As if the government (both federal & state) shouldn’t be ashamed enough by their response to Hurricane Katrina, now there’s this:
 

Mississippi plans Katrina grant diversion
State wants $600 million from housing program for huge port expansion

While thousands of Mississippians who lost their homes to Hurricane Katrina remain in FEMA trailers, the state intends to spend $600 million in federal grants originally earmarked for housing on a major expansion of the state-owned port — a project that could eventually include casino and resort facilities.

Despite strong objections from housing activists and the threat of hearings from two powerful congressional Democrats, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is expected to approve the diversion of the funds on Friday. A HUD spokesman says the agency has little discretion at this point to block the switch.

Opponents of the move see it as a prime example of Mississippi’s Republican lobbyist-turned-governor, Haley Barbour, favoring rich and powerful interests over the region’s less fortunate.

…

The money in question is part of $5.5 billion in HUD Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) that Congress authorized for Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina struck on Aug. 29, 2005. Administered by the Mississippi Development Authority, about $3.4 billion was allocated to replace and repair some of the nearly 170,000 owner-occupied homes destroyed or damaged by the storm. Another $600 million was set aside for programs to replace public housing, help small landlords fix their units and foster construction of new low- and moderate-income housing.

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HUD has "little discretion" to block the switch? Try telling that to the people still living in the potentially toxic FEMA trailers. Can’t the President give HUD that authority?  I understand the need and desire to create new jobs in the area, but shouldn’t our first priority be to help get these people out of the FEMA trailers and into real housing?  Wouldn’t using the $600 million towards its original purpose of replacing public housing and fostering construction of new low- and moderate-income housing also help create jobs and stimulate the local economy?

Or is it that because the people that this money was earmarked for, the poor and lower middle class, don’t have lobbyists of their own that the money is being diverted?  I mean who cares if they’re still living in FEMA trailers as long as the rich have their resorts and casinos, right?

This just reeks of powerful lobbying and wealthy special interests which, unfortunately, is just way too common in America these days.

Here’s another one of those "compassionate" Christians we all know and love. Listen to Fox News host John Gibson mock the death of Heath Ledger and call him a "weirdo" on his radio show Tuesday (the day of Ledger’s death):

Now I’m not saying that Mr. Gibson isn’t entitled to his opinion. He is. I’m just pointing out how utterly classless his comments were, but what can we expect from a man who once said he’d rather watch a torture scene in the movie Syriana than the "gay agenda" movie Brokeback Mountain.

ThinkProgress has more here.

And if you haven’t heard, our good friend Rev. Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church plan to protest Ledger’s funeral.  I wonder how their "Heath Ledger is burning in hell" signs will go over with all of Ledger’s fans, don’t you?
 
Update: Buckaroo’s computer won’t show the audio controls above, yet if he goes to the Think Progress web site, he sees them there.  He’s using Internet Explorer on Windows XP, so I think it’s a Internet Explorer thing as I can see the audio controls just fine in both Safari and Firefox on my Mac.

File this under "No sh*t Sherlock":
 

Study: False statements preceded war
By DOUGLASS K. DANIEL, Associated Press Writer
January 22nd, 2008

WASHINGTON - A study by two nonprofit journalism organizations found that President Bush and top administration officials issued hundreds of false statements about the national security threat from Iraq in the two years following the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The study concluded that the statements "were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses."

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I think what the Europeans are really saying is "You Americans screwed up in 2000.  We thought you were smart enough to recognize your mistake, but then you really screwed up again in 2004.  Don’t do it again this year!!!"
 

Mental note to self: Must start hanging out at Circle K’s around 3:00am.
 

When I first heard about the story about two naked men in a convenience store, I thought it was going to be some 60 year-old homeless meth addicts, but dang!  These guys are buff.

For once the local news media did their job and cleaned up the pictures from the video for us to gawk at (although still censored).

I just want to know why whenever I do this, the clerk ends up calling the cops.

Just when you think the local news stations can’t stoop any lower…

Some tragic events unfolded today in the Phoenix area.  A suspected bank robber fleeing from police on a high-speed chase Wednesday afternoon committed suicide when he realized he couldn’t shake the police off his tail.  He slammed head-on into another car, killing both himself and the other driver.  As is the norm these days, the local news helicopters followed the car chase and aired it live on TV.

When the accident occurred, there was no way for the television stations to edit out the gruesomeness of the car crash itself because they were broadcasting live.  However by the time of the evening news, the television news crews had to make the decision on whether or not to air the footage.  The question was whether it was appropriate to show the fatal accident on the air. 

Call me old-fashioned, but I can remember when there was never even a question about it; the footage was not aired.  It was a simple matter of decency and respect to the innocent victim’s family to not subject them to the disturbing clip of their loved one being killed.  I’m not 100% sure, but I think that all the stations showed parts of the chase but cut out the crash itself.  That is perfectly acceptable.  They covered the story without having to show the collision.

The channel Buckaroo was watching tonight however took the time to pat themselves on the back on their decision not to air the actual moments of the fatal crash.  Fine.  A bit tacky, but I can live with that.  It was when they announced that people could go to their website to see the full footage that I became completed disgusted.  They were using this tragedy as an opportunity to promote their website?  That’s beyond tacky.

That’s despicable.
 
 
P.S.  I should note that the news stations are now swarming with stories criticizing the cops involved for how they handled the chase.  The cops are now the ones that are guilty while the suicidal bank robber is let off the hook?  That doesn’t seem right, but it’s typical for the news media.