Month: March 2006

Dan Riehl takes a look at details relating to a recently released Zogby poll; specifically, the questionable relationship between John Zogby and Information International of Beirut.

Michael J. Totten files an amazing story today of his visit to Suleimaniya, Iraq. It’s worth a read.

Heh.

Gee, looky here. It’s Kathleen Blanco, Governor of Louisiana, caught on video claiming the levee system was safe.

“We keep getting reports in some places that maybe water is coming over the levees,” Gov. Kathleen Blanco said shortly after noon on Aug. 29, according to the video that was obtained Thursday night. “We heard a report unconfirmed, I think, we have not breached the levee. I think we have not breached the levee at this time.”

In fact, the National Weather Service received a report of a levee breach and issued a flash-flood warning as early as 9:12 a.m. that day, according to the White House’s formal recounting of events the day Katrina struck.

Where are the moonbats now? Why aren’t they calling for Blanco’s resignation? Why aren’t they starting a recall campaign?

Hypocrites.

And he’s makin’ money off of them too. Oh, and Bill’s friends hate Israel, and the want Sharon to stand trial as a terrorist war criminal.

Former President Bill Clinton has accepted at least $1.6 million from the United Arab Emirates, including $300,000 from a Dubai sheik who adamantly backs the country’s controversial boycott of Israel.

On Jan. 17, 2002, Mr. Clinton was paid $300,000 to address the Science, Technology and Arts Royal Summit in Dubai at the invitation of Crown Prince and UAE Defense Minister Sheik Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

Less than three months later, Sheik Mohammad urged the United Nations to approve the use of force against Israel’s to halt what he called the Jewish state’s “butchery” of Palestinians, according to London’s Financial Times.

Mr. Clinton’s benefactor called for then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to “stand trial before the International War Crimes Tribunal,” where Sheik Mohammad said he would “have a prominent place in the list of world’s killers, terrorists and criminals.”

Hello? New York Times? L.A. Times? Associated Press?  ABCNBCCBSCNNFOXMSNBCNPR????

You’d think this might be of interest to the main stream media, especially now that most of them are playing pile-on over the UAE port deal. And what about Hillary? If she’s going to be a candidate for president, shouldn’t she have concerns over whose dole her husband is on?

Oh, wait a minute…we’re talking about Bill and Hillary Clinton, the power couple loved, idolized, and worshipped by the MSM.

My bad.

Lots of people are reacting to these two words as they relate to the ‘Katrina Warning’ video released yesterday. While some may argue semantically, I think there is a very real difference between being warned that levees in New Orleans might be topped and warning that the levees would be breached.

Overtopped means much less water comes in, and once the surge recedes the water remains behind the levee system. Breached means a barrier no longer exists, and that means flooding that stays.

Patterico covers this subject quite nicely. 

After delays and extensions and delays and extensions, the USA Patriot Act has been renewed by a vote of 89 to 10.

The 89-10 vote marked a bright spot in President Bush’s troubled second term as his approval ratings dipped over the war in Iraq and his administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina. Renewing the act, congressional Republicans said, was key to preventing more terror attacks in the United States.

Bush, in a statement issued by the White House while he was in India, applauded the Senate for what he said were attempts by Democrats to block the bill’s passage.

“This bill will allow our law enforcement officials to continue to use the same tools against terrorists that are already used against drug dealers and other criminals, while safeguarding the civil liberties of the American people,” he said.

Critics maintained the bill is weighted too much toward the interests of law enforcement.

The House was expected to pass the legislation next week and send it to Bush, who would sign it before 16 provisions expire March 10.

A December filibuster led by Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., and joined by several libertarian-leaning Republicans, forced the Bush administration to agree to modest new curbs on government power.

This isn’t your fathers Patriot Act anymore. Now it’s Patriot Act Lite.

The White House and the Republicans broke the stalemate by crafting a second measure that would curb some powers of law enforcement officials seeking information. Both will be sent as a package to Bush.

This second bill — in effect an amendment to the measure renewing the 16 provisions — would add new protections to the 2001 antiterror law in three areas. It would:

• Give recipients of court-approved subpoenas for information in terrorist investigations the right to challenge a requirement that they refrain from telling anyone.

• Eliminate a requirement that an individual provide the FBI with the name of a lawyer consulted about a National Security Letter, which is a demand for records issued by investigators.

