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BOSTON - Gov. Mitt Romney, who helped resurrect the Salt Lake Winter Olympics and is considering a run for the White House in 2008, said Hurricane Katrina caused more economic damage than the Sept. 11 terrorist attack and the government response has been ``undermanaged'' and ``an embarrassment.'' The Republican refused to pin the blame solely on the Bush administration, but he spared no level of government in his critique during a Statehouse news conference called to discuss gasoline price gouging. ``No one can be happy with the kind of response which we've seen in New Orleans, and whether that's law...

(CNSNews.com) - In an open letter to President Bush posted on his Web site, liberal filmmaker and anti-war activist Michael Moore suggests that a delay in rescuing stranded residents of New Orleans was based on race and class. "It's not your fault that 30 percent of New Orleans lives in poverty or that tens of thousands has no transportation to get out of town," Moore wrote. "C'mon, they're black! ... Can you imagine leaving white people on their roofs for five days?" The letter, dripping with sarcasm, accuses Bush of not doing enough in the immediate wake of the storm...

Tonight on Nightline, during an inteview with the FEMA director, Ted Koppel demanded to know why the Bush Administration did not send fleets of buses into New Orleans to evacuate those too poor to evacuate themselves -- PRIOR TO KATRINA HITTING NEW ORLEANS. For previous hurricanes the Federal Government did not participate in evacuations, only in clean up and recovery. That did not seem to matter much to Koppel since he obviously knew that Mike Brown was too much of a gentleman to smack him for attempting to deceived the American people. However, Koppel does have a point, in a...

U.S. singer and musician Patti Smith attacked business and President George W. Bush at a press event in St. Petersburg on Thursday, where she received an excited response from the local journalists and fans. “The world right now is really f***ed up,” she said addressing the 100-strong crowd that gathered at the “505” record shop on Bolshaya Konyushennaya Ulitsa. “The world right now is being run by a**holes like George Bush and pharmaceutical companies, these greedy people who don’t care about the environment, who don’t really understand the poor, who don’t understand other cultures. We are the underground and we...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Calling the president “weak and uncertain,” U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr. blasted Bush’s handling of Hurricane Katrina on Thursday. A lack of coordination has left the poor in critical danger, the Tennessee Democrat said. “There are all these poor people with no place to go, and the president’s answer is ’hang in there?”’ Ford told The Associated Press. He cited a lack of coordination between national and local agencies and called on the military to deploy “all amphibious vehicles and helicopters to assist in rescue and recovery.” He also said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention...

George W. Bush gave one of the worst speeches of his life yesterday, especially given the level of national distress and the need for words of consolation and wisdom. In what seems to be a ritual in this administration, the president appeared a day later than he was needed. He then read an address of a quality more appropriate for an Arbor Day celebration: a long laundry list of pounds of ice, generators and blankets delivered to the stricken Gulf Coast. He advised the public that anybody who wanted to help should send cash, grinned, and promised that everything would...

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a vocal critic of the U.S. government, on Wednesday called President Bush a "cowboy" who had failed to manage the Hurricane Katrina disaster and evacuate victims. "That government had no evacuation plan, it is incredible, the first power in the world that is so involved in Iraq ... and left its own population adrift," Chavez said in a cabinet meeting broadcast live on television. His remarks came as U.S. authorities evacuated thousands of people from New Orleans and after Bush said it would take years to recover from flooding caused by Hurricane...

BRUNSWICK — The Navy's fighter demonstration team, the Blue Angels, returns to Brunswick next month after a six-year absence, and standing nearby to protest the display of military power will be the nation's most prominent peace activist, Cindy Sheehan. Sheehan gained national attention this month by staging a vigil outside President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas. She is scheduled to join a group of local war protesters who will march from the Brunswick Mall to the Brunswick Naval Air Station on the morning of Sept. 10, her publicist confirmed Monday. The spokeswoman, Jessica Smith of Fenton Commun- ications, a Washington,...

WASHINGTON — It's time for the Democratic Party to take a courageous stand and call for the withdrawal of troops from the senseless war in Iraq. Its human cost and the billion-dollar a week tab in Iraq should give all Americans pause. Would the Republicans have hesitated to challenge the Democrats if the shoe was on the other foot? Did the opposition party give former President Bill Clinton any slack while he was in office? What is the logic of Sens. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., Joseph Biden, D-Del. and other so-called moderate Democrats still backing the unprovoked war in Iraq when...

Video of Cindy Sheehan on Bill Maher: http://thepoliticalteen.net/2005/08/27/sheehanmaher/ She claims there were no terrorists in Iraq. Gee, if she doesn't think Saddam was a terrorist I don't know who is.

