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Compassionate conservatism, my ass:
U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon said the Federal Emergency Management Agency created a "Kafkaesque" process that began cutting off rental aid in February to victims of the 2005 storms, did not provide clear reasons for the denials, and hindered applicants' due-process rights to fix errors or appeal government mistakes."It is unfortunate, if not incredible, that FEMA and its counsel could not devise a sufficient notice system to spare these beleaguered evacuees the added burden of federal litigation to vindicate their constitutional rights," Leon, a D.C. federal judge, wrote in a 19-page opinion.
"Free these evacuees from the 'Kafkaesque' application process they have had to endure," he wrote.
The decision again casts a spotlight on the fate of the poorest members of the diaspora created by the 2005 disasters in New Orleans and along the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts. The hurricanes forced a search for housing that was one of their least visible but most far-reaching consequences.
According to FEMA, of the 720,590 households that have received rental assistance, only 33,889 families remained eligible for aid as of Oct. 19. An additional 108,088 families, mostly homeowners, are still in FEMA-provided trailers and mobile homes. As a rule of thumb, analysts estimate each household includes nearly three people.
FEMA expects fewer than 4,700 of 2.6 million applicant families to exceed a $26,200 cap on all forms of post-disaster aid by March, when an 18-month statutory cutoff takes effect.
Is FEMA now being run by a bunch of health insurance industry executives who have put it in the business of not paying claims by making you jump through hoops until you are so exhausted and frustrated and confused that you no longer know which way or which hoop is next? Because that is sure as hell what it sounds like.
I have been hearing story after story from Gulf Coast readers of how bad their individual situations have been in trying to wade through the morass of paperwork, lost claim forms, refilings and the like, and the slowness of processing all of this mess, but I had no idea how systematically horrid and stacked against these people the system had been set up to be.
I am a lawyer by training, and I know how incredibly unwieldy and unreadable a great number of those claim form documents can be, just from helping a client or two fill theirs out in my private practice days when we had flooding issues where FEMA chipped in to help, and I was often representing poor, undereducated folks for whom those claim forms were both a nightmare and a lifeline. And that was back in the Clinton days when FEMA wasn't so broken. I know what the claim check meant to those folks, and what it must mean to thousands of Americans struggling to reconstitute some measure of their lives -- and who were promised help that has, still yet, not arrived.
This is unconscionable. And every American ought to be outraged by this treatment. It is neither compassionate nor competent, and it is a systematic failure and a disgusting game of bait-and-switch with people's lives to have the United States government promise assistance and then make it next-to-impossible to actually get some.
To do so to folks who are so often poor and undereducated, who have problems with reading comprehension and all sorts of mental health and physical issues, who have no safety net whatsoever, and who were living hand to mouth before Katrina took away what little bit they had managed to scrape together for themselves...it is cruel and inhumane and so much less than any American should ever tolerate.
Who are we, as a nation, if these people's lives do not matter enough for all of us to stand up and say "This is not right. Fix it."
That it took a Federal Judge to make this clear to the Bush Administration and the FEMA Administrator who set these policies in the first place? Pathetic. That entreties to the rubber stamp Republican Congress (and Joe Lieberman, who as ranking member on the Homeland Security Committee sure did one heckuva job of raising this issue to the public when it wasn't getting enough oversight, didn't he?) went unnoticed, unanswered or ignored altogether? Even more pathetic.
I do not know where to start with this other than to say that this appalling nastiness ought to be broadcast in every town square in America. These people, these nasty heartless people, who run the Bush Administration should be publicly shamed with this decision every single time they step foot anywhere in this nation. These are our fellow Americans, whether you know them personally or not -- and they deserve a hell of a lot better than this.
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*freep*?
g’ mornin’, ReddHedd!
Fitz?
Yes.
Fiance calls it “compassionate cronyism.”
OK Fresh biscuits ready for the oven! Let’s GO!
it is not surprising
it is their current policy.
when the sociopath loses the desire for one thing, it adds another. it does not matter what, as long as it has the power to do so. control is the only thing important
time for a redistribution of resources. too bad we don’t have time
My brother and his girlfriend were with us over Thanksgiving, and she described just this atrocity. She’s not “destitute”, but the rental market in N.O. has spiralled through the roof, and she’s an administrative assistant who can’t afford to pay the hyperinflated going rate. The representative from FEMA that she spoke with actually admitted that he could find no reason for her request to be denied, but that was the decision. To top it off, she’s getting $300 water bills for her flood-destroyed home (which she hasn’t been able to occupy), and the excuse given is that “service has been reestablished in your area”. The irony is abjectly cruel.
