A good step from the House Democratic Leader, Nancy Pelosi:
“The wrath of Hurricane Katrina has destroyed lives and livelihoods along America’s Gulf Coast. This loss is shared by all of us, and today we all grieve as one family, the American family. Even as we grieve, we must take quick action to stem the crisis and help those in desperate need.
“That is why I have asked Speaker Hastert for a special session of Congress this week to bring urgently needed relief to the victims of the natural disaster. Given the scope of this disaster, I believe that Congress should return to Washington immediately and pass a bill this week to provide the assistance needed to restore the lives of the families and communities devastated by the deadly hurricane.
“Americans’ generosity of giving is already evident, and donors have deluged the Red Cross with offers of support. But Congress can do more, we must do more, and we must do it immediately.”
I support the calling of a special session. Let’s get it done. Washington Republicans have a choice now: lead or be a flyover party, just like President Bush.
Via The Stakeholder.
According to a speaker at a Heritage Foundation event, communism is back loud and proud in America, thanks to the leftist anti-war movement. From the Washington Post:
“Cindy Sheehan: anti-American communist?
That was the accusation coming yesterday from the Heritage Foundation, which hosted author John J. Tierney Jr. for a forum titled “The Politics of Peace: What’s Behind the Anti-War Movement?”
Tierney researched the movement for a book and came up with some choice descriptions. “I have to say it is communist,” he told an audience at the conservative think tank, also describing the groups involved as “revolutionary socialistic” and “cohorts” of North Korea, Saddam Hussein and Fidel Castro’s Cuba. “We’re really dealing with . . . a comprehensive, exhaustive, socialistic anti-capitalistic political structure,” he said.
Tierney, of the Institute of World Politics, identified five groups: ANSWER, Not in Our Name, Code Pink, United for Peace and Justice, and MoveOn.org. He said these groups “come from the Workers World Party” and are an “umbrella” for smaller groups, such as the “Communist Party of Kansas City” and the “Socialist Revolutionary Movement of the Upper Mississippi.” Of the last two, he said, “I’m just making these up.”
Tierney singled out Sheehan, whose son died in Iraq and who camped out at President Bush’s ranch this month to protest the war. “I’ve never heard of a woman protesting a war in front of a leader’s home in my life,” he said. “I’ve never heard of anything quite so outrageous.”
Heritage’s Dana Dillon introduced Tierney by saying that “the discussion today does not oppose the antiwar movement per se or question the patriotism or loyalty or common sense of Americans on either side of the debate.” But the blurb promoting the event on Heritage’s Web site said of the movement: “At root, they are anti-American rather than anti-war.”
I guess that makes me a Communist, loud and proud.
Terrorism is still a very touchy subject, but, for better or worse, somebody has come up with the concept of a comedy television series based on a terrorist group. Gutsy, to say the least. I can’t say anything one way or another–take it your own way.
Via Matthew Gross, this from CNN:
“Consumers can expect retail gas prices to rise to $4 a gallon soon but whether they stay there depends on the long-term damage to oil facilities from Hurricane Katrina, oil and gas analysts said Wednesday.
“There’s no question gas will hit $4 a gallon,” Ben Brockwell, director of pricing at the Oil Price Information Service, said. “The question is how high will it go and how long will it last?”
OPIS tracks wholesale and retail oil prices and provides pricing information for AAA’s daily reports on fuel prices.”
Already the demand and the belief that our supplies will dwindle have led to massive cases of price gouging in some areas. In Atlanta, the two biggest pipelines bringing oil in are down thanks to Katrina and the city is facing a possible crisis.
In Des Moines, prices have surged to over $3 a gallon in some places. The average price, by my recordings last night, was around $2.56/gallon. If prices keep surging, the economy is most definitely going to take a hit, contrary to what the White House is saying.
The mayor of New Orleans says that hundreds, if not thousands, are dead in his city alone. Give what you can to the Red Cross, immediately. God help us.
Francis Fukuyama has a fascinating editorial in today’s New York Times about the foreign policy of America under the Bush Administration and how it is now essentially defined and will continue to be defined by Iraq:
“The administration’s policy choices have not been restrained by domestic political concerns any more than by American foreign policy culture. Much has been made of the emergence of “red state” America, which supposedly constitutes the political base for President Bush’s unilateralist foreign policy, and of the increased number of conservative Christians who supposedly shape the president’s international agenda. But the extent and significance of these phenomena have been much exaggerated.
