A Hell of a Week

Just about every day this week I've had at least one doctor's appointment - some here in Winston Salem, the others in Salisbury which is about 45 minutes from here. This explains why I've been so slack in my blogging.

Next week starts out as more of the same, with doc's on Monday and Tuesday. I mean, I'm really glad that the VA is looking out for me so well, and that they have ordered so many tests which cost me nothing, but geez - give me a break!!

Until I get back on some kind of schedule so I can report on things like Robert's swearing in where the oath ended with "So help me God" - I got a big giggle out of that - go over to Indigo's site if you haven't been there lately. She's put a few things up this last week that are just fantastic.

Since She Who Must Be Obeyed, eldest granddaughter and I are heading down to Indigo's humble oceanfront estate this weekend, I'll be able to tell her how jealous I am in person!!

Pathetic Gets Worst

First, let me say that after I first heard of this story, I went searching for other sources. Neither CNN, MSNBC or the Winston Salem Urinal carried this. I'm shocked!

It seems that yesterday Sen John McCain (RINO) broke with reality and had a sit-down meeting with Cindy Sheehan to listen to her incoherent ravings. He claims that he did this under the misapprehension that one of the fuckwits in her entourage was from his state.

After she had finished, McCain apparently said something to the effect of "What's your point?" Sheehan then found a member of the media (I'm certain that she had to look really hard, aren't you?) and called McCain "a warmonger"!!

Now, I've heard McCain called a lot of things - most of them by me - but that's one thing I never thought I'd hear anyone call a former resident of the Hanoi Hilton.

She really needs to be committed to a high-security mental health facility - one with high tensile strength rubber walls.

Pathetic

Cindy Sheehan, the Communist bitch who's been fronting for A.N.S.W.E.R., MoveOn.org and other shitstain groups, finally found a way to get back in the news today.

She got arrested.

After putting an article on Kos about how upset she was that the media was covering a couple of hurricanes instead of her - an article that even the Libs couldn't stomach - she went outside the fence of the White House on Pennsylvania Ave. for a sit down protest.

Now, you can protest across the street from the White House until you rot, but you can't protest where she set up shop, and she knew it.

The kicker for me was when the Park Police were carrying her away, she was laughing and joking. Of course the media had to mention that she was carrying a picture of her son. Now, she'd disowned her boy when he left for Iraq instead of letting her drive him to Canada.

If I hear one more description of her that contains the words "greiving mother", I'm gonna puke - then go for the .30 cal.

I Love Theory

Over this last weekend, our bunker has undergone a fairly large upheaval. The office has become a bedroom, the existing bunks went to Attitude With Legs and the second bedroom is to become half-bedroom, half-office. The best thing to come of it from my point of view is that I now have my "mainframe" (read desktop) back in my room. As nice as the laptop is, there are times when it's just more comfortable to use the big screen. Besides, Outlook Express on the little one has chucked a hissy - I need the other for the email!

On a different note, I see that so far this football season there's been little bitching about replay making the game longer. I have a good idea how to shorten it, if they really need to. Several times yesterday I saw where a touchdown was scored - followed by 3 minutes of ads. Then the kickoff - 3 more minutes of ads. The receiving team went 3-and-out - you guessed it - 3 more minutes.

The one game the TV asswads have been trying to shorten, so they can get more scheduling in, is baseball. I don't know about anyone else, but when I went to a game, I planned on staying there the whole afternoon (they had day games back then). Who other than TV wants the game shortened? What's next? End extra innings and have ties?

Of course this is just an intellectual exercise, since I've gotten to where I watch purely to see if one of those millionaires has to get stretchered off the field!

The Best Halloween Costume - EVER!

I got this in an email and the coffee left the body nasally - yet again.

Still Here, Still Crazy

I've been taking a couple of days to try and get my mind and body straight. Read Bernie Goldberg's "100 People Who Are Screwing Up America" - a good read, a couple of laughs, but overall one of the most depressing books I think I've ever read. I've also been doing crosswords and jigsaw puzzles - relaxing pursuits.

This afternoon I've been watching New Orleans get damp again. The Army Corps of Engineers keep referring to it as "overtop" but it sure looks to me like some fair size breaches in levees that had held through Katrina.

I've got a really good friend in Houston who recently got married - he tried to get out of town the other day and was forced to turn back due to traffic. He's young enough that he might not know "Duck & Cover", but he knows the Nuclear War Position - head between legs, kiss ass goodbye!

