Talabani: Iraq ready to replace some foreign troops

Iraqi troops are making major improvements just under the radar. Expect to hear more of this type of talk soon.

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Home-grown units could replace some of the foreign troops in Iraq by the end of this month but no timetable exists for a pullout of U.S.-led forces, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said on Thursday.

Talabani caused controversy last week when he first told the Washington Post the United States could withdraw as many as 50,000 troops by the end of the year and then aligned himself with President George W. Bush's view that a withdrawal deadline would only fan the insurgency.

Asked about the 530 Danish troops in Iraq, Talabani said, "I think, we will be able at the end of this month to replace many units from the allied forces, but we must have a common agreement between your government and our government for the timetable of the removal forces."

Talabani repeated that Iraq did not want to set a timetable on any major withdrawals.

CONDI straight talk.

In an interview with Bill O'Reilly Condi was was asked.... What do you think about other blacks accusing you of selling out and being a Bush shill (Auntie Tom) her response:"I've been black all my life. No one needs to tell me how to be black."

Damn I love that women.

Poll you Won't See the EM Pushing

GALLUP POLL:
Initial Response (total good) 44% (good)
George W Bush 39% (good)
Residents of New Orleans 38% (good)
State and local officials in Louisiana 36% (good)
36% (good) FEMA/federal agencies

Note the President's INITIAL response to Katrina was rated higher than ANY of the other options

Recent Response (total good) 58% (good)
George W Bush 59% (good)
Residents of New Orleans 57% (good)
State and local officials in LA 56% (good)
FEMA/federal agencies 56% (good)

Federal Government: Despite the best efforts of the Dims and EM , Gallup discovered that 60% of repondents still had confidence in the federal government's ability to handle natural disasters and 63% had confidence in the government's ability to handle terrorist attacks. The President's Job Approval: 46% approve [UP from last week's 45% and last month's 40% . . . similar to Rasmussen's 48% approval (50%/likely voters) and significantlyhigher than the BOGUS numbers recently published by AP, Newsweek and ABCNews/WashPost] which ABP has shown were flawed at their core due to substantial oversampling.

The Blame Game:
49% of Americans say the media are spending too much time trying to affix blame
48% say the same about Democrat leaders in Congress
31% say the same about Republican leaders in Congress

Public: Response to Katrina Better Now Than Just After Hurricane Hit Most Americans were not impressed with the initial response to Hurricane Katrina, but according to the latest CNN/USA Today/Gallup survey, majorities of Americans now say that the people and officials involved in the rescue effort are doing a good job. Most Americans believe that government agencies in New Orleans should have been better prepared, and they support the proposal for an independent investigation into the problems with the government's response. But they reject the notion that race or poverty were reasons why the government was slow to respond.

Pledge of Allegiance Unconstitutional

A federal judge has ruled that reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools is unconstitutional.

I'll post the dimwits name and further details when available. I'm giving 5 : 1 this is comong out of the 9th circuit.

Update: Suspicians confirmed, 9th circuit.Senior District Court Judge Lawrence K. Karlton (LKK)

Born 1935 in Brooklyn, NY
Federal Judicial Service:U.S. District Court, Eastern District of California Nominated by Jimmy Carter (big surprise) on June 5, 1979, to a seat vacated by Thomas J. MacBride; Confirmed by the Senate on July 23, 1979, and received commission on July 24, 1979. Served as chief judge, 1983-1990. Assumed senior status on May 28, 2000.

Now the big question is how this will play for the rest of the Roberts hearings. If the Republicans are smart they will adeptly weave this judicial travesty into their questioning of Roberts.

Blanco Refused To Act...

Governor’s Indecision Cost Precious Time:

Just before midnight on August 26, three days before Katrina was to make landfall, Kathleen Blanco received a phone call from George Bush. The president had been through a series of briefings from Deputy Chief of Staff Joe Hagin and knew the potential dangers to New Orleans and the surrounding area from a storm the size of Katrina. Now he was attempting to convince the Governor of Louisiana that she needed to take immediate action. His pleas fell on deaf ears. It seemed that the Governor was more concerned with the legalities of accepting federal assistance, and the appearance that her office could not handle the emergency.

