not merit consideration," Witold Walczak, legal director of the Pennsylvania American Civil Liberties Union and a lawyer for the parents, told a federal judge. "It's an old argument for God that's been around for centuries."
...
The school board, represented by the Thomas More Law Center, a religious-based nonprofit firm, took the position that this was about freedom of speech.

"Intelligent Design theory is really science in its purest form," said Pat Gillen, a lawyer for the board. "It promotes the search for knowledge that embodies the essence of a liberal education."

Not.

I guess that asking these idiots to spend more time in their respective Sunday schools teaching whatever fables they want is out of the question. That would require that they drag their asses out of bed on Sunday Morning and make it to church on a regular basis, you know, become practicing Xtians instead of practicing Xtian-Fascists.

From the man who loves getting a good hiney-lickin' from those who surround him...greatest (lyin') hits 2000:

in a calculated political move, has decided to tap crude oil from the strategic petroleum reserve. ...

But releasing oil from the strategic petroleum reserve also leaves our country even more vulnerable to foreign suppliers, including Saddam Hussein. Every barrel of strategic reserve we release today for political reasons is one less barrel we have for threats to our nation's security. The strategic reserve is meant for a foreign war, or a major I disruption in supply, not for national elections. It's a petroleum reserve, not a political reserve.

President Bush, saying "gas prices are on our mind," said today the government is again prepared to tap into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to alleviate any gas shortages caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

He called on Americans to "pitch in" and conserve gas by reducing non-essential travel, teaming up in carpools and using mass transit.

"Conservation may be a sign of personal virtue, but it is not a sufficient basis for a sound, comprehensive energy policy."

As I suspected, and I'm sure that many others did too, the oil companies cashed in big time after Katrina, especially those whose refinery and distribution networks were unaffected.

When the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline peaked at $3.07 recently, it was partly because the nation's refineries were getting an estimated 99 cents on each gallon sold. That was more than three times the amount they earned a year ago when regular unleaded was selling for $1.87.

The companies that pump oil from the ground swept in an additional 47 cents on each gallon, a 46 percent jump over the same period.

If motorists are the big losers in the spectacular run-up in gas prices, the companies that produce the oil and turn it into gasoline are the clear winners. By contrast, the truckers who transport gasoline, the companies that operate pipelines and the gas station owners have profited far less.

Because as the man who has his hand up Beloved Leaders rectum says, "Conservation...what a virtue, now back my armored SUV up here and get me out of this damn hospital".

Yo, all my vet buddies out there, and there seem to be a lot of you...anyone interested in starting a group blog by vets and soon-to-be vets?

I have some space on another domain, an installed and working Moveable Type install and it's idle right now. I'd be happy to talk to you.

You know where to reach me. If you have a blog now, and want to "cross post", that's fine too.

Karl Rove, like the Spanish Inquisition has three things going for him: Criticize, Terrorize and Demonize. Just think how the Democrats in Congress act when the ize of Rove are upon them: like whiny little children.

Well, you know, it's time for a little payback. Since Preznit KnowsOnly Nine-Eleven appointed him to be Lord God of the Disaster, it's time for Democrats to get onto Frank Lautenbergs' bandwagon. Why is the Roveulator out in North Dakota doing fundraising? And why, since he's a paid, full-time employee of the US Government, is he doing it on the Taxpayers Dime? He's got a job to do now that has nothing to do with fund-raising...in fact it's closer to Barn-Raising.

It's time to start turning the eyes of the Nation onto the ize of Rove, and rip away the facade of competance that has been imbued by the Poodle Media and their apologists everywhere.

Take back our country...indict Karl Rove for fraud, waste and abuse.

Commander of NORAD: Welcome Mr. President, we're honored to have you here at NORAD. Over there on those large screens on the wall, you can see the situation in real-time from geo-synchronous weather and intelligence satellites tracking the progress of Rita in the Gulf. The one on the left is the false-color infrared satellite which allows is to measure factors from the storm like windspeeds and cloud tops, as well as to see telemetry from surface-based weather stations. To the right is a live feed from NOAA, the NWS Hurricane Center in Miami, and to the right of that are real-time feeds from all the major news networks. In front of you is a headset that will allow you instantaneous real-time communication with Fleet assets currently deployed behind Rita in the Gulf as well as contact with the Hurrican Hunter personnel currently monitoring the storm on-station in the eye. Again, we're honored to have you here and look forward to helping you lead the response to Rita as it makes landfall in Texas. Do you have any questions for me, sir?

Preznit Facial Abrasion: Neat-O. Now, can I ride my bike in the halls? I wanna see if the bell echos when I ring it.

So a week later, and what is Times Select?

Just a way to become even less culturally relevant than before, if that was possible. Well played, y'all. NYT: Why Bother?

Probably not work safe. But pretty damn great. Thanks to AmericaBlog for the link.

It seems that everytime I manange to write about Ratzi the Nazi I get in trouble. Got unceremoniously booted off one blogroll for it. My bad, I guess. But you gotta look beyond the vista of the good, faithful, loving Catholics to see what their beloved Church is becoming. Let's face it, Catholicism is not exactly without its' own minor indiscretions over the centuries. But to be fair, it seems to have been able to chart a course towards improving (sometimes) the lives of many of its' adherents by the good works and faith of its leaders from the lowliest Priest trying to live his vows, to Bishops and Cardinals who have stood up to repressive regimes, sometimes at the cost of their own freedom and even lives.

So what's to be made of a man who was a Nazi? Who wears the hat of the leader of one of the major religions of this planet who seeks to use the training of his youth to marginalize men who share his alleged love of his god, but are gay? Here's where he came from:

Because some Nazis believed homosexuality was a sickness that could be cured, they designed policies to "cure" homosexuals of their "disease" through humiliation and hard work. Guards ridiculed and beat homosexual prisoners upon arrival, often separating them from other inmates. Rudolf Hoess, commandant of Auschwitz, wrote in his memoirs that homosexuals were segregated in order to prevent homosexuality from spreading to other inmates and guards.

Mat 5:10
Blessed [are] they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven

Mat 5:11
Blessed are ye, when [men] shall revile you, and persecute [you], and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.

Gee, maybe they can call it "Auto-da-Fe 21". Real Catholic Torture for the 21st Century. No Comfy Chairs Provided.

This is from the "Hearts and Minds" department:

BASRA city authorities last night declared they would no longer co-operate with British forces in southern Iraq, as the row caused by Monday's confrontation between UK troops and Iraqi police escalated.
...
Speaking in London, John Reid, the Defence Secretary, insisted the dispute over the capture and forcible release of two SAS soldiers on Monday "will not affect the relationship between Iraq and Britain".

But a few hours later in Basra, the provincial city council held an emergency meeting and voted unanimously "to stop dealing with the British forces working in Basra and not to cooperate with them because of their irresponsible aggression on a government facility".

Will the the people that Preznit Completely Corrupt calls his base be asked to sacrifice their tax-cuts to pay for Mess O'Potamia? No.

Will the people that Preznit Sippin' Whiskey regales with tales of strolling with First Responders to have photo-ops with be considered as candidates for sacrifice in "Operation Offset"? No.

Then who will be asked to (once again) shoulder the burden of paying to continue the feeding frenzy at the tax-cut trough?

A group of House Republicans have proposed a plan to offset the costs of relief and rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina that includes trimming military quality-of-life programs, including health care.

Possible sources of funding cuts to free up money for Katrina relief include reduced health benefits, consolidation of the three military exchange systems and the closure of the military’s stateside school system.

It's against the law for many of them to say anything about this in anyway but to vote "with their feet" when (and if) they can. But how unconscionable is it for the republicans to put these folks in Harm's Way and then blithely assert that they need to sacrifice further for other Americans, when the richest 1%, who will get over 300 Billion in tax-relief over the next five years are being asked to sacrifice nothing?

One of the juiciest Canards of the Right is that we should not defend our opposition to American Soldiers being tossed into the meat grinder in Mess O'Potamia because they are all "volunteers". Well, no one joined the Army and "volunteered" to leave their family destitute, no one "voluneteered" to be treated as a Second-Class Citizen as the 1600 Crew does for the Guard and Reservists in terms of benefits, even though they serve on the frontlines in Iraq and Afghanistan with their regular Army counterparts.

No one but the fiscally insane, rubber-stamping one-party Congress would have ceded all their responsibilities to the 1600 Crew under the guise of this "War" of choice and then had the balls to ask for more sacrifice in the one place it shouldn't ever be made, in the paycheck of our servicemen and women who are not "volunteering" to be part of the Great Social Experiment in Supply-Side Economics and Government Accounting Trickery.

Jeff Huber's all over this too...

From the Self-Absorbed Boob Department:

What did we in the media talk about before we spent all our time talking about hurricanes? Before all the chatter was about Category 4 and Category 5 and levees and evacuations? Before we flooded the zone, to use Howell Raines's phrase, of Katrina and Rita and every storm in between?

Gee, did I forget anything?

Well, it was only paper. After all, if he were not the most "powerful" guy in the Senate, but instead Preznit American Idiot's Bitch, then we'd be having a different discussion now, wouldn't we?

The Baltimore Sun, Spiro Agnew's hometown paper, opined that the First Lady's adventures in the cow trade "certainly don't smell right, especially considering that Jim Blair represented a giant, influential agribusiness firm in Arkansas that later received what seemed to be favors from Gov. Clinton."

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has maintained for years that his stock holdings in the nation's largest for-profit hospital chain posed no conflict of interest for a policymaker deeply involved in health care matters. He even received two rulings in the 1990s from the Senate ethics committee that blessed the holding of the stock in blind trusts.

So when Frist decided in June to dump all the stock, and later cited as the reason his desire to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, eyebrows went up among ethics experts and congressional watchdogs. Why did he do it at that time?

Precisely a month later, after the stock was sold, its price tumbled 9 percent when executives in the company -- HCA Inc., which was founded by Frist's father and on whose board Frist's brother serves -- disclosed that hospital admissions of insured patients were lower than expected, depressing profits in the second quarter.

Oh yeah, a stock sale that the benficiary knew nothing about, gee anyone want to give Bill Frist Martha Stewarts phone number? I'm sure she'd be happy to give him some advice on how to talk to the investigators when they come a-visitin'.

Well, here's your all-purpose Clenis cover.

A new line of condoms is grabbing headlines in China even as its sparks a debate about trademark law and promotion campaigns. The products' brand names: "Clinton" and "Lewinsky."

The condoms are sold in boxes of 12, with the brand named after former President Bill Clinton priced at $3.70 and that of former White House intern Monica Lewinsky at $2.25.

Guangzhou Haojian Bioscience Co. said it registered both trademarks and is pricing the brands differently to reflect the higher quality of the Clinton line.

Do we get a 70 million dollar congressional report on the failures of these Clintons?

Jeebus.

So there's another Big-Ass Storm heading for the US. And baby, it's gonna be a doozy...

Remember when gas spiked to $3-plus a gallon after Hurricane Katrina? By this time next week, that could seem like the good old days.
...
We could be looking at gasoline lines and $4 gas, maybe even $5 gas, if this thing does the worst it could do," said energy analyst Peter Beutel of Cameron Hanover. "This storm is in the wrong place. And it's absolutely at the wrong time," said Beutel.

I hope that the warnings of the National Weather Service are heeded by the residents of the Texas Gulf Coast. I feel bad for the New Orleans evacuees who are having to bolt twice in less than a month because of the wrath of Mother Nature.

My thoughts are with the East Texans about to have their lives up-ended by nature. I hope that the Government treats you better than the folks north and east of you over the next 96 or so hours and beyond.

Interesting take on PNAC. It's significant that both Bush Pere and Clinton virtually ignored the entreaties of PNAC for a dozen or so years. The events of 9/11 allowed PNAC to foist its ambitious agenda onto a President who was spoiling for an excuse to beat up Saddam. With many PNAC insiders sitting in the catbirds seat, well, it's history. Now it looks like a little tension in the household over there at NeoCon Central...

It was four years ago this week that a little-known group called the "Project for the New American Century" (PNAC) published an open letter to President George W Bush advising him on how precisely he should carry out his brand-new "war on terrorism".

In addition to ousting Afghanistan's Taliban, the letter's mostly neo-conservative signatories called for implementing regime change "by all necessary means" in Iraq, "even if evidence does not link Iraq directly to the (September 11) attack". It also urged "appropriate measures of retaliation" against Iran and Syria if those countries refused to comply with US demands to cut off support to Hezbollah, which they considered part of the terror network.
...
So, four years later, how is the PNAC is doing? The short answer is not so well. Because it represents a coalition of different, although like-minded varieties of hawks, its own influence - or at least the perception of that influence - is highly dependent on the coalition's unity.
...
But the breakdown in the coalition's unity and coherence resulted at least as much from external factors, as well, beginning with the tenacity of the Iraq insurgency. In bogging down US land forces, it has put paid to the coalition's original dreams of the armed forces being prepared to intervene in any crisis - anytime, anywhere.
...
While realists within the administration argue in favor of engaging Syrian President Bashar Assad, if only because the alternative could be so much worse, the hawks, particularly the neo-conservatives who often refer to Damascus as "low-lying fruit", appear determined to prevent any weakening of their policy of isolation and economic pressure on the assumption that the regime will soon collapse.

I wonder if they are trotting this news into the Oval Office now, or are going to wait until some time next week to send the info to Preznit Vacations'r'Me.

As many as 1 million people were ordered to clear out along the Gulf Coast, and hospital and nursing home patients were evacuated Wednesday as Hurricane Rita turned into a Category-5, 165-mph monster that could slam Texas by the weekend and inflict more misery on New Orleans. Forecasters said Rita could be the most intense hurricane on record ever to hit Texas, and easily one of the most powerful ever to plow into the U.S. mainland.

Let's see...this sure sounds like a good idea:

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is investigating whether gasoline prices were illegally increased after Hurricane Katrina and if oil companies have constrained refinery capacity to keep fuel prices high, an agency official told Congress on Wednesday.

"We are continuing our intense scrutiny of conduct in the petroleum industry in the aftermath of Katrina," John Seesel, FTC associate general counsel for energy, told the Senate Commerce Committee at a hearing on gasoline prices.

Pat Leahy has now said he's gonna allow French Fries on the Bench. I am disappointed beyond belief at this. I have always liked and admired Pat Leahy as being a pricipled, progressive, smart guy. Truly a leader in the Senate. But Pat Leahy just got his ass rolled by the 1600 Crew. Big Time.

he senior Democrat on the Judiciary Committee announced Wednesday he will vote to confirm John Roberts for chief justice of the United States after leading senators met with President Bush to discuss candidates for a second high court vacancy.
...
Leahy, D-Vt., said he still has some concerns about Roberts.

"But in my judgment, in my experience, but especially in my conscience I find it is better to vote yes than no," he said.

"Judge Roberts is a man of integrity. I can only take him at his word that he does not have an ideological agenda."

In fact, there's probably a picture of you up on Karls bulletin board with the caption:

PUNK'D

All your previous good deeds: For Naught. Thanks for the Legacy. Thanks for Nothing.

I guess ICE can be more than one kind of trouble for the 1600 Crew these days...with an unqualified crony appointment to the Immigration and Customs goatfuck going on, check out this latest FEMA Fuck-all:

Hundreds of thousands of pounds of ice meant for the Gulf Coast arrived yesterday not in storm-ravaged New Orleans or Mississippi but in Gloucester, where almost two dozen tractor-trailers spent the day parked on Rogers Street with their engines running.
...
Johnson said he picked up an oversized load of ice in Sandwich last Tuesday. From there, he drove to Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Ala., where he spent eight days waiting to unload. All the while, his truck's engine continued to run in order to keep the ice from melting.

