Flash

Bush says that “Mississippi is a part of the future of this country.” Just in case you were wondering.

If it’s not going right, we’ll make it right

Bush, at the Bethany World Church in Baton Rouge: “Listen, Laura and I have come back down to Louisiana and then we’re going over to Mississippi to let the good people of this region know there’s a lot of work to be done”. Oh I think they can figure that out for themselves. And later he reminded everyone, “And -- but remember, this is a project that not only deals with the immediate, we’re going to have to deal with the long term, as well.” It’s because of just that sort of high-level sophisticated understanding of complex problems that he’s the president and you’re just a lowly peon.

He went on, “[W]e can help save lives once a person finds a shelter such as this. That means getting people food, and water, and medicine, and help, and in a place like this, love.” I say, steady on, we’ve only just met.

He uses that creepy phrase “armies of compassion” again. Who knew that some day we’d miss his father’s “thousand points of light”? He says, “So long as anybody’s life is in danger, we’ve got work to do”. Yeah yeah, as long as a cop’s beatin’ up a guy, he’ll be there, wherever there’s a fight, so hungry people can eat, he’ll be... well maybe not right there, possibly at a fundraising dinner, but those can be pretty grueling too, you know.

A pleasant thought, for once

As much as I shudder at the thought of a Roberts Court, I can’t help giggling when I imagine the look on Scalia’s face when he found he wasn’t inheriting Rehnquist’s Gilbert & Sullivan-striped robe.

Nobody, especially the president, would have left people unattended on the basis of race

Like those obnoxious pharmacists who refuse to fill morning-after or birth control pill prescriptions, judges have taken to refusing to hear parental-notification-bypass cases. The most serious danger of this development is hidden deep in the NYT story: pro-lifers could target elected judges who don’t opt out or who grant exemptions.

Chertoff: “We are in control of what’s going on in the city.” Remember that. Everything that happens now is officially his fault.

Rice: “Nobody, especially the president, would have left people unattended on the basis of race.” Unattended? Of course not. That’s what all that talk about restoring law ‘n order was about, attending to people on the basis of race with extreme prejudice.

The gasoline fallout attendant on Katrina has been bringing up memories of those several-hour lines in the ‘70s, and the odd & even rationing that made those lines so much worse. Hasn’t happened here yet, but a version has appeared in Iraq, where people will only be allowed to drive their cars every other day.

Although Israel’s highest court ordered the military to stop using Palestinians as human shields, they still do, as recently as Wednesday, including a 13-year old. The IDF commander, evidently unaware that this was a no-no, freely admitted it to Ha’aretz, saying “I’m ready to do anything to protect my soldiers.” Asked what he would do if someone had done that to his family, he replied, “You’re going into politics now, and I don’t deal with politics.”

No need for a caption contest here, because the caption is so fucking obvious: Get out and help those women (81 and 62 years old, respectively).

We’re going to go out and take this city back

More on the Fallujaization of New Orleans. An article in the Army Times is headlined, “Troops Begin Combat Operations in New Orleans” and quotes Brigadier General Gary Jones, commander of the Louisiana National Guard’s Joint Task Force, “We’re going to go out and take this city back. This will be a combat operation to get this city under control.” The article refers to the “insurgency” in NO.

Condi Rice: “That Americans would somehow in a color-affected way decide who to help and who not to help, I just don’t believe it.” Condi will be traveling to Alabama tomorrow to look at storm damage, probably not wearing any of her expensive new footwear. Maybe she can lead the storm victims in a rousing chorus of Always Look On the Bright Side of Life.

Bush today: “The main priority is to restore and maintain law and order, and assist in recovery and evacuation efforts.” Wouldn’t that be three main priorities? Organize a response, fuck, the man can’t even organize a simple sentence. Also, shouldn’t food and medicine be on that list somewhere? certainly ahead of law & order.

