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My seventh brief conversation with the ghost of John Merrick

Merrick:  “I AM NOT AN ANIMAL!” Me:  “Dude.  People are dead in New Orleans.  You understand?  Dead!  How can you think about yourself at a time like this?  Why aren’t you wallowing in guilt and recrimination?  Why aren’t you abasing yourself—if only to show solidarity with those who are so very clearly suffering?” Merrick:  Me: Merrick:  Me: Merrick:  “Uh, I AM A HUMAN BEING…?” Me: “Oh. Right.” Me: ”Man. That’s

The left keeps TRYING, but alas, they just can’t get it to STICK… (UPDATED TO SHOW WHAT A HACK ANDREW SULLIVAN HAS BECOME)

Today’s provocative lefty talking point—picked up by Kevin Drum and others and parroted in the comments here in order to suggest a disconnect between Presidential leadership and the “troops on the ground” (because remember:  the left loves the troops; it’s the commanders they can’t stand)—has to do with a BBC report (video here, direct link here) showing Lt. Commander Sean Kelly, a Pentagon spokesman for Northern Command, “accidentally” telling the

A few controversial thoughts I may as well throw out here to let the vultures feast on (or, in defense of conservatism)

Regular readers of my site—particularly social conservatives—will recognize that I’m no Bush apologist, and have been critical of the President when I believe he’s taken missteps (lumber / steel protectionism; ideological dithering in the terror war, etc.) or backed bad law (Schiavo, McCain-Feingold, etc.); having said that, though, I’m going to take what I consider to be an intellectual stand here and state clearly and for the record that I

Time(s)-lapse media bias

Earlier this week, the New York Times did itself little honor when it blasted the Bush Admnistration for not providing the very federal monies that it itself had raged against in an earlier editorial.  Well, it seems this kind of thing is becoming a pattern with the Paper of Record.  From the Weekly Standard “Scrapbook,” Sept 5/12, “The Best of Times, the Worst of Times”: Let it be recordeth that

Lt Gen Blum:  “I think the response of the National Guard is nothing less than unbelievably sensational. It’s actually better than any planner could ever expect.”

This Saturday press briefing by Lt Gen H Steven Blum speaks to the questions some of the commenters here have asked about a “paperwork delay” bringing the military law enforcement presence into NO.  Read the whole thing, but for the purposes of this post I’ll excerpt a relevant portion of the Q & A: GEN BLUM:  […] Martial law has not been declared anywhere in the United States of America.

My first brief conversation with the Ghost of Louisiana “Kingfish” Huey Long

Me: “So…” Long:  “What?  Don’t go lookin’ at me, buddy.  I haven’t had my hand in the till for like, seventy years…”

Piecing together post-flood reaction

Several interesting points / arguments made in the comments to the previous post outlining Blanco’s series of indecisions after Nagin’s initial failures with regard to positioning buses and supplies.  With regard to the Stafford Act and my earlier contention that jurisdictional takeover requires active assent from the NO government, Dorkafork notes that the Act “is mainly about financial assistance and coordination of aid agencies.  The references to jurisdiction I see

The Washington Post:  “Many Evacuated, but Thousands Still Waiting:  White House Shifts Blame to State and Local Officials”

The reflexively anti-Bush headline aside (about which John Cole has more), this is an important article in that some of the behind-the-scenes machinations between the local and federal governments in the wake of the levee breaks are beginning to come to light: Tens of thousands of people spent a fifth day awaiting evacuation from this ruined city, as Bush administration officials blamed state and local authorities for what leaders at

In case you hadn’t yet heard…

…Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist died Saturday evening at his home in suburban Virginia at the age of 80. My thoughts and prayers go out to his friends and family. Quick political thoughts:  The Democrats are now in a bind:  do they take a stand against the confirmation of the eminently qualified John Roberts (who doesn’t have the kind of paper trail that will sink him) and save their ammunition

More proof that a racist President doesn’t care about the suffering of Americans

Rethuglican bastard.