In other words: A discussion of The Bush Administration
Bush is so infamous for Iraq and now Katrina that you forget sometime that every day he makes purposeful decisions to make our lives worse.- Thursday, September 15, 2005 -
He's always working for our worserment (and if it isn't a word, it really should be).
A Polluter's Feast
Bush has reversed more environmental progress in the past eight months than Reagan did in a full eight yearsWhat can you say about the environmental record of an administration that seeks to test pesticides on poor children and pregnant women? That argues in court that a dam is part of a salmon's natural environment? That places a timber lobbyist in charge of the national forests and an oil lobbyist in charge of government reports on global warming? That cuts clean-air inspections at oil refineries in half, allows Superfund to go bankrupt and permits the mining industry to pump toxic waste directly into a wild Alaskan lake?
Only this: It's about to get even worse.
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POTUS Need Go Potty!
"I think I may NEED A BATHroom break?"
Yes, its real: Reuters Photog Captures Bush at U.N. With 'Bathroom Break' Note
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Soon to arrive - counterfeit memos from Bush saying "ignore the storm."
Proof Bush cares more about the GOP and himself then the welfare of Americans.
Actually I honestly think that he is so damn besotted with himself, that he believes any assistance given to him is inherently assistance to America. Only he can do America good, so be helping him you help America. Therefore any lie, theft, or crime committed to aide him is morally excusable because of the greater good.
This isn't bad government, this isn't bad leadership, this is insanity.
Who's in Charge? Karl Rove!"Republicans said Karl Rove, the White House deputy chief of staff and Mr. Bush's chief political adviser, was in charge of the reconstruction effort."
Rove's leadership role suggests quite strikingly that any and all White House decisions and pronouncements regarding the recovery from the storm are being made with their political consequences as the primary consideration. More specifically: With an eye toward increasing the likelihood of Republican political victories in the future, pursuing long-cherished conservative goals, and bolstering Bush's image.
That is Rove's hallmark.
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Today's GOP: "Face Before Nation"
Like Senate, House Committee rejects independent Katrina commissionRepublicans on the House Rules Committee unanimously approved a commission to investigate failures surrounding the Hurricane Katrina disaster, refusing a proposal from Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA) which would have created an outside, independent commission to investigate the disaster, RAW STORY has learned.They want the investigation to be political - because everything is politics - lives of Americans is secondary.
The vote in the Rules Committee, which will bring a vote to the full House floor, was made late last night.
Democrats were outraged by the vote. They note that the Katrina panel will have an 11-9 Republican majority, which will give only Republicans the power to subpoena.
Americablog: ACTION ALERT: Call the US Senate - Ask GOP Senators why they hate America?76% of Americans want an independent bipartisan commission, like the one that investigated the 9/11 attacks, to investigate what went wrong. In fact, according to the same poll, Americans of all stripes, Republicans and Democrats, are united behind their support for such a commission (64% of all Republicans and 83% of all Democrats want a commission) even though they were aware that the Republicans in Congress are doing their own biased and partisan investigation (see below).The Senators aren't even brave enough to explain their vote without resorting to lies: Ooh, latest spin from the Dirty Bomb 54
So why did every Republican US Senator (save the Senator from Louisiana, who simply didn't vote) vote AGAINST forming this independent, bipartisan commission to investigate what went so horribly wrong, and to find out how we avoid an even larger catastrophe the next time Osama attacks a major American city with a chemical, biological or nuclear bomb?Well, the latest spin the GOP Senators are giving for voting against the Hurricane Katrina independent commission is that - get this - there were "procedural problems" with the amendment they were voting on. I know this because this is what they've told a number of you calling them, and you've reported it back to me - this is coming from several offices, so it's clearly a coordinated response to the calls they're getting (and a sign that they'r worried).
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Kurt Vonnegut's List of Liberal Crap I never Want to Hear AgainCrooks and Liars has his appearence from the Daily Show.
Ye cannot serve God and Mammon.
The hell I can't! Look at the Reverand Pat Robertson. And He is as happy as a pig in s**t.
Oh, and One Good Move has it in Quicktime.
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What Could Go Wrong?
Plague-Infected Mice Missing From N.J. LabSept. 15, 2005 — The FBI and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are investigating the disappearance from a New Jersey research lab of at least three mice carrying a deadly strain of plague.
The rodents have been missing for two weeks.
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Looks to kill for:- Wednesday, September 14, 2005 -
Cosmetics from executed Chinese, paper saysLONDON (AFP) - A British newspaper said that a Chinese cosmetics company was using skin harvested from the corpses of executed convicts to develop beauty products for sale in Europe.
Agents for the firm, which could not be named for legal reasons, have told would-be customers that skin taken from prisoners after they have been shot is being used to develop collagen for lip and wrinkle treatments, the Guardian newspaper said following an undercover investigation.
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The Pledge of Allegiance - A Short History
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All of them voted by party line
Jerks
Senate Kills Bid for Katrina CommissionWASHINGTON (AP) -- Senate Republicans on Wednesday scuttled an attempt by Sen. Hillary Clinton to establish an independent, bipartisan panel patterned after the 9/11 Commission to investigate what went wrong with federal, state and local governments' response to Hurricane Katrina.
The New York Democrat's bid to establish the panel - which would have also made recommendations on how to improve the government's disaster response apparatus - failed to win the two-thirds majority needed to overcome procedural hurdles. Clinton got only 44 votes, all from Democrats and independent Sen. Jim Jeffords of Vermont. Fifty-four Republicans all voted no.
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Bush: Oil Comes First (Americans Second)
Jerk
Power crews divertedShortly after Hurricane Katrina roared through South Mississippi knocking out electricity and communication systems, the White House ordered power restored to a pipeline that sends fuel to the Northeast.
That order - to restart two power substations in Collins that serve Colonial Pipeline Co. - delayed efforts by at least 24 hours to restore power to two rural hospitals and a number of water systems in the Pine Belt.
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Get Your War On Does Hurricane Katrina
Get Your War On is definitely not every one's cup of tea, but it can be quite horrible/cathartic/amazing.
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Bush ignores Dem Gov, calls Republican gov several times
Jerk
Governors handle crisis in own waysBoth governors have faced cameras in tears, made threats to lawbreakers, rejected federal takeovers of relief efforts, fended off questions about whether the federal government came through for them in their time of need.
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Blanco has had several skirmishes with Bush and sent signals that she did not trust his administration. She brought in James Lee Witt, former president Bill Clinton's emergency management director, to advise her. She rejected Bush's proposal that the federal government take control of National Guard troops under her command. ("If that would have improved our situation, it would have been a no-brainer," she says).
She says that two days after Katrina, desperate for help, she couldn't get through to Bush and didn't get a callback; hours later, she tried again, and they talked.
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Barbour hasn't had to wait hours to talk to Bush. In fact, Barbour said in an interview with USA TODAY, the president called him three to four times in the wake of Katrina. "I never called him. He always called me," he said.
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DeLay also thinkgs Americans probably are a little under weight.
Jerk
DeLay declares 'victory' in war on budget fatHouse Majority Leader Tom DeLay said yesterday that Republicans have done so well in cutting spending that he declared an "ongoing victory," and said there is simply no fat left to cut in the federal budget.
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"My answer to those that want to offset the spending is sure, bring me the offsets, I'll be glad to do it. But nobody has been able to come up with any yet," the Texas Republican told reporters at his weekly briefing.
Asked if that meant the government was running at peak efficiency, Mr. DeLay said, "Yes, after 11 years of Republican majority we've pared it down pretty good."
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American Conservative Union Chairman David A. Keene said federal spending already was "spiraling out of control" before Katrina, and conservatives are "increasingly losing faith in the president and the Republican leadership in Congress."
"Excluding military and homeland security, American taxpayers have witnessed the largest spending increase under any preceding president and Congress since the Great Depression," he said.
Mr. Keene said annual nonmilitary and non-homeland security spending increased $303 billion between fiscal year 2001 and 2005; the acknowledged federal debt increased more than $2 trillion since fiscal year 2000; and the 2003 Medicare prescription drug bill is estimated to increase the government's unfunded obligations by $16 trillion.
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Jerk
Chertoff delayed federal response, memo showsWASHINGTON - (KRT) - The federal official with the power to mobilize a massive federal response to Hurricane Katrina was Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, not the former FEMA chief who was relieved of his duties and resigned earlier this week, federal documents reviewed by Knight Ridder show.Emphasis mine.
Even before the storm struck the Gulf Coast, Chertoff could have ordered federal agencies into action without any request from state or local officials. Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown had only limited authority to do so until about 36 hours after the storm hit, when Chertoff designated him as the "principal federal official" in charge of the storm.
