Pelosi Climbs Bush's Frame

I haven't seen any links to this, but I saw it with my own eyes on CNN. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was discussing her chat with the Chimp about the delay in relief response in New Orleans. Disclaimer: this may be very slightly paraphrased, but correct in essence.

"I asked him what he was going to do about all the things that went wrong.

"His response was 'What went wrong?'

"He's oblivious. In denial. Dangerous."

Mrs. Pelosi, next time you're in Truckee I'd like you to be my guest at Casa Baeza. We'll shoot the works! The large appetizer plate!

Update, 4:37 PM OWT:

Link at Americablog

Freedom of the Press? Puh!

Go read Mr. H.

Again

I'm flabbergasted:

[. . .]

Many of the firefighters, assembled from Utah and throughout the United States by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, thought they were going to be deployed as emergency workers.
Instead, they have learned they are going to be community-relations officers for FEMA, shuffled throughout the Gulf Coast region to disseminate fliers and a phone number: 1-800-621-FEMA.

[. . .]

You have highly trained firefighters doing this? It would be the same if Harry paid me to mount and balance tires all day, a waste of resources. Why aren't people screaming for impeachment?

Thanks: Billmon via Riggsveda

Update:

More stupid shit:

PENSACOLA, Fla., Sept. 6 - 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.

[. . . ]

Flying over Biloxi and Gulfport and other areas of Mississippi, they could see rescue personnel on the ground, Lieutenant Udkow said, but he noticed that there were few rescue units around the flooded city of New Orleans, on the ground or in the air. "It was shocking," he said.

[. . .]

Lieutenant Udkow said that he saw few other rescue helicopters in New Orleans that day. The toughest part, he said, was seeing so many people imploring him to pick them up and having to leave some.

"I would be looking at a family of two on one roof and maybe a family of six on another roof, and I would have to make a decision who to rescue," he said. "It wasn't easy."

[. . .]

The order to halt civilian relief efforts angered some helicopter crews. Lieutenant Udkow, who associates say was especially vocal about voicing his disagreement to superiors, was taken out of the squadron's flying rotation temporarily and assigned to oversee a temporary kennel established at Pensacola to hold pets of service members evacuated from the hurricane-damaged areas, two members of the unit said. Lieutenant Udkow denied that he had complained and said he did not view the kennel assignment as punishment.

[. . .]

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

Link via my man Dave

"Dive the French Quarter"

Read about Will Durst's Escape from New Orleans.

May God watch over you New Orleans. And please survive, so we can come back and help drink your economy back to health.

Amen.

More is Better, Right?

Bill McKibben on global warming at TomDispatch. Not long as Tom's Dispatches go.

Which leads us to the second problem: For the ten thousand years of human civilization, we've relied on the planet's basic physical stability. Sure, there have been hurricanes and droughts and volcanoes and tsunamis, but averaged out across the Earth, it's been a remarkably stable run. If your grandparents inhabited a particular island, chances were that you could too. If you could grow corn in your field, you could pretty much count on your grandkids being able to do likewise. Those are now sucker's bets -- that's what those predictions about environmental refugees really mean.

Here's another way of saying it: In the last century, we've seen change in human societies speed up to an almost unimaginable level, one that has stressed every part of our civilization. In this century, we're going to see the natural world change at the same kind of rate. That's what happens when you increase the amount of heat trapped in the atmosphere. That extra energy expresses itself in every way you can imagine: more wind, more evaporation, more rain, more melt, more... more... more.

Our rulers have insisted by both word and deed that the laws of physics and chemistry do not apply to us. That delusion will now start to vanish. Katrina marks Year One of our new calendar, the start of an age in which the physical world has flipped from sure and secure to volatile and unhinged. New Orleans doesn't look like the America we've lived in. But it very much resembles the planet we will inhabit the rest of our lives.

I've never previously thought that being my age was an advantage in that I won't live to see the worst of it. There's a fresh buncha babies named "Katrina" that will, though. To them I say: I'll duct tape a paddle to my coffin when I go. If you see it floating by, feel free to use it as a raft.

Less Gas = More Money

From The Foundation For Taxpayer And Consumer Rights:

The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FTCR) today exposed internal oil company memos that show how the industry intentionally reduced domestic refining capacity to drive up profits. The exposure comes in the wake of Hurricane Katrina as the oil industry blames environmental regulation for limiting number of U.S. refineries.

The three internal memos from Mobil, Chevron, and Texaco (Click here to read the memos.) show different ways the oil giants closed down refining capacity and drove independent refiners out of business. The confidential memos demonstrate a nationwide effort by American Petroleum Institute, the lobbying and research arm of the oil industry, to encourage the major refiners to close their refineries in the mid-1990s in order to raise the price at the pump.

Looks like it worked, huh? And they're getting billions in subsidies of our tax money on top of record profits.

I gotta change my strategy: Now we have to keep Bush alive. The sonofabitch owes me money.

Gee, that explains it...

Sometimes I think people become Republican politicians because they're too retarded to get a job. From CTV:

Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said the administration is "getting a bad rap" for the emergency response.

"This is the largest disaster in the history of the United States, over an area twice the size of Europe (my bold)," Stevens said. "People have to understand this is a big, big problem."

Protecting his "bridge to nowhere", no doubt. Idiots like this are our real big, big problem.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?

Oh, isn't this rich:

Interviews with evacuees in Houston, which is expecting many thousands of evacuees to remain, suggest that thousands of blacks who lost everything and had no insurance will end up living in Texas or other U.S. states.

From MSNBC. Italics are mine.

Thousands of poor, uninsured African-Americans living just down the road from the House of Bush. That's got to be a nightmare for Barbara "underprivileged" Bush. I guess the chickens are coming home to roost.

Seven hundred plus New Orleans residents are expected here in San Diego. I'm glad. This place needs some Southern flavor. Maybe I'll hook up with one or more of them, and they can teach me how to make decent Southern-style biscuits.

A question

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

DIY*

[. . .]

The president said after meeting with his Cabinet today that he intends "to lead an investigation to find out what went right and what went wrong" in the government's reaction. [my em]

[. . .]

You're fucking kidding me, right?

Thanks: Pam

*Do It Yourself

Just great

A follow on to my post yesterday:

LONDON - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Monday that Iraq has become an even greater "center for terrorist activities" than Afghanistan under the Taliban.

Annan, speaking to British Broadcasting Corp., said many young Muslims are angry, and their anger has been exacerbated by what is happening in Iraq.

