Blog Cabin: September 2005 Archives

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September 30, 2005

McDonalQaeda - I'm Loving It !

General John Abazaid, the Commander of U.S.Central Command, yesterday compared Al Qaeda to both the Nazis and McDonald's.

Speaking before the Senate Hearing on Military Strategy and Operations in Iraq (watch using Realplayer), Abazaid (the only American in authority I've ever heard pronounce Al Qaeda correctly, likely because he is a Lebanese American), gave a presentation on Al Qaeda literature, communications, and operations.

"Just as we had the opportunity to learn what the Nazis were gonna do from Hitler's words in Mein Kampf, we need to learn what these people intend to do from their own words," he said.

But that's not the funny part.

Describing the terrorist groups global operations, Abazaid said, "It's not like IBM, a monolith that's centrally lead from a central headquarters. It's much more like McDonald's, a franchise that is decentralized and dangerous."

McQaeda - I'm loving it!

I knew McDonald's was dangerous, but I had no idea CentCom agreed.

And speaking of which, here's a nice quote from the McDonald's Kuwait website: "McDonald’s is leader in promoting healthy lifestyles for children, and its happy meals are enjoyed by children and adults alike. McDonald’s always pays special attention to young customers and makes sure to provide them with nutritious meals and creative toys to stimulate their imagination, along with play areas for them to exercise and play."

I don't think I even need to comment on that.

Posted by MJuhre at 03:45 PM | Comments (2)

September 29, 2005

Bush Booze Fest

The National Enquirer recently reported that Bush has been caught drinking by Laura. I haven't seen any major news outfits pick up on this, so the jury is still out I suppose.

Today, however, I ran across this interesting analysis (from of a photograph of Bush after the infamous "pretzel choking" incident. The author, an alcoholic herself, believes the pretzel was a smokescreen for a fall off the wagon.

I don't know anything about the source of this article, "VH Headline -- Venezuela's Electronic News, but it kind of has the feel of China's People's Daily or the U.S.'s FOX News, only coming from a pro-Chavez Bolivarian revolution point of view.

Don't take my word for it, however. It would take some studying to get a handle on this curious site, and figure out exactly where its writers are coming from. It's definitely weird.

Posted by MJuhre at 04:14 PM | Comments (0)

Code...Interrupted - A Multi-Tasking Mishap

Testimony to why I shouldn't do two very different things at once:

One minute I was writing Oregon Congressman Peter Defazio's office, requesting a copy of his fantastic statements on the house floor regarding Bush cronyism.

The next minute I was doing my actual job, which today involves editing documentation comments in java files. My hand slipped on the mouse while I was editing in Microsoft Visual Source Safe (I never heard of it either before I had to use it). I couldn't see what I had done, but I saw movement on the screen indicating I'd done something.

MVSS doesn't have multiple undo's, so I scanned the screen to see what I'd altered. It wasn't hard to spot:

Parameter returns an array within the DestinationObject. The array returned by this method contains information in the form of a systematic looting of the United States Treasury Element. This method is available to the administrator and the Address Book owner only.

Posted by MJuhre at 02:31 PM | Comments (0)

Cracks in the Veneer

It's hard to tell yet whether the indictment of Tom Delay has legs.

But that doesn't matter, because the story does.

The indictment has put the bigger picture of repeated GOP corruption, legal, and ethical misconduct in play.

Suddenly the smaller stories, like that of David Safavian (see our Sept. 21 posting) and the abrupt resignation of the recently appointed commissioner of the FDA, are crawling out of the back pages of the newspapers, and making headlines on cable news (a medium which, I think it is safe to say, filters through the masses more readily than print).

It's about time.

Delay yesterday dismissed his indictment as a "coordinated, premeditated campaign" by Democrats, who want revenge for Republican gains in the 2004 Congressional election.

Yeah...and good for us! It's about time someone grew a pair and went after these evil-doers.

Truth be told, I think this indictment is a little more than just partisan politics, but the revenge is sweet when it crystalizes news coverage of Republican dirty tricks.

Remember, back in the 90s, Delay called for the impeachment of President Bill Clinton because for getting his pole waxed and lying about it.

Delay, on the other hand, engineered the Congressional redistricting of Texas in order to pack the House of Representatives with Republicans. Oh and let's not forget the other, unrelated ethics probes against Delay.

I can't wait till the Valerie Plame probe comes back to the front pages.

Posted by MJuhre at 10:46 AM | Comments (0)

September 28, 2005

Sweatin' to the Oldies: GOP's Bad Boys Trade Hubris for Hot Seats

Above: House Majority Leader Tom Delay responds to his indictment for conspiracy to violate Texas election laws that ban corporate contributions to state campaigns, and Senate Majority leader Bill Frist responds to an SEC probe into suspected insider trading, after he dumped stock in his family-owned chain of hospitals a few weeks before a poor earnings report led the stock to tank by 15%.

Several officers and directors of Hospital Corp. of America Inc. are also under investigation by the SEC.

Frist says he dumped the stock to avoid the appearance of inpropriety (since he shapes health legislation that can directly affect Hospital Corp. of America's bottom line.

The problem with that explanation is that Frist previously fought to keep that stock, putting it in a so-called blind trust (that eh...ain't that blind), claiming that solved the issue of any conflict of interest.

This scandal comes on the heels of his recent flip-flop decision to support funding for embryonic stem-cell research, which pissed off the right-wing, Christian nutcases he had been pandering to over the past year in hopes of winning support for a 2008 presidential bid.

My prediction? Bill Frist's presidential dreams are over. On Delay, we'll have to wait and see.

Posted by MJuhre at 04:59 PM | Comments (0)

September 26, 2005

Will 500 Prisoners Missing Since Katrina Get Tallied in Official Body Count?

Orleans Parish Prison's 600 inmates were left locked-in as floodwaters rose for four days after hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana, according to Human Rights Watch (full story link below).

"They left us to die there," Dan Bright, an Orleans Parish Prison inmate told Human Rights Watch at Rapides Parish Prison, where he was sent after the evacuation.

The jail was reportedly abandoned by the Sheriff's department August 29, the day Katrina hit. Rescue workers did not arrive until at least three days later. More than 500 inmates are now officially listed as "missing."

How many do you suppose drowned? If any did, will they be addded the official Katrina death toll?

