AmericaBlog Declares Godwin's Law Dead

John in DC has not only buried Godwin's Law he's spit on its grave in this post on christian fundamentalists wanting BushCo to muzzle the ACLU.

Time to state the obvious: The religious right is filled with Nazis. You don't like the term "Nazi?" Well too bad. One good thing I got out of the Holocaust Museum this past weekend was an amazing lesson in how quickly Hitler consolidated power his first six months in office by banning the opposition and slowly (or quickly) whittling away at the rights of Germany's citizens in an effort to create a murderous totalitarian regime.

It was long past time for the death of this "law" anyway. While it might have been going (the tiniest bit) too far to paint all of BushCo as a bunch of Nazis, John gets it exactly right in describing the fundies that way. If they don't like it? "Too bad."

The Lessons of Abu Ghraib?

What did we, as a nation, learn from Abu Ghraib? Probably not what you'd hoped.

The System is Sick

With all the other things going on to blog about lately I haven't made time to write anything about healthcare in a while. This NYT article reminded me that it might be time again.

I believe that the first successful moves towards a single-payer system in the US will come from businesses, already reeling from the increases in insurance costs for employees. One major culprit in rising health care costs is duplication of administrative effort. The NYT says that thirty cents of every health care dollar is spent on administration. Imagine what cutting that cost in half or even down to one-third could save all of us.

How complicated does this duplication of effort make things for patients?

"I'm the president's senior adviser on health information technology, and when I get an E.O.B. for my 4-year-old's care, I can't figure out what happened, or what I'm supposed to do," said Dr. David Brailer, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, whose office is in the Department of Health and Human Services. "I can't figure out what care it was related to or who did what."

Even if you assume that some system that simplifies administration across the board and leaves intact the current patchwork of coverage could provide the same savings, there's little evidence that insurance companies or care providers would be willing to make the up-front expenditures to do so. Why? Because as it stands now, they don't pay the costs of duplication. Insured customers pay. Their employers pay. The government (i.e. you and I) pays when the patients can't.

But what's the cost of the status quo?

So overwhelming has the paperwork grown that Ms. Mayer has considered giving up and ceasing all treatment [for a rare type of gastrointestinal cancer] because of the bureaucratic hassle that accompanies it.

As it stands, some patients would rather give up their treatment, they'd rather stay sick - or die - rather than navigate the labyrinth of co-pays and paperwork. What does that say about the system? What does it say, setting aside the morality of leaving vast swathes of the country uninsured at all, that even those who have coverage would rather not seek the medical care they need because the paperwork is worse than the illness?

Poll Dance

It's no wonder Bush has been blinking and twitching. Maybe he had an advance look at the poll numbers just released:

For the first time in the [NBC News/Wall Street Journal] poll, Bush’s approval rating has sunk below 40 percent, while the percentage believing the country is heading in the right direction has dipped below 30 percent [28%]. In addition, a sizable plurality prefers a Democratic-controlled Congress, and just 29 percent think Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers is qualified to serve on the nation’s highest court.

What could make his second term worse? Oh, yeah... Anyone hear from Patrick Fitzgerald yet?

Worst. President. Ever.

Who Knows What About Miers?

Harriet Miers' nomination to the Supremes may or may not be dead-on-arrival. The Rethugs have fallen into near-civil-war over her nomination and most Senate Democrats seem happy to just sit back and watch the pending conservative implosion. But the dark lord, Karl Rove, has been talking up Miers to some interesting people including lots of folks in fundamentalist christian organizations.

In a private conversation designed to garner support for the nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court, White House aide Karl Rove told a key conservative Christian leader that the Texas lawyer had taken positions that "would not be supportive of abortion."

The unusual contact between Rove and James Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, a Colorado evangelical group staunchly opposed to abortion, came two days before President Bush announced Miers' nomination.

But here's what I want to know: did Rove tell Dobson, or anyone else in the movement, things that the administration and Miers will keep from the Senate during her confirmation hearings? If so, would interfering in the Constitutional duties of the Senate to "Advise and Consent," constitute a criminal offense?

Both Dobson and Rove have said that they did not discuss Roe v Wade or any other case likely to come before Miers should she be confirmed, but come on...

Dobson said Rove described Miers as "an evangelical Christian from a very conservative church, which is almost universally pro-life," who had "taken on the American Bar Association on the issue of abortion and fought for a policy that would not be supportive of abortion." She had also been a member of the Texas Right to Life, Dobson said.

What the hell else would that conversation refer to? Rove continues to skate on very thin ice here as he scrambles to save his sock puppet's presidential legacy - or what remains of it. I wonder if Patrick Fitzgerald can just add another item to his already growing list?

Oh... THOSE Stocks!

Seems Mr. Conflict of Interest wasn't so unaware of what was happening to stocks he owned. Besides the dubious blind trust, seems Bill Frist had other stocks in HCA:

Outside the blind trusts he created to avoid a conflict of interest, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist earned tens of thousands of dollars from stock in a family-founded hospital chain largely controlled by his brother, documents show.

"Sneezy, You're Doin' a Heck of a Job!"

If the federal response to Katrina and Rita impressed the hell out of you, this should send a chill down your spine:

If the nightmare of an avian flu pandemic emerges from the dark chapters of doomsday scenarios, it will fall to the Department of the Homeland Security, not the medical establishment, to manage the crisis, according to federal documents and interviews with government officials.

A Quick Question

Anyone notice how quickly our government was able to get helicopters with relief supplies into Kashmire? Anyone remember New Orleans?

Just asking.

What BushCo Learned from the Hurricanes

Nothing.

FEMA is trumpeting putting out $400 million in contracts out for bid that were originally awarded without competition like it's a big deal. What paltry percent is that of the billions awarded? But buried at the end of the NYT article was this little gem:

Mr. Paulison's appearance before the Senate came the same day the House voted, 347 to 70, to approve on the Department of Homeland Security's 2006 fiscal-year budget, which reduces financing for the Federal Emergency Management Agency by 12 percent, to $2.6 billion. The Senate is expected to vote on the department's overall $31.9 billion budget soon.

[snip]

That evoked immediate criticism from emergency management experts.

"It's difficult to understand the logic behind another round of budget cuts to FEMA at the same time Congress is questioning their ability to respond to future disasters," said Trina R. Sheets, executive director of the National Emergency Management Association.

Absolutely un-fucking-believable.

Has Peace and Democracy Flowered in Iraq Yet?

Not so much.

Bomb blasts killed six Marines in western Iraq, and U.S. forces killed 29 militants in U.S. offensives aimed at uprooting al-Qaida insurgents ahead of the country’s vote on a new constitution, the military said Friday.

The American deaths brought to 1,950 the number of U.S. troops who have died since the beginning of the war in 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

And if all of this sacrifice in lives and money is supposed to keep us safer here at home, what's up in New York? And Oklahoma?

But really, why would you believe anyone who invades countries because a voice in his head told him to? (SO not kidding.)

Nobel Peace Prize a Smackdown to BushCo?

IAEA Director General Mohammed ElBaradei was awarded this year's Nobel Peace Prize for the yeoman's work he's done as head of that agency. I'm not sure whether or not there was an explicit message for the Bush maladministration, but one could certainly be excused for thinking that there might be an implicit one.

This portion of the article was hidden at the bottom but is telling:

Norway’s outgoing Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik said it was “gratifying” that IAEA and ElBaradei won the peace prize.

[snip]

“Mohammad ElBaradei is an outstanding leader with great integrity. He has always sought to achieve results by negotiations. We saw this clearly during the period before the Iraq war, when he all the way to the end requested that the international weapons inspectors continue their work.”

Ultimately a U.S.-led coalition invaded Iraq and no weapons of mass destruction were found. An international occupation force remains in the country.

Emphasis is mine.

Is Southwest Airlines a Major Republican Contributor?

They must be, based on this:

Lorrie Heasley, of Woodland, Wash., was asked to leave her flight from Los Angeles to Portland, Ore., Tuesday for wearing a T-shirt with pictures of President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and a phrase similar to the popular film title "Meet the Fockers."

You've got to be kidding...

Squeal Like the Pig You Are

Please, oh please...

Federal prosecutors have accepted an offer from presidential adviser Karl Rove to give 11th hour testimony in the case of a CIA officer's leaked identity but have warned they cannot guarantee he won't be indicted, according to people directly familiar with the investigation.

Either Karl is going to take a plea deal and send a bunch of "friends" to the slammer, or he's going to take the fall himself. Actually, most likely is that both will happen.

Please, oh please...

Bush to Have Mental Breakdown at 10:10 am

What else could he do?

