Who needs softball questions tossed by professional fluffers like Steve Sammon when you can just have actual government-paid lackies ask the questions:

FEMA has truly learned the lessons of Katrina. Even its handling of the media has improved dramatically. For example, as the California wildfires raged Tuesday, Vice Adm. Harvey E. Johnson, the deputy administrator, had a 1 p.m. news briefing.

Reporters were given only 15 minutes’ notice of the briefing, making it unlikely many could show up at FEMA’s Southwest D.C. offices. They were given an 800 number to call in, though it was a “listen only” line, the notice said — no questions. Parts of the briefing were carried live on Fox News, MSNBC and other outlets.

~~~

He was apparently quite familiar with the reporters — in one case, he appears to say “Mike” and points to a reporter — and was asked an oddly in-house question about “what it means to have an emergency declaration as opposed to a major disaster declaration” signed by the president. He once again explained smoothly.

FEMA press secretary Aaron Walker interrupted at one point to caution he’d allow just “two more questions.” Later, he called for a “last question.”

“Are you happy with FEMA’s response so far?” a reporter asked. Another asked about “lessons learned from Katrina.”

“I’m very happy with FEMA’s response so far,” Johnson said, hailing “a very smoothly, very efficiently performing team.”

“And so I think what you’re really seeing here is the benefit of experience, the benefit of good leadership and the benefit of good partnership,” Johnson said, “none of which were present in Katrina.” (Wasn’t Michael Chertoff DHS chief then?) Very smooth, very professional. But something didn’t seem right. The reporters were lobbing too many softballs. No one asked about trailers with formaldehyde for those made homeless by the fires. And the media seemed to be giving Johnson all day to wax on and on about FEMA’s greatness.

Of course, that could be because the questions were asked by FEMA staffers playing reporters. We’re told the questions were asked by Cindy Taylor, FEMA’s deputy director of external affairs, and by “Mike” Widomski, the deputy director of public affairs. Director of External Affairs John “Pat” Philbin asked a question, and another came, we understand, from someone who sounds like press aide Ali Kirin.

Fake news perfected, even to the point of cutting out the middle man. Jeff Gannon, you’re obsolete.

(via atrios)

I’m right there with you, Dame Helen. The same thing happened to me.

“There is a close-up of a woman having a baby, a close up straight up her vagina, and that’s all you see, and these are thirteen year old boys and girls, and its bloody and disgusting. Within thirty seconds two boys had fainted and the lights went on and they were carried out. I put my hands over my face because I realised I couldn’t watch this.”

The actress, who is married to American director Taylor Hackford, said she was deeply affected by the film: “I swear it traumatised me, I haven’t had children and I can’t look at anything to do with childbirth, it absolutely disgusts me.”

Is she disgusted by gallbladders? This is straight out of Dr. Moreau … or Hannibal Lecter.

MONDAY, Sept. 17 (HealthDay News) — French surgeons report removing a gallbladder through a woman’s vagina, joining a handful of surgeons around the world who have tried the novel technique because it eliminates visible scarring and minimizes postoperative pain. In March, surgeons at Columbia University in New York City performed a similar operation, and, last week, so did surgeons at the University of California, San Diego. The procedure has also been used for removing the appendix.

What next? Your Costco groceries? Even kids, for the most part, are “optional,” as is everything else that goes in/out … but not through. Seriously. That is just plain wrong. What sick bastard came up with the “let’s try this exit” approach? I’d rather have a scar on my side then a gallbladder in my - oh, I can barely even write about this. Dame Helen, where are you?

Thank the Virgin Mary that there is someone on our side:

“As a woman, I find it distasteful and invasive to have the vagina used as a midtown tunnel for the traffic of surgery, simply because there are a few surgeons who are looking to find something new to do,” said Dr. Christine Ren, an assistant professor of surgery at New York University School of Medicine.

Think of it this way: knowing that a gallbladder had taken the tunnel would you stop at that rest stop for a bite? I think not.

Dana Johnson, who had her gallbladder removed through her vagina at the University of California at San Diego on Sept. 11, applauded the technique. “I think it would be more gross to have it taken out of my mouth, but that’s just me,” said Johnson, 42.

I’m so confused.

I have a week to go. Came in this morning and well … sent this email out not long after.

SUBJECT: FOUND ITEM ON MY OFFICE FLOOR

One “used” or rather, “worn,” black THONG. Not shoe - underwear.

If you’re the one who was having fun after hours near (please, not ON!) my desk, you can come and claim it. It’s in Steve’s trash barrel, because he’s out today.

Donna

Update: my coworker suggested we take a “scene of the crime” pic.

Trash!

Wingnut blogger Confederate Yankee, posting a rebuttal from pro-war blogger/reporter Michael Yon to an article in Newsday reporting chaos in Basra in the wake of the British Army pulling its forces out of Basra and halting military operations in that city:

Basra is not in chaos. In fact, crime and violence are way down and there has not been a British combat death in over a month.

Of course, as noted above, the British army pulled out of Basra just over one month ago. Could there be a connection between the absence of British troops in Basra and the fact that the troops who aren’t in Basra weren’t killed there?