And by the way, what the hell is that official death toll? I haven't found a news article on this for a week. Correction: I was wrong about. This Russian news service puts the toll at 1078. A Russian news agency finds it newsworthy but mainstream western media does not? I guess the extra 18 reported dead since Sept. 22 isn't sexy enough news for American editors to bother with.

See Human Rights Watch's story.

Posted by MJuhre at 10:59 AM | Comments (0)

Rita -- Wuss of a Storm Wipes War Demonstration off Media Map

Between 100,000 and 300,000 protestors joined Cindy Sheehan in Washington, D.C. this weekend to protest the war in Iraq. There were reportedly 400 counter demonstrators.

I saw no coverage on the television news (which was all Rita, all the time), and scant coverage print world.

What more needs to be said?

Posted by MJuhre at 09:36 AM | Comments (0)

September 22, 2005

Tweaking on Your Own Product

And the winner for Culture Freak's Most Surreal Media Artifact award for the Hypercommunications Age is Zachary Mastoon.

Mastoon, a passenger on the JetBlue flight that became a live-television spectacle Wednesday as it made an emergency landing at LAX, used his cell phone to take this photo of the seatback television screen aboard the flight, on which he was watching the news coverage.

To illustrate just how magic this moment was, we employ some cutting-edge technology ourselves: Powerpoint!

Posted by MJuhre at 04:44 PM | Comments (0)

Katrina Body Count Update

Just a quick update to our Sept. 13 post, questioning the ambiguity of the Katrina body count.

For the first time in many days, the question of Katrina body count hit the news again. Below I post a link to a number of those reports. The main news for all of these stories is that (1) the Katrina body count has surpassed 1000, and (2) authorities still expect to find many more bodies from U.S. What is curious in the coverage is that, generally, the headlines from U.S. news sources leverage point (1), e.g."Katrina's Death Toll Climbs Past 1,000," while those from international news sources focus on point (2), e.g. "Many more bodies expected to be unearthed in New Orleans."

9/22/05 body-count stories (opens in new window).

Posted by MJuhre at 11:59 AM | Comments (0)

September 21, 2005

ARE THE BODIES AND BODY COUNT BEING DELIBERATELY OBSCURRED?

I first started considering this possibility on Sep. 9. Only a few days after it was widely reported that FEMA was directing news media not to photograph bodies, a news story blanketed the world press, reporting that "Fewer Bodies Than Expected Found in Sweeps". Granted, the source of that news was New Orleans director of Homeland Security Terry Ebberts -- not FEMA, but at least some observers assert that Ebberts is desparately trying to divert attention from his own failures in the past two weeks.

Morgues and Refrigerator Trucks -- No Funerals

But later that same day I heard a radio report of refrigerator trucks moving in and out of areas where FEMA had turned news crews away (I'm going to look for corroboration, or at least the original source, and post it here later). I found additional reports of refrigerator trucks carting the dead from various local news sources.

The next day (Sept. 10) Alice Jackson, a stringer for Time magazine from Springs Miss., whose house was destroyed by Katrina wrote the following in her story, "Life After Katrina":

"There have been no funerals, and we are wondering why. My sister-in-law, who works at the hospital, says the morgue is full and they are using refrigerator trucks. But why are there no funerals? The newspaper does not have obits. Why? Are we denying that people died, or are we saving up all this grief to torment ourselves with after we begin to truly recover? Why would we not begin to bury the dead?"

"Some of us took over morgue operations, helping them run the morgue and do autopsies, logging bodies in and out," funeral director Gene Pellerin told reporters for Lafayette, LA's Daily Advertiser Sept. 12. "Some people were tasked to build racks in refrigerator trucks, and those went out and did recovery," Pellerin said.

Bay St. Louis, Miss. resident Grant Tingstrom, 46 told the St. Augtine Record, " 'You can't get a straight answer to how many people were killed. We're all seriously disappointed in George W.' The official number published in the Biloxi newspaper, is 160 dead in four stricken counties. Tingstrom says, 'They're lying.' Andrew Arceneaux, a volunteer firefighter with East Hancock Volunteer Fire Protection District, said he was involved in search and rescue after the storm. "We pulled 60 bodies about two streets from the shoreline," he said, adding there were 10 refrigerator trucks containing bodies in the city..." (Read full story in new window.)

Let's not forget, also, that journalists were eventually barred from the Superdome, from which there were scattered reports of Katrina survivors dying by the hour of thirst and overheating. (Those reports, I have no real corroboration for so take them with a grain of salt -- or do some and tell me! Previous reports of rapes and assaults in the Superdome were publicly refuted by Capt. John Bryson of the New Orleans police department's sex crimes unit, who happened to be in charge of the 80 or so police officers at the Superdome. He told television reporters he was upset that the hurricane victims at the Superdome were being portrayed as criminals in the reporting spin and that, in fact, "thugs were few" in the Superdome and the crowd largely "policed themselves." He said two attempted rapes were reported, and the individuals arrested. Obviously, from thousands of miles away, I have no way to know which, if either tale from the Superdome, holds more truth. This Chicago Tribune gives some color on this.)

MSNBC has news reported that The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children had 6,000 adults and 2,400 children reported missing. Of course, we must consider that most of the missing were likely separated in the diaspora to Texas and other outlying areas. A decent benchmark to determine whether the deathtoll is being tweaked, will to review NCMEC's "missing" numbers in a month or two. If they still have a thousand or more missing, and we are still being told that less than 1000 people died in the Gulf Coast region, then we'll know something ain't right.

***UPDATE***Sept. 22, 2005

9/22/05 body-count stories (opens in new window).

***UPDATE***Nov. 22, 2005
6644 still missing -- stat hasn't changed much in last few months.

Posted by MJuhre at 02:28 PM | Comments (0)

FEMA Sends Trucks Full Of Ice For Katrina Victims To Maine

Yes, Maine! Again I ask, could FEMA's falterings be deliberate? I can't imagine they are, but these ridiculous stories keep coming in.

Read the story from KSDK News, Portland, ME.

Thanks Rachel Maddow for finding news like this we may otherwise miss!

Posted by MJuhre at 11:53 AM | Comments (0)

Arrested Bush Official Was Questioned on Terrorist Ties

Below are two stories on the curious situation of David Safavian, arrested September 19. One thing to keep in mind while reading the coverage is that, while Safavian is correctly characterized as an "ex/former" Bush Administration official, that status came about only because he resigned three days before his arrest.

