Thursday, October 20, 2005

I'm Shocked! Shocked!!!   Progressive Broadcaster Squelched PFAW Says Pentagon Pulling Ed Schultz from American Forces Radio Looks like Retribution Washington – People For the American Way President Ralph G. Neas said his organization will ask activists to pepper the Pentagon with calls to put Ed Schultz’s talk radio program on the American Forces Radio Network (AFRN), after plans to air the program were scrapped by Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Allison Barber, the “coach” of the now-infamous staged, scripted satellite feed featuring President Bush and troops in Iraq. Schultz, who does a nationally syndicated talk radio show from his home in Fargo, North Dakota, received word last week that his show would debut today on the taxpayer-funded radio network for U.S. troops around the world. Last Friday, Schultz played excerpts of Barber coaching the troops in the satellite feed. At 6 a.m. today, Schultz’s producer, James Holm, received a phone call from Allison Barber. Barber informed Holm that AFRN would not air Schultz’s show today, and that she could not guarantee the show would ever be added to the network. “It certainly looks like retribution. Why else would a top Pentagon official personally reverse a decision made far below her rank?” asked Ralph G. Neas, President of People For the American Way. “It looks again like this administration is using brute force to quash voices of dissent and limit criticism of its actions. That’s just wrong.” Neas pointed out that Schultz, who calls himself a “red-meat eating, gun-toting progressive,” would provide a much-needed voice of balance on the AFRN network, where the schedule is packed with such well-known ultraconservatives as Rush Limbaugh, Dr. Laura Schlessinger, and James Dobson of Focus on the Family. Neas said he would write to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld urging that Schultz’s show be added immediately to worldwide distribution on AFRN, as was originally planned, and informing him that PFAW members and activists would be urged to call the Pentagon to ask that the decision to not air Schultz’s show be reversed. “The men and women of the Armed Forces deserve to hear different points of view. The Armed Forces Radio Network was never intended to be a propaganda machine for the government, but a voice of freedom for servicemen and women all across the world,” said Neas. 5:18:02 PM    comment []

Halloween is Coming! Dress as Your Favorite Republican!   Barbara Bush   Dick Cheney   Donald Rumsfeld   Harriet Miers   Karl Rove (and/or Scooter Libby)   John Roberts   Michael Brown   Ann Coulter   George W. Bush     4:49:28 PM    comment []

