This seems awfully familiar:
(1) Candidate X has connections to President Bush.
(2) Notwithstanding the fact that X has no expertise or qualifications for a particular job, Bush selects him or her to an important government post.
(3) Once on the job, X proceeds to make things worse.
Unlike the "War on Terror," missing white women, or liberal activist judges, this is something everyone can legitimately be worried about:
A global influenza pandemic could come at any time and claim anywhere between 5 million and 150 million lives, depending on steps the world takes now to control the bird flu in Asia, the United Nations said.More here.Additionally, the bird flu virus is likely to mutate into a strain that can be passed person to person, Dr. David Nabarro of the World Health Organization told reporters at a Thursday news conference at the United Nations in New York.
"We expect the next influenza pandemic to come at any time now, and it's likely to be caused by a mutant of the virus that is currently causing bird flu in Asia," Nabarro said in a report from The Associated Press.
Hurricane Rita may have done as much damage to oil production as did Hurricane Katrina.
At any rate, local gasoline prices are shooting up again.
These guys don't even wait for the cover of darkness:
As fiscal hawks surrendered, would-be government contractors were meeting in the Hart Senate Office Building to figure out how to get a share of the money. A "Katrina Reconstruction Summit," hosted by Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) and sponsored by Halliburton, among others, brought some 200 lobbyists, corporate representatives and government staffers to a room overlooking the Capitol for a five-hour conference that included time for a "networking break" and advice on "opportunities for private sector involvement."Can we call in the National Guard to restore order?
Many people don't have a clue:
Just over half (55%) of Americans can correctly identify the three branches of government.Given that so many people don't even know what government should be doing, much less what it is doing, I guess it's no surprise that accountability is so scarce in Washington these days.
−-More than one in five (22%) believe the three branches of government are the Republican, Democrat, and Independent branches.
−-A full 16% of respondents believe the three branches of government to be local, state, and federal.Less than half (48%) of Americans can correctly identify the meaning of the concept of separation of powers.
−-However, almost two-thirds (63%) report being very or somewhat familiar with the separation of powers principle.
−-82% feel that the separation of powers is important, while only 5% report that it is not important or they do not know what it means.
President Bush is in a perilous political state. His slipping poll numbers are partly a result of softening support from his Republican base. If Bush doesn't take decisive steps to try to offset the billions of new Katrina spending, the forecast will be: Danger, more softening ahead. Never in the Bush years has conservative discontent been so high, nor so justified. With a few false moves in the crucial weeks ahead, Bush could see even more of the life-blood squeezed from his presidency.Ouch. One would think that by now the folks at the NR would figure out that Bush doesn't how much the federal government spends. I guess they have a slow learning curve.
BREAKING NEWS--President Bush informs us they've now got a plan for victory in Iraq:
General Casey briefed us about a comprehensive strategy to achieve victory in Iraq. We're going to deny the terrorists a safe haven to plot their attacks. We'll continue to train more Iraqi forces to assume increasing responsibility for basic security operations. Our forces will focus on hunting down high-value targets like the terrorist, Zarqawi. We'll continue working with Iraqis to bring all communities into the political process. Together we'll help Iraq become a strong democracy that protects the rights of its people and is a key ally in the war on terror.One wonders why they didn't come up with this, say, two and a half years ago, but now's not the time for the "blame game."
Indeed, they better hurry up with the plan:
Prince Saud al-Faisal, the Saudi foreign minister, said Thursday that he had been warning the Bush administration in recent days that Iraq was hurtling toward disintegration, a development that he said could drag the region into war.I'm not an expert on Saudi Arabia, but from what I've observed the past few years, their government officials aren't inclined to make public statements critical of U.S. policy just for the heck of it. There's big money in the U.S./Saudi relationship. I don't think the prince would be making these kind of statements lightly."There is no dynamic now pulling the nation together," he said in a meeting with reporters at the Saudi Embassy here. "All the dynamics are pulling the country apart." He said he was so concerned that he was carrying this message "to everyone who will listen" in the Bush administration.
