With the one-year anniversary of hurricane Katrina and the destruction of New Orleans now at hand, the Bush administration has launched its revisionist history project. (Last week's stage-managed journey of the Big Easy Republican Rockey Vaccarella was just the first salvo of the full scale blitz from the White House.)

Central to President Bush's effort to evade responsibility for the calamitous federal response to Katrina was and will be the "failure of imagination" defense. Like Condi Rice's stunning 9/11 claim that nobody "could have predicted that these people...would try to use an airplane as a missile," Bush, Rove, Mehlman and the GOP machinery will declare that the inundation of New Orleans was unknowable. As President Bush said on September 1, 2005, "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees."

Of course, virtually everyone understood the risk that Katrina posed to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. On this the first anniversary, it is worth recalling the week of warnings from the National Weather Service and the National Hurricane Center.

By 10 AM Central time on Saturday, August 27th, the NOAA National Hurricane Center went beyond merely sounding the alarm, and declared "Katrina could reach category 5 status." 12 hours later, the fears deepened with the warning that the storm surge could be "locally as high as high as 25 feet along with large and dangerous battering waves." By 10:00 PM CST on Sunday night, NOAA pleaded that "preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion."

But the full assessment of the looming disaster came on Sunday morning, August 28th. In the starkest possible terms, the National Weather Service described the "devastating damage expected" that would leave "most of the area uninhabitable for weeks."

Reprinted in full below is the complete National Weather Service advisory from Sunday, August 28th at 10:11 AM. To see the collection of NWS warnings for the days leading up to Katrina making landfall in New Orleans, click here. For a complete Katrina timeline, visit the excellent archive at ThinkProgress.

Just days after Senator George Allen's MacacaGate scandal, the Republican Party continued to offer a cornucopia of egregious gaffes and uproarious utterances.

In Montana, Senator Conrad Burns lived up to his recent claim that he could "self-destruct in one sentence." Just weeks after attacking out-of-state firefighters who came to the aid of Montana, the Senator belittled the "nice little Guatemalan man" who does work on the Burns' house. Perhaps joking about Hugo's green card might earn Burn's a ticket back to Big Sky Country.

Meanwhile in Florida, Florida Congresswoman and Senate candidate Katherine Harris drew the ire of the Avenging Angel for her public call for divine intervention. Troubled by campaign turmoil, beset by ethics woes and trailing by 35%, Harris turned to God for help this week. Calling the separation of church and state "a lie we've been told," Harris told religious right supporters that failing to elect Christian would result in government that would "legislate sin." According to Harris, "God is the one who chooses our rulers." If so, He must really like Democrat Bill Nelson.

And speaking of Katherine Harris and Florida's 13th district, her would-be replacement Tramm Hudson became just the latest Republican race baiter to run afoul of the Avenging Angel. During a recent campaign event, the former Alabaman Hudson declared "I know from experience, that blacks are not the greatest swimmers." Unlike Katherine Harris, whose seat he seeks to fill, Hudson at least realized "I said something stupid."

For more on the words and deeds of the miscreants of the Right, visit the Avenging Angel.

In a welcome change of course, the Bush administration ended its stonewalling of over-the-counter sales of the Plan B emergency contraceptive. After five years of outright deception and promises broken, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave Barr Pharmaceuticals its blessing to proceed with OTC sales to women 18 and older.

As Perrspectives reported two weeks ago ("Plan B's Tangled Web"), President Bush's looming flip-flop became apparent during the confirmation hearings of acting FDA chief Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach. After Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt went back on his word to Senators Hilary Clinton and Patty Murray to green light Plan B during the confirmation process for von Eschenbach's disgraced predecessor Lester Crawford in the fall of 2005, the White House had little wiggle room left. Von Eschenbach described his approach to consider the drug's approval based "not on a political ideology but on a medical ideology," adding "I believe 18 is appropriate. It's a cut point. We have to have some cut point."

By late last week, it was clear that the White House was moving forward with its plan B for Plan B. During a press conference on August 17, press secretary Tony Snow was asked where President Bush stood on the von Eschenbach nomination and the Plan B controversy. Finding discretion the better part of valor, he responded simply, "Honestly, I don't know. I won't fake it. I'll get an answer for you." But by the following Monday, President Bush himself made the outcome clear, declaring "I believe that Plan B ought to be -- ought to require a prescription for minors, is what I believe. And I support Andy's decision."

The Bush flip-flop, of course, represents a political compromise that failed to fully please either reproductive rights advocates or opponents. Despite the complete absence of scientific data suggesting age-specificity, President Bush in a nod to his allies on the religious right kept in place a requirement for girls under to 18 to get a doctor's note for access to Plan B. Judie Brown of the American Life League thundered, "Based on his apparent willingness to see the Food and Drug Administration authorize the potentially lethal Plan B drug regimen for women over 18, the president is apparently doing anything but protecting innocent human life." Wendy Wright of Concerned Women for America similarly raged, "The FDA would be overstepping its precedent and authority to make Plan B available nonprescription."