Ex-Bush aide didn't reveal lobbying
Arrested ex-official initially didn't tell panel about work
San Francisco Chronicle, Sept. 21, 2005

WASHINGTON -- David Safavian, the Bush administration official arrested Monday, initially failed to disclose lobbying work he had done for several controversial foreign clients when he went before a Senate panel last year to be confirmed as chief of the White House's federal procurement office.

The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee held up Safavian's nomination for more than a year, in part because of lawmakers' concerns about lobbying work for two men later accused of links to suspected terror organizations, according to committee documents. The Senate panel nevertheless approved him unanimously, and the Senate followed suit on Nov. 21, 2004. (See full story.)

Former White House Official Arrested
Wasington Post, Sept. 19, 2005

WASHINGTON -- A former Bush administration official was arrested Monday on charges he made false statements and obstructed a federal investigation into his dealings with lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to court documents and government officials.

David Safavian, then-chief of staff of the General Services Administration and a former Abramoff lobbying associate, concealed from federal investigators that Abramoff was seeking to do business with GSA when Safavian joined him on a golf trip to Scotland in 2002, according to an FBI affidavit and the officials. (Read full story.)

Posted by MJuhre at 09:10 AM | Comments (0)

September 20, 2005

Mundane Thoughts from this Morning

Three little things that made my morning:

First, on the Times Square Shuttle I saw a woman reading Ferrets for Dummies. I couldn't believe it. I knew there were "Dummies" books for just about everything but this bit of absurdity had escaped me. "Is Not Being a Fucking Moron for Dummies out yet?" I thought to myself. That ferrets are illegal in New York City added color to the moment, but it was time to exit the train.

Normally I would transfer from the shuttle to a downtown #1, 2, or 3 train, but this morning there were even more herds of humans running amok than there are usually. Apparently downtown service was disrupted on the IRT Lexington line, and everyone was scrambling for alternative routes. This was a nightmare I could luckily avoid. It's only a 10 block walk to my office from Times Square, and I could see I was going to be late anyway.

On 34th street and 7th avenue I walked by the giant Timberland boot display, as I do every day, and marveled (as I do every day) at how exactly Timberland became hip-hop gear when, when I was growing up, it was a white-boy shoe. In fact, it was the ultimate white-boy shoe. In the 80s, Timberlands were generally worn two kinds of folk: blue-collar workers, and Led Zeppelin- and Rush-listening burnouts with faded jeans jackets. I remembered my friend Roger, joking that the silly skinheads our town often ranted about "American pride," yet always wore Doc Marten's, a British boot, and that if they were really all about American pride, they would wear Timberlands (of course, today Timberlands are probably made in China -- I haven't a clue.) Anyway, now somehow the ultimate white-boy shoe has gone jiggy. Kinda like Tommy Hilfiger once was...

To round out my 10 minute walk, I watched a homeless, or at least very dirty, hunchback cross 32nd street against traffic, making no real effort to be quick about it. I was sure he was going to get creamed by oncoming traffic, but luckily he just got a vigorous honking. To that, he replied with an over-the-shoulder middle finger aimed directly behind him. He was so nonchalant, he didn't even bother to look at whomever he was flipping off. It was just a reflex. I hadn't seen a person of his type in quite some time, I thought. A complete, old-school, New York City character -- Martin Scorsese kinda shit. It reminded me of how dramatically this city has changed in the last 15 years. Where once there were hunchbacks and other interesting looking characters screaming ideological or religious zeal into megaphones, now there are Starbucks stores and displays of Timberlands.

Posted by MJuhre at 11:43 AM | Comments (0)

September 19, 2005

Hugo Chavez...

Settling well into his new role as heir apparent to Fidel Castro as the most humiliating thorn in the side of U.S. policy, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez last week earned a round of thunderous applaus after tearing the Bush Administration a new one in a speech at the United Nations during a global summit marking the international body's 60th anniversary.

“There were never weapons of mass destruction, but Iraq was bombed, and, over U.N. objections, (it was) occupied and continues being occupied,” he said, speaking one day after Bush addressed the U.N. and, later, the American people (where he prattled on about God, the U.S. army, and hurricane Katrina).

Chavez said that the attack on Iraq launched by the United States without U.N. demonstrated America's lack of respect for the organization, and suggested moving its headquarters from New York City to an international city “outside the sovereignty of any state.”

He also accused the United States of "abetting "international terrorism," according to the Washington Post.

"The only place where a person can ask for another head of state to be assassinated is the United States, which is what happened recently with the Reverend Pat Robertson, a very close friend of the White House," Chavez said. "He publicly asked for my assassination and he's still walking the streets."

At one point, a U.N. official handed Chavez note advising his allotted five minutes was up. But the Venuzuelan presigent threw it on the floor, turned toward the president of the General Assembly, Jan Eliasson of Sweden, and said: "I think the president of the United States spoke for twenty minutes here yesterday. I would ask your indulgence to let me finish my statement."

After his speech, Chavez got the loudest applause of the summit, according to observers present.

That evening, Chavez appeared on ABC's Nightline, where he told Ted Koppell he had documentary evidence that the United States was preparing scenerios to attack Venezuela under the code name Operation Balboa (read full transcript).

Decent coverage of the speech (many are derived from AP coverage, though it is interesting what elements of the speech different papers chose to include or omit:

Washington Post

Globe and Mail (Ottowa, Ont.)

San Francisco Chronicle

Posted by MJuhre at 05:22 PM | Comments (0)

Private Firm in Charge of Retrieving Katrina Dead Previously Implicated in Florida Body-Dumping Scandals

I won't refer readers to stories at just any random website, but this one at The Raw Story looks sufficiently documented.

Posted by MJuhre at 03:18 PM | Comments (0)

GOP to Give U.S. Military Authority Over U.S. Citizens?

Republicans look poised to revoke the Posse Comitatus Act and establish military rule in the United States.

That is, at least during times of natural disasters, like the recent flooding of the Gulf Coast.

The Christian Science Monitor reported that Senator John Warner (R - Va.) want to "review" the 1878 law, which bars the armed forces from engaging in law enforcement in the Unite States.

"In rare cases, Warner wrote in a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, only the Pentagon has the resources to respond effectively to a catastrophic event," reported USA Today.

Warner's words echo those spoken by Bush in his speech on September 15, (you know, the one where he appeared with his shirt buttoned incorrectly?), in which he called the armed forces "the institution of our government most capable of massive logistical operations on a moment's notice."

