Hope Floats.

There may be some hope, on the water. President Bush has awoken to his responsibilities:
"To the extent the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility," Bush said.

But it is already taking on water:
As for blunders in the federal response, "I'm not going to defend the process going in," Bush said. "I am going to defend the people saving lives."

I wonder if he will be attacking the process "going in" then. As far as the "people saving lives", are they really federal anyway and who is really attacking them?

Regardless, it is like thanking people for their "hard work" after you have made their work harder.

Not defending the process is just short of blaming it anyway, and not blaming the people that were not there still needs looking at. It seems like there is no shortage of fingers to go around.

QCON: What next?

I recently heard Bush discusssing the idea that there was some relaxation upon having "dodged a bullet"(of Hurricane Katrina) as he claims he heard it through the media, but acknowledges that they got it wrong and much had to be investigated without "blame gaming".

If he didn't use these words, his press representatives have, but regardless, the next step is not only investigating but making changes, but he also plans will be moving forward and has mentioned concerns about preparedness for biological attacks and we are also aware that there are being comparisons to September 11th. I could almost feel the words "mushroom clouds" coming soon to his lips after "dodging a bullet" and "biological attack".

Not that I am linking (with my links), Roberts to a "mushroom cloud" but now that I think about it...

[QCON: means Quick Comment On News or as Bush leaves us: Questioning while Conned]

A lot of Revisiting of 9/11

May we now turn the tide? Many have commemorated with new words, and I will only go back to my words in the first few hours until I digest the ones that revisit it today.

Here they are: September 11th, 2001

AMERICA UNDER ATTACK. BUT DEMOCRACY MUST BE PROTECTED.

The tragedy that has come to this nation on Sept. 11th, 2001 is nearly
unspeakable. It is an attack on our country but not on our democracy. While the tone of previous pieces may seem flippant, it would be a form of attack on our democracy to feel the hesitancy to criticize our government. To find and prosecute the people who are responsible would be justice. But if retaliation is justified in the name of a war on terrorism then we must wake up. War is already ongoing (freedom and lives are lost daily around the world) and we must be wary of visiting the same atrocities on others. Since collateral damage has been justified in war (wrongly or not), retaliation that includes hasty justice may be guilty of, if not also justifying the
same terrible deeds.

PART OF A DRAFT FOR AN INVESTIGATION

The flood of investigations that have not gone anywhere, call for new leadership at the top.

Short of that I recommend a bi-partsan team with full powers consisting of Jimmy Carter and Colin Powell.

Short of that the last hope is that congress do it's job and the press work even harder.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina it is clear that Congress needs to take seriously the role of the federal government in meeting the needs of its people. I am urging you as my representative in Washington to:

1. Fund the health care, housing, nutrition, employment and education needs of the victims of Hurricane Katrina;

2. abandon all plans to extend or grant additional tax breaks to wealthy individuals and corporations; and

3. abandon the budget reconciliation plan to cut health care and nutrition programs for low-income families.

I HAVE AMENDED THIS TO ADD MY OWN CONCERN REGARDING THE NOMINATION OF JUDGE ROBERTS:

From the Editorial in the September 19th issue of THE NATION
as summarized here:

1. His conflict of interest while interviewing for his nomination.

2. His claim he would recuse himself when it came to "conflict with his private religious views.

3. His participation in the Republican remake of federalism,

4. and the release of his Solicitor General papers when he was "detailed specifically to handle the most politically sensitive materials".

JUST POINT ONE(conflict of interest during the process) should disqualify Roberts.

And to go on:
POINT 2 (recusal should really be questioned in his confirmation process)
a. He already violated that principle.
b. He must delineat his views or caseS on which he would recuse himself in the future.

POINT 3 is counter indicative of the latter and confirmation of the former
while Point 4 is further documentation being hidden.

IF THESE ARE NOT EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES (Under the terms of the Judicial Compromise of the Gang of 14) that there are three unfinished inquiries that need further independence and progress, (Downing Street, Plame Outing and Phase II on the Use of Pre-War Intelligence) but now a fourth continuing disaster and fiasco that (Bush will investigate Brownies Heckuva Job at FEMA)...

THEN I GUESS AS SOMEONE PUT IT --
Hurricane Katrina was only a
"NEAR CATASTROPHE".

Back-Log August 20th, Political is the Process

(Letter send to local paper, not printed.)
Bush Agenda Needs More Attention, Not Sympathy

Your view that Cindy’s Sheehan’s grief fuels the anti-Bush agenda is not as controversial as the assessment that her name stands out due to "media attention" is obvious. Both of those are just the way things work. Less obvious probably is the media’s responsibility and congress is not far behind in blame. What is missing in your piece is the reason she is there now. That is that the president is using the deaths of our service men and women in Iraq for political purposes and linking them to a "noble cause".

