I'm serious. This is an outrage. Those bastards.

Did I really just wake up a few minutes ago or am I still fucking asleep and having a nightmare?

Okay, I knew our government was full of fucktards but this really...

....I don't even have words here.

Cost of the Iraq War: Over $1 billion per week.

What can we do? Will calling our representatives and demanding that the Red Cross be allowed to help do any good? Of course it is a three day weekend, we can't get through.

This could be the final straw for me. My sanity could go.

I just, I, I—

----------------

Firefighting gear stockpile unused

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Nine stockpiles of fire-and-rescue equipment strategically placed around the country to be used in the event of a catastrophe still have not been pressed into service in New Orleans, five days after Hurricane Katrina, CNN has learned.

Responding to a CNN inquiry, Department of Homeland Security spokesman Marc Short said Friday the gear has not been moved because none of the governors in the hurricane-ravaged area has requested it.

....

....

!!!!!!!!!

Friday. From Canada.

Georgiana, I think the Red Cross has been active in the many other places devastated by Katrina, north of NOLA, in Mississippi, and in Alabama, so it's hardly useless. Just... not as useful as we'd like to be.

Are they actually trying to trap and kill these people?

The worst part is knowing that the complete despair I feel at this news is NOTHING in comparison to the despair felt by the people left to die.

When I was a little girl we were evacuated from our house after an earthquake because the dam above our house cracked and we were in danger of being flooded out. The Red Cross took very good care of us and I think part of me still sees them as, well almost superheroes so when I read that they couldn't do the same thing for other people, and for such stupid, evil reasons, I just fell apart. Thanks for pointing out that they are doing a lot of good.

I have a word for it. Murder.

Which is a gut instinct, totally emotional response, but that is exactly how it strikes me.

I lurk here almost everyday. I want to thank you for gathering all this information. I get more sick at heart each day and more disgusted with how inept the response to this disaster is -- but I need to know what is going on, to stay informed, so I keep following links and reading.

And I keep wishing there was a way to totally bypass FEMA and all the other Federal agencies. They have f*ck*d this up beyond redemption. I wish they would just get the hell out of the way and let people who would actually do something in there.

Which will never happen. So yeah, murder sounds right to me.

This is the mindset in action that is incapable of believing people don't want handouts, that people will accept what they need to survive in the moment but do in fact want to get out. It starts with the well-meaning "Teach a man to fish" and ends with "If you give them food, they won't want to leave the gulag."

Remember this. Take this home with you and write it down in permanent ink. Make the people who helped caused and are continuing this clusterfuck pay for it with their jobs next November. And if you pray, keep praying.

Damn, but I hope this administration goes down hard for this criminal incompetence. It won't make up for any of the loss and suffering, but... damn

(I am not trained in search-and-rescue or medicine, but in working at shelters, damage assessment, and family service, ie, sort of like post-disaster social work.)

The rich white people in charge are afraid of thousands of poor black people "being let loose" on the country, you can bet your ass they are.

This is the worst thing Americans have done to each other in a long time.

This is when I almost wish I weren't a gun-hating socialist progressive. Because I'm just about angry enough to join a militia bent on tearing a corridor into that city through whatever means necessary just to get relief in and people out.

While white people of varying income levels over in Texas are welcoming them with open arms. These people, mind you, are not the ones making decisions about relief being flown in or whether people are allowed out of NOLA.

Do you suppose they'd fire on civilians who run the blockade?

Because I'm awfully close to that point myself. I have a big 4-wheel drive pickup. I'm right on the verge of taking my credit card to Costco and heading south from Seattle.

The canadians didn't come until Friday because Homeland Security refused them entry into the country before then, that's why. They started trying on Monday.

And yet they evidently still managed to get there before the American specialists. (Have any specialized American S&R teams arrived yet?)

I'm having a lot of trouble remembering that right now.

I don't want to believe someone is deliberately trying to kill these people, but that's what it's starting to look like. I'm more scared by this than by anything else that has happened since September 11.

What the hell is happening?

Impeach the lot of them, including the people who v/o/t/e/d/ rubberstamped the Shrub's Iraq money, and his no-money-for-repairs-and-maintenance budget.

(And try to get MBAs and politicians to understand the research and maintenance are not frills, but necessities: long term survival moves.)