Of course, under Bill Clinton's presidency, FEMA was actually capable of managing massive logistical operations on a momen't notice.

But now that Bush has gutted the federal government's funding by cutting taxes for his friends, and gutted the federal government of its professional and capable civil servants by appointing his friends, OF COURSE the U.S. military remains as the only wing of the federal government that can do anything quickly.

Gutting FEMA to its currently impotent status plays perfectly into the GOP's campaign to sway public opinion toward the notion that the federal government is weak and useless, so that the allegedly more efficient private sector can step in and save the day (thank you Halliburton who, according to former employees and CBS news, is wasting and millions of dollars in American-taxpayer money due to poor management and outright fraud).

But it also plays allowing Donald Rumsfeld to unleash the U.S. army against its own citizens.

A couple weeks ago (see the Sept. 7 post), I reflected on a fear held by many in the 1980s, that FEMA would suspend the U.S. Constitution during a time of "national crisis" (an authority bestowed upon it by President Reagan) and how FEMA's recent performance made it clear it couldn't even tie its shoes, let alone establish martial law.

Little did I realize that, duh, the Bush Administration still seeks the ability to establish martial law, but simply planned to just go directly to the U.S. military (and its new army of private contractors), rather than bother letting a civilian authority like FEMA take control.

A Christian Science Monitor poll asked the following question.

Should Congress authorize the use of active-duty troops after domestic emergencies like hurricanes?

The responses, with 818 recorded at the time of this writing are as follows:

No. Changing laws meant to protect civil liberties isn't the way to solve a management problem.
70.9%

Yes. The scope and depth of disasters like Katrina mandate a greater military response.
29.1%

Posted by MJuhre at 03:00 PM | Comments (0)

September 15, 2005

Warm Greetings and Marketing

Let's take a short break from all the horrible news in the world to observe a new(?) element of our material/media culture:

Max Racks is a site where you can send e-card greetings that are, in fact, advertisements. We ain't talking nifty greeting cards that have a subtle sponsorship tag on them somewhere. These cards are commercial messages -- and nothing but.

Somewhat reminiscent of "GoCards," those sponsored, free postcards you find in urban bars, these ad-cards range from ads for movies and gallery openings, to Campbell's soup, sneakers, and shampoo. There are also public service announcements. (Max Racks has apparently also been a GoCard competitor for urban bar shelf-space since at least 1997).

I got the dope moves Some are (deliberately?) surreal. Like this one, for the Washington State Lottery.

I just don't understand why anyone would use these to send an e-greeting. It would be kind of like sending someone a photograph of an ad on a New York subway car and writing "happy birthday" next to it. I suppose this could be some kind of way-after-the fact Warhol-blowback curiosity or something (if that makes sense to anyone but me). I don't quite know what to make of it.

Speaking of Warhol, however, for me this site functions more as an e-gallery of oddities (much like our own Gallery of Commercial Weirdness) than a repository for cards I might send to anyone. Whoever put this together is an artist is an artist, but doesn't know it. Like a 21st century accidental Duchamp installation, brought to you by Dow.

Okay, now I'm just rambling. Go to Max Racks and look at their crap.

Posted by MJuhre at 10:30 AM | Comments (0)

September 14, 2005

The New 'Oraq' World Order

Check out this great story in the Asia Times on the reconstruction of "New Oraq", which notes the similarities between the occupation of Baghdad and New Orleans.

"…it is hard to ignore the comparisons between Baghdad (where I was less than a month ago and have spent more of the last two years) and New Orleans: the anarchy, the looting…We watched a flatbed truck drive by, a man on the back with an M-16 looking up on the roofs for snipers, as is common in Iraq. Private security contractors were stationed outside the Royal St Charles Hotel…

…Iraq and New Orleans now seem to be morphing into a single entity, New Oraq, to be devoured by the same limited set of corporations, let loose and overseen by the same small set of Bush administration officials…"

Posted by MJuhre at 02:48 PM | Comments (0)

Christian and Islamic Fundamentalists Say God Punishing U.S.

As if we needed more evidence that all religious fundementalists are essentially the same, the U.S. Christian right and militant "Islamists", as the press seems to have dubbed them, both believe Katrina was brought by God to punish us.

Posted by MJuhre at 11:34 AM | Comments (1)

September 13, 2005

EPA Official: Bush Administration is Covering up Environmental Impact

The Bush Administration is lying about the environmental impact of hurricane Katrina, according to Hugh Kaufman, senior policy analyst at Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response.

God bless him. The 35-year veteran of the EPA is apparently not intimidated by an administration with a record for destroying the careers of civil servants who dare expose its lies.

Expect Kaufman to be fired soon. Kaufman says the Bush Administration is employing a whitewash policy regarding the hazardous environmental impact caused by flooding in the "Cancer Alley" of the Gulf Coast (so named because of the numerous chemical plants, oil refineries, storage depots, and other industrial facilities in the New Orleans area -- you may have seen some of it on fire in the TV news recently).

Air America Radio's Mark Maron and Mark Riley, interviewed Kaufman Sept. 13, two days after he told The Independent, a British newspaper, that the EPA's current "inept political hacks" running the clean-up were not taking enough water samples and that it will take 10 years of cleanup before parts of Louisiana and Mississippi will be environmentally safe for human habitation:

Hugh Kaufman: First, before we start...my comments are based on my 35 years experience in the emergency response/hazardous waste area at EPA...but I'm not telling you the policy of the Bush Administration. I am not a spokesperson for them.

Mark Maron: Thank God! Is the government -- let's just get right to it, in saying is the government being honest with the American people about the safety of the air and water in New Orleans, right now?

Hugh Kaufman: No they're not.

Kaufman said the EPA had taken only samples of water in the New Orleans area, and declared them free of benzene, toluene, and xylene, which are found in processed petroleum products. "But if you watch your television set, and if you listen to the statements of everyone who's down there, there's an oily sheen on top of all the water down there, and in fact there's been the release of millions of gallons of oil down there. [So] there is benzene, xylene, and toluene in the water. It would be the same as saying 'there are no atoms of hydrogen or oxygen in water.' And if people go by this they will think that the only thing they have to worry about is the bacteria and viruses, and not the hazardous material that's in that water."

Lt. Col. Kent Ralston, the U.S. Marine Corps commander of the unit deployed to the industrial canal area of New Orleans, told The New York Times that "it's an environmental nightmare. It's just chaos, the worst damage I've seen."

