It is the Great Forgetting. After thirty-odd months, the nation has moved on. Katrina and all that it wrought has fallen out of the national conversation. The devastation caused by both the storm and the incompetence of the government are just dim, uncomfortable memories for most of the nation.

Which is exactly how the insurance industry likes it.

Down in New Orleans today, they are burying the noted blogger, citizen activist, rabid Saints fan and local bon vivant Ashley Morris. He leaves behind a wife and three young kids, and they need your help.

Ashley Morris

Now, this isn't really "fundraising," and there's nothing tax-deductible about it, so I hope site will indulge me...

I'll keep this short, because frankly, I never met him.

Professor Ashley Morris is one of the wittiest, sharpest bloggers on life in New Orleans, post-Katrina.  For the past few years, I've been making it a point to check out his blog two or three times a week, which is how I learned that on Wednesday, New Orleans lost a champion.

also available at docudharma

It seems our great national embarrassment, the federal response to Hurricane Katrina,  is the gift that just keeps on giving.

It's now official.
U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval ruled today that the Army Corps of Engineers

"squandered millions of dollars in building a levee system ... which was known to be inadequate by the Corps’ own calculations."

And then he ruled, as most everyone expected he would, that the Corps couldn't be sued for it: The Corps is immune under the 1928 Flood Control Act.

Tonight the armies of compassion continue the march to a new day in the Gulf Coast. America honors the strength and resilience of the people of this region. We reaffirm our pledge to help them build stronger and better than before.-- SOTU 2008

There are plenty of footsoldiers in the Army of Compassion. But are we marching to a new day in the Gulf Coast, or retreating before the gates of Moscow?

Crossposted under slightly different titles at Docudharma and at the Blue House.

The day after Christmas, I'm heading back to the Gulf Coast for a week
with the volunteers. If The Muse doesn't run out on me, this will be the first in a series of short and easy reads on what it all means. Or doesn't.

This trip came about because we had some money left over from the last one. After three trips with no skills other than strong backs, it was becoming pretty clear that unless we could kick it up a notch, there wouldn't be much use in returning.

With federal relief money still bottlenecked in the system and 14,000 residents displaced by Katrina about to go through their third winter in FEMA trailers or tents, the housing charities of Mississippi are trying to raise $300 million dollars to Finish The Job of getting these people back into permanent housing. There's more after the jump.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday for three reasons:
*Great food
*Minimal commercialization
*Alice's Restaurant

This song was born on a Thanksgiving Day in the late 60's.
It's about a lot of stuff, but mostly, it's about a war.

Here in New York, it has played at noon every Thanksgiving for three decades. WNEW-FM started the tradition, and since that station closed, it has bounced around a bit... but it always plays. All 18:36 of it.

First the Netroots diss her, then the Presidential Debates do.

It's hard enough rebuilding when the White House thinks you're a PR problem that needs to go away. Hell, it took them forever and weeks of public ridicule  just to decide FEMA should pay for the Aquarium Fish.

No help there, and if the locals are going to be left to do it themselves, there's one thing everyone needs to know:  

New Orleans won't come back any year soon without the business brought in by the convention trade. Just won't happen.

And do not believe the excuses you hear.  Everyone understands why the GOP candidates don't want to debate anywhere near New Orleans. But the Netroots?  Not enough space? are you serious???

Bottom line, folks... New Orleans still needs beaucoup help,and one big, easy way to do it is to hold our parties there.

Now, in the big scheme of things, how hard can that really be?

crossposted at Docudharma

From the Washington Post:

"We have to make responsible decisions in the Congress that are not driven by the dissatisfaction of anybody who wants the war to end tomorrow," Pelosi told the gathering at the Sofitel, arranged by the Christian Science Monitor.

I had hoped there might be some sort of rethink going on, but apparently,
the leadership's war strategy is still geared to the next election:  they're waiting for 2008.

Let's ignore for a moment what that means in terms of more dollars and lives.  Let's just look at the reasoning behind it.  It's still based the solely idea of letting the Republicans "own the war" by continuing to fund it.

Having a problem swallowing that logic?  So, apparently, was Wolf Blitzer. A hat tip to BTD, who flagged this interview on

CNN yesterday.

crossposted at  Docudharma

Aren't you guys a little tired of the whingeing about not having enough
Democrats in the Senate? About waiting for 60 votes before we can do anything meaningful about... well, anything?

The problem isn't the size of the majority. The problem is the leadership.
Democrats have done more with less....

picture slowly fades into wayback sequence

Interesting word choices from Bush aide Fran Townsend when discussing the newest Osama Bin Laden tape today-  from the AP:

"This is about the best he can do," Townsend said of bin Laden. "This is a man on a run, from a cave, who's virtually impotent other than these tapes."

In appearance on two Sunday talk shows, she used the "virtually impotent" reference both times, suggesting the language was chosen with careful purpose.

"We know that al-Qaida is still determined to attack, and we take it seriously," Townsend said. "But this tape appears to be nothing more than threats. It's propaganda on their part."

It's the anniversary. Have a cry. Vent your rage.
Then we need to talk about getting the Gulf Coast out of the 2008 political lockbox.

Because, while it may be tempting to beat the Republicans to death next year with their response to Katrina, the Gulf Coast can't wait that long.

Mars danced with the moon and turned her red this morning,
and it was two years ago tonight that Katrina began hammering the Gulf Coast.

Ah, me. 9/11 didn't change everything- Katrina did.

While there's a really excellent Playlist for New Orleans that's been posted by mlharges, there's only one song in my head today:

August 28, 2005...  Katrina off Mississippi
14 hours before Landfall.

As diaried here, more e-mail evidence from inside the RNC points to a massive 2004 GOP effort to disqualify likely Democratic voters in key battleground states.
But there's more to come; there's evidence the program may still be running, and one can't help but wonder if this is   the reason the Bush administration was targeting US attorneys who refused to bring voter fraud cases.
NOW on PBS reports on it Friday night. See a summary on the flipside...