Gotham Notes...

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Police State in New Orleans

As bodies recovered, reporters are told 'no photos, no stories'

Hah! And you thought this issue was resolved last week.

Au contaire, mes amis.

More and more, the 2006 midterm elections become a referrendum on the impeachment of George W. Bush on High Crimes and Misdemeanors.

Today, no one understands this better than Karl Rove.

And we all know what Karl is capable of, when cornered.

So, hold onto your hats, boys and girls, it's going to be a bumpy ride!

posted by Gotham 7:47 PM

Monday, September 12, 2005

The Nameless Undead

via Atrios

Talking about Spencer Hsu's declaration that he'd never burn a non-attributable source—period—in his article in WaPo:

Period

[snip]

Perhaps Hsu didn't mean to say that, but taking his statement at face value he's saying that even if he knew for certain that an administration official had lied to him, he still wouldn't burn the source.

The only possible punishment for lying to the press is that they tell the public that, indeed, you lied to them. Hsu says this is off the table. So, our press feels that it's ok to let public officials lie to the public, under the cover of anonymity, with complete and total impunity provided by the information launderers at the Washington Post.

Hsu's comments only prove what we have known for a long, long time now.

ALL WaPo unattributed sources are lies. But the WaPo editors include them to maintain favor with, and access to, the White House.

If you can't believe one of these quotes, then you can't believe ANY of these quotes.

Like it or not, that's the way WaPo set this up, and they must live with it.

Henceforth, all WaPo source quotes are to be read as follows:

"...blah, blah, blah, a Senior administration official lied today."

Or,

"A Senior administration official, who has knowledge of the specific lies and talking points the White House has decided to use on this issue, said today..."

Or simply put,

"Karl Rove said today..."

posted by Gotham 1:46 PM

---

The Morally Undead

Simply put, a 38% approval rating is unacceptably high for this administration.

It may be time for the torches and pitchforks.

New York Times: Gulf Coast Isn't the Only Thing Left in Tatters; Bush's Status With Blacks Takes Hit

This whole New Orleans flap is upsetting Karl Rove's "Pax Republicanus," and we simply cannot have that.

Here is the best article on race I've seen lately: From Digby, who has it about right.

You'll notice in the Times article above that the White House's emphasis isn't on how to ease or eradicate the very ugly reality of America's long-ignored race relations, which has floated to the surface along with the black corpses of New Orleans.

It isn't on securing a future where people across the country can take steps up the ladder towards financial freedom and security.

Silly Rabbit. Of course not. George Bush (both of them, actually, Daddy's been ALL OVER TV) and Karl Rove—and the black preachers who love them—are only worried about votes, power and money. And not necessarily in that order. As is usual.

Their approach to Racism in America, like it is with every other issue confronting the country, is to set up a massive CYA publicity campaign to convince every black American, and every white American who has a brain, a soul and/or a heart left, that what they see with their very own eyes is simply not true. As it's been said, "Who you gonna believe? Me? Or your lyin' eyes?"

Their effort, as always, goes to convincing America that the GOP party line is The Truth.

One Bush supporter, the Rev. Eugene F. Rivers III, the president of the National Ten Point Leadership Foundation, a coalition that represents primarily black churches, said last week that something positive might come out of the crisis. "This is a moral and intellectual opportunity for the Bush administration to clearly articulate a policy agenda for the black poor," Mr. Rivers said in an interview.

Ken Mehlman, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, who has made reaching out to black voters a priority, put it simply. "We're going to work with them," Mr. Mehlman said. "This disaster showed how important it is that we do these things."

The "George W. Bush Loves Black People" PR machinery is swinging into full motion.

"Forget about those bloated, darkie corpses floating around on TV. In fact, we won't let the press show them to you anymore. We're saving people. We're building democracy. Uh..., oops, wrong war. Uh..., what's that Karl? Oh. OK... We're building lives."

It's often been said that the dissembling members of this administration are masters at telling America that black is white. On every issue. For over five years now—while enough citizens keep buying into it to prevent its missing moral foundation from causing the Bush White House to topple completely.

That's not entirely accurate, though. No one in this administration uses the word "black." And they sure wouldn't use it in the same sentence with the word "white." And there's no way these people would ever say, "Black IS WHITE!" The base might get the wrong idea.

So, who does Bush reach out to within the broad African-American community in this time of crisis and peril?

Why, all those toady pentecostal preachers he's bought and paid for over the last few years.

One of Mr. Bush's prominent African-American supporters called the White House to say he was aghast at the images from the president's first trip to the region, on Sept. 2, when Mr. Bush stood next to Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi and Gov. Bob Riley of Alabama, both white Republicans, and praised them for a job well done. Mr. Bush did not go into the heart of New Orleans to meet with black victims.

"I said, 'Grab some black people who look like they might be preachers,' " said the supporter, who asked not to be named because he did not want to be identified as criticizing the White House.

Or as working against the interests of those very people he purportedly represents.

But happily here, we see that our President George doesn't need to be told twice! No, sir!

Three days later, on Mr. Bush's next trip to the region, the president appeared in Baton Rouge at the side of T. D. Jakes, the conservative African-American television evangelist and the founder of a 30,000-member megachurch in southwest Dallas.

Bishop Jakes, a multimillionaire and best-selling author, is to deliver the sermon this Friday at the Washington National Cathedral, his office said, where Mr. Bush will mark a national day of prayer for Hurricane Katrina's victims. The bishop's style of preaching is black Pentecostal—he roars and rumbles in performances that got him on the cover of Time magazine as "America's best preacher" in 2001. More important to Mr. Rove, he has become a vital partner in the White House effort to court the black vote.

Last week, the White House continued its political recovery effort among African-Americans through its network of conservative black preachers like Bishop Jakes. Many of them have received millions of dollars for their churches through Mr. Bush's initiative to support religious-based social services—a factor, Republicans say, in Mr. Bush's small increase in support among black voters, from 9 percent in 2000 to 11 percent in 2004.

I guess the late Rev. Ike wasn't available.

"Money talks; nobody walks..."

Rove and Mehlman and all their people never change. Ever. Never have; never will.

You knew what you were getting with them a decade ago. At least five years ago. And you know now.

Same shit, different day.

Anyone who thinks that any of these people might have a conscience or a soul is sadly mistaken.

Any Democrat who thinks there is an opening for a "bi-partisan" effort at compromise with this White House and all their surrogates on ANY issue is unfit for public office. They might as well wear a "KICK ME!" sign around their necks.

The New GOP will never care for people. Not in the ways the Old GOP did. It's not that they don't want to. No, they're not capable of it. They're totally clueless. They actually believe this shit. They only seem able to focus on the mindless political power which support from average people represents for them.

Period.

Kinda like the girls in Heathers. Or Mean Girls.

Or think of this White House as a George Romero movie. These are the Morally Undead. They just keep coming, no mater how fully you've stopped them. Just when you think it's all over, and all of you are safe now, that they've been neutralized, they pop up and just keep coming, to rip out more of your brains. With zombies, the only way to stop them, usually, is a bullet to the frontal lobe.

I honestly don't know if it would have any effect on these guys, though.

But remember, no matter what you do:

There IS ALWAYS a sequel.

posted by Gotham 11:22 AM