On 2005-09-12, George Patterson wrote:

But the statement of mine to the effect that the locals did everything they
could was a statement about the levees; nothing else. Don't take it as a
springboard to discuss disaster response efforts; that makes it appear that I
said the locals did everything perfectly there. I did not say that.

Fair enough. I have no intention of misquoting anyone.

Louisiana (per a 2003 study by Texas A&M) receives about $1.60 in various
forms of Federal largess for each $1.00 paid by its citizens in federal
tax.

If local officials (Sen. Landau, her brother the Lt. Governor, her
father the ex Mayor, et al.) can't snag enough money to keep New Orleans
from drowning then either they are, at best, ineffective or perhaps the
system of routing a third of the GNP through Washington is a really bad
idea. Or both?