They Saved Fats Domino

It's all in his Wikipedia entry. Does anyone else see anything wrong with that level of currentness in the Wikipedia?

I saw the news while I was waiting two hours for them to find me new front tires. Between Fats and Harry Connick, Jr. It put a human face on the whole thing.

A lot of press has been dedicated to the lame stuff that the President has had to say about the disaster in New Orleans. And in the context of the extremely insensitive comments from Denis "A city is only good built on a hill" Hastert, I have to agree that the right-wing's communication staff doesn't get it. Over the last several years, I wondered how it is that Bush, who seemed somewhat natural, confident, and personable as governor and downright interesting (if not always likeable) as part of the Ranger's organization could come off looking so stiff-looking and dazed. I'm not suggesting that the President isn't a staunch conservative and doesn't mean the things he says. I am suggesting that he is getting bad material, in the sense that its smothering all that is human and Texan about him

"What's setting off this comment, Will?"

While in the Car repair purgatory, I was watching some live comments that he made, both before and after touring the hurricane raved areas. Here's what I saw:

Before: Shots of the president with his sleaves rolled up in a jaunty "I'm here to work" sort of way, Mayor Naquin with his "Desire" t-shirt cropped out of the picture. Bush says and does all the stuff which is "on message" a euphamism for the remarks that he memorized as written to him by his communications staff.

Two hours later: after flying around the city in Marine One with Naquin riding shotgun he come back to the New Orlean Airport and says a few things on the tarmac. Most of it is on message, but he starts to drift when he starts talking about New Orleans and the relationship between New Orleans and Houston. He gets a dreamy look in his eye and talks about how when he was young he would enjoy trips to this fine city, and maybe he would enjoy himself a bit too much, then he sort of laughed to himself and Naquin and Gov. Landrau give a knowing Big Easy laugh.

Somewhere in the unsweetended ice-tea catherdrals of Washington, a panolpy of humorless conservatives all did spit takes on one another and immediately rushed out the door to make sure that this live footage got buried.

I just deleted a long tangent that followed the above comment, so let me summarize:

New Orleans is a great city and a "real city" that hasn't lost its soul or its humanity. That has also mean real problems like poverty, violent crime, and yes being dangerously positioned underneath a huge lake. This does not make the President love this city any less, in fact it seems to make him love it more. I wish that this was the sort of compassion we would see more often.