As if programming The Weather Machine to send Katrina to New Orleans and blowing up the levees to ensure flooding weren’t enough, the Bushies are now pouring salt on the wounds:

NEW ORLEANS - Deep underground, an unseen crisis is threatening New Orleans’ already troubled recovery.

The city’s 3,200-mile system of water and sewer lines — old, leaky and in need of improvements long before Hurricane Katrina — was damaged by the torrent of pipe-corroding salt water.

Note that the Bushies are so diabolical and omnipotent that they planned this particular disaster many years before even being “officially” in power (as if they were ever “out” of power).

The larger fear is that if some water pumps fail — whether because of a power outage, some other kind of mechanical trouble, or another Katrina-like storm — a drastic drop in pressure could allow raw sewage or other pollutants to back up into the water system through the leaks. And that could contaminate the drinking water in some neighborhoods for days or even weeks.

So, the poor victims of that town must now wait in terror while King George decides whether to do them in with orchestrated mechancial trouble, a “mysterious” power outage, or another product of The Weather Machine.

Though they speak in code, local officials know the end at the hand of the Bushies is near:

“We don’t have the confidence now to say the system won’t fail,” S&WB spokesman Robert Jackson said. “We’re basically holding it together by tap, by glue, by spit, whatever we can get a hold of.”

Even now, the CIA is busy eliminating the glue supply in New Orleans.

August 6, 1945.

The Atom Unleashed

Sixty-two years ago today, the world’s first atomic strike was made by the United States against Hiroshima, Japan. Tens of thousands of Japanese were killed outright, and tens of thousands more injured under the boiling mushroom cloud. Three days later, on August 9th, the second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan with similar results.

While some have argued the necessity or effectiveness of the atomic bombings, it is simply fact that the Japanese offered their surrender on August 14th, only five days after the Nagasaki attack. An American invasion of Japan was thus averted, sparing millions of Japanese and American lives.

The September 2nd ceremony marked the end of World War II, a truly global conflict spanning six years and costing tens of millions of lives.

You can find more bomb background here.

Do you feel safer today?

President Bush signed into law on Sunday legislation that broadly expanded the government’s authority to eavesdrop on the international telephone calls and e-mail messages of American citizens without warrants.

I don’t. I liked the system that has been in place for a couple of hundred years that limits the power of one branch of government to act unilaterally.

By changing the legal definition of what is considered “electronic surveillance,” the new law allows the government to eavesdrop on those conversations without warrants — latching on to those giant switches — as long as the target of the government’s surveillance is “reasonably believed” to be overseas.

That isn’t very comforting. It’s even less comforting to know that this legislation was rushed through so that our legislators could get out of Washington in a hurry.

The legislation to change the surveillance act was rushed through both the House and Senate in the last days before the August recess began.

If there is one thing the American people should fear more than terrorism, it is legislation passed in the heat of the moment giving the government more power to invade our privacy and limit our freedoms.

Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. Ben Franklin

UPDATED WITH GRATUITOUS EDITORIAL SNARK FROM BENZION

If Ben Franklin were alive today, he might say:

Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserBOOOOOOMMMM!!!

[Shouts of 'Allahu Akbar!' in background as jihadis dance around in Benjamin Franklin's blood, holding his severed head aloft for the cameras.]

UPDATED WITH SATIRICAL EDITORIAL SNARK FROM HAMOUS

Wrong. If Ben Franklin were alive today he’d be clawing on the coffin door screaming, “Get me out of this damn thing!”

HAMPTONBURGH, N.Y. — An artist has mowed an 850,000-square-foot rendering of a Purple Heart medal into a park field to honor the 75th anniversary of the medal that commends servicemembers killed or wounded in action.

The rendering, which was unveiled Sunday in Thomas Bull Memorial Park in this city 55 miles northwest of New York City, was done by field artist and painter Roger Baker, whose past works include the Statue of Liberty and Elvis Presley.

What better way to teach handwriting and get your religious views in at the same time?

ANGRY parents have blasted a teacher for telling ten-year-olds to copy a Muslim prayer saying “There is no God but Allah”.

Helen Green is said to have picked the Muslim call to prayer as HAND-WRITING practice.

It includes the lines “Allah is the greatest” and “I bear witness that there is no God but Allah”.

(h/t jCircadian)

And another debate win for Mike Huckabee. This is becoming as predictable as the sun rising. Put all the candidates on the stage. Ask them questions. Surrender to Mike Huckabee.

An adviser to a top-tier candidate said the finding was not surprising, and acknowledged that if a forensics coach were awarding letter grades for technical performance, “Huckabee won every debate.”

It isn’t just the pundits and advisers that have come to this conclusion. In this debate, 29 voters were gathered in a room, given high tech voting devices and tracked as they watched the debate. They were asked which candidate they wanted to win, both before and after the debate.

Before:

• Mitt Romney - 9
• Rudi Giuliani - 8
• Fred Thompson - 5
• John McCain - 2
• Five others with 1 vote

After:

• Mike Huckabee - 14
• Mitt Romney - 10
• Ruid Giuliani - 3
• Fred Thompson - 1
• Duncan Hunter - 1

Why does Huckabee do so well in these debates?

“He speaks to you — he doesn’t try and make everything seem like the correct answer,” Jesse Fetters, 26, a FedEx handler from Des Moines, told The Politico afterward. “He just tells you his answer.”

Rick Holland, 42, a self-employed plumber from Des Moines, was similarly impressed. “He just came across as an American — as just a hometown guy. That was a big deal to us.”

As I’ve noted before, he just answers the questions. He doesn’t talk in platitudes, he doesn’t hem and haw around the question, he doesn’t start talking about some bullet point on another issue that he thinks he can score points on. He simply answers the question.

A question such as why we should reduce our dependence upon foreign oil:

“Look, we’ve made them rich,” Huckabee said. “Every time somebody in this room goes to the gas pump, you’ve helped make the Saudi royal family a little wealthier. And the money that has been used against us in terrorism has largely come from the Middle East.” Huckabee got on such a roll that Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas called out to the moderator, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos: “George? George?”

Or, what would you restore to the Oval Office?

“I would put the very same frame on my wall in the White House I did as governor for 10 and a half years,” Huckabee replied. “It’s a frame that has a photo, and underneath the photo it says, ‘Our boss.’ My picture was never in that frame in 10 and a half years. Every week or so, we’d put the picture of some ordinary Arkansas citizen. And I told our staff, let’s never forget who the real boss is. I’d never forget who the boss really, really is.”

Imagine that, a president that would remember the voters are the boss.

TGIM!

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