Oh, I wholeheartedly agree Bush is hanging on with his little monkey paws. And the American media, bless its heart, is running on little BUT shock value. Bush protests and attempts to halt pictures of Iraq casualties' coffins shown--yet few bat an eye, including these most moral bible-bangers, at an unidentifiable corpse tied to a phone pole. I wonder which is more important? However, I've got more of a problem with the double standard in the media's censorship. Yes, it's cruel, and morbid, and verging on the obscene... but this was a cruel and obscene event, and I'd rather see the casualties than have this swept up and sanitized as much as our administration will try to. (Then again, I don't have any friends, family, or loved ones in LA, so I guess it's a little different...)

On another note (and only a wee bit off topic), the whining by Hastert and others that we should not rebuild the city (because it's below sea level, and I guess they were "just asking for it") makes me far more angry. As a resident of Minnesota--I grew up within a couple hours' drive of International Falls, repeatedly the coldest spot in the lower 48--I can't walk outside four months of the year without heavy insulation for fear of becoming a human popsicle. Does this mean that we have it coming every time some homeless person freezes, or someone gets frostbite, and that it must be God's will? Bah. And this is a hell of a lot more likely for your average resident than a category-5 hurricane. I wasn't sure my disgust for my species could go too much further...