Obviously, with all the troubles brewing for BushCo, including likely indictments for Uncle Karl, he'll try to distract us with talk of freedom arising in Iraq. He'll talk about final throes and how the world is better off without Saddam. He'll spin a mighty spin.

But perhaps, just maybe, Americans are waking up.

The most recent Associated Press-Ipsos poll showed only 37 percent of Americans approve of Bush's handling of Iraq, with 62 percent disapproving

And then of course there's this:

Two suicide car bomb attacks in eastern Baghdad on Thursday killed a total of 12 Iraqis and wounded 15, police said.

[snip]

The attacks came a day after 25 people were killed and 87 wounded in a bomb explosion at the entrance of a Shiite Muslim mosque in Hillah, south of Baghdad.

No matter how much he tries, there just is no way to spin the situation in Iraq as anything other than - as we used to call them in the Army - a "cluster fuck."

How F***ed Up Are Conservatives?

According to Shakespeare's Sister (new to my blogroll, BTW), really, really fucked up:

[Indiana] Republican lawmakers are drafting new legislation that will make marriage a requirement for motherhood in the state of Indiana, including specific criminal penalties for unmarried women who do become pregnant "by means other than sexual intercourse."

According to a draft of the recommended change in state law, every woman in Indiana seeking to become a mother through assisted reproduction therapy such as in vitro fertilization, sperm donation, and egg donation, must first file for a "petition for parentage" in their local county probate court.

Only women who are married will be considered for the "gestational certificate" that must be presented to any doctor who facilitates the pregnancy. Further, the "gestational certificate" will only be given to married couples that successfully complete the same screening process currently required by law of adoptive parents.

Seems that not only are single women who want to be mothers out of luck, but seems these folks also (not surprisingly) include lesbian and gay couples in their ban. As with all of these types of bans, I'm sure it wouldn't be too difficult for heterosexual couples with enough money to buy their way around the law. But the others, the real targets of conservative hatred will have no such luck. Of course this law has absolutely no chance of surviving a consitutional challenge at either the state or federal level; but it's particularly revealing of their fundamental hatred of everyone not "them."

Shakespeare's Sister is new to my blogroll, but I'll be reading her blog regularly now that I've discovered it. Head over and check it out, you'll be glad you did.

Molly Ivins

Do I really need to say any more?

Via Steve at Yellow Doggerel Democrat, I found Molly's recent opinion piece about Shrubby-boy's Supreme Court pick Harriet Miers. She lays out some pretty good evidence that Miers is classic BushCo.: uber-Loyal to Bush and a true late-to-the-party, holier-than-thou fundamentalist.

Molly, after discussing the increasing intrusion of religion into politics, then closes with a great quote usually attributed to James Madison:

"The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe with blood for centuries."

BushCo.: Mortally Wounded or Dangerously Wounded?

Over at AmericaBlog, Rob from Baltimore has written a well-thought out post claiming that with the nomination of Harriet Miers, the Bush presidency is "over." While I agree with Rob's list of all the constituencies that have now abandoned Shrubby-boy, I tend to be more pessimistic about what that means for the next three years. Here's part of Rob's post:

See, they had been waiting. Waiting for The Moment. The moment when they would finally enshrine their ideology into the Supreme Court for at least two generations. The Moment came. And it passed. They didn't get what they wanted. So why should they stay. Really, why should they stay? It's not going to get any better. Republicans have it all, and Conservatives got screwed again.

So, of these 30s, let's take a conservative estimate that half are Movement Conservatives. They, clearly, have now walked from him as well. Where will that leave Bush? With something just shy of 20% of the American public actually supporting him. That means roughly 4 in 5 Americans don't support this President.

Less than one year after being reelected, this Presidency has failed. It's over.

But rather than thinking this leaves BushCo. mortally wounded and impotent, I think we should perhaps be thinking of this administration as a wounded water-buffalo. Here's how I put it in part of my comments to Rob's post:

I'm afraid what we'll see for the next three years is this administration, cast adrift from any anchoring constituency, flailing about in its death throes. What that means is completely unknown, although their past actions might give some hints. Iran, Syria, North Korea. Declaring some sort of national energy emergency and gutting all protections for public lands and the environment. Declaring a national security crisis (see above) and declaring an "emergency, short-term" draft.

On most days, the water-buffalo, uninjured and unmolested, is one of the most dangerous large mammals in the world. Injured, backed into a corner with no escape, it is even more dangerous.

An Early Christmas Present to Us All

This made me so happy!!

In celebration of the anniversary of Bill Watterson's strip, "The Complete Calvin and Hobbes" – a three-volume collection of the duo's adventures – is set to be released on Tuesday. Reprinted "Calvin and Hobbes" comic strips began reappearing in newspapers nationwide in August in a four-month run-up to the book's release.

I will definitely be buying the collection. I had most of the previously released books but, between my daughter and I, we read the ink right off the pages...

I'm disappointed that my local rag didn't reprint any of the strips. But then I'm almost always disappointed in my local rag.

Be (Almost) All You Can Be

Seems that at least some people are paying attention to the toll on our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is NOT a good thing:

Army Secretary Noel Harvey and vice chief of staff Gen. Richard Cody said Monday that the Army was using looser Defense Department rules that permitted it to sign up more high school dropouts and people who score lower on mental-qualification tests, but they denied that this meant it was lowering standards.

The article also states that the Army hasn't been so far behind its recruiting goals since 1979. Can a draft be far behind?

One Thousand Nine Hundred and Forty-One

Lost amid all the Miers news and the legal and moral lapses that continue to accrue to top Republicans is this:

The deaths raised to at least 1,941 the number of U.S. military members who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to a count by The Associated Press.

You can be sure that when the toll passes the 2,000 mark it will be dutifully buried by a still-compliant press after the news is released late on a Friday afternoon by a still-criminal administration.

Don't forget.

DeLay Indicted Again

How much schadenfreude can one take?

"Brownie-ism" Run Rampant

I suppose this answers the question of whether or not Shrubby-boy learned anything from appointing political hacks to important jobs:

President George W. Bush has chosen Harriet Miers, White House counsel and a loyal member of the president's inner circle, to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on the U.S. Supreme Court, a senior administration official said Monday.

[snip]

Miers, who has never been a judge, was the first woman to serve as president of the Texas State Bar and the Dallas Bar Association.

Emphasis, as if it's needed, is mine.

Now the question is whether the Senate Democrats can reach down far enough to find the testicular fortitude needed to fight this nomination. Because, as they've done in the past, the Rethugs will cast any opposition to Miers as bias - in this case as misogyny. Is there anyone from the left side of the aisle who can make a cogent case for why a Supreme Court pick should have experience from the bench? Doesn't seem to be that difficult a job. This is so far beyond "mere" nepotism... this is cronyism at its absolute worst.

Brilliant

This is spreading around the blogosphere like wildfire. It's well worth the time to give it a read. Pass it on...

Cries from the Lake of Fire

Where is the Money Going?

We know the connection between Halliburton and all of its subsidiaries to Republicans and those connections have ensured that Dick Cheney's former employer is getting a large share of the dollars spent in hurricane relief efforts. But who at Carnival Cruise Lines is a major contributor? What else could explain the latest twist to the deal to rent two of Carnival's ships to house refugees in New Orleans (which are mostly empty, by the way)?

Two senators on Thursday asked federal officials to explain their decision to sign a $236 million deal with Carnival Cruise Lines for Hurricane Katrina housing, saying Greece was ready to provide two ships for free.

And it's not just big ticket items like ships and shipping (see previous post) that FEMA is overpaying for. Even for something so simple as the now-ubiquitous blue tarps that cover so many damaged roofs in the South FEMA has managed to overpay.

The blue sheeting - a godsend to residents whose homes are threatened by rain - is rapidly becoming the largest roofing project in the nation's history.

It isn't coming cheap.

Knight Ridder has found that a lack of oversight, generous contracting deals and poor planning mean that government agencies are shelling out as much as 10 times what the temporary fix would normally cost.

The government is paying contractors an average of $2,480 for less than two hours of work to cover each damaged roof - even though it's also giving them endless supplies of blue sheeting for free.

Oback Barama (D. IL) is doing yeoman's work along with Tom Coburn (R. OK) to get Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff to explain what's going on and to control spending in the relief efforts. So far, their efforts are to no avail.

I have no problem with spending the money it will take to help our fellow citizens in their time of need. I'd just like to know that we're getting the most for our money and that it's not going to line the pockets of the already wealthy and well-connected. It seems I'm hoping against hope.

FEMA Fiscal Responsibility

No bid contracts, little accountability. Yep, FEMA is spending our money responsibly.

In response to reports that FEMA may be paying up to $4-$6 per mile and taking equipment out of the available carrier base, IARW [International Association of Refrigerated Warehouses] conducted a quick survey of members to see just how serious and widespread the problem might be.

