by David Dayen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

by Lucas O'Connor [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

Does anybody remember when Brian Bilbray sold himself as a moderate? I know it seems like a lifetime ago (or maybe some sort of absurd dream), but it was just 1995 that he first went to Congress.  And I've heard the stories from reasonable people with clear eyes about how once he was (relatively) a champion of the environment, particularly clean beaches and water.  He was (and perhaps still is) a surfer and lifeguard after all.  And yet, it's not at all surprising that he was doing rhetorical backflips in celebration yesterday when Homeland Security decided to waive 30 federal and state environmental laws in order to more quickly build 670 miles of border fence:

"It's great. This is the priority area where most of the illegal activity is going on and where most of the deaths are occurring," said Rep. Brian P. Bilbray (R-Solana Beach), chairman of the Immigration Reform Caucus. "The quicker we can get the physical fence up, the sooner we'll avoid situations like the deaths of agents. And it's still a national security issue. You just have to stop this kind of open traffic along the border."

by Lucas O'Connor [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

I was going to make this a quick hit but it's a little too ridiculous to not allow for comments.

File under "heckuva job from the gang that can't shoot straight" in your FEMA folder.  It was announced earlier today that FEMA's external affairs director Pat Philbin would not be promoted to head of public relations for the director of national intelligence.  The decision comes after Philbin set up a fake briefing in which actual reporters called in but could not ask questions while Deputy Director Harvey Johnson took questions from FEMA employees.

FEMA Director David Paulison said disciplinary measures are being taken against several employees over the staged California Wildfire briefing, which Homeland Security head Michael Chertoff ripped as "one of the dumbest and most inappropriate things I've ever seen since I've been in government."  Dana Petrino, in her infinite brilliance, noted that "It is not a practice that we would employ here at the White House."

FEMA, interestingly, is one of the few organizations to have not come under particular criticism for its response to the wildfires and its performance has been well received for the most part.  But I guess even (apparently) doing things right doesn't preempt obfuscation and coverup these days.

by Sheri Divers [courtesy of Blog for America]

Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff tells the media he has a bad feeling that terrorists are about to strike without any credible evidence. And  national media outlets lead with this non-story pulling attention away from the GOP senators slinking away from the war and Bush's Nixon era approval ratings: