Heckuva job.
Good riddance.
Question of the Day
So what's the Dems' best move in exploiting Bush's catastrophic incompetence and freefall in support? Give him enough rope? Start calling for his impeachment? What do you think the Dems ought to be doing right now?
Come On
So Bush is now doing his goodwill tour of New Orleans. I snagged this off Comcast’s front page:
Check out the first sub-head: “Bush Denies Race an Issue in Relief.” Oh, certainly not—even though there’s one lonesome black guy in this picture, in spite of the fact that the majority of New Orleans residents most devastated by Katrina were black, as anyone who has had a passing acquaintance with news coverage in the past two weeks could attest.
I suppose they just didn’t want to misuse President Sideshow’s photo op and accidentally give the false impression that we’re living in Rwanda. Hat tip to Oliver Willis who pulled the following from the Times:
One prominent African-American supporter of Mr. Bush who is close to Karl Rove, the White House political chief, said the president did not go into the heart of New Orleans and meet with black victims on his first trip there, last Friday, because he knew that White House officials were “scared to death” of the reaction.Harrumph.
“If I’m Karl, do I want the visual of black people hollering at the president as if we’re living in Rwanda?” said the supporter, who spoke only anonymously because he did not want to antagonize Mr. Rove.
Btw, read this by Digby if you haven’t already. Gee, those maps are curious.
Scotland Wins Elephant Polo Match
And why wouldn’t they, what with all the elephants running around the Highlands?
Straddled atop hulking pachyderms and wielding long mallets, the Chivas Regal Scotland team clinched their second King's Cup Elephant Polo title Sunday after scoring a golden goal in overtime to beat Thailand's Mullis Capital, 6-5.
Chivas Scotland team, left, and Mullis Capital from Thailand fight for the ball during the final match of the King's Cup Elephant Polo Tournament in Prachuab Khirikhan Province south of Bangkok Sunday Sept, 11. 2005. Chivas Scotland Team beat Mullis Capital from Thailand 6-5. (AP Photo/Roberto Coladangelo)
Some 1,500 spectators came to watch the fifth annual charity game to raise money for Thailand's National Elephant Institute in Lampang, northern Thailand…Who knew?
The rules of the game were drafted by the World Elephant Polo Association, which was set up in 1982 to stage annual games in Nepal. Since then, elephant polo tournaments have also been played in Sri Lanka.
I can only assume that the Scottish team was given plenty of product from its sponsor before the match commenced.
Anyway, well done doing your bit to save Dumbo and friends, Scotland! Tha sin glè mhath!
FYI
Jessica from Feministing will be liveblogging the Roberts hearing today over at Bush v Choice.
Also, I highly recommend John Roberts: The Nominee, by William L. Taylor in The New York Review of Books. Taylor begins:
The most intriguing question about John Roberts is what led him as a young person whose success in life was virtually assured by family wealth and academic achievement to enlist in a political campaign designed to deny opportunities for success to those who lacked his advantages.It’s a great article. Check it out.
Yikes
The latest Zogby poll has Bush losing to every president since Carter, but in a match-up with Kerry, Kerry would still lose. Just a one-point difference, but still…
Kerry won the nomination because the primary voters decided he was “the most electable,” and yet even after all of Shrub’s flubs, Longshanks still couldn’t beat him.
Note to Kerry: Don’t run again. Because the Dems will either give you the nomination again, and you’ll lose, or they won’t, and it will be awkward and everyone involved will look stupid. It’s a no-win situation (in a lot of ways). You gave it your best shot, but no more, okay?
Tangentially, I watched The War Room this weekend, the documentary on Clinton's '92 campaign. It was depressing. The then-energetic and electric Carville and Stephanopoulos are now all-but-useless chat show hacks, and the sullen Shrum who skulked through the background of every scene is now the Dems' campaign go-to guy. Sigh.
(Hat tip Political Wire.)
Fool Me Once…
President Sideshow is pleading with Americans to remember 9/11—specifically, how we totally ignored his total failure to respond quickly or bravely and made him a hero instead. Can’t we just do that again?
In his weekly radio address, Mr Bush reminded the American public of the national unity after 9/11 attacks, four years ago on Sunday.Come on, guys! Be sports! You’ve undeservedly revered me lots of times!