One member, who contacted all his major carriers to inquire about the FEMA issue, found that over half of them were called by FEMA and asked to commit resources. As of five days ago, none of that equipment had been diverted to the FEMA program. He reported, however, that brokers with whom he regularly works are having difficulty, as their carrier base, the owner-operators, were accepting FEMA offers.

An East Coast member reported hearing the pay is $4/mile, plus hefty layover pay. They have been finding it difficult to hire owner-operators on a regular basis, especially in the past few weeks, and especially in Florida and the mid-Atlantic. He thinks carriers may have been pulling ice to the hurricane areas and in some cases paid to layover until the ice could be distributed.

After Katrina and just prior to Rita, another member reported that carriers were already at a premium in both the Southeast and Midwest. This member said that over 100 trucks had been sitting at an Air Force base outside of Montgomery, AL waiting for directions. It was said that they were being paid $600 a day to sit and wait.

Another member who is feeling the hurricane impact agrees that FEMA and others are paying considerably more in freight rates to secure trucks, particularly in the South. This member heard that FEMA may be paying up to $1,500 per load, when a normal rate would be $600. He is seeing truck shortages throughout the industry and is unsure when the carrier base will return to normal.

At Least He Has Body Armor

A recent story detailed how some of the bullet-proof vests sold to the Presidential detail, including those for the President and First Lady, were potentially defective. That also means that some of those used by the Secret Service detail were defective. Not a good thing. But at least they had them.

Unlike - still - our soldiers in Iraq.

Oh, you thought that problem had been solved? Please.

DeLay Shoots the Messenger, But...

Who will be the first rat to bail on this sinking ship?

At an earlier point, Bush could have provided political cover for scandals that touched one or another Republican elected official. But with his approval ratings in the low 40s, there is little to prop up the party's image when congressional leaders are under investigation. Already there have been signs that Bush's influence with members of his own party was beginning to wane as House Republicans look to 2006. Without DeLay in power, the prospects of further splintering increase, adding to perceptions of a party in growing disarray.

Can you say schadenfreude?

DeLay Indicted!

When do the rest of the dominoes fall?

Death Porn

The liberal blogosphere is abuzz over a story that it seems the main-stream media are ignoring: soldiers in the Mid-East theater of operations are trading photos of themselves with dead Iraqis or pieces thereof for access to an amateur porn site (no link from me). The military has given some rather wishy-washy answers about whether or not this is legal. Two blogs that I read frequently have some excellent posts: Blonde Sense and AmericaBlog. Lots of others are writing about it as well.

My interest in this subject has a very different tack than these other bloggers. As an ex-soldier, I have some insight into at least part of what's going on here.

It's a well known phenomenon in military history that governments, societies and military leaders take great pains to dehumanize their enemies. This is a necessary psychological step prior to and during wars; citizen-soldiers have to be given a reason to overcome their ingrained aversion to killing fellow humans. Without this important step armies could not function during wartime. With the rise of what some term the "professional army," taken from volunteers as opposed to draftees, and the expansion of our "national interests" to far corners of the globe for extended periods we see the rise of a perpetual dehumanization of the enemy-of-the-day. It's not too hard to imagine this animus extending to everyone "not us," to all non-Americans. Everyone outside our borders has become "them."

What we're seeing in events like Abu Graib, the developing story on more abuses by the 82nd Airborne Division and this story are all a result of the dehumanization of our current foes.

Are any of these things "right," whatever that means? No. I don't think anyone would claim that they are (except a few extreme-right-wingnuts). But perhaps instead of "is it right?" we should be asking another question. It's not an easy question to ask and it's even harder to answer - in fact, no answer will be completely satisfactory to anyone. And perhaps that ambiguity itself has a lesson to teach us about the things we do as humans, as a society. The answer could help illuminate our path forward in the post-Cold War era.

So what is that question?

Are we willing to accept the results of the necessary dehumanization of our "enemies" in order to effect our national policies?

I'll be very interested to read your responses.

Is Your Shoe Ringing?

Maxwell Smart
Tennessee Tuxedo
Inspector Gadget

I can't beleive Don Adams is gone. I grew up watching him in the first two roles and I watched him (well, listened to his voice) in the last role with my daughter as she grew up.

We Don't Need No Stinkin' Bids!

This took much less time than I thought to come out...

More than 80 percent of the $1.5 billion in contracts signed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to clean up after Hurricane Katrina were awarded without bidding or with limited competition, the New York Times reported Monday.

There are some very familiar names in the list of contractors cited; I'm sure you can name most of them without even reading the article.

Navy Assisted CIA in "Rendition" Operations

This is very disturbing:

A branch of the Navy secretly contracted for a 33-plane fleet that included two Gulfstream jets reportedly used to fly terror suspects to countries known to practice torture, according to documents obtained by the Associated Press.

It was one of these planes that was used to fly suspects from Italy to Egypt; a case in which Italy has issued arrest warrants for several suspected CIA agents. Can you imagine the uproar if some country were to kidnapp US residents and send them to Syria for "interrogation?"

Iraq Disintegrating

Even Bush's closest allies are moving off the reservation on Iraq:

Iraq is heading towards disintegration, raising fears of a wider regional conflict, Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal warned on Thursday.

And then there's this:

Saudi Arabia's foreign minister says the Bush administration did not heed some Saudi warnings on occupying Iraq and that he doesn't believe a new constitution and elections will solve the emerging nation's problems.

Miscellanea

I took today off; it's a beautiful, early fall day, we have company coming this afternoon and I just couldn't stand the thought of sitting in my office all day today. I could live like this...

We're watching the appraoch of Rita on The Weather Channel and CNN, hoping that friends we have in Houston, who couldn't get out due to the traffic, are going to be safe. Seems that as prepared as Texas thought it was, the exodus didn't go nearly as well as they thought it would. Anyone know why it took them so long to make all lanes on the evacuation routes one-way?

Enjoy the end of your week and have a great weekend. I'll try to get another post or two up for the weekend, but no promises.

Brilliant Bit of Flying

This had to have been one of the most intense things I've ever watched on TV (since 9/11). It also has to be one of the most incredible bits of flying I've ever witnessed in all my years of flying.

What Have They Really Learned? Part II

After all these years of BushCo. you'd think I'd learn. You'd think more of us would have learned the answer to that question. But no. It took a trip over to Paperwight's Fair Shot to get the answer to my question.

What have they really learned? Nothing; they don't want to learn anything.

...the Bush people and the modern Republican Party just don't give a tinker's damn about actually governing. It's not that they're too dumb or that every single one of them is incapable of competence (though there are clearly a lot of complete stumblebums with a lot of power in the party), it's that competence is entirely irrelevant to their practices, either with regard to policy or personnel. They're operating with a completely different set of priorities.

Make sure to go read the rest. It was an eye-opener for me.

What Have They Really Learned?

With another major hurricane bearing down on the Gulf Coast, every level of government from the smallest town to the Federal level is in a flurry of activity. Nobody wants to be the one responsible for a second Katrina-style response.

But the preemptive declarations of states of emergency, the pre-staging of response teams and supplies, the readying of airplanes and busses for the evacuees; all of that is easy with the images of New Orleans and Gulfport still fresh, still raw. And for FEMA and the rest of BushCo. it's easy given the administration's tanking poll numbers.

The real question is when next year's first "monster storm" threatens, or when a category 4 or 5 storm rages into the Gulf in 2007 how will everyone react? What have they really learned and what - for now - is just the tendency to react, even to over react, after the last debacle? The first hints of an answer to that question at the federal level is not encouraging with the appointment of Karl Rove to lead the rebuilding efforts on the Gulf Coast.

It would not be overstating the case to say there's an ill wind blowing...

Iraq is Making a Difference in the Middle East

Oh is it ever!

"I'm explaining to my fighters every day the lessons I learned and my experience in Iraq," he tells a NEWSWEEK correspondent. "I want to copy in Afghanistan the tactics and spirit of the glorious Iraqi resistance."

Mohammed Daud, commander of the biggest Taliban force in Ghazni province, roughly 100 miles southwest of Kabul

Forsooth Fareed!

Newsweek's Fareed Zakaria lays it out in stark terms - and gets it exactly right:

For all its virtues, the private sector cannot accomplish all this. Wal-Mart and Federal Express cannot devise a national energy policy for the United States. For that and for much else, we need government. We already pay for it. Can somebody help us get our money's worth?

The column is well worth reading - and passing on.

Going Home to New Orleans

The conflict - so far pretty low key - between New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and Vice Admiral Thad Allen bears watching. It's too soon to say if there are reasons other than those advanced by Allen for people not to return to the city. All indications are that for now, there really aren't the basic services needed to support those who would return.