Evidently every scene of the food distribution and levee work that Bush got himself pictured in front of yesterday, all of it, was fake, with workers, equipment and food going away again when he left. Blah3.com, a site I was unfamiliar with, does a nice job of pulling in the details from various news sources, and the site has lots of other posts about the ineptitude of the response to Katrina. Mary Landrieu today castigated this as “a hastily prepared stage set for a Presidential photo opportunity.” Got news for you, Mary: as far as Bush is concerned, we’re all hastily prepared stage sets for him to strut around in front of. Including the people. Especially the people. Did you notice in that footage of him talking to the two black women yesterday that he had his arm draped over the shoulder of the one who looked to me to be in her teens the entire time he was talking to her sister, but never thought to make eye contact with her. And somehow he never met even one of the many people inclined to yell at him for his manifold failures. No Cindy Sheehan moments here either.

So, if you’re up for one, a caption contest (those aren’t the same black women I was just referring to).

I’m looking forward to my trip down there

Via DailyKos, this Grover Norquist memo, dated today, to US Senators, opposing the move to delay a vote on eliminating inheritance taxes permanently, which he says is “Proof that they are exploiting this tragedy is that they were never for repeal of the Death Tax in the first place.” The Grovester would never consider doing that, well, except for saying that repeal would produce “higher levels of economic growth is exactly what the residents of the Gulf Region need at this time to start the rebuilding process for their neighborhoods and more importantly for their lives.” Hey, why don’t you go and make that argument with the true beneficiaries of your charitable proposal in Biloxi or New Orleans or better yet the Superdome: one moron enters, no moron leaves.

Dana Milbank in the WaPo:

“I’m looking forward to my trip down there,” President Bush said in the White House driveway yesterday morning before leaving to tour the storm wreckage.

Something must have happened in flight, because when he arrived in Mobile, Ala., two hours later, he reported: “I’m not looking forward to this trip.”

And evidently all helicopters were grounded for the duration of the Clueless One’s visit.

The president obviously was just stunned

Trent Lott told CNN that it’s only people in the media who are asking whether rescue efforts were hampered by all the National Guard units being in Iraq. Anderson Cooper, doing a quieter version of his Howard Beale moment yesterday with Mary Landrieu, said no, there’s a guy down the street here who just said that to me.

Lott said of Bush’s tour of the wreckage: “The president obviously was just stunned”. Uh no, that’s his normal expression.

The BBC showed a large group of stranded refugees (and I honestly don’t understand the problem black leaders seem to have with that term) in New Orleans, getting no help at all from the authorities, then pulled the camera back to show 20 cops a block away, all focusing their attention on a single looter.

If somebody would like terms about which to get pissy when applied to American cities, how about “shoot to kill policy” and “urban warfare” (the latter being the conditions under which FEMA is operating, according to its head, Michael Brown). Or the commander of the National Guard promising to “put down” violence “in a quick and efficient manner,” using guard troops back from Iraq and “highly proficient in the use of lethal force.”

I’m not satisfied with all the results

Bush clarifies the “not acceptable” comment: “I am satisfied with the response. I’m not satisfied with all the results.” The operation was successful, but the city died.

Bush: “You know, there’s a lot of sadness, of course. But there’s also a spirit here in Mississippi that is uplifting.” So that’s all right then.

We’re not into the blame game

New Orleans asks, “Is Dennis Hastert worth reclaiming?”

LA. Governor Blanco, asked by Diane Sawyer how many people died because of the incompetent governmental response: “We’re not into the blame game.”

Bush: “A lot of people are working hard to help those who have been affected, and I want to thank the people for their efforts. The results are not acceptable.”

Bush is going on a tour, but promises not to enjoy it: “I’m not looking forward to this trip. ... It’s as if the entire Gulf Coast were obliterated by the worst kind of weapon you can imagine”. Stupidity?

(Update: Dennis Kucinich: “Indifference is a weapon of mass destruction.”)

The war comes home

Iraq is now truly liberated and free: it resumed executing people today, three of them.

Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco:

“Three hundred of the Arkansas National Guard have landed in the city of New Orleans. These troops are fresh back from Iraq, well trained, experienced, battle tested and under my orders to restore order in the streets. They have M-16s and they are locked and loaded. These troops know how to shoot and kill and they are more than willing to do so if necessary and I expect they will.”

