SO THE EARLIER PORK POST — in which various bloggers posted and emailed about pork in their states — looked kind of promising, and N.Z. Bear and I got together to figure out a way to take it up a notch.

How are we going to mobilize the blogosphere in support of cuts in wasteful spending to support Katrina relief? Here’s the plan.

Identify some wasteful spending in your state or (even better) Congressional District. Put up a blog post on it. Go to N.Z. Bear’s new PorkBusters page and list the pork, and add a link to your post.

Then call your Senators and Representative and ask them if they’re willing to support having that program cut or — failing that — what else they’re willing to cut in order to fund Katrina relief. (Be polite, identify yourself as a local blogger and let them know you’re going to post the response on your blog). Post the results. Then go back to NZ Bear’s page and post a link to your followup blog post.

The result should be a pretty good resource of dubious spending, and Congressional comments thereon, for review by blogs, members of the media, etc. And maybe even members of Congress looking for wasteful spending . . . .

Feel free to copy the cool logo by Stacy Tabb (or this larger version) and use it on your own posts.

Technorati tag: porkbusters.

BLOGS: “Technology that took on a hurricane.”

SURRENDERING TEXTUAL CONTROL to fundamentalists.

I DISCUSS SOME LAMENESS FROM AARON BROWN over at GlennReynolds.com.

COMPLAINTS ABOUT YAHOO!’S COMPLICITY WITH CHINESE REPRESSION have been swirling around the blogosphere for quite a while — but today they’re grist for an editorial in the Washington Post.

LOOKS LIKE A LOSS FOR SCHROEDER IN GERMANY:

Germany’s Christian Democrats, led by Angela Merkel, have narrowly won Sunday’s election, exit polls suggest. After voting ended Ms Merkel – who wants to introduce far-reaching reforms to revive a flagging economy – said her party had a “clear mandate” to govern.

However it is unclear whether her party has won enough support to form a government with the Free Democrats.

David Kaspar is predicting gridlock, while Bruce Kesler thinks its the end of the Franco-German axis and notes a connection with the Afghan elections.

UPDATE: Gateway Pundit notes that crapulent anti-Americanism didn’t work for Schroeder this time.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Chris Christner: Bush 7, Axis of Weasels 1.

MORE: Schroeder is refusing to concede. More here.

WestHawk’s advice: “Look after Afghanistan, ignore Germany.”

STILL MORE: Peaktalk looks at the later numbers and says no mandate for Merkel. Well, dang.

On the other hand, everyone — and I mean everyone — can be glad that Schroeder won’t be running naked through the streets as New Zealand Green MP Keith Locke will have to do in light of election results there.

PORK UPDATE: Rhode Island blogger Carroll Andrew Morse points out some highway pork in his home state that could be cut. I hope other bloggers will follow his lead. [LATER: Followup on Rhode Island here.]

UPDATE: More pork found in Iowa. And not the yummy, soon-to-be-bacon kind.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Here’s some Utah fat!

(Sounds like Utah could do without it: “Surplus stack of state cash keeps growing.”)

MORE: Some Massachusetts pork.

The obvious next step is for local bloggers to call their Senators/Representative on Monday and ask if they’ll vote to cut this (or, failing that, can identify other cuts they will support) — then to post the response on their blog. I suspect that members of Congress will pay at least some attention to requests from local bloggers.

MORE STILL: Here’s the 2006 budget page from OMB. If you know of some other good resources, email ‘em to me.

And — how could I have forgotten it — Nathan Lanier points out the Pig Book.

STILL MORE: Here’s some North Carolina pork — though at least it hasn’t been soaked in that vinegary stuff they call barbecue sauce.

And reader Jay Stannard emails:

Here’s some easy pork that we could cut:

$1.2 B to refurbish the UN building.

Trump says it can be done for $600M, so that’s $600M to the UN kleptocrats.

Sorry Kofi, the rest of the world will have to pony up the cash, we have better things to do with it.

Here’s an article on the U.N. Headquarters boondoggle, which is being financed (via a 30-year low interest loan of $1.2 billion) from the U.S. government.

Arizona pork, from Edward Boyd!

How easy is it? This easy!

EVEN MORE: A reader who requests anonymity because of his current position emails:

Every September, Federal bureaucrats go on a spending spree with “year-end funds” — the money left over from the fiscal year that ends September 30.

Perhaps Congress should use this opportune moment to requisition the unspent money in padded program budgets and redirect it to Katrina rebuilding.

It could pay for the whole thing — that’s how much we’re talking about here.

Go for it, Congress.

AND YET MORE: In My home county in Tennessee, here’s $28 million in mostly-local road money. Is it pork? My congressman pretty much admits that:

Duncan and Alexander secured federal funding for Foothills Parkway, a civic arts center at Maryville College, Great Smoky Mountain Heritage Center at Townsend, and a greenway pedestrian bridge across the U.S. 129 By-pass in Alcoa.

In federal funding, there have always been bills which the members of Congress use for what are commonly referred to as “pork barrel” projects by those not receiving the benefits. Currently, the transportation bill has provided funds for many local projects across the nation that meet the proper definitions within the bill.

