Life in Republican America

• The Census Bureau reported today that the number of Americans without health insurance rose by 1.3 million over the past year and that about one-fourth of African-Americans remain mired in poverty. (The poverty rate in the United States has finally stopped climbing.) But take a look at the overall picture of the number of Americans in poverty.
  
  
  
• The White House is attempting to mount a publicity campaign to distract people from Bush's staggering screw-ups during the Katrina disaster a year ago. In fact, the former head of FEMA, Michael Brown, has revealed that Bush wanted him to lie about the effectiveness of the government's response.
• Atrios reminds us that four years ago lying sack Dick Cheney was warning us of imminent nuclear destruction at the hands of Saddam Hussein.
• Cheney is also continuing to lie through his teeth about terrorism in order to whip up support for his faltering party in the midterm elections.
• And of course, with another major storm barreling in on the U.S., Turkey being terrorized by bombings at resorts, and Iraq continuing to be torn by civil war, Bush is on vacation. Again.