Year: 2006

GAO: While Katrina Blew, DHS Sucked

Buck Banks

Days of reckoning: The General Accounting Office has issued a report that is highly critical of the Department of Homeland Security’s handling of the Hurricane Katrina disaster. DHS, typically, has responded by crying foul and accusing the government oversight organization of not playing nice.

According to GovExec.com, the GAO said DHS exhibited a “leadership vacuum” before, during and after the hurricane.

“In the absence of timely and decisive action and clear leadership responsibility and accountability, there were multiple chains of command, a myriad of approaches and processes for requesting and providing assistance, and confusion about who should be advised of requests and what resources would be provided within specific time frames,” Comptroller General David Walker concluded.

DHS responded quickly to the report, which was issued at a press conference Wednesday.

“Apart from its obvious errors, it displays a significant misunderstanding of core aspects of the Katrina response that could have easily been corrected in the most basic conversations with DHS leaders,” department spokesman Russ Knocke said in a statement.

Methinks DHS protests too much. Remember the truckloads of ice that were “staged” in Maryland? Remember Michael Brown’s concerns over his haberdashery? Remember the dead people?

AFA Targets God-Hating NBC — Again

Buck Banks

Whoops, they done it again: You’da thunk NBC would have learned its lesson after “The Book of Daniel.” If you recall, the American Family Association brought so much pressure to bear on the network that NBC pulled the show after three episodes with no outside advertisers.

According to AdAge, the AFA, led by Donald “Wildman” Wildmon and his merry band of Bible thumpers, is on NBC’s case for an episode of “Will & Grace” where Britney Spears portrays a conservative Christian talk-show host who does a cooking segment called “Cruci-fixins.”

Sounds damned funny to me, but the AFA ain’t laughing:

“They would not be making fun of Mohammed or Buddha,” said Randy Sharp, director of special projects for the AFA, which is based in Tupelo, Miss. “It’s almost sacrilegious. I wonder who is at the helm of NBC that they are not getting the message. NBC doesn’t seem concerned that they are tanking because they are offending their viewers and running them off.”

AdAge noted that the AFA is taking on a hugely popular program in its final season, not a mid-season startup, and that, given the show’s content (it portrays GAY people — gasp!), few of the AFA’s true-believing constituency even watch the goddamned program.

Just Wait Until I Tell the President on You!

Trish

The hometown news has a little more colorful reporting about the U.S. Representative from Florida’s wife how got ousted from the State of Union address, along with Cindy Sheehan for wearing a t-shirt reminding people about the troops. St. Petersburg Times:

Beverly Young said, “Wait until the president finds out.”

Young said she was sitting in the gallery’s front row, about six seats from first lady Laura Bush, when she was approached by someone from the Capitol Police or sergeant-at-arms office who told her she needed to leave the gallery.

She reluctantly agreed but argued with several officers in the hallway outside the House chamber.

“They said I was protesting,” she said in a telephone interview late Tuesday. “I said, “Read my shirt, it is not a protest.’ They said, “We consider that a protest.’ I said, “Then you are an idiot.”‘

Well, not really, Bev. Protesting is a crime in Washington, and if you thought for one minute you were exercising your right to free speech, it’s time to wake up and smell the facism.

They told her she was being treated the same as Cindy Sheehan, an antiwar protester who was ejected before the speech Tuesday night for wearing a T-shirt with an antiwar slogan and refusing to cover it up…

Sgt. Kimberly Schneider of the Capitol Police could not provide details about the incident but said, “She was not ejected from the gallery. She did leave on her own.”

No sense exaggerating, after all. It sounds like part of the problem is that Bev and her husband, The Honorable C.W. Bill, are used to ordering the hired help around since they have friends in high places.

Young’s husband, a Republican who chairs the House appropriations subcommittee on defense, was unaware she was removed until after the speech. He said he was furious about the incident.

“I just called for the chief of police and asked him to get his little tail over here,” Rep. Young said late Tuesday. “This is not acceptable.”