Prince Saud's statements, some of the most pessimistic public comments on Iraq by a Middle Eastern leader in recent months, were in stark contrast to the generally upbeat assessments that the White House and the Pentagon have been offering.
Well, not really. He only biked part of the way. From the looks of it, that bike wouldn't have held up that far, anyway.
On the news today they've been reporting on the massive traffic jam caused by people trying to get away from the Texas coast; it's reportedly taken people hours to drive a few miles. If I were in that situation, and it was simply a matter of getting out of the area (I didn't need to haul possessions with me), I think I would hop aboard my bike and ride out rather than sit on that parking lot highway for hours. One could get out of there a heck of a lot faster by bicycle than by vehicle.
This work would make for a good RNC talking points memo--perhaps that's what it really is. Funny how O'Reilly apparently is still able to fool some viewers into thinking that he's not a partisan.
I was watching CNN on Tuesday night when they pop in with the "Breaking News" (complete with red alert graphics) that New Orleans is essentially dry. This struck me as odd on several levels:
(1) In what sense was this a "breaking news"? Did the water suddenly vanish?
There are still a bunch of reporters around New Orleans who I presume are not holed up in some sort of green zone. Could they not see the water slowly disappearing?
(2) How often were we told by our trusted names in journalism that it would take months to dry the city out? Enough to believe it was gospel truth. Aaron Brown asked about this:
BROWN: How did we get from, it's going to take 60 days to dry out the city to, it's going to take two-and-a-half weeks to dry out the city?So basically reporters picked up an early estimate from someone, and kept repeating it as fact even when independent follow up on the question should have quickly revealed that the initial estimates were way off. But why go to all that work of independent confirmation when you can simply repeat what government authorities tell you? This is modern journalism, after all.[COL. DUANE] GAPINSKI [ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS]: Well, Aaron, you know, that 60-day prediction, actually, I think it was six months initially. That's based on no information, no assessment of the status of the pumps and the canals and the levees.
So, as we refine those assessments, that -- those predictions become better. But the one thing you can't measure is the will and determination of the people on the ground fixing those pumps and moving that water out of the city.
(3) Whoever made the initial estimate didn't really know how long it would take to drain the city and apparently just picked a time frame that sounded good. Couple this with the heavily-inflated death toll predictions, and it calls into question many of the estimates we've been hearing.
For instance, as Bill Maher noted last night, where is the government coming up with its cost figures for Katrina relief? Very quickly, Congress cranks out a $60 billion+ bill. Do you think there's one member of Congress who really knows what that money is going toward? I doubt it.
America still has some available. If you go through the proper hoops while building a house out in Nowhere, Kansas, you can get a free lot.
Apparently, there's not a great demand for this brand of "Small Town Living."
One thing I thought about several times in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is, "I'm glad that kind of thing doesn't happen here." Undoubtedly I'm not alone in pondering how susceptible this area is to natural disaster.
Generally, I think East Tennessee is pretty safe. This area isn't prone to hurricane damage (several hundred miles from the ocean), earthquakes (several hundred miles from a major fault line), large tornadoes (too hilly), blizzards (too warm), or large wildfires (too wet). The primary natural disaster that threatens this area is (flash) flooding, which you can some degree insulate yourself from by not living in a low-lying area (there aren't any large flood plains here).
Over at Slate, Brendan Koerner asks where the best place in America is to hide from mother nature. He bases his answer, in large part, to this FEMA graph, which plots presidential disaster declarations by county over a nearly 40-year span. I was surprised to see that East Tennessee is actually one of the more disaster-prone areas, based on the number of declarations. I assume that flooding is the major culprit.
Anyway, according to Mr. Koerner's non-scientific analysis, what's the "safest" place in America to live? Storrs, Connecticut.
How large a group do you have to assemble before there's a 50% that two people share the same birthday?
If, like me, you're not mathematically minded, your initial hunch might be 183 (366/2).
Nope. It's much lower.
As heartwarming as it might be that CNN has helped reunite a few families, I find the missing children scroll to be awfully annoying. The normal scroll at the bottom of the screen is bad enough, and that doesn't take up over 1/3 of the screen.
I recall the good old days when news channels were theoretically about reporting news.
