NOTE: this blog is no longer active as of 12/07. New one: http://blog.kirchhof.com
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur.
Fri, 30 Sep 2005
Well Put
Every once in a while, someone writes something succinct, clear, and
spot-on. It's very refreshing. Publius over at Legal
Fiction has such a post today. Here's a snippit:
What makes DeLay's scheme so particularly foul - and what makes it
appropriate for prosecution - was it was entirely about tampering with
and subverting rules governing the voting process. He cheated to raise
money to elect those who would then illegally gerrymander Texas. The
entire enterprise was about ignoring the ex ante rules governing the
voting process - rules that (in a two-party state) solve the
collective action problem that would otherwise undermine that process.
Granted, there's nothing inherently better about redistricting every
10 years as opposed to every 2 years. The point is that 10 years was
the ex ante rule - and mutually agreed-upon ex ante rules (like in
baseball) allow the game to be played. DeLay tossed those rules aside
arrogantly and even proudly. In doing so, he initiated a
gerrymandering race to the bottom in which every party in power now
had incentives to gerrymander districts whenever they had a bare
majority. And predictably, the race to the bottom has now spread to
other states. And our democracy is the worse for it. [On as aside,
this is exact same reason why holding votes open in the House and
other nonsense is not just wrong, but fundamentally undermines our
democratic system.]
Again, it's not so much that they illegally funneled $200,000 of
corporate cash to Texas candidates. It's the principle. There's a
slippery slope problem here. If DeLay succeeded in evading this law
without any consequences, what would stop him from breaking other
laws? What would stop others from doing the same? There's a broader
message that Earle is sending here and that message is leave the
democratic process alone. Reward your cronies, get your pork - do all
the things that elected officials like to do. But don't screw with the
voting process - that is off-limits.
Posted at 10:14 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
[Reload all]
[E-mail]
And Now For Something Completely Different
Posted at 10:03 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
[Reload all]
[E-mail]
Thu, 29 Sep 2005
Our Saga So Far
Nice little summary
article over at CBS:
The indictment sent a shock wave through the GOP establishment, which
is already reeling from a swath of criminal and ethics
investigations. Three individuals, eight corporations and two
political action committees connected to DeLay have been indicted as a
result of the probe. In addition, the government's top procurement
official, David Safavian, was arrested in September for obstructing a
criminal investigation into Über-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a close DeLay
ally. Abramoff himself is under criminal investigation for defrauding
Indian tribes and was indicted for wire fraud in Florida in a separate
case. Top White House aides, including Karl Rove and Scooter Libby,
have been targeted by a special prosecutor investigating the outing of
CIA agent Valerie Plame. Representative Duke Cunningham announced he
would not run for re-election after overselling his house for $700,000
to a military industry lobbyist; he too has been indicted. FDA chief
Lester Crawford resigned unexpectedly after just two months on the
job, possibly because of failure to report his wife's sizable
pharmaceutical-industry holdings. And DeLay's Senate counterpart, Bill
Frist, is battling possible insider-trading charges for dumping
millions in HCA stock, a company founded by his father and run by his
brother, weeks before it plunged in value. The U.S. Attorney in
Manhattan and the Securities and Exchange Commission opened an
investigation into Frist and HCA in September.
Politics is fun again, children...
Posted at 20:06 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
[Reload all]
[E-mail]
Very Interesting Indeed
A sharp-eyed Walt Starr over at Daily
Kos makes a pretty compelling case that Tom Delay is not going to
put up a defense against the indictment.
Why? Read the indictment snippit over there; the two camps have
obviously been talking for quite some time. Tom Delay voluntarily
waived his rights to invoke the stauatory limit of three years for
the conspiracy charges
prior to the indictment being handed down. It's therefore
pretty logical to assume that (a) Ronnie has him, cold, (b) Ronnie has
him on prosecutable crimes much more serious than conspiracy, and (c)
Delay decided that he'd better cut his losses and plea bargain.
I wonder if Delay agreed to jail time? (He certainly agreed to
cooperate. They don't do plea bargains without a cooperation clause
clearly spelled out.) Who else is going to be on the chopping block?
How far is the net being cast?
Stay tuned. This is turning into the Super Bowl and the World
Series of political prosecution all rolled up into one. That rumble
you hear is likely a political earthquake. Wouldn't surprise me if our
humble little Travis County D.A. is well on his way to being a
world-wide household name.
