The levees are not fixed, money has been skimmed, the city played games that delayed rebuilding, and the congressional report out this week is a stunning indictment of FEMA, Homeland Security, the Orleans Levee board (majority Republican, but with significant Democratic representation) and the Louisiana statehouse (also mainly Republican, with bluedog Democrats). Laura Bush is going there to take attention away from that report.

My mother is a Katrina survivor, and most of my family was down there. Unless Bush is going to work on a levee, I don't want to hear about her, or any other politician, going down there. They fly in, do nothing, and fly out. We are rebuilding our house ouselves, without FEMA aid. We had flood insurance, as well as other insurance, and collecting has been a nightmare. We have not seen had any of the charity aid.

I'm in the generation of college graduates who had to leave the city to find work, because political corruption drove most of the businesses away. My heart is still there. The Katrina experience made me cynical of the media, and reinforced my cynicism about both parties. If Laura Bush is going down there, it's to find a way to grab money or attention. It's not to help.

Your post summarizes the biggest problem of the writing world today: an unwillingness to be critiqued. If those national writers are unwilling to be debated, then they don't really have anything to offer. That you won't submit says more about your insecurity than the quality of Salon.

Cary Tennis has been growing as a writer. His answers have become more thoughtful, and his writing is a lot more coherent than just a year ago. I think the feedback he gets here has helped cause that.

There are writers out there who will never be published, because they do not have the connections to get out of the slush pile. Other awful writers (the whole plagarism thing) will be published because of their connections. The writers at Salon and Slate are confident and competent enough to put themselves out here and get instant feedback. I respect them much more than I respect the others.

I find Salon's writing to be consistently good, with a few exceptions (Ms. Poster Child for Taking Her Meds-Waldman- comes to mind). I read it for the political/military articles, which are excellent.

I hope that Salon makes it. I applaud the editors and writers here for their vision.

If they are going to search Jefferson's offices, they should search the offices of everyone who got campaign contributions from Abrahamoff, Democrat or Republican. They are all corrupt. The Republicans scream because they know that if their offices on the Hill are searched, they will be in jail with Jefferson.

Jefferson's mistake was getting caught. He did what all of the others did, regardless of political party. They are all dirty. For anyone to lecture the CBC as if they are especially dirty, without hitting the other groups in Congress (remember those ethics bills the House and Senate killed) is ridiculous.

Jefferson should resign. So should Frist, Reid, Hastert, DeWine, and a large number of others. Probe all of them, or none. The white ones are just as bad, if not more so. But no one brought up race when it was DeLay, Cunningham, etc who were being protected by their parties.

"I do not understand the question", etc. He redirects or does nto argue. He DOES deny the Holocaust happened by arguing that there are two sets of scholars, and that the supporters are politically motivated.

He's a Nazi sympathizer, and he uses the phrase "Zionist network" "Zionist influence", etc. Change the nationality, and this man sounds like an Aryan Nations/KKK promoter.

The Palestinians could have stayed in Israel, and many did. Jordan/Eqypt/Syria have attacked Israel multiple times, and lost each time. This man is the same as any Klansman/Confederate sympathizer. He believes the Jews are inferior. He has argued in the past for their annhiliation.

Bush is clearly corrupt and connected to the Abramoff scandal. This guy is evil. Bush is indifferent and wholly owned by corporations. This man is actively promoting evil, murder, and nuclear war. Bush's administration pushes BS with a wink and a nod to enrage the Left; this man has in the past promoted new genocide. His letters have been accurately set in the historic offer of surrender to Islam or die. He does not want a dialogue; he wants to delay reprisal until he can get a working delivery system. We saw this tactic of negotitation and threat in the Korean and Vietnam conflicts. He is not the popular choice of Iranians- they have no choice. The mullahs control him, and this is what the mullahs want to hear.

Do not let anger at Bush blind you to the danger of this man. They only thing keeping him from nuking us is the lack of a delivery system. These are true believers, and they think that the US, the Great Satan, is decadent. They do not believe in rule of the people, because it interferes with a dictatoship of the mullahs.

Iran is dangerous, and may have manuevered the Bush administration into a war that has advantaged Iran. The CIA has shown compelling evidence that Chalabi, our major source for the Irqi nucleau program, was an Iranian plant. We foolishly took out the balance of power, the stay against Iranian power.

Do not fear Bush more than Iran's government. Bush is within the power of the US to correct; he is not competent enough to wreck the havoc an unchecked Iran can. The Constitution limits the ability of the right wing extremists to impose their will. The only check against this man is a nuke, and most of our nukes are aimed at Russia. We have wasted time on Iraq when the realy rogue state was next door.

Time to reorient the launchers.