From one of my new favorites, driftglass contemplating the lack of intestinal fortitude of congressional Republicans:

There might be some completely benign explanation as to why George Bush has been catastrophically wrong about every single fucking detail about this war. And as to why everyone who tried to warn him got horse-headed. Why everyone complicit in this historic meta-uber-clusterfuck has been awarded medals and pensioned off. And why every fuckup breaks in the direction of making Dick Cheney’s gang of looters vastly richer than the dreams of Croesus.

Are you reading driftglass yet?

More Democratic Cojones

This time it was the House and Nancy Pelosi.

Here's the text of her resolution that the Rethugs tried to shout down. It was tabled along a party-line vote revealing that there is most definitely something the Rethugs still want to hide.

I only hope that they have the strength to keep this up; day after day.

Harry Reid Continues to Kick Ass

This is just breaking on Raw Story:

Democratic Senate leaders Harry Reid (D-NV), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) issued a letter to Vice President Cheney Thursday calling for a "thorough housecleaning" in his office, RAW STORY has learned.

The letter notes that senior Cheney aides named in the Libby indictment are still working -- and in fact both have been promoted.

Keep hammering, Harry!

Why Rosa Parks' Story is Still Relevant

Read this and weep.

Buying Access to BushCo.

Is there no part of this administration that isn't corrupt?

I suppose by now that's really a rhetorical question. How many different places will Jack Abramoff's name show up?

This goes to my prior post about how those that can afford to buy access can influence legislation that will eventually effect them. While you and I are stuck with the bill.

Defining Republicans for 2006

Big corporations that rake in billions of dollars each quarter are given tax breaks, incentives and get to write the laws that affect their business.

Real citizens who work for minimum wages get the shaft.

The Voices in His Head

This is awful...

I want to know why Bush gets a pass when voices in his head tells him to lead an entire nation into an illegal war (2,030 dead so far), but the husband in the case above will get the death penalty? Can anyone answer that question?

Anyone?

"Some Sort of Stink"

How seriously does the Republican Leadership take the first indictment of a sitting Whitehouse aide in 135 years? How seriously do the Republicans take the purposeful outing of a CIA undercover operative during "wartime"?

Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., said Reid was making “some sort of stink about Scooter Libby and the CIA leak.”

Not so seriously at all.

Republicans; The Party of Treason*

Credit to AmericaBlog for this fine phrase.

A Glimmer of Hope?

No matter what comes out of the great Republican spin machine over the next couple of days, no matter how badly the SCLM mangles the real story, keep in mind what I wrote to Senator Harry Reid yesterday: "there is nothing else more important for the Senate to do than to investigate how this country was mislead in the run up to the Iraq War."

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's protests that this was done to avoid dealing with the "hard work" of cutting taxes for the rich and benefits for the poor notwithstanding, Harry Reid has not hijacked the Senate. Quite the opposite, he has finally set it back on task of being about the country's business; he has started the Senate back on the path of true oversight.

I'm not sure if Reid's explanation that it was the birth of another grandson that set him on this explosive path is true. But the cause is not important. What's important is that a Democrat has stood up and told us all that the emperor has no clothes.

Now comes the hard part.

Senate Democrats and moderates need to keep up the pressure on the far right. We need to find out how and why such bad intelligence was used to cajole us all into this horrid quagmire in Iraq. We need to find out why the administration would endanger the lives of covert operatives around the world in retaliation for Joe Wilson's fortitude to stand up against the "cabal." We need to wrest control from the small and small-minded group of reactionaries who've literally hijacked our government.

Reid's "ambush" move to take the Senate into secret session yesterday won his immediate objective of moving forward with Phase II of the investigation. It's up to all Democrats to ensure the progress is not arrested again. It's up to all of us to let them know that we support their bravery. I don't know how all this will play out. But yesterday afternoon I started to have some hope that we will be able to move beyond the narrow, nasty Republican agenda of the past four years.

We'll be watching...

Is That the Other Shoe?

