Sometimes there's nothing more that can be said.

Muslim FDNY Chaplain Resigns After 9/11 Remarks

NEW YORK (AP) -- The fire department's new Muslim chaplain abruptly resigned Friday after saying in a published interview that he believes something other than al-Qaida hijackers brought down the World Trade Center.

''It became clear to him that he would have difficulty functioning as an FDNY chaplain,'' Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta told reporters an hour before Imam Intikab Habib was to be officially sworn in. ''There has been no prior indication that he held those views.''

Habib told Newsday in an interview published Friday that he was skeptical of the official version of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, which killed 343 firefighters.

''I've heard professionals say that nowhere ever in history did a steel building come down with fire alone,'' he told the newspaper.

''It takes two or three weeks to demolish a building like that. But it was pulled down in a couple of hours,'' he said. ''Was it 19 hijackers who brought it down, or was it a conspiracy?''

Bush's approval ratings are starting to come back from their post-Katrina lows. Real Clear Politics shows the average of 3 recent polls with a disapproval rating about 5 points higher than the approval rating (50% vs 45%). Before this week the vast majority of the polls had disapproval ratings running about 10-20 higher than the approval ratings.

Still not great, but then again they weren't that great when he was elected either.

AIPAC case reaches plea bargain

Pentagon analyst Larry Franklin, charged with providing officials in the pro-Israel lobby (AIPAC) with classified defense information, has struck a plea bargain with the prosecution and is expected to testify against the former AIPAC employees in the case. Franklin will enter his guilty plea next Wednesday at the US District court in Alexandria, Virginia.

This latest development in the AIPAC case makes it clear that the main target of the federal investigation are now the two former lobby staffers – Steve Rosen, who was the policy director, and Keith Weissman, the senior Iran analyst. Both were fired from AIPAC last April and were indicted in August by a grand jury on charges of conspiring to receive and transfer classified information.

The following paragraph is kind of ironic given the way that the headline refers to this as the "AIPAC case".

US attorney Paul McNulty, who is heading the probe, said in August that AIPAC, as an organization, is not the target of the investigation. He commended the lobby for taking action after learning of the conduct of its staffers and said that Rosen, Weissman and Franklin were motivated by their desire to advance their own foreign policy agenda.

Fancy shmancy kugels are all the rage.

"....despite kugel's deep tradition, it is changing, even in Brooklyn, the center of American kugel cooking.

On a recent afternoon at Hungarian Kosher Catering in Borough Park, at least 18 kinds of kugel were for sale, and customers were discussing them in Yiddish, English and Hungarian. Most American Jews know about noodle (lokshen) and potato kugel. But apple-noodle kugel? Salt and pepper kugel? Broccoli kugel? Modern "designer" three-layer kugel with sweet potato, broccoli and cauliflower?

"It used to be that it was only potato and noodle, nothing goes without them," said Shmelka Friedman, 48, owner of the shop and a follower of the Satmar sect, which came to the United States from Hungary after World War II. His repertory now includes both blueberry and rhubarb kugel."

Leader of New Orleans Police Resigns

Nice joke that The NYT should call him a "Leader" in the headline. Mayor Ray "Frickin" Nagin should be next.

----------

"I am pissed. I am absolutely pissed off," Mr Nagin said. "People are frickin' dying every day. They need to get off their asses."

----------

You know the reason why the looters got out of control? Because we had most of our resources savin people. Thousands of people. That were stuck in attics man. Old ladies. When you pull off the doggone ventilator vent and they’re standin in there in water up to their frickin necks. And they don’t have a clue what’s goin on down here. They flew down here. One time, two days after the doggone event was over with TV cameras, A.P. reporters, all kind of goddamn, excuse my French, everybody in America, but I am pissed!

----------

"There is way too many fricking ... cooks in the kitchen," Nagin said in a phone interview with WAPT-TV in Jackson, Mississippi, fuming over what he said were scuttled plans to plug a 200-yard breach near the 17th Street Canal, allowing Lake Pontchartrain to spill into the central business district.

Ex-FEMA Chief Defends Role in Katrina Response

Mr. Brown, who for many became a symbol of government failures in the natural disaster that claimed the lives of more than 1,000 people, rejected accusations that he was too inexperienced for the job. "I've overseen over 150 presidentially declared disasters. I know what I'm doing, and I think I do a pretty darn good job of it," Mr. Brown said.

Good for him. Another gut feeling I have is that FEMA in general and Mr. Brown in particular were made the scapegoat. FEMA has become the "Israel/Jew" of the disaster response. I bet most of it's critics don't even know exactly what their role was supposed to be in the first place.

Rep. Davis pushed Mr. Brown on what he and the agency he led should have done to evacuate New Orleans, restore order in the city and improve communication among law enforcement agencies.

Mr. Brown said: "Those are not FEMA roles. FEMA doesn't evacuate communities. FEMA does not do law enforcement. FEMA does not do communications."

Critics have also made a connection between his lack of experience and his supposed inability to do the job he was hired to do. Well, all of our Presidents had never been Presdients of other countries before - it doesn't mean they couldn't do the job. At best they were Governors or Senators of states that were only a fraction of the size of the federal government with relatively homogenous constituencies. You're either a good manager or your not.

I've been saying this to people for a long time.

MEDIA MADE MESS OF STORM NEWS

The truth of the matter is that the Media was helped along by Mayor Nagin and others who were just begging for attention and had to pretend they knew what was going on.

