Judith Miller, Tom Delay, Bill Frist, et al.

GratisNet: "Judith Miller speaks, Tom DeLay indicted, the SEC investigating Bill Frist, etc. much time, energy and words expended by the conventional and unconventional (read blogosphere) media trying to get a handle on what it all means.

May I suggest we take a collective deep breath and wait for the strings to play out in Austin and Washington? There will be time enough for the 'I told you so' or mea culpas after Fitzgerald makes his move, DeLay gets his day in court and the SEC makes its decision about Frist.

Until such time, enjoy the spectacle of the wheels coming off the republican wagon and remember always that if the lips of a republican are moving, the probability of his lying approaches certainty.

Now go out and play nice together and do something nice for someone you DON'T know. TGIF!"

Wednesday Wandering

GratisNet: "Word out of Austin: The Grand Jury there looking into campaign funding violations has added conspiracy to their list of targets. Tom DeLay could well be indicted within a day or two. While such an outcome would certainly be a most just dessert for DeLay, prudence dictates a wait and see attitude.

Coming out of DC: Senator Frist does a Nixonesque, 'I am not a crook' song and dance. With both the SEC and DOJ looking into his not-so-blind trust and apparent insider trading his days are apparently numbered. Look for him to execute the 'Trent Lott Maneuver' fairly soon. This will result in the senate republican caucus becoming somewhat contentious, to say the least. Again, I would recommend a wait and see attitude.

Out of DC: Mike Brown, testifying before the congress, blames everyone at the local & state level for the disaster that was NOLA in the aftermath of Katrina. He says he was expected to be a 'Superhero' and solve all the problems. I guess that along with being incompetent in managing Arabian Horses, and padding his resume with imaginary positions of authority back in Okieland, he is also delusional to the point of requiring institutional treatment.

BULLETIN: DeLay indicted! He has agreed to step down as House Majority Leader, temporarily of course. It will be most interesting to watch the spin from republicans. I can see it now, 'This indictment is the result of a political witch hunt', 'A grand jury would indict a ham sandwich if the prosecutor wanted them to.' Problem whith that is the word out of Austin that it was the grand jury that wanted to add the conspiracy investigation. It was they, citizens who were obviously fed up with the corrupt dealing of Tom DeLay, who wanted to consider the evidence. They considered and they indicted, now hopefully in due time another group of citizens sitting in judgement at trial will convict, if the evidence warrants, and make an example of Tom DeLay, a politician who took corruption to whole new levels.

Out of the Middle East: Karen Hughes discovering that she is in over her head as she continues her 'Democracy 2005' Tour. In Saudi Arabia she was rebuffed by a group of young women who, in effect, advised her to learn something of the culture before trying to play the Pied Piper regarding democracy.

And so it goes. How is YOUR day shaping up?"

Thoughts on Friday

WASHINGTON (AP) -- When Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist asked a trustee to sell all his stock in his family's hospital corporation, a large-scale sell-off by HCA Inc. insiders was under way.

Seems like the Blind Trust set up in accordance with US Statutes wasn't all that blind when it came to Frist wanting to dump stock before the price took a dive. Can anyone say "Insider trading?" If his name was Martha Stewart the SEC would be all over him by now, but because he is the republican majority leader of the Senate...?

Much to do about rumors of Bush having fallen off the wagon. More bruises, more nonsensical conduct, see his latest press conference when he was calling on "Bianca" and more conjecture as to why he needs so many vacations out of sight at the ranch. Who knows what will turn up with all this, but with his disgraceful conduct regarding Cindy Sheehan followed by his criminal indifference during Katrina, the added stress of Rita could well be one crises to much for him to screw up. Personally I doubt it's the bottle that he has gone back to, if he's reverted to any of his destructive old habits it would be the coke. He would get a momentary high with a drink or two but then depression would really set in. Nope, if he's back to doing anything, it has to be coke, even the way he acted at his last couple of press conferences would seem to point towards coke rather than booze.

Tragedy on a Texas interstate. A bus carrying some 45 elderly people, some on oxygen, bursts into flame, at least 20 feared dead. Common sight on the traffic snarled Texas interstates, cars running out of gas further backing up traffic. Heard a righteous bastard from the state on MSNBC going on about how Texas knows how to evacuate a city unlike the people in Louisiana. Have I forgotten exploding buses and automobiles running out of gas during the exodus out of NOLA or did the media just not report it? Yes sir, Texas sure knows how to manage the evacuation of a city.

