An odd couple? Hardly. Seems they both buy into the notion that God uses hurricanes as punishment for political positions.
Take it from the horse’s mouth.

In 1998, Republican icon Pat Robertson warned that hurricanes were likely to hit communities that offended God. Perhaps it was [Mississippi Governor Haley] Barbour’s memo that caused Katrina, at the last [...]

“The flood came in the night without warning, a fateful combination of freak high tides and gale-force winds that killed 1,835 people.”

It was the great North Sea flood that devastated the Netherlands in 1953.
To aid the victims in the Netherlands, other countries in the region, including Denmark and Iceland, issues special “NL” overmarked postage stamps, [...]

Frequent Donklephant commenter, N. Mallory, has a listing of relief organizations over on her site The Naked Truth. Just look in the right-hand column.

An Associated Press headline declares “Poll: Fewer See Dems As Religion-Friendly.”
Democrats’ efforts to improve their image with religious voters after the 2004 presidential election appear to be getting off to a bumpy start.
Fewer people see Democrats as friendly to religion now than felt that way a year ago, according to a poll released Tuesday by [...]

Today’s Washington Post reports that Sunni groups have turned on Zarqawi and are fighting with his followers.
The clashes between Sunni Arab tribes and insurgents, coupled with growing vows by Iraq’s Sunni minority to turn out in force for national voting in the coming months, coincided with U.S. hopes for defusing the two-year-old insurgency. U.S. military [...]

A new poll by ABC News shows that people are pissed about gas prices:
At home, opinions on gasoline prices are even more dire. Just 22 percent approve of Bush’s work on the problem, while a whopping 73 percent disapprove. Two-thirds say gas prices are causing them financial hardship â€â€? back up after a dip [...]

Correction: Sept. 1
I completely missed this correction the New York Times put out about the Abu Ghraib story just three days after the initial story broke.
An article on Saturday about a federal judge’s order regarding photographs and videotapes related to the Abu Ghraib prison scandal misstated a deadline and the response by Defense Department lawyers. [...]

This is sad news, but understandable given that the recession in the 90s took nearly four years to recover from. 9/11 and the stock market swoon can be seen as much worse contributors to an overall decline.
However, what isn’t understandable is that while poverty numbers rise, more people are working and producing goods and therefore [...]

Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf hard. I’ve heard from various news sources that rescue workers are having to do their work around floating bodies, so the following numbers may be WAY underestimated.
From Reuters:
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) – Helicopters plucked frantic survivors from rooftops, debris-fouled water flooded historic New Orleans and hundreds were feared dead on Tuesday [...]

In situations like this, looting is inevitable and heartbreaking.
NEW ORLEANS — With much of the city flooded by Hurricane Katrina, looters floated garbage cans filled with clothing and jewelry down the street in a dash to grab what they could. In some cases, looting on Tuesday took place in full view of police and National [...]

Please, donate to the Red Cross relief fund. Remember, $10 spread out over 1,000 Donklephant readers means $10,000, and that could buy so much clean water that one person could hardly drink it in a lifetime.
Now is the time to pitch in. Do your part.
Now, on to the news…
Unfortunately, there seems to be no end [...]

The levee broke and Kathryn Cramer has a bunch of pictures.

Citizen Smash helps organize a support-the-war-effort rally in San Diego, and along the way his group offers a good example of isolating the extremists — or the “plants” from the other side who try to make you look like extremists.
Another counter-demonstrator tried to be clever, by holding up a sign that read “NUKE IRAN.� We [...]

Uh-oh.
Hurricane Katrina’s effects may indeed be felt all over the nation
The region that produces and refines a major portion of the nation’s oil and natural gas was largely shut down by Hurricane Katrina yesterday, further tightening strained energy markets and sending prices to new highs.
As oil companies evacuated offshore operations throughout the Gulf of Mexico, [...]

You got it!
Arthur Chrenkoff gives you all you can handle…and more.
From the Opinion Journal:
Maj. Joe Leahy is a civil engineer with the U.S. Army’s Engineer Brigade. He has been stationed at Camp Victory, outside of Baghdad, since November 2004–enough time to get frustrated. “We all know it’s a dangerous place,” he says. “But [...]

A good rundown of the ins and outs of the Iraqi Constitution shows up in the New York Times today.
The process to come up with the first draft has been strained at best. The Sunnis, who are a minority party, don’t like the current draft and could very possibly vote for a new draft [...]

The Air Force is issuing new guidelines on religious tolerance:
The document directs chaplains to “respect the rights of others to their own religious beliefs, including the right to hold no beliefs.”
Good.
However, I can’t quite square this statement:
The guidelines do not ban public prayer outright and say short, nonsectarian prayers may be included in special ceremonies [...]

FCC chairman Kevin J. Martin is on a mission to”…change the television landscape.” It seems he is committed to curbing indecency on cable and satellite services.
…Martin told activists that he is privately reaching out to industry leaders to address racy content on basic cable and satellite television, says Rick Schatz, the president of the [...]

A new study released by the Center For Immigration Studies points out that terrorists have been using our own system to slip into the US for years:
WASHINGTON — Some used false documents to enter the United States; others let their legal visas expire once in the country. And at least 21 foreign nationals became naturalized [...]

But with as much worry about Louisiana, the 55 who died lived in Mississippi, the state who got hit the hardest by the storm.
However, a major levee broke in New Orleans and has flooded over 80% of the city, putting those areas under 20 feet of water.
Water poured into New Orleans from Lake Pontchartrain after [...]