A week after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, we've heard from politicians, pundits, survivors, aid workers, and editorialists. Here are just a few of the notable comments coming out of the tragedy...

"We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did."
-- Rep. Richard Baker (R-LA) to lobbyists

"The point is if you look at the big picture, it's a phenomenal accomplishment by everybody involved. It's unbelievable. I am constantly struck by where we are today just a little over a week from the worst catastrophe that this country has seen."
-- Rep. Tom Delay (R-TX)

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"I wouldn't say I'm angry, you know. I think I'm tired of hearing the politicians say that, you know, they understand the frustration of people down here. To me, you know, it's not frustration. It's not that people are frustrated. It's that people are dying. I mean there are people dying. They're drowning to death and they drown in their living rooms and their bodies are rotting where they drowned and there are corpses in the street being eaten by rats and this is the United States of America."

-- CNN's Anderson Cooper, 9/2/2005

Metrodome plaza, 6:35 p.m. Thursday, half hour before the Twins play Seattle. A passerby notices a booth that resembles all the other food stands on the plaza, but this one doesn't have a line of people buying corn dogs, burgers or barbeque sandwiches.

Instead, it's got an Animatronic chef behind a faux grill. The sidekick is, er, a computer monitor with a face and professor glasses. The pair are moving and flailing and lip-synching with robot-like passion to a bouncy little ditty.

Passerby notices the booth is called "The Fun Zone" and is run by "Border Foods," according signage on the front. Passerby is puzzled by this, and frankly is creeped out by the fact that he's making serious eye contact with the "singing" Animatronic chef.

But the tune is catchy--driven by an acoustic guitar, some light percussion and two-part harmony. A man's voice (the chef, one presumes) and a woman's voice (the computer monitor?) are repeating the refrain "Get over it on love, Get over it on love." What an odd, melancholy and ultimately uplifting sentiment, the passerby thinks.

Then there's a rest in the chorus and the chef speaks the word "Quiero." When the chorus resumes, passerby realizes the actual lyrics to the strangely sweet song: "Yo Quiero Taco Bell."

Location: The bottom of Ramsey Hill in St. Paul, Tuesday night, 7:55 p.m. A bearded traveler stands at the traffic light, shouldering an old, external-frame backpack. He has the hollow look of a man who spends his time in places where no one else would want to be.

Above the wash of traffic, a command trumpets out of the megaphone on a St. Paul cop car: "You better not even be thinking of begging."

I blow through a red light. The cops don't say a word.