Bush could make everyone’s life in N.O. infinitely better right now with a few executive orders and a little attention, but he’s such an immature, pouting jerk that he will never do it.
Didn’t they rename FEMA, perhaps into something like EMA? (FEMA, without the F…as if!).
In any case, I’d describe the process as ‘Krapkaesque’.
Perhaps this was already pointed out, but George F. Will’s clickable name-link is broken. I guess Mr. Civility has armed himself against the rabid lambs dripping venom. By shutting off inbound responses.
feh.
Christy, I responded late to your linky request. Near the end of the last thread. “party crasher” was my snark…J-Lie joined the group’s spokesman. It is maddening that he postures with such trivia!!!! while Iraq and post-Katrina exist. Wasn’t he ranking member on Homeland Security Cttee? That’s his watch!!!! Sorry if you covered this, I’m scrambling to catch up on reading your post.
J-LIE. Once a Schmuck, always….
Can I still say that?????
I realize full well I may be biased here, and have an ax to grind (I teach in a poor rural public school). But I know without a doubt that the key to success, no matter what the ’success’ might entail, is education. Along this (and of course, in many other areas) line our government has, and is failing our children. This is at least borderline criminal. Naturally I understand that ignorance is bliss. For the government.
kiddo- are you teaching NOW?
TeddySanFran @ 9
i suspect his inbox is quite full by now. I received an autoreply from him for my email a few hours ago.
Oh, and Bob Geiger reminds us that it is day 1900 and still no Osama. In case you were wondering.
ot, sorry
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/.....-hamilton/
flat out denies the baker recomendations are going to take place
he’s telling daddy fuck off dad
“fuckem if they don’t agree with whatever the fuck I want to do”
I wonder what daddy’s gonna do now?
That it took a Federal Judge to make this clear to the Bush Administration and the FEMA Administrator who set these policies in the first place? Pathetic. That entreties to the rubber stamp Republican Congress (and Joe Lieberman, who as ranking member on the Homeland Security Committee sure did one heckuva job of raising this issue to the public when it wasn’t getting enough oversight, didn’t he?) went unnoticed, unanswered or ignored altogether? Even more pathetic.
We need to help make Lieberman’s performance on issues like this VERY important over the next two years.
rwcole @ 12
Not today. School is closed due to snow.
It sickens me to see how this country can’t seem to throw enough money at the military contractors for war but can’t manage to mobilize to help our people who have been struck with a tragedy which might have been mitigated by the corps of engineers.
What a disgrace.
The performance of the administration in the Kantrina disaster is impeachable in my book.
This administration has killed so many americans for no reason at all. No respect for human life. And then there are the tens and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Afghanis who mean absolutely nothing to these people. nothing nothing nothing. These people have no heart. They are hateful and nasty… the Bush administration.
Any other government would fall… ours marches on like it’s biz as usual. Well maybe killing IS biz as usual for them.
We need regime change and we need a constitution that does not let this stuff happen EVER!
Bush in Jordan says Malaki is “the right guy”.
Pope in Turkey says that moslems are just swell fellas and that they oughta be in the E U.
Fuckin liars.
Remember the pious pronouncements from the MSM in the aftermath of Katrina? Their solemn vows to stay on the story, open active news bureaus in the area and birddog the government?
What happened to THAT?
Oh yeah, “Katrina fatigue.” About 15 minutes later.
OklaKid
Education is one key to the puzzle. But we live under a system where the deck is stacked in favor of capital.
We need a revolution of the people.
Capitalism is the poison that runs through the veins of America.
What we are seeing now is capitalism in its glory… the rich - capital doing what they do best… exploit and get richer whilst stepping on the workers and the middle class which aspire to rise up the class ladder.
Education IS important to play the game. But we need to educate people to the evil of unfettered free market capitalism. It has destroyed america and is well on its way to destroying the planet.
The revolution cannot come soon enough.
Memo to Speaker-Elect Pelosi –
RE: First Hundred Hours Agenda –
RX: The New Orleans and Gulf Coast Emergency Recovery Act –
It’s a year and a half late, but Rubber Stamp Republicans are all-hat-no-cattle, so that is to be expected.
But now, it’s time to honor the promise that is America, and make our citizens whole.
Halliburton Unit to Pay $8 Million for Overbilling
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....01305.html
$8,000,000 to Halliburton is like 8 cents to me. They’ll probably find a way to write most of it off as a business expense or whatever.
And where will this 8 million bucks go? Down the rabbit hole. Send this dough to N.O. Or put it into 6 mos. TCD’s and give the interest to the schools etc. in La. OMG. I’m being idealistic and naive. Again.
Insurance company procedure:
Deny the claim if possible (by whatever means is legal), and if you can’t deny the claim, cancel the policy because a claim was made. (Think of the people whose storm surge damage claims are denied becuase it’s ‘flood damage’, never mind that wind is a major part of the surge.)
It’s all a matter of protecting the dividends to the shareholders: ‘everyone knows’ that the shareholders aren’t policyholders.
Maybe insurance companies should be under the same kind of regulation as utility companies: a reasonable profit is allowed, but not more than that.
lina @ 13
One can, however, click his name at the end of the WillRant, and get to an inbound email form. Perhaps.
Obviously some of the billions Bush has expended (and will continue to expend) on the useless war could have helped Katrina victims.
One thought: I remember after Katrina the debate about whether displaced victims were “refugees.” The argument was that refugees are “foreigners” displaced into another country from the home country. But the point here is precisely that Katrina victims were in fact refugees displaced from their “home” country. Katrina victims are Americans treated like foreigners by their own government. Some would even argue the victims were treated worse than foreigners. Pace: tsunami victims, and so on.
At one time, I thought this sort of thing (denial of government assistance) was just another page in the conservative “less government” book, i.e., just being cheap and not wanting “their” tax dollars to go to those who are less fortunate (and darker).
That’s much of it, but there may be something else. Could it be that conservatives see the collapse of the traditional support mechanisms, church and family, as an assault on their beliefs, and so wish to deny government assistance in order to force people to depend on those traditional sources of support?
Webb tells reporters “I wanted to slug the president”..
Well write us when ya DO slug him- until then ya sound like a 12 year old braggin about what ya WANTED to do. I’d love it if ya DID deck the fucker- but ya aren’t gettin any credit for thinkin of it.
I agree with the Judge Leon’s use of the term Kafkaesque. This term denotes mundane, yet absurd and surreal circumstances, particuarly in dealing with bureaucratic labyrinths. But, I don’t think we have to delve into the black hole of existentialism to come to grips with the federal government’s criminally negligent response to Katrina. The problem is racism. If what happened to the Big Easy had happened to Des Moines, does anyone really think the response would have been Kafkaesque?
Webb sounds like ensign Pulver in “The Cain Mutiny” savin up marbles to do somethin nasty to the captain- which of course never happened.
TeddySanFran @
9
georgewill@washpost.com
rw at 30 before you get yourself completely wound up on Webb, you might take a peek at my 157 in the prior thread and think about what I say there for a moment. Just a pause for thought. And then take a moment and contemplate why it would be that the media would want the story to be portrayed in this way — because it gives them a charicature to write about, say, as opposed to a complex individual with stronger belief in his principles than they are used to dealing with in the Beltway, perhaps?
I heard this morning that a judge has paved the way for insurance claimants to possibly collect from their insurance on ‘flood’ damage from Katrina. The judge said the definition of ‘flood damage’ was too vague. I think that’s the part the judge said was vague, it had something to do with the word ‘flood’.
I am here to offer hope, in the realm of another kind of insurance. Yesterday, in an extraordinary cave-in, my LTD insurance company re-instated its previous determination of my disability. They are cutting a check. I’ve not become homeless waiting 18 months for this check. I’ve not died. But I have gone through four “disability claims special*sts” who’ve been promoted based, at least in part, on their excellent job performance, which seems to include not paying my claim.
As I pinch myself this morning and wait by the mailbox, I wonder: is the new special*st who overrruled all her predecessors and approved payment real? If real, is she still employed there today?
“Hanging in there” wasn’t an option; it was a way of life for me. I don’t recommend it, unless you’re a fan of kafka. FEMA, and its enablers (I’m talking to YOU, RGJoe and Susan Collins) must be exposed to the sunshine. Let’s see what happens then. Soon, please!
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Who’s Next?
