West on the South

Before I get into this, I think it's only fair to mention that I really haven't been paying much attention at all to the situation in New Orleans. I'm only aware of the generalities of it through newspaper headlines, Joel Achenbach's blog, and the contents of a smattering of newpaper articles from the Washington Post. That said, I think the way our government has handled the situation is just pathetic. And I don't just mean the Bush administration. I mean every level of government. Considering the scale of the catastrophe that occurred in New Orleans, the fact that it took essentially three days for any relief from our government to arrive leaves me with no confidence in our government to achieve anything competently. That is a complete failure. In an opinion article, Eugene Robinson points out that "an administration that tells us a terrorist strike is inevitable should have had in place a plan for evacuating a major American city." Apparently New Orleans was a catastrophe waiting to happen that should have already been planned for anyway.

On a slightly more lighthearted note, for those of you who missed Kanye West's rant about race and the situation in New Orleans on NBC the other day, you can find a transcript of it here. Incoherent as he may be, the man is right when he's right. Also, if you hit up his website, you can stream the entirety of his new album. I very much enjoy it.

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Those going to the Weezer/Foo Fighters show, I'm working on a way to "procure" general admission tickets to replace our ones for seats. E-mail me for details.

Also, I saw the Washington Social Club in concert for the 2nd time on Friday. They're a DC based band and are playing a couple of shows in the DC area in the coming weeks. They play highly danceable rock music for the masses. They've got a couple of Vassar grads in the band--one of whom is a very cute blond bass player, who is worth going to see even if you don't like dancing or rocking out.