Beverly Young said, “Wait until the president finds out.”

Oh no, you didn’t say that.

‘My Name is George W. Bush and I’m An Oilaholic’

Trish

Borowitz:

One day after claiming that “America is addicted to oil” in his State of the Union address, President Bush stunned the nation by confessing that he was personally battling a petroleum addiction and was entering rehab immediately.

’When you start invading other countries to get more oil, you know you’ve hit bottom’

In a nationally televised address from the Oval Office last night, a visibly agitated President Bush began his speech with the following simple statement: “My name is George W. Bush, and I am an oilaholic.”

The president, seeming to choke back tears, said that he had thought he was keeping his petroleum habit “under control,” but added, “When you start invading other countries to get more oil, you know you’ve hit bottom.”

…In Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that he hoped the United States would wean itself from its dependence on Middle Eastern oil and would gradually become dependent on Middle Eastern nuclear energy instead.

Money is No Object as Florida Republicans Race to Meet Ballot Deadline

Trish

If they’re going to whip up anti-gay hysteria, they better hurry. St. Petersburg Times:

…dozens of workers, a fleet of 55 vehicles and three aircraft would be pressed into service today to get enough signatures collected for Florida’s anti-gay marriage amendment

Groups seeking to place proposed constitutional amendments before Florida voters this fall have until 5 p.m. today to get enough signatures validated…

Volunteers who support a ban on same-sex marriage in Florida’s Constitution are among those racing against time. Orlando lawyer John Stemberger, chairman of Florida4marriage.org, said the effort was about 200,000 signatures short Tuesday, but he said dozens of workers, a fleet of 55 vehicles and three aircraft would be pressed into service today to get enough signatures collected.

Well. What they lack in popular support, they make up in sheer moolah. Works for me.

As alert PR readers know, Florida Republicans have shelled out $150,000 of the $193,000 raised to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot that will outlaw gay marriage, which is already outlawed by the Legislature. The whole exercise is intended to fire up rightwing voters, and is likely taking place in a voting booth near you too.

Florida: Where There’s a Hate Group for Every Aversion

Trish

What a way for Florida to begin Black History Month. The state has the dubious distinction of being No. 2 nationwide in number of organized hate groups. Orlando Sentinel:

Like anybody needed another good reason not to visit DisneyWorld

The state famous for tourism and endless sunshine has a disturbing side. It is home to 43 so-called hate groups, second only to South Carolina, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a Montgomery, Ala., organization that has tracked such groups for 25 years…

The center, the Anti-Defamation League and an FBI investigator who has monitored Florida extremist groups attribute the state’s prominence on the hate-group list to its booming population, shifting demographics and the vestiges of racism.

Today, about 19 percent of the state’s population is Hispanic, 15 percent is black and about 4 percent is Jewish. Extremists target all three groups. Florida has about 18 million people.

So I guess there are just more people to hate in Florida? In nearby Jacksonville, according to a graphic supplied with the article, there are two skinhead groups, one neo-Confederate, one neo-Nazi, and two groups classified as “other.” On the other hand, Jacksonville is home to the nation’s third largest Cambodian Buddhist temple as well as the newly launched Stetson Kennedy Foundation. Kennedy, who lives near my own St. Augustine, is the author of The Klan Unmasked, first published in the ‘50s to expose the Klan and a neo-Nazi hate group called the Columbians. Stetson didn’t do his undercover work in Florida but maybe he should have.

Though the total number is small, it’s unclear how many people join hate groups. Few organizations release membership numbers, and those that do likely inflate them.

Generally, experts say, local chapters include a handful to several dozen members. The National Socialist Movement reports about 50 members in Orlando.

“Central Florida,” said Bill White of the National Socialist Movement, “is our strongest growing area in the state.”

Like anybody needed another good reason not to visit DisneyWorld. Still, Tampa is no slouch.

Officials with the Tampa unit of the neo-Nazi National Vanguard would not discuss their activities, referring all questions to Vanguard headquarters in Virginia.

The Tampa group is one of the best organized in the state. It has produced compact discs, rented billboards and flown white-power banners over the Daytona 500. After Hurricane Katrina, members went to Mississippi to help “white families in need.”

Florida. Gotta love it.

Unlike Cindy Sheehan, Pro-War Protester at SOTU Was Not Arrested

Jon Ponder

What First Amendment: At roughly the same time that Cindy Sheehan was being arrested for wearing an anti-war T-shirt to the State of the Union speech last night, the wife of a prominent Republican congressman, was escorted out of the House gallery because she was wearing a pro-war T-shirt.

It is outrageous that if you wear an anti-war T-shirt you get arrested, but if you wear a pro-war T-shirt you’re escorted out but free to go.

Unlike Sheehan, Beverly Young, wife of Rep. Bill Young of Florida was not arrested. It is unclear whether it was Beverly’s elite status or her pro-Bush message that save her from the hoosegow.

Still, her husband, who has Duke Cunningham’s recently vacated chairmanship in defense appropriations, is hopping mad:

“Shame, shame,” Rep. Bill Young of Florida said on the House floor on Wednesday, condemning the treatment of his wife Beverly by the U.S. Capitol Police.

“She was ordered to leave the gallery, because she was doing … what the president said we should all do,” Young said. “She had on this shirt. A very conservative shirt, long sleeves, high neck, but it says support our troops.”

…Young said a guard at the House chamber called her “a demonstrator and a protester.”

Leaving aside the fact that anyone who wears clothes as casual as T-shirts (especially shirts with slogans printed on them) to official functions like the State of the Union ought to be asked to leave — can’t we have to have some standards? — it is outrageous that if you wear an anti-war T-shirt you get arrested, but if you wear a pro-war T-shirt you’re escorted out but free to go.

UPDATE: The Capitol Police have disputed Beverly Young’s version of events, according to Gainesville.com.:

“She was not ejected from the gallery. She did leave on her own,” said Sgt. Kimberly Schneider, who said she could not provide further information.

A quote from Rep. Young in the same article says just about everything we need to know about him:

“I just called for the chief of police and asked him to get his little tail over here,” Young said. “This is not acceptable.”

Tip o’ the hat to CC

Pensito Review: Off the Wires

Buck Banks

Israelis Complete Settlement Evacuation
AMONA, West Bank – Club-wielding riot troops dragged away thousands of stone-throwing Jewish settlers Wednesday, evacuating this illegal West Bank outpost in the fiercest clash over settlements since Israel’s Gaza pullout. In the Middle East version of the game of Rock-Paper-Club, club always wins.

Iran, Hamas Reject Bush’s Call for Change
LONDON – Iranian and Hamas leaders rejected President Bush’s call for change in his State of the Union address. Sounds like the Axis of Evil just got a new member.

Collapsed Hall’s Designer Attempts Suicide
KATOWICE, Poland – A designer of the Polish exhibition hall whose roof collapsed and killed 63 people attempted unsuccessfully to commit suicide two days after the accident, an official said Wednesday. There’s a really crass Polack joke here, but we decline to make it.

Georgian Lawmakers Brawl During Debate
TBILISI, Georgia – Rival lawmakers in the Georgian capital’s city council brawled during a debate over the energy crisis suffered by the country in recent days. Wait, that wasn’t a brawl, that was the debate.

Magnitude-5.1 Quake Shakes Tokyo
TOKYO – A magnitude-5.1 earthquake shook central Japan on Wednesday, but there was no danger of a tsunami, the Meteorological Agency said. The danger of an attack by a giant radioactive lizard remained unchanged.

Saudis, Qatar Pledge $33M to Palestinians
JERUSALEM – Israel has frozen this month’s transfer of $45 million in tax rebates and customs payments to the Palestinian Authority while it reviews its options following the Hamas victory in last week’s parliamentary election, an Israeli government official said Wednesday. “They say Israel doesn’t exist, we say, Money, what money?” he added.