Friday, September 30, 2005

How to Lose the Black Vote 101

(subtitled: rooms in hell filling quickly with GOPers)
Alphonso R. Jackson, Shrub's secretary of housing and urban development, said of
New Orleans "it's not going to be as black as it was for a long time, if ever again."
Where will all of the African Americans who were displaced by Katrina go, if not back to their homes in New Orleans? I guess the south is looking to take back what they "lost" during the Civil War. Was that what Bush meant when he stood in Jackson Square and said, "The City Will Rise Again?"

Evolution in Action

Have a Merry and Melodious Weekend Lovies

Lovely Louis
Give me a kiss to build a dream on
And my imagination
Will thrive upon that kiss
Sweetheart, I ask no more than this
A Kiss to build a dream on

Give me a kiss before you leave me
and my imagination
will feed my hungry heart
Leave me one thing before we part
A kiss to build a dream on

Perhaps it is the brisk, invigorating autumnal air, or the fact that it is Friday, or the wonderful new dansko shoes that QD's husband bought for her ... whatever the reason ... QD feels like singing and taking it easy ...

Thursday, September 29, 2005

The Miller's out of the Bag

Give 'em hell Harry. Reid slams Bill Bennett.

According to TPM Senate Dem. Leader Harry Reid is demanding an apology from conservative moral gamblin' man Bill Bennett for the remark Bennett made on his talk radio show yesterday:

"… you could abort every black baby in this country and your crime rate would go down. That would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down." - Bill Bennett

You know what Bill, QD could get mugged every day on her way to and from work, and she could never lose as much money as she lost when those scum sucking white collar savings and loan Bushmen stole from her in the '80's.

As for the crime rate going down: count the numbers of innocent dead in Iraq and Afganistan and tell me that the Moral Mafia isn't the biggest pack of pasty faced gangsta's in town.

Thuggies is what those Bushmen are: thuggies, bullies, racists and cowards. And QD reminds Bennett that not all liberals preach peace and love ... in fact just about now QD is preaching vengence and justice.

It's trash like Bully Bennett that gives the GOP a bad name.

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Bill Mahr to Bush: Just Quit Dude

Diazepam Diva? Frist Shorts/Cheats Hospital

THE BAD DOCTOR: LA Weekly Reports
SANTA MONICA, Calif., Sept. 28 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Sen. Bill Frist, now subject to a formal investigation by the SEC for insider trading, made between $2 million and $6 million by selling his HCA holdings just before stock values plummeted in the face of a bad earnings report, according to an analysis released today by the nonprofit, nonpartisan Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FTCR). <more>

Safavian Abramoff DeLay Ney Rove Bush

Did DeLay Jack Abramoff?

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio) have traveled with Abramoff to Great Britain on separate occasions. National Journal reported that Abramoff paid for part of DeLay’s expenses. The lawmakers have said that the House ethics committee approved the trips and that Abramoff lied to them. <more>

Can you feel it?

schadenfreude \SHAHD-n-froy-duh\,
noun:A malicious satisfaction in the misfortunes of others.
"Delay DeRailed!"

Dirty Hippies

In an unusual paradigm shift, the GOP has become the "dirty hippie" of the 21st Century. Conjure up in your mind a picture of the most stereotyped Birkenstock wearing, Patchouli stankin', dreadlocked, dead-head you can imagine.
Got the visual?
Good.
Now, what's goin' on?
Is Big Stinky Hippie...
Turning off the lights to save energy?
Spending trazillions of dollars of Federal money?
Trying to take away states rights?
Invoking the name of some shaman/guru like Chang the Warrior?
Encouraging everyone to use less gasoline?
Batting for both boys and girls teams?
A criminal?
A big old druggie?
A college drop out?
Okay, now, open your eyes and what do you see?
THE REPUBLICAN PARTY!
Well, I guess they figure, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."
Maybe the new GOP slogan should be "The Left Is Right!"

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

How Committed is Bush to War?

Brownie's Still Doin' a Heck of a Job

In yet another instance of Compassionate Conservatism,
Mike Brown, one of the most notable horsemen
of the administration's last apolocyptic blunders
takes a manly stance and blames the victim...

"My biggest mistake was not recognizing by Saturday that Louisiana was dysfunctional"

Cindy Does What Dems Wont Do


Queenie spoke with QD today from the car on her way to the office.
Spoke is a mild way of describing what Queenie did ... Queenie shouted:
"CINDY SHEEHAN IS DOING WHAT THE DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP IS SUPPOSED TO BE DOING. AND WHERE ARE THEY? THEY ARE PAID TO WORK FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE AND WHERE ARE THEY? CINDY SHEEHAN IS THE ONLY PERSON OUT THERE KEEPING PRESSURE ON THIS ADMINISTRATION! SHE ISN'T ISN'T SELLING FRUIT FOR GOD'S SAKE ... SHE IS THE ONLY PERSON SPEAKING OUT AGAINST THIS FILTHY ADMINSITRATION AND SHE DESERVES ALL OF OUR SUPPORT!"

Here is what Cindy Sheehan wrote for Buzz Flash...
"My First Time"

Damn: Two great women. One lucky QD!

Talking Points Memo

I like it...I really really do.
TPM

Monday, September 26, 2005

Game and Point

GAME: Naughty Matt Drudge Accuses peace activist Cindy Sheehan of getting arrested as a part of a "Cunning Stunt."

