Uncategorized
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“Problem solvers”
The latest excuse for not firing failed horse association executive and FEMA director Michael Brown: Mr. Bush also resisted renewed calls to fire Michael D. Brown, the director of FEMA, who became a lightning rod for attacks last week when he said he was unaware of a crisis at the New Orleans convention center, news
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The political fallout from Katrina
What will the political effects of Katrina be? Fred Barnes, always eager to give President Bush the benefit of the doubt, touts an ABC News poll supposedly showing Bush won’t be hurt much by Katrina in a Wall Street Journal op-ed today: Americans break along normal partisan lines in judging Mr. Bush’s performance in coping
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The Bush White House: PR first, last, always
This Josh Marshall post is so disturbing and indicative of a larger problem that I want to reproduce it in full: On the Al Franken show this afternoon I mentioned this article from today’s Salt Lake Tribune which tells the story of about a thousand firefighters from around the country who volunteered to serve in
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Michael Moore’s Katrina jargon
More liberal pundit jargon, this time from Michael Moore in an email to supporters about Katrina: There is much to be said and done about the manmade annihilation of New Orleans, caused NOT by a hurricane but by the very specific decisions made by the Bush administration in the past four and a half years.
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Read Tom Tomorrow
His scathing new comic about the political aftermath of Katrina is well worth sitting through a brief Salon advertisement. Brutal and hilarious. (Via Alterman.)
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Alterman’s anti-Bush jargon
One of the key tactics of political jargon* is confounding intention and (alleged) effect, as in this passage from Eric Alterman today: In the name of fighting “terrorism,” the administration has sent 40 percent of the National Guard to Iraq and Afghanistan in order to create more terrorists and let bin Laden get away. The
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Barbara Bush: “this is working very well for them”
Yesterday, Barbara Bush proclaimed how great it is to be a Katrina refugee in Texas: What I’m hearing which is sort of scary is [the Katrina refugees] 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,
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David Brooks on the future of the GOP
The battle for the soul of the Republican Party has begun. On Thursday, I saw David Brooks give a surprisingly effective speech at the American Political Science Association meetings. Most of it was standup comedy based on his books Bobos in Paradise and On Paradise Drive, which the audience loved. But Brooks also made a
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More WSJ sophistry on tax revenues
The Wall Street Journal editorial page has implied yet again that the Bush tax cuts increased revenue: Predictably, the Bush tax cuts are under attack for denying revenue to the government and because they don’t require “sacrifice” in wartime. But the truth is that federal revenues are rising by an estimated $262 billion–or roughly 14%–this
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Failed leadership at FEMA and the White House
This is unconscionable: [L]ocal officials, who still feel overwhelmed by the continuing tragedy, demanded accountability and as well as action. “Why did it happen? Who needs to be fired?” asked Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish, south of New Orleans. Far from deferring to state or local officials, FEMA asserted its authority and made things