Is That Legal?

Eric (Prof Muller),

Sounds like a dark chord to me... (i also am a guitar player) but not an unimaginable one. Suggests the President can probably play guitar and is either in a bad mood (who wouldn't be) or doesn't have QUITE the right chord.

This is trivial stuff, sir.

Slam the President for pork barreling, never vetoing anything. Slam him for ignoring international treaties. Slam him for engaging in a bold gamble to bring democracy to the middle east at a terrible sacrifice of American Lives.

That's all fair.

But ... Allah Wept.

His Guitar Chords?

Eric, you're jumping the shark here.

Holmwood.
(Props to Prof Muller, He'll post this I suspect, Kudos to him from Arouet (Voltaire)).

I don't find it trivial.

That bush is yodeling in the face of American babies dying,

That Chaney is still on vacation in Wyoming...

That Condi Rice chooses to attend Spamalot on Wednesday evening...

This is not trivial stuff.

Seems a pretty good metaphor for his entire incompetent administration. And by "administration" I mean both his tenure, and his staff.

See http://talkingpointsmemo.com and http://www.washingtonmonthly.com for on-going details with reference to the current situation.

I find the deaths anything but trivial. I find the criticism of Bush playing "bad" guitar chords pretty trivial compared to the deaths. Again, please don't put words in my mouth.

www.redcross.com if you'd like to give.
www.redcross.yourcountryhere... if you're outside the US.

A prayer (or moment of silence) for those in trouble in New Orleans,

Regards,
Holmwood.

Who put words in your mouth?

I don't think Eric's point about Bush playing guitar had anything to do with his musical abilities.

The photo was posted to show what the President was doing while Americans were dying (that he couldn't even play the darn thing only makes it more painful).

Six feet away from my monitor it looks like Bush is smoking a reefer.

John, I don't find it trivial that you're blog commenting when you could be helping out with relief efforts, even as Americans are dying. Have you donated yet? Have you volunteered with the Red Cross (they are accepting volunteers to go to NOLA)? If not, then you are a chicken gumbo hawk, and not fit to criticize...

Eric, I'm one of your former students. It's a pleasure to have stumbled upon you as I've been scouring the Web for updates on the N.O. situation.

My wife is from N.O., I got married in a church Uptown, both my kids were baptized there, and I have a boatload of friends and in-laws in Mid-City, Lakeshore, Uptown, and Metairie who've lost their homes and been displaced. Some will be coming to live with me shortly, others will move in with other family members scattered throughout the country. And for Al Maviva's benefit, since donation or volunteering appears to be his litmus test for fitness to criticize the relief effort, I just packed a large box of new clothes and toiletries to send to in-laws who are relocating to St. Louis.

I'm also trying to get in touch with friends in and around the city who can tell me firsthand which charities are actually accomplishing something in and around N.O. I submit that the Red Cross is not one of them. They may be doing wondrous things in the Astrodome, they may be at the airport, but every report I've heard from within the city indicates that there is *no* Red Cross presence in the city, even now. They talk about "mobilizing" or "positioning" (please, please, national media, just once ask a talking head what that means in practical terms) but they readily concede they're doing nothing in N.O.

As if to corroborate, last night, Patrick McCrummen, the Red Cross's executive director, told FOX News that his is a "civilian organization" and it was still unsafe for any Red Cross volunteers to enter the city and deliver aid. So why hasn't anyone stepped forward to afford Red Cross volunteers safe passage? I think for that answer you should probably refer to the other thread about Rome burning, but here's one possibility: the President, when he was on the ground in Jefferson, could've directed the National Guard to escort the Red Cross into the city and remain there, but didn't. (And Eric, correct me if I'm wrong, but the President has the constitutional authority to order the state militias -- i.e., the state National Guard units -- into action.) The crisis is at a fever pitch. We've all seen the footage; people are dying in the streets and on the rooftops, and the body count is poised to skyrocket. Where is the President's sense of urgency? Sort out the blame later and get relief into the CBD, Mid-City, and the Ninth Ward. If four days (going on five and six) is not enough to get enough troops on the ground to allow relief workers safe passage, and yet the President insists the federal government is doing everything it can, then the question clearly becomes one of basic competence.

Either way, with the overwhelming and irrefutable outcry that there is complete communication breakdown and a failure of command-and-control, Michael Chertoff should be on the ground in N.O. or Jefferson for the duration to direct -- in person -- the federal effort. Someone tell him to let go of the President's coattails, to let the President deliver press briefings from the Rose Garden on his own. This is doubly true since FEMA has clearly been eviscerated, charged to bumblers, and rendered practically irrelevant. (FEMA promised Jefferson authorities they'd have federal help within 48 hours of the storm's passage. Jefferson's still waiting.) Instead of taking charge of the effort, he sits in Washington and has the unmitigated gall and ignorance to accuse eyewitnesses to the devastation of rumor-mongering and offers little else but platitudes about the federal government's *forthcoming* effort.

This combination of incompetence and nonchalance is bizarre and frightening to behold. Last night, there were still an estimated 20,000 people (many already dead) at the Convention Center. On FOX, Shepard Smith told Bill O'Reilly that anyone who tried to head away from the Convention Center on foort, up the I-610 overpass toward Metairie, was being turned away at a National Guard checkpoint just beyond the Superdome. People are being forced to wait on help that isn’t coming.

Meanwhile, the AP is reporting that the National Guard abruptly halted the Superdome evacuation this morning, leaving no explanation, no indication of when efforts will resume, and 2,000 evacuees still stranded. This is what now passes for coordinated rescue.

Meanwhile, there are anecdotal reports of buses sitting in Jefferson, idling with the air conditioning on, their drivers telling reporters that it's not safe enough to enter New Orleans proper.

Someone -- Bush, Chertoff, Gen. Honoré, anyone -- needs to take measures appropriate to the level of desperation.

Otherwise, God help us.

Al,

Donated, offered my home up to refugees, we're making rice krispy treats as I write this to sell for the relief effort.

My conscience is clean baby!

And while we're on the subject...

Whose criticizing? I'm agreeing with Eric.

This is a musical "Bushism." It's a G major chord, but accidentally (no pun intended) moved up one fret. The same thing happens when he speaks, and the explanation is always that it really makes sense if you just build in some correction factor.

bush is clearly a jandek fan!