In the old, familiar fashion, mounting U.S. casualties in Iraq have mobilized increasing public doubts about the war. More than half the American people now believe that the invasion of Iraq was a mistake. They're right. But it would also be a mistake to pull out now, or to start pulling out or to set a date certain for pulling out. Instead we need a strategy to create a stable, democratizing and peaceful state in Iraq -- a strategy the administration has failed to develop and articulate. From the outset of the U.S. post-invasion efforts, we needed a three-pronged strategy:...

SEATTLE, Washington (AP) -- Sen. John F. Kerry told state legislators Friday the Democratic Party doesn't need to undergo an extreme makeover, saying "the last thing America needs is a second Republican Party." After blistering Republicans on everything from Iraq to health care, Kerry said Democrats have an opportunity to rebuild nationally by simply addressing the concerns that affect people's daily lives -- energy, transportation, health care and security. "We have to go out and fight for the real issues that make a difference in the lives of the American people and we don't need some great lurch to the...

Throughout his campaign for president and then vice president in 2004, former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina made it clear that the death of his teenage son in a car accident was off-limits, not for discussion in a political context. But now his wife, Elizabeth, has sent an e-mail to supporters voicing a connection she shares with Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq. As Sheehan was camped near President Bush's Texas ranch, protesting the war, Edwards called on her own family's backers to support Sheehan. And, in a departure from a campaign-trail silence that the...

Sen. John Kerry Blisters Republicans By DAVID AMMONS, Associated Press WriterFri Aug 19,11:16 PM ET Sen. John F. Kerry (news, bio, voting record) told state legislators Friday the Democratic Party doesn't need to undergo an extreme makeover, saying "the last thing America needs is a second Republican Party." After blistering Republicans on everything from Iraq to health care, Kerry said Democrats have an opportunity to rebuild nationally by simply addressing the concerns that affect people's daily lives — energy, transportation, health care and security. "We have to go out and fight for the real issues that make a difference in...

WASHINGTON - Sen. Patrick Leahy (news, bio, voting record), who will lead the Democratic questioning at John Roberts' confirmation hearings, criticized the Supreme Court nominee Tuesday as an "eager, aggressive advocate" for policies of the Republican far right wing. One day after the release of 5,000 pages of Reagan-era records, the Vermont Democrat said in a statement that Roberts' views were "among the most radical being offered by a cadre intent on reversing decades of policies on civil rights, voting rights, women's rights, privacy and access to justice." Leahy stopped short of announcing his opposition to the appointment, in keeping...

Sen. Biden Says Bush Should Fire Rumsfeld By RANDALL CHASE, Associated Press Writer 57 minutes ago President Bush needs to fire Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and level with the American people about the situation in Iraq, said U.S. Sen. Joseph Biden (news, bio, voting record), who is testing the political waters for a possible White House run in 2008. Following up on remarks he made Sunday, Biden said the Bush administration is downplaying expectations in Iraq, and that he wouldn't be surprised if a partial withdrawal of U.S. troops is announced before parliamentary elections scheduled for December. But the senior...

WASHINGTON -- President Bush's plans to restructure Social Security and add voluntary private investment accounts will hurt Hispanics, particularly those who own small businesses, by burying them in new administrative costs and red tape, Democratic Sen. John Kerry said. Speaking in Spanish for a radio address aimed at Hispanic listeners, Kerry said members of the growing minority are less likely to have alternate sources of retirement income so they rely more on Social Security. "At a time when Hispanics represent the largest minority and one of the fastest growing business group we must ensure that we work together to strengthen...

Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (WTTG), 9 a.m.: Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Zalmay Khalilzad , U.S. ambassador to Iraq. THIS WEEK (ABC, WJLA), 9 a.m.: Cyclist Lance Armstrong ; Thomas Hoving , former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; and Khalilzad . FACE THE NATION (CBS, WUSA), 10:30 a.m.: Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean and Washington Post journalist John F. Harris .

Myron Cope Apologizes for Rambling Speech PITTSBURGH - When retired Pittsburgh Steelers radio announcer Myron Cope was given the Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award at the Pro Football Hall of Fame over the weekend, he was given two minutes to speak. Cope rambled for 13 minutes and was eventually escorted back to his seat before he could finish. He apologized Monday for causing a scene, saying it was conceit. "People may think I'm senile, but I ain't. I thought I was a celebrity," the 76-year-old Cope said. While some fans in the audience booed, Cope used the speech to lobby for...

Edwards tells NH he has 'serious questions' about Roberts By JOHN DiSTASO Senior Political Reporter MANCHESTER — Democratic former vice presidential nominee John Edwards has "serious questions" about Judge John Roberts' ability to make objective decisions on the U.S. Supreme Court.