However, we saw the disregard for the ability of the elderly and poor to evacuate, and there have already been calls for the poor neighborhoods of the area to be returned to wetlands and swamp. And of course there have been various politicians who've questioned whether to even spend the money to rebuild the city at all.

Some of the important questions are:

1. How will those displaced by the storm return to New Orleans?

Will FEMA again run convoys of busses to reverse the diaspora? Who will want to return and who will not?

2. What will they return to?

Mini-cities of mobile homes and pre-fab buildings are supposed to spring up all around the Gulf Coast. Will the displaced want to move into these homes or will they demand to return to their old neighborhoods? What services will be available and what will they have to do without - and for how long?

3. What will the EPA have to say on the safety of the areas hardest hit?

How well will these areas be cleaned and what systems will be put in place to monitor the continuing clean up and long-term health effects of residents who return?

4. What areas will be subject to eminent domain?

Refinery capacity is badly needed in the country and other industrial areas have long needed room to expand along the Gulf Coast. Will government, at all levels, be able to resist allowing such expansion at the expense of poorer neighborhoods? Should they resist?

5. How quickly and how diligently will FEMA and other agencies work to get people out of the "FEMAvilles" they'll be moved to?

Will these people be conveniently "forgotten" in their new ghettos, with no means to return home? If so, how long will the sharks wait before moving into their old neighborhoods claiming that they've been abandoned?

I'm sure I've missed plenty of other questions to be asked but I think these are enough to get some people to pay attention. We shouldn't let the flurry of Rove's PR blitz blind us to what's really going on.

Bush on Cost of Recovery: "I Can Sh*t $20 Bills!"

I'm not sure what else he had in mind...

“We got to maintain economic growth, and therefore we should not raise taxes,” Bush said, noting Americans were already paying “a tax in essence” because of higher gasoline prices. “And we don’t need to be taking more money out of their pocket.

In the original quote I'm pretty sure that he said that he didn't want to increase the taxes that "working Americans" pay. It was all I could do to not throw something and yell at the computer. "You don't have to raise taxes on the working stiffs! Raise them on the rich! Raise them on corporations!"

But no, Shrubby-boy says that the rest of the federal budget will have to absorb these costs with further cuts. And I could swear I heard Grover Norquist laughing in the background over the sound of water running into a bathtub.

Potemkin on the Mississippi - Redux

If you thought that my invocation of a facade villiage in yesterday's post on Bush's choice of a location for his speech last night was a stretch, consider this:

The motorcade route through the district was partially lit no more than 30 minutes before POTUS drove through. And yet last night, no more than an hour after the President departed, the lights went out. The entire area was plunged into total darkness again, to audible groans. It's enough to make some of the folks here who witnessed it... jump to certain conclusions.

Disasters 'R Us

The problems that allowed 9/11 to happen have not been fixed.

Bin Laden is still on the loose.

Afghanistan is falling back into a Taliban theocracy.

Iraq has spun violently out of control.

The slowness of FEMA's response to Hurrican Katrina killed more people than the storm itself.

Now, just because Shrubby-boy gave another of his written-in-crayon speeches to an empty square, we're supposed to believe that he can organize the biggest reconstruction effort since the end of the Civil War? And we're supposed to be happy that the soon-to-be indicted traitor Karl Rove can be trusted with an open-ended $200-plus billion reconstruction fund?

Please.

New Orleans: Potemkin City

If you have the stomach to watch Shrubby-boy's speech tonight - which I don't - remember this: according an anonymous White House source, there will be no live audience in Jackson Square where he'll be yapping. And the press won't be allowed out of their news trucks. The square, long a forum for all manor of truly public speech will be as empty as Bush's head.

Remember: Karl Rove has been put in charge of the BushCo. post-Katrina operation. Not someone with experience in recovery from a catastrophe of historical proportions. Much like "Drownie" Brownie, Bush has once again placed cronyism and the good of the party above the good of the American people.

Remember: the recovery effort will be as fake as the speech.

Remember.

What Bush Should Say Tonight

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid has sent out a press release ahead of Shrubby-boy's attempt at recapturing that bullhorn moment of long ago. Reid says what Bush really ought to say but that you know he won't. John at AmericaBlog has the entire text. Go check it out.

It's the strongest thing I've heard from a Democrat in a long time.

Drownie Learned His Lesson

Michael Brown seems to have learned one lesson very well from his stint at BushCo.'s FEMA:

The former FEMA director who became a lightning rod for the sluggish federal response to Hurricane Katrina put the blame on state officials in an interview with the New York Times newspaper.

The lesson? The buck stops everywhere but here.

Empty Streets

New Orleans continues to be mostly a ghost town while the press, Congress and the public slowly come to grips with the fact that BushCo. was responsible for the deaths of thousands by a myriad of acts of commission and omission. As usual, so far only one relatively low-ranking individual has taken the fall for this catastrophe - Michael "Drownie" Brown.

Tuesday, Shrubby-boy declared (despite all evidence to the contrary) that he could do more than one thing at a time. And so it seems he was telling the truth.

He's also responsible for this continuing debacle:

Two suicide car bombers struck within a minute of each other just a half mile apart in south Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least seven policemen and raising the day's bombing death toll in the capital to at least 31, police said.

Earlier Thursday, a suicide car bombing killed 16 policemen and five civilians in the same neighborhood, signaling a new round of violence one day after residents suffered through Baghdad's bloodiest day of the war.

At least 160 were killed and 570 wounded Wednesday in more than a dozen bombings, for which the terror group Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility. Many of the victims were day laborers lured by a suicide attacker posing as an employer. There was no immediate claim for the Thursday bombings.

The results of this entirely one-man-made disaster? Another empty city:

The U.S. military and Iraqi police drove through Baghdad's Dora neighborhood, where the bombings were concentrated Thursday, warning residents to stay indoors because of a report that five more car bombers were ready to attack, police Capt. Ali Abdul Hamza said. Streets in the southern neighborhood were empty.

Katrina vs Khanun

Have you heard about the Category 4 typhoon that hit one of the most populous areas of China's southeast coast? Nearly as powerful as Katrina and the strongest storm to come ashore in China this year, Khanun leveled huge swathes of the coastline before heading inland to dump massive amounts of rain on the interior.

The destruction of property is massive. But the Chinese government managed to evacuate nearly one million people and only 14 are confirmed dead (although it's still too soon to know the final tally).

Perhaps in tomorrow's meeting with Hu Jintao, Bush could ask what the Chinese government did right.

Just a thought.

The Blame Game

In case anyone wants to know which way to point their fingers, I've provided a convenient, all-in-one-place target. Only one finger required - I'll leave the choice of which finger up to you:



Bush, Brown and Chertoff ponder their fate...

Memories of The Big Easy

All of my memories of New Orleans are good ones. Seeing the city now is painful; sad. Like watching the final, awful days of a close friend. If, as it seems likely to be, the old New Orleans is gone I'd rather remember her as she was. I'd rather remember the good times.

I traveled all around the South on business for several years and I was always glad when I could schedule a trip to New Orleans. Despite growing up in Florida and doing a fair bit of traveling as a child and young adult I had never made my way there until around 1993. I'd read the history of the place, seen pictures and knew the names of the famous streets and areas of the city. I'd heard the jazz and the blues. But as I found out on my first visit, I didn't know New Orleans; it's not a place you can learn about from a distance. You have to experience it, you have to breathe it in.

There is no heat like the damp, sweltering heat of the delta in July. It weighs down the air so that it's hard to breath, it slows everything down as though the atmosphere were more water than air. Even early in the morning when the city and all of its revellers are mostly still asleep, the heat can be oppressive. But somehow, even in that heat, the smell of hot coffee and deep fried beignets always drew me to the green and white awnings of Cafe du Monde. With my tie loosened and my coat left in the car, I'd make my way down towards the river, rolling up my sleeves as I walked, for the coffee, dark as bayou mud and earthy with the taste of roasted chicory and the donuts, hot out of the oil, piled on a too small plate and dusted with powdered sugar. As I sat down with my treasures and unfolded my paper - the now famous, but then unknown, Times-Picayune - New Orleans would slowly come to life around me.

It may seem cliche, but it's true that there is always music in New Orleans. No matter how early I managed to sit down by the black, wrought iron railing surrounding the Cafe du Monde, I never managed to beat the first street musician. Usually it was some old, weather-beaten guy with a saxophone softly blowing the blues like the breeze off the Mississippi. But sometimes it was a young kid with a couple of old plastic painters buckets and a pair of drumsticks beating out a more modern tattoo. Other times it was a guitar or a trumpet. Sometimes they were near enough to watch the first beads of sweat trickle down their faces and sometimes I could only catch the faint strains of a song just out of reach like the memory of a dream from the night before.

