So.....sick.......ack

Hi gang, just want to apologize for not blogging as of late, I appear to be dieing of some mutant strain of the uncommon cold. It's been going on for like 4 weeks now (same thing happened last year this time, weird), and has been sapping my excess energy. Your patience is appreciated.

An old fashioned land grab

Just read this over at Crooks and Liars in reference to New Orleans.

On the 12th day before Christmas, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is planning to unleash teams of bulldozers to demolish thousands of low-income apartments in New Orleans. Despite Katrina causing the worst affordable housing crisis since the Civil War, HUD is spending $762 million in taxpayer funds to tear down over 4600 public housing subsidized apartments and replace them with 744 similarly subsidized units–an 82% reduction. HUD is in charge and a one person HUD employee makes all the local housing authority decisions. HUD took over the local housing authority years ago–all decisions are made in Washington DC. HUD plans to build an additional 1000 market rate and tax credit units–which will still result in a net loss of 2700 apartments to New Orleans–the remaining new apartments will cost an average cost of over $400,000 each!

Affordable housing is at a critical point along the Gulf Coast. Over 50,000 families still living in tiny FEMA trailers are being systematically forced out. Over 90,000 homeowners in Louisiana are still waiting to receive federal recovery funds from the Road Home. In New Orleans, hundreds of the estimated 12,000 homeless have taken up residence in small tents across the street from City Hall and under the I-10.

I had suspected from week one of the Katrina debacle that this was going to be a white man's land grab, and this evidence is the clincher. We NEED to get a Democrat in office, stat, in enough time to turn this shitshow around.

Somebody call the Waaaaaaambulance!!!!

Via The Hill

“In a political maneuver designed to block my ability to make recess appointments, congressional leaders arranged for a senator to come in every three days or so, bang a gavel, wait for about 30 seconds, bang a gavel again, and then leave,” Bush said. “Under the Senate rules, this counts as a full day. If 30 seconds is a full day, no wonder Congress has got a lot of work to do.”

Senate Democrats had held pro forma sessions throughout the Thanksgiving break to keep the Senate “in session” and block Bush from making recess appointments.

Did I mention I hate this guy?

"Okay, lemme see here, this here's the NIE huh? Uncle Dick, will you read it to me? There's some powerfully big words in there. Don't you go making up stuff neither Uncle Dick, like last time, I likes my stories just the way they is."

fucking moron

UPDATE: A good point, considering Uncle Dick is STILL pushing for a war with Iran

Atrios adds:

“It must be understood that since our intelligence agencies don’t believe Iran has a nuclear weapons program, it also means that they don’t know where such a program would be physically located if it did exist. This means that any desires of Dick Cheney and his people to bomb Iran simply involve… bombing the shit out of Iran.”

These are very scary people

LIAR!!!!

Video via Talking Points Memo, the look of contempt on his fucking face really pisses me off, he just fucking lies to the press (and don't get me started on how they just let him do that, the CIA had new info on Iran and the president didn't even ask what it was?? Bullshit!) and sneers at the American public. I fucking hate that guy.