Ed Kilgore gives us an update on Ashley Smith who supposedly used Rick Warren's super popular "A Purpose Driven Life" to talk down a fugitive-cop killer holding her hostage in her suburban Atlanta apartment.  Well, the revised story is that she used her stash of crystal meth to sweeten the deal. 

This episode reminded me of living in Atlanta where strip clubs and Baptist mega-churches seem well represented on highway billboards as you come into town on I-75.  Furthermore, I have to agree with Ed that the "sinner-saint" dichotomy that most Southerners seem to so instinctively embrace, if not celebrate, is just one more reason to love the South.

Couldn't have happened to a nicer fellow.  Everyone's favorite House Majority Leader was just indicted in Texas.

If you watched or listened to Michael Brown's pathetic and indignant defense of his management of the federal response to Katrina and were looking for more evidence that that performance probably wasn't all that hot, then let me interest you in a Carnival Cruise vacation in New Orleans.  Now, you're saying to yourself, "Doesn't Carnival Cruise lines go to places like Alaska, the Caribbean or other more exotic locations?"  Well, you're right but for now there are three huge nearly empty Carnival Cruise ships docked in New Orleans and other large gulf coast ports at a cost of $236 million all courtesy of FEMA disaster preparedness.

Wow, it pours:

Looks like Abramoff buddy Kidian's security team is going down for murder.  Think Kidian is far behind?  Whoops!  He's linked to big payments around the time of the murder:

SunCruz paid $145,000 to Moscatiello and his daughter for catering, consulting and "site inspections," Kidan said in a 2001 civil court deposition.

SunCruz also paid a company called Moon Over Miami Beach Inc. $95,000 for surveillance services in 2001. Ferrari is a principal in Moon Over Miami Beach. Ferrari and several associates also reportedly received $10,000 in SunCruz casino chips.

Wow. 

Oh, and the word on the street is DeLay to be indicted for conspiracy in the TRMPAC scandal tommorow:

A Texas grand jury's recent interest in conspiracy charges could lead to last-minute criminal indictments possibly against House Majority Leader Tom DeLay as it wraps up its investigation Wednesday into DeLay's state political organization, according to lawyers with knowledge of the case.

Amazing.  Oh and Richard Perle is in the sights of one Patrick J. Fitzgerald.  Let's hear it for the Fitzes of this world.

Don't believe it?  Read Saalam Pax:

Thinks have reached another record low, whole districts in Baghdad are under the insurgent’s control and the promises the Shia Coalition came to power with, the promise of security and stability are now as tattered as their posters that are still glued to the walls from the last elections. New posters of smiling political clerics are also up but these smiling faces look down at us like they are amused at the joke of a government they have created.

Districts like Ameriyah have become Jihadi Central. After they blew up all the clothes shops there they started blowing up grocery shops and now they have moved on to shops selling watches. Very symbolic isn’t it? Time stops HERE.

A couple of weeks ago I told you about my mother’s cousin who was abducted and held for ransom. He was released around a week ago. His advice for my mother’s family was: change your name. He talks about a highly organized group of Sunni extremists with lists of names, some to kill, some to squeeze for money. He came out a deeply shaken man, he is convinced this is sectarian war. His abductors were a group of young, very devout Sunni Muslims who see this as Jihad. They have people who provide them with information and names and these youngsters do the dirty work.

Yes there is stability in some regions in Iraq but that is either in Kurdistan, for all intents and purposes a separate country, and in the Shia regions controlled by SCIRI’s militia. The rest of the country is on fire. And depending on how you define civil war we are either in the middle of it or five minutes away from it.

We are at our most divided. And it is at this point in our history we write a constitution. Well hurray for us. A constitution written by the powerful two groups (Shia and Kurd) catering for their wishes and whims while the rest of the population is left with table scraps and hopes that the we will be able to make it better in the future.

Either the Sunnis or the Iranian Republican Guards will control Iraq.  That's why arguments against permanent bases in Iraq are nonsense--there's no way we can do it.