In the days of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, such projects were financed through numerous other types of aid or work programs. Resentment locally was so high to that type of funding at the time that some local governments in Blount County refused to apply for the funds.

Whether we like the method used or not, it is the only way we have of getting back our fair share of the federal taxes we pay.

Couldn’t we just, you know, keep the money without laundering it through Congress?

Some of the National Park road money may not count as “pork,” but the Civic Arts Center and pedestrian bridge definitely do.

MATT DUFFY: Spending cuts, or new taxes? Guess the media frame!

A “STAGNANT CESSPOOL” at Turtle Bay.

AT HIS BLOG, MISERABLE DONUTS, Major John Tammes is photoblogging from New Orleans. Lots of interesting stuff.

PUBLIUS has a big Afghan election roundup.

Gateway Pundit has more, too, and so does Afghan Lord.

UPDATE: Norm Geras highlights 25-year-old candidate Sabrina Sagheb and notes that this is a rather dramatic transformation from the Afghanistan of Taliban days. It’s funny that this isn’t making a bigger splash, though I guess it’s arguable that that’s a good sign.

WORRIES FOR CANADA:

A silent tectonic event, so powerful it has shifted southern Vancouver Island out to sea, but so subtle nobody has felt a thing, is slowly unfolding on the West Coast.

Scientists who are tracking the event with sensitive seismographs and earth orbiting satellites warn it could be a trigger for a massive earthquake — some time, maybe soon.

Let’s hope not.

IT’S AN L.A. TIMES DEATH SPIRAL WATCH at Kausfiles — with suggestions of criminality!

UPDATE: But an income-generating opportunity for Kaus! Heh. Indeed.

PEJMAN YOUSEFZADEH isn’t taken with Joe Biden’s latest oped: “The fact that he has failed to give any semblance of reasoning or justification for those proposals should alert us to the possibility that he either (a) hasn’t thought the matter through carefully enough; or (b) is more interested in advancing talking points than genuinely carrying the policy process forward.”

I’M SKEPTICAL OF BUSH’S REBUILDING PLAN, but Donna Brazile is all for it: “I will rebuild with you, Mr. President.” (Via Jeff Goldstein).

THE BBC’S COVERAGE OF KATRINA is facing harsh criticism:

TONY Blair has re-opened the government’s long-standing row about BBC bias by describing the corporation’s coverage of the aftermath of the havoc caused to New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina as being “full of hatred of America”. . . .

Bill Clinton, the former US president, and Sir Howard Stringer, chief executive of Sony Corporation, also criticised the tone of the BBC’s coverage during a seminar on the media at the Clinton Global Initiative conference in New York.

The BBC’s growing bias and anti-Americanism has been a disappointment for years, of course, but it’s nice to see more people noticing.

UPDATE: More here.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Scotland on Sunday editorializes that the BBC is “bloated and biased.” Meanwhile The Times reports that it’s not even commercial-free anymore:

COMPANIES are paying fees of up to £40,000 to advertise their products covertly on BBC programmes, often in breach of the corporation’s rules.

At least 50 cases have been identified where top brands have bought favourable exposure on BBC television by paying specialist agents.

The practice, known as product placement, is so widespread that some leading BBC dramas and lifestyle programmes depend on free gifts.

If I were paying British TV license fees, I’d be rather unhappy to hear this. And at least paid commercials make clear who is paying the freight.

SOMEBODY TELL TOM DELAY! The Cato Institute has identified $62 billion worth of budgetary fat to cut.

More here, too.

PHOTOSHOP FOLLIES AT C.A.I.R.: Amusing yet pathetic.

FAMED BLOG-COMMENTER and guestblogger Dafydd ab Hugh now has his own blog.

THE LOS ANGELES TIMES REPORTS:

Senior officials in Louisiana’s emergency planning agency already were awaiting trial over allegations stemming from a federal investigation into waste, mismanagement and missing funds when Hurricane Katrina struck.

And federal auditors are still trying to track as much as $60 million in unaccounted for funds that were funneled to the state from the Federal Emergency Management Agency dating back to 1998. . . .

The problems are particularly worrisome, federal officials said, because they involve the Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, the agency that will administer much of the billions in federal aid anticipated for victims of Katrina.

Before we shovel any more money in that direction, let’s be sure this won’t happen again.

DRIVING MISS ARIANNA: Heh. Is that miles per gallon, or gallons per mile?

UPDATE: Maybe she was just engaging in disaster preparedness!

READER MICHAEL BUTLER EMAILS:

Regarding your post on the president’s quasi-pledge to cut spending in order to fund post-Katrina relief/reconstruction, and given the awesome job you and other super-bloggers did raising donations and participation for relief efforts, what role can the blogosphere play in pressuring each state delegation to give up some or all of the federal pork currently slated for them? Should bloggers in Alaska start calling for suspended funding on the “Bridge To Nowhere”? Should other bloggers start listing the federal projects and $’s earmarked for their respective states and lead email campaigns aimed at their congressmen and local newspapers? Would this kind of nationwide project benefit from some uber-blogger coordination? Yes, I suspect it would.

