Soul Mates

Exploring the similarities between George Bush and Adolph Hitler


So, does President Bush have a comparable governing style to that of Adolph Hitler? It’s a question that many find offensive—mostly conservatives, the PC crowd and many Jews who believe the mere mention of Adolph Hitler in the same sentence as an American president is an offense to most Americans and the millions of people Hitler exterminated.

So, once again, the discussion has been diverted. No longer is the question, “What are the similarities,” but whether it’s even appropriate to ask that question in the first place.

To which I say, fuck that noise. This theory needs to be explored. Keep in mind, however, that you can compare the careers of any two historical figures and easily find (or create) similarities between them. Like the infamous Kennedy/Lincoln Coincidences, in which the truth was manipulated to maintain a seemingly supernatural series of coincidences. I will try to resist that temptation.

The Hitler/Bush Coincidences

1. Gender: Adolph Hitler is male. George Walker Bush is also male.

2. Health: Hitler suffered temporary eye damage in 1918. George Bush is hopelessly myopic.

3. Academia: Hitler wrote Mein Kampf. It’s a book. George Bush has heard of books.

4. Fear-mongering: In 1933, Germany’s parliament building, the Reichstag, was burned to the ground. The Nazis blamed communists, though no compelling evidence was found. By manipulating the fear and anger of the people in the aftermath, Germany installed The Decree for the Protection of People and State, which extended the Nazis’ powers.
Ditto the Bush administration, which used the fear and anger stemming from 9/11 as an excuse to extend its governmental powers via the Patriot Act.

5. Good Intentions: Hitler was a competent diplomat. He told the leaders of Europe that he wanted peace—that he adored peace—while simultaneously goose-stepping across their countries during WWII. George Bush also claims to be about peace while simultaneously waging war. He, too, makes such warmy-fuzzy peace-loving statements like, “Freedom is on the march,” and the lesser known, though equally oxy-moronic, “Bazooking some asses for liberty.”

6. Quibbling with the French: The French criticized Der Führer for his belligerent saber rattling. Hitler in turn called the French “Zee girly-men” and told the people of Germany that he didn’t give a half-turd what the French thought—and who the hell are the French anyway to criticize his foreign policy—and thereby issued a ban on French fries, ordering that they be called “Nazi frites,” which, of course, angered the French, who then renamed German potato salad “potato salad Française.” Not to be outdone, Hitler called in his cabinet for an emergency food-renaming conference,” which resulted in French toast being renamed, “The eggy-sugary breakfast bread of the Third Reich,” to which the French responded by changing Bavarian crème pie to “Eiffel pudding cake,” to which Hitler responded, “Oh yeah, well how about we just rename France altogether? Hmm, what shall we call it? Oh, I know, how about we call it ‘Little Germany’? Comprenez-vous, you little pricks. Deutschland Petite? It has a nice ring, no?”
Then Hitler invaded Paris.

7. Bunkers: Hitler spent much time in a bunker. George Bush also enjoys A. Bunker, as he spends his evenings watching All in the Family reruns on Nick at Night.

8. Christian Crusades: Probably the most disturbing of all the coincidences, both Adolph Hitler and George W. Bush used their Christian faith to bolster their crusades. Consider these quotes:
Adolph Hitler: “I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator.” (From Mein Kampf, 1925).
George Bush: “God told me to strike at Al Qa’ida and I struck them…. And then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did.” (From minutes of Palestinian cease-fire negotiation, June 2003)
Here’s another relevant quote I uncovered during my research:
Satan: “When I get bored, one of my favorite things to do is put on my God costume and in the best God-voice I can muster, tell some random president or prime minister to start a war. Then I sit back and watch the fireworks! Wheee!” (From the Good Housekeeping interview, August 1999)

9. Soul Mates?: Hitler committed suicide on April 29, 1945. George Bush was born 15 months later, on July 6, 1946. Fifteen months is the exact amount of time it takes to be reincarnated. Yup, Hitler’s evil little soul has been reincarnated smack dab inside our beloved George Bush.

It’s true! When W. was born, they slapped him on the ass and he cried—in German!

However, in George Bush’s defense, there are some glaring differences between the two. For one thing, Hitler was an artist. George Bush has as much art in his body as a quesadilla has pits.
Secondly, Adolph Hitler was afraid of heights. George Bush embraces heights. He was even a pilot with the Texas National Guard, having bravely flown dangerous recon missions over Austin and San Antonio.

