Priorities

Your moral values crowd, ladies and gentleman.

It's On

Can't Wait. Hopefully Slap-Rod understands the rules of baseball now.

Shining

Anyone who has ever seen The Shining has got to watch this. It is an absolutly hilarious reimagination of The Shining's movie trailer. Mad props to Rob at the PS260 blog.

I could not stop laughing at the trailer. I mean, it may be the best horror film of all time, and who would ever have done 127 takes in a movie like the one depicted with the wholesomeness, peter gabriel, etc?

So funny.

Disgusting

Two stories of note from media matters that deserve attention...

#1: Pat Tillman's mother, in an article in the San Francisco Chronicle about her persuit of the real story of her son's death, tells us that Pat was among other things, a fan of Noam Chomsky, a Kerry supporter, thought the Iraq war was a terrible idea, and had planned to meet with Chomsky privately. Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter hear all these things and their response is "I don't believe it." This is how sick these people are. They need that symbol of Tillman that they created in their heads to beef up their own sense of moral and patriotic righteousness (Coulter called him - “an American original — virtuous, pure and masculine like only an American male can be”) but when confronted with facts from the guy's mother, they just choose not to believe it. Now, that is unbelievable.

#2: Bill Bennet thinks aborting all black children will lower the crime rate. Seriously.

Delay, Frist and Fat Tony's Party

A tough week for Fat Tony's party. A "good ally" to the President is indicted. Hopefully Rove is next. And how unfortunate for Senator Bill Frist to also have to face an investigation, in this case by the SEC for illegal sale of stock from his "blind" trust just days before the stock crashed. The stock he sold was from HCA, a company his family started. Now, call me snarky, but how would Frist get the knowledge that his family's company stock was going to tank soon enough to get rid of it?
Oh, and remember Martha and all that jail time?

Let's see if the Democrats are smart enough to run against the party of corruption in 2006.

Oh, and don't by any of Delay's bs. that Ronnie Earl is a partisan hack.
From ThinkProgress:
“Over Earle’s 27-year tenure, his Public Integrity Unit has prosecuted 15 elected officials, including 12 Democrats.”

“Some of the Democrats prosecuted by Earle and his Public Integrity Unit are former Texas House Speaker Gib Lewis, former Texas Attorney General Jim Mattox, former State Treasurer Warren Harding and former Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Yarbrough.”

Comes A Time

If you weren't there, you might want to start here for the great images of the evening and then here for the realest explanation of what the show was like. In my opinion it was a A+ show for vibe and a B/B- for music. I loved certain moments but I was literally bored at others. The sound going out was a bummer, but I was fortunate enough at that time to be very close to stage and some speakers so I could still hear what little sound there was to be heard. Also, the point in the article about the rotation actually wrecking the flow of the show was a nightmarish scenario I previously had imagined when I saw the lineup, but never really gave too much thought to it until the show. Seriously, they had waaaaay to many people and every time I got excited about the show in the weeks before it, there was that little kernel of negativity in my head (How are they going to practice? How will they pull off the stage configurations?) that I would quickly squash with the thoughts of going to my first show at the Greek Theater and seeing some of my favorite musicians play Jerry's music.

So I walk into the Greek and for the first half hour I just walk around in amazement at how sick the place is. I find Aly and a giggling gang of friends who did not have the luxury of working all afternoon, so, well, you know what white people do when they get bored. Anyway, we are on top of the hill and dead center and the sun is setting and there's this tower and wow it is cool to live here and wow I am hearing the string cheese incident play Dead and it is all good, but immediately there is this tribute band sound to the whole thing. The "liftoff" I am hoping for and had been waiting for for weeks is not there, and throughout the night never really comes musically. They just had this never ending plateau of really awesome music being played really well, pausing at least in momentum for a new addition to enter the fray or for someone to leave it, but never that peak-valley-peak-valley-unbelievable jam-climax-valley-unblievable jam-drums-space-bathroom song-lift-meander-peak-jam-climax-encore that I and everyone else in attendance is used to.

My hope for this concert is that it was a trial run and will continue for years to come and that the musicians will want to do it again. They can convince Phil to get on board next year and because the thrill of the 10 year/first show/initial tribute thing will be over, maybe not as many people will sign on, and then hopefully the core that does can get some practice in and get some really sick jams going and really connect with something other than the spirit of the man. Not that that is a bad thing, but those guys all know what liftoff is, and they want to take people there as much as we want to be taken. Call me selfish because I guess I wanted the best of both worlds- I not only wanted 25 of the best musicians in the world to show up for one night and play some of my favorite music, not just tightly and with a fond love and respect for the materiel, but I wanted them to improvise and take me to outer space as well.

We used to say when Phish was playing an average show that even at their worst night, it was still the best time ever and my favorite place to go to. And as far as vibe goes, this show sybolic nature and the feeling being there alone, even before the music started, was just unreal ("Take this feeling with you!!!" cheered Mickey Hart at the end), so I really shouldn't complain and just be grateful I was there (see what I did there? I am gonna do it again in the next line...). There was a few moments where I wanted Trey or whoever to just go nuts and they didn't, but I just looked around and thought, all things considered this is f'ing amazing and even without the 25 minute jams into interplanetary bliss, I thought there ain't no place I'd rather be. (... see, right there)

Dylan

The new Scorcese doc on Bob Dylan is just awesome. I was really looking forward to it because I thought the four hour documentary was going to be on Jacob Dylan, so initially I was disappointed that it was about his dad. But, to my surprise, his dad had an interesting life too and made quite the subject for Scorcese.


No, I don't think that joke will ever get old.


Anyway, check it out on PBS.

Mouse Game

Who thinks this game would be too complicated for the President to figure out? (Via C&L)

For Audiophiles Only

I'm sorry, but this just makes sense nowadays. And if you are into music distribution (formally "tape-trading") the subtext of the article is pretty funny and, as is the case with a lot of Jesse Jarnow's articles, this kinda needed to be said.

Wanna Be Like Mike

Thank God they're busy restoring "honor and integrity" to the White House.

Friday Sing-A-Long

Asshole.

(via Crooks & Liars)

GOP To Cut Military Benefits So Millionaires Can Keep Tax Cuts

Once again, David Sirota tells it like it is.

I Never Knew I Was a Phil Donahue Fan

Watch This.

Who Were The Ad Wizards That Came Up With This One?

Everyday I log into my yahoo accounts (before anyone suggests it, yes, I have moved on to Gmail, but I still have three separate accounts on yahoo, including the one for this site that I am forced to check often) and on the sign-in page I am always struck with the pictures that the people of Yahoo put next to the user/password prompts. They are always the most random, and often times confusing and offensive, pictures next to captions that have nothing to do with the picture. Here's my favorite:

The actual caption is, "We don't just find viruses, We zap 'em!" which has as much to do with this picture as "Get TIME for 50% off the Cover Price" would have.

Shouldn't the caption here be "The Roof of My Mouth is Bleeding" or "I Just B$%* Clifford!" or "Can Someone Please Zap These Alien Herpes On My Tongue?"

Anyway, feel free to add your own caption to all of these, but the real point is, why do they subject me to this when I want to check my email? I already use Yahoo, shouldn't the selling of the service have stopped after I signed up? What's with all the creepy pictures? Can't they just have a plain page like they used to? This is what happens when you give your account to the wrong ad people.

Here's more:

(2) Actual Caption: Spamguard Giveth, SpamGuard Taketh Away

Is SpamGuard like the Aparteid police? Are they arresting this man? Is he getting electricuted? Were they wrestling the photographer to the ground so he could only get this half-picture?