And after those eight days - he made around $900 per day, with some truckers earning in excess of $2 per mile - Johnson said he got the news his load was needed in Gloucester.

"I guess they sent us up here because of the big ice crisis you're having in Gloucester," said Dan Hanson, who picked up his 44,000 pounds of ice in St. Paul, Minn., before traveling to Maxwell and spending "eight days and seven minutes" waiting.
...
Truck driver Paul Kite said he never would have agreed to pick up the ice had he known it was a job for FEMA, because government orders on shipments often change, he said.

"Once you pick up a load from FEMA, you're stuck," he said. "We've done jobs for FEMA before, but never to this extent where you sit and sit and sit. I just drove 1,300 miles to dump ice in Gloucester. This has to be the stupidest thing I have ever done."
...
A frustrated Kite - only 200 miles from cities that he said were on television nightly pleading for help - offered to pay $1,500 for his load of ice so that he could drive it down to the Gulf Coast himself, he said. The offer was refused by FEMA, he said.

Three weeks later, Kite's truck is still carrying the same load of ice.

"Every man standing here will tell you," he said. "Yes, we're enjoying the money we're making. But, it's (expletive)."
...
Memhard said his Gloucester company tried to send ice to hurricane-ravaged regions after the storm but could not get permission from FEMA.

"We've been on the Internet and on the phone talking to as many people as we could," said Memhard. "We haven't succeeded in getting on the A-list yet."

Goddamn, that Preznit'n is HARD WORK!

Well, it helps when your uncle is the Chairman of theJoint Chiefs of Staff. I helps when you're married to the guy who works up there with Ming the Merciless Chertoff. Mostly, I'm sure it depends on if you know what to kiss, and when and how loyally you can kiss...then you get rewarded with a big job in the retinue of the 1600 Crew, no matter how unqualified you are.

The Bush administration is seeking to appoint a lawyer with little immigration or customs experience to head the troubled law enforcement agency that handles those issues, prompting sharp criticism from some employee groups, immigration advocates and homeland security experts.

Do we expect any less anymore? Qualified? That's so 20th Century.

Nine-Eleven.

With all the vigor of the terminally righteous the GOoPers regularly remind us that the gubmint of Beloved Leader is wholly and completely Holy and Righteous. Yeah, as if.

The Bush administration's top federal procurement official resigned Friday and was arrested yesterday, accused of lying and obstructing a criminal investigation into Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff's dealings with the federal government. It was the first criminal complaint filed against a government official in the ongoing corruption probe related to Abramoff's activities in Washington.

The complaint, filed by the FBI, alleges that David H. Safavian, 38, a White House procurement official involved until last week in Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, made repeated false statements to government officials and investigators about a golf trip with Abramoff to Scotland in 2002.

It also contends that he concealed his efforts to help Abramoff acquire control of two federally managed properties in the Washington area. Abramoff is the person identified as "Lobbyist A" in a 13-page affidavit unsealed in court, according to sources knowledgeable about the probe.

Our goal is to get the work done quickly. And taxpayers expect this work to be done honestly and wisely -- so we'll have a team of inspectors general reviewing all expenditures.

This is going to ratchet up the Abramoff-Delay game like never before. This guy was threatening OMB and GAO people with "Hill" pressure for not being nice to his buddy Jack, gee wonder who he might have been talking about? Apparently the word was that the US Attorney in Miami was not interested in hearing Abramoff sing in relation to anything he might have had on Delay, unless Delay was somehow connected to selling pr0n. [That's the man-date of the US Attorney there: Porn, not drugs, terrorism, bank robberies, white collar crime...nothing but Porn. Our tax dollars haaard at work for Abu Gonzales' agenda. How quaint.]

I have to wonder what the headline are going to say the day that Patrick Fitzgerald announces his indictments. It might be the equivlent of the Carny in the Capital! Coming soon to a blog near you!

I gotta wonder, how are these folks going to be counted when it comes time to vote? If they're still in Texas, will they be voting as Texans in the next election (2006)? What kind of shift will this represent for Democrats in newly-gerrymandered Texas?

''What we are seeing across the state is that each city is handling the situation differently," Williams said. ''The largest city is Houston, which probably has 100,000 to 200,000 new friends and new Texans. They are handling it and they are doing it day by day."

Worth keeping an eye or two on, I think.

Shorter Richard Cohen: Beloved Leader is a reg'lar guy who drinks beer and eats hot dogs and loves African Americans. Rich African Americans.

Cohen makes a compelling case that Preznit Trouser Trout really isn't a racist. He trots out a bushel of arguments why Preznit Demographically Dependant is not a racist. He blames LBJ for the hateful bigotry of republicans of Dixie. Cohen has every argument on the planet why Dearly Beloved Leader should not be called a rascist.

I have two problems with all this. The first is not just that it's unfair -- Bush, in this case, was an equal opportunity bungler -- but that it rests on a stereotype: Republicans tend to wear lime green pants in the summer and dislike black people all year round.
...
But Bush is not cut from that cloth. He is a contemporary Republican, a person of another generation who, you may have noticed, has a black woman as secretary of state and had a black man before her. Under him, the GOP began an outreach to black Americans, and unless the Democrats wake up it will ultimately succeed.

Feel like crap. Migraine. Back later tonight or tomorrow. Sorry.

Preznit Criminally Liable is a moron. That made me feel a little better.

OK, it's one anecdotal example, but hey if this is true then it's Right On Schedule, and As Expected

I'm listening to WWL-AM in New Orleans. They have thus far received several calls from local contractors who say that FEMA is not allowing them to help with the recovery effort, that only out-of-state contractors are on the ground. One guy reports that the only way he can get hired as a subcontractor is to give a kickback to the contractor hired by FEMA.

In other words, as predicted, the recovery effort appears to be being conducted to benefit Bush campaign contributors, rather than the people of the area. But then, why should we be surprised? Everything about the Bush Administration has been calculated to enrich Bush cronies at the expense of the American people...

In an interesting, if sometimes not quite legal (a few have been overturned) trend in sentencing among judges has been the use of "novel" sentencing of offenders for various crimes.

Shawn Gementera must have known that he would face some kind of punishment after a police officer nabbed him and a friend in the act of stealing letters from mailboxes along San Francisco's Fulton Street four years ago. While jail or probation might have crossed Gementera's mind, U.S. District Judge Vaughn R. Walker had a more creative idea. Walker sentenced Gementera to stand outside a post office while wearing a sign that read: "I stole mail. This is my punishment." Where the judge saw a novel way of conveying society displeasure with mail theft, Gementera's lawyers saw a violation of the Constitution's ban on "cruel and unusual punishment." The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit decided, however, that while the humiliating sentence might be unusual, it wasn't cruel.
...
· In Kentucky, Judge Michael Caperton recently allowed drug and alcohol offenders to skip drug counseling if they agreed to go to 10 church services. A pastor, like a divinely ordained probation officer, signs off on the completion of this obligation.

· In Texas in 2003, Judge Buddie Hahn gave an abusive father a choice between spending 30 nights in jail or 30 nights sleeping in the doghouse where prosecutors alleged the man had forced his 11-year-old stepson to sleep.

· In Georgia last year, Judge Sidney Nation suspended almost all of Brenton Jay Raffensperger's seven-year sentence for cocaine possession and driving under the influence in exchange for his promise to buy a casket and keep it in his home to remind him of the costs of drug addiction.

· In Ohio, a municipal judge, Michael Cicconetti, cut a 120-day jail sentence down to 45 days for two teens who, on Christmas Eve 2002, had defaced a statue of Jesus they stole from a church's nativity scene. In exchange, the pair had to deliver a new statue to the church and march through town with a donkey and a sign reading "Sorry for the Jackass Offense."

· In North Carolina in 2002, Judge James Honeycutt ordered four young offenders who broke into a school and did $60,000 in damage to wear signs around their necks in public that read "I AM A JUVENILE CRIMINAL." One, a 14-year-old girl, appealed and Honeycutt was reversed.

EJ Dionne Gets It. Why don't our Blue State Democratic Senators not wholly owned by the DLC and their own craven cowardice?

If senators simply vote "yes" on Roberts, they will be conceding to the executive branch huge power to control what information the public gets and doesn't get about nominees to life positions. The administration has stubbornly refused to release a share of Roberts's writings as deputy solicitor general. This is a dare to the Senate, and the administration is assuming it will wimp out. A "yes" on Roberts would be a craven abdication of power to the executive branch.

Fuck that the republicans say, we'll own them too, we double-dog dare you to do anything about it. We're stealing those too, so that even if we lose Congress and Presidency one day we'll own the courts for decades and fuck with you from our political graves. Nyahhh Nyahh.

When they say it's not Vietnam, they're right. And they're wrong.

Using enemy body counts as a benchmark, the U.S. military claimed gains against Abu Musab Zarqawi's foreign-led fighters last week even as they mounted their deadliest attacks on Iraq's capital.

Wandering around the internet I'm reading more and more about this avian flu, H5N1 I think it's called. It has a 55% mortality rate apparently, and it's on its way here epidemiologists think.

And apparently, the 1600 Crew have done nothing to prepare for it. We know its coming, have known for a while it seems, but Flying Spaghetti Monster forbid that the Department of Health and Human Services start working with drug companies to get vaccines out, or preventatives like Tamiflu, which is made by Roche Laboratories in mass quantities. Roche, quite likely wants to be compensated for their research and manufacture of Tamiflu. But with a Pandemic of this nature coming they need help manufacturing it if they don't have the capacity. So here's the deal, how about on a one-time basis, they release the drug from patent protection i.e. make it generic, and in return, because of the emergency they get a one-time five-year exemption from paying any Federal Corporate Taxes on everything and every subsidiary they own on the day they sign the deal. No taxes in return for a drug that might save tens of millions of people. They get paid, we stay healthy. Sounds fair to me, because on the day that you get sick with this bug, you'd probably be willing to pay anyone anything to get better.

Thoughts?

I have had a few requests to list all the names I've come up with for Our Beloved Preznit. Well, I did. Man, that was Hard Work!

So here in the Spirit of Immaturity and Joyful, Child-like abandon, I give them to you (as many as I could find)...Enjoy, I know I did! :)

Preznit Their Blood His Gutz
Preznit Kissin' Condi
Preznit Rexall Wrangler
Preznit Economic Disaster
Preznit Dangerous Pretzel
Preznit Illiterate
Preznit Yellow Stripe
Preznit Turd Smoker
Preznit Buggered and Beholden
Preznit Corporate Cum Licker
Preznit Purely Psychotic
Preznit "C" I Graduated
Preznit Texecution
Preznit Incredibly Irrational
Preznit Sucha Fuckin' Liar
Preznit Rubber Rectum
Preznit Defective Lucky Sperm
Preznit Constantly Failing Upwards

-continued after the jump -

Preznit Snot Licker
Preznit Gooey "Santorum"
Preznit Corporate Whore
Preznit Failed Intellect
Preznit Intellectually Inferior
Preznit Fascist Friendly
Preznit Man-Date
Preznit Wasted Semen
Preznit Perpetual Failure
Preznit Coprolith Brains
Preznit Corrupt DNA
Preznit Snot Gobbler
Preznit Reznit Doper
Preznit Rhetorical Retard
Preznit Wasted Days
Preznit Incredibly Insane
Preznit Bad Ideas
Preznit Coke Addled
Preznit Fry'em
Preznit Inherently Evil
Preznit Nitwit
Preznit Corporate $2 Whore
Prezint Prostrated4Dollars
Preznit Absurd
Preznit Unoriginality
Preznit Hides Everything
Preznit Cognitively Challenged
Preznit Lucky Sperm
Preznit Scripted Questions
Preznit Mission Accomplished
Preznit Openly Deserted
Preznit Slime Licker
Preznit Bunnypants
Preznit Turd Slurper
Preznit Gassed'n'Ready
Preznit KravenKristian
Preznit Culture of Life Vulture
Preznit Down Low
Preznit Runnin' Away
Preznit Loves Sum JimmyJeff
Preznit Assclown
Preznit $2 Crack Whore
Preznit Abysmally Amoral
Preznit Pathological Prevaricator
Preznit Wasted Blow
Preznit Morally Bankrupt
Preznit Waste o' Time
Preznit Horse Cranker
Preznit Horse Cock
Preznit Mission-still-not-Accomplished
Preznit Brush Hacker
Preznit Drippy Dick
Preznit Crapfest Commando
Preznit Equine Stroker
Preznit Equine Ejaculation
Preznit Fortunate Embryo
Preznit Unclean Urine
Preznit Completely Cowardly
Preznit Press Avoider
Preznit Intellectually Impaired
Preznit Horse Fluffer
Preznit Whale Shit
Preznit John Bircher
Preznit American AWOL
Preznit Ding-Dong
Preznit Spineless Invertebrate
Preznit Bought N. Paidfor
Preznit No Balance
Preznit Oedipal
Preznit Habitual Offender
Preznit Criminally Culpable
Preznit Deserting Fratboy
Preznit Never Responsible
Preznit Lies Forever
Preznit Minimal Intellect
Preznit Prevaricating Pendejo
Preznit Utterly Incapable
Preznit Stolen Election
Preznit Peter Principle
Preznit Slip'n'Fall
Preznit Business Failure
Preznit Oedipal Obsession
Preznit Mile-Wide Yellow Stripe
Preznit Eternal Ball-licker
Preznit Yeller-Bellied Coward
Preznit Bad Officer
Preznit Elephant Sucker
Preznit Pencil Dick
Preznit Equine Fluffer
Preznit Ball Licker
Preznit Cant B. Bothered
Preznit Cognitively Impaired
Preznit Cant Function
Preznit Swallow Not Spit
Preznit Strategery
Preznit Pickle Licker
Preznit All Hat No Cattle
Preznit Bonesman's Boner
Preznit Jawbone ... of an ASS
Preznit Record Vacations
Preznit Blow
Preznit Distracted by Shiny Things
Preznit C. Noe Evil
Preznit No Lie 2Big
Preznit Eternal Vacation
Preznit Long Vacations
Preznit Piltdown
Preznit Dickless Vacationer
Preznit DryDrunk
Preznit Pickle Humper
Preznit Fear Everything
Preznit Cant B. Blamed
Preznit Never Responsible
Preznit Fluffing Arabians
Preznit Dry Hole
Preznit Wholly Incompetant
Preznit Fumble Fuck
Preznit Always AWOL
Preznit Apron Strings
Preznit Nap Time
Preznit Avoids Accountability
Preznit Lifelong Failure
Preznit Legally Insane
Preznit Hates The Poor
Preznit Disenfranchise Blacks
Preznit Pond Scum
Preznit Election Fraud
Preznit Bubble Boy
Preznit Never Accountable
Preznit Insular Idiot
Preznit Potty Break
Preznit Deserting Coward
Preznit Endless Deficit
Preznit Compassionate Clownshoes
Preznit Platitudes
Preznit Abnormal Psych
Preznit Helpin' Rich Folks
Preznit Rubber Bloomers

via TBogg, the insane Michelle Malkin claims that the picture of Preznit Rubber Bloomers was photoshopped. Now "photoshopped" in our culture has come to mean "changed" and usually not for the better, especially out here in blogtopia. But as with all thing reality based, Malkin gets it wrong.

Update: A defensive Reuters photo editor explains who's responsible and also admits how the image was Photoshopped.