Headline at The Raw Story now (no story behind it yet):

DEMOCRATIC LEADER TAKES SENATE INTO SECRET SESSION OVER IRAQ INTEL.... DEVELOPING...
Move made only 55 times in Senate history...

What the hell is going on? Would this have anything to do with Matt Cooper's confirmation that Karl Rove was his source for Valerie Plame's name?

UPDATE: Check out C-SPAN2 and AmericaBlog for all the details. I think the Democrats went out to lunch today and got a serious infusion of spine and balls.

Wal-Mart Buys BushCo.

If you don't find my title amusing, you're not alone. If it scares you, it should.

The Labor Department's inspector general strongly criticized department officials yesterday for "serious breakdowns" in procedures involving an agreement promising Wal-Mart Stores 15 days' notice before labor investigators would inspect its stores for child labor violations.

[snip]

The report also criticized department officials for letting Wal-Mart lawyers write substantial parts of the settlement and for leaving the department's own legal division out of the settlement process.

If you're not surprised, well... you shouldn't be. It's the way this adminstration has done business all along; letting oil companies write energy policy, letting polluters write EPA standards and policies and letting insurance companies write health care policy. But come on... letting them off the hook for child labor problems?

It's no wonder Wal-Mart feels it needs a "War Room" to combat its negative image with the public.

After Syria, Cuba?

I hadn't heard that there was an official office dealing with the transition of Cuba from Castro's rule to something post-Castro. Via MSNBC we learn otherwise:

US planning for Cuba's "transition" after the demise of Fidel Castro has entered a new stage, with a special office for reconstruction inside the US State Department preparing for the "day after", when Washington will try to back a democratic government in Havana.

The inter-agency effort, which also involves the Defense Department, recognises that the Cuba transition may not go peacefully and that the US may have to launch a nation-building exercise.

I have to wonder just how closely the people in this office are watching our current "nation-building exercise" in Iraq. Knowing the rest of this administration, I'd say they're not watching at all. After all, there's no sense "looking backwards."

I did find this paragraph amusing:

Caleb McCarry, the Cuba transition co-ordinator, is working on the project within the Office for Reconstruction and Stabilization, which was established by the Bush administration to prevent and prepare for post-conflict situations.

Was this office formed before or after the post-Mission-Accomplished activities in Iraq? If it was before... we've seen how well it works. If after, again, we've seen how little any part of BushCo. learns from experience. However, later in the article we learn the real purpose of the group - as usual it has very little to do with the name of the office (think "Clear Skies").

Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state, appointed Mr McCarry in July. His post was recommended by the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, which she noted was created by President George W. Bush "to accelerate the demise of Castro's tyranny".

No need to worry about the efficacy of the office, though. In what has become a signature BushCo. move, the office and its activities are critically underfunded.

And finally, in case you were worried that something might actually come of all the planning and thought on the toppling of Castro (how long have we been trying to do that?) and what would come afterwards, don't worry. There was an ulterior motive to the whole thing. What could that have been?

From the administration on permanent campaign mode:

Some suspect Mr Bush drew attention to the issue in 2004 with an eye on securing votes in Florida from Cuban exiles.

Driftglass

I love finding new blogs by clicking through other people's blogrolls. It's why my blogroll has grown so large - maybe even to the point of being unwieldy. But another name has made it onto my blogroll; something I almost never mention. But in this case I have to let you know about drifglass. I found this blog by clicking on the interesting name on Shakespeare's Sister's blogroll (another blog I highly recommend).

The blogger behind driftglass has a style very different from many political bloggers. Short, pointed posts are not his style. Long, well-informed essays full of passion and humor seem to be his preferred format. All the better for us.

So click on the link above. Add driftglass to your blogroll. You'll be very glad you did.

Good Question... Great Answer

When I was at West Point, General Andrew Bacevich was just coming in to join the Academy administration. Since then I've seen and read some of his writing and know that he's socially quite conservative - as you'd expect from a high ranking officer in the modern Army. With that foreknowledge and the following question below the headline in his article in today's NYT, I thought I knew what to expect.

In a post-9/11 world, what limits — if any — exist on the president's authority to use force?

I was wrong.

Make sure to read the whole opinion piece, it is, of course, well informed but also surprising considering its author's C.V. But the ultimate paragraph is what made my chest swell with pride at having known and served with this man, a fellow West Point graduate, a fellow traveller in "The Long Grey Line."

In the interests of national security today, we should curb presidential war-making powers. A hitherto compliant Congress must reclaim the institutional authority conferred upon it by the Constitution. When it comes to wars, the first responsibility of the legislative branch is not to support the commander in chief. It is to exercise independent judgment, an obligation that transcends party. Members of Congress who lack the wit or the moral courage to fulfill this obligation ought to be held accountable by voters.

He may be on the opposite side of the widening divide between Left and Right, but Andy Bacevich understands the dangers of the way we do the nation's business today.

The American Taliban Gets its Pick

I still have no insight as to why Bush would have picked Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court. However, I'm starting to lean towards the explanation advanced by some that it was a distraction leading exactly to where we are with today's expected announcement of Samuel "Scalito" Alito as his "do-ever" nominee. Alito seems perfectly fitted to the religious right-wing-nutjob faction of the Republican Party with the first reporting on his judicial past being that he was the lone dissent in a case that would have required married women to "notify" their husbands prior to getting an abortion.

If you have to ask why that's a bad thing, consider that most happily married couples would discuss the options and make a mutual decision. If the wife doesn't want to notify the husband, there has to be a very good reason; think spousal abuse, whether mental or physical. Of course, really, if you had to ask why that's a bad thing you've probably not been living in the real world for a long, long time.

Some Democrats are already vowing a fight. How much of a fight will the heretofore quiet Dems put up? Will they filibuster Alito who, at first blush, appears well to the right of most Americans? BushCo. is at its weakest point ever; now would be the time to go for the jugular. But will someone step up the difficult task at hand? Who will assume the mantle of leadership now and show us the way forward?

Scooter Gets Coal on Fitzmas

Details are still coming out... but looks like the Fitzmas Season has started!

UPDATE: Note the sub-head (circled) in this screenshot from MSNBC:



Yep, business as usual; at least until Patrick Fitzgerald gets done with them!

Republicans Recommend That the Poor Burn Their Children for Winter Heat

Perhaps the title of this post is a little over the top. But not too much considering this:

The Senate decided yesterday the money was not there for a substantial spending boost for the federal home heating program, deflecting arguments that soaring energy prices could force the poor to choose between heat and food this winter.

Burning their kids would provide some heat and have the added benefit of reducing their food bills. It's a win-win solution!

The Coming Republican Apocalypse

Harriet Miers has withdrawn her nomination to the Supreme Court.

Indictments of major BushCo. players could be announced at any minute.

Bush's standings in the polls could not get much lower.

The Republican Congressional leadership is mired in legal and ethical problems.

2,000 deaths in Iraq. "Drownie" Brown. Hurricanes that won't stop coming. Afghanistan is reverting to Taliban control. The military can't make its recruiting goals. On and on.

It seems almost perverse to take such pleasure in watching the Republicans self-destruct. Certainly there is no pleasure in the damage being done to our country, our military and our international reputation. But seeing Bush and all his cronies squirm, well...

Taps

Just about everyone, at one time or another, has heard "Taps." As a piece of music, heard without context, it is unremarkable although evocative. To me - and to anyone else who's been to a military funeral or memorial service - it is so much more than that.

As a soldier, and a pilot, I have lost my share of friends and comrades. But I'll never forget the first time I heard Taps played for someone I knew. He was a friend and company-mate at West Point. A year ahead of me, he was handsome, full of life and full of fun. He had a very bright future ahead of him. Except that one Saturday night, probably after a couple of beers, his Mazda RX-7 skidded on snow-slicked roads and flipped over the railing of an overpass on a winding, Hudson Valley road. A year and half from graduation and Mike Charbonneau was gone.

