And it comes back to Dubya's beloved Homeland Security. They're so focused on keeping cuticle scissors off airplanes they have neglected the very basics of disaster prevention.

Isn't a big part of Homeland Security supposed to be response? It seems like there has been a lot of confusion and chaos in the response to the disaster in NO.

Scott McClellan just finished meeting with the press right, and he got a lot of questions about the Bush administration's decision to cut funding for the New Orleans district of the Army Corps of Engineers and the president's slow trek back to Washington after disaster struck.

Yay! (to the press holding Bush accountable for once.)

"This is not a time for politics," McClellan said. "This is a time for the nation to come together and help those in the Gulf Coast region. That's where our focus is."

There's no question about where the president's focus is right now, of course. The question is, where was Bush's focus over the last four years, when his administration and the Republican-controlled Congress imposed draconian cuts on the agency responsible for flood control in New Orleans -- and where was Bush's focus earlier this week, when he was campaigning for his war in California as people died in New Orleans.

[link]

Of course, it's not a time for politics. Because the politics of the situation are to the administration's disadvantage.

There's going to have to be a port there, but the talk of rebuilding the whole city strikes me as shock talking. Shock, and the latter-day conservatism (not the political kind) that says maps can't change, and cities need to always be where they've been.

I think another factor behind the "Let's rebuild!" talk is that New Orleans is the sort of place for which people feel strong affection, including people who have never been there. We don't want to lose the cuisine, the music, and the Mardi Gras parties. I've noticed that there's not such a chorus of "Let's rebuild!" for, say, Biloxi.

So, days after the initial crap served up by the former friend, I get an e-mail this morning from him that's a forward from somone he knows at Tulane. The guy at Tulane got on the road on Saturday morning and got out of town.

He uses the e-mail as justification to say the following:

"D - seems like it was pretty hard to leave... not. 1,000's killed - 99% of their own fucking stupidity... news at eleven."

I'm officially de-friending his wife now too. And she's said many times that I was the first friendly person she met when they moved to town five years ago. But that friendship is over, because I'm some God-freak who doesn't "fucking stupidity" should exclude the urban poor without transportation, the sick, the elderly, or tourists caught out.

Gawd, what a fucking asshole.

I'm pissed at Hannity now,

So anyway, the story in Indianapolis goes like this, quote: "Emotions ran high for an Army soldier's funeral in Martinsville on Sunday. Sgt. Jeremy Doyle's sacrifice brought many out to honor him, but also sparked a standoff on a city street. People arriving to say goodbye to a hometown hero met an altogether different scene in Martinsville, as demonstrators dragging American flags on the ground and holding signs opposing U.S. troops. 'The thing that got us here is that Sergeant Doyle died for us to give us our freedom, and then you have people like this come. It's absurd,' one funeral attendee told News 8 in Indianapolis. Tensions grew before demonstrations [sic: demonstrators] finally left their location right across the street from Army Sgt. Jeremy Doyle's funeral service. According to the group's website, it sees America's -- Americans' deaths in Iraq as a kind of punishment for social misdeeds. Martinsville residents said that the protesters picked the wrong time in the wrong town to express their views. Which rightfully -- so they have their freedom of expression. Nobody's going to take that away from them, but there is a time and a place for this kind of thing, and it's certainly not here today."

Now, who's Jeremy Doyle? Well, he died along with three other soldiers on August the 18th, when their Humvee hit a landmine on an Iraqi highway. This guy died for all of us. His final journey was a procession down Main Street, past the courthouse square. "'If I had to lose a son, if I had to lose one, I'd -- I'd rather it be serving our country,' his father explained. The protesters were headquartered in Kansas. They traveled across the country to demonstrate against a soldier." And you know something? I guess this is just another example of how the anti-war left supports our brave troops.

He's talking about Fred Phelps and his group God Hates Fags. They are not a left wing group or have anything to do with the left. I don't think they are a right wing group either, they are a bunch of whackos. The website domain is godhatesfags.org (or .com, I'm not sure) for freaking sakes. How do you go to that website and think it is a left-wing anti-war group? Oh, I know, you knowingly lie.

Don't mind me, I'll just stand here with my hopelessly outdated class rage issues.

Hee. There are times when I'm going in late to work (and thus will work even later) or on a run to the dentist, and I'm looking at all the freaking people out and about, all the cars on the road, and I sit in my car demanding out loud, "DON'T YOU PEOPLE WORK?!"

And then I realize, hey, wait a minute...

I can't cope with it. I have to stop reading news about the hurricane.

I'm just hoping Dana didn't see that article before she left, because GAH.

Ah, Scott McClellan. Your empty words, platitudes, and willful misrepresentation and backpedaling are an almost comforting constant through these dark and stormy days.

Well, or headbashingly, violently IRRITATING.

Your empty words, platitudes, and willful misrepresentation and backpedaling are an almost comforting constant through these dark and stormy days.

Heh.

But a bitter 'heh.'

that friendship is over, because I'm some God-freak who doesn't "fucking stupidity" should exclude the urban poor without transportation, the sick, the elderly, or tourists caught out.

Their loss, your gain. Sorry they turned out to be such selfish shits.

I'm pissed at Hannity most of the time and I don't even listen to him. Or maybe that should read, he is in my too much of a waste of time to listen to column.