AddieStan

It has been a very long time since your blogstress last occupied her own breakaway republic; would that she could tell you why. Oh sure, she’s been mighty busy, doing the things one might expect a blogstress to be doing--singing torch songs, shopping for lingerie and watching C-SPAN, with box of bon-bons at hand. Yet, instead of turning her taunting wit to the plethora of scandal and perdition now gripping Our Nation’s Capitol and all in its realm, your cybertrix finds herself adrift in a sea of listlessness, barely able to raise her well-manicured middle finger in the direction of the White House. In short, your Webwench is consumed by--for lack of a better term--outrage fatigue. So shamelessly consistent are the thieving hucksters who control the executive and legislative branches of our superior form of government that, with each successive outrage--say, the revocation of food stamps from several hundred thousand single-parent families even as Congress stands poised to give Americ...

And so, as the New York Times predicted last night, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, chief of staff to the vice president of the United States, has been indicted on perjury and obstruction of justice charges. As they've been doing for the last week, Republican wags can be expected to characterize those charges as no big deal .

Now that the right has been served its pound of flesh, its leaders seem to have only the nicest things to say about Harriet Miers. And they're oh, so willing to be helpful to the president as he sets about choosing (with Ms. Miers' help?) his next nominee to replace Sandra Day O'Connor on the high court. Here's today's missive from Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council : Rebound, Retrench and Rally Harriet Miers graceful withdrawal of her candidacy for the Supreme Court speaks well of her loyalty and her wisdom--no mean traits. She has generously given the President a second golden opportunity to restore the historic and vital role of the Supreme Court. The President campaigned on the promise to appoint justices in the mold of Scalia and Thomas. He won the 2000 and 2004 elections on the strength of that promise. He and his party's candidates won back control of the U.S. Senate in 2002 by appealing for an end to liberal obstructionism on the confirmation...

And so it has come to pass that, as your blogstress predicted last Saturday , the White House has put the kaibosh on Harriet Meirs's nomination to the Supreme Court. Perhaps this fine piece filed yesterday by the New York Times 's David Kirkpatrick was the last straw. His opening and closing paragraphs say it all. Most telling is his interaction with the very conservative Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions. LEAD: The drumbeat of doubt from Republican senators over the Supreme Court nomination of Harriet E. Miers grew louder Tuesday as several lawmakers, including a pivotal conservative on the Judiciary Committee, joined those expressing concerns about her selection. CLOSE: Asked if the debate had become "one-sided," with too few defending Ms. Miers, Senator Sessions, the Alabama Republican, struggled for words, then pushed a button for a nearby elevator in the Capitol building and told an aide, "Get me out of here."

From the Fabulous Frankie G. (your blogstress's partner in musical crimes), comes this biting question: With legal tribulations looming for the administration, just how long will we have to wait before a "code orange" terrorist threat? Tomorrow? Today? Counting... 1 2 3 4 ... Now, the Fab F may be a bit mad (as good musicians are), but that doesn't mean he isn't right. Check out Keith Olbermann's chronology of the mysterious coincidences of bad news for the administration and elevated terror alerts.

Indictments to come down tomorrow, says Steve Clemons of The Washington Note . It would be a sight for sore eyes, that of Vice President Dick Cheney in an orange jumpsuit. Yes, your blogstress knows she is speculating wildly (as she does all things), tantalized as she is by today's New York Times front-pager (by David Johnston, Richard W. Stevenson And Douglas Jehl) that tells of how Scooter Libby learned that Joe Wilson's wife worked for the Agency: he learned it from his boss, the vice president of the United States. Notes of the previously undisclosed conversation between Mr. Libby and Mr. Cheney on June 12, 2003, appear to differ from Mr. Libby's testimony to a federal grand jury that he initially learned about the C.I.A. officer, Valerie Wilson, from journalists, the lawyers said. The notes, taken by Mr. Libby during the conversation, for the first time place Mr. Cheney in the middle of an effort by the White House to learn about Ms. Wilson's husband, Joseph C. ...