Stuffing His Face While New Orleans Drowns. . . "You're doin' a heckuva job, Brownie!" --GWB   Michael Brown   FEMA Official Says Boss Ignored Warnings By HOPE YEN, Associated Press Writer1 hour, 56 minutes ago Federal Emergency Management Agency officials did not respond to repeated warnings about deteriorating conditions in New Orleans and the dire need for help as Hurricane Katrina struck, the first FEMA official to arrive conceded Thursday. Marty Bahamonde, a FEMA regional director, told a Senate panel investigating the government's response to the disaster that he gave regular updates to people in contact with then-FEMA Director Michael Brown as early as Aug. 28, one day before Katrina made landfall. In most cases, he was met with silence. In an Aug. 29 phone call to Brown informing him that the first levee had broke, Bahamonde said he received a polite thank you from Brown, who said he would check with the White House. "I think there was a systematic failure at all levels of government to understand the magnitude of the situation," Bahamonde said. The testimony before the Senate Homeland Security Committee contradicted Brown, who has said he wasn't fully aware of the dire conditions until days later and that local officials were most responsible for the sluggish response. Sen. Susan Collins (news, bio, voting record), R-Maine, who chairs the panel, decried the testimony and e-mail released by Bahamonde on Thursday as illustrating "a complete disconnect between senior officials and the reality of the situation." "His urgent reports did not appear to prompt an urgent response," Collins said. In e-mails to various FEMA officials, including one to Brown, Bahamonde described a chaotic situation at the Superdome, where many of the evacuees were sheltered. Bahamonde e-mailed FEMA officials and noted also that local officials were asking for toilet paper, a sign that supplies were lacking at the shelter. "Issues developing at the Superdome. The medical staff at the dome says they will run out of oxygen in about two hours and are looking for alternative oxygen," Bahamonde wrote in an e-mail to regional director David Passey in a call at 4:46 p.m. CDT on Aug. 28. Less than an hour later, Bahamonde wrote: "Everyone is soaked. This is going to get ugly real fast." Bahamonde said he was stunned that FEMA officials responded by continuing to send truckloads of evacuees to the Superdome for two more days even though they knew supplies were in short supply. "I thought it amazing," he said. "I believed at the time and still do today, that I was confirming the worst-case scenario that everyone had always talked about regarding New Orleans." Later, on Aug. 31, Bahamonde frantically e-mailed Brown to tell him that thousands are evacuees were gathering in the streets with no food or water and that "estimates are many will die within hours." "Sir, I know that you know the situation is past critical," Bahamonde wrote. Less than three hours later, however, Brown's press secretary wrote colleagues to complain that the FEMA director needed more time to eat dinner at a Baton Rouge restaurant that evening. "He needs much more that (sic) 20 or 30 minutes," wrote Brown aide Sharon Worthy. "We now have traffic to encounter to go to and from a location of his choise (sic), followed by wait service from the restaurant staff, eating, etc. Thank you." Meanwhile, at a separate hearing, lawmakers considering Louisiana's request for $32 billion for Gulf Coast rebuilding were told that Mississippi would need tens of billions of dollars of its own to restore its coastline. Gulf Coast lawmakers and state officials have been pushing for vast infusions of federal aid since Katrina hit Aug. 29, killing more than 1,200 people and forcing hundreds of thousands to evacuate. "It will be in the billions, with a 'b,' level, it may be in the tens of billions; it won't be in the hundreds of billions," William W. Walker, head of the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources, told a House transportation panel. But Rep. John J. Duncan (news, bio, voting record) Jr., chairman of that panel, earlier had said flatly that Congress cannot afford Louisiana's request. "This is just not going to happen," he said. Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press   . . .Which Pretty Much Negates Everything He Said Here:   Ex-FEMA Director Brown Blames Others By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer September 27, 2005--Former FEMA director Michael Brown blamed others for most government failures in responding to Hurricane Katrina on Tuesday, especially Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin. He aggressively defended his own role. Brown also said that in the days before the storm, he expressed his concerns that "this is going to be a bad one" in phone conversations and e-mails with President Bush, White House chief of staff Andy Card and deputy chief of staff Joe Hagin. And he blamed the Department of Homeland Security — the parent agency for the Federal Emergency Management Agency — for not acquiring better equipment ahead of the storm. His efforts to shift blame drew sharp criticism from Democratic and Republican lawmakers alike. "I'm happy you left," said Rep. Christopher Shays (news, bio, voting record), R-Conn. "That kind of look in the lights like a deer tells me you weren't capable of doing that job." Rep. Gene Taylor (news, bio, voting record), D-Miss., told Brown: "The disconnect was, people thought there was some federal expertise out there. There wasn't. Not from you." Brown appeared before a special congressional panel set up by House Republican leaders to investigate the catastrophe. "My biggest mistake was not recognizing by Saturday that Louisiana was dysfunctional," two days before the storm hit, Brown said. Brown, who for many became a symbol of government failures in the natural disaster that claimed the lives of more than 1,000 people, rejected criticism that he was inexperienced. "I've overseen over 150 presidentially declared disasters. I know what I'm doing, and I think I do a pretty darn good job of it," he said. Brown resigned earlier this month after being removed by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff from on-site responsibility. Brown will remain on the FEMA payroll for two more weeks, advising the agency, said Russ Knocke, spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security. Brown joined FEMA in 2001 and ran it for more than two years. He was previously an attorney who held several local government and private posts, including leading the International Arabian Horse Association. Rep. William Jefferson (news, bio, voting record), D-La. told Brown: "I find it absolutely stunning that this hearing would start out with you, Mr. Brown, laying the blame for FEMA's failings at the feet of the governor of Louisiana and the Mayor of New Orleans." In a testy exchange, Shays compared Brown's performance unfavorably with that of former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. "So I guess you want me to be the superhero, to step in there and take everyone out of New Orleans," Brown said. "What I wanted you to do is do your job and coordinate," Shays retorted. "I'm happy to be called not a Rudy Giuliani...a scapegoat ... if it means that FEMA ...is going to be able to be reborn," Brown said. Criticized by Shays for failing to get better equipment to make communication easier among emergency agencies, Brown blamed those above him. "We put that money in our budget request and it was removed by the Department of Homeland Security" he said. Brown said he was "just tired and misspoke" when a television interviewer appeared to be the first to tell him there were desperate residents at the New Orleans Convention Center. Brown said he learned a day earlier that people were flocking there. He blamed "a hysteric media" for what he said were unfounded reports of rapes and murders. He characterized blunt-spoken Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, the military coordinator for the disaster, as "a bull in the China closet, God love him." And he said Americans themselves must play a more active role in preparing for natural disasters — and not expect more from the government than it can deliver. Republican Rep. Kay Granger (news, bio, voting record) of Texas told Brown: "I don't know how you can sleep at night. You lost the battle." Brown in his opening statement cited "specific mistakes" in dealing with the storm, and listed just two. One, he said, was not having more media briefings. As to the other, he said: "I very strongly personally regret that I was unable to persuade Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin to sit down, get over their differences, and work together. I just couldn't pull that off." Both Blanco and Nagin are Democrats. In Baton Rouge, La., Blanco's press secretary, Denise Bottcher, responded: "Mike Brown wasn't engaged then, and he surely isn't now. He should have been watching CNN instead of the Disney Channel," Bottcher said. Despite the appearance by several Democratic Gulf Coast lawmakers, The hearing was generally boycotted by Democrats, who want an independent investigation conducted into government failures, not one run by congressional Republicans. Committee Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., cautioned against too narrowly assigning blame. "At the end of the day, I suspect that we'll find that government at all levels failed," Davis said. He pushed Brown on what he and his agency should have done to evacuate New Orleans, restore order and improve communication. "Those are not FEMA roles," Brown said. "FEMA doesn't evacuate communities. FEMA does not do law enforcement. FEMA does not do communications." Brown said the lack of an effective evacuation of New Orleans before the storm was "the tipping point for all the other things that went wrong." A "mandatory" evacuation was ordered Sunday by Nagin, the mayor. However, buses were not provided and thousands of residents were stranded without transportation in low-lying areas. Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press 3:59:43 PM    comment []