(3) Actual Caption: InstaList Brings the Bowling Team Together

Mine: Watch 50 Foot Woman Devour Lil' Prankster Only On Yahoo

(4) Actual Caption: One Folder Just For Intergalactic Email?

Mine: Cartel Heads Meet Seaside To Discuss Plans For Newly Formed Death Squad

(5) Actual Caption: Photomail. Share to your heart's content.

Mine: Chinatown's Solution: When A Paperbag Just Won't Do For the Otherwise Doable.

(6) Actual Caption: Terrible With Names? Use Address Book.

Mine: Screaming Bronx Man Caught Stealing Cadavers From Red Cross Vehicle

(7) Actual Caption: Find an old fling's email.

Mine: Exiled Revolutionary Disgusted With New Office

(8) Actual Caption: You deserve the best. Yahoo! Mail delivers.

Mine: It Is Too Late By The Time These Vacationing Lesbians Notice Tsunami

(9) Actual Caption: InstaList Brings the Bowling Team Together

Mine: Hippie Maid Just Loves Doing Laundry; Prefers 'Colors' To 'Whites'

(10) Actual Caption: Hit the road. Your mail will follow.

Mine: "Todd-rific": What Army Recruiters Are Now Forced To Accept

(11) Actual Caption: Hit the road. Your mail will follow.

Mine: Little J. Chang Is Excited To See His Father Taken To Get His "Surprise" After Innocently Inviting the State Police To the Family's "Film Night" (Resistance Meeting)

(12) Actual Caption: Photomail. Share to your heart's content.

Mine: Women's Auxillary of NAMBLA Meeting Tonight at 7:00 p.m.

(13) Actual Caption: Quick! Find email for an old flame.

Mine: Jobless, Alcoholic Mother Steeps to New Low to Fund Her Habit; Daughter in for a Really Tough Life Lesson

(14) Actual Caption: Terrible with names? Use Address Book.

Mine: Florida Conservative Convinced Jesus Earrings Will Protect Her From Poison Flower

(15) Actual Caption: Add friends as fast as you make them.

Mine: Interacial Marriage Not an Issue For Red-Haired Black Woman and Headless White Husband

None of the actual captions were taken out of context or made up. You can see for yourself here. There's so many more, and everyday I just go "Huh?" because they seem to be getting stranger and stranger.

Fat Tony and His Oil Buddies

Sirota points out gouging from the big oil firms, and the mafia head that protects them. Congratulations Americans, you are literally paying for your decision to elect an oil whore.

I Would Have Asked "Why Was The Music At Coventry So Awful?" ...

...but again, this may be why I can't interview members of Phish.

A woman named Jess Minnen interviewed Trey Anastasio (go read the whole thing, good stuff) while he was on his last tour. This was posted on the Phish.net, which I read about once a year now, and I suspect that is true for other people into Phish who are also reading this blog. So I decided to post it here for all four of you.
Anyway, she asked the question:

J: ... So I just want to ask about the drugs, the rumors, how drugs played into the breakup of Phish.”

T: “Ok. Here’s what happens with drugs, as most people know. Drugs are the tip of the ice berg of an unhealthy situation. There’s no other way to look at it. There’s no question that after many, many years of chess and Tetris and work-a-holic-ness being our drugs of choice, that the scene started to rear its ugly head around Phish. At which point it was an easy decision: Well, I’m not living that life. There was definitely an aspect of that…. Everyone is fine, though.”

There’s a semi-long pause and I wonder if he’s pissed at me for bringing it up. Then he starts speaking again. And let me just say, when he gets going on a subject, it’s like a faucet. So much material, matter, information, anything and everything coming out. It sounds like informed stream of consciousness.

T: “Here’s how I’ll answer that question. What was going on out in the audience always seemed to line up pretty well with what was going on back stage. We had a big scene around Phish. That became a serious problem. Our backstage scene was huge. There were so many friends, so many characters. We had parties backstage, at least one or two that were ongoing parties from show to show. It was fun for awhile, then it just kind of took a turn for the worse. Right at the end it needed to end. You know what I mean? There’s no question about that. It couldn’t go on like that. When that started happening, the people who had been around forever… I remember having a conversation with Paul. In the beginning there were five people who traveled with Phish: The four of us, and Paul. He used to do everything. Paul Languedoc. I remember one day he came up to me backstage and said, ‘This doesn’t fit.’ There were all these people around and this darkness had come over the whole thing. It was seedy and depressing. I remember looking at him and saying, ‘God that’s the realest thing anyone has said to me in a long time.’”

J: “It was like that in the crowd, too.”

T: “Exactly. Well, I’m gonna guess that that was right around ’99? That’s what the hiatus was about. The whole thing was like one big gang. I think our guest list at Coventry was like, three thousand people. Everyone on our crew was taking care of this ongoing scene, and it was becoming more and more difficult to do what we were supposed to be doing, which was concentrating on the music and practicing. I always think about what was to me one of the great Phish shows. I just look at it as an amazing night, symbolic of everything good about Phish: the 1996 Atlanta Halloween show when we did the Talking Heads album. It was because we spent months practicing for that thing. All the way up until four o’clock in the morning we were practicing for that show. And then we played the music once. That’s always what it was like with Phish. That’s the way I like to work. I love writing. I love practicing. I love working towards that experience on stage. Discipline towards that ecstatic release. It became harder and harder because we were dragging this giant circus around with us wherever we went. Even the guys on the crew were complaining… ‘I can’t do my job because I’m spending so much time parking the back stage scene at the venue.’ It was completely out of control.

“So I can just about guarantee that I don’t need to answer that question. Everyone knows because they saw it out in the audience. I’m going to tell you the truth. We tried the hiatus and nothing was working. It had to stop. I know that was the right thing. I have so much hope. I want to continue to play for a long time, have that feeling of lighting people up. I really love that so much.”

J: “Speaking as an audience member, it’s the most amazing thing to have happen to you.”

T: “I want that! So badly. Every day I pace around waiting. My next show is Thursday. I can’t wait. I wish it was today. And… it was becoming harder and harder to do that, in that context. It wasn’t anybody’s fault or any one specific thing. It wasn’t that drugs were around, or that we weren’t able to practice as much. It wasn’t any of those things. It was all of them. Exhaustion. The utterly overblown scene. Phil Lesh talks about that in his new book, how it was so psychicly draining to walk from the band room to the stage. That’s exactly what it was like. But it’s not like that anymore. When I did my last tour… It worked. I have hope.”

Boston's Favorite Fraudcaster Going National

Sag Harbor, New York resident and Boston radio hate monger Jay Severin has awarded himself a Pulitzer Prize. Now he's going national. Jay, how did you get such a job in such an incredibly difficult place that is the liberal media? Must have been that Pulitzer on your résumé.

(Thanks to about 45 different people for the tip.)

Your Money Well Spent

My friend Sean sent this along and I think you should read it.
The following was taken from the discussion and was posted by someone named Rodan...
( Here's the whole discussion and some video. )

Before coming to the event I researched it extensively. The party was %100 percent legal and legit with all permits and necessary security required by law being acquired. The event was well organized, with garbage cans, porta potties, and rope lines blocking off parts of the area that you could no go into.

Now I want you to know that many people out there consider ravers a bunch of drug taking freaks. I also want you to know that that is a stereotype that is passed down through legions of undereducated parents, politicians, and media. There are many of us who are drug free party goers who attend these events for a pure love of the music.