See what’s going on here? She’s telling the Guards that the “looters” (who are distinguishable by their skin color) are sub-humans who need to be shot down in the streets like dogs or Iraqis. At the same time she’s telling the residents of New Orleans they’d better behave because the Guards she’s sicced on them are animals, I mean have you seen the things they did in Iraq? and they like to kill (what else does “more than willing” mean?) so don’t fuck with them.

Divide and rule the under-class, the first rule of governance since time immemorial.

New Orleans = Fallujah

Bionic Octopus has it exactly right: they’re focusing on the criminal acts of a few of the people in New Orleans who might just feel that they’re being left to starve to death, as an excuse for their failure to bring in the relief they promised or carry out the evacuation in a competent and timely fashion. If this sounds eerily familiar, it’s because this is the excuse we’ve been hearing for two years now for the failed reconstruction in Iraq. They’re trying to make us think of the “looters” as the equivalent, or at least lesser versions of, Iraqi guerillas.
(Update: And just as unworthy of life. Via Media Matters, Peggy Noonan wrote today: “I hope the looters are shot.” Bitch.)

Those looters, those people who refused to evacuate their homes, why do they hate America?

Bush and Katrina: The devastation I saw was very emotional

Bush can no longer, if he ever could, distinguish between the real world and what goes on inside his chimp-like head: “The devastation I saw was very emotional. It is so devastating it is hard to describe it.”

He said, “I just can’t imagine waving a sign that says ‘Come and get me now.’” Well he doesn’t need to: every time he gets that little pouty look like he’s about to cry, Dick Cheney comes running up to get him.

He wants “zero tolerance” for looting and insurance fraud, and suggests that citizens “take personal responsibility [advice from the master of personal responsibility] and assume a kind of a civic sense of responsibility so that the situation doesn’t get out of hand, so people don’t exploit the vulnerable.” Like Wal-Mart. So he wants vigilantism now. “Zero tolerance” (including the shifting of New Orleans police from rescue operations to anti-looting) privileges property over people.

(Update: a reporter asked McClellan if zero tolerance applies to the many people who have received no aid and are “looting” food and water. Scotty says yes, because he insists the relief effort is perfectly adequate and “There are ways for them to get that help. Looting is not the way for them to do it.” Basically, they’re too lazy to make their way to wherever the aid is and are just taking the easy way out, just like they were too lazy or stupid or stubborn to evacuate. Fucker.)

Or possibly the vulnerable person Bush didn’t want exploited was himself, as he fashioned the disaster into another shield behind which to hide from criticism: “I hope people don’t play politics at this time of a natural disaster”. Yes, let’s not mention the National Guard units sent to Iraq or the money shifted away from flood control projects to, again, Iraq, or the complete falsity of his claim that “I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees” (a sentence that would have been completely truthful had he just stopped after the third word). “And what we need to do as a nation is come together to solve the problem and not play politics. There’ll be ample time for politics.” Yeah and he’ll be sure to tell us when that time comes and it is okay to criticize him again.

Also, this is not a “problem” that can be “solved.” That phrasing suggests yet again Bush’s short attention span. He thinks this can be solved so he can move on to something else.

Showing a keen understanding and that incisive grasp of events that we all know and love, he points out, “Nine-eleven was a manmade attack, this was a natural disaster.” But he loves all his criticism-deflecting catastrophes equally.

Posada update

The Dept of Heimat Security prosecutor, who is supposed to be trying to get Luis Posada Carriles deported to Venezuela (note, by the way: deported, not extradited, although Venezuela has demanded his extradition), instead more or less backed up his assertion that he would be tortured in Venezuela, even though Venezuela does not (at least not under the current government) torture people, nor would it be likely to torture an old man with a high profile if it did. Said the alleged prosecutor: “We have serious concerns about Mr. Posada’s claim to torture in Venezuela,” but helpfully added, “we have no opinion” about the claim. With the government not trying to deny the claim, the judge is forced to follow the only “evidence” that’s been presented, which was a statement, without supporting evidence, from one of Posada’s old cronies. Posada hopes to have his deportation deferred indefinitely, in which case he could actually be released. He plans to apply for US citizenship. (My sources: AP, the Miami Herald, Narcosphere.)

