The Hammer Gets Nailed

Via kos, praises be sung!

A Travis County grand jury today indicted U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay on one count of criminal conspiracy, jeopardizing the Sugar Land Republican's leadership role as the second most powerful Texan in Washington, D.C.

The charge, a state jail felony punishable by up to two years incarceration, stems from his role with his political committee, Texans for a Republican Majority, a now-defunct organization that already had been indicted on charges of illegally using corporate money during the 2002 legislative elections.

Sayanora, douchebag. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy... really. One down, a couple hundred left to go.

This is great, great news.

Round & Round We Go

Sound familiar?

Nearly four days after Hurricane ________ hit, many of the storm's sweltering victims are still waiting for electricity, gasoline, water and other relief. The situation prompted one top emergency official to complain that people are "living like cavemen."

Sounds like something from a month ago, eh? Sadly, it's from today. We've learned a lot in these past weeks.

"I can appreciate the difficulty in responding to a disaster that was this widespread but at the same time we certainly feel we've not received a level of service that was satisfactory," he said.

We've got three more years of this bullshit to deal with and that is absolutely terrifying. God help us.

Mike Brown: "I got the skillz."

Are we officially playing the blame game now?

"My biggest mistake was not recognizing by Saturday that Louisiana was dysfunctional," two days before the storm hit, Brown told the panel.

Of course, he also seemed to not recognize this "fact" Sunday... or Monday... or Tuesday... or Wednesday... or.. well, you get the point. What a douchebag.

"I'm happy you left," said Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn. "That kind of look in the lights like a deer tells me you weren't capable of doing that job."

It's good to see Republicans saying things like this, though they'll still continue sucking the Bushco teat and following single-file into the gates of hell.

But it gets better.

Brown in his opening statement said he had made several "specific mistakes" in dealing with the storm, and listed two.

One, he said, was not having more media briefings.

Yeah, thousands of people suffering and dying due to a lack of anything resembling a RESPONSE PLAN... not so much a mistake, but more of an unfortunate accident I guess.

I suspect he'll be getting the Presidential Medal of Honor within the hour.

Bizarro World

Just when it seems as though shit can't get much weirder in the world, there's this:

It may be the oddest tale to emerge from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Armed dolphins, trained by the US military to shoot terrorists and pinpoint spies underwater, may be missing in the Gulf of Mexico.

Killer Dolphins! Good god almighty.

Credit to my friend Nick for having the greatest quote about this: "It seems like a lot of Sikhs taking scuba diving lessons could really get hurt."

And of course this all begs the question, how exactly do you train a Dolphin to distinguish between a terrorist and say, a bearded hippie? It also makes you wonder what other kinds of animals they've got in the military. Feed a monkey some plutonium and the shit he/she throws becomes a WMD.

Guess Austin Powers and the whole "sharks with lasers" thing wasn't too far off.

Mike Brown: Consultant

Jon Stewart always jokes on the Daily Show, "Does Bush know more than like three people?" It's a good joke, but fuck - it's true.

It turns out that former FEMA director Michael Brown is being retained by the agency as a "consultant."

Does this mean that if I mow someone down with my car, I can be hired by the police to investigate? I hope so!

Bush Is Not Responsible.

Bush is not, in fact, responsible for the failure to act after Hurricane Katrina.

Just like he wasn't responsible for using bad intelligence to get us into the Iraq War, or for the horrible torture of people at Abu Ghraib.

We all know that he didn't order soldiers to torture people at Abu Ghraib. The soldiers obviously took up the idea themselves and carried it out without any of their commanding officers having any power to stop them.

We all know that the Niger yellow cake was a lie that the CIA thought up. They must have ignored Bush's orders to find the best, most reliable information out there and instead came up with a few things to snicker at when Bush said them on t.v. in front of the whole nation as if they were true.

But the strongest proof of all is Hurricane Katrina and FEMA's pathetic response to it. The National Response Plan of 2004 states that the Secretary of Homeland Security "has been directed to assume incident management policies by the President." I'm sure that Bush was calling Chertoff every day telling him to actually get off his ass and go help those who were stranded, but that Chertoff decided to take his sweet time rather than listen to his boss.

This leads me to believe that Bush couldn't possibly be responsible. But it also leads me to an even starker, more frightening belief: that the office of President no longer matters.

