Fristing for Frist?

Senator Bill Frist (Hypocrite-TN) used to own some stock in a company called HCA. His dad and his brother and one of their friends founded the company, and Bill's brother is still one of the directors of the company. Since Bill is a Senator, all of his stock holdings go into something called a blind trust. But if you're a Senator, there are special "ethics" rules that apply to blind trusts. Specifically, they're not blind. You get to know what's in there, and you get to direct the administrator of the "blind" trust to sell specific holdings. And in the case of companies in which you might have a special interest -- say, a company founded by your dad, where your brother is still an executive -- this power just might come in handy.

In fact, Billy directed the administrator of his trust to dump his shares of HCA, that company that his dad and brother and some other guy founded. And -- I'm sure this is just a coincidence -- his directive to dump those shares came just a few weeks before HCA had some bad news to report, news that resulted in those shares of HCA stock to be worth considerably less.

I'm sure Bill had no advance knowledge of any of this, of course. And I'm sure that Congress, having suffered through the investigation of Bill Clinton over the Whitewater affair (in which the Clintons actually lost money), isn't going to subject Bill to any unnecessary unpleasantness just because this happens to look a little (OK, a lot) like insider trading. Cause, you know, you gotta be fair to the guy. He's a Republican, after all.

The Evidence Still Isn't In On Global Warming

Funny thing about this hurricane season... we've had a lot of them. We're about to run out of names, and that hasn't happened before. Not only that, but we seem to be getting some particularly bad hurricanes. Here's what the nice folks at NOAA just had to say about hurricane Rita...

000
WTNT63 KNHC 212146
TCUAT3
HURRICANE RITA TROPICAL CYCLONE UPDATE
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
545 PM CDT WED SEP 21 2005

...RITA BECOMES THE FIFTH MOST
INTENSE HURRICANE ON RECORD...

DROPSONDE DATA FROM AN AIR FORCE RESERVE
UNIT RECONNAISSANCE AIRCRAFT AT 416 PM CDT
...2116Z...INDICATED THE CENTRAL PRESSURE
HAS FALLEN TO 904 MB...OR 26.69 INCHES.
THIS MAKES RITA THE FIFTH MOST INTENSE
HURRICANE IN TERMS OF PRESSURE IN THE
ATLANTIC BASIN.


RITA CURRENTLY RANKS BEHIND HURRICANE
GILBERT IN 1988 WITH 888 MB...
THE 1935 LABOR DAY HURRICANE WITH 892 MB...
HURRICANE ALLEN IN 1980 WITH 899 MB...
AND HURRICANE KATRINA LAST MONTH WITH 902 MB.


FORECASTER STEWART

So we've two of the five most powerful Atlantic hurricanes, in terms of pressure, this year!

Sure, it's probably just coincidence. Time for Guitar George to put out a few more disclaimers.

Stop Me If You've Heard This Lawyer Joke

Michael Brown. He's the head of FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the folks charged with responding to... well, to emergencies. Like natural disasters. Hurricanes. Things like that. It takes a tough person to run an agency with so much responsibility. So who did President Bush choose to head FEMA? Michael D. Brown, Lawyer. Estate planning guy. Man-about-town, perhaps.

And what does this Lawyer Extraordinaire have to say about the disaster unfolding in New Orleans? Well, first, he blames the victims, telling CNN that "I don't make judgments about why people chose not to leave but, you know, there was a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans." Brown failed to mention that approximately 100,000 New Orleans residents don't have cars and had no way to leave town. Nor does he mention the stranded tourists, who were booted out of their hotel only to find that... there was no way to get out of town!

But this is quite understandable; it's what lawyers do. They fight for their clients, their employers. Brown's boss is... George W. Bush, the guy seen strumming a guitar in California while thousands of people in New Orleans, their mouths and noses straining to find any remaining air pocket as their homes filled with water, were gasping their last breaths.

