Associated Press Still Flogging Katrina

These People Actually Get PAID To Do This???


Did President Bush and the members of his Cabinet stop by your house today?

No?

How about the National Guard?

Did one of their guys in olive drab rap their knuckles on your front door?

No??

Well…they didn’t stop by my home either.

Darn it…

I had trash that needed taking out and both of our vehicles could use an oil change, but the president’s staff must have forgotten about it.

Oh, that’s right—the President has spent the last few days over in India and Pakistan kissing swarthy babies, shaking hands with dignitaries, and rubbing turbin enshrouded heads for good luck.

It seems to me that based on the press coverage the trip has been a success so far.

At least VP Cheney hasn’t shot anyone this week in the President’s absence.

That said, I’ll point out that, according to that same media coverage, if I were Al Sharpton (or almost any other “Race Baiting Warlord” like Lewis Farrakhan); the entire reporting staff of the ASSociated Press; or possibly a Democrat like John Kerry, Nancy Pelosi, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagan or Louisiana Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco…

I should still be sitting around again this morning waiting for my trash cans to be emptied and for my free oil change.

That’s how the government is supposed to work, isn’t it?

The president isn’t just the CEO of the country, he’s an all knowing clairvoyant—a seer of all needs and wants, an omnipotent knower of all that needs knowing, and an inept doer of all things needing doing.

“Hey Pres Bush, did you change that empty TP roll in my bathroom and fill up my ice trays in the fridge last night?”

What about the cat’s litter box?

OK folks…enough silly BS humor…here is what has my boxers all bunched up this morning.

The ASSociated Press.

Specifically, the ASSociated Press’s coverage of the the “leaking” of videotapes of the president’s briefing shortly before Hurricane Katrina struck near New Orleans.

Here are the core paragraphs in the initial reporting they put out on March 1st and that was echoed in an e-mail sent out by the Democratic Party Website and retold on basically every TV station and in every newspaper in the world:

The National Hurricane Center's Mayfield told the final briefing before Katrina struck that storm models predicted minimal flooding inside New Orleans during the hurricane but he expressed concerns that counterclockwise winds and storm surges afterward could cause the levees at Lake Pontchartrain to be overrun [emphasis mine--VRR ]

"I don't think any model can tell you with any confidence right now whether the levees will be topped or not but that is obviously a very, very grave concern," Mayfield told the briefing.

Other officials expressed concerns about the large number of New Orleans residents who had not evacuated.

"They're not taking patients out of hospitals, taking prisoners out of prisons and they're leaving hotels open in downtown New Orleans. So I'm very concerned about that," Brown said.

Just in case you don't understand the point here, let me direct your attention to the fact that there is a HUGE difference between “overrunning” (or “topping”) a levee and “breeching” a levee.

Overrunning and topping involves the winds blowing the water and waves over the height of the levee, thereby causing flooding and potential further failure of the levee structure.

Remember that the New Orleans levees failed due to water saturating the base foundation of the structures, causing them to saturate and collapse from below, not above?

The assumption by the government officials and the engineers was that the levees were STRONG ENOUGH to hold themselves up if the water didn't come over their tops.

The concern was that if a Category 5 storm hit, would these same levees actually be TALL ENOUGH to hold back the waves and storm surge.

Yes we’re talking technical details here, but as the old saying goes—“The Devil’s in the Details…”

Also notice disgraced resigned "Scapegoat" FEMA director Michael Brown's concerns about the hotels still being open and the hospitals and prisons being occupied?

But I thought that Brown and FEMA were supposed to be asleep at the helm while Bush was drinking Bloody Marys on vacation in Texas?

Right?

I've seen the video's personally, and the concepts in the briefing should be perfectly clear to anyone except the group of highly educated partisan MORONS like those evidently employed by the AP.

Once again this total non-story proves that the ranks of the ASSociated Press are filled with idiots or partisan hacks, or possibly a little of both.

The good news is that enough noise was made by various knowledgeable sources since the story's publication last Wednesday that the ASSociated Press elected Friday Evening to publish a great big old “OOPS” in the form of a "sorta-kinda" correction.

Almost a genuine retraction of the story, but not quite.

Of course they didn’t admit their error very loudly and of course many of the other publications and broadcast outlets that echoed their first story won’t bother to follow up with the correction:

Clarification: Katrina-Video story

ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) _ In a March 1 story, The Associated Press reported that federal disaster officials warned President Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees in New Orleans, citing confidential video footage of an Aug. 28 briefing among U.S. officials.

The Army Corps of Engineers considers a breach a hole developing in a levee rather than an overrun. The story should have made clear that Bush was warned about floodwaters overrunning the levees, rather than the levees breaking.