Sounds good to me, and the “bridge to nowhere” is certainly a good place to start. Here are some more things to look at. I’ve got a few ideas about what bloggers might do to call attention to this, and I’ll be posting more on that later.

Judging from the poll results, quite a few InstaPundit readers are in favor of cutting spending.

UPDATE: Meanwhile, here’s evidence that the federal relief money is already being wasted. Jeez. Can’t we just cut every evacuee a check and call it a day?

AFGHANISTAN’S ELECTIONS: People seem to be taking them very seriously:

HERDS of mountain donkeys have been helping to bring democracy to some of the remotest areas of Afghanistan.

The democracy donkeys have been co-opted for the task of delivering 40 million ballot papers because they can penetrate mountain passes and muddy valleys beyond the reach of other transport.

More than 400 international observers are in Afghanistan to monitor the elections, and some of them have had to follow the trail of the donkeys to ensure that the precious ballot papers are not lost, stolen or damaged.

Meanwhile, Afghan Lord is photoblogging, and Gateway Pundit has a comprehensive roundup.

OXBLOG NOTES surprisingly favorable coverage from the American press for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. “Bush would kill for that kind of coverage . . . . But I think it is profoundly irresponsible to give Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a free pass.”

So do I.

IF HE LIVES UP TO THIS, it’ll be a masterstroke:

President Bush on Friday ruled out raising taxes to pay for Gulf Coast reconstruction, saying other government spending must be cut. “You bet it will cost money, but I’m confident we can handle it,” he said.

The operative word is “if.”

UPDATE: Related post here.

A TERRORISM ARREST IN MEMPHIS? There have been odd happenings there for a while.

MANOLO IS HOSTING the Carnival of Fashion.

THE NEW YORK TIMES’ PUBLIC EDITOR is unhappy with Paul Krugman and Gail Collins:

An Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times who makes an error “is expected to promptly correct it in the column.” That’s the established policy of Gail Collins, editor of the editorial page. Her written policy encourages “a uniform approach, with the correction made at the bottom of the piece.”

Two weeks have passed since my previous post spelled out the errors made by columnist Paul Krugman in writing about news media recounts of the 2000 Florida vote for president. Mr. Krugman still hasn’t been required to comply with the policy by publishing a formal correction. Ms. Collins hasn’t offered any explanation.

Read the whole thing.

THIS PASSAGE FROM BUSH’S SPEECH worries me a bit:

Yet the system at every level of government, was not well coordinated and was overwhelmed in the first few days. 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.

He’s talking about logistics here, but it’s not clear that’s all he’s talking about. I’d certainly oppose a repeal of the Posse Comitatus Act. And those interested in getting the military more involved in law enforcement should read this cautionary tale from an earlier disaster.

UPDATE: Donald Sensing has similar concerns, which he outlines in a long and thoughtful post.

NEWSDAY’S LOU DOLINAR writes on what went right with Katrina response.

SINGULARITY WATCH: “If nanotechnology maintains its current pace of development, it will give birth to a computer that has the information processing capacity equivalent to every human brain combined by 2060.”

A YEAR AFTER RATHERGATE, Jay Rosen has an open letter to CBS News.

DAVE KOPEL shares my concerns regarding Roberts’ views on the commerce clause.

THE CARNIVAL OF TOMORROW is up!

IN THE MAIL: Bruce Feiler’s Where God was Born: A Journey by Land to the Roots of Religion.

FUNDING KATRINA RELIEF: Bush seems to be shoveling out the cash, which has led some people to suggest cutbacks elsewhere — though curiously the press mostly seems to mention Iraq. Here’s an InstaPundit poll on the question that explores some other alternatives. Express yourselves!

THIS WEEK’S CARNIVAL OF THE RECIPES is up!

MEDIENKRITIK reports on the German elections.

STEM CELL UPDATE: The Lancet reports:

French researchers have used embryonic stem cells from mice to repair heart damage in sheep. Claudine Ménard and colleagues report that embryonic stem cells from mice could be successfully transplanted into larger mammals to regenerate damaged heart cells. This strengthens the possibility that embryonic stem cells could one day be used to repair heart cells in humans.

Let’s hope.

LAURA BUSH told Popular Mechanics today that she supports rebuilding New Orleans, though PM readers oppose it by a rather hefty margin, according to their online poll. It’s unscientific, of course, but this real poll isn’t very supportive. Are there any scientific polls that suggest widespread support for rebuilding?

Ian Schwartz, meanwhile, has video of Bush’s speech, here’s a CNN transcript, and Lorie Byrd notes that ABC was unprepared for the reaction of evacuees. More on that here (and here, and here) — but he’s no relation.

Matt Welch liked Bush’s speech, which is surely news, though I would have preferred the Welch-edited version myself. Michelle Malkin didn’t like it as much as Matt did.

UPDATE: Ian Schwartz has the priceless ABC interview video online now. Don’t miss it.

ANOTHER UPDATE: More video, and a transcript, here. Don’t miss it — though in fairness I don’t think that Dean Reynolds’ (no relation) tone is as anti-Bush as some people in the ABC discussion forums thought. There’s no question, though, that the interviewees shot down the standard Big Media line on Katrina relief.

