Wolcott wrote this of Bush's reaction to the NYT's Terrorist Finance Tracking Program story..."Bush has called the disclosure "disgraceful," looking far angrier (or fake-angrier) than he ever did about the Katrina fuckup." Yes it would be nice to see Bush that angry about the slow pace of rebuilding in NOLA. Actually that is putting the cart before the horse. How about some anger over the slow pace of debris removal and this latest developmenet...

From WWL....

CHALMETTE, La.-- Southeast Louisiana's parish leaders on Tuesday said they cannot afford to pay a share of the cleanup from last year's hurricanes.

The federal government has asked the parishes to pay 10 percent of the cleanup costs beginning Saturday. But the parishes say they're too cash-strapped to pay even that much.

"This could be the final nail in the coffin for St. Bernard," said Henry "Junior" Rodriguez, the St. Bernard Parish president.

He made his statements at a news conference with fellow parish leaders. The event was held in the middle of a site where excavators worked through giant piles of debris 10 months after Hurricane Katrina flooded 80 percent of New Orleans and destroyed tens of thousands of homes.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said his city can't afford to pay "even 2 percent of the cleanup" without disrupting the city's rebuilding effort.

The city has struggled financially, Nagin said, and paying a portion of the cleanup would force officials to cut back resources for some parts of the city. "Some neighborhoods would suffer" because of that, he added.

The cleanup of New Orleans is far from over. Ross Fredenburg, a Federal Emergency Management Agency spokesman, said about 48 percent of the cleanup has been completed in the city.

Nagin said each cubic yard of waste costs $43 to remove. With about 5 million cubic yards of debris still to go, it would cost the city about $21.5 million to pay a 10 percent share.

The article reports only 32% of St. Bernard Parish debris has been removed. I believe asking for a little Bush anger on this is again putting the cart before the horse....when was the last time Bush said anything about the Gulf Coast?