They haven’t been able to finish Afghan War 1.5 [the ousting of the Soviets was 0.5], or to ship more than a busted beta of Iraq War 2.0, and they want to expand their disasters.

The product manager for these messes, Dick “Dick” Cheney, is already pushing the vaporware version of his latest disaster and Barnett R. Rubin reviews the media campaign, The War Rollout Keeps Rolling Along…..

They have already proven to everyone that they don’t know how to conduct a war by simultaneously failing in two wars, so who is stupid enough to believe they will magically find the competence for a third war? In seven years they have shown that fooling the American electorate is their sole competency, and polls indicate that even the electorate has figured out the scam.

The people over at the Florida Progressive Coalition are hosting the Netroots Awards for Florida bloggers.

Check out And the Nominees Are…, and then vote by sending an e-mail to quinnelk@hotmail.com until Friday at 12PM [noon] EDT.

Edited for clarity on the time.

The CNN coverage of the SoCal fires:

Two fatalities and 1,000 homes lost in San Diego county with more than a half million people evacuated. There have been 300 homes lost in the fires around Malibu and Los Angeles county.

The winds seem to be moderating, which helps in controlling the fires and allows the fixed-wing aircraft to fly fire suppression missions.

The Harris Ranch fire is also causing destruction in Mexico around Tecate.

Smaller fires have been springing into existence all around the area, including two on Camp Pendelton and one on the Lajolla reservation.

The Shrubbery is set to play disaster tourist on Thursday, which will ground all aerial operations and pull fire fighters off the line to act as a back drop at a media event. If he feels a need to do something, he could donate the fuel that he would use for the trip to the fire fighting operations. After New Orleans no one believes him when he promises aid.

From a Times-Picayune article on the recent flooding in New Orleans:

…In both New Orleans and Jefferson Parish, pumps operated without incident throughout the day Monday to drain water from streets and yards, but were unable to keep up with the intense rainfall.

“We had everything operating at full capacity,” said Robert Jackson, spokesman for the New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board.

But in some areas, more than two inches of rain fell in an hour, while the city’s pumps can handle only a maximum 1 inch in the first hour of a rainfall and 1/2 inch every hour thereafter, he said…

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