I have been down Bourbon Street and through its bars and restaurants many times. I've been to some of the famous places and to some nobody's ever heard of. I never got the chance to be there for Mardi Gras and now I wonder if there will ever be another Mardi Gras in New Orleans. I've drunk Hurricanes at Pat O'Brien's and now I wonder if they'll ever serve another one. I've eaten several kinds of etouffee but the kind made with crawfish - mud bugs to the locals - will always be my favorite. I've watched the freighters moving slowly up the river channel while standing at the bottom of a levee, my mind boggling at the sight of giant ships seeming to fly overhead.

These memories are all part of my New Orleans. But my favorite memories, the ones I always tell to anyone who asks whether I've been there, are all about starting my day in that little bit of shade under a green and white awning between the Mississippi and Jackson Square. I remember best the Big Easy waking up with me as I drank my coffee and watched her people starting another day in their wonderful city.

**************************

I hope that when the city is dry again but before they start the rebuilding they let one of the old funeral bands march down the center of the French Quarter, moving in their slow, stilted gait. And I hope they blow one of the old, sad songs... once more for old New Orleans.

Thomas Friedman: Asshole

This will make you sick.

This is the sentence that really got me:

Hell hath no fury like journalists with a compelling TV story where they get to be the heroes and the government the fools.

Yeah, Friedman, that's the whole story, right there. Journalists are the culprits.

Fuck you.

BushCo. Not Just Incompetent; Evil

When news broke that the FEMA debit cards promised to all dislocated families were to only be given to those who wound up in Houston - and then only to those at the Astrodome - I assumed it was just the bungled work of the gang of incompetents I outlined in the previous post. The continued delay delivering them seemed to be just part of the whole, cruel situation.

I may have been mistaken.

Steve Bates, over at the Yellow Doggerel Democrat, thinks there may be a more malign reason for the delay. He notes that the numbers of refugees in the covered sites are quickly falling as they find other places to stay:

Somebody's gotta do it, so I'll connect the dots: FEMA is slow-walking delivery of the debit cards to reduce the number of displaced families that actually get them. It's the latest instance in a long tradition by the Bush administration of making a big public splash about providing money approved by Congress for use in a catastrophe, but never actually delivering it. Think of New York City after 9/11/2001... much of the promised federal money was never spent. Think of the FEMA money authorized for relief from several hurricanes in Florida over the last few years... many people approved to receive it never got it. And right here in Houston, think of Tropical Storm Allison, back in 2001. FEMA promised to reimburse the city for many of its expenditures that legally should have been covered by the agency. According to a segment by Wayne Dolcefino on the ABC 13 evening news earlier this week, most of that money has still not been reimbursed, 4-1/2 years later; FEMA is allegedly still investigating whether the city's claim is legitimate.

If you think you've seen the worst from this band of incompetent, thieving bastards, you're probably wrong.

What Went Wrong?

While there is surely plenty of blame to go around for the disaster after the disaster of Katrina, even our SCLM is getting the clue that the buck really ought to stop at a certain desk in the Oval Office. The story teaser under the image below on MSNBC this morning was "Agency's top leaders have ties to Bush White House; critics say ability to respond to emergencies weakened."



The story that went with the picture is pretty damning.

Five of eight top Federal Emergency Management Agency officials came to their posts with virtually no experience in handling disasters and now lead an agency whose ranks of seasoned crisis managers have thinned dramatically since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

FEMA's top three leaders -- Director Michael D. Brown, Chief of Staff Patrick J. Rhode and Deputy Chief of Staff Brooks D. Altshuler -- arrived with ties to President Bush's 2000 campaign or to the White House advance operation, according to the agency. Two other senior operational jobs are filled by a former Republican lieutenant governor of Nebraska and a U.S. Chamber of Commerce official who was once a political operative.

Is it any wonder then that much of the initial - and continuing - response has been photo ops for the empty flight suit and his missing-in-action side kick?

FEMA's response has only been the most visible and talked about mistake of BushCo. since the hurricane, but you can bet that the administration will try to sack "Brownie" and foist that off on all of us as the solution to the problem. We can't let them get away with that. There's a reason why inexperienced political hacks are in such important jobs, there's a reason why the National Guard troops needed in Louisiana and Mississippi were unavailable to help, there's a reason why there's no money in the Federal budget to pay for this disaster: and that reason is sitting in the White House.

Humbling

In January, my father-in-law died after an extended fight with liver cancer. When my wife and I returned from his funeral in Canada, there was seemingly an entire grocery store on our front porch. Our friends, knowing what we'd been through over the holidays, had called to make sure they knew when we were coming home and made sure that there was nearly a month's worth of groceries and prepared foods waiting for us when we arrived.

It was one of the most humbling things that has ever happened to either of us. To know that friends would care so much, would think of nearly everything we could need, would do so much of us... To this day I can't think about what they did without choking up.

In the same vein, I've been humbled by the response of the world community to the disaster on our Gulf Coast. You won't hear much about it on the news - you have to go to the blogs and the "unofficial" media to learn about who's given what - but the response has been similarly humbling. One in particular that I remember hearing about was from Bangladesh. Typically we only hear about Bangladesh when the latest typhoon sweeps seemingly half its population away in the storm surge. In this instance, they pledged to send food aid and over a million dollars; an amount probably equal to a fair percentage of their GDP.

It's such a shame that the media chooses to ignore this response; it makes the rest of the world seem so far away rather than the integral part of our neighborhood that it really is. Even worse is the federal red tape delaying the deployment of this aid...

Offers of foreign aid worth tens of millions of dollars -- including a Swedish water purification system, a German cellular telephone network and two Canadian rescue ships -- have been delayed for days awaiting review by backlogged federal agencies, according to European diplomats and information collected by the State Department.
Since Hurricane Katrina, more than 90 countries and international organizations offered to assist in recovery efforts, but nearly all endeavors remained mired Tuesday in bureaucratic entanglements, in most cases at the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

So when you hear some mouth breather on the networks or talk radio asking where the aid from the rest of the world is, you'll know.

Republicans Have Pillaged, Now Comes the Raping

We've seen, in the slow, uncoordinated and sometimes ineffectual response to Katrina, the results of the Republican pillaging of our federal government: tax cuts to the richest, huge and uncontrolled spending on the illegal Iraq war and nearly lethal cuts to social programs for the poorest among us. These have left the government nearly, but not quite small enough to "drown in a bathtub."

Now comes the final raping of America.

While Democrats and a few moderate Republicans try to figure out how to help those who've been devastated by Katrina and her aftermath, those furthest to the Right are using this catastrophe as an excuse to flay the last bit of flesh from the federal government so that it can finally be drowned.

If you think I'm kidding, here's what Republicans are saying in response to Hillary Clinton's musings on perhaps needing to raise some peoples' taxes to pay for all of this:

So how will Congress pay for the new spending needs due to Katrina? Part of Clinton’s answer was to raise taxes. “We should be prepared to ask for sacrifice particularly from the richest people in America,” she argued.

But DeLay rejected any such notion. “The worst thing we could do in response to a recovery like this is to attack the economy,” he told reporters. “The worst thing we could do… is a windfall profits tax on the oil corporations, so that they won’t have the money to reinvest in developing more oil and more gas. The worst thing we could do is to increase taxes on the economy, an economy that now has to be a major part of the recovery.”

Some congressional Republicans indicated the hurricane recovery may point to an “era of smaller government” — requiring a suspension of regulations that slow down re-building of highways and more urgently needed gasoline refineries.

Even in wake of this appalling natural disaster, this band of thugs - no better than the looters in the darkest hours of New Orleans' misery - they can only think of how to benefit themselves and their largest contributors. All at the expense of the poorest and most miserable of American citizens. Instead of a helping hand, Republicans - again - are telling all of us to bend over.

They disgust me.

Outrage Fatigue?

With work and the fast pace of the news I can't even begin to keep up with all the incompetence and lies of BushCo. in the aftermath of Katrina. Every news story I read about the bungled response from all levels of government, but most especially from the federal level raises my blood pressure. The way the press is largely letting Bush and his cronies off the hook threatens to make my head explode.

Invaluable in keeping me up-to-date and pointing me to some of the good reporting out there, to other blogs and resources is John Aravosis and friends over at AmericaBlog. I can't recommend their blog enough.

Go.

Read.

Speaking Truth

I've been amazed at the number of times I've heard reporters asking some hard questions and not accepting the pat answers of those in power. It's not as often as it really should be, and some - most notably Michael Chertoff - have gotten away with the most blatant of lies. But perhaps the press is finding its voice; finding their collective cojones. Perhaps.

