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It may not have been what he intended, but last night President Bush ceded the ideological debate over the proper size and scope of government. Calling for “one of the largest reconstruction efforts the world has ever seen,” he made it absolutely clear where the responsibility for rebuilding the Gulf Coast region resides:

“Federal funds will cover the great majority of the costs of repairing public infrastructure in the disaster zone, from roads and bridges to schools and water systems.”

This new found faith in the vital role of government was echoed in his mea culpa of sorts, in which he acknowledged the abject failure of FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security:

“The system, at every level of government, was not well coordinated and was overwhelmed in the first few days. It is now clear that a challenge on this scale requires greater federal authority and a broader role for the armed forces, the institution of our government most capable of massive logistical operations on a moment’s notice.”

But perhaps most significant was the president’s acknowledgment that our nation is rife with deep and persistent poverty, that it is rooted in history and race, and that the government has an obligation to provide opportunity to all its citizens.

As all of us saw on television, there is also some deep, persistent poverty in this region as well. And that poverty has roots in a history of racial discrimination, which cut off generations from the opportunity of America. We have a duty to confront this poverty with bold action. So let us restore all that we have cherished from yesterday, and let us rise above the legacy of inequality.

Of course, the actual proposals and platitudes in last night’s speech are just so many words — the devil remains in both the details, and the execution. But the overall theme of big government lending a big hand to those in need, is more reminiscent of FDR’s New Deal than the Reagan Revolution. While I do not trust the president’s deeds to match his words, it is important to note that the disaster has forced his administration to adopt a classic liberal-progressive frame that neo-conservative think tanks have spent the better part of four decades drowning. Last night’s speech acknowledges that a strong, functioning, compassionate America requires a strong, functioning and compassionate federal government. It is not just a recognition of the need for good government, but rather, an implicit reminder that in a functioning republic, government is good.

As with the Mississippi flood of 1927, historians may look back on Hurricane Katrina and see a tidal surge of political change. Author John M. Barry writes that before this unprecedented natural disaster there was no national consensus that the federal government should fund large public works. But the Coolidge administration’s initial inept and callous response gave way under popular pressure to massive and widely successful reconstruction and employment programs… setting a precedent for FDR’s vastly larger New Deal a decade later.

In the immediate wake of Hurricane Katrina, President Bush — like Coolidge before him — seemed genuinely taken aback by criticism of the federal response. Taken at face value, “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job,” was a declaration that everything was going according to plan… a plan that clearly did not envision a decisive federal role in a regional emergency.

All that has now changed. Confronted with an angry public backlash and plummeting poll numbers, Bush has been forced to adopt the language of liberalism, if not the ideals themselves. This is an opportunity that must not be wasted, and it is imperative now that Democrats in Congress remain absolutely disciplined and vigilant… for only relentless oversight can assure a successful reconstruction. The stakes are high, not only for the people of the Gulf Region, but for the future direction of our nation. $200 billion in reconstruction can buy a lot of roads and bridges and schools… but if it is spent wisely, compassionately, and effectively, it will also make a large down-payment on restoring Americans’ faith in government.

Hurricane Katrina cut through the impenetrable bullshit of Grover Norquist and his fellow neo-cons as easily as it breached the concrete walls of the 17th Street Canal. By abandoning their rhetoric, President Bush may have sounded the death peal of a movement, and history may look back on last night’s speech as the moment a failed ideology drowned in a bathtub of its own creation: the flooded, corpse-ridden streets of New Orleans.

[Cross-posted at Daily Kos]

The Seattle Times calls it “breaking news” but it really doesn’t come as much of a surprise:

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels is withdrawing his support for the monorail, and at a press conference is calling on the city to withhold construction permits.

Nickels is asking City Council President Jan Drago to hold an emergency session next Thursday to withhold the permits.

Nickels also called for a Nov. 8 ballot measure to advise city leaders on what to do next with the financially-troubled project.

The level-headed pragmatist in me voted against the Monorail, but I always kinda sorta really wanted to see it built. Ah well.

Democracy for America is hosting an online vote to determine which congressional candidate will receive their first national endorsement of 2006. The candidate with the most votes at the end of balloting will receive a DFA-List endorsement and a national e-mail from DFA’s Chair Jim Dean.

Two Democrats have declared their candidacies to challenge Rep. Dave Reichert’s 8th District seat in 2006… and while I am loath to take sides this early in the campaign, I urge you to go to the DFA website today and cast a vote for Darcy Burner.

The first round of voting closes Saturday at 2:00 pm Pacific Time. Only the top ten move on to the next round, and Darcy is currently ranked eleventh. Since Randy Gordon is not in competitive in the DFA poll, it seems useless to make this exercise a competition between the two of them, and thus deny both the opportunity for some national support.