POINT: Oh yes, Rosa Parks knew well what she was doing when she refused her seat and she did it to incite a reaction and to mobilize the sheep-like public to rally to their own defense.

Want cheaper gas? Scrap clean air!


President Discusses Hurricane Effects on Energy Supply
"Let me repeat, we'll use the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to help refineries with crude oil. We will continue the waivers to allow the winter blends of fuel to be used throughout the country. We will continue to waiver that -- to allow broader use of diesel fuel. Because we understand there's been a disruption in supply and we want to make sure that we do everything we can to help with the supply disruption." - George Bush

And if you type "waivers to allow winter blends" into Google you get this...

Federal Regulations are Complicit: Identifying the Causes of Rising Gasoline Prices
"To address boutique fuels directly, Congress should eliminate the Clean Air Act's oxygenate requirement for reformulated gasoline. Congress should also reduce the number of fuel specifications by offering a limited menu of choices for states and localities." (From the Executive Summary)

What Does It All Mean?
Seems like those meany environmentalists were making it more expensive to produce and distribute consumer gasoline products 'cause they got their knickers up in some twist about the air bein' dirty. So those ole tree huggers got some bills passed that required the gasoline industry to clean up their act. Well, the gasoline industry wasn't gonna pay for them fool tree huggers changes so they raised the prices and sooner than later pump prices went sky high. Then big Old Katrina blew in and gave the gasoline industry an excuse to start cryin' about their supply disruption and what not. So now the president come out and say we can relax them ole tree hugger standards. Now here, c'mon over here and I'll tell you what we'll do. We'll help keep this ole supply disruption fever goin' on til we can repeal them tree huggers rules just like we said we was gonna do in June of 2004.

The Whole World Is Watching

Sheehan Arrested During Anti-War Protest
By JENNIFER C. KERR Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON


Cindy Sheehan, the California woman who has used her son's death in Iraq to spur the anti-war movement, was arrested Monday while protesting outside the White House.
Sheehan and several dozen other protesters sat down on the sidewalk after marching along the pedestrian walkway on Pennsylvania Avenue. Police warned them three times that they were breaking the law by failing to move along, then began making arrests.
Sheehan was the first taken into custody. She stood up and was led to a police vehicle while protesters chanted, "The whole world is watching." <more>

Italics by QD. Note to the AP...your job is not to editorialize...

gay trysts, fiery females and rough sex


secrets exposed....
"But having such a big penis does have one drawback: it seems that co-ordinating eight legs, two feeding tentacles and a huge penis, whilst fending off an irate female, is a bit too much to ask, and one of the two males stranded on the Spanish coast had accidentally injected himself with sperm packages in the legs and body. And this does not seem to have been an isolated incident since two of the eight males that had stranded in the north-east Atlantic before had also accidentally inseminated themselves." more...

Watchdogs sniff out corruption

Where: http://www.beyonddelay.org
"Americans send their representatives to Washington to make laws, not to break them. We want to be clear with our report Beyond DeLay, that no one, not even Members of Congress are above the law." Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW

The 13 MOST CORRUPT MEMBERS OF CONGRESS:
-- Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO)
-- Rep. Randy Cunningham (R-CA)
-- Rep. Tom Feeney(R-FL)
-- Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA)
-- Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO)
-- Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH)
-- Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA)
-- Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ)
-- Rep. Charles Taylor (R-NC)
-- Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA)
-- Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA)
-- Senator Bill Frist (R-TN)
-- Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT)

Anti-War Protest in DC



Queenie's Daughter proudly took a Greyhound bus to DC to protest the War.
Her morning began in Friendship Heights where she dropped in on a old high school buddy. From there she went to the protest, walked around, checking out the people, places and things. QD didn't go to the National Book Fair but did check out the pictures at the Phillips Collection.
Finally,QD met a friend at a local watering hole, quenched herself, and attended the post rally concert.

Here are QD's observations.
1) The anti-war crowd was either young or old and not thirtysomething.
2) The cops were exceedingly polite.
3) The "Luncheon of the Boating Party" was on tour and not at home at the Phillips.
4) Chevy Chase has changed beyond recognition and is even fancier than before.
5) The Concert for Peace and Justice was run like a PBS telethon.

Do those observations seem a little unfocused? Does it seem like if QD had stuck to one topic and really elaborated on it that it would have been more effective? Does it seem that QD's observations were vague and superficial? Yes. Well. Then QD has made her point.

If there is one thing that the current administration is good at, it is staying on message.

Liberals are too convoluted.

Friday, September 23, 2005

TGIF

Dayton endorses FEDERAL PEACE DEPARTMENT
"WASHINGTON, D.C. -- In what peace activists call a milestone, Sen. Mark Dayton, D-Minn., introduced legislation Thursday supporting a long-shot citizen lobbying effort to create a U.S. Department of Peace and Nonviolence."

Can you hear me now?

Who do? Voodoo! Say What?

New Orleans is famous for many things and one of them is its relationship with events inexplicable...check this out...Guardsmen Sense Ghostly Presence In New Orleans

QD lived in New Orleans many years ago. One evening she was walking over to Magazine Street when all of a sudden she had the sensation of spirits flowing through her body sort of like a human Grand Central Station. It freaked her. QD immediately abandonned her plans to go to see her friend's cabaret show. Instead, QD turned around and walked back to her apartment on Constantinople Street, got into her bed, pulled the covers up over her head and slept with the lights on.

Here's the deal. The veil is thin in New Orleans. Sometimes the dead don't stay put and sometimes the living are already passed. It's a great city - and one not to be trifled with.
Here are some more strange stories from NOLA.com.

Thursday, September 22, 2005

Redneck Riviera Blues

"If you live in Texas or Florida,
The Fed'll take care of Youuu-
But if you live in LouisiannaMississippiAlabama ....
You are totaly Screeeeewwwed!"

The new Republican National Anthem
Written by K. Ro and Cheney Dog

Only in America. George's a very mundane person. He' s a slender fellow. Only in America could George find work. He has great breath.

President Bush reads from the script:
THE PRESIDENT: Bianca. Nobody named Bianca? Well, sorry Bianca's not here. I'll be glad to answer her question.
REPORTER: I'll follow up.
THE PRESIDENT: No, that's fine. (Laughter.) Thank you though, appreciate it. Just trying to spread around the joy of asking a question.
[snip]
REPORTER: Mr. President, could we talk more about --
THE PRESIDENT: Are you Bianca?
REPORTER: No, I'm not. Anita -- Fox* News.
THE PRESIDENT: Okay.
REPORTER: Just a quick question --
THE PRESIDENT: Okay. I was looking for Bianca. I'm sorry.

(courtesy of wonkette)

Video:George Bush: God Bless America This being an election year!

*QD's italics.

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Queen Mum, Morning Walks + Drunken Shrub

When QD was a young woman, she lived with the Queen Mum in a nice terrace apartment on the third floor. The Queen Mum is a sprightly and impeccable sovereign with a tendency to eccentricity. One of QD's favorite recollections is of the QM's reading habits...

The Queen Mum was far above purchasing tabloids like the National Enquirer, but she was a curious woman and an early riser. Our downstairs neighbor was a subscriber to said journal and tended to sleep in. So on a weekly basis, the Queen Mother would gently descend the stairs and avail herself of our neighbor's magazine, read said rag, and return unharmed.

In this manner, the Queen Mother gleaned many a fact and wild suspicion with which she would delight and entertain the adolescent QD. Sometimes, when the tales of Celebrity were too, too tall and outragous, QD would indignantly announce, "This is bullshit!"

And the Queen Mum would smile her beatific smile and murmur wisely, "Where there is smoke there is fire."

Queen Mum, this one's for you: "Bush's Booze Crisis!"

I remain your highly skeptical, enormously entertained and eternally adoring granddaughter!

QD

The Drunken Shrub Video

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

New Release: Knocking Down Barriers

"Sixty years ago, when Truman Gibson reported for duty at the War Department, Washington, D.C. was a southern city in its unbending segregation as well as in its steamy summers. Gibson had no illusions, but as someone who'd enjoyed the best of the vibrant black culture of prewar America, he was shocked to find the worst of the Jim Crow South in the nation's capital. What Gibson accomplished as an advocate for African American soldiers-first as a lawyer working for the Secretary of War, then as a member of President Truman's "Black Cabinet"--is a large part of the history of the struggle for civil rights in the American military; and it is a compelling part of the story that Gibson tells in this book, a memoir of a life spent making a difference in the world one step at a time."<MORE>

"Knocking Down Barriers is a wonderful book ripe with stories and insights that illuminate many of the dark corners of America's struggle for integration and racial justice during the 1930s and 1940s. While this engagingly written memoir explores the intersection of race, sports, entertainment, and law, Gibson's greatest contribution is his recollections of the personalities, debates, and barriers in the battle to integrate the armed forces. Gibson's words help us to better understand the difficulties and the ultimate importance of the successful challenge to a segregated military and how those actions helped create an environment that stimulated and supported the nascent civil rights movement. This is a must-read."
--Lonnie G. Bunch, President, Chicago Historical Society

QD's OtherMother is Mr. Gibson's daughter and QD actually trucked herself to the NYPL (pronounced "nipple") and did a little research for the author. QD strongly suggests you buy this book - it will make you smarter!

Un-Safavian at any speed...

Great Blog

unauthorized use of a sound device ?????

New York City, host town to the beloved QD, proved yet again what a conservative and provincial little burg it has become by shutting down the anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan when she attempted to speak to supporters at Union Square... the fuzz said that she didn't have the proper permits.

Permit QD a moment to reflect: Sheeehan, who wished to speak out against a war that the US went into under false pretences without proper justification, is denied the right to exercise her 1st ammendment right because she didn't have the proper authority to use a microphone????

QD is laughing and crying simultaneously as she gathers her belongings into a leetle bag in preparation to flee NY for some more sophicticated city like say, Muscatine, IA or Frederick, MD or Tenents Harbor, MA ...

"NEW YORK - Police cut short a speech by anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan..." more

Global Perspective and then some

"We are in a mess," said Ulrike Guerot, a fellow at the German Marshall Fund in Berlin. "Germany is not Italy. We are proud to be in a stable democracy. It's completely new for us to have this scattered election result." <more>

On Line Newspapers.com is a portal that allows you to choose a country and read THEIR news coverage (since ours sorta sucks)
Speaking of US News sucking: here's a Rather good perspective from Dan (where good means scary as hell.)

