ExpectMoreOfTheSame.gov
The White House released its 2007 budget today, and budget director Joshua Bolten unveiled a new website – ExpectMore.gov — that “allows taxpayers to review the [White House] assessments of nearly 800 federal programs.” “Here, you can see the exhaustive work that goes into each one of these assessments,” Bolten said at today’s press conference. “I expect that this website will be a useful tool for everyone who care about how tax dollars are spent.”
Their “exhaustive work” produced a delusion-riddled website that showcases the White House’s inability to assess its own problems and weaknesses. Katrina offers a real-world illustration of the new site’s inaccuracies:
1) “Federal Emergency Management Agency: Disaster Recoveryâ€:
The Department of Homeland Security’s Recovery program ensures that individuals and communities affected by disastes [SIC] of all sizes, including catastrophic and terrorist events, are able to return to normal function with minimal suffering and disruption of services. PERFORMING: Adequate (one star)
Reality — Reuters:
With no clear recovery plan in sight five months after Hurricane Katrina, many victims are simply hanging on, waiting anxiously for signs that their neighborhoods are either reviving or turning into permanent ghost towns.
2) “Preparedness — Grants and Training Office National Exercise Programâ€:
Prepare Federal, state, and local responders to prevent, respond to, and recover from acts of terrorism by providing the tools to plan, conduct, and evaluate exercises. PERFORMING: Effective (three stars)
Reality — GAO:
Although the [National Response Plan] framework envisions a proactive national response in the event of a catastrophe, the nation does not yet have the types of detailed plans needed to better delineate capabilities that might be required and how such assistance will be provided and coordinated.
3) “Federal Emergency Management Agency: Disaster Responseâ€:
The Department of Homeland Security’s Response program is designed to quickly, efficiently and effectively provide support to State, Tribal, and local governments, and Federal response teams in the event of a natural or manmade disaster, emergency or terrorist event. PERFORMING: Adequate (one star)
Reality — Washington Post:
Four years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, administration officials did not establish a clear chain of command for the domestic emergency; disregarded early warnings of a Category 5 hurricane inundating New Orleans and southeast Louisiana; and did not ensure that cities and states had adequate plans and training before the Aug. 29 storm, according to the Government Accountability Office.
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February 6th, 2006 at 5:36 pmJeebus, help us all. *runs, screaming from the room*
Office of Misinformation
Focus on politicizing and obfuscating the federal government’s piss poor performance and chronicmismangement while putting all resources of the government towards covering Executive incompetence.
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February 6th, 2006 at 5:41 pmOrwellia 2006
I guess Osama is Goldstein…
February 6th, 2006 at 5:44 pmUS Media at ‘All-Time Low’
February 3, 2006
by Julia Day
Guardian / UK
http://www.tbrnews.org/Archives/a2121.htm
US News counterparts plummeted following their “shameful coverage” of the war in Iraq, a conference heard today.
The US media reached an “all-time low” in failing to reflect public opinion and Americans’ desire for trusted information, instead acting as a “cheerleader” for war, said Amy Goodman, the executive producer and host of US TV and radio news show Democracy Now!, at a news forum organised by al-Jazeera.
Newsweek’s Paris bureau chief, Christopher Dickey, said the US media were dying because of cutbacks and weren’t interested in covering the world outside America.
But other delegates questioned whether Arabic media were up to the challenge.
“The US media have done a shameful job of reporting on the Arab world. With the rise of al-Jazeera and independent media there is a chance for the Arab media to react back, but instead what we get is a clash,” said Ethan Zuckerman, the co-founder of Global Voices Online and research fellow at the Berkman Centre for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School.
“I would urge everyone involved with new Arabic media not just to report on this [Arabic] world more fairly and accurately, but to report on the whole world more fairly and accurately.I challenge al-Jazeera and the new Arabic media players to do a better job that the US in covering the rest of the world,” he said.
Heck about everyone knows FAUX news, and MSM is BS, why cant the trolls figure that out?
February 6th, 2006 at 5:50 pmTurn off the MSM and watch them go chapter 11 taking down that Monarchial misfit Murdoch at the Same time.
They certainly deserve it.