So on to my point. At around 11:00 I was enjoying the good vibes and great music. Then at about 11:30 pm a helicopter began circling the party. Out of nowhere huge semis filled with what appeared to be national guard (we later learned it was swat), swat, and the police rolled up. Soldiers came out of the bushes and rushed down to the party. Carrying M-16s, Ak-47s, nightsticks, and tazers. They proceeded to attack random people and push their might around on people who had done nothing wrong.

I saw about 7 people attacked (before being forced to leave). I saw two of them right in front of me. One was a guy who was walking around with a camcorder stunned at what was happening. A soldier told him to give him the camera now. The raver said no it is my camera. The soldier then proceeded to grab the camera, throw it to the ground and then began beating the kid. In the end they threw him to the ground violently an put their knee into his back while handcuffing him. All for wanting to keep his property. When I last saw him he was knocked out and unmoving.

Another girl next to me said to one of the soldiers that she didn't know how to get home as they had just arrested her friend. The soldier told her to walk home. My friend tried to grab her to bring her with us, but the soldier began yelling that she had touched him (which she hadn't). WIthin seconds, five soldiers had jumped on her and were literally beating the crap out of this innocent women. She was punched in the face, thrown to the ground, and kicked while down. All for worrying how to get home safely. She is now suing.

The soldiers proceeded to attack anyone with cameras or camcorders, obviously wanting to restrict the film that got out about it. This was not a legal attack, it was a blatant violation on our rights as American citizens. And the swat, police, and politicians who authorized this, knew this. That is why they were removing potential evidence.

We were treated as terrorists, innocent kids without weapons or even violent thoughts in their minds were manhandled, treated like terrorists, and forced to stop doing what we were by constitutional rights allowed to be doing. Our rights were completely removed from us. It was if we had visited the 1960s or communist China.

Some Commentary from Sean (who was not at the party in question):

ya know, I have seen the video a couple of times now and read many of the stories told by some of the kids on the site. It really is unreal, and very surreal. Like something out of a bad movie or video game. I mean ski masks and assault weapons pointed at the heads of ravers?? Dogs, and helicopters and soldiers in camo? They had a permit. And even if they didn't is this where we want to spend our money? This is fighting terrorism? Hell, it's not even a smart way to fight drugs, assuming that is what they are trying to do. Confiscate camera's, video cameras and camera phones? If they felt good about what they were doing and that is was for the safety of their community why would pictures be a problem? I don't know why this has got me so fired up but I guess it is because I have been to things like this and they are a great and harmless time. A culture that loves- among other things- war, violent music, video games, TV, Porn, etc... has a problem with a bunch of freaks dancing to dance music in the woods? They ought see what happens in those cheesy legit college night clubs in any big city. Or frat parties for that matter...

True dat, son.


(Updated to clarify authorship)

Good Stuff

Even though our lazy media continued to call the GOP sham probe into Katrina a "bipartisan" effort, it was not, as pointed out by Senator Harry Reid's pitcher calling his own balls and strikes analogy below. Anyway, the Democrats have defeated the criminal intents of that GOP whitewash of their own foul ups, and this lil' freedom spreader thinks that is just great.

Closing the triangle

Nothing I could post would be more worth your attention than this.

How much real press will this get?

Ed Markey was my Representative when I lived in Medford, MA. He was great then and he continues to impress me today. Our lazy media has officially returned to sleep walking and not practicing actual journalism, so I am sure this type of thing will not get noticed by anyone in the media elite. (BTW, see the post below.)

Markey:
Less than one day after President Bush addressed the nation to detail perhaps the country’s largest reconstruction effort in history, White House officials are explaining what he really meant.

Administration officials have ‘clarified’ that their Katrina recovery program will not interrupt an agenda of robust tax breaks for the wealthiest American families and corporations.

Katrina recovery efforts should not be funded out of spending cuts in Medicaid, education, and veteran's programs, but by repealing tax cuts for the wealthiest individuals and corporations in the country.

This week the President vowed that the government would provide, "whatever it costs" to rebuild the Gulf region, but it is now clear that the cost of the reconstruction efforts will be borne by poor Americans who depend the most on government housing programs, after school programs and Medicaid that have already been starved by Bush Administration cuts.

President Bush cannot credibly preach that he will eradicate a ‘legacy of poverty’ while his Republican allies work to cut $10 billion from Medicaid, a health program serving the country’s poorest families. The President has pledged to cut unnecessary spending, but he has ruled out the option of amending his tax breaks for the rich, which will cost the government trillions of dollars over the next several years.

The President is using the victims of Katrina as guinea pigs in a conservative policy experiment instead of turning to proven, effective programs of disaster relief. The devastation of the Gulf Coast is a national tragedy but Republicans consider it a golden opportunity to further a radical policy wish list by ignoring environmental laws and fair labor practices while lining the pockets of big government contractors. The needs of the families of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama must drive the reconstruction efforts, not the desires of ideological zealots and corporate contractors. We need oversight of government contracts not overcharges from companies like Halliburton that are rushing to take advantage of this national crisis.

Katrina’s destruction has shined a spotlight on the deep-rooted problem of American poverty. As the President commits to rebuild homes and restore hearts in the region, I hope he will reassess his agenda which has been leaving the 37 million Americans in poverty behind.

Must Reads

Actual Headline from Media Matters:

Bill O'Reilly's continuing obsession with inter-species marriages.

And here's a post everyon should take a look at. Think about it for a second - Why is the President's chief political advisor in charge of rebuilding New Orleans? Why is this criminal getting more power? Power he has no rational reason to have bestowed upon him... Could it be because this gives the GOP the perfect opportunity to, as the president said today, "cut unnecessary spending," meaning, of course, cut spending that helps the poor (Medicare, Social Security, Welfare, Education, Farm Bill) and divert it to the rich (he wants his tax cuts permanant) like Hallelejuburton and the elites that actually got out of the city. It will be 9-11 all over again, and anyone who disagrees will be the Hate New Orleans First crowd. This is how they operate, and if you think I am crazy, watch Bush loyalist Dick Morris explain what "fortunate" guy Bush is while trying to control his erection here.

First the disaster, then the criminal coverup, then the prime time promise of hope (and then the following day a minor admission that there will be borrowing from our children and grandchildren and cutting spending aimed to help those afflicted by the very plague of poverty Bush has helped spread, and no raising taxes to pay for all the aid), then the no bid contracts, than the rammed through radical agenda under the guise of "relief." And at every turn, the guy calling the shots is a guy who cares much more about the political rationals and protecting Dear Leader than he does about the truth, this country's safety, and the people of New Orleans.

Sound familiar?

It should and it's so simple even the illiterates that voted for this lunatic can follow.

Who feels safer? I certainly do with a criminal politcal strategist calling the shots.
Don't you Red States?

Is she sniffing glue?

Just how would your Coffee Coolatta taste if Saddam was still in power? Hmmmm....

This is what happens when you run out of bullshit.

Spotlight Speech, Then Blackout

This is just awful. (from NBC's Brian Williams, via Kos)

And so is this. Keep ignoring your constituents Democrats, it is a policy that has worked so well in the past elections.

Replace the word "Katrina" with "Iraq"....

... and you have the speech from last night. Or at least major points from it. No wonder his numbers are in the tank, all he does is repeat himself and people are sick of it.

ThinkProgress has a great factcheck up rightnow, here are a few of the highlights:

Bush said: “The government of this nation will do its part as well. Our cities must have clear and up-to-date plans for responding to natural disasters, disease outbreaks, or terrorist attack.”