A very interesting point is made by the good folks at PowerLine.

Spain just convicted one person for conspiring to commit the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks by meeting with Mohamed Atta, the lead hijacker, and Ramzi bin al-Shibh. (Several others were convicted of either belonging to or aiding a terrorist cell).

In fact, the Spanish are so proud of these convictions that we know they must be based on factual evidence....

Some analysts here hailed the verdict as at least a partial affirmation of the Spanish approach to fighting Islamic terrorism, which under Judge Baltasar Garzón has emphasized legal prosecutions over military action and intelligence gathering." This is a clear sign that the rule of law has instruments that can be used to fight terrorism," said Jesús Nuñez Villaverde, director of the Institute for the Study of Conflicts and Humanitarian Action, a research group in Madrid. "It shows that there are effective methods that are not Guantánamo."

However, in the 9/11 Commission report detailing the planning of the attacks we find this contradictory information:

Atta arrived in Madrid on July 8. He spent the night in a hotel and made three calls from his room, most likely to coordinate with Binalshibh. The next day, Atta rented a car and drove to Reus to pick up Binalshibh; the two then drove to the nearby town of Cambrils. Hotel records show Atta renting rooms in the same area until July 19, when he returned his rental car in Madrid and flew back to Fort Lauderdale. On July 16, Binalshibh returned to Hamburg, using a ticket Atta had purchased for him earlier that day. According to Binalshibh, they did not meet with anyone else while in Spain.

As PowerLine says:

It's interesting that the September 11 Commission found no persuasive evidence that Atta and bin al-Shibh met with anyone else while they were in Spain. Their authority to the contrary? Bin al-Shibh himself. It isn't clear why the Commission considered the captured Yemeni terrorist to be such a reliable source; common sense would suggest otherwise. It's significant that bin al-Shibh is also the authority for the claim that Atta never went to Prague to meet with an Iraqi intelligence agent. Maybe the Commission's trust in that assertion should also be re-thought.

Although she doesn't look as good here as she usually did in the Sopranos, there's something about Drea de Matteo saying "Chabad" and "Mitzvah" that makes me...oh, well you don't want to know.

After watching this clip, it will make you think - what if everyone was Jewish - is this what TV would be like?

Joey (Matt LeBlanc) and his sister (Drea de Matteo) shilling for the annual Chabad telethon in this video. From The Yada Blog.

This video definitely wins the Emmy for best pronunciation of the Heberew "ch" sound by two gentiles.

I thought I was the only one who caught the witty wordplay here, but I've seen it poseted on quite a few sites. I guess Drudge is now a comedian.

Thanks, I'll go call my dead relatives now and let them know.

Dutch railroad apologizes for WWII role

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, Sept. 24 (UPI) -- The Dutch national railway company plans a public apology for the role it played in transporting Jews to concentration camps during World War II.

Aad Zeeman, chief executive of Nederland Spoorwegen, will acknowledge the company's collaboration with the wartime occupiers, the Times of London reported. The company admits it assisted in the transportation of 107,000 Jews and smaller numbers of Gypsies and homosexuals.

Only about 5,000 Jews returned to the Netherlands.

Via Defamer. Keep your sound on for this, but not too loud if there are others around you.

iiiii

Thanks to the Byron Calame, Public Editor of the New York Times, we are made to see how "fake, but accurate" reporting is allowed by the New York Times. The case is Geraldo Rivera versus Alessandra Stanley, who I have criticized in several recent posts.

Even Geraldo Deserves a Fair Shake

My viewings of the videotape - at least a dozen times, including one time frame by frame - simply doesn't show me any "nudge" of any Air Force rescuer by Mr. Rivera. (Ms. Stanley declined my invitation to watch the tape with me.) I also reviewed all of the so-called outtakes shot by Mr. Rivera's camera crew at the Holy Angels Apartments in New Orleans on the morning of Sept. 4. Neither the video nor the audio revealed any nudge of an Air Force rescuer. As for the Air Force, the matter "is not an issue," a spokesman told me last week.

Stripped of its speculation in defense of Ms. Stanley, Mr. Keller's e-mail to me explaining his decision winds up acknowledging that the "nudge" she reported seeing is not shown in the videotape. Here, with my emphasis added, is that key paragraph of his e-mail:

"It was a semi-close call, in that the video does not literally show how Mr. Rivera insinuated himself between the wheelchair-bound storm victim and the Air Force rescuers who were waiting to carry her from the building. Whether Mr. Rivera gently edged the airman out of the way with an elbow (literally 'nudged'), or told him to step aside, or threw a body block, or just barged into an opening - it's hard to tell, since it happened just off-camera."

So if Ms. Stanley couldn't have seen the nudge, why not publish a correction? Mr. Keller's message unfortunately turns to a line of reasoning that raises, for me, a basic question of journalistic fairness. He suggests, "frankly," that in light of Mr. Rivera's reaction to the review, Ms. Stanley "would have been justified in assuming" - and therefore writing, apparently - that Mr. Rivera used "brute force" rather than merely a "nudge" on Sept. 4. (One of the on-air threats cited by Mr. Keller, however, actually was made by Bill O'Reilly.)

Does not literally show?!? I thought the objective of a journalist is to present the facts, not make them up!

It seems that the Times is on a slippery slope that allows them to invent actions by people they are reporting on as long as it fits their personality or a particular point of view they're trying to get across.

The Times should really fire Stanley - she is an embarrassment to the integrity of what used to be a great newspaper. The newspaper should change their motto from "All the News That's Fit To Print" to "The Greatest Story Ever Told".

Was Jihad prevented in Southern California?

Three men charged in a terror investigation were planning shooting rampages at Los Angeles-area military sites to retaliate for what they called the oppression of Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to court documents.

The men were indicted last month on federal charges of conspiring to wage war against the U.S. government through terrorism. All three -- Levar H. Washington, 25, Gregory V. Patterson, 21, and Hammad R. Samana, 21 -- have pleaded not guilty....

The affidavit mentions only military facilities. But the indictment, returned after the affidavit was filed, refers to both military and Jewish targets.

Hooray for Hillary!

HILLARY COMES OUT AGAINST FREEDOM CENTER

WASHINGTON - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday dealt a crushing blow to the International Freedom Center planned for Ground Zero, saying she wants the project canned for failing to listen to the 9/11 families.

"I cannot support the IFC," Clinton declared last night in a strongly worded statement in response to an inquiry from The Post.

Her tough comments are Clinton's first significant remarks about the controversy raging at Ground Zero over the Freedom Center, which 9/11 families and other critics fear will become a center of anti-Americanism.

"While I want to ensure that development and rebuilding in lower Manhattan move forward expeditiously, I am troubled by the serious concerns family members and first responders have expressed to me," Clinton said.

Rescuing torahs from the floods in New Orleans. Unfortunately, not all of them could be saved.

Alessandra Stanley of the New York Times, who I had only heard of a few weeks ago when Geraldo Rivera called her "Jayson Blair in a cocktail dress", goes the extra liberal mile to protect White America from thinking that African Americans don't know how to speak proper English.

From "Fairness and Accuracy" at The Pop View.

Now, here’s an interesting thing. Both the New York Times and the Washington Post quote a line from tonight’s premiere of Everybody Hates Chris.

In the Post, Chip Crews quotes it thusly:

That’s 49 cent of spilt milk dripping all over my table. Somebody gonna drink this milk!

Then, the infamously inaccurate Alessandra Stanley quotes it so:

That’s 49 cents of spilled milk dripping off my table. Somebody is going to drink that milk.

I’m going to go out on a limb right now, without having seen the program, and suggest that Stanley has engaged in an attempt to take the ghetto out of the line-reading by Terry Crews. Let’s slip on over to the UPN site and watch the video preview. Yup. That’s what she done.

Chris Rock would be turning over in his grave, but thankfully, he's still alive.

I haven't posted anything yet becuase I have nothing intelligent to say that isn't already being said anywhere else on this subject.

That being said, this post will be my thank you to Simon Wiesenthal, whose pursuit of justice and tolerance at the same time set an example for us all.

"Justice, justice you shall pursue" - Deuteronomy 16:20

The man deserves a city named after him, not just a street.

President Bush tells the true and inspiring tale of "The Wrong Rabbi" at the 20th Anniversary of the Republican Jewish Coalition.

Rabbi Stanton Zamek of the Temple Beth Shalom Synagogue in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, helped an African American couple displaced by the storm track down their daughter in Maryland. When Rabbi Zamek called the daughter, he told her, "We have your parents." She screamed out, "Thank you, Jesus!" (Laughter.) He didn't have the heart to tell her she was thanking the wrong rabbi. (Laughter and applause.)

I am definitely voting for Kinky for Governor of Texas. As he puts it on his website..."Why The Hell Not?"

His first ad is up and running. See the Kinkytoon here.

Anyone who uses a menorah shooting off red, white and blue sparklers and jumping cheerleaders gets my vote!

"No, they ain’t makin’ jews like jesus anymore,
They don’t turn the other cheek the way they done before....."

My disgust with Oprah is only outpaced by my disgust for the "sheeple" who slavishly follow here every utterance.

My local paper has a story of a staged animal rescue brought to you by Harpo Prodcutions. Ooh look how Oprah cares! Ooh look how if only Oprah were in charge the world would be a better place! Barf.

The story behind Oprah...

(Please read the whole thing).

Puppies and celebrities can be a powerful combination. Especially for a dramatic television rescue from a flooded hospital.

Witness a recent segment of The Oprah Winfrey Show from the devastated Gulf Coast.
Also Online

Hospitals likely to face litigation

Viewers watched actor Matthew McConaughey heroically rescuing stranded animals – and the doctor who stayed behind with them – from the flooded Lindy Boggs Medical Center in New Orleans.

The segment glossed over one key point: The animals were being rescued anyway.

"Matthew's search for stories of people that he could help led him to an abandoned hospital in New Orleans," Oprah Winfrey told viewers.

"Inside were beloved pets that families had been forced to leave behind during this evacuation. One man vowed to keep them alive. And Matthew went to help him."

What she didn't tell viewers is that Mr. McConaughey, a Texas native, and the Oprah crew jumped into the effort after two Dallas companies had already begun the rescue: Tenet Healthcare Corp. and Aviation Services Group Inc., which Tenet had hired to evacuate its hospitals.

The segment mentioned neither company nor any other rescuers.

Another prominent African-American woman chooses to openly declare her belief in the President. Democrats - I think you've played the race card and you've lost big time. If even a small section of what was black New Orleans think their lives are better off three years from now, there will be an unprecedented swing of minority voters to the Republican ticket in '08.