Back to Germany...here are a couple more good news links for the English speaker:
Expatica Germany (this is an English language newspaper for ex-pats in Germany)
International Herald Tribune (World News Updates)

For those who dont feel like clicking thru, QD will sum it up: "It seems like we are completely screwed as a planet, but this is (like Rilke says) the time when we are about to recover from what ails us, so patience grasshoppers, patience, hope and possibly booze... Slainte!

Monday, September 19, 2005

Let them eat nothing??? US burns food while survivors go hungry.

The Brits are reporting that the US is refusing to distribute food donated to hurricane survivors and other countries are saying that their food is also being DESTROYED. BURNED.
Here's the article ...

QD has only one thing to say to people who burn perfectly good food while people are starving:
SHAME. SHAME on you.

Here's an excerpt of the article...
The food, which cost British taxpayers millions, is sitting idle in a huge warehouse after the Food and Drug Agency recalled it when it had already left to be distributed.
Scores of lorries headed back to a warehouse in Little Rock, Arkansas, to dump it at an FDA incineration plant.

The Ministry of Defence in London said last night that 400,000 operational ration packs had been shipped to the US.

But officials blamed the US Department of Agriculture, which impounded the shipment under regulations relating to the import and export of meat.

The aid worker, who would not be named, said: "This is the most appalling act of sickening senselessness while people starve.

"The FDA has recalled aid from Britain because it has been condemned as unfit for human consumption, despite the fact that these are Nato approved rations of exactly the same type fed to British soldiers in Iraq.

"Under Nato, American soldiers are also entitled to eat such rations, yet the starving of the American South will see them go up in smoke because of FDA red tape madness." <more>

Bush nominee busted

David Safavian was nominated by President Bush for the chief government-wide procurement policy post on Jan. 22, 2004 and was confirmed later that year.
Today he was ARRESTED and here is what the DOJ said in its press release...

"David Hossein Safavian was arrested today based on a three-count criminal complaint filed at federal court in Washington, D.C. The complaint charges Safavian with making false statements to a GSA ethics officer and the GSA-OIG, along with obstruction of a GSA-OIG investigation."
DOJ PRess Release

There is a good article on whence Mr. Safavian came at Raw Story.

Oh yeah, and if you didn't know: the Procurement Administrator's job is to Oversee How Federal Contracts Are Awarded. And he's an alleged liar. And he's an alleged under oath liar.

Look what else a quick search of the DOJ's recent press releases turned up ...yep...MORE Liars!
U.S. ARMY CONTRACTING DIRECTOR, TWO OTHER INDIVIDUALS ARRESTED IN CONNECTION WITH BRIBERY AND KICKBACK SCHEME

QD is shocked, SHOCKED to find that there is gambling in Casablanca.
Poor George Bush is being cast as a sinister villain by a bunch of leftists at the DOJ.
In fact QD is sure Mr. Bush thinks that David Safavian was doing a "heck of a job" just like poor old Brownie!

File under: Convicts, Liars, Thieves, Traitors, Idiots, and Bushmen.

Worth a thousand words ... from NOLA

Bobby K tells it like it is!


Those of Us Who Know That America’s Worth Fighting for Have to Take It Back Now from Those Who Don’t
by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Speech delivered at the Sierra Summit 2005San Francisco, CaliforniaSeptember 10, 2005
Published on Friday, September 16, 2005 by CommonDreams.org

"The news departments have become corporate profit centers, they no longer have any obligation to benefit the public interests, their only obligation is to their shareholders and they fulfill that obligation by increasing viewer ship. How do you do that? Not by reporting the news that we need to hear in to make rational decisions in our democracy but rather by entertaining us, by appealing to the prurient interests that all of us have in the reptilian core of our brain for sex and celebrity gossip -- [applause]. So they give us Laci Peterson and Michael Jackson and Kobe Bryant and we’re today the best entertained and the least informed people on the face of the earth and this is a real threat to American democracy. "

AND

"A corporation does not want democracy. It does not want free markets, it wants profits and the best way for them to get profits is to use our campaign finance system which is just a system of legalized bribery to get their stakes, their hooks into a public official and then use that public official to dismantle the market place to give them a competitive advantage and then to privatize the common, to steal the commonwealth, to liquidate public assets for cash, to plunder, to steal from the rest of us." <more>

Thanks Buzzflash! Thanks RFK, Jr.! Rock fucking ON!

To Queenie's son-in-law.

Fuzzy Math

Ex-Tyco Execs Receive Prison Sentences
as rawstory.org points out...
They Stole $600 million;
They will pay $134 million in restitution;
And are fined $70, $35 million.

It somehow doesn't seem to add up to justice.

Iraq's missing $1bn?

QD says: This is bad, really really bad...
"The Iraqi Board of Supreme Audit says in a report to the Iraqi government that US-appointed Iraqi officials in the defence ministry allegedly presided over these dubious transactions.
Senior Iraqi officials now say they cannot understand how, if this is so, the disappearance of almost all the military procurement budget could have passed unnoticed by the US military in Baghdad and civilian advisers working in the defence ministry.
Government officials in Baghdad even suggest that the skill with which the robbery was organised suggests that the Iraqis involved were only front men, and "rogue elements" within the US military or intelligence services may have played a decisive role behind the scenes."<more>

Arrested Development


Yet another Bush offspring not fighting in Iraq.
Instead he was getting wasted and arrested in Austin, TX.

