Shrubville

Exactly. Stantis' whole story line is a diversion from the real issue -- the federal government fell down on the job (in protecting New Orleans before the storm and in the recovery efforts afterwards). I'm sure that those who lost everything can give a rat's ass as to whether the storm that blew away or drowned their possessions was stronger or weaker than any other.

Right on, CJo. All Stantis is proving to me is that W is a far worse president than Clinton, his daddy, Reagan - hell, even Carter - because none of them lost an ENTIRE CITY.

I never did see that Shining City that Reagan talked about, but perhaps I was merely blinded by George 41's thousand points of light. Damn you, Harold Reynolds!

I'm waiting for the hilarious strip when Winslow needles Carmen because George W. "took full responsibility."

This story line has stunk of hypocrisy since Wednesday. "Damn those liberals, using this tragedy to push their agendas! Bush bashing, and global-warming!" Who's exploiting what when he mentions only what some liberals have said, and makes no mention of the incredibly ludicrous claims of some conservatives? Yeah, I'm sure it was the gays and girls gone wild.

At least those arguments from the left have some rational thought behind them. Like Fred said, in an act that was more noble than I had come to expect, Bush himself took "full responsibility" for the federal shortfalls. The jury's out on global warming's effect on hurricanes. There's evidence that appeals to both sides, though Stantis chooses to ignore one side. Whatever the cause, the U.N. study did point to an increase in hurricane strength in the Atlantic. Regardless if it's a natural cycle or not, it's completely insensitive to those that lost everything they have, including those that lost their lives, to tell them that one of the greatest natural disasters in American history was just to be expected. This takes us back to the beginning... if it WAS to be expected, why wasn't FEMA or the U.S. Military, the two best equip to handle a crisis of this scale, prepared? Especially when "Although the Federal Emergency Management Agency in 2001 listed a hurricane striking New Orleans as one of the top three catastrophic events the nation could face (the others being a terrorist attack on New York City and an earthquake in San Francisco), funding for corps projects aimed at curbing flooding in southeast Louisiana lagged." What happened to the pre-emptive stike policy, this time in a situation where the entire nation could have agreed?

Sorry, I know most of this stuff has been said before, but I just needed to rant. I (for some reason) had come to expect a little more from Prickly City than this kind of “comedy.”