One must ask why the building boom is occurring in DC and NY, when they produce absolutely nothing of substance in this world. The DC boys are striving to save the old outdated weapon systems while robbing the common soldier as well as the common man of any sense of security or stability.

NUTS!

Seeing pictures of the President playing golf, partying and eating cake, laughing it up with hand-picked supporters at a Medicare drug-benefit meeting, and playing the guitar, I hope that millions of Americans can wake up to the fact that Bush is a deeply damaged human being, intellectually and especially emotionally.
There are ample grounds for impeachment of him already. Congress should act; the threat to this country from his utter incompetence is too grave to let stand.

I wonder if we need a "No Overseas Deployment" national guard, especially given the current administration.

If I knew I'd only be on the hook for "1 weekend a month, 2 weeks a year, and The Big 8.0 Hitting San Francisco" (and with that, IN WRITING), I'd join the California National Guard.

But I, and anyone else with 1/2 a brain knows that its a near-guarenteed overseas tour, who's going to enlist in the National Guard? If you WANT to go to Iraq, join the Marines, at least you get better training and equipment. If you DON'T want to go, you don't touch the National Guard (except to run out what remains of your 8 years if you signed up for military service in the first place).

Governor Haley Barbour is comming face to face with what "limited government" really means. Pardon the cliche, but as you sow...

Bush is going to need to call on Americans to sacrifice and join the National Guard knowing full well that extreme right wing loyalists and religious fundamentalists will heed his call, thus making the National Guard the domestic military wing of extreme right wing religious nationalists at the beckoning call of the gangsters now in charge.

PRAISE THE LORD !! & GOD BLESS AMERICA !!

Personally I think really now is not the time to discuss culpability on the errors that led to the massive loss of life due to Hurricane Katrina. Whats even worse than the mistakes made that contributed to people's suffering is people who want to use suffering for their own political gains. There will be plenty of time in the coming months to assess blame. However doing so prematurely, before everything can be done to help the people in distress will only distract us from the task at hand and sabotage any political milage that can be gained in the future.

You're all imbeciles...pathetic, sorry, liberal imbeciles. You wouldn't see true compassion from a conservative even if your momma clubbed you with it. And you have absolutely zero actual facts on which to base your statements.

Biff sounds like a typically compassionate conservative, ready to club and beat anyone who disses his man, W.

Bolton Voices Opposition to U.N. Proposals – White House Fears Effort Would Inhibit U.S. Authority (Wash Post Sep 1 2005)

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I think I know some people who feel some acute pain reading this article.

It is only ironic that the US' representative to the international community offers up this salvo of free-floating idiocy -- once again showing the middle finger to the rest of the world in Bolton's characteristic lonesome ranger, high-noon fashion --  just as the ideology that propels this loathsome man has worsened a bad hurricane into a massive domestic public health emergency and a potentially severe economic crisis.

But one thing one cannot accuse Mr Bolton of is inconsistency.

Bolton does EXACTLY what the wide range of opponents have predicted he would do given half the chance: barely into his ill-gotten tenure, he does his level best to shred the UN reform process. And he does so by departing from the administration's position for his own lunatic rhapsodies about a country that, according to his own personal vision, does not accept even the CONCEPT of international law while reserving for itself the right to destroy other countries.

What a stupid world we live in.

From cassandra's link above

"He [Bolton] also urged the deletion of language calling on nations to prevent 'incitement' of mass atrocities, saying it runs counter to the U.S. First Amendment protections of speech."

Protecting the ultimate purpose of Hate Radio in America as used in Rwanda.

Free Speech ... "Assassinate Bolton!" ..... First Ammendment, baby!

All this finger pointing at the federal government is way out of line.

Since when is state and local preparation for natural disasters a federal responsibility. The mayor is clearly in over his head. He doesn't have the skills to deal with a disaster. Evidently, he is well schooled in transferring blame to anyone other than himself. He could have easily dealt with this in advance. Instead, he waited until New Orleans was already destroyed and lawlessness had broken out.

The fact of the matter is, if there is going to be any finger pointing, the direction should be toward the mayor of New Orleans, and toward the people that made a personal decision to "ride it out".

The responsibility for the failure to evacuate those people out of the city, before the storm hit, belongs to the New Orleans city "leaders".

New Orleans should have had a plan in place to deal with evacuating the people that did not have the means to get themselves away from there. They knew this calamity was highly likely, given a Category 4 hurricane. This is not rocket science.

The people that chose to stay, even though they had the means to evacuate themselves, have only themselves to blame! Instead of standing around complaining about their troubles, they should accept some personal responsibility for their situation. The fact is, if they had made the correct, simple, decision in the first place, the scale of the problems in New Orleans would be much smaller. That is not hindsight. Rather, it is simple common sense.

And another thing, aside from the people that were grabbing food to feed their families, LOOTERS SHOULD BE SHOT ON SIGHT!

Steve, the Plame outing investigation is being led by PATRICK Fitzgerald, not Peter Fitzgerald.