Snarky but interesting early look at next year's mayor race in New Orleans:

The Root: "Who Will Run New Orleans?" by Eli Ackerman

Video by John McCusker, done for the Katrina anniversary last year. Reposted "because little has changed since then":

Times-Picayune Video: Ghosts of Katrina

New look at Memorial Hospital during the great levee failure disaster:

New York Times: Strained by Katrina, a Hospital Faced Deadly Choices

Why do Republicans Hate Our Troops, latest episode:

Veterans for Common Sense: Veterans Demand Apology from GOP and FOX for Lies About VA

With very low turnout, it looks like Cao is going to pull it off and be the new 2nd District congressman. Good riddence to the wasted talent of $ Bill Jefferson. I hope we haven't booted a corrupt Democrat for a corrupt Republican-- the prominence of Jay $#%*ing Batt in the Cao campaign worries me. Cao will have to do an outstanding job and keep in mind he's representing a district with large Democratic majority or he'll be out in 2 years. Should be interesting.

tongodeon: Who Caused the Economic Crisis? (Plenty of blame to spread around)

tal_greywolf, registered Republican, Editorial endorsing Obama

(Via Tal:) U.S. Presidential comparisons Bigger deficits under Republicans; more economic & job growth under Democrats

jdquintette on ACORN

Tongodeon: Acorn and Election Fraud

Meanwhile, Jackson County, West Virginia voting machines rigged for McCain

Driftglass: Republican Right understood as addicts

Barry Goldwater's granddaughter endorses Obama

Andrew Sullivan: The Top Ten Reasons Conservatives Should Vote For Obama

Okay a year ago, who would have believed that the Republicans would socialize the banks, and the Republican candidate would accuse the Democrat of being like Herbert Hoover. What?

Also, if John McCain wins, he will appoint Joe the Plumber to the Supreme Court and give him a gold plated Cadillac.


[edit]

"The real winner last night was Joe the Plumber!” -- John McCain

So, then: McCain managed to come in third in a 2 person debate.

Rolling Stone articles on McCain and Palin

McCain's explanation of why Obama is ahead in the polls: Because life isn't fair.

Meanwhile in the NYT: The Real original Mavericks

Handful of links


YouTube: Rep. Marcy Kaptur on the "Wall Street Bailout" Reccomended

Reuters: Chinese regulators have told domestic banks to stop interbank lending to U.S. financial institutions Uh oh.

LA Times: Fact checking the presidential debate

Tom the Dancing Bug: The Maverick

Tongodeon's pro-Obama advice

Salon.com article "How Karl Rove played politics while people drowned".

Lots of confirmation of stuff those of us who've kept a close eye things already knew, but some new details.

Favorite detail I didn't already know: Gov. Blanco personally gave President Bush a two-page letter detailing everything the state needed to cope with the disaster. Bush "lost" the letter. Ooopsie.

( Text mirror )

"We must also prepare, far better than we have, to respond quickly and effectively to a natural calamity. When Americans confront a catastrophe they have a right to expect basic competence from their government. Firemen and policemen should be able to communicate with each other in an emergency. We should be able to deliver bottled water to dehydrated babies and rescue the infirm from a hospital with no electricity. Our disgraceful failure to do so here in New Orleans exposed the incompetence of government at all levels to meet even its most basic responsibilities." -- John McCain

Applause. I'm not planning to vote for McCain, and I may never applaud him again, but he earned my applause for saying this.

Though he said it not "here in New Orleans" but 2 cities over in Kenner, Louisiana.

Also, contrary to the McCain campaign official transcript above, he spoke it as "deliver hot bottled water to dehydrated babies". Whatever.

And more importantly, as bad as the "natural calamity" was, the man-made one was very much worse.

And McCain twice voted against establishing a Congressional commission to examine Federal, State, and local response to devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina. He also voted against emergency relief after the disaster, funding communications for disaster first reponders, and other relevent items.

Perhaps you think such proposals should be opposed on the grounds of keeping the government small.

Perhaps you think William Howard Taft was a damn Commie for authorizing the army to bring food and tents to San Francisco after the great earthquake.

Perhaps you think when the shit hits the fan, it is better to let our citizens die of from lack basic necessities than to spend government funds to save their lives. Maybe you have no problem with America being a country whose government leaves the corpses of its people who die unnecessarily bloated in the sun, to be eaten by rats and dogs.

If so, I disagree with you. But I'd have a modicum more respect for you had the courage to damn well admit it.

Leap Day will mark the start of "The Year of the Frog"

I choose to take this as a good sign.

Meanwhile in politics:



Photographic proof! Calvin Coolidge actually a sleeper agent for the Red Menace!

One of the things I'm amused at is the Republicans attacking Obama as someone who glosses over complicated issues with optimistic generalities-- while at the same time the Republicans kowtow to the idol of Saint Reagan.

20 years ago was the "Black Monday" stock market crash of 1987.

I happened to be in Washington, D.C. visiting an aunt. Taking the subway downtown the next morning, I saw men in expensive suits buying bottles of liquor on their way to work. Possibly that was their usual routine, but I doubted it.

I went to the bank and withdrew cash. I was surprised there was no substantial line. I thought bank runs were supposed to be the usual procedure in such circumstances.

I was a bit frustrated to be away from New Orleans on vacation when this happened, as for some time I'd had a contingency radio show planned to do in case of stock market crash, with tunes from the '29 crash. "Damn, I'm missing my chance."

And President Reagan's words of reassurance were almost the same as Herbert Hoover's. I thought, Don't they keep an index card in a drawer in the desk at the Oval Office, marked "In case of stock market crash, DON'T SAY THIS:"...

Were a few friends of mine and I the only ones who remembered history? A few days later my friends and I talked it over. One said that the Republicans bring a boom, then a bust. I cracked wise "Y'know why people aren't jumping out of windows on Wall Street this time? In modern skyscrapers you can't open the windows." A friend noted some recent murders in the news, which to him showed that investors were a hair smarter this time, since instead of killing themselves, they were killing their brokers.

----

Unlike '29, things bounced back fairly quickly then. Now the $ is below the Euro and falling rapidly -- anyone got "Whip Inflation Now" buttons left over from the Ford administration? I'm sure they'll work just as well now as they did then.

Here in Lou'ziana, we're voting on a pile of stuff tomorrow. We'll see if Eddie Haskell becomes our next governor in the first round, or if he'll have to go to a run off with either John Goodman, Matlock, or Mr. Spock with Stephen Colbert's face. (Eddie Haskell is running under the name "Bobby Jindal" as the Republican Whiz Kid. Is there anywhere outside of the Republican Party in Louisiana and maybe Mississippi where someone who has sycophantically supported everything the Bush adminstration has bungled and advocated teaching Creationism is talked about as supposedly being "very smart"?)

As we've seen in recent years, pretty much any type of dishonesty, incompetence, corruption, crime, or treason is no reason for any elected Republican to feel any shame much less lose office.

Sex outside of marriage, however, is quite another matter.

That's one of the reasons why the Louisiana blogosphere is a-buzzin' with the the latest news about Senator David Vitter: Times-Picayune: Vitter's number on D.C. madam's list

The other reason is because Vitter has long positioned himself as Mr. Far Right Republican Morality Personified. Stalwart defender of traditional marriage. Promoter of government abstinence programs. Back in '98 he called for Clinton to resign for having had sex outside of marriage. In the years since, he's been steadfast in his convictions that butt-sex is a more urgent threat to Louisiana than coastal erosion, and after Katrina he wasted no time in moving to the top of his agenda a bill to make already illegal gay marriage even illegaler.

.... Now, David Vitter is not bad looking for a man of his age. With the pick up line "Hay Babee! I'm a SENATOR!!1!", one might think he'd be able to go out on the town and get laid without paying more than a bartab.

But that's not the way of the Republican Right. For them, sex is evil evil evil. Sinfull. Dirty and disgusting.

Therefore, when you're going to do it, you need to sin with a dirty filthy whore.

On the top of page A1 of today's Times-Picayune, Vitter is quoted as saying "I asked for and received forgiveness from God and my wife".

Um, you got God's forgiviness, David? Did he also forgive you for lying to voters when confronted about allegations of your whore addiction before the election in '04? ("I have made that clear that it is all completely untrue...And, it's obviously politically motivated.") Did you have any thoughts of admitting and asking forgiveness from the voters?

Gosh, I guess you're lucky you got forgiveness from your wife. Did she get anything from you in exchange? "Asked by an interviewer in 2000 whether she could forgive her husband if she learned he'd had an extramarital affair, as Hillary Clinton and Bob Livingston's wife had done, Wendy Vitter told the Times-Picayune: "I'm a lot more like Lorena Bobbitt than Hillary. If he does something like that, I'm walking away with one thing, and it's not alimony, trust me."" -- Salon article: There is a house in New Orleans

Right Hand Thief's Blog post has a good summary and links to the author's previous posts in his carefull attention to "Vitty-cent".

Former National Security Director during the Reagan administration, General William Odom, bashes the Democratic congress... for not standing up to BushCo. He advocates withdrawl from Iraq and impeaching Bush if he stands in the way.
'Supporting the troops' means withdrawing them


67% of USA voters realize that the Iraq war is creating more terrorism rather than diminishing it. 56% believe that the Iraq war is a distraction from the fight against terrorism.
poll

45% think Bush should be impeached. Might that number be higher if that wouldn't result in President Cheney? 54% want Cheney impeached.
ABC story
Polls on American Research Group

Ron Paul, the only anti-Iraq war Republican candidate, is now ahead in campaign contributions cash of John McCain, former front-runner and the most vehement support of the BushCo War Stategy.
ABC article

Fred Thompson's role in the Watergate hearings: A mole for Nixon.
Boston Globe article

BushCo War costing US $12 Billion a month, could top 1.4 Trillion

Headlines
* Not Enough Bush Administration Members Going to Prison: Scooter Libby

* Not Enough Congressmen Being Indicted: William Jefferson

Editorial
Thank you so #$%*! much, Harry Lee, for making sure $ Bill got re-elected.

And again, Harry, that little incident about blocking a bridge to keep people from escaping the largest disaster in the USA in 99 & 1/2 years? It isn't the people who say "I don't like that" who make you "look bad", it's the fact that YOU DID IT IN THE FIRST PLACE and defended the actions without apology later.

Yeah, getting $ Bill reelected sure helps keep this "part of the world" from looking bad, eh?

I wonder if this was simple political vindictiveness, or if Lee was really worried that having someone in congress who had questioned his actions might have led to serious trouble for himself? Did Lee know that his actions were legally undefensible if there was any serious challenge?

Other News
* Gone but not forgotten New Orleans landmark the ING 4727 Barge to be breifly discussed in court before Bush crony billionaire owner gets all charges dismissed. Testimony Begins in Barge Case

Former FEMA hack Michael D. "Heck of a job" Brown reveals yet more dirt that many suspected: A chance to screw over Democrats was a higher priority in Bushco's Katrina response than was saving American lives. Brown: Party politics played role in Katrina response. Nice to have this on the record, but as I've said before, sorry Brownie, you still don't get to pull your reputation out of the toilet, because you went along with this when it was actually killing your countrymen.

Speaking of people who failed to stand up to BushCo when it mattered most, Bob Harris argues that Hillary's full support for Bush's invasion of Iraq makes her unelectable.

In local news, as a non sports fan, I have to say: Go Saints! Go capture that supurb owl, or whatever it is you do. Rah.

