What's wrong with this picture?

Could it be that while these lovely gates look wonderfully dramatic, they don't actually have anything to do with accomplishing anything? That's just one of many stories coming out of New Orleans this week as folks had a little trial by fire with the (still) possible incursion of Hurricane Chris into the New Orleans bathtub.

WWL had a whole slew of stories about how the much talked about bus evacuation was really a pipe dream. C. Willy had a lot to say about whether or not he thought that they could require RTA bus drivers to actually stick around and help evacuate folks without transportation. This being a central part of the BIG PLAN that Reverend Wonka rolled out just in time to win the election back in April, everyone was oh so careful to point out that National Guard Troops would be available to help out.

In other news, the Army Corpse of Engineers started back to work on several items that were on the agenda, but hadn't been quite fully addressed yet (after eleven months) and Michael Chertoff, using the old state's rights excuse (wasn't there a war fought over this once?) made it very clear that, when it comes to help from FEMA, New Orleanians are as SOL as they were last year.

So... the BIG question that everyone out here in the hinterlands has been asking is finally answered... "Is New Orleans ready for another hurricane?"

In a word... HELLNO!