The white parts of the picture were overexposed, so a Reuters processor used Photoshop to burn down the note. This is a standard practice for news photos, Hershorn says, and the picture was not manipulated in any other way.

The Duchess on the budget...

That's what the annual federal deficit will be by 2015 on the current Bush course. Merely to balance the budget by then, we'd need a 37 percent tax hike. Or we can cut spending. We should cut spending. The test of today's GOP will be over which path they take in the future. God knows, this president won't make the hard calls. It's up to the Congress.

Nothing new to see here folks, it's the THC hard at work, coupled with the testoserone and the Kool-Aid. Move on.

In his continuing effort to look like more of a moron than he already is, Falafel O'Loofah has decided that all us "sek-u-lar" progressives want to have sex with ducks. Hmmmph, goes to show what he knows, Canadian Geese are much better, because a little rough goes a long way...and nothing says rough like a pissed-off Goose!

From the September 14 broadcast of Westwood One's The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly:

O'REILLY: The secular progressive movement would like to have marriage abolished, in my opinion. They don't want it, because it is not diverse enough. You know, that's what this gay marriage thing is all about. But now, you know, the poly-amorphous marriage, whatever they call it, you can marry 18 people, you can marry a duck, I mean --

LIS WIEHL (co-host): A duck? Quack, quack.

O'REILLY: Well, why, you know, if you're in love with the duck, who is the society to tell you you can't do that?

This is not the first time that O'Reilly has expressed concern about the threat of marriage with farm animals. He has repeatedly warned that in the future, "[y]ou'll be able to marry a goat."

Hedley Lamarr: There might be legal precedent! Of course, Landsnatching . . . land, land, Land, see Snatch. Ah, Hailie vs. United Sates. Hailie: 7, United States: nothing. You see, it can be done!

The vultures are eyeing New Orleans because of the "belief that hundreds of billions of dollars in government aid is going to create a boomtown." And tonight the vulture-in-chief will promise them just that -- "the largest reconstruction effort ever on U.S. soil,"

So I added a few folks to the Fish Pond this week...let's see if I got them all here:

Julie with a B. you have to go read her Friday Joke...appropriate for the Great Rovian Reconstruction about to get underway. And I never knew that I had such a cute linkee...[blush]

Blog on the Run - long time commenter extraordinare here at DV

The Otter Side - Doc Otter, a fellow Navy Vet (of the Blackshoe variety) now practicing Medicine and he's just returned from NOLA where he was fixing up the practically psycopathic (no not Preznit Abnormal Psych) with meds and Dixie beer PRN (if indicated).

Drop by, enjoy their offerings and make them regular stops on your daily run through the wilds of Blogtopia! (y!sctp!)

Been out hunting quotes from folks who watched the speech:

"A day late and a dollar short," said 18-year-old Wayne State University student Rachel Aviles in Detroit. "I think he's more responding to the negative media than responding to fix the problem."

Jason Sawyer, 30, added his sarcasm as he watched at the Eastlake Zoo tavern in Seattle. When the president offered toll-free help numbers, Sawyer responded: "Oh yeah, pick up that cell phone that doesn't work and call FEMA."

What's sort of ironic, the operators who would answer the calls all have to get lengthy background checks for the DHS jobs; however similar BI's don't seem to apply to political appointees who can fuck up the situation, but do nothing to mitigate it -Michael Brown-. Really, who did the investigation on him? If it takes more credentialling to anwser the phone than to run the store, then there's a bigger problem than just the 1600 Crew. No, on second thought, there isn't.

For what it's worth, the Democratic Senators who are getting ready to allow John Roberts to become a Supreme Court Justice, er...Chief Justice should answer one question: If you are not going to filibuster this guy, then why should you be returned to office? This goes back to the aw-shit/attaboy maxim... one aw-shit (a vote for Roberts) wipes out 10,000 attaboys (their Senate careers).

Pass it on.

It's gonna just be fun to sit back and watch this go on. With The Mayberry Machiavelli running the reconstruction of the Gulf Coast, you have to wonder how well he'll be able to do it from a prison cell, unless of course he gets a Preznitial Pardon (!). The republicans are continuing apace with their usual destruction of America...

"Some new measures are already taking shape. In the past week, the Bush administration has suspended some union-friendly rules that require federal contractors pay prevailing wages, moved to ease tariffs on Canadian lumber, and allowed more foreign sugar imports to calm rising sugar prices. Just yesterday, it waived some affirmative-action rules for employers with federal contracts in the Gulf region.

"Now, Republicans are working on legislation that would limit victims' right to sue, offer vouchers for displaced school children, lift some environment restrictions on new refineries and create tax-advantaged enterprise zones to maximize private-sector participation in recovery and reconstruction."

Well, it was morbid curiosity that made me want to watch Preznit Endless Deficit get on the teevee. Should have listened to Donna, she had the right idea. Ignore the fucker. Oh well. 23 minutes of my life I'll never get back again...but anywayz...

Was it just me or was that opening scene, walking across that lawn in the mis-buttoned shirt just a little too Leni Riefenstahl? I kept expecting to hear some Wagner softly in the background from some of those speakers that look like rocks. And the smirk. Tonight was absolutely a smirk-a-thon extraordinaire. The Mrs walked in to the room and said "he looks like he's three and has one of those three year-old jokes he's just can't wait to finish." She's so perceptive sometimes.

For part of that speech I was pretty sure that Preznit Leave No Dollar Unspent was channeling FDR ... did we just witness the New Deal for New Orleans? Or was this just an egregious effort to buy votes for the upcoming election cycles that are sure to carry some bad news for the republicans. Then he got to channeling something, not sure what, maybe his inner zen-monkey or something. I'm pretty sure that when he either leaves or gets kicked out of being Preznit, he's got a gig waiting at the 700 Club invoking the Flying Spaghetti Monster for cash money on the installment plan.

Again, he's managed to bring more issues to the table with vague and stupid statements than he's got answers for. That whole thing about the military becoming first responders for an event like this, what's that all about? For logistics, sure. For medical support, sure. For law enforcement and fire-fighting and a score of other tasks. No. Unless of course he's planning to do away with Posse Comitatus, and move law enforcement to the military. No, Fuck no. If the DHS and FEMA worked as they were supposed to, there would be no need to ask the military for assistance much beyond the functions of the National Guard. But no, DHS and FEMA are as fucked up as can be, and the National Guard, why aren't they somewhere, ummmm... dry right now?

And money. Oh yeah. Everyone is convinced that they are not going to raise taxes to pay for any of this, it's all going on the big huge Government Platinum Card. Ah, where is the fiscal backbone to finally call bullshit on that? If they wanna pay, they gotta have the money first, and not get it by de-funding other programs that will leave the most needy in this country vulnerable, while the top 1% pay no taxes at all.

Was anyone else thinking while he was spouting off about how the good jobs rebuilding the Gulf Coast were going to put money back into the region, ah, hey buttfucker you just slashed the wages of every construction worker in the Gulf Coast for the forseeable future. Service sector jobs are next on that chopping block. Nice move, Preznit Compassionate Clownshoes.

And ah, excuse me, but which labor union folks outside of the Gulf Coast was he talking to? I seem to recall that unions in the Gulf Coast region don't exactly flourish, and they aren't going to be too happy with that whole wage thing... just a guess on my part.

I'm sure that Pegaloon has super moist knickers tonight...she's probably right now writing a paean to a Preznit.

Well, fine, but I'm down with a soliliquy to a shithead. Seems fair and balanced, right?

Oh, crap I almost forgot to mention it, but we got at least one Nine-Eleven and one WMD in there. How could he have a complete speech without mentioning either of those?

This kids, is talent. I am not worthy.

... and George Bush will address the nation tonight from New Orleans, cradling a black baby in each arm.

If you believe the crap that Beloved Leader is about to go off and spout, then hey I got a bridge across Lake Ponchartrain I'd like to sell you. A really long, low bridge.

Bush stopped in Pascagoula, Miss., where he toured a nearby Chevron refinery. Accompanying him were Sen. Trent Lott and Rep. Chip Pickering, both Mississippi Republicans, and several senior White House officials.

In his text, Bush, who was to speak from a New Orleans park, said the federal government would work with state and local authorities "so they can rebuild in a sensible, well-planned way."

"Federal funds will cover the great majority of the costs of repairing public infrastructure in the disaster zone, from roads and bridges to schools and water systems. Our goal is to get the work done quickly. And taxpayers expect this work to be done honestly and wisely — so we will have a team of inspector generals reviewing all expenditures."

Three major polls released today showed large segments of the public opposing key items on the president's agenda.

In a New York Times/CBS News poll, more than 60% of those surveyed said they did not share Bush's priorities, roughly 10 percentage points higher than when he was reelected in November. About 50% approved of the war on terrorism. More than 6 in 10 expressed unease about the president's ability to make right decisions on Iraq, and just 1 in 3 approved his handling of the economy. Overall, 41% approved of Bush's job performance.

Dan Bartlett, the 1600 Crew chief mouthpiece, was making the rounds of the morning shows to prep them for beloved leaders monologue in mea culpa (as if). Bartlett, if you remember was the tool who claimed back in the days of yore that Preznit Deserting Coward's personal physician was in Houston, which is why he missed his mandatory Flight Physical...Bartlett's lips moving...Bartlett lying.

A pinstriped Dan Bartlett made the morning show rounds today, appearing on ABC, CBS, Fox, CNN, and MSNBC, to preview the President's prime time speech.

On GMA, Bartlett responded in the negative to Charlie Gibson's suggestion that the "astronomical" cost of Katrina plus Iraq plus health care might require the nation to raise taxes.

"It unfortunately requires us to deficit spend," Bartlett said. "The worst thing that we could do is raise taxes. It would only hurt the economy."

For not going over to The Otter Side and reading Otter's Journey to NOLA. Added Otter to the blogroll, and also the Veterans blogroll (newly established).

Go read. A doc without peer.

From Jonathan Alter's Time article (really good) on Katrina, the aftermath and race.

Obama, the only African-American in the U.S. Senate, says "the ineptitude was colorblind." But he argues that while—contrary to rapper Kanye West's attack on Bush—there was no "active malice," the federal response to Katrina represented "a continuation of passive indifference" on the part of the government.

The 1600 Crew and the GOoPers have been actively about turning that $300 tax rebate into a blank check for crippling this country. Given that every family in America basically owns somewhere in the neighborhood of $110,000 of the National Debt right now, what happens to this country when it can't be paid? We can only sell each other our homes and max out our credit cards with 2nd, 3rd and 4th mortgages before we become objects of the "passive indifference" of the republicans who have tilted the tables in their favor for the foreseeable future.

The funniest (not ha-ha, but ironical) part of this is the wingnuts who believe that one day, if they are in trouble, their republicans will come riding to their rescue...somehow. All they need to do is take a close look at James Sensenbrenner to see the indifference of their party to the neediest in America. Tinkerbell is fucking DOA and no amount of clapping will work now, as long as they are building bridges to nowhere.

Those silly Moon Bats.

Just found this little tidbit. I'm guessing that since Castro has survived every president since Eisenhower, someone, somewhere ought to break that code that he's not going anywhere and Communism isn't leaving Cuba anytime soon.

"I hope people don't play politics," said President Bush in the hurricane's aftermath. But that message didn't get through at the State Department, which is playing politics by continuing to ignore Cuba's offer to send 34 tons of aid and the services of 1,586 doctors.

On the face of it, the State Department’s inaction is puzzling. Cuban doctors have much experience in helping the victims of tropical storms. In 1998, Cuba sent 2,000 doctors to Central America to help the victims of Hurricane Mitch, a storm far more devastating than Katrina. Cuba’s assistance was just part of a massive international outpouring, led by the United States, which sent more than $1 billion in aid. There is also a need for Spanish-speaking doctors in the Gulf Coast region. Americans obsessed by Katrina's racial angle have largely overlooked the fact that up to 40,000 Honduran immigrants, most of them poor, lived in Katrina’s path.

1600 Crew philosophy: If my house is burning down, and my neighbor offers me a hose, but he's a Democrat, I'll wait for the ideologically-correct volunteer fire department from two towns over to put out the blaze.

So as Preznit Insular Idiot roves around the Gulf Coast looking for, as MoDo puts it, another "bullhorn moment" that Other Gulf isn't looking too swift either. The difference there is that we've all been aware of the incompetance and shitty leadership from the 1600 Crew et.al., for what, going on Three and a Half Years now?

Insurgents killed more than 141 people Wednesday in at least 10 separate bombings and rocket attacks that made for one of Baghdad's deadliest days.

Targets included crowds of Iraqi civilians and at least three U.S. military convoys. The deadliest attack, in a northwest Baghdad neighborhood, exploded among crowds of Shiite Muslim day laborers gathered to look for work. Iraq's Interior Ministry spokesman, Col. Adnan Abdul-Rahman, said 90 people were killed.

Just as there were looters in the wake of Katrina, there were those memorable days of lawlessness in Iraq after the fall of Saddam. But lawlessness was OK back then (stuff happens!), as long as the Oil Ministry was secure. Massive stores of conventional weapons disappeared from armories controlled by the newly unemployed Sunni military, many of whom, dollars to donuts are some of the same "insurgents" or "terrorists" or whatever the label du jour is today.

These guys have learned the lessons that all opposition folks who use violence to promote an agenda learned long ago: the best way to use force is do it visibly and often (reverse shock and awe!). In the days leading up to the October 15th referendum, these attacks will become even more violent and more visible. The folks carrying out these attacks, or at least planning them worry little about losses of their soldiers, the 1600 Crew has supplied them with a ready-made group of recruits; everytime that Preznit Whitebread opens his mouth about "terrorists" he's talking about a demographically diverse group of men of Muslim faith. He's declared war on them personally and unlike his cowardly, deserting punk ass, they're willing to die for their convictions...I'm guessing there's a real low AWOL rate amongst Mujahadeen.

And they've declared war on US over there. The question is how long before they bring that war here, despite all the money we've given to all of the friends, contributors, lackeys and toadies of the 1600 Crew to "keep us safe"? Katrina has shown that the emperor has no clothes. Another catastrophic event will show that the only thing in the threadbare Imperial Closet was Ken Mehlman writing checks to the Swift Boaters, and other than that it's has been pretty empty since January 2001, and finding it out that way will be worse than just 'pretty bad'.

The still-uncaught Osama Bin Laden smiles everyday as he gets hooked up to his dialysis machine and thanks Allah that he gets to see Beloved Leader for what he is: Osama's Greatest Success Story.

Jeff Huber of Pen and Sword has an interesting post today over at ePluribus Media. Worth a read.

This will make you ill. If you have a friend, relative or even an acquaintance who is thinking about this, send them this article.

Don't read this if you just ate.

Eeeew.

Well, the 1600 Crew will always seek some way to let their cronies make a buck off you, or your corpse. Apparently the company that has extensiv e ties to the 1600 Crew, Service Corporation International, (SCI), is handling the bodies in Louisiana. SCI has an agreement through FEMA and the state of Louisiana, so you have to wonder what Kathleen Blanco is thinking, signing up with a company that has a track record of some not-so-savory practices.

In other words, FEMA and then Blanco outsourced the body count from Hurricane Katrina -- which many believe the worst natural disaster in U.S. history -- to a firm whose parent company is known for its "experience" at hiding and dumping bodies.

The Menorah Gardens cemetery chain, owned by SCI, desecrated vaults, removed hundreds of bodies from two cemeteries in Florida and dumped the gruesome remains in woods frequented by wild hogs, investigators discovered in 2001. In one case, a backhoe was used to crack open a vault, remove corpses and make room for more dead bodies.