FACT — BUSH SAID DHS WAS PREPARED TO MEET TERRORIST THREAT: Bush, 3/2/04: “We’ll face the terrorist threat for years to come. Our government is prepared to meet that threat. One of the most important steps we’ve taken is creating the Department of Homeland Security, combining under one roof, with a clear chain of command, many agencies responsible for protecting our nation… You faced the challenges standing up this new Department and you get a — and a gold star for a job well done.” Bush, 7/22/04: “We will work tirelessly to disrupt and prevent terrorist attacks — and if an attack should come, America will be prepared.”

FACT — BUSH SAID COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN FIRST RESPONDERS HAD IMPROVED: Bush, 7/22/04: “We’ve committed unprecedented funding, training, equipment and support to first responders at the state and local levels. We’ve improved communication, coordination and cooperation between everyone involved in our nation’s preparedness and response.” Bush, 9/13/05: “Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government.”

Bush said: “I also want to know all the facts about the government response to Hurricane Katrina.”

FACT: BUSH DOESN’T SUPPORT INDEPENDENT PANEL: Seventy percent of Americans support forming an independent commission, but Senate conservatives are working to create a panel that will reflect “their dominance in Congress.” Bush plans to “lead his own investigation of what went wrong.” [Times-Picayune, 9/14/05; Orlando Sun-Sentinel, 9/15/05; The Guardian, ">9/7/05]

Bush said: “We will not just rebuild, we will build higher and better. To meet this goal, I will listen to good ideas from…state and local officials.”

FACT — WHITE HOUSE BLAMED STATE AND LOCAL OFFICIALS FOR FAILURES: Headline: “White House Shifts Blame to State and Local Officials” [Washington Post, 9/4/05]

Bush said: “And taxpayers expect this work to be done honestly and wisely – so we will have a team of inspector generals reviewing all expenditures.”

FACT — BUSH ADMINISTRATION DEMOTED CORRUPTION WHISTLEBLOWER: The New York Times on Bunnatine Greenhouse’s reassignment: “A top Army contracting official who criticized a large, noncompetitive contract with the Halliburton Company for work in Iraq was demoted Saturday…” [New York Times, 8/29/05]

Bush said: “As all of us saw on television, there is also some deep, persistent poverty in this region as well. And that poverty has roots in a history of racial discrimination, which cut off generations from the opportunity of America.”

FACT — MILLIONS MORE AMERICANS HAVE FALLEN INTO POVERTY SINCE BUSH TOOK OFFICE:
1.1 million people fell out of the middle class and into poverty in 2004
1.4 million more children live in poverty since Bush took office
250,000 more African Americans fell into poverty over the last two years
500,000 more Hispanics fell into poverty over the last two years
[Census.gov]

And my vote for the sinkiest piece of poopy....

Bush said: “To every person who has served and sacrificed in this emergency, I offer the gratitude of our country.”

FACT — BUSH ORDER ALLOWS FEDERAL CONTRACTORS TO PAY LESS THAN PREVAILING WAGE: President Bush issued an order suspending application of the Bacon-Davis Act which “set a minimum pay scale for workers on federal contracts by requiring contractors to pay the prevailing or average pay in the region. Suspension of the act will allow contractors to pay lower wages.” [Washington Post, 9/9/05]

FACT — BUSH WORKING TO SUSPEND WAGE SUPPORTS FOR SERVICE WORKERS: The White House is working to “suspend wage supports for service workers in the hurricane zone as it did for construction workers on federal contracts.” [Washington Post, 9/14/05]

Ahhhh yes, suspending prevailing wage so Haliburton can have a slave workforce. MMMmmmm, that is some good Chicken Soup for the Conservative Soul.

Yaaaaaaay Democracy!!!!!!! Yaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy!!!! We love freedom!!! We're freedom lovers!!!! Yaaaaaaayyyyy!!!!!

Ohhhh, so that's why Kerry was ahead until midnight when all of the sudden he wasn't anymore. That's weird. Paul Hackett was also ahead all day when he was running in Ohio and then midnight rolled around and *poof* he "fell" behind as well.

From Bradblog:
"I was aware of the Diebold security flaw and had heard about the Homeland Security Cyber Alert Threat Assessment website, so I went there and 'bingo,' there it was in black and white," the source wrote. "It blew me away because it showed that DHS, headed by a Cabinet level George Bush loyalist, was very aware of the 'threat' of someone changing votes in the Diebold Central Tabulator. The question is, why wasn't something done about it before the election?"

The CEO of North Canton, Ohio-based Diebold, Inc., Walden O'Dell has been oft-quoted for his 2003 Republican fund-raiser promise to help "Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year." O'Dell himself was a high-level contributor to the Bush/Cheney '04 campaign as well as many other Republican causes.

I love democracy!!!! We're speading freedom!!!!! Freedom is on the march!!!!Yaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyy voting!!!!!!!!!! USA! USA! Four more years! Four more years! Fat Tony!!! I mean, USA! USA!

(Found through Crooks and Liars, which incidentally, also has a great video of Sean Hannity getting bitch slapped on a topic he knows nothing about.)

Karl's In Charge

Oh, good, this makes me feel better. Honestly, I would have preferred Scott Baio. At least that way it wouldn't be pure propaganda.

Foomkin examines the political consequences:
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.
Rove, Bush's long-time political adviser and the "architect" of Bush's ascendancy, was rewarded after the 2004 election with a position at the White House with overt policy responsibilities. But whereas in some previous White Houses, governance took precedence over campaigning once the election was safely over, Rove has shown no sign of ever putting policy goals above political ones. ...
Tonight's speech promises two classic features of the Rove approach.
Bush will take advantage of powerful imagery -- the Associated Press reports the speech will be held in historic Jackson Square, with the famous St. Louis Cathedral as a backdrop -- and he won't risk having anyone around who might disagree with him or ask an impertinent question. In fact, the AP says, there won't be a live audience at all. (And even the journalists covering the event are being told they won't be allowed to stray from their press vans.)

I agreed with Froomkin until I read this nonsense:
It will, on the other hand, feature one very unRovian tactic. Typically, it is the Democrats who are blamed for wanting to solve problems by throwing money at them. But tonight, Bush will be the one throwing the money around.

Is this the first Froomkin has ever read of throwing money around in this administration? Hello? Biggest spenders in history? What?

More Good Government From The Values Crowd

I feel like with all the blatant abuse of power and coverups to protect criminals like Rove and Bush, the Republicans should just come right out and replace the GOP's Elephant with a picture of Fat Tony. Seriously.

In my investigation, I found I was very prepared and quite charming...

Well, it turns out that Bush will be calling his own balls and strikes. I am sure we will find out exactly what went wrong. Hooray for democracy!

At least this gives the feckless democrats an example of the abuse of power and corruption to run with, but don't count on them to voice it loudly or clearly.

Also, why is Bush accepting responsibility (HOLY CRAP A MONKEY JUST FLEW OUT OF MY ASS!!!!!!) and addressing the nation? Probably because Rove fears that the rest of world is seeing the End of the Bush Era.

With the aforementioned abuse of power and the crumbliing support for the President, I pray the Democrats get their asses in gear and start holding this administration to the fire. CA's congressional delegation seems to be at least, but they all as a party need to stop with waiting for the opportunistic openings and start calling their own balls and strikes- right now. For starters, how about fillibustering Roberts or anyone else until a truly independent commission is set up to see why the response to Katrina was so botched. Screw this Republican white wash commission, play hardball, our lives are at risk with these sickos in charge. No reform is going to happen without a proper independent investigation. Aren't we supposed to feel safer with them in charge? Wasn't it Kerry who was going to put our lives at risk?

