I'm sorry, but I just paid $3.00/gallon for gas. A whopping 30 dollars just to fill up the tank...I need to vent, and I thought, "what better place than CA?"

Hurrican Katrina is so effing tragic. I couldnt help but cry at some of the stories I read today.

No more than I cry at night thinking at how that moron in office is somehow STILL president.

-NO jobs
-NO wmds
-NO osama (the guy MUST be laughing at us, wherever he is)
-Gas prices raising by 15 cents a day
the quality of health care continues to decrease
-School programs being cut, especially in the fine arts department
-The economy sucks, the price on everything is raising, go to the grocery store, you'll see what i mean.

All in all, lack of support and respect for the people of this country. This guy is pissing on the world, WHY HAVENT WE DONE ANYTHING TO STOP HIM? Even republicans are starting to realize he's a babbling bufoon (to say the least). Last I checked the PEOPLE ran this country, not him.

If I didnt know better, I'd say the hurricane was his fault. Aw, fuck it...why not add it to the list? I mean, it's not like he's going to do much about it anyway. Error after error after error and this guy is still sitting pretty on a throne.

One question, how do you reckon the bastard sleeps at night knowing that his people are suffering??

I'd like to see someone TRY and defend him now...honestly, JUST TAKE A LOOK AT THE STATE OF THIS COUNTRY and try and convince me we're doing "okay." Never has their been this much hatred for a president (I'm not even exaggerating, it's true), nor has this country seen this much civilian unrest in years.

George W. Bush is the worst thing to happen to the US since slavery.

I'm done. Discuss.

I agree with everything you stated. The news made a big deal about how President Bush had to cut his vacation short. What the hell is up with that? He's always on vacation! The people in New Orleans are suffering and are in unbearable conditions. He should have been there way sooner!

I've noticed the price of everything going up too-not just gas. Look at how high the price of Real estate is now! It's ridiculous. George Buch needs to get out of office!




By the way-this is a picture of a gas station in Louisiana.

agreed, agreed. god forbid he have to cut his vacation short to do his JOB.

those gas prices are insane.

WHEN WILL WE STOP PAYING FOR GAS? when it reaches $10/gallon? if it's gotten up to six dollars in some parts of the US, why not ten? it's up to us, the people to do something about this. we cant keep coming up with these "1 day of no-gas" protests, because they dont work. business need to run their trucks, people need to bring their kids to daycare, etc...something else must be done.

suggestions?

I really think you american people must do something. Why doon't you all go to the white house and get that president out of there?

We'd like to do the same with our premier Berlusconi:)

It's embarrassing to see the "relief" efforts. This was bound to happen. It was only a matter of time that New Orleans would be flooded by a storm. The evacuation was a disorganized mess. They weren't prepared for this! How could that be? This was inevitable. The country (meaning the PRESIDENT) had several days to organize relief efforts and station needed guardsmen/militia before the storm even struck. We all saw it coming. The gas prices don't bother me. Maybe this will stop people from buying more SUVS.
I'm with you White, Bush is a dork. He infuriates me. Kerry would have been down there already, personally, with his sleeves rolled up, not flying 10,000 feet above on airforce One. What a prick. God, I'm so mad I could spit

And Paolo, over 1,000 people held a vigil outside his ranch, in Crawford, Texas to protest the war. He NEVER went out to speak to them. I think they are still there. I hate this man. I just hope the world recovers after he is no longer in office.

ARRRRRRGHHHHHHH!!!!!!

By the way...

Hi Paolo!

well i have to agree with what's been said and i won't repeat any of it except that scared i have to say, hopefully the gas
pricing will affect the way american's live in a way that helps conserving ALL our natural resources not just oil. I'd like to see
every SUV in America spontaneously combust!
i'm still baffled at why there weren't better disaster plans in place for a city that sits several feet BELOW sea level...and why so many people were stupid enough to NOT leave.

A lot of people in New Orleans are poor and weren't able to leave....

What I want to know is why there is only two states in America helping out-or why there isn't other countries helping.

