UNSCAM UPDATE: The Wall Street Journal editorializes:

So it was that the largest fraud ever recorded in history came about. Press reports often cite the overall size of Oil for Food at $60 billion, but Mr. Volcker’s report makes clear that the real figure was in excess of $100 billion. From this, Saddam was able to derive $10.2 billion from illicit transactions. But the important point is that he was able to steer 10 times that sum toward his preferred clients in the service of his political aims. None of this happened by accident. . . .

As for the U.N., it proved its worth to Saddam as the one hall of mirrors in which such shenanigans could take place. Yet even now we are told that “at least” Oil for Food fed the Iraqi people when they were on the edge of starvation, and this is accounted a U.N. success. That is false. Oil for Food offered a lifeline of cash and influence to a regime that was starving its people. The program did not corrupt the U.N. so much as exploit its essential nature. Now Mr. Annan wants to use this report as an endorsement of his “reform” proposals. Only at the U.N. could he dare to think he could get away with this.

Indeed.

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY says that FEMA has never been fast:

Hillary Clinton says FEMA was more effective when her husband was president. The victims of Hurricane Floyd might venture a different opinion, and it wasn’t FEMA that kept supplies from the Superdome.

During a post-Katrina conference call with reporters, Sen. Clinton said, “Helping localities do what they needed to do to mitigate damage — that philosophy governed FEMA during the Clinton administration. It obviously was rejected by this administration.”

Does that mean Clinton’s FEMA was the model of government efficiency and effectiveness? Or was it closer to the DMV and post office? Just ask the tens of thousands of people left stranded up and down the Eastern Seaboard by Hurricane Floyd in 1999.

Read the whole thing, which suggests that today’s problems aren’t an aberration, but part of a pattern.

UPDATE: Reader Bill Furr offers perspective:

Regarding remarks by Sen Clinton and others both left and right: It’s called a disaster because it overwhelms our ability to respond and to mitigate the disruption in communications, supplies, medical services, and everything else in daily life. If we could respond completely and immediately, the it would just be a minor inconvenience.

Good point.

ANOTHER UPDATE: FEMA — a history of failure?

LEON KASS HAS STEPPED DOWN from the White House Bioethics Council, to be replaced by Edmund Pellegrino, who supports a ban on even privately supported embryonic stem cell research. Ron Bailey writes: “The bottom line: Pellegrino’s appointment as chairman of the President’s Bioethics Council will, if anything, increase that body’s opposition to a lot [of] biotechnological progress.”

“EVERYBODY CARES:” Heh.

ED DRISCOLL, CATHY SEIPP, RUSTY SHACKLEFORD, ERIC UMANSKY AND MORE: Lots of blogger interviews on the Pajamas Media site. Just keep scrolling.

THE OPPOSITION IS CLAIMING MASSIVE FRAUD in Egypt’s election. Publius has a roundup.

WALT MOSSBERG reviews the iPod Nano and loves it. “All I can say is: It sure is small and it sure is cool.”

Unfortunately, you can’t buy one just yet.

UPDATE: Actually, it is available at the Apple Store.

BRENDAN LOY IS ON THIS BACKUP SITE due to server problems.

RED CROSS KEPT OUT OF NEW ORLEANS: Ian Schwartz has the video.

UPDATE: Much more here.

KATRINA COVERAGE JUMPS THE SHARK: Entertainment Tonight has Richard Simmons blubbering in a sequined tanktop as he makes his “heartbreaking return to Bourbon Street.”

No, really.

NEW ORLEANS: WE CAN’T PROTECT YOU FROM LOOTERS — but we can confiscate your guns!

Unless you’re hired security for rich people. (More here).

UPDATE: Cam Edwards: “Talk about class warfare. If you’re rich enough to hire someone to defend your property, you’re okay. If you’re not… you’re SOL.”

ATTENTION SHOEBLOGGERS: The Manolo is having an essay contest about the shoes. The prizes, they are fabulous.

GERALDO VS. THE NEW YORK TIMES: Johnny Dollar has the video.

JERRY POURNELLE SAYS THAT FEMA SHOULD BE ABOLISHED and replaced with Tennessee Colonels. As a Tennessee Colonel myself, I find it hard to argue. . . .

UPDATE: In a related item, Jesse Walker writes on disasters and social cooperation.

SANDY BERGER UPDATE:

WASHINGTON (AP) — A judge on Thursday ordered Sandy Berger, President Clinton’s national security adviser, to pay a $50,000 fine for illegally taking classified documents from the National Archives.

The punishment handed down by U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson exceeded the $10,000 fine recommended by government lawyers. Under the deal, Berger avoids prison time but he must surrender access to classified government materials for three years.

“The court finds the fine is inadequate because it doesn’t reflect the seriousness of the offense,” Robinson said, as a grim-faced Berger stood silently. . . .

The sentencing capped a bizarre sequence of events in which Berger admitted to sneaking classified documents out of the Archives in his suit, later destroying some of them in his office and then lying about it.

After initially saying it was an “honest mistake,” Berger pleaded guilty in April to a misdemeanor of unauthorized removal and retention of classified material, which contained information relating to terror threats in the United States during the 2000 millennium celebration.

Bizarre, indeed. (Via The Corner).

YES, IT IS, because you just want to do it again and again.

GREG GUTFELD ISN’T AFRAID to ask the tough questions.

MORE ON THE DIFFERENCE between the federal DHS, and the Louisiana Department of Homeland Security — which seems to elude some journalists — here.

BOBBY JINDAL notes that bureaucratic red tape can be deadly. Tim Worstall notes that this should come as no surprise.

UPDATE: Related thoughts from New Orleans native Thomas Lipscomb.

SPEAKING OF INVESTIGATIONS, The Mudville Gazette has been looking into the political background of the past week’s events. I predict that many politicians, in both parties, will regret starting up the finger-pointing operations so soon.

IN THE MAIL: Eric Weiner’s oral history of modern Wall Street, What Goes Up: The Uncensored History of Modern Wall Street as told by the Bankers, Brokers, CEOs and Scoundrels Who Made It Happen.

INTERESTING SURVEY IN THE ECONOMIST:

American influence has helped to tip the balance of forces in the Middle East towards reform. The changes remain shallow for now—even in Egypt, which is holding its first contested presidential election this week—but democracy is no longer a pipe dream.

Read the whole thing.

A UKRAINIAN GOVERNMENT SHAKEUP: King Banaian, who knows much more than me about this, thinks it’s a good thing.

THIS REPORT is appalling, if true. Someone — say from the Civil Rights office at the Justice Department — should look into it.

UPDATE: Apparently — see the comments — there’s reason to doubt its truthfulness. Hold your outrage for now.

GERALDO UPDATE: Howard Kurtz is back from vacation, and reports that, with regard to the Geraldo story that I excerpted yesterday: “Fox News says that’s absolutely, positively not true.”

UPDATE: Much more on Geraldo here.