Meanwhile, Amy Allina of the National Women's Health Network summed up the prevailing view of the reproductive rights community:

"This is something that women's health groups have been working on for more than a decade. If the decision comes out as we expect it to, that's a real victory. [But] there's no medical or scientific reason for restricting access. It sends a message that it's somehow less safe for younger women, which just isn't true."

Ultimately, the Bush White House moderated its politicization of science when the political price became too steep. Barr hopes to launch over-the-counter sales of Plan B by the end of the year.

In 2000, Allen's sister Jennifer offered a brutal portrait of her angry, bullying brother in a little noticed book called Fifth Quarter: The Scrimmage of a Football Coach's Daughter. She depicts the young Senator as a vicious tormenter of family, friends and neighbors. Given the impact of her work on Allen's 2006 and 2008 electoral prospects (especially in light of Senator Allen's recent "macaca" dust-up), Jennifer (Allen) Richard now claims that her tome was a "dramatization" and "a novelization of the past."

Regardless, George Allen's sister paints a picture of a vindictive, mean-spirited young man. (In that sense, he could well be George W. Bush's logical successor.) While Lizza offers a long list of George Allen's pathology as described in Fifth Quarter, here are just some of the highlights:

Virginia Senator and 2008 GOP presidential hopeful George Allen continued to burnish his neo-Confederate credentials this week. During a reelection campaign event in front of an all white audience, Allen singled out Jim Webb campaign volunteer and U.S. citizen S.R. Sidarth as a "macaca." In his apology, Allen feigned ignorance of the meaning of the term, a North African racial slur likely not unknown to Allen's Tunisian mother.

This sad episode is just the latest chapter in Allen's lifelong romance with the Confederacy and the ante bellum South. As Perrspectives described in June 2005 and again this July, George Allen has been nothing if not consistent when it comes to issues of black and white.

For the details, see "George Allen's Flag Desecration," below.

This week's revelations surrounding the UK terror plot targeting U.S. bound airliners once again focused attention on the phenomenon of "homegrown terrorism." As with last year's 7/7 "Underground Bombers," the Heathrow suspects are virtually all British residents, with most UK citizens and many second-generation Pakistani immigrants. And just as in the aftermath of last November's street riots in France, a flood of analysis seeks to explain the threat of radical Islamic extremism in Europe and its relative absence in the United States.

Commentators of all political stripes, however, are too quick to draw conclusions about the comparative dangers of radical Islam within European and American Muslim communities. Predictably, conservatives use terror plots in England, clashes in France, train bombings in Spain and cartoon outrage in Denmark to attack the economic stagnation and social rigidity of Europe, while lauding the opportunity and equality of American society. In turn, liberals see multi-culturalism, affirmative action and group politics as a safety valve that provides American minorities political expression, electoral muscle and social standing missing in Europe.

The reality is much more complicated than that, defying such facile comparisons and ready morality plays. Simply put, Muslim immigrants have come to Europe and the United States for very different reasons. Whereas the small but diverse American Muslim community came to the U.S. primarily to pursue economic opportunity and escape political oppression, across the Continent the legacy of European colonialism has helped produce large, monolithic and increasingly restive Islamic populations with a multi-generational sense of grievance. Those different motivations and distinct histories, and not the supposed goodness or badness of America or Europe, explain today's gulf in domestic terror threats on either side of the Atlantic.

Despite President Bush's poll numbers languishing in the low 30's, the 2006 GOP midterm platform of "nothing to run on but fear itself" got a giant boost with the UK airliner plot. Among other mouthpieces of the right, Vice President Cheney is already on message with his mantra of "if Lieberman loses, Al Qaeda wins."

This latest increase of the CTL represents a dramatic heightening of the right-wing threat. Only last month, the Conservative Threat Level had been lowered to Yellow/Elevated (Bill of Rights at Risk). That relative calm reflected Bush's short-lived bounce in the polls with the onset of war in Lebanon, carnage in Iraq, the fiasco at the G8 Summit and Dubya's embarrassing first-ever NAACP appearance.

Since 2000, Conservative Threat Advisory System has measured the risk posed by the GOP and the forces of reaction to national unity, civil liberties, and equal opportunity. Protect yourself and your country - learn more about the Conservative Threat Advisory System today!

President Bush's cynical efforts to block over the counter sales of the emergency contraceptive Plan B have taken on almost comic proportions in recent days. But kowtowing to the radical right on Plan B has come at a steep price for Mike Leavitt, George Allen and other Republicans in the administration and Congress.

The Senate confirmation hearings of acting FDA chief Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach offered a new chapter in the President's rearguard action to keep Plan B off drug store shelves. The day before von Eschenbach's Senate appearance, the FDA suddenly announced it might approve non-prescription sales of Plan B to women over 18. That olive branch was meant to appease Senators Hilary Clinton (D-NY) and Patty Murray (D-WA) who had blocked his nomination until the status of Plan B of finalized. While the pill's maker Barr Pharmaceuticals reached a deal with FDA on Monday to launch over the counter sales, Senator Clinton voiced her wariness:

"Unfortunately, this is not just about Plan B. Once we start politicizing the FDA there is no stopping it; and from my perspective, it is essential that we draw the line. And we're drawing the line right here."

