Wahoo Wah Kenneth Wainstein, New Homeland Security Adviser

It turns out President Bush's new Homeland Security Adviser, Kenneth Wainstein, and I share the same alma mater, the University of Virginia. Maybe Ken can answer questions his predecessor, Frances Townsend wouldn't touch.

I graduated in 1980 with a B.S. in Commerce, while Ken got his degree in 1984. After that I got a Masters in Hospital Administration while Wainstein went to law school. Those degrees put us on course to interact today.

As a health care leader, I endured in a dead river flooded 725 bed hospital in Roanoke, Virginia. Years later, I helped evacuate a 165 bed facility on the Texas Gulf Coast. Hurricane Gilbert was predicted to make landfall at our heliport. Fortunately it turned away from Texas but I found out how difficult evacuating a hospital can be, even with plenty of lead time.

Summer of 2005 I found myself appalled as hospital patients and staff lingered in dead New Orleans' facilities post Hurricane Katrina. While I peppered the White House with e-mails, Kenneth's predecessor flew on a plane to Saudi Arabia. The Homeland Security adviser had little to do with managing the federal response to Hurricane Katrina, but Fran had a lot to do with the follow up "investigative report". President Bush promised a robust look into the federal performance, bit Townsend's tome left off the ro. It was simply a bust.

My questions arose after reading her Lessons Learned report. How could she leave out the hospital with the highest number of patient deaths post landfall? Why did patients linger so long in a steamy, toxic soup? It takes little time for a powerless hospital to become a death trap. Then little pieces began falling into place. LifeCare Hospital with its 24 patient deaths had been acquired by The Carlyle Group just weeks before landfall. Would they benefit from the omission as they entered court for numerous wrongful death lawsuits?

I have many more questions but I don't want to overwhelm my fellow Wahoo right off. I just hope he doesn't wipe out any of Fran's e-mails between August 2005 and April 2006.

Kenneth is likely a busy man, with lots of new duties. He's been charged with improving our emergency preparedness and may have some leftover clean up work to do on Katrina. As LifeCare blames the feds for those wrongful deaths, Mr. Wainstein could be preparing to testify on the government's behalf. The Carlyle's attorneys assert LifeCare patients became wards of the federal government as soon as FEMA evacuation teams set up in the New Orleans area.

How's that for gratitude? Fran left them out of the federal report and then got blamed later. That's a pretty slick risk management move, which happens to be Fran's expertise. Don't tell me she cooked that up in conjunction with the Carlyle big dogs? So many questions and so little time. I hope Kenneth is more responsive than Fran. Time will tell. Wahoo Wah to our latest famous alumus! He sits alongside Wahoo's Katie Couric, Tom Scully, and Fred Fielding. All have bent the President's ear at one point or another.

McCain Bear Hugs Israel to World's Detriment

First John McCain visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial. Having visited the notorious concentration camp Dachau, I know how disturbing and deeply moving such an experience can be. Senator McCain etched "never again" on the guestbook. I hope that "never again" means the cessation of genocide against any of our world's various ethnic or tribal groups, not just the Jewish people.

That would include the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, who've paid dearly for their choice of Hamas leaders in the 2006 elections. Recent reports from the United Nations cited humanitarian conditions in Gaza as the worst in forty years. The people in Gaza reside behind huge walls with armed guards. Their freedom of movement is limited and their economy in shambles.

Today's lead stories in the Jerusalem Post include Senator McCain's visit, but also an admonition from a leading rabbi. The rabbi issued a religious ruling forbidding the renting of apartments to Arabs or employing them anywhere in Israel - regardless of whether they are Israeli citizens. That conjures up images of Germany's yellow stars, the very thing Mr. McCain never wants to see again. Also, recall there are Christian Arabs in Israel and the Middle East.

For John to sincerely want peace in the Middle East, he didn't balance his time. McCain met with Israeli leaders Livni, Olmert, Peres and Barak. He chatted with Palestinian leader Abbas by phone. The news reported one curious item about the visit:

Speaking to reporters, McCain declined to discuss what his Middle East policies would be as president. He said he was in Israel on a congressional fact-finding mission and it was not appropriate to discuss his campaign.