Being the head of the government no longer gives one any power to reign in, challenge, or command in any way those beneath one in the chain of government. Traditionally, the Commander-in-Chief could have stopped soldiers from abusing prisoners of war. He could have told the CIA to thoroughly verify any intelligence that could send our nation to war before presenting it to the people. And he could have ordered the head of FEMA to do something immediately instead of letting people starve, dehydrate, drown, and rot in a city that had just suffered a predictable (and anticipated) natural disaster. He would have been able to wield the magnificent powers bestowed on him by the Constitution and over 200 years of precedent, if his office were still relevant.

Who is our leader, if not the President?

Pelosi on Bush: ""Oblivious, in denial, dangerous."

I hope Reid and Pelosi continue taking it to the administration:

At a news conference, Pelosi, D-Calif., said Bush's choice for head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency had "absolutely no credentials."

She related that she urged Bush at the White House on Tuesday to fire Brown.

"He said 'Why would I do that?'" Pelosi said.

"'I said because of all that went wrong, of all that didn't go right last week.' And he said 'What didn't go right?'"

"Oblivious, in denial, dangerous," she added.

Again, I don't know why I continue to be shocked... but he fucking said "What didn't go right?" That's just downright frightening. I don't know how stupid one person can be, but Bush is really aiming for the prize. You know it's bad when the idea of Cheney being in charge ISN'T as terrifying. My god.

Bush should have appointed a director with more experience, said Hillary Rodham Clinton on CBS' "The Early Show."

Clinton, who also appeared on ABC and NBC Wednesday, urged the appointment of an independent investigative panel along the lines of the Sept. 11 commission.

She bristled when asked about Republican accusations that she was trying to capitalize on a natural disaster to help her political career.

"You know, the questions that have been raised about the competence and the effectiveness of this administration certainly are not limited to what's happened with Katrina," she said on NBC's "Today." "And every time anyone raises any kind of legitimate criticism and asks questions, they're attacked."

We need more of this from the big-name Democrats. Dr. Dean has really set the bar high and it's time for others to follow his lead. This is a good start, but Senator Kerry? Senator Kennedy? We're waiting.

Howard Dean: An Example of Leadership

Email from Dean & the DNC:

Dear Brad,

In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, you mobilized to make sure that the Red Cross had the financial resources it needed to respond swiftly. The response was literally overwhelming -- so many donations poured in that their web site struggled to process them.

Since then Americans have seen another kind of disaster unfold. The irresponsible lack of attention by our federal government has led directly to the devastation of communities and the loss of American lives.

The federal response over these crucial first days has been totally unacceptable. There will be a time for a full accounting of the preventable part of this disaster, and those responsible will be held accountable. It will be soon.

But there are lives to save right now and our focus must be steady. People need help right now. And you can be a direct participant in the relief efforts by providing housing for a victim of the disaster.

The vast number of evacuees has triggered a cascading crisis -- the first group of evacuation centers in the Gulf States has been overwhelmed, and the surrounding states have seen their capacity exceeded as well.

Hundreds of thousands of survivors are being transported in small groups to cities and towns across the country. A coalition of groups has put together a web site to collect offers of housing and provide a place for victims to search for help. You can offer shelter -- whether for a few days or a few weeks -- by signing up here:

http://redir.democrats.org/rdr/0034j036eu0001D

To support your volunteer housing operation the following steps have been taken:

* We are briefing Democratic elected officials on the HurricaneHousing.org program and asking that they treat this as the front-line network of volunteers who are ready and waiting to provide shelter in their jurisdiction.

* We have asked outside organizations to direct their members to HurricaneHousing.org to volunteer; those organizations with representatives on the ground have been asked to help victims connect with the housing bank.

* We have directed the staff at Democratic Headquarters in Washington to use local volunteers signed up on HurricaneHousing.org as they work with DC emergency response officials to assist hundreds of survivors being transported to the DC Armory, which is located nearby.

In addition to mobilizing our infrastructure to support the housing drive, we have also taken the following steps in the last week:

* All DNC fundraising events have been cancelled until further notice and donations are being directed to relief organizations.

* The DNC Fall Meeting that had been scheduled to take place this week has been postponed.

* All staff have been given leave to participate in relief operations (many are completing Red Cross training this week and will deploy shortly).