[. . .]

We're fighting them there . . . to make more of them there . . . so they'll come here and kill us. As we saw with Katrina, our homeland certainly isn't secure. Bend over and kiss your ass goodbye.

Hat tip: Ms. Julien

RS3M Spins Up...

Pretty much negating my last post, the Repubs done floored it and popped the clutch. From the Pensito Review, via Mike the Hawk.

Predictably, the Bush message-meisters are launching a trademark hardball, all-politics-all-the-time campaign to rewrite the events of last week to so that the administration's worst week becomes someone else's fault, and someone else's problem.

Of course, if the media refuses to be supine to Rove's campaign, he can use the trustiest arrow in his quiver of dirty tricks - the old bromide of liberal media bias. Ascribing criticism in the media has worked reliably for the GOP for two decades because the myth has become gospel to millions of Americans.

But the media have a weapon on their side that they have been reluctant to use against the GOP barrage - and maybe they'll be motivated this time to bring this powerful force to bear. The weapon is the facts in the case. FEMA screwed up. The aid was demonstrably not forthcoming when it was needed. The buck stops at the top. Period.

Oh, sure. Bush's slimiest machine, besides Rove himself of course, is his buck-deflector, which inexorably pushes the buck-stop outwards and downwards. I think Bush gets away with a lot because people don't believe a president could be such a chronic whiner. Now hear this: he is.

Waiting for the word from on high...

The American Reporter

A deafening silence haunts the American conservative echo chamber.

It has now been four days since the levees in New Orleans broke, and yet, not a word of comment on the disaster from either George Will or Robert Novak, the doyens of conservative opinion making here in the United States. Will's two op-eds since the day after Katrina have been, "The role of judges cuts both ways" and "Questions for Sen. Schumer" (Sep. 4), while Robert Novak wrote an obituary column about his friend Jude Wanniski ("Father of supply-side," Sept.1) and a column on the estate tax ("Estate tax politics," Sept. 3).

Something is terribly amiss.

Karl Rove had better hurry up and get those talking points out. Silence and desperate, feeble random spinning, he knows better than anyone else, have never worked as a PR strategy.

The RS3M* must be slipping. Don't worry. They'll catch up.

*

Republican Spin, Slime, and Smear Machine (y!abctp!)

Judge Not

Alan Dershowitz

My mother always told me that when a person dies, one should not say anything bad about him. My mother was wrong. History requires truth, not puffery or silence, especially about powerful governmental figures. And obituaries are a first draft of history. So here's the truth about Chief Justice Rehnquist you won't hear on Fox News or from politicians. Chief Justice William Rehnquist set back liberty, equality, and human rights perhaps more than any American judge of this generation. His rise to power speaks volumes about the current state of American values.

Within moments of Rehnquist's death, Fox News called and asked for my comments, presumably aware that I was a longtime critic of the late Chief Justice. After making several of these points to Alan Colmes (who was supposed to be interviewing me), Sean Hannity intruded, and when he didn't like my answers, he cut me off and terminated the interview. Only after I was off the air and could not respond did the attack against me begin, which is typical of Hannity's bullying ambush style. He is afraid to attack when there's someone there to respond. Since the interview, I've received dozens of e-mail hate messages, some of which are overtly anti-Semitic. One writer called me "a jew prick that takes it in the a** from ruth ginzburg [sic]." Another said I am "an ignorant socialist left-wing political hack... You're like a little Heinrich Himmler! (even the resemblance is uncanny!)." Yet another informed me that I "personally make us all lament the defeat of the Nazis!" A more restrained viewer found me to be "a disgrace to the Law, to Harvard, and to humanity."

All this, for refusing to put a deceptive gloss on a man who made his career undermining the rights and liberties of American citizens.

He has a few words about Stanford Law in the old days, too. Go read.

They shoot horse thieves, don't they?

From AntiWar:

Ben Morris, Slidell mayor: We are still hampered by some of the most stupid, idiotic regulations by FEMA. They have turned away generators, we've heard that they've gone around seizing equipment from our contractors. If they do so, they'd better be armed because I'll be damned if I'm going to let them deprive our citizens. I'm pissed off, and tired of this horse$#@@."

Fuckin' A, Mr. Mayor.

The War on Weather

Go see Tom Tomorrow.

Acronym

I was watching some Gulf Coast coverage last night and the commentator was out in some little town with a name like Ododiodeaux interviewing the Mayor about FEMA's lack of response. She said, "Around here, FEMA stands for 'Forget Everything but Metropolitan Areas'."

I guess she hasn't been watching TV.

Forward Progress

America, at its core, is a progressive nation. It is a nation focused on moving forward. Founded on the idea of escaping religious persecution, America has always been an ideal of progress and the relentless pursuit of that goal. We don't always get it right. Throughout our history the forces of evil - greed, prejudice, hate - have occasionally taken the reigns of power and exerted their darkness over our people. But because America is about progress, about reaching for the stars and trying again when you don't quite get there, these enemies of progress inevitably fail. They may appear to have the support of our people, but inevitably the good triumphs.

It is time for a new Progressive Era in America. Progressives understand what conservatives do not, that looking backwards, looking to some mythical image of 1950s era domesticity as the paragon of freedom is a fool's game. As such, progressives must now more than ever embrace the values of progressive culture wholeheartedly without delay. [my em]

[. . .]

Go read the rest at Oliver Willis or I'll subject you to another excerpt from one of my books that illustrates this point.

Calling 'bullshit'

Olbermann:

[. . .]

But, nationally, these are leaders who won re-election last year largely by portraying their opponents as incapable of keeping the country safe. These are leaders who regularly pressure the news media in this country to report the reopening of a school or a power station in Iraq, and defies its citizens not to stand up and cheer. Yet they couldn't even keep one school or power station from being devastated by infrastructure collapse in New Orleans - even though the government had heard all the "chatter" from the scientists and city planners and hurricane centers and some group whose purposes the government couldn't quite discern . . . a group called The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

And most chillingly of all, this is the Law and Order and Terror government. It promised protection - or at least amelioration - against all threats: conventional, radiological, or biological.

It has just proved that it cannot save its citizens from a biological weapon called standing water.

[. . .]

Hat tip: Atrios

Addendum

To Gord's post below. Wanker Scott catalogs FEMA's 'turnbacks' replete with lotsa links.

Yeah, we're winning

Puh. Via Rising Hegemon:

BAGHDAD, Sept. 5 -- 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."

[. . .]

Is this a fucking joke or what? Hello, McFly! Time to either institute the Draft or cut and run. Pick one, Chimpy. We're losing, you fucking twit.

You want a plan?

The Dems have a plan.

Katrina Relief Plan for Senate Action This Week


Although the Congress last week appropriated $10.5 billion for the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Defense Department, it is clear much more will be needed given the enormity of this disaster. While government authorities and others assess the scope of the problem and decide how much additional funding will be needed to address specific problems, there are a number of legislative items the Senate can and should promptly approve that can help Katrina’s victims. After the Senate has completed action on this emergency legislation, we hope the Senate will quickly provide significant new funding, and consider other substantive proposals that could help address short- and medium-term needs. These proposals must be followed by a much broader, long-term effort to rebuild and rehabilitate the Gulf Coast region and substantially improve efforts to prevent, mitigate and respond to future disasters.

The following are just some examples of proposals that Senate Democrats believe deserve immediate Senate action this week:

Get the rest below the fold . . .

Incompetence? Or Worse?

Here is the transcript of the conversation between Tim Russert and Aaron Broussard, President of Jefferson Parish LA. It raises serious questions.

MR. BROUSSARD: Sir, they were told like me, every single day, "The cavalry's coming," on a federal level, "The cavalry's coming, the cavalry's coming, the cavalry's coming." I have just begun to hear the hoofs of the cavalry. The cavalry's still not here yet, but I've begun to hear the hoofs, and we're almost a week out.

Let me give you just three quick examples. We had Wal-Mart deliver three trucks of water, trailer trucks of water. FEMA turned them back.

They said we didn't need them. This was a week ago. FEMA--we had 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel on a Coast Guard vessel docked in my parish. The Coast Guard said, "Come get the fuel right away." When we got there with our trucks, they got a word. "FEMA says don't give you the fuel."

Yesterday--yesterday--FEMA comes in and cuts all of our emergency communication lines. They cut them without notice. Our sheriff, Harry Lee, goes back in, he reconnects the line. He posts armed guards on our line and says, "No one is getting near these lines." Sheriff Harry Lee said that if America--American government would have responded like Wal-Mart has responded, we wouldn't be in this crisis.

Examples of incompetence, indifference, and arrogance on FEMA's part abound, and I fear we've only seen the tip of the iceberg.

The turning away of the Wal-Mart trucks (Irony alert: Wal-Mart outperformed the Federal government! How bad is that?) and the refusal to allow the transfer of badly needed fuel are bad enough.

The cutting of the comm line disturbs me. We had a saying in my Comm Platoon in the Marine Corps that "Communications lends dignity to what would otherwise be considered a brawl". It was a semi-humorous understatement.

Communication is EVERYTHING in any kind of serious situation. It's a lifeline. Think about it. You can't communicate by voice more than about a hundred feet. Beyond that, you need telephone, telegraph, radio, semaphores, runners, carrier pigeons, smoke signals, any means of extending the range of the human voice.

Without reliable communications, people die.

Why did FEMA cut their comm line? I think this is important and needs to be looked into.

Update:

From one of the links in Fixer's post above:

Nearly every emergency worker told agonizing stories of communications failures, some of them most likely fatal to victims. Police officers called Senator Landrieu's Washington office because they could not reach commanders on the ground in New Orleans, Mr. Sharp said.

Killed by Contempt

Paul Krugman

But the federal government's lethal ineptitude wasn't just a consequence of Mr. Bush's personal inadequacy; it was a consequence of ideological hostility to the very idea of using government to serve the public good. For 25 years the right has been denigrating the public sector, telling us that government is always the problem, not the solution. Why should we be surprised that when we needed a government solution, it wasn't forthcoming?

That contempt, as I've said, reflects a general hostility to the role of government as a force for good. And Americans living along the Gulf Coast have now reaped the consequences of that hostility.

The administration has always tried to treat 9/11 purely as a lesson about good versus evil. But disasters must be coped with, even if they aren't caused by evildoers. Now we have another deadly lesson in why we need an effective government, and why dedicated public servants deserve our respect. Will we listen?

This administration is exactly the antithesis of a "force for good". Katrina has pointed that out in no uncertain terms.

Even Fidel

The Cubans do a better job of protecting their people than we do:

Last September, a Category 5 hurricane battered the small island of Cuba with 160-mile-per-hour winds. More than 1.5 million Cubans were evacuated to higher ground ahead of the storm. Although the hurricane destroyed 20,000 houses, no one died.

What is Cuban President Fidel Castro's secret? According to Dr. Nelson Valdes, a sociology professor at the University of New Mexico, and specialist in Latin America, "the whole civil defense is embedded in the community to begin with. People know ahead of time where they are to go."

"Cuba's leaders go on TV and take charge," said Valdes. Contrast this with George W. Bush's reaction to Hurricane Katrina. The day after Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, Bush was playing golf. He waited three days to make a TV appearance and five days before visiting the disaster site. In a scathing editorial on Thursday, the New York Times said, "nothing about the president's demeanor yesterday - which seemed casual to the point of carelessness - suggested that he understood the depth of the current crisis."

[. . .]

Regardless of what you think about his politics, you gotta hand it to Fidel. You gotta respect a guy who, for so long, has given the finger to so many American Presidents and lived to tell about it.

Hat tip: Big Brass Blog

Spin begins

Go see Shakes:

. . . I actually can't decide what the most disgusting angle of this story is. . .

Good God

Disturbing stuff from Echidne:

. . . "There's simply not enough resources," Jones said. . .

Insulting Potemkin

Billmon admits he does it:

[. . .]

Of course, calling Bush the Potemkin president is actually a gross insult to the genuine article -- Prince Grigory Potemkin, the man who allegedly had fake villages constructed on the shores of the Dnieper River in order to impress the Czarina Catherine during an official inspection tour.

[. . .]

But history also tells us the real Prince Potemkin was a hard-working, conscientious public servant who carried out his duties with considerable skill. At this point, it's looking less and less likely that history will ever say the same about Shrub.

[. . .]

He goes on to draw parallels between Bush and the last days of the Nazi regime:

[. . .]

For many Germans -- fanatical Nazis as well as the naive and the weak-minded -- believing Hitler's absurd promises of ultimate victory was the only alterrnative to accepting a world in which evil (Bolshevism, world Jewry) had triumphed and good (National Socialism, the Aryan superman) had failed. Such a world was either unimaginable, or unendurable.

