Rachel Maddow, over on Air America Radio, has been doing a nice job of bringing to light articles from the New Orleans Times-Picayune. This paper (which I doubt is part of the Liberal Media cabal) has been publishing a number of articles over the past few years on how the federal government has been cutting the budget of the Army Corps of Engineers. These are the funds which would have been used to plan and build improvements in the levee system in New Orleans. Maddow and others have also brought up a study from early 2001 (prior to 9/11) which said that a major hurricane and flooding such as we are now seeing would be one of the top three economic catastrophes which would effect the United States. (The other two would be a 'terrorist attack on New York City' *ahem* and a major earthquake in San Francisco.)

This Friday, His Smugness will come down from on high (or 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, if you prefer) and walk among the common folk bestowing his platitudes. He shall appear before them dressed in jeans and denim shirt, with his sleeves rolled up so that he may truly be seen as ‘one of them.’ He shall ask them to pause with him in prayer, and as he bows his head will probably wonder which one of his aides will be assigned to get all this “damn mud & sh*t’ off my boots.” Then he will pass among them (well protected by armed men) and hand out some water or other necessities which he, of course, has never done without.

As progressive folks have been saying over the past couple of days, while you can’t blame G.W. or his administration for the disaster, you can certainly hold them accountable for cutting the funding which might have prevented some of the destruction. You can also blame them for putting the majority of the National Guard & Reserve of the three states, who would normally be mobilized at this time, over in Iraq to fight in a war we can not win and which will suck the money needed for the reconstruction of three states.