the things you believe you're seeing...

It was not pretty, but enjoyable. Click here to read the transcipt of listen to the audio of Congressman Peter King's "match" with Chris Matthews over at RadioBlogger .

Some things should remain unseen. If you would like to have your eyes burned out of their sockets go here to see some of Mama Sheehan's followers. You have been warned!

It seems the media is beginning to pick up on the story that the New Orleans Times-Picayune ran on Monday about the frenzied and inaccurate reporting of murder and rapes at the Superdome and Convention Center in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. This from the LA Times ; BATON ROUGE, La. — Maj. Ed Bush recalled how he stood in the bed of a pickup truck in the days after Hurricane Katrina, struggling to help the crowd outside the Louisiana Superdome separate fact from fiction. Armed only with a megaphone and scant information, he might have been shouting into, well, a hurricane. The National Guard spokesman's accounts about rescue efforts, water supplies and first aid all but disappeared amid the roar of a 24-hour rumor mill at New Orleans' main evacuation shelter. Then a frenzied media recycled and amplified many of the unverified reports. "It just morphed into this mythical place where the most unthinkable deeds were being done," Bush said Monday of the Superdome. H...

The picture that you will see in the media from the Saturday anti-American protest in Washington DC; And the view from behind; Geez, were all of the protesters photo-journalists?? Do you see an actual protester in those pictures?

Yes I kid you not, Cindy Sheehan was upset that CNN had the gall to cover the hurricane and push her to the back-burner. It seems her brain-washed followers actually are beginning to see the light; rita (3.33 / 3) i am watching cnn and it is 100 percent rita... even though it is a little wind and a little rain ...it is bad, but there are other things going on in this country today...and in the world!!!! by CindySheehan on Sat Sep 24th, 2005 at 06:29:15 PDT [ Parent ] Be sure to read the comments , they are priceless.

Michelle Malkin links to a report in the Seattle Times about all the rapes and murders that were alleged to have happened in the Superdome while the evacuees waited for state/local/federal help to arrive. Remember how breathlessly the media reported this "crimes" and decried the lack of response? Well it turns out it was just like any other week in New Orleans; Orleans Parish District Attorney Eddie Jordan said authorities have only confirmed four murders in the entire city in the aftermath of Katrina — making it a typical week in a city that anticipated more than 200 homicides this year . After all the grandstanding by the Ted Koppel's of the world we now know this; The vast majority of reported atrocities committed by evacuees — mass murders, rapes and beatings — have turned out to be false , or at least unsupported by any evidence, according to key military, law-enforcement, medical and civilian officials in positions to know. "I think 99 percent of it is [explet...

This is great stuff, about time someone said this to one of these idiot reporters. Watch here .

Again the MSM has been caught not doing their job by bloggers. If you remember Aaron Broussard president of Jefferson Parish in New Orleans appearance on Meet The Press with Tim Russert where he broke down in tears over the death of a colleagues mother whom he claimed died due to the slow response of the federal government. Here is a partial transcript of the appearance on Meet The Press; BROUSSARD: ... The guy who runs this building I'm in, emergency management, he's responsible for everything. His mother was trapped in St. Bernard nursing home and every day she called him and said, "Are you coming, son? Is somebody coming?" And he said, "Yeah, Mama, somebody's coming to get you. Somebody's coming to get you on Tuesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Wednesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Thursday. Somebody's coming to get you on Friday." And she drowned Friday night. She drowned Friday night. RUSSERT: Mr. President... BR...

President Bush today raised concerns about Mayor Nagin's plan to repopulate New Orleans . He thinks the mayor is taking things a little too quickly, so do I considering Tropical Storm Rita is a potential danger that could threaten Louisiana later this week; Bush said there is "deep concern" about the possibility that Tropical Storm Rita, which was headed toward the Florida Keys on Monday, could drop more rain on New Orleans and breach the city's levees again.

Maybe when the Dems return to blaming President Bush for cutting funding to New Orleans for levee upgrades they can read this article from none other than the LA Times; WASHINGTON — 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. In March, FEMA demanded that Louisiana repay $30.4 million to the federal government. 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.