If you can see this, mate - I'm praying for your and Laurie!

OK - So I Lied

So I thought I was doing better. Today's been fer shit, physically and mentally, but ya do what ya gots to do, right?

I was doing some looking into this terrible hurricane season the Chicken Littles have been telling us about. It turns out that these 17 named storms we've had so far have been a bit of a joke. Don't believe me? Try this -

Hurricanes that hit -
The U.S. 3 1/2 (Ophelia really was a near miss)
Mexico 1
The Carib 0

Tropical Storms that hit -
The U.S. 2
Mexico 2
The Carib 2

That looks to me to be 10 1/2 storms, which would take us to "K" in names. The other six? They were named pretty much as soon as they started spinning off the African coast and never came near any land mass larger than Michael Moore's ego. Don't believe me? Go here and see for yourself.

Maybe if the hurricane center would name storms when they have even a slight chance of affecting land, we'd see this season is no worse that most others.

Of course that's just my opinion. I could be outta my freakin' mind.

A Successful Inspection Tour

I got back from Indigo's yesterday, and spent the intervening time for R&R - the driving just isn't as easy as it used to be.

Her place is missing a bit of tar paper shingle here and there, but overall Ophelia was a bust. I did see some damage on the Emerald Isle, but it was minimal.

While I was there I ran across at least a dozen items tailor made for an S&G column, but since my short-term memory is cactus (the long-term ain't doing much better), I promptly forgot all of them. Maybe next time I'll actually write something down - but I doubt it.

As Indigo says on her page, we caught the Big Squid's radio show. One question tho - Barry Manilow? Please!

The healing process is now about as good as it's going to get, so I should be back as bitter and twisted as ever.

Watch this space.

Add Another One

I know I'm slow - hell, I'm old - but I've finally gotten around to adding Guy K at Charming, Just Charming to the Blogroll.

If there's anyone out there who's not already familiar with him (doubtful), head on over and take a gander at what that ol' wing wiper has to say. He's timely, he's accurate, and he's just a plain good read.

Taking A 3 Day Break

I'm going to be off on an inspection tour of the North Carolina coast in the morning - eyeballing the situation for myself and checking that Indigo has been truthful with us all.

Don't worry - if she hasn't, I'll lock her heels together! See y'all late Sunday or Monday.

Dat Bad Bitch Ophelia

Everyone out there -

Please keep Indigo Insights in mind the next couple of days, as she lives right on the water down between Wilmington and Moorehead City. That means she's currently getting Biblical rain.

I gave her a call a bit ago, asking "How high the water, Mama?" At least that gave her a laugh.

Any prayers offered for this wonderful lady would be appreciated.

This is a Hanging Offense

I see where 39 sewer rats at Gitmo are on a hunger strike. What I don't understand about this is our gummit giving these boys IV pork chops instead of just honoring their choice to die. Maybe the hunger strike is because their favorite interrogator is gone?

According to a government inquiry into allegations of abuse there, an unnamed interrogator was giving these scumsuckers names and social security numbers of their MP guards, hoping to get information in return. In fact, this interrogator identified more with the scum than with their own Marines!

It turned out that the (totally unfounded) allegations of abuse against the Marines were made by this same interrogator! Hangin's too good fer him!

Just Another Day

Maybe the Muse will strike later. But, then again ... ... ...

The Levee Maps

I had been looking for reliable maps of New Orleans and just where the breaches were in the levees - were they both on Lake Pontchatrain or was one on the Mississippi? Well, I found them, courtesy of Kathryn Cramer's Blog. I hope she doesn't mind me posting them.

These are all pre-Katrina maps, and some are an amalgam of multiple aerial maps. Here's the overview of New Orleans:



Here's the "17th Street" breach:



And this is the site of the second breach:



As you can see by the first photo, this canal ends just past the 2d breach, so it all came from Pontchatrain. Not that it makes the residents there any happier to know that esoteric little fact!

No 9-11 Posting

Firstly, because it was 9-11 and there's nothing I could write that wouldn't be written elsewhere - and much more eloquently.

The other reason was that I went to the local Air Show with Attitude With Legs and chronological #1 and #2 granddaughters. Lots of walking around the static displays - including a MIG17, an F-86 Saber and a B-25 Mitchell - the "Bombs Over Tokyo" that flew off the USS Hornet. Lots of booths - all military was there, including National Guard - and of course a plethora of those selling merchandise - where over 90% of the items were directly military or patriotic in nature, while the rest were general aviation-related.