America helps out other countries in Natural Disasters, but nobody is helping us here.

we won't get help from countries that hate us, despise our leader. we can forget that!

and yes the poor people without transportation did have a choice and way to leave, it's called two feet!
they knew of the storm atleast 4 days before hand and walking 20 miles a day could've gotten you out of
flood zones... i suppose that comes down to darwin's survival of the fittest but you better bet your ass my
feet would bleed trying to get me away from a fucking cat4 hurricane!

and the reason for such lack of order and law is because all our friggin guards are dying in iraq!

Ah! You know, you're right. Some people probably could have gotten away.

I wonder if President Bush donated a large sum of money out of his pocket...

Hi Scared and everybody! Anyway i can't believe such a terrible thing has happened in America, The most powerful and rich country in the world. Maybe it's Bush fault! Maybe not, Nature is more greater than any country, i don't know. I remember another tragedy in Japan. The city of kobe was entirely destroyed by an Earthquake, and even there the japanese government was totally lost, over 6000 people were died. Fortunately we don't have hurricanes in Italy, except for the earthquakes, but i can only say a prayer for the people who lost their lives and the homeless in New Orleans.

I am so relieved you started this thread. The only person I've seen with any compassion on TV in the Media or Govt is some female newscaster who was crying during an interview with a man whose house split his wife and him apart. He lost his wife and his house in the same instant. She was balling. And Nancy Grace who's fiesty normally but she is either irate or full of remorse. All the other officials don't seem to show ANY emotion. And I guess the reason why some New Orleans people didn't walk away is because they are poor and they don't have much. If they walked then their homes would of been looted. I'm sure if they would of had another chance to make that same decision again they would choose differently. Man it's soo not far to watch these people dying and starving when we've all given all kinds of money!!!!! Now we can't even depend on the govt to help us in a natural disaster? What now? It's never going to be the same. Bush is destroying our country. This sucks!!!!!! I would love to impeach him....

you're right about everything but one thing, arc. bush isnt just destroying out country, he's screwing the rest of the world and dragging us down with him.

he's a monster and if people are still out there supporting him and still think he's some blessed saviour of sorts, they need to open there eyes to the horror and fear he's causing, not just in iraq, but among the people he claims to govern.

the man is a menace and must be impeached.

and another thing, why is it that he feels he has to tote around clinton every time disaster occurs?? oh, that's right, he's too dense to do the job himself.

let's here it for dumbocracy.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050901/ap_on_bi_ge/katrina_gas_gouging_hk3

its has little to do with hurricane...it's been happening before katrina.

If indeed the end is near, Perhaps I shall finally rest.
Oh what wonderous joys to come!

i still don't think the president grasps the gravity of this situation.

it cost $85 to fill up our delivery truck today - so much for groceries next week.

people are dying in their tracks.

i can't watch the news anymore - it just makes me cry.

i predict a riot.

"Unemployment Rate Slumps to 4-Year Low " (surprise surprise)
"New Orleans Mayor Fumes Over Slow Reponse "
"Storm Victims Find Astrodome Full" (yes, let's tell the WORLD where we're keeping our people - perfect place for a bomb, eh, bushy wooshy?!)
"Sewage in Floodwaters Carries Disease"
"New Orleans Doctors Plead for Help"
"Blasts rock New Orleans"
"Bush admits relief failure" (try, LIFE failure.)

and i love this quote:

'Many newspapers highlighted criticism of local and state authorities and of President Bush. Some compared the sputtering relief effort with the massive amounts of money and resources poured into the war in Iraq.

"A modern metropolis sinking in water and into anarchy -- it is a really cruel spectacle for a champion of security like Bush," France's left-leaning Liberation newspaper said.

"(Al Qaeda leader Osama) bin Laden, nice and dry in his hideaway, must be killing himself laughing."'

Bush is so arrogant!!!

