September 03, 2005

• Apparently he has remained on his vacation. That's the only thing I've heard.
• Er - maybe he's working with his staff, allocating resources, planning strategies and trying to do his best to help deliver a coherent response to a mind-numbing, colossal natural disaster? Would you rather have him grandstanding in front of the cameras? Where's John Kerry? This is a natural disaster beyond description. It's on the same scale as the tsunami in Asia. No human authority could have coped with it. Sure, some things could have been done better. There should have been more work done getting the poor out. But that's all. It was a hurricane. It dumped more energy into the southern US than a thermonuclear war would have done. So, monkeys, when do we evacuate San Francisco? too snarky - apologies
• >maybe he's working with his staff, allocating resources, planning strategies and trying to do his best to help deliver a coherent response to a mind-numbing, colossal natural disaster? Yep. Either that, or he made a big pile of money and he's rolling in it, naked. It's a toss-up.
• He's on vacation in Wyoming, the hotbed of allocation. Charles Rangel called him "Too sick to work" this week.
• He also managed to find time to visit 'Camp Reality' - the pro-Bush camp that's been set up across from Cindy Sheehan's protest outside Bush's Texas ranch (the Camp Reality term is the Bushites' term, not mine). This was on Tuesday.
• um livii, that was Rove
• Oh crap, ignore that, damnit, I read the thread wrong. That was Karl Rove. Cheney - vacation. Even though he's second in line to be President.
• Important to practice all the arts of governance. Such as vacationing. A man prepared to step into Bush's shoes can hardly get too much practice at that, I should think. /yes, sarcasm
• Cheney is probably helping Haliburton get ready for when they get the no-bid contract to rebuild New Orleans.
• Um... Chaz, I know that it's rather beside the point to compare tragedies as if they were in some goulish 'badness' competition but I do want to point out, in passing, that the Asian tsunami killed almost 300 000 people. As far as I know, nobody is suggesting that the Katrina damage is anything like that scale.
• Dang, I'm sorry to hear he has "Katrina Flu." Maybe that's what I have. I just got some sort of creeping crud that knocked me into bed for 24 hours and left me with chills, fever, sweating, sore throat, swollen glands, killer headache and caused me to cancel my oral surgery until next month. I figured why bother to go to a doctor, since I don't have one on call 24/7 and since I'd be tossing my co-pay into the trash just to hear him say, fluids, rest, pain-killer. Of course, I only missed working Wednesday night. Thursday, I drug my snot-nosed self into work. It's not an important job like VP, and it barely pays more than min. wage, but I feel a sense of responsibility to my co-workers and the hospital get my butt there. Chaz: no, I don't want to see him "grandstanding" Bush does enough of that, thenkyouverymuch. But it would be nice to hear someone NOT grandstand for a change. Instead of Bush's everlasting slideover, "We're going to get something done." I want to hear someone--Cheney--ANYBODY!--say, "We're going to do ABC within {this} timeframe to correct [defined] situation, and we expect the results to be XYZ. If not, our backup will be.... Anybody in gumment done that yet?? I think not.
• Hopefully he fucking drowned. Oh, and Tomas - they *already* gave the contract to Haliburton. I'm sorry - I'm so very bitter right now.
• Space Kitty - they got a contract for cleaning up some bases in Mississipi. They may still get the deal to rebuild NOLA. but they haven't haven't yet.
• Though, your "contract" link didn't work, but that's what I got from the "Haliburton" link.
• Oh. Never mind. /Emily Litella I still hope the current administration drowns.
• $6/gallon gas = cocaine, caviar, and classy call-girls for major Halliburton stockholder Dick "Dick" Cheney.
• they got a contract for cleaning up some bases in Mississipi. They may still get the deal to rebuild NOLA. but they haven't haven't yet. And...does it really make a difference? Doesn't the truth still suck?
• Yeah, it does make a difference. The contract that was awarded was part of a bigger contact awarded in 2004. I have no idea how ethical the award was, but could you guys at least read the links before going batshit? I hate Haliburton as much as anyone, but this sort of ire just makes us look stoooopid. If you can find some evidence that the 2004 contract was bogus, maybe we'll have something to discuss. But, you'll have to READ THE LINKS to be able to get there. And, the Space Kitty link "contract" has expired, so we have no idea what it says. Clam down! Discussion gets better if we're not bouncing off the walls. :)
• >Clam down! Is this like calming down and clamming up at the same time?
• Clam out, down, whatEVah
• Thanks for the clamification.
• Clamming out. I should know better than to post when I'm that angry. Here's a working link to the previously-referenced Houston Chronicle article, where says that a Halliburton subsidiary will perform damage assessments in New Orleans. Next time, I'll RTFA before I go batshit. Sorry all.
