Wednesday, September 28, 2005

King Delay

So Majority Leader, Rep. Tom Delay was indicted today on one count of criminal conspiracy.
Our dear King hasn't had the best relationship with Delay, with Delay's spokesperson saying "Pete King has a reputation as making things up, and this is no different." regarding King saying that "threats were made against me by the Republican leadership," when King made the politically expediant choice of voting No" to Clintons impeachment.
King has voted with Delay 92% of the time otherwise.
King came to Delay's defense last year when the republicans sought to repeal a rule they themselves passed that would require anyone in the leadership to resign their leadership position if they are indicted.
King said on voting for the change in the rules "You shouldn't allow a runaway prosecutor to decide who will be the majority leader,''
The republicans have been lashing out at Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle trying to smear him because he is a Democrat.
The problem is that King like the other republicans in congress have no idea what he is talking about.
Over his entire career, Earle has prosectuted more Democrats than Republicans. High-ranking Democrats at that.
From the Austin-American Statesman:
Past prosecutions by Ronnie Earle
Former state Rep. Betty Denton, D-Waco, 1995
Former state Rep. Lane Denton, D-Waco, 1995
House Speaker Gib Lewis, D-Fort Worth, 1992
Attorney General Jim Mattox, Democrat, 1985
State Treasurer Warren Harding, Democrat, 1982
Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Yarbrough, Democrat, 1978

King calls a Earle who has gone after politicans from all parties a "runaway prosecutor?"

As King was fond of saying "It's unfortunate when people shoot their mouths off and they don't know what they're talking about."

Monday, September 19, 2005

New Look

What do you think?
The ugly orange is gone and the font size is not in-your-face.

King Takes Charge

Boy, King sure hit the ground running. King tells the NYPost "It's a great opportunity and a great challenge."
King continues "By being chairman, I have the opportunity to do what millions of Americans want to do, and that is fight terrorism and rebuild the Gulf Coast."
King will rebuild the Gulf Coast and fight terrorism?
Is he Superman? Nah, it's all just hyperbole.
King is doing a victory lap and was gushing like a school girl after her first kiss. He tells the NYDaily News "I feel good. It's a great country."
"If someone told me on Sept. 12, 2001, that I'd be chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security four years later, I'd consider it a gift,"
Who is he, Sally Field at the Oscars? "You like me, you really like me."

In his first official act as Chairman, King took flight down to New Orleans. He wante dto see first hand what inept oversight sows.
We once again remind our dear readers that King was Chairman of the Emergency Preparadness Sub-Committee.
King tells the NYPost "I want to see how the relief efforts are going, and I want to see what went wrong"
What went wrong???
There was no EMERGENCY PREPERADNESS.
According to the Post, "King has vowed to overhaul the beleaguered Federal Emergency Management Agency's operations."
What was King doing with his sub-committee?
In Newsday, King says "We're a lot more ready than we were before Sept. 11. ... But we're not ready enough... Seventy-two hours is way too long. What we have to do is really re-evaluate the whole concept of a national response."
What sub-committee is tasked with oversight of Emergency Prepaeradness?
Why, it was King's sub-commitee. Where was he on all the plans for national emergencies?
If he couldn't handle the sub-commitee, how can he head an entire committee.

Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert tells Newsday "Thoughtful, detailed leadership is critical right now."
Where was the "detailed leadership" on the sub-committee?
And "thoughtful?" King is the least thoughtful congressman up for the job. This is a guy who didn't know France had an aircraft carrier or that it was assisting the US in the war in Afghanistan.
King also excuses treason and would have the media shot for exposing the treason.

New York State Sen. Mike Balboni tells Newsday "I think this is going to be very good for New York and very good for Peter personally because he's invested some time and passion on this subject." Yup, he invested 30 odd-years supporting the terrrorism of the IRA. He certainly was passionate in his support of killers.

More on King's victory lap, his appearance on WNBC's News Forum with Gabe Pressman and why King is opposed to an independent investigation into Katrina relief effort failures like he was opposed to the 9/11 commission tomorrow....

Friday, September 16, 2005

King of the Commitee

A quick reaction.. more later...