He is so far removed from the average man. He has no idea what its like to live pay check to pay check at minimum wage jobs. A news crew was interviewing him in Mississippi ('bout time he got there, nice of him to show up) He had nothing of value to say. He is so stupid!
These people were not able to leave. There was no well organized transportation out. Yes, some idiots chose to stay and now they have lost family members, but the majority were not given an option. The superdome?? Did they really think people would only be there over night?

This whole thing is making me mental. How FUCKING disorganized can one president be?

We've tapped all our resourses on Iraq, now there is nothing left for our own people. The rest of the world is watching Bush fumble and screw up. It almost makes me happy. I'm only sorry so many have to suffer at the hands of such an incompetant boob. He has proven to the world and it's leaders how inept he really is. He royally screwed up.

Its too bad this didn't happen BEFORE the last election. Wishfull thinking (I actually would rather it didn't happen at all, I don't want to be callous)

ARRRRRGH!

He's the modern day equivelent to General George Armstrong Custer. He was so arrogant and stupid (graduated last in he class at West Point) He lost to those "inferior" indians at Little Big Horn. Katrina is Little Big Horn kids and our little Bushy didn't do so well at Yale.

That reminds me of a joke...

What do you call the guy who graduates last in medical school?



Doctor!

(Scary thought)

Actually Bush does have something to do with the hurricane happening. Since he and his administration have been in office they have completely dismantled environmental policy and have created bogus policies that enable corporate polluters to pollute beyond safe measure, by creating a pollution emissions credit system. Polluter corporations can trade and buy credits from each other so that no one gets in trouble...now how completely incomprehensible is that? This administration does not believe in global warming even though there is a mountain of factual evidence and countless scientists and researches that have conclusive proof that it is happening right now. Hell, they saw it from the shuttle last month.
This administration CUT FUNDING to fix the levees in New Orleans that needed repair! Come on!! They have no humanity or decency.
Bush has never faced a personal loss in his life. He has no real hardcore experience with life issues. People shelter him or he hides.
He works out 5 hours a day cause he's afraid.
By the way, out of the nearly 5 years he's been office he's been on vacation for an ENTIRE YEAR!!!!
I though being president was a responsibility and a privledge - obviously the boy king thinks otherwise!

And why is it that it took so long to rescue the people left behind in New Orleans? Is it because they're black and poor?

Sickening!

As for gas and oil, peoplehave to give up their gas guslers and take mass transportation or ride a bike. They're a cog in the wheel if you don't!

Oh, by the way the reason why it took them so long to help the people is because the administration was more concerned about oil and oil production - that's what they were worried about.

anonymous, you shouldnt be so anonymous. you are right. good for you.

I saw some show on New Orleans a couple years ago. They knew then that the city was headed for a flood and that it wouldn't take much to ruin the whole city. And watching what is going on is like watching a microcosm of the sort of things predicted in Threads back in the 80's. I shouldn't be shocked, but I'm having to really limit my intake of this whole thing. I'm starting to hit panic mode. I still think the world is slowly turning inside out on us...

And oh, yes, please do tell me where the hell this mass transit system I'm supposed to use is again???? Oh yeah, no one around here wanted it. Thanks asshats of this general area. And jobs to support ourselves? Yeah, big fucking joke. We're "lucky" because my husband gets to drive an hour one way for a job (can you see him having to walk it? Sometimes just the short term getting to work, getting groceries, survival kinda outweighs the bigger picture, so yeah, he's still driving to work in a vehicle that was loaned to us, and is a gas guzzler itself - but we just don't have money to take on a loan for anything better. The money just isn't there. And the only jobs around here do not operate within bankers' hours, so even if he drove to a bus stop, he still wouldn't be able to use it!), and companies can now use credit checks to fucking discriminate - you know, if we're not doing well financially, we must be fucking worthless scum of the motherfucking earth, can't fucking hire us... But maybe those who don't have to face this daily worry about "hm, do I get gas, forego groceries this week, and go to work and hope to the Universe I make enough money to get groceries at the end of the week?" can easily just slough us off with that scum of the earth Darwin sort of cynicism... But I'd say you're coming from such an intellectual high that you're residing up there with the president, who has never even dallied with people who have had to live in our situation.

