It's been an interesting day.  I have had it on my calendar to go to the inaugural book signing for Crashing the Gate at Politics and Prose, a book store in downtown Washington DC.  Being as addicted to my Blackberry as the next person, Cho at ePluribus Media sent me an email asking if I was going to attend the Markos Moulitsas (Daily Kos) and Jerome Armstrong (MyDD) event later in the evening at George Washington University.  Unable to make that, but sitting patiently in my seat at the book signing, I emailed back that I would gladly write up the appearance at the book store.

Here is the write-up.  A disclaimer - I don't really know how to write this up so I'm totally winging it.  Make the jump.

I posted this over at my blog and decided that it would be well worth putting it out there to this resourceful and intelligent community.

With just shy of four years under our collective National belts since the terrorist attacks of 9/11, there are still lessons to be learned and applied as we look at the current situation in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and the debacle that unfolded shortly thereafter.

More after the fold.

Well, for giggles this morning, I decided to follow-up on a diary I did last week on what the editorial columnists are saying about the Katrina response and see where we stand today.

It's still getting plenty of coverage, but in my unstudied opinion, the tone, while still critical, has been tempered.  I don't know if that's good or not - but I know this:  This Administration has gone, for me, from annoying and wrong to dangerous and deadly.  That changes the entire playing field.  If you accept the idea that we will be stuck with them for another 3+ years, then it becomes imperative that certain corrections be made to help ensure each of our safety.  The editorial pages are, for me, a barometer of pressure being placed on the Administration.  The more the pressure is applied, the more likely the Administration will make some substantive changes that will help me be safer.

You may disagree with that premise, but that's why I scan the editorials so assiduously.  So, below the fold, is today's roundup of columns and LTEs.  You be the judge.

I don't know why but I can't help but make a comparison between Katrina and 9/11.  Sometimes the comparison draws a contrast.

In the days and weeks following 9/11, the mainstream media, Congresspeople and even average Americans were hesitant to ask the tough questions.  Reflections on whether it could have been prevented were taboo.  Rightly or wrongly, many people got behind the flag, our President and our government in the aftermath.

No so with Katrina.  The analysis of what wasn't done before Katrina has begun and criticism of actions both before and after Katrina struck are prominent in the mainstream print and televised media.  Already I've seen CNN's Miles O'Brien ask a question of Haley Barbour (Governor of Mississippi) as to whether or not he (Barbour) was angry at the lack of Federal response.  Barbour, Republican to the end, was visibly outraged and peeved.

Volvo Liberal posted a diary featuring a New York Times editorial.  I decided to check other major newpapers and see what their editorial columnists were saying today.

What I found follows after the fold.

Dear Mr. President,

Like most Americans, I am watching the horror unfold in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.  Also like many Americans, I have felt a deep and strong pull to respond in any small way that I can.  For me, it has been through fundraising and through getting the word out as to how people, good American people, can respond and lend even a small hand in helping deal with such a great tragedy.

The tragedy itself, though, says a great deal not only about the generous spirit of Americans but about you on two critical levels.  The first would be on a leadership level, and the second would be on a human level.

(continued after the fold)

Cross-Posted at On The Left Tip.

Relief organizations are starting to get ramped up.  I found an excellent article in Information Week detailing which organizations are already primed and ready to start providing relief to areas, lives and businesses devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

After the fold are some ideas on how you can help.

I caught an interesting Letter to the Editor in today's Washington Post, sent in by a former staffer of Democratic Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan.  If any of you out there follow the talking GOP-heads as they try to salvage W's Social Security plans, you're no stranger to their liberal invocation of what Mr. Moynihan did or did not endorse in his own Social Security proposals.  Given that Mr. Moynihan has passed away and is unable to answer this invocation, I was extremely pleased to see this piece today.  Go below the fold for more.