Is Peter King’s ascension to Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee a good thing?
Newsday thinks yes but the facts say"Not Really."
Since 9/11/2001 Peter King has made himself out to be tough on terrorism, Bush’s biggest New York area defender, and the one person who can bring money to the area. The only place King has succeeded is as Bush’s defender and lap dog. But unlike real lap dogs, Bush hasn’t given King any treats.
After four years and endless schmoozing with Bush, New York is still getting less than Wyoming in Homeland Security dollars. King delivered the New York firefighters union endorsement for Bush on the eve of the GOP convention last year but six firehouses in the city are still closed. If King can’t convince his fellow republicans to change funding to protect a city
that suffered the worst attack on US soil after four years, what is he going to do now?
King also does not have the temperment to serve as head of such an important commitee. From comparing John Kerry and the New York Times to terrorists to attacking constituents who do not agree with him, King has become increasingly unstable.
When it comes to terrorism, after 9/11 King tried to extricate himself from his decades long ties to the terrorist IRA. After years of fundraising and being the IRA’s main apologist in the United States, King stopped going to Ireland and recently called for the IRA to disband.
This is about 20 years too late.
When King defended DHS head Chertoff by saying he would not “second guess him” you can see where King’s true allegiance lies.
As chairman of the Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, it was King’s job t0 second-guess. He didn’t do that. FEMA is under the control of the Department of Homeland Security but was left to rot as terrorism became their only concern.
King’s subcommittee and the full committee should have be more vigilant but they were not. If it had been a terrorist attack instead of a hurricane in the Gulf two weeks ago, the failure of the subcommittee would have been just as great.

Also, it looks like King is going to try to take credit for former committee chairman Rep. Chris Cox's work and legislation.

Thursday, September 08, 2005

What the FEMA is up with Peter King?

We've been going over King wanting to be the Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee during the past few weeks hee at King Watch Central and with ech passing day, more question arise about his qualification. Right now, he is Chairman of the Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Science, and Technology. Notice the words "Emergency Preparedness." What just recently occured that showed us we are NOT prepared? A devasting hurricane.
Before we go any further though, we have to throw some history in here...
Back in the day - before Bush - FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency was made a Cabinet level position by President Clinton. Clinton appointed James Lee Witt, a man with a decade of Emergency Management experience, as head of FEMA.
After 9/11, the Department of Homeland Security was created and Bush drop-kicked FEMA out of the Cabinet and into DHS. Bush then took a man with no emergency management experience and put him on charge of FEMA. Director Micheal Brown is a political hack with a patronage job
Back to today... DHS and FEMA are answerable to congress. The Homeland Security Committee has oversight of the department. FEMA is now deep in the bowels of a department created to protect us from terrorism.
Do you see the emerging problem?
FEMA which deals with all sorts of crisis from natural to man-made disasters is placed under the control of a department charged dealing with only man-made disasters.
So where are we going with this and what does King have it do with it?
King's sub-commitee over-sees "Emergency Preparedness." BUT the problem seems to be the focus is only on terrorism. From the sub-commitees website:
"Preparedness for and collective response to terrorism, including federal support to first responders; terrorism-related incident management and response; consequence mitigation; Department of Homeland Security-administered homeland security grants to first responders; conduct and coordination of exercises and training relating to mitigating the effects of and responding to terrorist attacks (including nuclear, biological, radiological, and chemical attacks on civilian populations); federal government coordination of terrorism-related emergency preparedness and response with and among state and local governments, the private sector, and the public; research, development and deployment of technology for combating terrorism; adaptation of existing technologies to homeland security prevention priorities; coordination and enhancement of Department of Homeland Security interaction on science and technology matters with the private sector, federally funded research and development centers, educational institutions, the National Laboratories, and other scientific resources; Department of Homeland Security-based science and technology entities and initiatives; conducting relevant oversight; and other matters referred to the Subcommittee by the Chairman."

See the many uses of the words "terrorism" and nothing about "natural disasters?"
That is a big issue.
What is the sub-commitees role in over-seeing FEMA and natural disaster preparedness?
Go through the full commitee website and the stated mission for each sub-commitee is all about "terrorism."
Now King's sub-commitee should be dealing with the over-sight of FEMA disaster plans right?
What exactly was the sub-commitee's role in making sure FEMA natural disaster planes were up to snuff?
If King wants to be chairman of the full Homeland Security Commitee he needs to show he was an effective sub-commitee chairman.

Keep checking for more updates.

