In honor of the one year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, I've voluntarily flooded my driveway and am using planks of wood to navigate the foul waters. It's a virtual eco-system, people. Frogs, birds, and the ever multiplying mosquito population combined with the humid and dank air really makes me feel all Gulf Coasted Out. Except, thankfully, I'm a white woman who most likely would not have been abandoned by her elected officials for 5 days and forced to live in a convention center with rotting corpses and no clean water.

"Only half of New Orleans has electricity. Half its hospitals are closed. Violent crime is up. Less than half the population has returned. Tens of thousands of families still live in trailers and mobile homes with no real timetable for moving to more permanent housing. Insurance settlements are mired in red tape. The city still has no master rebuilding plan. And while much debris has been cleared, some remains as if the clock stopped when the storm struck."

Now that's what I call progress.

I don't think Donald Rumsfeld even cares that's he is becoming not only irrelevant but an actual liability for the administration. It takes a special kind of crazy to have a ton o'people say they have no confidence in your job performance and yet come out saying that administration critics are suffering from "moral and intellectual confusion" about what threatens national security. At least I'm not suffering from delusions about ending tyranny in the world. Nor was I ever confused about WMD's or the lack thereof. I suppose all I'm "intellectually confused" about is how it's possible you still have a job.

Modern Times came out yesterday. That'd be the new Dylan album for those of you who are unaware of the significance. I had the pleasure of listening to it straight through. I dig it. It's more mellow than Love and Theft and it's a little more lovey dovey, but I'm down.

So's Pitchfork.
How's about them apples?