FEMA: Hacktacular

Time and The New Republic pretty much destroy any credibility Mike Brown had left. Go read the articles, they're pretty funny, or sad to be more exact. We now also know that five of the top eight FEMA managers were political hacks. People with no disaster management were put in charge of one of the most important government organizations in the country.

This brings us to an important question. How many other hacks have their thumbs in the levees of other critical government infrastructures? It's time to shine some light on the cockroaches.

Creepy

Things are starting to get creepy. I wrote earlier today about the impending media blackout. Now I read this ABC News story. A group of good Samaritans (KAMP) put together a project to broadcast a radio station at the Astrodome. Sony was set to kick in 10,000 radios so that the IDPs there could get information on their situation, and get information on relatives. They went through all the correct channels and obtained all the licences needed to be able to broadcast.

The Joint Operation Center at the Astrodome, which has to be run by FEMA, told the group that they could not broadcast. At first, FEMA told KAMP that they could not provide them with electricity. KAMP said they would run on battery power. Nope. Request denied. No reason given the second time. The Joint Operation Center refused multiple requests for comment on the story.

I'm not normally taken in by the tin hat crew, but what the fuck is going on here. This is surely what Moscow felt like in the early days of Stalin. I hope they give me a heads up before interning me at a camp.

And While The Other Administration Officials Feigned Empathy, Dick Did Not

Hey Dick Cheney is still alive. Although he is not receiving as good a reception in Mississippi as Dear Leader. A random just walked up to him live on CNN and uttered the following.

Go fuck yourself, Mr. Cheney. Go fuck yourself.

Good for him. Cheney looked pissed. I believe the purpose of Cheney's visit is to allow him to gorge himself on the dead.

I'll post a link to the video when it is up.

Crooks And Liars now has the video up here.

Side note: I wrote the title of this post three days ago.

Punches, Not Pies

The time is upon us. It is time the American Left stopped throwing pies and start throwing punches. It is the reason I am now imploring Paul Hackett to run for Mike Dewine's soon to be vacated Senate seat. We need someone in the Senate who will push, who will shove, who will kick, bite,elbow, punch the republicans every time they attempt the shit they are trying right now.

We need someone to stand up to the aristocracy that leaves the poor to die while they eat cake. We need someone that will not allow those in service of this country to bleed for corporate interests that shelter their filthy lucre at some thatched hut somewhere you never heard of. We are definitely going to need someone to stop the corporate cronyism that is already shaping up to be the Katrina reconstruction.

In short we need you, Paul Hackett, to be not a voice of reason, but a voice of rage to lead us from the darkest days this country has ever seen.

It is time for you to unshoulder your weapon and get back in the fight.

We will provide the money. We will provide the manpower.

Parades

Today, here in Columbus, Michael Coleman is holding an all day fundraiser at city hall. The money will go to help the estimated four hundred IDP's from the Gulf Coast that have been evacuated to Columbus. I know traffic will be a bitch, but if you are a local, please drop them some coin. They are not accepting food or clothing, just money.

Oh, and a word for local governments everywhere. DO NOT parade these people around as a trophy awarded for your sympathy.

Mules

John Tierney, do you have good sea legs? In drug smuggling, they call them mules. In politics, they call them hacks, or water carriers.

Let me make one thing very clear. Anyone, and I mean anyone, that mules the bullshit that Bush administration is pailing in operation bailout should be drug by the neck to the shores of this great nation, put on a barge, and shoved off.

Wow

On CNN Daybreak they asked a question. Who should be fired over the Katrina response? It is apparent that those who mule information for the Bush administration were lying in wait. 1100 responses in the first three minutes and this is bfore 5:30 in the morning EST. Nearly all of them blaming someone else for Bush's failures.

UPDATE: This is a full blown republican blow back operation.

Press Blackout

The federal government has made the decision to not allow the press to cover the recovery of what may be up to 40,000 dead Americans on American soil. FEMA is having the military turn back any member of the media at the entrance to New Orleans. Brian Williams of NBC News is reporting on his blog this:

While we were attempting to take pictures of the National Guard (a unit from Oklahoma) taking up positions outside a Brooks Brothers on the edge of the Quarter, the sergeant ordered us to the other side of the boulevard. The short version is: there won't be any pictures of this particular group of Guard soldiers on our newscast tonight. Rules (or I suspect in this case an order on a whim) like those do not HELP the palpable feeling that this area is somehow separate from the United States.

At that same fire scene, a police officer from out of town raised the muzzle of her weapon and aimed it at members of the media... obvious members of the media... armed only with notepads.

Welcome to 21st century America, the America of Joseph Stalin.

