Despite not being a real diary, I would like to offer some "appeasement" to the DKos community on a Friday afternoon. While I do not condone attempted negotiation with rouges and imbeciles such as BillO, it does make for funny video:

Again, my apologies for the incomplete diary, but i hope the smile on your face and the coffee you just involuntarily spit from your nose will more then make up for it.

You question their patriotism, and yet it is you that tonight came to represent everything wrong with American politics and American media. It is you that are hurting this country. It is you that are blinding this country to the issues of substance in favor of sensationalism and hyperbole. It is you that are unpatriotic.

You question their elitism, and yet it is you that obsess over the capital gains tax and the fine line between making $200,000 and $250,000 a year. It is you that largely ignore gas prices, healthcare costs, education, poverty and this war's toll on our lower and middle class families. It is you that suffer from elitism.

You question their past acquaintances, and yet it is you that was given the job that made your career by the spouse of a candidates on that stage tonight. It is you that took your question cues from hate-monger sean hannity. It is you that from now on, must be vetted.

You should seek to report the news, but tonight you became the news.
Shame on you.

Ahh, three old white men sitting around spewing BS about immigrants and black folk, gotta love our liberal media...

Just now on Hardball during the first segment, Pat Buchanan, MSNBC's "Political Analyst" came out with this gem:

"You got 36 million immigrants in the country, you got 12 to 20 million illegals in the country. They are directly competitive with African American folks and Mexican Americans, half of whom don't even graduate from high school, and of the half that does graduate, they don't go to college."

(sorry no link yet cause it just happened)

So there seems to be a heaping helping of doom and gloom in DKosville today. A plethora of diaries with scathing anger, frustrated hopelessness and more then a little conservative bashing. The recommended diaries, which are a reflection of the overall mood I'm sure, are some of the most biting, severe diaries I have read in a while, including Here, Here, and Here. Yes, we currently live a country which is being slowly torn apart by fear mongering, war mongering and inept governance, and yes, Dr. Phil just hosted the 4th special on CBS which is reason enough move abroad, but we also live in the greatest country in the world and it's the Fourth of July, so let's try some perspective here.

There is a seed change happening here, and its slow, painfully slow for those of us who gather here every day, but it is happening. Follow me below the fold and I'll explain.  

On February 1st, the U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote (again) on the Deficit Reduction Conference Report (S. 1932).  This bill complete with its nearly $40 billion in cuts for Medicaid, Student Loans, and Child Support AND its reauthorization of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program with dramatic new work mandates AND woefully inadequate child care resources will be very painful for the neediest of families.

The only way to turn the corner on this bill is to have advocates and concerned constituents raising their voices in unity. To that end, the PA Welfare Coalition is circulating the below letter seeking your IMMEDIATE consideration and agreement to sign.  While this letter is the PA Welfare Coalition's effort to influence the PA Congressmen, I think that there are similar efforts in other states. Please consider sending to your congressperson and making your voice heard about the encroaching neo-con agenda of which this is part.

Karl Rove walks into a talent agent's office and says, "Man, do I have an act for you". The talent agents responds, "Oh yeah, describe it to me".

Karl downs a glass of fresh puppy blood and explains:
It's a real family act, a real American dream kinda story. It requires a bunch of people and props but its well worth it. I tell you, if you book us, we can easily change the world through our act.

So first this guy comes out on stage, he's a tanned squat Texan with a massive silver spoon hangin from his jaw, let's call him W. So W whips a mirror out, puts it on the table and starts cuttin lines of coke with a platinum credit card. The curtain opens wider and the setting is revealed as the oval office. So he's now alternating between doin lines and downing shots of The Captain, oh and snickering to himself the whole time. Eventually he passes out...

(warning: it gets obscene below the fold)

Dateline: 6pm in the McClellan Household any given night in the last year:

Q (wife): Scott honey, what do you want for dinner?

MR. McCLELLAN: You know sweetums, now is not the time to play the dinner game, there will be plenty of time to figure out which meals have been right and which meals have been wrong and what we should do about it, but that time is not now. But let it be known that I pre-positioned potatoes in the oven and tea into glasses. Also worth noting, those glasses are half full and to suggest the contrary, frankly, would be un-American. Like the president says, now we need to be protecting the American people, and if you think we can do that by sitting here and going back and forth on the chicken-beef question, I need to proceed to other questions.

Go ahead.

Q (daughter): What do you think of that show, "So you think you can Dance"?

MR. McCLELLAN: First of all, I didn't even know that show existed until today and...

With tomorrow come some inevitabilities. More NOLA residents will die waiting to be rescued. Brown and Chertoff will change the subject, maybe to the vagaries of the infield fly rule. And Bush will ride into the area on a white stallion to carry the po black folk to safety while spouting Rovian talking points.

After his last visit there were many reports of staged photo ops and grounded rescue helicopters. Some were typical political moves like screening the victims and not going anywhere a body might happen to float by. But others were malicious and costly, like taking down distribution points after Bush left or making a show of the levee almost fixed when in fact it was not.

So the real question is; How can we catch him red handed as the self-promoting, disconnected, lofty fuck that he is? Because as we all know, the MSM aren't going to take their new-found balls out on this one.

The entire show transcript can be found here:http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0509/02/acd.01.html

The interview in which Lott speaks down to AC and AC rips him a new one is below the fold. Lott has the arrogance to assert that only the media is unhappy with the Govt response, proving that he is just as disconnected as our President.

Also, at 6pm Bush declared that the NO Convention Center was secure. At 8pm, Barbara Starr reported on CNN from the Convention Center saying that "There is just no concept that this place is secure tonight, in fact it is really just the opposite at this hour."
Great! Mission Accomplished!

While now is not time to start blaming and finger pointing, one thing has bothered me:

Mike Brown (FEMA Director) has been on every show for the last 4 days talking about how prepared they are and how great he is. Juxtapose this with every interview with every person in the effected area who say that there is no help, no police, no national guard, no water, food, communication. In a supposed "post 9/11 world", in a tragedy that many experts have envisioned for years, how was FEMA not better prepared?

Out of all the interviews, Anderson Cooper seems to be the only one to ask Mr. Brown real questions http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0508/31/acd.01.html
In part (more below the fold): Anderson Cooper (CNN): I mean, this has been more than 48 hours. Where are the troops? Where is the National Guard? Where is the Army? As you know, people are desperate. How do you answer that question? Where are they?