First of all, the only Catter who I know who lived in New Orleans when Katrina hit is Pappa Gator... Not too sure where P-Gator is now but he did stop at my house fir dinner on the way down to work on his house... That was back a few months ago...

Other than him, I don't think there's any Catters from New Orleans...

As fir FEMA's position as an quasi-independent agency like it used to, I'm all for that... But that doesn't change the fact the, cabinet position ot not, FEMA was stripped of staff and funding by Bush at the very same time that Bush was boasting of having the American people protected??? And ther Republican controled Senate has called for FEMA to be renamed (who cares) but also given greater resources... Bush opposes moving FEMA out from under DHS... So what you, Rufe, have suggested (or I think you suggested it..) is something that Bush is against...

But I agree and have stated in this thread that FEMA needs to reoraginized and ***funded*** like it was back in the Clinton years... I feel quite strongly about this since I do own one commercial property that is in a flood plane and pay flood insurance to FEMA... As do hundreds of thousands of other folks... That money comes out of my pocket and goes to supposedly protect my investment against flood damage... Maybe you aren't award of this little fact, Rufe???

As for the stink-bomb comment, you still haven't figured out that I will have fun with people when it's time to have fun but when it comes down to discussing policies, I can be dead serious...

You might find it intersting that I was one of the orgainizers of a Main Street program in Leesburg, Va. when I owned a business there and was also the promotions comitee chairman that involved me havin' to deal with all kinds of folks in order to get things done...

This hardly squares with yer generalization of me as some half crazed pot head... Might of fact, I come from a family of community activists and have been involved with volunteer organizations going back into the early 60's...

Hardly matches yer generalization...

Bobert