CREW has been busy. If only our elected representatives were as oversight-minded.

drational

You’re not playing by the rules!! You gotta at least include a suggestion for what might be so embarrassing…

“What would be so embarrassing, that DHS has conveniently lost Chertoff’s calendar for that day?” - EW

Hmmm, was he shopping for Blahniks with Condi ?

How about this article:

http://www.unknownnews.org/0509160913Chertoff.html

Quoting from it:

But according to a memo obtained by Knight Ridder, Chertoff didn’t shift that power to Brown until late afternoon or evening on Aug. 30, about 36 hours after Katrina hit Louisiana and Mississippi. That same memo suggests that Chertoff may have been confused about his lead role in disaster response and that of his department.

That can be kind of embarrassing, unless it is already well-publicized. Think of the headlines! “Confusion about responsibility at DHS causes numerous deaths.” or some such. Can’t seem to find the referenced memo, though. Have to do some more googling.

1. He was inspecting the TSA troops in New Orleans but had to leave when the water got too deep? Returned to DC to get dry shoes.

2. He watched the graveyards to see if any registered voters floated up.

I’m actually wondering if he was being feted by one of DHS’s numerous contractors…

I have a secret audiotape of Chertoff evaluating an emergency disaster relocation site before the hurricane hit. I have transcribe part of the conversation:

“I have been informed by the Army Corps of Engineer scientists, that in the unlikely event of Katrina hitting New Orleans, the levees will hold. Thank You. Now watch this drive

… or worse, that he canceled an important meeting on that day, that might have saved lives …

here’s a photo captioned “Atlanta, Georgia, August 30, 2005 — Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff addresses the media concerning the response to Hurricane Katrina at the FEMA Region IV Regional Response Coordination Center (RRCC) as Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt (left) looks on. Hurricane Katrina caused extensive damage along the gulf coast.”

photo

He was in the Bunker with Cheney - Brownie told them that Katrina was headed for DC (the best information Brownie had at the time).

Was Chertoff with Bush and McCain and the cake? Did Chertoff have a geetar session with Dubya?

Makes me think we should privatize Congress’s oversight responsibilities and give CREW and EPP the contracts. Oh, wait…

Meeting with Fuller and Martin in GA to map out how they were going to ‘handle” Siegelman and bury the Sessions tie-in? Charges were refiled against Seigelman in Oct 2005 and if Chertoff was in Georgia (9 - I didn’t click through on the photo) it would have been a good time for some face to face strategerizing, with no phone or email records.

NOt that such a thing would ever happen or that involvement in a political prosecution would ever taint such a wonderful man. Kumbayah.

Was he talking to lobbyists from Barr Laboratories about FDA approval of Over-The-Counter Plan B contraceptive?

The reason I ask is that he was with Mike Leavitt in that picture @9 above, so I googled to find out what Leavitt was up to that day. It seems that Plan B was a big topic.

“The nomination of Lester M. Crawford, the administration’s embattled choice to head the Food and Drug Administration, got a boost yesterday when three senators agreed to lift their holds and allow a vote on the Senate floor.”
http://thewelltimedperiod.blog.....avitt.html

********
“In October 2001, after its acquisition of Duramed Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Barr dramatically strengthened its commitment to proprietary product development with the formation of Barr Research, Inc. In August 2005, Barr Research, Inc. became Duramed Research, Inc. The Duramed Research team has extensive brand product experience in clinical trials, toxicology, regulatory affairs, pharmacokinetics, statistics and medical writing. The team’s primary focus is the expansion of a robust strategic proprietary product portfolio through the submission of New Drug Applications (NDAs).
http://www.barrlabs.com/propri...../index.php

I left this question downstairs and it’s a smidge off topic but not too much

if crew can go after elston and mccdonald’s bar affiliation, why can’t they go after yoo?

yoo needs to be disbarred so anything and everything he wrote will be discredited…far more important then mccdonald and elston

Reader MJC emailed to suggest:

Have you ever considered the possibility that Chertoff was in Greece at the wedding of Mark Wallace and Nicolle Devenish? Wallace was, for a time, part of DHS, as principal legal advisor to BICE.