The day before the storm hit, Bush was told there were grave concerns that the levees could be overrun. It wasn't until the next morning, as the storm was hitting, that Michael Brown, then head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said Bush had inquired about reports of breaches. Bush did not participate in that briefing.

Yea...I know, I know, I know...some of you get tired of me whining all of the time about the media, but I also know that some of you agree with my disgust.

How the hell can these people continue to get things so wrong--time after time after time--unless they are doing it intentionally and hoping that they won't get caught?

I've said it before and I'll say it again to all of the members of the lamestream mainstream media:

The bloggers are everywhere, and we're watching you. We're not going away, and some of us are on a mission--a mission to end media bias and editorializing being disguised as news coverage.

As for me, personally, I remind the members of the exempt media of the words uttered by my movie Idol Clint Eastwood in the film Dirty Harry...

"Go ahead punk(s)...make my day"

This Just in...AGAIN

President Bush's Adventures In India...


I just heard FOX News say that President Bush continued his tour of India today, visiting a farm and receiving a demonstration of the Indian's latest farm technology.

Through sources I can't reveal, I have a photo of the event...




All I want to know is...

Does he know the difference between "gee" and "haw"?

BS, MS, & PHD

Bull Shit, More Shit, and Piled Higher & Deeper...


When will it end?

My lovely fellow “blogger” over at Capital Freedom recently did a good job of pointing out the differences between the media’s handling of VP Dick Cheney’s hunting accident and other similar events that carry less political currency.

She pointed out this Washington Post story about a policeman accidentally KILLING an unarmed man being arrested for the hideous crime of illegally gambling on sports.

Fairfax County's police chief said yesterday that one of his officers accidentally shot and killed an optometrist outside the unarmed man's townhouse Tuesday night as an undercover detective was about to arrest him on suspicion of gambling on sports.

Police had been secretly making bets with Salvatore J. Culosi Jr., 37, since October as part of a gambling investigation, according to court records. They planned to search his home in the Fair Oaks area, just off Lee Highway, shortly after 9:30 p.m.

Culosi came out of his townhouse on Cavalier Landing Court about 9:35 p.m. and was standing next to the detective's sport-utility vehicle, police said, when the detective gave a signal to tactical officers assembled nearby to move in and arrest Culosi.

"As they approached him . . . one officer's weapon, a handgun, was unintentionally discharged," said Fairfax Police Chief David M. Rohrer.

Miss Capital Freedom made some very lucid points in her posting. Among other things, she said:

“Perhaps the media is more forgiving of police officers, whose job is to know how to handle weapons responsibly to protect people. While I can choose the people with whom I go hunting, I have no say in whether a police officer in my county is careful when arresting unarmed individuals. While most Americans will probably never encounter Vice President Cheney, let alone go hunting with him, many of them will encounter police officers. If news sources wanted an accident to be truly outraged about, this is it. If news sources really wanted to assert their "right to know," here's where they could do it. Instead, they are happy to drop the story without publishing the outcome of the investigation and without knowing even the officer's name.”

I couldn't have put it better myself...

Likewise, I had pointed out in an earlier posting the media’s desire to protect the identity of a suspected pervert child molester down in Florida last month. They said since the guy hadn’t officially been charged with a crime that they decided to not publish his name.

Funny thing, how the media was shitting bricks when the VP makes a mistake with a gun and doesn’t send them an immediate E-mail, place a phone call or do an I-pod broadcast with the news, but the police can kill an unarmed man and they withhold HIS name out of some kind of twisted respect in the name of "journalistic integrity."

And of course the media can freak out over "Bird Flue" while at the same time not hyperventilating over the average 100,000 annual deaths in the US from adverse reactions to prescribed medications.

Is that just a inconvienant detail?

They also don’t tend to make much noise over the 44,000 annual deaths in automobile accidents unless someone fameous or drunk does the killing and/or dieing.

What about all of the stupid assholes out there in the world (and you know who you are) that cause accidents and kill beople because they routinely tailgate, pass against the solid yellow line, speed, don't use their turn signals, and otherwise drive like morons?

Can I have a collective yawn here?

And ANOTHER THING...Let me say this about that (the gun issue) again.

I’ve spent a great deal of time on gun ranges with police officers. Just because they have a license to carry a gun doesn't automatically mean that they can actually shoot one safely.

The SWAT team members tend to be competent handlers of all types of weapons. They also show up at the range in shorts and tee shirts and don’t identify themselves as law enforcement until you get to know them.

Then there are the macho “street cop”morons that come to the range in full battle attire—uniform, mace, taser, and crappy factory Glock 9 MM pistol in clunky leather holster, making their once annual appearance to fire a single box of bullets just so they can stay qualified to carry a gun.

I guess that we're supposed to be impressed or something.