Word of the Day: skank (skngk) 1. (n.) Originally associated with a bad smell and/or scummy or dirty surface, it has come to refer to someone who is either or both physically repugnant for their filth and morally or socially repugnant for their behavior and demeanor.  2. (n.) filth: any substance considered disgustingly foul or unpleasant   Skank 1:44:05 PM    comment []

From the archives. . . Good Morning, America!   Yes, this is a doctored photo, but I found the symbolism irresistable. En   Entertainment   1:35:53 PM    comment []

From the archives. . .   The South: Time To Let Go   When Howard Dean was elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee, he pledged to make the party competitive in every part of the country, including the South. While I have long been an admirer of Dr. Dean and his vision for America (and remain convinced that he would have made a better presidential candidate than John Kerry), I cannot help but feel that for the Democratic Party to put much, if any, emphasis on winning in the South would be a waste of its already limited (compared to the Republicans') resources. For nearly a century, the South was monolithically Democratic. In 1877 Congressional Republicans ended Reconstruction as payment for Southern electors' help in stealing the 1876 presidential election for Rutherford B. Hayes. But Reconstruction, even after yielding to Jim Crow, stuck in the craw of white Southerners for decades afterward (in Vicksburg, Mississippi, the Fourth of July wasn't celebrated again until World War II), and as a result a Republican had about as much chance of being elected to a significant political office below the Mason-Dixon line as a Black Muslim.   That all changed with the stirring of the Civil Rights movement. When Harry Truman integrated the troops and paid nominal attention to the plight of Southern blacks, there arose within his party the "Dixiecrat" rebellion, which was quelled somewhat during the Eisenhower years (it is interesting to note that the deep South still clung to its Democratic prejudices in the elections of 1952 and 1956, casting its vote for liberal intellectual Adlai Stevenson over Dwight Eisenhower). But the Kennedy/Johnson administration's alliance with the mainstream Movement as personified by Dr. King, which culminated in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, spelled the beginning of the end of Democratic dominance in the South. Heavyweight Democratic politicians began defecting to the Republicans, whose standard bearers (Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon) were the very antithesis of Civil Rights, followed by the white rank and file. This has resulted, over the past forty years, of a region that has gone from a Democratic to a Republican monolith. While it is true that there are pockets that remain open to regional Democratic candidacy, the South as a whole needs, I believe, to be written off by the national party. The Western states (Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and Montana in particular), as stated elsewhere on this blog, are much more fertile Democratic ground. Their brand of conservatism, which is rooted in free-thinking, individualistic, small-"l" libertarianism rather than the Christian fundamentalism of the South, and in many ways eschews the old, outmoded left-right paradigm, is far more open to the rational thought of Progressive Populism that Western Democrats are bringing to them.  In addition, the party needs to commit more resources to Midwestern "battleground" states like Wisconsin and Minnesota, whose Democratic margins have become razor thin of late.  It's true that there is a Progressive tradition in the South that has produced the likes of Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Al Gore and John Edwards, but it has of late become a politically uncompetitive minority. Remember that, with the exception of Florida, Gore didn't carry a single Southern state, including his own, in 2000, and Edwards was zero help in attracting Southern votes for the '04 ticket.  And while historically the South has produced a proud literary tradition (Willie Morris, Shelby Foote, Harper Lee, Truman Capote, Carson McCullers, William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams, et. al.), some of the greatest American music (jazz, blues, bluegrass, zydeco, R&B, country & western, rock and roll) and some damn fine food, it is dominated today by NASCAR, football, fake country music (Clint Black, Toby Keith, et. al.), a wildly distorted interpretation of the teachings of Jesus Christ, and the Republican Party. Progressives should regard the modern South as a Third World country within our borders, a colorful if politically and culturally bass-ackward place to visit on occasion for a good time and a break from the winter cold, but not to take seriously.  In the first years of the Bush administration, particularly after 9/11, Southern conservatives gloated about their control of the agenda, and after the disaster that was the 2004 election became even more emboldened, even more determined to make their grotesque subculture of "Jesusland" the blood-red law of the land. Katrina blew a big hole in their arrogance, and exposed their form of "conservatism" as the bloodthirsty, theocratic, neofascist radicalism it truly is. Let them have Bill Frist, Saxby Chambliss and David Vitter. We'll take Brian Schweitzer, Mark Udall, Janet Napolitano, Bill Richardson and Ken Salazar. The sooner we stop pandering to the South, the sooner they'll become politically isolated and marginalized, the sooner their power will wane, and the sooner there won't be a damned thing they can do to us.   --MDZ   1:30:04 PM    comment []