Likewise, for the conservative ultras to accept Bush's failures now would be to admit the patriotic demi-God constructed after 9/11 by the White House propaganda machine (and, ironically, by the mainstream media ) doesn't exist. All that would be left would be the real Bush: the incompetent, arrogant rich kid who's failed at every significant job he's ever held -- from CEO of Arbusto Energy to commander in chief of the planet's most powerful military machine. For many Bushistas, this is equally unbearable.

[. . .]

An excellent post, though I don't completely agree with his final conclusions (I still have faith in my fellow Americans they will correct their political mistakes), I do believe we have some serious work to do on our system of government. Don't groan, but yes, it's time for another excerpt:

More below the fold . . .

Indictments

So far:

Premeditated Murder of US troops in Iraq: 1900 (to be amended as the bodies pile up) counts.
Negligent homicide for the deaths of American citizens in New Orleans: Thousands.

Do you think Bush should be impeached? Do you think Bush should not be allowed to finish his term? Do you think being allowed to resign is inadequate punishment? Do you believe he should be tried for every count above in a court of law along with the charges of fraud perpetrated against the American people? Do you think the death penalty is a legitimate punishment? Do you think every member of his cabinet and the leadership of the Republican Party should also face the same charges?

I do, on all counts.

Shoulda

The Mrs. and I are sitting here, waiting for the NASCAR race to kick off, and we are (of course) talking about the New Orleans horror. Mrs. F came up with the perfect thing for Bush to have done, had he any sechel.

Bush has 1600 acres in Crawford, right? What say, instead of running around, letting McCain blow him, playing guitar, whatever, what if he told the head of FEMA this:

"Hey, Mikey, I got 1600 acres here in Crawford. Tell the Army to set up tents on 1500 of 'em. However many refugees can fit, bring 'em here. They can stay at my place until we get them settled. Get it done now."

How much you wanna bet his approval rating would hit 90% two seconds after he made the announcement? How much 'political capital' would the stupid, smirking chimp get from that? Instead, he fiddled while NOLA died. Thank you, God, he doesn't have anybody as smart as my wife advising him.

And just a reminder

From your friendly neighborhood mechanic. Your oil change is gonna cost more soon too.

And another point of info: The gas station only makes 7 to 10 cents markup (not profit) on a gallon of gas. Don't get pissed at the owner when the prices go up. The only time they gouged was on the first day, when they knew the prices were going up on the gas coming in and they raised the price on the stuff in the tanks.

God help us

Stolen from the esteemed RJ Eskow blogging at Skippy's.

It's Official...

New Orleans is now officially a third world combat zone. Upon what do I base that, you may ask. I have incontrovertible proof:

Christiane Amanpour is broadcasting live from there.

Overload

Cursor usually takes Sunday off. Not today. It's all NOLA and Gulf Coast. Pick 'n click.

Bald-Faced Lies

Open letter to Bush from the Times-Picayune:

State Rep. Karen Carter was right Friday when she said the city didn't have but two urgent needs: "Buses! And gas!" Every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be fired, Director Michael Brown especially.

In a nationally televised interview Thursday night, he said his agency hadn't known until that day that thousands of storm victims were stranded at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. He gave another nationally televised interview the next morning and said, "We've provided food to the people at the Convention Center so that they've gotten at least one, if not two meals, every single day."

Lies don't get more bald-faced than that, Mr. President.

Yet, when you met with Mr. Brown Friday morning, you told him, "You're doing a heck of a job."

That's unbelievable.

I think "unbelieveable" is an apt word for just about everything anyone in this incompetent, corrupt administration ever says.

The letter also pooh-poohs the claim that New Orleans was "unreachable" by relief parties. Go read.

Think you're pissed off now?

Go read TalkLeft.

On this day...

On Sept. 4, 1957, Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus called out the National Guard to prevent nine black students from entering Central High School in Little Rock.

Falluja floods the Superdome

Frank Rich on how Bush's War increases peril at home, and especially in NOLA.

AS the levees cracked open and ushered hell into New Orleans on Tuesday, President Bush once again chose to fly away from Washington, not toward it, while disaster struck. We can all enumerate the many differences between a natural catastrophe and a terrorist attack. But character doesn't change: it is immutable, and it is destiny.

As always, the president's first priority, the one that sped him from Crawford toward California, was saving himself: he had to combat the flood of record-low poll numbers that was as uncontrollable as the surging of Lake Pontchartrain. It was time, therefore, for another disingenuous pep talk, in which he would exploit the cataclysm that defined his first term, 9/11, even at the price of failing to recognize the emerging fiasco likely to engulf Term 2.

But on a second go-round, even the right isn't so easily fooled by this drill (with the reliable exception of Peggy Noonan, who found much reassurance in Mr. Bush's initial autopilot statement about the hurricane, with its laundry list of tarps and blankets). This time the fecklessness and deceit were all too familiar. They couldn't be obliterated by a bullhorn or by the inspiring initial post-9/11 national unity that bolstered the president until he betrayed it. This time the heartlessness beneath the surface of his actions was more pronounced.

Go read. The last sentence sent a chill up my spine:

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.

Indifference is a Weapon

Dennis Kucinich goes off on the administration pretty good at The Nation.

"The President said an hour ago that the Gulf Coast looks like it has been obliterated by a weapon. It has. Indifference is a weapon of mass destruction.

"Our indifferent government is in a crisis of legitimacy. If it continues to ignore its basic responsibility for the health and welfare of the American people, will there ever be enough money to clean up after their indifference?

"As our government continues to squander human and monetary resources of this country on the war, people are beginning to ask, "Isn't it time we began to take care of our own people here at home? Isn't it time we rescued our own citizens? Isn't it time we fed our own people? Isn't it time we sheltered our own people? Isn't it time we provided physical and economic security for our own people?" And isn't it time we stopped the oil companies from profiting from this tragedy?

For a newlywed, I'm surprised at his energy! (wink, wink, nudge, nudge!)

STFU*

If one more Republican 'warns' the Dems not to use this for political gain because 'it could backfire on them', they're gonna have to cut his head off to push my foot out his ass.

*Shut the fuck up.

What a dickhead 2

Orrin Hatch proves it once again. He was on Little George this morning and TT caught it.

"The state government wasn't very well prepared, and the city wasn't well prepared. They're ten feet below sea level. They should have known that these things could happen."

His ass is so stretched from letting Chimpy fuck it, they're gonna have to sleeve him like the cylinders of a worn out engine block.

By the way, George Will and Cokie Roberts are sucking Chimpy's cock too. Fuck these idiots.

George is over and that big ass loudmouth is on, and I'm noticing something. The self-hating colon cowboy and Bobo Brooks are starting to turn on Bush, though they are prattling on inanely. Sully is screeching for 'more troops' and an 'expanded military' (Bobo's just doing his bobblehead impersonation) to deal with these disasters. Hello, Andy, the Chimp's fucked the military over with the Iraq war. The war you screamed so loudly in favor of. You know how you expand the military (most importantly the National Guard) now? It's called a fucking DRAFT.

On Press the Meat Timmy's reaming Chertoff .060 oversize. Timmy's actually shouting at him. Yeah! Nice to see you grow some balls, fat boy.

And one more thing. I don't ask God for much, nothing in fact, but just once I'd like the Big Guy to arrange for me to meet up with Tony Blankley in a dark alley.

Couldn't have said it better

A note to our conservative friends:

WE TOLD YOU SO

Ever wonder why New Yorkers detest George Bush?

Because we experienced his incompetence up close and person. We knew this guy was full of shit, absolutely full of fucking shit, after they started to play games with the funding and gave Wyoming terrorism money. We knew he was an assclown then.

We thought DC 9/11 was a comedy, because the Bush we saw hid in AF One like the scared bitch that he is.

But did you listen?

Fuck no. Until last week, Ann Coulter was calling New Yorkers cowards for not endorsing Bush's folly in Iraq.

We have been screaming for two years that Bush and his team sucked. That they had no clue. They sent soldiers to be wounded in Iraq without armored anything. And you idiots cheered him on from the safety of your keyboards. We told you he was fucking up Iraq. But no, we supported Saddam, we were racist, we blamed America.

You say this isn't about politics? Fuck you, this IS politics, real time, real life politics, where the insanity of all your ideas are exposed to the world for the fraud that they are. Tax cuts kill. Ask the relatives of the dead of the Gulf Coast.

Well, motherfuckers, the alligators are feasting on dead nigger and there isn't an Iraqi in sight. And Bush is trying to gladhand his way through a mess which has stunned FOX reporters. I mean, Shepard Smith is calling Fox's talking heads liars ON THE AIR.

CNN rips Bush in print and online after nearly five years of sleep.

Instead of hearing what we had to say about Bush, you called John Kerry a coward, mocked Max Cleland, blamed everything but herpes on Bill Clinton. You enabled Bush into this mess and now you're shocked?

Now, Fox can be outraged, now, Wash Times and Union Leader call Bush weak? Well, his coward ass disappeared in 2001. But you rather blame Michael Moore for that.

He can't even explain the Iraq war to a grieving mother.

So what did you do?

Write the most vile things about her and her dead son. Attacked her patriotism and her honesty.

Well, motherfuckers, and that means you, fat ass Goldberg and your master, Rich Lowry, PNAC Bitch Beinart, the racist wannabe white Malkin and the little fucktards at LGF, Bareback Andy and "Diversity" Instacracker, all you backstabbing, fag hating uncle tom ministers, you can see Dear Leader in action. America's largest port is gone, maybe forever, gas is $5+ a gallon and FEMA is coming. Whores come faster with old men than FEMA is getting to NOLA.

How did your wartime President react? Like Chiang Kai-Shek when the Yellow River flooded in 1944, with corrupt indifference.

Bush, the man your fever dreams built into the next Winston Churchill when he is really the live action Chauncey Gardiner, has failed to everyone, in plain sight, without question. Rick Perry is trying to save his ass, but it ain't working. NOLA looks like ANGOLA and that ain't flying.

Say 9/11 changed everything now, motherfuckers. Ooops, 9/11, 9/11. 9/11. Doesn't work anymore? Gee, maybe the sea of alligator MRE's once known as the citizens of New Orleans has something to do with that. Now you can shut the fuck up about 9/11. Bush just proved what would happen with another 9/11. Dead Americans as far as the nose can smell.

Drunken Chris Hitchens muttered some nonsense about blacks having it so good here. The poor man needs to stay in his bottle or go to Betty Ford before someone beats his treasonous ass stupid. Islamofascism means what, now motherfucker? Shove Islamofascism up your well travelled ass. The most dangerous thing to average Americans is not some mullah in Iraq, not even Osama Bin Laden, but George Bush. If he doesn't get you killed in Iraq, he'll fuck up saving your city so it turns into Escape from New Orleans. Armed junkies roaming the streets, looking for a fix, robbing and looting like Serb paramilitaries and about as sober.

George Bush's ineptitude has killed far more Americans than Osama could have dreamed of.

Some of you still try to see the clothes on the Dauphin, but he's as naked as Peter North around Jenna Jameson. Bush fucked up so bad, FOX turned on him like a rabid dog.

You can't hide behind racism forever. Bush fucked up, Bush is a weak, callous leader and the world knows this like it knows few other things. And all the stolen TV's in the world cannot hide that.

I apologize to Steve Gillard for stealing this entire rant, but this has to be seen EVERYWHERE. This is the END, ladies and germs. This asshole has to GO.

No more

Exactly. From AMERICAblog:

Democrat or Republican, Congress should reject ANY nominee that the President sends them. Why? George Bush has proven time and again an inability to select the right people for the right job.

As we've seen domestically with deadly, horrifying results, in the President's choices for key security jobs post 9/11, political patronage was more important than competence with Bush. From Secretary of Homeland Security Chertoff, FEMA Director Brown, and especially Patrick Rhode, the Deputy Director of FEMA, the President is incapable of selecting competent personnel for key posts. He chooses political cronies and yes-men over competence EVERY SINGLE TIME. Overseas we've seen incompetence compounded by ignorance, with the President choosing to listen to yes-Generals over more sober military leaders.

[. . .]

Bipartisanship? Puh! The Repubs should get nothing from here on out until this President is history. Do I care the Supremes are two down now? No. Do I care if there is stalemate in Congress? No. A gridlocked government at this point is far better than anything that's come out of there in 'bipartisan' fashion over the past four years. Any Dem who cooperates with Repubs on anything from now on can consider my vote lost.

Screwed

------------------------------------------------------
MSNBC Breaking News
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William Rehnquist, the chief justice of the United States, is dead. -
Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist died Saturday evening at his home in suburban Virginia, said Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg.

We are so screwed.