In addition, Solid Waste & Recycling magazine, a Canadian trade journal, reports that the Agriculture Street Landfill, a registered Superfund site "on the National Priorities List of highly contaminated sites requiring cleanup and containment" now lies under the floodwaters. "A few years ago the site (or at least the parts not sitting under houses and a school that were built atop it after the landfill closed decades ago) was scraped two feet down and covered with clean soil," writes the magazine.

Guess where all that soil is now?

Kauman said contaminated waters in various sections of the Gulf Coast can cause cancer, birth defects, and other long term health problems down the road, and that TV news viewers will note that none of the officials or citizens involved in rescue, cleanup, and logistics operations at the mouth of the Mississippi are wearing protective gear. "We had the same problem after 9/11," he said. "Four years later, 75% of those responding heroes are sick as dogs and they're starting to die off, and I'm worried that that's gonna happen down [in New Orleans] -- where the heroes will be the first ones to get really sick."

Kaufman also said the policy of the Bush Administration is "the same as in 9/11" -- to cover up the environmental impact.

Complaining that, under Bush, the EPA has been tightlipped with its studies and reports, The Society of Environmental Journalists, and individual reporters have filed Freedom of Information Act requests to obtain detailed information from the EPA on environmental problems in the Gulf Coast, in New York City post-9/11, and other incidents.

The EPA has been delaying all such FOIA requests as a matter of policy, according to Kaufman.

Posted by MJuhre at 03:28 PM | Comments (0)

Coordinated Chaos and Dismanagement?

I'm not yet prepared yet to go with full-on conspiracy theory, but I'm finding a lot of weirdness that forces me to ask questions.

QUESTION ONE - "DISMANAGEMENT"? WAS THE FEDERAL RESPONSE TO THE KATRINA FLOOD DISASTER, IN PART, DELIBERATELY MISMANAGED?

It began with an email request from a reader: "Will you send me links to anything you come across that suggests what motivation the Administration might have to militarily occupy New Orleans and/or displace the majority of low income residents? The more I read, the more convinced I become that senior officials must have issued stand down (or at least hold back) orders to the National Guard and or FEMA to deliberately escalate the situation in New Orleans. I am thinking that looking at trade journals from the past 5 years might offer some clues, like if the location of the city somehow negatively impacted the refinery or shipping industry..."

Indeed, at least one concern this reader had is correct. Indeed there was at least one "stand-down" order issued by the federal government. A FEMA news release HQ-05-174, issued August 29, advised first responders to stand down until they could be coordinated by state and federal officials. See the exerpts, below (or read the whole thing here on FEMA's website -- should it mysteriously disappear, I have a copy).

"WASHINGTON D.C. -- Michael D. Brown, Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Emergency Preparedness and Response and head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), today urged all fire and emergency services departments not to respond to counties and states affected by Hurricane Katrina without being requested and lawfully dispatched by state and local authorities under mutual aid agreements and the Emergency Management Assistance Compact. 'The response to Hurricane Katrina must be well coordinated between federal, state and local officials to most effectively protect life and property,' Brown said. 'We appreciate the willingness and generosity of our Nation’s first responders to deploy during disasters. But such efforts must be coordinated so that fire-rescue efforts are the most effective possible.' "

In the wake of the flooding FEMA rejected or thwarted a number of relief efforts, including offers of trains by Amtrak to evacuate residents, turning back trucks of supplies donated by Wal-Mart, and preventing the Coast Guard from delivering fuel (links to stories at end of this post).

If there was an effort by the federal government to exacerbate this disaster, what could be the motiviation? Real estate interests? Fostering in our culture the right-wing notion that the Federal government should all but be dismantled? They love to foster the notion that the private sector can do better than the government, even though we know the private sector continually steals from our government, meaning us, the American taxpayers.

Oh, well this is interesting:

Some reports now suggest that Louisiana's political power could soon fall into Republican hands, if its dislocated black population does not return to the state. The following is an excerpt from the Sept. 12 Financial Times story, "Democrats fear state majority will evaporate."

"...A rule of thumb for Democrats is that you only need to win about three in 10 white votes in order to carry the state, says Hal Kilshaw, a Democrat political consultant. 'The state has already been gradually shifting towards the Republicans,' he says. The state is divided into three broad electoral areas. The white Baptists in the north have tended to be solidly Republican, while the Cajun Catholics in the south-western Arcadia area have traditionally been more open to voting for the Democrats. The black vote in New Orleans has helped the Democrats carry the state..."

Of course, even before this, Republican Richard Baker was overheard suggesting that the hand of God had wiped clean the problem of New Orleans's public housing projects (see yesterday's post).

Rense.com, a blog that alerted me to the abovementioned FEMA press release, posted many of the following great list of stories about FEMA. (Some links had gone dead, and I deleted or replaced them.)

Louisiana Senator said FEMA failed to accept Amtrak's offer of assistance in evacuations

FEMA turns away experienced firefighters

FEMA turns back Wal-Mart supply trucks and prevents Coast Guard from delivering diesel fuel

FEMA won't accept Amtrak's help in evacuations

FEMA won't let Red Cross deliver food

FEMA bars morticians from entering New Orleans

FEMA blocks 500-boat citizen flotilla from delivering aid

FEMA turns away generators

QUESTION TWO - ARE THE BODIES AND BODY COUNT BEING DELIBERATELY OBSCURRED?

The next day (Sept. 10) Alice Jackson, a stringer for Time magazine from Springs Miss., whose house was destroyed by Katrina wrote the following in her story, "Life After Katrina":

***UPDATE***Sept. 22, 2005

9/22/05 body-count stories (opens in new window).

Posted by MJuhre at 12:06 PM | Comments (0)

"Nobody Could Predict..." My Ass! Even Mr. Bill Knew

In 2004, Mr. Bill appeared on this prophetic PSA, calling on Louisiana's citizens to save its wetlands before a hurricane came and flooded the city.

Posted by MJuhre at 09:38 AM | Comments (0)

September 12, 2005

God Finally Does Something About Section 8 Housing

"We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did." -- Republican Congressman Richard Baker of Baton Rouge, overheard telling lobbyists, as reported by The Wall Street Journal Sept. 9.

Baker says he was misquoted. "What I remember expressing," said Baker in statement, "in a private conversation with a housing advocate and member of my staff, was that ‘we have been trying for decades to clean up New Orleans public housing to provide decent housing for residents, and now it looks like God is finally making us do it.’"