Despite Governor Blanco’s reluctance to coordinate the state’s efforts with federal assistance, President Bush declared a state of emergency for Louisiana two full days before Katrina hit the Louisiana coast. The move allowed FEMA to begin staging relief supplies for immediate distribution in New Orleans once the storm had passed. The president's emergency declaration also allowed FEMA to coordinate all disaster relief efforts and to provide appropriate assistance in a number of Louisiana parishes. All that was left to do was wait for Kathleen Blanco to request Federal assistance. Under the Emergency Management Assistance Compact, which was revised after 9/11, the Federal Government and FEMA are not allowed to interfere with local operations unless they are authorized by state and local leaders.

Meanwhile Blanco had her own advisors insisting that the President was actually making a request for federal takeover of the Louisiana National Guard, and asking to put Louisiana State Police under federal control. They were concerned that this would be the same as martial law and lead to abuse of power by the federal government.

The next day, August 27, Bush called Blanco again and urged her to order a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans, she refuses.

Read the rest. If your not familiar with the "real" chain of events, this timeline should provide you with a major eye opener.

Bush: 'I take responsibility'

This is our Commander and Chief, and the President of the United States. A leader who does not shrink from reponsibility but rather embraces it as an opportunity for improvement. The American people should applaud this attitude, I know I do.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush took responsibility on Tuesday for failures in the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina.

"Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government, and to the extent that the federal government didn't fully do it's job right, I take responsibility," Bush said. "I want to know what went right and what went wrong."

He pulled "The buck stops here placard" from the desk drawer in which it had resided during the entire Clinton presidency. It will come out in due time that he actually has very little to worry about. Nagin and Blanco, that's another story.

Iraqi TV airs video footage of children mutilated by gunmen in Tal Afar

Dante' had no level of hell deep enough for these people.

BAGHDAD, Sept 12 (KUNA) -- Al-Iraqiya satellite television channel on Monday aired video footage showing dead bodies of Iraqi people, including children, mutilated by gunmen in the city of Tal Afar, northern Iraq.

It showed photos of Iraqi children between the ages of six and 17, with their bodies and faces mutilated while lying down in their bedrooms, in addition to other photos of demolished and looted houses.

The station also aired video footage of Tal Afar residents in camps outside the city, as they were forced to leave due to bombings and terror threats.

The Iraqi forces, with US forces' support, launched a wide-scale military campaign to strike insurgents and foreign fighters in the city.

Freedom fighters my a$$.

We had to kill our patients

One of the more overused terms over the last two weeks post Katrina has been "gut wrenching". If the story proves accurate I can state without hyperbole, this most definately is.

Doctors working in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans killed critically ill patients rather than leaving them to die in agony as they evacuated hospitals, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

With gangs of rapists and looters rampaging through wards in the flooded city, senior doctors took the harrowing decision to give massive overdoses of morphine to those they believed could not make it out alive.

In an extraordinary interview with The Mail on Sunday, one New Orleans doctor told how she 'prayed for God to have mercy on her soul' after she ignored every tenet of medical ethics and ended the lives of patients she had earlier fought to save.

Her heart-rending account has been corroborated by a hospital orderly and by local government officials. One emergency official, William 'Forest' McQueen, said: "Those who had no chance of making it were given a lot of morphine and lain down in a dark place to die."

I am not real sure what to think about this. Viscerally it makes me angry. Not really at the medical personel but rather at Hip Hop Nagin who waited untill the last minute to evacuate and then made a less than concerted effort after the decision was made. Ditto with Blanco who's indecision and ineptness gave these doctors little option.

One thing sticks out; Nowhere in this article is the term "terminal" used when referring to the euthenized patients. That fact makes this entire exercise beyond abhorrent.

Some 471,000 Still Lack power in U.S. after Katrina

To me this is amazing. Out of 4.5 million people less than half a million remain without power. Salute to all involved, especially the light and power guys.

NEW YORK -- Less than 471,000 electricity customers still lacked power 14 days after Hurricane Katrina pummeled the U.S. Gulf Coast in Louisiana and Mississippi, according to area utilities and the U.S. Department of Energy.

About 384,000, or 35 percent, of the homes and businesses in Louisiana remained without power, while Mississippi had about 86,000 customers with no service.
Katrina initially left more than 4.5 million homes and businesses without power when it struck early last week.

