A Question Presents Itself

One might reasonably wonder how far Bush supporters are willing to go to stand by their man. The answer, as evidenced by their performance (and his) in the wake of Hurricane Katrina presents itself.

How far are they willing to go? All the way.

Rebuilding New Orleans

A lot of people have pointed to an article in the Wall Street Journal yesterday that commented on how the wealthy of New Orleans are doing. Apparently they are doing fine. People like Jimmy Reiss, descendent of an old line New Orleans family, are well able to take care of themselves.

Mr. Reiss commented to the Wall Street Journal, "Those who want to see this city rebuilt want to see it done in a completely different way: demographically, geographically, and politically. I'm not just peaking for myself here. The way we've been living is not going to happen again or we're out."

I wonder how they want to change the city demographically? I mean that, to me, has a bit of an ominous ring to it. But maybe I'm reading too much into it.

I can't link to the article, but it was a front page article that continued on page A12.

Round the Horn. An Irwin J. McIckleson Production

Hello all. This is Irwin J. McIckleson, 1910's fictional plutocrat. Today, like every Friday, I will be guiding you through a discussion of various posts by members of the Liberal Coalition.

firedoglake has some news about one of the principles in that bounder Karl Rove's case. Apparently Judith Miller is considering testifying after all, after getting somewhat better legal advice than she had been getting.

Respectful of Otters has a piece discussing how the Federal Government might have approached the tragedy in New Orleans a bit more forcefully.

rubber hose has an interesting map of Louisiana. I see there are far more parishes than there were in my day. There is some question about which parishes are getting hurricane relief; but it appears to have been settled.

Rick's Cafe Americaine has some news about playing poker for charity to help out victims of the recent hurricane.

Speedkill has a discussion of what the limits of governmental power should be and the morality of taxation. It is a complicated issue; obviously you don't want a strong government that could interfere in the workings of a plutocrats empire. On the other hand having to provide individualized police forces and military units would be a vast drain on a plutocrats funds (although I understand some are willing to pay that price). This may be a bit naive but I would stipulate this is why we have a democracy - to allow the people to express how best to protect plutocratic wealth without interfering in a negative way.

Scrutiny Hooligans has reports from those who are escaping New Orleans. It is very sad, as you might expect.

The Invisible Library points out that President Bush apparently ended his vacation early once previously on behalf of one person, but was unable to end his vacation early on behalf of an entire city.

THE NEWS BLOG has a comments on the person President Bush has put in charge of emergency relief. Apparently he's something of a lay-about.

Steve Bates, the Yellow Doggeral Democrat, has information about a Bush Administration trick that I have to admire. Apparently they are delaying delivery of individual funds to various victims of the hurricane in hopes that they won't have to distribute all the monies. Apparently they've done this before; promised lots of money and then failed to deliver. It is a smart policy; more people will remember the announcement of charity than the charity itself. Still in this case the main priority should probably be providing help to the people in New Orleans and surrounding areas who need it.

At any rate, I hope you all enjoy a productive weekend, and I will see you next week.

A Clarification

Some of you may find some of what Rush Limbaugh and others of his ilk says about New Orleans hard to understand, particularly as he pontificates about the terrible damage welfare has caused to New Orleans. This may be particularly confusing if you realize that the majority of New Orleans was not on welfare. Poor, yes, but on welfare? No.

What you need to understand is that to Rush Limbaugh and those who follow his philosophy there is absolutely no difference between a poor black person who has a job and a poor black person who is on welfare. In both cases they are parasites, and in both cases they pretty much deserve what they get.

If they wanted to qualify for our sympathy they would be middle class white people, or, at worst, middle class black people.

Hope that helps you follow along.

Making Hay

After my brief dismissal two weeks ago; I had not thought I would return to this blog. My brief misstatement was blown out of proportion by my enemies and my coworkers piled on without provocation. And the recent tragedy in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama have somewhat dampened my eagerness to engage in partisan bickering.

But I note, with much sadness but little surprise, that our friends on the left side of the aisle have felt NO SUCH RESTRAINT. Rather they seem to see this TRAGEDY as an opportunity to trash the president. Have they no shame?

If they had shame they would no longer be liberals but, rather, Americans.

Take this mean-spirited ugly article published at the Nation and reprinted by Commondreams.

On Friday, when even Republican lawmakers were giving the federal government an "F" for its response to the crisis, President Bush heaped praise on embattled Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown. As thousands of victims of the hurricane continued to plead for food, water, shelter, medical care and a way out of the nightmare to which federal neglect had consigned them, Brown cheerily announced that "people are getting the help they need."

Barbara Bush's son put his arm around the addled FEMA functionary and declared, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."

Like mother, like son.

Of course the Democratic ATTACK MONGERS wasted no time attacking Ms. Bush for expressing pleasure that some of those who's lives were shattered in New Orleans were being well taken care of in Houston. It probably infuriates liberals that one of the reddest cities in America has shown such generosity as it puts the lie to the old "heartless Conservative" myth.

And they wasted no time attacking President Bush for failing to completely fix the problems of New Orleans. This is because government is the GOD OF THE DEMOCRATS. Rather than having a healthy respect for the limitations of Government, Democrats expect government to fix all problems. And since Government apparently failed the people of New Orleans, they must blame President Bush rather than understanding and accepting the limitations of Government.

Because it's a lot easier to attack Bush than it is to accept the moral failings inherent in your own philosophy, isn't it?

Katrina Timeline

I'm not interested in pillorying President Bush for things he didn't do, nor am I interested in shielding the Democratic Mayor of New Orleans or the Governor of Louisiana from legitimate criticism.

Of course, the Bush Administration reporting that the Governor of New Orleans failed to declare a state of emergency when she had (on August 26) is an example of illegitimate criticism. And you have to wonder how Bush Supporters feel about their guys telling such transparent lies.