Uh huh. Well, I sure can't say he wasn't misquoted, but the "what I remember" line is usually code for "I'm not sure if what I said was recorded or can be corroborated by more than the one source that reported it."

Baker's voting record is pretty much straight down the GOP line, both on social issues and economic. Baker gets a lot of PAC money from business interests, but then I suppose they all do.

This odd group of Welsh Wiccans have some thoughts on Baker (mainly that he claims to support religious rights, but only Christian religious rights), and list his track record for voting against civil liberties.

"Thank God, for God," Baker might be thinking, as he opens the day's trading at NASDAQ.

Posted by MJuhre at 12:31 PM | Comments (0)

September 09, 2005

Laura Bush Doesn't Even Know the Name of Hurricane Katrina

"...Speaking to reporters at an elementary school in Iowa, Mrs Bush, 58, wrongly referred to the hurricane as 'Karina' twice," wrote British tabloid The Daily Mirror.

"The blunder follows a gaffe just days ago by President Bush's mother, Barbara, who claimed poverty-stricken refugees were better off thanks to the hurricane..."

Go to story.

If you really want to hear her, this is the only recording I know of on the Web:here.

You need to download the Sept. 8 broadcast of Air America Radio's The Majority Report. It comes in at around 1:16 (one hour 16 minutes) into the broadcast.

Posted by MJuhre at 03:21 PM | Comments (0)

Inept Political Appointee? Bush's FEMA is Full of 'em

Philadelphia Daily News senior writer William Bunch's Sept. 9, 2005 blog entry:

Two Bush 2000 Florida recount aides were rewarded with top FEMA posts

Reversing an eight-year crusade to rid the now-embattled Federal Emegency Management Agency of political patronage, a newly elected George W. Bush in 2001 named two key players in his Florida recount fight to important FEMA posts.

Go to story.

Go to the main page of Bunch's blog.

Posted by MJuhre at 02:55 PM | Comments (0)

Canadians and an Unemployed Electrician Save St. Bernard Parish

Two days after a broken levy caused massive flooding in New Orleans neighbor St. Bernard Parish, a 50-person rescue team from British Columbia, Canada arrived to save the day.

No one from the U.S. government arrived until two days later (and even then, it was two FEMA officials -- two).

The city of Vancouver's Urban Search and Rescue Team flew to Lafayette, La. on Wednesday Sept. 1, according to Bloomberg, and moved on to rescue victims in St. Bernard Parish the following day.

Until the Vancouver team arrived, rescue efforts in the area had been undertaken by local residents led by Verlyn Davis Jr., an unemployed electrician.

After it became clear that no one from his own government was en route to help relieve his community, Davis turned his parents' restaurant into a shelter and command center, from which dispatched volunteers in the disaster relief effort.

"The governor and the president let thousands of people die and they let them die on their roofs and they let them die in the water," Davis, 45, told the Associated Press. "We got left. They didn't care."

Posted by MJuhre at 12:10 PM | Comments (0)

September 08, 2005

Frustrated: Fire Crews to Hand out Fliers for FEMA

Some 1400 firefighters who volunteered to join in the rescue effort in the Gulf Coast were instead flown to Atlanta to train as FEMA public relations volunteers to hand out fliers and a phone number: 1-800-621-FEMA.

The firefighters' first assignment, according to the The Salt Lake Tribune, was to be theatrical backdrops for Bush as he toured devastated areas.

Read this story and pass it around.

Posted by MJuhre at 05:02 PM | Comments (0)

Louisiana Governor Brings in Clinton's FEMA Director to Take Command

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco (D) has brought in James Lee Witt, the former FEMA director under Bill Clinton, to take command.

It's a brilliant move, and not surprising, since the current director of FEMA is clearly incompetent, and considering that the current incarnation of FEMA was downsized and underfunded by the Bush Administration (in an attempt to create "small government", or really, NO [federal] government).

Witt, who is working pro-bono for at least 45 days, met with current FEMA Director Michael Brown and reportedly told him, "Mike, you’re going to do your job, and I’m going to make you do your job. And I’m going to show you how to do your job."

Read the full article from The Hill.

Posted by MJuhre at 04:31 PM | Comments (0)

September 07, 2005

Lesson One: Losers and Lawyers Can't Keep America Safe

I remember when I was afraid that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) would suspend the Constitution.

In the 1980s, when President Ronald Reagan authorized a secret war against the government of Nicaragua, he signed executive orders giving FEMA broad powers, including the right to suspend the Constitution in a time of a national crisis, including violent and widespread internal dissent or national opposition against a U.S. military invasion abroad.

My mom that told me about that executive order. We were both pretty freaked out.

Back then, Reagan, Bush Sr., and their powerful GOP, CIA, and private-sector allies seemed like a danger to our our democracy. They were, of course, but compared to the current administration, the "Reagan-Bush era" seems like walk in the park.

But anyway, eventually I forgot about the whole FEMA/Constitution issue (most likely after the 1992 election.

I forgot about it until 9/11, when I breathed a sigh of relief, figuring that if FEMA had not declared martial law then, they probably never would (the subtle erosion of Constitutional rights since then is, of course, another matter).

Little did I know that by the time 9/11 rolled around, FEMA couldn't tie its shoes, let alone take over the elected government.

After Bush took over the U.S. government, the capable disaster managers Clinton had placed at FEMA were replaced with political cronies with no emergency credentials.

In February 2001, Bush appointed Joe M. Allbaugh as director of FEMA. Allbaugh's previous job? National Campaign Manager for Bush-Cheney 2000. Before that? Chief of Staff for Texas Governor George W. Bush.

But don't worry. Allbaugh left the agency in 2003 to work on Bush's reelection campaign.

Enter Michael Brown, the current FEMA director.

Brown's last job before joining FEMA? A lawyer by training, Brown, as many a critic has crooned, spent 11 years as the commissioner of judges and stewards for the International Arabian Horse Association (IAHA). Oddly this experience is absent from the resume posted on the FEMA web site.

Perhaps that is because the only disaster management experience Brown had before joining FEMA was trying to figure out what to do after the IAHA fired him for incompetence.

Brown was invited to join FEMA by his long-time friend and college roommate...former FEMA director Allbaugh. When Allbaugh stepped down to go back to campaigning for Bush, Brown became director.

Actually, Brown's official title is no longer director, but "Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Emergency Preparedness and Response," since FEMA is now folded into the Department of Homland Defense.

