Bush: Demon or Human?

You should read the Crooks and Liars discussion of whether George is drinking again (as Nat'l Enquirer reports). That's a very scary possibility, given that he has spurned any treatment for his alcoholism. He's been a dry drunk, just hovering on the verge--Baby Jessica dancing on the edge of the well. [Update: This link to Laura K's IMHO blog on the lingering effects of Bush's drinking contains not only Laura's usual good sense but also an interesting link to this article, "Dry Drunk Syndrome and George Bush."]

Also scary is that I've had some feelings of compassion for the fool lately. The Peter Principle and all that. I keep remembering that his family (parents and wife and kids) didn't fully support his bid for the presidency. The parents had picked Jeb for the presidential bid. George never had the character for the job.

Here's the family fuckup, running for president, and not getting elected by the people, despite the best efforts of his party to tilt the election. He had to be appointed president. And the Diebold reelection again indicated that the party didn't have faith in his ability to win an election cleanly. That's an invitation to drink, especially as the current fuckups have started piling up. And there's every indication that there will be more arrests among his staff, more failures in Iraq, more failures in domestic policies, more snubs within his own party.

Then there's the ridicule. That's very hard for a person with his personality. I remember my dad, who was an ace at the negotiation table, advising me about a difficult teacher in high school. Dad recommended ridicule as the best way to defeat a demagogue. From the fool's behavior during the debates, it's clear that he's insecure. A self-secure person is not that defensive in the face of criticism. And he's so easy to ridicule.

I remember reading that they found an aspirin bottle with tooth marks on the child-proof cap when cleaning out Nixon's desk after his resignation. As much as I hated Nixon--and I did--at that moment he turned human again. It's hard to demonize someone who evidences such human frustration.

I think I'm at that point with Bush. I can demonize him until I'm forced to face that he's just another bozo on the bus. Of course, he's supposed to be driving the bus, and that's why it's necessary to unseat him.

According to The U.S. Constitution online website,

The 25th Amendment reiterates what is stated in Article 2, Section 1: that the Vice President is the direct successor of the President. He or she will become President if the President cannot serve for whatever reason. The 25th also provides for a President who is temporarily disabled, such as if the President has a surgical procedure or if he or she become mentally unstable.

And the line of succession goes like this, unless the person holding that post is not eligible to be president (foreign born, for example):
* Speaker of the House of Representatives: Dennis Hastert of Illinois
* President Pro Tempore of the Senate: Ted Stevens of Alaska
* Secretary of State: Condoleeza Rice
* Secretary of the Treasury: John Snow
* Secretary of Defense: Donald Rumsfeld
* Attorney General: Alberto Gonzalez
and so on through the cabinet until you get to
* Secretary of Homeland Security (not yet set by law): Michael Chertoff

That's why these nominations are so important.

I just love it when fellow bloggers echo my own thoughts, AND save me the trouble of looking for evidence for my suspicions. When I heard that Cheney was having "elective" surgery for a "knee aneurysm" right now, in the middle of a big White House crisis, I thought, Oh, really.

The skepticism is linked to the observations of bloggers that Cheney was nowhere to be seen during the Katrina crisis (and some wondered if that was why the president was so inept--no puppet master--and others wondered if Cheney was distancing himself from the president because of his cascade of errors).

I wondered if it was Cheney's heart health, so that may be why this post on AmericaBlog seemed to be speaking for me.

Be well, Lynn

Catalog of links

I've been doing much more reading than writing since the semester got underway. Here are the pieces I've found worthy of note:

The Inheritance Tax

"Case Against Inheritance Tax is Bogus", co-authored by Bill Gates, Sr., whose son, Bill Gates, Jr., founded MicroSoft and is America's richest man. Both of the Gates oppose the Bush/Republican plan to ditch the estate tax; instead they propose raising the wealth exemption to $5 million

Writing teachers are big fans of a good conclusion, and this one works--and I especially love the last line.

