North Korea Finger Pointing

As soon as North Korea conducted a nuclear test, the Bush administration started playing the blame game. After 6 years leading the Confederacy of Dunces Bush had the gall to blame the Cinton administration for HIS failures. The stated policy of both administrations was to prevent North Korea from getting the bomb. So which policy failed? The one which kept IAEA inspectors in the country, or the one under which North Korea got the bomb? Is this complicated?

Yet, Bush said the Clinton approach was not working. If that isn't working, how's the policy that allowed North Korea to go nuclear going? There is no question that it is the Dunce in Chief's catastrophic policy that allowed North Korea to get the bomb.

Progress

Two pieces of news in the past couple of days highlight how far New Orleans has yet to go. Firstly, a census bureau survey concluded that City estimates as to how many people have returned were grossly overestimated. Travelling around the City, it is clear that those original estimates were wrong. With vast swathes of the City uninhabited, nay uninhabitable, it was clear that things were not as rosy as advertised.

The second piece of news is that barely 1% of the $7.5 billion designated to help residents return has been distributed, 2 months after it was supposedly supposed to start flowing. At this rate, it could be years (assuming the money remains available for that long) before a significant number are able to consider rebuilding.

If we are to catch up to City estimates of the population of New Orleans we need to cut through the red tape and get the return funds flowing. This is the same old story that has plagued the FEMA relief process from the beginning. No doubt the Dunce in Chief will continue to not live up to his promise, and will not step in to cut the red tape.

Where's the Enterprising Spirit?

There was a reunion for some of the surviving scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project. I was somewhat surprised that any were still alive, let alone enough to have a reunion. It turns out the reason that so many of these people are still alive is that as many as 5,000 worked on the Manhattan Project. Over the course of just a few short years this combined focused effort of led to one of the greatest (albeit frightening) scientific breakthroughs in history.

The Manhattan Project led to the deaths of thousands of innocents (even if it may have saved more). Today, as the very future of the planet hangs in the balance a similar project could bring us back from the brink of catastrophic warming. Yet, as the realities of global warming become clear to even the most obtuse we are doing nothing to design alternative fuel systems, a greener more fuel efficient engine. Yes, a handful of people at Toyota or GM may be dabbling; even a few people at NASA or in Universities may have some research projects. What the world needs is a Manhattan Project to solve our energy crisis. For the investment of a few billion dollars (about what we spend a month in Iraq, or a fraction of the cost of Katrina) we could develop the technology that allows the human race to go further. Let's hope our government develops the spine to spurn the lobbyist and start the next Manhattan Project--let's call it the Katrina Project. The need now is no less pressing than it was in the 1930s and 1940s.

Pepsi and Reggie

Diet Pepsi will donate to rebuilding New Orleans for every yard that Reggie runs. The amount of money per yard seems to be notably absent, which seems to negate the point of tying their contribution amount to Reggie's productivity. Their partner in this effort, Rebuilding Together, has pledged to rebuild 1000 houses along the Gulf Coast. But Diet Pepsi says they hope their contributions will make the rebuilding efforts more complete, and suggest they plan the donation of fences, sidewalks, topsoil and plants to help out.

Are you kidding me? Pepsi is a big sponsor of the NFL, and helped out admirably in the wake of Katrina with providing water to the Houston Astrodome. But their New Orleans ties are pretty negligable and their local presence post-Katrina rivaled that of the Red Cross. I wouldn't turn down your Oprah or Musician Village keys to hold out for a Pepsi house, the walls might be pretty thin. Lets hope that Diet Pepsi will get lots of publicity and be forced to make a decent contribution in the end, and that more companies will decide to jump on the house building bandwagon. Run, Reggie, Run.

GOP

Wow, not only are Republicans corrupt lying scum, they are also pedophiles and the ever dreaded fag child molesters! My oh my. Somehow I doubt the congressional leadership will be "coming out" anytime soon (note to self: damm, they've figured out how to store IMs!).

Just reading the Foley IMs is probably going to get me flagged at work for accessing inappropriate sexual material. If you havent seen them they are here, thanks to Huff Post for the link.

Now, last I checked on our previous Washington sex scandal, Monica and Bill were engaged in consentual adult sexual contact. Many republican buddies of mine at that time swore that their belief that Clinton must go was due to their revulsion at the inappropriateness of this relationship and his taking advantage of an impressionable young lady. The Oval Office location seemed to award extra revulsion points and a lack of confidence in his overall judgement. They seemed to be sincere in their belief, although obstinate in refusing to consider there may be more important considerations for our choice of leaders than who they are screwing.

Does this revulsion now extend to the Republican leadership of Congress who covered for their seducing sicko colleague? Considering the underage and criminal nature of this relationship the fact that this congressman was not fired for this transgression certainly sheds doubt on the judgement of both the perpetrator Foley and his management, Dennis Hastert.

For those of you who didn't click on the link above here's a recap of the "naughty emails" from Foley.

Maf54 (8:03:47 PM): what you wearing

[redacted screenname] (8:04:04 PM): normal clothes

[redacted screenname] (8:04:09 PM): tshirt and shorts

Maf54 (8:04:17 PM): um so a big buldge

[redacted screenname] (8:04:35 PM): ya

Maf54 (8:04:45 PM): um

Maf54 (8:04:58 PM): love to slip them off of you

[redacted screenname] (8:05:08 PM): haha

Maf54 (8:05:53 PM): and gram the one eyed snake

Maf54 (8:06:13 PM): grab

[redacted screenname] (8:06:53 PM): not tonight...dont get to excited

Maf54 (8:07:12 PM): well your hard

[redacted screenname] (8:07:45 PM): that is true

Maf54 (8:08:03 PM): and a little horny

[redacted screenname] (8:08:11 PM): and also tru

Maf54 (8:08:31 PM): get a ruler and measure it for me

[redacted screenname] (8:08:38 PM): ive already told you that

Maf54 (8:08:47 PM): tell me again

[redacted screenname] (8:08:49 PM): 7 and 1/2

Maf54 (8:09:04 PM): ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Maf54 (8:09:08 PM): beautiful

[redacted screenname] (8:09:38 PM): lol

Maf54 (8:09:44 PM): thats a great size

[redacted screenname] (8:10:00 PM): thank you

Maf54 (8:10:22 PM): still stiff

[redacted screenname] (8:10:28 PM): ya

Maf54 (8:10:40 PM): take it out

[redacted screenname] (8:10:54 PM): brb...my mom is yelling

I hope that our country will do the right thing here.