Priorities

Priorities. We all have them. Those daily choices we make in our lives. To eat the cheesecake, to not eat the cheesecake - that is the question. Choices. Do I stay here and listen to my two year old son scream bloody murder, or do I go upstairs, grab my passport, and head for Rio? Although there are many times when I feel like doing the latter, I somehow always end up waking up the next morning in my 4 bedroom colonial in New Hampshire. No Samba on Copacabana Beach for me.

But enough about my own personal priorities. Let's look at the priorities of our president. The war in Iraq - that obviously comes at the top of his list. As does everthing neccesary to fund this effort - whether that be money, troops, or supplies. And - if you leave out the whole "quagmired in Iraq" and "1800 dead" thing - everything was hunky dory.

Until Katrina. With a massive natural disaster on American soil, the president's priorities became glaringly, maddeningly clear. Where are the troops to assist the injured? In Iraq. Where are the medical corps with their mobile MASH unit hospitals, indispensable due to the destruction of New Orleans hospitals? In Iraq. Where are the funds that should have been using by the Army Corps of Engineers to finish supporting the levee around New Orleans?

Yes, I think you get my drift.

A large section of Lousiana and Mississippi now resembles something out of Somalia. I heard on NPR this morning that a survivor of the tsunami in Sri Lanka said that their conditions after their disaster actually looked to be better than those in New Orleans. So much for being a first world nation.

Priorities, Mr. President. Whether it be Hurricane Katrina, or an earthquake in San Francisco or a nuclear or bioterror attack somewhere on American soil - you made your choice to limit the supports that were available for your own citizens in order to fund and further your own political mission in the Middle East. You should be ashamed of yourself.

They say that the South has a very long memory, Mr. President. I don't think they will ever forgive you.

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- As his city skidded deeper into chaos, New Orleans' embattled mayor accused federal officials of dragging their feet while people are dying in deplorable conditions.

Mayor Ray Nagin's voice cracked with anger and anguish Thursday night in an interview with New Orleans radio station WWL-AM.

"We're getting reports and calls that [are] breaking my heart from people saying, 'I've been in my attic. I can't take it anymore. The water is up to my neck. I don't think I can hold out.' And that's happening as we speak."

Nagin said the time has long passed for federal authorities to act on their promises.

"You mean to tell me that a place where you probably have thousands of people that have died and thousands more that are dying every day, that we can't figure out a way to authorize the resources that we need? Come on man," he said.

WASHINGTON, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Bush administration funding cuts forced federal engineers to delay improvements on the levees, floodgates and pumping stations that failed to protect New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters, agency documents showed on Thursday.

The former head of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the agency that handles the infrastructure of the nation's waterways, said the damage in New Orleans probably would have been much less extensive had flood-control efforts been fully funded over the years.