What would be so embarrassing, that DHS has conveniently lost Chertoff’s calendar for that day?

having a cigar at the golf club?

oh, wait

if he knew the levees might fail, (which he did), and he knew the gulf cost would be under pressure, then possibly a meeting with the petro companies

does anyone know what the petro companies did before catrina hit?

did they prepare for a breach of the levees?

Marcy, re: your Mike & Mike post, a short question (more here): Would the FISA bill leave the telecoms open to suits over pre-9/11 lawbreaking?

Mr. Chertoff was making sure the sandbags at the Naval Observatory were high and firm enough to keep its undisclosed occupant safe no matter how high the wind or hard the rain. He was also making sure the shredders and incinerators were working at full tilt, as usual.

Or, he was home spending more time with his family, and didn’t bother answering the phone to find out what all the fuss was about.

Final guess, he was in the bunker with Cheney and Rove. Since there were no Republicans left in New Orleans, they played a little strip poker with Cheney’s SS detachment before tottering home after midnight.

On Sunday September 4, 2005, six days after Katrina drenched New Orleans, Michael Chertoff appeared on the Sunday talk shows. Both Tim Russert and Wolf Blitzer asked the Director of Homeland Security why he flew to a conference in Atlanta on Tuesday August 30, one day after the levees broke. Chertoff defended his obliviousness with a key phrase, which he repeated for good measure:

[I]f you look at what actually happened, I remember on Tuesday morning [August 30] picking up newspapers and I saw headlines, ‘New Orleans Dodged The Bullet.’.
…
Tuesday morning, I opened newspapers and saw headlines that said ‘New Orleans Dodged The Bullet,’ which surprised people.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....56121.html

My guess is that he was introducing Eliot Spitzer to the Empire Club.

What would be so embarrassing, that DHS has conveniently lost Chertoff’s calendar for that day?

has chertoff and/or the dhs actually ever been embarrassed by anything?

i think you-all are on the wrong track. gotta think what would chertoff find embarrassing - not what would embarrass us. hmmmm… this is really hard but i’ll try to come up with a few:

chertoff was volunteering at the local soup kitchen?
chertoff was visiting with a family of a soldier who died in iraq?
chertoff was teaching dance to middle school kids as a volunteer at poor deecee school?
chertoff was at his neighborhood’s weekly peace vigil?

from michael chertoff’s testimony before House Select Committee on Hurricane Katrina Preparation and Response October 19, 2005:

Congressman Shuster: There were also reports that you couldn’t get in touch with Michael Brown for a period of maybe 48 hours. Is that accurate?

Secretary Chertoff: On Tuesday [August 30, 2005] I had difficulty reaching him and was not reach him until shortly before 8 o’clock in the evening.

Congressman Shuster: Was that something that was occurring prior to this communication breakdown?

Secretary Chertoff: I don’t think I had any, it’s always difficult to reach people when they are moving around, but the period of time that I was having particular difficulty in reaching him was on Tuesday [August 30, 2005] when I and the deputy tried to reach him and were not successful in reaching him until shortly before 8 o’clock in the evening.

Congressman Shuster: There wasn’t a chronic communications breakdown between you and…?

Secretary Chertoff: …Well it was difficult to communicate…

Congressman Shuster: …prior to…

Secretary Chertoff: Prior to Tuesday, I don’t recall any problem, specific problem communicating with him.

link

evidently whatever ate chertoff’s calendar entry also disabled the entire telecommunication network at dhs.

Yeah … but how did he get back to Atlanta, GA, so fast?

But when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and its levees collapsed, Mr. Chertoff was, by his own later admission, slow to focus on the domestic disaster as it developed, even flying off to Atlanta for a terrorism conference as the city flooded.

