I'm ENRAGED again tonite!

I'm not sure if I'm reading this correctly:


Published: August 31, 2005 4:19 PM ET
NEW YORK President George W. Bush returned to Washington, D.C. this afternoon from his vacation in Texas, with Air Force One flying over the Gulf Coast for a look at the massive hurricane damage.

Reporters on board also got a glimpse, and afterward asked Press Secretary Scott McClellan to describe the reaction of the president, who has been accused by some of responding too slowly to the crisis.

"We got into some of the neighborhoods that were really devastated, and you could see the water all the way up to the roofs."

The President, when we were passing over that part of New Orleans, said, "It's devastating, it's got to be doubly devastating on the ground."

EXCUSE ME? Lives lost, homes destroyed, people are in need of food, water, medication. Mr. President, from the comfort of Air Force One, you have no clue what "doubly devastating" is!

We will remind you of this Mr. President!

In 2001, FEMA warned that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters in the U.S. But the Bush administration cut New Orleans flood control funding by 44 percent to pay for the Iraq war.

A year ago the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed to study how New Orleans could be protected from a catastrophic hurricane, but the Bush administration ordered that the research not be undertaken.

The Bush administration cut funding by more than 80 percent. Additional cuts at the beginning of this year (for a total reduction in funding of 44.2 percent since 2001) forced the New Orleans district of the Corps to impose a hiring freeze. The Senate had debated adding funds for fixing New Orleans' levees, but it was too late.

Excuse me while I roll over and play dead!