February 6th, 2006 at 5:52 pmFrom The Onion:
WASHINGTON, DC—In his State of the Union address to the nation last night, President Bush announced a new cabinet-level position to coordinate all current and future scandals facing his party.
“Tonight, by executive order, I am creating a permanent department with a vital mission: to ensure that the political scandals, underhanded dealings, and outright criminal activities of this administration are handled in a professional and orderly fashion,” Bush said.
The centerpiece of Bush’s plan is the Department Of Corruption, Bribery, And Incompetence, which will centralize duties now dispersed throughout the entire D.C.-area political establishment.
February 6th, 2006 at 5:53 pmPresident Creates Cabinet-Level Position To Coordinate Scandals
This is one of the problems with TP. Specter just kicked Gonzo’s ass and you’re talking budgets.
February 6th, 2006 at 5:54 pmJust looked at the Non-Performing list and it seems that the Dept. of Education is more screwed up than the DOD. Wonder why that is?
February 6th, 2006 at 5:56 pmGus,
February 6th, 2006 at 6:03 pmI’m not talking budgets - I talking about the future of our country -oops- homeland.
Just looked at the Non-Performing list and it seems that the Dept. of Education is more screwed up than the DOD. Wonder why that is?
Comment by WaltTheMan — February 6, 2006 @ 5:56 pm
Walt,
Four words: No Child Left Behind. You have a bunch of theories being espoused by people who’ve never set foot in a classroom, or been alone in the room with their own children without the nannies present. And they’re telling veterans that the key to educational success is through standardized test. Some of my brightest kids are failing because they are not left-brain dominant logical learners. The system is leaving children behind. Too many of them.
February 6th, 2006 at 6:09 pmAt the same time that Bush is cutting all domestic programs and underfunding agencies as well as reneging on promises for disaster relief to Gulf states, he continues to demand that the tax cuts be made permanent and that the estate tax be rescinded.
February 6th, 2006 at 7:36 pmWTF!
Bush, in the SOTU, spoke of trained specialists to meet future demands — then he says he will cut student loans and other aids to education — from where does he think the technology specialists for the future will come?
February 6th, 2006 at 7:39 pmWe will be producing specialists in flipping burgers, with all the engineering, science, technology coming from somewhere else.
There is an old saying that “You get the government you deserve,” which implies that Americans have allowed DC to become completely corrupt, so the Bush Administration is now fleecing the entire nation! Sad but true!
February 6th, 2006 at 8:18 pmWhy are my tax dollars being used to fund a propaganda web site like this? Don’t we have better things to spend money on - like maybe body armor for troops?
And what wordsmith wrote the definition for adequate:
“This rating describes a program that needs to set more ambitious goals, achieve better results, improve accountability or strengthen its management practices.”
That’s what we accept as “adequate?” E-gad!
February 7th, 2006 at 8:38 am“With no clear recovery plan in sight five months after Hurricane Katrina, many victims are simply hanging on, waiting anxiously for signs that their neighborhoods are either reviving or turning into permanent ghost towns.”
I guess you haven’t heard. Chocolate City is no more. It is now deemed a coastal wetland for birds and frogs. There will be no plan because recovery of the underwater ghettos is not viable or desirable. Why should the US taxpayer provide Billions to rebuild temporararily a doomed city for a quarter of a million fourth generation welfare recipients who will just turn it back into a shit hole in six months?
It ain’t gonna happen. Chocolate City is gone forever.
February 7th, 2006 at 10:29 amThe US media reached an “all-time low†in failing to reflect public opinion and Americans’ desire for trusted information, instead acting as a “cheerleader†for war, said Amy Goodman, the executive producer and host of US TV and radio news show Democracy Now!, at a news forum organised by al-Jazeera.
Heck about everyone knows FAUX news, and MSM is BS, why cant the trolls figure that out?
Comment by mr ho
You are too stupid for words Mr. ho.
February 7th, 2006 at 10:32 amJust looked at the Non-Performing list and it seems that the Dept. of Education is more screwed up than the DOD. Wonder why that is?
Comment by WaltTheMan
That’s easy. There are still some decent Americans in the DOD but the DOE is chock full of homosexuals and ratbastardcommiemofos. Hope that helps.