The estate tax is the most fair and equitable tax in the land. A levy on estates in excess of $5 million is an appropriate mechanism for those who have disproportionately benefited from our marvelous system of wealth creation to pay back the society that fostered the fertile ground for their success. The estate tax should be rightfully understood as a "gratitude tax."

Also, I think this column expresses the underlying values that support our combination of the government philosophy of democracy and the economic philosophy of capitalism. Noblesse oblige was the term when applied to the high-born, the nobility. The super-rich would be the equivalent in America. The Gates seem to understand that the super-rich have an obligation to those who aren't.

Next--the Condition of the Gulf of Mexico

While the humanitarian issues connected to Katrina are the primary concern, the environmental issues are the next most important concern. The Gulf is in for some heavy damage that affects all of the coastal states.

Oil slicks from Gulf rigs and pipes -- toxic wastes from New Orleans and the Mississippi -- we surely aren't hearing this as clearly as people in Britain are--read this article from the Guardian.. When I google for U.S. news on oil slicks, I get a lot of minimizing and reassurance that "things are going well," which is par for the U.S. press, since they believe we can't take too much bad news at once, especially since there's a big push to increase Gulf drilling in the wake of Katrina.

This article from Greenpeace, Oil Spills in the Gulf, reports on the oil slicks (that no one is talking about), some of which are 30-40 miles long. If you look at the image (the link at end of "Oil Spill" article), the slicks are off Port Fourchon, LA. Another article, Are We in Phase One of a Major Environmental Disaster, is Jan Frel's report of a whistleblower at the EPA who claims that the water being pumped from New Orleans into the Gulf is far more toxic than we've been led to believe, and may have massive effects on the entire Gulf.

I think this may be the answer to the burning question: Why, now, is Bush taking responsibility for failures within his administration? For many people, Bush's switcheroo (from "let's not play the blame game" to "I'll take some blame") is a warning that we are going to hear MUCH more stuff we don't like. As the BBC pointed out, Bush didn't accept ALL the blame: "to the extent that the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility," Mr Bush said at a news conference."

Good Government

I don't always like Thomas Friedman, but I liked this article, "Singapore and Katrina." The first half is interesting, but then it really takes off. I love this, "Last year, we cut the National Science Foundation budget, while indulging absurd creationist theories in our schools... Our president and Congress held a midnight session about the health care of one woman, Terri Schiavo, while ignoring the health crisis of 40 million uninsured." And he continues to explain how we're off track.

Molly Ivins

Even though I have a link to her archive, and I regularly recommend her columns to everyone who will listen, this one, "The Graft Goes On," is particularly good, especially the ending, where she seems to be channeling my own feelings:

Many a time in the past six years I have bit my tongue so I wouldn't annoy people with the always obnoxious observation, "I told you so." But, dammit it all to hell, I did tell you, and I've been telling you since 1994, and I am so sick of this man and everything he represents -- all the sleazy, smug, self-righteous graft and corruption and "Christian" moralizing and cynicism and tax cuts for all his smug, rich buddies.

Next time I tell you someone from Texas should not be president of the United States, please pay attention.

Now We Hear From a Republican

I think this essay by Peggy Noonan, "The Storm Before the Balm, is important because (a) it is from a recognized Wall Street Journal contributing editor and (b) it gives an honest view of George Bush from a Republican who was special assistant to Reagan and chief speechwriter for George H.W. Bush. It's also well written.

How Bush is Fueling the Insurgency, part deux

Not a coincidence, in my book:

TUESDAY, 9/13, 11:36 AM EST:

On Tuesday morning, just prior to a meeting with President Bush, Reuters released this news from Iraqi President Jalal Talabani:

President Jalal Talabani has suggested the United States could withdraw up to 50,000 troops from Iraq by the end of the year, in sharp contrast to previous assessments by the US military.

