They are ripping you a new asshole Mr President...........and you deserve every bit of criticism!!!!

I read this on Amy's site.

The Times-Picayune -- which abandoned its New Orleans headquarters and temporarily ceased its print publication last week -- called on every Federal Emergency Management Agency official to be fired, "Director Michael Brown especially." Here is the editorial:

"Dear Mr. President:

We heard you loud and clear Friday when you visited our devastated city and the Gulf Coast and said, "What is not working, we're going to make it right."

Please forgive us if we wait to see proof of your promise before believing you. But we have good reason for our skepticism.

Bienville built New Orleans where he built it for one main reason: It's accessible. The city between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain was easy to reach in 1718.

How much easier it is to access in 2005 now that there are interstates and bridges, airports and helipads, cruise ships, barges, buses and diesel-powered trucks.

Despite the city's multiple points of entry, our nation's bureaucrats spent days after last week's hurricane wringing their hands, lamenting the fact that they could neither rescue the city's stranded victims nor bring them food, water and medical supplies.

Meanwhile there were journalists, including some who work for The Times-Picayune, going in and out of the city via the Crescent City Connection. On Thursday morning, that crew saw a caravan of 13 Wal-Mart tractor trailers headed into town to bring food, water and supplies to a dying city.

Television reporters were doing live reports from downtown New Orleans streets. Harry Connick Jr. brought in some aid Thursday, and his efforts were the focus of a "Today" show story Friday morning.

Yet, the people trained to protect our nation, the people whose job it is to quickly bring in aid were absent. Those who should have been deploying troops were singing a sad song about how our city was impossible to reach.

We're angry, Mr. President, and we'll be angry long after our beloved city and surrounding parishes have been pumped dry. Our people deserved rescuing. Many who could have been were not. That's to the government's shame.

Mayor Ray Nagin did the right thing Sunday when he allowed those with no other alternative to seek shelter from the storm inside the Louisiana Superdome. We still don't know what the death toll is, but one thing is certain: Had the Superdome not been opened, the city's death toll would have been higher. The toll may even have been exponentially higher.

It was clear to us by late morning Monday that many people inside the Superdome would not be returning home. It should have been clear to our government, Mr. President. So why weren't they evacuated out of the city immediately? We learned seven years ago, when Hurricane Georges threatened, that the Dome isn't suitable as a long-term shelter. So what did state and national officials think would happen to tens of thousands of people trapped inside with no air conditioning, overflowing toilets and dwindling amounts of food, water and other essentials?

State Rep. Karen Carter was right Friday when she said the city didn't have but two urgent needs: "Buses! And gas!" Every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be fired, Director Michael Brown especially.

In a nationally televised interview Thursday night, he said his agency hadn't known until that day that thousands of storm victims were stranded at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. He gave another nationally televised interview the next morning and said, "We've provided food to the people at the Convention Center so that they've gotten at least one, if not two meals, every single day."

Lies don't get more bald-faced than that, Mr. President.

Yet, when you met with Mr. Brown Friday morning, you told him, "You're doing a heck of a job."

That's unbelievable.

There were thousands of people at the Convention Center because the riverfront is high ground. The fact that so many people had reached there on foot is proof that rescue vehicles could have gotten there, too.

We, who are from New Orleans, are no less American than those who live on the Great Plains or along the Atlantic Seaboard. We're no less important than those from the Pacific Northwest or Appalachia. Our people deserved to be rescued.

No expense should have been spared. No excuses should have been voiced. Especially not one as preposterous as the claim that New Orleans couldn't be reached.

Mr. President, we sincerely hope you fulfill your promise to make our beloved communities work right once again.

When you do, we will be the first to applaud."

On the same note I awoke at around 1:30am and turned on the TV to see Celine Dion also tearing the president a new one. She has finally done something I can applaud. And I didn't have to plug my ears or change the channel.

Sometimes I dive

I went diving on friday. I am fortunate to dive with some people who really know their shit. I have been spending all my free time diving with them to learn. And I really have. In the past few months I am much better at spotting things. On friday I spotted an eel that no one on the boat had ever seen. It is called a Magnificent Spotted Eel. I did good. Oh, and we also found a white tipped reef shark hiding underneath the shipwreck we were diving. One of the divers has a sweet underwater camera. Here is me looking at a spotted eel. And me using my dive light with authority. I bet you are reaaaaaallllllyyyy impressed.

It took a year....................

I had this cat for 15 years. He was the best. He could swear, really he could. He died not long after I moved to Hawaii. I took time to decide what to do next, but I could not bring myself to get another cat. The guilt was more than I could handle. And then one day this dog came into my life..................and now after a year I love her. I look at her and my heart does a little jump. She breathes deeply and I get the best feeling. She pushes me out of my bed and I love her. She is licking my ear right now. I just gave her a bath and she smells like Lavender AND horse manure. I am the luckiest.

Life is to be feared, not death

I was just sitting here with my roommate when I looked at him and said "do you ever feel like at any moment a monster will come down and bite your head off?" I just don't understand the look he gave me. Like I am some nut or such. Thankfully he let me eloborate. What I mean is that sometimes I feel like I am hanging around waiting for the next shoe to drop.
My sister and mother died several years ago and ever since then I sit waiting for the next big monster to come out of nowhere and ruin my world. I am here to tell you that having a monster bite your head off does not necessarily kill you. It just leaves you in pain for a very long time.
Since they have been gone the beauty of the quiet morning can be ruined by my own guilt. They died and my brother said "I just thank god it was not me" (this from a Buddhist). And I asked "why wasn't it me?" (this from a non-catholic).