But more than even the press, I've been impressed with Ray Nagin, the mayor of New Orleans. I don't know much else that the man has done prior to the disaster that's destroyed his city, but I know that he has been singularly disinclined to take any bullshit answers from other politicians when it comes to the rescue/relief efforts. From local and state officials all the way up to our so-called president, he's held no punches.

When Pelley suggests that bureaucracy might be the cause of the confusion, Nagin replies bluntly, "Bull-crap. When people are dying, bureaucracy should be thrown out of the water."

Asked if he thought people died because of the delays, Nagin says, "There is no doubt about it. I watched a guy jump from the Superdome yesterday, just couldn't take it anymore. We have two police officers that have committed suicide. They couldn't take it anymore. This is, this is hell. And to have this happen in the United States of America in the state of Louisiana, and to not have immediate, immediate response regardless of the laws, is tragic."

Nagin is someone to keep an eye on.

Impeach Bush Now!

I was going to write that Bush must fire Michael Chertoff for his incompetence and the constant stream of bald-faced lies he's been spouting on national TV for days.

But the whole crew must be held accountable.

Read the details of how BushCo. is making this disaster much worse than it ever had to be at AmericaBlog. But beware, your blood pressure will skyrocket...

Impeachment proceedings need to start now.

Give

I'm off to give blood this afternoon. After I look through my checkbook hopefully I'll have something in there to give as well.

Give. Give 'till it hurts:

Red Cross: 1-800-HELP-NOW

Quagmire Part 2?

Seems that BushCo. just doesn't know how to respond to situations that require a military response. They didn't send enough troops or equipment to do the job they started in Iraq; now they've done the same thing in New Orleans. Had Shrubby boy cut short his vacation by just a couple of more days, he could have had emergency responders and more National Guard standing buy to help out the Gulf Coast. Instead he went to a couple of fund raisers and kept trying to sell his dead-in-the-water Social Security reform.

Now the streets of the Big Easy are nearly as dangerous as those in Baghdad - minus the suicide bombers - for now.

Last night the evacuation of the refugees from the Super Dome was suspended because some of the roving gangs of armed thugs who've been looting the city decided it would be fun to take pot-shots at the Chinook helicopters taking them out and to carjack the busses they were riding in. It's only today that armored National Guardsmen are making their way into the city. An inexcusable delay.

But we couldn't have Bush's vacation shortened by too much, now could we?

Post Script: In situations like this, police and National Guardsmen should only be required to issue one verbal warning to looters, carjackers and other armed, lawless thugs. Then they should be able to shoot them in the street like the animals they are.

Wishing Doesn't Make It So

One in a recent series of articles on the so-called Evolution - Creationism conflict in the NYT, this article really disturbs me. Here's the gist of it:

In a finding that is likely to intensify the debate over what to teach students about the origins of life, a poll released yesterday found that nearly two-thirds of Americans say that creationism should be taught alongside evolution in public schools.

The article goes on to detail how many of our deluded citizens think various things about creationism; all of which are too depressing to go into.

I've stayed mostly out of this "debate" because I get so angry that I can't be sure if I'll get my point across or, indeed, make any sense at all. But this most recent article has just been one too many. Here's my take: It doesn't matter what you want. There is no debate among real biologists: evolution is fact. None. Hell, I wish that Thermofluid Dynamics had been a little easier when I was in college; all of my classmates did. But that didn't make it so. In the same way, it doesn't matter to scientists what stupid people want or wish or believe. In science class, science should be taught. Not religion. And no matter how pretty a face the IDiots put on Intelligent Design or whatever the current euphemism is, it's still religion.

Period.

If we think that our schools are graduating a crop of morons now, just wait and see what happens to our technological standing in the world if these people have their way.

Now excuse me while I bang my head on my desk some more...

***********

To see what other people are saying about this, start with Steve at the Yellow Doggerel and also read several entries at Americablog. You can also search the NYT (registration required) archives for their previous articles.

BushCo Allergic to the Truth

Last week it was the Justice Department statistician who dared to tell the truth about the differential treatment of minorities received during traffic stops. This week it's a contracting official for the Army Corps of Engineers who raised questions about non-competitive bids awarded to Halliburton subsidiary KBR in Iraq. From the NYT:

A top Army contracting official who criticized a large, noncompetitive contract with the Halliburton Company for work in Iraq was demoted Saturday for what the Army called poor job performance.

The official, Bunnatine H. Greenhouse, has worked in military procurement for 20 years and for the past several years had been the chief overseer of contracts at the Army Corps of Engineers, the agency that has managed much of the reconstruction work in Iraq.

[snip]

Ms. Greenhouse's lawyer, Michael Kohn, called the action an "obvious reprisal" for the strong objections she raised in 2003 to a series of corps decisions involving the Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root, which has garnered more than $10 billion for work in Iraq.

[snip

Known as a stickler for the rules on competition, Ms. Greenhouse initially received stellar performance ratings, Mr. Kohn said. But her reviews became negative at roughly the time she began objecting to decisions she saw as improperly favoring Kellogg Brown & Root, he said. Often she hand-wrote her concerns on the contract documents, a practice that corps leaders called unprofessional and confusing.

The lesson should be clear to everyone now; do not, under any circumstances, bring this administration news that doesn't conform to its predetermined world-view. It's a good way to get your head handed to you...

What's On Your Bookshelf?

The FBI wants to know.

BushCo. has repeatedly stated that it has never used the section of the USA Patriot Act to peek at what Americans are reading. But we all knew it would only be a matter of time.

Using its expanded power under the antiterrorism law known as the USA Patriot Act, the F.B.I. is demanding library records from a Connecticut institution as part of an intelligence investigation, the American Civil Liberties Union said Thursday.

The demand is the first confirmed instance in which the Federal Bureau of Investigation has used the law in this way, federal officials and the A.C.L.U. said. The government's power to demand access to library borrowing records and other material showing reading habits has been the single most divisive issue in the debate over whether Congress should extend key elements of the act after this year.

Not only was this request made without judicial review, as allowed by the Patriot Act, the "institution" served with this request (we're not even allowed to know whether this is a library or a book store) is not allowed to tell anyone that it happened.

The best thing we can do, other than making sure to voice your displeasure with such unconstitutional intrusions into our freedom of speech, is to make sure that your book shelf contains at least one copy of everything on the FBI's trigger list. Of course that list is also classified, so we'll have to guess. I'm thinking things like "The Anarchist Cookbook," but I'm sure my readers can come up with others. Leave your recommedations for the "FBI's Most Wanted Reading List" in the comments. I'll make sure to publish the list in a future post.

Failure at the CIA?

A report this morning on MSNBC states that the CIA's inspector general has recommended that current and former high-ranking officials at the agency be disciplined for failures leading up to 9/11. There are some doubts about whether Director Porter Goss will follow through with the recommendation.

In this case, I have to agree with Goss.

Here's the problem - not only will such a disciplinary undertaking target officials once and still popular within the CIA and not only will it pull people away from important work - but wasn't it the CIA who produced a memo, ignored by its intended audience titled "Bin Laden Determined to Attack inside the United States?"

I think there are others who should be disciplined...

Innocent in GITMO

Everyone in BushCo. involved in GITMO, no matter how tangentially are war criminals. If you have any doubt, read this article on MSNBC (from the Washington Post).

Although our supposedly-democratic government admits that the men in this story are innocent, they have refused to tell them so for months on end, have refused them legal counsel for years, and finally have just refused to let them go. This little bit of the story only hints at the criminality involved:

In the meantime, the men are still treated as prisoners. Sabin P. Willett, a Boston lawyer who volunteered to take the cases of two Uighurs in March, finally met with them last month, after he and his team went through their own FBI clearances. One of the Uighurs was "chained to the floor" in a "box with no windows," Willett said in an Aug. 1 court hearing.

"You're not talking about your client?" asked Judge James Robertson of the U.S. District Court in Washington.

"I'm talking about my client," Willett said.

"He was chained to a floor?" Robertson asked again.

"He had a leg shackle that was chained to a bolt in the floor," Willett replied.

Remember, BushCo. has admitted - in court - that these men are innocent.

This is what our country has become. This is what BushCo. has made of us. Despite the protestations of the right the last time the comparison was made, our country, the "beacon of democracy" in the world, is running its own gulag.

This is a crime. Morally and legally.

WWJD?

Pat Robertson, so-called Christian, has gone off the deep end.

Okay, I know this guy's been a nut-case for years; but a televangelist calling for the assassination of a foreign head of state? It will be very interesting to see how BushCo. and the rest of Robertson's audience of mouth-breathers will react.

Really, Pat... what would your invisible sky fairy do?