SCI paid $100 million to settle a lawsuit filed by outraged family members of the deceased.

A secretary at the lawfirm that sued SCI over the Florida cemetery scandals gasped when informed that FEMA had outsourced handling of Katrina victims' bodies to an SCI subsidiary.

"Oh, good lord!" she said.

SCI was also involved in an earlier scandal in Texas. Eliza May, former Texas Funeral Service Commission Director, filed a lawsuit accusing George W. Bush, then Governor, of obstructing an investigation into SCI license violations. May was fired following a dispute with Waltrip.

Waltrip and an SCI lobbyist met with Governor Bush's chief of staff, Joe Allbaugh (Allbaugh was later appointed head of FEMA after Bush became President, but left to become a lobbyist representing Halliburton, among other corporate clients).

According to Newsweek, Bush stopped by and said to Waltrip, "Hey, Bobby, are those people still messing with you?"

May, a Democrat, sought to force Bush to testify in the case, but in August 1999, a Texas judge tossed out a subpoena issued by May's lawyers for Bush to give a deposition. Bush, who was not a defendant, called May's claims "frivolous" and denied knowing the circumstances of her ouster.

In 1999, when Bush was gearing up to run for the presidency, Texas Governor Rick Perry approved a settlement for May. SCI paid $55,000; the state of Texas shelled out the balance without admitting wrongdoing in May's termination.

I do wonder if Governor Blanco is even aware of the problems that SCI has had, and its reputation from some of the things that have happened.

Here's a handy-dandy chart for refuting all those pesky wingnut claims and talking points that some New Orleans residents just like to drown and such. I got it in an email from Think Progress. Enjoy.

CLAIM - STATE AND LOCAL OFFICIALS WERE MOSTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR FAILURES: "White House Shifts Blame to State and Local Officials" [Washington Post, 9/4/05]

FACT - BUSH PUT FEMA IN CHARGE OF EFFORT BEFORE KATRINA STRUCK: "Specifically, FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency." [White House, 8/27/05]

FACT - FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ABLE TO ACT WITHOUT PERMISSION FROM STATES: The Wall Street Journal: "Mr. Chertoff activated the National Response Plan last Tuesday by declaring the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina an ‘Incident of National Significance.' The plan, which was rolled out to much fanfare in January, essentially enables Washington to move federal assets to the disaster without waiting for requests from state officials." [Wall Street Journal, 9/13/05]

CLAIM - NO ONE COULD HAVE PREDICTED BREACHED LEVEES: On ABC's Good Morning America, Bush said, "I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees." [Good Morning America, 9/1/05]

FACT - LEVEE BREACH PREDICTED REPEATEDLY: Responding to Bush's comments on Meet the Press, Dr. Ivor Van Heerden of the LSU Hurricane Center "I didn't buy that because, you know, we had discussed on numerous occasions that a worst-case scenario would be if we had one of these major hurricanes and then we lost the levee systems." A White House advisor sat in on the "Hurricane Pam Exercise," a computer simulation of the possible effects of a Category 3 hurricane on New Orleans. The exercise found that "…a storm like Hurricane Pam would: cause flooding that would leave 300,000 people trapped in New Orleans, many of whom would not have private transportation for evacuation." [Meet the Press, 9/11/05]

CLAIM - GOV. BLANCO DELAYED STATE OF EMERGENCY DECLARATION: In a Sept. 4 Washington Post article, which was corrected hours later, an anonymous Bush administration source claimed Governor Blanco had not yet declared a state of emergency in Louisiana. The Post reported, "As of Saturday, Blanco still had not declared a state of emergency, the senior Bush official said." [Washington Post, 9/4/05]

FACT - GOV. KATHLEEN BLANCO DECLARED A STATE OF EMERGENCY IN LOUISIANA ON AUGUST 26: Three days prior to when Katrina made landfall. [Office of the Governor, 8/26/05]

CLAIM - GOVERNORS WANTED FEMA TO BE WEAK: Brit Hume: "FEMA, first of all, is not a first responder. FEMA is basically a tiny little agency that has been kept weak. And you know why it's been kept weak? The governors want it that way." [Fox News Sunday, 9/11/05]

FACT - STATE OFFICIAL COMPLAINED ABOUT WEAKENING OF FEMA UNDER BUSH: "State and local disaster-relief officials have been complaining about the lack of federal involvement in emergency response for some time. Trina Sheets, the executive director of the National Emergency Management Association, which represents local emergency personnel, told Salon that "since the Department of Homeland Security was established there has been a steady degradation of the capabilities." [Salon, 9/7/05]

CLAIM - RESIDENTS WHO REMAINED IN NEW ORLEANS ARE TO BLAME FOR NOT EVACUATING: Sen. Rick Santorum said, "I mean, you have people who don't heed those warnings and then put people at risk as a result of not heeding those warnings. There may be a need to look at tougher penalties on those who decide to ride it out and understand that there are consequences to not leaving." [Associated Press, 9/6/05]

FACT - MOST RESIDENTS WHO REMAINED COULDN'T AFFORD TO LEAVE: New York Times: "The victims, they note, were largely black and poor, those who toiled in the background of the tourist havens, living in tumbledown neighborhoods that were long known to be vulnerable to disaster if the levees failed. Without so much as a car or bus fare to escape ahead of time, they found themselves left behind by a failure to plan for their rescue should the dreaded day ever arrive." [New York Times, 9/2/05]

CLAIM - BUSH "STRUCK THE RIGHT BALANCE" BETWEEN HIRING POLITICAL CRONIES AND EXPERIENCED PROFESSIONALS: Vice President Cheney said Bush had "struck the right balance between political appointees and career professionals to oversee the relief efforts." [AP, 9/8/05]

FACT - MOST TOP FEMA OFFICIALS WERE POLITICAL HACKS: "Five of eight top Federal Emergency Management Agency officials came to their posts with virtually no experience in handling disasters." [Washington Post, 9/9/05]

CLAIM - MAYOR NAGIN LEFT 2,000 SCHOOL BUSES BEHIND IN THE FLOOD: Sean Hannity said, "You would have thought that the 2,000 buses, school buses, that sat in the yards would have been used to help those people that were incapable of getting out on their own, but none of that had happened locally." [Hannity and Colmes, 9/6/05]

FACT - NEW ORLEANS HAD LESS THAN 300 WORKING SCHOOL BUSES: "The [Orleans Parish school] district owns 324 buses but 70 are broken down." [New Orleans Times-Picayune, 9/5/05]

CLAIM - LOCAL OFFICIALS DESERVE BLAME FOR LACK OF EVACUATION BUSES : Rick Santorum claimed, "Many didn't have cars … And that really was a failure on the part of local officials in not making transportation available to get people out." [Times Leader,9/6/05]

FACT - LOUISIANA NATIONAL GUARD REQUESTED 700 BUSES FROM FEMA FOR EVACUATIONS, FEMA ONLY SENT 100: The Boston Globe reported, "On Sunday, the day before the storm, the Louisiana National Guard asked FEMA for 700 buses to evacuate people. It received only 100." [Boston Globe, 9/11/05]

CLAIM - MILITARY NOT STRETCHED THIN BY IRAQ: President Bush said, "We've got plenty of troops to do both. Let me just — let me just talk about that again. I've answered this question before, and you can speak to General Honore if you care to. He's the military man on the ground. It is preposterous to claim that the engagement in Iraq meant there wasn't enough troops here, just pure and simple." [White House, 9/12/05]

FACT - MILITARY LEADERS SAY IRAQ HAMPERED THEIR EFFORTS AFTER KATRINA: National Guard Chief Lt. Gen. Steven Blum said, "Had that (Mississippi and Louisiana) brigade been at home and not in Iraq, their expertise and capabilities could have been brought to bear." The Washington Post reported "In Louisiana and Mississippi, civilian and military leaders said the response to the hurricane was delayed by the absence of the Mississippi National Guard's 155th Infantry Brigade and Louisiana's 256th Infantry Brigade, each with thousands of troops in Iraq." [AP, 9/10/05, Washington Post, 9/10/05]

CLAIM - NEWSPAPERS REPORTED NEW ORLEANS HAD BEEN SPARED SIGNIFICANT HURRICANE DAMAGE: Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff said, "I remember on Tuesday morning picking up newspapers and I saw headlines, ‘New Orleans Dodged The Bullet.'" [Meet the Press, 9/4/05]

FACT - HEADLINES ACROSS THE COUNTRY ANNOUNCED "CATASTROPHIC" DAMAGE TO NEW ORLEANS: The Tuesday, August 30th edition of the Times-Picayune led with a banner headline reading, "CATASTROPHIC: Storm Surge Swamps 9th Ward, St. Bernard; Lakeview Levee Breach Threatens to Inundate City." Dozens of other major newspapers led with headlines describing Katrina's horrifying aftermath. [Times-Picayune, 8/30/05; Newseum via Wonkette]

Thanks to Judd Legum over at Think Progress. The original can be found here.

Dont. Be. Fooled.

Preznit Never Accountable "took" responsibility for the disaster that was Katrina. Gee, guess the man who never looks at poll numbers must've seen his dropping below his daddy's and approaching Richard Nixon's like a Space Shuttle on short final to the Cape. But wait, let's listen in on Beloved Leader:

"Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government and to the extent the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility," ...

He repeated his desire to find out exactly what went wrong on every level of government.

"It's in our national interest that we find out exactly what went on ... so we can better respond," Bush said.

See how easy that was?

to the extent the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility,"

Hey, I'm going to be updating the Fish Pond this week. Some of the blogs over there have rolled over and are belly up, they need to get moved on out. If you blogroll me, and I have not added you in the past, and want a link back, let me know. I am going to do my best to make changes all week to get it up to date.

Thanks. Leave your link in comments; it'll make it easier to add them.

Also, I'm dumping Volokookhieh conspiracy...any nominees for a readable, reasonable non-homophobic (yeah, that may be a stretch) wingnut blog that's not the Duchess of Dupont?

From the Time article about the cock-up at in the 1600 Crew on their handling of Katrina. Can you smell the flopsweat?

Bush has governed largely from the right after winning the election decisively with his people on his issues, with few concessions to the center. Bush said at his re-election victory celebration that the new term would be "a new opportunity to reach out to the whole nation"--a pledge that now carries fresh urgency.

By late last week, Administration aides were describing a three-part comeback plan. The first: Spend freely, and worry about the tab and the consequences later. "Nothing can salve the wounds like money," said an official who helped develop the strategy.

The second tactic could be summed up as, Don't look back. The White House has sent delegates to meetings in Washington of outside Republican groups who have plans to blame the Democrats and state and local officials.

The third move: Develop a new set of goals to announce after Katrina fades. Advisers are proceeding with plans to gin up base-conservative voters for next year's congressional midterm elections with a platform that probably will be focused around tax reform.

Preznit Bubble Boy has never been in a weaker state than he his right now, politically. Performance means taking every opportunity to point out where he's wrong (tax cuts, too much deficit spending) and propose viable sensible alternatives and find republicans who agree. We don't abandon our principles to engage allies from across the aisle, but we do abandon them when we do nothing at all to oppose this idiot ruining our country.

Michael Brown, You've Resigned From FEMA, What Are You Going To Do Now?

Well, given that his former roomie got him the FEMA job in the first place, I guess he could hire Brownie, after all he's got a heckuva tag line for his cover letters: Preznit Bunnypanties sez "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job".

On the other hand, there hasn't been resume that's been that thoroughly dissected since Jayson Blair trickfucked the New York Times into believing he was an honest journalist. So if you're Brownie, how do you get a job given that your resume is better known than the Bill of Rights by Abu Gonzales? I mean, c'mon, is anyone going to believe that stuff about actually working at FEMA, much less running it?

Well, I guess there's always [sigh] a right-wing think-tank. In a couple of months when he's no longer hot property, he can start 'rehabilitating' himself, by writing for the Corner and attacking various minor Democrats, while working his way up the talk show circuit. It's already been established he doesn't know a disaster when he sees one, I guess that includes his career. Besides, Preznit Election Fraud still owes him for Florida last year, so he's got that going for him...

No. Really. It almost gets no better than this. In the race to see where the intel could be falsified faster, CIA with the close personal supervision of Darth Cheney, or in Doug Feith's Oujia Board Parlor in the aptly-named Bowels of Pentagon for the smelly shit that came forth, it seems that the Intel Cooking Brigade missed something. Our dearest friend and dictator du jour, Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan-land seemingly managed to let some of those pesky neutron-filled secrets out of his borders. Gee, imagine that...those highly secure borders between the countries of Pakistan and Al-Qaeda let something go through. Hmmm, imagine the bad luck.

President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan said yesterday that he believed that a Pakistani nuclear expert who ran the world's largest proliferation ring exported "probably a dozen" centrifuges to North Korea to produce nuclear weapons fuel. He added, however, that after two years of interrogations there was still no evidence about whether the expert also gave North Korea a Chinese-origin design to build a nuclear weapon.
...
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, also speaking to reporters yesterday at The New York Times, praised General Musharraf for working in three areas, and said the United States would be supportive: helping to pursue members of Al Qaeda, creating "diplomatic space" for operating by reaching out to India and Israel, and working to improve education and the economy to discourage militancy. "There are parts of Pakistan that are extremely poor where you get breeding grounds for this kind of extremism," she said, and the United States would help him deal with those.

Seriously, the whole WMD claim was such bullshit four years ago, when the verifiable programs existed in both Iran and North Korea. But the neocon warlovers had no desire to push for an invasion there; an Irani scenario was a no-win for the US, and besides no Bush family member had their portrait on the floor of a hotel, and the North Koreans would have Nuked Seoul, Tokyo, China and something else, just because they could. There was no neocon doctrine for an invasion of North Korea, there would have been no oil riches only thousands of starving refugees, and we know how well the 1600 Crew deals with poor people who need assistance: here's the lifeboat, sorry about the holes. See Ya!

I read this and right after I got done dunking my head in the sink to cool off my brain, I sat down and reread it. It makes me no happier on second reading.

In laying out areas of potential inquiry, the Democrats were generally polite and, with few exceptions, largely devoid of passion.

Letting Robert get by with the 1600 Crew stonewalling document requests, and him not answering questions makes for some really, really bad precedent. The Senate Democrats have already managed to do a better-than-passing impersonation of a hooker who has lost her looks and is now down to performing nothing but blow-jobs to make enough to score a meal, with their bowing, scraping, fawning and kneeling on demand from the Rovewellian Ministry of Beating the shit out of compliant Democrats.

It's way past time for them to get up off their knees and start acting like the grown-ups they are supposed to be. It's all about Performance and now the spotlight is upon them: Perform or Be Gone. Is that really hard to Understand?

And I, myself, thought we had dodged a bullet. ... the bullet has been dodged.

Apparently as the flood waters start to slowly recede in N'Awlins and along the Guff Coast, the one thing that they are finding under the newly dried-out land, is lower poll numbers for Bunnypants!.

Even some members of Bush's own party appear to have lost faith in their leader: The president's overall approval rating among Republicans has declined from 91 percent in January to 78 percent in the latest poll. Overall, barely half the country now characterize Bush as a "strong leader" -- down 12 points since May of last year. And the percent who say he can be "trusted in a crisis" likewise has fallen from 60 percent to 49 percent now.

Together, the poll portrays an increasingly unpopular president who is under siege at home and abroad. It also suggests that the public is growing impatient with an administration that once seemed so sure-footed but now seems unable to deal effectively with crises at home and abroad.

