We lived down South for a few years in an area periodically hit by hurricanes. We purchased a house there. Like anyone, we were required by the bank to get homeowners insurance to cover the mortgage in case something happened. However, our property was not considered to be in a flood area, so we were [...]

This is to be expected. Republicans are trying to reclaim their fiscally responsible past, and the backlash against $200 billion in aid, with no budget cuts in site, is palpable. From the NY Times: One fiscal conservative, Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, said Thursday, “I don’t believe that everything that should happen in Louisiana [...]

And Joe Gandleman responds with a MASSIVE post. Honestly, it’s almost too long to read in one sitting, but give it a try. Here’s an excerpt: STYLE: This was clearly a well-rehearsed and delivered speech. The tone was fine but, again, the timing of the speech â€â€? coming after the huge controversy over the federal [...]

It looks like the total relief package, when all is said and done, is going to be around $200 billion dollars. Yes, that’s billion with a “b”. So where is Bush going to get the money? In response to Peggy Noonan’s call for a debate over conservatism, Andrew Sullivan tears into Bush’s fiscal policy with [...]

According to a Knight Ridder article, it was Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff who had the power and responsibility to react to hurricane Katrina — not then FEMA chief Michael Brown. But Chertoff – not Brown – was in charge of managing the national response to a catastrophic disaster, according to the National Response Plan, [...]

Sean LaFreniere is another blogger with a history background. He’s done some yeoman work compiling a list of donations from foreign countries toward hurricane relief in the U.S. His post previous to that, putting the nature of hurricane damage in perspective, also is well worth a read. Aid offered by foreign nations at a time [...]

So how did the contest turn out, between CodePink and Protest Warrior in San Diego to see whether Iraq war supporters or Iraq war opponents could raise more money for hurricane relief? See for yourself. The Protest Warrior team raised $11,663.33. CodePink contributed $1,403.13. The winners? The people of New Orleans, who have another $13,066.46 [...]

Here. I’m afraid I don’t know much about the state’s geography, and the news stories have a maddening habit of identifying locations only by parish, without reference to spots I do know, like New Orleans or the Gulf. This map has been helpful to me.

Dell Gines, Urban Conservative finds the urban poor of New Orleans turning into a political football, and he interrupts the game to ask a good question. The neo-conservative ideologues and pundits assign full individual accountability to ‘liberal policies’ and the individual poor for poverty. Conversely, the neo-liberal ideologues and pundits assign full accountability to the [...]

Gerard Vanderleun eviscerates James Wolcott, who first cheered for the onrushing hurricane … … longing for it to become big and strong–Mother Nature’s fist of fury, Gaia’s stern rebuke. Considering the havoc mankind has wreaked upon nature with deforesting, stripmining, and the destruction of animal habitat, it only seems fair that nature get some of [...]

“Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government[.]” “To the extent the federal government didn’t fully do its job right, I take responsibility[.]” — George Bush Associated Press: Bush Takes Responsibility for Blunders

Dennis the Peasant sums it up: First of all, let’s understand that President Bush’s polling numbers are not abysmal because of “the Democrats� have suddenly become the voice of the people. Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Jesse Jackson and Cindy Sheehan didn’t wake up yesterday and suddenly start talking sense. Far from it. What the citizenry [...]

Disgusted with politics and politicians, with blame-shifting and trash-talking? Feeling let down by the government, on every level? Read “From Mississippi to Iraq and back.” It’s a story of war and hurricanes, families broken, homes destroyed, women persecuted, people on two continents who are, in their own ways, down on their luck and probably always [...]

Jeff Jarvis notes, correctly, the snarkiness of this “New York Times” story on the Internet and the hurricane. Jarvis writes: With all the ways people are using the internet after Katrina â€â€? for news, relief, advice, finding the missing (covered incompletely here), even getting rescued – – what angle does The Times Monday online column [...]

Mustang ’09, a veteran National Guard soldier from Minnesota now serving in Iraq, has something to point out to those who say the military response to the Gulf Coast hurricane was too slow. There seems to be a perception that the National Guard is available at a moment’s notice, capable of just rising out of [...]

With as much flack as I’ve given this guy in the past week, it still can’t be easy to be at the very heart of a controversy such as this. Now he doesn’t have to really worry about it anymore. From the SF Gate: Federal Emergency Management Agency director Mike Brown said Monday he has [...]

Is it ok to suspend the Bill of Rights in an emergency situation? In this case — reported last Friday by the New York Times — it’s the Second Amendment. Mr. Compass, the police superintendent, said that after a week of near anarchy in the city, no civilians in New Orleans will be allowed to [...]

Meet Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, “an icon of leadership in a land hungry for a leader after a hurricane exposed the nation’s vulnerability to disasters.” It makes me extremely uncomfortable that civil authority in modern America has proven itself inept, and that Americans have yet one more bit of evidence that the military is [...]

There’s more than one way to cover a disaster. It’s becoming difficult to remember that New Orleans was wrecked by an act of nature. Americans expect so much of our system, our people, and our government, that we look to blame them for catastrophic failure. As though they could have — and should have — [...]

And by the way, so do I. Much, much more on that soon… But first, it is indeed THAT Bill Kristol. The editor of The Weekly Standard, arguably one of the most influential right-wing magazines in existence. From the World&Nation “The more one learns about him,” Republican commentator William Kristol said on Fox News, “one [...]