That said, I like both Randy and Darcy. We were classmates at Camp Wellstone, and I could enthusiastically get behind either one of them… though I’m not yet convinced that either is the right candidate to take on Reichert. So I’ll wait a few more months before I endorse a candidate.

While it appears that there will be no official flood of Hurricane Katrina evacuees to WA state, the disaster is still taxing local relief agencies, as victims find their way to our state on their own. Megan Hampson of the Seattle Red Cross just emailed me the following information in response to a previous query:

You probably already know that there are not going to be large number of evacuees sent to our state by FEMA. However I do want to let you know that we have had over 400 evacuees from the Gulf Coast walk in our front door and we are providing assistance and relief to more and more each day. I know that many Red Cross chapters in the state are also working with families who have lost everything. There is still a need for support for these families who were able to make it to Washington on their own.

Gifts to the Red Cross for Hurricane Katrina will go to all the victims of the Hurricane, regardless of what state they are in so please feel free to share that information. If you wish to target donations for evacuees in Washington State only, then you should make your check payable to the American Red Cross and write “DR081”, the name of the Red Cross disaster operation in Washington State, on the memo line of the check.

So if you want to support the Katrina victims seeking refuge in WA state, make out a a check payable to “American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund”, be sure to write “DR081” in the memo field, and mail it to:

The American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund
PO Box 24325
Seattle, WA 98124-0325

There are number of other ways you can help in the local relief efforts, so for more information, or to make a donation online or by phone, go to the Seattle Red Cross Hurricane Katrina Relief Effort page.

I would also like to remind all my readers that I will be co-hosting a Red Cross fundraiser Monday evening, September 19. The event was originally slated to benefit Ron Sims’ reelection campaign, but Ron decided to change the focus to a worthier cause. You are all invited to attend… but for those of you who need an engraved invitation, this is the best I can do:

This is a great opportunity to meet Ron Sims (and, um… me), and have a glass of wine and some good conversation while helping a worthy cause. I hope to see you there, checkbook in hand. Please R.S.V.P.

I’ve been sitting by my computer all day, waiting for Dino Rossi to state his position on Initiative 912. He doesn’t call, he doesn’t write… I’m beginning to take it personally. But my bruised feelers are nothing compared to the hearts he’ll break in the business community should he sit silently by and permit the anti-roads initiative to pass in his name.

As we all now know, the polling data puts the fate of I-912 — and the transportation package it would repeal — squarely in Rossi’s hands. If he publicly states his opposition, the initiative loses. If he remains silent, it will likely win.

If Rossi wants to lead this state, now is a good time to start. He owes it to voters, and to the business interests who finance his campaigns, to take a stance on the most important issue on the November ballot… an initiative that is as much about him as it is about taxes or roads.

And so I will patiently sit here and await his answer… “Where’s Rossi?”

“Until you have been there, you don’t realize it is the middle of a hurricane.”
— former FEMA director Mike Brown

Well… duh-uh! Perhaps that’s why FEMA should be run by people who’ve actually been there before, huh?

I can’t help but find Mike Brown’s very public defense of himself as muddled and confused as the appointment that put him in the eye of the hurricane in the first place. To claim that he resigned because he didn’t “want to be a distraction”… and then to give a series of defensive, high profile interviews flinging blame at everyone except the guy who hired him, is beyond ironic… it is absurd. The simple fact is, as FEMA director, Brown was in over his head, and he’d probably serve himself better by staying as silent and anonymous as the hundreds of corpses that drowned with him.

Surely, Brown is more than justified in claiming that he has been made a scapegoat. Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff scapegoated him. The media scapegoated him. Hell… I scapegoated him. But that’s not to say that the scapegoating wasn’t deserved, nor that it didn’t serve the useful purpose of illuminating the cronyism and incompetence endemic in the Bush administration.

And how does Brown respond to his scapegoat status? By trying to scapegoat Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco and other state and local officials.

He focused much of his criticism on Governor Blanco, contrasting what he described as her confused response with far more agile mobilizations in Mississippi and Alabama, as well as in Florida during last year’s hurricanes.

But Mr. Brown’s account, in which he described making “a blur of calls” all week to Mr. Chertoff, Mr. Card and Mr. Hagin, suggested that Mr. Bush, or at least his top aides, were informed early and repeatedly by the top federal official at the scene that state and local authorities were overwhelmed and that the overall response was going badly.