Matt Duffy, meanwhile, compares ABC’s live coverage with NPR’s edited product.

ITUNES NOW SUPPORTS video podcasting.

I EXPRESS MY SKEPTICISM regarding the New York Times’ new TimesSelect program.

On the other hand, if I’m wrong, and people really are willing to pay through the nose to read blathering opinions on the Internet, well . . . I might be okay with that, too!

PEOPLE HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR THE DAMNING ROBERTS QUOTE, and I’ve found it:

SCHUMER: OK. Let me ask you, then, this hypothetical: And that is that it came to our attention, Congress’, through a relatively and inexpensive, simple process, individuals were now able to clone certain species of animals, maybe an arroyo toad. Didn’t pass over state lines; you could somehow do it without doing any of that. Under the commerce clause, can Congress pass a law banning even noncommercial cloning?

ROBERTS: I appreciate it’s a hypothetical, and you will as well, so I don’t mean to be giving bindings opinions. But it would seem to me that Congress can make a determination that this is an activity, if allowed to be pursued, that is going to have effects on interstate commerce. Obviously if you were successful in cloning an animal, that’s not going to be simply a local phenomenon. That’s going to be something people are going to…

SCHUMER: We can leave it at that. That’s a good answer, as far as I am concerned.

Under this analysis, everything is subject to regulation under the commerce power. That it’s a good answer as far as Schumer is concerned doesn’t surprise me, but that it’s the answer of a Bush nominee to the Supreme Court is damning, if not terribly surprising — for the Bush Administration. Fair-weather Federalism, indeed. More here.

What’s more, it seems that he’s answered my question number five in the affirmative.

UPDATE: Reader Martin Albright asks if this means that I disagree with Wickard v. Filburn. Possibly — but Wickard stands for the proposition that instances of economic activity that impacts a scheme of pervasive economic regulation can be aggregated to find an impact on interstate commerce sufficient to justify Congressional regulation. Roberts seems to be saying that anything can be aggregated to find an impact on interstate commerce, and that Congress can even nip it in the bud by outlawing it in advance to ensure that there never will be such an impact. This seems rather extreme to me, perhaps even going beyond Raich.

In fact, it seems as if Roberts is endorsing the Schumer view of the commerce power that Jonathan Adler was deriding just the other day over at NRO’s “Bench Memos” site. Perhaps Roberts misspoke, but he’s not really the misspeaking type, is he?

MORE: Hugh Hewitt says not to worry, but I am uncomforted.

MORE STILL: I remain uncomforted by this discussion.

ERIK JAFFE: “I am struck, watching the hearings, at the complete disconnect between the criticisms of many of those opposing Judge Roberts and a cogent view of the role of the courts. It seems that many of the criticisms are policy based — x or y rulings would lead to bad RESULTS — and make no reference whatsoever regarding whether such results are in fact the correct interpretation of the law (or the Constitution). . . . It is particularly ironic to hear the demands of Senators (most notably Specter) that they not be treated like children when they seem so intent on acting like children. ”

JIM MILLER thinks that 48 hours’ notice to evacuate is better than 72.

THE HISTORY CARNIVAL is up!

IT SMELLS BAD, BUT HERE ARE FEWER DEAD PEOPLE THAN WE EXPECTED: That’s the gist of this post-Katrina report:

Floodwaters recede from the city’s hard-hit east side, revealing neighborhoods covered in slimy, putrid muck and dotted with ruined cars and collapsed houses.

_ The body count in Louisiana climbs to 474, and it’s expected to rise further as state and federal officials go about the tedious task of collecting bodies and identifying them through DNA tests. The total death toll in five states reaches 710.

_ Mayor Ray C. Nagin says the tourist-friendly French Quarter and central business district may reopen as early as Monday after the Environmental Protection Agency said the foul-smelling air in the city was not overly polluted.

_ Nagin expects about 180,000 people to return to the city within a week or two, when power and sewer systems are restored.

Overall, it seems that things aren’t as bad as we feared, and the recovery is proceeding faster than we thought.

A WHILE BACK, I mentioned the idiocy of FEMA requiring firefighters to take sexual harassment training before being sent to New Orleans. Now John Derbyshire has what appears to be the curriculum for FEMA volunteer training. Whatever you think of this in the abstract, it seems awfully dumb to be putting people through this stuff when there’s an actual, ongoing disaster.

UPDATE: Reader Don Fleming emails: “Is there a firefighter who has been on the job longer than a month anywhere in this country who hasn’t already had the diversity training?” Seems unlikely to me.

Derbyshire’s curriculum is satire. Sadly, I had to read it twice to be sure.

ANOTHER UPDATE: A reader who requests anonymity says that it’s not that much of a satire:

Sadly John Derbyshire isn’t far wrong. It’s called “Cultural Awareness” and is required before you can deploy. Anyone that wants to deploy in any FEMA team has to take required training BEFORE becoming “deployable”. USAR, DMAT, DMORT, VMAT, it doesn’t matter. Cultural awareness is only one module. Sadly, most of the training is a waste of time. For example, doctors have to take basic classes in first aid.