Go Ronnie.
...
[Update] The Federal penalties for money laundering (US CODE: Title 18,1956. Laundering of monetary
instruments), for example, are "a fine of not more than $500,000 or
twice the value of the property involved in the transaction, whichever
is greater, or imprisonment for not more than twenty years, or both."
I suspect that Mr. Delay's problems have been compounded mightily
by the so-called PATRIOT act that he ramrodded through Congress four
years ago. Heck, check section (7)(D) of the above for an eye-glazing
laundry list of the ways you can get into trouble. Pun intended.
Watch for Delay's emanant transformation into a civil libertarian,
our heroic protector of individual rights.
Posted at 19:10 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
[Reload all]
[E-mail]
Talking Points
Okay, gang, Now that Fox is using terms like "intensely partisan"
and "renegade prosecutor" and "political crackpot" every five minutes,
be sure to mention the facts when
your favorite repug republican starts shedding
crocodile tears and whining about Ronnie Earle's "witch hunt:"
"During his long tenure, Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle
has prosecuted many more Democratic officials than Republicans. The
record does not support allegations that Earle is prone to partisan
witch hunts." This assertion supports Earle's own claim about his
record; a March 6 article in the El Paso Times reported: "Earle says
local prosecution is fundamental and points out that 11 of the 15
politicians he has prosecuted over the years were Democrats."
To quote Ronnie himself: "This is not about Democrats and
Republicans. It is about cops and robbers. This is an investigation of
a crime."
And guess what? It isn't going to cost you $85 million, it isn't
going to end in a big "never mind", and it has nothing to do with sex
between consenting adults.
Gotta love it.
Delay: done.
Rove: near done.
Frist: near done.
Bush: over1, done, fried, skewered, roasted, eviscerated, etc. He
doesn't have the juice to run a resolution saying that 'kittens are
cute' through Congress now.
[1] Well, that is, "over" except for the ten trillion dollar debt that
we'll all be paying for until our grandkids have turned to dust.
Posted at 13:05 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
[Reload all]
[E-mail]
$100 Laptop
Via Slashdot:
"MIT is showing off a prototype of a $100 laptop. It uses a 500MHz
AMD processor, stores everything on flash memory, and runs Linux. The
AC adapter acts as the carrying strap, and there is a hand crank so if
you can't find a source of electricity you can charge it
kinetically. The prototype laptop is also much more flexible and
durable than your average notebook. In addition the unit has a screen
that has a special daylight-friendly black & white mode that makes a
great ebook." From the article: "Nicholas Negroponte, the co-founder
of the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
detailed specifications for a $100 windup-powered laptop targeted at
children in developing nations. Negroponte, who laid out his original
proposal at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in
January, said MIT and his nonprofit group, called One Laptop Per
Child, is in discussions with five countries--Brazil, China, Thailand,
Egypt and South Africa--to distribute up to 15 million test systems to
children."
It's nice to see things like this every now & then. Some people
actually use their brain to help other people.
Posted at 12:36 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
[Reload all]
[E-mail]
Sat, 24 Sep 2005
Lights! Makeup! Never Mind!
The handlers are having a hard week, according to the Times.
Italics mine:
At the Federal Emergency Management Agency's command center in
Washington a reporter asked him: "Sir, what good can you do going down
to the hurricane zone? Might you get in the way?"
Mr. Bush quickly shot back, "One thing I won't do is get in the way."
After explaining the purpose of his trip was to make sure federal,
state and local officials coordinate well, he added, "We will make
sure that my entourage does not get in the way of people doing their
job, which will be search and rescue immediately."
But clearly someone at the White House reconsidered the President's
impact. When Mr. McClellan announced that the president had scrapped
his trip, he said that with the search-and-rescue team preparing to
move with the storm, "we didn't want to slow that down."
Another White House official involved in preparing Mr. Bush's way
noted that with the sun shining so brightly in San Antonio, the images
of Mr. Bush from here might not have made it clear to viewers that he
was dealing with an approaching storm.
So, the Dear Leader scrapped his trip to the Alamo City because the
weather was insufficiently bad to get the proper photo-op.
Even the stagecraft is getting too bungled and surreal to survive
cursory inspection in this administration.
