Sandy Berger was sentenced today to 100 hours community service and two years probation. He will also pay $6,905 to cover the administrative costs associated with his probation. (CNN)

In addition Sandy Berger must give up access to classified government materials for a three year period and pay a fine five times more than what prosecutors asked for.

Judge Deborah Robinson set the fine at $50,000 saying:

The court finds the fine is inadequate because it doesn’t reflect the seriousness of the offense.

(FOX News)

Please read both news stories. Note that CNN mentions nothing about the increase in the fine or why it was increased…

Welcome Blogs for Bush readers! Please look around…

I don’t have a transcript (anyone know where one might be?) but there were a couple questions yesterday from the press that seemed a little, well, off…

One reporter asked Mike Brown what he had to say about Nancy Pelosi’s call for his resignation and/or firing. He said that it was up to the President. A second reporter asked if he had submitted his resignation. He said that he serves at the pleasure of the President of the United States.

Then we get to what was really off:

A reporter asked him why Operation Blessing was on the FEMA list of approved charities on their website. Mr. Brown said that apparently, one of his staffers had checked it out and added it. The reporter then went on to say (paraphrase) : Operation Blessing is run by Pat Robertson, do you think it should be there?

It seems to me that the reporter was “suggesting” that because of Pat Robertson’s admittedly stupid remarks about Hugo Chavez, the charity, Operation Blessing, (on whose board Pat Robertson sits) should not be approved to assist in the relief effort.

In the words of General Honore, “That’s B.S.”

Pat Robertson is on the Board. That’s it. One member. That doesn’t disqualify the charity.

The About Us section (first graf):

Operation Blessing International Relief and Development Corporation (OBI) is a non-profit 501 (c) (3) humanitarian organization based in Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA. Since 1978, Operation Blessing International has touched the lives of more than 179.7 million people in 96 countries and all 50 states, providing goods and services valued at more than $1.1 billion. Operation Blessing is governed by a national board of directors that includes founder M.G. “Pat” Robertson.

Greed in the face of adversity is a post I just found at the Jawa Report.

Planned Parenthood has a link on their main page that says “Help those affected by hurricane” but when you click the link, the page it takes you has the disclaimer:

Support Planned Parenthood and their patients during this time of great need. By clicking here, 100% of your tax-deductible contribution will go directly to helping Planned Parenthood affiliates and health centers in this region serve women and families who have nowhere else to turn.

(bold mine)

Further down it says “Click here to donate to Planned Parenthood’s Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. And you can send a check to Hurricane Katrina Relief, PPFA etc, etc.

Although their disclaimer is pretty prominent, Hurricane Relief should apply to everyone affected. They seem more interested in getting their clinics set back up instead of helping people get their lives set back up.

Via One Big Swede

Hurricane Katrina: Blog for Relief Weekend
Thursday, September 1 – Monday, September 5
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American Red Cross, 1111 Contributors $ 258,005 Contributed

Please continue to contribute

The American Red Cross. Clicking the Donate Now button will bring you right to the Red Cross site.

If you do donate, please go here and log your donation at the Truth Laid Bear. Thank you.

Here’s new site set up just today by Deacon Dan (found in a comment at Blogs for Bush):

New site I’m trying to promote – www.katrinafinder.us. I built it today as a way, I hope, to help folks find loved ones in the disaster area. My sister was in Gulfport, Mississippi, when Katrina hit, and we haven’t heard from her. We’re hoping, but I needed to do something more, and that site was built today over my lunch hour.

I’d appreciate it if you could include a word about it when you’re out n’ about and blogging. And if you have any suggestions or want to help with the code, I’d gladly give out the “keys to the kingdom” to the FTP part of the site, and you can help me jimmy the code so it works better. Or if you run across people who want to help, point ’em my way, and we’ll get it set up.

I’m going to also put out some press releases tonight, and noise it about on the blogs, so hopefully people will find it useful.

Thanks, folks!

Dan, our prayers are with you and your family.

Thank you for setting this up.

If anyone can help out, please do.

Trackback to Basil’s Blog Covered Dish Supper.

Another new Katrina Aid site: Hurricaid.com set up by Kevin Aylward at Wizbang

Dish Network’s new ad campaign consists of people whose T.V. “sucks”. Their T.V.’s act like vacuums, things fly, and stick, to the T.V. set. The guest says something like, “What’s going on?”, the homeowner says, “My T.V. sucks, doesn’t yours?” The guest says, “No, I have Dish Network, it doesn’t suck.”

Now my four year old is asking if things suck. I really don’t need my four year old doing that, or using that word.

In my opinion, the new Dish Network ad campaign sucks.

On Sunday, a local gas station was charging $2.689 per gallon for regular unleaded. Today it’s $2.899. Another station nearby was also at $2.899. Around the corner and down the street a station had regular unleaded at $3.299. Down the street from there (at a place that is usually higher than the rest) regular unleaded was being sold for $2.799.

There was actually someone pumping gas at the $3.299 place!

Today, Chuck Schumer once again called for draining the Strategic Oil Reserves.

“If there was ever a time for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to be tapped, it would be now,” he said.

(Source)
As if this will do anything at all. There isn’t a problem with the supply of crude (which, of course, the Strategic Oil Reserve contains). The problem is with refining the oil we do have. 8-10% of America’s refining capacity is temporarily unavailable.

It doesn’t matter how much crude you have if you don’t have the capacity to refine it. More oil isn’t the problem. Turning it into gas (with all those “boutique” mixtures), diesel and heating oil is the problem and has been for quite some time.

After Hurricane Ivan, pipelines and platforms which produce and deliver crude were most affected. Now it’s the refineries. Refineries are currently running at near 100% capacity, more oil isn’t the answer, more refineries are.

More on this topic at Blogs for Bush.

Our 40,000^th visitor just came from Taiwan.

Lady Jane over at A Lady’s Ruminations has just one question… Will any other country come to our aid over Katrina?

She has the transcript of a radio address by Gordon Sinclair (a Canadian broadcaster) from June 5, 1973…

The Americans
The United States dollar took another pounding on German, French and British exchanges this morning, hitting the lowest point ever known in West Germany. It has declined there by 41% since 1971 and this Canadian thinks it is time to speak up for the Americans as the most generous and possibly the least-appreciated people in all the earth.

As long as sixty years ago, when I first started to read newspapers, I read of floods on the Yellow River and the Yangtse. Who rushed in with men and money to help? The Americans did.

They have helped control floods on the Nile, the Amazon, the Ganges and the Niger. Today, the rich bottom land of the Misssissippi is under water and no foreign land has sent a dollar to help. Germany, Japan and, to a lesser extent, Britain and Italy, were lifted out of the debris of war by the Americans who poured in billions of dollars and forgave other billions in debts. None of those countries is today paying even the interest on its remaining debts to the United States.

Go read the rest of the address and the rest of the story of why Gordon felt he needed to do this.