The idea of the DHS, to combine various agencies like the Secret Service, FEMA, and INS under one roof, in order to streamline and coordinate their efforts protect Americans from terrorism, seemed somewhat reasonable after 9/11, when everyone was all freaked out to learn that even the NYPD and FDNY couldn't talk to each other on their radios.

Unfortunately, when the Republican-controlled Congress and President Bush actually created the DHS, instead of streamlining anything, they created a gargantuan bureacracy that clearly can't manage anything, let alone defend the homeland.

In February 2005, Bush tapped Judge Michael Chertoff, a former prosecutor and Whitewater investigation lawyer to head the DHS.

Dude. A lawyer? A lawyer can't defend me against anything except
other lawyers. What's Jerkoff...er Chertoff gonna do when terrorists strike, send them a friggin' 'Cease and Desist' letter?

In a slighly less nightmarish world, the head of DHS would be someone like New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.

To be fair, Kelly does have a law degree. But he has a lot more. He's been the top cop at the NYPD under two different mayors, the Commissioner of the U.S. Customs Service (now part of DHS), and the Under Secretary for Enforcement at the U.S. Treasury Department -- where he supervised the the U.S. Secret Service, the ATF, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), and other agencies. Further, he also elected Vice President for the Americas of Interpol, the international police organization, served as Director of the International Police Monitors in Haiti, and is a Vietnam vet who retired as Colonel in the Marine Corps after 30 years of service. That's a fucking resume for DHS.

For that matter, much as I disliked the guy, Rudy Giuliani would have been a better candidate for DHS chief than this bone head.
Look at my bone head! .

It just gets worse and worse with these people.

Posted by MJuhre at 02:09 PM | Comments (0)

September 06, 2005

FOX Reporter Becomes Unlikely Media Hero

That is all the perspective you need!

Late last week, while watching televsion news coverage of the Gulf coast disaster, I found an unlikely media hero in FOX News's Shepard Smith. Smith threw Fox's spin machine out the window and instead filed objective, live reports.

Shep was clearly shaken, to the point of almost freaking out, when he reported that the Federal Government had set up an armed checkpoint to prevent flood victims from leaving the convention center in New Orleans.

When Sean Hannity tried to turn the spin machine back on, Shep actually shouted him down. A FOX reporter shouting another FOX reporter down? What am I seeing? Even Geraldo Rivera candidly reported (albeit in a slighly more Geraldo-like dramatic way) the situation, and shut off the FOX spin valve.

Eventually, when Sean realized he couldn't stop Shep and Geraldo from reporting the truth, he got rid of them and moved onto the greener pastures of other field reports. I didn't Shep or Geraldo again for hours.

Watch the video -- Windows Media (5MB) or Quicktime (3.5MB) -- which I, again repost from Crooks and Liars. I thank them for seeming to always harness and post the news footage I always want a copy of!

Below, I also repost a partial exerpt prepared by The Next Left.

* * *
Shepard Smith: I'm standing right above that convention center, and they won't let them walk out of there. What they've done is lock them in there.

The government said, 'You go here and you'll get help. Or you go in that Superdome and you'll get help." ... AND THEY DIDN'T GET HELP! THEY GOT LOCKED IN THERE AND THEY WATCHED PEOPLE GETTING KILLED AROUND THEM! They watched people starving. They watched elderly people not get any medicine.

And you know what they've done? They've set up a checkpoint on this bridge ... And it's the only way out. It's the connection to the rest of this world. AND ANYONE WHO WALKS UP OUT OF THAT CITY NOW IS TURNED AROUND! You are not allowed to go to Gretna, Louisiana from New Orleans Louisiana.

Over there, there's hope. Over there, there's electricity. Over there, there's food and water. But, YOU CAN'T GO FROM HERE TO THERE BECAUSE THE GOVERNMENT WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO DO IT!!! It's a fact!

Sean Hannity (interrupting): I want to get some perspective here ...

Shepard Smith: THAT IS PERSPECTIVE! THAT IS ALL THE PERSPECTIVE YOU NEED!

Posted by MJuhre at 01:33 PM | Comments (0)

September 02, 2005

Increasing Numbers of Journalists Call Politicians on Their Bullshit

Anderson Cooper, who has been visibly emotionally upset almost to the point of speechlessness while covering this story -- joined the fray of journalists (and others, see Mayor Ray Nagin's pleas from a previous post) who are calling high-profile officials on their bullshit.

Cooper tore Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu (D) a new one on CNN. See the video -- Windows Media (3MB) or Quicktime (5MB+) -- , which I am reposting from Crooks and Liars. I hope they don't mind, but I want to help ensure this footagea doesn't disappear down the memory hole!

If you don't have time to se the video, I post an exerpted transcript below. But it doesn't quite tell the whole story.

* * *

Cooper introduced Landrieu and immediately asked, “Does the federal government bear responsibility for what is happening now? Should they apologize for what is happening now?” Landrieu told him “there will be be plenty of time to discuss those issues,” and proceeded to begin thanking various government officials for their disaster relief support.

Finally, Cooper interrupted her:

Senator, I’m sorry, I haven't heard that [that the Senate just met to appropriate relief funds] because for the last four days, I have been seeing dead bodies here in the streets of Mississippi and to listen to politicians thanking each other and complimenting each other — I have to tell you, there are people here who are very upset and angry, and when they hear politicians thanking one another, it just, you know, it cuts them the wrong way right now, because there was a body on the streets of this town yesterday being eaten by rats because this woman has been laying in the street for 48 hours, and there is not enough facilities to get her up. Do you understand that anger?

Go to Think Progress for more excerpts of the transcript. But, if you have time, I urge you to check out the video clip.

Posted by MJuhre at 01:31 PM | Comments (0)

New Orleans Mayor Nagin's Amazing Radio Interview

I am pissed. I cannot possibly convey how amazing this interview with Mayor Ray Nagin is. He throws politics and etiquette to the wind and just tells Feds to "get off their asses." Read the whole transcript.

Listen to the whole thing if you can. There is a link to the audio on the above page.

Posted by MJuhre at 12:20 PM | Comments (0)

Middle America Witnesses Bush Administration's Incompetence

When Katie Couric starts acting like a real journalist and tells Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) that the federal government has totally fucked up and failed to protect the lives of the American people, you know some chickens are finally coming home to roost on the White House door.

