I don\'t live in New Orleans, I live Northern VA. But like so many people I watched in astonishment as the federal govt. not only failed to act, it denied what was obvious on my TV screen. \r\n\r\nIt\'s the legacy of 30 years of antigovt. rhetoric--the administration does not actually believe government is any good, or capable of doing good, so they didn\'t bother to act. I guess they just assumed the free market would rush in and fix it. Every so often i\'d flip the news on and be more astonished at what was not happening.\r\n\r\nIn retrospect, one of the most interesting things is the hysteria in the reporting--while it\'s clear the govt. was caught unaware, leaving dead bodies for days, it\'s also clear that there weren\'t murders in the Superdome, or rape gangs, or any of the \"law of the jungle\" stuff that reporters were claiming. \r\n\r\nI just hope Trent Lott\'s house as been rebuilt, so Bush can retire to Lott\'s porch and never again play a role in American public life.