As thousands of hurricane victims went without food, water and shelter in the days after Katrina's early morning Aug. 29 landfall, critics assailed Brown for being responsible for delays that might have cost hundreds of lives.
But Chertoff - not Brown - was in charge of managing the national response to a catastrophic disaster, according to the National Response Plan, the federal government's blueprint for how agencies will handle major natural disasters or terrorist incidents. An order issued by President Bush in 2003 also assigned that responsibility to the homeland security director.
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That same memo suggests that Chertoff may have been confused about his lead role in disaster response and that of his department.
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Chertoff's hesitation and Bush's creation of a task force both appear to contradict the National Response Plan and previous presidential directives that specify what the secretary of homeland security is assigned to do without further presidential orders. The goal of the National Response Plan is to provide a streamlined framework for swiftly delivering federal assistance when a disaster - caused by terrorists or Mother Nature - is too big for local officials to handle.
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Jerk- Tuesday, September 13, 2005 -
ABC News: Amid Katrina Chaos, Congressman Used National Guard to Visit HomeOn Sept. 2 — five days after Katrina hit the Gulf Coast — Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., who represents New Orleans and is a senior member of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, was allowed through the military blockades set up around the city to reach the Superdome, where thousands of evacuees had been taken.- rob 11:42 AM - [PermaLink] -
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Military sources tells ABC News that Jefferson, an eight-term Democratic congressman, asked the National Guard that night to take him on a tour of the flooded portions of his congressional district. A 5-ton military truck and a half dozen military police were dispatched.
Lt. Col. Pete Schneider of the Louisiana National Guard tells ABC News that during the tour, Jefferson asked that the truck take him to his home on Marengo Street, in the affluent uptown neighborhood in his congressional district. According to Schneider, this was not part of Jefferson's initial request.
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The water reached to the third step of Jefferson'
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The Good Old Boys of the Boys Club are leaving our government a mess.
But don't worry, they'll just continue ruining it for the next 3 years - so rest easy.
Krugman: All the President's FriendsThe lethally inept response to Hurricane Katrina revealed to everyone that the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which earned universal praise during the Clinton years, is a shell of its former self. The hapless Michael Brown - who is no longer overseeing relief efforts but still heads the agency - has become a symbol of cronyism.Yes Brown resigned since this was published.Yesterday The Independent, the British newspaper, published an interview about the environmental aftermath of Katrina with Hugh Kaufman, a senior policy analyst in the agency's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, whom one suspects is planning to join the exodus. "The budget has been cut," he said, "and inept political hacks have been put in key positions." That sounds familiar, and given what we've learned over the last two weeks there's no reason to doubt that characterization - or to disregard his warning of an environmental cover-up in progress.Bush's screw ups will be felt for decades. And people say one man can't make a difference.
What about the Food and Drug Administration? Serious questions have been raised about the agency's coziness with drug companies, and the agency's top official in charge of women's health issues resigned over the delay in approving Plan B, the morning-after pill, accusing the agency's head of overruling the professional staff on political grounds.
Then there's the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, whose Republican chairman hired a consultant to identify liberal bias in its programs. The consultant apparently considered any criticism of the administration a sign of liberalism, even if it came from conservatives.
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The public symbol of that fall is the fact that John Snow, who was obviously picked for his loyalty rather than his qualifications, is still Treasury secretary. Less obvious to the public is the hollowing out of the department's expertise. Many experienced staff members have left since 2000, and a number of key positions are either empty or filled only on an acting basis. "There is no policy," an economist who was leaving the department after 22 years told The Washington Post, back in 2002. "If there are no pipes, why do you need a plumber?" So the best and brightest have been leaving.
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The point is that Katrina should serve as a wakeup call, not just about FEMA, but about the executive branch as a whole. Everything I know suggests that it's in a sorry state - that an administration which doesn't treat governing seriously has created two, three, many FEMA's.
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Bubble go pop?
TIME.com: Living Too Much in the Bubble?
A bungled initial response to Katrina exposed the perils of a rigid, insular White House. Inside Bush's plan to show he isn't isolated
Step 1: Go to a supermarket and pretend not to be golly gosh gee fascinated at them scanny doohickeys they have there.