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It’s not just FEMA. I have, through my workplace, the maximum amount of medical coverage I can have. When we evacuated, they told us that medical treatment in our new place would be covered as though it was “in network”. They’re going back on that, and I’m faced with surgery expense which should have been covered.
rwcole @ 30
Wrong movie, RW. Jack Lemmon saved up the marbles in “Mr. Roberts”.
retirn–Oops- thanks!
Redd- You’re right- if Webb had nothing to do with getting this story to the media- well then it’s a different ball game. Doesn’t seem LIKELY- but possible I suppose.
Jeff
They haven’t exactly been all that good looking after our military personnel either.
Defence Contractors, Blackwater, sruise ship lines.
Your tax dollars at play everywhere.
While pain, suffering and death ensue.
Two fronts of the same struggle of sunshine and accountability against theft.
The two areas I look to a Democratic Congress to address are Oversight and Restoration of the Consitution.
DefJef @ 18
rwcole @ 28
Watching Bush’s petulance in his conference with Maliki this morning, I was thinking along your lines re Webb’s encounter. I would feel immediateloy uncomfortable if Bush asked me a question about anyone in my family. I would probably bristle.
If I were, like Webb, a Marine, looking at that miserable piece of sh*t who cost the American taxpayer about $750,000 for his flight training while Webb’s USMC and Navy buddies were dying, asking me about my USMC son serving in territory made VERY hostile by Bush’s carelessness and endless stupidity, to not feel as Webb has described the event, would be abnormal…
I disagree about Webb’s description sounding like a 12-yo kid.
I so disagree with you rwcole about Webb on this fine balmy day in the NE!
(what global warming?)
Besides, Landrieu said the same thing about boosh after Katrina and never got compared to.. um, uh… Olive Oyl!
iowa christine @ 33
http://www.chron.com/disp/stor.....67511.html
“Duval found that language used by most insurance companies doesn’t differentiate between a flood caused by an act of God _ such as excessive rainfall _ and a flood caused by an act of man, which would include the levee breaches following Katrina’s landfall on Aug. 29, 2005.
…
In issuing his ruling, Duval found that the wording of exclusion clauses in policies from Hartford Insurance Co. and the State Farm Insurance Co. excluded water damage caused by failing levees. But he said that wasn’t the case with policies written by Allstate Corp., St. Paul Travelers Companies Inc. or other insurers named in the suit.”
angie- looks as if I’m a minority of one on this one–oh well..
I’ve played ball with a lot of hot dogs- and this smells like hot dog behavior- but maybe I’m wrong.
rwcole @ 30
WTF?
re: Webb etc.
I believe (wag) that the incoming Congresscritters were briefed on the WH protocol at the upcoming reception. They were each probably assigned a Hill-based handler, who reported to National Senate Dems. If we find the unnamed source in the WaPo story (senior Democratic staff member on Capitol Hill) we’ll find the leaker of the entire story.
My experience with the WaPo is this: at an intimate seminar long ago, Publisher Lady Graham explained the code. An unnamed source for a quote will be identified, obliquely, elsewhere in the story. “Tagged,” if you will, with a clear identifier that links to a named source in the story.
Based on that information about how the Post used to source unnamed quotes, I excerpt this from the WaPo Webb tale:
No snips, one paragraph leading into another. It’s a Schumer staffer. Make Chuckie deny it.
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Who’s Next?
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georgie will is just ticked that Webb can actually write novels of substance and has a brain and has served and has a son serving.
*PS* he was right about and against the war looong before it was fashionable to admit that it’s not “going well”.
unlike will and his bootlicking buddies.
reassuring headline at Raw Story, probably already noted:
CONDI: I WILL NOT RUN FOR PRESIDENT.
I always thought that capital saw Katrina as a handy way to “develope” some real estate inot a casino disney fairytale jazz city to cash out and who cares about the slugs who lived there… How convenient for ma nature to to clean away those lay abouts so some nice white folks could come in a make a nice squeaky clean party town.
Notice the insurers looking for any way not to pay their insureds. Fast on the billing for premiums and cancellations… slow slow slow to pay out a claim after making claiments jump through hoops and hoops and hoops.
The corporate types disgust me… and their seconds in government who shill for them.
We have a government for, of and by the corporations… and the people are only a nuissance. Who needs the people? They need the capital… it’s all about capital and property.