Bush cancels photo op in San Antonio, seems he was told such a move would be seen as getting in the way of search, rescue and recovery efforts. He decides to monitor the progress of Hurricane Rita from the bunker in Cheyenne Mountain. What is it with this cowardly bastard, the White House wasn't sufficient for him to keep abreast of the storm as it comes ashore? His cut and run will come as no surprise to anyone considering what will be transpiring in DC this weekend. He STILL doesn't have the stones to face Cindy Sheehan.

Finally, run everything you hear coming from a republican these days through the following filter: If their lips are moving, the likelihood that they are lying approaches certainty.

TGIF, do something nice for someone you DON'T know and have a great weekend.

Diogenese and the republicans.

Given the fact that republicans lack the fundamental honesty, sense of honor, integrity, morals and ethics common to even the least among us, is it any wonder that the Republican Party has come to be regarded as representing a Culture of Corruption? See Sen. Frist's selling off his stock in his family's HMO, for the latest example.

Somewhere Diogenese is breathing a sigh of relief for had the object of his quest been an honest republican, he would be searching still.

The Plan

The mayor of Ocean Springs, MS (across the bay from Biloxi) was being interviewed on MSNBC this morning regarding her and the city council living at City Hall for 12 days while waiting for FEMA support to arrive. She was asked if she contacted the local FEMA office, she did, and was given FEMA's 800 number to call.

FEMA had a plan, call the 800 number whenever telephone service was restored, until then, everyone was expected to fend for themselves. Some Plan.

This is nothing more than an example of "to the victor belong the spoils" patronage tenet of conservative republicans. Placing political hacks with no expertise other than to raise or donate money in positions affecting the safety, health and well being of the people demonstrates their utter contempt for the people.

The Republican Party has brought the Boss Tweed philosophy to Washington DC, although Boss Tweed would be green with envy at how much his Tammany Hall machine has been improved upon.

The Republican Party today stands not for the people or the nation but for passing government jobs and contracts to those who have given money to the cause, regardless of how illequipped they are to perform the job. Republicans prove, yet again, that they place The Party above the nation, The Party above the people, indeed, The Party above everything.

America the selfish.

GratisNet: "Bush says no tax increase to pay for the rebuilding of NOLA and the Mississippi gulf coast communitees hard hit by Katrina. He doesn't even consider repealing the tax cuts for the filthy rich and, according to an online question at CNN, some 75% of those responding agree with him.

I have sympathy for those areas devastated by Katrina, now they are to be devastated again by Bush and his borrow and spend regime. Our children and grandchildren shall have to pay the piper for this tax cut happy Band of Bunglers and that is indeed sad. Sadder still is the apparent fact that the American people are unwilling to sacrifice anything in order to help their fellow citizens recover from a disaster of biblical proportions. No, not the inept response from Bush and his Regime of Reprobates (which was bad enough) but the onslaught of destruction in the wake of Katrina.

Such selfish, self centered people bear no resemblence of the Americans I knew even 30 years ago, let alone those that populated my America as a child. I weep for what the selfish, self-centered and self-righteous neoconservatives have done to our once great society.

Our strength as a nation has always been our willingness to help one another when disaster struck, something Bush and his morally bankrupt followers have never understood, let alone believed in. America suffers and teeters perilously close to the abyss of moral bankruptcy because of it."

Random thoughts.

GratisNet: "Can Bush not button a shirt properly? Was there no one in his entourage of flunkies that had the nerve to tell him that he didn't button his shirt right and consequently looked like a three year old on national television? Once again Bush proves to be unequal to the task at hand.

The big question is, of course, how could the wheels have fallen off the Bush bandwagon so quickly and completely? From the 'May I go to the bathroom' episode at the UN to looking like a toddler after buttoning his shirt for the first time, the Bush White House seems not to be getting anything right. Could it be that Karl Rove is so preoccupied with what Fitzgerald can do to him, as to lose focus in such fundamental ways?

The White House talks about Katrina unfortunately forcing them into deficit spending, showing how little they think of the intelligence of the people. They think the people have missed the fact that they have spent more money on dubious items than can scarcely be imagined. One could compare their money squandering habits to those of drunken sailors on liberty after months at sea but that would be an insult to drunken sailors. Any suggestion regarding repealing certain of the tax cuts is met with the standard, 'That would hurt the economy' as if the tax cuts have ever been shown to to be of benefit to the people in the Bush economy, in the form of jobs, salary growth (other than CEOs, that is) and increasing revenue.