Meanwhile, today’s LA Times reports:

In the southern city of Basra, there are already signs of religious extremism being used to rein in women. Police say gangs enforcing their idea of Islamic law have killed 15 women in the last month. “There are gangs roaming through the streets . . . pursuing women and carrying out threats and killing because of what the women wear or because they are using makeup,” the Basra police commander, Maj. Gen. Abdul Jaleel Khalaf, said this month.

Sometimes notes are left on the women’s bodies saying they were killed for violating religious law or social traditions.

“This is a mockery for us, when you speak about freedom,” said Hanaa Edwar, who heads the Iraqi Amal Assn., a human rights group opposing Article 41. “There will be no choices for women if a man makes a decision that he wants to live a certain way. Step by step, we will end up in a religious state.”

Sounds like chaos to me. Naturally, Right Blogostan will have to instantly devote itself to proving that Maj. Gen. Abdul Jaleel Khalaf doesn’t exist, or lives in too nice a house or goes to a pricey private school.

MORE: get a load of the comments below. Wingnuttia goes from simply dumb to incomprehensibly stupid.

Oh the joys of ebay.

Keeping with recent times and recent controversies, societal reflective artist KELLY WAN has decided to “honor” Mr Vick with painting this special portrait. You may be asking yourself why is this portrait so unique? WAN has painted this portrait of Vick using acrylic paint based with DOG FECES. That’s right…. DOG FECES. The painting is 16in x 20in and is ready to be framed. A portion of the winning bid will rightfully be donated to PETA, the organization that works hard to make sure animals are treated humanely.

PS. Thanks, Neal. I … think.

Don’t fuck with my shrubs, mister.

It’s always in the name. The guy w/the leg is named “Wood,” and his mother, “Peg Steele.” This unfriendly neighbor? Mrs. Spriggs!

sprig (sprg)
n.
1. a. A small shoot or twig of a plant.

A landscaping dispute on a quiet Anaheim Hills street turned violent Sunday afternoon when a 65-year-old woman shot her neighbor in the shoulder and then barricaded herself in her house before surrendering, authorities said.

Police said the argument began about 3 p.m. when Anita Spriggs apparently started trimming a hedge she shares with her next-door neighbor, 64-year-old Gary Hall.

“Spriggs then grabbed a handgun and shot the victim in the shoulder,” said Sgt. Rick Martinez of the Anaheim Police Department. “We’re not sure where she got the gun.”

“Neighborhood disputes are not unusual,” Martinez said. “But for it to elevate to this, especially on a quiet Sunday afternoon in a quiet neighborhood, is rare.”

Hall was taken to Western Medical Center-Santa Ana with non-life-threatening injuries. Hall’s wife, Raylene, said Sunday’s altercation was not the first her husband had had with Spriggs.

“This has happened many, many times before,” she said.

Raylene Hall said Monday morning that her husband was still in the hospital.

“The bullet went through his shoulder and shattered it,” she said.

After the shooting, Spriggs went back into her house. About a dozen officers blocked off the street and evacuated neighbors on East Greensboro Lane. During the next 90 minutes, police tried with a bullhorn and by phone to persuade Spriggs to come out.

She surrendered just before a SWAT team arrived.

Spriggs was booked into Orange County Jail on suspicion of attempted murder.

Source

Bush plans to announce a increase in the chocolate ration troop reduction in Iraq:

When top Democratic leaders visited him at the White House this week, President Bush told them he wanted to “find common ground” on Iraq. But when the president said he planned to “start doing some redeployment,” the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, cut him off.

“No you’re not, Mr. President,” Ms. Pelosi interjected. “You’re just going back to the presurge level.”

With lawmakers openly skeptical of his troop buildup, Mr. Bush will cast his plan for a gradual, limited withdrawal as a way to bring a divided America together — even as he resists demands from those who want him to move much faster.

The prime-time address will be the eighth by Mr. Bush on Iraq since the invasion in March 2003, the latest iteration of his efforts to sketch what he calls “the way forward.” It will be the first time he has described a plan for troop reductions, a radical departure for a president who has repeatedly defied his critics’ calls to bring the troops home.

~~~

Under the plan, at least 130,000 American troops would remain in Iraq next July, down from more than 160,000, decreasing to about the same level as before the buildup began. . .

All that remains to be seen is whether Bush can arrange some demonstrations thanking him for bringing the troops home.

“For the moment he had shut his ears to the remoter noises and was listening to the stuff that streamed out of the telescreen. It appeared that there had even been demonstrations to thank Big Brother for raising the chocolate ration to twenty grammes a week. And only yesterday, he reflected, it had been announced that the ration was to be reduced to twenty grammes a week. Was it possible that they could swallow that, after only twenty-four hours? Yes, they swallowed it. The fabulous statistics continued to pour out of the telescreen.”
— George Orwell, 1984

Glenn Greenwald’s blog today on the Bush administration’s contempt for civil liberties and the rule of law — a high official hoping for another terrorist attack so they can extend warrantless searches.

Oh yes, they did. Apollo Sputnik sends me God Tube. I don’t even want to link to them.
http://godtube.com