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09/06/2005 Entry: "The flood and gas"

So, last week I was all worried about how the hurricane was going to affect me. Shortsighted and embarrassing. Nicholas Kristof writing in the NY Times highlights what I hope will be the largest lesson learned from Katrina:

"It has also underscored the Bush administration's ongoing reluctance or ineptitude in helping the poorest Americans...The U.S. Census Bureau reported a few days ago that the poverty rate rose again last year, with 1.1 million more Americans living in poverty in 2004 than a year earlier. After declining sharply under Bill Clinton, the number of poor people has now risen 17 percent under Mr. Bush.

If it's shameful that we have bloated corpses on New Orleans streets, it's even more disgraceful that the infant mortality rate in America's capital is twice as high as in China's capital. That's right - the number of babies who died before their first birthdays amounted to 11.5 per thousand live births in 2002 in Washington, compared with 4.6 in Beijing."