If you're reading this, I'd love your input on the disaster down south. You lived there, right?

A very strange Times graf:

Mr. Carroll, who collects chav products like jewelry, cars and tattoos, has also experienced the underside of famous chavdom, with friends denouncing him publicly. His now ex-girlfriend told The Sun that Mr. Carroll believed that "the trees in his front garden are actually people disguised as trees," and spent his nights prowling around the house looking for intruders. "I'll tell him, 'Come back to bed, you stupid twit,' " she told the newspaper.

Huh?

You better read the whole thing.

Brian Wilson's hurricane fundraiser offer:

Here's my challenge: For anyone who sends a donation of $100 or more, I will call you personally and answer a question you have, or just say hello. Also, Melinda and I will match the donation.

I want to talk to Brian Wilson!

Thoughts:

1) The potential for "Kathy McGinty"-esque abuse abounds.
2) What would you ask him? Hm.

Seriously.

[via Sadly, No!]

It's the Chinese version of American Idol, apparently.

Here and here.

But, y'know, Michael Moore is fat. So.

Here.

And what about this? Hm.

I have job crap to do today. Nothing until the late afternoon.

Use this as a non-obscene open thread.

Perhaps literally. This is a frightening read:

Buy beleaguered, overworked White House aides enough drinks and they tell a sordid tale of an administration under siege, beset by bitter staff infighting and led by a man whose mood swings suggest paranoia bordering on schizophrenia.

They describe a President whose public persona masks an angry, obscenity-spouting man who berates staff, unleashes tirades against those who disagree with him and ends meetings in the Oval Office with “get out of here!”

In fact, George W. Bush’s mood swings have become so drastic that White House emails often contain “weather reports” to warn of the President’s demeanor. “Calm seas” means Bush is calm while “tornado alert” is a warning that he is pissed at the world.

Decreasing job approval ratings and increased criticism within his own party drives the President’s paranoia even higher. Bush, in a meeting with senior advisors, called Senator Majority Leader Bill Frist a “god-damned traitor” for opposing him on stem-cell research.

“There’s real concern in the West Wing that the President is losing it,” a high-level aide told me recently.

A year ago, this web site discovered the White House physician prescribed anti-depressants for Bush. The news came after revelations that the President’s wide mood swings led some administration staffers to doubt his sanity.

Although GOP loyalists dismissed the reports an anti-Bush propaganda, the reports were later confirmed by prominent George Washington University psychiatrist Dr. Justin Frank in his book Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President. Dr. Frank diagnosed the President as a “paranoid meglomaniac” and “untreated alcoholic” whose “lifelong streak of sadism, ranging from childhood pranks (using firecrackers to explode frogs) to insulting journalists, gloating over state executions and pumping his hand gleefully before the bombing of Baghdad” showcase Bush’s instabilities.

“I was really very unsettled by him and I started watching everything he did and reading what he wrote and watching him on videotape. I felt he was disturbed,” Dr. Frank said. “He fits the profile of a former drinker whose alcoholism has been arrested but not treated.”

Dr. Frank’s conclusions have been praised by other prominent psychiatrists, including Dr. James Grotstein, Professor at UCLA Medical Center, and Dr. Irvin Yalom, MD, Professor Emeritus at Stanford University Medical School.

As a recovering alcoholic (sober 11 years, two months, nine days), I know all too well the symptoms that Dr. Frank describes and, after watching Bush for the past several years, I have to, unfortunately, agree with him.

Conversations over the last few weeks with longtime friends who work in the Bush White House confirm even more what Dr. Frank says and others have suggested.

The President of the United States is out of control. How long can the ship of state continue to sail with a madman at the helm?

After reading this, I could use a little dab o' Maker's on a Friday.

Oh. Did I mention that El Smirko is back on the sauce?

[via Media Needle]

What's up with this guy, Anderson?

Sheesh.

Here:

Ice-T is to produce David Hasselhoff's first hip-hop album.

The pair are neighbours in Los Angeles and are said to have struck up a close friendship.

Hasselhoff has had some success as a singer, releasing seven albums. He's also said to be very popular in Germany.

Ice-T, who was one of the first real hip-hop stars in the late 1980s, said: "The man is a legend. And we are going to show a whole new side of him."

The rapper is said to be convinced that the 51-year-old for Knight Rider and Baywatch actor can take on the biggest names in rap, reports The Sun.

Ice-T added: "He's gonna come out as Hassle The Hoff - I promise you. The Hoff will surprise people with his rap skills and humour."

Hassle the Hoff? It's too pathetic to be real.

I've been looking for a copy of a television program called "Under the Mountain" for at least six or seven years. It was broadcast on Nickelodeon in the early 80s as part of their pre-X-Files "Third Eye" series.

"Under the Mountain" was a program that originated out of New Zealand circa '82. And I've just finished watching the first episode via Bittorrent. Wavy VHS tracking problems and all (on the digital copy).

The internet age means that there is no nostalgia left that cannot be plumbed given proper diligence. I've alread reread my Susan Cooper (brilliant, brilliant stuff) and my John Christopher, described as "one of the earliest futuristic dystopian tales for children."

Now I just need a copy of the Westing Game and to watch my predownloaded copy of the first two seasons of the Tomorrow People (another overseas Nick import) and I might be set. For a little while.

Salto has turned two years old.

Send me some love.

I'm with Digby.

[see signup below]

We cannot take chances and make guesses with fundamental human rights at stake.

I believe that a woman's right to choose gets to the very heart of what it means to be an autonomous, free human being. Control of one's own body is fundamental to individual liberty. If the church believes that abortion is morally wrong it should instruct its voluntary membership not to do it. Individuals must always be allowed to follow their own consciences. But there should be no legal coercion on such a personal matter.

The only issue the government could be called upon to arbitrate is if the fetus has an equal right to life as the woman in whose body it lives. But there is really no argument about that. There is almost nobody who believes that an abortion is wrong if the life of the woman is at stake. Indeed, the vast majority (80%+) of Americans believe that abortion should be available at least in cases of rape or incest, so it is clear that the "abortion is murder" argument is illegitimate. No one can believe that it is moral to murder a person because of the way he or she was conceived, or by whom.

