Saw this at Zerby's blog. It's worth propagating. This Newsweek story explains how and why Bush was so ill-informed about hurricane Katrina's impact in the disaster's early days.

If you've done any tisk-tisk-ing or issued any weary sighs about the U.S. response to hurricane Katrina and thought how lucky you are to be in Canada, do yourself favour and read Anthony Keller's column from the Sunday Star.

CNN's Anderson Cooper got noticed almost two weeks ago when he ripped a U.S. Senator who was trying to be a good team player and praise the feds while rats were feeding on dead bodies lying in the street.

Michael "Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job" Brown resigned from FEMA on Monday.

The team player and Republican hack threw himself on a grenade, saying he didn't want to distract from his agency's work.

I'm sure the facts that Dubya's approval numbers are averaging about 42 per cent right now ... and that anger with his administration's response to hurricane Katrina is part of the reason for that ... and that Brown had become a lightning rod of criticism from both Republicans and Democrats alike ... played no role in any of this.

Here's the NYT's take.

Oddly enough, Brown's acting replacement, R. David Paulison, has experience in fighting disasters, not worsening them.

And to continue kicking a mediocre man when he's down, here's Maureen Dowd's take on the whole sad affair.

The NYT wants to start charging to read its columnists online -- for those of us who don't do the dead trees version of the paper.

Read more here, but starting Sept. 19, the NYT wants $50 US per year for TimesSelect.

I love the NYT's columnists, but if the Washington Post or LA Times or Toronto Star isn't charging to read theirs, then I'm sure I can learn to love them too.