I fully agree with Mark's assessment of the situation. By the time all of the contributions are passed down through all of the levels of "interference", the poor slob at the end of the shovel winds up with less than minimum wage, if anything. There are many reports of contractors pocketing thousands of dollars that were supposed to be paid to the workers on the lower levels, then just disappearing with all of the loot. Additionally there are contractors demanding full payment before they start, only doing part of the work, if any, and are never to be found again. Most of these contractors, or scam artists, are from out of state. There needs to be a full scale evaluation of the way these contracts are awarded. Heck, why couldn't they take some of that money, train a workforce (from New Orleans), and open a trailer manufacturing plant across the lake?? That in itself would save millions, in more ways than one.
Just one of my rants, thanks for reading.

Here is a situation where you can blame the messenger as Scott McClellan is so bad at what he does. The fact is that Katrina was so bad and the the Bush White House was so bad and McClellan's response is so bad that one can actually blame the messenger this time. Democrats can have their revenge!

In my opinion the katrina flooding part of the disaster never would have happen if Bush hadn't cut the funding for the levee building & maintanence in new orleans,as reported by NBC.All this brown stuff never would have come up if New Orleans had the funding from the the National goverment to keep their levees in good shape.There would have been only the wind damage from katrina.But countless lives could have been saved if the flooding hadn't happen.Bush only started jumping to it once he was being critized for not acting faster.

Does Scott McClellan have any credibility with the White House press corp anymore? I know he's "just the messenger," but it seems to me that his relationship with the media in the WH briefing room has become increasingly strained, and his efforts appear more about spin and obtusification than about sharing information with the public. I would be interested in a news report about the news reporters' relationship with McClellan, whether it has deteriated, and the impact that has had on the president's agenda. Thanks.

The U.S Government is pouring billions of dollars into the Hurricane ravaged areas at an unprecedented rate. Who is reaping the most benefit still remains to be seen. How this is shaping up is the second disaster and it is going on all under everyone’s nose. Thousands of workers have poured in from all over the states but mostly what you are seeing in Latin America workers by the thousands and by the time the money actually trickles down to the numerous contractors and subcontractors on top of subcontractors there is little wonder why these Latin America workers are only making minimal wages. The list of big multimillion dollar no bid contracts being swallowed up by big corporations like Shaw, Flour, Bectel is staggering. This is nothing more than modern day post civil war
carpetbaggers coming to the South line their pockets and gorgue at the public trough. Louisiana will once again be blamed for squandering huge sums of money but in reality
the money will be gone before it gets here. With thousands of trailers being shipped into the South, the overall all costs for the trailers, the set up, and maintenance has been reported at some where between $75,000 and $100,000 per trailer. All done on no bid contracts with no local firms even given the slightest chance to place a bid on these contract. Louisiana has long been known for it political corruption and ole boy network,
but it seems like for once, all the money will be systematically siphoned off before they can get their hands. The Bush Administration was woefully slow in reacting to this crsis and now is spending all their energy covering up or just down right lying about their pitiful response. The Hurricane Katrina has down nothing more than add to the long list of the Bush Administrations failure to deliver to the American people the kind of government he was elected to provide. When we will as Americans say, “enough is enough and vote them all out of office”.

Mark A Schaferkotter
Metairie, Louisiana

It seems the administration is fine tuning its responses to the Katrina situation. Each time someone talks, they deviate a little more from the past statements and tweek the present statement to fit what has lastly been developed. But the truth still hasn't come out.

Ms O'Donnell report the facts and don't embellish them. I saw the briefing and Scott McClellan was not ranting as you reported.

With the current report by Bush and Brownie well nothing really bad happen in the Gulf. And Bush was on top of the problem before it happen. Chicken little the sky is falling. Can the Bush Administration or the GOP ever tell the truth about anything. Your news station showed us people begging for help while Bush said he didn't know it was bad and he was in Arizona fund raiser here on the west coast. Now which lie is it did he leave people to die or was he in the Gulf working to make sure lives were saved. If he was I guess Brian Williams didn't see him because he wasn't on the news reports for 5 days. I know Brown's e-mails said he was going shopping and to dinner but could decide which place to eat.

Each and every time pictures of the disaster's progress are shown, I keep asking how in heaven's name could any human or human's with any equipment that I know to exist have stopped it's progress. That was an ocean and a hurricane. Once the flooding took place, an entire new set of rules came into play, the main one being you now have a city underwater. I don't believe mankind has the power or equipment to ever make that go away. Why do people continuously talk about the government's failure to do something about it. All those who complain should be coming up with answers, which I don't believe they can. The inability to control impotence of constructive thought runs rampant.

I have a question that is not being answered by your web story and I hope its answered on the news tonight. Did Bush have any conversations during the crisis with Brown? If not, why not? If there were no conversations, why did Brown's letter to the White House earlier this week mention conversations between Bush and Brown?

If Bush did talk to Brown, what did Bush say? What did Brown make Bush aware of? Did Bush know the extent of the problem? NBC and Time and Newsweek have previously reported that Bush did not know the full extent of the crisis until his advisors, days later, made a DVD of the press coverage. Is this true?

If the committee did not ask Brown about his conversations with Bush, why not?

PS: Its pretty slimy of Bush to blame Brian for the lack of White House response. Was the White House relying on the press to keep them informed? The White House should be asked about this, and the answer should be aired.

My recollection of events (via the news) is that things really went to crap when somebody at the top decided the victims were just a bunch of savages and stopped sending in help. Remember all those buses lined up waiting for the National Guard?

When do we find out who decided that the victims were wild animals?

Michael Brown talks and the Bush Administration is trying to spread the blame to all levels of government hoping to reduce the overall blame for those involved.

The federal response was poor at best and Bush is the man at the top.

As Bill Clinton now knows it is better to admit to your role and move on than try and cover up your mistake.

McClellan is doing a blocking action for the administration but as everyone knows the president must at some time come out and accept responsibilty and explain what happened and why.

It was bad for Nixon and it was bad for Clinton when they were caught lying and it will be bad for Bush but that's better than lying to the people.