Posted at 14:40 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
[Reload all]
[E-mail]
Fri, 23 Sep 2005
Talk To A Person
What a great idea. A site
that tells you how to talk to a human at various banks, utilities,
corporations, etc. Thanks, Andrew.
Posted at 09:37 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
[Reload all]
[E-mail]
Thu, 22 Sep 2005
Good Humored Rant
Am I the only one who is bothered by the term "podcast?"
I listen to MP3 files, an open standard. Not "podfiles." I don't
own a "pod" anything. For that matter, I don't own an "i" anything. My
personal experience with Mr. Jobs' products consists of having
them reliably crash in the middle of mission-critical operations like
live broadcast multitrack recordings.
I guess that the term is here to stay, but I don't gotta like it,
no sir.
Feh, says i-mon.
Posted at 08:53 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
[Reload all]
[E-mail]
Tue, 20 Sep 2005
Summary, In Brief
Andrew Tobias gives us a
little sanity check to chew on:
At $8 trillion now, our National Debt - accumulated since 1776 - will
have reached $10 trillion or so by the time President Bush leaves
office. Of this, roughly $8 trillion will have been racked up under
just three presidents: Ronald Reagan, George Bush, and George Bush.
In the fiscal year just ending this month, taxpayers will have paid
roughly $350 billion in interest on the debt. That will rise as the
debt rises even if interest rates stay low. If they rise, the burden
only grows heavier. It's not hard to imagine an annual interest
expense north of half a trillion dollars by the time the current
Republican Administration, with the help of the Republican Congress,
are finished weakening our finances and increasing our indebtedness to
foreign powers.
Note that these are the same Republicans who - until they took total
control of the government - were demanding a "balanced budget"
amendment. With that long forgotten, they now propose to strengthen
America by banning flag burning and gay marriage.
They are nothing if not adaptable.
Posted at 11:45 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
[Reload all]
[E-mail]
Mon, 19 Sep 2005
Arr!
Heave to, me hearties! Shiver me timbers, it be Talk Like A
Pirate Day! And if ye not be having yer Pirate
Name yet, (arr!) Davy Jones Locker awaits yer scurvy carcass!
Posted at 10:34 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
[Reload all]
[E-mail]
Fri, 16 Sep 2005
God Help Us
These breathtakingly cynical horses asses are at it again.
Here's the ninth paragraph from an article
in yesterday's NY Times:
Republicans said Karl Rove, the White House deputy chief of staff and
Mr. Bush's chief political adviser, was in charge of the
reconstruction effort, which reaches across many agencies of
government and includes the direct involvement of Alphonso R. Jackson,
secretary of housing and urban development.
Yes, you read it correctly. That selfless public servant, master of
civil engineering, hydrology and urban planning - Karl Rove - is going
to rebuild New Orleans for us.
I would imagine that this will take gerrymandering to previously
uncontemplatable levels of glory; expect to see a new republican
stronghold where New Orleans once stood. If you are a black person or
a registered democrat who thinks that you own valuable property in New
Orleans, well, think again.
Heck, with Kelo v. the City of New London in the bag, we can
eminent-domain your sorry ass right out into the middle of the
swamp.
Praise Jesus! The Dear Leader is gonna build you a new house, and
he says no expense will be spared!
Posted at 10:25 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
[Reload all]
[E-mail]
Thu, 15 Sep 2005
G'head on, Molly
Molly Ivins has a fine
piece today. The end gave me a good laugh:
Some of you may have heard me observe a time or two--going back to
when George W. was still governor of Texas--that the trouble with the
guy is that while he is good at politics, he stinks at governance. It
bores him, he's not interested, he thinks government is bad to begin
with and everything would be done better if it were contracted out to
corporations.
We can now safely assert that W. has stacked much of the federal
government with people like himself. And what you get when you put
people in charge of government who don't believe in government and who
are not interested in running it well is ... what happened after
Hurricane Katrina.
Many a time in the past six years I have bit my tongue so I wouldn't
annoy people with the always obnoxious observation, "I told you so."
But I did.
Next time I tell you someone from Texas should not be president of the
United States, please pay attention.
Posted at 15:53 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
[Reload all]
[E-mail]
"I think I may need a bathroom break...."
He's right. It's too funny not
to post.