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/.....l?s=oldest

floo powder?

They have now talked to us a bit in generalities about his schedule. One of the things that is of interest in his schedule is, while they say that he was very actively involved in monitoring what was going on with Hurricane Katrina, we were able to find out that after the storm struck, he went to the C.D.C. in Atlanta for a previously scheduled briefing on avian flu. And it wasn’t until he was on his way back that he started crafting the language for the memo that declared it an incident of national significance.

http://www.democracynow.org/20....._not_brown

Maybe he was doing one of those campaign slide-shows.

rosalind, not just at dhs. We were able to call our neighbor, who had stayed with his mother through the storm, right after the storm. He told us there was very little damage in our neighborhood. Several TIMES we spoke to them that day. Then, the next day, the communications died. No towers were blown down in the storm, as witnessed by our conversations with our neighbor. The next day, communication died.

Please stop with the photos! Guy doesn’t look human.

on “meet the press” sept. 4 2005 chertoff’s story is he picked up his morning paper, saw the headline ‘New Orleans Dodged a Bullet’ and went about his day.

link

”The Department of Homeland Security has refused repeated requests to provide details about Chertoff’s schedule and said it couldn’t say specifically when the department requested assistance from the military. Knocke said a military liaison was working with FEMA, but said he didn’t know his or her name or rank. FEMA officials said they wouldn’t provide information about the liaison.”

This is from the article that you gave. I find this interesting. Do we now know who the military person working with Chertoff was? Was it a female? Is the second use of liaison a subject or a verb? Jonathan Landy who was one of the writers for this story can be unusually revealing in his writings at times but the articles are always written with a possible double meaning. We borrowed this double entendre from the French, I believe. Since they would not reveal the name and rank of the military liaison, my only answer to EW’s question is that Chertoff and this unnamed person may have been working undercover to protect our nation.

How was Alison Young able to determine that Chertoff went to Atlanta? Are there any contemporaneous accounts of him going to Atlanta? If there are, why would DHS not provide his calendar for the day?

Well, the other thing is that presumably the wedding was over the weekend.

He still coudl have been in Italy, but it’d give him time to get back for Tuesday PM, when he appears to have been back.

Is there anyone at CDC that can confirm Chertoff’s attendance?

You know, that might support hte argument that he was in Italy. Scottie McC, in his book describes reading the press and describing it as “A worst-case scenario in New Orleans.”

If Chertoff read the news in Italy, as opposed to DC, those headlines would have reflected the initial belief that, bc the hurricaine hadn’t directly hit NOLA, NOLA had been spared.

Everbody is missing the real story here. We know what Chertoff was doing on Aug. 30, 2005. Go on over to the NYT’s site and take a look at Michael Brown’s email during Katrina. Go to pages 11 & 12 of the .pdf. It’s the designation of Michael Brown has the administration’s official fall guy Principal Federal Officer for Katrina. Now, look at page 13 of the .pdf. Sharon Worty is complaining that PFO is a demotion for Brown. This was a big shock and probably the point at which Brown realized he was being set up.

I think that what they are now hiding is the meeting where Rove, et. al., decided to let the disaster response fail and blame Brown.

EW, I sicced Henry the W on this: said it might be worth some subpoenas.

rosalind’s photo of that meeting is clear, and interesting. August 31, 2005 CNN reports at length on Chertoff’s appearance on neoConLarryKingLive. For anyone interested in the Susan Collins, JoeMentum nomination hearing February 2, 2005 for Chertoff, complete with transcript and endorsement letters, that link is available at GPO [caveat 13 MB]; On p.320 there is a friendly letter from the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities which lauds Chertoff’s pro bono work for the poor. One of the rapid solutions to housing displaced people was settled in a September 5, 2005 contract for $236. MM USD. with a tourism boat company whose principal office was in FL; maybe Chertoff was involved in finalizing that contract, as the linked somewhat-lurid journalistic item depicts; the arrangement involved 7,000 dock mooring occupancy reservations for a protracted period of time. Seems creative to have devised impromptu, but there were critics of various stripe.