One evening a week or so later, at lunch the academy administration announced there would be a memorial service on "The Plain" - the large parade ground at West Point - that evening. At a little before 10:00, cadets started streaming out of the barracks; silently as only a group of soldiers can do. At 10:00 exactly all the lights went off throwing the entire area into darkness. And then there was that sound; a lone bugler standing in the middle of The Plain blowing the loneliest, the saddest sound in the world. Taps echoed off the grey stone buildings and off the grey stone mountains surrounding West Point.

When the last note had reverberated up and down the valley, the lights came on and we all filed back to our rooms in a silence that made our emergence seem raucous by comparison.

I had never heard or experienced anything like that before. Unfortunately I would hear Taps played many more times in my career.

Why this morbid trip into my personal past? In a recent piece in Times - other parts of which have been covered in the blogosphere - Anna Quindlen had a suggestion for Bush as we neared 2,000 deaths in Iraq. And it's a suggestion I'd heartily recommend that someone carry out.

At least Johnson had the good sense to be heartbroken by the body bags [of Viet Nam]. Bush appears merely peevish at being criticized. Someone with a trumpet should play taps outside the White House for the edification of a president who has not attended a single funeral for the Iraqi war dead. As I am writing this, the number of American soldiers killed is 1, 992. By the time you read it, it may have topped 2,000. Will I be writing these same things when the number is 3,000, 5,000, 10,000? If we are such a great nation, why are we utterly incapable of learning from our mistakes? America's sons and daughters are dying to protect the egos of those whose own children are safe at home. Again.

Does anyone know a good bugler?

Judith Miller to be Fired?

There's just too much good stuff going on right now...

New York Times reporter Judith Miller has begun discussing her future employment options with the newspaper, including the possibility of a severance package, a lawyer familiar with the matter, said yesterday.

The discussion about her future comes several days after the public rupture of the relationship between the Times and Ms. Miller, a 28-year veteran of the paper. Both the editor and the publisher of the Times have expressed regret for their unequivocal support for Ms. Miller when she spent 85 days in jail for refusing to testify before a federal grand jury investigating the unmasking of a Central Intelligence Agency operative.

I'd like to be first in line to drop a quarter in her tin cup on some Manhattan corner. Only to snatch it back.

Via The Raw Story.

Adding Insult to Injury

There are so many stories in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina that it can be almost impossible to know what to feel. In the case of this Knight-Ridder story, my immediate response is sorrow for the displaced. Yet I also know that somehow things have to return to normal in the business sphere as well.

A flood of legal battles is set to be unleashed Tuesday in New Orleans when Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco lifts a post-Hurricane Katrina ban on evictions and 8,000 to 10,000 absentee tenants face the losses of their homes and possessions.


Landlords are expected to begin filing eviction requests with the courts immediately. If they're successful, they can clear out abandoned apartments and move tons of molding, waterlogged belongings to the streets within five to 10 days. In some cases, the landlords alone can make the decision to evict.

I can only hope that at some time something good will come of all of this...

Wal-Mart Sucks

Still.

Hat tip to AmericaBlog.

2,000

Bush lied. They died.

My sincerest condolences to the families of all my fellow soldiers.

The Last Option?

Now I suppose a war with Syria is inevitable.

President Bush said military action was a last resort in dealing with Syria and he hoped Damascus would cooperate with a probe into the killing of former Lebanese premier Rafik al-Hariri.

Because we all remember this:

WASHINGTON, Feb. 20, 2003 -- Military action against Iraq is America's last option, President Bush told an audience today in Kennesaw, Ga.

Anyone feel a draft?

1999

ABC News just on TV announced that the "official" death toll in Iraq has reached 1,999.

Trust Us!

Remember conservatives and BushCo. apologists assuring the rest of us that the PATRIOT Act powers to surveil citizens would not be abused? We were called unpatriotic - and worse - because we weren't willing to give up our rights so easily.

Who turned out to be right about these concerns?

The FBI has conducted clandestine surveillance on some U.S. residents for as long as 18 months at a time without proper paperwork or oversight, according to previously classified documents to be released today.

Records turned over as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit also indicate that the FBI has investigated hundreds of potential violations related to its use of secret surveillance operations, which have been stepped up dramatically since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks but are largely hidden from public view.

