Referring to Timothy Flanigan, who apparently is going to be Deputy Attorney General, Josh Marshall asks:
Why is this guy's nomination not dead in the water?
A good question, and one that we could ask about a lot of these jokers in the Bush administration. Mike Brown comes particularly to mind. I heard snippets of exchanges between him and the committee yesterday where they were berating him for not having experience in disaster management, and I couldn't help but think that these must have been some of the same guys who would have confirmed him in the first place.
Sounds like quite a tour:
Keep in mind, Dearly Departed Tours is of an adult nature, so parents should be cautioned about subject matter, and possible language. Not recommended for children who haven't learned of outdoor sex.
If you resign, and then get hired back to try and learn how you screwed up so bad you got fired in the first place...you just might be a screw-up.
Never thought of doing something like this on that old Apple //e at home...
Bush's comments recently about wanting the military to take a greater role in the aftermath of Katrina is frightening. It also brought to mind an essay called "The Origins of the American Military Coup of 2012," which I went back and re-read. The essay is now over a decade old, and in some ways it shows its age, but the overall contours of what it describes are eerily prescient.
I bet this is on the money. These guys aren't just everyday evil. They're Wolfram & Hart evil.
I didn't watch the speech last night, figuring I had better ways to spend my time. What did I do? Well, let's just say my nostrils are clean as a whistle. Anyway, sounds like Bush's image-making machine is intact. Frankly, I find it obscene that they found a way to deliver electrical power just long enough to give Dubya the right light, and then promptly cut it again. I think electrodes to the testicles might be too good for these people.
Josh Marshall touches on something that I heard a Republican discussing this morning on NPR. Namely, that the Bush Administration is preparing to throw gigantic buckets of money at the Gulf Coast. This is fine in a sense, but all indications are that they're going to do so in pretty much the same way they did in Iraq. The money will go to enormous corporations with close ties to Republicans, there will be little to no transparency, and priorities will be driven by a combination of ideology and favors, not practical concerns.
Dubya may have shown that he can admit fault (sort of), but he hasn't shown that he can learn from his mistakes.
This is cool. NBC is posting government documents on their web site illustrating what was and was not done prior to Katrina to prepare for an event everyone knew was coming someday.
At first I thought this was a doctored image, but apparently not. Looks like Dubya has to ask Condi when he can go to the bathroom. No word on whether he wipes himself or not.
This seems like a great way to get at Roberts philosophy, in a way that he shouldn't be able to dodge by refusing to discuss issues that might come before the court, etc.
Oh, this is rich. From the BBC I see the headline "Bush to lead inquiry into Katrina."
Isn't that akin to having Al Capone investigating the proliferation of speakeasies, or Jack the Ripper studying how to protect women? Jesus H. Christ, tell me that this isn't really the road we're going down. Even if you grant the administration some leeway to cover their ass (which I emphatically do not), do you really want President Whodathunkit pretending to lead an investigation?
I can see it now: hurricanes come every year? Whodathunkit? They should have been more prepared! Levees often fail under stress? Whodathunkit? They should have strengthened those! Poor people can't afford transportation? Whodathunkit? They should have started walking!
I swear FEMA's run by Homer Simpson. Jesus Christ.
Bull Moose ponders a question that I was mulling over yesterday-- is criminal incompetence grounds for impeachment?
Kevin Drum has an excellent summary of the fuck-up that is the handling of disaster preparation in general, and the Katrina debacle in particular. As he rightly says, "No one could predict that a hurricane the size of Katrina would hit this year, but the slow federal response when it did happen was no accident." The negligence shown by the Bush administration is criminal. They're already trying to deflect questions about their decisions by calling on Americans to put politics aside, but politics is a significant part of how we ended up where we are right now, and we need to (finally?) hold these bastards accountable.
