Hurricane Victims To Cheney: “Go Fuck Yourself”

Ken AshfordBush & Co., DisastersLeave a Comment

Well, turnabout is fair game.  Months ago, Cheney (on the Senate floor) told Senator Leahy to "go fuck himself".

Today, some local in Mississippi said the same thing . . . to Cheney.  It aired on CNN.

Crooks and Liars has the video.

Raw Story has the transcript:

Off camera, a protester shouts, "Go f–k yourself, Mr. Cheney. Go f–k yourself."  The camera remains on Cheney while we hear scuffling in the background.

CNN’s reporter asks Cheney, "Are you getting a lot of that Mr. Vice President?"

Cheney replies, "First time I’ve heard it., Must be a friend of John…, er, ah – never mind."

John who?  Kerry?  Real funny, Dick.

CBS Poll: 58% Disapprove Of Bush’s Handling Of Katrina

Ken AshfordBush & Co., DisastersLeave a Comment

CBS:

President George W. Bush finds disapproval on his handling of the matter, too — and the public now shows diminished confidence in his abilities to handle a crisis or provide leadership, as well as in the government’s ability to protect the country.

RATING THE RESPONSE

President George W. Bush’s overall response to Katrina meets with disapproval today – a dramatic change from the public’s reaction just after the storm hit on August 29th. Last week, in the two days immediately after Katrina made landfall, a majority of Americans said they approved of Bush’s response, although more than a third were not sure. Now, only 38% approve. A majority disapproves.

BUSH’S HANDLING OF RESPONSE TO KATRINA

Now

Approve        Disapprove         Don’t Know
     38%                  58%                        4%

8/30-31

Approve        Disapprove         Don’t Know
     54%                  12%                        34%

This poll was conducted among a nationwide random sample of 725 adults, interviewed by telephone September 6-7, 2005. The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus four percentage points.

Denial Is A Flooded River In Egypt

Ken AshfordBush & Co., DisastersLeave a Comment

Oy vey:

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.

Andrew Sullivan adds:

I must say that the Katrina response does help me better understand the situation in Iraq. The best bet is that the president doesn’t actually know what’s happening there, is cocooned from reality, has no one in his high-level staff able to tell him what’s actually happening, and has created a culture of denial and loyalty that makes fixing mistakes or holding people accountable all but impossible.

Whitewash Begins

Ken AshfordCongress, Disasters, RepublicansLeave a Comment

This was predictable:

Yesterday, congressional Republicans tried to get a head start, announcing the formation of an [Katrina] investigative commission that they can control.

They rejected Democratic appeals to model the panel after the Sept. 11 commission, which was made up of non-lawmakers and was equally balanced between Republicans and Democrats. That commission won wide praise for assessing how the 2001 terrorist attacks occurred, and for recommending changes in the government’s anti-terrorism structure.

What The Real 43rd President Did

Ken AshfordDisastersLeave a Comment

From the Knoxville News [registration required] as reported here:

Al Gore chartered a private jet and personally assisted in the evacuation of 140 New Orleans hurricane survivors, most of them in need of medical attention.

Bush, on the other hand, flew into the Gulf Coast to hug some black people.  You know, look all prezdential ‘n shit.

The Cult Presidency

Ken AshfordBush & Co., DisastersLeave a Comment

Matt Yglesius looks at polling data regarding Katrina, and makes some astute observations:

There’s some striking stuff in this CBS poll on Katrina. 58 percent disapprove of Bush’s handling of the hurricane, and just 38 percent approve. But consider this — only 20 percent say the federal government’s handling of the disaster was adequate, while 77 percent say it wasn’t. 24 percent say FEMA’s response was adequate and 70 percent disagree. How is it, then, that Bush is rated so much better than the federal government he heads, and the disaster agency run by his appointee, the much-beloved "Brownie?" This is part-and-parcel of a very frightening cult of personality that’s been erected around the person of George W. Bush ever since 9/11 with the effective complicity of the rightwing media.

***

The view that it’s his fault when bad things happen — or, at a minimum, that it becomes his fault when he refuses to take corrective action — doesn’t seem to occur to a very large number of people.

Kaye Grogan And Katrina

Ken AshfordDisasters, Right Wing Punditry/IdiocyLeave a Comment

We knew Kaye wouldn’t disappoint us when she got around to writing about Katrina.

As the convoys of the U.S. National Guard arrived in New Orleans, their first priority was to try and restore civility, law and order, before they could begin to perform their rescue operations in a timely manner.

If the convoys wanted to do anything in a timely manner, perhaps they should have been there a bit earlier, yes?

It was soon obvious that the levees breach was not the only thing in New Orleans that was broken. Amid the looting, rapes, and murders going on in New Orleans as it turned out, Hurricane Katrina brought to the surface more than just a city destroyed in her wake…

The teaching of evolution?  Same sex marriages?

— it brought to surface how disorganized the local government is and how unprepared they were to handle a natural disaster…

I thought we were talking about the U.S. National Guard.

— much less the worst disaster in history.

Mmmmm.  Well, Katrina was pretty bad, but I think there have been far worse disasters throughout all of recorded time.  For example, I seem to remember reading something recently about a tsunami….

And it also brought to the surface how morally corrupt New Orleans is.

Because prior to Katrina, Kaye thought New Orleans was like Branson, Missouri, only with more humidity.

Somebody needs to inform Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that President Bush has no control over the weather.

I nominate Clay Aiken.  (Sorry, I know my suggestion comes out of left field, but so does Kaye’s stream of thought).

Hurricanes have been in existence long before any of us have.

Thanks for clearing that up.  I wasn’t sure.

It doesn’t matter how many cloud seeds are sown by scientists — they are not going to resolve or stop the forces behind weather patterns. These people are intelligent enough to know this — many are just using this opportunity to toss the political football anywhere it will do the most damage.

But not Kaye.  She would never use Katrina as a launching point to complain about societal ills.

But I bet, if you asked kindergartners who controls the weather — most would probably say God does. I doubt a single one would say President Bush.

Yeah, um . . . I don’t think anyone is suggesting that President Bush was incompetent because he failed to stop a hurricane, Kaye.  But it’s nice to know that kindergartners will back you up when you need them to.

To even suggest that President Bush and Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour are responsible for Hurricane Katrina — shows just how far-out some of the radicals on the left have become.

Kaye, honey.  Sit down.  The criticism is that President Bush (among others) bear some responsibility for the lack of preparation and response to Katrina.  That’s not the same thing.

And what is worse: is how many people are actually influenced by this type of propaganda and will believe it. If a leader of an occult can convince hundreds of people that if they get ready to lie in state in their best clothes, and then swallow cyanide, a rocket ship is going to arrive to take them to heaven, well — some people can be convinced of anything.

WMDs in Iraq, for example.

And this is the type of people who can be led around by the nose by propagandists.

This is?

I find it amazing how sanctimonious finger-pointers get when a disaster hits America. They are quick to judge, but how many of them have pushed up their shirt sleeves and made an attempt to go and see first hand the devastation in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama? Very few I dare say.

In other words, if you weren’t drowning or starving last week, shut the hell up and trust The Leader.

If the leftists are ever going to convince people that they are capable of ever making rash decisions again politically, they are going to have to ditch the ridiculous "unbelievable" accusations against President Bush and find a viable platform to run on.

We have.  "Unbelieveable" as it seems, we "leftists" think that people in "charge" of Homeland Security should ensure that "there" is some "security" of "the" homeland. 

That means that when the government is repeatedly told that the levees around New Orleans are a security risk, the government responds in some way other than cutting funding for repairs and improvement.

Did it ever occur to people that the way they are living is bringing God’s wrath upon the world? It’s not like they haven’t been warned of the very things going on today, forecast in the Bible thousands of years ago.

The flooding of New Orleans was God’s will.  Therefore, we should shut up and take our medicine.

In Matthew 24: 7, it reads: And there shall be great pestilence, and earthquakes in various places. Pestilence is great famines and strange diseases.

Thanks.  I would have had to look that one up in the dictionary.

So, no one can argue the fact these predictions are happening one by one. The Bible teaches before the end of the world — natural disasters will be prevalent, and the preceding one will be more violent than the last.

But as I said, Katrina (bad as it was) was not nearly as bad as the Asian tsunami last December.  So is God reading the Bible from back to front?

Before the world ended in the days of Noah — people were living immorally, and eventually paid the price. Yes, many people have always lived immorally, but the difference today: immoral behavior is being accepted and tolerated more than ever, especially by many churches.

And God is punishing those churches by inundating New Orleans.  That’ll show ’em!

Nobody believed the ridiculous notion that a flood was going to destroy every living thing — and a lot of people still ignore the prophecy in the Bible today. So, they will find out just like the people in the days of Noah — the truth the hard way. There is no way America is going to escape judgement — especially when this country was founded on God. Too many have turned their backs on God for a day of reckoning not to be in the near future.

The day of reckoning won’t be in the near future?  Shit!  I had my heart set on hanging with Kirk Cameron.

This country is too greedy with their minds focused too much on money. Many states are now depending on gambling casinos to keep them wealthy. Was it just coincidental that most of the bars and casinos were leveled to the ground by Katrina?

Was it just coincidental that many hospitals and schools and children’s homes and puppy dogs and kitty cats also suffered in Katrina’s devestation?  I THINK NOT!

Will the revenue generated from the bars and casinos be enough to keep the hurricane torn areas operating above the red mark after the damage is tallied up caused by Katrina?

Hell, no!  Therefore, they shouldn’t have been there in the first place.

The crime rate is soaring — especially crimes against children.

And that’s why God killed so many children in New Orleans.

This alone is enough to anger God to the point of retaliation. God doesn’t have to keep putting up with mankind’s disobedience.

Yeah.  He’s one pissed-off deity.

There is plenty of blame to go around in how the basic survival necessities were carried out (or not carried out) particularly in New Orleans.

But Kaye chooses to blame liberals, bars, and casinos.  Because unlike FEMA, it’s their responsibility.

First of all, it would have to be the citizens fault who didn’t take heed and evacuate when alerted Hurricane Katrina was really going to wreak havoc when it hit land. (The warning of the approaching hurricane gave the citizens ample time to evacuate.)

But if it is God’s will, then why flee from it?  Won’t that piss off God even more?

Next, is the local government who was lax and not really prepared for the worst possible destructive force once the hurricane hit. Louisiana officials have known for decades the levees were not adequate to sustain or protect New Orleans above a category three hurricane, so I guess this was President Bush’s fault too…

The penny drops.

…even though he was not even in the picture when the city had the levees built.

Well, neither was Hurricane Katrina for that matter.

And finally, who in their right mind builds a city seven feet below sea level?

Self-righteous Christians.  (Yes, they founded New Orleans).

As President Bush gets slapped around in the media by the likes of Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu (who literally has threatened to punch him) — maybe they should remember: It’s not nice to fool with Mother Nature.

Right.  Punching Bush will incur the wrath of Mother Nature.  Or is "Mother Nature" some cute nickname for Barbara Bush?

Katrina Fashion Sense

Ken AshfordDisastersLeave a Comment

Winning the award for the most awkward and self-conscious article, I present this from the New York Sun.  It seems that the spector of thousands and thousands of dead bloated bodies is going to harsh the hype of the upcoming Big Apple Fashion Week.

After the chaos on the Gulf Coast, it’s time for order in the world: modesty, linear shapes, and direct, womanly style. Up until last week, this fall could have been dominated by any number of the looks featured in the fall fashion magazines. But something has to guide your hand when you put together outfits or shop for new pieces. Something in the zeitgeist leads us to certain styles and away from others.

After a second look through the magazines this weekend, I found that what seems right for the moment are the black suits, classic silhouettes, and buttoned-up style. If not for the news, this look might have seemed too severe or too much of a contrast from summer’s flowing skirts and bright colors. But now, out of all the various looks that designers produced and editors selected, sobriety feels right.

Black suits, buttoned-up style.  Good to know.

Katrina Talking Points

Ken AshfordBush & Co., DisastersLeave a Comment

Others have summarized the right wing excuses on Katrina, but so far, I like Green Knight’s the best:

1. The real victims here are the President and his Administration, because they’re being (gasp!) criticized. The people stranded in New Orleans are not victims. They have no one to blame but themselves.

2. Nobody could have seen the emergency coming. Nevertheless, those people in New Orleans should have seen the emergency coming.

3. The federal government does not have the magical power to save everybody. Nevertheless, state and local governments do have that magical power.

Read the whole thing.

But, on the other hand, here’s something we can agree with, via The Talent Show:

Agreed

TDS on Bush Disasters

Ken AshfordBush & Co.Leave a Comment

For those who saw Jon Stewart skewer the Bush Administration last night on The Daily Show, you might not have had enough time to read this graphic.  It clearly shows (as correspondent Ed Helms said) that the Bush Administration is organized — they are going through disasters in alphabetical order:

Dshkatrina

Firemen Used As Katrina Image Spinners And Props

Ken AshfordBush & Co., DisastersLeave a Comment

Fireprops From Josh Marshall:

On the Al Franken show this afternoon I mentioned this article from today’s Salt Lake Tribune which tells the story of about a thousand firefighters from around the country who volunteered to serve in the Katrina devastation areas. But when they arrived in Atlanta to be shipped out to various disaster zones in the region, they found out that they were going to be used as FEMA community relations specialists. And they were to spend a day in Atlanta getting training on community relations, sexual harassment awareness, et al. This of course while life and death situations were still the order of the day along a whole stretch of the Gulf Coast.

It’s an article you’ve really got a to read to appreciate the full measure of folly and surreality.

But the graf at the end of the piece really puts everything in perspective, and gives some sense what the Bush administration really has in mind when it talks about a crisis. The paper reports that one team finally was sent to the region …

As specific orders began arriving to the firefighters in Atlanta, a team of 50 Monday morning quickly was ushered onto a flight headed for Louisiana. The crew’s first assignment: to stand beside President Bush as he tours devastated areas.

You can’t make this stuff up.

No, you can’t.  Billmon has his own take:

I guess this is what Bush was talking about yesterday when he called himself a "problem solver." But one of these days he and the Rovians really ought to take a stab at trying to solve other people’s problems.

I’m just surprised they didn’t shove some boots and a helmet on Shrub and stick him behind the wheel of a fire engine. Maybe with a big banner on the side: "Lets Roll!"

So what’s next? Will they round up some doctors and have them tag along with Shrub while he visits patients at an emergency field hospital? (Ideally, a tidy tent full of young, attractive African American patients — nothing bloody or threatening.) Surely that can be arranged.

Or how about a town meeting with the engineers plugging the levee breaks? They could explain what they’re doing and show Shrub their plans, and he could nod his head and pretend like he understands what they’re talking about. That shouldn’t take more than a half a day out of their schedule. And what’s another half day when most of those people have been trapped in their attics for a week already?

UPDATE:  More here:

In a document that went out from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the agency asked for firefighters with very specific skills and who were capable of working in austere conditions. When they got to a center in Atlanta, they found out their jobs would be public relations.

"Our job was to advertise a phone number for FEMA," said Portage Assistant Fire Chief Bill Lundy. "We were going to be given shirts and hats with a phone number on it and flyers, and sent to shelters, and we were going to pass out flyers."

A Winston-Salem Physician On Katrina

Ken AshfordDisastersLeave a Comment

Via The Left Coaster, reprinted in full:

I would like to know why I and so many other physicians told to stay home when they offered to provide medical care for victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Like most Americans, I watched in horror. I also felt helpless, guilty, and ashamed at what I saw. By Wednesday, I knew – didn’t the President know? — that this was the worst disaster in American history.

I also knew that every possible resource should be summoned immediately if not sooner. I wanted to help. My First call was to SORT (Special Operations Response Team), because it is primarily a medical team based in my hometown of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. And I was told that the SORT team had already been deployed and I could not help, that I would need six months of special training.

I argued, “But I am a surgeon, and those people need all the help they can get now."

They suggested I call the Red Cross.

When I called the Red Cross I told them that I would do anything that would help. They said 50 Winston-Salem volunteers had already been sent and that at least another 50 had already expressed a desire to go. The Red Cross response was totally unbelievable they told me the next training class is next week on September 7th. I told her “Issues of credentialing and red tape have to be thrown out in this case; those people need our help and they need it now."

I argued and pleaded with officials; I had travel arrangements made! When I was finally able to reach the Regional Director of the Red Cross in Raleigh, I was informed that Red Cross is not involved in medical care and it was suggested that she call FEMA.

I never got through to FEMA though if I tried once, I tried a hundred times through a variety of numbers. I spent 2 days on the phone.

Finally I called my Senator’s office, Senator Richard Burr, NC. I asked if his office could find out where I could be of help and how I would go about it. I was given a telephone number for an emergency response group in Washington. I never got through to them. And I never heard back from FEMA.

I am very ashamed that Americans could suffer and die on American soil while physicians trying to get to them were told to stay home.

I and many of my colleagues in the medical profession across the nation were told over and over again stay home.

At a time of national disaster with so many lives at stake, how is it possible that medical professionals were rebuffed by credentialing, red tape and poor communication issues from several different emergency response groups?

I am amazed, I am angry and I am sad.

The red tape response the medical community received should make all of us angry and asking for answers.

How many people have died because they would not let us go? Yes, we need to fix the levies and rebuild New Orleans, because that is who we are.

But more importantly, we need to look each other in the eye and ask, “Where did we go wrong?”, because that is also who we are.

By Jamie Koufman, M.D., F.A.C.S., Director Center for Voice and Swallowing Disorders of Wake Forest University Professor of Surgery (Otolaryngology) Wake Forest University Health Sciences Posted by Jamie Koufman M.D. at September 7, 2005 07:28 AM [Emphasis mine]

Bible-Thumper LaShawn On Tolerance

Ken AshfordGodstuff, Sex/Morality/Family ValuesLeave a Comment

On the news that the California Congress has approved a bill granting equal rights and protections to married same-sex couples (a bill that Ahnold says he will veto), conservative "Christian" blogger LaShawn Barber gets all biblical and then adds a few stupid thoughts:

By the way, if Christians seem obsessed with homosexuality above other sins, perhaps it’s because homosexuals are so adept at condemning and judging those who disagree with that lifestyle, while admonishing us not to judge “lest ye be judged.”

Love that logic.  If you condemn homosexuals, that’s okay.  But if you tell homosexual-condemners not to judge other people, you are being judgmental.

And that’s why Christians are obssessed with homosexuality.

Homosexuals have the same civil rights as everyone else. What they want are special rights, like “marriage” (there is no civil right to marry…

Yes, actually there is a civil right to marry.  The courts have recognized it.  As a country, we went through this before, except it was whites and black marrying.  The same arguments that LaShawn is making here . . . lost.

Besides, I would like someone to explain to me what makes one right "special" and other rights not.  Is the right to free speech "special"?  How about the right to pray?  Or have children?  "Special right" is a meaningless non-sensical phrase for ignorant people.

…and there is no such thing as marriage between people of the same sex)…

Yes, there is.  Just because you don’t like it, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

…normalizing perversion, and demanding that people “tolerate” (code for accept) it.

Damn!  She’s cracked the code!  When we say that people should be "tolerant", what we really mean is that people should accept it.  We should have come up with another word for "accept" — not a synonym.

Shorter Michelle Malkin

Ken AshfordRight Wing Punditry/Idiocy1 Comment

Shorter Michelle Malkin:  Al Franken signed a settlement agreement with a guy who screwed over Al Franken and other Air America investors; therefore, Al Franken is corrupt.

