Katrina

I just spent a great deal of time writing about this storm and my anger at the President, and the whole thing was erased when it published. So--I am just going to do greatest hits here, I think

Read Leon Wynter's piece about race just on NPR. There is so much going on, and I think there will be much more made of this in the upcoming days. As it should be.

Read Michael Moore's letter to the President.

And most of what I wrote was anger at the stupidity of the President. He was on vacation until Wednesday. Where was he on Tuesday during the flooding and when people were dying? Why did he show up today and say this will require more than one day of his attention? He stood there today saying how great Trent Lott's house would look when it was rebuilt. What about the entire ninth ward? What about all those poor people with no jobs who now have lost there houses? But what really got me was when he said the storm looked worse than the "worst weapon you could imagine". That's the problem. He's been imagining weapons here and abroad. Pushing paranioa here and destroying a country there. Moving the amphibious vehicles that were needed to a desert (!) to fight the people there. This storm could have been imagined. It was, in fact. Before he cut FEMAs budget by 40% to fund the (#*&%#)(*$&ing "War on Terror". Before he appointed someone with no disaster experience to the head of FEMA in 2001. There were studies done, and then fudning pulled. Why? Well, there were imaginary terrorists to keep ourselves safe from. And now, he finally manages to make it to the city after four days of death and starvation to say he's handling it. What a (*&#$)(*&ing idiot. I really hope this makes Americans think about who we are electing. The data was there. No one seems to be talking about how the climate is changing, and global warming is causing water temps to rise and therefore, you guessed it, worse storms. But who cares when you're rich, landlocked in Texas, and making tons of money for your oil buddies, here and in Saudi. Ugh.

And the other thing--there is a group that sent Salon.com an email that the storm looks like a fetus, and is God's retribution for allowing abortion. Add that to the voices of those saying that because Southern Decadence was starting on Wednesday, the whole thing was God's destruction of Sodom again. A friend emailed that it could be God's destruction of the South for its intolerance. Just as likely. Busy God, though-- I also read how people believe the US is being punished in Iraq for tolerating homosexuality. This makes complete sense. Iraq executes homosexuals, and you can see how they are having a most blessed time right now.

Well, I wrote more than just bullet points, and I hope I covered most of what I was thinking. Mostly that the Yahoo in charge needs to think a little less about weapons. We could have had people there, and people in place. Even if the whole thing could not have been prevented, the reaction to it could have been much faster. There has been much needless loss of life. This is awful and an embarrasment to our country. And I think we will be feeling it for a long time to come.