Forgotten Gulf Coast

New Orleans continues to be an unfolding disaster.

Large parts of the US city of New Orleans are still at risk of flooding in a major storm, a report has found.

Nearly two years after Hurricane Katrina lashed the US Gulf Coast, $1bn (£502m) has been spent to fix hurricane-protection systems.

But many areas of the city would still be vulnerable in a storm much weaker than Katrina, the US Army Corps of Engineers study found.

Of course, the city was vulnerable before the storm because of failed workmanship by the Army Corps of Engineers, so maybe they just don't know what they're talking about. We hope.

No wonder Mayor Nagin is looking for international money to help rebuild his still-battered city. The federal government, after TWO YEARS, can't manage to make New Orleans safe. That's a blight on America right there. Many people point to Katrina as evidence of their loss of faith in George Bush and his leadership. But they've turned away from the region, and haven't kept up to know that there is STILL failure happening on the Bayou every day.

It's these kind of stories that make you despair for our country, that make you feel like we can't seem to do anything anymore, and that time will soon run out on us. But I always have hope that things can change if enough people demand it. Right now, that means getting the people responsible for this absolute mess out of office.

UPDATE: This is almost entirely OT, but when I was looking for something on Ray Nagin I came across this great analogy.

One of the strangest political developments of the post 9/11 world was the sudden--and totally inexplicable--transformation of Rudolph Giuliani from eccentric mayor of New York City to foreign policy expert. Almost instantly, a man who didn't seem to know or care very much about foreign policy became the go-to guy whenever a major television network needed someone to discuss various developments in the Global War on Terror [...]

It's like treating Ray Nagin as an expert climatologist because he happened to be Mayor of New Orleans when Katrina hit. If Nagin decided he wanted to be the head of the National Weather Service, would anyone take him seriously? Of course not.