Webb: just say no to slugs.
OK- OK- You guys have convinced me- I was bein unfair to Webb in assuming that he was the one who got this story to the press.
rwcole @ 43
rwcole,
Please read this, if you haven’t already. Bilmon’s (last?) post. He’s been following James Webb as long as I have. I’ve been following his progress for 25 years…..
http://billmon.org/archives/002966.html
You don’t have to check your nuts at the door when you enter public life as a Democrat, though some make it look that way.
Hopefully Condi will be on trial in the Hague during the 08 cycle… if there is a god… she has lots of explaining to do.
rwcole @ 49
You’re a peach!
(that was easy!) :>)
DefJef @ 51
Who could have possibly imagined that Condi would have to submit to uncomfortable questioning if she ran for office.
DefJef @ 51
there is, but intelligence on that level (god’s) follows larger, more rational patterns than the two-year American election cycle.
By the way- What is Condi DOING? Makin the world safer?
sheesh, I go home for dinner last night and three hours later discover a 400 comment erruption of a thread. how did you all keep up in real time?
rwcole @ 56
She’s in Jericho this morning. Gotta be a punaise moment in that location somehow. No walls coming down soon, though.
Sandal sale in Jericho?
retirin’ in five @ 54
I prefer the methods of ‘robust interogation” they seem so happy with
DefJef @ 48
They’re trying that along the Mississippi Coast. The State immediately passed a bill that would allow for casinos to be on land. With The Point having been washed out into the Gulf, there wasn’t a whole lot left to clean up for the casinos to take over. Then there’s all those century homes along the beach that were destroyed, the property will probably be converted to cheap-assed built condos. Well, maybe, maybe not…. 3 years ago there were still ‘holes’ along the beach from Camile.
Pat_AlexVA - @42 - cool, there’s hope for some.
perris @ 15, I knew it and said so a few blogs back. The guy would rather see the whole world blown up than change his (pardon the expression) mind. Where in the Constitution does it say we must stick with a mad man no matter what?
TeddySanFran - Congratulations on finally getting your due.
I work at NOAA, which is located right next to a DC Metro station. A few months ago, there was a man asking for handouts in front of the building. He was there for several weeks. The sign he held up stated that he was a Katrina survivor who had lost everything and been cut off by FEMA. This man did not look like your average panhandler. He wore clean clothes, was always clean shaven, and was well groomed. Since he was always at this location, I concluded he was also making a political statement about global warming and reports that NOAA buries data that substantiates global warming theories. (I don’t know anything about this personally since my job is distributing real-time weather data, not research.) I gave him a buck or two every now and then and genuinely felt outraged at the way he was treated by his own country, but also felt totally helpless to do anything about it other than support Democratic candidates in the midterm election. Judge Leon deserves thanks for doing the right thing and helping our fellow countrymen who have suffered and continue to suffer after being abandoned by their government.
Off topic but this is sad and scary
Keep in mind that this is the leading candidate for Liberal Party leader.
H/T to antiwar.com
There are so many issues and problems facing the Gulf Coast and NOLA yet.
Please remember for NOLA it is different. The levees failed due to design flaws made by the Army Corps of Engineers. Had that not happened we would not have seen the catastrophic destruction of NOLA…destruction one can still see.
The new Congress must address building levees to Category 5 protection which Bush has refused to do. Business and residents must be afforded a level of safety if they are to return to NOLA. It is essential that rebuilding the levees becomes a priority to the New Congress.
Sally at 60
“….we must stick with a mad man no matter what?” Which brings us full circle to RW’s “Caine Mutiny” reference above. By the way, which member of the SS detail gets to hold Dubya’s ball bearings?
Sally @ 61
new congress to hold these people to account for what they have done to this country commences in
just a few very long weeks
OT– TSF– is this you?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....00360.html
LOL the “lady” doth protest too much!
The Democrats didn’t do anything during Katrina to lessen the victimization of the residents and I’m not aware they have done anything since. Tangible aid to these folks should be top priority in the first 100 days or is this of no interest to K-Street? Has a minority ever done as little as the last Democratic minority? And, yes, I understand the meaning of “minority.”
There are a few Democrats that should be held accountable for Iraq. Certainly Condi Rice may be guilty of malfeasance or dereliction of duty on the issue of the war. But I would be grossly hypocritical if I proclaimed only Republicans are to blame for the Iraq horror. I want all elected officials in the Federal government who supported the Iraq war held accountable. Regardless of political party.
OT again, but Ifill is being particularly dense or something…
btw– loved the question.
P J Evans @
24
That’s exactly the way the industry was managed for decades by state insurance commissioners. The industry - through purchasing these elected and appointed offices - removed these constraints.
Yesterday (IIRC) a federal judge ordered all (save one) NO insurers to pay claims for “water damages” on policies with such coverage.
For fifteen months, the wealthy insurance megacorps have pretended that policies covering water damage didn’t apply to Katrina and the flooding of New Orleans after Katrina moved through - they said the drowned homes weren’t covered. All that water was wind damage, doncha now.
In the real world, that’s an audacious lie: “water is air”.
For the insurers, the fifteen month delay was profitable - they got the f”loat” - the interest -on the vast sums owed their policyholders.
The insurers collectively defrauded the policyholders for financial gain - if they were a bunch of cocainie dealers, their assets could be confiscated through RICO.
The sustained illegal behavior of multiple employees within each of the major insurers surely qualifies for RICO - Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organisations Act.
So the legisatlative instrument to punish the corporate behavior is there.
But the insurance megacorps get a pass - just as they do with systematic corrupt practices in health insurance.
klyde @ 65
Michael Ignatieff is more “all over the map” in his political views and emotion-wrought public statements than Webb ever has been. He’s brilliant. His biography of Isaiah Berlin is one of the finest bios I’ve read. He may go far in politics. I’m not sure I trust him as a politician, though. Canada is so different from the USA!
Perris @ 67, see my 70 and relate it to the Iraq war. No action by the minority and not much talk.
Of all the interviews I did with Democrats running for Congress in the last few months, one comment that Ill never forget came from Congressman Brad Miller (NC). He spoke about the sheer hatefulness of the healthcare system in our country and how the Kafkaesque nature just saps the life out of the people it should be endeavoring to help. I think Christy is pointing to the same syndrome in regard to FEMA.
kirk murphy @ 73
How about, we remove the legal requirements to purchase insurance for various things? While the intentions were good (think uninsured motorists), what those laws mostly seem to do is make the companies richer, without benefiting many of the policyholders.
it is sheer hatefulness and this hatefulness is pervasive in our country wrt to much and to many.
Gene Taylor has been working very hard on insurance issues and had a great, little seen presser on all things Katrina during the elections.
http://www.house.gov/genetaylor/
downwithtyranny @ 76
Howie,
Seen any twins, moonies, penguins yet?
angie @ 72, not surprisingly Ifill didn’t know the full story of the Webb rejoinder but still puffed up with indignation. How laughable of Awful to suggest no one was ever disrespectful to former President Clinton. These people are truly disgusting.
Because of Katrina, New Orleans cast a bright light on an American city and the differences between the have’s and have not’s. This condition is not at all unique to New Orleans.
One of the things Ned Lamont was talking about during his campaign was that America has the most innefficient health care delivery system in the world. We spend more money for the fewest results than anyone. No hospital or doctor wants uninsured patients. The result is that the uninsured use emergency rooms as the family doctor. The States who now bear the brunt of what security net there is for the growing number of poor, give the hospitals $.30 on the dollar for their services.
The hospitals in turn raise their rates 300% to compensate the difference. The insurance companies then try the same tactics used by the states to try and pay as little as possible. As usual, who suffers? The people.
During the anniversary of Katrina, mayor of New Orleans Ray Nagin made some comments about the government not caring about New Orleans. He was on Meet the Press and Timmeh tried to make the whole thing rascist. Nagin stood by his comments and explained that this is about poor people not black vs white.
Most Americans are a paycheck or two away from being on the street. Which by definition makes most of us poor people. The dollar is dropping like a rock, the housing bubble has burst. Poverty, it’s not just for African Americans anymore.
The drunken twins are the talk of the town but they were hustled out of Argentina right after the… incident. I went to visit the scene of the crime and the whole district is still laughing about it. If the crook came forward hed be a national hero! Im still in Buenos Aires, so no penguins yet. I leave for parts unknown on Saturday.
mweehehehee
“I know there’s a lot of speculation that these reports in Washington mean there’s going to be some kind of graceful exit out of Iraq,” Bush said. “We’re going to stay in Iraq to get the job done, so long as the government wants us there.”