Continue reading ‘Altering American foreign policy’
I’m glad to see that White House will order the strategic petroleum reserve (SPR) open sometime today, but I certainly with it had been done sooner. Bush had the same problem with Hurricane Ivan last year when he waited to open the SPR and oil prices skyrocketed up 11%. From NBC’s First Read:
“Bloomberg notes that Bush’s fast action to loan companies oil suggests that he learned a lesson from Hurricane Ivan. “Last September, when Ivan thrashed the Gulf Coast and halted most oil production in the region, Bush took 11 days to tap the reserve. Oil surged 11 percent between Ivan’s arrival and the president’s decision.”"
Today is the third day since landfall and oil prices have already risen 3.9%.
In my opinion, the SPR should’ve been opened up on Monday morning, just to assuage the fears of those who thought that the oil industry would be massively hit (which they were right to presume). Negotiations also need to be initiated immediately with Saudi Arabia to increase output, especially since it will take months to repair all of the damge done to the oil rigs in the Gulf. Long-term solutions will be harder to solve, but I sure as hell hope someone competent in the administration will take care of this.
I got an email from Harry Reid and the DSCC earlier today telling me I should be excited about the DSCC’s 10-Step Roadmap to take back the Senate. If they letter were from anyone else, I probably would be. Don’t get me wrong, I love Harry Reid as the Minority Leader, for the most part. He’s dones an amazing job with party unity this session of Congress; matter of fact, I’d call it an amazing job.
However, I’d be a bit more impressed with the email and his enthusiasm for the strategy if he wasn’t lying through his teeth. “What do you mean, Chris?” is probably the question you’re asking. Well, here’s the answer. Instead of actually toughening up against John Ensign, he’s playing it safe with a you-don’t-bash-me-I-don’t-bash-you strategy. That doesn’t sound like the boxer that Reid really is to me.
Sorry, but for the Democratic leader, that strategy just doesn’t work. Moreover, it just shouldn’t be employed in an election year as important as 2006.
Please donate to the American Red Cross.
Via Atrios, we find out that Jack Cafferty, quite the character he is, just pwned Bush big time.
Blog for Iowa has all the details here. Just in case you’re too lazy to actually click the link, here’s the vital info:
September 10
Iowa Room, Iowa Memorial Union
Iowa City Iowa
9 a.m.-4 p.m.
The 10th looks to be a bad day for me, as it is my brother’s birthday plus a day during formal rush for fraternities and sororities here on campus. I’ll see what I can do to get over there. The whole thing is only $15 and Jim Dean is going to speak. Maybe this can get a 99-County Strategy going.
Leave it to President Bush to blame Carter, Reagan, and Clinton for 9/11 and other acts of terrorism against the United States and our interests. Whoever is writing these speeches is doing a terrible, terrible hack job. During his first term, a lot of his speeches weren’t necessarily hack jobs, they were just full of good-sounding lies. Now its just illogical bullshit and that ellicits a terribly dramatic reaction–at least to those who fall for it. For people like me, it only infuriates me and makes me want to vomit.
Excuse me while I go hurl and then head off to class.
According to E&P and Scott McClellan, President Bush is going to make speech today in San Diego comparing World War II and the Iraq War.
I’m sorry, but that’s just about the sickest thing you can possibly do to WWII vets. Invoking the images of that global war against violent fascism–a terribly destructive war where innocence was lost–is a crude tactic to boost poll numbers. And honest-to-God, that’s all the connections are being used for.
We had a clear and defined enemy in World War II. Fascist states were our enemy. In the Iraq War, or the global war on terror, it’s pretty ridiculous to claim that we have a clear cut good guy and bad guy wholed up in a compound or state somewhere. This war is entirely new and quite a different situation than what Americans faced in World War II. Sure we were fighting an ideology, but they had leaders of the cause who could be defeated and end that ideology. Find me the terrorist we can kill to end all terrorism and maybe I’ll buy the comparison, but I’m not holding my breath.
This is just as bad as the America Supports Your Freedom Walk, our very own Nuremberg Rally, now with an offer to be sponsored by the messianic right-wing shill machine the Washington Times.
Don’t let the New York Times editorial board fool you. Their editorial yesterday shilling for Judy “Ahmad Chalabi’s bitch” Miller again looks like it was written by someone from my high school newspaper–and trust me, that’s not the best thing. Arianna Huffington takes a look at it here and her post is, of course, worth reading.