Therefore, the right of the fetus is not the real issue --- the reasons a woman wants an abortion are the issue. This leads us to ask which particular circumstances are so difficult for a woman that she may be allowed to have an abortion. 80% or so of Americans think that rape or incest are such circumstances. But how about a failing, abusive marriage? A terminal illness? Five other children and no job? Being 43 years old and carrying a child with serious birth defects? Being a foolish 15 year old girl in love? Should we make exceptions for some of those? Any of them? Who decides? You? Me? John Roberts?

This isn't about murder and it isn't about the right of the fetus. It's clearly about controlling women's personal moral behavior. I don't think the government has any business doing that.

Fuck yeah.

MORE: Bloggers sign on to Culture Kitchen's superbly-written letter here.

Today's fascinating entry is "minced oath."

More on the naughty-word front.

Highlights:

finally figuring out (maybe) why the Brits say "bloody"

"For crying out loud"

"Gadzooks"

"Holy Moley"

Here.

Highly watchable.

[via LH]

“The Governor has decided on pancakes!” he barked, finally. “Jewford, are there pancakes at this buffet? Do you see any kind of pancakes anywhere?”

“Pancakes for the Governor! The Governor will have pancakes!” Little Jewford shouted, and promptly did nothing about it.

I would definitely vote for Kinky.

[via Adam]

See, Dad, swearing on the blog is no biggie. In fact, it's positively fucking Shakespearean.

Rad Times article on the naughty:

Yet researchers who study the evolution of language and the psychology of swearing say that they have no idea what mystic model of linguistic gentility the critics might have in mind. Cursing, they say, is a human universal. Every language, dialect or patois ever studied, living or dead, spoken by millions or by a small tribe, turns out to have its share of forbidden speech, some variant on comedian George Carlin's famous list of the seven dirty words that are not supposed to be uttered on radio or television.

Young children will memorize the illicit inventory long before they can grasp its sense, said John McWhorter, a scholar of linguistics at the Manhattan Institute and the author of "The Power of Babel," and literary giants have always constructed their art on its spine.

"The Jacobean dramatist Ben Jonson peppered his plays with fackings and "peremptorie Asses," and Shakespeare could hardly quill a stanza without inserting profanities of the day like "zounds" or "sblood" - offensive contractions of "God's wounds" and "God's blood" - or some wondrous sexual pun.

The title "Much Ado About Nothing," Dr. McWhorter said, is a word play on "Much Ado About an O Thing," the O thing being a reference to female genitalia.

Even the quintessential Good Book abounds in naughty passages like the men in II Kings 18:27 who, as the comparatively tame King James translation puts it, "eat their own dung, and drink their own piss."

Read it all. Bitches.

MORE: Here.

Get ready.

This one is gonna knock yer socks off.

Um, it looks like you've got to click on the "View Photos" link.

Here:

Today, let’s you and I acknowledge what’s really going on in this country. The truth is that this week, as a result of Katrina, many children languishing in shelters are getting vaccinations for the first time. Thousands of adults are seeing a doctor after going without a check-up for years. Illnesses lingering long before Katrina will be treated by a healthcare system that just weeks ago was indifferent, and will soon be indifferent again.

For the rest of the year this nation silently tolerates the injustice of 11 million children and over 30 million adults in desperate need of healthcare. We tolerate a chasm of race and class some would rather pretend does not exist. And ironically, right in the middle of this crisis the Administration quietly admitted that since they took office, six million of our fellow citizens have fallen into poverty. That’s over ten times the evacuated population of New Orleans. Their plight is no less tragic - no less worthy of our compassion and attention. We must demand something simple and humane: healthcare for all those in need - in all years at all times.

This is the real test of Katrina. Will we be satisfied to only do the immediate: care for the victims and rebuild the city? Or will we be inspired to tackle the incompetence that left us so unprepared, and the societal injustice that left so many of the least fortunate waiting and praying on those rooftops?

He's trying to make up for running a terrible campaign for President and succeeding admirably.

Just don't run again.

The bird flu thing scares the shit out of me and it has for quite a while. It doesn't help that the West Coast of the United States, where I live, is by far the most geographically proximate area of the States to current bird flu hotspots. When you factor in the movement of people between East Asia and the West Coast, the conclusion that a pandemic would hit this part of the States first is hard to avoid.

The pandemic will happen, according to health experts. It is only a matter of time.

Health experts and officials shook up a breakfast meeting in Washington this morning with more alarm over what they see is an inevitable avian influenza pandemic and public-health emergency. Also today, World Health Organization officials confirmed the first case of avian flu in a farmworker in the island nation of Indonesia. Known as avian flu because it infects primarily chickens and waterfowl, the officials fear that the virus will mutate and become a human disease. Because this strain has never circulated through the human population, people would have no innate immunity if they were infected. Officials compare the virus to the 1918 pandemic that hit one third of the population and killed between 1 and 5 percent of those infected. This strain, known as H5N1, could be at least that deadly and perhaps more so, especially for young and healthy people who would very likely die from an immune system reaction to the disease, as happened in 1918. Today, if the pandemic hit, the number of dead could be as high as 360 million worldwide.

"You can get rid of the 'if' because it's going to occur," said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. It may not occur this year, or next, he said, "but [the threat] is not going to go away." The disease has currently crossed over to humans in Asia, but only among people who have very close contact with chickens or who take care of the sick. It has killed at least 54 people in Asia but is not now communicable in the way that the more common and less lethal human influenza viruses are.

The WHO has declared that we are in Phase 3 of the six-part influenza pandemic scale. This means:

Human infection(s) with a new subtype, but no human-to-human spread, or at most rare instances of spread to a close contact.

Phase 4 is more widespread human-to-human transmission in localized areas. Phase 5 is expanded human-to-human transmission, and if we get to that point I'd assume that a lot of people are going to panic. Let's not talk about Phase 6.

The US and other countries are stocking up on Tamiflu and Relenza, virus inhibitors that could prevent you from contracting avian influenza or help get you through its effects. You apparently can get a prescription from your doctor. It sounds like a good investment to me. Hopefully you would never have to use it.