No one that knows anything (about cops or guns) will turn their backs on these fools because we know they generally can’t hit the broad side of a barn from fifty feet away.

Did you know that?

Face it folks, you'd be better off going hunting with our VP while drinking a fifth of Jack Daniels and poping painpills, rather than being on the street with at least half of our men in blue when they are inclined to pull their guns out of their pants and point it at someone.

Can you say "collateral damage"?

Walter Concrete Cronkite Gets His Own Moon Rock

"Free Brain Transplant?"


I loved Walter Cronkite when I was a kid.


Specifically, I loved his coverage of the space program.

When NASA was flying something into orbit or off to the Moon and Mr. Cronkite was doing the play-by-play commentary, I got to stay up to all hours of the night to watch and listen to his broadcast on TV.

Since old Walter has been put out to pasture, I understand that he has spent a good deal of time living on a large sailboat and generally enjoying life. He certainly deserves to enjoy a prosperous, graceful retirement.

Unfortunately, like learning that there is no Santa Clause and no Easter Bunny, it’s become obvious to most everybody that Walter’s reporting outside of the fields of science and spaceflight was…shall we say… skewed a bit to the LEFT of center.

Who knew?

Back in those innocent days we thought that the news was delivered by reporters, and political commentary was delivered by pundits and possibly old Andy Rooney.





Today I wish that Walter would take a cue from Johnny Carson and just quietly fade away into his golden years, but he hasn’t so far. The next thing I want to hear personally is that he died peacefully in his sleep when his time finally comes.

Instead, Walter still chooses to sit in front of a TV camera every few days spewing insane ramblings on politics with his faded eyes rolled back in his old grayed head.

Any way, it seems that NASA has elected to give their favorite TV personality his own Moon Rock:

AUSTIN, Texas--NASA is honoring veteran newsman Walter Cronkite.

The space agency is giving him a moon rock in recognition of his decades covering the space program.

Cronkite, who anchored the CBS Evening News from 1962 until his retirement in 1981, is the first non-astronaut and only non-NASA individual to receive the Ambassador of Exploration Award.

The newsman, once named "the most trusted man in America," covered the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions, including Apollo 11 and subsequent moon landings.

Cronkite is presenting his lunar sample to the Center for American History at the University of Texas in Austin, which houses the Walter Cronkite papers.

The sample will be displayed in the center's exhibit gallery.

Instead of giving his space rock to UT, I say that he should sell it on Ebay and buy himself some medical assistance or psychiatric care.



And Walter...by the way... please get someone to trim those damn eyebrows…

And while you're at it...take Mr. Rooney with you...


(Sorry Walter...I couldn't resist photoshopping your face a little...)

I Almost Forgot To Mention THIS Shit

Sorry Mom, but there is no other way to describe it...


This story has been bouncing around the local newspapers and radio talk show for about a week now. Let me tell you about it.

Some stupid shit morons stole the bronze monument off of the grave of Marine Corporal John Stalvey:

A monument honoring Stalvey – a Marine sniper who died in a roadside blast in Iraq last October – has been returned to his gravesite at Chapel Park Cemetery in Brunswick.

Vandals had removed the sculpture and dumped it in a nearby neighborhood in February.Seeing the life-size rendering of a Marine's boots, helmet and M-16 rifle returned to its rightful spot Monday was gratifying, said Merillat, Stalvey's mother.

"We were really happy that what we had picked for John's grave was there again just like we meant it to be," the Glynn County resident said.

And with more concrete and sealant holding the monument in place this time, it should remain there.

In addition, Glynn County police have established regular patrols in the area.

The search for the parties responsible for the desecration – which left the monument with some broken foundation rods and damaged a small piece of the rendered rifle – goes on, however.

Detective Craig Cupp with the Glynn County Police Department said the department has received pledges for $2,000 in reward money for the arrest of the vandals, whose identities remain unknown.

A reward fund established through United Community Bank has received $465 in donations, according to Ski Vsetecka, a retired Navy veteran who established the fund.

I just sent Sean Hannity this E-mail:

Mr. Hannity,

I thought that I'd alert you to this local story here in Brunswick, Georgia about the monument on the grave of Marine Corporal John Salvey (killed in a roadside blast in Iraq last October) being stolen and later found dumped in a ditch in a nearby neighborhood.

The stolen bronze monument (combat boots, helmet, and M16) was restored this week, but we're trying to raise money to catch the bastards that did it.

Here's a link to the local newspaper story:

(http://www.thebrunswicknews.com/front/302750635716606.php )

Can you add this story to your list of stupid liberal hate directed against our military, and give his family a mention on the air to assist in raising funds for the reward?

Best Regards...love your shows.

