"Former Senator Rick Santorum "

Santorum's a real piece of work, isn't he?

But I think sysprog's right. DHS director talking about a "gut feeling"? Sounds like a new wave of scare-mongering.

in re: update (6), perhaps Bush should try cutting the red tape in New Orleans and Gulf Coast.

Why on earth would she not even show up to Conyers committee? Are they trying to piss Conyers off so bad that the Dems will beat her up, then Admin. can go for sympathy? (Poor Harriet--look what those bullies are doing to her...)

Interesting times.

Billions from the Government, billions more from insurance companies. There is no reason for New Orleans to be lying on it's back and crying for more.

Sure there is. The "Billions" don't do New Orleans any good when they're stacked up and rotting in the sun in Hope, Arkansas. Just like the Billions sent to Iraq don't do any good when their used to build structures so unsound that they can't be used for anything but KBR profits.

A question for you, Mr. Shooter. Do you live in NO or the gulf coast?

So, let me understand this. New Jerseyites have a special insight into the gulf coast because they live...next to an ocean? Is that it?

After all we've done for them, the victims of Katrina have nobody to blame but themselves.

Joe Wilson is a political enemy and outed his own wife. He has nobody to blame but himself.

After all that has happened to him, Scooter Libby's sentence is unfair and unjust. His jail term for four felony convictions will be abololished.

All this China talk is interesting. It turns out that the Shang Dynasty actually existed. It was long thought to be a myth, but now has some archeological confirmation. The early bonze age in China was marked by an elite that became so through the practice of Shamanism. for example, they would write questions onto the scapulae of oxen or other animals, throw these into fire. Where the fire caused cracks across the carved or painted lines of text, the Shang shamans would read the answers, which, they knew, came direct from the supernatural realm. these early shamans evolved into the emperor and ruling elites of the Dynastic Age of China. In China and all other early human states, state and church were inseperable. The rulers literally held the mandate of heaven. The Queen of England is their direct descendant, and we painfully and angrily rejected her and her ancestors some years ago.

That is how recent the separation of secular rule from the mandate of heaven is. That is how long it has taken.

So when we see our secular leaders looking back in time, and longing for a reunion of church and state, we should be very concerned about that. When we have leaders who can only uplift faith by degrading science and education, we should be concerned about that too.

And when we have a cabinet secretary of Homeland Security who announces we should once again be very afraid because of a gut feeling he has, we should demand to see the Burned Scapulae. We can make our own goddam judgements--because in this country, the mandate of heaven does not yet rest with Kings or their ministers. Not yet.