The only sad part of this is that the media, which has been blinded by their own ambition to maintain that precious "access" to the 1600 Crew, would make a statement like that; about an administration that seemed so "sure footed" making missteps. The only people in America who believed that the 1600 Crew were "sure footed" were the Kool-aid Drinking Kewl Kidz of the Media and the Christo-Fascisti. The rest of the 51% of the morons who voted for Preznit Disenfranchise Blacks just more convinced that John Kerry could not protect them because the Smirk-Crashcart campaign told them so. Had Katrina happened last year, I suspect November might have told a different story...by far.

Well, woulda-should-coulda, wish in one hand, shit in the other and see which one fills up first. It's on to 2006 and some elections to take over at least one chamber of Congress. Then let the games begin.

Especially appropriate after September 11th, I suppose. A little humor for your Monday:

A man died and went to heaven. As he stood in front of St. Peter at the Pearly Gates, he saw a huge wall of clocks behind him. He asked, "What are all those clocks?"

St. Peter answered, "Those are Lie-Clocks. Everyone on earth has a Lie-Clock. Every time you lie, the hands on your clock will move." "Oh," said the man, "whose clock is that?"

"That's Mother Teresa's. The hands have never moved, indicating that she never told a lie." "Incredible," said the man.

"And whose clock is that one?" St. Peter responded, "That's Abraham Lincoln's clock. The hands have moved twice, telling us that Abe told only two lies in his entire life."

"Where's President Bush's clock?" asked the man. "Bush's clock is in Jesus' office. He's using it as a ceiling fan."

From his column in today's Post.

"Rewriting history is a detestable practice, the War in Iraq is all Bill Clinton's fault anyhow."

Hey, Bob, can I call you Bob? I'll be happy to buy you an M-16, a box of ammo and a plane ticket to Baghdad, like many of our soldiers over there you're on your own for Body Armor. Once you land, you're on your own though. I hear the cab ride from the airport is an unqualified bitch. While enroute to the Green Zone, please reflect on how the improved Islamic Republic of Iraq will be a better ally to the US, as well as being less repressive than Saddam and more open to Western Influence.

A one-thousand word essay on the inclusion of the new governments acceptance of Womens Rights, the rights of its minority citizens who practice a different form of Islam and the benefits of Sharia Law for poorly educated citizens would be nice.

I guess that it would be really, really nice to hear from you, one of the "leading thinkers" in US Foreign Policy why after decades of the US supporting dictators globally, including Saddam Hussein, it became necessary to go to war in Iraq and overthrow him. Are we targeting Islam Karmiov next, he's a putative "ally", but also a "really bad man" in the mold of Saddam, boils opponents alive, I hear. Or why, in our own hemisphere did we not invade Chile, Pinochet was a "really bad man" too...

On September 11, 1973, the military, led by Pinochet, stormed the presidential palace and seized power from president Allende, who was found dead soon after. A junta headed by Pinochet was established, which immediately suspended the constitution, dissolved Congress, imposed strict censorship, proscribed the leftist parties that had constituted Allende's Popular Unity coalition, and halted all political activity. In addition, it embarked on a campaign of terror against leftist elements in the country. As a result, approximately 3,000 Chileans were executed or disappeared, more than 27,000[2] were imprisoned or tortured, and many were exiled and received abroad as political refugees.

But bottom line, and your buddy the Once-and-Future Alcoholic spilled it the other day was Oil. It was always about the oil. In your fevered Neo-Con dreams, you envisioned a walk-through because you figured the brown folk wouldn't fight, they laid down for the first invasion, there was no reason to think differently this time. A closer reading of their history Bob would have shown that occupations there have not been successful, and never would be, certainly by a non-Arabic speaking mass of "infidels" no matter how noble their intent.

It's one thing to show up with a gun, and another to show up with a gun, a reason and a plan. The 1600 Crew did the former, eschewing the latter because all the Chickenhawks were convinced that in a land they didn't understand, a gun could rule and a plan could follow and no reason had to be given.

Nice job. Enjoy the ride from the airport.

Preznit Hates The Poor is absolutely convinced in his own alcoholic brain that his administration didn't do the cut'n'run down in the Big Easy. Naw, they just figured that all those folks would enjoy free water sports in their area, followed by dehydration, starvation and no medical supplies. Shit, it was just like a free summer camp, just ask Tom Delay.

President Bush denied Monday there was any racial component to people being left behind after Hurricane Katrina, despite suggestions from some critics that the response would have been quicker if so many of the victims hadn't been poor and black.

"The storm didn't discriminate and neither will the recovery effort," Bush said. "The rescue efforts were comprehensive. The recovery will be comprehensive."

It's amazing, isn't it, that Rove can make Preznit Wooden Dummy speak and his lips never move?

David Brooks, chief of right-wing twittery at the New Whore Times goes through an entire laundry list of arguments about what went wrong in New Orleans and closes with this.

...But liberals who think this disaster is going to set off a progressive revival need to explain how a comprehensive governmental failure is going to restore America's faith in big government.

James Lee Witt, Bill Clinton.

Government does not have to be a disabling bureaucracy when supplied with Actual Leadership, and not treated as a patronage machine for incompetant clods.

Saturday night and blogging...am I a loser, or what? Wandered by Skippy and found this link to a dKos diary on a town meeting that Rep Lamar Smith of Texas held the other day. Interesting reading.

Then go take a look at the Ignatius piece over in the Post. He talks about Newties latest theories on governance and where his party needs to go next. Reading that diary and then rereading Ignatius, I get a sense of something that seems pretty true on its face. Perhaps the politics of "values" has past, at least for this moment. People are always going to have some attachment trying to impose their values on others either because they can or they think they have some divine right to be busybodies...it's just human nature.

But all of a sudden we've hit this sort of weird peak. People have been getting bombarded for so long with the concept of performance; corporate performace (work harder!), personal performance (home/life/relationships), familial performance (soccer mom/dad), school (right one/SAT/Med/Law) and it goes on and on. We all go to work and have meet performance expectations, sometimes monthly or half-yearly or certainly yearly. But strangely no one does seem to apply these standards to politicians. Elections occur, and they don't get judged on anything but their ability to perform like trained seals at fundraisers: perform well, get enough cash-stuffed fish to run a campaign until you have so much electoral momentum cycle-to-cycle that it's not even a chore anymore, no one runs against you. Performance is only due for the corporate masters who toss the fish, and sometimes their orders are "do nothing".

They are then assigned to some amorphous mass of "officialdom/elected" and given money and perks and time and left to do what they will. Perhaps they're measured by pork per square mile of their district or state, or some other strange relativistic metric that exists in a hand-out they're given when they get their official induction into elected officialdom, I don't know.

Perhaps it's time to start to see if we can begin to push our Democratic Elected Bozos to play in the Performance Politics elimination tournament, because the Flying Spaghetti Monster knows, they're sure as hell not doing anything right now.

I think Performance Politics means being willing to be responsible for things that go wrong, and not being afraid to speak the truth to power. Lieberman now says that perhaps he "should have looked at Michael Brown more closely". Really Holy Joe, ya think? That 42 minute hearing between recess and lunch was quite strenuous. Maybe Performance Politics means that's the Holy Joe's swan song. He didn't perform in a critical role because it was too much work. Sorry Joe, You're Gone.

If Democrats buy into this and build it into a message, a coherent believable one, one that every Democratic elected official pledges to live by and live up to, and we share our visions for repairing the damage that the 1600 Crew hath wrought, perhaps there's hope. But you know, it's going to require courage, moral and political . It's going to take some time, many of the old guard aren't going to give up their fat salaries and perks and the power they've got just on the off-chance that this will work. And it will only work if the people who stand up to represent us believe that accountability is more important than re-election, that Performance means that every day is another day to move the country ahead, that government is not an ATM for the richest and least needy, but rather a source of insipiration for the world and a resource for the neediest among us.

Good Performance means that when the least among us can contribute to everyone else, then we are all stronger for it. I think that there are a room full of folks in Texas who might support that message no matter who's selling it. But it should be a Democrat, because I have a feeling that "performance" as Gingrich defines it, means that those who are able to perform the most with the least effort should be able to reap the biggest rewards, which sounds suspiciously like Bush-o-Nomics and Cronyism repackaged and rebranded with a big sign that says that most marketable word of all "FREE!" until you read the fine print and realize that you just sold your family into servitude, donated your real estate to CheneyBurton and are scheduled to have a kidney removed next week for donation to some Cornerite who's in incipient renal failure. Newt's Performance-based Ownership society: no matter how well you perform, they still own you.

This was one of the better moments for beloved leader last week:

In an effort to raise the spirits of the hundreds of thousands who have lost their homes, Bush promised to rebuild devastated areas better than they were before, but at one point focused on the home of a powerful lawmaker.

"Out of the rubbles of Trent Lott's house — he's lost his entire house — there's going to be a fantastic house. And I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch," he said on a tour of the region Friday, drawing nervous laughter.

Some Republicans winced, including one disbelieving congressional aide who said: "Lott? He's focusing on Lott? Surrounded by poor people, he talks about a sitting senator?"

They were all better off 'cause they're all underprivileged, and the Astrodome was like summer camp...all that stuff those two morons can sit on that rebuilt front porch and reminisce about...

Q: If George Bush were Trent Lott's bitch, would that make him Lott's Wife? Just askin'

Whole story about how long it took the unrequited rascist fucks of the 1600 Crew to finally get around to at least getting Micheal "Invented the Fire Truck, I did" Brown out of the areas impacted by the storm. Seems that the 1600 Crew was a-scared to let Beloved Leader actually go have a photo-op with the folks in NOLA, because he might find out he's neither Beloved nor a Leader. So they sent Brownie packing, back to his office by the window, a six-figure salary and a bucket of cold margaritas.

His boss, Michael "Ming the Merciless" Chertoff made this comment:

In Baton Rouge, Mr. Brown appeared briefly at Mr. Chertoff's side before heading back to the capital, where, the secretary said, the director was needed for potential disasters.

"We've got tropical storms and hurricanes brewing in the ocean," Mr. Chertoff said.

Young Texas attorney tells the truth about Karl Rove and loses her job for it. Seems that Karl has to pony up some back taxes he tried to avoid paying after 2001 for a house he owns and lives in in the DC area. He apparently maintains that he actually lives in one or two small rental units he owns in Texas, to be allowed to vote there (where else, right?). So a reporter doing a story on it called the Texas Secretary of State's office to get more info and spoke to an attorney there who answered the reporters questions, apparently with just a trace too much candor.

A staff attorney with the Texas secretary of state said yesterday that she was fired this week for violating press protocols when she spoke to a Washington Post reporter who was working on a story about presidential adviser Karl Rove.

Elizabeth Reyes, 30, of Austin said she was fired Tuesday after she was quoted in a Post story that ran Sept. 3 about tax deductions on Rove's homes in the District and in Texas.
...
The Post's story reported that Rove inadvertently received a District homestead tax deduction on his Palisades home, even though he had not been eligible for the benefit for more than three years. Rove was eligible for the deduction when he bought the home in 2001, the story said, but a change in the tax law in 2002 made the deduction available only to District property owners who do not vote elsewhere. Rove is registered to vote in Texas.
...
Rove is registered to vote in Kerr County, Tex., the story reported, and he and his wife own two small rental cottages there that Rove claims as his residence. But two local residents said they had never seen Rove there.

When Post reporter Lori Montgomery telephoned the press office of the Texas secretary of state, the press officer was on vacation, and Montgomery was transferred to Reyes. The attorney, who spoke in two separate telephone calls, told Montgomery that it was potential voter fraud in Texas to register in a place where you don't actually live, and she was quoted as saying Rove's cottages don't "sound like a residence to me, because it's not a fixed place of habitation."
...
While she didn't know she was talking to a reporter, Reyes said, the press policy doesn't bar her from speaking with the media.

"The policy allows us to talk to members of the media," she said. "The policy says if it's a controversial issue or a special issue, it needs to be forwarded on to someone else. Just talking to the media doesn't violate it, as I read it. . . . Karl Rove didn't come up. It wasn't something you could classify as controversial."

Just another example of the 1600 Crew intimidation of those who tell the truth.

Gilliard.

It's been bugging me all day, I knew that this reference existed, but for the life of me, I couldn't remember what they were called: lettres de cachet. Here's a little history lesson, and why we need to be afraid of the Boy King.

In 14th century France the king's order for imprisonment was simply verbal, but by the 18th century a standard was initiated that these orders were to be written, and from this came the lettres de cachet. The tradition for this was established from principles surrounding royal privileges recognized by old French law where the king could directly intercede directly in the administration of justice, by a special act or will.

These were simply letters sealed by the king, countersigned by the king's ministers, and closed with the royal seal or cachet, they usually contained an order originating directly from the king. At times these letters were regardless and even contrary to the laws. The most commonly issued lettres de cachet were penal where the king could sentence "a subject without trial and without an opportunity of defence to imprisonment in a state prison or an ordinary gaol, confinement in a convent or a hospital, transportation to the colonies, or relegation to a given place within the realm."

Useful as silent weapons against political foes or critical writers lettres de cachet were handy for punishing perpetrators of high birth without the scandal of a lawsuit. Other uses for them included issuing them to the police in "dealing with prostitutes, and on their authority lunatics were shut up in hospitals and sometimes in prisons." Many times heads of families employed them in attempts to protect the family honor as a means to control "disorderly or criminal conduct of sons; wives, too, took advantage of them to curb the profligacy of husbands and vice versa". In the 18th century it was common practice for the Secretary of State to issue them arbitrarily with no record of the action being sent to the king. One had to simply fill in the name in order to make the letter effective.

Eventually someone struck upon the idea to issue blank lettres de cachet for a bribe or some other consideration. These became know as carte blanche warrants. With its space for the name left blank this precursor to carte blanch inspired great fear. Sometimes the warrant was to set a prisoner at large, but it was more commonly used for detention in the Bastille.

Eighty thousand carte blanche warrants were issued during Cardinal André Hercule de Fleury's (1653-1743) administration with the majority being against the Jansenists, followers of Cornelius Jansen (1585-1638), in an effort to suppress the religious movement. During the reigns of Louis XV and Louis XVI fifty-nine cachets were obtained against family members of French revolutionary Honoré Gabriel Riquetti Mirabeau (1749-1791). These acts precipitated a ground swell against these and a number of other abuses. Secretary of State Chrétien Guillaume de Lamoignon de Malesherbes (1721-1794) tried to enact some measure of justice into the system during his short ministry. The occasional invocation of them against leaders of opinion, including Voltaire, became symbolic of arbitrary royal authority and oppression. Malesherbes resigned in 1776 after the failure of the reform program.

Was it the power of the press? Or just hoist on his own petard of marginal competance? Brown? Gone.

Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown is being relieved of his command of the Bush administration's Hurricane Katrina onsite relief efforts, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced Friday.
...
Brown has been under fire because of the administration's slow response to the magnitude of the hurricane. On Thursday, questions were raised about whether he padded his resume to exaggerate his previous emergency management background.

Looks like Damage Control to me. A desk by the window and a title for a salary. Bye, Bye, Brownie. You're doing a heck of a job warming that chair.

via Alternate Brain, thanks, guys! Best news I've had all week...

Apparently that's what the 1600 Crew thinks that document is good for. The Supreme Court is going to be hearing this case, and now more than ever it's time to block Roberts and any other nutcase nominees that Preznit Legally Insane is going to make.

