Gov. Ritter Embarrasses all Coloradoans

From September 16 - 20, 2008 Denver was the host city to 57 of the remaining 101 last living recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor. For the majority of my readers who probably don’t know what that means, it is the highest military award bestowed on an individual for valor in combat against an enemy force - in short, they are true American Heroes. These men represent all races, social classes, educational and economic strata, and deserve the utmost respect from anyone lucky enough to be in their presence. Even the President of the United States gives a Medal of Honor wearer the first salute. However, I am sad to say that Colorado’s own Governor Ritter poorly represented our grand state during the heroes’ visit. At the luncheon he attended Tuesday, prior to his arrival, he asked event staff if Presidential Candidate Barack Obama (D) could attend the luncheon. The President of the Medal of Honor Committee (also a recipient) denied the request, not wanting the convention turned into a political arena. Possibly also due to the fact that one of the attending recipients, George “Bud” Day was a P.O.W. at the “Hanoi Hilton” with Republican Presidential Candidate John McCain. Because of the denied request, Gov. Ritter got bitter, and at his mansion on Wednesday, he hosted a dinner in honor of the recipients but failed to make an appearance. And, to top it all off, he instructed his staff to call the Medal of Honor event planners to charge the heroes a general use fee for “renting” out his mansion. The blatant lack of respect for our real American Heroes by our governor disappointed me and I hope, all veterans.

Breaking News

The Obama people are going to great lengths to find dirt on John McCain. I thought this latest one is hysterical. Who would have thought that doing what college boys do on spring break would come back to make headlines 51 years later!

McCain's Brazilian Lover Uncovered.
A Brazilian fashion model, now 77, has gone public with the details from her eight-day sexual relationship with John McCain in Rio when he was a Naval midshipman in 1957. "He was my dear and my coconut dessert," says Maria Gracinda Teixeira de Jesus. "He was such a good kisser that I had to purchase a book which taught me how to kiss to keep up with him."

Bush: U.S. Citizens to Welcome Our 51st State

Although it cost more than the Louisiana Purchase and the Alaska purchase combined and offers far less acreage, President George Bush today said he thinks “U.S. citizens will welcome our 51 state with open arms.”
The announcement that the financial realm collectively known as “Wall Street” had applied for statehood follows a week in which the federal government took control of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and insurance megalith AIG. It also comes as news breaks that the U.S. plans to spend up to a $1 trillion to “rescue” other foundering financial firms.
President Bush noted that the newest state is not so much a geographical swath of land as it is “a state of mind.”
“Once the statehood process is complete,” the president said, “We will find that the people of Wall State are just like those in the rest of our great nation. They’re hard-working, industrious and patriotically-dependent upon the centralized government to insulate them from the consequences of their own actions.”

History adds come clarity to new crises

Yesterday morning after the big stock drop on Bloody Monday, as some experts were calling this week’s Wall Street woes, I listened to a radio commentator report in a gloomy tone that the Tuesday market was opening with the Dow Jones under 11,000 points for the first time in two months.

Yes, two months.

Not 27 months or six years or 34 years or for the first time since 1932. The Dow Jones was opening at its lowest point in TWO MONTHS.

How are we ever going to adjust to that calamity?

Yes, the U.S. economy is in trouble. People are hurting, compared to how they were living a couple of years ago. Jobs are being cut, the dollar isn’t buying as much, the body politic seems frozen by indecision and partisan gridlock. So how bad is it, really?

Unemployment is running at about 6 percent, maybe a tenth of a point or two higher. Not good, but not bad as a “crisis” goes. The housing market is in the tank, but that’s only compared to the boom of recent years when “starter” homes couldn’t be built fast enough to sell at $250,000.

Even with gasoline hovering at $4 a gallon in most markets this summer, the decrease in national mileage traveled was down only about 5 percent - hardly a sign of desperate times. Prices of food and other goods was increasing at about the same rate as the cost of energy, but the grocery shelves were amply stocked with fresh produce and popular restaurants still had waiting lines at their doors.

Now every home has at least one computer, three flat-screen TV sets and an inventory of iPods and other electronic gadgets to equip a squadron.

Our idea of hardship these days is having to cancel the premium service on our satellite TV programming.

As a friend of mine said recently, things are so bad that the nation’s war on poverty has become a war on obesity.

Yeah, things are tough. But compared to most of the world, we’re not even hurting yet. We’re more comfortable than any society in human history, we enjoy more freedom than any nation on the planet, we’re a people still full of innovation, our resources are bountiful and our homes are secure.

The only reason we think we’ve got it so bad is because we’ve had it so good.

Even after the devastating hit to our economy when terrorists struck the World Trade Center towers seven years ago, we fought back to all-time highs as measured by nearly every economic indicator. After what at the time seemed like a crippling blow to the nation’s knees, the nation was back on a roll in five short years.

By any standard, life is good. Our drinking water has never been cleaner, our cities’ skies have never been clearer, our lives have never been longer, our comforts have never been greater and our assets have never been more abundant.

Maybe some hard times would do us good.

I had the humbling experience this week of listening to a man recall the true hardships and human suffering of his parents, refugees in Europe at the end of World War II. They were among the millions of people who had been uprooted from their homelands during the war, wandering in fright as their fate was determined by forces well beyond their control.

Their families had been torn apart, their lives left tattered, their possessions contained in a single bag, their futures bleak, or worse.

Even as peace was declared and celebrated, they were among the millions of desperate people who were seemingly lost souls haunted by overwhelming hopelessness.

They knew true hardship, and their stories dumbfounded everyone in the room who listened.

Yes, today’s global economy is experiencing a few pains, and many of our family budgets are feeling a pinch. But a good dose of history can quickly put things in proper perspective.

Certainly there are causes for worry, and we can find grounds for concern.

After all, this week things are worse than they’ve been in TWO WHOLE MONTHS.

Obama Adops New Yoda-Like Slogan: Change We Need

With intense pressure to raise money because he decided to forgo public-funding of his presidential campaign, Barack Obama has altered his slogan from “Change We Can Believe In” to a more direct appeal inspired by the distinctive speech patterns of Yoda, from the Star Wars movies.
“Change We Need“, now appears on the podium placard in front of Sen. Obama as he reads from his TelePromTer to crowds of supporters almost as enthusiastic as those turning out to see Gov. Sarah Palin.
The Democrat presidential nominee said he thought of the new slogan while screening the animated Star Wars movie “The Clone Wars.”
“Thinking, I was,” said Sen. Obama, “Change we need, checks we also accept.

McCain Commission Releases Economic Crisis Report

Yesterday Sen. John McCain called for a high-level commission to investigate the current economic crisis and to propose solutions. Today, the commission released its final report calling for the federal government to immediately withdraw from Wall Street, the home mortgage market and “other sectors where government intervention has undercut the principles of free-market capitalism.”
The commission, which convened at the City Diner Restaurant in Pueblo, Colorado, issued its recommendations before the waitress brought out the pancake syrup, and it called on presidential candidates from both major parties get behind its agenda of common-sense reforms.
The panel, comprised of a truck driver, a Wal-Mart People Greeter, a self-described public school “cafeteria lady” and “that old guy who’s always sitting by himself at the Diner”, noted that “as long as people don’t have to bear the consequences of their behavior, or they think that the government will bail them out if they fail, they’ll take irrational risks.”
“To restore confidence among global investors in the U.S. economy,” according to the McCain City Diner Commission report, “the government must stop trying to mitigate uncertainty, and realize that uncertainty is the juice that creates the potential upside in markets. Without risk, there is no reward. Without potential reward there is no investment. Without investment, the greatest standard of living the world has ever seen would be history.”

Wall Street Seeks Disaster Declaration, FEMA Help

The Bush administration is said to be considering an appeal for a disaster declaration by officials at Lehman Brothers, AIG, Merrill Lynch and other Wall Street firms who said they need the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to intervene in the wake of a “Category 5 liquidity crisis.”
A White House spokesman said President Bush plans to fly over the region later this afternoon to view the devastation in person, and has assured Wall Street CEOs that the U.S. stands ready to rescue their firms from the “ravages of capitalism”.
National Guard helicopters have already plucked dozens of investment analysts and stock traders from Manhattan rooftops, and Fox News correspondent Geraldo Rivera has taken up a position at the front door of the Lehman Brothers building — his hair drenched in stock broker tears, his mustache buffeted by the gale-force winds that fleeing Lehman employees have stirred.
FEMA, already stretched thin from back-to-back relief efforts along the Gulf Coast, nevertheless stands ready to provide mobile housing units and sacks of cash to buttress the cracked walls of America’s financial markets.
Meanwhile, churches and other non-profit organizations nationwide have sent out pleas for donations to care for the millionaire displaced brokers, traders and analysts, many of whom failed to heed warnings to get out before the disaster hit.

SNL Opening Last Night

Too good to pass up

Pit-bull Owners Offended

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who famously compared herself to a pit bull in her vice-presidential acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, appears to have antagonized a key voting bloc in the upcoming election, the nation's pit-bull owners.

While Palin's assertion that the only difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull was "lipstick" drew a loud ovation from the Republican faithful in St. Paul, it raised the ire of the Pit Bull Anti-Defamation League, a powerful association of pit-bull fanciers who monitor the portrayal of pit bulls in the media.

"As someone who has owned pit bulls for the past 20 years, my jaw dropped," said Carol Foyler, the group's executive director. "Most of us are thinking the same thing: Enough is enough."

Foyler said that for pit-bull owners who have grown weary of their prized dogs being defamed and mistreated, Palin's wisecrack was the last straw: "We're all like, first the Michael Vick thing, and now this."

Tracy Klugian, an irate pit-bull owner from Buffalo, N.Y., echoed Foyler's sentiments: "I can think of many differences between pit bulls and Gov. Palin — for starters, pit bulls don't try to get their ex-brothers-in-law fired."

With Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain fighting for every last vote, a coveted voting bloc like pit-bull owners could very well decide the 2008 election, political insiders believe.

While Palin was not available for comment on the pit bull controversy, a spokesman for the McCain-Palin ticket offered this official statement: "Gov. Palin does in fact have one thing in common with a pit bull: Neither is capable of answering questions from reporters."

Breaking News

Barack Obama today cancelled his expected appearance on tonight's Saturday Night Live television show stating, "I have been made fun of enough this week for comparing myself to Jesus, since we both are community organizers. I think I will take the night off and practice turning water into wine".

Hey, Where Did All My Stuff Go?

By Pharaoh Tutankhamun

Well this sucks. I leave the realm of the living to roam the underworld for a few thousand years, return to my burial place to enjoy all my worldly possessions, and all of a sudden, everything is gone. Everything. The alabaster chalice, the cobra amulet, that gold vulture thing I've had since I was a baby—all of it, gone.

I don't understand how this could have happened. It was all right here. Everything I ever owned. Right f#%$ing here. I definitely remember there was a royal scepter leaning up against the outer sarcophagus, and there were a bunch of crowns and stuff, too. I know I had at least, like, 10 crowns. And—aw, f#*k me, they took my pendant with the beetle and monkeys on it. I f#$%ing loved that pendant. It's not even worth anything, but it was still like my favorite thing. Why in the world would someone do something like this?

This afterlife is going to suck.

And where did my statue of Anubis go? Do you know how hard it's going to be to find another three-foot-long wood carving of a recumbent jackal? It's going to be impossible, that's how hard it's going to be, because it was carved for me by my grandmother Queen Nefertiti, who last I checked died in 1330 B.C. I was going to use that statue. I was going to use all of this stuff.

Now what am I supposed to do? All my shit, the necklaces, that weird lion vase, the gold f#$%ing daggers that I couldn't f#$%ing wait to use, gone. I have nothing to wear. I have nothing to do. I guess I'll just lie here on the floor for the rest of eternity.

Oh, but I see my wooden chest is still here. Too bad everything that was inside of it is gone. But thank goodness I still have my precious wooden chest. What would I ever do without my painted wooden chest with nothing inside of it? I see my bronze trumpet and golden throne are missing, though. Shocking. That's okay, I'll just entertain myself for the rest of time with this empty wooden chest. Who needs jewels and treasures anyway? No, this is much better. F#$%ing shit bastards I hate this!

I guess I should describe some of the stuff that's missing, in case anyone has seen it. It's pretty hard to miss. Pretty much everything is covered in gold. There was this bracelet I remember, which had an eye painted on it. There were these five gold rings, which I guess looked like regular gold rings, basically. I'm also missing this cool-looking statue that was like a snake with wings, but its head was a human head. And a whole bunch of other shit, too. So basically anything gold with animals and stuff is probably mine. And again, that pendant I mentioned earlier. It had a beetle on it with two monkeys, and they were holding hands or something, and they had moons and suns over their heads, and the beetle if I remember correctly was blue. F#$k, I really want that pendant back.

If anyone reading this has seen any of the stuff described above, please return it to my tomb, located in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, immediately. Please, I seriously need this stuff back. Thank you.

Pharaoh Tutankhamun is an Egyptian king who ruled from 1333–1324 B.C. He can be reached at tutank1341@gmail.com.

Gearhead Geezers

When I was in high school over 40 years ago, my passion was cars, it still is for that matter, and I have bought and sold more cars than I care to think about. If I did think about it I should have kept all of them, because they are all worth a ton of money now. In fact some are worth two tons of money. We used to hang out at the Kwik Shake Drive In and talk about cars and girls. (Now we get together at the Sunset Inn, have a beer and talk about cars and girls and call ourselves the Gearhead Geezers) My friend Joe had a baby blue metallic '55 Chevy that I thought was the coolest car around. Well the '55 is long gone but here is a picture of Joe's latest pride and joy.

The Audacity of Some Peoples Hope

I had a close friend who passed away last December after a lingering illness. He was a retired police officer and a great musician. I went to his funeral along with 400 or so of his friends and I have to admit I shed a tear or two.
Yesterday I received an email from him, or of course from a person trying to scam me out of $2500. The email in its entirety is posted below:
Hello,
How are you doing? Hope all is well with you and family, I am sorry that I didn't inform you about my traveling to Canada for a program called Empowering youth to fight racism and Cares Conference for Caregivers
I need a favor from you as soon as you receive this e-mail because i misplaced my wallet on my way to the hotel where my money, and other valuable things were kept i will like you to assist me with a soft loan urgently with the sum of $2,500 US Dollars to sort-out my hotel bills and get myself back home.
I will appreciate whatever you can afford and I'll pay you back as soon as I return. Please find the information you need to send me the money through Money gram agent close to you below.
Name: - Howard Lukenbill
Address: - 1659 Jane Street
Toronto Ontario M9N 2S1
Text Question: - Love
Text Answer: - Care
Please as soon as you send the money please send me the attached copy from money gram and also the payment confirmation number with the senders name I will need that to pick the money up. May the good lord bless you for assisting me with the soft loan?
Kindly let me know if you can be of help to me? Asap
Thanks
If it wasn’t so sad it would be hilarious. It came from Howard’s email address and it appeared it was sent to many people. This person had to do a lot of research to accomplish this scam. There was a website that had our pictures and email addresses along with others, but of course it was changed after his death. So the scammer was working at this scam for at least 9 months.
If I thought he would come back I would gladly send the $2500.

To Blunt Pig Lipstick Impact, Obama Admits Plagiarism

In an attempt to get the mainstream media and the blogosphere to stop talking about Sarah Palin after Barack Obama’s now-famous “lipstick on a pig” gaffe, the Democrat presidential nominee attempted to direct attention to his remark just before the lipstick comment yesterday in which he used a line from a political cartoonist without attribution.
“This is my campaign not Sarah Palin’s,” said Sen. Obama at a hastily-arranged news conference. “You people should be talking about me. Why don’t you jump on me for me ripping me offTom Toles, the Washington Post cartoonist, whose line I repeated almost word-for-word as if I had written it myself. Now, that’s a story!”
Sen. Obama called his use of the cartoonist’s work “an act of plagiarism reminiscent of Joe Biden” and complained that “journalists just let it pass so they could talk about Palin, pigs and lipstick. It’s time to bring change to the news media, and return to the days when Barack Obama was always the big story.”

The Sadness of Youth Sports

Last Saturday I went to a friend’s house and found a parking nightmare because of a pee-wee football game going on at a middle school a half a block away. Finally finding a parking place on the street adjacent to the field I paused to watch the game in progress. I was appalled at what I saw. Here are tiny 6 and 7 year old football players in full uniforms with their individual names printed on the back of their jerseys! Standing, screaming on the side lines were parents with grown up versions of the same jerseys with their son’s name and number on their jersey also. Both coaches were actually screaming instructions to their tiny minions. Now if that wasn’t appalling enough, there were also a bevy of little girl cheerleaders complete with uniforms and pom-poms trying to remember cheers far beyond their years! What in the hell has happened to being a kid? When I was playing youth sports 45 or so years ago, a kid would have died of embarrassment if their parents would have shown up for a game. When my children were playing youth sports, and yes I did coach them on occasion, the parents who were able to attend sat pleasantly beside the field and cheered on both teams.
What do these children have to look forward to when at age 6 they have uniforms with their name on their back? The local high schools do not have the players name on the uniform and for that matter, neither does the local university, (along with Notre Dame and Penn State, to name a few). Only in the realm of some major college and professional sports do you see the players name on the jerseys. I can remember playing sports at all levels including college and on the day we received our uniforms it was a glorious day indeed. No name was necessary, just the uniform instilled pride enough. Walking to my friend’s house I saw cars and SUV’s painted with their son’s number and name in the window. It made me sad. What do these young kids have to look forward to when their parents make them little adults and attempt to live out their youth failings vicariously through the lives of their children?

Anchors Aweigh!

There was a time years ago when Keith Olbermann was a reporter on ESPN that I liked his take on sports. But time and the Peter Principle have taken their toll, and he has become a bitter, babbling talking head with a single minded agenda. Good riddance. I am still surprised that MSNBC did not tag his "newscasts" with the word "editorial" across the screen. When he finally gained employment at MSNBC they were scraping the bottom of the barrel for talent, and he only took them farther down the crapper. It is too bad he took Chris Matthews with him.

New McCain Ad Attacks Obama Kids

New McCain Ad Attacks Obama Kids

In what might be his most controversial attack ad in a campaign dominated by them, presumptive G.O.P. presidential nominee John McCain today launched a new TV spot attacking Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill)'s two children.

According to political insiders, a negative ad targeting a rival's offspring is highly unorthodox, especially when the children in question are under the age of ten.

But after the two Obama kids scored in their performance on national television last week at the Democratic convention, "we had to do something to give the American people some straight talk on those two brats," Sen. McCain said today.

In the ad, which is being broadcast in key swing states, an announcer intones, "They're the cutest children in the world - but are they ready to lead?"

The spot uses visuals to link the two Obama kids to other famously cute kids, such as the young Drew Barrymore and the Cabbage Patch dolls.

The commercial goes on to blast the Obama children for "smiling and giggling but refusing to state their position on offshore oil drilling."

While some critics questioned how well the ad would play in living rooms across America, Sen. McCain defended it, telling reporters, "It played very well in all of my living rooms."

Palin Blames Daughter's Pregnancy on Media

Demands That Media Marry Bristol

Coming out on the offensive after a day of controversy, presumptive GOP vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin said today that the media was to blame for making her daughter Bristol pregnant.

"My husband and I are well aware that Bristol is pregnant, and we know who made her that way -- the media," she told reporters in Pittsburgh.

It has become common in presidential campaigns for candidates to lash out against the news media, but Gov. Palin's attack was the first known example of a politician blaming the media for her daughter's pregnancy.

Gov. Palin went on to say that since the media had made her daughter pregnant, it was now up to the media to "do the right thing and marry her."

Moments after the governor's statement, the National Enquirer said that it would marry Bristol Palin in exchange for exclusive rights to the wedding photos and the first pictures of the baby.

The Enquirer's proposal was just one of several positive developments for Gov. Palin, who today picked up the endorsement of Unplanned Parenthood.

Elsewhere, the Republican Party officially changed its slogan to "Condoms First."

Sarah Palin

I'm Neither Fan nor Foe (Undecided) but got a couple laughs from this:

Sarah Palin wears glasses lest her uncontrollable optic blasts slaughter everyone.

Sarah Palin knows how old the Chinese gymnasts are.

Sarah Palin will give birth to the man who will lead humanity’s war against the machines. Sarah Palin is the only woman who can make Tony Romo WIN a playoff.

Sarah Palin got Tom Brady pregnant, and then left him.

Sarah Palin poses more danger of creating world-destroying black holes than the Large Hadron Collidor.

Sarah Palin drives a Zamboni to work.

Sarah Palin was kicked off Survivor for killing a man and eating his entrails.

Sarah Palin can divide by zero.

Sarah Palin’s son is going to Iraq after the Surge, because a Palin during the Surge would have been unfair.

The Arctic Circle runs through Alaska so the Sun can have some relief from Sarah Palin’s bright glare.

Sarah Palin’s presence in the lower 48 means the Arctic ice cap can finally return.

The Russians sold Alaska to America because Sarah Palin would not submit to autocracy.

Sarah Palin became governor because five children left her with too much spare energy.

Sarah Palin could not find a good man, so her husband was constructed from the DNA of Washington, Lee, and Genghis Khan.

Sarah Palin will send Biden a pre-debate cheat sheet. The sheet will have tips on defending against Kung Fu Death Grip.

Sarah Palin is on loan from the Justice League.

Sarah Palin isn’t allowed to wield the gavel at the convention because they’re afraid she’ll use it to kill liberals.

Sarah Palin once won a competitive eating contest by devouring three live caribou.

Sarah Palin once carved a perfect likeness of the Mona Lisa in a block of ice using only her teeth.

Sarah Palin will pry your Klondike bar from your cold dead fingers.

Sarah Palin pick retroactively makes the theme of #DNC08 “Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead”

Sarah Palin doesn’t need a gun to hunt. She has been known to throw a bullet through an adult bull elk.

Sarah Palin begins every day with a moment of silence for the political enemies buried in her yard.

Sarah Palin always beats the point spread.

Sarah Palin once bit the head off a live Osprey snatched from the air as it tried to fly off with a fish she caught.

Sarah Palin uses French Canadians as bait to catch giant king salmon.

When Sarah Palin booked a flight to Europe, the French immediately surrendered.

Sarah Palin plays Whack-a-Mole with her forehead, and always gets a perfect score.

Sarah Palin knows who was on the grassy knoll.

Sarah Palin’s finishing move in the VP debate will be pulling Biden’s still beating heart from his chest & taking a bite.

NFL teams may draft Sarah Palin, if they forfeit all their other players forever, to maintain league parity.

Sarah Palin killed Heath Ledger so he’d go out on a high note.

If placed into Schroedinger’s experiment, both Sarah Palins remain alive.

Sarah Palin placed fossils in the ground to test your faith.

Iran’s nuclear program is a response to Sarah Palin.

We don’t know who would win in a Chuck Norris - Sarah Palin cage match because they’ve never invented a cage that can hold Sarah Palin.

Alaska is the 49th state solely because they knew even before she was born that Sarah Palin would never finish last.

Global Warming doesn’t kill polar bears. Sarah Palin does - usually with her bare hands.

Three of Sarah Palin’s five kids came out sideways - she never flinched.

Sarah Palin’s hotness is the largest single contributor to melting polar ice caps.

It’s not raining in DC. Those are God’s tears of joy that McCain picked Sarah Palin.

Chuck Norris wishes he was Sarah Palin trapped in a man’s body.

Sarah Palin paid her way through school by hunting for yeti pelts with a slingshot.

Sarah Palin knows the location of DB Cooper’s body because she threw him from the plane.

The Northern Lights are really just the reflection from Sarah Palin’s eyes.

The raw energy of Sarah Palin melts the Alaskan ice roads every spring.

Sarah Palin used to wrestle Kodiak bears in Alaskan bare knuckles fight clubs.

Sarah Palin once bagged a caribou by staring it down until it died.

Sarah Palin turned down a job as skipper of a Deadliest Catch boat because it wasn’t challenging enough.

Sarah Palin fishes salmon by convincing them it’s in their interest to jump into the boat.

Sarah Palin once guided Santa’s sleigh through an Alaskan blizzard with the light from her smile.

Without her glasses, looking deep into Sarah Palin’s eyes will blind you with the beauty of the tundra sun.

Sarah Palin’s brain is three times the size of Joe Biden’s. It’s science.

Lame Duck Bush Loses Power to Direct Hurricanes

Delegates to the Republican National Convention will have a sharply curtailed schedule of events Monday because, in the waning months of his presidency, George W. Bush has apparently lost the ability to control the intensity and paths of hurricanes.
With Category 4 Hurricane Gustav bearing down on the Gulf Coast, President Bush can do little more than monitor the situation and coordinate the response from Washington D.C..
Just three years ago, at the height of his second term, even the president’s critics acknowledged he was responsible for a direct hit by Hurricane Katrina on the poor neighborhoods of New Orleans.
This week he has canceled a planned speech at the convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, so he can supervise the federal government response to the potential disaster from the White House, which is 106 miles closer to New Orleans than St. Paul is.
In the nation’s capital, Mr. Bush will have access to the presidential cell phone, allowing him to direct distribution of relief supplies to specific homes, as well as specify the exact placement of sandbags and industrial pumps in the Ninth Ward

Breaking News

New Orleans mayor: Please don't come home yet

NEW ORLEANS - Checkpoints popped up around New Orleans on Tuesday to keep the city empty of residents so police could continue to loot houses and businesses. Under the guise of concerted efforts to restore power and other critical services knocked out by Hurricane Gustav Mayor Ray Nagin rushed from house to house conferring with police to insure his cut of the action. He doesn't expect New Orleans to reopen until Thursday at the earliest.