* The Democratic leadership in Congress has proposed a comprehensive policy package to ensure that victims receive health care, financial assistance and educational and employment opportunities during the crisis (go to www.democrats.org/reliefplan for more).

But more than anything our organization has done, the thousands of acts of compassion by ordinary citizens and a renewed sense of common purpose will be the legacy of this effort.

Our American community will emerge stronger from this crisis.

Thank you for doing what you can.

Governor Howard Dean, M.D.

P.S. -- A number of organizations on the ground still need financial support. You can learn about them here:

http://redir.democrats.org/rdr/0034j036eu0001E

This is what a leader looks like.

Tom DeLay: "I am an evil motherfucker"

Remember... NO FINGERPOINTING:

"It's the local officials trying to handle the problem. When they can't handle the problem, they go to the state, and the state does what they can to, and if they need assistance from FEMA and the federal government they ask for it and it's delivered," DeLay said.

He added that Alabama and Mississippi did a much better job of responding quickly than Louisiana. Alabama and Mississippi have Republican governors.

These people have no shame. Lies, lies, and more lies. Yet they claim to be good Christians. Look, I'm not religious at all, but to quote Woody Allen: "If Jesus came back and saw what's going on in His name, He'd never stop throwing up." If there is a hell, there's a special place reserved for these assholes and those who continue to support and defend them. The Bushco apologists are just as bad as the administration itself. Without them, this shit wouldn't be possible.

I wonder how well Bush supporters sleep at night. Disgusting. Absolutely disgusting. Write your Congressmen and demand they investigate.

I Wish This Man was President

Howard Dean (via kos):

"Based on today's reports, it seems clear that President Bush's visit today is just another callous political move crafted by Karl Rove. It's just appalling to see how quickly President Bush and Karl Rove have mobilized a political strategy in their own defense, but simply failed to mobilize a swift response to either keep the people in the Gulf Coast region safe in the first place or aid the victims in the aftermath of the storm.

"Thousands of people have lost their lives. Our nation faces difficult times as we address the painful aftermath of Katrina, yet President Bush is worried about shifting blame and passing the buck? Shouldn't he be worried about restoring stability, plans to evacuate survivors, and ensuring that our communities have the resources they need to help the victims of this tragedy rebuild their lives? Now is a time for leadership not partisanship. This is one failure we will not allow Rove and the GOP attack machine to spin away with their usual barrage of photo-ops, misinformation, smear campaigns and press conferences."

As Dean usually is, he's bang on. I just hope more Democrats step up to the plate and don't puss out. I'm sick of hearing, "This isn't the time to play politics" rhetoric. Guess what? Politics gutted FEMA and politics are responsible for thousands of deaths. Bush & co. decided to play politics with this long ago, so there's no take-backs now.

We really shot ourselves in the foot when we didn't hand Dean the Democratic nomination.

Damage exposure will 'wake America up'

It never ceases to amaze me how much better the foreign press is at covering American stories.

Ray Nagin estimated that it would take three weeks to drain the water, and said he did not know how many bodies the process would reveal. Officials fear that up to 10,000 people may have died.

There's also a report here that estimates upwards of 40,000 dead. Shocking numbers. Of course, nobody could have ever predicted this.

But the best thing here is Jefferson Parish president, Aaron Broussard, who broke down Sunday on Meet the Press in one of the most heartbreaking moments I've seen on national TV in a long time. This guy is a great American:

"Bureaucracy has murdered people in the greater New Orleans area and bureaucracy needs to stand trial before congress today," he said.

"Take whatever idiot they have at the top, give me a better idiot. Give me a caring idiot. Give me a sensitive idiot. Just don't give me the same idiot."

Bush says:

"Bureaucracy is not going to stand in the way of getting the job done for the people."

Of course, he's now sending Cheney to the area to "determine if the government is doing all it can." Actually, he's sending Cheney there to perpetuate the Republican meme that it's the fault of the Mayor and Governer (b/c Dear Leader could never be responsible for ANYTHING). That's bureaucracy in action for chrissake. But now is not the time for fingerpointing, remember!

Luckily, Bush plans on investigating himself. I'm sure he'll get to the bottom of it. This coming from the man who couldn't think of a single mistake he'd made during the Presidential Debates. I'm also sure that Republicans would have been more than fine with Bill Clinton investigating the Lewinsky "scandal" himself. Hypocrites.