Signs of the times 2

Stockbridge, GA.

Like I said, criminal

Via Atrios:

WASHINGTON - Several states ready and willing to send National Guard troops to the rescue in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans didn't get the go-ahead until days after the storm struck - a delay nearly certain to be investigated by Congress.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson offered Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco help from his state's National Guard on Sunday, the day before Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana. Blanco accepted, but paperwork needed to get the troops en route didn't come from Washington until late Thursday. [my emphases]

[. . .]

I don't want somebody fired, I want people in jail!

And just a question for the commanding generals of the Guard forces: What the fuck are you doing sitting around waiting for paperwork? You go when people need you and worry about the paperwork later, you desk-bound, pencil-pushing, bureaucratic motherfuckers. Has it been that long since you had to work for a living? Are your stars and your career worth more than your humanity, assholes? Has the flag officer corps really turned into a bunch of pussies or what?

Update:

Speaking of criminal:

. . . That's not a defense, guys. That's genocide. . .

Wanted:

Stolen from my friend the CultureGhost:

[I had stolen the graphic, but somehow it was playing Hell with my template. Click on the link to go see it.]

Questions, questions

Jill has questions:

Where the hell is Cheney, anyway? Is he alive? Dead? Hooked up to tubes in a persistent vegetative state? It seems odd that we haven't heard so much as a statement from him. [Seems he's on vacation too - F-man]

[. . .]

Maureen Dowd has a few of her own too:

[. . .]

Why does this self-styled "can do" president always lapse into such lame "who could have known?" excuses.

Who on earth could have known that Osama bin Laden wanted to attack us by flying planes into buildings? Any official who bothered to read the trellis of pre-9/11 intelligence briefs.

Who on earth could have known that an American invasion of Iraq would spawn a brutal insurgency, terrorist recruiting boom and possible civil war? Any official who bothered to read the C.I.A.'s prewar reports.

Who on earth could have known that New Orleans's sinking levees were at risk from a strong hurricane? Anybody who bothered to read the endless warnings over the years about the Big Easy's uneasy fishbowl.

[. . .]

'Useful idiot'

Consortium News via Farnsworth:

[. . .]

In the 1980s, when I was covering the wars in Central America, neoconservative theorists liked to call U.S. peace activists "useful idiots" because their opposition to the hard-line Reagan administration was seen as unwittingly aiding and abetting communists and other leftist enemies. In that vein, is Bush now al-Qaeda's "useful idiot"?

[. . .]

The answer is a resounding yes. Time to impeach him, indict him, and send him, and his minions, to Leavenworth for the rest of their natural lives.

I told ya

Don't piss off the spooks. Via Cookie Christine:

Former CIA director George Tenet, said to be the target of what the Washington Times called "a scathing report by Inspector General John Helgerson" - may go public with embarrassing disclosures about the Bush administration and its actions leading up to Sept. 11, 2001.

[. . .]

The report, delivered to Congress this week, recommends punitive sanctions against Tenet, former Deputy Director of Operations James L. Pavitt and former counter-terrorist center head J. Cofer Black.

Roberts writes, "George Tenet is not going to let himself become the fall guy for the September 11th intelligence failures, according to a former intelligence officer and a source friendly to Mr. Tenet."

[. . .]

In his rebuttal, Tenet, Roberts warns, "treads perilously close to affirming the account of Richard Clarke, the former NSC terrorism official who claimed the Bush administration's had delayed adopting a strategy against al-Qaida."

[. . .]

They've classified the report and Tenet's rebuttal, but I can't wait until this shit starts leaking out (you know it will). Comes at a perfect time too. Remember how I talked about the coming shitstorm? The housing bubble, the automakers' problems', the steady deterioration of the Iraq situation (haven't heard anything about the new constitution lately, have ya?), and now Katrina. Tenet's rebuttal should be the capper on the Republicans' chances this election season. Unless the Democrats seriously shoot themselves in the foot (which is not out of the question with some of the leadership we have), the Repubs should be big losers in '06.

Note to Dems: Don't fuck this up.

It figures

Via Pam:

WASHINGTON, Sept. 1 (HalliburtonWatch.org) -- The US Navy asked Halliburton to repair naval facilities damaged by Hurricane Katrina, the Houston Chronicle reported today. The work was assigned to Halliburton's KBR subsidiary under the Navy's $500 million CONCAP contract awarded to KBR in 2001 and renewed in 2004. The repairs will take place in Louisiana and Mississippi.

[. . .]

Kill me . . . please.

Signs of the times

Looting

This one was so good, I've posted it in two places. My apologies to the source - I can't remember where I found it.

America needs a leader

Go read John Howard.

Go see Pauly too.

Who Lost New Orleans?

I'm holding a gun on my finger to get it to type this: Go read Pat Buchanan. What he says makes sense, but he says it like it's a bad thing.

Gulf Coast Overload

There is just soooo much today on the twin disasters in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, both the human tragedy and its exacerbation by our highly paid administration, that I will simply direct you to Cursor. Scroll and click.

SKB on NOLA

South Knox Bubba may be using his real name these days, but his powers are undiminished. He's still on the case. Via Are You Effin' Kidding Me?

Forgotten lessons from the Pacific War

Today is the 60th anniversary of the formal end of the Second World War. Philippe Pons brings up some analogies for today.

Asia's history up until the day after the War in the Pacific is especially rich in lessons about mistakes. Thus, Japan's creation in 1932 of the puppet state of Manchukuo presents - in spite of the obvious differences - troubling analogies with Iraq: both cases were the work of rightist radicalism from a superpower (regional, in Japan's case, global, in America's) combined with a manipulation of public opinion and defiance of international rules, notes the political scientist Kang Sang-jung. In both cases, a war of aggression was waged in the name of a messianic vision (the "liberation" of Asia; the "democratization" of the Middle East) and out of a conviction that military superiority would conquer all: the creation of the state of Manchukuo in fact marked the beginning of a fifteen-year-long war.

Finally, George Bush's messianic "vision" singularly recalls the redemptive message of Japanese militarists when they invaded Asia: "Without conveying the United States' pretensions to universalism, Japanese Imperialist ideology drew from the same source," writes American historian and Japanese history specialist Herbert Bix, author of Hirohito and the Making of a Modern Japan (Harper Collins), "The Japanese were taught to believe in their moral superiority and to be proud of the Light of which they were the bearers. Like Americans today. And when they encounter resistance in the country they invade, they behave no better than the Japanese in China." Decidedly not so distant, the Pacific War...

