Hiding the bodies

There's a lot of speculation right now on the final body count from the Katrina disaster. I've heard 10,000; 35,000; "not as high as 10,000"...

what I'm afraid will happen is the same thing that's happened with the Iraqi casualties -- that the numbers will come out in dribs and drabs, making it that much harder to challenge the ultimately low-balled "final" count that the Feds will approve.

And, of course, as with Iraq, any of us who go back through the news stories and count up a number closer to the truth will be accused of "inflating the numbers for political purposes".