"Today, America is confronting another disaster that has caused destruction and loss of life. This time the devastation resulted not from the malice of evil men, but from the fury of water and wind," he said. "Four years later, Americans remember the fears and uncertainty and confusion of that terrible morning. But above all, we remember the resolve of our nation to defend our freedom, rebuild a wounded city, and care for our neighbours in need."
Not anymore, bub. 38%. Pfft.
Four Years
I’ve been thinking about this being the 4-year anniversary of 9/11 all day today, and I’d love to be able to say something meaningful about it, but nothing especially thoughtful or profound or even very interesting is coming to mind. My thoughts are with the survivors and the friends and family members who lost loved ones on that horrible day. I’m truly, truly sorry.
Two Must-Reads
Pam covers British reports (and here) that NOLA doctors euthanized critically ill patients to prevent further suffering when it became clear rescue was not imminent.
AMERICAblog’s John Aravosis’ summary of Newsweek’s story on “How Bush Blew It.” The story is startling; John’s analysis hits the high points, or, more aptly, low points.
Sideshow George
In The Calmer in Chief, Ezra pulls a quote from this article that illustrates how truly feckless Bush’s leadership was specifically during the Katrina crisis. As I read the article, I was struck by the repetition of a particular idea—that of Bush as showman, and seemingly little more. (Emphasis mine.)
Longtime Bush watchers say they are not shocked that he missed his moment—one of his most trusted confidants calls him "a better third- and fourth-quarter player," who focuses and delivers when he sees the stakes. What surprised them was that he still appeared to be stutter-stepping in the second week of the crisis, struggling to make up for past lapses instead of taking control with a grand gesture…Grand gesture…really important thing to do…big gestures… Always as a way of deflecting attention away from his administration’s failures. While the clown is getting trampled by the rogue elephant, the spotlights are redirected and the barker tells the crowd it’s no time to ask questions about what went wrong, then directs their attention to Sideshow George, who pulls an American flag out of his hat.
Bush has always said the presidency is about doing big things, and a friend who chatted with him one evening in July said he seemed to be craving a fresh mission…"He was looking for the next really important thing to do," the friend said…
"Where's the Cathedral speech?" a friend asked in frustration a dozen days after Katrina hit, referring to Bush's address at the Washington National Cathedral on Sept. 14, 2001, when he asked "almighty God to watch over our nation and grant us patience and resolve in all that is to come." It's coming, Bush's aides promise. And so are other big gestures.
It’s not even a grand gesture, though, is it? Just a flourish, at best.
A grand gesture would be rescuing the clown. A grand gesture would have been, long before things went pear-shaped, making sure the clown—all the clowns, and the audience, too–had health insurance. Grand gestures are selfless and brave, or come unbidden, not as a response to a disaster. But Sideshow George is just a two-bit illusionist who doesn’t have much to do unless the elephant goes haywire.
(Crossposted at Ezra's place.)
OMG
Head over to Neil Shakespeare’s immediately and check out the series on his search for the Intelligent Designer. Fucking right on—lol!
I Love Al Gore
(I know, oddjob—I’m sorry, but surely even you can spare a little love for old Al on this one!)
As you may recall, I noted last Tuesday that Al Gore was helping rescue victims of Hurricane Katrina but wasn’t granting interviews, so no one was sure about the scope of what he was doing. Well, now we know. Former Vice President Al Gore helped save the lives of 270 people, financing and accompanying two mercy missions on Sept. 3 and 4.
Dr. Anderson Spickard, who is Gore's personal physician and accompanied him on the flights, said: "Gore told me he wanted to do this because like all of us he wanted to seize the opportunity to do what one guy can do, given the assets that he has."That’s the man who should have been our president. And the thought that we were robbed of the chance to be led by him will always, always tear my heart in two.
[…]
On September 1, three days after Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast, Simon learned that Dr. David Kline, a neurosurgeon who operated on Gore's son, Albert, after a life-threatening auto accident in 1989, was trying to get in touch with Gore. Kline was stranded with patients at Charity Hospital in New Orleans.
"The situation was dire and becoming worse by the minute -- food and water running out, no power, 4 feet of water surrounding the hospital and ... corpses outside," Simon wrote.
