As I flush more and more of the evil pain medication and repug fecal matter residue, err, talking points from my system, my insight that immediate objects of sensationalism provide no evidence for the existence of anything beyond themselves has possibly yielded pay dirt and given me a healthier outlook on my present conundrum making sense of what this fuckwit has done. Taken together with another nagging idea that nothing can be thought without first being sensed, results with what I like to describe thusly; Physical objects and assorted idiots have no reality apart from my individual, private perceptual experiences of them. This helps me deal with all the dipshits in last eight year’s sphere of sway. Yes, I’ve been reading Mill, but not the whole boring book, thank you very much. I’m looking to enact an ethical system based on a purely hedonistic calculation of my actions with a view to the greatest happiness for the smallest expenditure, and with a consistent application of this principle in my fractured social life and in dealing with pinhead political nankers that would resolve many of the constantly cropping up difficulties in my slacker quintessence, using proportional but perfectly appropriate retribution to render unacceptably painful to the odd prospective bonehead any behavior that would otherwise be likely to cause me to rend my garments and spit up on my favorite bodice. You should try it.

Good thing it wasn't bagpipes

It look like he's blowing himself.

communicating the Bush Years, and total disconnection from reality.

For some of you, you may remember the term MARKETED® by the GOP in 04, maybe even in 00 -- "COmpassionate Conservative" .... I have screen shots from those campaign pages back then. I can tell you, they were 90% Bush posing with various black people -- children, workers, whomever -- but BLACK = in need, and Bush was there to tell us how much he and the GOP really cared about all those people in need.

This graphic is the quintessential juxtaposition. Maybe you credited the artist. I will now go back and look :) thanks for posting it.

He should add to his list: Zombie Apocalypse. That's the one I want to see us prepared for.

;)

Susie Madrak, why did you highlight Michael Chertoff's comments?
I was asking because I followed the link to the original USA today story and, it wasn't highlighted by the original author.

...are Chertoff's comments particularly important?

Does anyone know what Obama plans to do with Homeland Security?

I assume he'll keep FEMA in place and hire some really good people to work in the agency, maybe even have it report directly to him in times of emergency. James Lee Witt from the Clinton administration would be great, since he did such a good job then, and I've heard Obama is considering him.

But what about all the rest of that huge department?

From Wikipedia:

In the United States, the concept of "homeland security" extends and recombines responsibilities of several government agencies and entities, including the United States National Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the United States Coast Guard, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, the United States Secret Service, the Transportation Security Administration, and Civil Air Patrol. The George W. Bush administration has consolidated many of these activities under the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), a new cabinet department established as a result of the Homeland Security Act of 2002. However, much of the nation's homeland security activity remains outside of DHS; for example, the FBI and CIA are not part of the Department, and other agencies such as the Department of Defense and Department of Health and Human Services play a significant role in certain aspects of homeland security. Homeland security is coordinated at the White House by the Homeland Security Council, currently headed by Frances Townsend.

Homeland security is officially defined by the National Strategy for Homeland Security as "a concerted national effort to prevent terrorist attacks within the United States, reduce America's vulnerability to terrorism, and minimize the damage and recover from attacks that do occur".[1] Because the U.S. Department of Homeland Security includes the Federal Emergency Management Agency, it also has responsibility for preparedness, response, and recovery to natural disasters.

The term became prominent in the United States following the September 11, 2001 attacks; it had been used only in limited policy circles prior to these attacks. The phrase "security of the American homeland" appears in the 1998 report Catastrophic Terrorism: Elements of a National Policy by Ashton B. Carter, John M. Deutch, and Philip D. Zelikow.

Homeland security is also usually used to connote the civilian aspect of this effort; "homeland defense" refers to its military component, led chiefly by the U.S. Northern Command headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

The scope of homeland security includes:

* Emergency preparedness and response (for both terrorism and natural disasters), including volunteer medical, police, emergency management, and fire personnel;
* Domestic intelligence activities, largely today within the FBI;
* Critical infrastructure protection;
* Border security, including both land and maritime borders;
* Transportation security, including aviation and maritime transportation;
* Biodefense;
* Detection of radioactive and radiological materials;
* Research on next-generation security technologies.

Maybe Congress needs to take another look at the Homeland Security Act of 2002. The agency is just too large and cumbersome, right now without any oversight, so who knows what they're doing.

Does this mean that FEMA no longer has the money to buy formaldehyde infested trailers? Does this mean there will be no more money to buy hundreds if not thousands of trailers to leave sitting out west until they rot? Oh no!

I wasnt looking forward to homeland security coming to my house during an emergency anyway. They would knock on my door...

I would yell to them that "I'm just fine and can take care of myself go help someone less capable than me"...

and then they would break down my door and haul me away like they did with anyone remaining in N.Orleans.

Doctors call emergency care ‘national disgrace’

The nation’s emergency care system is “a ticking time bomb,” with demand far outstripping the capacity of hospital emergency departments already crippled by a widespread shortage of doctors and nurses, according to a national report on the state of emergency medicine.

The annual report card by the American College of Emergency Physicians gave the nation a D- grade for Americans’ access to emergency care, saying the emergency care system was “fraught with significant challenges and under more stress than ever before.”
..
The group found serious problems across the board, choosing to give no state an A. Massachusetts (B) and the District of Columbia and Rhode Island (both B-) — all with high concentrations of advanced medical institutions in small geographic areas — were the top three, while Arkansas came in last with a D-.

Scores were so low — 90 percent of the states earning mediocre or near-failing grades — that Nebraska’s grade, a C+, was good for fifth in the rankings.

HUD sued over Katrina fund diversion

A group of public interest lawyers sued the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on Wednesday, seeking to stop the state of Mississippi from diverting $600 million in federal hurricane-relief funds intended for housing to a massive expansion of the state’s port facilities.
..
The plaintiffs maintain that Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a former lobbyist, White House aide and head of the Republican National Committee, is using the federal money to pay for a huge makeover to state port facilities at Gulfport that was planned before the hurricane struck. They point out that spending $600 million on the port, which already received insurance money for damage it suffered in the storm, cannot be considered hurricane-related repair because it is more than four times the $127.5 million the port was valued at before Katrina.

I've been convinced for years that the Global Investment Capitalists intend to crash the US economy.

And I've seen nothing in the last 30 years that contradicts that.

Seems like years since I did that...Oh yeah, it was!

I did a few more with Bush superimposed on Katrina scenes, but that one was my first, and the best.

Oddly, somebody re-did my paste job later with a higher-resolution version of the same stuff, but never claimed credit. Damn, there's talent rolling around in these here toobz...;-)

Has any one heard who the O-man is going to replace chertoff with?

The Government still wants to Support
Dictator's Military, Feed the World, and fight HIV and World Diseases on our DIME.

Why is it Bush's "Faith Based Initiative Program" is only for Americans at Home? Republicans cut Domestic Spending on Americans Health Care and Education and send the money to foreign nations Health and Education Programs.

Twenty Four Billion Plus to Africa, $8+ Billion to Colombia's Military, another $500 Billion to protect Exxon Mobil and other countries Oil Shipments from the Middle East, etc.

No wonder America is Broken!