Cutting taxes in times of vital increased spending would be like a person taking a cut in pay while they are trying to buy a new house. Whatever happened to the tried and true republican mantra of old, 'Pay as you go?' It has been conspicuously missing since the days when Ronald Reagan brought his tax and spend modus operendi to Washington and for 25 years republicans have shown less fiscal discipline than a crack addict.

Why do we continue to see people involved in the recovery and clean up effort in NOLA walking around without any protection such as protective gloves, boots, masks, etc.? By all accounts the water flooding the city is a mix of toxic waste including chemicals, oil, gasolene and other petroleum products not to mention decomposing bodies (both human & animal), raw sewage, trash, etc. all known biological hazards both in the water and in the thick coat of sludge where the water has receded, yet we see workers go about their grim tasks unprotected while the EPA remains silent on the dangers to the health and well being of anyone coming in contact with the hazardous residue left in the wake of Katrina.

Yet another example of the moral bankruptcy of the Bush regime?"

Dunce-in-Chief.

GratisNet: "'When that storm came through at first, people said, whew. There was a sense of relaxation, and that's what I was referring to. And I, myself, thought we had dodged a bullet. You know why? Because I was listening to people, probably over the airways, say, the bullet has been dodged. And that was what I was referring to.' --- George W. Bush

Got that?

Has there ever been a greater fool occupying the White House?

One weeps for America and what this reprobate has done. It will take a generation to put right that which Bush and his Band of Bunglers have trashed."

Furiously spinning.

GratisNet: "While flipping through the channels last night, I paused at FOX when I saw Dick 'The Toe' Morris with O'Reilly. I know, I know and I know but I lingered anyway and caught Morris spinning away furiously not unlike the blonde beauty in the Rumpelstiltskin fable from the brothers Grimm. He noted that while democrats are counting on the dead in NOLA to meet or exceed the sad estimates that have been bandied about (I know of no one, democrat, republican, whatever, wishing the death toll from Katrina approach the ghastly estimates heard thus far), he doubted there would be a few hundred, as in 300, total deaths.

I wonder how he feels about the discovery of some 45 bodies in a hospital in NOLA? While I do not expect the toll from Katrina to approach some of the 10,000-20,000 deaths predicted, I would be surprised (and gladly so) if the toll didn't go any higher than a thousand or so.

Leave it to a republican to try and gain advantage from the dead. I can see the headlines now, 'Bush does great job in keeping Katrina deaths to only 2,495' or 'Bush's efforts account for the Katrina death toll being only 2,495 and not the 20,000 as was expected.'

The latest polls seem to indicate that the American people finally, at long last, are getting it about Bush and his Band of Bunglers. They are coming to realize exactly how great a disaster George W. Bush is and the damage he is doing to America. May the fog of the spinners continue to be lifted from the eyes of the American people."

Cover up.

From The Independent of London

Toxic chemicals in the New Orleans flood waters will make the city unsafe for full human habitation for a decade, a US government official has told The Independent on Sunday. And, he added, the Bush administration is covering up the danger. In an exclusive interview, Hugh Kaufman, an expert on toxic waste and responses to environmental disasters at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), said the way the polluted water was being pumped out was increasing the danger to health. The pollution was far worse than had been admitted, he said, because his agency was failing to take enough samples and was refusing to make public the results of those it had analysed. "Inept political hacks" running the clean-up will imperil the health of low-income migrant workers by getting them to do the work.

So once again incompetent hacks that the Bungler in Chief appointed to positions of authority are endangering the health and welfare of the people.

So once again the regime of the most inept individual ever to sit in the White House is striving to cover up yet another monumental f*ck up.

I know I'm surprised, are you? Of course not for it has become painfully apparent over the past 4+ years that not only is Bush a bungler of the first order, he is perhaps the most amoral, ethically challenged individual ever to occupy the oval office. Hell, he has demonstrated that he is the most morally corrupt individual to hold ANY office, ever.

Finally, lest you think that Hugh Kaufman is blowing smoke:

Few people are better qualified to judge the extent of the problem. Mr Kaufman, who has been with the EPA since it was founded 35 years ago, helped to set up its hazardous waste programme. After serving as chief investigator to the EPA's ombudsman, he is now senior policy analyst in its Office of Solid Wastes and Emergency Response. He said the clean-up needed to be "the most massive public works exercise ever done", adding: "It will take 10 years to get everything up and running and safe."

Feeling safer yet?

Cheney Speaks.

