Hat tip to Jack and Jill Politics:

The black women's blog, What About Our Daughters? is about to inaugurate
the Michelle Obama Watch page to both list and refute attacks and smears on the character and aims of Michelle Obama, who may indeed become the first African American First Lady in history.

I should say that it's an 'alleged' coverup.  But why should I give the Bush Administration any slack, especially when Pennsylvania's primary is filling up all of the known airwaves.

(Go Barack.)

I don't have cable anymore--I just can't afford it right now.  Hell yeah, I miss Olbermann daily, and I miss watching Rachel Maddow use only a scintilla of her vast intellect to bash Buchanan and Scarborough.  Friday nights without Real Time with Bill Maher pall as well.

So now, between nature shows, American Experience ("Roberto Clemente"!) and reruns of Masterpiece Theatre, I watch the braindead dreck that is network TV nowadays, including how many versions of Law and Order, and Howie Mandel's Deal or No Deal.

You know, this was the first time I had ever followed a link to Little Green Footballs.

But there it was, proof-positive that Ron Paul gladly
hangs with these haters, like Ron and Derek Black of Stormfront thanks to Raw Story.

Far be it for me to give credit to the exploding heads at LGF for finally outting the guy I call The Stealth Candidate and his really good friends. I'm sure that they have their raison as well for publishing these interesting photos. He's a threat to Repubs as well, but not as much as to us.

Because I am getting really sick and tired of this guy being the poster child for progressives because of his anti-war stance.  He carries far too much baggage.  Even certain blacks are enamored of this guy.  They just don't know.

Several pictures definitely create a thousand words.  Reminds me of what's his face--George Allen!--who went down in flames in Virginia.  Let's hope this gets people thinking.

For further information regarding Ron Paul's links to the haters in our midst, go to Orcinus.  

Forty percent of Katrina evacuees, two years later, are now living below the poverty line, according to a new Census Bureau report.  In fact, they may be in worse economic straits than they were before they were dispersed all over the country.

There never was a honeymoon for many.  I'm calling this The Long Return.

Cross-posted from Booman Tribune

Hat tip to Your Right Hand Thief.

I've often wondered what the Democratic candidates have in store for my beleaguered birthplace.  Ray in New Orleans has compiled a list of Dem candidates who have plans for the city in their platforms.

In terms of interest and "rough order of worthiness," they are:

1. Obama


2. Edwards


3. Clinton


4. Richardson


5. Dodd


6. Biden


7. Kucinich


8. Gravel

Ray cautioned that if you're only looking for substance, stick with the first three.

Cross-posted at Booman Tribune.

I was trawling a couple of New Orleans blogs, checking out what's happening down there, hoping to find some new David Vitter information that hasn't yet hit the mainstream, when I came across this interesting tidbit from one of my favorites, Your Right Hand Thief, to wit:

Visit Adrastos for all the latest on St. Bernard Parish Councilman Joey DiFatta. First he was running for State Senate, then he withdrew from the race due to chest pains, and now the T-P informs us that DiFatta was doing the Larry Craig toe-tap in public rest rooms.

Joey DiFatta is a former member of the Republican State Central Committee, the governing arm of the state GOP. In his campaign web site he pledges to "defend our conservative values from extreme liberal groups".

Uhuh.

Cross-posted at Booman Tribune and My Left Wing

At first, Rummy backed off, claiming that he had a prior commitment.

Now, he's on.  And not only him.

Wanna bet they've been strong-armed?

Generals Abizaid, Brown and Myers are going to be testifying before Rep. Henry Waxman's House Oversight and Government Reform Committee about the circumstances--as they understand them--regarding the murder by 'friendly fire' of Corporal Pat Tillman.  

They've had to issue a subpoena for fall guy Lt. Gen. Philip Kensinger to appear, but it's unconfirmed as to whether he will show up.

Crossposted from My Left Wing and Booman Tribune

Nothing ever surprises me about Republican candidates, but perhaps Ron Paul does.

He just may be a stealth candidate Pat Buchanan might like.

Why?

His good friend Jen says tonight:

Gilly is NOT doing well. He backslid last week, just as an overzealous (and cost-conscious) hospital was trying to push him out of the ICU and in to rehab well before he was ready.

More after the jump.

crossposted from Booman Tribune

I've kept saying this:

If Bush could allow needless deaths and despair in New Orleans, a major American city, and other Americans stepped back and went on about their business instead of forcing his hand, sooner or later it's going to happen to you in your town or city.

This is not just about natural disasters and Guard readiness.

Again, this is also about the Bush Administration screwing Democratic governors, and it doesn't matter whether it is a Midwest or a Southern state like Kansas or Arkansas.  This is about sabotaging sitting Democrats at the expense of their constituents.  

crossposted from Booman Tribune

I had to write about this.

When I first read these words by this woman nearly forty years ago, they blew me away. I was about fifteen.

Of course, they were meant to blow the reader away...figuratively.

The poet was referring to Vietnam as well as the white policing of the streets of black America in the Sixties, equating the senselessness of war with the senselessness of police brutality.