Funny how the AP all of a sudden knows what states have the authority to do once they declare a state of emergency; In Tallahassee, Gov. Jeb Bush declared a state of emergency for Florida, which gives the state authority to oversee evacuations and activate the National Guard, among other powers .

From Cindy's lips to your burning ears; George Bush needs to stop talking, admit the mistakes of his all around failed administration, pull our troops out of occupied New Orleans and Iraq, and excuse his self from power. Say what? Read the rest if you must here . And a little tip Cindy, proof reading is a good thing; and excuse his self from power

ABC News thought it would be a great idea and a great opportunity to get some immediate reaction (Bush bashing) to the President's speech so they dispatched Dean Reynolds to the parking lot of the Astrodome where six African-Americans were watching the Presidents speech. When the President finished Ted Koppell through it to Dean and the rest is history; Reynolds: “I'd like to get the reaction of Connie London who spent several horrible hours at the Superdome. You heard the President say repeatedly that you are not alone, that the country stands beside you. Do you believe him?” Connie London: “Yeah, I believe him, because here in Texas, they have truly been good to us. I mean-” Reynolds: “Did you get a sense of hope that you could return to your home one day in New Orleans?” London: “Yes, I did. I did.” Reynolds: “Did you harbor any anger toward the President because of the slow federal response?” London: “No, none whatsoever, because I feel like our city and our state gov...

Props to the Tampa Tribune for this new feature they have started called "Voices From The Front" which highlights comments from military personell serving in Iraq. Go here and here for the first few installments.

In what is quickly becoming one of my must-read blogs, AnkleBitingPundits tears apart the lastest poll from the NY Times/CBS News for its oversampling of Democrats over Republicans by 10%, 36%-26%. What other reason would the NY Times do this than to come up with the worst numbers possible.

Go here to see photo "evidence" of what is sure to receive more attention than Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, Cindy Sheehan and the Judge John Roberts confirmation hearings combined! Prepare yourselves! UPDATE: Ok, now that you have recovered enough composure to read on, first did Reuters bother to notice that there appears to be two different handwritings on this alleged note? This question on the page is printed in block letters and the answer is being written by Bush in cursive style. Perhaps someone passed him the note, maybe Sec. of State Condi Rice. Second why in the world would a camera be allowed to zoom in so close to potentially sensitive documents inside the Security Council or General Assembly? To my amateur eyes the look of the writing seems suspect to me, it looks too bold, too thick to have been created by a pencil. Maybe the photo was enhanced for readability but it just doesn't look right to me. And lastly, who gives a crap, no pun intended! UPDATE: This ju...

From an AP article; 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 . Since Governor Blanco admitted she doesn't even know what day it is this it not surprising. And then we have this from the Mayor; On Tuesday, President Bush said he took responsibility for the fitful federal response to the devastation. New Orleans' mayor was asked on ABC's "Good Morning America" if he took responsibility for the city's response. "I'm going to be a man about this. Whatever I did, whatever I could have done better, I'm going to stand up and history will judge me accordingly ," Nagin said in an interview b...

A federal judge in California (where else?) has ruled that reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools is unconstitutional. Yes, we have to go through this yet again! LaShawn Barber has the answer . And Hugh Hewitt thinks this give President Bush a great opportunity to nominate Judge Michael McConnell for the O'Connor vacancy who is an expert in the religion clauses of the 1st Amendment.

Can someone explain why this isn't making news ? View the video at The Politcal Teen and decide for yourself.

Michelle Malkin has a great column about the Flight 93 memorial controversy, also go to her site for more . Please get involved to stop this insult from going forward, here is my email to the Superintendent of the memorial. To those responsible for this travesty, How completely inappropriate, insensitive and pathetically PC to the families of the victims of Flight 93 to create a memorial that "embraces" the symbol of the religion of those that murdered, no, slaughtered them on September 11, 2001. It is beyond disgusting that this design was even allowed to be submitted for consideration, much less actually win this supposed competition. Even if this is an innocent coincidence, which is highly questionable after viewing the firm's philosophy on their website, care should have been taken to protect the memory of everyone on Flight 93 considering what has happened (but hopefully thwarted) at the WTC site instead of attempting to invoke some subconscious guilt ridden accep...