The Media: Complacency or Complicity?   Scott McClellan's selective -- and successful -- silence We took Scott McClellan to task yesterday for selectively breaking his silence on the Valerie Plame investigation in order to throw cold water on a story suggesting that George W. Bush has known all along that Karl Rove leaked Plame's identity. It turns out that McClellan's work was even a bit slimier than we had noticed -- and that it seems to have worked. During Wednesday morning's untelevised press gaggle, McClellan said he challenged the accuracy of a report in the New York Daily News that said that Bush had rebuked Rove for his role in Plamegate back in the fall of 2003. But when asked to explain the basis for his challenge, McClellan immediately said -- as he always does these days -- that he couldn't discuss an ongoing investigation. When a reporter said that the White House couldn't just challenge the accuracy of a story without saying why, McClellan responded: "Yes, I can. I just did." People laughed. But at the daily press briefing a short time later -- with the TV cameras on -- the White House press corps allowed McClellan to pretend that he'd never broken his silence on the story at all. Here's the transcript: Question: Scott, did the president talk to Karl Rove two years ago about the leak? McClellan: Steve, I appreciate the question. That's a question relating to an ongoing investigation, and I'm just not going to have further comment while that investigation is underway. Question: Because the New York Daily News says the president rebuked Rove two years ago ... McClellan: There are a lot of news reports out there and I've seen a lot of conflicting news reports, and we're just not going to comment any further on an ongoing investigation. Question: It behooves you to ... McClellan: Well, there's a special prosecutor doing his work, Helen, and we want him to come to a successful conclusion. And that's what we're doing, is cooperating -- Question: This is a question that directly affects the president, and -- McClellan: Cooperating with the ongoing investigation. Question:: You should say it's true, or not true. McClellan: As you have known for sometime now, we've been saying that while this is an ongoing investigation what we're going to do from the White House is cooperate fully with that investigation and let the special prosecutor do his work. We're not going to speculate or prejudge the outcome. Question: We're not asking you to speculate. We're asking you, is this report true or not? McClellan: And I've already answered that. Of course, the people watching the press briefing on TV or reading about it on the White House Web site wouldn't know that McClellan had "already answered" the question with anything other than his usual "no comment." Maybe we're missing something, but is there some kind of rule that prevents reporters from raising at the press briefing something that came up earlier at the gaggle? What might have happened if someone at the press briefing had said, "Wait a minute, Scott. You said this morning that you challenged the accuracy of the Daily News report. Why won't you do that again now? Is it because the TV cameras are on? Or is it because you've learned something since this morning that has made you decide not to challenge the accuracy of the story now?" But no one said that. And more important, no one in the mainstream media -- at least no one we've seen yet -- has picked up on the Daily News report. Maybe the other reporters have done their own follow-up on the Daily News report and concluded that the paper had it wrong. But if that's the case, why not say so? When the Daily News ran its story, it explained why it thought that earlier reports exonerating Bush were wrong. If others in the mainstream press think the Daily News story is wrong, why not write something explaining the basis for that view? The more worrying thought is this: Did reporters in the White House press room simply accept McClellan's word about the accuracy of the Daily News report? If that's the case, then it's clear that the White House is still succeeding at manipulating the press, even in the midst of a scandal over the ways in which it has manipulated the press. -- Tim Grieve, salon.com 12:08:49 PM    comment []