February 7th, 2006 at 10:34 amThose who doubt that the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld team will attack Iran, while so conspicuously overextended in Iraq, are ignoring the subtleties of the administration’s Middle East strategy.
Bush has no intention of occupying Iran. Rather, the goal is to destroy major weapons-sites, destabilize the regime, and occupy a sliver of land on the Iraqi border that contains 90% of Iran’s oil wealth. Ultimately, Washington will aim to replace the Mullahs with American-friendly clients who can police their own people and fabricate the appearance of representative government. But, that will have to wait. For now, the administration must prevent the incipient Iran bourse (oil-exchange) from opening in March and precipitating a global sell-off of the debt-ridden dollar. There have many fine articles written about the proposed “euro-based†bourse and the devastating effects it will have on the greenback. The best of these are “Petrodollar Warfare: Oil, Iraq and the Future of the Dollar†by William R. Clark, and “The Proposed Oil Bourse†by Krassimir Petrov, Ph.D.
The bottom line on the bourse is this; the dollar is underwritten by a national debt that now exceeds $8 trillion dollars and trade deficits that surpass $600 billion per year. That means that the greenback is the greatest swindle in the history of mankind. It’s utterly worthless. The only thing that keeps the dollar afloat is that oil is traded exclusively in greenbacks rather than some other currency. If Iran is able to smash that monopoly by trading in petro-euros then the world’s central banks will dump the greenback overnight, sending markets crashing and the US economy into a downward spiral.
The Bush administration has no intention of allowing that to take place. In fact, as the tax-cuts and the budget deficits indicate, the Bush cabal fully intends to perpetuate the system that trades worthless dollars for valuable commodities, labor, and resources. As long as the oil market is married to the dollar, this system of global indentured servitude will continue.
Battle Plans
The Bush administration’s attention has shifted to a small province in southwestern Iran that is unknown to most Americans. Never the less, Khuzestan will become the next front in the war on terror and the lynchpin for prevailing in the global resource war. If the Bush administration can sweep into the region (under the pretext disarming Iran’s nuclear programs) and put Iran’s prodigious oil wealth under US control, the dream of monopolizing Middle East oil will have been achieved.
Not surprisingly, this was Saddam Hussein’s strategy in 1980 when he initiated hostilities against Iran in a war that would last for eight years. Saddam was an American client at the time, so it is likely that he got the green light for the invasion from the Reagan White House. Many of Reagan’s high-ranking officials currently serve in the Bush administration; notably Rumsfeld and Cheney.
Khuzestan represents 90% of Iran’s oil production. The control over these massive fields will force the oil-dependent nations of China, Japan and India to continue to stockpile greenbacks despite the currency’s dubious value. The annexing of Khuzestan will prevent Iran’s bourse from opening, thereby guaranteeing that the dollar will maintain its dominant position as the world’s reserve currency. As long as the dollar reigns supreme and western elites have their hands on the Middle East oil-spigot, the current system of exploitation through debt will continue into perpetuity. The administration can confidently prolong its colossal deficits without fear of a plummeting dollar. In fact, the American war-machine and all its various appendages, from Guantanamo to Abrams Tanks, are paid for by the myriad nations who willingly hold reserves of American currency.
This extortion-scheme is typically referred to as the global economic system. In reality, it has nothing to do with either free markets or capitalism. That is just philosophical mumbo-jumbo. It is the dollar-system; predicated entirely on the ongoing monopoly of the oil trade in dollars.
February 7th, 2006 at 10:57 am#17 - Actually, I met more gay people while I was in the Army than I’ve ever heard of being in Education. My mom & sister are teachers (9th grade & 3rd grade respectively), and they’re both hard core Republicans, and they’ve only met one gay teacher.
My dad retired as a General in the State Defense Force, and he’s met more gay members of the military that I have!
I wonder why “Right between the I’s” doesn’t think that there are gay members in the military or the DOD? Intentional blindness? Can’t think of gay’s as being patriotic, can we?
February 7th, 2006 at 11:00 am#15 - Yet another example of Pres. Bush breaking a promise. How many does that make, just about every promise he made? No, I think he did return “honorism and dignitude” back to the White House.