Some of the training is helpful, such as how to set up equipment, but it makes more sense to do this in field training exercises than in on line sessions.

If you chose to mention this, please don’t attribute it to me.

I think that we could skip the sexual harassment stuff when there’s an actual disaster underway.

THE TAMPA TRIBUNE is running a new “Voices From the Front” section, where they get views from serving soldiers. I think it’s a great idea. Installments can be found here and here.

Read ‘em both, because they have a different take on things than the usual media talking-heads. Congratulations to the Tampa Tribune for adding some diversity to its coverage.

JEFF GOLDSTEIN has more on those buses.

ANN ALTHOUSE: “You know one Supreme Court case the Senators aren’t grilling Roberts about?”

Meanwhile, there’s continued liveblogging by Tom Goldstein and Matt Margolis.

TOM DELAY UPDATE: I have to agree with Ramesh Ponnuru that DeLay’s comments don’t seem to have been taken out of context, and I still don’t find the “sarcasm” defense persuasive. As I said before, if it was sarcasm, it misfired.

RELIEFCONNECTIONS.ORG is a cool new portal set up by N.Z. Bear to connect relief-providers and those who need relief services. Check it out if you’re in either category.

J.D. JOHANNES offers a look at the Iraqi court system.

REPEAL THE SEVENTEENTH AMENDMENT? I have thoughts on reforming the Senate, over at GlennReynolds.com.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL’S BOOK, Presidential Leadership : Rating the Best and the Worst in the White House, in which I have a chapter, is now available in paperback.

SOME THOUGHTS ON WHAT THE KATRINA RESPONSE says about the likely response to avian flu:

You think Katrina was bad, imagine a bird flu pandemic which will spread from country to country. The UN and WHO will be in the position of the federal government!

You think the Katrina situation was confused, imagine what an avian flu pandemic would be like: poor countries trying to cover-up cases while the outbreak becomes increasingly widespread while the UN/WHO stands by impotently. . . .

I’d be a lot happier if Congress and the media would focus on what to do about the next predictable crises, not on what went wrong in Katrina. 1,000 dead seems to be the upper limit on the number who died in Katrina. The number who’d die in an epidemic could be 4 or 5 orders of magnitude larger.

Uh oh.

MISSISSIPPI READER HAROLD BRASHEARS WRITES ON KATRINA RESPONSE:

Regular reader who just got internet access in South Mississippi tonight! I hope it does not go out before I finish this email. I live in Gautier, just north of I 10 on the gulf coast. Unlike many, I can plead personal knowledge.

I must disagree with those who appear to have made some kind of holy writ that the response was slow or inadequate. Of course, I cannot speak for New Orleans, which has had such a dysfunctional government
my wife and I have hesitated to visit for almost a year now. We stayed at home during Katrina (at my wife’s insistence, we won’t do that again!), and I must report that I think the emergency response was very fast, considering the size of the storm and the barriers to the response.

This was the biggest storm to hit the US in memory; it stretched from west of New Orleans to east of Mobile in its damage. The storm was a category 2 or 3 as far inland as Hattiesburg and Laurel. This means
prepositioning of supplies would not work, since they would have been destroyed in most cases. As I understand it, there were emergency supplies in the Gulfport/Biloxi area, but they were destroyed by the
strength of the storm.

The barriers to the emergency response are mind boggling. In many cases, emergency personnel and other first responders in the affected area could not be found. In Gulfport, for example, the police station was under water, and was relocated to a school, wading through water to get there. I don’t think anyone has found the Waveland PD, since Waveland is not there any longer. From New Orleans to Mobile there was no phone, no cell phones, no Internet, no
TV, no cable, no electrical power, no gas, no water and no communications of any kind except messenger. This is hard for people in communities far from the disaster to understand, the complete isolation of this communication lack.

North of the gulf coast is an area called the “Pine Belt”. As you may suspect, there are a lot of pine trees there, many of which ended up on the roads after the storm. Just clearing US 49 (a major artery to the coast from the north), took nearly a day. Hattiesburg is the major transportation hub in South Mississippi, and it was actually closed to all traffic for almost a day, due to fallen trees on the city roads. This is incredible, and unprecedented on this scale.

There was literally no way into the area for convoys that did not involve clearing hundreds of miles of roads. The bridge between Mobile and Pascagoula was closed, due to fear that it would collapse. It is still only one lane each way. I 10 was, in places,
under water until Tuesday.

So where did this idea of a slow response originate? I believe it came from fearful local politicians, mostly in Louisiana, eager to deflect blame to anyone else. It was picked up enthusiastically by the media. The Cindy Sheehan story was rapidly fading, so this was simply another attack by the media, beleieving they have finally got Bush. The Plame story, the Rumsfield story, Cindy Sheehan, Abu Graib, etc… etc…

I saw emergency personnel on Tuesday evening, and I was quite happy with the response.

I’m glad the power’s on. Here are some photos of damage on the Gulf Coast. And check out these aerial photos showing damage to bridges and roads.

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: “Every House member and every senator, as a show of support for the hurricane’s victims, should publicly give up a pork project in their district or in their state.” (Via Newsbeat 1).