That's funny, on March 19th he's fact finding, while the next day John will fund raise in London at a Lord Rothschild sponsored event. Will it be appropriate to discuss his campaign then? Despite his denials, John hinted at his position on Israel.

"I really think that we should understand that the US and Israel are partners. Israel is not a client of the United States," he said. "If you are partners, then you don't dictate what you think the terms of the survival of a nation should be."

"I think Iran is a threat to the region," McCain said, adding that not only were the Iranians "obviously pursuing nuclear weapons."

Carte blanche, which means "never again" is right around the corner. How many more millions will suffer and die at the hands of madmen occupying seats of power? Stop the insanity, please. We don't need to repeat the cycle. During the Nazi declared boycott upon Jewish stores on April 1, 1933, yellow Stars of David were painted on windows.

Shock the Monkey!

President George W. Bush meet with relieved,yet nervous financial kingpins at the Economic Club of New York. Eliot Spitzer, crusader against illicit financial schemes and now New York Governor, provided the relief by resigning in disgrace after the FBI found his illegal use of prostitutes. Chimpy McHitler (columnist Jay Ambrose's name for George W. Bush) and his Justice Department knocked that longtime angry monkey off Wall Street's back.

Recall the 60 Minutes story regarding a campaign staffer who said Karl Rove wanted pictures of a Democratic governor cheating on his wife? Luck would have it that Governor Spitzer would use a call girl the night before his published column in the Washington Post. His piece excoriated the Bush administration for facilitating predatory lending and the current mortgage crisis. After pictures of call girl "Kristen" hit the newswires, Eliot's accusations vaporized like $8 billion in reconstruction money in Iraq.

But not to worry, Bush has it under control. The people who benefited from the booming industry of mortgage securitization, Hank Paulson, will surely lead us out of this economic storm surge. So far only a few investment vehicles drowned, one of them Carlyle Capital Corporation. But Bear Stearns got rescued by the Fed, the economic lifesaver analogous to FEMA. Time will show how other's make out in the crisis, but just to be safe, have a Hankie ready.

Top Rabbi Qualifies as CEO

A statement by a leading rabbi is a fractal into the state of leadership in our world today. It reflect our lesser tribal nature, with some qualifications. The Jerusalem Post reported:

"According to halacha, it is forbidden to employ Arabs, especially in yeshivas," Rav Kanievsky, a Lithuanian rabbi who lives Bnei Barak, told the paper. "It poses a mortal danger since we are at war with them."

Rav Kanievsky added that he was amazed at the employment of Arabs when there were Jewish employees to choose from in the unemployment market. "How will Jews work and support themselves?" he asked.

Rav Kanievsky's decision is in fact an instruction to hundreds of institutions across the nation that employ Arabs. When asked if his statements could be published, the Rabbi responded with "certainly."

The Torah authority gave one out exception for employing non-Jews, greed.

He added that "non-Jews should not be employed because Jews should be provided with a livelihood, however when there are significant differences in the expenses of employing one and not the other, it is permitted. When referring to employing Arabs - today - g-d forbid, it means placing people in mortal danger."

The Rabbi would be welcome in corporate board rooms with that kind of salary expense saving advice. What if people combine this Jewish ruling with world changing idea #10 in Time magazine, re-Judaizing Jesus? Many will not look back to Judaism in the time of Jesus, but to the Jewish religion of today for guidance. In that case Christians could be forbidden from employing Arabs. What would self-employed Christian Arabs do (yes, there are Arab Christians)? Show up for work every day and then fire themselves?

I have a better idea. How about we get some new leaders, or at least ignore the ones pursuing divide and conquer? The problem comes when they have the power of a government military or huge numbers of rabid religious followers.

McCain to Raise London PEU Money in Lounge Suit

Someone please take a camera to John McCain's British fundraiser for his run for the American Presidency. The event will be held this coming Thursday courtesy of private equity underwriter (PEU) Lord Rothschild. It will take place at Spencer House, St. Jame's Place, London. Requested attire is "lounge suits". A brief look at the Rothschild family history produced this quote.

"Money is the god of our time", the Jewish-born German pamphleteer and poet, Heinrich Heine, wrote in 1841, "and Rothschild is his prophet."