Last I knew they were sitting in Texas, denied access to the disaster zone. This may have changed: that information was as of 12 pm Pacific time 09/02/05, via an imbedded reporter from our local CBS station, KLAS.

To which I can only pump my fist and say "yes!"

[By the way, NOLA also confirms earlier rumors that the city was declared a no-fly zone during Bush's visit.

. . . but there was a moment, watching the radar, when I really wanted a helicopter to dump Mr. "Jury is still out on climate change" Bush in the center of the Vieux Carre with a sou'wester, a liter of fresh water, and three MREs. If he broke an ankle landing, awww; he shoulda finished his bailout training.

The thing is, of course, that the way the majority of people are, somebody would have picked the drowned rat up and hauled him to the Superdome, where he could have had a nice cup of coffee and a Red Cross donut. Can't tell if he would have been able to get on with his life then, but there probably would have been some interesting questions before morning.

At the time, I asked her not to quote it; it seemed, after it had been typed, to be crude and hateful, written with the stupidity of anger, that no one is helped by wishing someone else ill.

Which is all still true, but there's a point at which one ceases to mind sounding stupid.

Spousal-type mused, in response, about the likelihood that I'd get fired from my (necessary) job, his skepticism about my actual ability to WALK from Ann Arbor to New Orleans, and the issue of just how much asthma medication I'd need to carry and how many diapers that would displace. Spoil sport.

Mike, that's exactly why he should have that experience. Because he won't get it until he's having the coffee and the Red Cross donut. Oh, and if he had that experience? He might let the Red Cross in.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/3335685

Haliburton is already profit--eer-ing by this disaster?

Jane

Richard Cheney, bad-mannered Vice President of a greed-motivated kleptocracy, says the mystic word "GOBEPOHESO!*" and becomes . . .

Unbid Contract Man!

*Gotta Be Pork Here Someplace

I don't have access to the WSJ to read the article, but yesterday Think Progress included this entry:

Senate Appropriations staffers are warning that “business lobbyists are maneuvering to tack on special-interest amendments” to the hurricane emergency supplemental, WSJ reports.

Here's another: 500 boaters turned away...

And have your cameras of all types up and running. Otherwise the #$%^&* r/u/n/n/i/n/g/ in nominal charge of the mess will try to claim that you might, frex, be looters. Or something else.

I don't know why they're worried about terrorists this week; seems that Katrina has done more damage to this country than Al Qaeda dreamed of.

Do you have any more details about that caravan that left from Issaquah?

I have no words adequate for this--I never thought to see the US government this bad.

It's a good thing people have been yelling. If they hadn't been, this would have been infinitely worse.

Make the sentence fit the crime. Minor bureaucratic delays get a few days, and for those most responsible, throw away the key...

So, if there is indeed a massacre in N.O, what happens then?

because there just does seem to be an inexplicable undercurrent of menace in the reports coming out, menace directed against the people still left in New Orleans. I am reminded about the Fallujah exercise, people weren't being let out of there either before they went and cleaned out the insurgents.

http://www.boingboing.net/2005/09/03/alcajun_army_times_c.html

There are also still a few thousand people at the airport, including hundreds at the triage center.

Also from NOLA.com, Sen. Obama says that he expects his Gulf Coast colleagues to hold hearings into how badly this was handled, but if they don't, he will.

Army Times calls NOLA Katrina victims "the insurgency".

It doesn't have anything to do with Katrina, but on the whole, this is the line that makes me the angriest, and causes me to characterize the US as in some ways a Third World country. Partly because I know so many people that it applies to personally.

I've sometimes thought that if we can't have national health care, national dental care might be a reasonable first step that would give us a tremendous payoff for the expense.

A point that people seem to have missed - the American Red Cross is not really a first response organisation. They don't go into an area until after the disaster is over. As Rachel indicated above, their volunteers are not trained for emergency response, but for aftermath services.

From what I've pieced together, the ARC deployed all around the anticipated emergency area, preparing sites for an influx of casualties and refugees and did so with reasonable competence and efficiency. The local city and parish first response teams were so overwhelmed by the onslaught of the hurricane and subsequent flooding that they could not properly do their jobs, and FEMA failed utterly and catastrophically to do theirs.