ANN ALTHOUSE ON DIANNE FEINSTEIN: “Or is one of Congress’s enumerated powers the power to show it cares?”

Read the whole thing, which illustrates that listening to Senators bloviate about things they don’t understand isn’t like having a tooth pulled — it’s worse!

THE PLOT THICKENS: More blog investigative journalism regarding the Air America scandal.

THIS POST ON TRAFALGAR brings to mind this column by James Lileks: “Now our memorials are muted things whose passive beauty often seems at odds with the events they describe.” At best.

UPDATE: Some progress, here.

MERYL YOURISH: “Someone needs to explain to me how what happened in Iraq today can in any way be labeled the actions of ‘insurgents’ who are fighting to rid the country of the ‘occupiers.’ . . . Shouldn’t an insurgent to be a native of the land he’s fighting for? Wouldn’t you otherwise call these men mercenaries, or perhaps even—dare I say it—terrorists?”

UPDATE: Gateway Pundit rounds up some interesting news from Iraq, too, including a translation of an Iraqi newspaper article.

BLOGS scoop NBC.

MARK TAPSCOTT WONDERS WHY collusion between the New York Times and the Washington Post isn’t just as bad as collusion between Ford and GM.

“FATUOUS only in retrospect.” Heh.

CRUSHING OF DISSENT BLOCKED IN BROOKLYN:

In a swift and crucial victory for freedom of speech and academic freedom, Brooklyn College has affirmed that prominent professor KC Johnson will not be subjected to an unconstitutional inquisition into his views. The college surrendered mere days after the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) came to Johnson’s public defense.

As it should have, though it would have been better not to have needed FIRE at all.

DONALD SENSING: “Yesterday my eldest son, Lance Cpl. Stephen Sensing, deployed with his unit to Iraq. . . . My son and his fellows are producers of freedom, not mere consumers of it.” Read the whole thing.

JEFF GOLDSTEIN = KARL ROVE: It all makes sense now.

HUGH HEWITT WONDERS why Arthur Jones, chief of disaster recovery for Louisiana’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, is speaking at a conference in New York instead of, you know, doing his job in Louisiana. Maybe that explains the confusion over the bodies.

CONFUSION CONTINUES TO REIGN:

Gov. Kathleen Blanco lashed out at the federal government, accusing it of moving too slowly in recovering the bodies. The dead “deserve more respect than they have received,” she said.

However, Federal Emergency Management Agency spokesman David Passey said the state asked to take over body recovery last week. “The collection of bodies is not normally a FEMA responsibility,” he said.

Perhaps if people spent less time talking to the press, and more time talking to each other . . .

KINDS OF SINGULARITIES: Phil Bowermaster has worrisome thoughts.

MICHAEL BARONE WRITES on Adam Smith’s political punditry.

THE NATIONAL CONVERSATION: “It’s new, and about you.” What’s not to like?

THIS WEEK’S Carnival of Education is up!

KARL ROVE MUST HAVE ARRANGED THIS: Just as John Roberts is being quizzed by the Senate Judiciary Committee, another court declares the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional.

MELANIE PHILLIPS:

In the September 11 post below, I wondered how the media would respond to the revelations in Sunday’s newspapers of extreme anti-Jewish bigotry and Holocaust denial among Muslim advisers to the government on combating Islamist extremism. As I feared the reaction has ranged from silence to indifference, with more than one report even appearing to endorse some of the most poisonous prejudice at the core of the Muslim demand.

There is now a real feeling of siege among the Jews of Britain.

Read the whole thing.

DESPITE ALL THE MEDIA CRITICISM, Bush’s poll numbers seem to be improving. Interesting.

UPDATE: On the other hand, here’s a WSJ poll that shows Bush’s numbers falling. I don’t know which one is right, but I can guess which will get more coverage!

EUGENE VOLOKH says that Tony Blankley is leaving things out.

JEFF TAYLOR HAS STILL MORE ON THOSE BUSES:

Had there been a futures market on buses in New Orleans, the value of the buses would have skyrocketed as Katrina approached, signaling their increased utility in the emergency. But even without such an overt market signal, any private owner of the vehicles would have exhausted all opportunities to save his or her property. Nobody who owned such a potentially valuable product would have done what New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin did: let it all go to waste on the assumption that drivers would be impossible to find. Greyhound, after all, did not leave hundreds of its buses to be destroyed. And, of course, this very fact caused Nagin to scream for “every doggone Greyhound bus line in the country” to come to the aid of his city. And it should go without saying that no private employer would long tolerate a workforce that, in Sen. Mary Landrieu’s memorable description of New Orleans public sector workers, has trouble coming to work even on sunny days.

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: Reader Ross Booher notes this from CNN:

In the aftermath, the questions grew sharper: Why did aerial shots of the flooded city show hundreds of school and city buses window-deep in water? Why hadn’t anyone used those buses to move people out? Did Amtrak really offer residents seats on trains the company moved out of harm’s way? And if so, who refused that offer and why?