A federal appeals court ruled today that the president can indefinitely detain a U.S. citizen captured on U.S. soil in the absence of criminal charges, holding that such authority is vital to protect the nation from terrorist attacks.
...
Attorneys for Padilla and a host of civil liberties organizations blasted the detention as illegal and said it could lead to the military being allowed to hold anyone, from protesters to people who check out what the government considers the wrong books from the library.

The reputation, as I understand it, of that Circuit Court in Richmond is that it's just slightly to the left of the SS Tribunals in Nuremberg during WWII, so this does not surprise me. But the fact that they could so blithely just wrap the Constitution around a toilet-paper roll and overnight it to the 1600 Crew sort of defies belief. Any judge from that court nominated by Fearful Leader to the O'Connor spot better get filibustered right out of the gate; they obviously have never read the Constitution, much less believe in it. So how could they interpret it?

We have already seen the direct result of an OJT-appointee in high public office, we don't need another one right now, thanks.

He's had a few. Apparently, Colin Powell now feels really, really bad about his performance at the UN before the invasion of Iraq. Remember, that during/after Gulf War I, Powell was one of those who put the brakes on going to Baghdad and "completing" that "mission".

So Powell joined up with Beloved Leader and went off to the UN where he assured them that he had unimpeachable sources, he just couldn't tell everyone that it was Ahmed Chalabi...or he'd have been laughed out of there. Chalabi was well known by most players in the middle-east to be a shit bag of the first order.

So Colin sat there and said: "What, My Lai?".

It was Powell who told the United Nations and the world that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and posed an imminent threat. He told Walters that he feels "terrible" about the claims he made in that now-infamous address — assertions that later proved to be false.

When asked if he feels it has tarnished his reputation, he said, "Of course it will. It's a blot. I'm the one who presented it on behalf of the United States to the world, and [it] will always be a part of my record. It was painful. It's painful now."

Oh, and by the way for the figuring-it-out challenged, Powell just admitted that the war in Iraq is based on a flat-out LIE.

The Rovian Spin Machine is really, really good at coming up with cute little phrases that the well-coiffed, empty-headed anchors on Cable Stations (and Snott McCllelan) can toss off. Case in Point: Blame Game. Nice, short and to the point for the helmet-head anchor-doo types.

We need that too. So how about Accountable Action? As in, "Scotty, we won't play the Blame Game if you'll detail all administrations Accountable Actions". Would that work? How does it (or something like it) get out there for use?

Giving the Helmet-head anchor-doo corps easy-to-say phrases seems to be key to even placing in the PR races. D'Oh! Must get better at it...must get better at it...

-note: this post got really long as I found more stuff and added it. If you read it before, check the bottom of the post, there may be new stuff...sorry for the interruption -

In most places 'padding' your resume and getting caught at it will get you fired...everywhere but here.

according to his bio posted on FEMA's website, was "serving as an assistant city manager with emergency services oversight." The White House press release from 2001 stated that Brown worked for the city of Edmond, Okla., from 1975 to 1978 "overseeing the emergency services division."
...
...Brown was an "assistant to the city manager" from 1977 to 1980, not a manager himself, and had no authority over other employees. "The assistant is more like an intern," she told TIME. "Department heads did not report to him."
...
Under the "honors and awards" section of his profile at FindLaw.com — which is information on the legal website provided by lawyers or their offices—he lists "Outstanding Political Science Professor, Central State University". However, Brown "wasn't a professor here, he was only a student here," says Charles Johnson, News Bureau Director in the University Relations office at the University of Central Oklahoma (formerly named Central State University).
...
Under the heading of "Professional Associations and Memberships" on FindLaw, Brown states that from 1983 to the present he has been director of the Oklahoma Christian Home, a nursing home in Edmond. But an administrator with the Home, told TIME that Brown is "not a person that anyone here is familiar with." She says there was a board of directors until a couple of years ago, but she couldn't find anyone who recalled him being on it. According to FEMA's Andrews, Brown said "he's never claimed to be the director of the home. He was on the board of directors, or governors of the nursing home." However, a veteran employee at the center since 1981 says Brown "was never director here, was never on the board of directors, was never executive director. He was never here in any capacity. I never heard his name mentioned here.
...
The FindLaw profile for Brown was amended on Thursday to remove a reference to his tenure at the International Arabian Horse Association, which has become a contested point.

Brown's FindLaw profile lists a wide range of areas of legal practice, from estate planning to family law to sports. However, one former colleague does not remember Brown's work as sterling. Stephen Jones, a prominent Oklahoma lawyer who was lead defense attorney on the Timothy McVeigh case, was Brown's boss for two-and-a-half years in the early '80s. "He did mainly transactional work, not litigation," says Jones. "There was a feeling that he was not serious and somewhat shallow." Jones says when his law firm split, Brown was one of two staffers who was let go.

Up next: an revelation that the Harvard that John Roberts went to was actually the now-defunct Harvard A&T in West Pimple, Connecticut.

So, does the actual lying ever end with these people, or is it just sport now to see how much they can get away with day to day?

(b) What do you believe in your background or employment experience affirmatively qualifies you for this particular appointment?

During my early career in municipal government, I was actively involved in emergency service at the state and local government level, including police, fire, public works and public safety. I believe that my administrative and management experience in state government and large, international nonprofit organization has provided me with the requisite management skills to lead and direct the Federal Emergency Management Agency. In addition, my legal background includes the representation of emergency service personnel. Through this experience, I was responsible for handling labor, legislative and personnel issues relative to emergency services.

Finally, my tenure as FEMA's General Counsel has provided me with an understanding of the wide-ranging issues FEMA must handle.

Employment record

February 2001 to present
Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel
Federal Emergency Management Agency
Washington, DC

(a bunch of non-governmentally related jobs)

Staff Director
Senate Finance Committee
Oklahoma Legislature
Oklahoman City, Oklahoma

1978-1980
Executive Secretary
Edmond Economic Development Authority
Economic Development Director
Edmond Chamber of Commerce
Edmond, Oklahoma

1975-1978
Assistant City Manager, Police, Fire and Emergency Services
Edmond, Oklahoma

10. Government experience: List any advisory, consultative, honorary or other part-time service or positions with the federal, State, or local governments other than those listed above.

1980-1982
City Councilman
Edmond, OK

1980-1988
Chairman, Treasurer, Board Member
Oklahoma Municipal Power Authority
Edmond, Oklahoma

This guy is the Fart in Church, no doubt about it...he's out there and no one is going to own up to this smell once people start to figure out he's a resume-padder extraordinaire. Didn't the FBI do any sort of checking-up on him, or was Lieberman so taken by Ben Nighthore Campbell and Wayne Allards glowing and totally bullshit introduction that he just let it go by as a chance to suck more Beloved Leader cock gratis?

What will we tell the children?

Note, I transcribed that directly from the PDF since that part of the Q&A is actually an image file in the document. Sorry in advance for any typos...

Update update: I can't find any reference through Google to this item listed in his sworn testimony

Michael D. Brown Hydroelectric Generation and Dam Project

Honors and awards: List all scholarships, fellowships, honorary degrees, honorary society memberships, military medals, and any other special recognitions for outstanding service or achievements.

Full Debate Scholarship
Southeaster Oklahoma University, 1973-1975

Michael D. Brown Hydroelectric Generation and Dam Project
Named in my honor by the Oklahoma Municipal Power Authority
Kay County, Oklahoma, 1988

Update 3: On the Findlaw web page, which was updated 9/8/2005 he curiously has this listing:

Oklahoma City University School of Law, 1987 - Present
Adjunct Professor in State and Local Gov't. Law, Legislation

Chairman, Oklahoma Municipal Power Authority, Edmond, OK, 1980 - Present

Director, Foundation for Enid Education & Economic Develop., 1988 - Present

Director, Oklahoma Christian Home, Edmond, OK, 1983 - Present

B. Future Employment Relationships
1. Will you sever all connections with your present employers, business firms business associations or business organizations if you are confirmed by the senate?

As the current General Counsel of FEMA, I have already severed such connections effective February, 2001.

The lovely and talented Cookie Jill over at skippy just sent me a great Flash file that's worth a look. It's called "Mission Accomplished".

Warning: Non-FEMA approved photojournalism involving recently deceased American Citizens left there by...FEMA.

From a sort of one-off linkage, I've been getting visitors from a right-wing web site about an old post I wrote about Tom Ridge and his cashing in on his previous employment with the 1600 Crew as Chertoff's predecessor. I can only say one thing: I wish Ridge was back in charge, I think he was at least a leader who took some accountability for his actions. I'll bet he learned that when he was in the actual military, in actual Vietnam.

One person, in comments in another post asked me for my position on keeping an emergency supply of food and water in light of the Gulf Coast devastation. I have no problem with that, or with the basic tenets of the suggestion that Ridge made, "Be Prepared". All you need to do is live in the midwest before a snow storm to know that it's not a bad idea to stock up on a couple of days worth of essentials (why it's always toilet paper and milk, I have no clue) before a bad storm.

Stocking up on duct tape and plastic wrap? Aww c'mon, that's just a joke waiting to be written. And so I did, in my own skewed way...I don't know where the idea that I was riffing on keeping supplies of food and water on hand came from...

So in answer to my commenter who asked (and I'm answering here because he did me a favor in a round about way): I think being ready is never a bad idea. Would it have saved some lives on the Gulf Coast? Absolutely, if the house/pantry/garage is still standing and accessible.

But if it was flattened by 170 mph winds or is 10 feet under water, then all the advance logistics and preparation are just a fond memory.

Now that Preznit Avoids Accountability has sent Justice French Fry on to replace the still-dead Guillermo Rehnco, the passive-for-too-long Senate Democrats are finally showing a small, almost nano-vetebral growth.

In 1990, the Federal Communications Commission asked the first Bush administration to defend a policy aimed at encouraging more minority ownership of broadcast stations. As the number two man in the solicitor general's office, John G. Roberts Jr. played a critical role in the government's decision to reject the request, according to documents that came to light yesterday.
...
The White House, however, has refused to turn over memos and other documents Roberts wrote during that time frame, contending it would have a chilling effect on the advice the government receives from its lawyers. Meanwhile, Roberts has argued that the positions he took on behalf of the government were not necessarily his own.
...
But with Republicans in firm control of the Senate and Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) opposed to the request, all Democrats can do is urge the White House to reconsider.

There are serious racial issues coming out of the remnants of the Crescent City and indeed all up and down the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Now is not the time to get steamrollered once again by a politician whose political life support includes orchestrated attacks on the storm victims, some of the poorest Americans who were and are the least able to defend themselves.

Roberts is that genial, whitebread under-the-radar rascist, some of whose 'best friends are colored', whose tickets have been punched by loyal service to his master, Beloved Leader. His concern for people of color is displayed in his adherence to his party's doctrince of benign neglect for anyone not White, Wealthy and Worldly, that is to say his concern is only that his social order not be upset by those who might need assistance from the Federal Government at any point in their lives if they are not involved in Federal Corporate Welfare.

Hold him or filibuster him. It doesn't matter a whit to me. If the 1600 Crew refuses to produce every single document asked for in a timely manner, then allowing Roberts on the court because of some allegiance a mythical "collegiality" is akin to handing the country over to the forces of darkness for the next three or more decades. And short of impeaching him later, crying about shoulda-coulda-woulda years from now won't do a damn thing other than waste valuable oxygen my kids might need to breath.

From John over at AmericaBlog:

And note that Bush's rating on Katrina is 36% positive, 61% negative. Those are the REAL polls, folks. The only people supporting him are the FOX News/Pat Robertson borg. Screw them, we don't need more than 61% to win, and we need to stop focusing on the fact that 36% of Americans like Bush - they'd like him even if he ate their children.

Introducing...well, go read it.

Y'all can put lipstick on a pig, but at the end of the day, it's still a p-i-g pig.

Barbara Bush was making "a personal observation" when she said poor people at a relocation center in Houston were faring better than before Hurricane Katrina struck, President Bush's spokesman said Wednesday.

Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary, did not answer directly when asked if the president agreed with his mother's remarks.
...
McClellan, at the White House briefing, said: "I think she was making a personal observation on some of the comments that people were making that she was running into. ... But what we're focused on is helping these people who are in need."

Interesting blip from a story in the Post. Specter talks to French Fry:

"I talked to him about consensus-building," the senator said. "He said that was something that he thought was important" and will be a priority if he is confirmed.

Consensus-building. The only consensus built in this government is whether or not to borrow sixty trillion or seventy trillion from Beijing to give more tax breaks to millionaire buddies of Beloved Leaders'.

Money, Money, where to spend the dough?

The administration of President George W Bush cut the $27.1 million budget requested by the Corps of Engineers for improving the levees in 2005 by more than 80% to $3.9 million, although Congress finally raised the grant to $5.7 million, compared to $10 million in 2001.

The $100 million 2005 budget requested by the Southeast Louisiana Flood control project was slashed to $16.5 million by Bush and Congress finally awarded $34 million to the scheme, compared to $69 million in 2001.

In 2004, the U.S. Senate proposed its own $318 billion version of George W. Bush's $256 billion six-year transportation bill. Though it was stalled by the threat of a Bush veto, the so-called Safe, Accountable, Flexible and Efficient Transportation Equity Act (SAFETEA) had many supporters, among them House Transportation and Infrastructure chairman, Don Young (R-Alaska), whose state would receive $200 million for a mile-long bridge linking Ketchikan, Alaska with its airport, a five-minute ferry ride from town. Ketchikan's population at the time? 7,845.

Bugman speaks. This is not the Blame Game.

DeLay added that Alabama and Mississippi did a much better job of responding quickly than Louisiana. Alabama and Mississippi have Republican governors. Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco is a Democrat.

When I took my orders to go off and become a fling-wing phlyer after I won my Golden Leg-spreaders, one of the reasons I wanted to fly rotary-wing aircraft was because of the SAR mission and capabilities of helicopters. It's a great mission, which helicopters were built for. So when a couple of my brethern at NAS Pensacola went off and did a little people-savin' on their own, after a logistics run to drop off supplies, well the folks at Base Ops at NASP weren't too happy happy.

Two Navy helicopter pilots and their crews returned from New Orleans on Aug. 30 expecting to be greeted as lifesavers after ferrying more than 100 hurricane victims to safety.

Instead, their superiors chided the pilots, Lt. David Shand and Lt. Matt Udkow, at a meeting the next morning for rescuing civilians when their assignment that day had been to deliver food and water to military installations along the Gulf Coast.

"I felt it was a great day because we resupplied the people we needed to and we rescued people, too," Lieutenant Udkow said. But the air operations commander at Pensacola Naval Air Station "reminded us that the logistical mission needed to be our area of focus."

The episode illustrates how the rescue effort in the days immediately after Hurricane Katrina had to compete with the military's other, more mundane logistical needs.
...
The two lieutenants were each piloting a Navy H-3 helicopter - a type often used in rescue operations as well as transport and other missions - on that Tuesday afternoon, delivering emergency food, water and other supplies to Stennis Space Center, a federal facility near the Mississippi coast. The storm had cut off electricity and water to the center, and the two helicopters were supposed to drop their loads and return to Pensacola, their home base, said Cmdr. Michael Holdener, Pensacola's air operations chief.

"Their orders were to go and deliver water and parts and to come back," Commander Holdener said.

But as the two helicopters were heading back home, the crews picked up a radio transmission from the Coast Guard saying helicopters were needed near the University of New Orleans to help with rescue efforts, the two pilots said.

Out of range for direct radio communication with Pensacola, more than 100 miles to the east, the pilots said, they decided to respond and turned their helicopters around, diverting from their mission without getting permission from their home base. Within minutes, they were over New Orleans.

"We're not technically a search-and-rescue unit, but we're trained to do search and rescue," said Lieutenant Shand, a 17-year Navy veteran.
...
Seeing people on the roofs of houses waving to him, Lieutenant Udkow headed in their direction. Hovering over power lines, his crew dropped a basket to pick up two residents at a time. He took them to Lakefront Airport, where local emergency medical teams had established a makeshift medical center.

Meanwhile, Lieutenant Shand landed his helicopter on the roof of an apartment building, where more than a dozen people were marooned. Women and children were loaded first aboard the helicopter and ferried to the airport, he said.

Returning to pick up the rest, the crew learned that two blind residents had not been able to climb up through the attic to the roof and were still in the building. Two crew members entered the darkened building to find the men, and led them to the roof and into the helicopter, Lieutenant Shand said.
...
While refueling at a Coast Guard landing pad in early evening, Lieutenant Udkow said, he called Pensacola and received permission to continue rescues that evening. According to the pilots and other military officials, they rescued 110 people.

The next morning, though, the two crews were called to a meeting with Commander Holdener, who said he told them that while helping civilians was laudable, the lengthy rescue effort was an unacceptable diversion from their main mission of delivering supplies. With only two helicopters available at Pensacola to deliver supplies, the base did not have enough to allow pilots to go on prolonged search and rescue operations.
...
Dozens of military aircraft are now conducting search and rescue missions over the affected areas. But privately some members of the Pensacola unit say the base's two available transport helicopters should have been allowed to do more to help civilian victims in the days after the storm hit, when large numbers of military helicopters had not reached the affected areas.

In protest, some members of the unit have stopped wearing a search and rescue patch on their sleeves that reads, "So Others May Live."

These two guys did a good thing GREAT THING, they went in and helped out when some Coasties asked for assistance, and since they likely did not have HF radios on board, they couldn't call back to NASP while airborne to ask for permission to continue their SAR ops. But they did when they stopped for gas, and were granted permission to carry on; exactly what they should have done.

Now they're in hack for not being "team players" on someone's team (gee, wonder whose) FEMA. Someone who's still in the Naval Helicopter Association ought to nominate these guys and their crews for a SAR award next year...they went and did it.

Preznit Safety Net went off to eulogize the moldering corpse of William Rehnquist today. Rehnquist, who never met a quasi-fascist argument he couldn't support will be buried in Arlington, a place for Heroes, not Zeroes like him. Here's Preznit Fumble Fuck:

"We remember the integrity and the sense of duty that he brought to every task before him,"

Lito Pena is sure of his memory. Thirty-six years ago he, then a Democratic Party poll watcher, got into a shoving match with a Republican who had spent the opening hours of the 1964 election doing his damnedest to keep people from voting in south Phoenix.

"He was holding up minority voters because he knew they were going to vote Democratic," said Pena.

The guy called himself Bill. He knew the law and applied it with the precision of a swordsman. He sat at the table at the Bethune School, a polling place brimming with black citizens, and quizzed voters ad nauseam about where they were from, how long they'd lived there -- every question in the book. A passage of the Constitution was read and people who spoke broken English were ordered to interpret it to prove they had the language skills to vote.

By the time Pena arrived at Bethune, he said, the line to vote was four abreast and a block long. People were giving up and going home.

Pena told the guy to leave. They got into an argument. Shoving followed. Arizona politics can be raw.
...
The guy Pena remembers tossing out of Bethune School prospered, too. Bill Rehnquist, now better known as William H. Rehnquist, chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, presided yesterday over a case that centers on whether every vote for president was properly recorded in the state of Florida.

In his confirmation hearings for the court in 1971, Rehnquist denied personally intimidating voters and gave the explanation that he might have been called to polling places on Election Day to arbitrate disputes over voter qualifications. Fifteen years later, three more witnesses, including a deputy U.S. attorney, told of being called to polling places and having angry voters point to Rehnquist as their tormentor. His defenders suggested it was a case of mistaken identity.

Thanks to TBogg for the lead to that story.

Make it this.

The Government did not tell the media what to report, or not report, sometimes they really, really wanted to but there was this little thing called the First Amendment, in a quaint document called the 'Bill of Rights'. In modern times, the Media is all about Access, and the government is all about Granting Access. Access has all kind of perks, like big salaries for those who have it, and lots of face-time on camera to make you a "star" and best of all, a Nickname from America's Worst President Ever, because Nicknames make you feel like you have "Insider Access".

So now when stories need to be told, the government says "tell this, but don't tell that" and those with Insider Access dutifully and gravely nod their heads and say "OK, we won't because we want to keep our multi-million dollar salaries, and our fame and most of all, our Nicknames at events where we get to see the Naked Emporer in person."

The U.S. agency leading Hurricane Katrina rescue efforts said Tuesday that it does not want the news media to photograph the dead as they are recovered.
...
"We have requested that no photographs of the deceased be made by the media," the spokeswoman said in an e-mail.

This just in (my emphasis).

One week after the hurricane inflicted devastation of biblical proportions on the Gulf Coast, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the total tab for the federal government may top $150 billion. At the same time, senators in both parties said they suspect price gouging by oil companies in the storm's aftermath.

Perhaps it's time to help fund the long-term hurricane recovery recovery efforts with a Windfall Profits Tax that by law can't be passed on to consumers in future energy prices. That might make them think twice before gouging and raise a little cash for the massive efforts that will be undertaken in the future...

Jon Stewart on The Daily Show was absolutely devastating tonight. If you can catch it in reruns, or watch the feed from Comedy Central, make some time in your day to do it. His use of humor to bitchslap the republicans, especially Michael Brown and Preznit Knows Nothing were classic.

Ed Helms doing the best imitiation of Beloved Leader: "We're Zucchini eaters; we eat Zucchini". (Beloved Leaders statement: "We're problem solvers, we solve problems".) Thinking back on that riff from Helms, I can just hear Preznit Always AWOL when he made one of his few, actual flights in the TANG: "My airspeed is slow, I've got slow airspeed"...no wonder they sent him for remedial training then grounded his sorry ass.

Hey Kids! It's the new 1600 Crew BLAME GAME. Todays press gaggle with Scotty-scotty-bo-botty-bonana-fana-fo-fotty-mi-my-mo-motty Scotty:

Q I'm asking a direct question. Is he confident --

MR. McCLELLAN: We're going to remain focused on the people.

Q -- that he can secure the American people in the event of a major terrorist attack?

MR. McCLELLAN: We are securing the American people by staying on the offensive abroad and working to spread freedom and democracy in the Middle East.

Q That's a talking point. That's a talking point.

MR. McCLELLAN: No, that's a fact.

Go ahead.

Q No, it's not. And you think people who are watching this think that's -- from what does he derive that confidence, based on the response --

Read the gaggle, between Valerie Plame and Hurricane Katrina, some of the press corpse might have awakened from their kewl-kidz stupor.

Q But why didn't he -- but why weren't teams deployed to the Convention Center? Why weren't teams deployed to the Superdome? Why were people without water, without food? Why was there looting in New Orleans for survival? And you're talking about zero tolerance. Why did these things happen over a period of days, and you start seeing Mr. Brown on the air talking about he didn't know about the Convention Center and other things. Why?

MR. McCLELLAN: Look, you're getting into all the after-action analysis, and I can't tell you all the --

Q And you're saying there is not a blame game, but you open the door to the response --

MR. McCLELLAN: I can't tell you that everything you said is factually correct, and they've got -- we've got to look at all the facts. We've got to determine what worked, what didn't work, and apply -- (my em)

So, put on your ancient history hats...everybody remember Kelo, and how the Supreme Court says it's OK to bulldoze your house to put up a shopping mall, or hotel or some other tax-producing entity, because, well, developers gotta eat...

Some states and cities are reacting to the outrage of local citizenry by well, reacting. By passing legislation that forbid the kind of 'takings' that Kelo specifically allows...except (and you knew there was an exception, right?)...

The Institute for Justice, a Washington-based libertarian think tank, said that hundreds of local governments around the country are also debating new ordinances to restrict the use of eminent domain. Many have passed laws this summer barring any seizure of private property for commercial development. Other cities are tightening the conditions that could authorize such seizure.

Several members of Congress have introduced legislation that would bar federal financing for any local government project that condemns property for a commercial development. But Congress did authorize governments to condemn property for the benefit of energy companies in the new energy bill that President Bush signed last month.

There's been a lot of discussion around blogtopia (y! sctp! now give him a buck or two for royalties for Hurricane charities) about the past 25 years of conservative repudiation of governments role in everything. Except your bedroom. The prevailing wind has been from both ends of Pennsylvania Ave to sail along with the Grovel Nosetwist philosophy of "drowning government in the bathtub", which by itself brings up some frightening allusions to child-abuse right there.

The two and a half decades of tax-cutting institutional madness have led us to one thing: a government that can pour money into the pockets of its friends and campaign contributors, a government which prizes form over substance and the leadership of that government is so corrupt that it has to hide its own misdeeds from an even purportedly "friendly" congress, eschewing oversight at every turn.

So when a natural disaster the size of Katrina hits, what's been the value proposition for the residents of a state which has roundly supported the politics an policies of 'drowning the government in a bathtub'?

Tent cities aren't a happy option, but neither is haphazard improvisation. Is the problem the Bush administration's ideological fervor for small government? Does the White House really believe that primary responsibility should fall on volunteers, church groups and individuals? Or is it just stunning incompetence and lack of foresight?

And now our President, whose moral and physical cowardice sets him apart from virtually any leader in modern times, save perhaps the dictators of North Korea is attempting to politicize and deflect blame from himself, so he can continue to loot and pillage the government to allow the continued submersion of Federal Government in that metaphorical bathtub.

That submersion has become all too real to the displaced residents of New Orleans, and will be for the foreseeable future. I wonder how that will affect their view of metaphorical bathtubs and drownings in the 2006 elections and beyond?

quote from the Eugene Robinson

Commenter Jing Liang makes a most astute observation in comments:

Well, if one thing is different from 9/11, Bush can't use "national security" to keep things classified.

Well, this answers a few questions about how US Foreign Policy is shaped. Condi is a Dominionist.

...asked to say a few words from the pulpit, rice, a preacher's daughter, said: "the lord jesus christ is going to come on time." she added: "if we just wait."

via Skippy.

Now that Preznit Fluffing Arabians poll numbers are dropping, he's "cleared" his September schedule to "work" on the political damage inflicted by Katrina.

Blanco was not informed of the timing of Bush's visit, nor was she immediately invited to meet him or travel with him. Blanco's office didn't know Bush was coming until told by reporters. Bush spokesman Scott McClellan said the White House reached out to Blanco's office Sunday, but didn't hear back, and White House staff in Louisiana spoke with Blanco early Monday.

During his stop at Bethany, several people ran up to meet Bush as he and first lady Laura Bush wandered around the room. But just as many hung back and just looked on.

"I'm not star-struck. I need answers," said Mildred Brown, who has been there since Tuesday with her husband, mother-in-law and cousin. "I'm not interested in handshaking. I'm not interested in photo ops. This is going to take a lot of money."

Bush hasn't gone a day without a public event devoted to the storm and its aftermath. But none of those trips so far — nor appearances by several Cabinet members in the region — has quieted complaints that Washington's response to the disaster has been sluggish.

As far as the aftermath of the disaster, he could give a Flying Fuck, unless there's a way to manipulate the outcome/media/public perception for the benefit of the 1600 Crew.

From Attaturk over at Rising Hegemon.

Abu Musab Zarqawi's foreign-led Al Qaeda in Iraq took open control of a key western town at the Syrian border, deploying its guerrilla fighters in the streets and flying Zarqawi's black banner from rooftops, tribal leaders and other residents in the city and surrounding villages said.

A sign newly posted at the entrance of Qaim declared, "Welcome to the Islamic Kingdom of Qaim." A statement posted in mosques described Qaim as an "Islamic kingdom liberated from the occupation."

Rove's next task: tying Zarqawi to Blanco. Then he'll pass on some "off the record" information purporting to have audio of them talking about the brilliant weather manipulation of Katrina by Al-Qaeda to embarrass Beloved Leader, followed by a Swift-boating of all the displaced persons as "Welfare Queens" who are just out to get something for nothing. Did I miss anything?

Called this one...time for a lottery ticket. Email me for the numbers, and I'll paypal you the cash.

President Bush announced this morning that he will nominate John G. Roberts as the 17th chief justice of the United States.

I guess maybe Thomas and Scalia will just have to realize the most important thing of all, being a loyal retainer for the Bush Family Evil Empire just isn't enough. Being "their kind" of people is the last part of the equation. Kanye West wasn't blowing smoke out his ass at that benefit show. If you can't afford to shop at shi-shi designer boutiques, the price of admission is way too high for just casual entry into the circle of loyalists. If you aren't an Ivy-League eastern elite from old robber baron-industrialist WASP money, or your last name ends in a vowel, admission to the inner circle will never be forthcoming.

Victor Davis Hanson, who calls himself a "military historian" has this wholly unbelievable piece of trash in the NYT this weekend.

We forget that once war breaks out, things usually get far worse before they get better. We should remember that 1943, after we had entered World War II, was a far bloodier year than 1938, when the world left Hitler alone. Similarly, 2005 may have brought more open violence in Iraq than was visible during Saddam's less publicized killings of 2002. So it is when extremists are confronted rather than appeased. But unlike the time before the invasion, when we patrolled Iraq's skies while Saddam butchered his own with impunity below, there is now a hopeful future for Iraq.

Hanson writes the entire column from a Bay Area opium den, I think. There is little of substance or reality, his entire column is nothing but cheerleading and urging "stay the course" apologia for a failed strategy for a preemptive war of the wrong choice(s).

I guess as a historian, it would be too much to ask that VDH remember one simple, historical fact: Saddam was Our Guy, before He Wasn't.

Frank Rich, as many have noted has hit another homer today, and he closes his column with this:

The answers to what went wrong in Washington and on the Gulf Coast will come later, and, if the history of 9/11 is any guide, all too slowly, after the administration and its apologists erect every possible barrier to keep us from learning the truth. But as Americans dig out from Katrina and slouch toward another anniversary of Al Qaeda's strike, we have to acknowledge the full extent and urgency of our crisis. The world is more perilous than ever, and for now, to paraphrase Mr. Rumsfeld, we have no choice but to fight the war with the president we have.

Clearly, the cronyism and incompetence of the DHS is not making anyone any safer. The color-coded joke scale was a cute attempt to show that they were "doing something", when in fact they were doing nothing at all. Except inspecting my shoes at airports.

This is an issue that affects every elected representative, regardless of party...the next Katrina or 9/11 may be coming to your state or district. If you only want to sniff the Preznit's butt crack for a few laurel and hearty handshakes and leave your constituents in the same shape as the residents of New Orleans, knowing that you could have taken postive action now, instead of dancing to the tune of Denny Hastert, Tom Delay and Bill Frist, re-election might be the least of your worrys one day...your family might be living in the next superdome, because when push comes to shove, starving, scared people aren't going to care who you're related to as they take what they need to survive.

I suspect that the moral cowardice of most congressional types on both sides of the aisle won't allow much questioning to be done. I hope I'm wrong. The 1600 Crew has already started the Swift-boats, not to save the destitute in New Orleans, but to make sure that their leaders never draw another breath in criticism of the Faultless, Blameless One.