"John Ellis Bush, 21, shown in this photo provided by the Austin, Texas Police Department, was arrested early Friday morning, Sept. 16, 2005, in Austin and charged with public intoxication and resisting arrest..."Here's the story from the AP

Friday, September 16, 2005

Sometimes Google Quotes are enough

"At the age of eleven or thereabouts women acquire a poise and an ability to handle difficult situations which a man, if he is lucky, manages to achieve somewhere in the later seventies."
- PG Wodehouse

Thursday, September 15, 2005

This Was Not A Normal Hurricane

Here's Bush's speech.
Here's a greatest hits...

My two cents is this translation...

"This was not a normal hurricane" = "Had it been a normal hurricane, I wouldn't care."

"Worker Recovery Accounts " = "I am paying you off cheap."

"Urban Homesteading Act" = "I am going to sell your land to my friends."

"Provide building sites to low-income citizens free of charge, through a lottery" = "You'll have to pass a standardized test to qualify for the three golden tickets."

"It is now clear that a challenge on this scale requires greater federal authority and a broader role for the armed forces, the institution of our government most capable of massive logistical operations on a moment's notice." = "I am not sending my kids to fight."

"We will live to see the second line" = "I am going to dance on your grave when you die."

What's New A Go Go: Tonight's Opening



Roy Lichtenstein
@ Gagosian Gallery
"Dead Artist,
No Celebrities,
No Beer."

Peggy Noonan sums up the President

This comes from the opinion page of the conservative Wall Street Journal...
"What real damage has been done to the White House? It got dinged in three areas: competence, the myth of luck, and the ability to inspire fear."
and...
"I sometimes think of what a friend said of him years ago: There are two misconceptions about Mr. Bush; one is that he's dumb, and the other is that he's sweet."
(full article)

Ummm, so supporters of the president think Bush is:
1) incompetent
2) unlucky
3) uninspiring and nothing to be afraid of
4) smarter than people think
5) not very nice

Queenie's Daughter agrees with this assessment and is even more baffled than ever as to how this man got "voted" into office not once but twice. Are we really a country of self haters who wish to be crushed under the heels of incompetent, unlucky, uninspiring, not-quite-as-dumb-as-they-look bastards?
It's possible.
It certainly would account for our current political climate, our societies anonymes, reality TV and SUV's. It could also shed some light on popular culture. However, QD is cheered by the notion that Noonan's observations about the shrub are right on and it proves yet again the Queen's oft stated belief that even a stopped clock is right twice a day. Way to go Noonan.
Goodnight.

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Beat them at their own game

Republican Nemesis is an excellent article which clearly articulates the problems the Dems. have winning against the Republicans. It is beyond QD why there are not more savvy Democratic strategists and why we have so few outspoken leaders able to really play politics. Perhaps because Dems are too busy playing politics safely.
One thing that is certain to QD is the Democratic party is in danger of losing not only swing voters but is also beginning to alienate its own core. QD for one would happily vote for someone of either party who had the brains and balls (or eggs) to stand up for the important issues which face America at the turn of this century. Perhaps the reason that we as a country are in such turmoil is precisely because "liberals" don't know what they want. Do they want social justice or are they more concerned with their investment portfolios? Are the two neccessarily contradictory? As QD watches the current trends of bitching, moaning and rolling over that so often occurs in the Democratic Party, she is discouraged.
The article Republican Nemesis is the first that she has read lately to really lay on the line to the Democrats what they need to do - not only to win but to survive. It is a must read and will serve as the only post today, as QD is busy researching 19th American Philosophy.
Until next time QD advises her readers, "Take the gloves off and play to win."
She respectfully reminds her readers that there is no shame in victory.
Peace.
http://taxwisdom.org/printer_friendly_nemesis.htm

Monday, September 12, 2005

The Veep Vaporized...

Last Friday evening, QD sat herself at the bar at the Lenox Lounge and had herself a cocktail. She fell into talking to a crusty old professor, who relayed
to her this little anectdote: While sitting in a cafe in Paris recently, The Prof. fell into conversation with
a waiter about the recent Hurricane in the US. The waiter asked the Prof:
Where is the vice president?" The Prof. said he was humiliated because that thought had never occured to him. Where was Cheyney, indeed?? So the Prof. told the waiter something like,
"Well you French are a bunch of anit-semites and your race relations are deplorable."
as a way to save face. But the waiter's question gave the Prof. pause, it did, and that's why he told QD the story.


Now here is Nora Ephron asking the same question without insulting the French ...

For some time I've been wondering whether anyone is going to explain the true mystery
of what happened after Hurricane Katrina struck. I read thousands of words on the subject
in this morning’s New York Times, and I still don’t get it. Where was the President?
And more to the point, where was the Vice President? (more)


Friday, September 09, 2005

The right time to die?

SOURCE: The Wall Street Journal
OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS: Ten U.S. Army recruiters are offering volunteer help for Katrina vicitms at Houston's Astrodome. But the recruiters, struggling to keep enlistment up during Iraq war, are also available with options for the jobless. "Our intent is to approach the evacuees at the right time for them,'' says Army spokesman Douglas Smith.
(more)

This strikes QD as being basically the same thing as picking up single women at funerals.

Do No Harm

And if you do: tie victims up in court and bleed them dry!

NEW YORK (Reuters) - On the eve of a second court battle over its arthritis drug
Vioxx, Merck & Co. Inc. said on Friday it does not plan to enter into any global settlement of the thousands of Vioxx lawsuits it faces and is focused on "defending these cases one at a time."