You Don't Speak For Me!

The thing I find most galling - in a long, long list - about the chicken-hawks and their supporters in this mis-administration is their predilection to put words in my mouth (and the mouths of other veterans and service members). Those who were just too busy to serve in the armed forces of our country or who served under mysterious circumstances (yeah, I'm talking to you, W), have no moral stand whatsoever to say what actions might "dishonor" service members or veterans. They have no right to declare that one action or another would make our sacrifices be "in vain."

As an ex-soldier and a veteran, I can tell you that nothing dishonors a soldier more than to waste his time or to risk his life or the lives of his buddies for no good reason. Nothing could be more in vain than to give up life or limb in the prosecution of a war sold to the American people as a lie.

Listen up, all of you who support this continuing disaster in Iraq, unless you've served, unless you're a veteran, you have no idea what you are talking about. You have no right to make claims on our honor. Keep your goddamn words out of our mouths; we can speak for ourselves.

You do not speak for me.

We All Have Questions

I haven't blogged about Cindy Sheehan since so many others are doing such a great job of it. But two events conspired to get me to write this post. Last night's candlelight vigils around the country in support of Cindy and an e-mail that I got earlier this week.

The vigils held all around the US and in several countries around the world have only increased the public and media focus on all of the false reasons we were given for invading Iraq and the resulting mayhem and deaths of our soldiers. You can read about them here. Finally, perhaps, the press and the country are waking up to what's really going on in Iraq; sometimes it takes something to hit you in the heart rather than in the head.

The second event that inspired this post had to do with a friend I mentioned in an earlier post who had been killed in Iraq; Colonel Ted Westhusing. On Monday, I received an e-mail from Ted's oldest brother thanking me for the kind words I'd written in the above post and in a letter that was published on Eric Alterman's Altercation blog on MSNBC.

This was a wonderful gesture on the part of Ted's brother. It was also a harsh reminder that despite the lack of real sacrifice asked of the rest of us, there are many among us, not just the Cindy Sheehans who get on TV, that have lost something in this neocon misadventure. So as the right-wing spin machine begins its knee-jerk sliming of everyone involved in the vigils and as the amnesiac media moves on to the "next big story," we should all remember and mourn with the mothers, fathers, spouses and children - and big brothers - who have lost a loved one in a war of choice and a war of lies.

Cindy Sheehan is just one reminder of this; a reminder, it appears, that this country sorely needs.

Tip-of-the-tongue-ism

Thanks to Michael at Musing's Musings, I now know that the word I was looking for in yesterday's post was "Panglossian". Here's what the Merriam-Webster has to say about that word:

Main Entry: Pan·gloss·ian
Pronunciation: pan-'glä-sE-&n, pa[ng]-, -'glo-
Function: adjective
Etymology: Pangloss, optimistic tutor in Voltaire's Candide (1759)
: marked by the view that all is for the best in this best of possible worlds : excessively optimistic

It's no wonder I couldn't remember it, I hadn't read Candide since high school. Yet as soon as I saw the title I remembered it like it was yesterday. (Well, maybe more like the day before yesterday, it was nearly 30 years ago...)

And for a hint at a possible reason why BushCo's outlook remains so panglossian check out this post from Joseph's blog, Corpus Callosum.

It's no wonder these guys can't stop grinning like the cat that ate the bird...

It's On the Tip of My Tongue...

What do you call someone who, despite all evidence to the contrary, continues to see things in only the rosiest of light? I know there's a word for that affliction...

While Bush remained on a monthlong vacation at his Texas ranch, he issued a statement saying, “I applaud the heroic efforts of Iraqi negotiators and appreciate their work to resolve remaining issues through continued negotiation and dialogue. Their efforts are a tribute to democracy and an example that difficult problems can be solved peacefully through debate, negotiation and compromise.”

If only I could remember that word!

Anyone out there got an idea?

"Scaling Back Expectations"

Why does BushCo. want our soldiers' sacrifices to be for nothing?

Eric Alterman at Altercation points out this on MSNBC's site (from the Washington Post):

The United States no longer expects to see a model new democracy, a self-supporting oil industry or a society where the majority of people are free from serious security or economic challenges, U.S. officials say.

"What we expected to achieve was never realistic given the timetable or what unfolded on the ground," said a senior official involved in policy since the 2003 invasion. "We are in a process of absorbing the factors of the situation we're in and shedding the unreality that dominated at the beginning."

"Never realistic..." haven't we read that somewhere before?

"Shedding the unreality that dominated at the beginning." Really? An unreality that so many of us warned of at various times from the beginning right through to yesterday?

And all that stuff in the first paragraph; right after Weapons of Mass Distraction, wasn't all of that BushCo's primary excuse for starting this whole damned thing?

If the media - and more importantly - the American public lets these idiots get away with all of this: thousands of lives lost, the creation of more terrorists and billions in our money wasted, I swear my head is going to blow up. And then, finally, I'll be moving to Canada.

And then you red-state, republican-voting, bible-thumpin', intelligent-design-believing morons can all go screw yourselves.

Apple Season

It's actually still much too early here in upstate New York for any kind of apples. But I'm typing this on the sweetest looking Apple ever. If you haven't seen the new iMac you're in for a sweet treat:

That's the whole computer. All of it except the keyboard and mouse. It comes with built in wireless networking, Bluetooth and a CD and DVD burning Superdrive. Of course the entire suite of Apple's digital lifestyle programs comes with it as well: iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie HD, iDVD, GarageBand and lots of others. This means that, unlike most Windows machines, there's nothing else to buy to immediately begin creating amazing digital content. It's blazingly fast with a 2.0 GHz G5 processor and 1 GB of RAM. It was easy to set up and easy to work with and - like all Apples - beautifully designed.

The new operating system, OS X v10.4 is more beautiful than the machines it runs and makes Windows look and feel like an awkward kludge. It works. All the time, every time.

The combination is an absolute joy to work on.

Now I'll stop gloating.

Too Disgusted to Blog...

There's so much going on right now that disgusts me, worries me, angers me that I can't settle on a subject. So I thought I'd let someone else do the blogging for me. So here comes my first Liberal Coalition Blogabout in a long, long time...

Mustang Bobby at BBWW gets a little riled up over NARAL's ad taking probably future SCOTUS member John Roberts to task.

Over at Dohiyi Mir, NTodd's getting an early start on Friday Dog Blogging.

Liberty Street's Kathy decries the conditions in Baghdad - so bad that soon the entire professional class will have fled. To where is not clear, but who'll be running things when the last engineer heads for the hills?

Norbizness takes on Rumsfeld's September 11th March and Country Jamboree with his usual subtle and dry wit here.

Friday... Baby Blogging? Now Rivka at Respectful of Otters has gone too far, no?

And finally, Steve our resident Yellow Doggerel Democrat, tells it like it is about Cindy Sheehan's little camping adventure in Crawford, TX.

When you're done checking out these folks, doing the blogging so I don't have to, go through the rest of the blogs on the Liberal Coalition blogroll. You won't be disappointed. Honest.

Peter Jennings; Signing Off

Last night, succumbing to lung cancer, Peter Jennings died after a much too short fight.

You can read the details at ABC's site, but this was a guy who earned his news chops the hard way; despite an early appointment to the anchor desk. In the retrospective shown on ABC this morning, I recognized his reporting from all the major news events of my life. Most vividly, his was the calming voice and focused manner that I remember during the confusing and horrific days immediately after 9/11 in contrast to the shrill and sometimes ugly reporting at other networks.

It is a sad commentary on the times that the message boards at ABC are already being peppered with comments from people you just know were sent there by right-wing bloggers and followers of that "network which must not be named." They are repeating the lie of a liberal bias in the news while damning him for his idealism, his reporting and his Canadian background.

If you enjoyed his reporting or you care at all about common human decency, if you value the independent voices of the news networks, already mostly gone, leave your message of condolences to the ABC family and help to balance the shrill voices of the right.

Priorities

I wonder if the word even has any meanings for our Congress members. Given recent events, I'd have to say, "no."

A couple of days ago they put off deliberation on the Defense Authorization Bill so that they could give the NRA a pre-summer gift of legal immunity. And now this:

The leaders of a Congressional panel wrote to Major League Baseball yesterday to ask for a broad set of records related to Rafael Palmeiro's steroids suspension.

[snip]

...the Congressional committee wanted to determine whether Palmeiro might have committed perjury when he testified that he had never used steroids.

Nevermind that Bush and numerous other administration members lied to Congress, the public, the UN and the world about Iraq. Nevermind that those lies resulted in a war that has killed over 1,800 soldiers and uncounted thousands of Iraqis.

Nope. Pay all of that no mind.

