It was forewarned

"No one thought the levees would break"-George W. Bush

"The administration of President George W. Bush cut the 27.1 million-dollar budget requested by the Corps of Engineers for improving the levees in 2005 by more than 80 percent to 3.9 million, although Congress finally raised the grant to 5.7 million, compare to 10 million in 2001."-AFP news report

In 2002, the New Orleans newspaper reported (in eery detail) exactly what could happen if the levees broke:
Washing Away (five-part series published June 23-27 2002)

Bosnian army sends mult-ethnic unit to Iraq

Came across an interesting story today from AFP, the French wire service:

"In a mess tent in a corner of a sprawling US military base near the central Iraqi town of Fallujah, deep wounds caused by a traumatic chapter in Europe's history are slowly being healed over a game of cards.

A platoon of Bosnian soldiers -- Muslims, Croats and Serbs, who were bitter enemies in a vicious sectarian war which ended 10 years ago -- play poker with each other after a hard day's work...

This multi-ethnic unit of ordnance experts from Bosnia's two ethnically-divided armies -- probably among the most war-hardened coalition contingents in the whole of Iraq -- is making history for Bosnia-Herzegovina...

It is the first time since the end of the 1992-95 war that soldiers from the country's two entities -- the Serbs' Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat Federation -- have been merged into one unit.

Full story here.

Hurricane Relief

Detailed information about how to assist (donate/volunteer/etc.) victims of Hurrican Katrina can be found on Craig's List.