I don’t get the breathlessness that the rightosphere has over this story.  Basically, it boils down to this:

(1)  There’s a guy named Evan Cohen.  He was, among other things, a venture capitalist who was the development director of an entity known as the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club, which runs a camp for inner city children.  He was also a former chairman of Air America, the radio network that carries Al Franken (among others), until [Cohen] he was forced out for mismanagement shortly after Air America got off its feet.

(2)  It’s pretty clear now that Evan Cohen made improper loans of as much as $875,000 to Air America when it was under the ownership of an entity known as Progress Media.

(3)  Air America, through its current owners (Piquent LLC), feels that it has no legal obligation to repay the loans to the Boys & Girls Club (which it doesn’t), but will repay it anyway because there is a "moral obligation" to do so.

Okay.  Sounds like this Cohen guy is a piece of crap, which is why Franken acknowledges him as a "crook" and why Cohen was forced out of Air America early on.

How does this indicate any wrongdoing by Air America or Al Franken?  What’s Malkin all excited about?  It’s like Moe Szyslak gathering clues for a decades-old murder ("Here we have a ‘6’.  Or is it a ‘9’??  We don’t know!  Now this is gravel.  Gra-vel!")  [Ed. – Isn’t this a little obscure?]

The latest "smoking gun" is a supposed "settlement agreement" signed by Air America, including Al Franken.  I don’t know what Malkin thinks it means — it seems to confirm the fact that Franken and Air America unwilling victims of Cohen’s web (since you don’t normally settle with anyone other than an adversary). 

I guess Malkin’s meta-point is that the "liberal media" isn’t all over this story.  Of course, there’s a very good reason why the so-called liberal media isn’t all over this story: other than Cohen’s wrongdoings (which have been reported), there’s no story!  Perhaps Malkin and her cronies want the media to engage in speculation or smears or — wait, I got it — guilt by association.

As for as blogosphere journalism goes, Malkin’s continuing expose is pretty bad.  Look,for example, at what she writes:

Now, for a Burger King whopper:

FRANKEN: And about three weeks into the life of Air America, I became an involuntary investor. I stopped being paid.

So now, we started to make arrangements, and I didn’t know anything about this until late last week…

Burger King whopper indeed.  Michelle, where’s the beef??

Al Franken didn’t know what until "late last week"?  We don’t know.  Malkin cuts Franken off mid-sentence (and doesn’t link to any source).  She assumes Franken was referring to when he found out about Cohen’s dubious loan years ago, although it’s quite possible that he was talking about when he learned of the Air America’s more recent "arrangements" to pay pack the loan.  How about the rest of the quote, citizen journalist?

So we’ve got a non-story (at least from a Franken-Air America culpability standpoint) hyped up by incomplete quotes and sloppy "journalism".

I don’t know.  It seems to me that if I robbed a bank, and gave some of the proceeds to the Red Cross (or whatever), the Red Cross (or whatever) is merely an unwitting beneficiary of my crime, but not a guilty participant.   So why all the finger-pointing at Franken and Air America?  Cohen, by all accounts (Franken’s, Malkin’s, and everybody in between) seems to be the central figure in this whole scandal.  But I never heard of him before, and I don’t care about him now.  And nothing Malkin has written makes me care.

Someone should tell Malkin that if she’s going to play "gotcha" journalism, she needs to have an actual thing to say "gotcha" about.  I think she’s merely excited that she got an "exclusive" not-for-public-consumption document without realizing that it doesn’t really advance the story. 

Judging from the trackbacks that link to her latest post, I get the impression that the right0sphere doesn’t exactly understand the lack of substance to Malkin’s story.  That doesn’t stop them from crowing how "Michelle nailed Franken" though.  It’s like they’re watching a cricket match — not knowing what is going on, but sensing that their side is scoring points.  Or as Glenn Reynolds says:

I HAVEN’T PAID MUCH ATTENTION to the Air America scandals, but Michelle Malkin and Brian Maloney have been working hard on the story. It looks like their effort has paid off.

"Looks like" indeed.