Best Articles On...

     I try to read 10 articles on X or Y, and link to the one with the most facts and the least propaganda.  If I get to 20 articles, I feel pretty good.  I did close to that for the Ukraine peice.  Far less for Egypt.  I highly recommend the exercise.

• Unpeeling the Orange:  My estimation: Yuschenko is more beholden to western market liberalization forces than people realized.  One article reported only 37% of Ukrainians think these folks are better than the Kuchma government.  Another reported that the "goddess of the revolution," (Timoschenko) has already joined the opposition to Yuschenko.  But the best article is from Peter Goodspeed at Canada's National Post.  The BBC has a round up of the E. European and Russian press, showing a clear bias.  Business-oriented newspapers seem to be supportive of the newly appointed PM, Yekhanurov, described elsewhere as a "liberal economist" but who is also a regional governor.
• Mubarak wins 80% in the polls, turnout expected about 30%.  Nothing to read about, really.  This editorial in the Washington Post makes some serious allegations, but, oddly or not, they aren't repeated in other press accounts.  Not sure I'd bother.  The most amazing thing about this story is the praise from US officials.  For example, E Wisner, Ambassador assigned by RW Reagan to Egypt, called it "an historic day." and S McCormack, current US State department spokesperson said "I think it's safe to say that Egyptians have not seen presidential elections like the one you have just seen in their lifetimes." which could be a way of saying "we've never seen Hosni Mubarak run for a fifth term before."
• Oh, in news that seemed strange to me, along with H Kissinger, Noam Chomsky has a column in the UAE's Khaleej Times.  The link is to whichever is the newest title, so it will go wrong soon.  The article I am talking about is the September 3rd's "Doctrine of good intentions."

Justice for Rich Intact, Gun Rights, Too

     Probably no rich people died from Hurricane Katrina, but some of them, naturally, want to get back to their homes, and start sorting things out.

     According to the NY Times, private security guards hired by rich people and business, openly carrying M-16s and other weapons, are the only people allowed to have guns in New Orleans.

     Your right to pay people to bear arms for you shall not be infringed, apparently.

No civilians in New Orleans will be allowed to carry pistols, shotguns or other firearms, said P. Edwin Compass III, the superintendent of police. "Only law enforcement are allowed to have weapons," he said.

But that order apparently does not apply to hundreds of security guards hired by businesses and some wealthy individuals to protect property. The guards, employees of private security companies like Blackwater, openly carry M-16's and other assault rifles. Mr. Compass said that he was aware of the private guards, but that the police had no plans to make them give up their weapons.

     May the Light of the Eternal Lord Shine Down and Enrich the Pockets of the Wealthy.  Hallelujah.  Amen.  Oh, and make sure to disarm the lower and middle classes.  Sometimes they get so, well, uppity.

If you read

     Atrios or Josh Marshall, you probably don't read this blog.  But just in case, or, since you likely know those two blogs, check out Bob Somerby ripping them a new one over at the incomprable Daily Howler.

---

     UPDATE: And check out the previous day's post for some good stuff on comparing Clinton and GHW and GW Bush responses to disasters.  I do believe there is a racist faction in the GOP, but, far more importantly, the GOP knows city slickers don't vote for them.  Just something to keep in mind as the difference in disaster response is noted.

     I remember, painfully, being in NYC on September 11th, watching the fighter jets fly overhead.  It was especially disturbing when one did a tight turn over Central Park.  Was it necessary?  I don't know, but I thought it meant things were starting all over again.

World Domination Plan

Step One Progress Report: MISSION COMPLETE

     I, tonight, by unanimous approbation, was appointed to the town Planning Board as an alternate.

