More Whupass for Brownie Brown

From the Washington Post:

Brown displayed the command of facts that made him famous over the past month. He did not know how much FEMA had spent on communications, guessing, "a boatload of money." He had to ask members of his entourage how many MREs were in a trailer load. "I don't have a clue how many [people] were truly in the Superdome," he volunteered at one point. Asked whether he is still a federal employee, Brown said: "You know, I don't know." (He is.)

...


"I do not want to make this partisan," he said, proceeding to do just that, "so I can't help it that Alabama and Mississippi are governed by Republican governors and Louisiana is governed by a Democratic governor."

Pointing his finger, pounding the table, Brown veered from his prepared testimony to insist: "I get it" and "I know what it's all about," and "I know what I am doing" and "I do a pretty darn good job." This display produced gasps and chuckles in the gallery.

Brown did nothing to win over his questioners. Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-La.) had to repeat a question because Brown was reading his BlackBerry. Shays had to repeat one because Brown was engrossed in his notes. When Shays pressed him about his performance, a petulant Brown complained: "So I guess you want me to be this superhero."

...

Yesterday, he might have been better off to keep some things private -- as when Jefferson complained about the lack of ice in New Orleans and Brown replied: "I think it's wrong for the federal government to be in the ice business, providing ice so I can keep my beer and Diet Coke cool."

Taylor, incredulous, asked, "How about the need to keep bodies from rotting in the sun?"

Jefferson added: "One of the major reasons that old people just suffered and died is because there was no ice."

Brown, losing control, demanded four times that Taylor not "lecture" him.

But the lecturing continued -- in a way even Pelosi would have approved. "I have come to the conclusion that this administration values loyalty more than anything else," Shays said, "more than competence or, frankly, more than the truth. And you have reinforced that view. . . . I'm left with the feeling [that] the administration feels they have to protect you."

"Well," Brown answered, "you should come over here and sit in this chair and see how protected you feel."

What a disgusting, useless...creature. God, reading that bile is infuritating. Not lecture him? That's the POINT of this--you fucked up and now you're trying to wiggle out of deserved blame. JESUS. Infuriating. It honestly makes you lose faith in the government. How could this man have been appointed to this position?

Aaaaauuugh!!!

(no subject)

I really just wanna be in my living room right now, watching DVDs, with tabbies draped all over me.

It's strangely mesmerizing...

Interesting George Bush site.

(You can control him by clicking and dragging)

Banned Books meme

Below is a list of the 100 most frequently challenged books for the decade between 1990 and 2000. Copy the list, bold the ones you've read, and make a promise to read another one real soon.

