"There is no more important issue than the purity of elections in this state," Boyd told justices during an hour-long hearing. "And I will tell ... the court that the elections are not pure."

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Cobb and Badnarik said the canvassing board had exceeded its powers in demanding more than $1 million in advance. The candidates filed a lawsuit, lost in district court and then appealed.

Boyd, the lawyer for Cobb and Badnarik, said the court should decide the case dispute because similar problems could occur in future elections if the canvassing board has "unfettered discretion" in deciding how much to charge candidates in advance for a recount.

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But, nationally, these are leaders who won re-election last year largely by portraying their opponents as incapable of keeping the country safe. These are leaders who regularly pressure the news media in this country to report the reopening of a school or a power station in Iraq, and defies its citizens not to stand up and cheer. Yet they couldn't even keep one school or power station from being devastated by infrastructure collapse in New Orleans � even though the government had heard all the "chatter" from the scientists and city planners and hurricane centers and some group whose purposes the government couldn't quite discern... a group called The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

And most chillingly of all, this is the Law and Order and Terror government. It promised protection � or at least amelioration � against all threats: conventional, radiological, or biological.

It has just proved that it cannot save its citizens from a biological weapon called standing water.

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Mr. Bush has now twice insisted that, "we are not satisfied," with the response to the manifold tragedies along the Gulf Coast. I wonder which "we" he thinks he's speaking for on this point. Perhaps it's the administration, although we still don't know where some of them are. Anybody seen the Vice President lately? The man whose message this time last year was, 'I'll Protect You, The Other Guy Will Let You Die'?

LOU DOBBS: It is also important because Reverend Jesse Jackson, the Congressional Black Caucus, the NAACP have injected a straightforward and dramatic and PERHAPS EVEN TRUTHFUL charge, that the failure here is because of race. We should put in context, it seems to me, that the City of New Orleans is 70% black. Its' mayor is black. Its' principle power structure is black. If there is a failure to the Black Americans who live in poverty and in the city of New Orleans, those officials have to bear much of the responsibility.

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LISA SYLVESTER: Our nation has been quick to help those in other countries in need which is why many are asking the question, "Why has it taken so long to come the the aid of American Citizens on our own soil? Lou."

LOU DOBBS: ...There is in this charge from particularly Reverend Jesse Jackson, from the NAACP, the Congressional Black Caucus among others, there has been no mention of Mayor Ray Nagin, who is black, a predominantly black power structure in the City of New Orleans. Why is that?

LISA SYLVESTER: We heard from Ray Nagin earlier today and he is somewhat irate. The sense is that the Federal Government has somehow dropped the ball. These politicians... [she is interrupted by Dobbs]

LOU DOBBS: I don't think that anybody would argue with that, Lisa, but why would not black leaders concerned about black poor people in this case, who are the predominant victims here who remain in their city stranded, why would they not also focus on a black mayor of that city and it's black power structure?

TONY ZUMBADO: I've gotta tell you, I thought I'd seen it all, but just when you think you've seen it all, you go into another situation and you see something horrific. I've never seen anything in my life like this. ... I can't put it into words the amount of destruction that is in this city and how these people are coping. They are just left behind. There is nothing offered to them. No water, no ice, no C-rations, nothing, for the last four days.

They were told to go to the convention center. They did, they've been behaving. It's unbelievable how organized they are, how supportive they are of each other. They have not started any mêlées, any riots ... they just want food and support. And what I saw there I've never seen in this country.

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STEWART: Are you telling me there is no police in the area, no National Guard in the area?

ZUMBADO: I don't want to sound negative against anybody or any official, but according to them, and what they saw, they left and they're there on their own. There's no police there's no authority. ... You would never ever imagine what you saw in the convention center in New Orleans.

STEWART: Tell me about the sanitation.

ZUMBADO: The sanitation was unbelievable. The stench in there... was unbelievable. Dead people around the walls of the convention center, laying in the middle of the street in their dying chairs. ... They were just covered up ... Babies, two babies dehydrated and died. I'm telling you, I couldn't take it.

BARETHEMLY: ...We really need the President of the United States to make this a priority. We have to stop the breeches in the levy. We have to or we're going to lose New Orleans and lose thousands of people there. I believe that there are about 80,000 people trapped in the city right now and if we don't solve this problem, we will lose those people.

SOLEDAT: But the Army Corp. of Engineers, they're working on it. We spoke to them this morning. It seems that they are doing everything that they can do. What more should they be doing? What else can the President do?

BARETHEMLY: He can send the Army to help and resolve this. 3000 new troops are coming in. That's not enough. We did everything possible to help the people who were suffering from the tsunami. We have to make this a priority. We have to send the Army to stop this or we will lose New Orleans and we will lose 80,000 people, I believe.

