Katrina, 1 year later

[tikistitch]

First, a link from omahastar. Don't click on it if you don't to hear about sweet little old crippled people still waiting for their FEMA trailiers.

Then a quote pulled from John Dean's Conservatives without Conscience, which we just finished on the bus to work this morning. This is blogger Josh Micah Marshall, commenting on a speech by Al Gore:

The point Gore makes in his speech I think is most key is the connection between authoritarianism, official secrecy and incompetence. The president's critics are always accusing him of law-braking or unconstitutional acts and then also berating the incompetence of his governance. And it's often treated as, well...he's power-hungry and incompetent to boot! Imagine that! The point though is that they are directly connected. Authoritarianism and secrecy breed incompetence; the two feed on each other. It's a vicious cycle. Governments with authoritarian tendencies point to what is in fact their own incompetences as the rationale for giving them yet more power.