Posted by RFTR

Wow
Brilliant, cut-through-the-crap analysis. And it's short! So read it!

UPDATE [12:36 - 9/9/2005]: More here:

So where were they on the two days of globally televised horror? Why, for instance, didn't DoD fly all this help close to New Orleans as soon as it saw Katrina coming? The answer, in military argot, is that you don't deploy troops beneath a bombing run; Katrina predictably would have wiped out any help put in her uncertain path, just as she rolled over the Big Easy's wholly unprotected "first responders."

Then there's American history, tradition and law. Once disaster arrives, several federal laws designed to protect state sovereignty from being swept aside by a Latin-American-style national police force dictate that a state's officials, specifically the governor, is supposed to phone the federal government and describe what they need. If asked by Homeland Security, DoD will send in the cavalry. But this is one audible at the line even Don Rumsfeld doesn't get to call.

Read, as they say, the whole thing.

UPDATE [10:08 - 9/11/2005]:Exile makes a great point in the comments to this post. Why do we need to point political fingers at each other. It's obvious that no one intended for the system to fail, and that it failed on several levels at the same time.

So how about we just figure out what those failings were, and correct them for the next time. Who's with me?

Posted by RFTR

Bingo!

Chris Muir makes it hard not to worship him, sometimes...

Posted by RFTR

Blogs for Bauer
Of course, by that I don't mean Jack Bauer, but Kim, his hot daughter. Blogs for Bauer founder The Man, over at GOP and the City likes to point out that he runs a family blog—I have never made any such claim, though I do try to avoid profanity.

Still, when I came across this article today, I couldn't avoid posting:

Elisha Cuthbert was caught in a purple see through recently. Elisha is one of the Hollywood bombshell.

Though she spent the majority of her youth in Montreal, Cuthbert moved to Los Angeles at age 17 in order to pursue an acting career [...] it was obvious that her talent was growing [...] Cast as Jack Bauer's (Kiefer Sutherland) damsel-in-distress daughter, Kimberly, in the breakout hit 24, Cuthbert's character suffered through multiple kidnappings and a mountain lion attack over the course of the series'' first two seasons. In the episode of 24 in which she shared a scene with the mountain lion, Cuthbert made news when the beast actually attacked her on the film set, sending the frightened actress on a trip to the hospital with an injured hand[...]

None of that should be news to 24 fans, but as a member of Blogs for Bauer, I thought I had to post the picture—if only for my own enjoyment.

I have to imagine it'd be tough to fight terrorists dressed like that, though.

And did anyone else notice that the article is from India Daily? Apparently, despite the fact that Fox outsourced 24 to India, the Indian version apparently left out the most important draw to the show—the hot daughter—leaving its newspapers to take up the slack and post revealing photographs of the original hot anti-terrorist daughter.

Blogroll for Bauer:
GOP and the City - Lifelike Pundits - Caption This - The Ox Rant - Hector Vex - Conservative UAW Guy - Catscape - Sharpshooters - Sobek


UPDATE [1:26 - 9/9/2005]: The Man reveals future plans for Blogs for Bauer. Get excited!

Posted by RFTR

Hard to believe
But Hollywood used to think this way.

Posted by RFTR

Finger Pointing
from CNN.com:

Cars were swallowed, homes were shattered and people were left clinging for life. No, not in New Orleans. More than a week after Hurricane Katrina hit, word is only now trickling in from outlying areas on Louisiana's southeastern edge. Residents say they feel even more abandoned than hard-hit New Orleans -- and they feel disbelief.

And who is it that put so much focus on New Orleans? Ohhhhhh, right. The news media.

Posted by RFTR

Working Late
Today's been busy, just like yesterday, so I won't be home until late—but I'm hoping to respond to this despicable piece by Thomas Friedman. I intend to write my response on the train home, then, after dinner, I just have to type it up.

So check back later!

UPDATE [9/8/2005 - 14:00]: Obviously, I didn't get this done last night as I intended. I got something written up on the train, but then I just got too angry about the whole thing to type it up. So, consider yourselves spared one more rant.

I might still do it tonight, but I doubt I'll get around to it.

So, on to bigger and better things.

Posted by RFTR

It's been a while
Some time has passed since my last one of these, but it's time again for some apologies.

I know I've been pretty absent lately, and never put up those pictures I promised. I've been taking on more responsibilities at work, and it's had me getting home late, and exhausted.

I'm also pretty sick of the hurricane coverage—I think FEMA did everything they've ever said they'd do, that Nagin and Blanco were too slow to order and carry out a mandatory evacuation, and that we need to figure out what went wrong to have so many people stay behind as the storm rolled in, not what went wrong in the aftermath, because it never should have gotten to the point it did.

So, it's been a mixture of burnout and exhaustion. I'm still going to stay away from Katrina commentary (and, frankly, I'm not that interested in the Democrats' manufactured reasons for opposing Roberts either), and hopefully find some other good nuggets to comment on.

I think I'll be back into the full swing of things by the end of the week. But don't go away, because I'll be posting in the meantime, too!

Posted by RFTR

Eugene Volokh for Chief Justice
While I regret the Chief Justice's passing, I think this provides us with a great opportunity. John Roberts would work very well, I think, under the leadership of Mr. Volokh.