Open Thread

Now we can really talk about anything... Read More......

Katrina Relief Money Poured Into Sleazy Companies

More in the endless stories of no-bid contracts for the rebuilding of the Gulf region going to Halliburton (of course) and numerous companies who are under investigation or have recently been forced to pay fines for illegal activities. Says USA Today:

A division of Fluor, a California firm awarded a housing contract worth up to $100 million, has paid millions of dollars to settle federal government lawsuits — including one that accused it of overbilling for 1989 hurricane cleanup work.

The Shaw Group, a Louisiana firm that won housing and engineering contracts worth up to $200 million, has disclosed that it is being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm is also a defendant in federal securities class-action cases.

But don't blame the government:

FEMA spokesman Widomski said his agency had been unaware of both the SEC matter and the securities class-action lawsuits involving the Shaw Group.

"Right now, there isn't a place for the federal government to get a history of a company's business background," she said. "There should be one place where they can look."

Gee, well here's a thought. I don't recall ever applying for a job without filling out a form asking if I'd ever committed a felony, been arrested, etc. Before giving a company $100 million to splurge on, how about asking them if they're under investigation of any sort at the local, state or federal level, ever paid fines in a dispute, ever been found guilty, etc?

Anyone who lies loses the contract and pays a massive fine. Anyone who answers yes is placed in the back of the line or eliminated altogether automatically. Can't the gov't have zero tolerance for cheats? Now was that so hard? Read More......

Bush's threats again Iran. Why should Iran care?

I can see it now. Bush gets the Europeans to join him in threatening Iran (Condi threatened them the other day). And so what? Why should Iran care? What are we going to do, invade them with, uh, an army that isn't sufficiently large enough to even fight in Iraq, let alone continue the war in Afghanistan and the relief work in New Orleans and across the south? What "or else" can we legitimately throw at Iran? We're gonna blow up your facilities? Well that's nice. Sounds like a perfect invitation for Iran to send its troops across the Iraqi border and annex a bunch of land. And what would we do in return, go to war against Iran? That'd be special.

I don't see has Bush has any credibility whatsoever to threaten Iran. If Iran has any balls, and they appear to, they'll just up the ante and there isn't a damn thing we can do about it.

That's the cost of trying to do too many unnecessary things. Eventually the necessary things arise and, well, there's no money or manpower or weaponry left. Surprise! Read More......

Americablog: The Big Hits Of The Week Sept. 10 to Sept. 16

Here it is, a rundown of the big hits of the week, the postings that drew the most traffic and generated the most comments from you, our readers. It's a great way to catch up if you've been away, to track down those postings you want to refer to again and again and an ideal method for introducing your friends to Americablog. Thanks for helping us grow every week with your informed commentary and active participation.

THE WEEKEND

By far the biggest attention was stirred by a Newsweek feature detailing "How Bush Blew It." John in DC nailed the embarrassing details with "NEWSWEEK: Bush Didn't Know The Hurricane Damage Was Bad Until THURSDAY AFTER IT STRUCK."

Chris in Paris gathered a great rundown of the callous, mean-spirited or just downright dumb comments and acts of Republicans after Katrina in "Compassionate conservatives in action -- post-Katrina." It includes of course Barbara Bush's breath-taking quote that is a must-hear.

John in DC remains astonished by the MSM, calling out the Washington Post for attacking Democrats for speaking up in "What Is The Washington Post's Problem?"

Joe in DC mocked FEMA head Kevin Brown's moaning about his "mistreatment" instead of apologizing for his incompetence and resigning in "Poor Drownie, getting picked on and all."

Kyle in the Gulf continued filing compelling photos and telling us about "Food Stamp Hell" and reporting that "The Blackwater Mercenaries Are In New Orleans."

John in DC posted photos and pointed commentary that made clear that Pentagon-sponsored war rally (hello, Big Brother!) was a big flop with "What if you threw a wargasm and nobody came?"

Michael in New York spotted the attitude of the black community in the naming of its own disaster relief concert, "BET: Saving OurSelves." Yep, they know Bush abandoned them and they need to help themselves because the cavalry isn't coming.

And John in DC celebrated good news with "Newsweek Poll: Bush approval at 38%!"


MONDAY

John in DC celebrated more good news with "Drownie Just Resigned."