Finally, when defeat was imminent, Hitler shot himself. Now that’s an exit strategy. George Bush wouldn’t know an exit strategy if it were a blinking neon sign that said, “Exit Here, Stupid,” and an arrow pointing at the door.

So, is George Bush like Adolph Hitler? Hardly. But I don’t think we should have to wait for someone to be as bad as Hitler before we get to ask the question. I don’t think it’s ever wrong to ask that question because you know that evil little Hitler soul just keeps getting reincarnated over and over again and you just never know when or where it will pop up next.

From: San Diego CityBEAT- Ed Decker

Better Than Fiction

From our YOU CAN'T MAKE THIS KIND OF STUFF UP department:

Jack Abramoff, the most powerful lobbyist in Washington and a Republican with vast ties to Bush and Company, was recently indicted on various charges of fraud. A Bush appointee and the highest ranking official in the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, David Safavian, was last week indicated for lying to federal investigators about Abramoff. Now, a man has been murdered by the mafia, a man who just months ago sold casino boats to Abramoff! The mobsters even have Sopranos-style names, 'Little Tony' and 'Pudgy'.

No wonder one syndicated radio talk-show host now refers to the administration as The Bush Crime Family.

Here's the story:

Two Charged in Miami Businessman's Death
By CURT ANDERSON
The Associated Press
September 27, 2005

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Three men have been arrested in the 2001 ambush slaying of Miami businessman Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis- a murder that happened a few months after he sold a fleet of casino boats to prominent Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff and a partner.
Police would not comment on whether they received any help from Abramoff or his former partner, Adam Kidan. Both men were indicted in August on federal fraud charges in connection with their September 2000 purchase of SunCruz Casinos for $147.5 million.

"All the pieces of evidence, all the statements that have been taken, all the witnesses have led us to this point," said police Capt. Michael Gregory.

Boulis, a 51-year-old Greek immigrant who founded both SunCruz and the Miami Subs sandwich chain, was shot to death at the wheel of his car shortly after leaving his office in February 2001. Witnesses said a car pulled in front of Boulis, forcing him to stop, while a second person in another car pulled along the driver's side and shot Boulis three times.
The slaying came amid bitter legal fighting over the SunCruz sale, including a physical altercation in which Kidan told police that Boulis had attacked him with a pen, drawing blood. Court documents also show that Kidan hired bodyguards and had ordered an armored Mercedes-Benz.

Lawyers for Abramoff and Kidan, who face trial Jan. 9 on the fraud charges, have said neither man knows anything about Boulis' murder. But at least one of the men arrested has ties to Kidan, according to court documents filed in an unrelated civil case.

Police arrested Anthony "Big Tony" Moscatiello, 67, on Monday night at his home in New York City on charges of murder, solicitation of murder and conspiracy. Moscatiello waived extradition Tuesday and will be brought to Florida to face the charges, New York prosecutors said.
Moscatiello's lawyer, Richard Barbuto, did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment.

Moscatiello and his daughter were paid $145,000 by SunCruz _ then controlled by Kidan and Abramoff _ for catering and other work, according to the civil court documents.

Also arrested Monday night on murder, solicitation and conspiracy charges was Anthony "Little Tony" Ferrari, 48, at his home in North Miami Beach. He was being held pending an initial court appearance Wednesday.

A third man, 28-year-old James "Pudgy" Fiorillo, was taken into custody Tuesday at his home in Palm Coast in northeast Florida. He was also expected to be brought to Broward County and could also have an initial court appearance Wednesday, authorities said.

It was unclear Tuesday whether Ferrari or Fiorillo had hired lawyers.

Fort Lauderdale police Sgt. Tim Bronson said other arrests were possible.

A grand jury indictment detailing the murder charges remained sealed Tuesday, and it was unclear what alleged roles the three men played.

"We're not prepared to discuss that," Bronson said.

The federal fraud indictment charges that Abramoff and Kidan used a fake wire transfer to defraud two lenders out of some $60 million to finance the deal to buy SunCruz from Boulis. The transfer made it appear that the two had contributed $23 million of their own money in the deal, but they had not, prosecutors said.