Sunday, September 04, 2005

King and Katrina

King just doesn't get it. He wants to be Homeland Security Committee Chairman and he is completely clueless.
King was on WABC Radio's John Gambling show and said "The main problem in obstructing the relief operation - it's almost like a Mogadishu-like gang situation that's prevailing in New Orleans,"
This is of course more water-carrying for the complete failure of the Bush Administration, FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security. How many more excuses can Bush supporters make?
According to the New Orleans Time Picayune "Bienville built New Orleans where he built it for one main reason: It's accessible. The city between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain was easy to reach in 1718.
How much easier it is to access in 2005 now that there are interstates and bridges, airports and helipads, cruise ships, barges, buses and diesel-powered trucks.
Despite the city's multiple points of entry, our nation's bureaucrats spent days after last week's hurricane wringing their hands, lamenting the fact that they could neither rescue the city's stranded victims nor bring them food, water and medical supplies.
Meanwhile there were journalists, including some who work for The Times-Picayune, going in and out of the city via the Crescent City Connection. On Thursday morning, that crew saw a caravan of 13 Wal-Mart tractor trailers headed into town to bring food, water and supplies to a dying city.
Television reporters were doing live reports from downtown New Orleans streets. Harry Connick Jr. brought in some aid Thursday, and his efforts were the focus of a "Today" show story Friday morning.
Yet, the people trained to protect our nation, the people whose job it is to quickly bring in aid were absent. Those who should have been deploying troops were singing a sad song about how our city was impossible to reach
.


So how full of Bull---- is King? Really very full.

According to Newsday, Gary Flowers of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition denounced King's comments. "It is un-American to blame the victim. It was the citizens who were abandoned by the United States government,"

And King compares New Orleans to Mogadishu? Interesting that he picks a city in Somali, East Africa to make his point.
To go further with his analogy, let's examine what happend in Mogadishu; there was no help from the countries government to quell the violence. I am glad King sees Bush as ineffective as the leaders of Somalia which is to say there are no real leaders in Somalia.

King continues his uninformed comments with "It's hard to get federal troops in to bring about order when the local police have broken down,"
The local police are stretch to the limit evacuating citizens, trying to keep order, and trying to get relief to those left in the city. How much does King expect a force of 2000 or so to do? The fact is, federal troops would have had no problem getting into the city and helping in the relief efforts simply because journalists and relief aganecies were already getting in without a problem.

king caps off his jibber-jabber with this gem; "I just think the situation would have gone a lot better if there were a Rudy Giuliani down there - someone who could have set a firm tone from day one."
Yeah, right. You can't compare 9/11 with this new disaster. They are not the same. The incredible loss of life might be the same but the situations are very different. 80% of New York City was not devestated on 9/11. If that had happend and most of Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island had been wiped out, we would have seen mush the same situation as we do now in New Orleans. Unless adequete food, water, shelter and medical services reach teh affected people, there will be huge problems.

King wants to be Homeland Security COmmiteee Chairman. This committee overseas the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA. If King is so ignorant as he has proven with these few sentences, imagine the mess he'll make as chairman.
He is making excuses for a complete break-down in emergency federal disaster response. We can't have an oversight committee chairman who will just make excuses to protect Bush.

Two Letters to Newsday

Newsday August 30, 2005
King knows not what he does

An interfaith delegation (of which I was one) asked Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford) to oppose attempts to privatize Social Security. His reaction, which we read in Newsday, was to wail: "God forgive them, for they know not what they do," and to decry what he called "left-wing pseudo-theology" ["Faithful hope to sway King," News, Aug. 24]. The delegation had presented him with a copy of "A Commitment to All Generations: Social Security and the Common Good," a statement strongly opposing the privatizing of Social Security. It was issued by the administrative board of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Left-wing pseudo-theologians? I think not.

Nancy Dwyer
Valley Stream

Newsday September 4, 2005
King's hubrisis astonishing
Regarding "Faithful hope to sway King" [News, Aug. 24]: I continue to be astonished by the hubris displayed by Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford). His latest diatribe is directed against constituents who happen to disagree with him regarding the privatization of Social Security.King suggests that the religious leaders praying outside his Massapequa Park office need to be forgiven by God "for they know not what they do."He further states that his position is based on "facts, reason and informed social conscience," thus implying that the demonstrators lack such attributes. How presumptuous and insulting.
Janet Pucciarelli
Glen Head

Katrina Relief Organizations

With thanks to The Community Alliance

Red Cross:Telephone: 1-800-HELP-NOW
https://www.redcross.org/
Secure E-Donations: Red Cross' Donate Now Page
AmeriCares:americares.org
United Jewish Communities: 1-877-277-2477 or http://www.ujc.org/
Episcopal Relief & Development: 1-800-334-7626 or http://www.er-d.org/
United Methodist Committee on Relief: 1-800-554-8583 or http://gbgm-umc.org/umcor/emergency/hurricanes/2005/
Salvation Army: 1-800-SAL-ARMY or http://www.salvationarmyusa.org/
Catholic Charities: 1-800-919-9338 or http://www.catholiccharitiesusa.org/
Operation Blessing: 1-800-436-6348 or www.ob.org
America's Second Harvest: 1-800-344-8070 or www.secondharvest.org
National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster: www.nvoad.org
FEMA Charity tips: http://www.fema.gov/rrr/help2.shtm