I felt ridiculous today, reporting one of those charming neighborhood stories - on tomatoes - while hundreds of thousands of Americans have been displaced by a hurricane. I know life goes on, and New Orleans isn't the only news, but who wants to read about heirlooms and hybrids when a large portion of our nation is under water? I don't think anyone would.
The Times-Picayune, the city's paper, had to stop publishing for the first time since 1837 as its downtown offices flooded. I'm interested, mainly because The Times-Picayune is one of the Star-Ledger's sister papers.
I was interested in learn on the conservative Druge Report, of all places, that former
Clinton advisor Sidney Blumenthal criticized the president for drying up flood control funding. In 2001, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said a flood in New Orleans was one of the three disasaters most likely to befall the U.S. (Another of those, an attack on New York City, has also already been realized. Should someone check out what the third one is?)
Mike Keller and Josh Norman, former classmates of mine at Columbia, have a
blog on Katrina. They haven't published since this morning, possibly due to power failure. Check it out if you too are a disasterwatcher like me.
Meanwhile, the American news media have pushed an incredibly important story down the page (how can it not?) The death of more than 950 people in Iraq due to terror during a religious procession of Shiites.
