I've been everywhere, man ...

Goodbye, DC. Hello, Chicago.

This may be a new record even for me.

I will be leaving Washington DC after just four months to start a new job with a sports media company in Chicago's northern suburbs.

There is no delicate way to put this: it's all about the Benjamins. My new boss is someone I worked with at The Associated Press -- a good guy -- and the company made a very generous offer.

So don't be surprised if temporarily I stop writing. The next couple weeks is going to feature a lot of upheaval, but all in a good way.

Anyway, what do you think -- if you have any opinion -- I'd like to know.

One down, two to go

The Associated Press' Ron Fournier reported Monday something that should have happened a week ago.

Federal Emergency Management Agency director Mike Brown said he has resigned "in the best interest of the agency and best interest of the president," three days after losing his onsite command of the Hurricane Katrina relief effort.

"The focus has got to be on FEMA, what the people are trying to do down there," Brown told AP.

His decision was not a surprise. Brown was abruptly recalled to Washington on Friday, a clear vote of no confidence from his superiors at the White House and the Department of Homeland Security. Brown had been roundly criticized for FEMA's bearish response to the hurricane, which has caused political problem for Bush and fellow Republicans.

"I'm turning in my resignation today," Brown said. "I think it's in the best interest of the agency and the best interest of the president to do that and get the media focused on the good things that are going on, instead of me."

And not to keep the heat on him, presumably.

Your thoughts? I'd like to know.

Fool me once, shame on you ... fool me twice ...

So, the delayed response to the Katrina had nothing to do with race. The president said so, so it must be true.

According to a report by Jennifer Loven of The Associated Press, Bush denied Monday there was any racial component to people being left behind after Hurricane Katrina, despite suggestions from some critics that the response would have been quicker if so many of the victims hadn't been poor and black.

"The storm didn't discriminate and neither will the recovery effort," Bush said. "The rescue efforts were comprehensive. The recovery will be comprehensive.

(Just an aside here ... what does that mean, "the recovery will be comprehensive?")

Maybe the response -- or initial lack of one -- to Katrina was not race-related. You can bet, though, it was class-related.

The Bushes and their ilk have nothing -- zero -- in common with the poor people of the Gulf Coast. If it isn't the Gold Coast, Bush and his cabal want nothing to do with it.

That's the huge divide in this country.

Race relations are still a problem, but the class distinctions are the now-proverbial hurricane hitting New Orleans.

What do you think? I'd like to know.

Banda Aceh, meet Bourbon Street

There's something about the city of New Orleans. Something mystical, magical, evil.

I drove through there almost two years ago, returning from a tryout with a small newspaper in suburban Houston. I got off
I-10 and filled up my gas tank in a predominantly black neighborhood.

I was always taught to have tolerance for people of other races, religions and nationalities, so black people do not scare me -- early on in my life, I went to school with them (as they were bused in from places with exotic-sounding names like Springfield Gardens and St. Albans.)

But as I stood at this gas station in New Orleans, I could feel eyes boring into me. Those eyes said, "Boy, what are you doing here?" Nothing happened. All I did was fill the tank, get back in the car and go.

Far from a nice tale of beignets, crawfish and the French Quarter, no?

Still, what Hurricane Katrina laid on the city of New Orleans and Gulf Coast communities across Louisiana and Mississippi -- in spite of it being a natural disaster -- was horrific.

It was also inexcusable.

The United States is not a third-world nation, but you would not have known that from this past week's events. The Superdome and later the Houston Astrodome both used as refugee centers. Lawlessness leading to people being shot and killed as a matter of survival. The old, the infirm, the helpless dying in the streets. Stephen King's "The Stand" seemingly come to life.

Banda Aceh, meet Bourbon Street.

George Bush. Michael Chertoff. Michael Brown. These are three people who should pay dearly.

Anyone for a recall to get G-Dub out of the White House? Our fearless leader sees nothing wrong with spending billions on a war that makes no sense, but cannot tend to matters in his own country. He proved that on Sept. 11, 2001 by not heeding advance warnings did it again with this tragedy.

That inane smirk and the look on his face that essentially says "oh, well" that we have come to expect is the best he can muster. That and saddling us with $3.40 a gallon gas prices, but that's a story for another day.

Chertoff? Clueless. According to the Editor & Publisher Web site, Chertoff told Tim Russert of "Meet The Press" that one reason for the delay in rushing federal aid to the Gulf Coast was that "everyone" thought the crisis had passed when the storm left town: "I remember on Tuesday morning picking up newspapers and I saw headlines, 'New Orleans Dodged The Bullet.'"

Makes me long for the days of Tom Ridge and his color-coding alert system.

Brown -- also known as the head of FEMA ... the phrase to describe him right now during all this is "deer in the headlights." After all, being a former official with the International Arabian Horse Association clearly has readied him for dealing with the worst natural disaster to hit this country in a century.

All the so-called important people and those able to leave got out of Dodge. But New Orleans is perhaps the poorest major city in America. I don't think a family from one of New Orleans' poor sections was going to pack up their Lexus SUV and head for higher ground and a week's stay in the Holiday Inn to ride out the storm.

About 1 million got out of Louisiana. About 10,000 died. 9/11 times three.

We have become a throw-away society. I want to know when people became expendable.