"We are in this for the long haul," Merck General Counsel Kenneth Frazier said in a telephone briefing with reporters. "We have both the resources and the resolve to address these cases over many years." ... more...

One down, a few to go...

Maybe the Europeans are just smarter?

Floating a new idea...
Holland has given up fighting back the sea in favour of communities afloat.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard reports.
Catastrophe strikes. Melting ice and a freak storm combine to send monster waves crashing through the coastal barriers of the Netherlands, flooding the western provinces where millions live in drained polders below sea level. The Hague becomes uninhabitable. The low-lying suburbs of Amsterdam return to marshland or open water.
Thanks to the twin effects of global warming - rising seas and heavier rain - this nightmare scenario is now more likely than ever. According to some estimates, it could happen before the end of the decade.
After conquering ever more land from the sea, the Dutch are being forced to surrender great chunks of it back to nature. Plans are being drawn up for 89,000 hectares of farmland to be returned to river flood plains. A major construction program of floating homes has started.
"We will have to relinquish space to water and not win space from it, in order to curb the growing risk of disaster due to flooding," a recent study by Holland's water management ministry concluded.
Pieter van Geel, the Dutch Environment Secretary, said: "Half of our country is below sea level, and so beyond a certain level it is not possible to build dikes any more. (more)


What???? You mean you dont just give up and abandon a city? You mean other countries have been in discussion about solutions to PREVENT catastrophe? Who Knew!

Thursday, September 08, 2005

Mr. President

God Don't Love Ugly

God sent Queenie's Daughter a spiritual email today, directing her to this bible quote:

"I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear: but they did evil before mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not."

God told Queenie's Daughter to post this on her blog and to add that "The Lord is not well pleased." God demanded Queenie's Daughter to remind the the current administration:

"Whoever shuts his ears at the cry of the poor, they also shall cry themselves, but not be heard."


Now, QD is no expert on God, but she gets the distinct impression that The Lord is pissed at the President.

Bloodsport

Once the Vampire of Freedom tastes the blood of its people it causes an insatiable desire for MORE MORE MORE!
As if the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina were not enough, our p/resident idiot and his evil friends pile on the horror...
US mulls "decisive" attack on Iraqi town.

The Good Katrina


Repairing the Breach
It's Time for a New "New Deal"
by Katrina vanden Heuvel
of The Nation

And her cool little husband too...

"Say what?"


During a discussion on hurricane relief efforts,
an off camera protester shouts,
"Go fuck yourself, Mr. Cheney. Go fuck yourself."

News from inside NOLA

Survival of New Orleans Blog
This journal exists to share firsthand experience of Hurricane Katrina her aftermath with anyone interested.

What no one wants to admit...the truth

Parts of the United States are as poor as the Third World, according to a shocking United Nations report on global inequality. (more)

Where can I get one of these?

Why the white man has such a bad rap...

Unfortunatley it is stories like this that gives rich white men such a bad reputation.
And perhaps even more unfortunately this sense of entitlement and arrogance is how the US is viewed by the rest of the world. AND this is exactly why so many poor people and minorities did not evacuate the city of New Orleans; they knew that if they left, they might never be allowed to return. I pulled this off Raw Story and am reprinting it in its entirety.

WSJ: White rich elude Orleans chaos, don't want poor blacks back
John Byrne

The Wall Street Journal front-page headline reads, "Old-Line Families / Escape Worst of Flood / And Plot the Future / Mr. O'Dwyer, at His Mansion, / Enjoys Highball With Ice; / Meeting With the Mayor."
That is, however, just the beginning. According to the (paid-restricted) Journal, New Orleans' wealthy white neighborhoods emerged very much intact, while black neighborhoods are swimming in toxic sludge. The Journal piece, by Christopher Cooper, reads as something torn from the pages of Fitzgerald's iconic portrait of the roaring twenties--The Great Gatsby.
"NEW ORLEANS -- On a sultry morning earlier this week," Cooper writes, "Ashton O'Dwyer stepped out of his home on this city's grandest street and made a beeline for his neighbor's pool. Wearing nothing but a pair of blue swim trunks and carrying two milk jugs, he drew enough pool water to flush the toilet in his home."
He continues: "The mostly African-American neighborhoods of New Orleans are largely underwater, and the people who lived there have scattered across the country. But in many of the predominantly white and more affluent areas, streets are dry and passable. Gracious homes are mostly intact and powered by generators. Yesterday, officials reiterated that all residents must leave New Orleans, but it's still unclear how far they will go to enforce the order."
"The green expanse of Audubon Park, in the city's Uptown area, has doubled in recent days as a heliport for the city's rich -- and a terminus for the small armies of private security guards who have been dispatched to keep the homes there safe and habitable. Mr. O'Dwyer has cellphone service and ice cubes to cool off his highballs in the evening. By yesterday, the city water service even sprang to life, making the daily trips to his neighbor's pool unnecessary. A pair of oil-company engineers, dispatched by his son-in-law, delivered four cases of water, a box of delicacies including herring with mustard sauce and 15 gallons of generator gasoline."
How do they want the city rebuilt?
"The power elite of New Orleans -- whether they are still in the city or have moved temporarily to enclaves such as Destin, Fla., and Vail, Colo. -- insist the remade city won't simply restore the old order. New Orleans before the flood was burdened by a teeming underclass, substandard schools and a high crime rate. The city has few corporate headquarters.
"The new city must be something very different, Mr. Reiss says, with better services and fewer poor people. "Those who want to see this city rebuilt want to see it done in a completely different way: demographically, geographically and politically," he says. "I'm not just speaking for myself here. The way we've been living is not going to happen again, or we're out."
Not every white business leader agrees, Cooper notes.
"Some black leaders and their allies in New Orleans fear that it boils down to preventing large numbers of blacks from returning to the city and eliminating the African-American voting majority. Rep. William Jefferson, a sharecropper's son who was educated at Harvard and is currently serving his eighth term in Congress, says, "This is an example of poor people forced to make choices because they don't have the money to do otherwise," Mr. Jefferson says.