Newsweek
Some may notice that something new has been added to the Clusterfuck statement “so long as the govt wants us there”…
Significant?
Can anyone here ever remember Clusterfuck sayin previously “We’ll stay as long as the govt. wants us there?”
Oklahoma kiddo @
23
Under the provisions of Internal Revenue Code 162, fines are nondeductible. If, on the other hand, the amount of $ 8 million represents nonfraudulent overbilling on a contract, it might be argued (though I don’t have time at the moment to delve further into researching this topic) that the amount that was overcharged should be booked as a charge to sales/fees received, in which case it would apparently be deductible in much the same fashion as a change order on a fixed price construction contract.
What has happened or should say NOT happened in NOLA goes beyond race and class…rich and poor…have and have not.
It has impacted all…a complete neglect of the people. Recently I have been to upper middle class white Lakeview section and it is still largely a ghost town. St. Bernard Parish which was white working/middle class is in terrible shape. Only a third have returned. NOLA East the home of middle class blacks is horrible.
I think it is important to know that it is everyone and as they say “Our fate is Your Fate”
Since when do we let another country determine our troop deployment?
rwcole @ 84
Bush is nuts. He also claimed that “We’re not going to leave gracefully.” Nobody who thinks above the level of an invertebrate thinks that, George.
I need a little Photoshop assistance. Can someone give me a hand? If so, e-mail me at ReddHedd at aol dot com. Thanks much.
President Clinton had enough intelligence and “people skills” to not trigger such an incident.
kemo @ 88
since we declared them a sovereign country and a burgeoning democracy with a duly elected government and a constitution…
oklahoma and every state; what you said. a fascist government has no use for educated people and as you have noticed, forced more closures than even raygun’s ravaging bullshit artists that cut funding to every program they didn’t like in american schools. these folks have an advantage though, they own the people that make all the decisions and have found out how to blame them for the actions.
quite clever, and perverse
P J Evans @ 77
PJ, I agree that some mandatory insurance policies have enriched private insurance megacorps.
We do need to rethink asssumptions, but I hope the review can be as broad as possible.
Shared risk serves a social good, but the social good doesn’t require shareholder-owned for-profit corporations. Many other structures can and do fill the same function without corporate “values” (looting).
THe most obvious example is Medicare, with no shareholders (and no demand for profit from health care). Medicare sets policies, and uses competitive practices to execute the polcices through private and public sector employees. Overhead at Medicare health plans is a few percent - overhead with the insurance megacorps approaches 20%.
[A few megacorps got Medicare to re-write rules so the megacorps have active administrative roles in a subset of Medicare plans - these plans, of course, have overheads approaching the usual rate of corporate theft. PR flacks for the insurance/financial industries compare these “corporate” Medicare plans with private insurance palns to falsely claim there is no significant difference in overhead between public and private sector health care plans.
As ever with PR flacks - and their wholly owned elected officials - they are lying for profit.
The megacorps’ goal with Medicare is the same as their goal with Social Security - invade the public sector and loot it.
For everyone who likes the non-system of health care in America, this will seem like a good idea.
But there aren’t that many billionaires in the US, and they probably aren’t on fdl this morning.]
Sally @ 70
excuse me sally, this is an uninformed post…the fact that ANYTING got done was BECAUSE of the democrats, they did MUCH MORE then anyone could have thought they could accomplish giving the FACT that the republicans WOULD NOT ALLOW any bill authored by a democrat
SusanD @ 91
I’ve been thinking about this since RWCole brought it up. Two people were in on the nuances of the conversation. What if Webb is actually keeping quiet about the dread he felt by the look on Bush’s face as he realized “This f*cking idiot thinks he has total control over my son and is letting me know that he’ll only be safe if I become a “team player.” Or some such thought?
Sally @ 75
I responded but don’t see it so here we go again
I’m sorry sally but your post is uninformed, the democrats did much more then anyone could have ever hoped or imagined, it was becuase of them anything was done at all, they pressured the majority party to act, the majority party wouldn’t even allow a democratic bill be put on the floor
, Jordan - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said Thursday that his country’s forces would be able to assume security command by June 2007 — which could allow the United States to start withdrawing its troops.
“I cannot answer on behalf of the U.S. administration but I can tell you that from our side our forces will be ready by June 2007,” Maliki told ABC television after meeting President Bush on Thursday in Jordan.