Entergy Corp., which restored power to all customers who can receive power in Mississippi over the weekend, still has about 278,000 customers out in Louisiana, primarily in the heavily damaged parishes in and around New Orleans.

Iraqi army kills up to 200 in rebel town

The Iraqi military forcers appear to be improving by the day.

TAL AFAR, Iraq (Reuters) - The Iraqi army has killed up to 200 insurgents in the northern town of Tal Afar, commanders said on Monday.

The major assault is causing dismay among some of the country's Sunni Arab minority and comes just a month ahead of a vote on a constitution which is already dividing the country.

Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari defied a $100,000 bounty placed on his head by a militant Islamic group to visit the scene of the insurgency, while a senior officer in Tal Afar said he expected the fighting to be over by Thursday.

The Iraqi army, backed by U.S. troops, launched an assault early on Saturday against an estimated 350-500 insurgents in the town near the Syrian border.Iraq's Third Army Brigade launched a fresh offensive on Monday, killing 40 insurgents and arresting 21 "terrorist emirs," or senior insurgent leaders, the brigade's media officer said, in an operation ending at around 5.15 p.m. (1415 BST).

"We also seized a cache of heavy weaponry, including mortars, artillery, explosives, TNT, ammunition and rocket-propelled grenades," he told Reuters

The federal response to Katrina was not as portrayed

It is settled wisdom among journalists that the federal response to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina was unconscionably slow.

"Mr. Bush's performance last week will rank as one of the worst ever during a dire national emergency," wrote New York Times columnist Bob Herbert in a somewhat more strident expression of the conventional wisdom.

But the conventional wisdom is the opposite of the truth.

"The federal government pretty much met its standard time lines, but the volume of support provided during the 72-96 hour was unprecedented. The federal response here was faster than Hugo, faster than Andrew, faster than Iniki, faster than Francine and Jeanne."

For instance, it took five days for National Guard troops to arrive in strength on the scene in Homestead, Fla. after Hurricane Andrew hit in 2002. But after Katrina, there was a significant National Guard presence in the afflicted region in three.

Journalists who are long on opinions and short on knowledge have no idea what is involved in moving hundreds of tons of relief supplies into an area the size of England in which power lines are down, telecommunications are out, no gasoline is available, bridges are damaged, roads and airports are covered with debris, and apparently have little interest in finding out.

It's called "spin" folks and I take my hat off to the Dims, they did a masterful job of it this time even enlisting what Tony Snow calls the "bed wetting right".

Postcards From the Left

This thanks to SacredCowBurgers

Far Fewer Dead in NOLA than Expected

Good news for sure!

The sweep of New Orleans to get voluntary evacuees out is nearly complete, and far fewer bodies than expected or feared have been found. "I think there's some encouragement in what we've found in the initial sweeps that some of the catastrophic deaths that some people predicted may not have occurred," said Terry Ebbert, New Orleans homeland security chief.

ie. Mayor (my heads exploding) Nagin for one.

Update: Louisiana - The official death toll from Hurricane Katrina has risen to at least 372, with 154 confirmed dead in and around the flooded city of New Orleans, officials said on Saturday.

At this time, officials working in conjunction with coroners from local parishes have confirmed 154 deaths," the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals said, raising Thursday's state toll from 118.

The death toll in Mississippi rose to 211 on Saturday from 204, according to the state's Emergency Management Agency, bringing the total toll in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida to 372.

University panel recommends full investigation of Churchill

DENVER (AP) - A University of Colorado panel recommended a full investigation Friday of research misconduct allegations against a professor who triggered a national outcry for likening some Sept. 11th victimes to a Nazi

The faculty committee called for investigating Ward Churchill on seven allegations involving plagiarism, misuse of others' work and falsification and fabrication, interim provost Susan Avery said.

The committee recommended dropping two other allegations, that Churchill falsely claimed to be an American Indian and that he infringed on a copyright.

Churchill and his attorney did not immediately return phone messages.

For cryin out loud, I thought that's what they had been doing all this time.

Clueless Blanco

As I've said from the very beginning, this women is in waaaaay over her head. A perfect walking talking illustration of the Peter principle.

