There was frost on the deck this morning. I guess that explains why Lola and Tiny joined us on the bed last night. I turned the house heat up to 65 this morning and the furnace immediately kicked on for the first time in weeks. As the sun rose and warmed the air, the birds were out in force around the back yard. A varied thrush explored the area around the wood pile and I even saw a spruce hen (spruce grouse) in a small tree in the back lot.

I watched Ted Koppel's interview of the FEMA director last night with a sick sense of disbelief in my gut. You would think after all my years as a civil servant, government incompetence wouldn't upset me so much but the staggering inertia of FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security is just embarrassing.

Predictably, the discussion of the hurricane and its aftermath has gotten politicized as people try to comprehend such a staggering failure of government to provide for the common welfare on all levels. I suppose it is just inevitable that some are blaming the disaster relief fiasco on the victims themselves and the ever-popular scapegoat--the liberal media.

Meanwhile, here's what the liberal media is saying...

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9174806/site/newsweek/

http://www.slate.com/id/2125494?nav=nw

http://www.tahlequahdailypress.com/articles/2005/09/02/news/editorial/aaaaaaaaboosh.txt

http://www.nationalreview.com/lowry/lowry200509021258.asp

http://www.norwichbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050902/NEWS01/50902002


and another blogger...

http://www.scalzi.com/whatever/003701.html