TUESDAY, 9/13, 1:02 PM EST:

On Tuesday afternoon, following this meeting with President Bush, Reuters released the news that Iraqi Puppet President Jalal Talabani amends his rash statement:

Talabani said on Tuesday that Iraq will not set a timetable for a withdrawal of U.S. troops, backing away from his published remarks that the United States could withdraw as many as 50,000 troops by the end of the year.

Talabani, speaking at a joint news conference after a meeting with President George W. Bush, said however he hoped that by the end of 2006, Iraqi security forces would be strong enough to start taking over from "many" U.S. troops.

WEDNESDAY, 9/14:

Within 24 hours, we hear the response from Iraq::

BAGHDAD, Iraq - More than a dozen explosions ripped through the Iraqi capital in rapid succession Wednesday, killing at least 152 people and wounding 542 in a series of attacks that began with a suicide car bombing that targeted laborers assembled to find work for the day. Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility.

The death toll at hands of insurgents in the capital Wednesday far exceeds the carnage inflicted in any one day since the war began.

For Princess Bride lovers --

On mediamatters.com:

"Bipartisan"? You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Race and Class Prejudice

Recommended read: "The Chasm Between Us" by Polly Toynbee, an op-ed column from the British paper, The Guardian. Reading a foreign perspective is informative, even if I don't always agree with the author on certain points. Overall it is good -- especially the end, where the author widens her perspective to assess that London (and other countries with vast chasms between classes) would have the same problems as New Orleans. Her overall assessment that this disaster has revealed the gap between haves and have-nots in the U.S. strips the sheets off the race prejudice underlying many social problems here and around the world. And of course, I like the critique of "shock and awe."

I only heard yesterday about the middle-class suburbs, whose police forces blocked the bridges from the Convention Center area of NOLA and kept the poorer people from walking out of the flooded city. No wonder the poor rioted. I would, too. Here is a report from Science Daily:

Two San Francisco paramedics posted an eyewitness account online saying thousands were prevented from walking out of New Orleans via the Crescent City Connection. Gretna, La., police chief Arthur Lawson told United Press International several access points to the bridge were closed.

"We shut down the bridge," said Lawson.

He said Gretna had been "a closed and secure location" since before the storm hit.

The bridge is a major artery leading out of New Orleans across the Mississippi River. Lawson said once Katrina passed on Aug. 29, police from Gretna City, Jefferson Parrish and the Louisiana State Crescent City Connection Police Department blocked foot traffic on the three access points to the bridge closest to the West Bank of the river.

He said his town would have been overwhelmed if people had been permitted to cross over.

"There was no food, water or shelter" in Gretna City, Lawson said.

"If we had opened the bridge, our city would have looked like New Orleans does now: looted, burned and pillaged."

Or maybe the looting, burning, and pillaging were an espression of frustration from people who had been oppressed their whole lives and now must have felt like they were being sacrificed so that they wouldn't soil the pretty neighborhoods.

Context

The fool didn't want a Homeland Security administration. By combining it with FEMA, he was able to appear to value both, while quietly castrating them. That's what I meant by following the money. The important issue is not THAT these agencies failed, it's WHY they failed.

We've been recording The Daily Show this week--and it has been exceptional. I've watched the clip of the fool saying "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job," several times, and when the clip runs longer, you can see the little gasp an he turns and has to look at Brown, and you can see the loathing in the fool's eyes. I'm pretty sure I've found evidence that the fool is capable of irony. Toward the end of Lonesome Dove, Woodrow Call is praised as a man of vision. Call replies ironically, "Yes, a hell of a vision." (dissertation trivia: Charles Goodnight is the original source of this response.)

I actually believe that the fool is making the same ironic play on words: "hell/heck of a vision/job." And down the tubes goes Brownie. He did a heck of a job of making the fool look bad at a time when the fool was already looking bad. A heck of a job turning the attention of the public to the fool's system of rewards and punishment. It would be beneath me to mention that this could be why the fool failed to shine as a CEO, too. After all, that was then, old history. There's plenty of new history to talk about.

