Day: February 10, 2006

The AP files a story highlighting a media opportunity with President Bush today, as he was meeting with the House Republican Caucus in a retreat at a resort in Maryland. According to the AP, the president made public remarks while the press was in the room. He then shoo’d the press away and proceeded to make private remarks to his fellow Republicans who remained in the room.

What he didn’t know was that his microphone was still hot, and his words were being fed to the White House press room, giving reporters an opportunity to eavesdrop on the president as he talked about his eavesdropping program. The good thing is, there was no substantive difference between his ‘public’ and ‘private’ comments.

Like foxes finding the chicken coup unguarded, the members of the press stood there taking in every word of what was supposedly private, off the record comments by Bush. And you can bet they waited there with watering mouths hoping the president would say something that countered his official response. Yet, they come away empty handed.

Heh.

Charles Krauthammer.

A true Muslim moderate is one who protests desecrations of all faiths. Those who don’t are not moderates but hypocrites, opportunists and agents for the rioters, merely using different means to advance the same goal: to impose upon the West, with its traditions of freedom of speech, a set of taboos that is exclusive to the Islamic faith. These are not defenders of religion but Muslim supremacists trying to force their dictates upon the liberal West.

What is at issue is fear. The unspoken reason many newspapers do not want to republish is not sensitivity but simple fear. They know what happened to Theo van Gogh, who made a film about the Islamic treatment of women and got a knife through the chest with an Islamist manifesto attached.

The worldwide riots and burnings are instruments of intimidation, reminders of van Gogh’s fate. The Islamic “moderates” are the mob’s agents and interpreters, warning us not to do this again. And the Western “moderates” are their terrified collaborators who say: Don’t worry, we won’t. It’s those Danes. We’re clean. Spare us. Please.

WaPo

Michael Brown, former Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Director, added conviction to his lack of credibility today in testimony before a Senate panel investigating the response to Hurricane Katrina.

“I certainly feel somewhat abandoned” by the Bush administration now, Brown said in testimony before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

In the hours after Katrina lashed the Gulf Coast on Monday, August 29, Brown said he bypassed his boss at the Department of Homeland Security and communicated directly with the White House about the disaster.

He described how he “got around DHS” by dealing with President Bush’s top aides instead of going to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

He also contradicted comments by Homeland Security officials that they were unaware of flood dangers in New Orleans, Louisiana, the day that Katrina made landfall.

“For them to now claim that we didn’t have awareness of it, I think is just baloney,” he said. “They should have had awareness of it because they were receiving the same information that we were.”

How can Brown’s testimony be seen as anything other than sour grapes? He received well deserved criticism for his lack of leadership during the disaster. His resignation was portrayed as voluntary, yet it’s clear that the White House and Homeland Security urged him in the decision and it’s likely he’s still smarting about that. The media has characterized him as the epitome of ineptness (although today, they’re lifting him up like he’s the smartest guy in the world).

If anyone has an agenda for payback against the Bush administration, it’s Mike Brown. While it’s clear that all areas of the Federal relief response to Katrina was lacking, the Democrats and their partners in the MSM would be wise not to suddenly embrace the ring leader of chaos. Hopefully the members of the Senate panel will take a look at Mike Brown’s motivation to play the blame game as their investigation continues.