Bush speech ignores hurricane-ravaged New Orleans

New Orleans, still in a mess amid an achingly slow pace of recovery across the Gulf Coast from Hurricane Katrina’s strike, did not warrant a mention by US President George Bush on the year’s biggest night for showcasing US policy priorities.

In Bush’s State of the Union speech last year, delivered just five months after the disaster, the devastation merited only 156 words out of more than 5,400.