Gah. The LA Times article is agonizing. I just donated as much as I could afford to the Red Cross (note to Hec: yes, I kept to the 2-figure limit, don't worry, go ahead and write the rent check), but I wish to God I could DO something.

I'm trying really hard not to be blame-y and work myself up into an All Bush's Fault, Again frothy rage, but it's just disheartening to read about the FEMA report in 2001, now 2-for-3 on predicted disasters, and the budget cuts, deploying of the now desperately needed LA Guardsmen and rough-terrain transport vehicles to Iraq, and unbelievable suffering and misery in the Superdome. I don't feel blameful so far, just incredibly sorrowful.

I do hope NOLA can be rebuilt. It seems that the most historically and culturally rich areas -- the Quarter, the Merigney, the warehouse district -- are faring rather less badly than the neighborhoods and districts further from the river and closer to the lake. I hope, hope, hope they rebuild, but I'm with Nutty in hoping they do it carefully, with a lot of forethought and a lot of time and energy looking at what's survived and why.

Back when Hec and I thought we'd actually be able to attend the NOLA F2F, I got a huge omnibus underworld history of NOLA by the author of Gangs of New York, and in addition to being just an incredibly fun read, it stunned me with the sheer number of times NOLA has already been wrecked, razed, burned down, flooded out, starved to death by political corruption, looted by bandits and pirates, decimated by one plague or another. It's remade itself again and again, and what we know as Old New Orleans is itself, except for bare a handful of buildings here and there, risen from the ashes of something that rose from the ashes of something that fell long, long ago. I'm trying not to put too much stock in the feeling this history gave me, but I keep having little vague flutterings of something like hope. It's been so badly fucked up before, so awash in death and corruption and ruin, and it's come out the other side different but recognizably itself so many damn times already. This can't be the final death, it just fucking can't.

Dammit.

OK, here's an unrelated question: I just got an email from the airline, saying I should get to the airport two hours early tomorrow. I will already have my boarding pass at that point. Is there any way just going through security will take two hours? I mean, REALLY.

Fats Domino? The pool player?

Maybe Bush Sr could use his CIA connections to raise some cash from a Middle Eastern theocracy and a war-torn Central American country. If only there were some precedent...

But Corwood, cocaine is so passé!

Does the army still have those funny pontoon bridges they used to use? I think a whole bunch of those are in order right now. I mean, aside from the whole "build some bridges" thing, why not use them as floating people-movers?

Also, I think the Newbury Street Duck Squad needs to head out and report for duty post-haste.

This is a route into the city, just one, but there is one from news reports. I'm not sure about getting to the superdome, but there doesn't seem to be much happening there.

I would believe them Jesse. There were several times at LAX when 90 minutes was cutting it way too close.

Some more budget info:

Below is a history of funding for the Lake Pontchartrain and Vincinity Hurricane Protection project. (Note: This was the levee system that broke. Due to lack of funding, major construction stopped in 2004 — the first such stoppage in 37 years.)

2004:

Army Corps request: $11 million
Bush request: $3 million
Approved by Congress: $5.5 million

2005:

Army Corps request: $22.5 million
Bush request: $3.9 million
Approved by Congress: $5.7 million

2006:

Bush request: $2.9 million

[link]

Dear Alaska Pipeline: Thank you for your blessed petrochemicals.

You're welcome.

Fats Domino? The pool player?

The pool player is Minnesota Fats. Fats Domino is the singer/pianist: I found my thrill, on Blueberry Hill.

He might have played pool, Nutty, but it's hardly what he's famous for.

Jesse, I aim for 90 minutes these days, just because. Insanity.

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?"

You can see clips of it on abcnews.com. I wonder if it's a nervous tic or something because it's really disturbing.