Virgil Rogers
St. Simons Island, Georgia


Let's just see what happens...

I'm Tired Of Talking To Computers...

On The Telephone, That Is...


For those of you that don’t know me personally, let me let you in on a secret.

I use E-mail extensively.

In fact, if you don’t have E-mail, you just might never hear from me again.

Some say that would be a good thing.

Nothing pisses me off more than for someone to hand me an e-mail address, then force me to call them a week later only to have them tell me "...OH, I have e-mail...but I hardly ever check it because I really don't understand those computer thingies..."

Why the hell did they bother wasting my time?

The same thing goes for computerized answering systems—they end up pissing me off most of the time.

When I'm in a hurry or otherwise want to actually TALK to a human, I pick up the telephone handset and go through the archaic process of placing a Telephone Call.

I understand that making a call on the telephone was a significant event in the early 1900’s. Folks looked forward to it because it made them feel important. People used to have friends and neighbors over for drinks, serve little finger sandwiches with the crust cut off the bread, or kill hogs and fry whole chickens in anticipation of the event.

Not so today.

Most people these days can actually hide behind a telephone. I mean really FAT people that couldn't hide behind a Toyota can successfully hide behind a cordless telephone.

Caller ID has made things even worse, particularly for men chasing the attentions of women and for bill collectors pursuing deadbeats.

Likewise, computerized voice mail systems have put an infinite number of highly paid professionals (doctors, lawyers, et. al.) and lowly paid scumbags (the so called “customer (non)service” representatives) behind an infinite screen of zero’s, one’s, and three's that you are asked to dial on your telephone keypad.

I wish that I could invent a device that would deliver an electrical shock through the telephone to the chairs of the persons that I'm feverously attempting to reach through a computerized voice mail system.

I'd call it the Answering System Ass Phaser--or ASAP for short...

The intensity of the shock would be directly proportional to the number of rings I have to endure and the number of buttons I have to push after the initial ring of the phone call. I suspect that many telephones would be answered after the first or second ring if I were allowed to implement my new system.

In anticipation of my ASAP voicemail, I recall that last year I published a posting with a listing to a website that gave the phone numbers, often officially unpublished, to major companies like American Express or Best Buy with which you might have a beef.

By “Beef” I’m not talking sirloin here, I mean things like bitching about those pesky non-credited monthly payments on your credit card or yelling at the electronics salesperson about your DVD player that insists on shooting movie DVD’s across the room at high speed.

Yesterday my Fellow blogger Rodger over at Curmudgeonly & Skeptical posted a new link to an even better website called the “Get human database.”

It has the phone numbers and instructions on how to get to speak with an actual human instead of a computer voice mail system for 414 companies.

Click on the link and go check it out...you're gonna love me for it.

And don't make me have to call you...

Success, Sleep, and Food

Not Necessarily In That Order


I learned something new earlier this morning.

The only thing harder that photographing FOOD...




Is photographing ART...




I'm going to take a nap now.

I'm Still Drawing Roofing

Please Stay Tuned...

My To Do List

Note To Self...It's Gettin' A Little Long

Write Proposal For "K-Street Tree Sculpture Project"..............3-1/2 Hours (just now completed)

Finish Inking Roof on Christ Church Drawing.........................2 Hours

Finish Inking Darien Methodist Church Drawing....................6 hours

Have Meeting With City Administrator..................................2 hours

Pick Up Slides of Finished Art From Glynn Camera.................1 Hour

Deliver Slides & Art Exhibit Application by 5 PM Wednesday..1/2 Hour

Become A Well Known Artist in The Local Community............Priceless


(Sorry Ladies and Gentlemen, but my blogging is going to suffer this week as a result...)

Roofing Trouble

I'd Rather Be A Plumber Or A Painter...


Did you know that I know how to do practically every single job associated with building a house and even most commercial and industrial building task?

Don't take this statement to mean that I LIKE or otherwise WANT to do some of these construction jobs, but I can do them none the less. For instance, I love doing framing and trim work, but you can have sheetrock and the tedious work of nailing down tarpaper and shingles.

I probably did my last roofing job about three years ago when I put a roof on my Mom's new utility building that we built together--about ten squares worth of Owens Corning product. My back still hurts thinking about lugging those son of a guns up a ladder.

Meanwhile, I've been working on finishing the last two of my church drawings and darn it if the roofs on both Christ's Episcopal and the Darien First Methodist Church are driving me crazy.

Since both building are presented in a simplified 3D perspective format, I can't just draw a bunch of parallel lines and call it a roof. I'm actually having to lay out and draft the individual shingles on each visible roof section.

I'd almost rather get out my hammer and nail apron, clamor up a couple of stories, and crawl around on my butt cheeks all day in the rain.

Why do I do this to myself?