NOLA Times-Picayune Newslogs

Vice President Cheney says no new taxes Thursday, 7:50 p.m. By John-John Williams IV Staff writer Vice President Dick Cheney said new taxes are not the answer to finance the Hurricane Katrina disaster effort, as he assessed the now infamous 17th Street Canal levee early Thursday evening. Cheney, who was sent by President Bush, said he was pleased with the work that has been done to repair the levee so far. Cheney arrived by helicopter shortly after 4 p.m. on a makeshift landing strip where 7,000-pound sand bags used to block the leak in the levee are currently being filled. The vice-president met with officials of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, levee repair workers, members of the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Army. The whole visit last about an hour. Cheney said he was impressed by the job of the Corps at the levee site. Cheney was accompanied by his wife, Gov. Kathleen Blanco, Sen. David Vitter, R-Metairie and Rep. Jim McCrery, R-Shreveport, Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff and Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez. "You've got to recognize the severity of what Mother Nature did to us," Cheney said as he stood several yards away from a West End neighborhood that was submerged in water up to rooftops.

"New taxes are not the answer" he said. What he meant was, let's pass the cost onto our children and grandchildren so that I and others like me can continue to rape the national treasury (and the future of the nation) with our tax cuts.

We must "recognize the severity of what Mother Nature did to us" US? Is he f*cking kidding? He was hiding out in Wyoming for God's sake, did to US? Sorry Dick, WE not only recognized the severity of what Katrina did, we also recognized BEFORE Katrina made landfall that she was going to wreak havoc and destruction as never seen in NOLA and not seen on the rest of the Gulf Coast since Camille brought her destruction here over 30 years ago. The only people who didn't have a clue was PrezNitwit and his clueless cohorts, "Who me?" Chertoff and "Resume Inflator" Brown. Crashcart comes to NOLA for his photo op and acts like the clueless, insensitive and cowardly lout he is. He is only worthy of scorn and contempt.

"We lost everything at once . . . communications, power grid, infrastructure." ... Cheney left shortly after addressing a small group of reporters before getting back on a helicopter and heading back to Baton Rouge. The visit was the first by Cheney to the area since the hurricane struck on Aug. 29.

So he was surprised that everything was lost at once. DUH! Who could have ever thought that a hurricane could knock out the power grid, telephone system, overwhelm civil services like water, sewer, etc.? Certainly not the ignorant, inept f*ckers at DHS and FEMA, partisan hacks who were rewarded by Preznit Horsefluffer for political services and now, NOW, they have the balls to tell everyone to not play the blame game?

At long last have these incompetent bastards no shame? Evidentially not for Preznit HardWork is going to the disaster area for another photo op. Karl Rove is working overtime to make this sorry excuse for a man look like something other than the steaming pile of horse manure he is.

Here's a free clue Karl baby, you best worry about how your own ass is going to look in an orange jumpsuit rather than how to make a pile of garbage look like a man.

Freedom of the press?

GratisNet: "Now comes the Bush gang, prohibiting reporters and photographers from NOLA, especially those areas (which is to say most areas) containing bodies. Seems it isn't in the interest of good order to have these victims photographed or otherwise captured for posterity. Is this America? Has the constitution been put away as per the comments made by General Franks some time ago?

I am truly outraged by these fascist bastards who would do anything to keep the people from knowing the truth about their failure to act as leaders should.

It is heartening to know that a local on the Gulf, upon seeing Crashcart Cheney on his photo op, yelled loud and clear and audibly (on CNN), 'Cheney you go f*ck yourself.'

What the hell is happening here?"

Thoughts on the future of NOLA.

GratisNet: "What is the likelihood that many thousands of the homes and buildings flooded in New Orleans will ever be salvaged? What is the likelihood that those unsalvageable properties will be taken either by lenders, tax liens or condemnation?

If that comes to pass what is the likelihood that the flooded neighborhoods will be used for residential purposes? Think casinos, hotels, etc. and a levee/dike program patterned after that built by the Dutch to keep the North Sea at bay.

Such thoughts would be inconcievable save for the utter corrupt quality of the scourge loose on the land known as the Bush regime."

Roberts, continued

GratisNet: "Roberts replaces Rehnquist, Bush names another right wing whack job to replace O'Connor. Tell me again how that affects the ideological makeup of the SCOTUS.

Rehnquist and O'Connor quite frequently voted with Scalia and Thomas, so where is the huge difference RE: the post Rehnquist and O'connor court? When the time comes to replace a Stevens, Souder, Breyer or Ginsberg then the handwringing can begin in earnest over the danger to individual rights.

Until such time, I would advise all concerned, especially those on the Senate Judiciary Committee when considering Roberts' answers before them to, in the words of Ronald Reagan, 'Trust but verify.' If Roberts is not forthcoming in his answers to the committee then he is not the person for the job."

Roberts to replace Rehnquist.

GratisNet: "I would expect that the nomination hearings will now take on a different tenor and perhaps even be delayed, most certainly extended.

Since his original nomination, his views on Equal Rights, Privacy, etc. have come into focus with the inspection of the papers made public. It now becomes even more important that ALL of Judge Roberts' papers be made available for scrutiny.

Sufficient time should be given to the discovery process but don't count on it."

Word Verification

Had to install the Word Verification feature for comments. Sorry about that but the spammers seem to have found us. I thought it best to do something before it got worse.

If only the sorry bastard, Bush the Bungler would have done something, RE: Katrina, other than sit on his ass, lives could have been saved.

Wish I said that!

GratisNet: "'official Washington was like a dog watching television. It saw the lights and images, but did not seem to comprehend their meaning or see any link to reality.' --- Bob Schieffer, Face The Nation."

Bush, Chertoff, etc. liars all.

Any question remaining whether Bush, Chertoff and the rest of the inept bunglers in his maladministration are lying regarding Katrina can be put to rest with this letter from Governor Blanco to Bush officially requesting he declare southern Louisiana "an expedited major disaster... as Hurricane Katrina a Category 5 Huuricane appproaches our coast south of New Orleans; beginning August 28th and continuing." This official request was submitted through the Regional Director of FEMA Region 6 in Denton, TX. on 08-28-05, the day before disaster hit.

Yet they came on with their "Who could have known..." and "We had no idea..." bullshit excuses for their abject incompetence. As I said, the words truly are not there to describe the magnitude of their perfidy.

Many thanks to Jeff Huber for the heads up.

Governor Blanco's letter.