If you've found your blogstress to be negligent on the subject of the New York Times ' infamous reporter, Judith Miller, your blogstress herein offers her mea culpa , accompanied by a fascinating take on the unholy mess by William Powers of the National Journal . In this week's column (you really should be reading him weekly, dear reader), Powers draws a strong analogy between how the Roman Catholic Church has addressed its pedophilic priests problem and how the Times is addressing its problem with journalists who lie (and the editors who let them): Think about it. A powerful institution of enormous prestige and global importance, one that has unusual sway over our collective life, turns out to have troublesome elements in its ranks, some of them downright corrupt. The story has been dribbling out for years in small isolated cases, but it blows open when a member of the priesthood is revealed to be a serial abuser of the truth. Click here to read the complete piece Power...

Here in Our Nation's Capital, people who believe themselves to be in the know have already declared dead in the water the Supreme Court nomination of Harriet Miers. Today's revelations of her support for affirmative action have surely done her in on the right, while the do-over demanded by senators on the Judiciary Committee of the committee's questionnaire has pretty much finished her off for everybody else. (Her answers were described as "insulting" and "incomplete".) At your blogstress's Oppo Factory, a mere saunter from the Great Temple of the High Court, visitors wonder aloud at the truly bizarre trajectory of this nomination. Your cybertrix, you'll recall, was the first to pronounce Ms. Miers too much of a hack to merit a nomination. (Three days later, The New Republic designated Miers as the Number One Hack in what it called the Bush Administration Hackocracy .) The far right had their own issues with Miers, of course: she is a woma...

This past weekend, your blogstress had the great good fortune to be interviewed by Mary Glenney of The Women's Show at WMNF, an excellent public radio station in Tampa, Florida, on the subject of Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers. Glenney proved to be one of the most informed interviewers your cybertrix has run across, and managed even to stump your oh-so-astute Webwench once or twice. To hear the sound of two broads dishing on one who might have once been of our kind, click here and go to the item labeled "October 8, 2005." The segment featuring your écrivaine begins at around 13:05, though if you check in around 09:55, you'll be treated to Lizz Wright 's delicious cover of Neil Young's "Old Man".

A delicious item has met your blogstress's eye, courtesy of the Family Research Council (FRC) e-mail list. Apparently FRC President Tony Perkins has the same reading habits as your cybertrix. (You'll remember FRC as the folks who brought us Justice Sunday .) Today we find him citing Lou Chibarro's piece in the Washington Blade --the one excerpted here yesterday in which Lou scooped the mainstream media on Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers' interaction with a gay and lesbian group during her run for Dallas City Council. Perkins is most concerned, it seems, about the fact that, per the Blade 's report, Louise Young of the Lesbian/Gay Political Coalition of Dallas, said of Miers, "She was not hostile [to gay and lesbian people]..." Herewith, the Perkins missive : Second (Day) Thoughts President Bush has earned a substantial measure of trust and confidence from pro-life, pro-family Americans. He has shown every indication that he understands the crucial ...

Kudos to you, Lou Chibarro, Jr. , cries your blogstress, for scooping the mainstream media with his report on Harriet Miers' views, discerned through her interaction with a Dallas gay group during her successful 1989 run for Dallas City Council. Chibarro is the veteran reporter at the Washington Blade . In his discussions with members of the Lesbian/Gay Political Coalition of Dallas, Chibarro learned that (in 1989, at least), Miers was anti-choice and opposed a repeal of the Texas sodomy law that targeted homosexuals. He also learned, however, that she had appointed a prominent out, gay attorney to a city board, and otherwise supported nondiscrimination against gay and lesbian people. Here's Lou: White House Counsel Harriet Miers, President Bush’s latest nominee for a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court, met with members of a gay rights group during her successful campaign for a seat on the Dallas City Council in 1989 and later appointed a prominent gay attorney to a city board t...

Finding herself perplexed over her failure to flog her latest piece , published yesterday by The American Prospect Online, your blogstress now gently calls her readers' attention to her scintillating argument as to why Democratic senators need to show a bit more moxie on the Miers nomination than they displayed at the Roberts hearings.

Your blogstress opened her e-mail this morning to discover a missive from her friends at the Family Research Council (FRC)--the folks who brought us Justice Sunday --with the subject line, "Wait and See." The object of all that waiting and seeing is, of course, Harriet Miers, President Bush's pick to fill the shoes of Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court. It appears that, so far, on this one, the right is more jittery than the left, though your cybertrix would advise her progressive pals to be less reticent. It seems that Ms. Miers' nod to the right in her acceptance remarks--that bit about the majesty of the legislative branch--did little to appease the wing-nuts. Here's the text of today's missive from FRC President Tony Perkins: President Bush's announced this morning that White House counsel Harriet Miers is his nominee for the Supreme Court. President Bush has long made it clear that his choices for the U.S. Supreme Court would be in the mol...

Your blogstress does not recall having ever heard a more political acceptance speech for a Supreme Court nominee than we heard today from politician Harriet Miers. Her comment regarding her "appreciation for the role of the legislative branch" was hardly a subtle signal to the president's right flank that she's on the same page with the Justice Sunday crowd, who would like to get the Supreme Court out of the constitutional interpretation business once and for all. Here's the money question for Harriet Miers in her confirmation hearing: Do you believe that Marbury v. Madison--the landmark 19th-century case that determined the court's obligation to interpret the Constitution--was correctly decided?

As an occasional propagandist, your blogstress wincingly questions the president's choice of White House Counsel Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court. (Your Webwench, however, has not been named to the Supreme Court, despite her womanly wisdom. Alas, no bustier will lurk under the High Court's black robes--at least as far as we know--right, Nino?). With no judicial experience to recommend her, journos and pontificators have only Ms. Miers's political record to regard in assessing her qualifications for the high court, and it bodes not well so far--unless one is comfortable with a spin doctor on the Big Bench. Here's Miers in an online discussion on WhiteHouse.gov , almost a year ago, back when Miers was President Bush's Deputy Chief of Staff for Domestic Policy: James, from Mountain View, CA writes: Are we better off now than we were four years ago? Harriet Miers: Thanks, James, this is a very good question, and I am pleased to give you my views. What we did not kn...

And so it has come to pass that John Roberts, a charming, accomplished man whose interpretation of the U.S. Constitution defers to the desires of those in authority, has been confirmed Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. The vote was 78-22. Among the senators who just voted against Judge Roberts, your blogstress especially wishes to commend Evan Bayh, who hails from the virtually red state of Indiana, where his vote is unlikely to be viewed with tolerance. Also due kudos for their nay votes are Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) and Senator Dianne Feinstein (Calif.). Given his strong anti-choice stance, your cybertrix found the Reid vote to be a bit of a surprise. Due a lashing (and not that good kind) by your Webwench are, first and foremost, Senator Patrick Leahy (Vt.) of the Judiciary Committee, and both of Connecticut's senators, who all, evincing a waning of certain hormones, voted yes to a Justice Roberts. Lieberman, well, what did your écrivaine expe...

On the heels of Brownie's clueless, blame-laying testimony yesterday before Congress (just as we learned he was still on FEMA's payroll) comes the delicious indictment of one Hammer that seems not to be hangin' so happily this morning. But before liberals commence their happy dance, it behooves us to issue a warning to our own representatives on the Hill, for your blogstress has, alas, too little confidence in the Democrats' ability to use these latest Republican setbacks to their own advantage. Though, combined with the administration's callous and inept response to Hurricane Katrina, the indictment of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay should guarantee a Democratic takeback of Congress next year, your Webwench cautions her readers against underestimating the Democrats' lack of political fortitude and competence in embracing the Force, even when it is with them. Given the current set of political dynamics (Republicans revealed--in detailed relief--as the corrup...