• Clarify that most libraries are not subject to demands in those letters for information about suspected terrorists.

Don’t many public libraries offer computer terminals with free Internet access? Wouldn’t it be easy for someone to use these computers to communicate to suspected terrorists? Yeah, that’s what I thought.

It’s good that the act passed, even in it’s ‘lite’ form, but the deeper issue remains. In this post 9/11 world, can we afford to skimp on security? I suppose we can, until of course, the next terrorist act occurs.

1. Strengthening of the US Economy through widespread tax relief
2. The toppling of the Taliban and subsequent removal of a brutal regime in Afghanistan
3. The toppling of Saddam regime and a new hope of democracy in Iraq
4. The nuclear disarmament of Libya

And now this –

5. The president comes away from India with a landmark nuclear energy agreement that further deepens the ties between the two democracies.

“Proliferation is certainly a concern and a part of our discussions, and we’ve got a good-faith gesture by the Indian government that I’ll be able to take to the Congress,” Bush said.

“But the other thing that our Congress has got to understand is that it’s in our economic interests that India have a civilian nuclear power industry to help take the pressure off the global demand for energy,” the president said. “To the extent that we can reduce demand for fossil fuels, it will help the American consumer.”

The agreement was a political coup, too, for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. “We made history,” he said, standing alongside Bush in a sunwashed courtyard.

Making history, indeed.

“What this agreement says is things change, times change — that leadership can make a difference,” Bush added.

“I’m trying to think differently, and not stay stuck in the past.”

Congress could learn a thing or two from this president, as far too many of them are stuck in the past. This deal with India is a good one for America, and Congress should approve the details of the cooperation without delay.

How convenient for Ray.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said on Wednesday he was shocked by video showing U.S. President George W. Bush being told the day before Hurricane Katrina hit that the city’s protective levees could fail.

“It surprises me that if there was that kind of awareness, why was the response so slow?” said Nagin, whose city was devastated when the storm struck on August 29 and causing massive flooding.

“I have kind of a sinking feeling right now in my gut. I mean, I was listening to what people were saying and I was believing them that they didn’t know. So therefore it was an issue of a learning curve.

“From this tape it looks like everybody was fully aware.”

Nagin had a “sinking” feeling. Kind of like the same feeling we had when we saw Ray’s (lack of) preparedness.

The Associated Press has gotten their hands on video footage of a teleconference between members of FEMA and the President of the United States just a day before Hurricane Katrina made landfall. In the video various officials give their take on how bad a disaster Katrina would be and voice concerns over various ‘what-if’ scenarios.

Don’t bother to watch the video or read the story. I’ll give you the whole thing right here.

If you were to watch this video without the narration of the AP reporter, you would see real people voicing human concerns. You’d see worry. You’d see seriousness. You’d see a commitment of help from various agencies including the White House. You’d see people trying to predict the unpredictable.

But that’s not what the Associated Press wants you to see, or hear. The AP, who obtained this video exclusively, uses the content in an attempt to prove that everyone from FEMA to state and local officials were begging; no, pleading with President Bush to understand the scale of the storm and react accordingly.

In other words, the premise of the AP story is as follows:

Everyone in the country knew Katrina was a big, bad, killer BEFORE the storm hit. The day before the storm, everyone in the country KNEW THE LEVEES WOULD BE BREACHED.

President Bush…

A. Knew how bad Katrina would be

B. Was warned a thousand times by EVERYONE

C. Had some supernatural power to stop the storm in its track

D. Didn’t use the supernatural power because he didn’t care a wit.

The president has already admitted that the federal government reacted slowly to Katrina and could have done better. State and local officials confessed their lack of coordination, and pointed to the failure of their communication apparatus on the ground as a major factor in the slowness of relief response.

EVERYONE has said they learned a serious lesson from Katrina. EVERYONE has pledged to do a better job next time.

But, that’s not enough.

The Associated Press and the rest of the MSM believe differently. The other people – the agencies, the state and local officials, the Governor of Louisiana, the Mayor of New Orleans and every Tom, Dick or Harry inhabiting the Gulf Coast region would have been spared and saved from Katrina if George W. Bush would have used his supernatural powers to stop the approaching storm. But he knowingly did nothing, and for that, Bush deserves to be impeached.

That’s what this AP story is all about.