Haven't checked back here for a few days. Let me respond to the unidentified GUEST who addressed me personally:

Tell me what GWB could have done to prevent the levee system from failing?

Nothing. Although, perhaps, if he had taken a greater interest than previous administrations in our safety immediately upon taking office in 2001, the levees might have ben sufficiently improved before Katrina hit. But how likely would that have been?

Tell me what amount of money spent on FEMA and or the levee system would have prevented the horrible situation that developed after the levees failed?

It's not just a question of money, except indirectly insofar as money budgeted for "emergency management" was systematically cut, with the remaining assets used to pay the salaries of toadies qualified only to make further cuts to the agency's operations, not to actually manage emergencies. Specifically, I hold Bush (and his puppetmaster Cheney) responsible for appointing the clueless Michael Brown, who claimed not to know about the people suffering and dying at the Convention Center, at a time when everyone in the world with a TV set could see with their own eyes what was going on. Hell, people in China knew more about the situation than Michael Brown, who seemed mainly to be concerned about the designer labels and price tags on his suits, and about the increased auto traffic in Baton Rouge interfering with his high-ticket restaurant meals.

Aside from that, you and I are pretty much in agreement. I've always been an "independent" voter, not a straight-party-ticket person. It's true, given my political opinions and instincts, that I usually prefer the Democratic candidiate to the Republican in a given election, but I have voted for plenty of Republicans, especially in local and state elections, and especially a few years back when Louisiana began to actually have a two-party system, and the newly reborn Republican party was offering "reform" alternatives to corrupt estabishments maintained by the then-ascendant "conservative Democrats" (usually, guys who would have been Republicans anywhere outside the one-party "Solid South").

I've never had unquestioning faith in the Democratic Party, and believe that both parties harbor corrupt and/or incompetant officials. However, my current opinion is that the neoconservative movement now in control of the Republican party is so profoundly evil that I have become ~ temporarily, I hope ~ one of those yellow-dog Democrats who will vote for anyone running against a Republican, certainly in any federal election (for congress & senate as well as president). It's unfortunate, since part of the traditional Republican vision ~ the libertarian, "hands-off" stance ~ is closer to my anarcho-pacifist philosophy than the plan-everything, "Big Brother" values of some Democrats. But I think it's absolutely necessary, right now, to take control of Congress out of the hands of the current proprietors of the GOP franchise.