This Saturday evening, Washingtonians (and visitors to our fair city) can catch the incomparable J. Scales doin' her thang at the big annual hoo-ha of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). Joined by a group of smokin' hot women--including the agile Genny Jam --J will be plucking the bass strings to a tasty mix of jazz, rock, neo-soul and more. (Stick a dollah in her G-string, and ya might get her to sing--a rare treat.) Details found here. (Click!)

Louisiana's new boom town, state capital Baton Rouge, emerged from the winds and rains of Hurricane Rita without loss of life, though plenty of (tree) limbs lay at Rita's feet. You'll recall your blogstress's fears for the survivors of Katrina should Baton Rouge take a bad hit, as the Red Stick is now the staging area for virtually all the hurricane relief efforts taking place in Louisiana. Click here for a report from the Baton Rouge Advocate by Mark Bonner, Vicki Ferstel, David Mitchell and Jessica Fender.

2005 © Adele M. Stan for AFGE Inside the Red Cross staging facility in Baton Rouge. WASHINGTON, D.C.--Having recently returned from a whirlwind tour of southeastern Louisiana in its post-Katrina state, your blogstress has found it difficult to put words to the sights and smells she encountered there, and tonight proves no exception. What your écrivaine can speak of tonight is her anxiety--not a state to which she readily admits--in examining the track of Hurricane Rita and finding Baton Rouge in its path. Though not expected to take the brunt of it, Baton Rouge is expected to receive torrents of rain. What distinguishes the forecast for Baton Rouge from the more dire ones given the coastal cities? Baton Rouge is THE staging ground for relief efforts for the survivors of Hurricane Katrina. Red Cross operations are centralized there in a giant Wal-Mart warehouse. Most of the Border Patrol and CBP officers who serve as law enforcement for New Orleans sleep in Baton Rouge at night, in acc...

2005 © Adele M. Stan for AFGE Canal Street in New Orleans NEW ORLEANS, LA--Your blogstress wishes that she didn't have all manner of reports to file for her pesky day job, but she promises her readers that she does indeed have tales to tell. There's no cliche that can possibly describe all the things New Orleans is now. It remains, as always, an exceptional and surreal place. Only now, not in that good way. It's an empty city policed by troops of men in fatigues and hired guns in Blackwater caps. It smells like every bad smell you've ever encountered, all rolled up in one. There is no music right now.

From the incomparable J. Scales comes word of the deliverance of the members of two outstanding New Orleans bands: Zion Trinity and Mother Tongue . The members of both groups, however, have lost nearly everything, and need the help of fellow musicians and music-lovers to make it to the next phase of their recovery. To assist to Zion Trinity, buy their CD , "Eyes on Zion" (featuring the incomparable J. Scales on bass), and/or send donations to: ZION Trinity c/o Melody Friday 2258 Wild Turkey Court Decatur, GA 30035 To help their colleagues in Mother Tongue (Dorise Blackmon, Michaela Harrison, and Tanya), send your contribution to: Fundraiser for Dorise, Michaela, and Tanya c/o E. Christi Cunningham 1335 Jefferson St. NW Washington, D.C. 20011 Click here to purchase Mother Tongue's CD. From a member of Zion Trinity: September 3, 2005 Andaiye [made contact] today after many days of concern and prayer....she's dry and still at her home at 1555 Gentilly in New Orleans....