And people think we're joking when we say Dick Cheney is really running the country. . .   Colonel Finally Saw Whites of Their Eyes By Dana Milbank Thursday, October 20, 2005; A04 As Colin Powell's right-hand man at the State Department, Larry Wilkerson seethed quietly during President Bush's first term. Yesterday, Colonel Wilkerson made up for lost time. He said the vice president and the secretary of defense created a "Cheney-Rumsfeld cabal" that hijacked U.S. foreign policy. He said of former defense undersecretary Douglas Feith: "Seldom in my life have I met a dumber man." Addressing scholars, journalists and others at the New America Foundation, Wilkerson accused Bush of "cowboyism" and said he had viewed Condoleezza Rice as "extremely weak." Of American diplomacy, he fretted, "I'm not sure the State Department even exists anymore." And how about Karen Hughes's efforts to boost the country's image abroad? "It's hard to sell [manure]," Wilkerson said, quoting an Egyptian friend. The man who was chief of staff at the State Department until early this year continued: "If you're unilaterally declaring Kyoto dead, if you're declaring the Geneva Conventions not operative, if you're doing a host of things that the world doesn't agree with you on and you're doing it blatantly and in their face, without grace, then you've got to pay the consequences." With Bush's approval ratings dropping below 40 percent, the administration's vaunted loyalty and party discipline are suffering. David Frum, a former White House speechwriter, is campaigning against confirmation of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. Bruce Bartlett, who worked for the president's father, was fired by his think tank this week because he is publishing a book titled "Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy." And, on Capitol Hill yesterday, Republicans joined in criticizing the administration about Iraq. When Rice said at a hearing that "we have made significant progress" in Iraq, Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee (R.I.) replied: "Well, we all wish that were true, but we can't kid ourselves, either." Wilkerson adds a new dimension to the criticism. A 31-year military veteran and former director of the Marine Corps War College, he worked for Powell in the public and private sectors for much of the past 16 years, and he was often described by colleagues as the man who would say what Powell was thinking but was too discreet to say. Wilkerson's beef with the administration was, for the most part, not ideological. He argues that U.S. forces must remain in Iraq, and he describes George H.W. Bush as "one of the finest presidents we've ever had." Rather, the colonel objected to the administration's secrecy, which allowed Cheney, Rumsfeld and others to subvert the foreign policy apparatus that has been in place since 1947. "What I saw was a cabal between the vice president of the United States, Richard Cheney, and the secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld," he said. By cutting out the bureaucracy that had to carry out those decisions, "we have courted disaster in Iraq, in North Korea, in Iran, and generally with regard to domestic crises like Katrina." If there is a nuclear terrorist attack or a major pandemic, Wilkerson continued, "you are going to see the ineptitude of this government in a way that'll take you back to the Declaration of Independence." Wilkerson, part military man and part academic, said "hell" a lot but also used words such as "desultory" and "titular." Peering from large wire-rimmed glasses, armed with a flag lapel pin, he spoke with barely restrained anger. He had given critical quotes about the administration before, but yesterday's New America Foundation speech was his coming out as an administration critic. He had barbs for lawmakers ("truly abandoned their oversight responsibilities") and said past presidents had also circumvented the national security structure. But, he said, "the case that I saw for four-plus years was a case I have never seen in my studies of aberrations, bastardizations, perturbations, changes to the national security decision-making process." Wilkerson blamed Bush, "not versed in international relations and not too much interested," for letting the Cheney-Rumsfeld cabal to take over. He blamed Rice for dropping her role as honest broker to "build her intimacy with the president." And he blamed whoever gave Feith "carte blanche to tell the State Department to go screw itself." The cabal's end run around the bureaucracy, he argued, stalled nuclear diplomacy with North Korea and Iran. He said top officials "condoned" prisoner abuse and left the Army "truly in bad shape." "You and I and every other citizen like us is paying the consequences," he said, "whether it was a response to Katrina that was less than adequate certainly, or the situation in Iraq which still goes unexplained." The colonel said his old boss is not pleased with his decision to go public with his criticism. Powell, he said, "is the world's most loyal soldier." Wilkerson said he admired that, but he took a different view of loyalty: not to the administration, but to the country. © 2005 The Washington Post Company 12:04:43 PM    comment []

Check Out My Nephew's Blog! It's way cooler than mine. If you've always wanted to hear the voice of a pork chop, go to: Exile on Hicks Street     1:04:35 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2005 Michael D. Zungolo. Last update: 11/1/2005; 8:22:54 AM.