Posted at 12:56 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
[Reload all]
[E-mail]
Mon, 12 Sep 2005
An Open Letter To The President
Bill Maher on his HBO "Late Night" show:
Mr. President, this job can't be fun for you any more. There's no
more money to spend - you used up all of that. You can't start
another war because you used up the army. And now, darn the luck, the
rest of your term has become the Bush family nightmare: helping poor
people. Listen to your Mom. The cupboard's bare, the credit card's
maxed out. No one's speaking to you. Mission accomplished.
Now it's time to do what you've always done best: lose interest and
walk away. Like you did with your military service and the oil
company and the baseball team. It's time. Time to move on and try
the next fantasy job. How about cowboy or space man? Now I know what
you're saying: there's so many other things that you as President
could involve yourself in. Please don't. I know, I know. There's a
lot left to do. There's a war with Venezuela. Eliminating the sales
tax on yachts. Turning the space program over to the church. And
Social Security to Fannie Mae. Giving embryos the vote.
But, Sir, none of that is going to happen now. Why? Because you
govern like Billy Joel drives. You've performed so poorly I'm
surprised that you haven't given yourself a medal. You're a
catastrophe that walks like a man. Herbert Hoover was a shitty
president, but even he never conceded an entire city to rising water
and snakes.
On your watch, we've lost almost all of our allies, the surplus, four
airliners, two trade centers, a piece of the Pentagon and the City of
New Orleans. Maybe you're just not lucky. I'm not saying you don't
love this country. I'm just wondering how much worse it could be if
you were on the other side.
So, yes, God does speak to you. What he is saying is: "Take a hint."
Posted at 15:32 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
[Reload all]
[E-mail]
Fri, 09 Sep 2005
From The Serendipitous Headline Department
Posted at 10:14 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
[Reload all]
[E-mail]
Thu, 08 Sep 2005
Oil Crisis??
Lifted directly from Metafilter:
Oil companies, not
environmentalists behind refinery shortages.
The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FTCR) today exposed
internal oil company memos that show how the industry intentionally
reduced domestic refining capacity to drive
up profits. Internal memos from Mobil, Chevron, and
Texaco show different ways the oil giants closed down refining
capacity and drove
independent refiners out of business. In related news, petroleum
industry analyst Tim Hamilton showed that from January 17th to
April 18th 2005 gasoline prices jumped 65 cents per gallon and refiner
profits rose [pdf] by 61 cents per gallon.
Criminals everywhere you look.
Posted at 13:37 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
[Reload all]
[E-mail]
Your Presidential Spokesman At Work
Reporter: Scott, does the president retain confidence in his FEMA director and secretary of Homeland Security?
McClellan: And again, David, see, this is where some people want
to look at the blame game issue, and finger-point. We're focused on
solving problems, and we're doing everything we can --
Reporter: What about the question?
McClellan: We're doing everything we can in support --
Reporter: We know all that.
McClellan: -- of the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA.
Reporter: Does he retain complete confidence --
McClellan: We're going to continue. We appreciate the great
effort that all of those at FEMA, including the head of FEMA, are doing
to help the people in the region. And I'm just not going to engage in
the blame game or finger-pointing that you're trying to get me to
engage.
Reporter: OK, but that's not at all what I was asking.
McClellan: Sure it is. It's exactly what you're trying to play.
Reporter: You have your same point you want to make about the
blame game, which you've said enough now. I'm asking you a direct
question, which you're dodging.
McClellan: No --
Reporter: Does the president retain complete confidence in his director of FEMA and secretary of Homeland Security, yes or no?
McClellan: I just answered the question.
Reporter: Is the answer "yes" on both?
McClellan: And what you're doing is trying to engage in a game of finger-pointing --
Reporter: There's a lot of criticism. I'm just wondering if he still has confidence.
McClellan: -- and blame-gaming. What we're trying to do is solve problems, David. And that's where we're going to keep our focus.
Reporter: So you're not -- you won't answer that question directly?
McClellan: I did. I just did.
Reporter: No, you didn't. Yes or no? Does he have complete confidence or doesn't he?
McClellan: No, if you want to continue to engage in finger-pointing and blame-gaming, that's fine --
Reporter: Scott, that's ridiculous. I'm not engaging in any of that.
McClellan: It's not ridiculous.
Reporter: Don't try to accuse me of that. I'm asking you a
direct question and you should answer it. Does he retain complete
confidence in his FEMA director and secretary of Homeland Security, yes
or no?
