Michael Brown headed the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), when Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Louisiana coastline, demolishing as many lives as it did homes. Not to mention forever tarnishing our nation's image as the great provider.

Following the disaster, President Bush famously said, “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job.” Of course, this is coming from a man who created his own special semi-savant vocabulary. As days progressed, we discovered that, as usual, no one in the White House knew what the fuck was going on.

Instead of spending time and energy to focus on the emergency at hand, they focused on who would take the inevitable fall. The spinning blame game is something that this administration has taken to an Olympic level. It is fairly obvious that Mikey became the Satan of Katrina, because we all know “he’ll eat anything.”

Our favorite trouble-maker, Jack E. Jett had a little chat chat with the man many accuse of being responsible for the decline of western civilization as we know it. A brave chap, Jett wanted to face the alleged evil head on and find out more about his “strategery.” From what we hear, they boys got on famously and Jett remarks, "I found Mr. Brown to be bright, intelligent, far less bitter than he should be and with a great sense of humor".

We should hope so - a stick in the mud would have been washed away long ago.

[Read On ...]

After cancellation last year due to the weather, Southern Decadance is back, though maybe a bit smaller. Of course the "weather" last year was more than just a few showers. Hurricane Katrina devastated the city and forced most of the residents to leave. There were a couple dozen hardy souls who marched down Bourbon St. on Sept. 5, 2005 to keep the spirit of New Orleans's legendary Pride celebration alive, but for the most part, the party got rained out.

This year Southern Decadence is back and starts today, continuing through the long weekend. All the hotels and guest houses are full already, and the event even has two official websites, not doubt due to some petty gay argument. We don't have time to figure out who is right in this one, so you can just visit both if it interests you.

With all his recent involvement in reconstruction efforts, we wonder if Brad Pitt will be the grand marshal.

Southern Decadence Returns To New Orleans [365 Gay]
Southern Decadence [Official Site #1]
Southern Decadence [Official Site #2]

Few people know Brad Pitt is an architecture buff: he interned with architecture superstar Frank Gehry, mastermind of the weird swoopy museums popping up everywhere, which we don't necessarily like that much but we don't go to museums anyway so it doesn't matter. Wait, what were we writing about? Oh yes--

Pitt has announced he's sponsoring an architecture contest for New Orleans, designing environmentally-friendly homes in the hurricane-devastated areas of the city. Super cool, we think. Considering the city has made zero progress in the seven months since the hurricane, we're glad Bradley is getting something done.

For pics of the hurricane, take a look at the Big Gay Road Trip: New Orleans. These pics were taken a few weeks ago.

Brad Pitt, Global Green Team Up For New Orleans [New Orleans CityBusiness]

We're really at the point where we truly don't know what to say about Mr. Bush. By now, it's pretty obvious that Bush isn't a popular president. The Claymates approve of Clay Gayken more than Americans approve of Bush at this point. When Gayken is beating you, well, that's just sad. Logically, you'd think a 34% approval rating would make you want to get your shit together. Clearly, logic isn't taken into consideration within Bush's brain.

We had our doubts about Bush's initial comments around Katrina, and videotape released now confirm that Bush was well aware of the potentially devastating effects of Katrina prior to the levees breaking. The video shows Bush being told the day before Katrina hit that the levees were likely to fail. The tape fully contradicts Bush's earliest comments, "I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees" made four days after the hurricane struck. New Orleans mayor, Ray Nagin had a few thoughts per this most recent discovery:

It surprises me that if there was that kind of awareness, why was the response so slow? I have kind of a sinking feeling right now in my gut. I mean, I was listening to what people were saying and I was believing them that they didn't know. So therefore it was an issue of a learning curve. From this tape it looks like everybody was fully aware.

We can only wait to see what scare tactic Bush will utilize to get himself out of this one. Maybe the Claymates should sue Bush for lying to us instead of Gayken. Gayken boned a man. Bush continues to bone America.

N.Orleans mayor "shocked" by pre-Katrina Bush tape [AlertNet]
Video shows Bush being told of levee problems [iol]