SOLEDAT: [New Orleans] ...It sounds like a lot of elected officials are frustrated at and a lot of lack of coordination. There are no cell phones. It, also, seems like on that front there was no plan either. Who is in charge?

BARETHEMLY: Soledat, I think it's just overwhelming. I have to believe that the official are doing now all that they can do. They are using as many resources as they have. That's not enough. The President of the United States is the only person who has the resources to coordinate to bring in the troops to make this city a safe place, to solve the breeches in the levy. They're losing hope. Everything they're doing, the problem is not getting better; it's getting worse.

SOLEDAT: The President would say, listen, "We declared a disaster area before the storm even hit. I'm coming on Friday to take a look at the devastation in the region. What else do you want?"

BARETHEMLY: Friday may be too late, Soledat, we don't have that time to wait. We need him now. To send the troops now. If we can spend the monies we are spending to help the people in Iraq then we can do the same thing for New Orleans. This is a great country, we have tremendous resources. We have to make this a resolve because if New Orleans goes, it's going to have a devastation impact, not just on the people that live there, but on the rest of this nation.

SOLEDAT: Can we take a few minutes and talk about the Superdome. We've got about 20,000 angry, hot, tired, underfed people in disgusting conditions, I think it's fair to say. What should be done with them? The governor says we need to get them out now but the plan seems to be busses. I don't know how the busses will get out of the city. What do you do with them?

BARETHEMLY: Again, Soledat, that you have to send the resources in. The governor wants to do the right thing. She wants to evacuate. The mayor wants to evacuate. They do not have the resources. I don't know how you say that to the federal government: "This is a national disaster. We must save those people and save that city. That means sending the military in right now! We can't wait. We got to send the military in now who have the resources to save this city and save those people down there who are trapped!"

Among Americans registered to vote, 38% approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president and 56% disapprove, and 36% approve of the way Bush is handling the economy and 60% disapprove.

This is the second month in a row when improving economic ratings have not been matched by higher job approval ratings for Bush. A total of 24% of Americans now say their personal financial situations are getting better, up from 17% in July, and 27% say they believe that their personal financial situations will be better off a year from now, which is up from 21% in July.

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Overall, 36% of Americans say that they approve of the way George W. Bush is handling his job as president, 58% disapprove, and 6% are undecided.

You said that some people on the right are sliming Cindy Sheehan, your word, and you say that Bill O'Reilly said that this kind of behavior borders on treasonous. But in that particular case what he said was, quote, "Other American families who have lost sons and daughters in Iraq feel that this kind of behavior borders on treasonous." So do you owe O'Reilly an apology on that point?

HUFFINGTON: No, absolutely not.

Listen, words like treasonous being used by O'Reilly, words like crackpot being used by Fred Barnes, Michelle Malkin trying to tell us what she believes Casey Sheehan would have thought about his mother --- you know, all that is completely inappropriate.

But more important than that, let me raise a point which has to do with the scrutinizing of her comments. I mean, if 10 percent of that kind of scrutiny was given to comments made by people who are actually making life and death decisions in this country, like Dick Cheney's "last throes" statement about the insurgency, like Condoleezza Rice's statement about the mushroom clouds, like "mission accomplished," all the ludicrous statements made by...

KURTZ: Hold on, hold on.

You're saying that the journalists in this country are giving far more scrutiny to Cindy Sheehan than to the vice president of the United States and the secretary of state, really?

HUFFINGTON: When it comes to ludicrous statements like the last throes, the insurgency being in its last throes, the statement that journalists should be scrutinizing every day, because it shows a massive disconnect between the reality in Iraq and the vice president of the United States.

Rice's statement about the imminent mushroom cloud before we invaded Iraq should be scrutinized every day as an example of how this woman and this administration misled this country to war.

These are incredibly significant statements that should be scrutinized instead of the statements that Cindy Sheehan, who does not claim to be a foreign policy expert, or who does not have any power to send people to war, has made over the last year.

And always, he has methodically, inexorably pursued his investigations to target the man at the top of the organizational pyramid.
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The 6-foot, 2-inch, 215-pound former rugby player is considered one of the most aggressive and uncompromising prosecutors in the country.
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He won the high-profile job in Chicago when Illinois' maverick senator, Peter Fitzgerald, (no relation) recommended him to the White House as someone who would be "untouchable" --- a modern-day Elliot Ness --- by the political power brokers in the state.
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People who have watched Mr. Fitzgerald operate in Chicago, and before that as assistant U.S. Attorney in New York City, are not surprised by his zeal in pursuing the journalists. But don't expect him to stop there.

That's how he operates: Apply maximum pressure to reluctant witnesses in order to build an air-tight case against the most senior member of a criminal conspiracy.
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Cindy Canary, executive director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, said Mr. Fitzgerald has "stepped up the pace of prosecutions tremendously" since taking the job in September, 2001.

"You get the sense that there are absolutely no sacred cows with him. He aims straight for the top."