What would be so embarrassing, that DHS has conveniently lost Chertoff’s calendar for that day?

Perhaps it’s not so much the “where” Chertoff was that is embarrassing but the where he wasn’t- heading to LA, establishing a command post, organizing a solid Fed response, coordinating w/local/parish/state response teams, TAKING CHARGE.

Figuratively, the DHS calendar is 100% correct- Michael Chertoff was nowhere on 8/30/05.

Chertoff’s lack of leadership, typified by citing the “NOLA Dodged a Bullet” headline to excuse his incuriosity as to what was really happening that day, remains stunning. Happy digging, CREW.

I think that what they are now hiding is the meeting where Rove, et. al., decided to let the disaster response fail and blame Brown.

We have a winner!

Knowing who comprised the “et al.” would be very interesting.

maybe he was spending time with one of vito fossella’s families ???

coulda been toe tapping in a Minneapolis airport

I could go on …

Tuesday morning, I opened newspapers and saw headlines that said ‘New Orleans Dodged The Bullet,’ which surprised people.

Uhhhmmm. You’re tellin’ me the freakin’ Secretary of the Do’freakin’HS got his news on this from a newspaper? They had nobody on the ground in LA? They lost the phone number the the National Hurricane Center? You don’t want Chertoff’s calendar for those days, you need his phone log.

He was in the closet with Jeff Gannon playing “Hide The Bulldog”

to supplement the brownie e-mails, from my link at 25:

“Chertoff: When I actually formally designated him PFO it was essentially formalizing something that had occurred in practice and I did it also in part to make sure that, I knew we were going to have some Cabinet discussion, that it was a clear message to everybody that he was the person I was looking to to [sic] manage this operation in the Gulf. Why somebody may view that as a demotion, you have to ask them.”

(my bold)

might also explain why brownie spent the day ducking chertoff’s calls.

I had been going to suggest that Chertoff donned his Skeletor togs (doesn’t need the mask, does he) & was @ ComiCon, but I like yours better.

Well, and look at page 9.

7:56 Brownie emails Altschuler and Rhode, saying he needed to talk to them ASAP about CHertoff

8:00 Altschuler tries to call Brownie

8:22 (your doc) Chertoff announces the change

Skeletor was in the throes of a three way monster mash with Alex Rodriquez and Madonna. It all took place in a pit of lime green jello made with kaballah water.

OT, from riz@aljazeera.net:

Last week videos emerged on the internet of Mexican police being taught torture training methods by a U.S. security firm instructor. In one video a man was pulled through his own vomit, in another a man is subjected to carbonated water being shot up his nose. Human rights investigators are up in arms but local officials are defending the training, saying that their police need aggressive training methods to confront the threat of drug cartels that have been responsible for over a thousand killings already this year.

These videos emerged just days after the U.S. Congress signed a $1.6 billion aid package to Mexico that included conditions for human rights.

Should Mexico be allowed to continue torture training for its law enforcement officials? Is it fair to tie U.S. security and aid packages to Mexico to human rights issues? Should the U.S. be exporting torture training to the police forces of other countries?

Please make sure you include your NAME and LOCATION so that we can put your e-mail on air. If you do not wish to continue to receive e-mails from Al-Jazeera TV please reply with the word “UNSUBSCRIBE” in the subject line.

Heh, that’s more like it!

Things calming down out your way? How was that Plant show?

Chertoff probably flew to Atlanta on some private plane, which left him incommunicado for hours in the middle of the disaster.

Well, it would humiliate me.

If I’m not mistaken, Scottie McClellan was actually a direct report to Devenish.

This, of course, is all speculation. It might explain the complete breakdown of communication from the Administration in the early aftermath of the storm, though.

