I generally work best when poking at authority and complaining about our government, and as every other site on the net gives links to charities, I’ll forego that in favor of more tidbits from Daily Kos:
Update: CNN collects Brown and Chertoff lies about the situation in the gulf coast and compares them to the reality on the ground.
Update: You can’t make this shit up — Norquist frets in this memo (PDF) that Katrina may derail permanent repeal of the estate tax, and that passage of the repeal is what “residents of the Gulf Region need at this time to start the rebuilding process for their neighborhoods and more importantly for their lives.”
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Just in case you missed the amazing performance of the Republican leadership yesterday…President George W. Bush said, “I don’t think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees.” Well, no one except the entire world and even Mr. Bill.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice went shoe shopping on Fifth Avenue, but not before she played tennis and yukked it up at Spamalot.
The Viceroy in charge of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff said “We’re much better prepared than we’ve ever been.” I’m not sure if that was before or after he reminded us that September is National Preparedness Month, so be sure to stock up on duct tape.
The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Michael D. Brown leapt into action, mustering all the emergency disaster management skills he learned as a lawyer for the International Arabian Horse Association Legal Department (from which he was fired). His money quote: “Paula, the federal government did not even know about the Convention Center people until today.”
The Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert said, eh, maybe we should just forget all about rebuilding New Orleans. Because it might cost money and stuff.
The Pentagon, headed by Donald Rumsfeld, reassured America that, yes, the Country music hoedown with Clint Black on September 11th is still on, pard’ner! And maybe we’ll even break the record for the longest line dance.
The head of the Republican National Committee, Ken Mehlman, sent out an email stressing that now—for God’s sake, people—NOW is the time when we must repeal that which is causing our country to go down the tubes: the estate tax.
And Vice President Dick Cheney was still on vacation.
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Senate Finance Committee members were informed this morning that Sen. Bill Frist will move forward with a vote to permanently repeal the estate tax next week, likely on Tuesday, ThinkProgress has learned.
One stands in awe of Sen. Frist’s timing. Permanently repealing the estate tax would be a major blow to the nation’s charities. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has “found that the estate tax encourages wealthy individuals to donate considerably more to charity , since estate tax liability is reduced through donations made both during life and at death.” If there were no estate tax in 2000, for example, “charitable donations would have been between $13 billion to $25 billion lower than they actually were.”