Chris in Paris mops up the mess from that Pentagon-inspired rally with "NY Times coverage of the not-so-much-freedom march." Michael in New York chimes in with the assault of a protestor described in "More Fun News From The 'Freedom' March."

Rob in Baltimore mocked the crocodile tears of a demagogue in "Tom Coburn, GOP Hypocrite."

Joe in DC trumpeted more bad polling and more bad news for Bush by quoting WaPo saying Bush is "An increasingly unpopular president."

John in DC blasts Brownie's replacement in "Bush Puts 'Duct-tape' Idiot in Charge of FEMA."

Michael in New York insists "Oprah Is Wrong -- It's Bush That Needs To Apologize."

Joe in DC tells us "Bush to hold political prayer event" in a cheap bid to recapture that 9-11 aura.

And Kyle in the Gulf offers up "The Thunderdome -- An On-the-scene report from Kyle in New Orleans."


TUESDAY

John in DC -- astonished -- asks "Did Bush just refuse to answer whether he's prepared to handle a terrorist attack?"

Joe in DC says "Negligent Homicide Charges in Louisiana" gives him some ideas about who could be charged next.

John in DC bemoans a new policy at the Grey Lady in "NYT tries to kill the Internet." Michael in New York chimed in with "NYT Pay Per View Articles -- A Terrible Idea."

Michael in New York points out "Bush's Incompetence Weakens US Abroad."

And John in DC loved this roundup of quotes from the disaster that was Katrina and Bush's response -- "Read this entire story, then email it to all your friends."


WEDNESDAY

Joe in DC gave us the heads-up on "GOP Senate Kills Independent Katrina Panel." John in DC blasted the refusal of EVERY Republican senator to form an independent bipartisan commission to examine and draw lessons from the incompetent response to Hurricane Katrina and called for action in "ACTION ALERT: Call the US Senate; Ask GOP Senators Why They Hate America?"

Our first direct outreach from Congress came in Congressman John Conyers' post "Hate Crimes Prevention Act Passes House in Historic Vote."

Michael in New York caught a telling detail about Bush's reaction to Katrina and shared his analysis in "Bush Ignored Blanco, Reached Out To Barbour."

John in DC couldn't resist that Bush photo indicating a bathroom break was on the agenda in "More like he needs a time-out."

Michael in New York shredded the far right's ignorant attempts to paint a nature documentary as somehow pro-monogamy in "The Passion of the Penguins."

Chris in Paris first alerted insomniacs to the carnage in Iraq with "90 dead and 160+ wounded in Iraq," with John in DC giving an update under "More Than 152 die in 12+ nearly simultaneous attacks in Baghdad."

John in DC inspired a fervent debate over blogonomics with "Please consider making a donation to Americablog, if you can." (How's that for a timid, embarrassed liberal request for money? The Republican equivalent would be "Give me money, damnit! That second yacht is expensive. The religious right's version would be "Where's your tithe? We haven't received your tithe yet.")

And it didn't take Michael in New York to turn into Nostrodamus to predict the screaming would begin once word got out that "Federal Judge Declares Pledge Unconstitutional."


THURSDAY

John in DC continued his campaign against the Dirty Bomb 54 -- the Republican Senators who voted en masse to block a bipartisan, independent commission to look into the tragic failures of the response to Katrina and learn lessons. John urged you to contact these senators with that ACTION ALERT. He brought back t-shirt blogging on the topic with "Anyway, I got some t-shirts up," asked you to "Use this thread to post details of your calls to the Dirty Bomb 54 Senators' offices," and Joe in DC noted it garnered some press in "Hotline covers Americablog's Dirty Bomb 54 campaign."

Chris in Paris mocked a Republican Presidential hopeful with "Romney reaches out to wingnuts -- wants wiretaps for mosques."

A not-so-Presidential address hit primetime, and John in DC asked for "Your opinion of Bush's address, real time" and "OK, what did you think, now that Bush's speech is over?"

Joe in DC shouldn't have been surprised but was that "Rove -- Yes, Karl Rove -- Is In Charge of Post-Katrina Rebuiilding Effort."

And Michael in New York had a chuckle over "Brownie's Escuse? The Hurricane Made It Really Hard To Deal With The Hurricane."