As criticism of the response to Hurricane Katrina has mounted, one of the most pointed questions has been why more troops were not available more quickly to restore order and offer aid. Interviews with officials in Washington and Louisiana show that as the situation grew worse, they were wrangling with questions of federal/state authority, weighing the realities of military logistics and perhaps talking past each other in the crisis.

To seize control of the mission, Mr. Bush would have had to invoke the Insurrection Act, which allows the president in times of unrest to command active-duty forces into the states to perform law enforcement duties. But decision makers in Washington felt certain that Ms. Blanco would have resisted surrendering control, as Bush administration officials believe would have been required to deploy active-duty combat forces before law and order had been re-established.

In an interview, she acknowledged that she did not specify what sorts of soldiers. "Nobody told me that I had to request that," Ms. Blanco said. "I thought that I had requested everything they had. We were living in a war zone by then."

Somebody please send her a copy of "Governing for Dummies".

Blanco Prevented Red Cross From Bringing Food and Water To Superdome

It appears that Nagin's hysterical rant should have been directed at his own governor.

The Red Cross is confirming to Major Garrett of Fox News that it had prepositioned water, food, blankets and hygiene products for delivery to the Superdome and the Convention Center in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane, but were blocked from delivering those supplies by orders of the Louisiana state government, which did not want to attract people to the Superdome and/or Convention Center.

Garrett has no paper trail yet, but will follow up on his verbal confirmation from sources at the highest levels of the Red Cross.

Hugh Hewitt interviewed Garrett after he broke the story. Transcript here

The Red Cross backs up Garrett's story on their website here

Update: Video confirmation from a senior Salvation Army official in Washington, D.C. that the Salvation Army was also blocked repeatedly from providing relief and supplies to the beleaugered people sufferingin the Superdome and Convention Center.


HH: And what did the Salvation Army tell you?

MG: The Salvation Army basically said look. We...first of all, both agencies also want to let people know that they've served the needs of thousands of people who got out, and who got out just a little bit to high ground, north of New Orleans. But they couldn't get in to meet those needs. They asked to get in. They were prepared with their...the Salvation Army has these ever-familiar portable kitchen canteens, is what they call them. They can actually make food, produce food on spot, and distribute it there. People line up. We've seen that at hurricanes and other natural disasters. They were ready. Not allowed in. At first, it was this idea that we don't want to create a magnet at the evacuation site. Secondarily, it became an issue of well, there's lots of water, and we can't assure your safety, so on and so forth. Here's another key point, Hugh. I was very specific with the American Red Cross, president and CEO Marty Evans, and said wait. Tell me clearly. Were you prepared to go in before the levees broke? Before water became an issue of any kind? She said absolutely. Were you denied access before the levees broke? She said we were denied access from minute one.

Captains Quarters has the relevant portions of transcript here

Pelosi Nuttier Than Usual

They're losing it folks.

(Paraphrased) Pelosi was being interviewed live on CNN , she was spewing the standard Dim rhetoric concerning the Bush failures..The CNN anchor Kyra Philips was asking a few tough questions, stopping Pelosi from filibustering and not allowing the more ridiculous of these charges be go unchallenged, when Pelois, obviously annoyed, said "Well, why don't you quit your job ( at CNN) and got to work for the Bush White House?"

Careful Nancy, better not be biting the hand that feeds you.

I'll post the transcript URL when available.

Bi-Partison Congressional Panel to Examine NOLA Response Response

Oh Jeeeeez, just what we need, another political dog and pony show. The Republicans will defend the administrations actions, the Dims will rant and rave about administration failures and absolutely nothing will get accomplished other than plenty of face time for the people involved.

U.S. rejects Iran’s offer of 20 million barrels of oil

In my best Mike Meyer's voice YEEAA.....RIGHT.

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran offered to send the United States 20 million barrels of crude oil in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina if Washington waived trade sanctions, but a State Department official said Wednesday that offer was rejected.

In a gesture that mirrors American aid offers after a devastating 2003 earthquake in Iran, Tehran's envoy to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said his government would ship up to 20 million barrels of oil, state radio reported late Tuesday.

"If U.S. sanctions are lifted, Iran is prepared to send that quantity of oil to America," the radio quoted Hossein Kazempour as saying.

But in Washington, the State Department's executive secretary, Harry K. Thomas Jr., said the offer was rejected because it was conditional.