McClellan: Like I said, that's exactly what you're engaging in.
Reporter: I'm not engaging in anything. I'm asking you a question about what the president's views are --
McClellan: Absolutely -- absolutely --
Reporter: -- under pretty substantial criticism of members of
his administration. OK? And you know that, and everybody watching knows
that as well.
McClellan: No, everybody watching this knows, David, that you're trying to engage in a blame game.
Reporter: I'm trying to engage?
McClellan: Yes.
Reporter: I am trying to engage?
McClellan: That's correct.
Posted at 11:49 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
[Reload all]
[E-mail]
Tue, 06 Sep 2005
Being Poor
Read this.
Posted at 12:45 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
[Reload all]
[E-mail]
Good For Them
A woman in South Africa has invented what may be the first true
anti-rape appliance in human history.
Read about it over
here. Simple as can be. Not for the squeamish. Still too good for
a rapist.
Bravo.
Posted at 12:19 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
[Reload all]
[E-mail]
Spread This Around As Best You Can
Air America Radio has launched a way for disconnected people to
find each other. Call 866-217-6255 and:
- If you've been displaced by the storm, enter the phone number
people normally call you at (even though it's likely out of service).
Record a message.
- If you're looking for someone, dial their regular phone number
(even though it's likely out of service) and hear the message they've
recorded.
"Obviously, for this to work," Air America urges, "people need to know
about it, so please forward the number to as many people as you can."
Posted at 11:52 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
[Reload all]
[E-mail]
Mon, 05 Sep 2005
And Now A Word From One Of Their Own
Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the
Reagan administration. He weighs in with his opinions in an article
entitled "Impeach Bush
Now, Before More Die."
Here's an excerpt:
The destruction of New Orleans is the responsibility of the most
incompetent government in American history and perhaps in all
history. Americans are rapidly learning that they were deceived by the
superpower hubris. The powerful US military cannot successfully occupy
Baghdad or control the road to the airport - and this against an
insurgency based in only 20% of the Iraqi population. Bush's pointless
war has left Washington so pressed for money that the federal
government abandoned New Orleans to catastrophe.
The Bush administration is damned by its gross incompetence. Bush has
squandered the lives and health of thousands of people. He has run
through hundreds of billions of borrowed dollars. He has lost
America's reputation and its allies. With barbaric torture and
destruction of our civil liberty, he has stripped America of its
inherent goodness and morality. And now Bush has lost America's
largest port and 25 percent of its oil supply. Why? Because Bush
started a gratuitous war egged on by a claque of crazy
neoconservatives who have sacrificed America's interests to their
insane agenda.
The neoconservatives have brought these disasters to all Americans,
Democrat and Republican alike. Now they must he held accountable. Bush
and his neoconservatives are guilty of criminal negligence and must be
prosecuted.
Posted at 12:35 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
[Reload all]
[E-mail]
Gonna Be A Long Couple Of Months...
NOAA has released their mid-season
hurricane prediction update. They predict a very active year, with
the bulk of the storms still to come between now and November.
The updated outlook calls for an extremely active season, with an
expected seasonal total of 18-21 tropical storms (mean is 10), with
9-11 becoming hurricanes (mean is 6), and 5-7 of these becoming major
hurricanes (mean is 2-3). The likely range of the ACE index for the
season as a whole is 180%-270% of the median.
The predicted seasonal totals include the considerable activity that
has already occurred prior to this update (7 tropical storms and 2
major hurricanes). Therefore, for the remainder of the season, we
expect an additional 11-14 tropical storms, with 7-9 becoming
hurricanes, and 3-5 of these becoming major hurricanes. The expected
ACE range during August-November is 110%-200% of the median. These
very high levels of activity are comparable to those seen during
August-November 2003 and 2004. Given the forecast that the remainder
of the season will be very active, it is imperative that residents and
government officials in hurricane-vulnerable communities have a
hurricane preparedness plan in place.
Let's be careful out there...
Posted at 11:16 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
[Reload all]
[E-mail]
Sun, 04 Sep 2005
"George Bush's ineptitude has killed far more Americans...
...than Osama could have dreamed of."
Do not read this
if you are offended by strong language. But if the so-called
"Republican" sociopaths currently in power want a taste of the
political death sentence that is irrevocably heading for the heart of
their movement, they should read it anyway.
