FEMA funding should not de-emphasize natural disaster planning (hurricane damage in the GUlf states, earthquake preparedness for the West Coast, tornado damage mitigation in the Midwest).

Or is that too partisan for some folks?

I wonder what country we’re going to invade to retaliate- Look for “Operation Katrina Justice” soon, if history is a guide.

It’s possible to have these kinds of discussions now and still devote necessary care and attention to the needs of Katrina’s victims. Of course, that depends on whether or not the participants can stick to the topic at hand. TomY never said that the levees surely would have held if Bush hadn’t cut funding. He did say that there no’s way in hell cutting funding could have helped the situation. So either spending the money would have made no difference or it would have made some difference perhaps giving authorities the time to save a few more lives. In hindsight, which option would have been at the forefront of your mind when someone asked you in 2003, should we cut this funding or not? Would you have placed your faith and resources in the Army Corps of Engineers in the hope of, one day, possibly saving American lives and livelihoods? Bush faced that question and we know his choice. It’ll be a little while before we know the real consequences of that decision but there’s no reason why we can’t start asking questions now.

JD can we stop with the stupid suggestions that anyone is blaming Bush for the hurricane? TomY raises a serious point about the Bush administration’s spending priorities and you try to pretend that he’s blaming Bush for the weather. That’s some serious disconnect in the noggin, my friend. You may want to have that looked at by a professional.

In the meantime, WTF, why are we even bothering to reconstruct Iraq, the long delays, the kickbacks, the gouging, all that red tape. Just look at how long it’s taken them to get six hours of electricity a day and we’re using totally non-union labor over there. Why even start trying to rebuild anything? What a totally irrelevant and stupid dodge.

What Tom’s premise overlooks, intentionally I suppose, is the fact that this is a freaking natural disaster. I know it will come as a shock to those of you who so despise him, but President Bush did not call up Halliburton and order a Cat 4 hurricane to pulverize the Mississippi Delta. Even if it were in his power to do so, I cannot imagine him doing so.

If you can’t get that through your thick, partisan skull, then that’s just a shame.

To think that there is no political dimension to a hurricane — or just about anything else these days — is to live in a fantasy land. To think that the president and his team haven’t already carefully measured all the political angles of Katrina is equally naive. To argue that that liberals are only thinking of the political angle of this disaster — personal tragedy and devastation be damned — is in itself to exploit the situation for partisan gain. Let’s take an extreme example: Before and during the disaster Bush travels the Western states defending his war in Iraq while making no mention whatsoever of the hurricane and those effected. Now, this would never happen. Why? Number one because we can all safely assume that Bush and his team are still human beings who wish to express their empathy and support for Katrina’s victims but also because, we can equally assume, that to say nothing whatsoever would be politically disasterous. The political consideration doesn’t negate the personal response or vice versa. On the flip side, Bush and his team could over respond to the situation, getting the president too involved in coordinating the response or being too effusive emotionally which can seem disingenuous.

At present I simply find it odd that the president has continued on with a multi-state sales pitch for the war in Iraq while such a large portion of the country is undergoing such a severe crisis. We’ll see how he proceeds. Then again, it’s important to remember that IRaq and the hurricane are linked through the National Guard. If the rescue and reconstruction efforts turn up short handed Bush will have to explain why building schools in Falluja is more important than repairing levies in New Orleans.

Where do you think most of the relief money will come from? Blue states, I bet.

You, sir, are an idiot.

You can’t help salivating when the bell rings, can you, Lefties…

Acttually, what I am most pissed about is the President, in his speech commemorting VJ day, comparing the Iraq situation to the Holy War of WWll. To compare Hussein to Hitler, like his father did, or ignore the fact we had no choices about whether to fight in WWll, shows either contempt for the American people or incredible ignorance.

Also, I understand that there is an upside to this Katrina thing in Chicago. Commodities traders are having a boom day speculating on everything from cotton to oil and gasoline, thanks to the fear of shortages of essential products from the American South. See…one man’s loss is another man’s gain. And isnt that what capitalism is all about?