Gore responded immediately, telephoning Kline and agreeing to underwrite the $50,000 each for the two flights, although Larry Flax, founder of California Pizza Kitchens, later pledged to pay for one of them.
"None of the airlines involved required a contract or any written guarantee of payment before sending their planes and volunteer crews," Simon wrote of the American Airlines flights. "One official said if Gore promised to pay, that was good enough for them."
He also recruited two doctors, Spickard and Gore's cousin, retired Col. Dar LaFon, a specialist in internal medicine who once ran the military hospital in Baghdad.
Most critically, Gore worked to cut through government red tape, personally calling Gov. Phil Bredesen to get Tennessee's support and U.S. Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta to secure landing rights in New Orleans.
About 140 people, many of them sick, landed in Knoxville on September 3. The second flight, with 130 evacuees, landed the next day in Chattanooga.
Dr. Marble
Ben Marble is an emergency room physician, an organizer of breast cancer fundraisers, an alt-rocker, and an artist. He also lost his home in Hurricane Katrina, like lots of other people. But there’s something that makes him special.
He’s the man who told Dick Cheney to go fuck himself.
Marble, who was wearing an old Mr. T "I Pity Da Fool" t-shirt since he was sifting through the wreckage, asked a couple of police officers if he and a friend could walk down to Cheney. They told him Cheney was "looking forward” to talking to “the locals.”You can read the rest of his account, including his experience being briefly detained, here. He’s also got a couple of snaps here, as part of his website, HurricaneKatrinaSucked.com.
"So we grabbed my Canon digital rebel and my Sony videocamera and started walking down the street," Marble wrote. "And then right in front of the destroyed tennis court I used to play on Dick Cheney was giving a pep rally, talking to the press. The Secret Service guys patted us down and waved the wands over us, and then let us pass."
As he stood about 10 feet away from Cheney and his friend and some camera operators from CNN and other media filmed the scene, Marble suddenly yelled, "Go fuck yourself, Mr. Cheney! Go fuck yourself, you asshole!"
Thank you, Dr. Marble, for saying what we’d all loved to have said given the opportunity, you cheeky little hero.
(Hat tip to Shaker Deborah. Thanks, D!)
Mercenaries in America
The Dark Wraith has posted an interesting and rather alarming piece about the use of mercenaries in the devastated Gulf Coast region.
[E]ven if it can be reasonably argued that mercenary forces are important in the war resources inventory, their use by the United States federal government on domestic soil is, if not entirely unique, certainly without well-known precedent. That these soldiers of fortune are, themselves, United States citizens blunts what would otherwise be a loud outcry; but their presence in the Gulf Coast region, in at least some role acting as patrols in the evacuated areas of New Orleans, has raised eyebrows and caused consternation.The war has indeed found its way to American shores. Disturbing stuff.
Recall
BradBlog’s got a highlight reel from last night’s Real Time with Bill Maher. I watched the show last night, and one of the best parts was his suggestion of a recall election, which is included in the video clip. I totally agree. Frankly, I don’t care whether the Dems start calling for a recall, a resignation, or an impeachment, as long as they start putting the onus on the GOP to explain why they were willing to impeach a president for lying about a blowjob, but aren’t even willing to investigate or in any way hold accountable a president whose incompetence and bad policies have resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans.
My Friend Joe
Tonight, I sat down to write a kind of “Boy, what a shitty week, but keep fighting the good fight!” kind of post. And I couldn’t do it. I just felt overwhelmed with hopelessness. So I sat for a moment, choking back tears, unable to look ahead, instead seeing only what lay behind, this awful week, so much suffering, so much pain. So I replied to an email from my friend Joe. Joe replied, “IM?” And so we two ghosts, who know each other only through words and pictures—nothing tangible, but things that linger and connect nonetheless—met, as it were, and I poured out my despair.
“Quote Faulkner,” Joe told me.
He was writing a post, and I figured he was looking for a specific quote. I gave him what I had. “‘A man’s moral conscience is the curse he had to accept from the gods in order to gain from them the right to dream.’”
“Ooh, that is a good one,” said Joe.
Not the one he needed, I guessed. “How about, ‘Man will not merely endure; he will prevail’?” I suggested.