• "No human authority could have coped with it." Bullshit. In China they had a major typhoon sweep thru an area much larger than NO and only 5 people died because they were properly prepared. Fucking ditto head.
• Space Kitty--why not jam out with your...well, y'know.
• Um... Chaz, I know that it's rather beside the point to compare tragedies as if they were in some goulish 'badness' competition but I do want to point out, in passing, that the Asian tsunami killed almost 300 000 people. As far as I know, nobody is suggesting that the Katrina damage is anything like that scale. 'This is our tsunami' said Biloxi Mayor A.J. Holloway. And that was back when the official death toll was hovering at 55. And just for more good, western perspective, by August 30th we had: After touring the destruction by air, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said it looked like Hiroshima after the atomic bomb was dropped.: I'm with you, Dreadnought. I don't like to play the numbers game, but this is ridiculous. Keep in mind this was also days ago.
• It's been very bad - death rates could rise to proportions near the tsunami, considering the area affected. Reporters who were in Asia after the tsunami have said it looks similar.
• And I think Bush has behaved a lot like Hitler in his response to this mess....
• Cheney is still in Wyoming. Is anyone curious about the Federal response to this for a somewhat predictable catastrosphe versus a terrorist attack? I ask few things of Government. They have failed and continue to fail.
• For God's sake. The response to this disaster has been the same as the response to the tsunami. No one in American government cares about a few (hundred) thousand black or brown people. I thought we knew that already.
• The response to the asian tsunami was *faster* than the response to the hurricane, if you factor in that it was a relief effort sent to the other side of the planet after a disaster with no warning. The Federal government called a state of emergency down there before Katrina hit, there was full understanding of what was happening, and even what to expect, and yet it still took 5 days.
• "It's been very bad - death rates could rise to proportions near the tsunami.." Reach the proportions of dead from the Asian tsunami? Preposterous. The highest estimate I have heard is 10k. But 10,000 dead is bad enough. An update on the China Typhoon - even with the higher populations in much poorer areas the current toll is 45-50. And that will rise, but this is three provinces in East China. Fucking beggars the imagination that the Chinese can sort this shit out better than the US of A. Mind you, they have more typhoons and this one wasn't as powerful as Katrina.
• We heard 10k on the news here tonight, too.
• Chyren - no, I meant perhaps proportional to the land area. When you are on the ground, what matters is what's immediately around you, not the full picture.
• Agreed. When seen in context of this happening in the supposedly most advanced and wealthy country on Earth, it is analagous to the tsunami. It's very shocking and horrible.
• I think that the hurricane was every bit as destructive as the tsunami. Probably even moreso. The one category that it cannot compare to the tsunami is in death count. However, if no one had known that the hurricane was coming, I would not be surprised to see a death count that was more comparable to the tsunami.
• Dick is gonna be in Canada next week.
• Interesting article, islander. I hope the Canadian citizens are paying attention to the likes of Michael Walker.
• I hope Cheney is not deathly ill. Hope he is not suffering from more heart illness. Despite the cruel things many say about him, he seems to be a master of manipulation and machination( a political advantage). Bush needs to put him in charge of the disaster relief; he'd get things done pronto.
• Ha! Ha! That's very true, cynnbad. Bush is sorely missing his puppet-master!
• Are you being facetious? Sorry, but in this case he is the best of all possible worlds.
• Well, I was being facetious about Bush's unfortunate need of him. But NOT about the truth of your statement. I laugh (in a sarcastic way) at the fact that the president of the U.S. is not able to be discreet about his uselessness in this situation. He cannot hide who the real leader of the administration is.
• I seriously wonder if Cheney is on his last legs. I was looking up his date of birth last night to work out how old he was (64, and Bush is 59) and read one page -- Wikipedia, I think -- that said the rumour is that Cheney will run for President in the next election. But he's rarely in the public eye and spends an awful lot of time in isolation or on vacation for someone who wants to win the popular vote in three years.
• MonkeyFilter: Clam down!
• I think tracicle might be onto something.
• Cheney has dirty tricks to run and Halliburton controversies to bury/dodge/concoct. He can't be troubled to speak to domestic issues! Unless there's an election on. Then we'll see Dick!
• "For his part, Bush told reporters he was sending Vice President Dick Cheney to the Gulf Coast region on Thursday to help determine whether the government is doing all that it can." Well, there you go. He can shoot a fuckload of ducks now.
• Pete: I'm still not sure on the New Math thing. How does a fuckload of ducks relate to a metric buttload?
• Haliburton shares up 4.03% on Tuesday.