Here's your 2006 "Gay Marriage" type distraction issue

Forget good government and an honest dialogue, just look at what these crazy liberal judicial extremists are doing to the children. Oh, the children!

I can't wait to see the Rove ads on this one.

Great Onion

Bush and Haliburton can't be stopped.

This is just nuts.

Media Matters also has the best coverage of the breakdown of honest, hard journalism in the media following the Katrina disaster that I feared and have begun to see everywhere. See here for starters about the "2000 busses" story.

I also have one question on that myth. Although I have grown increasingly frustrated with mayor nagin (tim russert used him as a punching bag) and his pre-hurricane efforts, and although that picture does show some of the 300 busses underwater, I do not understand how the mayor was supposed to get those busses in operation. How do you tell people to abandon their own lives (family, homes, businesses) and just show up to get in busses and go drive from neighborhood to neighborhood and evacuate people while they are about to have their own lives devastated. Plus, with only a short amount of time, how would this have logistically worked? Isn't this the kind of thing the national guard is for?

Power to the Peaceful

I went to the Power to the Peaceful Festival in Golden Gate Park on Saturday and it was just awesome. Lots of great causes, speeches and music. It was also one of those I-am-so-glad-I-live-here moments.

And then there was Michael Franti, who absolutly blew my mind. If you haven't seen him you must. He organized the free festival (in its seventh year) and headlined it with an incredible set featuring a variety of guests including Woody Harrelson. You can listen to Franti's performance here at KPFA.These kids were right near aly and me for the show and just really wowed me with their energy, purity, and dance moves.

All of these incredible photos are from Jeff Patterson at Indybay.org. Aly and I, of course, forgot our camera.

Sheltered from the storm...

Fantastic article in Newsweek that I am sure everyone has read, but I figure I would post a little in case you haven't. If not, go read the whole thing, it goes into a lot more than the bush in the plastic bubble. Here's a bit of the beginning:

It's a standing joke among the president's top aides: who gets to deliver the bad news? Warm and hearty in public, Bush can be cold and snappish in private, and aides sometimes cringe before the displeasure of the president of the United States, or, as he is known in West Wing jargon, POTUS. The bad news on this early morning, Tuesday, Aug. 30, some 24 hours after Hurricane Katrina had ripped through New Orleans, was that the president would have to cut short his five-week vacation by a couple of days and return to Washington. The president's chief of staff, Andrew Card; his deputy chief of staff, Joe Hagin; his counselor, Dan Bartlett, and his spokesman, Scott McClellan, held a conference call to discuss the question of the president's early return and the delicate task of telling him. Hagin, it was decided, as senior aide on the ground, would do the deed.
…
The 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.
…
Bush can be petulant about dissent; he equates disagreement with disloyalty. After five years in office, he is surrounded largely by people who agree with him. Bush can ask tough questions, but it's mostly a one-way street. Most presidents keep a devil's advocate around. Lyndon Johnson had George Ball on Vietnam; President Ronald Reagan and Bush's father, George H.W. Bush, grudgingly listened to the arguments of Budget Director Richard Darman, who told them what they didn't wish to hear: that they would have to raise taxes. When Hurricane Katrina struck, it appears there was no one to tell President Bush the plain truth: that the state and local governments had been overwhelmed, that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was not up to the job and that the military, the only institution with the resources to cope, couldn't act without a declaration from the president overriding all other authority.

(Bold mine)

Bush's Perfect Game

I just thought this quote about the prez investigating himself by the Democratic Leader and Senator from Nevada Harry Reid:

"An investigation of the Republican administration by a Republican-controlled Congress is like having a pitcher call his own balls and strikes."

Well said. But by now Reid, who represents Las Vegas, should be more used to how the mafia operates.

He was a well dressed intern...

... and apparantly that gave him the experience he needed in emergency management.
Time:
When President Bush nominated Michael Brown to head the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in 2003, Brown's boss at the time, Joe Allbaugh, declared, "the President couldn't have chosen a better man to help...prepare and protect the nation." But how well was he prepared for the job?

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." Brown did do a good job at his humble position, however, according to his boss. "Yes. Mike Brown worked for me. He was my administrative assistant. He was a student at Central State University," recalls former city manager Bill Dashner. "Mike used to handle a lot of details. Every now and again I'd ask him to write me a speech. He was very loyal. He was always on time. He always had on a suit and a starched white shirt."

Wow. Well, I am sure that the people of the Gulf are sleeping well tonight knowing the only thing that Brownie took away from his "experience" as a disaster manager (or as his boss called it, a secretarial intern) was the starched white shirt.

So, that's what he's doiong a "heckuva job" doing... starching his shirts. I get it now.

The question still remains, after seeing Brown's deer-in-headlights performance since Katrina hit, does the president still have faith in his FEMA pick?

Good question.

That's, Scott McClellan, male prostitute.

Back to the Snakepit

I feared that the long missing spine that the collective media grew last week would be gone once the pressure from the White House started this week, and that they would be back to carrying water for the Rove spin machine.
Unfortunately, the fear was just, the spine is gone and they are right back at it.
Some examples: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and the one that personally sickens me considering the "Clinton LAX haircut" nonsense we all heard about for weeks, is #8. I highlighted this below and Ezra Klein has more on that here. Remember, this is the "liberal media."

At least my Congresswoman bitch-slapped Kyra Phillups on national TV.

$

The Globe says Boston is the most expensive city in the US this year. It may be true that housing prices are finally higher out there than they are in SF, but I can't help but feel that the cost of living is higher here. Gas, food, cable, public transportation, taxes are all waaaay higher here. Rent is on par give or take $100 - $200 and to buy a house is never-gonna-happen-expensive too, but seriously, it seems like every small thing is just a little bit more here than it was in Beantown. But, it is also absolutly breathtaking almsot everywhere, and I can see why prices are driven higher and higher every day by the surge of people that move here. On that note, I have met two people actually from here the whole time I have been in SF. So many people are from Boston, NY, Southern CA, and Hawaii. I don't really know what the point of this post is, but I thought the globe study was interesting.
tootles!

Finally

Gathered from the NYTimes, AP

Kerry:
"It's a summary of all that this administration is not in touch with and has faked and ducked and bobbed over the past four years. What you see here is a harvest of four years of complete avoidance of real problem solving and real governance in favor of spin and ideology."

Damn right, that guy should run for president.

Pelosi:
(on her call to the President to fire Michael Brown)
"He said 'Why would I do that?"'
"'I said because of all that went wrong, of all that didn't go right last week.'"
"And he said 'What didn't go right?"'
"Oblivious. In denial. Dangerous."
"Americans should now harbor no illusions about the government's ability to respond effectively to disasters." "Our vulnerabilities were laid bare."

Evan Bayh:
"Our government failed at one of the most basic functions it has - providing for the physical safety of our citizens."

Barbara Mikulski:
"Lets bring in someone who's a professional in emergency management.." [FEMA has gone] "from a professional agency to a crony agency." "I'm calling that Michael Brown leaves FEMA — either voluntarily or involuntarily."

Howard Dean:
"As survivors are evacuated, order is restored, the water slowly begins to recede and we sort through the rubble, we must also begin to come to terms with the ugly truth that skin colour, age and economics played a deadly role in who survived and who did not. "And the question that emerged: How can this happen in America?"...
"This is deeply disturbing to a lot of Americans, because it's more than thousands of people who get killed; it's about the destruction of the American community." "The idea that somehow government didn't care until it had to for political reasons. It's appalling."

Edward Kennedy:
"The powerful winds of this storm have torn away that mask that has hidden from our debates the many Americans who are left out and left behind."

John Edwards:
"The truth is the people who suffer the most from Katrina are the very people who suffer the most every day."

Dick Durbin:
"It's clear that Mr. Brown was not prepared to lead the federal rescue and recovery effort necessary to cope with this disaster." "As a result of his inexperience and mismanagement, thousands of Americans have suffered."

Robert Wexler:
"It was undeniable that Undersecretary Brown had been responsible for a massive misallocation of recovery aid funds. Given the federal government's weak response in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and FEMA's failure to adequately address the catastrophe in New Orleans, I am even more convinced that Undersecretary Brown must be removed immediately." "It is a stain upon the record of FEMA and the administration that the groundwork was not laid to prepare for a hurricane of this magnitude — either as an advance plan from 2001 or in the days leading up to Katrina's landing, when experts predicted it would hit the Gulf Coast as a Category Five storm."

Hillary Clinton (responding to accusations that Dems are playing the 'blame game'):
"Every time anyone raises any kind of legitimate criticism and asks questions, they're attacked."
"That's what they always do; I've been living with that kind of rhetoric for the last four and a half years." "It's time to end it. It's time to actually show this government can be competent."
[The evacuees] "want answers and they want to know what went wrong and they want to know what they are going to be able to count on in the future."

What's funny is House Speaker Dennis Hastert said "Some people are really very anxious to start pointing fingers and playing the blame game. I think we need to get our work done."
Yet, this is the same man who advocated not rebuilding and bulldozing New Orleans one day after the storm hit.


And a video timeline for those feeling confused from the onslaught of white noise that is the GOP spin machine.

Inevitable

You knew this was coming...

Worldview

Let's hope no one planning to attack us reads the newspapers all over the world.

The Party of No Ideas Strikes Again!

Thank God:
Maybe these democrats actually do listen to their constituents. Nancy Pelosi is my new Rep. (via Atrios)

Byron Dorgan offers legislation penalizing the Oil Cartels and rewarding the consumers: "There is nothing about this market that is free."

Also, here's some fun with numbers. (via DailyKos)

The Onion, (Sadly) America's Finest News Source

Bush Urges Victims To Gnaw On Bootstraps For Sustenance
WASHINGTON, DC—In an emergency White House address Sunday, President Bush urged all people dying from several days without food and water in New Orleans to "tap into the American entrepreneurial spirit" and gnaw on their own bootstraps for sustenance. "Government handouts are not the answer," Bush said. "I believe in smaller government, which is why I have drastically cut welfare and levee upkeep. I encourage you poor folks to fill yourself up on your own bootstraps. Buckle down, and tear at them like a starving animal." Responding to reports that many Katrina survivors have lost everything in the disaster, Bush said, "Only when you work hard and chew desperately on your own footwear can you live the American dream."

Government Relief Workers Mosey In To Help
NEW ORLEANS—Federal Emergency Management Agency director Michael Brown, leading a detachment of 7,500 relief workers, moseyed on down to New Orleans Monday afternoon. "Well, I do declare, it's my job to see if any of these poor folks need any old thing," Brown said from his command rocker on the command post porch, adding, "Mighty hot day, ain't it?" Follow-up teams of emergency relief workers are expected to begin ambling into the Gulf Coast region as early as this weekend. "They should be getting the trucks good and warmed up anytime now, and they'll be cruising into town just as soon as all the reservists stroll in," said Brown, who is currently at his desk awaiting offers of food, water, and evacuation buses to roll in from "somewhere or other."
(more here, and there's an update here)

Now there's no First Amendment freedom in NOLa and if the president uses you as a prop, and you question it, you are unpatriotic.


And, as always, The Daily Show keeps it real.


Also, MSGOP gets right back to spinning after a tough week stuck in reality. Please don't believe these pathetic talking-head asses as they, with direct orders from Rove, try to shift blame from the naked emperor on to the city and state leaders. On most of the criticism I have seen their is absolutly no fact to back up the claim, just save-his-skin spin, as seen on Faux. Just check out this timeline. Or this one. Or this one. Or this one. (via Randi Rhodes)

Sure, the mayor and governor could have done more and deserve some blame, but its not like they were bumbling idiot horse judges or bumbling idiots still on vacation.

From the Chicago Tribune:
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said the lack of experience in FEMA's top ranks was evident in the sluggish response to the hurricane.

"Disaster preparedness, whether it's in anticipation of potential weather-related incidents or terrorist incidents requires a skill set that in my mind someone has to be trained for," said Thompson, ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Homeland Security.

Moreover, The Associated Press reported Tuesday that Brown waited until hours after Katrina had struck the Gulf Coast before asking his boss to dispatch 1,000 Homeland Security Department employees to the region--and gave them two days to arrive, according to internal documents.

Brown sought the approval from Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff roughly five hours after Katrina made landfall on Aug. 29, the AP said.

Before then, FEMA had positioned smaller rescue and communications teams across the Gulf Coast. But officials said Tuesday that the first department-wide appeal for help came only as the storm raged.

Brown has stoutly defended FEMA's performance, saying the agency has done the best it could under bad circumstances.

Last week, Bush, while saying that the initial federal response to the hurricane was "not acceptable," nonetheless lauded Brown, telling him, "Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job."

Isn't that a flip flop?

When All You Care About is Rewarding Your Friends, "Stuff Happens"

FEMA Director Michael Bown's 9 years as the Arabian Horse Show Czar (before being fired) apparently didn't prepare him for safeguarding the nation.
(From Randi Rhodes)

This guy is one half of the two-man team securing America. He, and Homeland Security's Michael Chertoff did not know that there were starving, dying people in the convention center on Thursday. Thursday!
From Times-Picayune:
It was clear to us by late morning Monday that many people inside the Superdome would not be returning home. It should have been clear to our government, Mr. President. So why weren’t they evacuated out of the city immediately?

We learned seven years ago, when Hurricane Georges threatened, that the Dome isn’t suitable as a long-term shelter. So what did state and national officials think would happen to tens of thousands of people trapped inside with no air conditioning, overflowing toilets and dwindling amounts of food, water and other essentials?

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.

There were thousands of people at the Convention Center because the riverfront is high ground. The fact that so many people had reached there on foot is proof that rescue vehicles could have gotten there, too.
...
No excuses should have been voiced. Especially not one as preposterous as the claim that New Orleans couldn’t be reached.

Mr. President, we sincerely hope you fulfill your promise to make our beloved communities work right once again.

When you do, we will be the first to applaud.

Can we at least fire Brown now and not wait to give him his presidential medal of freedom until after he waits to resign. I am sure he's getting one, because he's "doing a heck of a job."

And, you know we'll get the answers we need when Bush invesitgates himself.
(Hint: Mr President, if you need a place to start your investigatin', first check out why you went golfing, flew off to give a speech on Medicare, then another on VJ Day, then played air guitar with a real guitar, and then back to vacation after the hurricane hit. Then check out why you hired complete fucking morons to safeguard our nation. Then check out why Condi was at Spamalot and Cheney kept his vacation going in Wyoming. Also, see why you cut funding for the levee system, yet frivolously gave away billions of dollars to the highway bill to secure our important infrastructure like building that bridge in Alaska to an island occupied by fifty people. I am so happy those fifty people will have their bridge while a million won't have their city. Anyway, this should keep you busy for a while. Oh, and in case the rumors are true and you do alot better readin' when there are a lot of pictures, then check this out on "the internets.")


