I have a post up on Bush’s excellent speech here for those who are interested. Howard Kurtz has a round up of the liberal nags media reactions here.

Interesting poll out showing two thirds of the New Orleans evacuees do not plan to return. Who would blame them after their city and state government left them there and bumbled getting food, water and a bus out of the flood waters for them.

Also there is news that areas of New Orleans are opening back up soon, since the water pumping is going much faster than initially planned. I hope no one is jumping the gun here for political reasons (Mayor, Governor).

In a classic example that hits close to home we have this story on how NASA needs further waivers from the International Trafficking in Arms Regulations (ITAR) so they can continue to use Russian manned launch assets to support the space station and our astronauts there. See, we are not allowed to talk to foreignors about things having to do with space, since we may provide them the technology to build rockets and missiles. Since lawyers cannot grasp technology and understand what is common knowledge (e.g., Intel Processor) and what is not, they got lazy and put a ban on all talk of technology that flies on US satellites. So we cannot admit we fly the same processor the Europeans do – to the Europeans. So it is important we do not talk to the Russians, in case they learn to build rockets. And liberals wonder how we could get along without big government???

Deborah Orin is great – and she shows it this article covering Condi’s swipe at Bashful Bashir.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday said the fact that Syrian strongman Bashar Assad didn’t dare come to New York for the U.N. General Assembly meeting this week shows he’s feeling the heat.
“I’m not his scheduler, but I’ll say this — I know that he had planned . . . a charm offensive around New York. And given the circumstances probably decided that was unwise. That says something about Syria’s isolation,” Rice said.

Did I mention I like Condi too?

When you’re right, you’re right. And Sharon is right when he says it is now time for the Palestinians to demonstrate they are ready for peace and co-existance.

Iran has decided it really, really wants to invite the West to come into it’s country and remove the Mullah’s from power. Why else make this assinine statement:

Iran’s president said yesterday that his country is ready to share its nuclear know-how with other Islamic countries, the latest setback to a U.N.-backed effort to halt Tehran’s nuclear programs.

Time is up Tehran.

Some interesting pickings from Real Clear Politics:

This perspective on Katrina from across the pond is good.

Is Victor Davis Hanson ever not worth reading? Well, when he is bashing the media-formally-known-as-mainstream for exaggerating it is something you do not want to miss.

What went right with Katrina? Well lots if you read Lou Dolinar’s piece at Real Clear Politics.

Urban also notes one explanation why the rescue operation flew below the radar of the media: Individual federal and state units were not coordinating their efforts overall. There was no central clearing house for information on rescue efforts. What looked like a hurricane relief breakdown was in fact a press release breakdown

And some great news from Iraq as well, showing that we really need to toss out our news media and start fresh – they are missing way too much.

On the night of the draft’s approval, it was interesting that the Iraqi Army generals who work near my office watched local television coverage of spontaneous celebrations throughout Iraq.

Hope is not something the media notice, let alone want to report on. From the same article

Even disgruntled Sunni Arab leaders are redoubling their efforts to register voters. Many Sunnis will vote in opposition, but opposition in a democracy isn’t a bad thing; it’s a victory.

Isn’t it strange that the liberals in our country must closely empathize with the Sunni’s in Iraq? They both represent failed power centers now in the minority. How many times have we heard from the left in our country democracy is dead in America because they cannot get the majority of the votes!

UPDATE:

The media tries to bash Bush with evacuess and fails [hat tip: Decision ’08]. More from Instapundit here.