Honorism - prostrate yourself to special interests and sell the ountries soul for oil.
Dignitude - bankrupt the nation by removing all tax on anyone who makes millions of dollars a year, and shackle our great great grandchildren with paying off the massive debt for the special interests that financed my ascendency.
Yup! Pres. Bush sure followed through on THAT promise! Of course, any other promise he made was just words:
1 - Fiscal responsibility. NOT!
2 - Balanced budgets. NOT!
3 - No nation building. NOT!
4 - Weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. NOT!
5 - Uniter, not divider. NOT!
6 - All other promises. NOT!
Oh well! Soon the liar will be out of office, and his hypocritical, double-standard party will lose their majority, and they’ll cry. It’ll be up to the rest of America to pick uf the pieces of his failed leadership and try to save the Constitution upon which he shat.
February 7th, 2006 at 11:11 amCan’t think of gay’s as being patriotic, can we?
Comment by Democrat Soldier
The correct term is homosexual. There is nothing “gay” about sexual dysfunction. I’d say they can be patriotic but I doubt that’s why they join a mostly male armed services, or want to be Boy Scout leaders because they like the outdoors and are called to be Roman Catholic priests because they love God. Homosexuals define themselves by their sexual desires first, everything else is a poor second.
February 7th, 2006 at 11:20 am#21 - So, that means that all straight people define themselves by their sexual desires first, and everything else is a poor second? I’ll have to tell my parents that their heterosexuality is why they wanted to become teachers, and not their desire to teach. I’ll have to tell Sen. McCain that it was his heterosexuality that made him join the military, and not his patriotic duty that called him to sign up.
I think you’re getting it in the reverse order: gay people are attacked and reviled by haters because of their sexual orientation. In order to protect themselves from these attacks, they band together to pool their resources and provide safety in numbers. There is a direct correlation between fewer gay people in a group and their likelihood of being physically attacked. You don’t find too many ‘queer-bashers’ who attack a large group of gay people. they pick them off one-by-one. I guess they don’t want to take the chance they’ll get their butt’s kicked by ‘faries’.
While you like to broadly paint all gay persons as perverts, you seem to become very upset when progressives paint all Republicans as “corrupt†when the majority of elected Republicans are exposed as corrupt.
Why do you hold one standard for everyone else and another less stringent standard for everyone else? Could it be that a single standard would hoist you by your own arguments?
February 7th, 2006 at 12:35 pm#21 - So, that means that all straight people define themselves by their sexual desires first, and everything else is a poor second?
Comment by Democrat Soldier
One does not follow the other. Homosexuals are psychologically damaged and abnormal. I’d say that straight people who are addicted to sex would be closer to the mark but still not to the point of creating a sub-culture of perverts as the homosexuals have done.
I think you’re getting it in the reverse order: gay people are attacked and reviled by haters because of their sexual orientation.
Physical attacks on homos are almost non existent. Normal people are disgusted and angry at homosexual activism but not to the point of physical abuse, not yet. Homosexuals band together because of sexual attraction and wanting to be around like minded perverts, not out of fear.
While you like to broadly paint all gay persons as perverts, ]
By definition a homosexual is a pervert. Period.
you seem to become very upset when progressives paint all Republicans as “corrupt†when the majority of elected Republicans are exposed as corrupt.
I pay no attention to Left Wing Losers. Why would I when so many of them are moral degenerates.
Why do you hold one standard for everyone else and another less stringent standard for everyone else? Could it be that a single standard would hoist you by your own arguments?
There is a universal moral order and a Right and a Wrong. I apply the same standard to all to the best of my ability.
February 7th, 2006 at 2:28 pm#23 - “Right between the I’s” proves his partisan bias over, and over, and over again. He claims “There is a universal moral order and a Right and a Wrong. I apply the same standard to all to the best of my ability.”
So, why are you not calling Pres. Bush a “liar” when his lies are exposed? Too much moral fortitude to ask of you, right?
Why do you not call the Republican party “corrupt” when they are the ones who have proven many times over the past decade and a half that they are much more corrupt than they ever claimed the Democrats where? Too much to expect you to see the truth of the scoundrels with which you agree, right?