I Will Rebuild With You, Mr. President by Donna Brazile

On Thursday night President Bush spoke to the nation from my city. I am not a Republican. I did not vote for George W. Bush -- in fact, I worked pretty hard against him in 2000 and 2004. But on Thursday night, after watching him speak from the heart, I could not have been prouder of the president and the plan he outlined to empower those who lost everything and to rebuild the Gulf Coast.

There are now signs that not only was Mayor Nagin of New Orleans unbelievably clueless during the evacuation and immediate post-hurricane period, but now there are doubts about his declarations that a large portion of the city is ready to be re-populated.

Big doubts in the Big Easy
Head of federal relief effort questions timetable for repopulating city

The mayor of New Orleans has set up an "extremely problematic" timeline for allowing residents to return to the evacuated city, which is still threatened by a weakened levee system, a lack of drinkable water and heavily polluted floodwaters, the head of the federal relief effort said Saturday.

Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen said federal officials have worked with Mayor Ray Nagin and support his vision for repopulating the city, but he called Nagin's idea to return up to 180,000 people to New Orleans in the next week both "extremely ambitious" and "extremely problematic."

As opposed to the mayor's claim of 10,000 dead and ordering of 25,000 body bags, I hope he's judging on the right side of crazy now.

Hijacked plane crashes in Auckland harbor

Pilot had threatened to strike New Zealand's highest building

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - A light aircraft, hijacked by a pilot who threatened to crash it into New Zealand’s highest building in Auckland, has plunged into the city’s harbor, radio reports said on Saturday.

UPDATE: "It arose from a domestic situation. A man with a pilot's license stole a light plane and threatened to crash into the Sky Tower," Auckland police spokeswoman Phillipa White told The Associated Press. "He's crashed into the harbor ... and emergency services are out there now."

The New York Times could never muster up as much anger against Saddam Hussein as it can against people who support and accept Fashion Week giveaways.

Of course, the gift bag goodies aren't purchased with real money - they're donated by companies hoping to grab some luster by placing their products in famous fashionistas' homes. And many A-listers have donated millions of dollars to relief efforts.

But their contributions seem somehow diminished by the thought of them firing up their free grills and throwing on complimentary burgers and steaks that they can more than afford, while thousands of their fellow citizens dine on Meals Ready to Eat inside makeshift homes.

Gift bags could easily be stuffed with cards announcing that the grill's maker or beef supplier had donated money to charity in the celebrity's name. And if gifts were offered, guests could say, "No, thank you," and redirect their goods down South. At the very least, it would show some class.

So dear brother-in-law, how does it feel to be under the microscope of your local Marxist daily? Think your Upper West Side, Democratic creds will help you now? Bwah hah hah!

Thats' right my fellow Americans, it doesn't matter how much money or time you donate to the relief efforts, unless you are in sackcloth and ashes you are scum of the Earth. Shame on you from ever having made an honest buck.

By the way, there's a list of corporate donations here. Included on the list are these media companies (along with many individual broadcast outlets):

Fox Network Groups - $5mm of free davertising to relief organizations
Nat'l Association of Broadcasters - $1mm
NBC and affiliates - $39mm from telethons
News Corporation - $1mm
Random House - $500k
Time Warner - $3mm
Viacom - $1mm
Weather Channel - $1mm

What? No New York Times Company? Perhaps this list is incomplete. While that may be possible, a google search for "New York Times", "donates" or "donated" and "Katrina" brings up nothing with regards to donations either.

If you are a New York Times employee and feel guilty about your employers' rank hyporcrisy, you still have a chance to redeem yourselves by eating out on September 27 during Restaurants for Relief day.

In my view, the Times creates bad feeling by creating a sin of omission.

Bush Rules Out Tax Increases to Pay for Hurricane Recovery

Heated discussions between the White House and Congressional leaders, including some Republicans, over how to pay for the recovery effort now seem inevitable. Some Republicans were worrying publicly about the rising federal deficits even before Mr. Bush pledged a huge federal role in the recovery in a speech Thursday night in New Orleans - and before his "no new taxes" pledge today.

Before Hurricane Katrina, the deficit for the fiscal year that ends two weeks from today was projected to be about $330 billion.

Apparently, they forgot this line - the federal deficit is down from $413 billion in fiscal year 2004 while the economy has grown by 3.6% in the last year, reducing the size of the deficit to 2.7% of GDP, down from 3.5%. (The 40 year average is a deficit which runs at 2.2% of GDP).

Assuming the economy keeps growing and the cost of reconstruction is spread out over at least two years, I think we can handle it folks.

Victor Davis Hanson asks, "Could they (the media) have strived for accuracy instead of ratings?"

Media cooked up a storm over Katrina

The woman interviewed here by ABC is my hero.

ABC Uses Bush-bashing Baiting Questions, Fails (VIDEO)

Watch as the ABC News reporter tries to goad the evacuee into criticizing Bush after his speech to the nation. Truth to Power!

Two funny jokes from Wonkette:

"Q: What is George W. Bush's position on Roe vs. Wade?
A: He really doesn't care how people get out of New Orleans."

Bill Maher: "Michael Brown, the head of FEMA has been relieved of his command. He has been asked to return to Washington immediately. He is expected to arrive in about a week."

Another line of scary media B.S. has now been debunked.