Abramoff was once a close associate of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, and raised thousands of dollars for President Bush's re-election campaign and for GOP congressional candidates. Abramoff is also under investigation in Washington for lobbying activities on behalf of Indian tribes and for his role in paying for overseas trips for DeLay, the second-ranking Republican in the U.S. House.

DeLay has denied knowing that any expenses were paid by Abramoff, whom he once described as "one of my closest and dearest friends."

Both Abramoff and Kidan have pleaded not guilty in the SunCruz fraud case. Abramoff has accused Kidan in the civil lawsuit of hoodwinking him in the sale by keeping secret his past business failures and disbarment as an attorney.

Kidan's defense attorney in the case, Martin Jaffe, said his client had not had any new interviews with Fort Lauderdale police since the indictment in August. Jaffe said Kidan had nothing to do with Boulis' murder.

Abramoff's attorney, Neal Sonnett, had no comment on the arrests.

Bring Back Warren Harding

By Frank Rich
The New York Times
September 26, 2005


There are no coincidences. On Monday, as L. Dennis Kozlowski was slapped with eight to 25 years in jail for looting Tyco International of some US$150 million, the feds were making their first arrest of a high-ranking member of the Bush administration. The official was David Safavian, the chief of White House federal procurement policy who once worked for Jack Abramoff, the sleazy Republican lobbyist whose disreputable client list, in another noncoincidence, included Tyco. While it's an accident of timing that Safavian was collared at his suburban Virginia home just as Kozlowski was sent to the slammer in New York, the two events could not better bracket a corrupt era worthy of the Gilded Age.

Ours will be remembered as the Enron era. Enron itself is a distant memory. But even as American business has since been purged by prosecutions and reforms, the mutant Enron version of the CEO culture still rules in Washington: uninhibited cronyism, cooked books, special-favors networks, the banishment of whistle-blowers and accountability. More than ideology, this ethos has sabotaged even the best of American intentions, whether in Iraq or New Orleans. Unchecked, it promises greater disasters to come.

As recently as 10 days ago, when he resigned before his arrest, Safavian was the man who set purchasing policy for the entire federal government, including that related to Hurricane Katrina relief. The White House might as well have appointed a contestant from "The Apprentice." Before entering public service, Safavian's main claim to fame was as a lobbyist whose clients included Indian gaming interests and thuggish African regimes. Safavian now faces charges of lying and obstructing the investigation of Abramoff, the Tom DeLay-Ralph Reed-Grover Norquist pal who is being investigated by more agencies than looked into 9-11. Abramoff's greasy K Street influence-peddling network makes the Warren Harding gang, which operated out of its own infamous "little green house on K Street," look like selfless stewards of the public good.

Blackout

You know that the arrest of Safavian, one of three known Abramoff alumni to migrate into the administration, is the start of something big. Alberto Gonzales' Justice Department announced it only after Safavian had appeared in court and had been released without bail. The gambit was clearly intended to keep the story off television, and it worked.

It won't for long. The Enron odor emanating from Safavian is of a piece with the rest of the cronyism in the Katrina preparedness package.

Witness the nomination of Julie Myers as the new head of immigration and customs enforcement at the Homeland Security Department. Though the White House attacked the diplomat Joseph Wilson for nepotism because he undertook a single pro bono intelligence mission while his wife was at the CIA, it thought nothing of handing this huge job to a nepotistic twofer: Myers is the niece of General Richard Myers and has just married the chief of staff for the homeland security secretary, Michael Chertoff. Her qualifications for running an agency with more than 20,000 employees and a US$4 billion budget include serving as an associate counsel under Kenneth Starr; in that job, she helped mastermind the costly and doomed prosecution of Susan McDougal, and was outwitted at every turn by the defense lawyer Mark Geragos.

Julie Myers is only the latest example of Chertoff's rolling the dice with Americans' safety during his brief tenure in Homeland Security. After the bombings in London in July, he vowed to maximize his department's "finite human and financial capital to attain the optimal state of preparedness." Yet the very same day, the president nominated Tracy Henke as Homeland Security's new executive director of the Office of State and Local Government Coordination and Preparedness. Henke has since been unmasked as an Enron-style spinner of numbers.

