Body Count

Secretary of Health, Human Services, and Bushie Water-Carrying Mike Leavitt just dropped a bombshell that we'll probably not even hear in the States.

A US health official admitted for the first time overnight that thousands of people died in the Hurricane Katrina disaster in the southern United States.

Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt said on television he had no death toll but said: "I think it's evident it's in the thousands."

Senators and local officials have already said thousands of people were killed by Hurricane Katrina last Monday and its chaotic aftermath. But the authorities have refused to give an official toll.

Leavitt acknowledged a case of dysentry in Mississippi and warned of the growing danger of disease epidemics.

Media reports said the dysentry had been confirmed in Biloxi, Mississippi and that an emergency shelter in the Gulf Coast port had been closed.

I don't know where "on television" Leavitt said all this, but I haven't seen it. Now that Rehnquist has died, it'll probably get lost in the media poopchute.

And if FEMA just says "fuck it" and evacuates and leaves, we'll never really know just how many lives were lost. Check out some of the foreign media; the British and Australian papers have been especially insightful on a lot of this, in a way the sensationalist American media simply cannot be.