A simple minded cheer for simplemindedness and Tyranny

     Bill Whittle, who pre-emptively banned me from his site, and deigned to leave an insult here just a couple of days ago, is now a bit of a buzz in the Bush supporting blogoshere.  His long-winded, simple-minded rant can be found here, at his blog called Eject!  The gist of his two main arguments are that people are pink or gray (he's enthusiastically anti-racist, for which he deserves credit), and that pinks are basically sensualists, while grays are hard-headed engineers and cops.  He then heaps praise on grays, and has only scorn for pinks.  Binary systems of thought ("with us or against us") are a step down from even one dimensional thought (which allows for ultra-liberals and moderate conservatives to exist on a continuum, which many "shades of pink-gray"), and a far cry from reality.  Whittle avoids even mentioning the possibility that Adolph Hitler and Saddam Hussein were some of the premiere examples of grays.

     Then Bill Spittle quotes a Vietnam era veteran, and approvingly says Americans are all sheep, but military guys are sheepdogs, and we have to watch out for wolves.  Who thinks the people are sheep and need sheepdogs?  People who hate the Republican form of government, and want to impose their system upon us.  In James Madison's 1792, "Who are the Best Keepers of the People's Liberties?", he provides two characters, who each provide their own answers...

Republican: The people themselves. The sacred trust can be no where so safe as in the hands most interested in preserving it.

Anti-Republican: The people are stupid, suspicious, licentious. They cannot safely trust themselves. When they have established government they should think of nothing but obedience, leaving the care of their liberties to their wise rulers.

But, wasn't it Homeland Security?

     A lot of blame is being sent the way of MD Brown, the horsey director of FEMA, but, in all honesty, M Chertoff, Secretary of DHS, the man on the ball in case terrorists start doing shady land deals in Arkansas, is in charge of homeland security.  Bush makes political appointees in a modern day "spoils system."

     The US Senate gets second order blame, for confirming these worthless entities.

Silly Good News about the JG Roberts appointment

     A Scalia is fuming, and will fume for the rest of his life.  With SD O'Connor and WJ Rehnquist gone, he'll be the most senior conservative on the Court.  He got signals from GW Bush that he was, in fact, Bush's favorite justice.  He could taste the top slot, and it has likely been barred from him for life, because JG Roberts is so much younger.

     In truth, SG Breyer should have the job, as he is the brightest, and I imagine the most impartial.  Strangely, the court has a 4-3 leftist majority right now, should it hear any cases.

---

     UPDATE: I had forogtten that SD O'Connor isn't going to retire until she has a replacement.  In effect, therefore, making JG Roberts Rehnquist's replacement, instead of hers, delays her retirement, so it is a 4-4 bench.

     By the way, the Voteview ratings for the Bench are on a relative scale. JP Stevens is a +4, SG Breyer, D Souter, RB Ginsburg are +3, SD O'Connor and A Kennedy are -1, and A Scalia, C Thomas and WJ Rehnquist are/were -3.  So, although it is a court with a numerical conservative majority, if you calculate that the three +3s and the three -3s are a wash, then it is one +4 vs two -1s.

South East LouisianA's Disaster Plan Courtesy of...

     This was just too sickening not to mention.  China over at Lenin's Tomb nailed Innovative Emergency Management, Inc scrubbing their website of the fact that they had gotten the Department of Homeland Security contract to do a disaster management plan for New Orleans and SELA.  Let IEM's Director speak for himself...

[IEM's] approach to catastrophic planning meets the challenges associated with integrating multi-jurisdictional needs and capabilities into an effective plan for addressing catastrophic hurricane strikes

     JOB WELL DONE, asshole.

Horse's Ass Covers MD Brown, and Tidbits

•      David Goldstein (not the one I know, is it, Simon's Rock?) runs a website called Horse's Ass.  It's got a lot of the details of the patheticness in the shape of a person known as the current head of FEMA, MD Brown (second headline).

•      By the way, Colin Powell announced his resignation on 2004-11-15, and Michael Powell announced his 2005-01-21.  Although the father waited until after the election, I have a strong suspcion the son's decision wasn't entirely his own.  I wonder if Rehnquist's daughter will keep her job as the Inspector General of Health and Human Services?  Nice article on nepotism.

•      In case there was any doubt, and I think there are some people still don't know, Christopher Hitchens is a second rate hack.  Read this, from Foreign Policy (does anyone know what's up with this outfit? Second time on my negative-radar in as many months).