Unending good news

Imagine Henke, in her Homeland Security job, having sway over press releases about our disaster readiness. There is likely to be nothing but good news until it's too late. But if the hiring of the likes of Henke, Myers and Safavian is half of the equation in Enron governance, the other half is the punishing of veteran civil servants like Greenfeld for doing their jobs honestly. Even as it fills its ranks with Abramoff golf-junket partners, political flunkies and underemployed relatives, the administration silences those who, like Sherron Watkins at Enron, might blow the whistle on any Kozlowski or Ebbers or Rigas fleecing or betraying the taxpayers. Three weeks before Safavian's arrest, the Army Corps of Engineers demoted another procurement official, Bunnatine Greenhouse, who was a 20-year veteran in her field. Her crime was not obstructing justice but pursuing it by vehemently questioning irregularities in the awarding of some US$7 billion worth of no-bid contracts in Iraq to the Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root.

Blowing off whistleblowers

Greenhouse and Greenfeld are only two of the many whistle-blowers done in by this administration so far. Even top government officials who are not whistle-blowers, merely truth-tellers, are axed. Lawrence Lindsey, the president's chief economic adviser, was pushed out after he accurately projected the cost of the Iraq war at US$100 billion to US$200 billion. General Eric Shinseki, the Army chief of staff, was shunted aside after he accurately estimated the number of required troops for securing Iraq.

The damage done to the mission in Iraq and homeland security alike by Enron governance is immeasurable. Yet it's not only the administration that is to blame, any more than it is only the executives who are at fault when a corporation rots. Culpability also belongs to the board that rubber-stamps the shenanigans - to wit, Congress. Republicans in the Senate are led by Bill Frist, who, in the grandest Enron manner, claimed last week that it was to avoid a conflict of interest that his supposed "blind trust" unloaded all of his holdings in a Frist family-founded company just before its stock tanked.

As for the Democrats, they are nonpareil at posturing about the unstoppable nomination of John Roberts - a conservative, to be sure, but the rare Bush nominee who seems both qualified for his job and unsullied by ethical blemishes. Yet when David Safavian was up for a job involving hundreds of billions of dollars, and much of his dubious resume was fully known, he was approved by the ranking Democrat, Joe Lieberman, and all his colleagues of both parties on the Governmental Affairs Committee.

Which is to say that the rest of us, the individual shareholders in government who have voted in our Enron-era politicians, are responsible, too.

Bill Bennett: Kill All Black Babies, End Crime

Noted Republican offers argument to abort all black fetuses and lower crime.

Addressing a caller's suggestion that the "lost revenue from the people who have been aborted in the last 30 years" would be enough to preserve Social Security's solvency, radio host and former Reagan administration Secretary of Education Bill Bennett dismissed such "far-reaching, extensive extrapolations" by declaring that if "you wanted to reduce crime ... if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down."

From the September 28 broadcast of Salem Radio Network's Bill Bennett's Morning in America:

CALLER: I noticed the national media, you know, they talk a lot about the loss of revenue, or the inability of the government to fund Social Security, and I was curious, and I've read articles in recent months here, that the abortions that have happened since Roe v. Wade, the lost revenue from the people who have been aborted in the last 30-something years, could fund Social Security as we know it today. And the media just doesn't -- never touches this at all.
BENNETT: Assuming they're all productive citizens?
CALLER: Assuming that they are. Even if only a portion of them were, it would be an enormous amount of revenue.
BENNETT: Maybe, maybe, but we don't know what the costs would be, too. I think as -- abortion disproportionately occur among single women? No.
CALLER: I don't know the exact statistics, but quite a bit are, yeah.
BENNETT: All right, well, I mean, I just don't know. I would not argue for the pro-life position based on this, because you don't know. I mean, it cuts both -- you know, one of the arguments in this book Freakonomics that they make is that the declining crime rate, you know, they deal with this hypothesis, that one of the reasons crime is down is that abortion is up. Well --
CALLER: Well, I don't think that statistic is accurate.
BENNETT: Well, I don't think it is either, I don't think it is either, because first of all, there is just too much that you don't know. But I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could -- if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down.

Boy, these Republicans have an answer for EVERYTHING.

William Bennett was a former Secretary of Education under Reagan and Director of Public Policy in the War on Drugs under the first Bush. He once stated that "beheading drug-dealers would be a plausible way" of combatting drugs. His best known literary works are The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories and The Children’s Book of Virtues.

Note of Irony: In 2003, it became widely known that Bennett was a high-stakes gambler who had lost millions of dollars in Las Vegas. As a Catholic, Bennett's gambling was not forbidden, but some felt it conflicted with his public image as a leading voice for conservative morals. After Bennett's gambling habit became public knowledge, he claimed he was never addicted to gambling and compared his gambling to responsible drinking.

Responsible, my ass, dude. You drink millions of dollars in beer, that's not responsible drinking. Neither's losing millions of bucks in Vegas, you nimrod.

Note of Irony 2: For a party claiming to be Pro-Life, the Republicans are positively OBSESSED with killing.:

Pat Robertson: Assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to liberate oil
Bill Bennett: Kill black babies to lower crime
George W Bush: Kill Iraqis to liberate them and their oil
Etc. et al: You get the point.

Iraq Slipping Away

Slipping Away into Civil War

The last place any soldier wants to be caught is within a cross-fire. But more than ever, this appears where American Soldiers are headed.

Earlier this week, Abu Al Zarqawi, the fearsome leader of Al Queda in Iraq and the man behind last year's gruesome campaign of video-taped beheading, earlier this week Zarqawi issued a stepped up proclamation of war. It appears he wasn't just beating his chest.

Yesterday marked the deadliest single day in Iraq since our toppling of Saddam. Nearly 160 people were killed and 550 wounded in at least 11 suicide bombings. As this article is being posted, three more car bombs have been detonated this morning. And it appears this will continue. According to a London Times article, the rival bands of Sunni rebels operating within Iraq have all been rolled together under Zarqawi's bloody banner of war. Coordinated attacks are reality. Now, how long until the embattled Shia and their leaders announce Enough is Enough? How long until the 'soft' civil war becomes 'hard'?

How long until American soldiers and marines are truly caught in the cross fire of two enemies fighting to the death?


Terrorists unite to plot Iraqi civil war
From Anthony Loyd in Baghdad
The Times of London

A TERRORIST mastermind has united insurgent groups in Baghdad to target the Iraqi Shia Muslim community with the aim of bringing civil war to Iraq, The Times has learnt.
According to US military intelligence sources, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the man responsible for the bloodiest acts of terror in Iraq over the past two years, now commands thousands of fighters from various rival groups and is set to order further waves of bombings.
Yesterday the self-styled “emir” of Iraq was blamed for a dozen co-ordinated bombings in Baghdad that killed 152 people, the single worst death toll in the city since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. Most of the dead were poor Shia labourers killed by a huge car bomb in a busy square.
“The al-Qaeda organisation in Mesopotamia is declaring all-out war on the Rafidha [a pejorative term for Shias], wherever they are in Iraq,” said the 38-year-old in an audio message released on an Islamic website. He urged Sunni Muslims to “wake up from your slumber” and joint the fight.
Last night the threat was being taken seriously by US and Iraqi officials, who have offered a $25 million reward for his capture. “We have got reason to believe that al-Zarqawi has now been given tactical command in the city over groups that have had to merge under him for the sake of survival,” an American intelligence officer in Baghdad told The Times yesterday.
An intelligence summary, citing the conglomeration of insurgent groups under the al-Qaeda banner to be the result of rebel turf wars, money, weaponry and fear, concluded that of the estimated 16,000 Sunni Muslim insurgents, 6,700 were hardcore Islamic fundamentalists who were now supplemented by a possible further 4,000 members after an amalgamation with Jaysh Muhammad, previously an insurgent group loyal to the former Baathist regime.
Al-Zarqawi’s rise to supremacy will cast a long shadow in the run up to the October 15 referendum on Iraq’s new constitution and general elections due in December.
His organisation is believed already to have gained domination of smaller resistance groups in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province in western Iraq and a centre of gravity for the Sunni insurgency. An Iraqi resistance insider there last week told The Times that al-Zarqawi’s men had already caused thousands of Shia to flee the city over the past six weeks.
“His men announced through leaflets that all Shia should leave Ramadi or face ‘the iron fist’,” the Ramadi resident said. “At first local Sunnis didn’t want anything to do with it. But they know how powerful Zarqawi’s group is, that it doesn’t hesitate to kill and is not afraid to die.”
“They control Ramadi now. They have the best weapons and the most money, and more and more men. They walk openly on the streets when the Americans aren’t around. So the Shias left, by their thousands.”
The man, himself a supporter of the insurgency, claimed that public executions of coalition informers were a regular occurrence, and happened during daylight in the street. Such is the breakdown of any official authority in Ramadi that it was impossible to stop.
Coalition intelligence sources said that a culmination of signal, image and human intelligence had alerted the coalition to a huge al-Qaeda attack planned for Baghdad in August, which had been aborted at the last minute.
They said the yesterday’s attack was likely a rescheduling of the original operation, and broadcast for propaganda purposes as retaliation for recent government successes in Tal Afar, northern Iraq.
In Tal Afar itself yesterday, where some 10,000 US and Iraqi troops have been engaged in a massive offensive to recapture the ethnically divided town from Sunni insurgents, commanders spoke of the “horrible” abuses they had uncovered. The details were prophetic reminder of what al-Qaeda’s supremacy may bode.
“The enemy here did just the most horrible things you can imagine, in one case murdering a child, placing a booby trap within the child’s body and waiting for the parent to come recover the body of their child and exploding it to kill the parents,” said Colonel H R McMaster, a senior American commander in the town.
Yesterday commanders said they were in full control of the town after the insurgents melted away, but their victory appears quickly overshadowed by al-Zarqawi’s subsequent gore-splattered stamp acoss the very centre of Baghdad.