From AP ; "To the extent the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility," Bush said.

Since so many of the self-appointed experts (journalists) on relief response to natural disasters were screaming and yelling at federal officials about the slow response and arrogantly asking them "don't you watch TV" I think maybe its time to lay a little blame on them for all of the inaccurate reporting or unreported news. The WSJ runs an article today doing just that; The New Orleans office of the National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning at 8:14 a.m. Monday, saying "a levee breach occurred along the industrial canal at Tennessee Street. 3 to 8 feet of water is expected due to the breach." The media largely ignored it . The NWS's source of information was ham-radio transmissions by the Orleans Levee Board, a city-state agency. The 8:14 warning was the last one the local office issued before its communications were cut off. The statement was repeated only once more, at 10:52 a.m., by the National Weather Service office in Mobile, Ala. Yet some...

In the new Washington Post/ABC News poll out today President Bush's job approval rating is at 42%, the lowest its been for this poll. The Gallup/USA Today/CNN poll out two days ago had his approval rating at 46%. However, what is interesting is what is NOT mentioned in the Washington Post or ABC News articles about the polls. If you look at the PDF document available via the ABC News website you find this; METHODOLOGY This ABC News/Washington Post poll was conducted by telephone Sept. 8-11, 2005, among a random national sample of 1,201 adults, including an oversample of blacks for a total of 271 black respondents. The results have a threepoint error margin for the full sample, six points for blacks. Sampling, data collection and tabulation by TNS Intersearch of Horsham, Pa. And within the ABC News article is this; These results are from an ABC News/Washington Post poll on Hurricane Katrina and other topics that will be released in its entirety at 5 p.m. today. The poll was conduc...

Go to The Political Teen and see for yourself.

With comments like this how can you go wrong; I'm often dismissed as a Bush cheerleader, though I disagree with him on immigration, education and bombing Syria. But come on, a guy doesn't have to be great to be better than Nancy Pelosi , the armchair general of armchair generalities. Gotta love it, read the whole thing here .

Me thinks yes! One Democrat, Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, was so concerned with his performance that he held a mock hearing in his office on Sunday, with a Harvard law professor playing Judge Roberts. As chairman of the committee charged with electing Democrats to the Senate in 2006, Mr. Schumer has used the confirmation battle to raise money for campaigns and to solidify his standing as a party leader Sheeze! The rest is here . More proof from the Washington Post ; Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) made 49 first-person references in a 10-minute statement that was, ostensibly, not about himself .

Rescuers collect dead, Cheney sounds upbeat Oh brother!

The thunderous applause that can be heard throughout this great land is the insane and crazed left. The reason? Michael Brown just resigned as the head of FEMA! The left has done their job and they feel good about themselves!

Rush just played an audio of Governor Blanco admitting back on August 31st that she should have called in the military sooner. Apparently she was in between interviews and was speakier to an advisor or press secretary and was unaware of an open mic nearby. Those pesky open microphones!

Just view the video , be sure to watch it to the very end and see how pissed off and uncomfortable she looks at the end of this interview. Great job by Chris Wallace! He doesn't give up on the issue of the hundreds of buses that are underwater even though Landrieu is doing the typical filibustering that is done on these Sunday shows when they know they cannot or don't have and answer. Finally Landrieu just refuses to answer the question but keeps saying that the buses couldn't be used because they were underwater, duh! Unbelievable! UPDATE: Here is the transcipt to the Fox News Sunday meltdown by Sen. Mary Landrieu. Not how Chris Wallace tries 6 times, by my count, to get the Senator to answer the buses question. Six times! And her comments about the Mayor not being able to get "his people to work on a sunny day" are a bit curious. After all, what does that say about the mayors leadership abilities. And if a Republican had said that I am sure we would hea...

