Bush and Hurricane Katrina — Part I

In the midst of the Hurricane Katrina crisis, there are two equally-important but completely independent ways of considering the president’s performance — what he did before the disaster and what he did after it. Let’s first look at the prior. The devastation that we’re seeing is not in any way unexpected. On Good Morning America […]

Thursday’s political round-up

Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers: * The White House actively recruited Rep. Jim Gibbons (R-Nev.) to take on Harry Reid last year, but Gibbons wasn’t interested — he has a different race in mind. Yesterday, Gibbons announced he […]

When Iraq starts looking like a better alternative, you know there’s a problem

How bad are the conditions in New Orleans? This bad. “This is mass chaos,” said Sgt. Jason Defess, 27, a National Guard military policeman who had been stationed on a ramp outside the Superdome since Monday. “To tell you the truth, I’d rather be in Iraq,” where he was deployed for 14 months, until January. […]

Still looking for that historical parallel that works

Let’s see, in recent months, in trying to draw a comparison between Iraq and other historic military campaigns, the Bush gang has referenced Korea, the Revolutionary War, WWI, and the Civil War. Now, the president has settled on a new favorite: World War II. Invoking the spirit of Franklin D. Roosevelt, President Bush on Tuesday […]

Spinning the poverty report

I can appreciate the fact that the Census Bureau’s report on poverty, released earlier this week, is an embarrassment for the Bush administration. After all, no administration has seen four consecutive years of increases in the poverty rate since the government began keeping track of the data, a feat this administration has managed to accomplish. […]

Those no-good Girl Scouts

Pandagon’s Amanda Marcotte had a really funny post yesterday about the right’s paranoia about “radical lesbian feminists” having taken over the Girl Scouts. What Amanda may not realize, however, is that this paranoid fantasy has been around for a while. The item that caught her attention came by way of Robert Knight and Concerned Women […]

Hannity doesn’t even recognize someone on his side

We deal with plenty of far-right demagogues, activists, and crackpots here, but there’s something truly unique about pastor Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas. It’s easy to mock Pat Robertson and scorn James Dobson, but Phelps is in a league of his own. For example, it takes a special kind of person […]

Hey, Congress, back to work

It took some prodding, but the president gave up the last two days of his five-week vacation in light of Hurricane Katrina’s devastation. At the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, however, the halls of Congress are empty. Nancy Pelosi thinks it’s time for lawmakers to get back to work. She has a point. House Minority […]

What It Is All About

(Editor’s Note: The Carpetbagger Report, as regular readers know, has joined the Coalition for Darfur, a bi-partisan online initiative created to raise awareness and resources to address the crisis. This is the latest in a series of posts from the Coalition.) Last weekend, the blog Blue Girl, Red State wrote a post about a regular […]

A region is in ruins, but at least ‘Southern Decadence’ has been cancelled

This morning, we noted that Christian Life and Liberty.net sent out an email alert to its base, explaining their belief that Hurricane Katrina destroyed New Orleans in part because Louisiana has 10 abortion clinics. As the group explained, the hurricane looks like a fetus, which is “proof” that God is sending us a “message.” Now, […]