With Bush proposing upwards of $200 billion to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, many fiscal conservatives are understandably edgy. Likening Bush’s proposal to Roosevelt’s New Deal programs (which is, to them, a bad thing), they wonder where the money is going to come from. Of course, some conservatives are being blatently stupid about the effort. This moron notes … Read More
Not What You Would Call A Great Communicator
Bush ratings before Thursday’s speech on New Orleans/Katrina: 39% Bush ratings after Thursday’s speech on New Orleans/Katrina: 35% Rassmussen Reports
Lights Return To New Orleans – Um, Not So Much
From Brian Williams’ blog at MSNBC": 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 … Read More
Is THAT Charity?
So I was listening to Bush’s speech about Katrina. It started off boring — a laundry list of things that happened as a result of Katrina (we know what happened, George; we were paying attention), and a laundry list of things that are happening now in terms of recovery. Yawn. Then he started going into rebuilding efforts. I thought parts … Read More
Ghouls To Oversee Katrina Bodies
Hey. You remember this story from a few years back? Two Florida Jewish cemeteries owned by the world’s largest funeral company allegedly dug up bodies, crushed burial vaults and dumped human remains in wooded areas to make room for additional graves. Lawyers said that as many as 1,000 bodies could have been displaced at Menorah Gardens cemeteries in Palm Beach … Read More
Increasing The Deficit To Improve Bush’s Image
Boy, Josh Marshall really hits it on the head with this one: This worries me. Note the added emphasis. The clip comes from a piece in tomorrow’s Post about yet another huge funding bill the president will roll out tomorrow for Katrina aid, which the Post says will cost more next year than the entire cost of the Iraq war … Read More
Louisiana Nursing Home Operators Charged With Negligent Homicide
The two owners (a husband and wife) are being charged with 34 counts of negligent homicide, because 34 residents of the nursing home drowned. Here’s the story: The charges stem from the deaths of elderly patients at St. Rita’s nursing home in Chalmette, located just southeast of New Orleans. The patients drowned in the flooding after hurricane Katrina struck on … Read More
Katrina: Right Wing Myths Debunked
Think Progress has a link-o-riffic debunking of some right-wing Katina memes. Here’s an example — there are many more: CLAIM — STATE AND LOCAL OFFICIALS WERE MOSTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR FAILURES: “White House Shifts Blame to State and Local Officials” [Washington Post, 9/4/05] FACT – BUSH PUT FEMA IN CHARGE OF EFFORT BEFORE KATRINA STRUCK: “Specifically, FEMA is authorized to identify, … Read More
Bush Takes Responsiblity, Sort Of
CNN reports: President Bush on Tuesday said he takes responsibility for the federal government’s failures in responding to Hurricane Katrina. "Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government and to the extent the federal government didn’t fully do its job right, I take responsibility," Bush said during a joint news conference with Iraqi President Jalal … Read More
Katrina Follies
The article in the Wall Street Journal (registration required — UPDATE: I’ll put larger excerpts below the fold) should put to rest the conservative meme that FEMA (and the federal government) needs a specific request from local government before it can act in the face of a disaster. The articles points to the Department of Homeland Security’s National Response Plan, … Read More
“Good People” – Part Deux
This is what Bush said today: Now, as far as my own personal popularity goes, I don’t make decisions based upon polls. I hope the American people appreciate that. You can’t make difficult decisions if you have to take a poll. That’s been my style ever since I’ve been the President. And, of course, I rely upon good people. Of … Read More
Brownie Is Toast
Breaking News: FEMA Director Mike Brown resigns. He wants to spend more time with his horses. Now FEMA has an empty seat in charge. *Sigh*. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Black People? WHAT Black People?
Check out the subheadline in the Comcast news heading pictured here. It says "Bush Denies Race An Issue In Relief". Now look at the racial makeup of the people that Bush is visiting. Mostly white. There’s two kinds of "colorblind". There’s "colorblind" in the sense one refuses to see racial differences which don’t matter. That’s the good kind. Then there’s … Read More
Katrina Exercise
It’s been two weeks now, and they still don’t get it. As reported here, this is the latest moronic utterance from the Bush Administration: "There are a lot of lessons we want to learn out of this process in terms of what works," Cheney said. "I think we are in fact on our way to getting on top of the … Read More
Cronyism Update
I have nothing to say about this, other than "No surprise": Companies with ties to the Bush White House and the former head of FEMA are clinching some of the administration’s first disaster relief and reconstruction contracts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. At least two major corporate clients of lobbyist Joe Allbaugh, President Bush’s former campaign manager and a … Read More