Step 2: Go to a Nascar event and hug black people while biting lip like step-brother Bill Clinton does.
Step 3: Accept all the responsiblity of everything that kinda went wrong if it was clearly the fed's fault and not a case of cudda wudda shudda.
Step 4: Have Karen Hughes give "human" lessons again.
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End of the Bush EraThe Bush Era is over. The sooner politicians in both parties realize that, the better for them -- and the country.
Recent months, and especially the past two weeks, have brought home to a steadily growing majority of Americans the truth that President Bush's government doesn't work. His policies are failing, his approach to leadership is detached and self-indulgent, his way of politics has produced a divided, angry and dysfunctional public square. We dare not go on like this.
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And what of Bush, who has more than three years left in his term? Paradoxically, his best hope lies in recognizing that the Bush Era, as he and we have known it, really is gone. He can decide to help us in the transition to what comes next. Or he can cling stubbornly to his past and thereby doom himself to frustrating irrelevance.
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The Canadian Mounties got there 3 days earlier
Desperate tales of survival at nursing homeFrom the elderly residents -- at least 31 -- who drowned in their nursing home to the hundreds stranded for days on a dock as the Mississippi lapped violently at the sides to the administrators of Chalmette Medical Center who flew away to safety and left 30 nurses abandoned on the roof surrounded by 10 feet of water, the people of St. Bernard Parish for much of the early, difficult days of the crisis were on their own without any state or federal assistance.
"We were surrounded by water and we was out of communications entirely," said Henry J. "Juniour" Rodriguez Jr., a jovial potbellied politico who's partial to snake skin belts, cowboy boots and a cane that he just might poke one with if they're not careful. "You want to talk about the cavalry riding to the rescue, the Canadian Mounties got here the second day. The feds, we didn't see those (S.O.B.'s) until the fifth or sixth day." advertisement
An overturned oil container caused many parts of the parish to be coated with thick black goo, dead fish and other marine life -- tossed onto land from the storm waters. And dead dogs lined some stretches of road.
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President Gore: Hurricane Katrina: A Moral MomentWhen I received the invitation that you generously extended for me to come and speak to you, I did not at first accept, because I was trying to resolve a scheduling conflict. The Fifty State Insurance Commissioners were meeting in New Orleans, and asked me to speak about global warming and hurricanes.Read
I was supposed to be there today and tomorrow morning. And of course as we all watched this tragedy unfold, we had a lot of different thoughts and feelings. But then, all those feelings were mixed in with puzzlement at why there was no immediate response; why there was not an adequate plan in place.
We are now told that this is not a time to point fingers, even as some of those saying, "Don't point fingers," are themselves pointing fingers at the victims of the tragedy, who did not -- many of whom could not -- evacuate the city of New Orleans, because they didn't have automobiles, and they did not have adequate public transportation.
We're told this is not a time to hold our national government accountable because there are more important matters that confront us. This is not an either/or choice. They are linked together. As our nation belatedly finds effective ways to help those who have been so hard hit by Hurricane Katrina, it is important that we learn the right lessons of what has happened, lest we are spoon-fed the wrong lessons from what happened. If we do not absorb the right lessons, we are, in the historian's phrase, doomed to repeat the mistakes that have already been made.
All of us know that our nation -- all of us, the United States of America -- failed the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast when this hurricane was approaching them, and when it struck. When the corpses of American citizens are floating in toxic floodwaters five days after a hurricane strikes, it is time not only to respond directly to the victims of the catastrophe but to hold the processes of our nation accountable, and the leaders of our nation accountable, for the failures that have taken place. [applause]
The Bible in which I believe, in my own faith tradition, says, "Where there is no vision, the people perish."
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NEW HAMPSHIRE: "Drive Free or Die"
Toll-booth loophole: E-ZPass law gives a free rideDo you still have to pay $3 plus a gallon of gas or are you allowed to pump and run now too?
State officials last week said it appears police cannot ticket and fine motorists who don't pay tolls on New Hampshire turnpikes, thanks to an oversight that took place when E-ZPass was written into state law. This would mean that any non-camera lanes — the coin-basket-only lanes — are essentially free ride lanes.
The E-ZPass legislation, which was attached to the 2006-07 budget bill, wiped out the state law that made it a violation to run toll booths without paying. Toll evasion used to be a moving violation that carried a fine of $140 plus court costs, and points assessed against the driver's license, officials said.
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25 Mind-Numbingly Stupid Quotes About Hurricane Katrina And Its Aftermath24) "I understand there are 10,000 people dead. It's terrible. It's tragic. But in a democracy of 300 million people, over years and years and years, these things happen." --GOP strategist Jack Burkman, on MSNBC's "Connected," Sept. 7, 2005 (Source)Say that again? 'Things are going relatively well'From the disputed presidential election of 2000 to the terrorist attacks on America on 9/11/01 to the failure to find Osama bin Laden to the quagmire of a war in Iraq to Hurricane Katrina, this has been a terrible decade, century, millennium.We hope so, we hate being accurate when we say This Century Sucks.
It's got to get better in 2006, doesn't it?*"Considering the dire circumstances that we have in New Orleans, virtually a city that has been destroyed, things are going relatively well." -- FEMA chief Brown, Sept. 1.
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*"We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did." -- Rep. Richard Baker (R-La.), Sept. 8, in a quip to lobbyists quoted by the Wall Street Journal. Baker is denying the quote; the WSJ reporter stands by his story.
*"How, then, did we get here? How did the richest country on Earth end up watching children cry for food in putrid encampments on the evening news? How did reporters reach crowds of the desperate in places where police, troops and emergency responders had not yet been--three days after the storm?" -- Time magazine, in a report to be published today.
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New FEMA boss is 'Duct Tape Man' - Bloggermann
(I did an image search on "Duct Tape Man" and this image came up, it actually looks a little like David Paulison eerily enough)
Olbermann:In another gesture symbolizing the continued confusion of the federal response, the man President Bush immediately named to succeed “Brownie,” proves to have been the same FEMA official who, two-and-a-half years ago, suggested that Americans stock up on duct tape to protect against a biological or chemical terrorist attack.
David Paulison, then the government's Fire Administrator, joined with the then-head of Homeland Security Tom Ridge, on February 10th, 2003, to say that duct tape and plastic sheeting should be part of any home's "survival kit" in preparation for a terrorist attack. That set off a run on duct tape at stores, and widespread criticism of the administration. It might have been the first time after 9/11 that a large number of Americans wondered if the government really knew what it was talking about when it came to disaster preparedness.
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Bush Takes Responsibility for Blunders- Monday, September 12, 2005 -
About ignoring the Aug 6th, 2001 memo?
About hiding behind My Pet Goat for 7 minutes and then hiding in his plane on 9/11?
About the tax cuts that created this huge deficit?
About Iraq?
About Tora Bora?
About "Let me finish"?
About his Medicare revamp?
About the bankruptcy bill?
About the energy bill?
About Kyoto?
About Kenny boy?
About Abu Graib?
About so many things it is hard to imagine his amazing King Midas in reverse curse hasn't made his wifes hair fall out so she can rub her bald head?
It was a pretty qualified "responsibility" line:"To the extent the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility," Bush said.So I guess it is officially not "Clinton's fault?"
Here's the scary part.The president was asked whether people should be worried about the government's ability to handle another terrorist attack given failures in responding to Katrina.So we've spend billions on "homeland insecurity" and Bush thinks asking whether or not we could handle an attack is a good question to ask.
"Are we capable of dealing with a severe attack? That's a very important question and it's in the national interest that we find out what went on so we can better respond," Bush replied.
Damn right it is.
Did it just occur to you to ask it? Why aren't you sure? Weren't you and Unca Dick going to keep us safe and tucked in?
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Ummm... why?
(I thought we had enough troops - George says we can have troops in New Orleans, Iraq, in your bedroom, anywhere all at the same time - no prob. So why mercs?)
Feared Blackwater Mercenaries Deploy in New OrleansAMY GOODMAN: Did you just get here?for more: Blackwater Mercenaries Deploy in New Orleans
BLACKWATER MERCENARY 1: We have been here a couple days.
AMY GOODMAN: Yeah? Who are you working for?
BLACKWATER MERCENARY 1: Blackwater.
AMY GOODMAN: And who are they working for?
BLACKWATER MERCENARY 1: Really don't -- don't have any way to tell you that. You know, we just do our assignments, and we go from there.
AMY GOODMAN: What's your assignment today?
BLACKWATER MERCENARY 1: I'm not at liberty to discuss. I'm sorry.
