Three Days

I'm as wary as the next guy about Congress making hurried legislative responses to temporary disasters, but someone on CNN just made what I think is a fair point about political priorities: When doctors yanked Terri Schiavo's feeding tube on March 18, it took Congress all of three days to fly back to Washington, hold an extraordinary session, and pass a law affecting the life and death of one human being. George Bush "returned from vacation in Crawford, Texas to sign the bill into law at 1:11 a.m that morning."

It's been three days since Katrina began ruining New Orleans and killing untold thousands of her residents (many of whom presumably could not evacuate, because there was no transportation) … and Congress is only now getting around to talking about replenishing the rapidly draining FEMA budget. There are few disasters that are true National Emergencies, but the eradication of one of our most unique cities, and the preventable deaths of who knows how many thousands, strikes me as one of them.