But that's where it's helpful to have a timeline of the events surrounding Hurricane Katrina. Think Progress has done a pretty nice one, and it seems easily verifiable. In particular it's nice to see how little Hurricane Katrina impacted President Bush's vacation. After all, a rested President is an effective President. That's why things have gone so smoothly - think about how cranky and unpleasant President Bush would be if he hadn't been able to celebrate Senator McCain's Birthday or goof around with Country Singer Mark Willis.

One might ask, well what could President Bush have done? He could have engaged. He could have gotten involved and treated this like a national disaster that has killed thousands instead of as an inconvenience to his personal life. I'll be blunt, President Bush is an idiot, so maybe we're all better off with him goofing around with Mark Willis. But those of you who support President Bush or who voted for him, well, don't you have a higher opinion of him than I do?

Being President of the United States is difficult. Ask Abraham Lincoln. Ask Franklin Roosevelt. Ask John F. Kennedy. You either rise to the occasion or you don't. And if you don't, well, I'd think you'd want a stronger defense than "well I couldn't think of anything that the president could do to help."

Into the Sun

Hi all!!! : )

We are having computer troubles today. We think we have them all fixed up. Apparently it's a residual virus from the saintly and glorious Bryant. Anyway we hope to have some more posts sooner rather than later.

In the mean time I'd advise checking out this post by Random Goblin. Very heartfelt.

Quotations from Ann Coulter

Those of you from the Big Apple might not want to read her remarks from the Radio Factor.

COULTER: Yes. No, I know, I thought the exact same thing. And in the same way the rest of the country ran to support New York, I'm waiting to see if New Yorkers will run to support the suffering victims of Katrina.

RANTEL: Do you have doubts?

COULTER: New Yorkers don't really consider themselves a part of the rest of America.

I'm not sure how New Yorkers might respond to this particular statement.

Got this from Media Matters.

A Question Answers it

It's hard to make the argument that President Bush has done well in responding to Katrina. Even charitably it's clear that President Bush has failed the citizens of New Orleans, Mississippi and Alabama. So one might wonder in the face of this manifest failure, how do Bush supporters go on?

There is a great secret here.

They've trained themselves not to look at President Bush at all. Paying any attention on President Bush at all would expose his weakness as a President and a man. So they must direct their attention elsewhere.

You see when many conservatives relate to President Bush they relate to him in a very specific way. They feel like they have been held back by forces beyond their control, which they have named Liberals or Elitists or Democrats or Northerners and so on and so forth. They feel like those forces have hurt them; and they see those same forces lined up against President Bush.

So rather than focus their attention on President Bush and his heroism (which clearly doesn't exist (they don't even have the low-grade machismo of "Bring it On")), they focus on us. Because if they can't build up President Bush they can always attack liberals!

Of course, I could be wrong. And there are, of course, plenty of Conservatives who don't give a damn so long as they get their tax cut.

A Proud Day for American Conservatism

Yet another opportunity for pride for all those American Conservatives who voted for President Bush. Here are some comments he made about the disaster in New Orleans.

Out of the rubbles of Trent Lott's house--he's lost his entire house, there's going to be a fantastic house. And I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch.

Yep - that's what this disaster means to President Bush - a chance for his wealthy friends (in so far as Trent Lott is one of his friends) to have an even nicer house. For more on how President Bush is doing in the face of this tragedy, check out this article by Time Magazine.

Good News from Housten

Good News!

Barbara Bush, the mother of President Bush, says that things in houston are going great. She said, "This is working very well for them." So I guess having your home destroyed and being unable to return home for months is a positive thing for some people. Isn't that great?

You know it seems like there's something wrong with this story, but I can't quite figure it out.

Edited to Add: I got this from Bark Bark Woof Woof.

Cindy Sheehan and Hurricane Katrina; the Unholy Alliance

According to Suzanne Fields, Cindy Sheehan and Hurricane Katrina are similar tests of the American Spirit. Yep - American must stand up and deal with the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and the terrible actions of Cindy Sheehan. Yep. The two are equivalent.

The Hurricane death toll may be in the thousands, but consider the spiritual devastation caused by a mother questioning the war in Iraq.

Hitler was surprised when the British did not give up when he blitzed London, so he set out to break the British spirit with "Coventrieren," a tactic to extend the destruction of Coventry to 20 additional cities. But instead of breaking the British spirit, "Coventrieren" strengthened it. The people of Coventry began rebuilding their houses and factories at once.

Hurricane Katrina and Cindy Sheehan must be similar tests of the spirit. The winds of the storm, like the winds of war, beat against our emotions and our will, and the American will to survive must prevail against the despairing voices that, as the poet says, will wake us only to drown.

Yep, Cindy Sheehan is not only an equivalent test to Hurricane Katrina, but also to the battle of London.

Pretty impressive for one anti-war protester.

At any rate, if the foundation of this war in Iraq were strong (which it's not), than this wouldn't be an issue. She'd be a crank. Instead Americans are listening to what she has to say because it dovetails with their own opinions on the war. Republicans can continue to paint hazy pictures of "liberated Iraq" but shouldn't be surprised if the American people find Ms. Sheehan's views more compelling.

Prediction

I, the Amazing Bryant, will predict the future. We will soon hear Rush Limbaugh and other conservatives talking about how Liberal Environmentalists want high gas prices and so are happy about Hurricane Katrina.

Watch for it.

It might already have happened, but this being labor day I'm unwilling to labor. So I don't know if someone is already saying.

New Format, new Quote

Hi All!!!

We know preasent a new format and new quote. This weeks quote was selected by Grumbly who is back - she will be reappearing this week.