“The most quoted,” Joe noted. “Not even in book; Nobel Prize speech.”
“‘Others have done it before me. I can, too’?” I went on. “‘Given the choice between grief and nothing, I’ll choose grief’?”
“Good,” said Joe. “You are just full of them.”
Joe wasn’t in need of Faulkner for his post. I was in need of Faulkner to regain the fight in me again.
“Is this just a trick to get my blood pumping again?” I asked. “Sneaky.”
“Yeah, well you know,” said Joe.
“I do,” I told him.
“I have been found out,” he said.
Soon, I was laughing again, the knot in my throat dissipating, cured of the sense of futility which hung on me. “You are coming out of it,” Joe said.
And indeed I was.
I once described Joe to a mutual friend as a guardian angel, a little glowing bit of goodness in the dark, hovering just out of reach, as ghosts and angels do. Our friend agreed it was an apt description. Tonight Joe reminded me, as does he always, why I regard him so. Such generosity and kindness, and such reserves of strength, that on a night when my will was shaken, he gave me some of his, whatever he could spare. I will do the same for him when the time comes, because in one way or another, we are all guardians of one other, and the precious purpose we have all taken up, to protect what we think is right and good. The road is long, and impossible to travel without faltering, without losing our stride now and again. Companions on the journey are all that can keep us going.
“Whatever feeling I have can be yours for the night,” Joe told me. “You can borrow on it. Sometime I may need yours. Why does that matter? It matters because there is something in you, something in this country that can be beaten down, but cannot be defeated.”
You know, I don’t believe in angels, but I do believe in Joe.
Is this True?
I got this quote from this post at Dependable Renegade:
4. Rep. Baker of Baton Rouge overheard telling lobbyists: "We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did."
Jesus.
Has anyone else heard of this? Is there verification?
Please, somewhere, let there be audio. Because anyone that says something like this deserves to be sentenced to cleaning out New Orleans, alone, with a mop & bucket.
What Will It Take?
Okay, normally I really hate the whole “imagine if Clinton had…” thing, because A) it’s trite; and B) it’s a fruitless endeavor, because the situation is patently different—Clinton was dealing with a GOP-controlled Congress (to his misfortune), and so is Bush (to his fortune). But seriously…at this point, with all due gravity, Clinton was impeached for lying about a blowjob, and tens of thousands of people have died on Bush’s watch, so what fucking gives? First, during 9/11, after he’d received notices about bin Laden being determined to strike and al Qaida’s intent to use airplanes to do it (and that doesn’t even take into consideration the scores of people who will likely die early because they were told Ground Zero was inhabitable when it was not). Secondly, during the entirety of the Iraq War, in which we’ve lost soldiers and killed countless numbers of Iraqi civilians to whom we are meant to be bringing freedom. And now, during Katrina and the aftermath.
Americans are dead. Lots of them. And I’m only pointing to obvious deaths, not even those caused by poverty, or lack of healthcare coverage, or crime, or methamphetamine use (all of which have increased steadily under Bush), or other more abstract, policy-related deaths. And I’m not pointing to countless deaths in Africa because of AIDS and genocides (to which we have all but turned a blind eye), or in Haiti because of utter social meltdown after the coup to remove Aristide (in which we participated), and any one of a number of other foreign policy issues that have left people dead under Bush’s leadership. Just taking into consideration the obvious, concrete deaths as a result of Bush’s failures to protect Americans, the number is staggering.
And forget the excuse about there being a GOP-controlled Congress at this point. It’s not like they’re ignoring loud and repeated calls for his impeachment from the Dems (nor the American people, though they continue to lower their opinion of him). We’re well aware by now that the Republicans are so thoroughly corrupt that they’re not going to investigate him, no less impeach him, but where are the Dems shoving their faces in every camera and calling for his resignation, his impeachment, something? Just because they don’t have the votes doesn’t mean they can’t call attention to the fact that it needs to be done—put the onus on the miscreants of the GOP who refuse to do the right thing. I’m tired of this bullshit. This guy is ruining the fucking country; Americans are dying on his watch.
This isn’t a bloody election issue! DO SOMETHING NOW. If not now, then when? What the fuck is it going to take?!
