Bush Took Katrina Blame Too; Still no Results

Worth noting on a night when many newspapers are leading with headlines such as “Bush Takes Blame For Iraq,” that 16 months ago this same president reluctantly accepted blame for the other major disaster of his disastrous presidency. “Bush takes blame for flaws in Katrina response” may have occurred two weeks — not nearly 4 years — after it became obvious that the federal gov’t was to blame for stepping on our freedoms and liberty irresponsibly, carelessly and not as democracy would have it. (And, no, I repeat, democracy does not require one to “seek out and destroy,” those who think differently).

For the record, it is severely underreported that New Orleans remains in shambles, very few people have been able to return and/or rebuild, primarily because money STILL hasn’t been properly doled out from the state and federal allotments and insurance coffers.

So don’t be surprised that when this soulless president once again “takes blame,” he already feels somehow absolved by his “cause.” Certainly don’t expect the lights to stay on in Baghdad any time soon.

UPDATE: For more on the still-disheveled state of affairs in New Orleans, listen to this excellent commentary by David Koen.

George Bush takes blame for Hurricane Katrina response, Sept 14 2005 George Bush takes blame for getting Iraq wrong, Jan 10 2007

Bush Announces new Same Old Strategy

In a 20-minute speech (see transcript) that was even worse than I imagined, Bush repeatedly lied, minced words, and sounded — in substance — as if he must have been hallucinating.

Basically, the president said that NOW, what didn’t work BEFORE WILL work, because “in the past we attacked and killed insurgents and then we’d move on and they would return.”

Probably the dumbest thing he said, though, was “the terrorists and insurgents are without conscience.” Is he saying that every non-Christian is a terrorist?

Of course, he proceeded to “encourage” Congress’ input, citing “good Congressmen” like Joe Lieberman — there was a series of statements that should have ended “and then laugh in your face,” i.e. “We will listen to your suggestions…..

Most disconnected was Bush’s continued oblivion to the fact that, the mere basics — regular electricity, etc, is still out of whack throughout Iraq.

Other notable lies, poor use of language, and hallucinatory allusions:

— An early mention of 9/11
— Numerous butcherings of “freedom” (in Iraq, to some extent “freedom” would imply freedom from American occupation).
— The misuse of the term “strategy”
— Somethign about Al Qaeda wanting to take over Anbar province
— stating that most Sunnis and Shiites just want to live together in “freedom.”
— one use of the word “nucular” — in reference to keeping Iran from going that way.

He keeps saying this is important to secure our liberty and freedom as Americans and, man, I just can’t even try to understand how anyone can be getting that. I feel damn free, and as long as we’ve still got some liberty let’s feel free to get out of the mess we made swiftly. The pure idiocy of nearly everything Bush said is just downright insulting. My thoughts go out to the troops and their families. This is bullshit.

’06: Was it so Horrorble?

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members and ex-members of Mara Salvatrucha

The Annenberg School at USC is hosting the Getty/TNT/Canon/LATimes World Press Photo Award-Winning Images of ’06 thru Feb. 1 and it’s bloody horrifying. And not just because TribCo axe-man David Hiller is in town (photo below — James O’Shea was on hand but held fire, er, I mean he didn’t speak). Matter o’ fact, USC’s Annenberg School is the only host of this traveling Dutch-based show in the U.S. other than the United Nations building in New York (on arguably international soil).

This is the third consecutive year that the Annenberg School has hosted this event and it may be the last — Dean Geoffrey Cowan is set to depart at semester’s end and quite frankly, the subject matter displayed is rather alien to the American media’s penchant for truthiness.

The exhibit is open to the public, and unfortunately, only until Feb. 1, at which point the Annenberg lobby will again be flooded with plasma-vision “Situation Room” action — where fake boobs are born with Wolf Blitzer’s blessing. For directions, use this GMap.

OMG hiller

More photos of the photos after the jump. Continue reading “’06: Was it so Horrorble?”

John Gilmore’s Airport ID SCotUS Challenge Fails

Thus ends — onen would think — Gilmore’s valiant effort to uncover a secret law. Read the article:

The Supreme Court on Monday rebuffed a challenge to the federal government’s policy of requiring airline passengers to show identification before they board flights, spurning arguments that the well-known but unpublished policy would lead to more secret laws.

My interviews with Gilmore are here and here.