Remember how the President suspended Davis-Bacon prevailing wage provisions in order to make it easier for minority-owned businesses to get federal contracts?  Well, if this WSJ article via Daniel Gross is any indication, there are a lot of minority business owners in Mississippi and Louisiana trying figure out why they were left out of the running, especially for some of the more lucrative contracts handed out not long after Katrina hit.

This Iron Mouth Editor attended the massive anti-war demonstration on Saturday in D.C.  At one point we were held up because march organizers did not want counter protesters in front to be photographed leading the march.  They wanted them to clear out before moving forward.  Expecting a crowd, I saw four counter protesters. 

So it was no suprise that I learned that the pro-war rally billed as a 20,000 strong demonstration of support for the troops drew 400. 

Oh, and remember how Bush asked for direct contributions to the Iraq reconstruction fund?  In the first two weeks of the program the donations have been rushing in:

An extraordinary appeal to Americans from the Bush administration for money to help pay for the reconstruction of Iraq has raised only $600 (£337), The Observer has learnt.

The public's reluctance to contribute much more than the cost of two iPods to the administration's attempt to offer citizens 'a further stake in building a free and prosperous Iraq' has been seized on by critics as evidence of growing ambivalence over that country.

Two ipods. Heh.

I've never understood the decision to take people from the Gulf Coast and put them up in FEMA sponsored trailer parks.  Beyond the stigma of concentrated poverty associated with trailer parks, there are any number of programs like Section 8 housing vouchers that would probably be more effective at reintegrating the evacuees into any number of communities throughout the Southeast and elsewhere.  Looking at this article made me even angrier because they know that Section 8 and other public-private venture programs have worked well in past disasters yet they still go ahead with the trailer parks!  Hell, even Newt Gingrich thinks its a godawful idea!  Cost and expediency seem pretty hollow reasons when in effect they will be creating unsightly reminders of the failure of the government's original response to Katrina for months, if not years, to come.  Watching Rita start to hit the coast, it looks like the trailer and RV industry is going to be pretty busy.

Looks like the Pentagon isn't the only place having trouble with numbers, budgets and accounting.  Who knew that there were so many Foreign Agricultural Service Attache's and they made so much money?  Are there any job openings in the meantime?

This is too weird.  Yep, Jeb again.

Germany--Joschka Fischer steps down.  What does this mean?

Fischer made clear that he would remain at the head of his party only under the most extreme circumstances. As far as he was concerned, it didn't make any sense for the Greens to be in any of the possible governing coalitions under discussion. Still, he said he would continue to take part in the negotiations, as long as it had to do with governing.

Hard to tell what all of this means.  Thoughts?

The candidate: Gerhard Schroeder

The Playbook:   Bush/Cheney 2000.

"There will be no coalition under her leadership with my Social Democrats," Mr Schröder said, glaring at his opponent across the table. "Apart from me, no one is in a position to form a stable government."

Mrs Merkel squirmed in her chair.

"I sent her a letter this morning, which should be there if her fax machine is working," said Franz Münterfering, the leader of the SPD. "Then we got a call from her office asking if we could talk."

She's already beat.

However, 50 percent of those polled said they feared the federal government would spend too much on reconstruction, and 45 percent said Americans should make "major sacrifices" to pay for the effort. But only 20 percent said they would be willing to make those sacrifices themselves.

Seventeen percent said they would be willing to pay higher taxes to support reconstruction efforts, while 15 percent favored financing the cost with more deficit spending. Six percent said they would pay for reconstruction efforts with cuts in domestic spending.

Seriously, we have to qualify for the most unrealistic electorate ever.  They want everything, but they don't want to pay for a dime of it.

Oh and:

Bush's overall job approval number was 40 percent, with 58 percent of those surveyed telling pollsters they disapproved of his performance in office. It is the second time his approval rating has hit that low a mark.

His personal qualities hit fresh lows: Only 49 percent called him a strong and decisive leader, down from 54 percent in July and 51 percent in August. Just 42 percent said he cares about people like themselves, and 47 percent called him honest and trustworthy.