Floods' Pollutants Within the Norm

Early tests on the floodwater that covered most of this city do not suggest it will leave a permanent toxic residue or render residential areas uninhabitable for more than a short time, officials of both state and federal environmental agencies said yesterday.

So lets see where the media (with the help of local officials) lied to us. 10,000 or more dead. Toxic soup making New Orleans uninhabitable. Months to pump out the floodwater making the city uninhabitable (while 40% of the city's living area will be opened shortly and the remaining floodwater to be pumped out in a couple of weeks).

By the way, text of Bush's speech tonight here.

The New York State Dept. of Labor just released it's monthly county-by-county unemployment stats for August. New York City as a whole has an unmeployment rate of just 5.2%. Manhattan is 4.4% and Queens is 4.6%. This is absolutely incredible in a city that overflows with immigrants who are already working thousands upon thousands of jobs illegally. There are possibly more people actually working in NYC than there are people accounted for as part of the workforce. New York State as a whole is at 4.6%, less than the national average of 4.9%.

Of course we know that Saddam Hussein never would have done this....

Iran offers nuclear know-how to Islamic states

The fact that this was announced as world leaders were gathering for a UN summit only goes to show how impotent the UN actually is. I can't understand how people still claim that there was no need to invade Iraq because the UN would have seen to it that Saddam was disarmed.

A British Foreign Office spokesman said it was not clear what Ahamdinejad's offer to Islamic countries involved.

"In any case, this is not the pressing question," he said. "The issue is the lack of confidence in Iran's nuclear program as a result of two decades of non-disclosures and concealment."

To Gwynneth "I have more of a European sensibility" and "I don't want to live here" Paltrow - just get the f*** out then and leave the rest of us alone.

If she would have said I think America can be a better place and Bush is ruining it - OK. She also says she agrees with this "flagging empire" article. Here is the second paragraph from a long, disjointed anti-American rant in the Globe and Mail...

Many of the people being winched off rooftops (ed. after Katrina) did not even own television sets, let alone cars or telephones, so it is hardly surprising they had made no plans to escape until their shacks were under 20 feet of water.

First, how the hell does he know that? Is there any country on Earth where more people own basic consumer electronics like TVs and telephones? Does he think that nobody in these homes had a radio? It's so ridiculous it's no wonder he didn't mention them.

Liberal Hollywood idiots eat this crap up and spit it back in our faces as if it were the Gospel.

If I had a smiley face icon, I would put whichever one represents "disgusted".

UPDATE: More silliness from Burt Bacharach:

The WALK ON BY star insists America had adequate warning of the horrific disaster which rocked Louisiana and left New Orleans submerged, and yet Bush continued to fund the war against terror instead of protecting his people.

"I think Bush is just about the poorest president we've ever had. You'd have to go back before I was born to find a worse one."

Assuming he's a liberal I guess he'd welcome back Richard Nixon with open arms. Or even Herbert Hoover since Mr. Bacharach is 77 years old.

Just a message to the simpletons on the left who keep claiming that we're losing the War on Terrorrism becuase it's lasting longer than World War II. Do they remember how many tens of millions of people died (mainly civilians) during that war? Or that it only ended when we dropped a couple of atomic bombs on Japan. Would they prefer a repeat performance if it were to bring "peace"?

If you want real peace you have to have real solutions. The left has yet to come up with any.

And by the way, might I also remind those that claim that we couldn't build the levees in Louisiana becuase all the money went to Iraq/Anti-Terrorism initiatives that it was they themselves would have spent the money too, just differently?

Sen. John F. Kerry escalated his attacks Wednesday on President Bush's conduct of the war in Iraq, saying it cost $200 billion that America needs for schools, healthcare and other domestic needs.

I can promise you he wasn't thinking about this....

Howard Dean is claiming that the money "could have saved lives in New Orleans'' by shoring up levees along swollen Lake Pontchartrain." As if that were the Democrat's plan all along.

Here's 34 deaths I guess the liberals can't blame on Bush.

Nursing home owners facing homicide charges

BATON ROUGE, La. – The owners of a New Orleans-area nursing home where 34 patients died in Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters were charged with negligent homicide Tuesday.

The owners of St. Rita's Nursing Home in St. Bernard Parish “were asked if they wanted to move (the patients). They did not. They were warned repeatedly that this storm was coming. In effect, their inaction resulted in the deaths of these patients,” Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti said.

Mable B. Mangano, owner and administrator of the nursing home, and Salvador A. Mangano, a co-owner, surrendered and were jailed.

Foti said his office is also investigating deaths at a hospice in New Orleans.

I would love to see a reconciliation when all is said and done of who could have been saved and who was most directly at fault in each case. That includes those that had the opportunity to leave and didn't in which case the blame would lie with themselves. I can tell that liberals are dying to pin the whole death toll directly on Presdient Bush. My brother-in-law perhaps unwittingly does it in this post, although he acknowledges that the President did the right thing in accepting responsibility for federal mistakes, whatever they may have been. We need to know how many deaths truly could have been prevented by a faster response from any of the levels of government.

L.A.: Report of Gator Capture Is Hoax

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Authorities on Tuesday dismissed a claim that a wrangler had nabbed a 7-foot-long alligator named ''Reggie'' from a city lake, where he had been dumped several months ago and repeatedly avoided capture.

Now how about a report on Ray Nagin's hoax when he said that 10,000 people died in New Orleans due to Katrina?

