The Chief Justice of the United States passed away on Saturday, less than a month before his 81st birthday.

Somehow, I don't think God will be too impressed with his arguments that black people should have to answer a quiz to get into heaven but he should not.

There was a striking dicrepancy between the CNN International report on the Bush visit to the New Orleans disaster zone, yesterday, and reports of the same event by German TV.

ZDF News reported that the president's visit was a completely staged event. Their crew witnessed how the open air food distribution point Bush visited in front of the cameras was torn down immediately after the president and the herd of 'news people' had left and that others which were allegedly being set up were abandoned at the same time.

The people in the area were once again left to fend for themselves, said ZDF.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency was in no way prepared to manage any kind of emergency. Anyone denying this now must be dismissed as a partisan hack. Sorry, conservatives, but you know in your hearts that it's true. This administration dismantled FEMA and spent the money elsewhere, hoping that nothing would happen to expose their malfeasance. This is no longer even open for debate.

What we now must face, and perhaps prosecute, is the fact that FEMA's leaders have been willing to let people die in New Orleans rather than admit to their own incompetence.

The president's allies have been trying to imprison doctors for years for performing abortions, and continually want to prosecute and jail women who drink or take drugs while pregnant. What will they say now that hundreds or thousands of walking, talking, breathing people have been sacrificed in an attempt to keep the Bush administration from looking like itself?