Wag the Dog - Syria

BushCo. is in dire straights.

Okay, that's really an understatement. The Republican Congressional leadership is in serious trouble, Plamegate is closing in on the VP and there is rumor of some evidence that points right at the Shrub. Harriet Miers' nomination has turned into a joke with several statements over the weekend indicating that there are not enough votes to confirm. Iraq continues to go horribly awry. Afghanistan is slowing sliding back to anarchy and Taliban rule. People still haven't forgotten about Katrina.

They need a distraction.

Could this be blown up into a large enough distraction?

The United States and Britain jointly criticized Syria on Sunday and called for international action to be taken over a U.N. investigation that implicated Syrian officials in the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice didn't discuss any specific actions that the United States might push for when the U.N. Security Council considers the investigator's report Tuesday, but she said the matter "really has to be dealt with."

If you think this sounds a lot like the lead up to the Iraq debacle, go to the head of the class.

High Profile Republicans Distancing Themselves from Bush?

This was interesting to see this morning:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger rebuffed requests from leading California Democrats that he break from his special election campaign long enough to ask President Bush for more federal money.

The Republican governor said he was too busy before the Nov. 8 vote to meet with the president during Bush’s two-day stop in Southern California on Thursday and Friday.

Well, well, well... Bush has become a liability for Republicans during important campaigns. This is getting fun!

Is that popcorn I smell?

Compassionat Conservatism at Work

Increase http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifin minimum wage voted down twice.

Increased aid to the poor for heating costs voted down.

As I wrote in a post earlier this week, as the GOP starts to unravel, they are lashing out at the people least able to defend themselves from the monied power machine that the Republican party has become. We can hope that this is the beginning of the end of "movement conservatism," but we should not forget that dying animals are often the most dangerous.http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

Book 'em Dan-O!

Tom "The Bug Man" DeLay was booked, photographed and fingerprinted today. Too bad he was able to post bail; a night in the county lockup would've done his ego some good.

First round's on me!

Former Top Powell Aide in Scathing Attack on BushCo.

This is going to leave a mark:

In a scathing attack on the record of President George W. Bush, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, chief of staff to Mr Powell until last January, said: “What I saw was a cabal between the vice-president of the United States, Richard Cheney, and the secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, on critical issues that made decisions that the bureaucracy did not know were being made.

Read the entire article, Wilkerson really takes a hard swipe at the cabal; revealing what many of us have been saying for a while: Bush is a figurehead, a facade of a president. The real power is behind the scenes.

It's in the Financial Times and I haven't seen it anywhere in the domestic press yet. As usual, we have to depend on the foreign press to do the work of our own SCLM.

Hat tip to Josh at Talking Points Memo.

Still Winning Hearts and Minds in Afghanistan

To quote the - of course - un-named pentagon official, "this doesn't look good."

The Army tells NBC News its Criminal Investigation Division is looking into an Australian broadcast report with video that allegedly shows U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan burning the bodies of two Taliban fighters, then using the incident to taunt Taliban forces.

[snip]

According to U.S. Army officials, if the bodies were burned and members of a psychological operations team then used the burnings to taunt the enemy with a broadcast message, that would be in violation of U.S. Army procedures and an apparent violation of military law.

[snip]

They say the burning of the bodies would be an apparent violation of the rules of warfare regarding the desecration of bodies.

Soldiers will only do these things if the command climate allows it. We'll hear all the usual excuses about "bad actors," which might have worked once. But the pattern has become too broad. This problem goes all the way to the top. To the Commander-in-Chief.

DeLay to be Arrested!

Yes! Sweet, sweet schadenfreude!

A Texas court issued a warrant Wednesday for former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay to appear for booking, where he is likely to face the fingerprinting and photo mug shot he had hoped to avoid.

And the walls come tumbling down. Who's next? Where's Patrick Fitzgerald?

Wilma Stronger Than Katrina?

