Me: “So –” Long: “—Don’t look at me.  FEMA is the Devil!  Michael Brown, he’s who you want.  He is a witch!  A witch!  Burn him…!”* **** update:  “BURN HIM…!”*

Changing directions for just a moment from the Katrina fallout to pressing foreign policy concerns, Bill Kristol’s editorial in the latest Weekly Standard seems to hit some important points of concern.  Referencing Bush’s August 24 Nampa, Idaho speech, Kristol writes: In the face of mixed news from Iraq, and mixed signals from the administration, some of the president’s supporters and subordinates have been going wobbly. They’ve been denying that the

From ABC News: In New Orleans, those in peril and those in power have pointed the finger squarely at the federal government for the delayed relief effort. But experts say when natural disasters strike, it is the primary responsibility of state and local governments — not the federal government — to respond. New Orleans’ own comprehensive emergency plan raises the specter of “having large numbers of people … stranded” and

So notes John Cole, in a post long on common sense. Cole also links to this AP report that at first blush seems to make a pretty damning case against the timeliness of FEMA’s response: The government’s disaster chief waited until hours after Hurricane Katrina had already struck the Gulf Coast before asking his boss to dispatch 1,000 Homeland Security employees to the region _ and gave them two days

Townhall’s Steve Muscatello is hearing unconfirmed reports that Nagin has resigned—possible, though I saw him delivering a news conference earlier today and he seemed much calmer than anytime in the last few days (for what that’s worth). Secondly, rls notes : I was listening to the radio last night, some woman sitting in for L. Ingram (Iknow, Radio Free Nazi) and she was saying that the Bush Admin legal request

“Fucking glorified thunderstorm… This Gulf disaster is all Rove’s doing, Billy.  To take the spotlight off the peace movement.  You realize that, right?” * “Sure.  And for the record, the neocons are damn lucky that Kung-fu mysticism doesn’t work on hurricanes.  Else my feet of fury would’ve been all over Katrina like ten deadly piggies of white on rice!”*

MSNBC’s Bloggermann: Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff said it all, starting his news briefing Saturday afternoon: “Louisiana is a city that is largely underwater…” Well there’s your problem right there. If ever a slip-of-the-tongue defined a government’s response to a crisis, this was it. Translated Keith:  Who cares what he does.  It’s what he says that I find troublesome.  I mean, clearly he’s not a polished public speaker, and

From the Telegraph UK, Liberal Harvard history professor Niall Ferguson looks at reaction to Katrina and it’s aftermath: Disasters happen. Two hundred and fifty years ago, on November 1, 1755, the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, was flattened by an earthquake that killed thousands of its inhabitants. Like the hurricane that inundated New Orleans last week, the calamity inspired not only awe at the power of nature and sympathy for the helpless