What a Week for Bad News

We watched the news last night regarding the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. FEMA is saying that this is the greatest natural disaster in modern US history, and it is pretty hard to argue that point, especially when they start talking about the death toll in these terms:

In a surprising assessment of Hurricane Katrina’s lethal destruction, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said Wednesday he feared that thousands had died in his city alone and that the entire city would have to be evacuated.

“We know there is a significant number of dead bodies in the water,” Nagin told reporters, adding that there are others dead in attics.

Too bad that a good chunk of our National Guard is bogged down in Iraq. Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, and Florida could sure use the help right now.

Iraq isn't doing all that well either:

In the highest one-day toll since the American invasion, more than 800 people died this morning after rumors of a suicide bomber led to a stampede in a vast procession of Shiite pilgrims as they crossed a bridge on their way to a shrine in northern Baghdad.