And what else did Brown have to say? Well, even as television reporters on the scene described the horrific conditions at the Convention Center and the Superdome, Brown was assuring us that all was well, that food and water deliveries were being made, that law and order were being restored. Never mind all those reports from the people who were there; never mind all the bodies piling up. And pay no attention to this poor soul:

All is well, or, as Brown said, "Things are going relatively well." It just depends on what your definition of the word well is. As George Bush said, "you gotta catapault the propaganda." Reality doesn't matter; message is everything.

Michael D. Brown: Worst lawyer joke. Ever.

Shoot Them, For They Have No Water

One New Orleans resident describes the conditions in her apartment building as the flood waters began to rise. Within thirty minutes, the water had risen above the level of the front door. The force of the onslaught tore the door from its hinges. As the water level rose, the family living on the first floor began to pound on the ceiling and scream for help. The pounding grew gradually weaker, and finally ceased. The woman reporting all of this was one of the lucky. She found her way to the attic, and furiously pounded on the roof until a portion gave way, allowing her to climb up on the roof where she was rescued by a passing boat.

Over in the convention center, where thousands of people were told to seek shelter, there is no food, no water, no relief from the stifling heat. A frustrated group of refugees finally broke through the doors of the food court, where they discovered palettes of food and drink.

So what's the big concern for our friends on the right side of the aisle? Looters. Here's a sampling of blog entries from the right:

BARKING MOONBAT EWS -- Shoot To Kill

ANKLE BITING PUNDITS -- The Bleeping Looters - Shoot Em

BOORTZ -- Should we shoot to kill looters?

Now, here's the thing -- this is a tragedy of incomprehensible proportions. Some unknown number of people were trapped in their homes and apartments after Katrina passed, when they had reason to believe they were safe, as the breached 17th Street Canal began to empty the contents of Lake Pontchartrain into New Orleans. We should be concerned for them.

Some unknown number of people are trapped in their homes, safe from the flood waters, but without fresh water, without food, without electricity, without the means to travel. Some of them are sick, some will become sick. Some have alredy died because their medicine ran out or the oxygen tanks were empty; others will die. We should be concerned for them.

Hundreds of thousands of residents of New Orleans were able to evacuate when the call came. Most of them, when they return -- if they return -- will find their houses uninhabitable, ruined by the flood waters, contaminated by sewage and sludge and God-knows-what. We should be concerned for them.

Some unknown number of tourists were trapped in New Orleans, booted out of their hotels, and sent to the Super Dome or the Convention Center to fend for themselves, to attempt to survive among the tens of thousands of other refugees struggling to cope with the lack of food and water and toilet facilities. We should be concerned for them all.

And yes, there were looters, some who foraged for the necessities of life, and others who saw an opportunity to steal that which they might not otherwise have been able to obtain. And what were they going to do with their newly acquired bounty? Wade through the sludge to return to their flooded homes? Park their fancy new television on their porch and wait weeks or even months for the electricity to be turned back on?

A funny thing happens to a town -- any town -- when there's no law enforcement. The lawless run amok. There were criminals in New Orleans before the flood and during the flood. But law enforcement was rendered powereless. There was no way to patrol the streets, no way to communicate with one another, no way to know where they were needed. And the criminal element, never known for its cerebral capacity, was smart enough to know that they could do what they wanted.

But rather than offer mindless remedies such as "shoot them all," shouldn't we be wondering why New Orleans wasn't immediately flooded with National Guard soldiers? Shouldn't we wonder why the President didn't immediately muster every available resource? Shouldn't we wonder why it wasn't until September 1, five days after the start of this tragedy, that the first food drops were made?

And there's plenty more to wonder about in the coming weeks, months, and years. Why weren't the warnings heeded? Why were flood protection funds slashed? What in the world did George Bush mean when he said "I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees" when, in fact, everyone anticipated the breach of the levees?

But you know, right now our thoughts and prayers should be with the victims of the storm, whether in Louisiana or Mississippi or Alabama or Florida. "Shoot them all" may have a nice sound to those who like that sort of thing, but it's not much comfort to the victims.