But to some others, they were thought to be an explosive invitation to murder whites because the words were so incendiary.

They still are.  Remember?

Nigger

Can you kill

Can you kill

Can a nigger kill

Can a nigger kill a honkie

Can a nigger kill the Man

Can you kill nigger

Huh? nigger can you

kill

With thanks to Booman Tribune.

It's not just Ann Coulter that we have to counter for the filth that comes out of her mouth.

It's the echo chambermaids that take up the slack when she's quit the field:

I saw this on BT this morning, a little squib by WaPo columnist Kathleen Parker:

Now, thanks to the omnipresent and unforgiving YouTube - and the incessant linkage of Web sites - John Edwards isn't just associated with hair. He is hair.

   He's also a stand-in for Narcissus, mesmerized by his own beauty reflected in the small mirror he holds up to appraise himself. I feel pretty, oh so pretty. I feel pretty and witty and ... oh never mind.

And frankly, it riled me to no end.

These people have nothing else to talk about?

Original at Booman Tribune.

Assbackery 101, second semester, 2007.

This story came in last night, but The Guardian picked it up this a.m.:

The 2006 hurricane season turned out to be mild, and the new pumps were never pressed into action. But the Corps and the politically connected manufacturer of the equipment are still struggling to get the 34 heavy-duty pumps working properly.

The pumps are now being pulled out and overhauled because of excessive vibration, Corps officials said. Other problems have included overheated engines, broken hoses and blown gaskets, according to the documents obtained by the Associated Press.

How can you fix something that is going to continue to be defective?

I'm really beginning to wonder whether they want New Orleans to return at all.

Cross-posted from Booman Tribune.

Bush and FEMA under David Paulison are playing political favorites again.

Any state with a Dem governor is going to get shafted when it comes to emergency aid.

Said the Springdale Morning News yesterday:

Alabama is a Republican state. Arkansas is a Democratic state. But this White House wouldn't dare distinguish among human suffering by whether a state was red or blue. Would it?

One can only wonder if Mike Huckabee might have had more luck with this current regime or whether Mike Beebe would be having better luck if we could fast-forward a couple of years to the Obama or Clinton administration.

At this writing, 11 days after the Dumas tornado, all we know is that Alabama got an affirmative answer in two days while Arkansas has yet to receive any answer at all.

Now, people probably know a bit about how New Orleanians felt like in late August and early September 2006.

Suckers.

Including Stacy Bannerman’s, the author of this article which was written for the February issue of The Progressive:

It is the soldiers, their families, and the people of Iraq that pay the human costs. The tab so far: more than 3,000 dead U.S. troops, tens of thousands of wounded, over half a million Iraqi casualties, roughly 250,000 American servicemen and women struggling with PTSD, and almost 60,000 military marriages that have been broken by this war.

And she doesn’t just blame Bush.  She blames Congress, who has in her words, "has abandoned the troops for nearly four years."

Via the New Standard, from the AP:

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) estimated there were 754,000 homeless people in 2005, including those living in shelters, transitional housing and on the street. That's about 300,000 more people than available beds in shelters and transitional housing.

Of course, HUD admitted that they undercounted in 2000.  That report, from the last year of the Clinton Administration, showed only 171,700 homeless.  The Urban Institute, in 1996, used Census tabulations to find that there were between 600,000 to 840,000 homeless Americans.

Among the findings for people in shelters and transitional housing:

1. Nearly half were single adult men.
2. Nearly a quarter were minors.
3. Less than 2 percent were older than 65.
4. About 59 percent were members of minority groups.
5. About 45 percent were black.
6. About a quarter had a disability, though experts said the percentage is probably much higher.

Well, the yahoos are nursing hangovers from Mardi Gras, wondering who is (or isn't) in bed with them, and packing up to leave.  Those citizens who are left are going back to work. Some will attend church services on Ash Wednesday, and go around town with the smudge from burnt palms. Piles of trash are being stuffed into garbage bags to be picked up much later on in the week.

New Orleans: the most free city in the South, and perhaps the entire country?  How about New Orleans: the Democratic stronghold of Louisiana?  Perhaps, not for long.

The following diary, written yesterday by LouisianaGirl of Booman Tribune says that politics as well as the 2005 levee breaks will underscore what occurs in New Orleans this year, and for years to come.  And--like those suffering hangovers staring at their bathroom mirrors today--it's not a pretty sight for Dems.

Original at Booman Tribune.

There's been some hullabaloo since yesterday in HuffPo that Brangelina is coming to live in the French Quarter while Brad is making a film.  Of course, they're also coming at a good time, before Mardi Gras season begins.

And the kiddies will be going to private preschools, not any preschool connected with that torn-up system barely making a blip.

And who can forget their humanitarian efforts? "Angelina has asked for places she can do charity work," says the source, who adds that Jolie had inquired about a school for disadvantaged youth. And construction is set to start this month on the 20 environment-friendly homes Pitt, 43, jointly commissioned with Global Green USA.

Yeah.

In contrast, I've missed Bob Herbert's columns in the New York Times about Katrina, but this new one came via Portside, published yesterday: