Given my fascination with the film The Battle of Algiers, I couldn't let a film about a major episode in the France-Algeria conflict go unwatched, could I?

So I went to see Oct. 17, 1961 at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Critics ranging from Jon Stewart to Rick Salutin have been tipping their hats to the U.S. MSM over their aggressive coverage of the botched relief efforts for hurricane Katrina.

But in some ways, Iraq is a worse catastrophe because the Bush administration deliberately started that conflict.

The bottom-end estimate right now by Iraq Body Count for Iraqi civilian deaths is just under 25,000. The cost? At least $200 billion US.

Question: Did the Bushies get an easy ride on Iraq because they stage-managed it quite well, or is it because the U.S. MSM only cares about Americans dying?

The NYT's Paul Krugman covers some of this ground in a column today on the Bush administration and accountability.

This Washington Post story paints an alarming picture of top managers at FEMA with little experience in disaster management -- but who are loyal Republicans and/or Bush campaign workers.

Three cheers for patronage and cronyism. :(

Michael Brown, the doofus in charge of the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), has been removed from operational control of hurricane Katrina relief efforts.

The headline is in reference to U.S. President George W. Bush's statement of one week ago.

Here's CTV.ca's story on Brown's demotion.

Question: Is this the first time a high-level Bush appointee has been discipline for incompetence? If so, can we safely conclude this is the worst political firestorm for Bush ever -- even more so than Iraq?

The Toronto Star's Antonia Zerbisias wrote on Monday about how cable and online media provided better hurricane Katrina coverage than the major American networks.

One thing she didn't mention -- and something I learned the hard way during the T.O. blackout of Aug. 14, 2003 -- is the value of having a cheap, battery-operated transistor radio kicking around your house.

The way I learned that particular event might have been more than a local blackout (I was at home and my power died; then I went out to College Street and saw the traffic lights were out) was the fact my cellphone didn't work.

But I had an old-but-serviceable transistor radio and it kept me up to date.

Zerby wrote about the digital divide, and how the poor of New Orleans are on the other side of it. But virtually anyone can afford a transistor radio.