The Times snagged a copy of Laura Bush's memoir Spoken from the Heart a week before its release, and they've got the goods: Possible presidential poisoning! Peeved political potshots! And details on her fatal, "mysterious" high-school car accident.

How dumb and lazy is George W. Bush? So dumb and lazy that he can't even write a real memoir! Instead, he will write "an account of key decisions in his life." We have some guesses about what those are.

The group today released a report, called "Un-Natural Disaster," that says "the demographics of the region are being permanently altered" by failing to rebuild infrastructure, and New Orleans residents have been victims of rampant police brutality. [AP]

Further proving the road to hell as indeed paved with good intentions—or in this case, "green" concrete—Brad Pitt's taking flack for building housing in New Orleans' Katrina-devastated Lower Ninth ward. The houses are dreamy. The reaction isn't.

The NYT Magazine's cover story about a euthanizing, beleaguered hospital during and after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans dropped today. It's estimated to have cost around $400,000. What kind of reporting does that buy? The expensive, endangered type.

No, 9/11 was not an inside job (but BUSH KNEW!), but inaugural Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge just wrote a bitchy tell-all, and he makes some crazy claims.

Taken by my friend Amy V. Cooper, this pic shows the interior of New Orleans musician Clint Maedgen's apartment a few days after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast in 2005.

Feared and loathed Mountain View ad firm Google got a lot of deservedly good press for being a font of telling data in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, especially the satellite imagery provided by the Maps team. Now the company has added Greater New Orleans — from Metairie to Algiers, Shreveport to Baton Rouge — to street view. You can check in on every parade turn, strip joint, turtle souper and streetcar turnaround you might remember. But anyone might notice that the time disparity between the satellite and street-level photographs of the region are striking in visual contrast.The satellite imagery shows a nest of buildings further ramshackled in the wake of the flood, while the curbside angle shows thick, expansive verdure where ensuing demolition has left empty lots. YouTube footage provides heart-wrenching narrative counterpoint. I think I just shed a single, sincere tear for Google's seemingly earnest altruism. Nice work.

While you might expect to be mildly offended by the people behind Date Movie, Epic Movie, and Meet the Spartans, it's usually because they're coming out with more movies rather than because of anything in the films themselves. Now, though, they've made the classy move of premiering their latest spoof, Disaster Movie, on August 29th — the third anniversary of the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

TODO is one daily thing recommended for you, by us.

• Nikki Finke reveals the missing money quote from the War of the Worlds: Viacom Vs. Cruise edition. [Deadline Hollywood]
• William H Macy wants to can Lindsay Lohan, probably because she dated Jared Leto briefly in '05. [Celebrity Week]
• The themes are: Incest, drug addiction, and promiscuous sex. Hmmm must be a Marie Claire party. [FWD]
• This couple from the m nage a laptop story real do get around [Salon]
• Video of 6'7" Jewish Rapper with dreadlocks. Nuff said, no? [ANIMAL]
• Katrina Anniversary Concert: featuring The Roots, Moby, Rosie Perez, Julia Stules and more. [Beyond Katrina]

Newsweek's cover this week is its first-ever "Giving Back Awards," a sort of honor of 15 people who "devote themselves to helping others." Naturally at least one or two members of such a list must have Katrina connections. One Katrina-connected award winner, as you might expect, was a certain CNN anchor who channeled the publics' anger at government officials and was ultimately transformed by the experience. By which we mean Soledad O'Brien, of course.

Jeez, the poor guy. It must be terrible to feel abandoned by the administration in your hour of need.

A transcript cannot really capture what we're told was the true stoneditude of the live event, but, still, it's worth nothing at least this snippet of Chris Rock's appearance on Anderson Cooper 360° last night, touting the relief efforts he and has wife are spearheading for Katrina victims in Houston:

This just in from a bookworld tipster who, experience suggests, knows of what he speaks:

In the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Americans are reaching out with their hearts, hands, and wallets to help those displaced by the disaster. No one's quite as generous, however, as the folks behind competing morning shows Today and Good Morning America, which are both furiously tailoring their programming to display their charitable efforts, which include building homes and adopting towns:

Figments of Alessandra Stanley's imagination, mostly.

Prompted by the disaster in New Orleans and the current hurricane-a-week weather pattern, NYC Office of Emergency Management is gently reminding us all to always be prepared:

This article, we'd like to note, was not written by Alessandra Stanley. In fact, it's an AP item — it's comforting to know the Times just throws that shit up there without giving it a once-over first.

• "ABC, CBS Secretly Search for Anchors," says AP hed. Yes, no one had any idea. [AP via Newsday]
• Shocker: Plame fallout makes sources less likely to trust reporters' promises of anonymity. [AJR]
• And another shocker: Bush SCOTUS nominee doesn't like the press. [NYT]
• Slightly more Americans trust the media than don't. Rejoice! [Gallup]
• Media more interested in Cocaine Kate than in Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's stock sale. Can't imagine why. [Media Matters]
• Friday's kick-off party for The New Yorker Festival featured James Woolsey, Jonathan Franzen, and Gilbert Gottfried. [WWD]
• Mags hold benefits for Katrina victims. [MIN]