After about 5 hours, I was starting to exhibit signs of fatigue, so we packed it in. I saw the Saber flying - he was flat-hatting it across the runway and appeared to be going close to military speed, and if he was 100 feet off the deck I'm a vernicious knid! The shame was that I missed seeing the Mitchell put thru its paces. That would have been worth staying for!

When I got home I went thru my 1-2-3-passout phase for about 5 hours or so before I finally went to sleep. I really, really hate that!

I Found Out What's Changed!

On Saturday, I asked So What's Changed? Now I know - nothing, that's what!

If you'll check this link, you'll see that Mike Brown was the Director of FEMA from March 2003 until September, 2005. That would at first blush seem to indicate he was at the helm during all of the 2004 hurricanes, wouldn't it? Although according to Molly Ivins (who makes Mo Dowd look Conservative) the response to those hurricanes were entirely due to 2004 being a Presidential Election year!!

Live and learn, I allus say, 'cause if you don't learn, you usually don't live very long.

Wait Til Next ... ... Aw, Screw It

Here it is September, and that means the Chicago Cubs are once again eliminated from any hope of post season play.

So what do they do, now that their games have no meaning? They've gone 8-2 in their last ten games. It's been about an even century since they won the World Series, and 60 years since they even showed up in one!

The Cubs - -

Completely
Useless
By
September.

Yep - says it all.

And yes, I'm a displaced Chicago boy. At least the White Sox still have the opportunity to string us along before they rip our hearts out and shit on it. And you know they will.

So What's Changed?

For about a week, the members of the party using an ass as their mascot have been screaming about incompetents in FEMA - to the point where the head has been "relieved of duty".

This confuses me a bit. How many hurricanes hit Florida and elsewhere in 2004? Who was in charge of FEMA then? Other than some payments to Miami Dade, where was all this incompetence then?

Mike Brown, R.I.P.

I have no idea whether he deserved it or not, but Mike Brown of FEMA has been relieved of his duties at New Orleans. Further, it seems that his resume had a bit of padding in it.

It's possible that Admiral Allen, by taking control of the city, frees Brown for other ditues as head of FEMA, but the timing makes that really suspect.

Nancy Pelosi is doing the Happy Dance.

A Spanner in the Works

The situation on the South Coast reminds me of another disaster. In 1666, the city of London went up in flames, destroying the entire center of the city.

After the flames had been quenched, architects such as Christopher Wren came to King Charles II with plans to make downtown London a showplace to rival any European city. I've seen some of these plans, and it would have been magnificent. There was just one problem. It was called property rights, and the King's purse wasn't flush enough to buy out all those involved. As a result, London regrew to what you see today.

Fast forward to New Orleans. I have heard some people saying how they're going to re-build the city bigger and better than ever. The same problem still applies, but unfortunately they might be able to do just that.

If they do, the former residents can send a thank you note to the Supreme Court.

Yes? No? Maybe?

The Mayor of New Orleans has basically ordered the forced evacuation of his city.

The Governor of Louisiana says he can't do that - she has to and she's not going to.

This is all Bush's and FEMA's fault!

Some News?

First, the positive - She Who Must Be Obeyed had an endoscope yesterday, and the ulcer that blew out is healing nicely, although scar tissue might be a problem in the future.

As for the rest - I hear there's been a storm in the Gulf Coast, some judge died and some airplanes decided to emulate mortar rounds. If you looked really hard, tho, you could find that the US troops turned the city of Najaf over to the Iraqi forces. When you consider that Najaf is a really major religious center, that's really a bigger deal that it first appears to be.

Has anything else happened in the last week?

One thing I forgot - do ya think anyone plans on doing some fishing in Lake Pontchartrain in the near future??

Oh - Nancy Katrinavich Pelosi (Communist, San Francisco) is running true to form - she DEMANDS that the head of FEMA be fired and possibly the head of Homeland Security. This after calling for investigations to prove that Bush deliberately withheld aid to the Gulf because they're just poor and Black and wouldn't vote Republican anyway.

Just out of curiousity, has anyone heard of anything positive from her - such as a donation or offer of help for those hammered by this? Or is that just supposed to come from the federal government, since the Mayor of New Orleans and the Governor of Louisiana are both Dems?

A rhetorical question, right?

