This has got to be a goddamned joke

$#^%$!!#$&%goddamned sonofabith %$#$#$!**#@%$#.

From the WaPo:

The Bush administration said yesterday that the cost of rebuilding New Orleans's levees to federal standards has nearly tripled to $10 billion and that there may not be enough money to fully protect the entire region.

Donald E. Powell, the administration's rebuilding coordinator, said some areas may be left without the protection of levees strong enough to meet requirements of the national flood insurance program. Those areas probably would face enormous obstacles in attracting home buyers and investors willing to build there.

So we're letting an entire historic and important and vital city collapse and fail, leaving those who do choose to return uninsureable and in danger because we won't spend the extra 6 billion to protect it? How the fuck much do we spend in Iraq every month? (answer: according to this so far we've spent about $251,341,500,000, so divided by 36 months of war...comes out to about $7,000,000,000 - 7 billion.) So we are willing to spend more on one month of clusterfuck carnage in Iraq than to rebuild the levees. Aaargh my head is so going to explode right now. Just so that we are perfectly clear on this: we are CHOOSING to carry on an unpopular, possibly illegal and certainly immoral war instead of building the levees that the fucking president promised he would build. Rage rage rage rage.

In other news, Naomi Campbell got arrested.

PS

Yes, Bush is more or less on the correct side of this whole immigration thing. No, I can't explain it. Just don't think about it too much, OK?

Don't Get it Twisted

It occurs to me you may have your immigration bills confused (occurs to me because I did). So I want to clarify:

The bad bill, HR 4437, has been passed by the House. Yesterday the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to approve another bill (name as of yet unkown) which is a good bill, and send it to the full Senate for debate. The Senate bill must then be reconciled with the House bill, and vice versa, until finally it goes to the preznit. (For a refresher on this, iTunes is selling the "I'm Just a Bill" episode of Schoolhouse Rock - go get it!)

The vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee went 12-6. NOT because it was a bad bill steamrolled through by republicans, but because it was good and had the support of all eight dems plus four brave republicans (committee chairman Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Mike DeWine of Ohio and Sam Brownback of Kansas). The Senate bill gets rid of the bad parts (making it a felony to be in the country illegally, making assisting illegal immigrants a crime) and adds a process to legalize currently illegal immigrants (if they meet certain requirements) and a large guest-worker program. Read all about it here.

What's especially interesting to me is the idea that the giant demos over the weekend had an actual effect on policy. We always say that demonstrations are more to make us feel good than to create any real change. But these demonstrations seemed to have worked!

Why? It's worth pointing out, as Keith did last night, that although many immigrants can't vote, the fact that there's a huge number of hispanic high school students (many/most of whom are citizens and about to start voting) walking out of classes over this is vital. These kids are the key to future elections. Just to make it clear, not only are there large numbers of hispanic immigrants in Florida, but also (of all places) Ohio. You see why this has the GOP spooked, doncha?

Holy Sh*t!

Andy Card is resigning!
The first card to fall, so to speak. So this is the beginning (and possible end) of the White House "shake up" they've been looking to and hinting at for the last few weeks.
I'm not really sure what good this will do, as the people that the public equates with the failure of this presidency are Rummy, Condi, Rove, Chertoff, Cheney etc. It's those guys that people are getting tired of/want to tear their flesh from their bones every time they see. So in terms of PR I don't know how successful this will be. In terms of getting fresh blood into the bunker, well maybe. But the guy they're replacing him with (Josh Bolton) is currently the budget director. So it's not exactly like they're branching out.

Monday Morning

I know we're a little slow these days. All of us here at BBD are working hard on the whole paying rent thing and neglecting the important stuff, like you dear reader.

Here are some Monday morning thoughts.

Did you catch the demonstration in LA? Read all about it here. The police (who always underestimate) said over 500,000 people gathered in downtown LA to protest the "Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005" (otherwise known as H.R. 4437). This fun little bill (which has already passed in the house and is now being discussed in the senate) would make being an illegal immigrant a felony, and would also make it illegal to offer any kind of aid or services to anyone in the country illegally. So no more soup kitchens, no more day care, no more work programs, no more immigration and legal assistance. And while we're at it, let's build a whole lot more prisons to house people whose only crime is trying to find a job and a better life. Yay!
In case you haven't been able to figure out what's written on the wall, immigration is going to be one of the hot-button topics for the near future, and fer sure in 2008. So edumacate yourself and please, call your senator (find his/her number here) and kindly remind them that this country was built by and for immigrants. If that doesn't work, you might try asking them what Jesus would do. A hint: he wouldn't arrest them but He would feed them.

In other news, there's yet another leaked British memo (Downing Street memo #2,098 or so) that notes that 2 months before the war, Bush told Blair he already had a time for the invasion set, and that it didn't matter what the weapons inspectors did/not find. I would be shocked or care or something, but it's pretty clear that they planned the whole thing out from day 1 and WMDs had nothing to do with it. It's also pretty clear that THE WHOLE COUNTY knows this and does not especially care. Give up on the idea of a smoking gun, folks. The evidence is all there, but no one has the power/ability/desire/plan to use it. The Times has the scoop.

And lastly, what you all want to know: Veronica Mars is moving back to Tuesdays at 9:00 beginning April 11. In case you didn't know, UPN is merging with The WB in the Fall. That means that VMars has to compete with two network's worth of programming to get on the new schedule. So far we do not know if there will be a season three. So for god's sake, watch the show and get everyone you know to watch! If VMars does not get renewed, life as we know it will cease to exist. I am not even kidding.

This week's ep. is called The Rapes of Graff, and I spent days trying to figure out who the hell Graff was. Turns out I wasn't taking into account the van der aspect of it. So tune in Wednesday to find out what's up with Troy (so excited!). Also, the kids from Arrested Development are in this episode, and maybe we'll find out what the horrible thing that Logan did was.

The Unplanned Hiatus

Hey, I know we've been remiss in our duties here. Sorry. I've been working at place that has some crazy filtering software, totally limiting my ability to surf and link at will.
So much like Veronica Mars, we have been on a sort of unplanned hiatus while we regroup and recharge. Although that analogy is a little shaky, as Veronica is back with a fresh episode this week, and all the way through to the end of the season.
What do you think? Is Logan falling for Hannah a little bit or is he evil all the way through?

Back in the saddle

Sorry folks, things have been a little hectic around HQ lately. But here is a lovely poll to tide you over.