Ernesto — no excuses, no alibis, no incompetence and no lies, please

Assuming that some of the computer modeling forecasts are right, both as far as storm development and storm track, Tropical Storm Ernesto could be a Category 3 hurricane by five days from now and bearing down on the city of New Orleans.

If this is so, Army Corps of Engineers work on New Orleans levees on the Mississippi River is going to get a real-life, trial-by-ordeal stress test. I suggest the White House directly oversee the Corps doing a final checklist on that work, and developing a list of what are still the weakest areas of the levees, both in repaired and unrepaired areas.

I suggest that somebody with competence (Rove himself? He’s an asshole, but he’s generally competent) sit down with top staff of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to make sure it is 110 percent prepared.

Finally, and somewhat more facetiously, I suggest the White House look at everything it did during Katrina and its aftermath, and do exactly the opposite. With that simple expedient alone, BushCo would be hard-pressed to do worse than it did a year ago.

Of course, doing everything opposite would include regularly telling the truth rather than massive whoppers, finger-pointing, etc.