Yeah, and neither Mississippi, Alabama nor Florida had their largest city totally wiped off the map, destroying much of its emergency infrastructure, and creating a half million refugees. State and local authorities were overwhelmed? No shit, Sherlock! Of course they were overwhelmed… they were wiped out by a fucking hurricane! That’s the whole reason we created FEMA in the first place… to provide a rapid and coordinated federal response to regional emergencies… a task the agency, under Brown, failed utterly.

But most absurd is Brown’s ridiculous insistence that the White House be held blameless for FEMA’s disastrous disaster response, an assertion directly contradicted by his own account of the chaos and confusion between him, Chertoff and White House staff. No doubt Brown was promoted more for his loyalty than his competence, but his unswerving defense of the incompetent who hired him suggests that his presidential sobriquet, “Brownie”, was derived more from the color of his nose than his surname. Moreover, Brown’s own bemoaning of the lack of resources at his disposal is a damning indictment not only of a failed presidency, but of a failed ideology that seeks to cut government “down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.” Well, now we all know what Grover Nordquist’s bathtub looks like: it is New Orleans under 20 feet of water… raw sewage and bloated corpses floating through the streets.

Brown intends to clear his name, but in doing so sets forth a narrative that confirms his critics’ deepest suspicions. He was the wrong man for the wrong job, appointed for all the wrong reasons. But what offends me most by his feeble effort to defend his reputation, is that he never apologizes — not for his poor performance, for I’m sure he did his best — but for taking the job in the first place. Until you have been there, you don’t realize it is the middle of a hurricane. The American people deserved a FEMA director who had been there before, and who knew a disaster when he stood in the middle of one… not three or four days after the fact.

Michael Brown was not that man.

[Cross-posted at Daily Kos]

The League of Conserveration Voters is kicking off its grass roots campaign to reelect Sen. Maria Cantwell, tonight at 7PM at the Columbia City Theater. (More information.) Since it’s right near my neighborhood, I’m going to try to stop by for a little while, 8-year-old daughter in tow.

This is an opportunity to meet other Cantwell supporters and find out how you can get involved with LCV’s campaign to help re-elect one of our nation’s strongest environmental leaders.

From the home page of David Irons’ other official campaign website:

“For the last five years, you have been teaching me how King County government can work better. I have been listening, and now I want to take that knowledge and my 25 years of practical business experience to make it more efficient and more accountable.”

Hmm. So, if elected, Irons wants to apply his “practical business experience” to running King County, huh? Then I guess, judging from the four years he spent as Chief Operations Officer of Brigadoon.com, Irons should have the county in bankruptcy before the end of his first term.

Even when their employees were living on tuna and rice, their creditors were cutting them off for ignoring millions in debt and their investors were fuming that they’d been swindled, the leaders of Brigadoon.com said they’d be a great success.
…
But the company discovered it could not deliver. It posted a more than $10 million operating loss while attracting millions from nearly 200 accredited investors from around the world. It hired more than 110 employees at one point and ordered expensive equipment.

See… the problem with the oft repeated admonition that government should be run more like a business… is that most businesses fail.

Anyway, I’d love to hear from any former “Brink-O-Doom” employees about the company’s “ingenious business plan” and Iron’s role in failing to execute it. Drop me an email.

Everything seems to be going just great…

Insurgents staged at least a dozen suicide bombings that ripped through Baghdad in rapid succession on Wednesday, killing almost 150 people and wounding more than 500 in a coordinated assault that left much of the capital paralyzed.

Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia claimed responsibility for the assault, which inflicted the biggest death toll in Baghdad since the American-led invasion of Iraq toppled Saddam Hussein more than two years ago.

As Dino Rossi’s patrons in the business community prepare to charge headlong into the breach in the battle against I-912, it is time to start asking “Where’s Rossi?” on this all important issue.

Sources tell me that the official no campaign, Keep Washington Rolling, has secured $2 million in commitments, mostly from the business community, and that an intensive paid media campaign should be forthcoming by the end of the month. Apparently, I-912 opponents have managed to screw their courage, boistered by recent polls that show the initiative much more vulnerable than expected. But hidden in the details of the polling data is a tidbit that nicely sums up what I-912 is really all about. Pollsters tried pushing a number of issues to sway opinion, but only one managed to substantially swing voters from one side to the other.

The conclusion is clear: if Dino Rossi publicly opposes I-912… it loses.

Of course, this makes perfect sense. John and Kirby cleverly launched I-912 at the peak of their election contest trial ratings-bump, tapping into the anger and disappointment of the hardcore Republican base. This initiative has always been more about sending a message than about rational public policy; it’s about sticking it to “Queen Christine” and the Democrats… consequences be damned. While almost-governor Rossi has never publicly endorsed the initiative, he hasn’t disabused the public of that notion either, passively allowing himself to be adopted as I-912’s martyred patron saint.

