de-water, de-water, da roof is un-de-water

* " one possible reason for the White House's slow response to Katrina was that so many key appointees were on vacation. A number, for instance, were in Greece for the wedding of White House communications advisor Nicolle Devenish. It so happens Devenish is marrying Mark Wallace, who, it turns out, took over from the esteemed Michael Brown as General Counsel of FEMA when Brown ascended from General Counsel to Deputy Director.
Wallace was General Counsel at FEMA as the agency was being transitioned into the Department of Homeland Security in 2002 and 2003. After that he took a different job at DHS before becoming Deputy Campaign Manager of the Bush-Cheney 2004.
According to The Hotline (10/16/03), Wallace got his start in politics as Jeb Bush's driver in 1994." (link)

* " Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard: I'm not surprised at what the feds say, they're covering their butts. They're keeping the body counts down because they don't want to horrify the nation. It's worse than Iraq, worse than 9-11. They just don't want to know how many were murdered by bureaucracy." (link)

* did anyone watch the clinton/bush1 conference launching the katrina fund? they showed the questions from the audience on fox, and someone screamed out something like "any truth to the idea that the levees were left to break intentionally to drown all the poor black people?" (stupid greta asked the first question: why was the levee only made for cat3-spec hurricanes?)

* "Homeland Security sends $1.1 billion each year to states to combat terrorism, but $180 million to help prepare for such disasters as Katrina. Much of the terrorism grant money is given under conditions that specifically exclude spending it on items or personnel that would be used in responding to hazards other than terrorism.
Since 1995, the federal government has declared 562 major disasters. All were natural disasters except two terrorist attacks: Oklahoma City in 1995 and the 9/11 attacks." (link)

* am watching anderson cooper, they had blinky spouting some nonsense, i wasnt really listening - but the graphic said "gone or going? - lol - i hope they were referring to the president

* the good news is that iran hasnt been attacked yet. will katrina save the iranians?

* "The events of this past week removed the final vestiges of our pretense to acting morally in the manner we expect human beings to behave. The seething hatreds and resentments based in class and race have been revealed for the world to see—and to its credit, much of the world has recoiled in horror and disbelief.
So, thankfully, have a good number of Americans. And now, those of us who are similarly horrified must begin to make the necessary repairs as best we can." (link)

* arthur on the incompetence of the govt/military occupation of NOLA: "maybe the hawks who are so in love with Bush’s warmongering finally are beginning to understand why a lot of Iraqis hate our guts. It’s not that difficult a point to grasp." (link)

* ya know who is probably the most pissed about katrina? all those osama-loving sleeper cells who have apparently been planning meticulously for 4 years wondering how they could cause max damage. imagine what they are jaying now: " jeebus christ! (sic) what a waste of four years! we coulda been in virgin heaven years ago rather than waste all this time trying to plan the perfect attack. we could have brought the country to knees with a bunch of firecrackers thrown randomly out of a car window"

* i hope that one day, when we get a death count from katrina, that theres some accounting of when everyone died - at a guess, id figure that at least half will have died since 24 hours after the storm hit. bastards.

* barbara bush (via atrios): "What I’m hearing is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality.
And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this--this (she chuckles slightly) is working very well for them."" (link)
i hope theyve got a video of that
update#1 - heres the audio
update#2 - gilliard has this from 1998: " Accompanying his wife, Sadaa Hussein, on a tour of Kurdish refugee centers in Irbil, President Hussein said today, referring to the poor who had lost everything back home and evacuated, "This is working very well for them.""
priceless

* theres a 6pm curfew in nola - what time does it get dark there in the summer?

* id be prepared to bet that no other country in the world would use the term "de-water"
de-water, de-water, da roof is un-de-water. we dont need no de-water, let the muthafuckas drown. drown. drown muthafuckas.