How could that be considered embarrassing in ‘08, unless St. John de Lime Jello Background secretly joined them…

Don’t be silly. Where do you think McCan’t got all that lime green he keeps using as a motivational backdrop??

I’ve been searching around a little, finding reports of Chertoff not being able to reach Brown until 8:00. But the articles I’ve read never make clear that Chertoff kept trying to reach him. Is it possible it was Brown trying to reach Chertoff?

photo @9–clock shows abt 2 pm and Dir DHS giving speech at Atlanta CDC?…doesn’t yet know levees seriously breached and flooding?…and still several hours before dellegates authority to FEMA Brown?

Possibly Mrs. Chert played a role?: [from RumorMillNews 2-15-06]
“To increase overall preparedness, particularly for catastrophic events,” Chertoff announced a reorganization of FEMA on July 13, 2005. He dismantled the Emergency Preparedness and Response Directorate, of which FEMA comprised the bulk and was headed by a full under secretary.

Chertoff then split FEMA into two parts. The first part kept the name FEMA and had a director, not an undersecretary, who reported to Chertoff. It was, however, stripped of any preparedness functions, and dealt solely with response and recovery.

With the rest, Chertoff created the Directorate for Preparedness. The new directorate was tasked with facilitating grants for responder training, citizen awareness, public health, infrastructure, and cyber security.

In 2002-2003, Chertoff’s wife, Meryl Justin, worked at FEMA as disaster response branch chief and facilitated the agency’s transition into DHS. During her tenure at FEMA, Meryl briefed members of Congress and their staffs on response and recovery efforts following natural and technological disasters, including Hurricane Lili and the Shuttle Columbia disaster.

Meryl also served as director of New Jersey’s office in Washington under governors Donald T. DiFrancesco and James E. McGreevey. As director, she represented the state’s interests before Congress, White House staff and federal executive agencies. After 9-11, Meryl was responsible for securing grants for New Jersey homeland security and transportation projects from Congress and federal agencies as part of the state’s relief and recovery efforts.

Gov. McGreevey resigned in November 2004 after it was reported that his homeland security aide, an Israeli named Golan Cipel, planned to file a sexual harassment suit.

DNC has a webpage on this topic and Chertoff’s actions at the time, with diverse news cites over the bracketing week, but devoid of links or the specificity already in this ew.fdl thread, though some of the Brown depictions seem similar to the present discussion.

Amy Goodman interviewed Knight Ridder reporter Alison Young September 28, 2005 regarding Chertoff’s schedule on August 30, 2005; transcript.

OT Heads Up- just noticed that FDL In Justice Book Salon w/David Iglesias has been moved from tomorrow to Friday 7/11 (or am I the last one to hop the clue train on this?)

Iglesias q&a on Friday, Richard Clarke on Sat.- think I’d better actually jot down some questions for a change, as I did for Juan Cole.
TTFN.

Here are a couple of tidbits suggesting he had both making money and expanding surveillance on his mind:

Department of Homeland Security Announces Science & Technology’s 2005 Private Sector Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, August 22-25, 2005

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
Contact: Donald Tighe, 202-282-8010

August 10, 2005: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate today announced it will be hosting its 2005 Private Sector Research and Development Conference August 22-25, 2005, in Atlanta, Georgia.

This conference will provide an opportunity for companies and entrepreneurs to gain a better understanding of the research, development, testing, and evaluation (RDT&E) needs of the Department; of the potential business opportunities in current and upcoming solicitations; and of the research and development priorities being addresses under DHS S&T sponsorship.

Full story: http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/display?content=4725

Security czar: More traveler ID no threat to privacy

USA TODAY: Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said yesterday that Americans need to ease their concerns about turning over personal information to the government - especially if they want to fly safe from terrorism.

Full story: http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/i.....1_chertoff

http://www.twotigersonline.com.....gust05.htm

Here’s another activity that was going on in August 2005:

“Data Mining & Webometric Analysis of Terrorist/Extremist Groups’ Digital Artifacts,” Singapore, August 2005.

http://ai.arizona.edu/research/terror/index.htm

[Note: The links below are to .gov sites.]