There some very sobering pandemic preparedness guides here, including planning how one should stockpile food, water, and medicines.

Thinking about this now can't hurt you. Be aware that something is coming.

Personally, I'll probably try not to worry about all of this until we hit Phase 4. At that point, immediate Tamiflu acquisition will be my priority, then it's probably escape from the West Coast to the Midwest and see what happens.

[inspired by Sullivan]

MORE: Eek. Maybe the plan is to get Tamiflu before we get to Phase 4.

The Edinburgh Evening News reports:

Panic-buying of flu drugs has broken out in New Zealand amid growing fears of a deadly global pandemic. Many pharmacies have waiting lists for anti-viral drug Tamiflu after bird flu hit parts of Asia.

This can only get worse.

Mamet's op-eds are rare.

And this one is especially good.

[via Majikthise]

Please click on my blogroll links at right and visit those sites.

Thank you for your time.

[via Josh]

One particularly persistent Salto reader wants some information on the recent election in Japan and the preeminent political issue there: Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's plan to privatize the Japanese state postal service.

So let's review, quickly:

1) Koizumi, who is quite popular, could not get his own Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which is in control of parliament, to go along with his plan to privatize the state postal service.

2) The state postal service is more than just a postal service; it is also the world's largest bank, controlling more than $3 trillion dollars in assets (the Japanese actually save money, unlike Americans).

THE DEBATE

3) Critics say that the state postal service uses its funding largesse to dole out patronage to supporters (the CSM called it "old-style pork politics" and a "campaign war chest for politicians to win votes").

4) Others say that privatization of the largest bank in Japan would only benefit the private-sector banks that are currently in competition with the postal service. The privatization can also be seen as a giveaway to the Japanese stock market. Read, for example, this, from some pleased-with-himself market analyst:

Japan Post holds 350 trillion yen in deposits and insurance assets. That's $3.3 trillion, making it the largest financial organization in the world. Mr. Koizumi's idea, if realized, would inject all of that capital into the economy. The resulting growth would really light a fire under the stock market.

I'm no economist. But this sounds to me a lot like Bush's plans to inject Social Security money into the American stock market. The similarity becomes more apparent when you realize that the monies that the postal service holds are more than likely the retirement savings of millions of Japanese citizens.

Japan apparently has a problem with banks issuing bad loans. This reform may be a part of more sweeping financial reform, or it might be the solution to the problem. I'm just too ignorant of the situation and of economics to really know.

THE OUTCOME OF THE ELECTION AND WHAT IT MEANS

5) Koizumi called a quick election after his "reform" plans failed. His party won a historically significant amount of seats (the second-highest amount of seats on record), seemingly giving him a mandate for his policies. See below, however.

6) The election may also signify more geopolitical assertiveness on the part of Japan. Koizumi has been viewed by some as aggressively nationalist (read about his trips to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine here). The opposition Democratic Party (DP), on the other hand, ran on a seemingly cautious platform of "withdraw[ing] Japanese troops from Iraq and repair[ing] relations with China and South Korea." This editorialist for the CSM seems to believe that the electoral victory for "reform" in Japan may signify broader changes in Japan than mere postal service reform:

[Koizumi] staked his career on this reform and this election, seeing them as a test of whether Japan's conformist mura ishiki (village mentality) could give way to a spirit of self- reliance and global perspective, driven by a new-style nationalism. In other words, could Japan become - and be seen as - a "normal" nation, ready to stand up to a bullying China and able to easily deploy forces for peaceful purposes.

More on the geopolitical implications of Koizumi's win here.

AN ASIDE: PR AND "THE ASSASSINS"

7) It is unclear to me how much of Koizumi's support was actually because of his policies or platform. It sounds as if there was an utterly masterful effort on the part of Koizumi's faction of the LDP to run hot chicks (dubbed "the assassins") against crusty old anti-reform LDP members and otherwise hep up the LDP. Seriously.

By replacing postal opponents with younger, mostly female candidates, Mr. Koizumi succeeded in changing the image of the Liberal Democratic Party, long associated with old men in dark suits. The strong results suggested that Mr. Koizumi had made his party more attractive to the same younger and urban voters who had handed the opposition Democratic Party victories in cities in previous elections.

There was record turnout with substantial numbers of previous nonvoters showing up at the polls.

If you read nothing else, check out this double-excellent Washington Post article on the assassins.

Could someone with a subcription to The New Republic email me this article?

Addy at right.

Um, er, thanks.

Here.

It has something to do with aliens.

I'm not (and never was) his biggest fan, y'know, but he was Spock multiplied by Picard to the Adama power compared to the douchebag we have now.

(That was indeed a gratuitous Battlestar Galactica reference.)

Must be read to be believed:

The troops were never deployed to restore order and eventually withdrew, despite the pleas of the convention center's management. Louisiana Guard commanders said their units' mission was not to secure the facility, and soldiers on the scene feared inciting further bloodshed if they had intervened. "We didn't want another Kent State," said Army Lt. Gen. Russel L. Honore, commander of the active-duty military forces responding to Katrina. "They weren't trained for crowd control."

...

"Everywhere I went, I saw people with guns in their hands," said Troy Harris, 18. "They were putting guns to people's heads."

...

"You declare martial law," said Jazz Washington, a community activist, "and to these gangsters that just means, 'We can kill you and keep on moving.' "

A gang broke into the locked alcohol storage areas and suddenly had 50 cases of hard liquor and 200 cases of beer. And before long, there were scenes of gangsters, drunk, groping after young girls -- and those scenes not far from the ones of women in corners, balled up, praying all frozen with a Hobson's choice: the gangsters, or the floodwaters.

"They took so much, they couldn't drink it all," said George Lancie, manager of the center's food-service company, who had been at Fore's side.

In the chaos, the youths hotwired anything that would move, including electric utility carts and forklifts. Tony Cash saw the forklifts being driven about in zigzags. "They were nearly running over people," he said. "I'm telling you, it was crazy."

Fore was at a loss as to how to quell the danger. He said he tried desperately to call local and state emergency authorities. But he never got through. And he looked and looked for the arrival of local police.

"You might see them drive by," he said. "Is that providing security?"

New Orleans police officials said they could not safeguard the center after Katrina left them short of officers, vehicles and a dependable communication system. And when their armory flooded, they were short of ammunition. Dozens of officers tried patrolling outside around the convention center, but, according to Lt. Melvin Howard, the crowds and darkness made it difficult and dangerous to work inside.

Police could not use flashlights without giving away their position and becoming possible targets, Howard said. Nor could they open fire, if confronted, without the risk of killing innocent people.

Troy Harris, 18, who had survived a gunshot to the stomach on the hard streets of New Orleans, thought he could handle himself anywhere in the city. The darkened convention center gravely tested his moxie. "They were robbing people in there. At gunpoint," he said. "Somebody robbed me of a hundred dollars."

...

A police officer tossed out a few bottles and drove off. It ignited a free for all. Doby himself looked on in horror as a man -- arguing over the water -- struck another man with a two-by-four. "That man, he was split" in the head, said Doby. "He was leaking. He just dropped, face first."

...

On Thursday, Cash left, taking her children and stealing a car that eventually got her to Baton Rouge. That same day, the New Orleans police made a dramatic entrance. Sgt. Hans Ganthier and 12 other New Orleans SWAT team members entered the center, M-4 commando rifles at the ready. Prayers had been answered -- only it was a rescue mission of a different purpose.

A Jefferson Parish police deputy had appealed to SWAT team Capt. Jeff Winn for help in bringing out his wife and a female relative from the center. "He knew they were there and was hearing nightmarish stories," said Ganthier, who declined to identify the officer for security reasons.

Winn approved the mission.

When the SWAT team entered at 11 a.m., the Jefferson Parish officer called out his wife's name. She heard him, and along with the relative rushed to his side. The SWAT team put the women in the middle of the team, then backed out the door.

Once it became clear that the SWAT team had come with the single goal of rescuing two white women, anger exploded.

"Racists!" one man cried out.

"Some people were upset we weren't rescuing them," said Ganthier. "It's hard to leave people behind like that, but we were aiding an officer."

By Tuesday night, a contingent of at least 250 Louisiana National Guard troops was hunkered down in Hall A, off Julia Street at the northern end of the building.

...

Instead, as the danger level grew, they felt they must first protect themselves.

"There was way too many of them and way too few of us," said Master Sgt. Chad Anderson, 37. "Since we couldn't help them, it was best to avoid them. They had a mob, crazy mentality."

Whenever the soldiers left the center on missions, they drove west on Julia Street and away from the throngs of people begging for food and water along Convention Center Boulevard. "When they saw the soldiers, they'd think, 'That's food,' " said Sgt. Karla Spillers, 26. "We didn't have any for them. We had to feed our own people."

Spillers said she felt pain at the knowledge that teenage girls were wandering around the center, alone, knowing they were possible prey.

"There were prisoners, mobsters, gangs" in there, she said.

Almost as soon as they arrived, Guard commanders became concerned enough about the safety of their troops that they ordered more weapons and ammunition. On Wednesday night, there was kicking and banging on the doors to Hall A, where the guardsmen were. "They were trying to break the doors and get us," said Anderson. "They knew we were there."

Maj. Keith Waddell, commander of the 769th Engineer Battalion, said his unit was never asked to quell the violence at the convention center. "The idea of helping with the convention center never came up," he said. "We were just preparing ourselves for the next mission."

Waddell said he believes that, if so ordered, the Louisiana Guard forces present would have been adequate to get the center under control.

"I feel confident we could have controlled it, with the numbers we had," Waddell said.

But senior commanders indicated they had ruled out that possibility. Col. Stephen C. Dabadie, chief of staff of the Louisiana National Guard, said the engineer units were "not designed to secure the convention center."

...

Early Thursday, the Guard troops packed up and rolled out amid angry calls from the crowd inside. Twenty-four hours elapsed before more troops arrived -- including a contingent of the Arkansas National Guard, imposing enough so that no one tried to bother them.

Many of the guardsmen had recently returned from Iraq, and they arrived wearing helmets and full body armor, and shouldering rifles. To their surprise, they encountered virtually no violence -- only a crowd of hot, frustrated, angry people desperate for food and water. "A lot of them said we should have been there earlier," said Spec. Keithean Heath of the Arkansas Guard's 39th Infantry Brigade.

"We didn't want another Kent State."

You're shitting me, right? You're not seriously analogizing peaceful and unarmed protestors on a college campus with armed gangs raping, robbing and looting in a disaster area, are you? Because that's retarded. What a pathetic, insulting cop-out.

The other thing? Not enough National Guard. Not enough National Guard. Not enough National Guard. Where the fuck were they? The chaos and rapes and looting and robberies and fear and suffering might have been averted if we hadn't engaged in a war of choice with Iraq. Opportunity costs. It's not a tough concept.

[via Gilliard]

Or, How Should Senate Democrats Vote?

In twenty-odd hours of intense questioning, John Roberts has said nothing that would disqualify Democrats from voting for him. Nothing. Conversely, in that time, Roberts said similarly little that would give winger conservatives confidence that he would be a ideological soulmate to Scalia and Thomas, their heroes. In fact, Roberts sounded like he would be a true moderate -- to the left of the now-deceased (and eternally racist) Chief Justice Rehnquist.

Roberts will be confirmed. Democratic votes (after Roberts leaves the Judiciary Committee) should be carefully calibrated solely to exert maximum political pressure on the White House for the next pick, which Dems are seriously worried about. Here are the options:

If Roberts flies through with ten or fifteen Democratic nays, would that encourage Bush to pick someone similarly moderate(-seeming)? If this happened, would Democrats be seen as "more reasonable" if they were forced to fiercely oppose the next nominee -- or even threaten a filibuster? Could the perception of Dem cooperation on Roberts hurt the Republicans if they tried to use the nuclear option to overcome a Dem filibuster on the next nominee?