I'm so fed up right now because of the week we've had, and seeing more and more negativity and the future looking so dim... I'm sick of this administration and I'm sick of living like a sewer rat...

I was thinking the same thing about aid being slow because the majority of victims are black and poor.

everyone said this would slant out to be a racial issue as well, and it is, but let's not forget that it isnt only african americans in the south who are out of jobs. people with huge ass degrees who backpack years of education are out of jobs as well. the truth is, everyone is struggling under bush, not only are the middle income families becoming low income, but the rich are no longer getting richer, thus they too are getting fed up with his bullshit. he's hiding, and my guess is he better fucking keep at it. the way things are heading, there will be some (no doubt) who will be on the hunt for bounty IF you catch my drift. it's no secret. he's ruining the environment, public education (of which he got no sort during his younger years), the economy is suffering...and now, the people are visibily showing signs of unrest and suffering...and what does he do? nothing. he marches up to his podium and says, "the relief efforts have been unacceptable." pointing the finger at the tardiness of his administration. well, you know what mr. president, you were sitting on your ass relaxing when all this happened and you have done nothing, NOTHING to help this country, NOTHING but give the good american people a bad rap with the rest of the world and even amongst ourselves! nothing, but piss on your own land and blame it on someone else somewhere else. dig a hole and stay in it.

okay, i gotta go, before i take it out on my poor computer keys.

i really don't know if this is a black/white issue as much as it is a rich/poor issue.

pyra, things will get better for you and brandon...alot of determination and a little luck
and all our fingers crossed for you! i've been there and i watch some of my family go
through it as well...it's america for you...drag you down, hold you down...

It is a rich/poor issue, but if the majority of the poor down there were white, who knows what would have happened? You saw how Reagan neglected AIDS because it was killing gays, so who cares?

Do you think Bush is a closet white supremist?

Sorry folks but the man annoys me. Do you think there'll be some major "spin" in the propaganda department to turn him into some kind of saint? Or has too much damage been done?

I WAS hoping for John Kerry and I'm NOT AMERICAN!

I found out my distant family are all alive but one of my relatives has a house in Baton Rouge under water. Luckily she has family to go to. This apt complex has electricity so that's how she is showering and everyting. But I'm just grateful they all got out. Or rode out the storm and were lucky. It's so tried and true. Tragedy brings change. Hopefully this will open a lot of eyes to how the finger will be pointed at Bush for this. He has no excuse...

I am not a BIG POLITICAL person and rarely speak much about it but I have to agree with everything Said here. I am just SICK with everything that has happened since Bush has been in office. Everyone said that gas prices would rise and what do you know....Someone said that the rich are no longer getting rich well yes thats very true EXECPT for Bushes best friends that Own Oil companies...they are living it up BIG TIME!

My husband and I have been wanting to buy a house for our kids and it just seems like its impossible. NOW with ALL THIS CRAP WITH GAS not only is it impossible to save our pennies, its gonna start hitting us HARD. Prices are rising where we buy food, clothes and all the nessesities of life. My husband is a courier and we are comfortable but he drives 250 a day YES A DAY! We have been starting to think that he is gonna have to find a new job and we arent sure what he could do that would pay the same if not better.

It also scares me for the terrorist to see how WEAK our leader is. Who knows what type of kick 'em while their down plans they are putting in place.

SO how do you impeach a president? How many signatures would it take. Who gets to decide? I feel so helpless and scared. I am just unsure of what this countrys future holds.

SO thats my 2 cents....

Kel

Yes I hate Bush, but the relief aid is not really his fault. The mayor of New Orleans and the Governer of the state are the first people who are in charge. It's their job to ask the federal govt. for aid in situations like this and they did after the storm and within 24 hrs, our govt. alocated x amount of cash and x amount of troops. problem is, where the fuck do they go, because there's no infrastructure or a really bad one. it just seems the whole state was disorganized and un-prepared for a huge natural disaster. I just wonder, why, if they all knew this storm was coming, they did not do a better job evacuating days before and why thousands of people were sent to the Superdome which had no food or water for the refugees of the storm and then promising them buses to Atlanta or Houston and not following through as quickly as they promised and the lack of medical units, these are basic things that cities, towns, and states should have covered and be prepared for. Especially, if your in a place which is prone to these type of things.

