NP: John Cage, 4'33"

So, you know it's bad for the politician in question when some sort of political scandal bumps "what to wear if you want to have sex on a first date" or some such vapid, newsless story off the cover of RedEye, which is still, ostensibly, a newspaper.

And so it goes with President Bush and Hurricane Katrina, which continues to threaten the kind of destruction on this administration that it did on the Gulf Coast. With regard to newly released videotape in which the president assures the folks at the state level that the federal government was "fully prepared," presidential spokesman Trent Duffy said "I hope people don't draw conclusions from the president getting a single briefing." I can imagine the part of the quote that didn't make it into the paper, "because the conclusion they would draw would be of a clueless, uncaring Commander-In-Chief, and while not wrong, that's just not a conclusion we'd like the American people drawing right now."

Duffy continued -- for real, this time -- by saying "He received multiple briefings from multiple officials, and he was completely engaged at all times." This -- in the RedEye article that I won't link to, because it'll disappear from the website soon enough anyway -- is followed by Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke saying his department would not release the rest of these videotapes in which the Presidient could allegedly easily dispel this allegedly misguided conclusion that he didn't think Katrina would pose a problem.

Which is to say, it's the same old same old for this administration. Whenever something bad happens, proclaim that it's just a small, distorted part of the picture, and the rest of the picture clearly exonerates all involved, and no, you can't see that part, so you'll just have to trust us.

This reminds me of the old online community hack when you're in a flame war, and you're losing, and you claim that all manner of people who don't actually post to the community have e-mailed their unqualified support. Of course, it would be bad form to post those e-mails, so you'll just have to believe, though my sheer force of will, that I'm actually winning this argument that I'm clearly losing.

The sad thing is that I'm sure people are still falling for this routine, but the alternative is to realize just how big of a jackass you voted into office. And that'll come home to roost strongly enough when Roe v. Wade gets overturned.