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

Camp Katrina: criminalizing hurricane victims?

Notes from the Deep South by Andrew Griffin:
"I was afraid of this. As the great diaspora of New Orleans continues with evacuees not being told where they're going until the bus/plane cranks up or until they land/arrive, the police state tactics of some of the 'welcoming' communities are actually just housing people at remote locations, behind fences - like prisons, really." (more)

Could this be the end of the NeoCons?

Excellent editorial on Truth Out by William Rivers Pitt
"The Katrina disaster in a nutshell: A storm that had been listed for years as #3 on America's list of "Worst Possible Things That Could Happen" arrives in New Orleans to find levees unprepared because massive budget cuts stripped away any ability to repair and augment them. The storm finds FEMA, the national agency tasked to deal with the aftermath of natural disasters, run by Bush friend Michael Brown, a guy who got fired from his last job representing the rights of Arabian horse owners. The storm finds a goodly chunk of the Louisiana National Guard sitting in a desert 7,000 miles away with their high-water Humvees parked beside them. The storm finds that our institutional decades-old unwillingness to address poverty issues left tens of thousands of people unable to get out of the way of the ram." (MORE)

Blanco requested aid; Bush relaxed in Crawford

Things to remember when deciding who should be impeached... should the blame be assigned to someone who did their job or should the responsibility for failure fall on someone who was evidently too busy on his vacation to read his mail...
"The following is a letter written to President George W. Bush, and publicly released, by Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco on August 27, 2005. On August 28, authorities told residents to leave the city of New Orleans. The next morning, Katrina struck in Louisiana. By August 30, an estimated 80% of the city was underwater. See timeline. "(more)

Heros on the bench...


7:02 P.M. - ATLANTA (AP): Hundreds of firefighters have been sitting in Atlanta, playing cards and taking FEMA history classes, instead of doing what they came to do: help hurricane victims.
The volunteers traveled south and west from around the country, leaving their homes in places like Washington state, Pennsylvania and Michigan. They came after FEMA put out a call for two-thousand firefighters to help with community service.
Firefighters arrived, as told, with lifesaving equipment and sleeping bags.
But one of the waiting volunteers says it might have been better if they'd brought paper and cell phones. That's because some of the emergency responders are being told they will go to South Carolina, to do paperwork.
Others don't know where they'll be put in action.
The FEMA director in charge of firefighters says he's trying to get the volunteers deployed ASAP, but wants to make sure they go to the right place.
One firefighter points to nightly reports of hurricane victims asking how they were forgotten. He says, "we didn't forget, we're stuck in Atlanta drinking beer."

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

The Official White House Response

QD lets off a little steam...

Queenie's Daughter is being accused of taking advantage of a national tragedy to attempt to demonize the President by creating a sophmoric image and posting it and emailing it around.

Queenie's Daughter respectful responds:
" I asked myself:
'Self, If Karl Rove had this opportunity to solidify a negative impression of an opponent, what would he do?'
and Self responded:
'He'd hit publish post and then he'd hit send.'
That's what I did.
And do you know why?

I did it because I am sick and tired of watching people suffer and die because of the callousness and stupidity of this administration. I am sorry if people are offended, but I am much, much, much, more sorry people are dead and suffering and abandoned by the American government both here in the US and all over the world.

If one stupid image makes one person say, "Well yeah, Bush really does have a cavalier attitude and contempt for human life and he should be stopped!" then my sophmoric attempt will have been a success. And do you know what? One person DID say that! QD said it to herself when she captioned the shrub's picture.

So, if you are offended, well, so be it.
I am offended by the fact that the United States government is being run by people with contempt and disregard for her laws and her citizens, that Halliburton is making money off of the disaster in the Gulf Coast and New Orleans, that we are still in Iraq killing innocent people every day, that FEMA is funnelling donations to Pat "Kill Chavez" Robertson's cursed "Operation Blessing," etc, etc.

And I am beyond offended, I am disgusted that my tax money is paying murderers to murder and idiots to destroy a nation my family has worked to protect and defend for three hundred years."

BUSH: Tanned, Fit and ready for Impeachment?

New Yorker editor says Bush 'failed in every respect;'
And more: 'Cavalier, delinquent, self-deluded'
"Suntanned and relaxed after a vacation so long that it would have shamed a French playboy, Bush reacted with fogged delinquency, as if he had been so lulled by his summer sojourn that he was not quite ready to acknowledge reality, let alone attempt to master it," pens New Yorker Editor David Remnick in Sept. 12 editions of the magazine. (more)

The fox is counting the chickens...

President Bush said Tuesday he will oversee an investigation into what went wrong and why.

