Washington, D.C. – In a pre-dawn civil disobedience action Monday morning, 41 War Resisters League members and others sat down and were arrested at a pedestrian entrance to the Pentagon, slowing foot traffic at that location and prompting officials to close the U.S. military headquarters’ sole stop on Washington’s Metroline for a period.

Protesters, including Elizabeth McAllister and her daughter, Frieda Berrigan, Susan Crane, Ken Crowley and others with a long history of peace activism and arrests for civil disobedience, leafleted or sat down to block people from entering Entrance Three of the sprawling U.S. military command.

In one group of six, Crane repeated to the backed-up line of civilians and military personnel waiting at the security checkpoint, “Remember the innocent victims in Iraq.” Another protester urged officers to think about what they were doing and “resign your commissions.”

AUSTIN, Texas -- The Big Whew blew over Texas, leaving Port Arthur underwater and whole lot of stress across the state. It is highly stressful to be in a car with two adults, three children, the dog and the cat for a 12-to-20 hour trip from Houston to Austin, Dallas or San Antonio. It is also stressful to have two adults, three children, their dog and their cat move into your 1,200-square-foot house with you, especially if your sister-in-law thinks anyone who criticizes George W. Bush is a tool of Satan.

Stress-sensitive groups like Alcoholics Anonymous were doing land-office business in Texas this weekend, while bartenders served up the KatrinaRita. Austin, of course, was also having a music festival and offering free yoga and aromatherapy sessions to hurricane refugees. Austin musicians have adopted New Orleans musicians en masse: You're practically no one if you haven't got a Neville in your guest room.

The refugees trade tales of heroism and generosity, along with reports of the bad and the ugly. That's human nature, but there's nothing forgivable about organized government corruption.

PEARL RIVER, LA - Despite the resignation of under qualified former FEMA director Michael D. Brown and the subsequent appointment of Coast Guard Vice Admiral Thad Allen, residents of coastal Louisiana are vocally dissatisfied with the federal agency’s performance in the post-Katrina Mississippi Delta. I spoke with Jennifer Pulsifer, as she sat next to me at three in the morning, trying to get through the formidable busy signal presented to Red Cross callers day and night. My “office”, a ramshackle shed partially crushed by a large tree and swarming with giant, belligerent cockroaches and violent clouds of mosquitoes, is one of the few places in the neighborhood with a working phone. Locals come by at all hours of the night to place calls to various relief agencies. Nearly every call I’ve overheard has been frustrated with busy signals and off-putting messages.

Pulsifer remarks, “Come tax time they want your money, but right after a disaster they don’t want to help you out. Unless you left the state; then they’ll hand you a check if you’re in another state.”

Jennifer applied to FEMA for financial aid, but ran into difficulties.

Republicans like to brag that, as a political party, they are more fiscally responsible than their Democratic counterparts. Well, thanks to President Bush’s four years in office that theory can now take up residence in the urban legend department.

If anything, Bush’s tenure as president proves that the Republican tax cuts (which everyone knows truly benefits the wealthiest one percent), drastically slashing funds in the federal budget for much needed improvements to the country’s aging infrastructure (a perfect example being the outdated power grid), and trying to get away with launching wars on the cheap, have cost taxpayers and their unborn grandchildren more money than anyone could have ever imagined.

AUSTIN, Texas -- So here are all the liberals going into a giant snit just because George W. Bush appointed a veterinarian to head the women's health section of the Food and Drug Administration. For Pete's sake, you whiners, the only reason he chose the vet is because Michael Brown wasn't available.

If you recall, Ol' Heckuva-Job Brownie had to go home, walk his dog and then hug his wife after exhausting himself in his triumphal handling of Hurricane Katrina. Otherwise, he'd have been Bush's first pick.

Now, even the veterinarian doesn't get the job -- just because those professional feminists raised such a stink. What's wrong with a vet? They know a lot about birth and udders and stuff. If the mother is having trouble giving birth, you grab the baby by the legs and pull it out -- it's not brain surgery. Then you worm 'em, you tag 'em and you spray for fleas. Why the fuss?