If Roberts lumbers through with thirty or forty Democratic nays, would that pressure Bush to make his next pick someone who is may also be clearly a "regular" conservative instead of a nutcase? Might it make the possibility of a nutcase-caused filibuster more apparent to the White House if the Dems could put up, say 41 votes in opposition?

OPEN QUESTIONS:*

Does Bush's political weakness at the present time make him more susceptible to direct pressure, i.e., the latter option?

Do the Senate Dems have their shit together enough to employ a unified strategy to influence the White House on their next pick?

Do the Dems deploy the word "filibuster" in Roberts' floor debate to prepare the American people and the media for that future possibility?

WHAT TO WATCH FOR: Watch to see the number of Dems voting against Roberts after he leaves the Senate Committee. Look to see if Harry Reid is visibly coordinating a Democratic strategy. Cross your fingers that the Dems have their shit together. Listen carefully to the Senate floor debate: Are Dems growing a spine and using the word filibuster, saying that they won't do it to this candidate, prefamiliarizing the media to that word, preparing for what might come?

*ANSWERS: Yes. Probably not. Probably not.

Doing some self-maintenance and errands today. Very light posting.

It really is just great television. Or radio. Or whatever.

George Galloway and Christopher Hitchens clearly hate each other's guts. The crowd is completely rowdy. The insults are personal and fly fast and thick. And through all of that they're really having a very illuminating debate on Iraq, imperialism, and the state of American politics, with both speakers making excellent points on both sides.

You really must see it for yourself.

A live debate on Iraq and other stuff.

Starts, apparently, at 4pm on the West Coast.

Moderated by Amy Goodman of Democracy Now.

Listen here (on the right).

MORE: THE PRE-GAME: See Hitchens bare his fangs and hiss here:

Galloway's preferred style is that of vulgar ad hominem insult, usually uttered while a rather gaunt crew of minders stands around him. I have a thick skin and a broad back and no bodyguards. He says that I am an ex-Trotskyist (true), a "popinjay" (true enough, since its original Webster's definition means a target for arrows and shots), and that I cannot hold a drink (here I must protest). In a recent interview he made opprobrious remarks about the state of my midriff, which I will confess has—as P.G. Wodehouse himself once phrased it—"slipped down to the mezzanine floor." In reply I do not wish to stoop. Those of us who revere the vagina are committed to defend it against the very idea that it is a mouth or has teeth. Study the photographs of Galloway from Syrian state television, however, and you will see how unwise and incautious it is for such a hideous person to resort to personal remarks. Unkind nature, which could have made a perfectly good butt out of his face, has spoiled the whole effect by taking an asshole and studding it with ill-brushed fangs.

Galloway actually said that Hitchens' hands were trembling with the need for a drink, or some such. But Hitchens is artful. Read it again.

Should be a fun listen...

EVEN MORE: Galloway hasn't spoken yet, but remind me never to debate Christopher Hitchens. Yow.

STILL MORE: THE DEBATE LIVEBLOG: Remind me never to debate George Galloway either.

These two might come to fisticuffs.

It's Galloway's blustery Scots brogue versus Hitchens' smooth, exquisitely dextrous posh South London accent.

[You really have to hear this.]

Judge Roberts, did you ever disagree on a legal issue wit yo employa when you were a stiznaff attorney in tha Reagan Administrizzle?

Here.

"Gizoogle."

This is your new favorite Google Images search.

It is just freezing in San Francisco.

As a lawyer and a former debater and debate coach, I can tell you one thing about John Roberts' confirmation hearing:

I don't know if I've heard such a public ass-kicking in a long time.

The guy is good. Listening to Senators on both sides of the aisle bluster around with their case names and prepared research is like watching bulls break shit in a china shop. Roberts' answers are artful, concise, and utterly devoid of anything that could resemble controversy. His tone is respectful and calm and consistent.

There's no point in having Joe Biden (who, by the way, is one irritating dude) ask questions about thirty-year-old Court precedents or the penumbra of liberty rights granted by the 14th Amendment. Instead, he should be asking questions like this:

Judge Roberts, have you ever known anyone who has had an abortion?
Judge Roberts, have you ever contributed money to a political campaign?
Judge Roberts, did you ever disagree on a legal issue with your employers when you were a staff attorney in the Reagan Administration?
Judge Roberts, what would your ideal America look like in twenty years?

Simple, broad questions to get the measure of a man. Pointed jargony obscure legal questions are just not going to work.

Bush yesterday:

Speaking to reporters after touring New Orleans yesterday, Bush sought to dispel the view that race played a role in the government's response to the disaster. "When those Coast Guard choppers, many of who were first on the scene, were pulling people off roofs, they didn't check the color of a person's skin," Bush said. "They wanted to save lives."

Yeah dude. Doubtlessly true. I'm sure those guys weren't racist.

But the question is obviously: why did it take so long for everyone to get there?

Bush just sounds so clueless. There are certainly things he can say to counter the central charge. But I have the feeling he just has no idea what's going on.

And when is the first reporter going to ask him about why he appointed political crony hack fucks to FEMA?

MORE: Later in the article, another grand Bush quote:

"It's really important that as we take a step back and learn lessons, that we are in a position to adequately answer the question: 'Are we prepared for major catastrophes?' " Bush said in New Orleans yesterday.

Are you kidding me?

I think we're in a "position to adequately answer the question," El Smirko. And the answer is: not while you're in office.

Amanda Marcotte:

That anyone can look at El Smirko Fisheyes and conclude that he's anything but a bully is quite a testament to the power of the Frat Boy Fallacy, otherwise known as the Jock Personality Handicap. Anyone who was bullied in high school or has even a passing familiarity with the fine teen cinema of the 80s knows what I'm talking about. The Frat Boy Fallacy is the collective lie that most of society agrees to believe in that there's something about being a spoiled white boy that makes you just a big bucket of charm, regardless of the evidence.