Chicago Tribune | Navy ship nearby underused

"GULF COAST CRISIS: OFF THE GULF COAST Navy ship nearby underused Craft with food, water, doctors needed orders By Stephen J. Hedges Tribune national correspondent Published September 4, 2005 ON THE USS BATAAN -- While federal and state emergency planners scramble to get more military relief to Gulf Coast communities stricken by Hurricane Katrina, a massive naval goodwill station has been cruising offshore, underused and waiting for a larger role in the effort. The USS Bataan, a 844-foot ship designed to dispatch Marines in amphibious assaults, has helicopters, doctors, hospital beds, food and water. It also can make its own water, up to 100,000 gallons a day. And it just happened to be in the Gulf of Mexico when Katrina came roaring ashore. The Bataan rode out the storm and then followed it toward shore, awaiting relief orders. Helicopter pilots flying from its deck were some of the first to begin plucking stranded New Orleans residents. But now the Bataan's hospital facilities, including six operating rooms and beds for 600 patients, are empty. A good share of its 1,200 sailors could also go ashore to help with the relief effort, but they haven't been asked. The Bataan has been in the stricken region the longest of any military unit, but federal authorities have yet to fully utilize the ship. Captain ready, waiting 'Could we do more?' said Capt. Nora Tyson, commander of the Bataan. 'Sure. I've got sailors who could be on the beach plucking through garbage or distributing water and food and stuff. But I can't force myself on people. 'We're doing everything we can to contribute right now, and we're ready. If someone says you need to take on people, we're ready. If they say hospitals on the beach can't handle it ... if they need to send the overflow out here, we're ready. We've got lots of room.' Navy helicopters from the Bataan and Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida have joined the growing aerial armada of choppers that are lifting hurricane survivors from flooded surroundings and delivering food and water. More will arrive throughout the weekend when the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman and four other Navy ships, including three amphibious assault ships--really mini-aircraft carriers for helicopter use--arrive in the gulf from Norfolk, Va. The USS Comfort, a hospital ship from Baltimore, also is steaming there. The Bataan, though, was already in the gulf when Katrina crossed Florida and picked up new, devastating energy from the warm gulf waters. The ship, sailing near the Texas coastline, had just finished an exercise in Panama and was scheduled to return to its home port in Norfolk on Friday after six weeks at sea. Instead, the ship rode out the hurricane in 12 to 14 foot seas and then fell in behind the storm as it neared the gulf coast. A day after Katrina struck, Navy helicopters arrived from Corpus Christi, Texas, and began survey flights over New Orleans. The initial belief, Tyson said, was that the city had been spared. 'On Monday it was like, `Wow, it missed us, it took a turn east,' and everything eased up,' Tyson aid. 'It was `Let's open up Bourbon Street, have a beer, let's go party, and understandably so. And then all of a sudden, literally and figuratively, the dam broke, and here we are.' When the city's levees broke Tuesday, Tyson's pilots were rescuing stranded residents. Communications became muddled as the rescue and humanitarian supply efforts were bogged down by rising water and sketchy information. Tyson, who would get debriefings from returning pilots, had perhaps one of the best vantage points to see what was unfolding. `Like a bad dream' 'It was like a bad dream that you knew you had to wake up from,' she said. A 135-foot landing craft stored within the Bataan, the LCU-1656, was dispatched to steam up the 90 miles of Mississippi River to New Orleans. It took a crew of 16, including a doctor, and its deck was stacked with food and water. The craft carries enough food and fuel to remain self-sufficient for 10 days. Moving up through the storm's flotsam, the crew couldn't believe the scene. 'We saw a lot of dead animals, dead horses, floating cows, dead alligators,' said Rodney Blackshear, LCU-1656's navigator. 'And a lot of dogs that had been pets. But no people.' Near Boothville, La., the storm surge had lifted a construction crane and put it on top of a house. Near Venice, the crew members considered going ashore to examine the damage, but dogs drove them back." "I didn't want any of my guys in there," said Bill Fish, who commands LCUs and who went on the river trip. "Everything was decimated. It was the storm surge." Then the Bataan was ordered to move to the waters off Biloxi, Miss., and LCU-1656 was ordered to return. The landing craft was 40 miles from New Orleans, but it wouldn't be able to deliver its cargo. "It was a disappointment," Fish said. "I figured we would be a big help in New Orleans. We've got electricity, and the police could have charged up their radios. We've got water, toilets. We've got food." Now sailing within 25 miles of Gulfport, Miss., the Bataan has become a floating warehouse. Supplies from Texas and Florida are ferried out to the ship, and the helicopters distribute them where Federal Emergency Management Agency personnel say they are needed. The Bataan has also taken on a substantial medical staff. Helicopters ferried 84 doctors, nurses and technicians 60 miles out to the ship from the Pensacola Naval Air Station on Friday, and on Saturday afternoon 24 of the medical personnel were flown to the New Orleans Convention Center where they expected to augment the staff of an Air Force medical clinic on the center's bus parking lot. The medical staff had come from Jacksonville, Fla., Naval Hospital, and they covered a wide swath of medical specialties from surgeons and pediatricians to heart specialists, a psychiatrist and even a physical therapist. "It's really a cross section of a major hospital," said Capt. Kevin Gallagher, a Navy nurse who was part of the group. "We haven't been told what to expect, but we're going to find out once we get out there." Moving in, ready to go On Friday evening the Bataan was edging closer to the Mississippi shoreline; until then, it had stayed well out into the gulf to avoid floating debris. Closer to shore, it will be able to deploy the landing craft again, as well as Marine hovercraft that can ride up onto shore to deliver supplies. LCU-1656 cruised 98 miles overnight Thursday with a failed electrical generator and broken starboard propeller to join up again with the Bataan, their mother ship. After repairs, it was to set out for the shoreline near Gulfport, Miss., Saturday with a 15,000 water tank lashed to vessel's deck, as well as pallets of bottled water. The role in the relief effort of the sizable medical staff on board the Bataan was not up to the Navy, but to FEMA officials directing the overall effort. That agency has been criticized sharply for failing to respond quickly enough. Tyson said the hurricane was an unusual event that has left some painful lessons. "Can you do things better? Always," Tyson said. "Unfortunately, some of the lessons we have learned during this catastrophe we are learning the hard way. But I think we're working together well to make things happen."

There are no words to describe my contempt for these worthless bastards.

Bush officials visit devastation left by Katrina.

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Top officials from the Bush administration, smarting from criticism their slow response compounded the suffering from Hurricane Katrina, were touring the devastation on Sunday as storm survivors finished evacuating New Orleans.

Of course they are visiting after the survivors have been evacuated. They were afraid that they would have been caught and strung up by those survivors after having wasted so much time before reacting with rescue & relief efforts. Wasted time that cost countless innocents their lives.

On another front, this headline from the Washington Post,"Thousands Await Help While Feds Shift Blame". The worthless bastards, there is no one in this regime of idiots and incompetent fools who has the merest shred of decency, honor and ethical mooring to admit having made a mistake. No one from Bush on down to the lowest political appointee has anything other than CYA uppermost in their pea sized brains.