  Richard Boucher, the State Department’s chief spokesman. He took me deftly over and around the various hurdles involved in any Colin Powell retrospect, and demonstrated the diplomatic adroitness that has endeared him to so many correspondents, and seemed almost to smooth away much of the jaggedness.

       Endearing government spokespeople?  Boucher is the guy they don't tell the nasty stuff, so he can say with a straight face "We are doing nothing improper."  Boucher's an ass, and Hitch is kissing it.

Army Forced to Hide Corps of Engineer's Budgets

     I'm finding some aggregate numbers without citation...

     Editor & Publisher: 430 million federal + 50 local over ten years until 2003. "Yet after 2003, the flow of federal dollars toward SELA dropped to a trickle." and

The 2004 hurricane season was the worst in decades. In spite of that, the federal government came back this spring with the steepest reduction in hurricane and flood-control funding for New Orleans in history.  Because of the proposed cuts, the Corps office there imposed a hiring freeze.  Officials said that money targeted for the SELA project -- $10.4 million, down from $36.5 million -- was not enough to start any new jobs.

     SELA apparently stands for South East LouisianA, and refers to the Flood Control Project. GovExe c.com has this weird story...

Parker -- who, along with members of his family, was forced to evacuate his Mississippi farm on Sunday night -- drew media attention (and the White House's ire) in 2002 by telling the Senate Budget Committee that a White House proposal to cut just over $2 billion from the Corps' $6 billion budget request would have a "negative impact" on the national interest. Parker also noted that cuts would mean the end of scores of contracts and the loss of tens of thousands of jobs.

After Parker's Capitol Hill appearance, [OMB Director, now Indiana Governor] Daniels wrote an angry memo to President Bush, writing that Parker's testimony "reads badly... on the printed page," and that "Parker. . . [was] distancing [himself] actively from the administration." Parker, a former Republican congressman from Mississippi, was forced to resign shortly thereafter.

Here is Mississippi's Clarion-Ledger covering the resignation.

     It turns out the Army Corps of Engineers are not releasing their budget numbers. Here is the Chicago Tribune version of the AP story...

Funding for a drainage project in New Orleans went from $69 million in 2001 to $36.5 million in the current fiscal year[2005], while funding for such hurricane-protection projects as levees around Lake Pontchartrain declined from $10 million in 2001 to $5.7 million this year[2005], according to figures provided by the office of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.).

Funding for these projects has generally trended downward since at least the last years of the Clinton administration. Congressional records show that the levee work on Lake Pontchartrain received $23 million in 1998 and $16 million in 1999. It was not clear how much the drainage project received in 1998, but records show it received $75 million in 1999. Neither the White House nor the Corps of Engineers would confirm the numbers, nor would they provide funding levels dating to previous administrations.

     The Hiding Inconvenient Reality Award goes to GW Bush!  What a maroon.

Blog Post By Request

     People ask me "How did anyone expect Iraq to go OK when we can't handle New Orleans?"

Moon Watcher John Gorenfeld

     Some guy named David Payer, probably a loony Moonie himself, and definitely a former GOP candidate for the Iowa legislature, has set up an anti-John Gorenfeld site at gorenfeld.com.  The real site is at, among other places, Gorenfeld.net. 

     Mr. Payer doesn't strike me as particularly bright or well informed, but I John should be flattered that someone is bothering to refute him.

What Oil Companies Should Do

     Most gas stations I've been to have "Regular," "Super," and "Premium" gasoline offers.  Super and Premium should not be produced during price spikes.  It takes more oil to produce them (per gallon), for one.  It also is less likely to sell during spikes.

News Flash

     Smug Prius drivers being driven off the road, all over the country. 

Reposting Oil Data

     DoE statistics, from 1949 - 2003, in three graphs.  All oil usage.  All energy usage.  Residential oil usage.  One note: The "energy" line in the "all energy" graph is not additive with the others.  It simply indicates the amount that is converted at power plants first.  Oh, and here is a link to a couple informative and attractive images from NASA concerning Katrina and New Orleans.  By the way, I made all these graphs from the raw data.