UPDATE: For more information, read this post about FEMA trailers from a driver who was inside the trailer park in Arkansas. We even have pictures from inside the park itself.
The story says it all:
More than 10,000 trailers that could be housing hurricane evacuees sit empty on airport property in Hope, Ark. — and the area’s [...]

This is very sad, and should point out a fatal flaw in the process of information dissemenation at FEMA under Michael Brown…
WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 � In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Bush administration officials said they had been caught by surprise when they were told on Tuesday, Aug. 30, that a levee had broken, allowing [...]

That’s right, it wasn’t a Category 5 hurricane…
Bareknuckle Politics had the story first (as far as I can tell) back in October right after the Hurricane decimated the Big Easy.
Now there’s confirmation…
Researchers now say Hurricane Katrina was weaker than they thought when the catastrophic storm slammed ashore in August.
New data from the National Hurricane [...]

If you want to help New Orleans this holiday season, why not buy some stuff from them? The following businesses are located in New Orleans and all need our help.

Unique Jewelry
Local Artists
Cute New Orleans T-shirts
Louisiana Caviar
Retro Women’s Fashion
Fabulous Lingerie
Monogrammed Heirloom-quality Linens
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Children Clothes and Gifts
Great Local Music
Tim Laughlin, Jazz Clarinet
Don Vappie and the Creole [...]

Nearly unbelievable…
DENVER – Former FEMA Director Michael Brown, heavily criticized for his agency’s slow response to Hurricane Katrina, is starting a disaster preparedness consulting firm to help clients avoid the sort of errors that cost him his job.
“If I can help people focus on preparedness, how to be better prepared in their homes and [...]

There’s more, but this is all you need to know.
Two days after Katrina hit, Marty Bahamonde, one of the only FEMA employees in New Orleans, wrote to Brown that “the situation is past critical” and listed problems including many people near death and food and water running out at the Superdome.
Brown’s entire response was: [...]

More and more, it seems like the outrage against Michael Brown’s leadership was justified.
Michelle Malkin recounts some interesting details:
I received a bit of flack from some of my conservative friends for highlighting FEMA’s inadequate response–particularly former FEMA chief Michael Brown’s embarrassing performance–during Hurricane Katrina. This week, Department of Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff and [...]

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita was a big reason the wholesale prices jumped by 1.9 percent. That may not seem like much, but consider that in September gasoline prices were up 17.9%, the highest one-month increase in 25 years. Along with that, food prices had their highest increase in 11 months.
Here’s more from the AP:
While the [...]

But then again, so did local corruption.
Who shoulders the most blame? Fewer troops at home means fewer troops for disaster relief. Fairly logical.
From The Independent.
The report was commissioned by the Office of Secretary of Defence as an “independent and critical review” of what went so wrong. In a hard-hitting analysis, it says: “The US [...]

What do those two things have in common?
Well, apparently the U.S. Department of Education thinks that some of the students who were displaced by Hurricane Katrina should go to the private, religious schools that they attended before the Hurricane hit. They even saw fit to put a $488 million school voucher proposal into the possible [...]

This is truly amazing, and no, not the good kind of amazing.
From Washington Post.
Former Federal Emergency Management Agency director Michael D. Brown said yesterday that it was not his job to take over the evacuation of New Orleans and rescue the drowning city from Hurricane Katrina, blaming Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, New Orleans Mayor [...]

The New York Times finds common threads among the 220 Mississippi hurricane victims. And “Bush lied, they died” isn’t among them.
Most of the victims were in their 60s or older. Many had the ability to evacuate, and relatives and friends pleaded with them to do so. Instead, they stayed. Some of the older residents just [...]

AlterNet posts an interview with the Weather Channel’s climate expert Heidi Cullen. She says global warming isn’t the only culprit we sould examine with regard to the intensity of Hurricane Katrina.
What lesson should we draw from Katrina? In light of the fact that it was predicted years ago what a hurricane like Katrina [...]

It’s important to remember that the people our leaders appoint to these positions need to have the appropriate experience, otherwise we’re simply leaving our safety up to “ideology.”
One such person is the head of the regional FEMA office in the Northwest, John Pennington, whose only experience seems to be an “interest” in disaster relief.
From TIME:
In [...]

It’s not often the right-wing newspaper turns on Bush, but it’s slowly turning against him.
Diana West laments:
Let’s take a look at this portrait of presidential leadership, as painted by the Associated Press: “Sitting in [the USS Iwo Jima] mess hall, the president watched large screens beaming to him via videoconference the images of three [...]

…but one journalist certainly thinks he may be incompetent…
At least that’s what Richard Cohen says in an editorial in the LA Times recently.
If you told me that George W. Bush is a dummy, I would argue with you but understand why you thought so: all those idiotic statements. But if you told me, as some [...]

Sometimes those who think anyone could do a better job helping hurricane victims than the “racist” Bush Administration have to try it out to discover life isn’t that simple. And leftist anti-war triumphalism has a way of vanishing overnight.

Another hurricane is brewing off the coast of Florida.
Let’s hope it doesn’t come anywhere close to being as powerful as Katrina.
From Bloomberg:
Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) — Tropical Storm Rita maintained its track toward the southern Florida coast with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (80 kph) and higher gusts that are expected to strengthen to [...]

This is pretty significant. I agree with Clinton about the response to Katrina and the funding of the aftermath, but is this going over the line?
The Moderate Voice has this to say:
Indeed, this may be yet one more indication that Bush is in serious trouble, now that Clinton, more diplomat than adversary through Bush’s first [...]

This is completely expected, and completely sad.
Simply put, if the man and his advisors won’t even CONSIDER raising taxes (even for a brief time) so that important federal programs won’t get hit hard, then I’ve lost even more respect for this Administration.
One day after pledging to undertake one of history’s largest reconstruction efforts, President Bush [...]