Hurricane George Watch

President George Bush to monitor hurricane Rita from Colorado Springs' NORTHCOM:

Bush cancels Texas visit, heads to observe federal government response at Northcom

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Fearing his visit might slow down response efforts to Hurricane Rita, President Bush Friday canceled plans to visit search and rescue workers in San Antonio, Texas, and will head directly to the Colorado Springs-based Northern Command.

This will mark the first test of the Super-Duper Satellite Laser Defense and Hurricane Diversion Machine that will attempt to route the hurricane to the Democratic majority voting districts in Austin, Texas, a Senior White House Official who requested anonymity because he is going to blame the hurricanes on the Democrats any minute now said.

Alternate Headline:

Bush Avoids Hurricane Cindy, expected to hit DC on Saturday - White House Political Levees Feared Vulnerable

The Photo Op Presidency

Ronald Reagan perfected them, the Presidential Photo Opportunity - "photo op" for short. The flags, the Berlin Wall, the sympathetic victim of some moral outrage - all props put on the set to make the president look presidential. Even the President was a prop at the end.

Bill Clinton, well, he could stand in a dumpster and he would be - not just look - Presidential.

With President Bush we know that the photo op is Job #1 (see: Mission Accomplished). Make the Pres look good, and we'll work out the details later. Make him seem to be involved, and the masses will follow. Give him a bullhorn, and the terrorists will quiver in their caves and throw down their arms.

Karl Rove most cynically and famously described the proposition that politics is TV with the sound turned off. He may have been right.

But with hurricane season in full force and the failures of his administration in full bloom, the president has to be involved again in the heavy task of rebuilding his credibility. His polls are in the toilet, his team is disintegrating amid scandal and corruption and incompetence, and New Orleans is the first secondary victim of another unprecedented hurricane.

So Bush is trotted out to NorthCom and to take make the op at FEMA.

They are all pretty pictures with the sound turned off. Yet rising flood waters make very little noise. You wake up with a feeling of dread and step into a cesspool. A President who can't even pretend to care does not need a soundtrack. No words are needed. No description is adequate.

His expression says it all. The conclusion is inescapable. The failure is undeniable. The predictions all came true, and he ignored the results.

"Support" "Our" "Troops"

From Armando from Kos from David Sirota: "In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, President Bush and Republicans in Congress have refused to consider rolling back the $336 billion in new tax cuts that the richest 1 percent are slated to get over the next five years. They say we need to pay for reconstruction not by asking the wealthiest to sacrifice just a little bit, but by massive cuts to spending. And now we see what that means: The Navy Times today reports that those cuts "include trimming military quality-of-life programs, including health care" . . . This, while troops are fighting and dying for our country in Iraq.

I hope all our soldiers realize this when it comes time to vote again.

I hope our citizenry realizes the lies of the Republicans. They talk a good game, but their follow through is non-existent/pathetic/incompetent/weak/disastrous/mendacious.

The Replicants Republicans are raiding our treasury to give tax cuts to Billionaires, unneeded pork to their districts, and the shaft to America.

"Support our troops" is surely a joke to them. It's a political bon-bon that helps them get elected. They forget the principle as soon as they have to make a decision between supporting the rich or supporting those who give the most.

It should be in quotes every time one of those liars speaks it.

Tora Bora

I guess every one knew we let bin Laden get away. The mainstream press felt it wasn't news - boy, I love their judgement. They are just so smart and responsible.

That's probably why the NY Times Magazine had to print the story, as a historical document or something.

Let's hope all history isn't erased by the time the Boy Prince leaves office.

Free Speech

"When the hurricane struck, it did not turn the region into a Third World country, it revealed one." - Danny Glover

"Katrina was not unforeseeable. It was the result of a political structure that subcontracts its responsibility to private contractors and abdicates its responsibility altogether." - Harry Belafonte

"I'm going to go to Kennebunkport and see if they respond any quicker!" - Hurricane Robin Williams

"This happened to the people. The constitution says of the people, by the people, for the people. But the people who got the office, got into office and forgot about the people." - Bill Cosby

"I just hope we keep in our minds that an effort like this can never be too expensive." - Elvis Costello

From the Jazz at Lincoln Center Higher Ground benefit.

Avian Flu Pandemic

Is Bush going to wait for this to happen first, then mount his horse, summon the contractors, allow it to fester, and start the blame?

Or maybe they'll say "no one could have foreseen" it.

just askin'.........

Done For

This quote from a Bush insider is delectable:

"You run down the list of things we thought we could accomplish and you have to wonder what we thought we were thinking," says a Bush Administration member who joined on in 2001.

"You get the impression that we're more than listless. We're sunk."

I guess that's mariner talk, not quite the Texas cowboy swagger we're so used to. Probably one of those elitest northeastern WASPs whom Bush was forced to hire because they actually knew what they were doing and had experience in running government. (Hmmmm, Andy Card?)

I got more than an "impression" that they were listless. But hey, I ain't complaining.

Whatever it takes.

(Stolen from Americablog. They're one of my favorites.)