Couric, who's journalistic work usually consists of such scoops as Sean Combs telling the world that it can now call him "just Diddy" instead of P. Diddy, joined the voices of many real people (such as victims on the ground and civil servants) who say that the government failed to plan for, and is failing to react quickly enough, to this disaster.

"We knew for several days that this hurricane was going to hit. To say that by Sunday, you'll have 30,000 national guardsmen on the ground...it seems like there's a pretty long lag time in terms of actually having them on site...What about simple things like food and water. It seems many people still haven't gotten those essential supplies. Why is that?

"That's a frustrating issue for me," Brown began in his response that got more and more lame with each word, and isn't worth repeating here.

"Many people say a crucial mistake made by the government is not providing adequate funds to improve the levy system [in New Orleans]...Many people from the Army Corps of Engineers have been asking for years to improve the levy system. Why weren't federal funds allocated for them?"

Brown dodged this question as well, though in all fairness, FEMA does not have control over how federal funds are spent.

The fact is that money promised to improve Louisiana's levy system through the 1995 Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project Act (SELA), was diverted toward Bush's tax cuts and to help fund the war in Iraq.

"The [Army Corps of Engineers] never tried to hide the fact that the spending pressures of the war in Iraq, as well as homeland security -- coming at the same time as federal tax cuts -- was the reason for the strain," wrote William Bunch in Editor and Publisher (go to story). "At least nine articles in the [New Orleans] Times-Picayune from 2004 and 2005 specifically cite the cost of Iraq as a reason for the lack of hurricane- and flood-control dollars."

FEMA itself actually issued a report in 2001 warning the Bush Administration of the three most likely disasters to hit the United States: a terrorist attack on New York (hmm), a hurricane hitting New Orleans (hmm), and a major earthquake hitting San Francisco.

Will the Bush administration squeak by public opionion again and get away with its complete incompetence, as it has in the past? I can never tell with these folks, since they have continually gotten away with so much nonsens. But it's not looking very good this time.

I'm sure most Americans are now pretty concerned about how exacly the federal government will be able to respond if a major (read: much worse than 9/11) terrorist attack takes place in this country (with the possible exception of New York City, where an enormous police and emergency-services infrastructure is always poised to handle more than any other major U.S. city).

Almost 40 years ago, when CBS news icon Walter Cronkite spoke out against America's war effort in Vietnam, President Lyndon Johnson, said to his press aide 'If I've lost Walter Cronkite, I've lost Middle America."

Well, if Katie Couric begins reporting something of substance, and calling the Administration on its bullshit, Bush may finally lose Middle America. Unfortunately, it's too late.

Posted by MJuhre at 12:05 PM | Comments (0)

You Want Government Help? Here's Your Government Help

Here's your fucking aid.

Above, a woman wonders why state troopers are arriving at the New Orleans Convention
Center with rifles instead of water.

Below a man nearby covers a dead body with a cloth. (both photos by Eric Gay, AP).
Man covers dead body.

People Die and Rot at Convention Center; Government Scratches Head

MSNBC photo journalist Tony Zumbado reporting at the convention, pleaded with authorities to help the people who had been there on their own since Tuesday:

"These are the families who listened to authorities, who followed directions, who believed in their government. They were told to go to the Convention Center. They did. These are law abiding citizens who have been left behind. They did everything they were told. They are just left behind. There is nothing offered to them. No water, no ice, no C-rations -- nothing -- for the last four days. It's getting very very crazy in there and very dangerous. I don't wanna sound negative against anybody or any official but according to [the victims at theh Conthem and they're there on their own. There's no police. There's no authority. They have been behaving. They have not started any melees, any riots -- nothing. They just want food and support. There's no hostility there so [authorities] don't need to be bringing any guns or anything like that. They need support."

Posted by MJuhre at 11:23 AM | Comments (0)

George Bush's "One-Finger-Victory Salute"

Bush Flips Bird to America

See this video of a 'playful' future president Bush. This was purportedly taped at an Austin, Tex. production company, while Bush was governor of Texas.

Posted by MJuhre at 07:46 AM | Comments (0)

September 01, 2005

Oil Storm

American civil oil war

I'm as upset about what people are going through in the the Gulf states as anyone, but this isn't a venue for my emotions, so please don't think that I'm callous for discussing the following:

It was pretty crappy, but did anyone see F/X network's fake documentary, Oil Storm, last June? The premise was that "a category 6 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico slams into Louisiana, crushing the city of New Orleans and crippling the vital pipeline for refined oil that is Port Fourchon."

In the docudrama, the pipeline set off a ripple event that. America got all messed up by something of this mini-apocalypse and, for once, middle class Americans got all uppity.

I'm not sure if this is correct, but I'd swear that one of the things the people were all uppity about, was that Bush refused to open up the U.S. strategic reserve to allay the economic panic caused by the disruption of Louisiana petroleum.

Now I really wish I could see it again (even though, again, it basically sucked) just to see if the Bush Administration is taking from it any cues for its own actions. But now I suspect it will just disappear down the memory hole, it least for a time -- I imagine the TV people would find it to be in bad taste.

If you missed it, go to F/X and check out the trailer for Oil Storm.

Posted by MJuhre at 10:38 AM | Comments (0)

Sean Hannity Knows Better Than Louisiana's AG

Last night or the night before (it's been a long week already) I saw this exchange on FOX News:

Sean Hannity

Sean Hannity: Looting has become a big, big problem in New Orleans today. This morning cameras caught people ransacking a grocery store, trying to gather as much food as possible and joining us now on the phone is the Attorney General of Louisiana [Charles C. Foti, Jr., though Hannity failed to introduce him by name]. These images of looting have literally shocked the nation [Yes Sean, THAT is what has shocked the nation]. How bad is it?

Charles C. Foti, Jr.

Attorney General Foti: Well I think there is always the opportunity for looting. Ah, when you think about eh you have no electricity, no food, you have limited water, and the grocery stores are closed. That may not be looting, that might be self-preservation, okay? But we will, aggressively—

Sean Hannity flips you off

—Can I interrupt you? You seem to be minimizing it, but the images we have and that we've been showing ehh... do not really back up what you're saying. [Note: Sean himself said, above that "...cameras caught people ransacking a grocery store, trying to gather as much food as possible..."]

If you don't want to watch FOX news, but would like to learn what horseshit they spew, I recommend News Hounds. "We watch FOX, so you don't have to."

Posted by MJuhre at 09:05 AM | Comments (0)