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Morons: The Gathering

I played Magic The Gathering 12 years ago when it first came out, so these are funnier to me perhaps than to someone who never played... BUT the jokes should work either way...

http://www.brokentoys.org/?p=6849

Bush admits blatantly obvious and sets new precedent

"Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government and to the extent the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility," Bush said...



Comment: There is still no word on when Michael Brown will receive his Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The REAL Bush Twins!

Comment: I love Photoshop. I don't know who did this, but good work!

I wish THIS guy was president

Colin Powell, the former secretary of state seen as a potential leader for Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts, has joined the chorus of Americans criticising the disaster response at all levels of government.

"There have been a lot of failures at a lot of levels -- local, state and federal," Powell said in an ABC interview for the "20/20" program to be broadcast on Friday evening.





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Media provide forums for administration officials and conservatives to spread falsehoods about hurricane relief efforts

...In the past week, Bush administration officials and conservative commentators have repeatedly used the national media to spread misinformation about the federal government's widely criticized response to the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina.



Comment: Unbiased news does not include letting officials lie without comment. That's the job of Fox News.

Read story here

Government Launches Recovery Plan

Joe Scarborough does the right thing.

...the bottom line is that despite the fact the president was strapped with two governors who bungled this crisis badly, in the end it is the president who sends in the National Guard and FEMA relief.

The president's suggestion that the size of this storm caught all by surprise just doesn't get it. His administration was 48 hours late sending in the National Guard and poor Americans got raped and killed because of those mistakes.

A painful assessment from a supporter of the president, but also true.



Comment: I NEVER thought I'd see this, but he is actually blaming those who are wrong, EVEN the republicans. Any objective observer can tell that BOTH the local and federal responders to this did a bad job. BUT the reason these folks waited 4 days for water is purely a federal screw up. The local government should have been better prepared, but once the hurricane hit and destroyed VERYTHING, the federal government failed to do their jobs. He actually criticizes Bush. I never thought I'd live to see any republican criticize him. O'Lielly did at first, but now he seems to have gotten the memo about Rove taking his show away and is now ONLY criticizing the local government.




http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6330851/

Drug Addict Hates Welfare!

On the September 1 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh linked the humanitarian disaster in the wake of Hurricane Katrina to "the welfare and entitlement thinking of government." Referencing an entry in the American Thinker weblog by Thomas Lifson, who asserted that New Orleans failed to develop economically due to a history of corrupt and intrusive government, Limbaugh claimed that the urban poverty underlying the current humanitarian crisis is a result of social welfare programs: "If you, as a mayor, or if you, as a city council, run a city based on the welfare and entitlement thinking of government -- bammo! -- you're going to get poor citizens!"

Limbaugh also accused city officials of "passing the buck all over the place and accepting all the money that the government's sending in to you," instead of taking the initiative themselves to fix the levee system that was designed to help protect the city from flooding. He added, "[S]ocialism versus capitalism; entrepreneurialism and self-reliance versus the entitlement mentality -- so much on display here. That's what nobody's got the guts to say."


Read it here

Brit Hume Lies? On Fox? NO! I can't believe it!

On the September 5 edition of Fox News' Special Report, host Brit Hume claimed that New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin had ordered a mandatory evacuation of the city on August 28 after President Bush "pleaded" with him. During the same show, Fox News correspondent Brian Wilson repeated the claim, reporting that Nagin had proceeded with the mandatory evacuation "only after President Bush insisted that he do so." But while numerous conservative weblogs had earlier made nearly identical claims, news reports indicate that Bush called Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco -- not Nagin -- on the morning of August 28 to ensure that such precautions would be taken. Moreover, Blanco stated that Bush called "just before" she and Nagin held a press conference to announce the mandatory evacuation, casting doubt over Hume and Wilson's suggestion that Bush's phone call triggered the decision to evacuate.


Comment: I think the story would be if Brit Hume told the truth... THAT would be something! The really sad thing is I am old enough to remember when he was a journalist.


Read it here

DeLay proves he is Republican First, American second...

The House majority leader late Tuesday tried to deflect criticism of the federal response to Hurricane Katrina by saying "the emergency response system was set up to work from the bottom up," then announced a short time later that House hearings examining that response had been canceled.

