What's Next? A Toby Keith and Kayne West Duet?

Bling-blang...um, bling.

A couple of days ago it was Ed Steimel, on behalf of the business community, announcing that the ship of state was either leaking badly or on a collision course with icebergs. Now, a populist part of the coalition is ready to carve Shrub a new one over his shrug after Hurricane Katrina:

Faith Hill and Tim McGraw blasted the Hurricane Katrina cleanup effort, with Hill calling the slow progress in Louisiana and Mississippi "embarrassing" and "humiliating."

The country music artists -- who are natives of the storm-ravaged states -- were at times close to tears, and clearly angry when the subject of Katrina came up during a news conference today. They had met with reporters in Nashville to promote their upcoming Soul2Soul II Tour, but when asked about the hurricane cleanup, the stars pulled no punches.

"To me, there's a lot of politics being played and a lot of people trying to put people in bad positions in order to further their agendas," McGraw, a 38-year-old native of Delhi, La., told ABC News Radio.

"When you have people dying because they're poor and black or poor and white, or because of whatever they are -- if that's a number on a political scale -- then that is the most wrong thing. That erases everything that's great about our country."

McGraw specifically criticized President Bush. "There's no reason why someone can't go down there who's supposed to be the leader of the free world … and say, 'I'm giving you a job to do and I'm not leaving here until it's done. And you're held accountable, and you're held accountable, and you're held accountable.

"'This is what I've given you to do, and if it's not done by the time I get back on my plane, then you're fired and someone else will be in your place. '"...

Hill, who grew up in Jackson, Miss., echoed those sentiments. So overwhelmed, she uncharacteristically unleashed an epithet, calling the situation, "Bull- - - -"

"It is a huge, huge problem and it's embarrassing," she said.

"I fear for our country if we can't handle our people [during] a natural disaster. And I can't stand to see it. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out point A to point B. . . . And they can't even skip from point A to point B.

"It's just screwed up."

Now, to be fair, Smirk-Chimp actually bothered to visit areas New Orleans that were actually damaged by the storm--although PGR's comments are my sentiments too (short version: it's ABOUT TIME, goddamnit). And he's requesting that the latest trickle of recovery money be spent in New Orleans, where the greatest damage was.

Billy Graham also was in NOLA, and, sadly, is probably correct when he says, "This is a far greater disaster than the average American understands." Um, yes reverend--although the country might have a greater apprecation of the disaster if the national leadership hadn't spent SIX FUCKING MONTHS GOING OUT OF THEIR WAY TO IGNORE IT.

But, I digress. Back to the topic: No, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill aren't the Dixie Chicks, but their public statements to the effect that Team Bush is full of shit will, to be fair, resonate with far more of the public than, say, my blog. And that sort of damage to the PotemkinRovian pResident can't be fixed by bumping up the terror color code (besides, the "New, Nuanced Shrub," who's "fully prepared" to sell our ports to UAE can't exactly go back to hatemongering the "A"-rabs just yet: that sort of flip-flop would almost qualify the dauphin for the political equivalent of a Darwin Award).

You know, I sometimes wondered if it wasn't better for Team Bush to weasel their way into a 2004 electoral victory...because when shit and fan made their fateful, and inevitable meeting, there'd be no way to pin blame on the media, the Democrats, or whatever object of hate Rove managed to conjure. And that's whats happening right now...although there's a double edged sword: Iraq continues to fester, NOLA and the Gulf Coast are in desperate straits (oh, and in case ANYONE thinks Gulf Coast residents are merely looking for a handout: check this out. Excerpt:

TOM BEARDEN: Some Domino workers are trying to get out of the park and move on with their lives. Kenny Dessells goes to his former home practically every day after work. He's now rewiring the place, but only after shoveling out three feet of mud laced with dissolved drywall and the occasional poisonous snake.

KENNY DESSELLS: We're on eight-hour shifts now, which gives me the ability to, when I get off of work, I just come straight here. And I work until I'm tired, pretty much another 10 hours maybe, and go back to my trailer, and bathe up, eat, and do it again. And I've been doing this for about close to three months now.

I'm guessing people like McGraw and Hill see things like this--and wonder, like me, why it isn't matched by a NATIONAL COMMITTMENT of the kind that Shrub actually made back in September. As for me, though, yet another visit is just another visit until we see proof of genuine focus on the task at hand.

A while back, I suggested a dollar-for-dollar match with the money devoted to war. I still think that's a good idea. And let's let those who argue otherwise EXPLAIN why a country in Central Asia is more important than the United States (and--not that I'm hoping for this, but--if THEY ever suffer from a natural catastrophe, let their words be used against them).