Among Remarks by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff on 2007 Achievements and 2008 Priorities is this self-congratulatory paragraph:

The year was not without its challenges. While there were no successful terrorist attacks here in the homeland, we did continue to face serious threats, including plots against Fort Dix, N.J. and JFK Airport. These plots were disrupted by our partners and ourselves through sound intelligence, including, in one case, information provided by an alert citizen in N.J.; and all by working in partnership at the federal, state and local level, and with the private sector.

What DHS is undertaking behind the purportedly reassuring face put forward by Chertoff creeps me out at least as much as anything else I’ve been able to learn about domestic surveillance and personal information programs within the IC (Intelligence Community).

I think he was conducting research on mango prices in the Bahamas.

Bob in HI

I think he must have been hanging out in some airport restroom with Larry Craig.

Hmm– What was going on in the President’s email recapture program at the time?

Bob in HI

DHS, of course, is the gang that keeps tabs on all of us and all our foreign visitors, weeds out who might be “of concern” to police authorities, builds needless and needlessly expensive “walls” on our southern border, tracks and prepares to deal with potential natural and manmade disasters, etc.

Does it strike anyone as ominous that such an organization can’t determine where its fearless leader is 24/7, that it claims to have lost him for an entire day?

What does that say for DHS’s ability to handle its more challenging assignments? Conversely, what does that say about the truthiness of its compliance with federal law mandating public disclosures? That is, its blatant lying about not knowing the location of its chief executive. The answer to which question they might have obtained by asking Mikey himself.

Yes, the demotion of FEMA’s CEO - charged with preparing for and responding to multiple disasters throughout the US at any one time - to be the officer in charge of a single disaster was not a good sign either for the handling of Katrina or FEMA in general. It was a classic bureaucratic set-up - disclaim all responsibility while simultaneously placing all blame on a loser or enemy.

What does it say of Chertoff’s priorities that that was his principal contribution to the management of the federal government’s response to Katrina. And it suggests that that was Rove, Bush and Cheney’s principal contribution as well. Now if Katrina had hit Greenwich or Dallas….

Here’s an interesting tidbit. On pg 3 of the emails I linked to, there is an email (dated Aug 28) from Michael Lowder to Patrick Rhode (and others) that says:

Patrick,

Just received a call from Matt Broderick, who said that the WH is pressuring him to stand up an IIMG. He wanted to let you know, that they will activate the IIMG tomorrow for an “orientation” on the hurricane, for the purpose of looking at potential “Long Range Strategic Economic Impacts” if there is catastrophic flooding in and around New Orleans.

He said that he wanted to let you know, that it was not to “get into our knickers”.

[Italics mine]

When DHS later released these to CREW as part of the FOIA, they redacted everything I put in italics. According the the NRP (National Recovery Plan), an IIMG doesn’t get formed until after the DHS secretary designates the disaster as an “Incident of National Significance” (which didn’t happen until Aug. 30, the missing day). Did you notice that Brown wasn’t even on the email for the IIMG? As Brooks Altschuler points out in response to the email above, long-term impacts were FEMA’s responsibility. The IIMG was supposed to be the inter-agency coordination point for the immediate response. Remember who was supposed to be in charge of long-term recovery? Wasn’t it Karl Rove?

Here’s what I think happened. As early as August 28, Rove & Company saw an opportunity to turn the recovery spending into the worldest biggest political graft. They knew that the immediate response would be inadequate, so they set Brown up as the fall guy, while they planned out how to reward their friends (can you say Haley Barbour?) and punish their enemies (Blanco). There must be a meeting on Chertoff’s schedule for August 30 that has a title that is incriminating.