I wonder if the Lord got the same gene? Nevertheless, I want to see a picture of John McCain in a lounge suit. McCain's second wife comes from a prominent Phoenix area Anheuser Busch family. I recall lounge lizards drinking beer. John might feel right at home at the Lord's house.

Condi Offers Cheney a Frothy Mug

Secretary of State Condi Rice tried to loosen up Vice President Dick Cheney before his trip to the Middle East. She served a few Shiner Bocks to Shooter before he goes hunting for lower oil prices in Saudi Arabia. Consider her admonitions to America's Saudi ally (reported in the Jerusalem Post):

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice criticized Saudi Arabia for not doing enough to counter extremism and defended Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas while testifying before the US Congress on Wednesday. Rice said the State Department had also made clear to the Saudis that they needed to do more on the issue of ending incitement and standing against extremism.

"While I would be the last to say that there has been anything like the kind of progress that I think we will need - [and] they will need to see, frankly, for their own good as well as the good of the world as a whole - there are discussions that are ongoing, and they do provide a mechanism by which we can monitor and then take what we know to the Saudis for discussion," she said. "This is a very high priority."

Rice also stressed that Saudi Arabia and other Arab neighbors would need to take more concrete steps to help the peace process. "We need also the Arab states to be very active in supporting this effort, and some are, but frankly the Israelis are going to need to know that the outreach of the Arabs to them is coming as a part of this broader effort," she said. Rice was echoing a point Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, in Washington this week, has made on several occasions.

Do Condi's words hold water? In the summer of 2006 Saudi Arabia pleaded for the U.S. to take a leadership role while Israel pummeled its democratic neighbor to the north, Lebanon. The Saudi's made numerous proposals to President Bush, who did nothing. Within eight months, Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia took matters into their own hands and brokered a peace deal with a Palestinian Unity Government. While this didn't last, the region took active steps toward peace without the U.S. For that Condi wanted some payback. But back to the Jerusalem Post article on Condi Rice's testimony before Congress. It stated:

Nita Lowey, chairwoman of the US House appropriations foreign operations subcommittee, which called Rice to testify Wednesday, argued that Saudi Arabia should be doing more to help Palestinians on the ground, particularly by using some of its oil revenue to build homes and expand job opportunities. "When you have the oil-producing countries getting $105 a gallon, the fact that they can't show some evidence on the ground and create jobs is mind-boggling," Lowey said. "Unless the Palestinians are supported by Saudi Arabia, and the Emirates and all the other countries in the region, it's going to be very difficult for them to take that final step."

Lowey has also expressed reservations about giving extra aid to the Palestinians in light of Abbas's recent comments, and put a hold on $150 million in aid allocated last year for that and other reasons. However, she recently indicated a shift in position.

OK, let's look at the facts. At the Paris Donor conference the Saudis stated their support for the Palestinian people.

We are continuing our efforts in this regard and have recently provided a grant of 250 million dollars to aid the budget of the Palestinian Authority and fund development projects. In addition, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is pleased to announce that it will be donating an amount of 500 million dollars. This donation will be channelled through the Saudi Development Fund in order to finance development projects in the Palestinian territories, and in coordination with the Palestinian Authority. This with the yearly 92.4 million dollars we committed for budgetary support, makes Saudi Arabia one of the largest, if not the larger, donors to the Palestinian Authority.

So Ms. Rice and Ms. Lowey, are the Saudi's $750 million in contributions more than America's $150 million? And where does that annual $3 billion in U.S. arms support for Israel fit in?

Condi's and Nita's lines are intended as smack downs before Shooter Cheney rides into the Middle East with his Bush guns ablazing. So sip up on the ladies' swill, Dicky boy. It'll help your aim.

Hiillary's Hope for "Client 10 from Chicago"

Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton must be full of hope given the news of Client 10 from Chicago. New York Governor Eliot Spitzer's career likely ended with the revelation that he was Client 9 of an exclusive, high dollar prostitution ring. Mrs. Clinton has her fingers and everything possible crossed that Client 10 is her knock down, drag out opponent, Barack Obama.

Now wouldn't that be a small world? How many elected officials in Washington are not guilty of getting a little action on the side? We've got you counted John McCain, Newt Gingrich, David Vitter, Larry Craig, and Bill Clinton? Might an outstanding leader like Barack be lurking not far behind?