During a live CNN interview with Kyra Phillips on "Live from..." Sen. Nancy Pelosi comes close to her own version of the Howard Dean scream when Kyra Phillips dared ask her tough questions on the fairness of blaming only the federal response, specifically FEMA, instead of the usual softball interview that she was most likely expecting. At first Phillips was questioning her on Scott McClellan's statements today questioning her account of a meeting she had with President Bush where she claims she insisted on Michael Brown being removed as head of FEMA and McClellan's claim that that was not discussed at all, and then it got interesting... PHILLIPS: But if you, if we go back, I mean, we can go back year after year after year, and we can talk about FEMA and what went wrong within FEMA and should FEMA be under the Department of Homeland Security. But if we want to be historical here, and we want to go back in time, I mean, we can go back to "The Times Picayune" a...

For some unknown reason, Steve Morse of the Boston Globe finds it "disconcerting" that Kanye West was loudly booed during the entire performance of his one song at the NFL Pre-game show. Maroon 5 came off vapidly (doing just one song, ''Harder to Breathe"), while West did one tune, ''Heard 'Em Say." Yet it was disconcerting to hear his name booed loudly by Patriots fans who evidently didn't appreciate his nationally televised comment the other night on a Hurricane Katrina benefit that President Bush ''doesn't care about black people." The boos were thunderous and lasted for much of his number. Good job Patriot fans!!!!

On Monday September 5th Alessandra Standley wrote this in her TV Watch column ; Some reporters helped stranded victims because no police officers or rescue workers were around. (Fox's Geraldo Rivera did his rivals one better: yesterday, he nudged an Air Force rescue worker out of the way so his camera crew could tape him as he helped lift an older woman in a wheelchair to safety.) However watching the entire video of the rescue (via Politcal Teen ) it is abundantly clear to any sane individual that Geraldo did not, nudge, punch, trip or throw the National Guardsman out of the way, he didn't come anywhere near him. And the NY Times says that they reviewed the video that was sent to them by Fox and sees no reason to issue a retraction or an apology. So now Geraldo is going to sue them. Good!

We can only hope that the estimates of 10,000 dead by Mayor Ray Nagin may have been hugely over estimated , something I have suspected/hoped for. And so far Ray hasn't exactly been "on" with his statements. The death toll could very well rise dramatically but based on the totals from Mississippi and Alabama so far there is hope that it will be much lower than expected. Of course the AP finds a way turn this into a controversy as well; SLOW WASHINGTON RESPONSE Advancing the notion of a catastrophic death toll may have helped get the attention of Washington, which has being widely criticized for a slow response . Un-freakin-believable!

This is the design chosen for the Flight 93 Memorial to be displayed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Its called the "The Crescent of Embrace." Does it remind you of anything? Here's a hint; Check Michelle Malkin and the links she has for more...

Greg Gutfeld asks some probing questions in his latest show of courage at HuffPo. I especially like this; do you really believe Bush doesn’t care about poor, black people? -But, then, who really seemed to RELISH the tragedy more? -Bush? -or The Huffington Post?

The 17th Street Levee was bombed by the US Army Corp of Engineers. WHOA! "The 17th street levee was bombed by the Army Corps of Engineers to save the more valuable real estate in the city... to keep the French Quarter protected, the ninth ward was sacrificed... people are afraid to speak out... everyone who was near there heard the bombings... they bombed seven times. That's why they didn't fix the levees... 20 feet of water. Gators. People dying in water. They let the parishes go, not the city center. Tourist trap was saved over human life. Oh man! Tin-foil brigade in full swing! Later in the comments section you can find this; The 17th street levee didn't flood the 9th ward. The 9th ward was flooded by the breach in the industrial canal. The 17th street canal flooded the lakefront (a rich white neighborhood) as well as mid-city (my neighborhood, which is a mix of rich and white.) So this idea makes no sense.

