News from Earth-B about Katrina (some Friday fun)

"Can you imagine how it would have been perceived if a president of the United States of one party had pre-emptively taken from the female governor of another party the command and control of her forces, unless the security situation made it completely clear that she was unable to effectively execute her command authority and that lawlessness was the inevitable result?"

Senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, in Sept. 9 New York Times about the decision not to invoke the Insurrection Act in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.


Curious about this, the Deadman contacted its alternate-reality correspondent, who, through an eerie, unnatural warping of the fabric of space-time, emailed us this dispatch from the front page of yesterday's New York Tribune (the newspaper of record on Earth-B):

Leading Senate and House Democrats are calling for a full investigation of what Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) called "an astonishing, unprecedented abuse of power on behalf of the Bush administration." By invoking the Insurrection Act and federalizing the evacuation efforts in New Orleans last week, President Bush "disenfranchised the people of New Orleans and Louisiana by usurping the power of their elected state and local officials", in Kennedy's words.

The new president-elect of NOW, former NY Trib columnist Maureen Dowd, issued a press release stating "W., ever the glory-hound and desperate to deflect attention from the quagmire in Iraq, just couldn't stand to let a woman governor and black mayor take the lead." She has announced solidarity rallies for Louisiana governor Blanco, who maintains that the estimated 1,000 to 1,500 casualties of the flooding could have been avoided had President Bush not "thrown the whole effort into chaos" by inserting active-duty troops into New Orleans. Current NY Tribune columnist Paul Krugman goes further, writing today that Bush's activation of the Insurrection Act is no less than "a Crawford Kristallnacht, signalling the rise of a true American Reich. Bush has cynically used the pretext of a national disaster to make the reach of his power complete."

Talking to reporters in Crawford, activist mom Cindy Sheehan was unsurprised at the administration's move. "It's the only solution Bush understands: pre-emption. He invaded New Orleans just like he invaded Baghdad. When will the militarization of our culture ever end?"

New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin will speak later today in New York at a press conference organized by Al Sharpton. Nagin has already announced his intention to file suit in federal court on behalf of the city administration from what he terms its "exile" in Baton Rouge.

In an unrelated item, rapper Kanye West has canceled his appearance at Saturday's Chicago fund-raiser for victims of Katrina, citing an acute case of hemorroids.

Happy Friday everyone!!