ABC News:

A former councilwoman won an at-large seat on the New Orleans City Council on Saturday, creating the first white majority in more than two decades.

Katrina meets Bangladesh?

Per Chris Mooney: The strength of a category five, and bearing down on the most vulnerable flood plains on the planet.

So in addition to telling America last week that Global Warming is good for you, Presidential spokesperson Dana Perino insisted that the White-House’s edits to the Senate testimony of CDC Chief Julie Gerberding had not “watered down” the facts.

As we can see from the unedited version, that’s true. The document wasn’t watered down, it was water-boarded… until it rendered the version of facts the White House wants you to hear.

Let’s take a look at a few of the inconvenient truths that the censors at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue found too objectionable to include:

Global warming will cause Katrina-like storms:

Catastrophic weather events such as heat waves and hurricanes are expected to become more frequent, severe, and costly.

Global warming will bring malaria and dengue to the states:

Climate change is likely to alter the current geographic distribution of some vector-borne and zoonotic diseases… such as plague, Lyme disease, West Nile virus, malaria, hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, and dengue fever; some may become more frequent, widespread, and outbreaks could last longer

Global warming might kill grandpa:

The United States is expected to see an increase in the severity, duration, and frequency of extreme heat waves. This, coupled with an aging population, increases the likelihood of higher mortality as the elderly are more vulnerable to dying from exposure to excessive heat. Midwestern and northeastern cities are at greatest risk.

Global warming makes more smog, lung disease:

Higher surface temperatures, especially in urban areas, encourage the formation of ground-level ozone. Ozone can irritate the respiratory system, reduce lung function, aggravate asthma, and inflame and damage cells that line the lungs. In addition, it may cause permanent lung damage and aggravate chronic lung diseases.

Global warming means water-shortages in the West:

The west coast of the United States is expected to experience significant strains on water supplies as regional precipitation declines and mountain snowpacks are depleted.

And — particularly inconvenient given the current so-Cal conflagrations — global warming means more wild fires!

Forest fires are expected to increase in frequency, severity, distribution, and duration.

It’s hard to be shocked anymore by the administration’s bald contempt for science and human health. But this what happens when you outsource global warming policy to Dick Cheney.

I like a good debate so here goes day two of NA Daily vs. The Paul Patrol:

[Day one started here]

Reader Walker Pfost writes:

Mr. Dickinson…. The question to which we are all dying to hear an answer (and I hope I am not speaking out of turn when I refer to the Patrol as “we”) is: what evidence or sources can you cite that indicate that the failure of FEMA in New Orleans had anything to do with private organizations and individuals?

I could cite the many examples already given (on the popular post) of how these private organizations were on hand WAY before the federally-sponsored FEMA…

As for me, I believe in people. Ordinary people. I believe that ordinary people help other ordinary people. I believe that charities and philanthropies and churches and people are good, and will do good, and will not let the children starve, or the drowning anguish, or the homeless go naked. I believe this about ordinary, regular Joes who work long hours and drink beer and are worried about their teenage daughters. They do good things. For all of its virtues [and it does have some], the government is no replacement for the goodness of these people.

I’m right there with you in believing in the greatness and magnanimity of the American people. When I’ve run in to trouble on cross-country travels, it’s been average joes — not the highway patrol or any one else from the government — who’ve helped me out of a jam. America rocks.

But believing in people isn’t inconsistent with believing in government, and in particular in government’s role as a protector of last resort. There are things ordinary people aren’t equipped to do. Like model Class 5 hurricane damage. And pluck people off of their rooftops with helicopters. And reinforce levees. And implement evacuation plans. And rebuild a city flattened by weather of mass destruction.

It’s true that many individuals and some companies were better prepared to offer relief than our socalled first responders at FEMA. But why was that the case?

That’s where the dark metastasis of anti-government ideology that I’ve been talking about came into play. Under Republican leadership, FEMA was downgraded in the federal pecking order, staffed with cronies, and had its budget slashed.

In short: A formerly robust arm of the government with real power to save lives was degraded and gangrene-ized by small government ideologues. The government’s failures during Katrina, to my mind, are not an argument for smaller, more limited government, they’re the horrific side effect of such arguments implemented as policy.

Here’s the argument marshaled very succinctly at the time of the disaster by recently retired Massachusetts congressman Marty Meehan: (more…)

John Edwards, late the Democratic Party’s sunshine veep candidate, is running again in 2008. Unlike last cycle, when he made his announcement on the Daily Show, he’ll be announcing from New Orleans’ ground zero, the Lower 9th Ward.

Early… OK, ridiculously premature Iowa polling shows this is a smart move. Edwards’ persistent under-the-radar campaigning in farm country has made him the frontrunner, surpassing even home-state governor Tom… Vilsack! 

The reign of our “decisive leader,” bookended by two photographs.

September 11, 2001:

And August 31, 2005:

When historians look back for the moment that the wheels came off the Bush administration, they will highlight August 30th, 2005. Bush may have been able to overcome his seven minutes of indecision on September 11, 2001. But after Katrina, Bush’s “My Pet Goat” moment stretched on for more than 48 oblivious hours.

While the rest of the world watched in helpless anguish on CNN as families tried to flag down hellicopters from their island rooftops and as the scene at the SuperDome began to resemble one of Dante’s lower circles of hell, Bush was marking not the greatest natural disaster since the 1906 earthquake leveled San Francisco, but rather the 60th anniversary of V-J Day in San Diego. It was a backdrop reminiscent of “Mission Accomplished” with the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan looming behind the president’s podium.

After delivering his remarks — blasting his strawman foes for their pre-9/11 mindset, not realizing that it was he at that moment who was stuck in the pre-Katrina past — Bush shook hands with a few members of the greatest generation before continuing to live it up on his 5-week vacation, clowning around with country music star Mark Wills.

I’ve never understood why this image hasn’t caught on outside of the narrower reaches of the blogosphere. For me it is the iconic photograph of the the recklessness and the fecklessness of the Bush era. The president strumming…

…as New Orleans drowned.

A year ago today, the New Orleans’ levies broke and the Crescent City began to drown.

A year ago today, president Bush scrambled from his Crawford Ranch… to share birthday cake with John McCain on the Senator’s 69th birthday in Arizona.

As 30,000 American refugees hunkered down in the SuperDome, Bush then journeyed to Rancho Cucamonga, California to deliver a vital address:

The purpose of coming here today — thank you all for doing this, by the way — the purpose of coming was to encourage — (applause) — the purpose of coming was to inform as many folks as we can, obviously, in person and on TV, that Medicare has been strengthened and Medicare has been modernized, and that if you’re really interested in helping a senior, or a senior helping yourself, look into this plan, look into what’s available.

The government has an obligation to our seniors to provide a health care system. We have done that for years. Now we took it upon ourselves to make sure the health care system we provided was strong and modern. And we have done that….

I want to thank you all for giving me and Laura a chance to come back to Rancho Cucamonga. It’s a beautiful place you got here. We appreciate your hospitality. May God bless you all. Thank you.