Free Republic

I doubt that I'll ever get to meet Xzibit, the "Pimp Master of Ceremonies" on MTV's hit show, Pimp My Ride. That's too bad, because I could give him the ultimate challenge: Dude, forget about junk'd cars all over New Orleans -- you gotta pimp my mayor! For those not familiar with the show, Xzibit and his colleagues at West Coast Customs pull raggedy vehicles off the road and turn the heaps "from dirt to pimped," according to the show's Web site. If Xzibit can do the same thing for a guy's political image, I respectfully submit that Mayor Ray...

We didn't need another report to tell us that there was negligence and mismanagement in the federal government's handling of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, but we got it anyway. We didn't need a video showing us that the Federal Emergency Management Agency and President Bush had been briefed ahead of time about the eminent threat Katrina posed to New Orleans - it was obvious from the start. What we had not seen until now is to what extent Latinos were unfairly treated before and after the devastating hurricane hit the Gulf Coast. It took an organization like the National...

Taking disaster relief lessons from a compassionate conservative. By Lawrence W. Reed The year 1887 was a tough year in Texas. Day after day brought hot, dry winds that parched the land. Farmers saw their crops wither and their cattle grow weak from thirst. Spirits faltered as desperate Texans prayed for rain, seemingly to no avail. Eager to help (at least with other people’s money), congressmen pushed through a bill to provide federal aid in the form of seed, but one man stood in their way — America’s 22nd president, Grover Cleveland. At a time when the federal budget boasted...

We may as well abandon the Big Easy because the White House is killing a plan to protect the city from the next Katrina. By Mike Tidwell MIKE TIDWELL is the author of "Bayou Farewell: The Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana's Cajun Coast" (Pantheon, 2003). AS WE NEAR the 100-day mark since Hurricane Katrina hit, it's time we ended our national state of denial and abandon New Orleans for good. We should call it quits not because New Orleans can't be made relatively safe from hurricanes. It can be. And not because to do so is more trouble...

More than two months after Hurricane Katrina blew in, animals are still being found alive in New Orleans, pulled out of attics and from beneath flooring or off of the streets, where they’ve been surviving on sheer will and the kindness of strangers who leave food for them. Some are little more than skin wrapped around bones. Starving, dehydrated and depressed, they still greet people trustingly, perhaps somehow recognizing that they represent salvation from their utterly bewildering circumstances.

From today's Terry Neal chat: Manassas, Va.: Terry obvious [sic] Katrina has becomne a big racial issue. I am curious what your personal opinion is about it as an African American, do you think race was a factor in the poor federal response? Terry Neal: This is something I've thought about a lot. You know, I covered the Bush campaign for the Post in 1999-2000. I had at least two long, off the record conversations with Bush about racial issues. We talked on the record, of course, and they led to stories that were published in the Post. But as...

The European Parliament couldn't resist getting in a global warming reference in its sympathy motion, passed Wednesday. Parliament, it intoned, "Expresses its deepest sympathy with the families of the victims and notes with regret that the often predicted impact of climate change has become a reality in that poor sections of society living in coastal regions bore the brunt of the hurricane." Of course, before global warming poor people living in coastal regions just watched happily as hurricanes sailed overhead to strike rich people inland. It's a plot, I tell you! Meanwhile, just to confirm that the European Parliament is...