Somewhere around Matthew 5:45...he maketh the rain on the just and the unjust (or something along that line)... I missed the theological part about distributing tax payer funds for possible political gains instead of it just being the right thing to do.

This seems to be bogus; see

http://www.snopes.com/politics/bush/hurricane.asp

Claim: Three hurricanes that hit Florida in the summer of 2004 touched
only counties that voted for George Bush in the 2000 presidential election.

Status: False.

The political payback is not in the doling out of relief funds, but in whether it is done effectively and efficiently or subjects the disaster victims to a bureaucratic hassle. By all accounts, disaster relief is going pretty well in Florida, which means the incumbent governments that are handling it will be rewarded - or at least not punished - at the polls. Which is as it should be.

Thanks for the Snopes link. I actually knew the map was somewhat a bogus analysis, but I was just having fun responding it. Pixels are cheap, so I burned a few on hurricane politics!

Egads. It seems that the almighty can also redirect the path of hurricans even after they occure. If I remember correctly, Ivan's eye made landfall just to the east of Mobile Bay in Alabama. This map shows the path making landfall in the Florida panhandle.

It's a miracle.

My brother sent the same map. I responded thus:

There seems to be an awful lot of pink "Bushland" for those hurricanes to
hit.

God forbid that I might have a sense of humour failure, but isn't it a good
thing that so far, none of the hurricanes have directly hit a major
population centre? Talk about partisanship - what about those counties where
the hurricanes did hit? Oh, I forgot. They're full of hicks who vote for
Bush.

Isn't it flattering that Democrats think that the Almighty might want to
strike George Bush? At least Bush has the Big Guy's attention. The Dems
aren't able to land any punches on the President themselves, so divine
intervention is most welcome.

Oh yea. The other thing this joke reminds me of is that George Bush isn't
trying to avoid dangerous storms, he is meeting them head on. This map is a
useful metaphore of the Kerry campaign and for weasels everywhere: Keep your
head down, make yourself real small, and hope the terrible storm only hits
your neighbour's house.

No worries. Wet paper is weaker than dry paper, so no one in Florida should have problems punching holes in their paper ballots this year...

It is obviously bogus: Ivan made landfall in ALABAMA, and not FLORIDA.

Don't these folks know their geography??

I live in florida and ivan definitely made landfall in florida tearing off my neighbors roof and getting my classes cancelled for at least a month. I live in pensacola, which is almost directly where the map shows the hurricane hitting. Please actually learn your facts and geography before posting comments.
thank-you