CONFIDENT BATHTUB PAP

Now that New Orleans and much of the Gulf Coast have drowned and the Bullshitter-in-Chief is scrambling to offer artificial respiration with underfunded federal agencies, what does Grover Norquist, Field Marshal of the regime's tax cut, have to say? As opednews.com reminds us, Norquist's infamous line that he wants to starve government small enough so he can "drown it in a bathtub" sounds like the special idiocy it always was.

Given the failure of the levees that protected New Orleans from the floodwaters of Lake Pontchartrain, many are saying that the chief bullshitter has plenty to answer for. This morning's lead editorial in The Washington Post has it right when it points out:

[The bullshitter's] most recent budgets have actually proposed reducing funding for flood prevention in the New Orleans area, and the administration has long ignored Louisiana politicians' requests for more help in protecting their fragile coast, the destruction of which meant there was little to slow down the hurricane before it hit the city.

The lead editorial in this morning's New York Times also has it right. Our chief bullshitter "gave one of the worst speeches of his life yesterday," reading "a long laundry list of pounds of ice, generators and blankets delivered to the stricken Gulf Coast. He advised the public that anybody who wanted to help should send cash, grinned, and promised that everything would work out in the end."

He offered his usual pap: "This is going to be a difficult road. The challenges that we face on the ground are unprecedented. But there's no doubt in my mind we're going to succeed." That's to be expected of a mind like his. As Post reporter Peter Baker noted:

The words echoed the language [he] used through much of his August vacation whenever he emerged from the ranch to defend his handling of the Iraq war, and it reflected his leadership style. In times of calamity, he seeks to project an air of undiminished confidence regardless of the dark circumstances. He fashions himself a take-charge leader who thrives at making decisions that he never second-guesses even if they do not turn out the way he imagined them.

Finally, here's some of what the New Orleans Times-Picayune's prize-winning series, "Washing Away," presciently warned when it was published in 2002:

Without extraordinary measures, key ports, oil and gas production, one of the nation's most important fisheries, the unique bayou culture, the historic French Quarter and more are at risk of being swept away in a catastrophic hurricane or worn down by smaller ones. ...

The problem for south Louisiana is that the natural protections are rapidly deteriorating, and that in turn is weakening man-made defenses, mainly because the entire delta region is sinking into the Gulf of Mexico. The Louisiana coast resembles a bowl placed in a sink full of water. Push it down, or just tip it slightly, and water rushes in. ...

If enough water from Lake Pontchartrain topped the levee system along its south shore, the result would be apocalyptic. Vast areas would be submerged for days or weeks. ... Adding a 20-foot storm surge from a Category 4 or 5 storm would mean 30 feet of standing water. ...

Whoever remained in the city would be at grave risk. According to the American Red Cross, a likely death toll would be between 25,000 and 100,000 people, dwarfing estimated death tolls for other natural disasters and all but the most nightmarish potential terrorist attacks. ...

Tens of thousands more would be stranded on rooftops and high ground, awaiting rescue that could take days or longer. They would face thirst, hunger and exposure to toxic chemicals.

We're already seeing tens of thousands of refugees being evacuated from the city, while mayhem disrupts the evacuation and officials concede that hundreds of thousands of displaced survivors will not be allowed back into the city for weeks, possibly months. Let's hope the predicted death toll turns out to be much too high. We're not as confident as the Bullshitter-in-Chief.

-- Tireless Staff of Thousands

Postscript: President George W. Bush announced at 10:33 a.m. DST in the Rose Garden that to meet the Southeast's emergency, he is mobilizing himself. He will don his National Guard uniform and fly a jet to New Orleans immediately. "I'll do everything in my power to help out. Like I always do," vowed the president. (UPI: Unlikely Press International)