Hear this, so-called neo-conservatives: your end has arrived. Your
me-first psycho-capitalist movement is finished. Your empire is in
tatters. You've bankrupted the country. Your leader is exposed for the
hateful disconnected dim-bulb frat boy that he is. His sycophant
appointees are exposed as the incompetent ward-heelers that they
are. The architect of your charade is likely going to be marched in
chains down the White House steps, never to return. And you will be
going away too, many of you to prison cells.
The lethargic American public has awakened, finally. And they are
horrified at what they see.
Spend the rest of your life in fear of judgement. The judgement of
the God whose name you have used in service of your misanthropic
political ends.
I watch you now, sputtering and stuttering on camera that "this is
no time for politics." I have an answer for you.
This is Real Time for politics.
Posted at 20:41 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
[Reload all]
[E-mail]
How to Give
My friend Mary is volunteering at the Red Cross Office, and has the
following information for you:
Do not call - they have hundreds of phone messages backed up in the
system, and calls are coming in faster than they can be handled.
Do not email; they have thousands of unread emails queued.
If you wish to donate money here in Austin, go by their office at
2218 Pershing Drive - it's on the corner of Manor and Pershing, across
from the old airport entrance. (About 6 blocks east of the
intersection of Airport and Manor.)
If you wish to donate goods, take them to the convention center or
Tony Burger Center. They are especially desperate for baby stuff and
wheelchairs at the convention center this morning, according to KUT.
If you wish to volunteer, go to any of those three places.
UPDATE: 4:00 PM. They opened up a materials donation site at
the old Freescale campus on Ed Bluestien earlier today, but apparently
that's now full. Things are changing swiftly; your best bet is to keep
going to the Central
Texas Red Cross Katrina page for current information of the
moment. They're doing a pretty good job of keeping it current. They do
not want any more volunteers; they need dollars, and you can do that
online. The City's Emergency Management
page is woefully out of date at this point. Burger center is being
depreciated; The convention center is or will soon be full; they've
opened Palmer for the overflow.
Posted at 11:27 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
[Reload all]
[E-mail]
Speechless
Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu breaks ranks and says what's on her mind:
I understand that the U.S. Forest Service had water-tanker aircraft
available to help douse the fires raging on our riverfront, but
FEMA has yet to accept the aid. When Amtrak offered trains to
evacuate significant numbers of victims - far more efficiently
than buses - FEMA again dragged its feet. Offers of medicine,
communications equipment and other desperately needed items
continue to flow in, only to be ignored by the agency.
But perhaps the greatest disappointment stands at the breached
17th Street levee. Touring this critical site yesterday with the
President, I saw what I believed to be a real and significant
effort to get a handle on a major cause of this
catastrophe. Flying over this critical spot again this morning,
less than 24 hours later, it became apparent that yesterday we
witnessed a hastily prepared stage set for a Presidential photo
opportunity; and the desperately needed resources we saw were this
morning reduced to a single, lonely piece of equipment. The good
and decent people of southeast Louisiana and the Gulf Coast -
black and white, rich and poor, young and old - deserve far better
from their national government.
Kevin Drum has more. I
am going to lift the entire post from him:
I'm almost worn out with anger reading about the decimation
of FEMA under Bush's watch;
the pathetic lack of response to Katrina from the federal government;
the relentless television images of human degradation; and the endless
excuses from administration hacks pretending
that nobody could have predicted Katrina's devastation.
I realize that it's no different from what's been happening in Iraq
for
the past two years, but Iraq is 8,000 miles away and the truth is that
no matter how angry we are at what's going on there, it's to some
extent an intellectual anger. What's happening in New Orleans is like
a
punch in the gut.
What Jon
Chait
said about Iraq last week is perhaps even truer about New Orleans. The
hallmarks of the Bush/Rove governing philosophy - partisan discipline,
industry giveaways, and relentless lying - work pretty well as long as
you can disguise the results of your policies. When you can't, it
suddenly becomes obvious even to your supporters that the emperor has
no clothes. It's taken two years for a lot of people to realize that
about Iraq. It's taken less than a week to realize it about New
Orleans.
UPDATE: Good God. Laura Rozen passes along the following
report from a Dutch reader:
There
was a striking dicrepancy between the CNN International report on the
Bush visit to the New Orleans disaster zone, yesterday, and reports of
the same event by German TV.
