Daily Archives: September 14, 2005

Ok, all joking aside (and this is funny)…

Why does president Bush have to ask for permission to take a bathroom break?

Update: From a MeFi comment:

I don’t think anyone anticipated the levees breaking.

SHENANIGANS!!! Retracted, read on: On closer analysis, I call bullshit on the Reuters caption. I have a huge problem with this: Handwriting changes after question mark, this was likely passed from Condi (she is mentioned, so that’s the most logical) someone to Bush and he was replying (style seems to switch, one is hard capitals and moves to lazy cursive).

I have a feeling somebody’s gonna dig up the CSPAN video or whatever and nail Reuters to the wall (showing Bush never started a note pass or other such nonsense, I’m sure someone’s on that road already).

Don’t forget there’s other samples of Bush’s handwriting availiable in photo format (this is called evidence, natch): Let freedom reign, handwriting GIS.

How the caption should probably read:

U.S. President George W. Bush writes a note to replies to a note from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice whoever

Again over at MeFi: kokogiak points out that neither looks like Rice’s handwriting either. Someone at Reuters may have either gotten punked by a photog or is just making up captions.

Update (9/15): I’m trying to get confirmation from Reuters on who provided the caption, was it edited, etc. Here’s an email I sent to Stephen Naru, the media contact who was mentioned in this Editor & Publisher article:

I am doing some investigating into the notorious Bush bathroom note and I was wondering if you could tell me who provided the caption. Was it printed verbatim as it was received from Wilking or was it edited by someone at Reuters before being sent across the wires?

Is there a way to get ahold of Wilking? I’d like to ask him to confirm some details if that’s a possibility.

Another Update: Snopes is on the case as well. It seems the truth is still getting its boots on.

Update (9/15 evening): Photo District News got a chance to talk to Rick Wilking and Reuters photo editor Gary Hershorn about the photograph. Based on the interview, it would appear that Bush actually did write the note:

The caption says that Bush was writing the note to Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice; Hershorn says Wilking saw Bush write the note and hand the note to Rice.

Hershorn says heads of state seldom attend Security Council meetings, and it’s possible that Bush was simply asking his secretary of state what the proper protocol was to be excused.

I’d like to know whether Wilking saw him write the entire note (I’ll drop my shenanigans charge if he did), but I have a feeling there’s not going to be any more to this story.

MEA CULPA!!!: I retract my shenanigans call. Editor & Publisher follows up (via Wonkette):

The fact is, according to Reuters — and this has not been widely reported — President Bush did indeed take a bathroom break after passing the note to Rice.

This apparently raised some eyebrows around the room, because American representatives (among others) have a reputation for suddenly bolting, though normally for a far different reason than this latest one. Fair or not, the European press has already had a field day with the photo, often centering on the notion that Bush had to ask Rice for permission.

[...]“Rick had no idea what he was shooting, or what Bush was writing,” Hershorn said. “If Rick knew what he was writing we’d have 25 pictures of this, not two.”

[...]Gary Hershorn, news editor-photos for the Americas at Reuters, told E&P today that the photographer, Rick Wilking, informed him yesterday afternoon that he had observed Bush pass the note to Rice, and a little later, rise from his seat, leave the room, and then return.

Ok, everyone, you can go back to making jokes about the presidential poo now (I can’t wait to see The Daily Show on this tonight).

Here’s an interesting wrinkle in the Katrina debacle, it now appears that in the days following Katrina, the White House and DHS was more focused on restoring the Gulf coast oil and gas pipelines than in responding to the human emergency:

Shortly after Hurricane Katrina roared through South Mississippi knocking out electricity and communication systems, the White House ordered power restored to a pipeline that sends fuel to the Northeast.

That order – to restart two power substations in Collins that serve Colonial Pipeline Co. – delayed efforts by at least 24 hours to restore power to two rural hospitals and a number of water systems in the Pine Belt.

