One of the questions New Orleanians have heard most often from outsiders since the 2005 flood is, "Why didn't you all have flood insurance?"  The answer bewilders those outsiders: Mortgage holders told homeowners, you're living inside a federal levee system, you don't need flood insurance.  When the system proved catastrophically...

For anyone who wonders why New Orleanians worry about what the Corps of Engineers is doing in the "rebuilding" of the levee-floodwall system -- now renamed the Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System -- AP's Cain Burdeau gets the money quote of the year:

"On the East...

It was maybe March of this year that I first said to someone who asked what I thought of the then-new President that he was in the process of making two major, perhaps historic, mistakes: pretending that Afghanistan had patiently waited for seven years while the United States dithered with...

NEW ORLEANS--I'm preparing to make a documentary film on the causes of the flooding of New Orleans, and where the city goes from here, and so I decided to attend one of the community outreach meetings the Corps of Engineers holds, and advertises in the local paper.  So I found...

In case you haven't noticed, the "debate" about Afghanistan going on inside the White House (thanks for the transparency) has already been decided, and the answer is: we're staying.  The remaining question being considered is: how many troops?   The question not being considered, if leaks are any indication, is why?

Sam Stein's report that musicians are signing on to a Freedom of Information request for documents relating to the use of music as a torture tool at Gitmo leaves two questions unanswered.

First, why do human-rights campaigners fall for the misdirection inherent in the focus on Guantanamo Bay?  Yes,...

Last post on this subject this week, I promise.  The Times-Picayune's Mark Schliefstein reports on the visit of the White House Council on Environmental Quality's chairperson, Nancy Sutley, to New Orleans (a visit paired alongside the President's own).  We are ten months into the administration, the facts about the...

LONDON--Thanks to WWL-TV, I watched the Obama Town Hall in New Orleans live.  Clearly the people in the room enjoyed being in his presence.  But, for those of us looking for even the semblance of substance, for just the sign that this President is not as clueless about the situation...

LONDON--President Obama is visiting one school in New Orleans today.  That's a symbolic nod in the direction of a major change wrought in the city since the flood, a large turn toward charter schools, which, according to latest reports, has resulted in improved test scores for the city's students.  New...

President Obama spends four whole hours tomorrow in New Orleans, site of what the UCBerkeley ILIT report calls "the greatest man-made engineering disaster since Chernobyl," the "man" in question being the federal government's Army Corps of Engineers.  Four hours.

By contrast, when he departs NOLA, he goes to San...

As President Obama prepares for his four-hour visit to New Orleans tomorrow, he could do worse than to call Nancy Sutley, the director of his Council on Environmental Quality, and ask her for the Lake Ponchartrain Foundation's report.  The report, released yesterday, lists the specific projects necessary for a...

LONDON--The White House has released details of this Thursday's long-awaited (at least by New Orleanians) Presidential visit to the Crescent City.  What he will be doing: holding a town hall meeting and visiting a charter school.  Period.

What he won't be doing: a survey, by air or other means,...

My, how times have changed.  Remember way back in 2004, when John Kerry denounced the Bush administration for short-changing the Afghan war by diverting men, resources, and attention to Iraq and he was denounced as unpatriotic?  Now, on the eighth anniversary of the Afghanistan war, major media proclaim it as...

The good news: one day before the office was to expire, President Obama extended the life of the Gulf Coast Recovery "Czar" (don't tell Glenn Beck) for another six months.

The bad news: according to her interview with Sunday's Times-Picayune, the occupant of that office, Janet Woodka, who supposedly should...

Like a rock or pop act that makes its audience wait till the encore to hear the Big Hit, President Obama has made New Orleans wait till mid- or late-October for the long-promised Presidential visit to the Crescent City.   But, hey, priorities speak louder than promises. 

Two points...

So this morning comes the news that President Obama will make a "surprise" trip to Copenhagen, along with his wife, to make a presentation on behalf of Chicago's bid for the 2016 Olympics.  Aside from the possible malice he's showing towards his home town -- here come massive deficits, white-elephant...

Sen. Lindsey Graham was one of the Republicans answering the President on Sunday's Meet the Press, and he had a good talking point.  At least he must have thought so, because he kept using it during the discussion of the health care debate.  The president could keep going on TV,...

Henry came on the national scene with a bang as part of "Laugh-In."  Everyone of TV-viewing age at the time remembers "A Poem, by Henry Gibson" as being an oasis of witty calm amid the frantic knockabout comedy of the hit show. 

I got to know Henry years later. ...

LONDON -- Are the green shoots real or are the government economy-minders taking premature credit, partly to dampen populist anger?  That’s one of my questions when I read Ben Bernanke’s latest declaration that the recovery is under way.  His evidence: rising consumer spending last month, aided to some extent by...

This will be a lengthy post, because the events it describes have unfolded over the last six months. Hang with me, and I assure you that by the end you'll be angry -- either at me for telling you this story, or at the Obama administration.

Any regular reader of...