Brangdon, as a Canadian living 6 miles from the US border, I'm pretty sure I get a lot more US news than you do, and I probably take a much more active interest in US affairs than you.

I am appalled that you would insinuate that Bush was responsible for the failings of the Katrina response. Certainly FEMA failed the test, but anybody who has spent any time studying the lessons of Katrina will tell you that there were failures at many levels, with some of the worst at the state and local level. What ever your thoughts of President Bush, you can’t place the Katrina failings on him alone.

The important thing to take away from Katrina, are the lessons we can all learn by studying the response. I pray it never happens, but it would be interesting to see how most G8 countries would respond to a disaster of Katrina proportions. I doubt many would do as well as the US did, and I know for a fact that my own would do much worse.

I originally thought allong similar lines to you, but after looking into things and finding out how things work in the US, I discovered my impressions were wrong.

I guess the same could be said of Blair regarding the subway bombings then.

That seems about as absurd a connection as the one you made.

Don't sling mud.

Yes, we did: lower taxes, a superb Supreme Court chief justice, the end of the ridiculous "Assault-Looking Weapons Ban" (took some turns, though), and most importantly a proactive policy towards stopping terrorism.

While FEMA definitely made some mistakes, the gross incompetence of Louisiana's & New Orleans' leadership was the chief element of failure regarding Katrina.

Feel free to stay in the UK.

Amen to that.

I am currently studying FEMA's "Citizen's Guide to Disaster Assistance" to earn a certificate. It seems clear to me the mayor and the governor knew little about disaster mitigation and the rules and regulations regarding Federal response in the wake of natural disasters.

-- Craig