I absolutely differ with "...they behave no better than the Japanese in China." Our troops don't bet on how many civilians they can behead in a given period or kill millions of people, at least I hope not. Other than that, food for thought.

Moore's letter to Bush

Michael Moore

There will be those who will try to politicize this tragedy and try to use it against you. Just have your people keep pointing that out. Respond to nothing. Even those pesky scientists who predicted this would happen because the water in the Gulf of Mexico is getting hotter and hotter making a storm like this inevitable. Ignore them and all their global warming Chicken Littles. There is nothing unusual about a hurricane that was so wide it would be like having one F-4 tornado that stretched from New York to Cleveland.

No, Mr. Bush, you just stay the course. It's not your fault that 30 percent of New Orleans lives in poverty or that tens of thousands had no transportation to get out of town. C'mon, they're black! I mean, it's not like this happened to Kennebunkport. Can you imagine leaving white people on their roofs for five days? Don't make me laugh! Race has nothing -- NOTHING -- to do with this!

You hang in there, Mr. Bush. Just try to find a few of our Army helicopters and send them there. Pretend the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are near Tikrit.

I wonder when Bush will don some chest waders and declare "Mission Accomplished"?

Our 'Can't Do' Government

Paul Krugman

I don't think this is a simple tale of incompetence. The reason the military wasn't rushed in to help along the Gulf Coast is, I believe, the same reason nothing was done to stop looting after the fall of Baghdad. Flood control was neglected for the same reason our troops in Iraq didn't get adequate armor.

At a fundamental level, I'd argue, our current leaders just aren't serious about some of the essential functions of government. They like waging war, but they don't like providing security, rescuing those in need or spending on preventive measures. And they never, ever ask for shared sacrifice.

Yesterday Mr. Bush made an utterly fantastic claim: that nobody expected the breach of the levees. In fact, there had been repeated warnings about exactly that risk.

So America, once famous for its can-do attitude, now has a can't-do government that makes excuses instead of doing its job. And while it makes those excuses, Americans are dying.

Their incompetence and contempt for us has come spectacularly to light in recent days. Even the MSM has noticed, so it must pretty obvious. They'll try to spin their way out of responsibility like they always do. This time, let's not let 'em.

It is the time

Wolcott:

[. . .]

"[T]his is not a time for politics -- not only for moral and ethical reasons, but for political ones as well. That is, politics itself mandates that these days not be political."

Stop right there. First of all, "politics" mandates nothing. It's an abstract noun. It's like beginning a sentence "Morality dictates that..." Morality dictates nothing. It's how people interpret morality, and how they apply it in certain situations which evolve over time. Politics are people, and what they make of their political situation, and when the realities of their lives demand that the political and economic circumstances of their lives change. It isn't something to put on a shelf and used only when the climate of opinion permits.

Armando again: "Yes Bush and his administration have much to answer for. But what of the government of the State of Louisiana? The government of the City of New Orleans? I for one believe all have to answer for this. But not now. Maybe next week. But not today."

I don't mean to pick on Armando, but has he learned nothing under Bush? There is no "next week" when it comes to getting answers and fixing accountability for failure under this president. Next week never comes. [my emphasis]

[. . .]

Like I said the other day, Bush and the Repubs own Katrina and the aftermath of her visit. This isn't just a random natural disaster. This is the result of the corrupt, failed, and flawed policy of the Chimp administration, their enablers, and their apologists.

Dear President Bush

From our friend and esteemed colleague, the CutureGhost:

Dear President Bush;

Your services are no longer needed. Please submit your resignation and return to Texas.

Thank you,

The CultureGhost

Short, sweet, and to the point. As we've seen over the past few days, we're on our own anyway.

Update:

Granny:

A government that cannot provide basic protection and support to its people, let alone a government in the most powerful nation ever with the most money ever that lets this happen is a government that is beyond corruption.

[. . .]

You know the helpless, frustrated feeling you have about all this? That's the way people feel who discover they've just been scammed by a con artist. We've been scammed in the biggest way possible.

Friday Cattle Dog Blogging

Princess Shayna says she'll shoot death rays from her eyes at George Bush for his ineptitude and criminal acts. "He shouldn't be allowed to have a dog," she was heard to say.

Hat tip: Disgruntled Chemist.

Ashamed

I've been permanently pissed off at Bush since 2000, but this time I'm ashamed of the sonofabitch. Ashamed that he calls himself an American.

I've been watching the NOLA news, like we all have. What I saw is disgraceful. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of people sitting around the Convention Center with no food or water. People are dying of dehydration.

A leader would have been burning up the phone wires getting help for these folks. The Corporal of the Guard of the 443rd Mess Kit Repair Battalion could do better than the Chimp-in-Chief.

It ain't rocket science, folks. Load up a goddam old CH-46 Sea Knight from some reserve squadron in Podunk with water, fly it over the thirsty people and kick it the fuck out. Hell, George, put on your fancy flight suit, load up that big blue motherfucker that we paid for and let you fly around in, fill it with bottled water, fly low (we know the best pilots in the world can do that 'cuz they did it yesterday), tie your ass to a stanchion, sit on the deck, open the door, and you do the kickout. Just once, earn your fuckin' money. Maybe if you're feeling extra compassionate, throw in a few sandwiches.

The relief people won't fly into an area because they heard a fuckin' gunshot, fer chrissakes. 82 school buses aren't highballin' it to get people out because a couple of the drivers are scared to go in. Instead of helping folks, cops and guardsmen are detailed to prevent looting (if they're black) aka stealing to survive (if they're white). They oughta be helping the folks break down the fucking doors to get food, water, medicine. Let the sonsabitches who are stealing TVs get 'em up the three flights to their cribs, then make 'em take 'em back to the store if they won't turn on.

I'm sorta reminded of the so-called Siege of Khe Sanh in Vietnam. Many, many flights went in every day to supply the Marines with food, water, ammo, typewriter ribbons, etc. They used transports, helos, air drops, LAPES, all with background music by B-52s. All this NOLA deal calls for is food, water, a few Corpsmen. Don't need to fly in tons of artillery rounds, and these relief flights are only gonna get shot at by a couple loonies instead of by the whole fuckin' People's Army of Viet Nam.

Goddammit, George, these are Americans you're leaving in the fuckin' lurch. They work, and pay taxes just on the off chance you'll help them in time of need instead of throwing the money down some sand hole.