This horrible movie you are watching is real.

Two ideas

Have you ever thought something was a good idea to say and then said it outloud and were repulsed by your own lack of sense? I hope the Presidents mother was after she said this...

"What I’m hearing is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed with the hospitality. ... And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway so this (chuckles) - this is working very well for them." Barbara, what grace.

Have you ever said something that insensitive?

Also there is this incredible Katrina response from the party of "no ideas." Bravo. (via Atrios)

Where Their Energy Is

I wish they spent as much effort and coordination on saving lives as they do lying to the press.

Arianna has more and is puzzled that this is still happening in our so-called liberal media:

The unquestioning regurgitation of administration spin through the use of anonymous sources is the fault line of modern American journalism. You’d think that after all we’ve seen -- from the horrific reporting on WMD to Judy Miller and Plamegate (to say nothing of all the endless navel-gazing media panel discussions analyzing the issue) -- these guys would finally get a clue and stop making the Journalism 101 mistake of granting anonymity to administration sources using them to smear their opponents.
The Washington Post corrected its article. Now it should take the next step and reveal who the source of that provably false chunk of slime was. And Newsweek should do the same. It’s time for the media to get back to doing their job and stop being the principal weapon in Team Bush’s damage control arsenal.

Sen Landrieu

C&L has posted the video of This Week's George Stephanopoulis' helicopter tour with Senator Landrieu. They circle the staged photo op cite that Beazelbush set up to fake concern about his administration's pathetic failure. She cries, as we all should, when looking down on the ONE crane set up to fix the levees. The rest of the "actors," or photo op construction workers, are gone.

If you can't watch the video...

Sen Landrieu: "... Look at that, there is one crane for the whole breach. Isn't that pitiful? Now the President came here yesterday for a photo op, he came for the photo op, he got his photo-op but we are never going to get this fixed, if he does not send us help now, NOW George."

George: "The President said this couldn't have been anticipated, this kind of breach."

Sen. Landrieu: "The President, the President could have funded it. He cut it out of the budget. Is that the most pitiful sight that you have ever seen in your life? Look at that. It's so sad George, (crying) one little crane."

Later...
Sen Landrieu: (fighting back tears) "... Our infrastructure is devastated. Their lives are in shatters. The region is torn to pieces. Would the President please stop taking photo-ops and please come see what I am trying to show him?"

And the hits just keep on coming...

Chief Justice Rehnquist has died.

Bush Not Just Slow, But Satanic In Response

I dare you to defend him after reading this. It takes a special kind of evil to pull that off. An evil far worse than what any wacko "values voter" can try to hold on to in their attack on the Democrats. His staged photo op also meant that relief helicopters had to be grounded, halting food supplies.

Think about that for a second... The President of the United States, a man who claims to be compassionate, a man who claims to be Christian, STAGED a photo op to make it LOOK like he cared and was fixing the levee and in the process slowed relief to the starving, and failed to fix anything.

I can not believe how sick this man is.

Sunday morning Democrats better be SCREAMING about this.
Monday morning Democrats better be SCREAMING about this.
Tuesday morning Democrats better be SCREAMING about this.
Wednesday morning Democrats better be SCREAMING about this.
Thursday morning Democrats better be SCREAMING about this.
Friday morning Democrats better be SCREAMING about this.
Saturday morning Democrats better be SCREAMING about this.
Sunday morning Democrats better be SCREAMING about this.

If the Democrats don't speak up - after a week where FOX News and the Manchester Union Leader turned on Bush - I am going to vomit.

Call your member of Congress and tell them you will donate and raise money for their opponent if you don't hear them raising hell about this, and how this administration has abandoned this country this week, and for the past five years. Haliburton will certainly be caling their congressmen, but with thanks for yet another contract. Seriously, I will donate my time and money helping spineless Democrats get unelected if they allow this deriliction of duty to continue without a peep.

These sick bastards are putting our lives at risk daily and care more about staged photo ops to stop their sinking poll numbers than they do about starving infants.

You know, "pro-life."

Update: From NYT:
Of course this was coming...

The silence of many prominent Democrats reflects their conclusion that the president is on treacherous political ground and that attacking him would permit the White House to dismiss the criticism as partisan politics-as-usual, a senior Democratic aide said.

Bullshit! Everyone reading this, get on the phone. Their silence-as-strategy has lost them the house, senate, white house, and courts and it is the people who are PAYING FOR IT. Call them and tell them that our lives are at risk with this nutcase in charge and to raise hell!!! Not when the new poll numbers come out, or when it is a more oportunistic time in the mind of some overpaid strategist's mind, but right now. This is as crucial a moment as any we have ever seen in this country, and one party cannot be allowed to sit on the sidelines or they, along with the rest of us, are totally screwed.

Update 2 ( 9/7/05):
Even these much needed volunteer firemen had to act as props for Dubya before they could move on to more important things like rescuing people.

Stopping the Spin at the Spin Factory.

This brought me to tears. (via crooks and liars)

Two Americas

John Edwards' 2004 campaign theme is on full display.

Speaking Truth to Power

Thank you Ted Koppel.
Thank you Paula Zahn.
Thank you Mayor Naggin. How you are coping is beyond me.

Here's what the world sees.

Do not let them get away with this. FEMA's Michael Brown actually blamed the victims for not leaving. This is the attitude these sick bastards have towards the poor. Oh, and the President is committed to rebuilding Trent Lott's house in case you were wondering. I know Christ was.

9-11 Changed Everything

Can anyone honestly say that we have learned anything from 9/11? I can't believe the utter band of fuckups that is our federal government. This is just sickening, and now Bush is out there shifting blame for the response as "not acceptable." No shit, YOUR response was not acceptaple! But Rove sees that Bush owns this, and is probably already making the commercials putting Governor Blanco's face next to Osama Bin Laden's, anything to protect Dear Leader from what everyone can see is his total lack of leadership. I live in San Francisco and can't imagine if there was a major quake right now. Maybe we'd get water by Thanksgiving. Also, if these terrrrrists are as smart as these scaremongering liars paint them to be, what if they attack right now? We are clearly not prepared, and the whole world knows it. We can rebuild Iraq, but the people in the Superdome are dying of thirst? People in the south, do you really feel that gay marriage is more important than homeland security now? This man has failed us repeatedly and should be impeached. I don't care if aborted fetuses run under the Democratic ticket for Congress, we need to vote them in to get this maniac out of office.
Read this, and this and tell me how safe you feel.

Update:
Krugman:
Before 9/11 the Federal Emergency Management Agency listed the three most likely catastrophic disasters facing America: a terrorist attack on New York, a major earthquake in San Francisco and a hurricane strike on New Orleans. "The New Orleans hurricane scenario," The Houston Chronicle wrote in December 2001, "may be the deadliest of all." It described a potential catastrophe very much like the one now happening.
...
Why wasn't more preventive action taken? After 2003 the Army Corps of Engineers sharply slowed its flood-control work, including work on sinking levees. "The corps," an Editor and Publisher article says, citing a series of articles in The Times-Picayune in New Orleans, "never tried to hide the fact that the spending pressures of the war in Iraq, as well as homeland security - coming at the same time as federal tax cuts - was the reason for the strain."
In 2002 the corps' chief resigned, reportedly under threat of being fired, after he criticized the administration's proposed cuts in the corps' budget, including flood-control spending.
...
- Did the Bush administration destroy FEMA's effectiveness? The administration has, by all accounts, treated the emergency management agency like an unwanted stepchild, leading to a mass exodus of experienced professionals.
Last year James Lee Witt, who won bipartisan praise for his leadership of the agency during the Clinton years, said at a Congressional hearing: "I am extremely concerned that the ability of our nation to prepare for and respond to disasters has been sharply eroded. I hear from emergency managers, local and state leaders, and first responders nearly every day that the FEMA they knew and worked well with has now disappeared."
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.

