The Republican demagogue corps goes through the motions. Figures that this particular troll deigns finally to show his face and utter the word “Katrina” after years well spent cowering in obscurity. I guess there’s a statute of limitations on shame?
AC360 and its downward swirl into fawning nothingness, courtesy Harry Shearer’s Eat The Press.
He’s a bitchy, defensive, combative, incompetent, underqualified bureaucrat-crony. The FEMA/Katrina hearings are demonstrating this.
The hearings are also revealing that our President’s administration couldn’t (or wouldn’t) communicate in times of crisis. In an exchange with Robert Bennett, Michael Brown just implied that bothering to talk with Homeland Security head Michael Chertoff in the early hours of Katrina’s landfall would have been a waste of time.
Brown is getting reamed, as he should. And, naturally, the event is also a perfect opportunity for our Senators to grandstand their indignance on major broadcast media outlets.
Brown is making his case as best he can, but he needs to work on his presentation. Watching the hearings, I can’t help but note the man doesn’t have his sleeves rolled up.
[update: 8:53am PT]:
Oh, and he has a wry side, too:
“Unfortunately, he called me ‘Brownie’ at the wrong time– thanks a lot, sir.”
Harry Shearer reports on Anderson Cooper reporting on New Orleans. Make sure to scroll down and read the comments and Shearer’s replies.
If you missed it last night watch for rebroadcasts throughout the week. It was one of most riveting Frontlines I’ve seen; the interview segments with Michael Brown are absolutely horrifying. It will also be posted online tonight.
The news media has moved on to fresher, more recent natural disasters but Harry Shearer captures the neglected disorder and odd melancholy of his adopted home town.
Michael Brown managed to retain a sense of humor throughout that whole Katrina thing.
Download a .pdf of some of the email exchanges [792kb].
..and when you think about that term “assisted,” mull over the dual meaning of other words, like “serviced.”
CJR Daily continues to be my first read every morning.
Felix Gillette collects some blog-snark following the President’s news conference yesterday.
Edward B. Colby looks at Bush’s proactivity regarding avian flu and the media’s reaction to it.
Andrew Sullivan praises the McCain amendment after it passes the Senate. It’s sure to be vetoed by Bush, but can you believe it’s become necessary for Congress to write laws prohibiting “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” by our armed forces? Be sure to scroll down and read Colin Powell’s “screw you” to Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld.
The continued bad press about Katrina and Iraq have Bush ratcheting up the rhetoric and going on the offensive. He was just on CNN, speaking on The Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism before the National Endowment for Democracy.
A few new tidbits were offered– he put a number (three) on the amount of Al Qaeda attacks within the US that had been foiled. He singled out Syria and Iran for hosting insurgents, but, of course, didn’t mention the ongoing U.S. failure to monitor the borders of both countries.
Most of the rest was the same old bluster of rationalizations and hollow rallying points; there was really nothing “significant” or “major” about it, despite White House pre-speech hype.
With Delay indicted and a Rove-Libby bombshell going off in the next two weeks– and, oh, a pesky story…something about a spy working in Cheney’s office?– Bush’s well-worn, wobbly rhetorical sleight-of-hand will continue to be in full effect.
Ronald Brownstein’s news analysis in today’s LA Times examines political jockeying following Katrina and Rita: Both Democrats and Republicans increasingly view the battered landscape of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast as a giant laboratory for testing their competing domestic policy agendas.
Bush live a couple minutes ago: “We can all pitch in by being better, uh, conservers of energy.” Will talking points like this put Cheney back in the hospital?
