UPDATE:

I was close in my Roberts’ confirmation vote prediction. I said 75-25 and it was 78-22. Chillin’ news.

Also Mark Coffey, the founder of the Coalition of The Chillin’, is not buying all the bravado from the media on a filibuster showdown. I agree, won’t happen – which is what I said yesterday.

END UPDATE

Hard to believe it is nearly the end of September. How time flies.

I understand Bush’s desire to maintain a proper and professional ‘tone’ in Washington. While the press has not been able to “move on”, the politics have actually been becoming more civil over the years. However, it seems this grand goal has a price, and that price is not understanding what went wrong during key events. Let’s start with Katrina. When Michael Brown resigned I claimed, rightfully I would say, that he resigned in order to be free of administration policies on being ‘civil’ so he could salvage his good name. And he is doing that if the Davis Hearings are any indication. But what happens to the two most responsible for first responding to Katrina? This is taking civility a bit too far:

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, blamed by the former leader of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin for many of the city’s post-hurricane problems, was given no questions about her response to Hurricane Katrina when she appeared before a Senate committee to plead for more federal money.

She asked not to be questioned about it and the senators agreed.

This is ridiculous. We need to know what went wrong. We are still in hurricane season. To take the job of Governor means taking on the responsibilities and facing up to your actions. Why is Michael Brown allowed to be pilloried by Blanco and she is not even questioned! What is she hiding? [Hat tip: Drudge]

Able Danger seems to be suffering from the same ‘tone’ deafness.

I watched Ray Nagin do what he does best last night: act like a petulant child. He is all upset at Louisiana for declaring New Orleans a health hazard. Aaron Brown ran a story on CNN last night on the topic, showing Nagin boasting that he argued with the Feds and is now is arguing with the state and needs the press to come to his rescue. What a putz. Here are the conditions in New Orleans.

From collapsed houses to abandoned cars, debris covers the ruined city as far as the eye can see. There is an estimated 22 million tons of garbage in New Orleans alone, much of it toxic and hazardous and needing special handling.

Jim Pogue, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spokesman, said on Wednesday that debris from Hurricane Katrina across southeastern Louisiana amounted to 55 million cubic yards, enough to fill 3.5 million large dump trucks.

“The trucks would stretch 36,500 miles. They would reach all the way around the earth at the equator and you would still have enough trucks left over to stretch from New York to Denver,” he said.

Don’t deal with Nagin in terms of transportation examples. As we saw with his bus fiasco that is a subject he cannot relate to. Aaron Brown asked two simple questions of his CNN field reporter who seemed to want to join in Nagin’s cause. “If you pick up a phone in the city, will you get a dial tone?”. The reporter gave a but-monkey answer: “No, but..”. Honestly I was stunned. Then Brown asked ” if you turn on a faucet, will drinkable water come out”. The field reporter had to admit that, no, the water was not fit to drink and in many places not fit to bathe in. What is Nagin planning to do?

I suggest Nagin take a nice hot shower (downtown) and relax. His political future is toast anyway.

I had my say on the DeLay indictment here already, and I am more confident 24 hours later that this will backlash on the dems and media. I’ll let John Podhoretz take the lead on this:

Some liberals defend Earle on the strange grounds that he isn’t guilty of using his office to play politics because he’s also indicted fellow Democrats. But in the highest-profile case he had before Hutchison, Earle was also humiliated when an absurd bribery charge he had brought against Democratic state Attorney General Jim Mattox led to a quick jury verdict of “not guilty.” He also indicted himself once — on some campaign-finance charge — so there’s some reason to believe he might be a bit cracked.

Is anyone else thinking ‘Blazing Saddles’ right now?

It is time for the Gang of 14 and The Coalition of The Chillin’ (see the blog roll on the right side for the members) to toast their success and foresight. Roberts will be confirmed today with a vote around the 75 – 25 mark and then sworn in later today. We now begin the Roberts’ Era of the US SC.

Ambassador Bolton is raising eyebrows in challenging Congress and others who want to use the stick of withholding funds from the UN in order to coerce more extensive reforms. Caught me off guard! I am not sure a fight with Congress is a great idea right now, especially when covering for the corrupt UN.

It is so obvious the terrorist sympathizers in Iraq will be going all out to impact the vote on the constitution coming up in under 3 weeks, but Bush keeps telling the leftward fringes to expect it and the left continues to be shocked the Islamists are fighting with all they got and killing whom they feel they must to stop the establishment of a democratic Iraq. I have given up on expecting logic from the left. This is a hoot too:

In an unusual public rebuke of U.S. policy, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister called a news conference in Washington last week to predict Iraq’s dissolution.
…
Other countries have expressed similar concerns in private, according to U.S. and Arab diplomats.

Of course he expects that. He wishes for that. And so do all the leaders of non-democratic states in the region. They, just like the liberals here, wish for failure for personal, political gain.

“We’re building a growing movement against the war in Iraq that will give people who feel uncomfortable about the war a place to share their concerns and discuss and work through a solution — should it be immediate withdrawal or an exit strategy. We want to build a consensus that we want to get out,” said Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.).

Maxine, it is a volunteer military and no one has asked you to get in, so I am not sure why you need to get out. But being a democracy ourselves, we follow the path laid out by the majority. The question for the minority is are you up to the task of being a minority. So far you folks are a dismal failure.

Everyone try and have a good day!