On C-SPAN, the Senate Democratic Policy Committee is holding "hearings" on gasoline prices. The committee asked the CEOs of several large oil companies to come testify. Unfortunately, the committee can't require anyone to appear, and--surprise--none of the oil executives showed up. So the first witness to testify at the session was some cranberry farmer from Massachusetts.
That ought to help them get to the bottom of things.
Of course, thanks to the recently-enacted Energy Bill, we no longer have a gasoline problem, anyway. So I don't know why these people are wasting their time on this.
Heh.
Well, just goes to show how much I've been out of the loop the past few weeks. I just today learned that the blogger formerly known as South Knox Bubba has been popping up at Facing South.
Good to see.
This one was too good to pass up:
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay said yesterday that Republicans have done so well in cutting spending that he declared an "ongoing victory," and said there is simply no fat left to cut in the federal budget.As Billmon notes, federal non-defense discretionary spending as a percentage of GDP has been higher since 2001 than it was during any year between 1997-2000.
. . .
Asked if that meant the government was running at peak efficiency, Mr. DeLay said, "Yes, after 11 years of Republican majority we've pared it down pretty good."
All in the name of a good cause:
Delone Catholic High School in McSherrystown, Pa., has a fun fundraising program called "Stop the Bop."It's a good thing this isn't a public school, or someone might make a constitutional claim of cruel and unusual punishment. I wonder if the interrogators at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay have considered this.Suggested by a few members of the student council, the school is playing Hanson's 1996 hit "MMMBop" through the loudspeakers before classes begin, between periods and during lunch. The idea? Annoy students into donating; have them pay to stop the music.
The goal is $3,000, which could be reached if each of the 659 students donates $5.
"MMMBop" has been playing since Wednesday, and the school has raised about $2,300 so far.
I just talked to my brother-in-law, who lives in Wilmington, NC. He reports that it is windy and raining. Their power was out briefly this morning, but it's currently on. Unfortunately, we don't have the technology for him to take a video camera out to the beach and file a live report. You'll have to check TV news for that.
I saw an interesting report on CNN a couple weeks ago on how a hurricane took out much of the housing on North Carolina barrier islands about 10 years ago. As you can see, it's all been replaced, funded, in part, at taxpayer expense.
Sooner or later, these houses will again be knocked out by another hurricane. But until then, some people will have nice vacation houses.
Perhaps I should move to Nashville.
Of course then I'd have to put up with even more Titans foolishness.
Why did Hurricane Katrina hit the United States? Various experts weigh in.
Given that natural disasters have occurred all over the globe throughout history, doesn't it become difficult to attribute them to particular practices or policies?
The Knoxville Regional Transportation Planning Organization has an online bicycle commuter guide which offers general tips on bicycle usage and safety.
I guess desperate poll numbers call for drastic measures:
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 during a joint news conference with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.It's not just the process that's at issue here; it's also the people. I haven't heard any reporters asking Bush tough questions about what made "Brownie" qualified to run FEMA.Bush said he wants to know what went right and what went wrong so that he can determine whether the United States was prepared for another storm, or an attack.
"I'm not going to defend the process going in, but I am going to defend the people who are on the front line of saving lives," Bush said.
Anyway, as AMERICAblog points out, only in this administration would a straightforward recognition of responsibility be considered "breaking news."
I just saw Mr. Steve Forbes on CNBC predicting oil prices will fall back to the $35/barrel range within a year. His rationale: supply will pick up and demand will fall (for instance, he says China has overbought on the market and its consumption won't keep growing at this rate).
Oil prices have been very volatile recently. And I cannot see into the future any better than Mr. Forbes. But I'd be "shocked" to see oil back at $35 again.
I've taken an unplanned blogging recess; a function of (1) having family visit; (2) being busy last week; (3) the emotional fallout of Katrina; and simply (4) not feeling like blogging.
Anyway, I have been following the news, and I think I still remember how to operate this site, so here I am.
I'm not sure exactly what happened there, but how is it that China is able to "evacuate" 790,000 people for a typhoon (I assume most of them don't have cars), and we can't even get enough drinking water for the people trappped in New Orleans?
