I guess desperate poll numbers call for drastic measures:

Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government and to the extent the federal government didn’t fully do its job right, I take responsibility,” Bush said during a joint news conference with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.
Bush said he wants to know what went right and what went wrong so that he can determine whether the United States was prepared for another storm, or an attack.
“I’m not going to defend the process going in, but I am going to defend the people who are on the front line of saving lives,” Bush said.

It’s not just the process that’s at issue here; it’s also the people. I haven’t heard any reporters asking Bush tough questions about what made “Brownie” qualified to run FEMA.
Anyway, as AMERICAblog points out, only in this administration would a straightforward recognition of responsibility be considered “breaking news.”

I just saw Mr. Steve Forbes on CNBC predicting oil prices will fall back to the $35/barrel range within a year. His rationale: supply will pick up and demand will fall (for instance, he says China has overbought on the market and its consumption won’t keep growing at this rate).
Oil prices have been very volatile recently. And I cannot see into the future any better than Mr. Forbes. But I’d be “shocked” to see oil back at $35 again.

I’ve taken an unplanned blogging recess; a function of (1) having family visit; (2) being busy last week; (3) the emotional fallout of Katrina; and simply (4) not feeling like blogging.
Anyway, I have been following the news, and I think I still remember how to operate this site, so here I am.

I’m not sure exactly what happened there, but how is it that China is able to “evacuate” 790,000 people for a typhoon (I assume most of them don’t have cars), and we can’t even get enough drinking water for the people trappped in New Orleans?

Ouch.