Bush Suspends Minimum Wages in Devasted Areas

But will he suspend exorbitant profits for the reconstruction companies and their executives?

Yeah, right. So, the wage earners, the poor and middle-class, have by federal mandate been shut out of the windfall of money, the money storm if you will, that will follow in Katrina's wake.

How predictable.

WASHINGTON (Reuters)
September 9, 2005

President Bush issued an executive order Thursday allowing federal contractors rebuilding in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to pay below the prevailing wage.

In a notice to Congress, Bush said the hurricane had caused "a national emergency" that permits him to take such action under the 1931 Davis-Bacon Act in ravaged areas of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi.

The Davis-Bacon law requires federal contractors to pay workers at least the prevailing wages in the area where the work is conducted. It applies to federally funded construction projects such as highways and bridges.

Bush's executive order suspends the requirements of the Davis-Bacon law for designated areas hit by the storm. Bush's action came as the federal government moved to provide billions of dollars in aid, and drew rebukes from two of organized labor's biggest friends in Congress, Rep. George Miller of California and Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, both Democrats.

"The administration is using the devastation of Hurricane Katrina to cut the wages of people desperately trying to rebuild their lives and their communities," Miller said.

"President Bush should immediately realize the colossal mistake he has made in signing this order and rescind it and ensure that America puts its people back to work in the wake of Katrina at wages that will get them and their families back on their feet," Miller said.

"I regret the president's decision," said Kennedy.

"One of the things the American people are very concerned about is shabby work and that certainly is true about the families whose houses are going to be rebuilt and buildings that are going to be restored," Kennedy said.

America, Land of Secrecy

Hiding the Truth from the American people . . . or, business as usual in Bush's America.

From flag-draped coffins returning from Iraq, that for the first time in war cannot be photographed; to the identity of Dick Cheney's Energy Taskforce of 2001; to the 28 blacked-out pages of the 9/11 report pertaining to Saudi Arabia; to denying access to auto and tire safety information; to data on quality and vulnerability of drinking-water supplies and potential chemical hazards ito America's communities, the Bush Administration is widely considered to be the most secretive in American history.

And now they're freezing the media out of Hurricane Katrina's wake, attempting to minimize the backlash against federal incomptence by withholding pictures of what happened. The following recounts NBC News anchor Brian Williams' difficulties with the new regime of secrecy in trying to tell a story about New Orleans.

Standing in the Way Of a Good Story
By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post

When NBC anchor Brian Williams and his crew were trying to take pictures of a National Guard unit securing a Brooks Brothers shop in downtown New Orleans, a sergeant blocked the footage by ordering them to the other side of Canal Street.

"I have searched my mind for some justification for why I can't be reporting in a calm and heavily defended American city and cannot find one," Williams said yesterday. "I don't like being told when I can and cannot walk on the streets and take pictures."

The National Guard has barred journalists from the convention center, where survivors were staying. NBC anchor Brian Williams and his crew were trying to take pictures of a National Guard unit securing a Brooks Brothers shop in downtown New Orleans, a sergeant blocked the footage by ordering them to the other side of Canal Street.

But he grumbled and told his crew to stop shooting Wednesday, Williams said, because "authority in New Orleans is as good as the last person to make the rule. I didn't have time to take it up the chain."