Of course, Booher adds:

CNN does not connect the dots by noting that if the City had evacuated citizens using the buses, trains, etc. as set forth in the City’s Disaster Plan, there would have been no need to rescue those same people from roof tops, the Superdome, the Convention Center, overpasses, etc. The city’s failure started a cascading effect.

Yes. And although it wasn’t at fault in the pre-storm failures, I think that the collapse of the NOPD’s radio system played a substantial role in the unrest after the flooding began.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Harry Shearer emails:

Sunday’s lonnnnnng Washington Post piece on Katrina makes it clear, as I suggested to you last week, that, by the time Nagin declared his evac order (and even Haley Barbour warned of “Hurricane fatigue” from previous evacuations), getting people on those buses and SAFELY out of town was a very chancy proposition. Every plan published indicates that it would take up to 72 hours to fully evacuate New Orleans, and 72 hours in advance Katrina was not posing the lethal threat it turned out to be….

“Fully evacuate?” Yes. As Brendan Loy noted, even 48 hours is really too late — though Nagin waited much later than that. (I’ve seen people doing math to the effect that you could have gotten everyone out in 24 hours, but I doubt that New Orleans could have mustered the necessary degree of organization for that.) But certainly a lot of people could have been evacuated who weren’t, and that would have improved conditions for the rest, and reduced the burden on relief services. And if Nagin had gotten the buses out, they would have been available for further evacuations after the storm had passed, instead of him having to call for Greyhounds.

This is, of course, all water over the dam in the most literal sense, but given all the finger-pointing going on, it’s hard to ignore this issue. Had more people been evacuated, as they should have been, before the storm hit, conditions in the city would have been better, and relief services less stressed, afterward.

MORE: Reader Michael Pate emails:

Your post http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/archives/025165.php may not have been 72 hours ahead but it was 60. Brendan Loy has been posting for hours http://www.brendanloy.com/page2.html. Apparently, the Bush Administration had been talking to the Governor all that afternoon. If the plan had been implemented, and they had run slightly behind, a lot fewer than 100,000+ would have been in the city.

I guess public officials should read more blogs. Or at least pay attention to the stuff Brendan Loy was paying attention to.

Various readers, by the way, want to know if it’s “that” Harry Shearer. Yes.

THE CARNIVAL OF THE VANITIES turns three today.

READER A.L. HARRIS EMAILS: “After watching the Senatorial Tour de Force during the Robert’s confirmation, if you know anyone that is thinking about restarting the term limits crusade, tell them now’s the time.”

HERE’S AN INTERESTING PIECE BY DECLAN MCCULLAGH, saying that the Internet has done better than government with regard to hurricane response. That’s a bit strong, I’d say, but the piece is worth reading.

A PREDICTION THAT “the post-Kass bioethics council will be just as obnoxious.”

THIS IS SURELY THE DUMBEST STATEMENT OF THE WEEK, which is no small accomplishment given that the Roberts hearings are underway:

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay said yesterday that Republicans have done so well in cutting spending that he declared an “ongoing victory,” and said there is simply no fat left to cut in the federal budget.

Give it to me, Tom. I’ll find some things to cut. Starting with your salary, which you don’t seem to be earning . . . .

UPDATE: Okay, I take it back. The dumbest statement of the week comes from Andrew Sullivan, who doesn’t seem to get the difference between “today” and “yesterday” in a post from this morning criticizing something I quoted last night, but which he attributes to “today” as, I guess, evidence of my obliviousness to this morning’s terror bombing in Iraq.

Sorry Andrew, but I’m not capable of precognition. On the other hand, I can read a clock. Jeez. I confess that I don’t understand why Sullivan is so desirous of scoring cheap points at my expense these days, but this is pretty lame. As Jeff Goldstein put it in a different context: “Andrew Sullivan is completing his transformation into a Kos Diarist.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Matthew Cook thinks that Tom Delay is smarter than he looks:

Delay set up the entire congress, (R) and (D)! No one in congress can come forward and say that Delay is false without offering up some examples. I think you will notice the silence from both houses. Note that Delay also said “My answer to those that want to offset the spending is sure, bring me the offsets, I’ll be glad to do it. But nobody has been able to come up with any yet,”.

A few readers seem to think that DeLay was being sarcastic. I guess that’s possible, but here’s a quote from one of his colleagues, in the same story: “‘This is hardly a well-oiled machine,’ said Rep. Jeff Flake, Arizona Republican. ‘There’s a lot of fat to trim. … I wonder if we’ve been serving in the same Congress.’” If it’s sarcasm, it misfired rather badly.

Meanwhile, I think today’s news proves my emailer right, and undercuts Andrew’s chronologically-challenged point: Yesterday, at a press conference with the Iraqi President where good news was presented, all we heard from the press was Katrina news that might make Bush look bad.

Today, there’s bad news from Iraq, and it’s splashed all over the front page of the NYT’s website. Because, I suspect, the press hopes it will make Bush look bad. Andrew used to be cognizant of such issues, but lately he seems to have joined the herd himself.

LATER: Sullivan admits “a failure of editorial sloppiness on my part,” but somehow suggests that he didn’t mean what the post said. That’s sloppy. As for the “diarist” bit, well, I think the shoe fits. Sorry if it pinches.

