Lake New Orleans is rising.

Now that the mayor of New Orleans is describing bodies floating in the water in such number that rescue workers are merely pushing them aside, yes, now we see news reports of a president willing to cut his vacation — the longest in presidential history — two days short.

But this was the U.S. president, this morning, during what is likely the GREATEST NATURAL DISASTER IN AMERICAN HISTORY:

Here’s what was happening at that exact moment, not far away:

Was this a moment unfairly captured?  No.  Experts had forecast an imminent possible disaster days ago.  And from the start, other elected officials — Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco, for example — began urgently working to save American lives.  Bush chose instead to continue making public speeches before hand-picked audiences pushing his political agenda for Medicare and trying to spin his unpopular war in Iraq.

And here’s the U.S. president, yesterday — while the disaster was unfolding, the morning after the storm hit, days after experts had forecast the LIKELY DESTRUCTION OF AN ENTIRE AMERICAN CITY:

Nero.

I can think of no other apt comparison.

UPDATE: Does the Bush administration’s cutting of funds to maintain New Orleans’ levees as part of their war effort mean that New Orleans is now a casualty of the Iraq war?

If you’re entering the site here, go to the main blog page, read the link, and decide for yourself.

This simple model is actually pretty interesting, and reflected the changing storm’s path away from New Orleans almost instantly.

Still, you always get statistical quirks.

Projected damage to the entire state of Georgia, as of 2:30 pm eastern time: $9.03.

Still working on the book.

So you’ll just have to say "awwww" at this picture again.

Hoping to get down to Chile and Argentina this winter and stalk the wild pudu myself.

With a bottle of milk in my hand.

And perhaps a magnifying glass, from the looks of it.

This looks a lot more a Third World dictatorship.

Bizarre, how so many people define patriotism as the crushing of dissent.

Thanks to reader Devin for the tip.  (And apologies to about 30 people I owe emails to.)

This looks pretty cool, too: a project to get affordable freight-carrying bicycles into the hands of people who can use them to radically improve their lives.

Neat.

If you haven’t seen the first Kenya bit yet, scroll down or click here.