Independent and unbiased

Netanyahu, running against Sharon on a pro-settler, Palestinian-bashing platform, refers to Palestinians living in Jerusalem as a “siege.” “Who will overcome? It’s either them or us.”

Wales in a bottle.

A Reuters cameraman is consigned to 6 months in Abu Ghraib after a secret hearing in which he was unrepresented held by what the US military laughingly describes as “an independent and unbiased board and consists of nine members: six representatives of the Iraqi government ... and three senior multinational forces officers”. Independent. Unbiased. He was evidently arrested by Marines after they looked at the pictures he’d taken. Everyone’s a critic. This is a different Reuters cameraman than the one arrested a few days ago by the Marines who had just shot the soundman he worked with.

Varied origins and predilections

The (gay) mayor of Berlin is being criticized by some for sending a message of greeting to the second annual leather and fetish festival: “We are proud that people of varied origins and predilections feel at home in our city and celebrate together.”

Canada recognizes gay adultery (a woman has been allowed to divorce her husband on the grounds of adultery with another man), which I guess is progress of a sort. Is gay adultery legally recognized anywhere in the US?

Is it my imagination, or has the US really stepped up the use of aerial bombardment in Iraq?

The BBC World News reports that the people in Louisiana are now “waiting for Deliverance.” Great, after what they’ve been through, now they’re gonna have to squeal like a pig.

Synthesis

The selling of the Iraqi constitution to the American people continues apace. On Meet the Press Sunday, Ambassador Khalizad was asked if 1,800 Americans had really died to create an Islamic republic and replied, “The words that you read are exactly the same words that were in the constitution of Afghanistan which we celebrated.” So that’s okay then. Evidently this constitution is “a new synthesis between the universal principles of democracy and human rights and traditions in Islam.” Ohhhh, we thought there might be some contradiction there, but it’s a synthesis, why didn’t you say so before.

And the grubbier and messier events on the ground are, the more elevated Bush’s rhetoric becomes. Today:

We will prevail because this generation is determined to meet the threats of our time. We will prevail because this generation wants to leave a more hopeful world for our children and grandchildren. We will prevail because the desire to live in freedom is embedded in the soul of every man, woman and child on this Earth. And we will prevail because our freedom is defended by the greatest force for liberation that humankind has ever known, the men and women of the United States Armed Forces.

From the BBC:

Families of Israeli Arabs shot dead on a bus in Galilee are not considered terrorism victims because their killer was Jewish, the defence ministry says.

Under Israeli law, only attacks by "enemies of Israel" are considered terrorism, the ministry said.

The ruling means families of the four victims will not be entitled to the lifelong monthly payments given to Israeli victims of Palestinian attacks. ...

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, called the shooting "a despicable act by a bloodthirsty terrorist".

Pakistan requires candidates for election to public office to have a 10th-grade education, and has just decided that being educated in madrassas which are not regulated by the state doesn’t count.

I’m going to give the Palestinians a chance to develop a democracy

Must-read George Monbiot article on why the Iraqi referendum on the draft constitution will be a meaningless exercise and how the Iraqi people might have been involved in the process, making the final product their own rather than the result of haggling behind doors which are not only closed, but guarded by the troops of an occupying army.

Still, there must have been some real compromise to produce what demonstrators in Tikrit today called a “Zionist-American-Iranian constitution.”

Bush today: “I hope you’ve watched what has happened in the Holy Land. [Does he have to use that term?] Prime Minister Sharon made a courageous decision to remove settlements out of Gaza. He said to the world, I’m going to give the Palestinians a chance to develop a democracy.” Yes, because Ariel Sharon is all about spreadin’ democracy, just like George!

And he describes the Iraqi draft constitution thus: “This constitution is one that honors women’s rights, and freedom of religion.” Well, freedom of one religion, anyway, and how many religions do you really need?

And finally, a caption contest.