In New Orleans, Nagin upticked his estimate of the probable death toll in his city from merely thousands to telling NBC's "Today" show: "It wouldn't be unreasonable to have 10,000."

Just remember, you read about it here on this blog a week and a half ago.

How refreshing it is to see a European who dislikes the Democrats.

EU Trade Chief Chides "Protectionist" US Democrats

CNN is so liberal....How liberal is it? With their (probably) pre-packaged claim that Bush is letting his friends profit from post-Katrina contracts, they pick on an unusual target - The Shaw Group.

THE DEMOCRATS' KATRINA PROFITEER

But in their zeal to embarrass the Bush administration, CNN overlooks one very fat and inconvenient fact--and embarrasses only itself.

The Shaw Group, a multi-billion-dollar conglomerate, is headed by Jim Bernhard, the current chairman of the Louisiana Democratic Party. Bernhard worked tirelessly for Democrat Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco's runoff campaign and served as co-chair of her transition team. Another Shaw executive was Blanco's campaign manager. Bernhard is back-scratching chums with Blanco, whom he has lent/offered the Shaw Group's corporate jets to on numerous occasions.

Honestly, if any company employing anyone within six degrees of separation from Bush gets a contract, they're treated as criminals by the media.

Here's the CNN article in question - Firms with White House ties get Katrina contracts

What? You mean you don't remember the Clinton-era national disaster that caused at least 1000 deaths in 1995? OK, so I don't blame Clinton, but even so the post is very interesting history.

The "Chicago heat wave" killed more people than Hurricane Andrew, TWA Flight 800, the Oklahoma City bombing and the Northridge, CA earthquake, combined.

More here and here. "...One of the greatest and least-known American disasters in modern history."

Inexplicable - via Brendan Loy from the Washington Post.

"The only thing I can say to them is I hope they have a hotel room, and it's a least on the third floor and up," Nagin said [to tourists on Saturday before Katrina hit]. "Unfortunately, unless they can rent a car to get out of town, which I doubt they can at this point, they're probably in the position of riding the storm out."

In fact, while the last regularly scheduled train out of town had left a few hours earlier, Amtrak had decided to run a "dead-head" train that evening to move equipment out of the city. It was headed for high ground in Macomb, Miss., and it had room for several hundred passengers. "We offered the city the opportunity to take evacuees out of harm's way," said Amtrak spokesman Cliff Black. "The city declined."

So the ghost train left New Orleans at 8:30 p.m., with no passengers on board.

Advisers appointed by Tony Blair after the London bombings are proposing to scrap the Jewish Holocaust Memorial Day because it is regarded as offensive to Muslims.

After all, we wouldn't want to remind the Muslim community of the defeat of Hitler, one of their great friends of the 20th century.

Ibrahim Hewitt, chairman of the charity Interpal, said: “There are 500 Palestinian towns and villages that have been wiped out over the years. That’s pretty genocidal to me.”

Jewish Population 1939 - 16 million
Jewush Population 2005 - 14 million

My people are still trying to recover from the real geneocide in which the Arabs were willing accomplices.

Palestinian Population 1946 - 1 million +
Palestinian Population 2000 - 8 million

(Numbers from palestineremembered.com)

If the Israelis/Jews are trying to kill all the Palestinians, they're doing a piss poor job.

Best header I've ssen in a long time

The fetid aroma of hindsight by Michael Kinsley of the LA Times

Of course, my job isn't to predict and prepare for disasters. My job is to recriminate when they occur. It's not easy. These days the recriminations business is overrun with amateurs, who are squatting on all the high ground. The fetid aroma of hindsight is everywhere....

Obviously — obviously in hindsight, that is — we should have spent the money to strengthen the New Orleans levees. President Clinton should have done it. Presidents Bush the Elder and Reagan should have done it. As Tim Noah notes in Slate, warnings about the perilous New Orleans levees go back at least to Fanny Trollope in 1832. In fact, the one president who is pretty much in the clear on this is our current Bush — not because he did anything about the levees but because even if he had started something, it probably wouldn't have been finished yet.

"The most monumental and successful disaster relief operation in world history."

No shame

"We do not yet have teleporter or replicator technology like you saw on 'Star Trek' in college between hookah hits and waiting to pick up your worthless communications degree while the grown-ups actually engaged in the recovery effort were studying engineering.

"The United States military can wipe out the Taliban and the Iraqi Republican Guard far more swiftly than they can bring 3 million Swanson dinners to an underwater city through an area the size of Great Britain which has no power, no working ports or airports, and a devastated and impassable road network.

SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 VICTIMS

Luckily we have Jesse Jackson for comic relief. (Although many liberals less silly than he toe the same line).

Racism is partly to blame for the deadly aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said, calling President Bush's response to the disaster "incompetent"...

Jackson questioned why Bush has not named blacks to top positions in the federal response to the disaster, particularly when the majority of victims remaining stranded in New Orleans are black: "How can blacks be locked out of the leadership, and trapped in the suffering?"

"It is that lack of sensitivity and compassion that represents a kind of incompetence."

U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Russell Honore, head of the military task force overseeing operations in the three states, is black. His task force is providing search and rescue, medical help and sending supplies to the three states in support of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.



New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin calls Lt. Gen. Russel Honore a "John Wayne dude" who can "get some stuff done."