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JEREMY SCAHILL:.... And so, we tracked them down, found them down the street, and just approached the Blackwater mercenaries and began talking to them. Two of the guys that we talked to had served on the personal security details of L. Paul Bremer, the American pro-counsel in Iraq originally, the head of the occupation, as well as the U.S. ambassador -- former U.S. ambassador to Iraq, John Negroponte. One of the guys had just gotten back from Iraq two weeks ago. These are some of the most highly trained killers, professional killers in the world. And they had served in Iraq in a number of cities and in a number of capacities.
And one of them was wearing a golden badge, that identified itself as being Louisiana law enforcement, and in fact, one of the Blackwater mercenaries told us that he had been deputized by the governor of Louisiana, and what's interesting is that the federal government and the Department of Homeland Security have denied that they have hired any private security firms, saying that they have enough with government forces. Well, these Blackwater men that we spoke to said that they are actually on contract with the Department of Homeland Security and indeed with the governor of Louisiana. And they said that they're sleeping in camps organized by the Department of Homeland Security."When they told me New Orleans, I said, 'What country is that in?,'" said one of the Blackwater men. He was wearing his company ID around his neck in a carrying case with the phrase "Operation Iraqi Freedom" printed on it. After bragging about how he drives around Iraq in a "State Department issued level 5, explosion proof BMW," he said he was "just trying to get back to Kirkuk (in the north of Iraq) where the real action is." Later we overheard him on his cell phone complaining that Blackwater was only paying $350 a day plus per diem. That is much less than the men make serving in more dangerous conditions in Iraq. Two men we spoke with said they plan on returning to Iraq in October. But, as one mercenary said, they've been told they could be in New Orleans for up to 6 months. "This is a trend," he told us. "You're going to see a lot more guys like us in these situations."
Backwater
We're sailing at the edges of time
Backwater
We're drifting at the waterline
Oh we're floating in the coastal waters
You and me and the porter's daughters
Ooh what you do not a sausage can do
And the shorter of the porter's daughters
Dips her hand in the deadly waters
Ooh what to do in a tiny canoe
- Brian Eno - Backwater
I always thought the song was Blackwater so that is why I wanted to quote it, but now I know it is Backwater and yet I still am quoting it.
So there.
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Maybe George Bush thinks he's in the Matrix and can dodge bullets?
President, Lieutenant General Honore Discuss Hurricane Relief in LouisianaQ Did they misinform you when you said that no one anticipated the breach of the levees?No one is quite sure who this "everybody" is, because all of us not hooked into the Matrix knew New Orleans was drowning. (Daily Kos has all the headlines from that morning for ya... no "dodged a bullet" to be seen.)
THE PRESIDENT: No, what I was referring to is this. When that storm came by, a lot of people said we dodged a bullet. When that storm came through at first, people said, whew. There was a sense of relaxation, and that's what I was referring to. And I, myself, thought we had dodged a bullet. You know why? Because I was listening to people, probably over the airways, say, the bullet has been dodged. And that was what I was referring to.
Of course, there were plans in case the levee had been breached. There was a sense of relaxation in the moment, a critical moment. And thank you for giving me a chance to clarify that.
Q Mr. President, where were you when you realized the severity of the storm?
THE PRESIDENT: I was -- I knew that a big storm was coming on Monday, so I spoke to the country on Monday* morning about it. I said, there's a big storm coming. I had pre-signed emergency declarations in anticipation of a big storm coming.
Q Mr. President --
THE PRESIDENT: -- which is, by the way, extraordinary. Most emergencies the President signs after the storm has hit. It's a rare occasion for the President to anticipate the severity of a storm and sign the documentation prior to the storm hitting. So, in other words, we anticipated a serious storm coming. But as the man's question said, basically implied, wasn't there a moment where everybody said, well, gosh, we dodged the bullet, and yet the bullet hadn't been dodged.
The asterix points out when that when he says "Monday" he means "Sunday"
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Well I guess in Georgia its a little better then in Louisiana.
In Louisiana if you are poor or disabled you may lose your life to the raising waters, in Georgia if you are poor or disabled you just lose your right to vote.