As rescue and recovery efforts continue in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, reporters and press analysts are growing increasingly critical of restrictions on media access. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, under heavy journalistic fire for its slow response to the disaster, has sparked new criticism by asking news organizations not to take pictures of bodies being recovered in Louisiana and Mississippi.

FEMA spokesman Mark Pfeifle said yesterday that the agency "has asked that those images not be shown," but that this is only a request. "Our main desire is to avoid unfortunate situations where a family member waiting for news of a loved one would find out about their passing from a newspaper or watching television," he said.

Some Louisiana officials, whether taking their cue from FEMA or not, are attempting to make the policy mandatory. Washington Post reporter Timothy Dwyer said he heard a sergeant from a state agency telling a camera crew allowed on a boat in a flooded area near downtown New Orleans: "If we catch you photographing one body, we're going to bring you back in and throw you off the boat."

The irony, Dwyer said, was that two bodies -- one in a black bag, the other covered by a blue quilt -- were visible on the off-ramp of Interstate 10 that the boats were using as a staging area. Television networks have continued to show some bodies, as they have since the hurricane struck, but often covered or in body bags, so identification is not an issue.

There have been other moments of tension. At a fire near the French Quarter, Williams noted in a posting on NBC's Web site, a police officer from out of town "raised the muzzle of her weapon and aimed it at members of the media . . . obvious members of the media . . . armed only with notepads." He also noted that the National Guard is barring journalists from the city's convention center and Superdome, the very facilities that evacuees were barred from leaving last week.

"I saw many fingers on triggers," Williams said yesterday, producing such a sense of being in a foreign land that he repeatedly caught himself saying, "When I get back to the States."

Aly Colon, who teaches ethics at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, said that while journalists should not interfere with rescue work, "at a time like this, the more opportunity the news media has to tell the story the better. People are hungry for information that helps them know as independently as possible what's going on."

Alex Jones, who runs the Shorenstein media center at Harvard, said that while news outlets should not show the deceased until relatives are notified, reports of limited access are "very disturbing":

"There's a reasonable belief that part of the wish to restrict access is rooted in image and public relations. The history of this administration has been very intensely to control the information and control the message. They did that in Iraq and during the Afghanistan war."

The Pentagon had barred photographs of flag-draped caskets returning from Iraq, but after releasing some under Freedom of Information Act requests, agreed last month to quickly release more in settling a lawsuit by University of Delaware professor and former CNN correspondent Ralph Begleiter.

"You cannot report on the disaster and give the public a realistic idea of how horrible it is if you don't see that there are bodies as well," Rebecca Daugherty of the reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press told Editor & Publisher.

Pfeifle said FEMA has barred reporters and photographers from some rescue and patrol boats, but on a case-by-case basis. "We have had to make decisions that we don't take press along because it takes up room that could be occupied by disaster workers or someone being rescued," he said.

State and local authorities have often blocked journalists from entering shelters, although interviews with evacuees often take place outside them. Pfeifle defended the approach on privacy grounds, saying, "This is their home."

Hurricane Working Out Well For Poor, Barbara Bush Says

Heck, these poor people are having the time of their lives, right?

Well, that's the apparent mindset of the aristocracy. Barbara Bush, a woman born to priveledge (her father was president of the McCall Corporation and she attended the prestigious Ashley Hall boarding school in South Carolina and is a descendent of Franklin Pierce, 14th US President) this woman has no clue what it's like to be middle class, poor or black.

Here was her take on the Hurricane Katrina victims on American Public Media's "Marketplace" program:

"This is working very well for them. What I’m hearing which is sort of scary is they all want to stay in Texas. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this--this [she chuckles slightly] is working very well for them."

Oh yeah, those evacuees, displaced, many diseased, with loved ones lost and dead, having lived through the horrors of the Superdome and the storm, it's working out great. As viewed from the top. Of course, Barbara Bush once famously remarked on Good Morning America about the Iraq war:

"Why should we hear about body bags and deaths? Oh, I mean, it's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?"

Uh, because your son launched the war? Maybe? You think?

Really, is it any wonder her son once remarked, "I just don't get poor people"? Growing up in a household of such wealth and stature, the answer is a resounding NO.

Once more, proof the Bushes are not protectors of the people, but patrons of the wealthy, the elite and the corporations, their kith and kin.