A pox on all of them.

Willam H. Rehnquist has died.

GratisNet: "Condolences to his family on their loss.

May his soul find the peace, understanding and forgiveness that many of his decisions denied the people."

Where is Dick Cheney?

GratisNet: "Katrina, arguably the greatest calamity to ever befall the United States and the Vice-President is MIA.

Everyone in the Bush maladministration, other than the janitors, have weighed in spinning the lackadaisical response of the regime to the horrendous death and destruction rained down upon the Gulf Coast areas of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and the tragedy that is New Orleans. Yet nothing is heard from or about Dick Cheney. Yet nothing at all explaining his absence from the halls of power in the capitol.

Everyone in the congress, save for the pages, has seemingly weighed in on the government effort, or lack of effort, to provide relief to the hard hit coastal areas along the Gulf that were in the path of Katrina. Yet nothing is heard from Dick Cheney.

His absence in the face of the disaster unfolding in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast is reminiscent of the absences among the leaders that occurred regularly in the former USSR, absences that were neither acknowledged or explained.

As with the USSR back then, the continued absence of a key government official brings the question of whether the government is intact and if it isn't, if there is a probelm with the VP, then why haven't we the people been told of it?

The constitution requires it. Wait, I forgot that was before the arrogance of the Bush gang permeated the peoples house and the very halls of government.

While the Bush gang may consider themselves to be above the law, the question still remains, where is Dick Cheney?"

The incompetence of FEMA and BushCo

GratisNet: "Ted Koppel ripped FEMA Director Michael Brown, in full CYA mode, a new asshole on Nightline. Some people think that FEMA and BushCo in general, should be given a temporary pass because the primary job now is to keep people from dying and not injecting politics into the catastrophe, as if we are not capable of doing both simutaneously.

People are dying due to lack of water and medical assistance, as a direct result of the incompetence of this administration and we are being cautioned not to go 'political' on this disaster? Bush says he didn't think anybody anticipated the levees being breached? Would that be like Condi Rice saying after 9/11, 'Who would have ever thought terrorists would use airplanes to crash into buildings?' Truth is this sorry excuse for a president, administration and indeed the Republican Party in general (see Denny Hastert's comments regarding rebuilding New Orleans and the Gulf Coast areas devastated by Katrina), have proven once again, to be glaringly unsuited for the task of leadership.

I for one am glad that the media has finally, FINALLY, begun to take off the gloves when dealing with the utterly clueless and incompetent reponse to the damage, both to people and property, caused by Katrina. Much has been said about the looting that is going on, but think back, how much looting was happening on Tuesday or Wednesday? The fact that rescue efforts were not underway the second day after the storm hit, that could be somewhat understandable but what cannot be fathomed or forgiven is the lack of any effort to drop food and water to those trapped within the city as well as elsewhere on the Gulf Coast. If we can drop supplies of food and water to the people in Afghanistan surely we can do as much for our own citizens in circumstances much more desparate then that faced by the people of Afghanistan.

Let those people who say, 'Shoot looters on sight' try lasting two or three days without food or water, with no relief efforts in sight, without taking water and food from whatever store is nearby. If ever such holier than thou, clueless fools are faced with a choice of dying or stealing food and water to survive, perhaps then they will change their tune and leaven their outrage with a little bit of reality and compassion for those unfortunates who find themselves caught up in a catastrophe of almost Biblical proportions. Perhaps but I doubt it for they will simply say 'It's different' and not give a thought to their hypocrisy.

Ultimately it comes down to a question of how many people must die because of Bush's callous indifference before it becomes acceptable to skewer him and his 'I've got mine, the hell with you' band of republicans? How much suffering must the victims of Katrina endure before it becomes not just acceptable but IMPERATIVE to call him on the monstrous unpreparedness for this calamity? How much suffering must the unfortunate souls in New Orleans and on the Gulf Coast endure before THEIR government does as much for them as they say they are doing for Iraqis and the people of Afghanistan?

I am so tired of the apologists who would absolve this worthless bastard of the responsibility of: a) Not being prepared for the consequences of Katrina and b) Showing that he couldn't care less about those caught up in the disaster.

It is time for action. Is gross incompetence and a dearth of compassion in the face of a calamity the magnitude of which has never been seen in America an impeachable offense? If it isn't, it should be!"

He didn't think!

"I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees." -- George W. Bush

What an asshole. What a lying asshole. What a totally incompetent, lying asshole.