If the media and congress would hold the president accountable for more than slogans we would likely not be in Iraq let alone be uncomfortable with his inability to face us or plan for success. Imagine that someone would use their grief to change things and imagine further that she gets support from sympathizers that are political as well as qualified. The supporters of the administration and our "struggle" could only hope for as much.

Catching Up with US.

OR WATERLOGGED (Cause and Effect/Accountability)

Just why is bureaucracy so at fault when Bush or whoever is in charge (he apparently has to investigate that) added to it by bringing FEMA under Homeland Security?

Homeland Security, and Bush, are more at fault than FEMA, unless blame is only trickle down. (For some it is the people's fault while they serve at the will of the president.)

No wonder New Orleans is flooded. For the sake of millions of bucks passed (NOT), we need billions of buckets to bail out the trickle down.

Maybe there is some sort of "rhetorical" balance in this administration. A linguistic "Tao" of sorts, or that sorts it out. Money is passed up, and "the buck" is passed down. Now I get the schizophrenic partnership between the pillars of the Republican party that are falling upon this country. Religion and the Almighty Dollar do not need to be so close or frictional, but it appears that the dollar to them is meant to rise while the moral burden is for the masses.

Wait. Is this only rhetoric? A metaphor may be more accurate. But rhetoric like money and religion are just words that need to be given meaning by how they are connected to the living and dying. And before I waste more words, I will just say that the bureaucracy is a key in providing the connections to more than just two factors.

The blame does not go to religion, money or bureaucracy which will and must change, but the actors that need to change. The PROCESS must be a two way street of ACCOUNTABILITY between many factors, rather than just the high road and the low road of survival of the "fittest" or we will continue to revolve rather than evolve.

If there is "intelligent design" it may be that I could not make any PROGRESS with a pun about removing the R and replacing the D to improve our evolution. But it also may show the "cause and effect" which is ACCOUNTABILITY that neither party nor people can escape

Now we have come full circle: He trusts the people, not the government, and now everything is on them.

Back-Log August 19th, ("religious ghetto")

(Letter sent to local paper, unprinted.)
MEDVED'S NEIGHBORHOOD ALREADY TESTED!Michael

Medved sees a "religious ghetto" where "intelligent design" is not allowed to be taught as a science. If Lance Dickie actually wrote that any "questions never come up in science class", then he was wrong. That criticism aside I would suggest that Medved is confused about the difference between questions and the rest of the discipline of science. It is demonstrated by his most relevant and telling comment that "literally hundreds of academics have endorsed questions and research at the heart of intelligent design."

Questions and research are at the heart of science as well, but it is in the conclusions and their testing which education deals with. In this Medved fails or refuses to face any "global test". He claims that "it’s Darwinist fundamentalists who want to ban any challenge to evolution." His conclusion fails because evolution and science are always about being tested, while "intelligent design" is expecting a pass to be taught as science despite it being an un-testable conclusion let alone a preemptive answer.

Imagine the "ghetto" that science would be if only having more questions was what qualified one for the field, let alone allowed them to be taught. In fact we don’t have to imagine the world if education was only ongoing questions and we are facing that test, and its failure in the real world.

If any exception proves the rule, it is probably only through the generosity of some and the theft by others that we have not seen more evolution, let alone ghettos.

I'm Bushed

and a little similar in not wanting or having to read the full thing to get the gist of it. But as I pick and choose (or scan as I am not Evelyn Wood) I do seem to hit on just more of the same I already have noted.

I'm not sure I have posted it here, but do not bet on it not getting worse for some must may know it. Actually I am certain I did not post it anywhere (as such) as I made a mid-sentence course correction. Another thing Bush does but which still does not let us know where he means to go.

The above was taking the blame for maybe not reading before I rant, but then before it's "there he goes again", me or him, we must start being accountable for holding someone accountable and it may take more than more investigations, but an independent (ha!), no partisan look at everything that gets to the President.

Are We "IN" Yet?

Can you hear me now?

Are we there yet?

Or is there more of the same? ("catastrophic success"}

The president's problems are "IN", and if it is only a choice of black or white, us or them, they must be either INcompetence * or INtentional! Is a third option there?
Oh yeah, stay the course and look back later, and when we have more to face, stay the course and look back later.

* * Why New Orleans is in deep water.[by Molly Ivans]

[My personal note] is that we really need someone to simultaneously kick butt and filter the memos or whatever is not being read to the Captain or whoever is in charge. Meanwhile if we cannot point fingers and fix things at the same time, how can we hurry into a decision on a Supreme Court Associate Justice now Chief Justice nominee? How can we depend on due diligence in that decision while we find so few holding the President accountable? All I am saying is that given the president's catastrophic successes do we really have confidence in his ability let alone meaning in making any decisions?

The President

Helps bring out the best in America!
NOTE: Alternet Link but the concept came from the Bush video below. Something about "diversity" and facing it or the bulk of it. More like putting a spin on pain or is that a smirk on the face of it. Note: this editors note obviously became more, see next post or rather ABOVE "PERSONAL NOTE".