I see New Orleans has re-elected Ray Nagin as the Mayor of their city. This would be the same individual whose preparation plan for Hurricane Katrina (when it was known New Orleans would be directly or indirectly impacted) was an unorganized mess, at best; who conveniently cast all blame on the Federal Government for the situation in New Orleans after Katrina rolled through, despite the immense shortcomings of the city and state governments (i.e., providing no means to assist in evacuating citizens, despite New Orleans' sizable fleet of buses, all of which were standing idle as Katrina barrelled down on New Orleans); who evinced no leadership and panicked after said storm hit New Orleans; and whose Police officers (some or many, but not all) took guns from citizens (said guns were their main form of protection) and looted merchandise (I'm not talking about necessary emergency items like flashlights, generators, etc.) department stores in the ensuing confusion. I have no love lost for Bush and saw no coordination from the federal government from the top down, but Nagin was no picture of a prepared, composed, coordinated leader either.

Then there is the speech in which Mayor Nagin proclaimed that New Orleans would be "chocolate again." On the heels of this remark, during the same speech he stated New Orleans "will be a majority African-American city. It's the way God wants it to be." He followed that up later by adding, "God is mad at America. He sent us hurricane after hurricane after hurricane..."

- First, if New Orleans was nothing but "chocolate" before Katrina, then I think it might be a significant contributor to the statistics showing an increasing obesity problem in America. Oh wait, that was a metaphor that basically says, "New Orleans welcomes all black Americans; all White, Hispanic, Asian, and other races are not welcome."

- Second, I was not aware that New Orleans was dominated by naturalized American citizens who immigrated to America from Africa (Nagin said it was predominately African-American). I thought the city was populated with people – specifically, United States citizens (skin color is irrelevant and only furthers division within America... halfway around the world, Osama bin Laden is smiling as al Qaeda and other Islamist extremist groups remain united under the umbrella of a handful of overall objectives while America is weakened by internal fighting, which of course plays into the jihadists hands.).

– Third, if Nagin has been conversing with an invisible person in the sky, then he should either provide indisputable evidence of both the existence of this individual and his/her will, as stated by said person himself/herself, or prepare to undergo a mental examination to determine the mayor's sanity. Otherwise, the next thing you know the Easter Bunny will be directing him on economic decisions, and the Tooth Fairy will be telling him who to place in positions of authority. Furthermore, I have five important words for him: "Separation of Church and State." I have six more words for Nagin: "Keep Thy Religion unto Thy Self."

- Four, if one were to remove the name of the person who made the "God is mad at America..." statement, exclude the word "God" from the quoted portion and remove the word "us", and ask people whether the statement was made by Osama bin Laden or Mayor Ray Nagin, how many people would pick the former? The answer is: at least 50% of them (I would be comfortable in estimating considerably more than half would pick bin Laden). Claims by Islamists that Allah is punishing so and so for this or that reason are no different from Ray Nagin claiming God is punishing so and so for whatever reason. Taoism says, "The fall of man is not because he has disobeyed God. The fall is because man thinks that he is a separate entity."

- Fifth, I find his remarks are inappropriate, offensive, and racist. I would be equally as insulted if a white mayor promised to restore a nice, pure white (or "vanilla", if you want the antonym of "chocolate") city. Anyone who would make such comments certainly should not be in charge of running a city. Hell, I wouldn't even want him running a business. Anyone who makes a distinction between people on the basis of something irrelevant (gender, sex, race, et al) is also going to have double standards and a preference toward one of the groups. The only item I find troubling is that few people seemed to be insulted and offended by Nagin's racist statements.

Apparently, the majority of New Orleans is content with having a racist Mayor who openly suggests that his political decisions are intertwined with his own personal religious beliefs. That is too bad for them. (I should probably admit, however, that neither Nagin nor his opponent were anything to brag about, so New Orleans did have that going against them.)

On the other hand why are we rebuilding New Orleans in the exact same location, with the same configuration? Situated on the banks of the Mississippi River, New Orleans is the third lowest point in the U.S. and some fifty-five percent of the city sits below sea-level. While I am neither a Geographer nor an Urban Planner, it would seem to lack any acumen to the proposition of building a city on the shores of a large body of water when the land is below sea-level. New Orleans is highly susceptible to flooding, which will become an increasingly cumbersome issue as global warming - that thing President Bush ardently rejects as non-existent - continues. On the topic of global warming, most importantly for New Orleans it will increase the water temperature in oceans, which will provide conditions conducive to larger, more powerful hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico.

Seems as though reinforcing and strengthening the levies is merely a short-term solution.