First Door on the Left

George W. Bush does not read newspapers. If he did, I am almost certain that The New York Times would not be among his favorites…

We can’t think of a president who has gone to the American people more often than George W. Bush has to ask them to forget about things like democracy, judicial process and the balance of powers — and just trust him. We also can’t think of a president who has deserved that trust less.

This has been a central flaw of Mr. Bush’s presidency for a long time. But last week produced a flood of evidence that vividly drove home the point.

That’s how they began their lead editorial in today’s edition. Click here to continue reading.

And while we’re passing notes in class, here’s one to Jim Brady of The Washington Post: If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

White House Knew of Levee’s Failure on Night of Storm

WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 — In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Bush administration officials said they had been caught by surprise when they were told on Tuesday, Aug. 30, that a levee had broken, allowing floodwaters to engulf New Orleans.

But Congressional investigators have now learned that an eyewitness account of the flooding from a federal emergency official reached the Homeland Security Department’s headquarters starting at 9:27 p.m. the day before, and the White House itself at midnight…

But the alert did not seem to register. Even the next morning, President Bush was feeling relieved that New Orleans had “dodged the bullet,” he later recalled. Mr. Chertoff, similarly confident, flew Tuesday to Atlanta for a briefing on avian flu. With power out from the high winds and movement limited, even news reporters in New Orleans remained unaware of the full extent of the levee breaches until Tuesday.

The federal government let out a sigh of relief when in fact it should have been sounding an “all hands on deck” alarm, the investigators have found.

It’s difficult to determine which is worse, the blatant lies or the downright incompetence.

Ex-CIA Official Faults Use of Data on Iraq

The former CIA official who coordinated U.S. intelligence on the Middle East until last year has accused the Bush administration of “cherry-picking” intelligence on Iraq to justify a decision it had already reached to go to war, and of ignoring warnings that the country could easily fall into violence and chaos after an invasion to overthrow Saddam Hussein.

Paul R. Pillar, who was the national intelligence officer for the Near East and South Asia from 2000 to 2005, acknowledges the U.S. intelligence agencies’ mistakes in concluding that Hussein’s government possessed weapons of mass destruction. But he said those misjudgments did not drive the administration’s decision to invade.

“Official intelligence on Iraqi weapons programs was flawed, but even with its flaws, it was not what led to the war,” Pillar wrote in the upcoming issue of the journal Foreign Affairs. Instead, he asserted, the administration “went to war without requesting — and evidently without being influenced by — any strategic-level intelligence assessments on any aspect of Iraq.”

“It has become clear that official intelligence was not relied on in making even the most significant national security decisions, that intelligence was misused publicly to justify decisions already made, that damaging ill will developed between [Bush] policymakers and intelligence officers, and that the intelligence community’s own work was politicized,” Pillar wrote.

Time after time after time we have had these guys come out and tell us how the Bushies lied us into this war. How much more is it going to take?

Look for the Swift Boating of Paul R. Pillar to begin soon.

Four presidents of the United States attended the funeral services for Coretta Scott King today. None attended the funeral services of her husband 38 years ago.

“We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there [standing ovation]… but Coretta knew and we know that there are weapons of misdirection right down here. Millions without health insurance. Poverty abounds. For war billions more but no more for the poor.” – Reverend Dr. Joseph Lowery, at the Coretta Scott King funeral.

The picture that follows shows Dr. Lowery as he spoke. George W. and Laura Bush are seated behind him. George looks kind of dumbstruck (a normal appearance for him) and Laura looks like she is ready to kill someone.

Look for the Swift Boating of the funeral and of Dr. Lowery to begin soon. Aravosis has the details.

Update: It has begun. (Here, also.)

When are people going to start connecting the dots between incidents like this and the hateful teachings of the radical right wing of the Nazi (I’m gonna get mail now!) Republican party?

The Bushies want us to believe that the scientists are all nuts and the there is no such thing as global warming. I don’t think the scientists are the nuts. I think the Bushies are nuts.

Alaska: Warming is Disturbing Preview of What’s to Come, Scientists Say

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Alaska is melting.

Glaciers are receding. Permafrost is thawing. Roads are collapsing. Forests are dying. Villages are being forced to move, and animals are being forced to seek new habitats.

What’s happening in Alaska is a preview of what people farther south can expect, said Robert Corell, a former top National Science Foundation scientist who heads research for the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment team.

“If you want to see what will be happening in the rest of the world 25 years from now, just look at what’s happening in the Arctic,” Corell said.

Alaska and the Arctic are warming up fast, top international scientists will tell senior officials from eight Arctic countries at a conference in Iceland next week. They will disclose early, disturbing findings from a massive study of polar climate change.

That’s what’s happening in Alaska. Here’s what’s happening right here in my neck of the woods…

Balmy month one for the record books

Could it happen: A Year Without a Winter?

There are reasons for North Texans to begin asking the question this week, which marks the midpoint of what is usually the year’s coldest season.

The daily high temperatures during January were, on average, the warmest ever for the month – 68.3 degrees, a figure that broke an 83-year-old record. The normal high is 54.

A cold snap hit in early December, but since winter officially began Dec. 21, there have been only three days when the high was below normal. And there was only one hour – around daybreak Jan. 14 – when the official thermometer at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport fell below freezing.

Needless to say, there has been no winter snow or ice.

There is something good coming out of all this, though. People are not being hit real hard with the record high heating fuel prices brought on by the Bush Administration.

Maybe next year.

Many on the right are gloating this morning because Cindy Sheehan was arrested last evening in the Capitol Building prior to George W. Bush’s speech. They somehow see this violation of her First Amendment rights as a victory for their side.

If you are interested in what really happened, you can read about it here.

If you are an anti-American right wing Republican, please don’t bother. You’ve already made up your mind.