He didn't think... well people, that's his damn trouble, he DOESN'T think about anything but his own sorry ass.

Has there ever been a president so out of touch with reality?

Did New Orleans Catastrophe Have to Happen? 'Times-Picayune' Had Repeatedly Raised Federal Spending Issues

"Newhouse News Service, in an article posted late Tuesday night at The Times-Picayune Web site, reported: 'No one can say they didn't see it coming. ... Now in the wake of one of the worst storms ever, serious questions are being asked about the lack of preparation.' In early 2004, as the cost of the conflict in Iraq soared, President Bush proposed spending less than 20 percent of what the Corps said was needed for Lake Pontchartrain, according to a Feb. 16, 2004, article, in New Orleans CityBusiness."

Worthless bastards.

Bush to visit the Gulf Coast.

GratisNet: "It has been announced that Bush is planning a Friday visit to the Gulf Coast in order to assess the damage caused by Katrina.

It will take that long to build a large enough pile of rubble and round up a retired fireman for his photo op.

Despicable."

Katrina aftermath.

GratisNet: "After watching Bush, Haley Barbour, Mississippi Governor, and others on the television in the aftermath of Katrina, I have a few thoughts.

It is clear that Bush has no more compassion or concern for the devastation of lives and property in New Orleans and the towns along the gulf coast in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. His demeanor and words serve to, once again, demonstrate that George W. Bush is a man without empathy, a man who cares only for himself and for those who can (and do) something for him. In short, he is a disgrace and totally unsuited emotionally, ethically, morally and intellectually to sit in the office of President of these United States.

Barbour, when reminded by a reporter that the strength of Katrina was hardly a surprise and asked if the government should have done more to get people to safety, bridled and cut off the reporter with a curt, 'Do you want to argue with me or do you want to let me talk?' This in response to some cutting and appropriate questions as to the level of concern displayed by state and federal officials in the days when NOAA was declaring Katrina to have the potential to be among the worst storms to hit the US in the past 100 years. Local officials pretty much did everything they could do to get their people to heed the warnings, but there were many who did not have the money to buy a tank of gas so that they could get themselves and their families out of harms way. The poor section of Biloxi, MS known as The Point comes to mind and it was totally devastated and no one has any idea how many residents got out before Katrina hit. No one knows how many were swept away by the surging waters. No one knows how many are buried in the rubble. In short, no one knows the magnitude of the tragedy in The Point. In truth, likely no one in the Bush Regime cares about The Point, or the many other poor and predominately Black areas of the Gulf Coast communites hardest hit by Katrina because if the people there voted at all, they did not vote for Bush.

I hope that all those people who clamored for tax cuts will now come to an understanding of where the cuts in spending were made so that they could keep more of 'their money.' In New Orleans the tragedy of Katrina is intensified by the failure of the levee system. The Army Corps of Engineers knew of the deficiencies of the levees and had a plan of action to strengthen and improve upon them, but because of Bush and his tax cuts, the Corps had the funding for repairing the levees reduced to 20% of that which they required to do the job. Repairing the levees may not have prevented the breakdowns in the system that have occurred, but then since the repairs were never undertaken in the past 4 years, we will never know, will we? I suspect that the 'I've got mine and the hell with you' crowd will not think about the damage their greed helped to intensify. Listening to comments from some of these people and the business of denial is already well underway. It wasn't our fault, it was an act of God. Yes it was an act of God but it was made worst by the act of GREED that was the foundation of the tax cuts.

The governors of the states hardest hit were limited in getting their National Guard activated becuase a sizeable portion of their Guard, along with the trucks and other heavy equipment that could help in the rescue, recovery and cleanup, are presently in Iraq trying to protect Iraqis while the job of helping with the disaster that has befallen their communities goes on with inadequate resources. Bush couldn't be bothered with the tragedy unfolding in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, he just had to get in a couple of more days in Crawford and then go off to California for what was, essentially, a PR (read political) speech, rather than focus on getting help to the people hard hit by the ongoing disaster caused by Katrina and the unpreparedness of federal and state governments.

While Katrina was among the strongest storms to ever hit America and a disaster of major proportions, it is dwarfed by the disaster that is the little man occupying the White House and his incompetent, ineffectual regime.

Of one thing you can be sure, that since the magnitude of the disaster has grown expotentially, somewhere in the bowels of the West Wing there is a group of people trying to put together a strategy in which the blame for this disaster can be placed on the back of Bill Clinton."