U.S. Appears to Have Avoided Massive Oil Supply Problems Half of Damaged Refineries Near Restarting Stocks Rise on Oil Price Decline Oil prices fall, pump prices seen dropping

Sean Penn's Boat Sinks In Failed Katrina Rescue Attempt

They can't, that's why. There are procedures that need to be followed. The feds just can't waltz in and seize control of any disaster situation. Here courtesy of The Corner ; The Feds may take charge following procedures as established in the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act. The procedures are detailed in Appendix 5, Section 2 (p. 9) of the NRP: "Immediately after an incident, local jurisdictions respond using available resources and notify State response elements. As information emerges, they also assess the situation and the need for State assistance. The State reviews the situation, mobilizes State resources, and informs the DHS/EPR/FEMA Regional Office of actions taken. The Governor activates the State emergency operations plan, proclaims or declares a state of emergency, and requests a State/DHS joint Preliminary Damage Assessment (PDA) to determine if sufficient damage has occurred to justify a request for a Presidential declarat...

It's beginning to look like the hysterical reporting by the MSM is beginning to calm down and we are starting to see where the actual failures pre and post-Hurricance Katrina lie. Mayor Nagin was on CNN this morning in a taped interview, he sure has a lot of time to do TV interviews, and in the interview he says that the Govenor of LA and the President met privately on Air Force One on Friday during the President's first trip to the area. According to the mayor President Bush told him that he gave the Gov two options and one was that he was ready to move in with federal troops and relief immediately, the feds were ready to take over the evacuation and relief effort that day but she requested a 24 hour delay to make a decision. She did not want to relinquish her authority. If this is true than the mayor is placing the blame squarely on the shoulders of the state. S. O’BRIEN: What has Secretary Chertoff promised you? What has Donald Rumsfeld given you and promised you? NAGIN: Loo...

So how long will it take before the Governor of Lousianna and the Mayor of New Orleans are held accountable for their failed leadership during this disaster? Among her many failures, Governor Blanco didn't issue an executive order to use school buses for evacuation until 9/2. She also did not call in the National Guard to help with the security in New Orleans. She has the authority to call in the Guard at any time and did not do it. This woman's performance was pitiful. Someone explain to me why these buses were not utilized on Sunday before the storm hit or afterwards, they were less than a mile from the Superdome. They could have been used to shuttle people out of New Orleans before the storm hit or used to get people out after the levee broke and the water began to rise. Another look; And what about New Orleans emergency manager? Where was he during all of this? He is supposed to setup command and control points during an emergency for the federal governmet to interac...

Watch this , it is unbelievable. This was broadcast live tonight on NBC. Kanye West, you know the "artist" is explaining how things work in the dark recesses of his mind. Poor Mike Myers looks like he wishes he was anywhere but there! Needless to say, this is not helpful. The news media is picking up on it as well, see here and here . And now the AP chimes in with its limp response. And we get this from Matt Lauer who hosted the concert/telethon; "emotions in this country right now are running very high. Sometimes that emotion is translated into inspiration, sometimes into criticism. We've heard some of that tonight. But it's still part of the American way of life." Hey Matt, how about idiocy, ignorance and racism! Thanks Matt for your firm rebuke of Kanye West. Of course what do expect from a guy who thinks that AIDS was invented by the government. At least he's a good loser , NOT! NBC has issued a statement; "Tonight's telecast was a live t...

According to this report , we have a larger oil reserve than Saudi Arabia does in Colorado, oil-shale deposite beneath federal land in Colorado. Maybe we can use this for oil needs until an efficient and alternate energy can be developed to replace oil. Study reveals huge U.S. oil-shale field By Jennifer Talhelm The Associated Press WASHINGTON — The United States has an oil reserve at least three times that of Saudi Arabia locked in oil-shale deposits beneath federal land in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, according to a study released yesterday. But the researchers at the RAND think tank caution the federal government to go carefully, balancing the environmental and economic impacts with development pressure to prevent an oil-shale bust later. "We've got more oil in this very compact area than the entire Middle East," said James Bartis, RAND senior policy researcher and the report's lead author. He added, "If we go faster, there's a good chance we're goin...