low culture

President Bush greets people receiving food and water at a Salvation Army relief area in a Biloxi, Miss., neighborhood devastated by Hurricane Katrina, Friday, Sept. 2, 2005. Bush is touring the Gulf Coast communities battered by Hurricane Katrina, hoping to boost the spirits of increasingly desperate storm victims and exhausted rescuers. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
So inspiring, the hope that is given from the President’s magnanimous arms before the AP’s cameras!
But, umm, wait…then there’s this, from the office of Louisiana’s Senator Mary Landrieu:

But perhaps the greatest disappointment stands at the breached 17th Street levee. Touring this critical site yesterday with the President, I saw what I believed to be a real and significant effort to get a handle on a major cause of this catastrophe. Flying over this critical spot again this morning, less than 24 hours later, it became apparent that yesterday we witnessed a hastily prepared stage set for a Presidential photo opportunity; and the desperately needed resources we saw were this morning reduced to a single, lonely piece of equipment.

With President Bush “out of the picture,” so to speak, so goes the show of support, it seems.

From “Public Begins Paying Respects to Rehnquist“, the Washington Post, September 6, 2005:

The flag-draped coffin of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist was carried up the long marble stairs to the Supreme Court’s Great Hall this morning by eight former law clerks, including John Roberts, the man nominated to succeed him.
[…]
Justices Anthony M. Kennedy and David Souter were absent from the ceremony.

And so it all comes together, by way of this handy Kanye West-derived interpretation of these events:
KENNEDY: “William Rehnquist hates black people. Motherfucker’s dead now…Rehnquist got sonned.”
SOUTER: “Please call…Wait, what the fuck, I was down in the Big Easy helping to evacuate the city. Shorty can’t catch a break?”

Gasoline customers check prices and leave at a BP station in Stockbridge, Ga., Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2005. (AP Photo/Gene Blythe)
From “Looting chaos hits New Orleans relief effort”, Times Online (UK), September 1, 2005:

President Bush has called for a “zero tolerance” policy against looters and profiteering today as New Orleans descended into lawlessness.

RELATED: “Looting” or “finding”? Bloggers are outraged over the different captions on photos of blacks and whites in New Orleans, Salon

From yesterday’s “President Participates in Conversation on Medicare”, El Mirage, Arizona, August 29, 2005:

“There’s no way — I wish I could just snap my fingers and lower the price of gasoline for you. The markets don’t work that way. I’d be snapping if I could do it. (Laughter.) But we’ve got a strategy and a plan to help you.”

From “President Speaks to U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Conference”, Washington, D.C., April 20, 2005:

“A guy said, why don’t you lower gasoline prices, Mr. President? (Laughter.) I said, I wish I could; I wish I could simply wave a magic wand and lower gas prices tomorrow; I’d do that.
[…]
That’s why one of the first things I did when I came to office four years ago was to develop a national energy strategy. My first month in office I sent Congress a plan to put America on the path to greater energy security. For four years, Congress has discussed and debated, but they haven’t achieved any results. Today, members of Congress began debating an energy bill, and this time they need to give us one. The summer travel season is fast approaching. Gas prices are on the minds of millions of Americans. Members of Congress can send an important signal that they are serious about solving America’s energy problems by getting a bill to my desk before the summer recess. (Applause.)”

From “President Discusses Energy Policy”, Washington, D.C., June 15, 2005:

“But people got to understand our dependence on foreign oil didn’t develop overnight, and it’s not going to be fixed overnight. To solve the problem, our nation needs a comprehensive energy policy. (Applause.) That’s why one of the first things I did when I came to office four years ago was to develop a new energy strategy for America. And in my first months in office, I sent Congress a plan to put our nation on the path to greater energy independence. For four years, that United States Congress has discussed and debated the plan — with no result. So earlier this year, I sent a clear message to Congress: Get a good energy bill on my desk before the August recess. Now is the time for them to act.”

Of course, a few weeks ago, the President’s cure-all came through, just in the nick of time to save American consumers from gas prices that approach $3! Right?
Oh, wait.

President Bush makes a statement from his ranch in Crawford, Texas, Sunday, Aug. 28, 2005, about the Iraq constitution process and Hurricane Katrina. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

In the wake of news that the latest draft of Iraq’s proposed constitution drastically curtails the rights of women, one can’t help but consider that this scene from last fall’s 2004 Republican National Convention seems remarkably prescient:

Because whether you’re a rapper or just part of the Republican base, bitches ain’t shit, it seems, but votes and gimmicks.

…because killing them, it turns out, would be, the Christian thing to do. And after the whole post-9/11 crackdown, we so, so, don’t want to be confused with murderous zealots.
Via Robertson Calls for Chavez Assassination, the Washington Post:

Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson has suggested that American agents assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to stop his country from becoming “a launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism.”
[…]
“We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability,” Robertson said Monday on the Christian Broadcast Network’s “The 700 Club.”