My in-laws visited Jimmy Carter's church last weekend and got a great photo op with the man. President Carter's surrounded by about eight people (my in-laws are on his left), and everyone's beaming except for two very angry looking ladies on the President's right. They remind me of the King of the Hill episode where Hank and Bobby get their picture made after Bobby's started working with his dad. Hank tells Bobby not to smile because he's a working man now.

But hey, Jimmy Carter is one of the 100 most dangerous people in America.

I don't deny that the President's proposed budget didn't give Louisiana the funding it asked for and now, it seems, it desperately needed. But he's ultimately not the one who makes the budget, Congress is.

The White House proposes a budget, so they aren't automatically off the hook. I'd like to know what was proposed vs. what Congress approved. There may be plenty of blame to go around.

I'm kind a surprised Jimmy Carter hasn't shown up with his tool box yet.

I'm sure he'll be there once the water recedes and rebuilding can start.

The White House proposes a budget, so they aren't automatically off the hook. I'd like to know what was proposed vs. what Congress approved. There may be plenty of blame to go around.

I think that in most cases Congress increased what the White House proposed.

Congress approved more than what the White House proposed.

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Damn.

Pump prices rose to just under $6 a gallon at some retail outlets in the south. CNN showed footage of a gas station in Georgia advertising regular gas for $5.87 a gallon.

[link]

I can't help looking at the news from New Orleans and the awful reports from the BBC at the Superdome and just wonder where is the line of buses. Why isn't every schoolbus in the state there? Those people have no water, no food, and there are people dying. I know there are lots of logistics problems, but mass evacuations should have been part of all this Homeland security spending.

Bush is incapable of it unless it is written and rehearsed several times, and even then it's sketchy. I really wanted the guy to come through, and be comforting to the nation. But then, he just seemed smug, defensive, and unserious.

They were discussing his interview with Diane Sawyer this morning on the radio, and apparently (I missed it, fortunately), he was in full inappropriate-smirk mode, which confused and concerned the radio host. "Why is he smiling? Doesn't he know how wrong it makes him look?" I wanted to call in and say that he always does this (look at his on-the-fly televised appearance--it happens every time!), but was too busy getting ready for work.

Aren't a lot of the roads washed out, Gud? Could they get buses there? Could they get to the buses in the first place? Could they get drivers to the buses?

This is a horrible, horrible disaster. It's really easy to sit here safe and dry and decide what's messed up. There's pretty much little to no phone service, no electricity, no food, no potable water. We are modern people, used to modern, hi-tech responses, in what is now a swamp, with no hi-tech amenities. That's not just to you, but I don't know how they can begin to approach this in a systematic way, when communication is so poor.

In other flood related news, Fats Domino is missing.

Just ran some errands in north Seattle. Price of gas is virtually unchanged from yesterday. $2.79/gallon.

Dear Alaska Pipeline: Thank you for your blessed petrochemicals.