Free Republic

New Orleans' local newspaper, the Times-Picayune, is blasting President Bush for his handling of response to Hurricane Katrina, and is calling for heads to roll within his administration. "Every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be fired, Director Michael Brown especially," the paper states today in an open letter to Bush in its print edition.

All I see and hear are defeated people. They have no hope. They have no resolve. This Human Event article really hits it on the nail. ["It’s difficult to watch the destruction Hurricane Katrina left behind. And, while the images of chaos and despair haunt me each night, what troubles me the most is the ominous outlook so many express."]

The last time I talked to my dad, he didn't seem too perturbed. He was a little tired and amused that my brother and I had taken turns calling him in New Orleans from our Florida homes all morning. At 8 a.m. Monday, I could hear the hurricane creeping up on his end of the phone. A tree limb that had threatened our roof for years was pounding a loud hole into my youngest sister's room. A neighbor's tree had fallen in our front yard. "Luckily it missed your sister's car," he chuckled. That was hours before the levee hemorrhaged....

The worst-case scenario for New Orleans - a direct strike by a full-strength Hurricane Ivan - could submerge much of this historic city treetop-deep in a stew of sewage, industrial chemicals and fire ants, and the inundation could last for weeks, experts say. If the storm were strong enough, Ivan could drive water over the tops of the levees that protect the city from the Mississippi River and vast Lake Pontchartrain. And with the city sitting in a saucer-shaped depression that dips as much as 9 feet below sea level, there would be nowhere for all that water to drain.

If enough water from Lake Pontchartrain topped the levee system along its south shore, the result would be apocalyptic. Vast areas would be submerged for days or weeks until engineers dynamited the levees to let the water escape. Some places on the east bank of Orleans and Jefferson parishes are as low as 10 feet below sea level. Adding a 20-foot storm surge from a Category 4 or 5 storm would mean 30 feet of standing water. Whoever remained in the city would be at grave risk. According to the American Red Cross, a likely death toll would be between...

NO CLEAR ACCESSFormer vice president Al Gore claims his new cable network won't be liberal in tone, just hip. But judging by his investors, even-handedness isn't going to cut it. Beyond Gore's partner in the deal, Joel Hyatt, former Ohio Sen. Howard Metzenbaum's son-in-law, the new cable channel -- formerly Newsworld International -- has the husband of Sen. Dianne Feinstein on board as a major cash cow, as well as big DNC fundraiser Ron Burkle. Both former President Bill Clinton and the Rev. Jesse Jackson sit on Burkle's company board. Gore was down in New Orleans to make the announcement...

The gorilla off Mickelson's back, a Bernhard Langer win forcing him perhaps to play as captain of the Ryder Cup team or perhaps a Tiger record tying charge?Who will it be today??