Indeed, Rossi has a record of refusing to take positions on a lot of things, a strategy that served him well during the gubernatorial campaign, allowing conservatives and moderates alike to see in him what they wanted to see. True to form, he has remained silent on the Legislature’s package of transportation improvements, the gas tax hike that would fund it… and the initiative that would repeal them both. His hope, I suppose, is that Gov. Gregoire’s administration will collapse in gridlock and voter backlash, clearing the way for a Rossi victory in 2008.

But this strategy has its risks, and it is time for his friends in the business community to clearly spell them out. Businesses overwhelming oppose I-912 because they understand how vital these transportation improvements are to the economy of the region and the state. They understand that if I-912 passes, the only alternative that could possibly enable urban voters to meet their own needs would be to devolve transportation spending to the regional level, a shortsighted and small-picture policy that would transform WA into a state of haves and have-nots, and undermine the stability on which future economic growth depends. Businesses oppose I-912 because they understand that it is recipe for gridlock, both political and actual.

Now his patrons in the business community need to make Rossi understand what they understand. And they need to make him understand that unless he supports them on this vital issue, they won’t be his patrons any longer. They need to ask him… “Where’s Rossi?”

Quite simply, if Dino Rossi wants to be governor, he needs to start displaying the kind of political leadership that is a prerequisite of higher office. Rossi needs to publicly state his position on I-912.

Rossi’s record suggests that he likely does oppose I-912. He was a strong supporter of the “nickel” package that the 2003 Legislature passed in the wake of the failed Referendum 51, and he made improving Washington’s business climate a central theme of his gubernatorial campaign. Well, the business community is speaking loud and clear — to the tune of $2 million — that the transportation package is good for business… so if Rossi is as responsible a politician as his patrons believed him to be, now is the time for him to put his mouth where their money is.

The polling data is clear: if Rossi remains silent, and I-912 passes, he will deserve both the credit and the blame. He is the state GOP’s de facto leader… and the symbolic leader of the No New Gas Tax campaign. It is thus his obligation to set the record straight, and the business community should hold him responsible should he fail to do so — for his continued silence can only be taken as evidence that he values his own political ambitions over the welfare of the people he wants to govern.

I-912 is not about gas prices or accountability or transportation priorities — it is about Dino Rossi — and the future of the transportation package it would repeal pivots solely on his candor.

And so it is time that my friends in the MSM start pushing the question: “Where’s Rossi?”

Consider this Day One of my vigil.

The 9/11 Commissioners will release a report tomorrow on emergency preparedness, and it doesn’t look so good for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Commissioner Slade Gorton told the Tacoma News Tribune that FEMA would have been better prepared to handle Hurricane Katrina had it heeded the 9/11 Commission’s advice.

“Clearly, FEMA did little if any planning for a disaster of this nature. And clearly FEMA’s response was insufficient, slow and bureaucratic,” Gorton, a former three-term U.S. Senator from Seattle, said Monday.

The Commission officially disbanded last year, but has continued to operate as the 9/11 Public Discourse Project, and plans to issue several reports over the coming weeks. Amongst the prior recommendations tomorrow’s report will detail have not been met are:

• Establish a unified incident command system.
• Provide space on the radio spectrum for emergency responders.
• Allocate homeland security money based on risk, not politics.

Gorton’s criticism of FEMA was blunt.

Gorton said there are lingering questions “about whether or not FEMA should have been buried in the Homeland Security Department.”

And he said he was relieved that Michael Brown resigned Monday as director of FEMA. Brown’s qualifications, which have been criticized as inadequate, weren’t the problem, as much as his failure to follow emergency response guidelines, said Gorton.

“He didn’t have a whole lot of qualifications in this particular field,” said Gorton, but “someone could have been a professional football player” and done a better job.

I’m not sure what Gorton has against professional football players, but you get the point. FEMA was as much of a disaster as Katrina.

[Cross-posted at Daily Kos]

The Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally meets tonight, as it does every Tuesday… but don’t stop by the Montlake Alehouse, because we won’t be there. Instead, we’ll be grabbing a couple of beers with author Chris Mooney, after his appearance tonight at Town Hall.

Mooney, a staff writer for The American Prospect, will be talking about his new book, “The Republican War on Science,” as part of Foolproof’s American Voices series. Show starts at 7:30 PM, Town Hall, 8th & Seneca. Tickets are $10.00.

Afterwards, Chris will be joining us for drinks, probably at Tango, Pike & Boren, around 9:30 pm. (I’ll post an update if the location changes.) I suggest you come for the lecture, and then look for folks with a Drinking Liberally lapel button or sign.

