"Down on the river the boat was a sinkin' She watched that Queen go Under"

From the Chicago Sun Times:

Senate panel recommends abolishing FEMA

WASHINGTON-- The nation's disaster response agency should be abolished and rebuilt from scratch to avoid a repeat of government failures exposed by Hurricane Katrina, a Senate inquiry has concluded.

Crippled by years of poor leadership and inadequate funding, the Federal Emergency Management Agency cannot be fixed, a bipartisan investigation says in recommendations to be released Thursday.

Though short on specifics, such as funding levels, the 86 proposed reforms suggest the United States is still woefully unprepared for a disaster of Katrina's magnitude.

The recommendations, obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press, are the product of a seven-month investigation to be detailed in a Senate report to released next week. It follows similar inquiries by the House and White House and comes in an election year in which Democrats have seized on Katrina to attack the Bush administration.

President Bush will visit Louisiana and Mississippi-- which bore the brunt of Katrina's wrath-- on Thursday.

As I have said many times since last September: there's nothing in this world that would make me trade places with a man who harmed a City under Marie Laveau's protection. In truth, I've felt a strange kind of pity for George Bush ever since last September because when retribution hits...