Time has an interesting article looking at the current levels of cronyism in the Bush administration. They seem to focus on the positions that pose the greatest risk. Good reporting but mediocre writing. Still worth your time, though.
Time has an interesting article looking at the current levels of cronyism in the Bush administration. They seem to focus on the positions that pose the greatest risk. Good reporting but mediocre writing. Still worth your time, though.
Back to horses, maybe? Link.
Listen to this NPR piece from the Sept. 9 All Things Considered. At about 6:42 into the segment, they quickly mention that the president called the Louisiana governor and NOLA Mayor Ray Nagin onto Air Force One and bartered with people’s lives. He offered to send federal troops only if the two democrats agreed to cede all command and control of the situation in NOLA to the White House. This isn’t what a president does. He doesn’t dicker for political advantage while people are dying in their homes, nursing homes, or in relief shelters. This was an unbelievably cold-blooded move.
What’s almost as bad is that the governor then told him she needed 24 hours to think it over. Inexcusable. What she should have done was leave the plane, grab the nearest group of journalists, and tell them what she’d just heard.
One more interesting note about the piece: it explains that local emergency officials certainly did follow the established procedures and requested federal aid as soon as they were able. Someone needs to beat Bill Frist, Tom DeLay, and Dennis Hastert over the head with this story until they shut up already.
Disgusting.
Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center, briefed FEMA head Michael Brown and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff about Katrina flooding New Orleans by overtopping levies, prior to Katrina making landfall last week. They repeated the lie that “nobody could have foreseen this” all weekend long. This administration’s lies are killing people in Iraq and now on the Gulf Coast. At what point do Americans decide that enough is enough?
Link to the Newhouse wire story at the Seattle P-I.
tags: fema| hurricanekatrina| hurricanerelief| journalism| katrina| michaelbrown| politics
Keith Olbermann on MSNBC sums it all up pretty well. Link.