As my regular readers know, this is subject close to my heart, so I hope to see you there.

Last week I wrote about the apparent quid pro quo between King County executive wannabe David Irons and the jail guards unions. Irons is leading an effort by Republicans on the council to extend “essential employee” status to juvenile detention officers, thus allowing them to secure more favorable contracts by invoking “interest arbitration.” In exchange, Jared Karstetter, who represents both jail guards guilds, has reportedly agreed to fund a countywide initiative in 2006 to make the auditor an elected office.

Of course, the real purpose of this initiative is to try to embarrass KC Executive Ron Sims, by keeping the controversy surrounding Dino Rossi’s discredited election contest in front of the public for as long as possible. That’s why GOP Councilwoman Jane Hague is in such a rush to gather signatures during the final weeks before the November election. Putting aside for a moment the laughable notion that electing an auditor somehow takes the politics out of elections, the timing of this initiative is naked political opportunism… exactly the type of opportunism Karstetter is known for.

Karstetter is also one of Irons’ most loyal financial patrons, contributing more to his campaigns than to any other candidate over the past few years. And today’s PDC filings shows even more largesse, with an additional $675 from the Juvenile Detention Officers Guild. That brings the total Karstetter-controlled contributions to $2700 in this election alone… only Casino Carribbean of Yakima has given more.

Sure… this is the kind of behind the scenes political deal making that goes on all the time… but it belies the Irons-as-reformer bullshit that he’s tried to push as the central theme of his campaign. In fact, Irons is both a beneficiary and a seasoned practitioner of political cronyism, and in the unlikely event he wins office he’ll have plenty of debts to repay to the jail guards, the gambling industry, the BIAW folks and other special interests looking to feed at the public trough.

There’s a reason why Irons’ official website, (un)Sound Politics, spends so much time and effort trashing Ron Sims, but can’t seem to find any positive words for Irons himself. There aren’t any.

I get a lot of requests to trade links, most of which I ignore, but if you really want to catch my attention, here are a few tips. First, write really great stuff. Consistently. Maybe I’m weird, but I like great stuff. Second, nag me incessantly. I simply don’t have time to visit all of my favorite blogs on a daily basis, so don’t assume I’ve seen your latest post. If it’s something you think I’d be interested in, drop me an email and let me know. And third, drop by Drinking Liberally and buy me a beer. I’ll feel a little guilty and indebted, and might think kindly of you the next time I update my blogroll. (But no promises.)

And then there’s brown-nosing. For example, take Darryl at Hominid Views, one of the recent additions to my blogroll. He writes great stuff, emails me frequently to tell me about the great stuff he’s written, and regularly shows up at Drinking Liberally to buy me a beer. What a guy. And then he goes out and earns extra brownie points today with an excellent bit of brown-nosing: “Goldy topples Brown!”

Keep up the great work Darryl. (And keep pouring those beers.)

Now that Mike Brown has resigned from FEMA, it is time to build public pressure on the Bush administration to appoint the one man with the knowledge and experience to fix the mess Brown left behind… former Clinton administration FEMA chief, James Lee Witt.

This is the only way to instantly restore faith in FEMA, both in the eyes of the American public and in those of FEMA’s own demoralized staff. Witt is the only man for the job, and if Bush cares more about public safety than about petty partisan politics, this would prove it.

Of course, we all sense that President Bush simply doesn’t believe in FEMA’s primary mission, and thus such an appointment — politically savvy as it might be — would be highly unlikely. Which is all the more reason to keep up the pressure, because it both helps expose the real world consequences of the Republican’s failed ideology, and shows that in additon to blistering criticism, we have concrete, positive proposals to address this crisis.

So that’s why I just sent the following email to the White House:

Dear President Bush,

As has been evidenced in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, experienced leadership is crucial to mounting an effective and timely federal response to man-made and natural disasters. That is why I urge you to immediately appoint James Lee Witt as the new director of FEMA.

Only Mr. Witt possesses the credibility, leadership and knowledge to rebuild FEMA… as he has once before. By appointing our nation’s most experienced and respected emergency manager to manage the federal response to national and regional emergencies, you can instantly restore faith in FEMA, both in the eyes of the American people, and in those of the agency’s own demoralized staff. And by reappointing a man who ably served under your predecessor, you will display exactly the kind of nonpartisan decision-making the public demands during times of crisis.

The nation needs Mr. Witt, and I urge a quick and decisive appointment.

Sincerely,

David Goldstein

Let’s keep the pressure up.

[Cross-posted at Daily Kos]