One reason to seek power is to be able to buy the loyalty of people. You place them in positions they haven't earned, especially if they've done you favors, because you don't want them holding your markers--and you continue to reward them for loyalty. And you define loyalty only in terms of yourself. (dissertation trivia: see Woodrow Call in Streets of Laredo). But the fool doesn't just reward loyalty, he snubs those who oppose him and seeks to harm those who "betray" him. Poor good ole' Brownie.

I wrote earlier about the fool and his ability to hold a grudge, and my example was the fool's grudge against the NAACP. New Orleans votes demo and Louisiana has a demo governer.

Before you blame FEMA and Homeland Security--follow the money

Since the Katrina fiasca, many people have pointed out that Bush slashed FEMA's budget. Not so many have commented on the lack of funding for Homeland Security, which has subsumed FEMA since Homeland Security was created in 2002. Remember, Bush initially opposed the creation of Homeland Security--and once he was forced to create it, he did not fund it, and in fact, reduced funding for FEMA.

Although U.S. citizens are given the impression that Homeland Security has made us safer than we were before 9/11, the problem is money. And the evidence is in the fiasco of the response to Katrina.

The federal response to a hurricane or to the break in the levy is the SAME as the response the federal government would be able to make if the levy had been broken by terrorists. It's a likely terrorist plot--WHY WASN'T THERE A FEDERAL PLAN OF ACTION IN THE EVENT OF A TERRORIST ATTACK ON NEW ORLEANS?

The Bush administration's tactic is to blame the workers, not the management, and we have another example of this right now. Just as with prisoner abuse, the Bush administration is trying to say that the Katrina fiasca was the result of a few bad apples at the local level.

Not so. This is the result of policy from the highest levels of the administration. They want to sedate the populace with the appearance of safety, but they don't intend to fund the facade.

It's about propaganda, always it's about propaganda. It's about dancin' a little sidestep whenever the shit hits the fan.

Ooh, I love to dance a little sidestep
Now they see me, now they don’t --I’ve come and gone
And ooh, I love to sweep around the wide step
Cut a little swath and lead the people on
Now my good friends
It behooves me
To be solemn and declare
I’m for goodness and for profit
And for living clean and saying daily prayer
And now my good friends
You can sleep nights
I’ll continue to stand tall
You can trust me
For I promise I shall keep a watchful eye upon y’all
Ooh, I love to dance a little sidestep
Now they see me, now they don’t--I’ve come and gone
And ooh, I love to sweep around the wide step
Cut a little swath and lead the people on
Excerpt from "The Sidestep," by Carol Hall for The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas"

Why does it feel like racism?

I saw racism in the media reports, but it's hard to say whether racism, per se, slowed the evacuation of New Orleans. I would call it discrimination, but more because of class--the N.O. evacuation victims had no means of leaving on their own because they were poor. Keep in mind, however, that without a doubt, poverty is racialized in the United States. Capitalism is the governing philosophy, even tainting religion, so that "the lord helps those who help themselves" becomes a sly way to insinuate that the lord teaches us to blame the poor for their poverty. I have to ask myself if the response would have been the same if the stranded had been wealthy and powerful people. An eye witness reports that the buses rolled past the poor and suffering on their way to evacuate the Hilton, confirming that money and power can get things done.

Let's consider this: if a blizzard and avalanche swallowed Aspen or another playground owned by the rich and powerful, would the rescue response have been as slow? Of course, there's no way to know for sure, but my gut tells me the response would have been faster. In N.O., the victims are the poor and powerless, and in the U.S., the poor and powerless are disproportionately people of color. So it's hard to say that racism isn't involved in the situation in N.O., but I think it's even more about money's power and privilege.

Now for a little rant about the South: It's important to remember that the U.S. South voted Democratic until the Democrats supported Civil Rights, then Southerners raised the pro-segregation platform of George Wallace. After Wallace, the pro-segregation South turned Republican, the party that supports and protects privilege. The under-privileged do not historically vote Republican, and Bush has a clear history of punishing those who do not support him. Case in point: the NAACP. Another case in point: Cindy Sheehan--no "time" to meet with her, but plenty of time for photo ops with an Idahoan mother who supports him. The New South, that is, the Republican South, values privilege far above rights. This was never clearer than in the evacuation of New Orleans.

To see ourselves as others see us ...

This BBC News article collects news reports from around the world--it's sobering to see how the response to New Orleans residents looks to the outside world.

BBN News: Press dismay at Katrina chaos

Newspapers around the world see Hurricane Katrina's chaotic aftermath as a defining moment for the presidency of George W Bush.

While there is clear sympathy for the disaster's victims, many commentators place the blame for the delayed rescue effort squarely on Mr Bush's administration.

Mexico's El Universal

The slowness with which the USA's federal emergency services have joined the rescue operation has already generated great political tension... There is no doubt that the lack of well-timed responses to assist the population will have political costs for President Bush's Republican Party in the next federal elections.

Colombia's El Colombiano

It is now urgent that the world's leaders take heed of nature's warning, look at the evidence and realise that the climate, on a global scale, is changing. This is already known from scientific reports, but they continue to ignore it, to play it down, or not to care about it.

Argentina's Clarin

Katrina had more than the power of the wind and water, because, now, when they have subsided, it can still reveal the emptiness of an era, one that is represented by President George W Bush more than anyone.

Spain's El Pais

Up until Monday, Bush was the president of the war in Iraq and 9/11. Today there are few doubts that he will also pass into history as the president who didn't know how to prevent the destruction of New Orleans and who abandoned its inhabitants to their fate for days. And the worst is yet to come.

Spain's La Razon

Proving that even the gods are mortal, it is clear that the USA's international image is being damaged in a way that it has never known before. The country will probably be able to recuperate from the destruction, but its pride has already been profoundly wounded.

France's Liberation

Bush had already been slow to react when the World Trade Center collapsed. Four years later, he was no quicker to get the measure of Katrina - a cruel lack of leadership at a time when this second major shock for 21st century America is adding to the crisis of confidence for the world's leading power and to international disorder. As happened with 9/11, the country is displaying its vulnerability to the eyes of the world.

France's Le Progres

Katrina has shown that the emperor has no clothes. The world's superpower is powerless when confronted with nature's fury.

Switzerland's Le Temps

The sea walls would not have burst in New Orleans if the funds meant for strengthening them had not been cut to help the war effort in Iraq and the war on terror... And rescue work would have been more effective if a section of National Guard from the areas affected had not been sent to Baghdad and Kabul... And would George Bush have left his holiday ranch more quickly if the disaster had not first struck the most disadvantaged populations of the black south?

Ireland's The Irish Times

This is a defining moment for Mr Bush, just as much as 9/11 was. So far his reputation for prompt and firm crisis management has fallen far short of what is required.

Saudi Arabia's Saudi Gazette

The episode illustrates that when the normal day-to-day activity of society disintegrates, the collapse of civilisation is only a few paces behind. We all walk on the edge of the abyss.

Musib Na'imi in Iran's Al-Vefagh

About 10,000 US National Guard troops were deployed [in New Orleans] and were granted the authority to fire at and kill whom they wanted, upon the pretext of restoring order. This decision is an indication of the US administration's militarist mentality, which regards killing as the only way to control even its own citizens.

Samih Sa'ab in Lebanon's Al-Nahar

The destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina... has proved that even the No 1 superpower in the world is helpless in facing nature's 'terrorism'.

Pakistan's The Nation

To augment the tragedy, the government of the world's richest nation defied the general expectation that at the first sign of the storm it would muster an armada of ships, boats and helicopters for the rescue operation. For nearly three days it sat smugly apathetic to the people's plight, their need for food, medicine and other basic necessities.

Hong Kong's Wen Wei Po

This disaster is a heavy blow to the United States, and a lesson which deserves deep thought... [It] is a warning to the Bush administration that the United States must clear its head and truly assume its responsibility to protect nature and the environment in which humankind lives.

Hong Kong's South China Morning Post

Even if our money may not be needed, at the least we should be offering moral support. Our skills in dealing with storms may be useful to help Americans prevent other such tragedies. We should be offering this help rather than shrugging off what should be our humanitarian duty.

Ambrose Murunga in Kenya's Daily Nation

My first reaction when television images of the survivors of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans came through the channels was that the producers must be showing the wrong clip. The images, and even the disproportionately high number of visibly impoverished blacks among the refugees, could easily have been a re-enactment of a scene from the pigeonholed African continent.

BBC Monitoring selects and translates news from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages. It is based in Caversham, UK, and has several bureaus abroad.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/americas/4211320.stm

Published: 2005/09/03 15:18:54 GMT

© BBC MMV

Molly Ivins on "the blame game"

This is a must read: Molly Ivins latest column, "New Orleans: It's about us."

Speaking from unspeakable experience ... the worse is yet to come

According to the BBC,

Jan Egeland, the UN emergency relief co-ordinator has written to US ambassador to the UN John Bolton offering help.

"I understand people's frustration, but I also know from bitter experience that this, the fifth and the sixth and the seventh days are always among the worst, because it is before you reach, really, the largest amount of people," he told the BBC.

"Could more have been done? I would say every society in the world is not preparing adequately for catastrophic events. Disaster prevention is something that we are campaigning for all over the world, and I would say no society is fully prepared for all eventualities."

And on AlterNet, Reuter reports, "U.N. emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland, who oversaw the Asian tsunami relief effort, said Katrina could easily dwarf the devastation of other recent natural disasters in terms of economic costs. Egeland called Katrina one of 'the largest, most destructive natural disasters ever' and offered U.N assistance."

Arrested development

I know others have remarked on this one, but I want a record of what the fool said this time:

From FoxNews.com

Cutting short his vacation to return to the White House, Air Force One flew over the damaged areas of New Orleans as well as Slidell, La., and Gulfport, Pascagoula and Biloxi, Miss. During the 35-minute tour, Bush clearly saw from his vantage point the damage to the football stadium in New Orleans as well as the flooded neighborhoods, wiped out bridges and slabs of foundations where houses used to stand.

"It's devastating. It's got to be doubly devastating on the ground," Bush told aides during the flight. "It's totally wiped out."

Perspective-taking is a higher order intellectual skill that develops during adolescence. With a statement like this, we can't say the fool has no perspective-taking skills, but we can say that they aren't well developed. Look out the window of his private airplane, with his comfy seat, his cold drinks, and his own potty, even the fool can see that it's worse to actually be in the mess than to suffer from looking at it.

But … "doubly"? That reflects the stunted development of perspective-taking that we have seen evidenced all along the fool's presidency.

Minimum wage v. Substantial gainful activity

First of all, we need this reference point: Minimum wage is $5.15/hr = 10712/yr = 892.67/month

Let's compare that to what Bob and I have just learned when he filed for disability.

First, in order to quality as "disabled" by the Social Security Administration, you have to be completely disabled--no partial disability need apply. The guidelines say, "If you are working in 2005 and your earnings average more than $830 a month, you generally cannot be considered disabled." In other words, the "Social Security Disability Threshold" for "substantial gainful activity" is $830/month.

Conversely, a person (like Bob) CAN be considered totally disabled by the federal government and still earn $829/month.

Do I need to point out that there is less than $65/month difference between what the government considers a minimum wage and what that same government considers the threshold for totally disabled with regard to work?

And we blame people for not moving out of poverty? We blame mothers for going on welfare rather than supporting their kids on minimum wage, when that minimum wage is only $65/month more than "insubstantial" gainful activity?

FEMA director blames the victims

According to FEMA Director "Michael Brown thousands of people will die in New Orleans. But he goes on to say, "Unfortunately, that's going to be attributable a lot to people who did not heed the advance warnings," Brown told CNN. "I don't make judgments about why people chose not to leave but, you know, there was a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans," he said.

In the 2004 evacuation of N.O. for hurricane Ivan, as I've written in posts below, the N.O. mayor predicted 100,000 people would not be able to evacuate because they depend on public transportation. In addition, many visitors could not leave because they, too, were dependent on public transportation and airways.

Now I share the frustation over people who chose not to leave, even though they had means to do so, but the overwhelming majority of these stranded people had no means of leaving--and this was well known at least a year in advance.

FEMA must be desperate to side-step the blame and instead throw it at the indigent. And yet FEMA, too, was the victim of the short-sighted federal government who exploited 9/11 by trying to convince everyone that 9/11 was as bad as it gets--so that resources necessary for ordinary national defense were diverted, in order to miscarry the fool's private agenda.

This news report from 2004 on Hurricane Ivan lays out, one year ago, a pretty accurate picture of Katrina's damage. Some snips:

More than 1.2 million people in metropolitan New Orleans were warned to get out Tuesday as 140-mph Hurricane Ivan churned toward the Gulf Coast, threatening to submerge this below-sea-level city in what could be the most disastrous storm to hit in nearly 40 years.

Residents streamed inland in bumper-to-bumper traffic in an agonizingly slow exodus amid dire warnings that Ivan could overwhelm New Orleans with up to 20 feet of filthy, chemical-polluted water.

New Orleans, the nation's largest city below sea level, is particularly vulnerable to flooding, and Mayor Ray Nagin urged residents to get out while they can.

Nagin said he would "aggressively recommend" people evacuate, but that it would be difficult to order them to, because at least 100,000 in the city rely on public transportation and have no way to leave.

The mayor also said many people were in town for conventions, and there was nowhere for many of them to go except their hotels.

Nagin said the city was working on setting up a shelter of "last resort" and added that the Superdome might be used, but a spokesman for the stadium said earlier Tuesday that it was not equipped as a shelter.

By midday Tuesday, traffic on Interstate 10, the major hurricane route out of New Orleans, was at a near standstill, and state police turned the interstate west of the city into a one-way route out. U.S. Highway 61 to Baton Rouge also was jammed.

Again, these comments were about the expected arrival of Hurricane Ivan, from the 2004 hurricane season, and even in 2004, the 2005 hurricane season was expected to be worse. It is disingenuous for the fool we call president to act surprised at the damage to New Orleans. And if it's not disingenuous, it's worse.

This fool is our president?

The fool in the White House says, "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees. They did appreciate a serious storm but these levees got breached and as a result much of New Orleans is flooded and now we're having to deal with it and will," he said.

Well I guess he just admitted the defeat of his homeland "security" efforts.

Of course, people DID anticipate the breach of the levees, even if the fool didn't.

"A grim Mayor C. Ray Nagin conceded Katrina's storm surge pushing up the Mississippi River would swamp New Orleans' system of levees, flooding the bowl-shaped city and causing potentially months of misery" on August 28, 2005."We are facing a storm that most of us have long feared," he said. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime event."

Of course, New Orleans has known for a long time that a major hurricane would do exactly what Katrina has done. in the 2004 hurrican season, I heard the N.O. mayor say that they had evacuation plans, but that 100,000 people would not have the means of evacuating. This was in 2004--and he was right. And he talked about the levees and the flooding. This was part of the N.O. disaster plans.

Of course, they couldn't have anticipated in 2003 that the National Guard would be halfway around the world, fighting a war that the fool started for reasons he would rather not discuss.

The New York Times editorial says it well.