Get off your ass and tell Rumbo to cut loose with whatever assets we've still got, get 'em in the fuckin' air, and GO HELP THESE PEOPLE!

Better yet, call that young Corporal in Podunk. He'll get it done quicker because he gives a shit.

Ranting is filled. For now.

Looters

Froggy at Skippy's:

i heard that awol announced yesterday that he has "zero-tolerance for looters." does that mean he is going to finally stamp out the war-profiteers like halliburton and its subsidiary, kbr, who have stolen billions and billions of dollars from the u.s. treasury and u.s. taxpayers since the war in iraq began?

[. . .]

She's at it again...

...and this time Angry Old Broad is pissed!

Help

Mustang Bobby's got the links if you feel obliged to give.

Just a question

When the going gets tough, why does the Chimp always call Daddy and Bill Clinton?

Link via Maru.

[I just watched the announcement. After the Chimp was done, he just left Bill and Daddy standing there as he stalked off. The boy's losing it. Bill and the elder Bush didn't know what to do for a second and as the camera watched them walk off, the Chimp was nowhere to be seen. Seems that once again, the adults have to clean up Chimpy's mess. What a dick.]

Heh . . . again

We can't afford our gasoline (video). Via Glen.

Grrrr!

I was reading an article at Spiegel Online similar to the Molly Ivins piece posted below, only with more depth. The last line made me blow up another blood pressure monitor. Good thing I get 'em by the case.

On the day the levees burst in New Orleans, Bush delivered a speech in Colorado comparing the Iraq war to World War II and himself to Franklin D. Roosevelt: "And he knew that the best way to bring peace and stability to the region was by bringing freedom to Japan." Bush had boarded his very own "Streetcar Named Desire."

In his deranged attempt to compare himself to FDR, a man who actually did some good for the nation and the world, by calling WWII an attempt to "bring freedom to Japan", he has once again showed his contempt for facts and history, and, by extension, for all of us. On the one hand, he likens himself to one of our great Presidents, while on the other he is trying to undo everything Roosevelt did for the American people and the rest of the world.

By the way, even as a Machiavellian politician, the Chimp ain't a pimple on FDR's ass.

I hope the son of a bitch lives long enough to hear what history has to say about him. It won't be too long in coming. Then we can hang him.

New Orleans: It's about us

Molly Ivins

One of the main reasons New Orleans is so vulnerable to hurricanes is the gradual disappearance of the wetlands on the Gulf Coast that once stood as a natural buffer between the city and storms coming in from the water. The disappearance of those wetlands does not have the name of a political party or a particular administration attached to it. No one wants to play, "The Democrats did it," or, "It's all Reagan's fault." Many environmentalists will tell you more than a century's interference with the natural flow of the Mississippi is the root cause of the problem, cutting off the movement of alluvial soil to the river's great delta.

But in addition to long-range consequences of long-term policies like letting the Corps of Engineers try to build a better river than God, there are real short-term consequences, as well. It is a fact that the Clinton administration set some tough policies on wetlands, and it is a fact that the Bush administration repealed those policies -- ordering federal agencies to stop protecting as many as 20 million acres of wetlands.

Last year, four environmental groups cooperated on a joint report showing the Bush administration's policies had allowed developers to drain thousands of acres of wetlands.

Does this mean we should blame Bush for the fact that New Orleans is underwater? No, but it means we can blame Bush when a Class 3 or Class 2 hurricane puts New Orleans under. At this point, it is a matter of making a bad situation worse, of failing to observe the First Rule of Holes (when you're in one, stop digging).

Just plain political bad luck that, in June, Bush took his little ax and chopped $71.2 million from the budget of the New Orleans Corps of Engineers, a 44 percent reduction. As was reported in New Orleans CityBusiness at the time, that meant "major hurricane and flood projects will not be awarded to local engineering firms. Also, a study to determine ways to protect the region from a Category 5 hurricane has been shelved for now."

In fact, there is now a government-wide movement away from basing policy on science, expertise and professionalism, and in favor of choices based on ideology. If you're wondering what the ideological position on flood management might be, look at the pictures of New Orleans -- it seems to consist of gutting the programs that do anything.

The Louisiana National Guard also notes that dozens of its high-water vehicles, humvees, refuelers and generators have also been sent abroad. (I hate to be picky, but why do they need high-water vehicles in Iraq?)

The levees of New Orleans, two of which are now broken and flooding the city, were also victims of Iraq war spending. Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, said on June 8, 2004, "It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq."

This, friends, is why we need to pay attention to government policies, not political personalities, and to know whereon we vote. It is about our lives.

Hear, hear.

Impeach and institutionalize

The lovely Jane:

[. . .]

After three days of golf, staged Medicare events and other random acts of mind-boggling indifference to the disaster whose death toll is still untold (although the WaPo now says it could be in the thousands), I have to say I was wrong. George W. Bush does not give a flying fuck about the suffering of anyone. Ever. Period. [my em]

[. . .]

Bush is a sociopath. It's time he's removed from office and put in a place where he belongs. May I suggest a room with rubber wallpaper at Bellevue?

My boys

I was wondering if my old unit would be called on to help.

Release No. 050805
August 31, 2005

AIR FORCE SPECIAL OPERATIONS OPENS NEW ORLEANS AIRPORT RUNWAY

HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. - Air Force Special Operations Command will fly an MC-130 aircraft into New Orleans International Airport tonight with a small team of special operations forces to work to reopen the runway.

A team of combat controllers and a small medical team will work to establish operations at the airport, which has no electricity or air traffic control. Combat controllers are certified air traffic controllers and special operators who can open airfields deep behind enemy lines or in other hazardous areas.

The combat controllers will set self-powered lights and other navigational aids, then function as air traffic controllers with portable radios so that other military aircraft can land and help evacuate around 2,500 ill, or injured persons from the New Orleans area.

The deployed aircraft include 19 HH-60 Pave Hawk rescue helicopters specifically designed to find and recover individuals in hazardous areas. AFSOC has also deployed 11 C-130 aircraft with various special mission capabilities, including helicopter refueling and the ability to operate from dirt or unimproved airfields.

AFSOC has sent pararescuemen and combat controllers to Jackson to work in conjunction with the aircraft. Pararescuemen are highly trained emergency medical technician special operators. Combat controllers and pararescuemen are accustomed to operating in the most difficult and hostile conditions and are trained in numerous special operations skills such as SCUBA and parachute operations.

Pardon me my pride.