by Last Night in Little Rock

Showing that his four heart attacked golden heart is in the right place, VP Dick Cheney was not totally hiding during Katrina. He directed that power be restored to a pipeline pumping station in Southern Mississippi, at the expense of restoring power to a rural hospital first. The repair crews were diverted.

by Last Night in Little Rock

James Lee Witt, former FEMA director and current Louisiana recovery director and director of his own disaster recovery firm, said in today's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that he opposes President Bush's plan to militarize parts of FEMA's mission:

by Last Night in Little Rock

The lights came on in the New Orleans warehouse district, near Jackson square, on Thursday night, and the people rejoiced. Their City was coming back to life.

But, when the President's speech was over, somebody was told to pull the plug. Brian Williams reports for NBC's Nightly News:

by Last Night in Little Rock

Anderson Cooper 360 on CNN tonight was a wealth of information tonight, and the transcript is here. Not to slight all the other stories, including a great shouting match between Kenner city officials on tape accusing each other of incompetence and racism, the main story to me was the FEMA employee union president accusing those in charge of ignoring their own dire warnings and botching the relief efforts while the rank and file felt helpless:

by Last Night in Little Rock

The Saturday NY Times has an article, on its website late Friday night, that the Federal Emergency Mismanagement Agency still cannot get it right: FEMA, Slow to the Rescue, Now Stumbles in Aid Effort.

by Last Night in Little Rock

The weapons of mass destruction have been found, and they were right under our noses all the time:

George W. Bush and each member of his mal-administration, the Federal Emergency Mismanagement Agency, and the Congress that passed Bush's budget that gutted the NOLA levee project in favor of pork barrel spending, tax cuts for the rich that gutted the economy, and the War in Iraq.

by TChris

Daily Kos has a story that's sure to get your dander up. After the administration spread its dual talking point strategy -- blame state and local governments for the failure to protect the poor from Hurricane Katrina, all the while decrying the "blame game" -- the Justice Department started looking for evidence that would allow the administration to blame environmentalists.

by Last Night in Little Rock

The NY Times reports today that G.O.P. Split Over Big Plans for Storm Spending. I wrote here that the federal government had a moral obligation to pay for the damage and reconstruction.

Suddenly, the big spenders become misers.

by Last Night in Little Rock

The New York Times quotes NOLA Mayor Nagin as saying that parts of New Orleans will be open this weekend, "with the French Quarter fully open for business a week from Monday."

I'm making plans to be there for the opening, if not sooner because parts of the French Quarter are already open, assuming I can clear my calendar. It is for next week, but that may be too soon.

My wife says it's because I'm apparently drawn to disasters. We were at Ground Zero two weeks later in 2001. The stench of death hung over lower Manhattan, but the City had regained most of its spirit by then, but there was a sense of everybody being subdued.

Uh-oh. Alan Dershowitz discusses what he has learned from listening to Judge Roberts:

1. He will not overrule Roe v. Wade, though he will not extend it beyond current Supreme Court holdings.

2. He will dramatically lower the wall of separation between church and state, and be a reliable vote with Justices Scalia and Thomas on this critical issue.

3. He will uphold the death penalty against both substantive and procedural challenges and will narrow the opportunity of death row inmates to challenge their convictions.

by Last Night in Little Rock

CNN just reported on air that tonight's speech in NOLA by the President would be a "defining moment" for his presidency. Wrong.

His defining moment, to me, was when he stupidly said "nobody thought the levee would break" when the NOLA doomsday scenario was on everybody's mind who ever had a sentient thought about the fact a hurricane could destroy NOLA. Key words: "sentient thought."

by TChris

As this report notes, John Roberts answered few substantive questions during his confirmation hearings. This is standard practice in post-Bork hearings, and Roberts, who has coached other judicial candidates in the art of the non-answer, was careful to say nothing that could stir controversy.

"We're rolling the dice with you, judge," Biden said, "because you won't share your views with us. You've told me nothing in this Kabuki dance. The public has a right to know what you think."

"You've being less forthcoming with this Committee than any nominee who has ever come before us," said New York Democratic Senator Charles Schumer. "This process is getting more and more absurd," he added.

When he did venture an opinion, Judge Roberts tried to satisfy everyone (or, at least, to offend no one). As Emily Bazelon observes, Judge Roberts opined that justices who voted to replace Plessy (separate but equal is consistent with equal protection) with Brown (racial segregation violates equal protection) were not overreaching activists (placating the left) but were actually giving effect to the original intent of the Fourteenth Amendment (placating the right).