The looting, the fighting, stealing, robberies, ok, fine, people are desperate, but FUCKING RAPE!!!! Since when is getting off an essential of basic living? Thats the most fucked up thing about this, after all that happened, there are reports people are being raped in New Orleans

gas prices were going up before Katrina hit, i assume it's a perfect excuse to raise gas prices. Blame it on so and so when they planned on raising them anyways.

the poor and black theory, i don't buy it. I blame it on poor preperation of a big city which has nothing to do with race.

You all sound understandable pissed off with your leader, get rid of him, we'll join in celebrating!
When it comes to people saying why isn't the rest of the world helping - try and remember you're supposedly the worlds superpower, the richest country around (the most unequally rich of course). You drop food aid from the air on Iraq, are able to send your army in to invade countries at will, but you can't organise a mass evacuation of a city when you know shit is going to hit? You can't get aid in until days after the event? People are left to die on the streets and starve and still nothing is done? Its a farce, this shouldn't be happening in the first world. It shouldn't be possible. Its your govts. disorganstion. If you want to raise aid for these people why not raise taxes on your super rich, they can well afford it. Your country supposedly has the wealth to police the world, why hasn't it the wealth to look after its own.
Sorry to sound unsympathetic, I'm not meaning to, I'm going to make a donation to the humane society link, but I think you should examine your own country and its postion in the world before pointing the finger at any other countries and asking where the help is. I know that was just one post but its something I've been hearing a lot.
And gas prices - currently nearing the equivalent of $7 dollars a US gallon here, maye why there are more smaller or economical cars on the roads and people walk that much more.

Oh and hi to everyone - been busy house breaking and repairing, still am - really just wanted to say hello, hope you're all OK!

This is an example of who is in power in the USA:

The following is a quote from CATCH blog:


""""
I don't think anybody could have predicted that these heels would be available in my size and at this price.

--Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, overheard this afternoon at Ferragamo on 5th Avenue.

Ok, I made that up. But Rice really was shopping for thousands of dollars worth of shoes this afternoon while thousands of people remain stranded on the Gulf Coast. Gawker has the details:
What does surprise us: Just moments ago at the Ferragamo on 5th Avenue, Condoleeza Rice was seen spending several thousands of dollars on some nice, new shoes (we’ve confirmed this, so her new heels will surely get coverage from the WaPo’s Robin Givhan). A fellow shopper, unable to fathom the absurdity of Rice’s timing, went up to the Secretary and reportedly shouted, “How dare you shop for shoes while thousands are dying and homeless!” Never one to have her fashion choices questioned, Rice had security PHYSICALLY REMOVE the woman.

Angry Lady, whoever you are, we love you. You are a true American

And, according to the Drudge Report, Rice spent last evening laughing it up at Spamalot. Good to know that as all hell is breaking loose in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, our Secretary of State is taking some time to unwind and grow the 5th Avenue economy.

Seriously. What was she thinking? Either these people are too stupid to understand that this looks bad or they simply just don't give a shit. Pick your poison.
""""""

yo Annonymous2 -

Don't believe everything you see and hear on Nightline.
What has happened to New Orleans is a NATIONAL DISASTER.
That's why FEMA exists.

Uh, 10s of thousands of people were left to fend for themselves, without any food, water or shelter, for nearly a week, in fetid water and unbearable heat, in one of the worst national disasters in US history, etc, etc, etc...a perfect setting for mayhem and anarchy.

Who cares about gas, how about human, animal lives?