The Frat Boy Fallacy is well deconstructed in your average 80s teen movie, but I'll just walk you through the phenomenon nonetheless. It's a stellar way to understand the basic concept of privilege (race, sex, and class privilege) and how privilege makes itself invisible. You start with you weathy, entitled man and he is quickly surrounded by people who are willing to flatter him and fawn over him in exchange for access to the him and the privilege you get just by being in his inner circle. What then happens is that other people see that this guy has nothing but fawning admirers and they assume that there must be something there to attract all that fawning admiration and groupthink takes over. In this little narrative, liberals who kept pointing out how stupid the fakey admiration was--"But look, he can't even stop from smirking when talking to the parents of soliders he got killed!"--are playing the role of the nerds that get beat up all the time in no small part because they refuse to play along.

I'll admit, probably one of the absolute most irritating thing about reading media portrayals of Bush is how they lick his ass so thorougly when it's as clear as day that he doesn't possess a single trait that they fall all over themselves to declare he has--he's not funny, he's not spiritual, he doesn't like women, he's not really much besides an short-tempered, overly entitled ass. But oh no, people won't speak the truth because, well, his wife seems to like him and Colin Powell and John McCain begrudgingly kiss his ass and we can't go against the tide like that.

So this article cheers me immensely. Bush himself knows that the Frat Boy Fallacy requires 100% compliance or it crumbles, which is why of course the White House tyrannizes the press corp and makes it quite clear that anything less than fawning flattery means all access will be revoked. But conservative hand-wringing pundits are right--there's blood in the water now and the first cracks in Bush's careful image showed when he completely fell apart when he made a speech where he was required to fake someone who cares about the death of thousands and he failed miserably. I know it's a lot to hope, but the cracks in the press's compliance with the lie that Bush is a charming and decent human being might mean that things are fixing to fall apart and quickly.

It's depressing (but also newly hopeful) to note that Amanda is entirely right about El Smirko Fisheyes.

More right-wing nonsense from the "Freedom March," which, I'll remind you, was a ginned-up monstrosity of jingoistic "patriotism" sponsored by the Pentagon. More on it here. But anyway:

One protester [of the march], Rik Silverman, 27, of Arlington said he was holding a sign that said, "Shame on You" when a marcher leaned over the railing and punched him in the stomach. A U.S. Park Police officer wrote a report but no arrests were made.

Gorgeous.

Remember, the other side is reeling. It'll get ugly before it gets, um, less ugly.

Two weeks later, dead bodies litter the streets. And no one seems to give a shit. From First Draft:

MALIK RAHIM: You could basically smell it from right here. You know, and the police, they pass by. They look at it and they ain't going to do nothing, you know, to pick it up.

AMY GOODMAN: Malik then walked us down the driveway next to the health center and lifted up a sheet of corrugated metal with an X revealing the dead body underneath.

MALIK RAHIM: Now, his body been here for almost two weeks. Two weeks tomorrow. All right. That this man's body been laying here. And there's no reason for it. Look where we at? I mean, it's not flooded. There's no reason for them to be, left that body right here like this. You mean, just totally disrespect. You know? I mean two weeks. Every day, we ask them about coming and picking it up. They refuse to come and pick it up. You can see, it's literally decomposing right here. Right out in the sun. Every day we sit up and we ask them about it. Because I mean, this is -- close as you can get to tropical climate in America. And they won't do anything about it.

AMY GOODMAN: Malik, do you know who this person is?

MALIK RAHIM: No. But regardless of who it is, I wouldn't care if it's Saddam Hussein or Bin Laden. Nobody deserves to be left here, and the kids pass by here and they are seeing it. The elderly, this is what is frightening a lot of people into leaving. We don't know if he's a victim of vigilantes or what. That's all we know is that his body had been allowed to remain out here for over two weeks.

[snip]

SOLDIER: We're with 5015.

AMY GOODMAN: Which is?

SOLDIER: The cav.

AMY GOODMAN: Army?

SOLDIER: Regular army.

AMY GOODMAN: There's a dead body right here. Can you guys pick it up?

SOLDIER: You don't think we can pick it up, but we can call the local authorities to come pick it up.

AMY GOODMAN: This gentleman who lives in the neighborhood said that they have been trying to get -- here, let me ask these guys, too. Excuse me. Excuse me. Hi. There's a dead body right here. Can Louisiana State Troopers, can you pick it up?

LOUISIANA STATE TROOPER: You need to talk to the public information officer, Ma'am.

AMY GOODMAN: It's been here two weeks. We have filmed it last week, and gentleman over here said he has been trying to get it picked up for two weeks. Louisiana State Troopers, the Police, the Army, no one has responded. We're looking right over at it right there.

LOUISIANA STATE TROOPER: You need to talk to the public information officer and contact him at the troop.

AMY GOODMAN: Your name is?

LOUISIANA STATE TROOPER: You need to talk to the public information officer.

AMY GOODMAN: Do you know about the body?

LOUISIANA STATE TROOPER: You need to talk to our public information officer.

AMY GOODMAN: Sir, do you know about the body over there.

LOUISIANA STATE TROOPER: Ma'am, you talk with the public information officer.

[snip]

NEW ORLEANS POLICE OFFICER: Our sector is this area here.

AMY GOODMAN: This is right in your sector?

NEW ORLEANS POLICE OFFICER: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: So that body is right in your sector?

NEW ORLEANS POLICE OFFICER: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: So, what should happen then?

NEW ORLEANS POLICE OFFICER: Well, what I can do in my position is let -- notify my chain of command and leave it up to them to make those bigger decisions. It would be out of my hands. I'm just a lower level position.

AMY GOODMAN: Have you all contacted your higher-ups since this is your sector and this has been pointed out the last few weeks.

NEW ORLEANS POLICE OFFICER: We will notify our chain of command now. That's my lieutenant right there.

AMY GOODMAN: Lieutenant there's this dead body over there. Would the army take it out?

NEW ORLEANS LIEUTENANT POLICE OFFICER: No. That's not really in our jurisdiction. We can't do any police work. So, that's not for us to handle we can only report it and hope that the cops take care of it, but we can't do anything.

AMY GOODMAN:Have you reported it?

NEW ORLEANS LIEUTENANT POLICE OFFICER: Yep.