FRIDAY

John in DC highlighted the dangers of avian flu and Bush's complete incompetence in failing to take reasonable, common sense steps to prepare for it in "Good news: We may all be dead anyway" and "We're all going to die, part II."

Joe in DC made clear that Bush is only swinging into action to reapir his image in "Analysis: It's all about politics for Bush."

Chris in Paris delights in the fact that "Bush delivered a lead balloon speech."

John in DC gets on the MSM for not asking the right questions about Cheney being AWOL during Katrina and sees an answer in "Cheney to have surgery for leg aneurysm."

Rob in Baltimore says "Consumer confidence after katrina WORSE than after 9-11."

John in DC mocks the photo op nature of Bush's visits to New Orleans with "New Orleans city lights turned on for Bush, turned off after he left."

Kyle in the Gulf reports paints a picture of "His last night in New Orleans."

Michael in New York tried to be fair by pointing out "Bush Defeats One Enemy: The Environment."

And John in DC gave kuods to a terrific, cutting analysis of the Dems by playwright David Mamet in "Great article about the Democrats and their courage problem." Read More......

Cheney doesn't want to miss work...now

Mike Allen has an article at Time Magazine about how Cheney nixed the idea of appointing a "czar" to oversee the Katrina rebuilding. He concludes with this:

Meanwhile, Cheney is preparing to undergo elective surgery Sept. 24 to treat an aneurysm in an artery behind his knee and scheduled the procedure for a weekendso he wouldn't miss a day on the job.

Wow, how magnanimous of Cheney. Funny how that matters to him now.

He stayed on vacation for almost a full week after Katrina struck. When questioned, he whined, "I came back four days early."

They really are in full spin mode at the White House. Read More......

Open thread

Another hot muggy day. When is summer over? Read More......

Does Pope Razzi want to rape little girls?

It sure sounds that way, since the Vatican is now making clear that the sexual tension a normal adult feels in the company of other adults leads those normal adults to want to rape small children, sometimes as young as 4 years of age.

I'm just trying to understand why a presumably normal adult man like Razzi assumes that of course adult males to want to rape small children simply because they're in the company other adults who may, or may not, turn them on.

Those kind of bizarre assumptions shed a lot of light on why the Catholic church leaderhship has coddled and enabled these pedophiles for decades. They appear to think just like them. Read More......

Why is Bill Clinton helping Rupert Murdoch and George Bush?

The BBC has every right to "dump" on the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina. Hell, the pup-dog American media did, and they're usually terrified of criticizing Dear Leader. So why shouldn't the BBC?

As for taking pleasure in the hurricane, no one took pleasure in the suffering of so many, nor did anyone take pleasure in the fact that this hurricane proved what we've been saying about George Bush for five years - that he's an asleep on the job, dumb, arrogant, incompetent, frat boy. Tony Blair and Bill Clinton should take care not to confuse "taking pleasure in suffering" with a sense of relief that an incompetent liar has finally, FINALLY, been exposed.

And wtf is Clinton doing? Is this another Help-Hillary-be-President move?

Speaking of which, stay tuned for my future post about the disaster we're going to have, again, if Hillary becomes our candidate for president. Just what we need, another candidate who the Republicans loathe, half of us don't even like, and who is a big liberal who now wants to pretend they're really a conservative. Yeah, that's a winning recipe for winning the presidency. Read More......

Condi sets her sights on Iran

This can't be good:

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged the United Nations on Saturday to be tough with Iran over its nuclear ambitions but said there was still time for diplomacy to run its course....

While asking the U.N. to be firm, Rice urged Tehran to resume nuclear talks that broke down last month with the Europeans or the Security Council should intervene.

"When diplomacy has been exhausted, the Security Council must become involved," Rice said.

When the going gets tough for the Bush team, they start a war. The 2006 elections are right around the corner.

Of course, to anyone paying attention, and I suspect the Iranians are paying attention, we seem to be a little over-extended. I wonder if Condi and Bush know that. Read More......

Sunday Morning Open Thread

Sunday papers...Sunday talk shows...what's the latest? Read More......

Another FEMA insider talks about the failed leadership

So how long is Chertoff going to stick around? Isn't it time the US has a team of professionals protecting the country and not a bunch of lazy political appointees? Each day it becomes clearer and clearer that Bush has ruined the organization and his so-called leaders lack any leadership capabilities. Who would have guessed that packing an organization with a bunch of political cronies and yes men would have such a negative impact? Well, for starters, FEMA people.