Yesterday afternoon Wilma was upgraded to Category I hurricane. Fine, I thought, a smallish storm to finish the season then hopefully we can be done with this one. Not much chance of that now.

000
WTNT34 KNHC 191158
TCPAT4
BULLETIN
HURRICANE WILMA INTERMEDIATE ADVISORY NUMBER 16A
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
8 AM EDT WED OCT 19 2005

...WILMA MAINTAINING CATEGORY FIVE STATUS...RECORD PRESSURE
CONFIRMED BY AIRCRAFT CREW...

[snip]

BASED ON DROPSONDE AND FLIGHT-LEVEL DATA FROM AN AIR FORCE PLANE
JUST RETURNING FROM ITS MISSION IN WILMA...THE MINIMUM CENTRAL
PRESSURE IS ESTIMATED TO BE 882 MB...26.05 INCHES. THIS IS THE
LOWEST PRESSURE ON RECORD FOR A HURRICANE IN THE ATLANTIC BASIN.

All of my immediate family is well within the land-fall prediction cone. Good thing BushCo. has assured us that there's no such thing as Global Warming.

Target Pharmacist Refuses Prescription

If you thought it was just the mouth-breathers at Wal-Mart, think again.

A 26-year-old Missouri woman was refused EC [Emergenncy Contraceptives] when she handed her prescription to a pharmacist at a Target store in Fenton, MO, on September 30. The woman was told by the pharmacist, “I won’t fill it. It’s my right not to fill it.” She was told that she could go to a local Walgreens instead.

Drop by Planned Parenthood, the originator of this story, and send an e-mail to a growing list of stores whose pharmacists have refused to fill contraceptive prescriptions.

Hat tip to John in DC over at AmericaBlog.

Baltimore Threat Another Attempt to Wag the Dog?

While there's no evidence that today's shut-down of two main tunnels through Baltimore was anything other than an anonymous threat, there were certainly plenty of things BushCo. might want to distract attention from today.

Miers' nomination remains an absolute mess.
Cheney is rumored to be thinking of resigning.
The rethugs have suddenly found out the joys of the circular firing squad.
Patrick Fitzgerald is tightening the noose around one or more necks.
Iraq continues to move quickly towards a peaceful democracy.

Well... you get the idea.

Welcome Salon Readers

Kick your shoes off and stay awhile. And if you just have to go somewhere else, click on one of those links to the left; great reading awaits you!

I had a nice spike in readers today. Turns out I got a mention for this post on Salon's Dauo Report. Thanks, Peter!

DeLay, Divert, Dissemble

Try as he might, Tom DeLay cannot avoid this:

DeLay will likely be booked in a Texas county jail this week despite attempts by his attorneys to bypass the fingerprinting and mug shot process.

That's one picture I can't wait to see!

Republicans Lash Out - At the Poor

With the chickenhawk leadership of the GOP in trouble, the fiscal conservatives in Congress are making themselves heard. And as we've come to expect from the so-called "compassionate conservatives," their first target is that group that in this time of rising energy prices and a stagnant wage and job market can least afford it.

Beginning this week, the House GOP lawmakers will take steps to cut as much as $50 billion from the fiscal 2006 budget for health care for the poor, food stamps and farm supports, as well as considering across-the-board cuts in other programs. Only last month, then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) and other GOP leaders quashed demands within their party for budget cuts to pay for the soaring cost of hurricane relief.

You can bet that those "other programs" will include proven programs like Head Start and other welfare programs.

As the Rethugs look more and more likely to implode, watch for them to lash out like the dying leviathan that it has become. There is nothing more dangerous than a wounded and cornered animal.

UPDATE for Salon Readers: Welcome to the Fulcrum. The main site can be found here. Thanks for stopping by.

A Thousand Posts

This is my 1,000th post on The Fulcrum. It took me longer to get here than I thought it would, but it was a strange and wonderful journey. Thanks to all of you who have stopped by to read and to add to the discussion in the comments. I've learned so much over the past couple of years; I hope that I've helped at least a couple of you to learn or understand something I've written about. At the very least I hope I've entertained you.

On to the next thousand!

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.