Did you see the people left to fend for themselves for 4 days without WATER and FOOD? Blacks, the poor, elderly and poor children.
They are suppose to walk 20 miles to safety? They're suppose to get it together to save themselves? HOW?
Where were the rich fatcats in the private sector with their bigass, gas gusling SUVs and portable everything? Did they stop to think they could help someone, maybe an elderly person or an ill person, or a child? What about middle income people? Did they stop and think, they could help a stranger out? Doubt it.




Meanwhile people bitch that the price of gas is too high and someone should do something about that. An absurd argument.

New York Times:

United States of Shame

By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: September 3, 2005

Stuff happens.

And when you combine limited government with incompetent government, lethal stuff happens.

America is once more plunged into a snake pit of anarchy, death, looting, raping, marauding thugs, suffering innocents, a shattered infrastructure, a gutted police force, insufficient troop levels and criminally negligent government planning. But this time it's happening in America.
Skip to next paragraph
Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

Related More Columns by Maureen Dowd
Readers
Forum: Maureen Dowd's Columns

W. drove his budget-cutting Chevy to the levee, and it wasn't dry. Bye, bye, American lives. "I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees," he told Diane Sawyer.

Shirt-sleeves rolled up, W. finally landed in Hell yesterday and chuckled about his wild boozing days in "the great city" of N'Awlins. He was clearly moved. "You know, I'm going to fly out of here in a minute," he said on the runway at the New Orleans International Airport, "but I want you to know that I'm not going to forget what I've seen." Out of the cameras' range, and avoided by W., was a convoy of thousands of sick and dying people, some sprawled on the floor or dumped on baggage carousels at a makeshift M*A*S*H unit inside the terminal.

Why does this self-styled "can do" president always lapse into such lame "who could have known?" excuses.

Who on earth could have known that Osama bin Laden wanted to attack us by flying planes into buildings? Any official who bothered to read the trellis of pre-9/11 intelligence briefs.

Who on earth could have known that an American invasion of Iraq would spawn a brutal insurgency, terrorist recruiting boom and possible civil war? Any official who bothered to read the C.I.A.'s prewar reports.

Who on earth could have known that New Orleans's sinking levees were at risk from a strong hurricane? Anybody who bothered to read the endless warnings over the years about the Big Easy's uneasy fishbowl.

In June 2004, Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, fretted to The Times-Picayune in New Orleans: "It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us."

Not only was the money depleted by the Bush folly in Iraq; 30 percent of the National Guard and about half its equipment are in Iraq.

Ron Fournier of The Associated Press reported that the Army Corps of Engineers asked for $105 million for hurricane and flood programs in New Orleans last year. The White House carved it to about $40 million. But President Bush and Congress agreed to a $286.4 billion pork-filled highway bill with 6,000 pet projects, including a $231 million bridge for a small, uninhabited Alaskan island.

Just last year, Federal Emergency Management Agency officials practiced how they would respond to a fake hurricane that caused floods and stranded New Orleans residents. Imagine the feeble FEMA's response to Katrina if they had not prepared.

Michael Brown, the blithering idiot in charge of FEMA - a job he trained for by running something called the International Arabian Horse Association - admitted he didn't know until Thursday that there were 15,000 desperate, dehydrated, hungry, angry, dying victims of Katrina in the New Orleans Convention Center.

Was he sacked instantly? No, our tone-deaf president hailed him in Mobile, Ala., yesterday: "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."

It would be one thing if President Bush and his inner circle - Dick Cheney was vacationing in Wyoming; Condi Rice was shoe shopping at Ferragamo's on Fifth Avenue and attended "Spamalot" before bloggers chased her back to Washington; and Andy Card was off in Maine - lacked empathy but could get the job done. But it is a chilling lack of empathy combined with a stunning lack of efficiency that could make this administration implode.

When the president and vice president rashly shook off our allies and our respect for international law to pursue a war built on lies, when they sanctioned torture, they shook the faith of the world in American ideals.

When they were deaf for so long to the horrific misery and cries for help of the victims in New Orleans - most of them poor and black, like those stuck at the back of the evacuation line yesterday while 700 guests and employees of the Hyatt Hotel were bused out first - they shook the faith of all Americans in American ideals. And made us ashamed.