Not many “web sites, forums, chat rooms, blogs, social networking sites, videos, virtual world [sites], etc.” are identified by their owners as promoting international terrorism. Dark Web operational administrators wouldn’t dare analyze web sites, forums, chat rooms, blogs, social networking sites, videos, virtual world sites, etc. generally, would they? If so, knowing how to write in various styles with various word and phrase usages might come in handy, and English class might have even more practical value than many students recognize.

Remember the Shock Doctrine? I wonder if they looked at Katrina as an opportunity for a social experiment to remake NOLA from a stronghold for Democrats to haven for White Republican entrepreneurs which– remember– just happens to be a major port for oil refineries?

I recall also that these guys were not short of chutzpah, considering the ease with which they thought they could convert Iraq into a blooming garden of entrepreneurs and oil capitalists. Iraq was to be their overseas experiment with the shock doctrine; NOLA was going to be their domestic equivalent.

Hmm, what’s that funny taste in my coffee…?

…and why am I wearing a tinfoil hat???

Bob in HI

Not only English class, but instruction teaching any language in which one may choose to write.

Gov. Barbour certainly got a lot of federal money devoted to building high-end condos rather than lower income housing, while much of New Orleans remains in ruins. His consulting firm - the one in DC that he visits monthly by first class private transport, but claims that he’s resigned from running while governor of MS - seems to have gotten its cut of every federal dollar spent in his state.

Clearly, folding FEMA into DHS and then naming someone with Brownie’s abundant lack of qualifications to run it were demotions for FEMA and for Main Street USA.

As was demonstrated by CheneyRumsfeld’s “planning” for Iraq, these guys just wish away what they don’t want to deal with, behavior that would land an entry-level business analyst in the unemployment line. Perhaps the Katrina response was not incompetence. Perhaps it was merely an expression of Rovian priorities.

They knew there would be a lot they couldn’t do or do well and that didn’t interest them, but which might interest the taxpaying public. So they did plan for it.

Plan A: Ignore it.

Plan B: Focus on only two things: using the entire federal government to promote the partisan interests of the GOP, and spending its money exclusively on GOP supporters, whether or not that’s an effective use of funds.

Plan C: When shit happens and Plan A fails, refer to Plan B.

Gov. Barbour and his real estate cronies have certainly benefited as if that was the plan for preventing and relieving Gulf Coast natural disasters.

IIRC, of the 80 or so elementary schools in NO, only one is now private; the rest have be reconstituted as private. This has been a longtime repugs goal….privatize education. Also Neil Bush’s reading program is tied to federal dollars. I don’t know about NO, but lots of schools have been forced to buy this quackery. I remember vividly dubya saying years ago that “we know how to fix the reading problem in this country and we have the programs to do it.” I wondered at the time what idiotic mumblings, and realized later that he was talking about his brother’s nonsense program.

http://www.commondreams.org/he.....022-02.htm

should read ‘only one is now public’.

Well…at least we’re sure he wasn’t shopping with Condi! Er…on second thought…hmmm….

He was trying to have a eureka experience via a fusion breakthrough.

Let me be explicit with the subject of that link, ACLU’s What’s Wrong With Fusion Centers - Executive Summary.

I’m not sure if it was the 30th or the first but I saw Chertoff on C-span kicking off “National Preparedness Month”. My head exploded after hearing that so I didn’t see much of it.

He was in the adjacent stall to Larry craig

Sorry.
He was on a charter jet on the runway at a major National Guard base getting a coconut butter scalp massage, which unfortunately delayed the emergency relief flights.

Ah thanks. See, that was fun!

oops, cocoa butter. I was transcribing a poor quality copy of his travel diary.

OT: In an op-ed response to Fredo’s LA Times editorial of 7/2, attorney Raul A. Reyes rebuts former AGAG point by point, drawing the conclusion that Gonzales is w/out any cred talking on this issue & is a disappointment & embarrassment in general to Latinos:

Talking back to Alberto Gonzales
A fellow Latino attorney addresses the former attorney general’s recent Op-Ed article.