Your blogstress’s new friend, Wilson Kolb of Seattle, has begun a blog, WillieSnout , chronicling his experience “adopting” a married couple who evacuated New Orleans. Here’s Wilson: This article by Dr. Red Head really hit home. I am here in Seattle and as of last Friday I am one of those well-meaning people who has paid the rent on an apartment for a displaced family of fellow Americans made homeless by the storm. Even before reading her article I had been thinking about the issues Doc Redhead raised and, boy, could I ever use some practical ideas. Meantime, I'm making it up as I go along, and am hoping that a lot of caring and some common sense will get us through. This is a family of five who made it up here in their car. I only met two of them, a husband and wife who I'd say are in their mid-40s. I had learned about them through an article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer , and met them at the Central Area Motivation Project (CAMP), which specializes in helping low-income...

Your blogstress asks her readers' forbearance in chaotic times. A family emergency and frenetic activity at her pesky day job have interfered with your ecrivaine 's blogging, and in the interim, she has received many interesting pieces from readers that she has yet to post. Don't give up on the cybertrix--not you, Leigh, nor Wilson Kolb nor the incomparable J. Scales . Your net-tete will do yas right--really. Tomorrow, your Webwench departs for Baton Rouge. Posting may be sporadic.

Well, here’s one way that his administration’s abject failure--its criminal negligence--in its lack of response to the nation’s most devastating disaster is working for it: the president promises that the next time disaster strikes, the federal government will simply take over, with a “much greater role for the armed forces.”

While the president focused his speech on what needs to happen to rebuild the Gulf Coast, he said precious little about the disaspora of Louisianans and Mississippians now dispersed throught the lower 48. Today, the city of Dallas announced it was sick of waiting for the feds to deal with the thousands of evacuees they’re housing in a convention center and an arena, so they’re raising money from private sources to get these folks situated in Dallas apartments. Is it fair to leave this massive undertaking to the efforts of a municipal government? Is it smart? How long before the people of the suburbs and the inner cities begin to resent the newcomers?

Okay, your cybertrix is calming down a bit--at least enough to grock that the president has pledged a lot of dollars and efforts to rebuilding lives and real estate in the Gulf Coast region. Amen to that. And he has admitted that discrimination causes poverty (though he did seem to imply that it was the discrimination of the bad old days that caused the poverty endemic among African-Americans in the South), not that it exists today, n'est-ce pas ?

Your blogstress is willing to bet that George W. Bush wouldn't know John Coltrane from Gary Coleman. Hence her outrage at the closing lines of the president's speech tonight. Invoking the funerals given for jazz musicians in New Orleans, he spoke condescendingly of the joyful strains played by the living on their return from the cemetary--after playing a mournful dirge on the walk between church and grave. New Orleans is still in the dirge phase, he said, but the joy is just around the corner. Yeah, right.

“This is an unprecedented response to an unprecedented disaster,” so the president just said in his address to the nation on the disaster called Katrina. He cited a litiany of efforts and supplies, measured in tons and dollars and numbers of staff, to demonstrate the breadth of his administration’s response. It is actually amazing that he is touting his response without apology up top, without recognition of his failure.

With the nation drowning in the endless tale of Katrina, the disaster that didn't have to happen, it's easy to forget that the Senate is presently going through the motions of advising the president on his pick for Supreme Court Chief Justice. Herewith, your blogstress's latest opinionating at The American Prospect Online on that very subject.

From your blogstress's favorite pen-pal, Studley Do-Right at Delusional Duck , comes this little gem : Commanders Ordered Not To Fire Gays Until War's End Santa Barbara, California--Scholars studying military personnel policy have discovered a document halting the discharge of gay soldiers in units that are about to be mobilized. source: Gay.com

From your blogstress's homegirl radio station in Newark, New Jersey, comes this story on the Web site of WBGO-FM , perhaps the best jazz station in the world: Dr. Critty Hymes has been a staff physician with the Charity Hospital in New Orleans for the past 27 years. She evacuated the city early Sunday morning just before the storm hit. From a family members home in Houston she watched in horror as her home town filled with water and thousands of people were left to fend for themselves. "I know a lot of these people were my patients from Charity Hospital." As soon as evacuees were bused to the Astrodome, she went with her medical credentials to volunteer and was stunned to be turned away at the door. "I'm a doctor. I have 27 years of experence in OBGYN and all I wanted to do was help." After visiting the Red Cross, entering her name and credientials on an internet medical volunteer database and getting a call from officials at the Astrodome , she has yet to b...

