Katrina Shmatrina. They don't need our help.

In Louisiana, this is what's considered a "broken-down vehicle”:

A broken-down vehicle looks a little different here in Nebraska:

AMERICANS NEED to remember that the next time some Louisiana politician or another arrives in Washington, hat in hand, whining about:

* How the state was "wronged" by the federal government over Hurricane Katrina.

* How the state can't possibly pay its 10-percent share of rebuilding New Orleans-area levees.

* How Uncle Sam is "holding back" the rebuilding of New Orleans because Washington has been so unbearably niggardly with federal aid.

* How there's a perfectly good excuse for the latest Bayou State nonsense and -- by the way -- how Louisiana needs to make just one more claim on your federal tax dollar because "We're a poor state."

Right.

And remember that, in such a "poor state," this is a "broken-down car":

AND THIS is what passes for "the crown jewel" of the Louisiana capital's public-education system:

Broken-down car:


Top-of-the-line high school:


ANYTHING ELSE you need to know before opening up that checkbook, America?

Now somebody go inform members of the Louisiana Legislature that ideas -- and the words used to express them -- have consequences. Especially when one's hat spends so much time in one's hand.