LORIE BYRD is Ophelia-blogging.

IN THE MAIL: David Heenan’s Flight Capital: The Alarming Exodus of America’s Best and Brightest.

Read this post from Daniel Drezner, too.

UPDATE: Jonathan Gewirtz emails: “The phenomenon of non-US students returning to their countries of origin is alarming only if it is mainly a function of problems in the USA. If it mainly reflects, instead, improving opportunities in other countries, it is great news.”

Excellent point.

ROBERTS LIVEBLOGGING CONTINUES via Tom Goldstein at SCOTUSBlog and Matt Margolis.

PIETER DORSMAN’S PEAKTALK blog has a link-filled primer on the upcoming German elections.

DISASTER PREPAREDNESS IN JAPAN:

I write, of course, from Japan. You know, the Japan that makes social-democrat/third-way types feel all warm and fuzzy? The Japan in which enlightened technocrats, enshrined in the federal ministries in Kasumigaseki and insulated from elections and politicking and evil market forces and stuff, guide the nation toward a bright nationally-insured future? Yeah, the bloom is somewhat off the economic rose, but in social policy terms, a lot of my left-leaning acquaintances still swoon over the degree of ministry control here.

Well, I will tell you as someone who has lived here for a decade: what you hear about disaster preparedness ALWAYS involves local intiatives. . . . In Japan, what we’re told is this: A disaster may render you unreachable. It may cut you off from communication networks and utilities. The appropriate government agencies (starting at the neighborhood level and moving upward depending on the magnitude of the damage) will respond as quickly as they can, but you may be on your own for days until they do. Prepare supplies. Learn escape routes. Then learn alternate escape routes. Know what your region’s points of vulnerability are. Get to know your neighbors (especially the elderly or infirm) so you can help each other out and account for each other. Follow directions if you’re told to evacuate. Stay put if you aren’t. Participate in the earthquake preparation drills in your neighborhood.

If that’s the attitude of people in collectivist, obedient, welfare-state Japan, it is beyond the wit of man why any American should be sitting around entertaining the idea that Washington should be the first (or second or fifteenth) entity to step in and keep the nasty wind and rain and shaky-shaky from hurting you. Sheesh.

Read the whole thing (Via Virginia Postrel).

UPDATE: Reader Peter Murphy emails from Madrid:

Your post on Japanese disaster preparation reminded me an experience I had last year with some Japanese workers in my office building. I work in a seven story building in Madrid, Spain and each year the mangement conducts the standard fire drill which consists of someone sounding the fire alarm and everyone in the building exiting by way of the staircases. I timed it and it took me 10 minutes to exit from my office on the sixth floor. “Not good” I though as I exited only to find the majority of the office workers from the lower floors loitering about the exits, smoking cigarettes, hindering my “escape” and blocking the firefighters’ entry. As I struggled to get through this crowd of ambivalent Spaniards I looked across the street and see three small groups of Japanese workers (presumably from the Japanese bank office in my building). They are ALL wearing miner style helmets with attached flash-lights and fluorescent vests. They were separated into groups of 10 or so and one from each group was conducting what appeared to be a head count as another member diligently rummaged through a well-stocked first aid kit conducting what appeared to be an inventory check. As my co-workers took delight in mocking our Japanese friends I thought to myself “if there is a real disaster I know who will be getting the last laugh.”

Indeed. There is an ant-and-grasshopper aspect to this subject, which doesn’t get enough attention.

A PRAIRIE HO’ COMPANION: Garrison Keillor threatens to sue blogger for parody? I never thought Keillor had much of a sense of humor.

SHOULD NEW ORLEANS BE REBUILT? Popular Mechanics has an online poll, which at the moment is running pretty heavily toward “no.”

HEY, MAYBE THE SINGULARITY REALLY IS NEAR! My TechCentralStation column is up.

NIGHTLINE: “Amid Katrina Chaos, Congressman Used National Guard to Visit Home.”

EVEN MORE ON THOSE BUSES, as Bill Hobbs debunks an attempted debunking by ThinkProgress.

I UNMASK KARL ROVE’S SECRET PLAN over at GlennReynolds.com.

JAMES PINKERTON: “The Old Media Empire is striking back.”

UPDATE: Some further thoughts from Jeff Goldstein on how it may impact the war.

DARTBLOG notes some things from Bush’s press conference today that most people missed.

UPDATE: Vincent Flynn emails: “Iraq must be a smashing success, when Bush can hold a presser with Talabani and field only Louisiana disaster relief questions.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Barbara Skolaut emails: “I agree with Mr. Flynn, but his sentence is not complete. It should read, ‘Iraq must be a smashing success – and it’s obviously driving the press absolutely crazy – when Bush can hold a presser with Talabani and field only Louisiana disaster relief questions.’”

FROM GOOGLE-BOMBING to Technorati-bombing.

UPDATE: N.Z. Bear is not amused.

HERE’S ARTHUR CHRENKOFF’S FINAL good news from Iraq roundup. But he’s passing the flag on to a new team who will keep up the good work.