Comment: If Bush was raping children, this guy would STILL be blaming liberals...

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/09/07/katrina.congress/index.html

Relocation 'working very well' for poor

Barbara Bush, who accompanied the former presidents on a tour of the Astrodome complex Monday, said the relocation to Houston is "working very well" for some of the poor people forced out of New Orleans.

Comment: We shouldn't be too mad at her. She is just clueless, not evil. She simply cannot relate to these folks on any level. A side note: Fox, not surprisingly, did not run this story on their web site at all.



http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/06/katrina.presidents.ap/index.html

Bush's Staged New Orleans Photo Ops 3

“But perhaps the greatest disappointment stands at the breached 17th Street levee. Touring this critical site yesterday with the President, I saw what I believed to be a real and significant effort to get a handle on a major cause of this catastrophe. Flying over this critical spot again this morning, less than 24 hours later, it became apparent that yesterday we witnessed a hastily prepared stage set for a Presidential photo opportunity; and the desperately needed resources we saw were this morning reduced to a single, lonely piece of equipment. The good and decent people of southeast Louisiana and the Gulf Coast -- black and white, rich and poor, young and old -- deserve far better from their national government" - LA Senator Mary Landrieu

Click Here

Bush's Staged New Orleans Photo Ops 2

There was a striking dicrepancy between the CNN International report on the Bush visit to the New Orleans disaster zone, yesterday, and reports of the same event by German TV. ZDF News reported that the president's visit was a completely staged event. Their crew witnessed how the open air food distribution point Bush visited in front of the cameras was torn down immediately after the president and the herd of 'news people' had left and that others which were allegedly being set up were abandoned at the same time. The people in the area were once again left to fend for themselves, said ZDF.

Click Here

Bush's Staged New Orleans Photo Ops 1

Three tons of food ready for delivery by air to refugees in St. Bernard Parish and on Algiers Point sat on the Crescent City Connection bridge Friday afternoon as air traffic was halted because of President Bush’s visit to New Orleans, officials said.

Nola

He got the memo Mr Rove!

I think it's clear that the Rove Machine got to this guy and reminded him that NOTHING, not even the lives of our citizens, is more important that protecting the president politically.


Three days ago:
Rep. Charles W. Boustany Jr., (R-La.), said he spent the past 48 hours urging the Bush administration to send help. "I started making calls and trying to impress upon the White House and others that something needed to be done," he said. "The state resources were being overwhelmed, and we needed direct federal assistance, command and control, and security -- all three of which are lacking."


Today:
BOUSTANY: Most of the red tape and problems have been at the state level. I have to say that the federal response has been focused on New Orleans with search and rescue operations which is going very, very well at this stage. But we've had a completely ineffectual state response and this is being borne by the local communities to help now. and I have asked the president to take this into consideration, consider that the state response is completely ineffectual and the full range of social and health care needs needs to be met.

George "Nero" Bush

President Bush plays a guitar presented to him by Country Singer Mark Wills, right, backstage following his visit to Naval Base Coronado, Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005. Bush visited the base to deliver remarks on V-J Commemoration Day. (AP Photo/ABC News, Martha Raddatz).

Meanwhile, during those same hours, in Mississippi: Volunteers rescue a family from the roof of their Suburban, which became trapped in floodwaters on US 90 in Bay St. Louis, Miss. (Ben Sklar / AP) August 30, 2005.

CNN Grows a Backbone

Defending the U.S. government's response to Hurricane Katrina, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff argued Saturday that government planners did not predict such a disaster ever could occur.

But in fact, government officials, scientists and journalists have warned of such a scenario for years.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/03/katrina.chertoff/index.html

This is what is wrong with the news coverage of Katrina

A young man walks through chest deep flood water after looting a grocery store in New Orleans on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005. Flood waters continue to rise in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina did extensive damage when it made landfall on Monday. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)




Two residents wade through chest-deep water after finding bread and soda from a local grocery store after Hurricane Katrina came through the area in New Orleans, Louisiana.(AFP/Getty Images/Chris Graythen