Besides making that donation to a disaster relief organization, perhaps donating five minutes of time to call a congress person and demand real, honest-to-goodness oversight might make all the suffering have at least one positive outcome. Congress could do its job again.

From skippy:

to be fair, at least all of awol's buddies got your tax dollars for the homeland security contracts they were awarded. it's not like the last four years and billions of dollars have been completely wasted. we recommend you review your personal emergency kit. check battery supplies, etc. because, what awol has spent the last week demonstrating, is that when osama punks him again, we are all on our own. (my em)

From Jane over at Firedoglake, concerning FEMA director Michael Brown:

"He's done a hell of a job, because I'm not aware of any Arabian horses being killed in this storm,"

Does it get anymore blatant than this?

Beyond that, some Republicans said the perception among some blacks that the White House had been slow to respond because so many victims were poor and African-American undercut what had been one of the primary initiatives of the new Republican chairman, Ken Mehlman: making an explicit appeal for support among black voters, a constituency that has traditionally been overwhelmingly Democratic.
...
But Mr. Bush, reflecting concern within the White House about the president's standing among blacks, notably said in his radio address that "we have a responsibility to our brothers and sisters all along the Gulf Coast, and we will not rest until we get this right and the job is done." (my em)

Preznit Cant B. Blamed is once again seeking ways to blame everyone else but anyone in the 1600 Crew.

Bush, who has been criticized, even by supporters, for the delayed response to the disaster, used his weekly radio address to put responsibility for the failure on lower levels of government. The magnitude of the crisis "has created tremendous problems that have strained state and local capabilities," he said. "The result is that many of our citizens simply are not getting the help they need, especially in New Orleans. And that is unacceptable."

Simply amazing...

How's that for a simple phrase to sum up the 1600 Crew and its political appointees over at FEMA? This is some of the most interesting reading of the day...

Born out of the confused and uncertain response to 9/11, the massive new Department of Homeland Security was charged with being ready the next time, whether the disaster was wrought by nature or terrorists. The department commanded huge resources as it prepared for deadly scenarios from an airborne anthrax attack to a biological attack with plague to a chlorine-tank explosion.

But Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said yesterday that his department had failed to find an adequate model for addressing the "ultra-catastrophe" that resulted when Hurricane Katrina's floodwater breached New Orleans's levees and drowned the city, "as if an atomic bomb had been dropped."

Chertoff says that "there was no adequate model" for a fucking hurricane hitting the continental US? The terrorists who struck on 9/11 were the exception, hurricanes have been getting generated out in the equitorial ocean every spring and summer since there have been oceans on this planet. They are a predictable, understandable phenomenon studied by scientists for decades with great accuracy and detail. For Chertoff to make such a claim makes him quite simply, a lying fuck like his boss Beloved Leader, and the director of FEMA.

Unfortunately, as most others have pointed out, both of them will probably get the Medal of Freedom and Bunnypants will head to Crawford for another vacation sometime before the end of September.

You gotta wonder, is there anything that the 1600 Crew won't lie about?

The crew over at the Alternate Brain make a really really excellent point. Who the fuck cares if the Supreme Court is down two justices, (well one really, because O'Connor said she'll hang around until a replacement is sworn in). Preznit Pickle Humper has one consistent thing going for him in the five-plus years he's been in charge: Really, Really bad/shitty/awful/horrid appointments to everything. Chertoff, Brown, Rice, The entire NeoCon cabal, you name it. Roberts is just another hack lawyer who gave loyal service in the 2000 election debacle in Florida, suppressing the vote and constitutional process there.

Any Democrat who does not oppose both Roberts and whomever Preznit Foul Ball nominates for Recent Corpse Rehnquist (who, by the was also a hack lawyer appointed by Nixon) deserve neither our support, money, time or consideration. We need to start letting them know that NOW! Because sure as the sun comes up in the East, Preznit Eternal Vacation will start chatting up every Democrat who could filibuster a nomination with empty promises, cajolery, and ultimately threats as soon as the moldering corpse of Rehnquist is kicked into the ground at an over-priced funeral in the District.

When I go to gatherings where people pray, I just look around and wait for the invocations to some invisible cloud being to cease. The reason? People like this:

"New Orleans now is abortion free. New Orleans now is Mardi Gras free. New Orleans now is free of Southern Decadence and the sodomites, the witchcraft workers, false religion — it's free of all of those things now," Shanks says. "God simply, I believe, in His mercy purged all of that stuff out of there — and now we're going to start over again."

I don't expect to hear a peep of condemnation from Preznit DryDrunk, because that might actually be the right thing to do and the Flying Spaghetti Monster forbid, our Beloved Leader would ever do the right thing. Unless it was what a campaign contributor told him was the right thing.

Dan Froomkin in the Post makes a really, really good point:

Diane Sawyer's rare live interview with President Bush this morning on ABC's Good Morning America exposed one of the president's greatest weaknesses: He doesn't have the answers to some of the most important questions.

The White House press corps is sort of used to that by now, but the American public -- clamoring for answers in the wake of the horrific Gulf Coast disaster -- may be less sympathetic.

As Americans suffer and die along the Gulf Coast, some in the press are allowing "unnamed" spokesmen to threaten those who would dare "play politics" with the raging incompetance of Preznit Dickless Vacationer and his merry little band of 'unnamed, but highly placed' ragtag fools and jesters.

Remember the New York Time and its enthusiastic warflogging, it's overt participation in the lies that led up to the war in Iraq? Well, gee whiz, this is from an editorial in todays NYT about the disaster in New Orleans:

One lasting lesson that has to be drawn from the Gulf Coast's misery is that from now on, the National Guard must be treated as America's most essential homeland security force, not as some kind of military piggy bank for the Pentagon to raid for long-term overseas missions. America clearly needs a larger active-duty Army. It just as clearly needs a homeland-based National Guard that's fully prepared and ready for any domestic emergency.

D-R-A-F-T.

Well played, Gray Lady. See what playing the whore gets you? You're now a social disease...

So while the politically-connected among the FEMA employees try and figure out whether or not they'll still get their Direct Deposit and whether or not the old GAO per diem rates are still applicable for New Orleans before getting off their asses, some of the citizens down there are doing something:

Guy T. Williams is usually to be found behind his desk downtown, where he is the president of the Gulf Coast Bank and Trust Company. But nothing is usual in New Orleans, and on Wednesday Mr. Williams was paddling his canoe in a submerged residential area between downtown and the overflowing Lake Pontchartrain, exploring flooded homes not yet reached by rescue teams.

He found a seven-story apartment complex with 170 people, including someone blind, another with no legs, a third with a heart ailment, and a small child. He gave the list and directions to members of a Texas task force working with the relief effort.

A volunteer citizen navy with its own flotilla responded Wednesday to calls for help.
...
Another volunteer was Chester Huvall Jr., a truck driver from New Iberia, La., who said he rushed here with his 16-foot aluminum boat "to answer prayers." He said he was determined to rescue someone.
...
He gazed at passing police and sheriff's boats packed with survivors and said, almost enviously: "Look at all the people they rescued. Why can't I be doing that?

Well, once again, regular Americans '1' - 1600 Crew '0'. Just what's to be expected...

The Astrodome is full. The shelters around Houston are filling rapidly. I wonder how many refugees (strange word to us at home, isn't it?) could be accomodated on the what is it, 1600 acres, at Praire Chicken Ranch in Crawford...? That might bring the magnitude of the disaster home to the Napoleonic little fucker like nothing else.

Just wonderin'.

Surfing through TV shows and blogs (left and some right) one thing is sort of amazing. There is an unstructured deconstruction and full-on assault on the lies and truth-twisting that the 1600 Crew, its congressional apologists (Mary Landrieu) and others have been putting out over the last 24-36 hours.

I think that they just discovered that everything that they say and do has been recorded and analyzed by friends and not-friends. Finally.

President Bush headed to the devastated region to survey the damage. As he was leaving the White House, Bush told reporters that he believes the relief operations so far "are not acceptable."

But he said he wanted to "assure the people of the affected areas and the people of this country that we'll deploy the assets necessary and get the situation under control."

So, America, how is the steely-eyed missile man doing now? One thing he'll be remembered for in history besides getting the whole world to dislike and laugh at America: the largest civilian body counts from disasters in history on his watch, while he stood backstage and strummed. Way to go, asshole.

It was only a matter of time

TIM, [Rich Lowry]
Remember: FEMA featured in the Troopergate scandal. Buddy Young, the head of Clinton's security detail who pressured other troopers not to talk, got a $92,000-a-year FEMA job.
Posted at 06:32 PM

The other interesting sub-text over at The Corner is shooting looters immediately, if not sooner. Gosh, if only they had left sooner, the Corner Crew would not have to call for the "termination with extreme prejudice" of poor folks caught in New Orleans. It's all about lawn order, right?

The VRWC never stops blaming The Mighty Clenis™, does it?

From that other place on the globe where actual science is being done, by actual scientists who think "ID" is something they need to show the police:

Humans and chimpanzees share "perfect identity" in 96 per cent of their DNA sequence, an international team of scientists reports yesterday.

David Brooks recent column about the looming issues of race and disaster recovery made me think of one thing. 1967.

On that summer Sunday morning, the officers had expected to find only a handful of individuals in the bar, but instead there were 82 people celebrating the return of two local veterans from the war in Vietnam. Despite the large number, police decided to arrest everyone present. A crowd soon gathered around the establishment, protesting as patrons were led away. After the last police car left, a group of angry black males who had observed the incident began breaking the windows of the adjacent clothing store. Shortly thereafter, full-scale rioting began throughout the neighborhood, which continued into Monday, July 24, 1967, and for the next few days. Despite a conscious effort by the local news media to avoid reporting on it so as not to inspire copy-cat violence, the mayhem expanded to other parts of the city with theft and destruction beyond the 12th Street/Clairmount Avenue vicinity.

Some 8,000 National Guardsmen were called in after 48 hours to quell the disorder, but their presence only fueled more violence. Willie Horton - Detroit resident, and popular Detroit Tigers baseball player - arrived after a ball game, and stood on a car in the middle of the crowd wearing his baseball uniform but could not calm them, despite his impassioned pleas. U.S. Representative John Conyers (D-Michigan) likewise attempted to ease tensions but was equally unsuccessful. Michigan Governor George Romney and President Lyndon Johnson disagreed about the legality of sending in federal troops. Johnson said he could not send federal troops in without Romney declaring "a state of insurrection"; Romney was reluctant to declare it for fear it would relieve insurance companies of their obligations to reimburse policyholders for the damage being done. Eventually, Johnson sent in federal troops from the 82nd Airborne of nearby Selfridge Air Force Base in suburban Macomb County, without a state of insurrection being declared.

The disparate pictures of the black man "looting" and the white couple "finding" groceries isn't going to make people much happier when they have been without food, water, sanitary facilities and medical care for almost a week by the time that Preznit Long Vacations shows up tomorrow and says "Zero Tolerance for Looters". Coming from a man who has never survived more than six inches from the silver spoon attached to mommy's apron, that's Big Talk, eh?.

Of course, he'll probably meet with the politically reliable republican congress-criminals from the area, and with a few token homeless folks. He'll probably bow his head in 'solemn prayer' with some poor soul who wants nothing more than a shower and a hot meal, and to perhaps know where their relatives are.

Then he'll declare that the answer to restoring New Orleans and the entire Gulf Coast is to pass more tax-cuts to allow small businesses on the Gulf to pull themselves "up by their bootstraps' in the aftermath of katrina. Following that momentous announcement, he'll climb back aboard Air Force one, sign an Executive Order to shoot all looters and then settle down for a nap.

Nah, I'm not politicizing this at all. This is a culmination of republican domestic policy failures, and I for one, intend to point it out frequently until 2006. Why are our Democratic Leaders not doing the same? I'm sure that someone on the Mayberry Machiavelli team is even now leading a working group scouring the Federal Register for any comments made by a Democrat about cutting the Corps of Engineers, or pork-laden water control projects on the Mississippi and Delta. Just gathering it to launch against them in 2006, in or out of context. Waiting is a mistake. Play offense. They are.

I love this woman. Here

According to Drudge, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has recently enjoyed a little Broadway entertainment. And Page Six reports that she’s also working on her backhand with Monica Seles. So the Gulf Coast has gone all Mad Max, women are being raped in the Superdome, and Rice is enjoying a brief vacation in New York. We wish we were surprised.

What does surprise us: Just moments ago at the Ferragamo on 5th Avenue, Condoleeza Rice was seen spending several thousands of dollars on some nice, new shoes (we've confirmed this, so her new heels will surely get coverage from the WaPo's Robin Givhan). A fellow shopper, unable to fathom the absurdity of Rice's timing, went up to the Secretary and reportedly shouted, "How dare you shop for shoes while thousands are dying and homeless!" Never one to have her fashion choices questioned, Rice had security PHYSICALLY REMOVE the woman.

Angry Lady, whoever you are, we love you. You are a true American.

thanks, Atrios...

So some folks are saying that Preznit Eternal Vacation should be able to use the after-effects of Katrina to boost his approval ratings:

"He's moving from complicated questions that are in many ways beyond his reach to matters that really are within his reach,'' Hess said. "This is an area, at least in the short term, in which a president can gain approval and maybe that gives him a little more wiggle room with the rest of his agenda.''

The 1600 Crew is desperately looking for a 'bye' on this...they have been caught with their dicks waving in the breeze as Beloved Leader vacationed and sought to pillage the economy further by destroying Social Security.

So they want to make nice? "We shouldn't be playing politics with this disaster?". Yeah, didn't we all hear that on 9/12 and beyond? The only way to remind people of the failures of this adminstration is to keep bringing them up, time after time after time...how much different might it have been if 25% of what just got given to the oil companies in that abortion of an 'energy bill' had gone to the Corps of Engineers a couple of years ago to continue their on-going work on the levees in New Orleans? We'll never know, because instead of being proactive on behalf of our country, we were wasting the money over in Iraq and now we get to react to yet more bad policy decisions by the folks who brought you nothing but fear itself.

Not just NO, but Fuck NO. No free pass.

A winning combination for the Worst Administration in American History. Last years election was based on the politics of Fear. Karl Rove used Al-Qaeda, Iraq and the unknown to scare undecided voters in to believing that the 1600 Crew was better equipped to assuage their fears in the event of Something Bad Happening.

The federal government so far has bungled the job of quickly helping the multitudes of hungry, thirsty and desperate victims of Hurricane Katrina, former top federal, state and local disaster chiefs said Wednesday.
...
The slow response to Katrina and poor federal leadership is a replay of 1992's mishandling of Hurricane Andrew, said former FEMA chief of staff Jane Bullock, a 22-year veteran of the agency.

Bullock blamed inexperienced federal leadership. She noted that Chertoff and FEMA Director Michael Brown had no disaster experience before they were appointed to their jobs.

Then came Bush v. Gore, and guess what? Well, just look south and see. So, I wonder how those "undecided" voters especially those in LA and MS are feeling about the 1600 Crew right about now?

Maybe when, or if, they ever rebuild some of those levees in New Orleans they can name one for Grover Norquist, to remind people of what happens when they forget that sometimes community comes before self here in America. And that sometimes "drowining the government in the bathtub means drowning the city in the lake"...wow, that's good gubmint at your service!

1. OMG it's the OSPREY
   
2. Another fine mess you've gotten us into, Mister Preznit
   
3. Whitewash, Inc.
   
4. Bunnypants Love
   
5. Missed the Memo
   
6. The March in DC
   
7. PowerTools
   
8. Delay indicted
   
9. Yeeeah. OOOkay.
   
10. Main and Central