The Silent Disaster

What do you know about the following towns:

Heron Bay
Gautier
Ansley
Lakeshore
Waveland
Empire
Nairn
Happy Jack

All of these communities are on or near the shore of the Gulf of Mexico in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana that have been destroyed by the hurricane. Haven't heard of them? No big surprise, since they aren't the Big Name places.

Even those places like Biloxi and Pascagoula are having real trouble getting food, water, power, fuel - and evacuees out. Why?

They're not New Orleans. And all eyes of the media have been focused there to the exclusion of almost everywhere else. The result of this has been that the vast amount of aid - every kind of aid - is going there and not to the other places in dire need of it.

I guess it might be up to us in the blogs to get more awareness of this out to the nation.

This Worries Me

There was a story out of Carson, California last night about a townhouse fire where five children, aged six to ten years old, perished.

All of the adults, however, escaped the building. Something about this seems distasteful to me.

I'd like to hope that all these "adults" suffered severe burns trying to save these kids. Not one of these people felt the need to sacrifice themself for these children?

Excuse Me?

Just a quick note - -

According to today's editorial in the Winston Salem Urinal, which placed the blame for everything connected with the hurricane at Bush's door, said that when the hurricane was coming Bush should have had the military use force to evacuate the city of New Orleans.

No mention was made of any other areas struck by this - or any other previous hurricanes.

Can you picture what the reaction would have been if Bush had done anything like this?

Fuckin' pathetic.

When the Going Gets Weird ... ...

I presume everyone has already heard about this by now:

"(Kanye) West began a rant by saying, "I hate the way they portray us in the media. If you see a black family, it says they're looting. See a white family, it says they're looking for food."

While allowing that "the Red Cross is doing everything they can," West — who delivered an emotional outburst at the American Music Awards after he was snubbed for an award — declared that government authorities are intentionally dragging their feet on aid to the Gulf Coast. Without getting specific, he added, "They've given them permission to go down and shoot us."

After he stated, "George Bush doesn't care about black people. Please call _"

And because this is on national TV, people with less intelligence than God gave a Cocker Spaniel puppy are going to believe it instead of their own lying eyes. Now, I saw some people in grocery stores - White, Black and every other stripe. I also saw the same mix toting TV's, stereos and crates of Air Jordans. I saw cops with shotguns drawing on some of them so that they'd drop their swag.

HD TVs and Air Jordans aren't gonna feed your family. Maybe they got confused and thought they could eat them. I don't know. What I do know is that the secondary hit of the levees breaking in Nawleans caught everyone flat-footed, and I can't see how the help could've got there any faster. Sure, maybe the Governor could have acted quicker. That presumes she had some magic ball to see the damage, since the communications were out. Maybe the troops and food could've been beamed down there, since there was no way to drive there.

If the people want to look for someone to blame, how about starting with the snipers?

I Been Waitin Fur Dis

Just what we needed - not content with trying to place blame on everyone, we now have "civil rights activists" who are screaming RACISM.

The Mayor of New Orleans is Black? He jus bein held down by da Man. If this was a bunch of white folks the government would've moved before the floods happened and would've sent the hurricane to Mexico or something. Never mind that there ARE whites mixed in with the Black, Hispanic, Latino, Hungarian and Sri Lankans who got caught by this and are suffering the same fate.

These stupid fuckin' pricks who try their damndest to cause and promote racism should be liable to the same "ethnic intimidation" laws the non-blacks are held to.

Of course, the Eternal Gag Rule is always an option, isn't it?

Thoughts on the Gulf

I know that a fair few folks used to live south and east of New Orleans - has anyone seen or heard anything about them?

Has anyone thought about the art museums and other museums - the irreplaceable items destroyed, vandalized or stolen?

For a city that lived only under the sufferance of their levees and pumps, didn't New Orleans have any plans for repairing burst levees or inoperable pumps? That seems incredible to me.

It appears that the talking heads (with no brains) on some of the news channels have started blaming and accusing Houston for not being organized, not doing enough, etc, etc. How 'bout we let these asswipes know that people nationwide are trying to do whatever they can.

What are these news people doing to help? Or are they supposed to keep themselves separate from the story?

One added thought about the media - where are they getting the power to run their cameras, phones and microphones? And how are they getting to different areas? Seems to me that they are using resources that would be better spent on the people there, don't you?

Busy, Busy

Just so you know - I'm still around, but I'm going to be trying to do some painting today (ladders stuck in bushes, yells, screams).

I'll be back when I figure out how the hurricane and the floods are all Bush's fault.