We need to get this sick sociopaths out of office.

The Scallion

Devastated New Orleans Refugees Scoff At Foreigners, "We Don't Want Your Help"

New Orleans, La- Satchmo Larrieux, a fourth generation New Orleans native named after the city's favorite son, Louis Armstrong, clung to his life today in a tree above a floating pile of wreckage that used to be his home. With one hand, the starving mechanic and father of four clung to the tree, in the other, he held a sign that read, "Hey Canada, Mind Your Business!"

Larrieux was exhausted and malnourished, but still felt that he needed to make a statement in response to the rest of the world offering help with the unfolding drama in New Orleans. "Yes I am devastated, and still can't find my children, or my dog," Larrieux screamed at an above news helicopter, "But the thought of Jamaicans or Canadians coming here just sickens me."

Larrieux is not alone in his outrage, as many more who call the Big Easy their home are taking offense to offers of aid from countries like Canada, France and Jamaica. "We're fine" explained Sherry Duchaine, an Iraq war widow whose second floor apartment was flooded beyond recognition. In the last month, she has lost her husband, her job and her home, but kept an indignant outlook towards our neighbors to the north. "What's their problem" she continued, moving out of the way of a floating carcass, "I can't see what all the attention is for. Don't they have hockey games to play?"

Representatives from the Jamaican government also immediately offered to send troops and boats to aid in the crisis. "It was the least we could do" said a spokesman for the Jamaican government. "Frankly, I was shocked they said no." Jamaican Ambassador Henry La Grange was also shocked, "I nearly dropped my Red Stripe," La Grange said. "Why would you not want help in a situation like this?" But the people of New Orleans are a proud bunch, and are willing to go it alone.

"Jamaica? Ha!" scoffed Perry Dillon, a local musician who saw two of his bandmates drown. As he waded through the chin high stew of diseased muck, he continued to chastise the Jamaicans offer of relief, "What are they going to do, airlift steel drums to us?"

The city is destroyed, but the American pride of its residents is not. Floating away from a burning hospital on an airmattress she was using as a makeshift raft, local barkeep Lonnie Jaeger was adamant that the only help she would accept was from Americans, who were yet to arrive. "Sure, its taking a while, but the President was on vacation so we knew it was going to be a little slow. That just means when they do get here, it will be that much sweeter." Although she had not eaten in five days and saw her bar fall to a parade of looters, she continued her defiance. "We kicked the French out years ago, and now they want back in?" pausing as she devoured a beetle she had just killed. "I don't think so."


Of course, I am sure the people want the help, but well, see here.

Morons

I want the media to pay as much attention to these idiots running our country and less to the looting. If you agree, watch this clip of Anderson Cooper. He nearly cries he is so frustrated.
Again, of course there is looting, these people have nothing. Why are the conditions they live in every day not on the news? Everyday they live in the repression of poverty and now have even less, of course there is social disorder now. Didn't anyone learn anything from Iraq? And speaking of which, why is it that when $9 BILLION goes missing in Iraq the media just yawns, but when blacks break into to Wal Mart, the 24 hour news cycle explodes?

Anyway, more on a total failure of leadership from Wes Clark (via My DD and TPM Cafe):

Again, just this past week, there was at least 36 hours notice that a major hurricane was going to hit the Gulf Coast, including likely a devastating blow to New Orleans, which certainly came to pass. The President continued with his regular schedule on Monday and Tuesday in California, Arizona, and Texas to hold some staged Medicare events and enjoy more vacation time, while finally returning to the White House yesterday. The joint task force including National Guard set up by the Pentagon failed to be on the scene in New Orleans in a timely manner to stop the looting and assist in the evacuation. Where is the leadership?

Then just this morning, the President claimed that no one could have anticipated the levee breaches we've seen in New Orleans after Katrina hit. That's not leadership, that's an excuse. In fact, people have predicted this kind of disaster for many years, including President Bush's own FEMA in 2001, when they ranked hurricane flood damage to New Orleans among the three likeliest, most catastrophic disasters facing America. Instead, funding was significantly cut back, leaving key engineering projects on hold. Instead, this Administration focused on the war in Iraq, tax cuts, and private sector economic growth without asking the American people to make needed sacrifices for the good of the country. Again I ask you, where is the leadership?

And yet more evidence of misallocating resources.

And, Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert thinks it is pointless to rebuild New Orleans, but supports efforts to rebuild Iraq. That's what I call American values!

Politics

Just in case there is any feeling of putting aside the politics, please read James Wolcott's latest post.

And if you think the people of New Orleans aren't thinking about the poitical aspect of this, you are wrong.
From Wonkette:
That the Bush administration diverted funds from the rebuilding of the New Orleans levees to Iraq is by now well-known. What you might not have heard is that the people cleaning up the mess are really pissed about it. A tipster informs us that down in New Orleans, they have a name for the flood waters that have invaded the city: Lake George.

"It's a disgrace and don't think the world isn't watching"

Please watch this. I am so glad C&L finally posted it. It is CNN's Jack Cafferty just going off. I saw it live and almost choked at the refreshing, gutwrenching honesty. I have to say, as much as I have hated CNN for the past couple of years, they have at least two people on the air (Kyra Phiilups, Cafferty) screaming "What the hell is going on!!!" which is refreshing next to the shiny happy people brigade covering the White House over at Fox.

Your Republican Party Ladies and Gentlemen

Rove, what class.

While a city crumples, the RNC issues this.

(By the way, here's what the party of "no ideas" wants to do. Which one is more "moral" and represents more "Christian Values" to you?)

Drudge of all people is reporting this:
Eyewitness: Sec of State Condi Rice laughs it up at 'Spamalot' while Gulf Coast lays in tatters. Theater goers on New York' City's Great White Way were shocked to see the President's former National Security Advisor at the Monty Python farce last night -- as the rest of the cabinet responds to Hurricane Katrina...
There's more here about her shopping spree. What values!

From the ultra-conservative Manchester Union-Leader:

Katrina already is measured as one of the worst storms in American history. And yet, President Bush decided that his plans to commemorate the 60th anniversary of VJ Day with a speech were more pressing than responding to the carnage.

A better leader would have flown straight to the disaster zone and announced the immediate mobilization of every available resource to rescue the stranded, find and bury the dead, and keep the survivors fed, clothed, sheltered and free of disease.

The cool, confident, intuitive leadership Bush exhibited in his first term, particularly in the months immediately following Sept. 11, 2001, has vanished. In its place is a diffident detachment unsuitable for the leader of a nation facing war, natural disaster and economic uncertainty.

And leave your own caption...

Here's a few...

Bush takes his traditional seven-minutes-in-crisis-pause while pondering the two days of vacation he gave up and just how many naps he could have squeezed in.

Is the oil ok Karl? No one's gonna suggest capping gas prices right Karl?

Hey, that looting looks like what we're doing in Iraq. Except, Iraq's a desert. That's what it is. It is a desert. Lot's of sand.

I like it when they tilt the wing. Heh, Heh.

This whole thing is just as embarassing to watch as it is awful. Where the hell is Congress? Someone threaten to pull out a feeding tube or burn a flag so they get back quickly. The lack of response is just unbelievable.