Opinion

Leaders of nine unions vowed Friday to walk out in sympathy if members of SEIU-United Healthcare Workers-West strike the three Alta Bates hospitals and 10 other facilities of Stutter Health on Sept. 13. -more-

Thursday’s New York Times editorial started out “George W. Bush gave one of the worst speeches of his life yesterday…” Well, he’s already topped himself. On Thursday morning he told ABC News, as quoted online by the BBC, “I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees. They did appreciate a serious storm but these levees got breached and as a result much of New Orleans is flooded ….” Yes, Mr. President, many people did anticipate the breach of the levees, but you and your advisers chose to ignore them. Thursday’s papers were already full of the accounting of how the current administration has chosen to ignore the facts on the ground. Molly Ivins in her syndicated column did a tidy roundup of all the ways that budget essential to protecting New Orleans from the inevitable and anticipated breach of the levees was diverted by the Bush administration into the war in Iraq and other follies. -more-