Who are we if we can't take care of our own?

anonymous1: no one is equating the suffering of humans and animals in the south with the current price of gas. because, like you said, the gas issue is not as important. but it is one that bush is ignoring, like he has with the levees, like he has with iraq, like he has with public education, global warming, etc.

it may not be on the same level of urgency, but as americans, we have the right to be angry about that too, because it's leaving most of us poor and with hard decisons like, "Can we provide food and daycare and gas to go to work this week?" living off paycheck to paycheck when you have a family to provide for is harder than it looks.one of the elements in that sentence should not be such an overbearing issue, but it is, and rightly so, we are allowed to piss and moan about it all we want as well as the disaster in new orleans and mississippi, etc. and people who own SUVs, yes, we can blame them a little, but just saying "stop buying SUVs" doesnt fix a damn thing. granted, i hate the vehicles too, but what's done is done...now, the point is to provide more gas at a lesser cost, the way it was before bush-the-moron was erronously seated in office.

Friday, September 2nd, 2005


Dear Mr. Bush:


Any idea where all our helicopters are? It's Day 5 of Hurricane Katrina and thousands remain stranded in New Orleans and need to be airlifted. Where on earth could you have misplaced all our military choppers? Do you need help finding them? I once lost my car in a Sears parking lot. Man, was that a drag.


Also, any idea where all our national guard soldiers are? We could really use them right now for the type of thing they signed up to do like helping with national disasters. How come they weren't there to begin with?


Last Thursday I was in south Florida and sat outside while the eye of Hurricane Katrina passed over my head. It was only a Category 1 then but it was pretty nasty. Eleven people died and, as of today, there were still homes without power. That night the weatherman said this storm was on its way to New Orleans. That was Thursday! Did anybody tell you? I know you didn't want to interrupt your vacation and I know how you don't like to get bad news. Plus, you had fundraisers to go to and mothers of dead soldiers to ignore and smear. You sure showed her!


I especially like how, the day after the hurricane, instead of flying to Louisiana, you flew to San Diego to party with your business peeps. Don't let people criticize you for this -- after all, the hurricane was over and what the heck could you do, put your finger in the dike?


And don't listen to those who, in the coming days, will reveal how you specifically reduced the Army Corps of Engineers' budget for New Orleans this summer for the third year in a row. You just tell them that even if you hadn't cut the money to fix those levees, there weren't going to be any Army engineers to fix them anyway because you had a much more important construction job for them -- BUILDING DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ!


On Day 3, when you finally left your vacation home, I have to say I was moved by how you had your Air Force One pilot descend from the clouds as you flew over New Orleans so you could catch a quick look of the disaster. Hey, I know you couldn't stop and grab a bullhorn and stand on some rubble and act like a commander in chief. Been there done that.


There will be those who will try to politicize this tragedy and try to use it against you. Just have your people keep pointing that out. Respond to nothing. Even those pesky scientists who predicted this would happen because the water in the Gulf of Mexico is getting hotter and hotter making a storm like this inevitable. Ignore them and all their global warming Chicken Littles. There is nothing unusual about a hurricane that was so wide it would be like having one F-4 tornado that stretched from New York to Cleveland.


No, Mr. Bush, you just stay the course. It's not your fault that 30 percent of New Orleans lives in poverty or that tens of thousands had no transportation to get out of town. C'mon, they're black! I mean, it's not like this happened to Kennebunkport. Can you imagine leaving white people on their roofs for five days? Don't make me laugh! Race has nothing -- NOTHING -- to do with this!


You hang in there, Mr. Bush. Just try to find a few of our Army helicopters and send them there. Pretend the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are near Tikrit.


Yours,


Michael Moore

MMFlint@aol.com

www.MichaelMoore.com


P.S. That annoying mother, Cindy Sheehan, is no longer at your ranch. She and dozens of other relatives of the Iraqi War dead are now driving across the country, stopping in many cities along the way. Maybe you can catch up with them before they get to DC on September 21st.