Mayor Nagin, an African-American himself, seems pleased with the choice of Lt. Gen. Honore. However, if you aren't aware of Mayor Nagin's part in the suffering of the poorest of the poor, this is a good start - Blame Amid the Tragedy

After reading this, even I am ready to join those calling for the head of FEMA.

You have got to be kidding me

Michelle Malkin finds another quote where Brown said that "as late as last Sunday he expected Katrina to be a 'standard hurricane' even though the National Weather Service in New Orleans was already predicting 'human suffering incredible by modern standards.'"

Brown's incompetence is incredible by modern standards. And yet Bush thinks he's doing "a heck of job." Jesus Christ.

I am still not convinced that a heck of a lot more could have been done on such short notice, expecially when local authorities (i.e., the mayor) didn't seem to take the hurricane seriously enough until the day before it hit. You can't just move rescue equipment into the path of a potential Category 5 hurricane, especially when the contraflow program was put into effect so that people could leave the city.

I have a gut feeling about the death toll from Katrina which I hope is right. I believe that state officials are greatly exaggerating the numbers (up to 10,000 plus).

I remember on 9/11 people throwing around numbers like this from Reuters:

Officials feared the death toll could climb into the thousands - perhaps tens of thousands - as 40,000 people alone worked in the steel and glass Trade Center towers and a nearby 47-story building, World Trade Center No. 7, which collapsed seven hours later after a raging fire.

I also imagine that the media was pretty much restricted to certain areas of New Orleans - a highway overpass, the Superdome, the Convention Center. They have no way of knowing what will be found in the rest of the city and theories like "dead people drowning in attics" has replaced actually fact-finding.

I bet (hope) the number turns up being less than a thousand (in New Orleans).

Factcheck.org looks into the "Bush cut flood protection funding, people died" argument.

Is Bush to Blame for New Orleans Flooding?

Our fact-checking confirms that Bush indeed cut funding for projects specifically designed to strengthen levees...however..the Army Corps of Engineers – which is under the President's command and has its own reputation to defend – insists that Katrina was just too strong, and that even if the levee project had been completed it was only designed to withstand a category 3 hurricane.

Also, I think that there's a general feeling that FEMA funding has been cut, slashed, gutted, etc. by Bush. I'll just direct you to the latest budget which shows actual numbers for 2004 and 2005 as well as the proposed budget for 2006.

This just confirms the fact that all state and local Democrats in Louisiana were helpless to save additional lives and that they themselves are above criticism.

Bush Faces Rising Complaints About Handling of Disaster

"Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, a Democrat, said today that she was so angry about federal failures and second-guessing that if she heard any more criticism of local efforts, even from the president, she might "punch" him."

Needless to say, the Senator will be on 60 Minutes tonight to blame the President for everything that went wrong.

How can there be any criticism after the heroic efforts of the New Orleans police?

Law Officers, Overwhelmed, Are Quitting the Force

The officer said he had also heard of an incident in which two men in a New Orleans police cruiser were stopped in Baton Rouge on suspicion of driving a stolen squad car. The men were, in fact, New Orleans officers who had ditched their uniforms and were trying to reach a town in north Louisiana, the officer said.

"They were doing everything to get out of New Orleans," he said. "They didn't have the resources to do the job, or a plan, so they left."

I don't even know what to make of this report:

NEW ORLEANS -- New Orleans Police Superintendent Edwin Compass said Saturday, " No police department in the history of the world was ever asked to do " what his department did in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. And, his officers fought bravely doing it.

Compass said his officers have endured firefights, slept on the streets, run low on water and ammunition, and lacked radio communications during the ordeal.

Compass told CNN that 1,300 of his 1,700 officers are accounted for, and not a single officer was lost in what he termed battle or combat.

The superintendent also said most of the people holed-up in the Superdome and the convention center were "great people." He said there was a "very small criminal element," not much different from what his force deals with daily.

Just saying....before every post-Katrina death, rape and robbery in New Orleans is blamed on ANYONE at any level of government.

From a CNN report on August 18, 2005. I think the headline should win an award for understatement of the year.

Murder Rate Up In The Big Easy

The city's murder rate is still far lower than a decade ago, when New Orleans was the country's murder capital. But in recent years, the city's homicide rate has climbed again to nearly 10 times the national average.

This city was the Wild West even before the hurricane, it's just no one seemed to care.

Anne Rice becomes the latest and perhaps most famous former New Orleans resident to blame literally everyone else in the country for what happened to her city.

Do You Know What It Means to Lose New Orleans?

And it's true: eventually, help did come. But how many times did Gov. Kathleen Blanco have to say that the situation was desperate? How many times did Mayor Ray Nagin have to call for aid? Why did America ask a city cherished by millions and excoriated by some, but ignored by no one, to fight for its own life for so long? That's my question......

But to my country I want to say this: During this crisis you failed us. You looked down on us; you dismissed our victims; you dismissed us. You want our Jazz Fest, you want our Mardi Gras, you want our cooking and our music. Then when you saw us in real trouble, when you saw a tiny minority preying on the weak among us, you called us "Sin City," and turned your backs.

Is there any way I can make sure that my donations and tax dollars to do not go to help rebuild her home? (And I've seen it - it was very nice).

I recently finished Thirteen and a Day : The Bar and Bat Mitzvah Across America by Mark Oppenheimer.

