The Dusty Dog

Friday, November 25, 2005

Planning Disasters the "Heckuva Job Brownie" Way

OH MIGOD!!!! You can't make this stuff up. And, talk about proverbial anatomical parts, who in God's name would hire this guy and his newly created firm. As I said, OH MIGOD!!!!

Ex-FEMA Head Starts Disaster Planning Firm

DENVER -- Former FEMA Director Michael Brown, heavily criticized for his agency's slow response to Hurricane Katrina, is starting a disaster preparedness consulting firm to help clients avoid the sort of errors that cost him his job.

Isn't that nice. He wants to help people. Well gee wizz and OH MIGOD!!!!! Am I missing something here? As a proven failure in this business, he now wants to sell his competence in this business. I mean, if I have clearly indicated that I cannot pilot a boat because I tend to ram the boat into the dock pilings, then who in their right mind would hire me to pilot their boat? Really? I'm wondering. If I ever need a new job, maybe I can get one as a police officer. Doesn't matter that I cannot shoot a gun, and that I know nothing about law enforcement.

Not much else to say, except .......... OH MIGOD!!!!!!!!

Poll Numbers and Hitting Rock Bottom

As I surf the web this freezing cold morning after pure gluttony, I am finding some great articles about the dubya debaucles. Great stuff, and the stuff that I envy their writers for, for they are able to really put together some impressive articles. Yeah, I'm impressed, for sure.

First of all, from The WitList are two great articles about Bush's poll numbers in Iraq and about a new strain of the avian flu. From the poll numbers article:

"Unlike what you read in the liberal press, the President is quite popular -- especially among people who have no idea what he's saying," says Senior BTI Fellow T. Phineas Gage.

For example, an impressive 82 percent of Iraqis agree with the President's recent assessment that
"progress in Iraq has been amazing," though Gage points out the Iraqi word for "amazing" is phonetically similar to another Arabic phrase meaning "camel dung."

Hehehe.................. I love good satire. And from the avian flu article:

ATLANTA -- Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have identified a new and virulent strain of the avian flu in our nation's capital. The flu, which is believed to have originated among a large flock of chickenhawks inside the Beltway, has begun to spread to other areas of the country.

Unlike the more common varieties of avian flu, which affect the respiratory system, this strain ravages the brains -- in particular the speech and vision centers -- of those who have been exposed to it.


On a more serious note, is an article from TVNewsLIES called On The Road To Rock Bottom. As much as we know how bad dubya's polls are in this country (unlike the above-mentioned article about his numbers in Iraq), we are stuck with the lowlife SOB for three more years. I was listening to the Randi Rhodes Show on AirAmerica Wednesday on my way home from work, when she discussed a poll that finds that 8% of Americans don't just think dubya is a lousy liar of a president, but actually hate the guy. Well, that would be me. I'm one of the 8%. I really hate the bastard and his sidekick handler, otherwise known as dubya's dick. This is why this Road To Rock Bottom article has made such an impression on me. An excerpt:

George W. Bush is on a collision course with America. His presidency is rolling steadily downhill, as the people of this nation slowly begin to rub sleep away from their eyes. His approval ratings are in the low thirties, unheard of in history for a war president. He is in the worst trouble of his presidency, and it seems almost certain that rock bottom lies just ahead.

It really shouldn’t be so surprising. After all, so much that George W. Bush has touched during his tenure in the White House has deteriorated into disaster. From the environment to the economy, from health care to education – nothing has panned out as promised. In every area and on every issue, life for Americans today, and for their progeny of tomorrow, is filled with doubt and disillusion. And that will only gather momentum as Bushco continues on its inevitable road to rock bottom.


We have a huge problem. We're stuck with these crooks and liars for three more years, unless the Congress swings over to the Democrats in '06. Only then, will impeachment for high crimes and misdemeaners (rather than blow jobs) be possible. Only then will we be able to maybe, maybe dump the neocons. Unfortunately, even a good dumping, via impeachment, takes time. So, we're stuck with these guys for now. Does anyone know any other recourse available to Americans to get rid of these bums? I'm serious. Is impeachment the only option? Can they be sanctioned and virtually "benched" until they go to trial, like being on administrative leave, maybe even with pay? I don't care about the pay. I just want them gone. FAST. IMMEDIATELY. AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. That would be good.

Saturday, November 19, 2005

Talkin' Bout Sand

Sand is a precious commodity on a barrier island. Without sand under your house, you have no house. Which brings me to the quote from the bible:

... a foolish man that built his house upon the sand, And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall thereof. Matthew 7:24-27

It seems so foolish to build a house on a barrier island, a mere ribbon of sand that moves and comes and goes and flows with the tides and at the discretion of the ocean. But, with such economic incentives to build, and with assistance by the federal government via flood insurance and, at times, sand renourishment foolish is not the issue. If the house falls down, it gets rebuilt. And, it gets built bigger and better and more ostentatious than what previously existed. The need to keep these houses standing because of their size and monetary investments is so great, and owners hang onto them so tenaciously, always demanding sand from the government to keep them standing.

Barrier islands are no longer places of modest beach cottages, expendably constructed, and bearing that distinctive beach character. Houses are huge things now. Multiple stories with multiple bedrooms and baths, many complete with swimming pools between them and the ocean. The beachy character of living on a barrier island is becoming a thing of the past. Way too much money to be made by large development and guaranteed sand projects.

But, the ocean is a beautiful thing. Being out on the island is indeed exhilarating. No question, it is a special place. No wonder the demand is so high. I wish I could afford to live here. Posted by Picasa

Sunday, November 13, 2005

Winter Is Coming To Fire Island

 


When the geese are flying in formation, that means one of two things. Either they are coming, or they are going. Given the time of year, they are going. As beautiful as these birds are, and as magnificent as they look when in flight, I bid them good riddance. I get tired of trying, rather fruitlessly, to avoid stepping in their dog-sized droppings all over the place. At least we'll have some respite from these damned birds.