OT

Cheney’s finger prints on climate testimony lies to assist his oil buddies.
Nancy, can we impeach, now?

http://www.boston.com/news/nat.....testimony/

Went through numerous Katrina timeline sites late last night, from TPM to ThinkProgress, to ePluribusMedia to Cooperative Research.

Nothing on Chertoff — except for his declaration of a national incident at some point in the day. I cannot find anything that gives the exact timing of this declaration, or from where the declaration was made.

The Times-Picayune no longer has the articles from that period linked to any of their Katrina content, which seems rather odd.

Michael Brown sends an email to Chertoff on the 29th, but the timing of the email isn’t clear according to the Factcheck.org site.

Is it just me, or is Scotty’s press gaggle on the morning of the 30th ridiculously brief, to the point of absurdity? (

Coco…nutty…all of ya!!

The only rational guess is that whatever he was doing was “what he was supposed to do”.

I don’t know why people are surprised that Chertoff learned of Katrina by reading a newspaper. After all, Rove learned about Siegelman the same way.

That’s their story and they’re sticking to it.

Never mind that both Rove and Chertoff work for the administration of what is supposed to be an advanced society that uses cell phones and other forms of personal electronic communications devices.

Like Blackberry handheld devices that allow one to not only make phone calls but check emails and surf the internet for updates from fine commercial sites like Weather.com…

I suppose on 30-AUG-05 that Chertoff accidentally picked up a rock and stuck it in his cellphone/Blackberry holster that day. I can see where one might make that kind of mistake when a massive hurricane has been bearing down on one of the oldest and largest cities in the country for days.

Diane Rehm is discussing FISA on her show right now. Send in your statements, questions. Or call in 1-800-433-8850. drshow@wamu.org

The program
http://wamu.org/programs/dr/

Rove said he learned about the “prosecution” of Siegelman in the newspapers. In that clip of Rove he sure hemmed and hawed before he spit out more lies. He never answered whether he had “directly or indirectly” influenced the push for this prosecution

This story was in the Washington Post last week if you want another link.

From Dodd “to the phones”
http://by128w.bay128.mail.live.....=413985576

There were no “Dodged a Bullet” newspaper articles (not even in Italy): http://mediamatters.org/items/200509130005.
I think the “dodged a bullet” dodge must have come from the fact that Katrina was downgraded before landfall (it was only a 3 when it hit, I think).

OT: Waxman is threatening Mukasey with contempt if he doesn’t hand over the Cheney interview report. Fitzgerald says he made no deals with Cheney and Bush about their testimony.

Wexler just lobbed this grenade

Arrest Karl Rove
The House Judiciary Committee subpoenaed Karl Rove to testify on July 10, but on July 1 Rove announced he would defy the subpoena.
Could you or I get away with defying a Congressional subpoena? Of course not. So why can Karl Rove? Like George Bush and Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, believes he is simply above the law.
It’s time for Congress to prove them wrong by using its power of “inherent contempt” to send the Sergeant-at-Arms to arrest Karl Rove (as imagined in photoshop at left) and bring him before the full House to answer to the charge of Contempt of Congress, and to punish him to the maximum extent allowed by law, including prison.
Before Democrats won Congress in 2006, Nancy Pelosi said the most important reason to put Democrats in control of Congress was “subpoena power.” But now Pelosi is quietly blocking the use of inherent contempt.
Tell your Representatives to Arrest Karl Rove:
http://www.democrats.com/peoplesemailnetwork/106

All right Wexler! Now if only he would withdraw his co-sponsorship of the warmongering H Con Resolution 362.

go Wexler…go justice

I can’t believe I didn’t remember this right away (I might put it up on the next thread if this one is dying). Chertoff was at CDC dealing with the overstated avian flu threat. The big player in avian flu was RUMSFELD.

Moderator could you remove this?

What does that mean, “the big player”?

Sheesh, what is Mukasey’s next chess move?