The author of the book attends and reports on bar-mitzvah customs of every type across America, from an Alaskan Chabad celebration to New York City Reform to Arkansas Jewish Renewal. For me, someone who just celebrated their "triple bar-mitzvah" at 39 years old, I didn't actually learn much new about how bar-mitzvahs are celebrated even though I've only been to maybe one or two in the last 25 years. What was interesting though is the reportage on the diverse ways that people practice Judaism and that regardless of their level of observance, the bar-mitzvah is one of the few ceremonies that ties us all together as Jews and keeps our traditions alive.

One custom which seems to be popular in my Conservative congregation is for the parents of the bar/bat-mitzvah to give a short speech with their child on the bimah in order to tell everyone how proud they are of their now not-so-little son/daughter. Personally I'd prefer not to do this when my daughters have their bat-mitzvahs in 2013 and 2016, but that's just me. It honestly makes me uncomfortable to see grown people set up to cry and it seems almost a glorification of self - I won't get into the pamphlets with the Glamour Shot of the bat-mitzvah girl that I recently saw distributed to the congregation. It's nice that the parents want to show their love for their child in public, but to me it's more of an emotional spectacle that belongs on Oprah or a reality TV show.

Tonight begins Rosh Chodesh Elul - the final month before the Yomim Noraim (the period from Rosh Hashana to Yom Kippur). But you knew that already - didn't you?

Elul - A Time to Reflect
The Month of Elul and Selichot
Rosh Chodesh Elul by Tony Bayfield
ABC's of Elul

If you had an important court date scheduled -- one that would determine your financial future, or even your very life -- you'd be sure to prepare for weeks beforehand.

On Rosh Hashana, each individual is judged on the merit of his deeds. Whether he will live out the year or not. Whether he will have financial success or ruin. Whether he will be healthy or ill. All of these are determined on Rosh Hashana.

Elul -- the month preceding Rosh Hashana -- begins a period of intensive introspection, of clarifying life's goals, and of coming closer to God. It is a time for realizing purpose in life -- rather than perfunctorily going through the motions of living by amassing money and seeking gratification. It is a time when we step back and look at ourselves critically and honestly, as Jews have from time immemorial, with the intention of improving.

There's an interesting article in The Jewish Press on the origin and decision-making process behind the "Prayer for the State of Israel" that is recited in many Jewish congregations.

Our Father in heaven, Protector and Redeemer of Israel, bless the State of Israel, the beginning of our redemption. Shield it beneath the wings of your love and spread Your canopy of peace upon it; send Your light and truth to its leaders, generals and advisors, and direct them with Your wise counsel. Strengthen the hand of the defenders of our holy land; grant them salvation; and crown them with the crown of victory. Bring peace to the land and permanent joy to its inhabitants. Remember our fellows Jews in the whole house of Israel throughout the diaspora. Speedily bring them to Zion, Your city, and Jerusalem, Your dwelling place, as it is written in the Torah of Moshe Your servant, “Even if you are dispersed in the farthest parts of the world, from there the Lord, your God, will gather you, from there He will take you. And the Lord, your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed and you shall posses it; and He will make you more prosperous and more numerous than your fathers.” Unite our hearts to love and respect Your Name and obey the words of Your Torah. Send us the descendant of David your righteous messiah to redeem those awaiting salvation. Enlighten with Your glory all the inhabitants of the world and let all who breathe proclaim: The Lord, God of Israel, is King, and He rules over all. Amen.

I know, I haven't posted much. First because I've been super-busy at work. Second because I've been too depressed about what's going on in New Orleans and I think everyone's said what needs to be said (and especially what doesn't need to be said).

I wish there was something more concrete I can do without either spending more time away from my family than I already do, but I guess I'll have to settle for donating money and maybe some food or clothes over the weekend. I imagine my local Jewish Family Serivces can use some help. My donations have gone to the American Red Cross generously matched by my employer, and United Jewish Communities.

Actually my wife is upset because we got a mailer through my kids' school on behalf of JFS saying that any donations of clothes must be NEW. I understand clean, but NEW?!?

I can't wait for my trip to Argentina next month so that I can spend my time explaining why I don't think President Bush is to blame for everything. All I'm going to tell them is to think about 9/11 and the recovery of New York. Who do they think of? Rudy Giuliani, the firefighters, the policemen, maybe even Governor Pataki if they were paying close attention. Bush got the credit for Iraq but not for New York. Now he's getting the blame for New Orleans and 95% of the country can't name the mayor of New Orleans and no one's seen the local police or fire chief on the air.
Hell, I've been paying attention and I can't remember the mayor's name..I just know he's the "pissed off" guy.

Probably the best picture of how local authorities screwed up is the parking lot full of city-owned school buses about a mile or two away from the Superdome that weren't used to evacuate people from the city. Oops!



If you think that much of the mayhem is due to the fact that much of the local National Guard is in Iraq, here is a response.

If you think that the fault is the federal government's failure to provide additional funds for the levees, here is a response from the Army Corps of Engineers.

I also detest anyone, especially leaders in the black community, playing the race card. You would think that every white person in the government was a secret Klansman. As I heard one person say, "blacks are angry and whites are embarrassed". Bullshit. Everyone should be angry and embarrassed.

I equally detest any right-wing loonies who say this was an act of God brought down against abortionists and gays.

As I also read somewhere, it's not that God acted AGAINST us, it's that we haven't been working WITH Him.

Finally, as ex-President Bill Clinton said the other day - "...You and I are not in a position to make any judgment because we weren't there."