ZDF News reported that the president's visit was a completely
staged
event. Their crew witnessed how the open air food distribution point
Bush visited in front of the cameras was torn down immediately after
the president and the herd of 'news people' had left and that others
which were allegedly being set up were abandoned at the same time.
The people in the area were once again left to fend for themselves,
said ZDF.
This goes beyond stage management. This
is criminal.
These same idiots impeached a president for telling a fib about a
blow job.
This criminally negligent liar should be impeached, arrested,
convicted, and jailed for the rest of his natural life for treasonous
crimes against the United States of America.
Posted at 11:14 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
[Reload all]
[E-mail]
Fri, 02 Sep 2005
Can the Republican party get any more clueless and crass?
This email went out from the Republican National Committee to its
mail list, yesterday, September 1st, 2005:
Dear XXX,
For the last four years, President Bush and Republicans in Congress
have championed a pro-growth agenda that has brought tax relief to
millions of Americans. Historic legislation in 2001 and 2003 put
America on the track to economic growth, and today our economic
outlook is bright. There is more work to do, however, to ensure that
tax-paying Americans can keep more of their own hard-earned income.
When they return from their August recess, Senators will consider a
key issue: elimination of the death tax. The death tax is an unfair
double taxation of income, which hurts America's small businesses and
farms and threatens job growth. Unfortunately, Senate Democrats are
working hard to oppose our efforts to eliminate this unfair tax.
Will you help bring tax relief to more hard-working Americans? Call
Senator George V. Voinovich at 202-224-3353 today and ask them to
eliminate the death tax.
Our party's opportunity agenda means allowing families to keep more of
the money they earn. The historic tax relief in the President's first
term was only the beginning. Americans deserve a tax code that is
simple and fair. The Senate needs to do its part by making tax relief
permanent and burying the death tax forever.
Call Senator George V. Voinovich at 202-224-3353 today and ask them to
vote to eliminate the death tax!
Make your voice heard on this important issue. Call Senator George
V. Voinovich. Express your support for tax relief and economic
opportunity.
Elimination of the death tax would be a victory for fairness and job
creation. Working together, we can help eliminate the burden of the
death tax once and for all.
Thank you,
Ken Mehlman,
RNC Chairman
Posted at 11:44 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
[Reload all]
[E-mail]
Nobody Knew?
It was a broiling August afternoon in New Orleans,
Louisiana, the Big Easy, the City That Care Forgot. Those who ventured
outside moved as if they were swimming in tupelo honey. Those inside
paid silent homage to the man who invented air-conditioning as they
watched TV "storm teams" warn of a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico.
Nothing surprising there: Hurricanes in August are as much a part of
life in this town as hangovers on Ash Wednesday.
But the next day the storm gathered steam and drew a bead on the city.
As the whirling maelstrom approached the coast, more than a million
people evacuated to higher ground. Some 200,000 remained, however--the
car-less, the homeless, the aged and infirm, and those die-hard New
Orleanians who look for any excuse to throw a party.
The storm hit Breton Sound with the fury of a nuclear warhead, pushing
a deadly storm surge into Lake Pontchartrain. The water crept to the
top of the massive berm that holds back the lake and then spilled
over.
Nearly 80 percent of New Orleans lies below sea level--more than eight
feet below in places--so the water poured in. A liquid brown wall
washed over the brick ranch homes of Gentilly, over the clapboard
houses of the Ninth Ward, over the white-columned porches of the
Garden
District, until it raced through the bars and strip joints on Bourbon
Street like the pale rider of the Apocalypse. As it reached 25 feet
(eight meters) over parts of the city, people climbed onto roofs to
escape it.
Thousands drowned in the murky brew that was soon contaminated by
sewage and industrial waste. Thousands more who survived the flood
later perished from dehydration and disease as they waited to be
rescued. It took two months to pump the city dry, and by then the Big
Easy was buried under a blanket of putrid sediment, a million people
were homeless, and 50,000 were dead. It was the worst natural disaster
in the history of the United States.
When did this calamity happen? It hasn't--yet. But the doomsday
scenario is not far-fetched. The Federal Emergency Management Agency
lists a hurricane strike on New Orleans as one of the most dire
threats
to the nation, up there with a large earthquake in California or a
terrorist attack on New York City.
- National
Geographic, October, 2004
Posted at 11:11 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
[Reload all]
[E-mail]