CNN

Frontpaged right now at CNN.com is this simple sentence:

New Orleans police force getting back to normal

I've been to New Orleans before. I doubt that walking around in a post-apocalyptic swamp that resembles the movie 28 Days Later is what I would refer to as normal.

FEMA Fuck-Ups Continue

Salon tells us today that FEMA finally deployed about fifty of the firefighters holed up in an Atlanta hotel waiting to help. They were used as props for a Bush photo-op. Some of the fire fighter removed their FEMA T-shirts in protest when they found out that was all they were there to do. FEMA's response:

"I would go back and ask the firefighter to revisit his commitment to FEMA, to firefighting and to the citizens of this country," FEMA spokeswoman Mary Hudak told the Tribune.

Hudak should follow Mike Brown out the door. Howard Fineman just reported on a local DC talk radio show that Brown is no longer calling the shots at FEMA, someone from the Coast Guard is running the show now. I haven't been able to locate his name yet.

So, Brown is out, but in typical Bush crony fashion, he is still catching a check. I guess his status is unchanged really, catching a check is all he seemed to be doing before the Katrina disaster anyway. Cronies gotta get paid muthafucker!

Not Necessarily The News

I believe I've found the newspaper both Michael Chertoff and Richard Myers were referring to.

Sleepwalking

The doomsday scenario just happened with my sleepwalking. I woke up barefoot without my keys in the alley behind the security building I live in. I was outside for a couple of hours waiting for someone that lives here to come home.

Bullshit

In the past couple of days, both Michael Chertoff and Richard Myers have both said the same thing. Both said they were relieved when they woke up on Tuesday and the newspaper headline read "New Orleans Dodges A Bullet."

Produce the newspaper or shut the fuck up.

Getting A Handle On The Number Of Dead

I sat down overnight to try to come up with a rough estimate of the number of dead in the Gulf Coast. I came up with about 25,000. DMORT, the Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team, has been told to expect 40,000 bodies. I was using census numbers that are six years old and calculated guesses for variables, so I suppose 40,000 is possible, but I would still have to say unlikely.

By the way, our worst national tragedy ever didn't get the president to order our flag flown at half staff, Rhenquist's death did.

The Usual Suspects

Judging from stock prices last week, the usual suspects will be lining up at the trough to get their crony coin in the Katrina clean up. Check out this graphic from the NYT. Stock prices rose through the week before profit takers ruled the day on Friday.

Stupid Fucking Idiot

Just when I begin to think my outrage meter can't go any higher, someone knocks the top off the meter so the mercury or whatever fluid that fills it can rise higher.

At a time when the United States is facing what I believe to be the largest resettlement of African-Americans since the Civil War, former first lady and current first mother Barbara Bush had this stupid shit to say:

What I'm hearing which is sort of scary is that they all want to stay in Texas. Everybody is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway so this (chuckle)--this is working very well for them.

So, Babs, what exactly is scary about having a couple of hundred thousand more African-Americans in the state of Texas? Are you afraid one of them is going to fuck Jenna, or if she should be so lucky, Fat Jenna? Oh, and for the record, the only underprivilege all of them qualify for is that your son doesn't give fuck number one about them. Furthermore, the chuckle, I don't find much funny about the whole situation.

It's truly hard to find a better look into the white republican mind than this stupid idiot. The White House probably should muzzle her now.

Sorry about the obsenity filled rant, but I'm getting sick of this shit.

Found via Atrios

Katrina And The Supreme Court

I really think John Roberts was nominated for Supreme Court Chief Justice was due to the hurricane. The White House is desperate to push the spotlight off of its failures in the relief effort. Roberts was a handy pick, they didn't have time for a more thorough search. The fact that even the Supreme Court is used to take political pressure off of itself proves that this is the worst president in the history of this country.

This Is Dumb

Ray Nagin is sending his first responders on vacation. You have got to be kidding me. This is the dumbest thing I've heard in a long time. He even tried to get FEMA to foot the the bill. FEMA smartly refused. Instead, the city will pick up all costs for the five day vacations mostly to Las Vegas or Atlanta. He is sending them in two shifts. What happens if the first shift doesn't return?

I know their morale must be low, but come on, suck it up.

Casinos

I saw this the other day, but didn't comment at that time. Haley Barbour said the other day that they were changing the law to allow casinos to be built on dry land. They currently float on barges.

Um, this is stupid. If they were on land, they would still be destroyed. If the owners of these casinos would have had a little more foresight they would have moved them out of the way. They are boats. The few dollars they made by staying open until Sunday night must now look like a pretty bad business decision.

Lets see how long it takes Barbour to throw them some state funds.

Gotta Bolt

A guy in our building's parking lot has been blasting the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack for the last five hours. Check out NBC's Brian Williams' blog.