Sorry - not quite done tonight.

[tzikeh]

A beleaguered Mike Brown said Friday he DOESN'T KNOW why he was removed from his onsite command of Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, but he does know the first thing he'll do when he returns to Washington.

"I'm going to go home and walk my dog and hug my wife, and maybe get a good Mexican meal and a stiff margarita and a full night's sleep," Brown told The Associated Press. "And then I'm going to go right back to FEMA and continue to do all I can to help these victims."

-- from an article by Ron Fournier, Associated Press (link ASAP)

Republican congressman Zach Wamp of Tennessee suggested today that the costs associated with Katrina were 'good reason to at least delay' expanding the Medicare prescription drug benefit. (more here)

Combine that with:

Monday, August 29, Katrina makes landfall and destroys New Orleans and much of the coast of three states. Friday, September 2nd, Republican Senator Bill Frist called for a vote to permanently repeal the estate tax ("death tax").

In order to pay for the inconceivable damage wrought by this storm, Republicans want to save *pennies* by making sure that the poor and elderly in our nation cannot get any more help, and at the same time want to be certain that Americans in the top one-half of one percent never have to pay a dime in tax. The war over the Estate tax is solely a fight for a massive tax break for the wealthiest one-half of one percent of estates. The cost to the rest of us: over $400 billion in the first ten years. You think capping Medicare prescription assistance will net us anywhere near that sum?

We are the wealthiest nation in the world when it comes to money. We are apparently the poorest when it comes to common sense or empathy.

Oh, and one last thing - Here is a clip of Bill O'Reilly explaining why schoolchildren need to see the devastation that Hurricane Katrina brought to our shore. Right-click and save. It's in QuickTime, it's all of thirty seconds long, and I guarantee you that you need to see it. Once you've seen it, if you have something to say to Fox News, you can email them at Comments@foxnews.com, or call them at 1-888-369-4762.

Comments

[ardent-muses.livejournal.com]

Brown's a real humanitarian, isn't he? Maybe he should give himself a trip to Disneyland, just for doing such a fine job. Poor guy.

And WTF with O'Reilly? I'd like to think that was a parody. I know it's not. WTF?

Borrowed your icon. Hope that's okay.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Totally okay.

[rachelmap.livejournal.com]

Oh, I think he might actually feel sincerely bad for the victims... But he's still an incompetent working for the ignorant and apathetic.

I'm fine with hime being fired or 'retiring,' but we have to keep our eyes on his higher-ups. They hired him, they told him what to do and how to do it rather than telling him what he should have done, and now that they need a scapegoat they are going to throw him to the wolves.