Month: May 2006

Nagin Wins Re-election in New Orleans

Jon Ponder

Every now and then there is a a surprising result in politics:

Nine months after Hurricane Katrina swamped his city and transformed him from virtual shoo-in to ripe target, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin surged to a second term Saturday, besting Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu to maintain leadership of a city still languishing in ruin…

With all precincts reporting, Nagin had 52 percent of the vote, compared with Landrieu’s 48 percent. It was the narrowest margin of victory for a sitting mayor in the city’s modern history…

Returns showed that 113,591 people cast a ballot for mayor, or about 38 percent of the city’s 298,512 eligible voters. Nearly 25,000 people — almost one-fourth of those who cast ballots — mailed or faxed in an absentee ballot or voted in person at one of 10 balloting centers set up around the state for early voting. Turnout was 1 percent higher than in the primary.

A Nation of Bush-Haters

Jon Ponder

Remember the halcyon days six months ago when being a “Bush hater” was a bad thing? Well,those days are gone for good now, according to the polls:

The problem with Bush’s purported likability was that was almost entirely manufactured.

It’s not just the way he’s doing his job. Americans apparently don’t like President Bush personally much anymore, either.

A drop in his personal popularity, as measured by several public polls, has shadowed the decline in Bush’s job-approval ratings and weakened his political armor when he and his party need it most.

Losing that political protection – dubbed “Teflon” when Ronald Reagan had it – is costing Bush what the late political scientist Richard Neustadt called the “leeway” to survive hard times and maintain his grip on the nation’s agenda. Without it, Bush is a more tempting target for political enemies. And members of his party in Congress are less inclined to stand with him.

The problem with Bush’s purported likability was that was almost entirely manufactured. Back before the turn of the century, when Bush was running for president the first time, all he and his aides had to do to make something true was simply to say it was so. With the help of the supine “liberal” media, they could create whatever reality they wanted to. Remember how Saddam was going to fly drones over 5,000 miles and drop dirty bombs on us?

Just last week, President Bush’s svengali, Karl Rove, tried the say-it-and-make-it-so strategy when he made this delusional statement:

The American people like this president. His personal approval ratings are in the 60s. Job approval is lower. And what that says to me is that people like him, they respect him, he’s somebody they feel a connection with, but they’re just sour right now on the war. And that’s the way it’s going to be.

Rove said he based his statements on Republican Party polls. But he had to have been flat out lying and now, as a sign of at least a modest change in the atmospherics in Washington, Knight-Ridder has an article up debunking Rove’s wishful thinking:

[…]

Help Bring Attention to the National Health Insurance Crisis

Jon Ponder

Parenting Magazine Seeks Middle-Income Family Without Insurance for Interview

Are you among the millions of middle-income families who have no health insurance–or do you know a family who is?

The fastest-growing sector of the population to be without coverage are working families who make less than $60,000/year. For these Americans, losing health insurance means either going into debt to pay for medical attention or going without the attention they and their children need.

Parenting magazine, the national monthly Time/Life publication, is looking to feature just such a family–two parents and probably two kids, one of whom is an infant or toddler–as they struggle to cope. If you meet this description, or you know of a middle-income family who does, please contact:

M. Marshall via email.

The Best Part About Global Warming

Trish

Mystified at how the presidents of the United States and Exxon/Mobil can continue to poo-poo global warming in the face of conclusive evidence?

Well let’s think about this. For what would these greedy bastards be willing to throw away the planet? That’s right — money, money, and more money. The Week:

A quarter of the world’s untapped fossil fuels (including 375 billion barrels of oil) are thought to lie under the Arctic, and will become accessible as the ice melts

With average temperatures in the Arctic rising twice as fast as elsewhere in the world, climate scientists predict the Arctic Ocean could be ice-free by the summer of 2050…

The melting of the ice could shut down the Gulf Stream and wreak havoc with the world’s coasts and climate. It would spell potential disaster for traditional Arctic communities, for ecosystems, and for plant and animal species—polar bears would drown or starve, and the species could become extinct.

That sounds awful. But wait, there’s an upside. Or should I say, an angle?

The melting ice cap represents a colossal commercial opportunity. Russian icebreakers are already preparing to take tourists to the Pole for $30,000 each this summer, and the thaw could open up some highly lucrative shipping routes. A northeast sea route, north of Siberia, would allow shipping to sail from Europe to northeast Asia, cutting the journey by a third; and the fabled Northwest Passage through Canada’s Arctic archipelago could be open to shipping in a few decades, cutting the journey from Europe to East Asia (now routed through the Panama Canal) by 4,000 miles. The greatest profits, however, are likely to be found under the ice.

Hmmm…and what could they be?

Oil and natural gas. A quarter of the world’s untapped fossil fuels (including 375 billion barrels of oil) are thought to lie under the Arctic, and will become accessible as the ice melts. Industry experts now talk of a “black gold rush,” as companies such as BP Amoco, Statoil of Norway, and the Russian giant Gasprom all race to tap already discovered reservoirs in the region. The Arctic, says Moscow-based energy analyst Christopher Weafer, “is the next energy frontier.”

Oh, this is just too depressing. The writers go on to explain the standing whereby countries that border the North Pole — including us — will stake claims to all that treasure. Everyone has until 2009 to call dibs with the U.N. Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf.

Poll: Bush Bounce Baffles

Buck Banks

Nitwit nation: Quick, somebody run a chemical analysis on the water supply — somebody’s slipped us a collective mickey. What else would explain George Bush’s sudden rise in approval ratings? It’s not like he’s done anything positive this week, has he?

Bush is no Comeback Kid, but according to National Journal’s PollTrack, a new CBS poll has his job-approval mark up four points to 35 percent over an earlier May survey. A new CNN poll has the measure inching up two points to 36 percent since early May’s 34 percent and four points since late April’s 32 percent.

It’s significant that we are even talking about a two- or four-point rise — what does that really mean? That we got so used to Bush’s seemingly inexorable slide toward zero that a two-point uptick makes us want to upchuck.

It gets worse: CBS pollsters found that approval for Bush’s handling of immigration surged 12 points to 38 percent over the past two weeks. His rating on the economy jumped six points to 34 percent during the same period, and, incredibly, the rating on the “situation in Iraq” has crept up two points to 31 percent. But at least Bush’s rating on the “campaign against terrorism” — usually his highest mark — remained unchanged at 46 percent.

Gah! Who are these “respondents?” Get the NSA on the line, we need a few million phone numbers.

Navy to Contractors: Sell Us Some Really Expensive Spy Drones

Buck Banks

Eyes in the sky: In a presentation Wednesday that no doubt left aerospace defense contractors salivating at potential cost overruns, the Navy gave details on what will likely be a multibillion dollar unmanned air reconnaissance system contract. The system, called the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance system or BAMS, would require a fleet of sophisticated flying drones, high-technology sensors and communications systems, and a slew of ground control and data-receiving stations.

The Navy program requires a large unmanned aircraft capable of flying 2,000 nautical miles each way. It must remain at its destination for at least 24 hours while surveying large areas of open ocean or coastal areas with state-of-the-art sensors that relay intelligence to both land-based command posts half a world away and to Navy task forces operating nearby, Massenburg and the other officials explained. BAMS also might fill in as a communications relay asset, they said.

The Navy aviation officials said final requirements are expected to be approved this summer, with a request for proposal following by January and a contract awarded by September 2007.

The first of the aircraft and sensors are to be ready for testing in 2011. The system should be ready for use in 2013.

Although none of the briefers would estimate the number of aircraft required or the potential cost of the contract, the specifications call for enough systems to cover five major areas of the world on a 24-hour basis.

That clearly would require dozens of aircraft and associated systems that might cost more than $50 million each.

And the officials stressed that the program has attracted interest from at least nine foreign nations, which might increase the size of the contract.

Naval officers told the 200 contractors that the system has a high level of congressional support. That translates into fat defense contracts that can be taken back to congressional home districts. That translates into pork-barrel politics, which translates into continued build-up of the military-industrial complex and Big Annual Military Spending. BAMS, indeed!

New Emails Show FEMA Covering Its Ass in Miami A Year Before Katrina

Trish

People in Florida scratched their damp, sweaty heads in the fall of 2004 after four hurricanes in six weeks left much of the state without hot coffee in the morning, light before sunup or after sundown, or fuel for cars — the only source of charged cell phones, air conditioning and radio news.

People, that is, except in Dade County.

Miami was spared in 2004, although a year later God made an honest county of it by sending both Katrina and Rita. So how come FEMA’s intrepid director Michael Brown awarded so much aid to Dade County in 2004? That’s what one Florida newspaper wanted to know. South Florida Sun-Sentinel:

FEMA awarded more than $21 million in Miami-Dade for Hurricane Frances, the Labor Day weekend storm that struck 100 miles away.

Newly released e-mails of former FEMA Director Michael Brown show top federal officials scrambling to explain millions in disaster aid going to Miami-Dade County residents for a 2004 hurricane that missed the county and coaching Brown “not to appear defensive”…

“We need you calm cool and collected,” former FEMA chief of staff Patrick Rhode wrote in 2004 after the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had awarded more than $21 million in Miami-Dade for Hurricane Frances, the Labor Day weekend storm that struck 100 miles away. “We need our best spokesperson … to combat these issues in a diplomatic way to wave the flag for the admin -“

The 29 pages of emails were released this week only after a direct order from U.S. District Judge Kenneth A. Marra on behalf of the Sun-Sentinel. In an amazing feat of foreshadowing, FEMA staffers kick around various strategies for covering up glaring malfeasance. Left out is any indication of why the agency actually gave so much money to Miami. Was it because South Florida is a gushing fountain of funding for Republican candidates across the nation? Or was it just because FEMA was totally and completely inept? Tough call.

“Should we say the density in population in Miami-Dade versus the other affected counties (just sheer numbers) to somewhat explain the disparity in funding,” [FEMA Press Aide LeaAnne] McBride wrote to seven FEMA officials. “However, FYI — the reporter and those she contacted have driven around looking for physical damages to justify the funding and that will not be seen because those type of damages just did not occur in Miami-Dade.”

The email makes crystal clear that whatever else was going on, politics was the biggest determining factor in FEMA staff’s decisions. McBride’s advice to Brown shows just how caught up in election year issues they were.

In another e-mail, McBride wrote Brown, “Be cautious not to appear defensive or show that the ridiculous questions get under your skin when you’re at the press conf today [Sun-Sentinal Reporter] Megan [O’Matz] will show up. Just don’t want your expressions to give away your exasperation with this non-issue the way that the President’s did in the first debate.”

No indeed. Brown could have done a lot worse than the blinking, lip-twitching, murder-on-his-tiny-mind-revealing the president was doing. Still, one wonders. The email shows an agency whose soul was long ago sold. More unsettling is the thought that we are still at the mercy of shallow cynics more concerned with CYA than with actually helping people like us.

Pat Robertson’s Weather Predictions: In 1998, He Warned Orlando of God’s Wrath But a Hurricane Hit His Home in Va. Beach Instead

Jon Ponder

Surf’s up: Pat Robertson has made another dire weather prediction. This time he says God has told him that He will soon smite godless liberal Oregonians with a tsunami:

The Rev. Pat Robertson says God has told him that storms and possibly a tsunami will hit America’s coastline this year. The founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network has told viewers of “The 700 Club” that the revelations came to him during his annual personal prayer retreat in January.

“If I heard the Lord right about 2006, the coasts of America will be lashed by storms,” Robertson said May 8. He added specifics in Wednesday’s show. “There well may be something as bad as a tsunami in the Pacific Northwest,” he said.

But if Robertson’s track record as a divine weathercaster holds true, Oregonians may have less to fear than do the citizens in the Tidewater Virginia area that is headquarters to Robertson’s rightwing political and religious enclave. In 1998, Robertson predicted all sorts of disasters would smite central Florida:

After Orlando … city officials voted in 1998 to fly rainbow flags from city lampposts during the annual Gay Days event at Disney World, Robertson issued the city a warning: “I don’t think I’d be waving those flags in God’s face if I were you. … [A] condition like this will bring about the destruction of your nation. It’ll bring about terrorist bombs, it’ll bring earthquakes, tornadoes and possibly a meteor.”

Instead, God smote Robertson by hurling Hurricane Bonnie directly at Virginia Beach that August:

Overnight, Bonnie drifted out into the Atlantic southeast of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina … Rough surf pounded the Atlantic coastline as far north as New England, while 12- to 15-foot swells were reported along the Virginia coast. Winds as high as 90 mph snapped ship mooring ropes and left hundreds of thousands of people without electricity on Friday in the Virginia Beach-Norfolk area.