AMY GOODMAN: Why do you think the cops are not moving it?

NEW ORLEANS LIEUTENANT POLICE OFFICER: I have no idea, ma'am. No idea.

[snip]

AMY GOODMAN: Hi, Sir. You New Orleans Police?

NEW ORLEANS POLICE OFFICER: Yes, ma'am. I can't talk, though.

AMY GOODMAN: We're just -- there's a dead body over here and we're wonder if the police would pick it up.

NEW ORLEANS POLICE OFFICER: I have no comment on that, Ma'am. You have to call one of the press guys. Sorry. Thank you.

SHRILLNESS ALERT:

It would be awfully shrill to suggest that authorities wouldn't leave dead white people out to rot for two weeks.

So incompetent crony fuck Michael Brown "resigned." Who is he replaced with?

The guy who recommended that everyone buy duct tape.

To prevent against a chemical/bio terrorist attack.

Unmakable-up shit.

Besides the moral and political question of Bush getting impeached, which seems a little unlikely with the House and Senate both in the hands of the enemy, there's the political question:

What should we be aiming to win next fall?

And the answer is:

Either the House or the Senate.

And Mark Schmitt gives one excellent reason for that:

Win back the House or Senate this fall, if only so that Democrats have subpoena power somewhere, something [the Republicans] can't tolerate.

There's also the matter of stopping the Bush Agenda of loot and pillage. That'd be nice. But we may actually get Bush impeached after 2006 if we have some committees with subpoena power.

Strategic Salto.

Props to Steve Rundio, writing, approximately, from my ancestral homeland:

There are two types of big government. There's big-government liberalism, in which the government administers broad-based entitlements (Social Security, Medicaid) and provides services collectively that individuals can't purchase on their own (police protection, roads, public parks, etc.). Has this vision suffered from excess and waste? Of course. But it has raised the standard of living for most Americans. The elderly can't buy affordable health insurance on the private market, and most individuals can't purchase their own personal police or fire protection. At the very least, big-government liberalism's heart is in the right place.

There's nothing good about big-government conservatism. It's an iron triangle of politicians, lobbyists and industry wallowing in the spoils of government contracting and favoritism linked to campaign contributions. The recipient of big-government liberalism is likely to be a 90-year-old who can't get out of bed, or a pregnant teen in need of pre-natal care. The recipient of big-government conservatism is a Halliburton executive or someone who lobbies on Halliburton's behalf. The owners of Lenco Industries certainly did well when the $180,000 Lenco BearCat assault vehicle landed in La Crosse.

Excellent stuff. More good old Wisconsin realism, please.

[via Sullivan]

This is cute:

Ann Grossman, 56, from Silver Spring, Md., also carried a homemade sign, which read "Honor Our Troops, Respect Their Lives," that was confiscated by police at the Pentagon.

Ann Grossman is obviously a terrorist-symp who needs to have her body cavities searched.

The Legendary K.O.'s George Bush Doesn't Care About Black People.

Download here.

Salto brings you the dopest jams.

[via APS]

[It's a biggish file.]

I'm such a fucking softy.

Evan Thomas' article in Newsweek is a must-read.

Here are the bullets:

- Bush is an asshole who yells at his people when he gets bad news. No one wanted to tell him shit. They had to have a meeting to decide which one of them had to ask him to end his vacation early.

- Bush doesn't watch TV. Or the news. And he doesn't read newspapers. In fact, no one knows how he spends his time (except that he "watches an hour or two of ESPN here and there"). They had to try to make Bush watch a specially-made DVD of broadcasts from New Orleans to convince him that shit was fucked up.

- Bush is surrounded by yes-men who don't know how to give him bad news. Unlike every other President in the modern era (except for Nixon), who at least had one crusty old fucker around for that purpose (Cheney was on vacay, buying a $3 mil house at the time -- unavailable).

- The guy from FEMA who overflew the carnage couldn't convey the destruction to Washington. They didn't believe him or couldn't understand.

- Bush got a call from the Governor of Louisiana asking for help but he was tired and went to bed.

- The next day, the Governor of Louisiana couldn't get Bush on the phone. Then she did and asked for more help.

- Then Bush and Rumsfeld got hung up on using active-duty troops and some weird law and didn't do shit.

- FEMA was full of incompetent political crony hack fucks.

- Bush likes numbers, was delivered numbers about the aid effort, and therefore didn't know that it was actually a colossal fuckup.

- "As the president's plane sat on the tarmac at New Orleans airport, a confrontation occurred that was described by one participant as "as blunt as you can get without the Secret Service getting involved." At this "confrontation," which involved complaints about the federal aid effort, Bush was too incompetent to actually solve problems. He just told the people around him to "fix it."

- "Late last week, Bush was, by some accounts, down and angry. But another Bush aide described the atmosphere inside the White House as "strangely surreal and almost detached." At one meeting described by this insider, officials were oddly self-congratulatory, perhaps in an effort to buck each other up. Life inside a bunker can be strange, especially in defeat."

Donald Rumsfeld must immediately resign. And

Impeach George W. Bush. Impeach him now.

The Post says that even D.C. is completely unprepared for an emergency of any kind.

The U.S. Capitol and the White House have been fortified, police forces strengthened, high-tech security equipment purchased, vulnerable streets closed and checkpoints and barriers erected. In all, federal, state and local governments have spent more than $2 billion to protect the Washington area since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Despite these efforts, security officials in the region concede that they fear another major terrorist strike would result in the kind of chaos and confusion seen along the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina.

Even those who helped spend the money envision gridlock on the Capital Beltway as residents flee after a truck bombing at the Capitol or a chemical attack on Metro. They see D.C. police, U.S. Capitol Police, the FBI, U.S. Park Police and the departments of Homeland Security and Defense scrambling to figure out who is in charge, strained hospitals overwhelmed with thousands of people in need of medical care and confused downtown workers from the District, Maryland and Virginia who don't know what to do.

On the fourth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, the nation's capital lacks a comprehensive way to tell people what to do in a state of emergency, especially a terrorist attack with no warning, according to law enforcement and Homeland Security officials involved in emergency preparations.