You’ve failed miserably in your proclaimed desire to “apply the same standard to all to the best of your abilityâ€. You apply quite a different standard to those with whom you disagree.
What America originally stood for was the rights of the individual to be protected from the excesses of the State, Big Government, Big Business, and empirical rule. Gay people are asking to be afforded the same protections that you take for granted, but you align yourself with the side of Big Government over the rights of the individual. You align yourself with the ‘special interests’ of those who label themselves ‘morally superior’ and try to divest those with whom you disagree of their basic civil right.
You, sir, would be the perfect ‘loyalist’ that would shove a dagger into the hearts of our founding fathers were that you born prior to 1776. You are the epitome of ‘special interests’ over human rights. I hope and pray that someday you find yourself on the other end of your arguments. It would be justified and appropriate were it so.
February 7th, 2006 at 4:02 pmI hope and pray that someday you find yourself on the other end of your arguments. It would be justified and appropriate were it so.
Comment by Democrat Soldier
I’m a Christian in a world filled with haters of Jesus Christ, just as He promised. I’m sure you find it appropriate that Christians are murdered every day by your friends the Muslim head choppers. I’m sure it’s quite all right with you if your Progressive Brownshirts call us Nazi and mentally unstable and that you attack every vestige of Christianity in this country while complaining that it is we who lord it over you. You sir are a Walking Dead Loser and I weep for my country every time you open your mouth.
The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead. — Proverbs 21:16
February 7th, 2006 at 5:06 pm#25 - I am a Christian as well.
Of course, I’m sure that you hate me for my Christianity, just as you hate gay people, and Democrats.
I served in the miliitary because I believe that the Constitution applies to all Americans, not just those who support Pres. Bush, or those who support Christianity over other faiths. Christianity is in the heart. It does not exist by words alone, and all you’ve done is repeat the words. You express nothing of their Spirit, and that makes me pity you.
Even the Devil can quote scripture for his own purposes.
Then the LORD said to me, “The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I have not sent them or appointed them or spoken to them. They are prophesying to you false visions, divinations, idolatries and the delusions of their own minds.”
- Jeremiah 14:13
If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
- 1 John 4:20
For God sent his Son into the world not to condemn the world, but that the world, though Him, might be saved. - John 3:17
You, sir, I pity. You are a liar in word and in deed, and the words you parrot shall be as dust in your mouth. Maybe someday you will find the truth in the Christian faith. For now, you’ve proven to me that you only parrot the words and know not the Truth.
February 7th, 2006 at 5:20 pm#25 - I am a Christian as well.
Of course, I’m sure that you hate me for my Christianity, just as you hate gay people, and Democrats.
Comment by Democrat Soldier
Your idea of a Christian is very fluid. In my experience Christianity and the Democratic Party are opposites. But then I’ve studied the faith and know a little more about it than “God is Love”. But let’s be clear about something, I don’t personally hate anyone except my sister in law. She is evil personified. I do hate organized evil of all sorts and for that you may call me a hater. I hate what God declares should be hated. The fact that you don’t proves that you’re no Christian, you just think you are. I’d pray about it if I were you. Maybe He will be merciful to you and stick a divine Clue Boot up your ass. You sure need it.
February 7th, 2006 at 5:38 pmI-RIGHT-I,
Do you hate the talking donkeys, the flat earths, the righteousness of slavery, the ‘cursed race’, the ‘tower of babel’ that could reach through the atmosphere and any number of the other fairy tales you subscribe to? Religious fanatics are such gullible little children who elist fairy tales to explain and support their hate, ignorance and biases. But I forgive you pumpkin. Clearly you were brainwashed as a baby, and now you hate out of fear and sometimes just for the fun of it. Poor pumpkin, such a lost and sad little tortured soul you are. You have my pity pumpkin. See unlike you and those hateful religious values you have - I love, forgive and have compassion for you, even though your only capacity in the world seems to be to spread hate, ignorance and intolerance. Poor thing, clearly it’s all you seem to have the will or capacity for doing, so like any mentally disturbed and/or lost homeless person I have pity on you pumpkin.
February 8th, 2006 at 12:41 amI have pity on you pumpkin.
Comment by RightPunch
Are you a girl?
February 8th, 2006 at 9:11 am