"We told these fellows that there was a killer hurricane heading right toward New Orleans," Leo Bosner, a 26-year FEMA employee and union leader told CNN. "We had done our job, but they didn't do theirs."

"New Orleans is of particular concern because much of that city lies below sea level," he warned in his daily alert [27 August] to Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff, then-FEMA chief Michael Brown and other Bush administration officials.

A year ago he raised concerns that Brown was in over his head. Brown stepped down earlier this month after he was removed from leading the government's Katrina relief effort.

Chertoff worked from home the day Bosner first warned of the hurricane's catastrophic potential for New Orleans, CNN's Tom Foreman reported. Chertoff also has been criticized for writing a memo the day after Katrina struck, delegating authority to Brown and deferring to the White House rather than taking charge.

Impressive leadership in action. Running every decision through the political grinder and packing every post with political cronies is no way to run a country. I realize this administration has a love affair with tactics used by communist regimes but we live in a democracy and people need to be held accountable. Read More......

Blair continues his love affair with Murdoch and the wingnuts

Ugh, this guy makes me sick to my stomach. He's truly revolting and has no shame about sucking up to Murdoch and his wingnut media machine. The latest story is about Blair's chat with the right wing media mogul last week in NY during the 60th anniversary of the UN. Boy do I sympathize with my friends in the UK who have to tolerate that guy.

I primarily watched CNN coverage which was pretty good, the best they've offered in years but what I did see of the BBC seemed OK to me. Pointing out the failure of an administration that failed miserably to protect Americans is completely fair to me and Clinton's criticism is off as well as far as I'm concerned. This team ran on the theme of keeping Americans safe and they did not even come close and while it's embarrassing, the fact remains that they were failures. These people have a hard time listening and being gentle never seems to register with this team. Remember, Bush doesn't do nuance, as he bragged about before.

"Tony Blair... told me yesterday that he was in Delhi last week and he turned on the BBC World Service to see what was happening in New Orleans, and he said it was just full of hate at America and gloating about our troubles," the chairman and chief executive of News Corporation said.

"If it's an accurate record, Mr Murdoch has provided a fascinating glimpse of his private relationship with Mr Blair," he said. "It may not come as a great surprise that the Prime Minister aims to please Murdoch but it comes as a bit of a shock he goes this far." He added: "Mr Blair, it might be said, is hardly the best judge of the impartiality of news coverage, given his behaviour in the run-up to the Iraq war."

If only this was his only interaction with Murdoch, but no, his team apparently even changed internal memo's to dilute the realities.

Tony Blair promised Rupert Murdoch that he would be consulted on any change to Britain's policy towards Europe, according to a diary kept by a former Downing Street press officer.

The idea that an Australian-born newspaper magnate should have a veto over Britain's relations with Europe will infuriate Labour supporters. The version that will appear in the diary, to be published by Hodder this month, will read: "apparently, News International are under the impression we won't make any changes without asking them."

Birds of a feather... Read More......

Army Knew Abuse Of Prisoners Was Ongoing and Could Have Been Prevented

Newly unclassified info about the Army's systematic use of torture and abuse (and even killing) of prisoners -- some of whom the Army itself acknowledges were completely innocent and should never have been held in the first place -- has come to light, says LA Times. No surprises, but it's still a shock to read that:

Army officers in Iraq told their superiors last year that soldiers often lacked the training to handle detainees, did not always understand what constituted abuse and sometimes used techniques against prisoners that they "remembered from movies," according to military records made public Thursday.

In two incidents described in the reports, bound detainees were shot and killed by soldiers. Although the circumstances were unclear, officers or Army lawyers said afterward that the killings could have been prevented with better training, facilities and understanding by soldiers of the rules of engagement.

The Army defends itself by pointing out they've conducted some 400 investigations, some resulting in court martials, non-judicial punishment and other penalties. But 400 invesitations is no reason to assume a pattern.

Paul Boyce, an Army spokesman, said the documents represented "Army reports and Army information, where the Army was looking into allegations and sorting out the situation about detainee mistreatment."

But he said they did not show widespread abuse.

So if 400 investigations doesn't constitute widespread -- that's about 1 new investigation every day and a half for the past 21 months -- what would? 4000? Read More......