How do you spell relief?

Open Letter to the p/resident

The New Orleans Times-Picayune
posted this open letter to Bush...

Dear Mr. President:
We heard you loud and clear Friday when you visited our devastated city and the Gulf Coast and said, "What is not working, we’re going to make it right."Please forgive us if we wait to see proof of your promise before believing you. But we have good reason for our skepticism. (more)

La Reign on Barbs, mother of baby shrub...

Darling, I know I have been a flawed and imperfect mother to you. However, I hope I never have and never will embarrass you like this:

"Former first lady and mother to President Bush said Monday that evacuees from New Orleans have found a home in Houston."Almost everyone I've talked to says we're going to move to Houston," Barbara Bush told NPR."What I'm hearing is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this --this is working very well for them."

Does she think the people trapped there maneuvered this whole disaster so they could give up being underprivileged in NOLA and go be underprivileged in Houston?

This is the same woman who made the remarks about not wasting her beautiful mind thinking about body bags when her son sent soldiers to war. I'm sure Cindy Sheehan and over 1799 other American mothers - not to mention untold thousands of Iraqis - would love to have had the luxury of never thinking of such things. To so many women, it is a tremendous luxury to have your beloved children alive and well to cook and clean for. Barb's queendom is so not of this earth!

Monday, September 05, 2005

A Message From the Queen

It gets worse and worse. I cannot imagine how you
and other people with ties to New Orleans must feel.
While I was away from the computer and tv news
coverage, I kept thinking that I was probably wrong
and selective in my reading and interpretation of the news,
and overreacting in a knee-jerk liberal way.

It's disheartening to find out that I'm not.
I'm sending along some links I've assembled tonight
- not my regular ones, NOLA ones - in case you
missed them and might want to put them on
Queenie's Daughter.

PDF of Governor Blanco's letter of August 28 to Bush, requesting that he "declare an expedited major disaster for the State of Louisiana...beginning on August 28, 2005 and continuing."

"The Rest of the Goddamn Nation" 02 September 2005.

Crooks and Liars has links to video of Landrieu and Brossard interviews.

When the outside world knew the levee had been breached
Listen - I watched with my OWN EYES CNN on Monday night/Tuesday morning at 2:00 AM EDT as they spoke to a director at Tulane Hospital, who reported she had been told by the NOPD that a levee had burst and that the hospital was surrounded by six feet of water. She also reported at the time the water was rising by an inch every five minutes.

In fact, here it is, posted at another board, recorded for posterity - second post down Criminal Negligence andKatrina:

Comments from Landrieu before the stephanopoulos interview.

Hughes for America - American Genocide

Huffington - (a ways down the page) Mothers for Answers, A Call to Arts

Our Hell in High Water (James Nolan, a poet and writer, teaches at the Loyola Writing Institute of Loyola University in New Orleans.)

How other people can (not necessarily always do) handle similar disasters:

600,000 flee as Typhoon Talim Hits China

The Two Americas

Keep up the good work, Beloved Cherie!

I hope all is well with you.
All my love,
Maman

Saturday, September 03, 2005

Pictures of Uptown

Reality Check

Care Forgot

NOLA Updates...

10:58 P.M. - (AP): Rescue efforts already hampered by
communications meltdowns, lack of power and stagnant
floodwaters continue to get stuck by bureaucracy, by
planning snafus and by the sheer volume of disaster.
...
"They've been out there all day in the blistering sun,"
the Rev. Jesse Jackson said. "No bus is picking them up
because there is no destination for the people.
More people will die from dehydration and starvation
than from the floods."
...
Meanwhile, two truckloads of food sat on a bridge Friday
for more than 12 hours waiting for a helicopter to airlift
the supplies to people waiting for rescue from a wharf in
St. Bernard Parish, which was nearly entirely under water,
according to U.S. Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-Napoleonville,
who represents the parish.

Friday, September 02, 2005

Hero











"I flew over that thing yesterday, and it's in the same shape
that it was after the storm hit. There is nothing happening.
And they're feeding the public a line of bull and they're spinning,
and people are dying down here. "
Mayor Ray Nagin

Mayor Ray Nagin Reports

Conflict of Interest

Words that Hurt











food "finders" = White








young "looter" = Black

In the wake of the devastation in Louisiana, one thing is clear...
"The problem with the twenty first century is the problem of the color line."

Thursday, September 01, 2005

Guard-folk?

Operation Blessing is a Curse!

Just when the US needs all of the friends it can get
(not to mention the gasshole-ine),
FEMA diverts funds to radical fundamentalist...

FEMA directs donors to Pat Robertson...
or "FEMA funds Chavez coup"
http://www.rawstory.org/
fema endorses Pat "Kill 'em, I mean kidnap 'em" Robertson

House Speaker Dennis Hastert dropped a bombshell

Read this: Denny Hasert's NOLA Comments
QD's aunt responds:
That's a very interesting attitude-I guess we'll have to let the states in tornado alley know that next time, we're not rebuilding them either; and the next time the Midwest floods along the Mississippi - bye-bye; and Florida, with its hurricanes and orange crop freezes-outta here; we'll be left with the 13 original colonies. (I was going to keep Washington state, but it has earthquakes and Mt. St. Helens) BUT we must Rebuild IRAQ!!!!

Call the speaker and speak up for the City that CARE forgot!
Phone: 202-225-2976