Senator John Kerry's Speech at Brown University

Providence, RI - I want to thank you for what the Brown community has done to help and comfort the many victims of Hurricane Katrina. This horrifying disaster has shown Americans at their best -- and their government at its worst.

And that's what I've come to talk with you about today. READ ON

EXCERPTS:
Katrina stripped away any image of competence and exposed to all the true heart and nature of this administration. The truth is that for four and a half years, real life choices have been replaced by ideological agenda, substance replaced by spin, governance second place always to politics. Yes, they can run a good campaign -- I can attest to that -- but America needs more than a campaign. If 12 year-old Boy Scouts can be prepared, Americans have a right to expect the same from their 59 year-old President of the United States.

This is about the broader pattern of incompetence and negligence that Katrina exposed, and beyond that, a truly systemic effort to distort and disable the people's government, and devote it to the interests of the privileged and the powerful. It is about the betrayal of trust and abuse of power. And in all the often horrible and sometimes ennobling sights and sounds we've all witnessed over the last two weeks, there's another sound just under the surface: the steady clucking of Administration chickens coming home to roost.

They didn't listen...

This is the Katrina administration.

Brian Williams: NBC News to open a bureau in New Orleans

Brian Williams Look-alike

On the NBC front, we're all thrilled at our decision to open a formal bureau here. It's simply a recognition of the obvious: this is going to be an ongoing story, with ramifications and recovery stretching years ahead of us. While our compound here operates beautifully, it still amounts to a collection of RVs, tarps and folding tables. It will be great to have a bricks-and-mortar operation.

On September 3, I had expressed just such a hope on a blogpost for Daily Kos:

My hope is that Brian Williams, Bob Woodruff, Shepard Smith, Anderson Cooper, and the other brave new stewards of the poor and disenfranchised, will stay in New Orleans, and be the voice of those whose need is most great.

Congratulations to NBC News for this new development.