Media hit by grain of truth. Thanks to St. Jacques du Fenway for sending along the image, and to the chiron tech who wrote the screen caption for Sky News. If you can't see the image, right-click your mouse and click "Show picture."

From your blogstress's dear friend, Spirit Guide, comes this first-hand account from a clinical psychologist who has been working as a volunteer with evacuees housed in the Dallas Reunion Arena and the Dallas Civic Center. Until permission is received to call her by name, she will be known on this site as "Dr. Red Head". Your écrivaine here posts only snippets of her missive, so long and harrowing it is to read in its entirety. For the whole account, click here . Among the most mortifying aspects of Dr. Red Head's story is her tale of jockeying for position among medical professional assigned to work with the evacuees: Turf wars have already sprung up. In the name of "I know better than you do," chaos and wasted energy are multiplying. The Red Cross was initially in charge of certifying the credentials of the helping therapists. After Oklahoma City and the pretenders who arrived there, this seemed like a wonderful clearing house. Everyone who wanted to hel...

Among the many inexplicable hold-ups, tie-ups, and frig-ups committed by incompetent government responding to Hurricane Katrina comes this report, as shown on Tuesday's Countdown with Keith Olbermann , from NBC's Lisa Myers, on the contribution of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to the boondoggled evacuation of New Orleans. MYERS: One huge bottleneck in the evacuation, the New Orleans Airport. (on camera): Officials say flights were delayed while screeners and air marshals were flown in to comply with post-9/11 security requirements and then further delayed because screening machines were not working. Finally, someone at Homeland Security signed an order to allow evacuees to be screened by hand. What makes this all the more remarkable is the decision, made just a week or so before the storm, to change TSA guidelines to allow a range of small weaponry aboard passenger aircraft. In the Washington Post , Sarah Kehaulani Goo reported : An agency panel has reco...

Short of the knock-knock jokes told by a brilliant five-year-old who goes by the handle, Fire Dragon, your cybertrix's favorite form of funny is the ubiquitous light bulb joke. From our friend Bassman, via the Fabulous Frankie G. (your blogstress's partner in musical crimes), comes this latest shot 'round the internet: How many members of the Bush administration does it take to change a light bulb? > > 1. One to deny that a light bulb needs to be changed > > 2. One to attack the patriotism of anyone who says the light bulb > needs to be changed > > 3. One to blame Clinton for burning out the light bulb > > 4. One to arrange the invasion of a country rumored to have a secret stockpile of light bulbs > > 5. One to give a billion dollar, no-bid contract to Halliburton for > the new light bulb > > 6. One to arrange a photograph of Bush, dressed as a janitor, > standing on a step ladder under the banner: Light Bulb Change ...

From the Fabulous Frankie G., your blogstress's partner in musical crimes, comes this thought: The great state of Texas; The land of MILLIONS and MILLIONS of acres of luxury "ranchions" (ranch-mansions), and they cannot take in any more refugees from Louisiana. Perhaps they're thinking, who needs African-Americans when you've got Mexicans (who work much more cheaply)?

Yes, there is more going on in the world than the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, but your blogstress finds it difficult to focus on anything else, for nothing illustrates the dire straits in which the whole nation finds itself better than the administration's callous and craven response to this disaster. As the water recedes, along with the bodies of New Orleans' beloved, perhaps the American people will find themselves staring the corpse of their own republic in the face. Note to the American people: This is not your country. It belongs to to the corporations and their largest shareholders. You pay the freight for the pleasure of living under their hand. And the saddest part of all this? This is still one of the best places to live on earth. So imagine the hell lived by far too many of the earth's people, all for the beast's feeding pleasure. In today's Washington Post , we find an amazing piece by Elizabeth Williamson that tells of aid offers ignored by th...

WASHINGTON, D.C.--If anyone had any doubt of the deep corruption and criminality of the Bush administration, your blogstress suggests that the reader consider this series of news stories in combination: Red Cross Turned Away from New Orleans FEMA turns back water trucks, diesel fuel; cuts emergency communications lines, says Jefferson Parish president Halliburton gets Katrina contract, hires former FEMA director Houston Finds Business Boon After Katrina Brown pushed from last job: Horse group: FEMA chief had to be `asked to resign' Via Evan Derkacz at AlterNet’s blogs , we learn of the American Red Cross being turned away from the devastated birthplace of jazz, a city awash in bodies, water-borne disease and stranded people still clinging to life. Here, direct from the Red Cross’s own Web site, we find this under the headline, Hurricane Katrina: Why is the Red Cross not in New Orleans? * Access to New Orleans is controlled by the National Guard and local authorities and while we ...

The incomparable J. Scales reports that Andaiye of the New Orleans singing group, Zion Trinity, has been found--safe and sound so far.

WESTFIELD, N.J.--Tonight as your blogstress ponders news of the death of William Rehnquist, chief justice of the Supreme Court, she finds it difficult to avoid stumbling on the possibility that the apocalypse may just be at hand. On the heels of the destruction of the Gulf Coast and the administration's callous response--or virtual lack thereof--the political dynamic is itself one of chaotic and unpredictable outcomes. The currents are swirling against each other, and who knows what may emerge from the chiascoros. The incomparable J. Scales writes of a musician friend still stranded in her New Orleans home, awaiting rescue. Her name is Andaiye, member of Zion Trinity , to which J. has lent her trademark basslines. J. is still awaiting word of another member of the group. Your Webwench's new friend, Mr. Furley, has recommended some somber listening that has now become your écrivaine 's soundtrack for this challenging time--two tracks by Bob Marley: "Natural Mystic...

Via DavidCorn.com we learn of possible collusion between Bush's FEMA and the religious right: The website sploid.com noticed that FEMA (which has been decimated by the Bush administration) has been directing concerned Americans to make Hurricane Katrina relief donations to Pat Robertson's Operation Blessing. At one point, Robertson's outfit was listed second on a list of suggested recipients, right under the Red Cross. I doubt Hugo Chavez will be clicking on that link. And maybe if the Mafia sets up a relief organization, FEMA will endorse it as well.

For those of her readers perplexed by the slow response of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to the disaster on the Gulf Coast, your blogstress suggests a look at a prescient piece of journalism done nearly a year ago by Jon Elliston in the Orlando Weekly. In his article, Disaster in the Making , Elliston reported: [L]ong before this hurricane season, some emergency managers inside and outside of government started sounding an alarm that still rings loudly. Bush administration policy changes and budget cuts, they say, are sapping FEMA's long-term ability to cushion the blow of hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, tornados, wildfires and other natural disasters. Among emergency specialists, "mitigation" – measures taken in advance to minimize damage caused by natural disasters – is a crucial part of the strategy to save lives and cut recovery costs. But since 2001, key federal disaster mitigation programs, developed over many years, have been slashed and tossed a...

Although there is no shortage of Bush administraton shenanigans on which to report, your blogstress finds it impossible to do in the wake of Katrina's gruesome destruction of the birthplace of jazz. Jazz is not just a form of music, it's a kind of people--of which the people of New Orleans are the progenitor. People descended from a blend of Yoruban Africans and American Indians--with a dash of French European--gave us our national classical music, however neglected and unappreciated by its nation it may be. Today those people are drowning in the neglect of a government that looked away from their imminent doom, just as it has turned its back on nurturing the art form their ancestors gave us. Shame on us--all of us. And let the dirge begin.