100 Most Frequently Challenged Books (1990–2000)

1. Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz
2. Daddy’s Roommate by Michael Willhoite
3. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
4. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
6. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
7. Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling
8. Forever by Judy Blume
9. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
10. Alice (Series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
11. Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
12. My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
13. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
14. The Giver by Lois Lowry
15. It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris
16. Goosebumps (Series) by R.L. Stine
17. A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck
18. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
19. Sex by Madonna
20. Earth’s Children (Series) by Jean M. Auel
21. The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
22. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
23. Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
24. Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
25. In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
26. The Stupids (Series) by Harry Allard
27. The Witches by Roald Dahl
28. The New Joy of Gay SexCharles Silverstein
29. Anastasia Krupnik (Series) by Lois Lowry
30. The Goats by Brock Cole
31. Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane
32. Blubber by Judy Blume
33. Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan
34. Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
35. We All Fall Down by Robert Cormier
36. Final Exit by Derek Humphry
37. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
38. Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
39. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
40. What’s Happening to my Body? Book for Girls: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Daughters by Lynda Madaras
41. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
42. Beloved by Toni Morrison
43. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
44. The Pigman by Paul Zindel
45. Bumps in the Night by Harry Allard
46. Deenie by Judy Blume
47. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
48. Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden
49. The Boy Who Lost His Face by Louis Sachar
50. Cross Your Fingers, Spit in Your Hat by Alvin Schwartz
51. A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
52. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
53. Sleeping Beauty Trilogy by A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice)
54. Asking About Sex and Growing Up by Joanna Cole
55. Cujo by Stephen King
56. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
57. The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell
58. Boys and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
59. Ordinary People by Judith Guest
60. American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
61. What’s Happening to my Body? Book for Boys: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Sons by Lynda Madaras
62. Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
63. Crazy Lady by Jane Conly
64. Athletic Shorts by Chris Crutcher
65. Fade by Robert Cormier
66. Guess What? by Mem Fox
67. The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
68. The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney
69. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
70. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
71. Native Son by Richard Wright
72. Women on Top: How Real Life Has Changed Women’s Fantasies by Nancy Friday
73. Curses, Hexes and Spells by Daniel Cohen
74. Jack by A.M. Homes
75. Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo A. Anaya
76. Where Did I Come From? by Peter Mayle
77. Carrie by Stephen King
78. Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume
79. On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
80. Arizona Kid by Ron Koertge
81. Family Secrets by Norma Klein
82. Mommy Laid An Egg by Babette Cole
83. The Dead Zone by Stephen King
84. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
85. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
86. Always Running by Luis Rodriguez
87. Private Parts by Howard Stern
88. Where’s Waldo? by Martin Hanford
89. Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
90. Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman
91. Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
92. Running Loose by Chris Crutcher
93. Sex Education by Jenny Davis
94. The Drowning of Stephen Jones by Bette Greene
95. Girls and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
96. How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
97. View from the Cherry Tree by Willo Davis Roberts
98. The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
99. The Terrorist by Caroline Cooney
100. Jump Ship to Freedom by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier

A few thoughts on these--

Why Bridge to Terabithia, Blubber and How to Eat Fried Worms? Or Tiger Eyes? BtT is a lovely story and Blubber teaches a really good lesson. HTEFW? Weird. That book is a lark, nothing more. TE has implied violence, and it talks about her friend drinking a lot but again, there's a lesson there, it's not as though Blume is saying "It's okay, teenagers, go out and drink!" I'm trying to think of this from every angle--it's not just religious conservatives who ban books, Huckleberry Finn is challenged because it uses the N-word.

No doubt Madonna is thrilled with her book being banned, because she's so much more SHOCKING and LIBERATED than the rest of us. Ugh.

To Kill a Mockingbird???? What is wrong with people? That book is an American classic! I read it in the 6th grade!

Wanna get incredibly depressed? Read The Bluest Eye. Man, that is seriously the saddest damn story ever.

Cujo would never be in a school library--it's not exactly great literature--so why would it be banned from a public library? Yeah, it's got infidelity but a lot of stories have that.

Update on New Orleans picture...

(Link in case you can't see it.)

Key: All the names after "Come back..." (on the right--Rex, Iris, etc.) are krewe names. Krewes are the organizations that put on Mardi Gras for the rest of us. They have parades, usually 1 per krewe, and balls. The parades are public; the balls are usually private. Krewes also elect (usually within their krewe although sometimes they'll choose a celebrity) a royal court, including a King and Queen. Sometimes the Queen is a debutante; sometimes she's a local businesswoman. Rex is the most prestigious of those krewes and its membership used to be restricted only to the highest socially-placed WASPs in the city, but they decided to admit non-WASPs after the NO Council passed a bill saying if they were restricted on the basis of color/religion, they couldn't ask for public funds to clean up after their parades. Comus was the other big krewe (Rex and Comus are the oldest) but Comus wouldn't desegregate so they don't roll anymore (but they still have balls). Anyway, so Zulu is the premier black krewe and everyone loves their parades--their big "throw" (favor thrown from the floats--these are published in the Times-Picayune) is a gold-painted coconut. EVERYONE wants one. Iris is the oldest women's krewe. (Proteus is also really old. (Old is good,with krewes.) Hermes, Babylon--all those mythological/Biblical names are krewe names.

"Throw me something, mister" is what everyone says when the parades roll. Everyone wants beads, cups, coconuts, necklaces. It doesn't matter of you've got an attic full of them at home; you want more.

"You know what it means to miss New Orleans..." Yes, I do. I'll be back.