CHERTOFF gets OFF, scot free

Chertoff's Senate testimony on Wednesday came the same day that a House of Representatives panel released a scathing report concluding that deaths, damage and suffering could have been decreased if the White House and federal, state and local officials had responded urgently to Katrina.

You can't get much more damning than that.

Katrina was one of the costliest and deadliest natural disasters in US history, killing more than 1300 people, causing tens of billions of dollars in damage and forcing hundreds of thousands from their homes.

That's not entirely true. This disaster was largely man-made. From lack of funding to update the levees to begin with, to failure of disaster relief and coordination afterwards.

In a sampling of 63 communications to the White House . . . at least eight were dated before Katrina's August 29 landfall [and] show that presidential advisers were warned about potential disaster as early as August 27.

And that's just a SAMPLING. They KNEW damn well what they were doing - and NOT DOING. Chertoff should be held criminally negligent.

Chertoff . . . promised the senators that he would repair many of the shortfalls by the start of the 2006 hurricane season on June.

But alas, nothing but a slap on the wrist and a promise. And, just how good is his promise? Americans will have to risk their lives to find out.