[...]Dan Jordan, manager of Southern Pines Electric Power Association, said Vice President Dick Cheney’s office called and left voice mails twice shortly after the storm struck, saying the Collins substations needed power restored immediately.

Jordan dated the first call the night of Aug. 30 and the second call the morning of Aug. 31. Southern Pines supplies electricity to the substation that powers the Colonial pipeline.

Cheney’s office referred calls about the pipeline to the Department of Homeland Security.

Ah, so DHS was on the job of making sure the pipeline was restored, but what does this mean for Chertoff, head of Homeland Security? Connect the dots and you’ll understand why the delay in getting FEMA help into New Orleans (hint, it’s not as simple as Michael Brown being incompetent, that only compounded the delay):

But according to a memo obtained by Knight Ridder, Chertoff didn’t shift that power to Brown until late afternoon or evening on Aug. 30, about 36 hours after Katrina hit Louisiana and Mississippi. That same memo suggests that Chertoff may have been confused about his lead role in disaster response and that of his department.

[...]That same day, Aug. 31, the Department of Defense, whose troops and equipment are crucial in such large disasters, activated its Task Force Katrina. But active-duty troops didn’t begin to arrive in large numbers along the Gulf Coast until Saturday.

So the moral of the story is: if you want the federal government to rescue you out of your flooded house in your broke-ass neighborhood, you better hope the flooding is due to a nearby oil or gas pipeline rupturing.

The reason he is trying to find U.N. support must be because he can’t find support in his own country. Hispanic Business says the following:

“The heavily-criticized response to hurricane disaster has depressed US President George W. Bush’s job-approval rating to the lowest point of his presidency at 42 percent, according to a latest survey.”

Read more.

“There is broad opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq among the more than 160 presidents, prime ministers and kings gathered for three days of U.N. General Assembly meetings. Many leaders also would rather hear Bush finally relent and support an international treaty on global warming or promise to donate foreign aid at a level more proportionate to other rich nations.”

Read more.

I find it almost funny that anyone thinks this nation is rich after checking and finding out this country is almost eight trillion dollars in debt. And why should we be funding other nations when as Barbara Bush points out we have underprivileged right here in America.

Even though it’s a week old, I couldn’t let this gem slip by from The Onion.

Here are some of the subheadlines:

• Louisiana National Guard Offers Help By Phone From Iraq
• Government Relief Workers Mosey In To Help
• Refugees Moved From Sewage-Contaminated Superdome To Hellhole Of Houston
• White Foragers Report Threat Of Black Looters

It’s good to know we’ll always have The Onion to tell us like it is.

In just 4 easy steps, fix your city’s budget problems:

• Step 1. Offer a place to stay to Katrina victims.
• Step 2. When none show up, fly them in.
• Step 3. Declare your town a disaster area, receive federal funds.
• Step 4. Profit!

Of course, as the article astutely points out. Many of us already knew Washington DC is a disaster area, and we’ve known it for quite some time.

Actually, I’m having a little trouble keeping up with my own bills lately, so if any Katrina victims want to live in a tent outside my lawn, I’m sure we can rough up the grass and make it look disaster-ish.

On the opposite end of the spectrum. Huge thanks are in order for institutions like BU and MIT for opening their doors and letting students in with no tuition or (to my knowledge) rooming charges.

Update: What the hell is going on? A total of 28 states and DC have been approved by Bush to be declared “state of emergencies.” This seems quite peculiar. Is the entire USA going to become a state of emergency? And here I just put my tin foil hat away.

My apologies to everyone for the site slowdown, apparently BlogAds is having some kind of DNS propagation problem. I turned them off late Sunday and they seem to be somewhat back to normal today so I turned them back on (I’m still having problems here using Adelphia, but the local coffee shop was fine, so meh).

I personally emailed our advertisers and gave them a free week because of this. Do you hear me BlogAds people? I had to cover your ass, not cool.

Update: Turned them back on and visits dropped like a brick (sitemeter loads after the ads), so they are back off for now.