There was one miracle rescue in New Orleans today when a man who had starved for 16 days was finally rescued. Score one for the rescuers.

President Bush took responsibility for the Federal response to Katrina yesterday, which means he will get the credit for all that went wrong and all that went right. The media-formally-known-as-mainstream will try and focus on only the what went wrong, but everyone else will look at the whole picture. Bush is not shirking away but standing tall. He also is ready to show case some bold conservative initiatives to show how things could be if we would only dump liberal policies which have failed for over 40 years now.

At tomorrow’s speech, the president is to outline his vision more comprehensively than he has to date. A top aide said he will stress that New Orleans officials will dictate how the city will be rebuilt, but will also make plain the reconstruction should reflect his vision of government — including reducing regulatory obstacles and emphasizing entrepreneurship over big government, the aide said. He will discuss plans to provide health care, education, jobs and housing assistance to flood victims, another aide said.

Let’s see how Nagin and Blanco handle their responsibilities.

UPDATE:

Euro-Gloating is now all the rage after Katrina. How pathetic for Europeans that all their good will is washed away in a wave snooty satisfaction that America is not above Mother Nature.

columnist Philip Stephens opined on the disaster under the headline “The world needs a powerful but more humble America.” He writes that “there is a sadness at the loss of so many lives but also a nagging satisfaction that Bush’s inert administration has been humbled.”

The ‘Ugly American’ has been overtaken by the ‘Ugly Euro-Lib’. Well, they have to best in some category I suppose.

END UPDATE

Some interesting news came out yesterday regarding the 9-11 commission report and information that was initially withheld from the public. Stuff like the FAA knew of Al Qaeda interests in highjacking airlines and flying them into landmarks back in 1998…..

A separate commission report released yesterday provided chilling details about the Federal Aviation Administration’s assessment as early as 1998 that al Qaeda might try to fly a jet into a U.S. landmark.

“In 1998 and 1999, the FAA intelligence unit produced reports about the hijacking threat posed by [Osama] Bin Ladin and al Qaeda, including the possibility that the terrorist group might try to hijack a commercial jet and slam it into a U.S. landmark,” according to the report, which was a new version of a more heavily edited document released earlier this year.

But, the report added, the FAA viewed the possibility as “unlikely” and a “last resort.”

Well, that puts a whole new light on things now doesn’t it? More here:

For example, on page 61, a previously classified section shows that the Federal Aviation Administration’s intelligence unit received ‘nearly 200 pieces of threat-related information daily from US intelligence agencies, particularly the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Central Investigative Agency and State Department.’

Also declassified was the conclusion that the domestic aviation system had, since 1996, ‘operated at a security level that was, in effect, a permanent code orange.’

I also read somewhere the FAA’s security posture degraded over that time. Now people who think Bush and Mineta could have turned that behemoth around in the 7 short months Bush had in office before 9-11 don’t know the FAA. It took the FAA so long to modernize their computers that they had to start again when they were done. The place is rigid with processes and rules and unions. No way to reverse years of neglect in a few short months.

Here’s an interesting new take on some of the design problems in New Orleans waterways that could have made the storm worse. One thing to note is the levees that failed are the ones criss-crossing the city connecting the Mississippi with Lake Partchartrain. They should consider whether these canals are still required, especially since I would bet they are completely a Louisiana responsibility.

Want to see liberal lunacy? Check out this gem from Robert Samuelson:

What this country needs is $4-a-gallon gasoline or, maybe, $5.

Paying more for gas won’t stop humankind’s desire to travel or need to get to work. Paying more for gas simply means paying less for other things. These dumb ideas about ‘training’ people to behave the way liberals want us to behave are so 1970’s.

I am still flumoxed on how Al Qaeda plans to win the hearts and minds of Arab Muslims through massive suicide bombings. America freed Iraqis from a brutal, bestial dictatorship. We showed the world their suffering and the mass graves to give them back their humanity. We rebuilt their schools, their power systems, their water systems which means their children will grow up healthy and strong and educated. Their women are not considered property and they can mix Islamic teachings with modern world conveniences. And all Al Qaeda offers is the violent end to all that. I just don’t get it.

This New York Times’ commentary calls on Iran to come clean on their nuclear program – and I agree it is time to stop dancing and get serious. But I have no confidence in the UN or IAEA to do the job of monitoring given this sentence

The International Atomic Energy Agency had discovered an 18-year pattern of noncompliance by Iran with its obligations to report all its nuclear activities, during which time international inspectors could not verify that they were solely for peaceful purposes.

They missed it for 18 years! Let the Iraqis and Pakistanis search their sites, they have as much to lose to a nuclear Iran as anyone else.

Here is part 3 of Tony Blankley’s excellent series on why the Global War On Terror is as monumental and critical a battle as World War II. Simply because we are not sacrficing to the depths we did in the 1940′ doesn’t make the outcome any less important for mankind.

From the Land of Fruits and Nuts (California) we have this head slapper:

Recently, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White gave environmental groups and others the OK to sue two federal agencies for financing overseas projects the groups say might worsen global warming.

Why not sue cars and power stations??? Why not sue anyone who breaths too much for creating more than their quota of CO2?