The Fable of The Bat, or Die Liebermaus, by KnaveRupe (via driftglass)

I laughed at this one, though my tolerance for bad puns may be higher than that of some folks.

Louisiana's representatives in Washington have been busy nutria lately.

Dollar Bill Jefferson's adventures have made national news. He says he has "an honorable explanation" for how 90 k in marked bills intended to bribe the VP of Nigeria wound up in his freezer, but his lawyers have advised him to keep the story under wraps for the time being. I so hope we get to hear the honorable explanation; I bet it's a ripping good yarn. In the mean time, his fellow Dems are throwing him off Ways & Means; it seems that the "I havn't even been indicted yet, much less convicted" excuse doesn't necessarily fly on their side of the aisle. Not with an election coming up, anyhow.

Meanwhile David Vitter knows where his priorities are, proclaiming "I don't believe there's any issue that's more important than this one." He was talking about... outlawing Gay Marriage. (Which is already illegal in Louisiana. But with thousands homeless, cities in ruins, and 1/5 of the state in danger of washing out to sea, our first priority must be to make gay marriage even illegaler!) I didn't think he could top last August when he introduced a bill to encourage harvesting what's left of Louisiana's barrier wetlands to be turned into mulch while Katrina was barreling towards us in the Gulf. It just goes to show it doesn't pay to underestimate Critter Vitter.

On the national scene:

"The war in Iraq has become so unpopular that it could cost Republicans control of Congress, statehouses and governor races around the country, national pollster John Zogby said Friday. He said 70% of voters believe the U.S. is headed in the wrong direction, adding, “I have never seen a number like that since I’ve been polling.” [...] But he cautioned: “The Democrats have no program on any issue, they have nothing to say that matters to anyone in the United States today.” " (via Detroit Free Press)

---

Toons

It's good to see that the Suspect Device cartoons run by Gambit Weekly are on line again.

Jefferson's Fridge

Vitter's strategy

And one from a couple months ago that I would have linked to at the time if I'd been able to find it on line:
6 months from Katrina in the illustrations of John Tenniel

"WASHINGTON (AP): The government's disaster chief waited until hours after Hurricane Katrina had already struck the Gulf Coast before asking his boss to dispatch 1,000 Homeland Security employees to the region – and gave them two days to arrive, according to internal documents.

"Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, sought the approval from Homeland Security Secretary Mike Chertoff roughly five hours after Katrina made landfall on Aug. 29. Brown said that among duties of these employees was to "convey a positive image" about the government's response for victims."

(AP story via WWL)

Note that in '69, President Nixon mobilized the National Guard BEFORE Hurricane Camile actually hit.
And the country had the Vietnam War going on at the same time.

Also, a UPI story of Nagin's latest evacuation order entitles it "Roust begins of New Orleans squatters"

How does one become deemed a "squatter" in one's own home?

I HOPE the order is designed to give law officers the power to force evacuation of criminals and it will be very selectively used, rather than to force people from their homes who are actually set with enough supplies as emergency planners long told them to be.

vyoma asks, "How can ShrubCo be so unemotional, so cold and distant and aloof?"

The Bush administration has been diverting levee and pump funds into the Halburton War in Iraq, which is also where much of the Gulf Coast's National Guard is.

New Orleans voted 78% for the other guy last election. Bush's smirks no doubt betray his sense of justification at further confirmation that God is With Him. I imagine it was only Rove's insistance that it would be bad PR that kept the Emperor from publically doing a happy victory jig at the city's destruction.

In case any of you still had any doubts that the corrupt Republican administration has no sense of shame, on Fox News an administration official just announced that to show they care, in response to Hurricane Katrina they are lowering the clean air standards for fuels.

More sulpher emissions. Yeah, that's what folks along the coast are in despirate need of.

How long have they been waiting for an excuse to pull that one?

Somehow I keep being shocked anew how damn slimy these SOBs are.

Explative deleted!