Greetings. The title above paraphrases a bit, but in case you missed it, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff made a remarkable statement at a press conference today. He was asked why there had not been sufficient planning for a strong hurricane that could cause failure of the New Orleans levee system.

After first characterizing the question as argumentative, he appeared to plead that these two events were not reasonable to associate for planning purposes -- a ludicrous assumption to most observers. And he noted that they hadn't planned for an atomic bomb being added to the mix either.

Say what? I was so startled by the bizarre A-bomb reference that I had to replay it -- but there it was, and here it is -- play the audio for yourself.

If Chertoff really believes that this is a valid comparison, then at least some of the Katrina response failure is explained, and we should all be even more concerned.

--Lauren--