We're talking important stuff here... You know; a grown man, playing a kids' game, for millions of dollars, who just might have taken steroids.

What's Another Thousand?

Twenty today, seven yesterday; the count is now about 1,815.

If you're like most Americans, which you're not because you're reading this, you might not know what those numbers above refer to. The few of us who are really paying attention know that the number of US soldiers killed in Iraq is too rapidly approaching 2,000.

As in wars past, those who die are predominantly young; for argument's sake let's say that these soldiers averaged 20 years old. When today's average 20 year-old can look forward to living to at least 85, that's 65 years gone in an instant. 130,000 combined years of experiences never to be known; love never found, adventures never had.

With so few people having a stake in what goes on in Iraq, especially those counseling us all to "stay the course," it's no wonder that the loss of those fine soldiers elicits so little reaction. Hundreds of hours of television and radio time were taken up this week discussing the small lies and the even smaller consequences of a baseball player who claims never to have "knowingly" taken steroids. The loss of 1,815 lives merits only a mention in the headlines.

"Bread and circuses," my friends... and our own Nero fiddles, blind to the flames around him.

Republican Priorities

This administration and its Republican supporters in Congress have always been about playing up their strong "support the troops" message and their chest thumping brand of national security. But their actions - as always - speak louder than words ever could their real intentions.

My post from yesterday ended with a leading question that plays into this same theme. Today, the Washington Post, via MSNBC, gives us another peek at Republicans real priorities. If the Iraq fiasco was, at least in part, a sop to BushCo's oil company supporters, then this story reveals even more of their toady obeisance to special interests.

The nation's gun lobby is close to realizing a long-sought goal of protecting firearms manufacturers and dealers from being held legally responsible for violent crimes committed with their handguns and automatic weapons.

Supporters believe they have the votes in the Senate to pass as early as today a bill making it virtually impossible for victims of gun violence to file civil suits against the industry -- a testimony to the political clout of gun manufacturers, which have become increasingly vulnerable to civil lawsuits in the District and several states.

What is more disturbing is that twelve Democrats, including the Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid are going along with the Republicans to support the legislation. Worst of all?

Democrats also criticized Frist for pulling a defense authorization bill from the floor this week to ensure that the gun bill would be considered before the summer recess, which is scheduled to begin this weekend.

That's right; the saber rattling, tough on defense, Iraq invading Rethugs are ignoring one of the most important pieces of business they have to give the equivalent of a legislative blow job to the gun industry.

No leading questions required today.

Terror Arrests

British police, working amid a public with stiff upper lips much in display, have made nine additional arrests related to the recent London bombings. Combined with the identification of the first set of bombers and other arrests, the total number of suspects arrested in less than a month far exceeds the total 9/11 arrests publicly known after nearly four years in the US.

Are the Brits just luckier? Or perhaps their terrorists were less fastidious than those in this country?

What the hell is going on? Why won't the American public hold BushCo accountable?

Alive and Kickin'

Those of you who continue to drop by my little corner of the blogosphere may be familiar with some of the - there's no other word for it - crap that's been going on in my life. It seems that, just maybe, things are starting to turn around.

I won't bore you now with all the details, if you're really interested you can search through the archives, but maybe, just maybe, I might return to more regular blogging. I haven't completely lost touch with the world and there are way too many things going on right now to really catch up on here. I will, however, likely write about several of them in the upcoming days and weeks; depending on how relevent they remain.

As I figure out the best way to get back into the blogging game, I urge you to check out the many fine bloggers linked to on the left sidebar; most especially the outstanding folks in the Liberal Coalition. In their fine blogs you'll get your fill of the continuing saga of Karl Rove, the Supreme Court, the fiasco in Iraq and all things relating to the disaster of an administration currently befouling the capitol of this otherwise wonderful country.

***

Finally, in the non-political world, I highly recommend that you go see the following movies if you haven't already: Star Wars Episode III, War of the Worlds and Batman Begins. For various and assorted reasons, they all blew me away.

Now It's Personal

As horrific as it's been to see the list of casualties from Afghanistan and Iraq growing day by day, I found out yesterday that it's worse when one of those names belongs to a friend.

Last week, Colonel Ted Westhusing became the most senior officer to be killed in Iraq. There are still no details about how Ted died - the Army is only saying that it was from non-combat related injuries, which could mean just about anything. I read about his death at Eric Alterman's Altercation (read through Maj. Bateman's letter from Iraq). When I got to Ted's name I froze.

Ted and I graduated in the same class at West Point: 1983. We spent many hours together; most of them studying for and in Russian Language courses over the four years. But there were also the times we spent "out in the field" during our summer exercises and the times we spent drinking beer and laughing.

When I read that my friend had died I could immediately see his face although we hadn't spoken since graduation.

Ted was a brilliant man. I read that during the intervening years he'd gotten a Masters in Russian, philosophy and military history. But he was also - and my memory is sharp on this - a very kind person. In the highly charged and competitive atmosphere at West Point, Ted was always ready to lend a hand, to help someone through a difficult lesson - whether the kind in a classroom or in life. And it was just that spirit that drove Ted to volunteer, from his rather comfortable position as an English professor at West Point, to help train Iraqis to help themselves. It is more a shame that such a life would be wasted on a misadventure such as this; one entirely avoidable and unneccessary.

His family and friends are not the only ones missing something from their lives now. The whole world is a poorer place without Ted Westhusing.

Job

Think either the Robert Heinlein novel or the book in the Old Testament.

Either way - he's got nothing on us.

Stuck in Low Gear

Have you been feeling a little stuck in a rut lately? A financial rut?

It's not surprising, really. Those of us making less than the top 10% of earners are having a harder and harder time making any headway, much less can the bottom 10% live up to the old American dream of class mobility.

In today's New York Times, Bob Herbert puts together many of the things I've thought about and read about over the past several years into a powerful opinion piece. There's no doubt that my wife and I are firmly ensconced in the middle class, but it seems that we can never get ahead - never get comfortable. Herbert lays it all out there; stagnant wages, a jobs market full of more fear than jobs and a plutocracy that's determined to take it all with them. Or at least leave it to their kids.

The privileged classes, with the Bush administration's iron cloak of protection, avoid their fair share of taxes, are reluctant to pay an honest dollar for an honest day's work (the federal minimum wage is still a scandalous $5.15 an hour), refuse to fight in their nation's wars, and laugh all the way to their yachts.

I'm not laughing. And many of our compatriots in that lower 90% are crying and those who are "fighting our nation's wars" are dying.

Bush in Rochester

Ho-hum.

Peddling lies about Social Security to a hand-picked audience.

No excitement here, move along.

Confluence

That's where two rivers or streams flow together. A confluence is often known for its turbidity and, according to chaos theory, the effects of two rivers flowing together can be orders of magnitude larger than you'd expect.

Two things in the news made me think of the above.

The first was North Korea's continued and - perhaps more serious - saber rattling. While the news was all abuzz about a missile test and large holes being dug, perhaps in preparation for an underground nuclear device test, there was little substance. There wasn't much "news" in the news. Nothing much was said about the missile being a short range variety that could only carry a relatively advanced (light-weight) nuclear weapon. And there were only scattered inferences that perhaps the North Koreans were only posturing with their big dig.

The second was this article about the Army and the Marines missing their recruiting goals for the third and fourth months in a row, respectively.

While worrisome on its own, the North Korea situation seems even more ominous in light of the military having trouble with keeping manpower levels up. Despite repeated assurances from BushCo. officials, it's generally accepted that the military is stretched mighty thin around the world and may not be able to handle another crisis (N. Korea) well.

Here's where chaos theory comes in. What happens at the confluence of these two events? Will Kim Jung Il be "emboldened" by our military's preoccupation and staffing problems? Will BushCo. use Iraq, Afghanistan and North Korea as an excuse to finally implement a draft (limited or universal)? Will the military let itself be distracted by multiple missions and staffing problems and allow the situation in the Middle East to spiral out of control?

From our vantage point, just before entering the whirlpool at the confluence of these large-scale world events, it's difficult to say where we might end up. But the roar of the water is thundering, the spray is blinding, and I've sure got a bad feeling about this...

War on the Cheap - Part 378

Humvee armor, Halliburton food, KBR gasoline, too few soldiers. It's all a part of BushCo's attempt to do Iraq on the cheap. Now it's body armor.

The Marine Corps is recalling more than 5,000 combat vests issued to troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and Djibouti after a published report raised concerns that the vests failed a test to determine whether they could stop a bullet.

Things like this usually catch up with you. Unfortunately, it's the soldiers who are paying for BushCo's short-sighted attempt at a Wal-Mart War.

Alice in Fallujah-Land

Self defense.

Self defense? I'm speechless...

What the fuck?