While Bush dithered . . .

Al Gore Quietly Funded, Facilitated Mercy Mission in New Orleans:

"At liberal blog community TPMCafe, Greg Simon, President of FasterCures, gives a fascinating account of the makeshift partnership between former Vice President Gore and FasterCures to 'to airlift approximately 270 medical patients and evacuees from the New Orleans airport to hospitals and shelters in Knoxville and Chattanooga, Tennessee.'

This must-read is a factual, shocking inside-gaze at the federal 'rescue' effort. FEMA tried desperately to stop this mercy mission. ('Over the next three hours...I was called by an array of Majors and Lieutenant Commanders telling me to stop. Major Webb from GPMRC , Grant Meade from ESF. Major Lindquist from TRANSCOM all telling me they would not cooperate and they did not know how we had gotten permission to land.')

One big challenge of this mission of mercy was to obtain landing clearance in New Orleans. It took Gore's connections to make it happen. According to blogger Greg Simon, 'Sen. Barack Obama called Gore and asked how had Gore managed to land in New Orleans when the Senator had been refused landing rights to help.' "

Kinda makes me think that FEMA wanted to stop anyone from helping in N.O. Read the article at TPM Cafe, too.

Trouble for UNO

Where Y'at : New Orleans' Entertainment Monthly:

"Yet Carl A. Ventrice, Jr., an associate professor in the department of physics at UNO, and other faculty dispute such claims. Ventrice, who has accepted a position at another university beginning this fall, believes UNO could lose another 100 faculty members in a new wave of departures next year in response to the administration’s disregard of faculty tenure, academic freedom and governance through its financial exigency and restructuring plan."

This bears watching

And this.

Odd way to describe a politician

Bill Frist: A Doctor at Heart

Frist smiled and spoke unremarkably from the lectern, reeking of silverback testosterone.