Author: Dick

Karen Hughes at her job of frightening young Asians.

Speaking of Halloween, one of the scariest women in government that I have ever seen is leaving Prez Gee Dubya as the last Texan standing. Karen Hughes, who was Bush’s mother-protector as press secretary when Bush was Texas governor, is leaving her post as global goodwill ambassador at the State Department and is going home to most likely make someone’s life miserable back here in Texas.

Having watched Hughes in action on many occasions when she would accompany Bush on his official goober-na-torial visits, I found her to be rather intimidating. She seemed incapable of providing any feelings of warmth, instead she would seem as if she might jump up in front of Bush before anything might happen to him, knocking down state police guarding the governor if they got in her way.

Oh well, I’m sure she is a fine person and her family loves her. But if someone who looks like Hughes shows up at your door tonight hollering “trick or treat,” I think it would be wise to run like hell.

It isn’t often that I agree with Lou Dobbs. Oh I suppose I do agree with him in principle that something should be done about border security. But Dobbs seems to think that arresting all the illegals and throwing them in jail is the cure for what ails our immigration mess and that just doesn’t seem like a very good thing to do nor can I see how it might be feasible.

But something else got Lou’s knickers in a wad yesterday. CNN’s Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre had reported on the highest-ranking U.S. officer being wounded in Iraq, Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Dorko of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and mentioned that Dorko had been protected by civilian security contractors when he was injured by a roadside bomb. Dorko was not seriously wounded, according to reports. But Lou Dobbs went ballistic, not so much so that a general was wounded but for the fact that civilian security guards were reportedly guarding Dorko. Security personnel, Dobbs pointed out, who make tons of cash more than our own soldiers over in Iraq.

This all came on the heels of a report that the U.S. State Department may have made it difficult if not impossible to prosecute Blackwater U.S.A. mercenaries who allegedly shot up a bunch of Iraqi civilians. I’m sure it was just an oversight on the State Department’s part. Yes, and if you believe that I’ve got some magic beans to sell you.

Something is rotten in Baghdad and it isn’t just the stench of war and evil. In my recent reading of presidential histories I have to say that I think our country has never had a more screwed up and more corrupt government that at the present. And that is really saying something because we have a history of some pretty Grade A scoundrels. And our fair citizens just seem to take it in stride. Maybe if we get rich enough, if we buy enough stuff, if we can drink and take enough drugs and/or watch sports or a bunch of kids trying to run a society on their own in a “reality TV show,” then maybe things will be better tomorrow. But damned if I don’t wake up each day only to find nothing has changed and if it has it hasn’t been for the better. Oh well, at least I am not Lou Dobbs and am worrying that illegal Mexicans are going to rape, plunder and pillage our fair land into chaos. No I am not worried because the rich white folks have beat the illegals to the punch.

God bless America!

What if there was a press conference and nobody came? Well, if you are a bright bulb at the Federal Emergency Management Agency then you get your own employees to play the part of reporters. Hey, the show must go on.

That is exactly what FEMA did last week after no reporters showed up for a hastily-called news conference regarding the California wildfires. In the wake of FEMA’s bad publicity over the Hurricane Katrina debacle and “Heck of a job Brownie,” the Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has said that he will eat his hat or slap someone’s wrist or “get really angry.” Perhaps he won’t blow a fuse because the old chap already looks like death sucking on a Lifesaver.

John “Pat” Philbin, the FEMA public relations head, appears to be in limbo for his part in the fake news conference. He was to have become the media relations director for the Director of National Intelligence but apparently they are now giving second thought to having someone with so little intelligence being the spokesperson for the head of intelligence in this country. Also, I tried to follow a link on FEMA’s Web site where Philbin’s bio once existed but that page no longer exists. Aha, perhaps he is sleeping with the fishes one might wonder? Or maybe he is going to be part of the Bush brain trust at the White House. Lots of options for so much talent.

As the wise old sage once said: “Nothing from nothing leaves nothing.” Thus as a corollary, something from nothing leaves negative nothing. That is a lesson old as mankind (and banking) itself but but a relative instance nonetheless that has come home to roost from time to time. Why would negative nothing come home to roost if not it was a chicken? Beats the hell out of me.

***###&@@%%% that’s how we laugh the day away in the merry old land of Oz …

My old Central Texas blogging buddy Nate Nance, of Common Sense fame has gone MSM, at least in part, with a new blog that examines the big screen, small screen and all the screen in between called “Cinema Toast With Nate.” It’s on the Web site of a newspaper on which I cannot comment’ — at least I can’t comment on its people — due to the terms of a confidential agreement. But as always with Nate, the blog is entertaining so give it a look. Hopefully, that newspaper won’t sue me due to my fair comment and criticism of what is a positive review anyway. However, stranger things have happened.

Of course, for anyone with the silly thought of suing me these days let me reiterate an earlier point:

“Nothing from nothing leaves nothing.”

And someone trying to get something out of nothing will likely find — you guessed it: Nothing.

Until next time. Thank you for flying with eight feet deep.

Of all the examinations by the media that compare the evacuation and handling of the wildfire situation in California with that of Hurricane Katrina, the best I have seen so far comes from Dan Froomkin at Washingtonpost.com.

That large numbers of people have evacuated in California and much of the damage that has been done is at the core of the comparison. Yet such a juxtaposition is like comparing Moby Dick with Flipper. Katrina was much more the disaster than these wildfires have been, so far at least, in loss of life, property loss and evacuation. Even Hurricane Rita, which hit us here in Southeast Texas and was a one-day national media story, produced a much larger evacuation than in California and most likely the distances evacuees have to travel in California will likely be less than those of Rita or Katrina.

Another good point Froomkin makes is that California has more expertise with such disasters than did Louisiana’s government with its calamity. The truth is the national-local framework used for fire seasons and outbreaks is much better than it has ever been. We, in this country, are finally beginning to learn how to fight wildfires. Now if we will just stop fighting them and let some of these tinderbox areas burn to reduce the fuel load, catastrophes such as those in California may be less prevalent.

I know other comparisons are being made — about the evacuees of the California fires and those from New Orleans. While some sociological examination of the two incidents seems worthy, I feel a lot of the back-and-forth has deep racial overtones just as it did when people were discussing the goings-on in New Orleans in the wake of Katrina. We just can’t seem to get past that can we?