I was scrolling through the online version of the New York Times this morning, and read the headlines, "Bush Calls to End Ban on Offshore Oil Drilling." (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/19/washington/19drill.html?_r...). Bush's argues that lifting the ban would help lower gas prices and strengthen national security. He goes on to argue that if Congress fails to act accordingly, then Americans can blame them for $4/gallon gasoline. I tried to make some sense of the argument: put the environment, surrounding wildlife, and our earthly home at risk because it's the ONLY way to keep gas prices down. And, the corollary: failure to lift the ban means greater economic pressure for Americans.

On the one year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the Bush administration announced a pr campaign to help downplay government failures in the evacuation and rescue efforts in the days that followed our nation's worst national disaster ever.  

The PR campaign is designed to thwart Democratic attempts to highlight the administrations failures in aftermath of Katrina.  

Fine. I understand that Bush and the Republicans want to wash their hands of Katrina and the chaos that followed. And, I expect them to hold press conferences and talk about New Orleans and about the money they have set aside for rebuilding. But, news shows today basically served as a 24 hour commercial for Bush and Republicans.

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Yesterday, a judge in Detroit ruled that the administration's wiretapping and eavesdropping programs that allow government officials to spy on Americans without a warrant violates the constitution.

Well, it's about time.  I am surprised that it took this long for someone to step in and point out that George Bush and his administration must abide by the U.S. Constitution.  This decision should not be groundbreaking, just common sense.  

What is groundbreaking, and dangerous, is the extremist conservative assault on the judicial system and the separation of powers.  People should be worried about the hit job this administration has done on the judiciary.  

As soon as the opinion was handed down yesterday, conservatives quickly began their attempt to slander Judge Anna Diggs Taylor and the judiciary system as a whole.  A former Reagan and first Bush administration official quickly came out in attack mode and was quoted as saying the opinion manifested "strong bias."  

more after the fold

Bernie Kerrik pleaded guillty today to accepting tens of thousands of dollars in gifts and loans as police commissioner of New York City. Mr. Kerrik was President Bush's pick for Homeland Security Directory in 2004, but his nomination quickly imploded over his growing financial disgrace.

But Mr. Kerrik's personal implosion is nothing compared to what's happened at the agency he almost directed. The New York Times reported that FEMA and the Homeland Security department have lost over $2 Billion in waste and fraud following Hurrican Katrina. For example:



-A single FEMA official took $20,000 in bribes from contractors



-FEMA lost credit cards totalling $1.5 million that were meant for victims' families



-prison inmates collected over $10 million for damaged property



-FEMA bought 10,000 mobile homes that sit unused in Alabama, for a sotrage cost of $250,000 a month

you can read morehere.

There have been evil administrations in American history, and there have been incompetant ones too. But the Bush administration is the first to combine malice with ineptitude.