Your blogstress was much amused to find yet another reference to her American Prospect piece on John Roberts , this time by the eminent scholar George Weigel on a Web site called Tidings. Weigel writes: Shortly after Judge Roberts' nomination, President Bush was accused of "playing the Catholic card" in an opinion piece widely circulated in the blogosphere. "Playing the Catholic card" is, to be frank, either a vulgar appeal to ancient prejudices or code-language for "someone who can't be trusted to take Planned Parenthood's position on abortion." Well, Mr. Weigel, if you're going to bandy about accusations of vulgarity, it is only fair to credit the blogstress with her craft. Another curiosity of Weigel's piece, written in the form of "An open letter to Patrick Leahy" (the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee), is his apparent lifting of central argument from a press statement issued by the far less eloquent Wil...

While your blogstress was dallying in her summer doldrums, all manner of remarkable developments have occurred without her sage comment. Truth be told, your Webwench seems to be suffering some form of outrage fatigue. Happenings which, under any other administration but Bush II, would have elicited great hue and cry, are met with a wimper by your cybertrix, who has been known to mutter, "Well, that's just what they do." How else to explain the failure of your net-tête to note, last week, the reported firing of a career employee of the Justice Department for daring to challenge the demands of higher-ups to downplay a study that revealed aggressive police tactics used against black and latino drivers? Here, the New York Times ' Eric Licthblau reports : The demotion of the official, Lawrence A. Greenfeld, whom President Bush named in 2001 to lead the Bureau of Justice Statistics, caps more than three years of simmering tensions over charges of political interference a...

Your blogstress is, admittedly, a few days late bringing the latest antics of her co-religionists on the right to her readers' attention. From your Webwench's dear friend, St. Jacques du Fenway, we learn of an attack by right-wing Catholics on faculty at Catholic Colleges who appear not to be toeing the line. On Wednesday, Ralph Ranalli and Michael Kranish of the Boston Globe wrote: A conservative Catholic group billing itself as a "movement to rescue Catholic higher education" has called for the ouster of three Boston College professors who it says supported removing the feeding tube of Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman whose parents fought to keep her alive. A spokesman for Boston College, Jack Dunn, issued a statement criticizing the group, saying, ''The publicity-seeking rhetoric and unfounded accusations of the Cardinal Newman Society are a disservice to Catholic colleges and universities and the church that they proudly serve." From...

From your blogstress' new friend, Caesarshead, comes this: Subj: Revelation: Put it on a bumper sticker Jesus is a Liberal Actually, La Tête du Caesar has a point. Jesus counted women among his disciples, never said a word against homosexuality and intervened against the death penalty (stoning of the adulteress)--not to mention all of that stuff about the poor.

Just up on The American Prospect Online is your blogstress' latest take on last weekend's right-wing hatefest, Justice Sunday II. Here, your cybertrix calls on Democrats to craft a bill for a constitutional amendment that would create an explicit right to privacy. How fun it would be to watch righties vote "no" on what the American people think is a God-given right.

NASHVILLE, TENN.—-The discipline was dazzling--everybody on the same page. The usual rhetoric was deployed--the railing against "activist judges," waxings on the "originial intent" of the Constitution’s framers; abortion defined as baby-killing; the horror of "homosexual sodomy." It was a typical assemblage of speakers for a right-wing confab: 10 men, 2 women, all but one of them white. As usual, a couple of right-wing Catholics made common cause with right-wing Protestant evangelicals. Yet, for all that, this second incarnation of the Family Research Council’s second "Justice Sunday" simulcast fell a bit flat. Perhaps it was the lack of zealous enthusiasm for the nomination of John Roberts to the Supreme Court, most probably due to the revelation that, while in private practice, Judge Roberts did pro bono work on behalf of gay rights activists who ultimately prevailed in overturning an anti-gay Colorado statute passed through referendum, a...