However, another portent of their goings is, of course, winter. Winter is not my favorite time of year. As beautiful as newly fallen snow may be, I really hate the white shit. And, I hate being cold. I look forward to the coming of the damned birds again, as I care more about being warm than stepping on their miserable droppings. I guess you cannot have it both ways. Posted by Picasa

Lying By Omission (and assertion)

Our prez bubble boy proceeded to lash out at his critics during his Veterans Day speech, as discussed in this Washington Post article. We all know that if the war was going well, and the United States was actually "winning", bubble boy would not need to blame his blamers for his failed excursion into a foreign nation, regardless of the crimes of its leader. This blame by dumbya is, in and of itself, clear admission that he's lost control, or any modicum of perceived control that he may have had in the White Wash, I mean House. God knows his dismal approval ratings, now at a meeger 35%, are indicative of not only the failed war on terror, but also of the failed presidency, itself. Dubya is going down in history as a bumbling bubble boy, manipulated by his neocon death cult administration for whom he has never waivered in his support, thereby providing definitive testimony that he was, and still is complicit in the crimes that this administration has perpetrated against this nation, as well as the people of Iraq.

This is an article I found at Think Progress that discusses some of the detailed manipulation of intelligence that the White Wash, I mean House, has undertaken to drag our nation into this criminal war effort. May they all rot in fucking hell. Please, dear god, let the impeachments begin.


Today, President Bush attempted to defend his manipulation of pre-war Iraq intelligence by citing the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report.

BUSH: These critics are fully aware that a bipartisan Senate investigation found no evidence of political pressure to change the intelligence community’s judgments related to Iraq’s weapons programs.

As has been previously documented by ThinkProgress and others, the answer to whether there was political pressure was left to phase II of the investigation and was not addressed in the report.

What the Senate Intelligence Committee did report, however, is that there was plenty of evidence demonstrating that the intelligence assessments made by intel officials WERE changed.

The Los Angeles Times (7/10/04) reported, “[I]n the unclassified version of the NIE — the so-called white paper cited by the Bush administration in making its case for war — those carefully qualified conclusions [in the classified version] were turned into blunt assertions of fact.”

Here’s what the Senate Intelligence Committee reported about the administration’s use of intelligence:

The intelligence community’s elimination of the caveats from the unclassified white paper misrepresented their judgments to the public, which did not have access to the classified National Intelligence Estimate containing the more carefully worded assessments.

Essentially, the Bush administration took the intelligence that was presented to them in the classified NIE and twisted it to present a stronger case for war in the public version of the NIE. Here are some examples:

Classified NIE: “Although we have little specific information on Iraq’s CW stockpile, Saddam Hussein probably has stocked at least 100 metric tons” of such poisons.
Unclassified NIE: The phrase “although we have little specific information” was deleted. Instead, the public report said, “Saddam probably has stocked a few hundred metric tons of CW agents.”
[Senate Intel Cmte Report]

Classified NIE: “Iraq has some lethal and incapacitating BW [biological weapons] agents and is capable of quickly producing … a variety of such agents, including anthrax, for delivery by bombs, missiles, aerial sprayers and covert operatives.”
Unclassified NIE: The words “potentially against the U.S. homeland” are inserted at the end of the statement.
[Senate Intel Cmte Report]

Classified NIE: Stated Iraq was developing unmanned aerial vehicles “probably intended to deliver biological warfare agents.”
Unclassified NIE: A footnote in the classified version from the Air Force stating its disagreement with this claim was eliminated. The Senate Committee report stated the public NIE missed “the fact that… [the] agency with primary responsibility for technological analysis on UAV programs did not agree with the assessment.”
[Senate Intel Cmte Report]

Classified NIE: Included a reference to State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research dissenting view on whether Iraq would have a nuclear weapon this decade.
Unclassified NIE: Did not contain any mention of INR’s dissent.
[Senate Intel Cmte Report]


And, speaking of tanking ratings, this just in on the Newsweek website:

"After months of taking a pounding, the president tried to regain the political momentum this week. In a Veterans Day address on Friday he accused critics of his Iraq policies of sending “the wrong signal to our troops and to an enemy that is questioning America’s will.” But Democrats aren’t the only ones questioning the administration’s Iraq policies—almost 2 in 3 Americans (65 percent) disapprove of the president’s handling of Iraq."


Go read the entire article. It discusses the why's and what-fors that have led to the American peoples' recognition finally of our bubble boy's abject incompetence. The sheeple are finally waking up.

Saturday, November 05, 2005

Wikipedia Link



I just did a search to find the mp3 for Bounce Your Boobies, and lo and behold, found that the link I found my way to, linked to my own site.

After doing a google search, I came across the link to Wikipedia for Bounce Your Boobies. Then, I linked on their link to listen to the song, and amazingly enough, whoever wrote the article for Wikipedia linked it to Zinkadoodle's site at the JoeUser forum site.

Well folks, Zinkadoodle is my blogsite at joeuser. Gosh gee wizzzz, I'm beaming. Linked from Wikipedia, of all goddamm places. When dabe (me) got banned from posting at joeuser because I so severely annoyed the rightie dumbasses there, I posted as zinkadoodle. When I got found out, they then banned zinkadoodle. Now, I'm totally banned from joeuser forever, as dabe.

But anyway, go to the zinkadoodle link and enjoy. (Word of warning however, but the link does not seem to work in Firefox or Mozilla. You have to use Internet Explorer. Obviously, some kind of Mozilla plug-in issue that I'll have to resolve.)