1) What are these two laughing about? (And for extra points, what might the cropped-off parts of that banner say?)
(Update: oh dear, he really was promoting his Medicare drug benefit at... El Mirage, Arizona.)


2) That’s McCain’s birthday cake. Tell us what he’s thinking/saying, and/or what’s written on the cake.

Get well soon, Vice President al-Yawer

From the Guardian:

The country’s Sunni vice president, Ghazi al-Yawer, did not show up at a Sunday ceremony marking completion of the document. When President Jalal Talabani said that al-Yawer was ill, senior government officials including Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi howled with laughter.

The WaPo reports on the increasing number of state measures imposing burdens on women seeking abortions and raising the legal status of fetuses. South Dakota even passed a law that would go into effect if Roe v Wade were overturned, because they don’t want to wait even a single day (although surely passing an unconstitutional law is just a little bit unconstitutional itself). This country still has a pro-choice majority, but legislatures are acting as if supporters of abortion rights will not exact a price from legislators who nibble away at those rights. Hopefully they’re wrong. D’s are increasingly acting as if the whole issue is toxic and they wish it would go away, which doesn’t bode well for their willingness to fight the right-to-lifers if Roe is reversed.

And perhaps some Kurds who are concerned about the constitution

BBC headline: “UN Shocked by Kosovo Serb Deaths.” Yes, violence in the former Yugoslavia, shocking. That peaceful land has lost its innocence.

I know I’ve been commenting about headlines a lot, but I do read the stories too, honest.

Bush, in a statement oddly juxtaposing storm relief and patting himself on the back for the wondrous events going on in the Iraq that exists only inside his chimp-like head, does admit there might be some friendly differences of opinion: “And I suspect that when you get down to it, you’ll find a Shiia who disagrees with the constitution and Shiia who support the constitution, and perhaps some Kurds who are concerned about the constitution.” Yeah I suspect that perhaps that’s the case too.

Sunni buy-in

BBC headline: “Underground Chinese Bishop Dies.” Well that’s convenient.

Sunday Telegraph headline that I just can’t tell if they realized how tasteless it was: “British Diplomat Extends Helping Hand to Europe’s Last Leper Colony.” In Romania, if you were wondering.

The WaPo has a story sub-headlined “Iraqi Draft Fails To Win Support of All Sunni Delegates.” Which under-states it just a bit, since the article fails to name a single Sunni supporter. Yesterday Chalabi, no, it was an aide to Chalabi, was asked to name one; he cited the speaker of the National Assembly, who denied it. (The LAT, however, quotes the defense minister, who it describes as a “secular Sunni Arab,” whatever that means, attacking the Sunnis on the constitutional committee because one is a truck driver and the other, he says, was an intelligence officer under Saddam Hussein.) US Ambassador Khalilzad is quoted twice by the WaPo on the need for a “Sunni buy-in,” a phrase not exactly redolent of Jeffersonian idealism. The document that will be rammed through the Nat. Assembly later today is not really a constitution, since it leaves fundamental questions, like the mechanisms of federalism, to be decided later by a simple majority of the parliament. The reason you have a separate body write a constitution is that 1) a body such as the next parliament shouldn’t decide on its own powers, 2) voters shouldn’t have to vote for people whose powers have not yet been determined.

And over in Afghanistan, things aren’t going so well either, but there aren’t enough American casualties for anybody to be asking whether there’s an exit strategy there. Well ok, they may be asking that in Afghanistan, but here, not so much. The WaPo notes about next month’s elections, “candidates who are suspected of involvement in atrocities can only be barred from running if they were convicted of an offense. But there have been no war crimes trials to date, and many former militia commanders were given posts in the transitional post-Taliban government in an attempt to win their support for democracy.” All this time there has been only one branch of government in Afghanistan, the executive, and Karzai has imposed an electoral system for the parliamentary elections which I’ve never heard of before, in which voters have only one vote in multi-seat constituencies. This will produce a fractious, disorganized and unrepresentative parliament too weak to challenge Karzai, whose power would therefore continue to be that of a dictator, if it operated beyond a few square blocs of Kabul.