"What we lack is a coordinated public information system in the event of a major incident," said David Snyder, a member of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments' homeland security task force. "What we need is a system that will function instantaneously and automatically every time. . . . That doesn't exist now."

Four years after 9/11 and nothing has been done.

Where has the money gone? Over 90 BILLION DOLLARS for the "Department of Homeland Security."

Impeach George W. Bush. Impeach him now.

Read this:

The Louisiana National Guard, already stretched by the deployment of more than 3,000 troops to Iraq, was hampered when its New Orleans barracks flooded. It lost 20 vehicles that could have carried soldiers through the watery streets and had to abandon much of its most advanced communications equipment, guard officials said.

Partly because of the shortage of troops, violence raged inside the New Orleans convention center, which interviews show was even worse than previously described. Police SWAT team members found themselves plunging into the darkness, guided by the muzzle flashes of thugs' handguns, said Capt. Jeffrey Winn.

"In 20 years as a cop, doing mostly tactical work, I have never seen anything like it," said Captain Winn. Three of his officers quit, he said, and another simply disappeared.

Officials said yesterday that 10 people died at the Superdome, and 24 died at the convention center site, although the causes were not clear. ...

While those entering the Superdome had been searched for weapons, there was no time to take similar precautions at the convention center, which took in a volatile mix of poor residents, well-to-do hotel guests and hospital workers and patients. Gunfire became so routine that large SWAT teams had to storm the place nearly every night.

Capt. Winn said armed groups of 15 to 25 men terrorized the others, stealing cash and jewelry. He said policemen patrolling the center told him that a number of women had been dragged off by groups of men and gang-raped - and that murders were occurring.

"We had a situation where the lambs were trapped with the lions," Mr. Compass said. "And we essentially had to become the lion tamers."

Capt. Winn said the armed groups even sealed the police out of two of the center's six halls, forcing the SWAT team to retake the territory.

But the police were at a disadvantage: they could not fire into the crowds in the dimly lit facility. So after they saw muzzle flashes, they would rush toward them, searching with flashlights for anyone with a gun.

Meanwhile, those nearby "would be running for their lives," Capt. Winn said. "Or they would lie down on the ground in the fetal position."

And when the SWAT team caught some of the culprits, there was not much it could do. The jails were also flooded, and no temporary holding cells had been set up yet. "We'd take them into another hall and hope they didn't make it back," Capt. Winn said.

One night, Capt. Winn said, the police department even came close to abandoning the convention halls - and giving up on the 15,000 there. He said a captain in charge of the regular police was preparing to evacuate the regular police officers by helicopter when 100 guardsmen rushed over to help restore order.

Before the last people were evacuated that Saturday, several bodies were dumped near a door, and two or three babies died of dehydration, emergency medics have said. State officials said yesterday that 24 people died either inside or just outside the convention center.

The whole article is a must-read.

The failure of government entities in the last weeks eclipses 9/11, Pearl Harbor and the assassination of a President in terms of seriousness. The only thing that is comparable is the threat that we faced in the first two World Wars.

MORE: Don't believe me?

Hurricane Katrina has produced a diaspora of historic proportions. Not since the Dust Bowl of the 1930's or the end of the Civil War in the 1860's have so many Americans been on the move from a single event. Federal officials who are guiding the evacuation say 400,000 to upwards of one million people have been displaced from ruined homes, mainly in the New Orleans metropolitan area.

Read that article too.

The various government entities responsible for protecting the citizens of the United States failed -- completely -- in the face of a predictable natural disaster with three days' lead time.

What happens if there's another incident?

An earthquake; a volcanic eruption; another Cat 4 or 5 hurricane; a pandemic, like, for example, a mutated strain of avian influenza easily passed human-to-human; a dirty bomb detonated in a major metropolis; an attack on a nuclear or chemical facility; an attack on critical infrastructure (such as dams, electrical generation facilities, metropolitan water sources, oil refineries); a suitcase nuke.

This country is one more incident away from crumbling. The anarchy that overtook parts of the Gulf Coast as law and order vanished and life's fundamentals became scarce could easily happen again.

But if faith in the system is undermined seriously, that anarchy could spread quickly to places not directly affected by the catastrophe of the moment. Trust in democratic institutions last only as long as you can be sure that you have something to eat and drink and that there aren't armed, lawless men looking to predate on the streets. Even the slightest flicker of doubt in our institutions and the situation changes drastically. Enter the Hobbesian world of man against man. Life? Nasty, brutal, and short. Unless you're strong and well-armed.

This is reality, not rhetoric. And coming to terms with the seriousness of the fragility of our situation demands one thing:

Impeach Bush. Impeach him now.

And replace him with competents from whatever party. Or none.

Now watch this Bill Maher clip.

Today:

And Dick Cheney, looking like he needs some people to torture, walked around the Gulf Coast and got cursed at by a doctor. Poor bastard was detained for sneering at his imperial majesty. It should be federal law that the Imperial March from Star Wars be played at all Vice Presidential events.

Dope.

I really regret that more people don't read bloggy news on the weekends. Everyone's traffic goes down. I know that's the deal, but it still bothers me when people miss something as good as this Steve Gilliard post from late Friday night.

This is a fairly unique time for lefty political blogs, isn't it? The grand momentum shift? I just think it's gonna take daily reading until at least November or December.

Don't miss it, huh?

Pleez?

One piece of yummy serious intelligence, from Mo Dowd in today's Times:

The breakdown in management and communications was so execrable that the president learned about the 25,000 desperate, trapped people at the New Orleans convention center not from Brownie, who didn't know himself, but from a wire story carried into the Oval Office by an aide on Thursday, 24 hours after the victims had been pleading and crying for help on every channel. (Maybe tomorrow the aide will come in with a wire story, "No W.M.D. in Iraq.")

Hm. What is interesting about that paragraph?

Could it be the level of specificity about how and when the President found out about the New Orleans Convention Center?

I luv her!

Here.

For sale?

VIDEO WHERE I SHOUT "GO FU** YOURSELF" TO DICK CHENEY

[via Crooks & Liars]

From the