Friday, September 09, 2005

Accountability

From today's press baffling:

Q: Former Secretary Powell, Colin Powell says that his presentation to the U.N. -- which was obviously full of falsehoods about Iraq's arsenal -- is a blot on his career. I wonder whether the administration takes any responsibility for his statement that led us into war in a big way?

MR. McCLELLAN: Look, accountability has been a priority in this administration.

Yeah, making sure someone else is made to account for Bush's mistakes.

Cheney F*cker Identified

The guy who cussed out Cheney yesterday has been identified. It was Dr. Ben Marble. He is selling a videotape of the incident on eBay (bad idea really. What's to stop a Bushie from buying it and burying it?). His eBay page describes the incident and also what happened afterward. He was actually detained for 20 minutes, in handcuffs.

Freedom of speech baby!

Brown out, but not fired (yet)

Brown is no longer in charge of dealing with Katrina, but he isn't actually fired. Translation: they're trying to thread the needle. They don't want the humiliation of a firing but they want Brownie out of there as quickly as possible so as to stem the embarassment.

Potential Talking Point: The emergency is over, the recovery is beginning, thus the Federal Emergency Management Agency head is no longer the go to guy. Thanks for your great work Brownie!

Republican Compassion

I was zooming through right-wing radio last night and heard several callers comment that the people who suffered in New Orleans did so because they had become to dependent on government handouts. If they were self-made individuals then they would have had the resourcefulness to figure out how to get out on their own. Instead they were foolish enough to depend on the government to help them.

The solution: cut back the government even further so these people will be forced to learn to help themselves.

A Republican is a Democrat who has never been stuck in a natural disaster.

An excess of decorum

The amazing thing is that the Republicans always over reach in their spin. For example, if they simply stuck with the "let's not get into finger pointing" line they might get some slack from critics. But then they have the temerity to come out and actually praise their own performance! Generally speaking, the media has let them get away with their plaudits for incompetence. But in the case of Katrina the evidence before their eyes has breached their levee of cognitive dissonance.

Bush has given the world the perfect soundbite for absurdity with his, "Brownie, your doing a heck of a job" comment.

But then, this is indicative of the way Washington works today. No politician talks about anything without first lacing their comments with profuse praise for everyone around them (even if they then turn around and stab that person in the back). Even Sen. Mary Landrieu, Dem from Louisiana, got caught doing this early on when she went on Anderson Cooper's show and started off the interview by praising Bush's responsiveness! I don't think she was actually basing that praise on any actual action by Bush. She was just doing it because it was the expected opening to make in the standard Washington script.

It is to Landrieu's credit that she took Cooper's subsequent abrading to heart and has since been one of the harshest critics of the administrations response, going so far as to threaten to "punch" Bush if he tries to push the blame on to local officials. Other Democrats are showing similar frustration with the "business as usual" crowd.

It is this kind of excessive decorum in the face of calamity that contributes to the public's general dictaste for politics. Everyone knows these guys don't mean it when they praise each other to the heavens. The cynicism is a poison that pollutes the waters of the body politic. That is why politicians who honestly criticize their colleagues become such instant celebrities among the grassroots (and just as quickly become outcasts in Washington culture where such things just aren't done.)

Politeness and courtesy have their place in society. Indeed, it is sorely lacking in many other sectors of our culture. Maybe the reason is because the politicians in Washington have been hoarding it?

Freedom!

Freedom Walk Interlopers Threatened With Arrest

Arlington, Va (AP) - Anyone who joins Sunday's Nine-Eleven memorial Freedom Walk without registering could be arrested.

Pentagon officials tell The Washington Post that the route from the Pentagon to the Mall will be lined with four-foot-high snow fencing. US Park Police will keep out interlopers. Hundreds of officers will patrol the route on foot, horseback, motorcycles and in a helicopter.

Park Police Chief Dwight Pettiford says anyone who joins the march or the subsequent concert on the Mall without a permit and refuses to leave will be arrested. The media will also won't be allowed to join walkers on the route.

Police have approved a permit from a small group of protesters that plans to stand along Independence Avenue.

Walkers have until 4:30 p.m. Friday to register online at www.asyfreedomwalk.com. There is no walk up registration.

Needed: a group of about one to two hundred "average looking Americans" (housewives, grannies, men in business suits) to just show up at the "Freedom March" unregistered. Remember to bring flags!

Also needed: several cameras to film the ensuing attempts to stop Americans from exercising their freedom to march in the "Freedom March".

Morning funny

Jay Leno: �Do you know the difference between FEMA and Social Security? There's a chance you might actually live long enough to get help from Social Security.�

Thursday, September 08, 2005

Dodging a bullet

Courtesy Jo, a poster at Table Talk:

FOUND: newspaper that stated NO dodged the bullet, the one Chertoff claimed he saw when he got his morning paper...

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46025

So that's where he gets his news!

Zogby: Bush would lose to every modern president

But he would still beat Kerry (link)

 

Bush 44 Clinton 46

Bush 34 GHWBush (41) 41

Bush 20 Reagan 59

Bush 42 Carter 50

Bush 48 Kerry 47

Don't cheer the low approval ratings for Bush: it doesn't matter how bad the Republicans do in the polls if the Democrats do even worse!

Couldn't agree more

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

Reid pushes the vacation issue back into the public eye

I'm glad to see Democrats finally making an issue of Bush's vacation. The coverage of the failures of the feds over the last week has been pretty good for our normally docile media. But their silence on the vacation issue has been troubling. Reid has openly put it back into the public dialog:

In a letter to the Senate's Homeland Security Committee chairwoman, Reid, the Senate Democratic leader, pressed for a wide-ranging investigation and answers to several questions, including: "How much time did the president spend dealing with this emerging crisis while he was on vacation? Did the fact that he was outside of Washington, D.C., have any effect on the federal government's response?"

People have been asking why the federal government was so slow in responding to this disaster. It is logical to ask whether the failure of Bush to return to Washington in a timely manner sent the message throughout the federal government that there wasn't any rush.

Bush acted like Katrina was no big deal so his administration acted like it was no big deal.

I guess that is what Republicans call "leadership".

Flip The Rock!

another recommended dKos post:

Imagine, for a second, that the GOP base is like a broad flat stone.

We Democrats spend all our time trying to break off parts of that stone...chipping away here, chiseling away there...

Our hope is that we can knock enough support away from the GOP to get a majority somehow. But in doing so, we act like we don't want to offend anyone. So we tiptoe when we do this...as if by being "nice" and "upright"...parts of that stone might just crumble away of their own accord.

Our aspiration is to finally, you know, get a majority somewhere and get something done. Our track record of delivering for our voters, however, is on display for the world to see.

Fuck that, we need a change.

We need to flip the rock.

Conservatism = the rock.

We need to make that rock toxic. We need to flip it so that lots of pieces break off...and its toxic underside shows. We need to turn the GOP's greatest strength...it's horde of voters flying the flag of "conservative values" into its greatest liability. We need to rebrand conservatism.

Conservatism = New Orleans.

* Did "big business" save people when they needed help?
* Did "free markets" save people when they needed food and water?
* Did "tax cuts for the rich" save people when people needed to evacuate?
* Did "compassionate conservatism" come to the rescue when people were left stranded?
* Did "faith based iniatives" come to the rescue when people were trapped in their homes?
* Did "Homeland Security" come to the rescue while an American city drowned?

There's only one way to defeat Rove, and that is to turn his greatest strength into his greatest liability. We need to make conservatism toxic.

Much more here

This reminds me of an old-time gospel tune:

I went down to the rock to hide my face/
The rock called out "no hiding place!"/
There's no hiding place down here!

(Also the title of an excellent Babylon 5 episode!)

Keep it simple

I want to repost something said by a commenter on DailyKos in response to this post that refutes yet another one of the right wing lying points. I think it contains some important advice we should all follow (emphasis mine).

Why are y'all engaging them in the point by point, blow by blow lies they are telling. Why not leave it simple, and just say they are lying. Each time I see a Democrat try to defend him or herself against the wingnuts, I want to scream. It's always going to give the appearance of seeming like there are two sides, and that we are defending ourselves. The best defense is the one you gave with Rove- namely, just calling them liars, and don't even get stuck in the minute, because each time you bring up a point, they will simply change the target so that whatever you started with is lost under the weight of the minute.

Each time they say something I would think the easiest thing say is this:

"The administration is trying lie its way out of its monumental failures." Start from there. Nothing else needs to be said- because what needs to be done is something I am sure you are familar with as a lawyer- creating the pscyhological impact of making the other guy defensive. And, if you aren't familar with it as a lawyer- then perhaps as a poker player? You want to make the other guy sweat this. And, y'all I know want to get in their an argue- but this whole "defense" of our position is completely unnecessary. What is necessary is to make them sweat by calling them liars, and when they say that we are playing the blame game, we answer back- "that's because Bush is to blame."

Seriously, I hope eventually we will get the point of the Republicans actions aren't the factual debate, it's the pschological warfare they are doing. I know y'all mean well, but at least on the pschological side- I am not sure that "proving" our position is necessary as much as keeping it in the publics mind that the REpublicans fucked up, and did so for the most crass reasons possible. I would literally repeat over and over again what Barbara Bush said, and what BUsh did in terms of the time line withou regard to the specifics.

Good advice. It's not even necesary to specifically "blame" Bush for anything (though, if you have the facts to back that up, go for it). It is enough to point out that the Bushies are certainly doing everything they can to "shift the blame" away from themselves.

Put them on the defensive for once. We know they can't handle it.

"Oblivious, in denial, dangerous"

Leadership! (scroll down)

At a news conference, Pelosi, D-Calif., said Bush's choice for head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency had "absolutely no credentials."

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

You know, I can believe that Bush really has no clue just how bad things were last week.

I'd say the incompetence is sufficiently advanced, wouldn't you?

Incompetence = Malice

"Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." -- Napolean Bonaparte

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." -- Clarke's Third Law

"Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice." -- The Napolean-Clarke Law

In the case of George W. Bush that pretty much covers it. It really doesn't matter whether Bush operates from malice, indifference or simple incompetence. At the levels of failure that Bush has achieved, they are simply indistinguishable.

NY Times: no more whitewashes

NY Times Editorial:

No administration could credibly investigate such an immense failure on its own watch. And we have learned through bitter experience - the Abu Ghraib nightmare is just one example - that when this administration begins an internal investigation, it means a whitewash in which no one important is held accountable and no real change occurs.

Woah! That's pretty harsh for an organ of the establishment media whose general procedure seems to be ignore the failings of the Bush administration because recriminations might get in the way of the important task of protecting the nation. With the response to Katrina, however, Bush has demonstrated that he doesn't know how to protect the nation and the Times at least seems to understand that a failure to ask questions now would get in the way of achieving that goal.

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Risking the wrath of the Hillaryphiles

When I think of Hillary '08 I can't help but think of Dole '96.

She seems more like the "it's her time" candidate then the "she's right for the times" candidate.

Wesley Clark, on the other hand, definitely has that "he's right for the times" feel.

George Bush is my monkey

A simple but important point:

Ray Nagin is not my mayor (I live in the Portland area, my mayor is Tom Potter). I don't have any input into his position nor am I overly impacted by his leadership abilities or inabilities.

Kathleen Blanco is not my governor (I live in Oregon, my governor is Ted Kulongoski). I don't have any input into her positions nor am I overly impacted by her leadership abilities or inabilities.

George W. Bush is my President (well, at least he pretends to be). I am a citizen of the United States. I voted in the elections that put him in office. I am supposed to be his boss and the decisions he makes have and will have a long and lasting effect on me. I am greatly impacted by his leadership inabilities (he has no abilities that remotely qualify as leadership).

So those who say that I should distribute my criticism between Nagin, Blanco and Bush can blow it out their ear. I leave Nagin's fate to the people of New Orleans. I leave Blanco's fate to the people of Louisiana.

Bush is mine. He is my monkey and a very bad monkey he has been.

On the bright side

I was listening to Al Franken this morning when he did a quick cut over to a Bush press conference. It only lasted for about 30 seconds but during that time Bush was droning on about how important education was and how important it was to get the schools working again in the region ravaged by Katrina.

What is it with Republicans and the "opening schools" theme? This is of a kidn with the "why don't they report on all the schools being opened in Iraq" talking point that the right likes to use when criticizing mainstream media coverage of Bush's little war. Their argument is that the media focuses to much on the bad stuff and doesn't leave the "balanced" perspective on the situation that would come from giving "equal time" to the good stuff. Bush supporters seem to be under the impression that good news balances out bad news and makes the latter not as important.

Sorry, it doesn't work that way.

If your country was suffering from almost daily suicide bomb attacks that were killed tens if not hundreds of your fellow citizens, do you think you would be cheered up by news of the opening of a new elementary school? Of course not! You'd want the bombings to stop first. Then maybe you could start thinking about your kids education.

Similarly, people in the ruins left behind by Katrina don't have time to think about getting their kids to school when their higher priority is getting them some fresh water to drink.

It's a simple rule: good news in times of crisis are defined by a eduction in bad news. If someone is beating me over the head with a lead pipe then stop them for God's sake! Don't stand around and prattle on about the great health care I am going to get once the beating stops (of course, in George Bush's American, I'm not likely to get that either).

Quit with the "on the bright side" talk. It just proves how clueless you are about what people are upset about.