Florida Follies.

Those of you Elsewhere missed the rousing "We're so ready for this, we're pumped, we've got our shit together, watch us shine!" press conference of the Even More Petulant But Perhaps Not As Dumb Bush and his buds, pre-Wilma. They had tons of food and ice, lots of gas on hand, gas supplies are FINE, no need to freak out, they were ready for this, baby. Florida has its act together (not like that state with the Democratic Woman in charge, you know) - watch us handle this!!

It's rather difficult to contrast that press conference with the reality on the ground - no food, running out of ice regularly, endless lines for gas, much of South FL may not get electricity for two weeks. Local officials are bitching because FEMA, once again, jumped up to run to the rescue with its shoelaces tied together. And while post-Katrina "Brownie" was the obvious target of the blame (and deservedly so) in this case they went to great lengths to tell us how materials were staged and crews were standing by and they were prepared to swing into action.

The people who were strutting around the press conference bragging about their preparedness are now vewy, vewy quiet. They emit little squeaky protests that they are doing their best, and why is everybody so mad at them? Hurricane victims are such WHINERS!

It's just so crazy. We were hit four times last year and somehow, stuff got done. I was here for the aftermath of Charley, Frances and Jeanne. I stalked gas stations and celebrated the Finding of Ice, but I never had to spend an entire day to get either. Why is this so hard? The roads aren't closed, the weather is freaking glorious, the gasoline supply lines weren't disrupted, or even affected, why are people standing in line for 8 hours to get ice and gas? Oh, wait, LAST YEAR was an election year.

Then we have the fascinating story of the Guy Who Wrote the Code to Rig Voting Machines. This story has been kicking around, it gets a little bit of low-level media attention, but even though this guy has testified under oath in Ohio, the national media responded by covering its ears and squeezing its eyes shut and singing really loud.

The video link is lengthy and interesting, the guy is a legit software geek, and the testimony is public. Why wasn't it on the evening news? I found this link via Eric Alterman.