The GOP is aggressively remaking America into a dark, angry, and hateful place
Georgia's New Poll TaxIn 1966, the Supreme Court held that the poll tax was unconstitutional. Nearly 40 years later, Georgia is still charging people to vote, this time with a new voter ID law that requires many people without driver's licenses - a group that is disproportionately poor, black and elderly - to pay $20 or more for a state ID card. Georgia went ahead with this even though there is not a single place in the entire city of Atlanta where the cards are sold. The law is a national disgrace.Found via: THE GOP HATES BLACK PEOPLE
Until recently, Georgia, like most states, accepted many forms of identification at the polls. But starting this month, it is accepting only government-issued photo ID's. People with driver's licenses are fine. But many people without them have to buy a state ID card to vote, at a cost of $20 for a five-year card or $35 for 10 years. The cards are sold in 58 locations, in a state with 159 counties. It is outrageous that Atlanta does not have a single location. (The state says it plans to open one soon.) But the burden is also great on people in rural parts of the state.- rob 4:43 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Brownie/Drownie quits
FEMA director Brown resignsNEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Mike Brown, under fire over his qualifications and what critics call a bungled response to Hurricane Katrina, resigned Monday, senior administration sources told CNN.That isn't enough... what about the guy who thought Brown was qualified in the first place. What does he say about this?
Brown was recalled Friday to Washington and replaced as the point main for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.
"Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job" - George W. Bush.
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After Katrina fiasco, time for Bush to go - baltimoresun.com
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Is no one free to tell us how many people showed up for the freedom march
NY Times coverage of the not-so-much-freedom marchOf the 15,000 who registered, the Times only said "thousands" actually participated. Sounds like a massive turnout for freedom, Bush style. And what freedom parade is complete without a few arrests for peaceful protests and freedom of speech?As Bush likes to sing: "Freedom's just another word for... um.... got a lotta of booze...um... me and Bobby McGee."One man who registered for the walk was detained by a Pentagon police officer after he slipped a black hood over his head and produced a sign that read, "Freedom?"
The man was removed from the Pentagon registration area, handcuffed and taken away in a police car. It was not clear whether he was charged or simply detained and the police did not respond to messages requesting more information.
Ann Grossman, 56, from Silver Spring, Md., also carried a homemade sign, which read "Honor Our Troops, Respect Their Lives," that was confiscated by police at the Pentagon.
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Oh thank god
Genes Show Signs Brain Still Evolving
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Without dipping into its assets Exxon could pay for the entire $100 billion rebuilding effort itself in 2.5 years.
Just saying - you want good PR - there's good PR.
Exxon's $10B fill-up: Cashing in on crunchOil companies came under new fire yesterday when it emerged that ExxonMobil's profits are likely to soar above $10 billion this quarter on the back of the fuel crisis.
That's $110 million a day, and more net income than any company has ever made in a quarter. It's also a stunning 69 percent increase over the same period a year ago and a 34 percent jump from the $7.6 billion Exxon made just last quarter.
``Do you realize President Bush has just given a tax break to ExxonMobil?'' thundered Rep. Ed Markey (D-Malden). ``Of all the companies in the history of the world that needed a tax break, this month, ExxonMobil should be at the bottom of the list.''
- rob 1:59 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Sit your child down and teach him or her the importance of the decisions he or she makes in college.
Such as picking the right roomie.
TIME.com: How Reliable Is Brown's Resume?Before joining FEMA, his only previous stint in emergency management, 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." In fact, according to Claudia Deakins, head of public relations for the city of Edmond, 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."But he really was Joe Allbaugh's old college roomie - so the part of the resume that counts was real.
...
Brown's lack of experience in emergency management isn't the only apparent bit of padding on his resume, which raises questions about how rigorously the White House vetted him before putting him in charge of FEMA. 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).
- rob 1:56 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Someone asks a really good question
Four Years After 9/11 -- We Still Have No ResultsWhat has the Bush Administration been doing these last four years? If they weren’t busy preparing for a national emergency or busy catching Osama bin Laden – the perpetrator of the last great catastrophe in America – what on God’s green earth have they been up to?Looting the treasury?This is incompetence that borders on indifference. Do they not care about people’s lives? How can you have a Department of Homeland Security that hasn’t prepared to defend the homeland?
What if it was a terrorist who blew up the levees of New Orleans instead of a hurricane? Would the response have been any different? If the answer is yes, then why? Why should it make any difference to the people whose lives were on the line what caused the levees to break? They should get help either way.
If the answer is “no, the response would have been the same,” then four years after 9/11, we are not even remotely prepared for a terrorist strike inside the United States.
- rob 1:50 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Now that 40 billion or so is going to be handed out like candy as part of the Gulf Coast rebuilding effore, lets see how similar monies were handled last time.
AP: Some Companies Got Unneeded 9/11 LoansThe government promised banks a hands-off approach in overseeing nearly $5 billion in Sept. 11 recovery aid to small businesses. What it got in return was numerous loans to companies that didn't need terror relief — or even know they were getting it, The Associated Press found.Emphasis mine. Scores of Utah ranchers look forward to receiving the Katrina aide they desparately need.
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The records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act also show that many other loan recipients who made cases they were injured by Sept. 11 were far removed from the direct devastation of New York City and Washington, like a South Dakota country radio station, a Virgin Islands perfume shop and a Utah dog boutique.
The pattern of lending left many at New York's Ground Zero seething, especially those who had trouble getting government assistance.
"You have to take it back and give it to us. Even now, I could use it," fumed Mike Yagudayev, who said the government offered him only $20,000 of the $70,000 loan he requested to rebuild the hair salon flattened by the collapse of the World Trade Center's twin towers.
How's the money going to be handled this time?
Firms with Bush ties snag Katrina dealsWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Companies with ties to the Bush White House and the former head of FEMA are clinching some of the administration's first disaster relief and reconstruction contracts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
At least two major corporate clients of lobbyist Joe Allbaugh, President George W. Bush's former campaign manager and a former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, have already been tapped to start recovery work along the battered Gulf Coast.
One is Shaw Group Inc. and the other is Halliburton Co. subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root. Vice President Dick Cheney is a former head of Halliburton.
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TWO BUSH APPOINTEES AT HALLIBURTON
Allbaugh formally registered as a lobbyist for Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root in February.
In lobbying disclosure forms filed with the Senate, Allbaugh said his goal was to "educate the congressional and executive branch on defense, disaster relief and homeland security issues affecting Kellogg Brown and Root."
Melissa Norcross, a Halliburton spokeswoman, said Allbaugh has not, since he was hired, "consulted on any specific contracts that the company is considering pursuing, nor has he been tasked by the company with any lobbying responsibilities."
Allbaugh is also a friend of Michael Brown, director of FEMA who was removed as head of Katrina disaster relief and sent back to Washington amid allegations he had padded his resume.
- rob 1:48 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Bush doesn't just blow at dealing with hurricanes
Bush wanted bin Laden dead or alive... but I guess only if bin Laden turned himself in
Lost at Tora Bora
- rob 1:30 PM - [PermaLink] -
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READ: How Bush Blew It - Newsweek Hurricane Katrina CoverageThe reality, say several aides who did not wish to be quoted because it might displease the president, did not really sink in until Thursday night. Some White House staffers were watching the evening news and thought the president needed to see the horrific reports coming out of New Orleans. Counselor Bartlett made up a DVD of the newscasts so Bush could see them in their entirety as he flew down to the Gulf Coast the next morning on Air Force One.
How this could be—how the president of the United States could have even less "situational awareness," as they say in the military, than the average American about the worst natural disaster in a century—is one of the more perplexing and troubling chapters in a story that, despite moments of heroism and acts of great generosity, ranks as a national disgrace.
- rob 1:26 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Police made their storm misery worseSo late Wednesday afternoon, the group set out for a bridge called the Crescent City Connection, where they would find the help they so desperately needed. But when they arrived atop the highway, the paramedics said, they were met by more police officers, this time from neighboring Gretna, La., who weren't letting anyone pass.
"If I weren't there, and hadn't witnessed it for myself, I don't think I would have ever believed this," Bradshaw said.
The officers fired warning shots into the air and then leveled their weapons at members of the crowd, Bradshaw said. He approached, hands in the air, displaying his paramedic's badge.
"They told us that there would be no Superdomes in their city,'' the couple wrote. "These were code words that if you are poor and black, you are not crossing the Mississippi River -- and you weren't getting out of New Orleans.''
And when exhausted hurricane victims set up temporary shelters on the highway, Gretna police came back a few hours later, fired shots into the air again, told people to "get the f -- off the bridge" and used a helicopter to blow down all the makeshift shelters, the paramedics said.
When the officers had pushed the crowd back far enough, one of them took the group's food and water, dropped it in the trunk of a patrol car and drove away.
- rob 1:24 PM - [PermaLink] -
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