Clinton's trepidation is well justified. Plan B's use by women and girls had been overwhelmingly cleared by FDA's professional staff, but final approval had been repeatedly delayed by Bush political appointees. In September 2005, Susan F. Wood, at the time assistant FDA commissioner for women's health and director of the Office of Women's Health, resigned in protest over then Commissioner Lester Crawford's blocking tactics. Clinton and Murray, too, had been burned by Crawford and betrayed by Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, who had earlier given the Senators his assurance that action on Plan B would be taken if they dropped their hold on Crawford's nomination.

As it turned out, Crawford did not stay in the picture for long. On September 24, 2005, Crawford mysteriously resigned his post as FDA commissioner after only two months on the job. His sudden departure had nothing to do with his post-confirmation treachery, but instead a criminal inquiry into alleged financial improprieties and false statements to Congress.

Back at HHS, Leavitt is in hot water over his own financial misdeeds which lend credence to the old aphorism that charity begins at home. In July, it was revealed that Bush's go-to man on blocking the morning after pill used a non-profit foundation to enrich himself and family members. And just this morning, the IRS announced it will audit Leavitt's money-laundering foundation.

Meanwhile on Capitol Hill, neo-Confederate Virginia Senator and 2008 GOP presidential hopeful George Allen has come down with a case of the Plan B flu. An ardent abortion foe, Allen it turns out is a shareholder of none other than Barr Pharmaceuticals, maker of the Plan B emergency contraceptive. Allen's hypocrisy prompted one of his hometown papers to call on him to sell his Barr stock.

The war over Plan B is not over and the threat of collateral damage for the White House remains real. Even as drama over the Barr agreement and the von Eschenbach nomination process continues in Washington, the Bush administration is being sued in New York by a reproductive rights group that seeks to determine the White House's role in blocking Plan B approval.

Perhaps now, the Republican Party will pay for placing politics over science.

As the mid-term elections near, convicted Republican hyper lobbyist Jack Abramoff may well be the gift that keeps on giving for Democrats. Even as the GOP rushes to drop its Abramoff-tainted candidates from ballots in Ohio and Texas, its political problems only build.

In Ohio, six-term Republican Representative and Abramoff golfing buddy Bob Ney dropped out of his race against surging Democratic challenger Zack Space. But State Senator Joy Padgett, Ney's hand-picked successor, may be ineligible to run under Ohio election law. Padgett's limbo status complicates the effort by House Majority Leader and fellow Ohioan John Boehner to hold the 18th district for the GOP.

Meanwhile, back in Sugarland, Texas, former House Majority Leader Tom Delay continues to get hammered in his effort to remove his name from the November ballot. Delay, who won the GOP primary for his district this spring, resigned from Congress in June. But every court has rejected Republican efforts to strike Delay's name from the ballot. The latest rebuke came on Monday from none other than Supreme Court Justice and reliable Republican Antonin Scalia. Despite earlier rumors that Delay might seek to run once again, Time and other sources report he is now pushing for a Republican write-in candidate for November.

For the latest news, legal developments and other key documents regarding Tom Delay, Jack Abramoff and friends, visit the Perrspectives Delay-Abramoff Scandal Resource Center.

Massachusetts Governor and '08 GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney showed his true colors in Iowa this weekend. Effortlessly using the racial slur "tar baby" to describe the Boston Big Dig project, Romney joined White House press secretary Tony Snow on the long list of Republicans who by design or by blunder traffic in the language and symbols of race baiting.

The gaffe suggests that the shrink-wrap may be coming off the Romney candidacy. That Mitt Romney appears to be a compelling choice for Republicans in 2008 is undeniable. His business credentials, high-profile tenure running the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Olympic Games and track record bashing his own blue state of Massachusetts should endear him to GOP primary voters. Then there's the perfect hair, gleaming teeth and chiseled features that suggest his '08 campaign slogan: "Mitt Romney - he had you at hello."

But sadly, that's all there is. Romney's mild, quizzical surprise at the offense his tar baby comment caused showed the aloofness and detachment that is Mitt Romney. Romney, after all, spent his the Mormon mission of his formative years not in deepest Africa or in the rain forests of South America, but outside Paris, France. A man to whom much was given offers only platitudes and packaging in return. There's no there there.

Which makes Mitt Romney a mirage, a chimera. He can be whatever he needs to be in order to win elections. An ardent pro-life advocate in Utah, Romney emerged as a born-again moderate during his 2002 gubernatorial run. As Perrspectives reported last year, Michael Murphy, Romney's own version of Karl Rove, captured the cynicism that is Mitt, "He's been a pro-life Mormon faking it as a pro-choice friendly."

Of course Mitt Romney, like Tony Snow before him, was surprised that his casual use of a racial epithet outraged many people. After all, he never met them.