George W. Bush – Page 14

Power Line

I am duty-bound to report the talk of the New Orleans warehouse district last night: there was rejoicing (well, there would have been without the curfew, but the few people I saw on the streets were excited) when the power came back on for blocks on end. Kevin Tibbles was positively jubilant on the live update edition of Nightly News that we fed to the West Coast. The mini-mart, long ago cleaned out by looters, was nonetheless bathed in light, including the empty, roped-off gas pumps. 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.

Breaking News

Satire is a fine art:

WASHINGTON, SEPTEMBER 9 – As the grim body count climbs in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and its consequent flooding, fingers are increasingly being pointed at a pattern of systemic negligience by representatives of an entire political party. And some observers are saying that the problem goes all the way to the top.

“As far as I’m concerned, every single Democratic politician bears the blame for the shocking death toll in this disaster,” Secretary of State Condimelda Rice told Creek Running North. “Every single objective observer warned them starting in 2000 that the Bush Administration would wreak havoc on the fabric of this country. They did nothing to combat us, nor even to mitigate the worst effects of our actions after the fact. We have gutted this nation’s wealth and destroyed its infrastructure, and they did nothing but stand by and watch it happen. They had the skills, they had the manpower to do something about the damage we were sure to cause, and yet they have just sat on their hands for five long years.”

Vice President Dick Cheney echoed Secretary Rice’s remarks. Speaking to CRN from a fortified pro shop at the Cheyenne Mountain Country Club, he said “Their opposition to anything we do is so ineffective and weak-willed, that for two years I’ve had to tell myself to go fuck myself. If you ask me, that’s not the America I know.”

Well done, Chris. Read the rest.

FEMA Needs to Tell People What It Intends for Their Homes

Kathryn Cramer has been all over the Katrina story with NOLA disaster, tracking water levels in specific parts of the city using satellite photos and other amazing feats of technology.

In doing so much work with individuals locating their homes, she has made some compelling observations:

The question is this: How much of New Orleans does FEMA plan to restore, and how much does it plan to simply replace? And if the houses are replaced with something else, are they to be replaced for their original owners? Or will the land be taken by eminent domain and redistributed?

Although she has found some vague information on the FEMA timeline for general “debris removal”:

[i]t’s not clear to me whether this time-line applies (or even could be applied) to the cleanup of New Orleans. But now that Michael Brown is out of the way, presumably some plan for the future of New Orleans is coming together.

Whole neighborhoods will need to be torn down entirely. We know this. It’s obvious from up there in orbit where Digital Globes satellites live. But how many neighborhoods? And who will decide? Will FEMA tell you in advance if your house is to be razed, or only after the fact? FEMA needs to make its plans public as soon as possible.

…before the real looting begins. Bureaucratic looting of people’s lives, property, and wealth.

Read the rest and tour her amazing research abilities in the Katrina archives.

The disaster has raised many questions all over the political landscape. The bloggers at Whirled View have also come up with many strong observations about the efficiency of the government response and what this means in the future.

Living Below Water: The history of a sinking city.
Yeah, There’s Going To Be More: When a city that was built on a landfill is flooded.
Plenty of Troops?: “Sows ears cannot be turned into silk purses indefinitely.”
Preparedness: Why we have to anticipate disasters ahead of time. (We might even have to use thing handy little thing called science.)

“What Didn’t Go Right?”

Oh, such innocence: What didn’t go right?

[Nancy] Pelosi, speaking at a news conference, said Brown had “absolutely no credentials” when Bush picked him to run FEMA.

She related that she urged Bush at the White House on Tuesday to fire Brown.

“He said, ‘Why would I do that?'” Pelosi said.

“I said because of all that went wrong, of all that didn’t go right last week.’ And he said ‘What didn’t go right?'”

“Oblivious, in denial, dangerous,” she added.

McClellan disputed Pelosi’s account of the meeting, and later, Brown sidestepped when asked whether he had offered his resignation.

If you’re up for more ridiculousness, try to figure out what McClellan’s rebuttal sounded like.

via Preemptive Karma and Media Girl

Women in Iraq and Elsewhere

Apologies to Whirled View, but this post deserves to be quoted in full. PLS writes:

George W. Bush says that women’s rights are protected in the current draft of the Iraq constitution.

Iraqi women insist that they are losing rights under this document. And eleven U.S. Senators who are also women are worried, too.

Who’s telling it like it is here? Do you trust the testimony of worried Iraqi women or the airy speechifying of an American President who has lied again and again about the Iraq fiasco?

Let’s continue with this questionnaire:

Who’s denying financial support for reproductive health care around the world, thus causing the death of thousands of women and babies?

The George W. Bush administration.

Who thinks little girls who’ve been raped or subject to incest should become mothers?

The George W. Bush administration.

Who wants to curtail Title IX and return to the days when girls’ sports could be systematically underfunded in order to support bloated football teams?

The George W. Bush administration.

Who nominates a Supreme Court candidate who gleefully finds arguments against enforcing laws mandating equal pay for women?

The George W. Bush administration.

Why do women vote for George W. Bush?

Beats me.

Yes. And thank you.

Trackbacks

I have no idea why all the trackbacks are porn sites. I had nothing to do with this. I suspect Lauren didn’t either. I blame George Bush.

Stem cell research vs. IVF

Many conservatives, like George W. Bush, are against embryonic stem cell research but support IVF, despite the fact that this is a completely inconsistent position. And, really, if stem cell research is equivalent to “dismembering” a human being, then why just stop at barring federal funding of such research? Why not push for an all-out ban on any stem cell research or fertility treatment that may result in discarding of embryos? Again, there’s a serious logic gap here.

ATTN: Hoosier Liberals

See HABIT, a blog meant for “Indiana based bloggers to talk about George W. Bush in general and The Downing Street Memo in particular. Are you a Hoosier who wants to join us?”