The Coast Guard and the LA State Fisheries and Wildlife people moved in and began rescuing people from the water, but their job is to take evacuees to pickup points and then go back to rescue more. FEMA still did nothing to get people to shelter and then to get them out of the city. FEMA did not get the National Guard units moved into the city, FEMA did not get additional Guard and Regular military deployed, FEMA apparently didn't even watch sufficient television to see what was happening in the city. Most damning of all, FEMA even failed to fill out paperwork to get things moving. Never mind an emergency, FEMA can't even manage the paperwork for their own bureaocracy.

So the ARC people are likely sitting there feeling helpless. They have food and water and social services, exactly what the citizens of New Orleans need. The National Guard still has not made it in to secure the city due to criminally incompetent delay on the part of FEMA, so the ARC offers to send in food and water and gets rebuffed by FEMA.

What can they do now? What if they ignore the rebuff and try to send in a convoy only to be prohibited from entry, and meanwhile the first convoy of evacuees gets out only to find a partially staffed Red Cross center? Meanwhile, FEMA keeps assuring the ARC that the Nat Guard is on the way and just sit tight.

The duty of the Red Cross groups in this type of disaster is to setup in a safe spot and wait for the emergency services to bring people out. It would be extremely difficult for a Red Cross commander to ignore the plan, take matters into their own hands, and risk making things worse.

Of course I wasn't there, and I'm only guessing as to what went on the last few days, but I place the blame squarely on FEMA for failing to plan better for a foreseeable disaster, for failing to prepare for it during the warning period, and for utterly failing to act when decisive action would have made a difference. Ultimately the responsibility resides with Bush. (Foaming at the mouth expletive laden rant deleted.)

On a slightly lighter note, a commenter at Eschaton posted a nice email received from Netflix detailing how his account would be paused and recent charges refunded until such time as he wanted to resume the service, plus the promise of a gratis month upon resumption. Netflix had already received notice from the USPS that mail was not deliverable to his address. Apparently the oft maligned US Postal Service is the only part of the Federal Government that is capable of operating efficiently and effectively during a disaster, despite the fact that their role usually ceases to exist in a disaster area. Maybe next time we should simply mail food and water to the victims. It would be more likely to get there.

To go along with Feeble Emergency Management Attempts I would also propose redefining DHS to mean Don't Help Survivors.

It's as if it's a movie set, not reality. Maybe that is what they think it is: a disaster movie, where things are terrible but will all turn out right in the end, as per the script.

Or maybe it's simply another example of how they believe their own rhetoric.

"Such things cannot happen in the USA. We are givers, not takers; we provide relief, we don't need it. We don't need to spend money on emergency planning, either; those agencies are bloated and overfunded and don't really do anyone any good, compared to the sexiness, I mean, usefulness, I mean, imminent danger of the terrorist threat—let's slash those budgets. Managing an emergency is simple, requires no particular skills, and can be done by anyone (hey, let's put our buddy in this position)."

Sounds like the same thinking that just knew that you only need a tiny army to win in Iraq, because the Iraqis would all welcome the Americans with open arms and democracy would flower.

Rhetoric, meet reality.

I too volunteered to go to New Orleans, and here I thought it thought it was concern for my little pink hide that made them say they weren't sending teams yet.

We'd love to have you, Rachel--we're WAY short on caseworkers. I was told yesterday that "national support" was going to be money and advice, not trained bodies.

The prez-dropping scenario sounds nice, but I wish he'd come do my job for a day or sixteen and listen to all the grief, when all you have to offer is pack of peanuts and a few bucks. In the end, it's not about the money, which is not to say we don't need an ocean of it. Thanks for what you've sent, from me and a bunch of grateful folks, the lucky ones who escaped with their lives (but not much else).

Peace,
Madeleine

But wait! There's more! From a statement issued by Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu:

"But perhaps the greatest disappointment stands at the breached 17th Street levee. Touring this critical site yesterday with the President, I saw what I believed to be a real and significant effort to get a handle on a major cause of this catastrophe. Flying over this critical spot again this morning, less than 24 hours later, it became apparent that yesterday we witnessed a hastily prepared stage set for a Presidential photo opportunity; and the desperately needed resources we saw were this morning reduced to a single, lonely piece of equipment.The good and decent people of southeast Louisiana and the Gulf Coast – black and white, rich and poor, young and old – deserve far better from their national government."

Usually, by the time they show up, the first responders are ready for them, and eager to see them.

This is the most incomprehensible incompetence I've ever seen.

And the US has backed away from it. Apparently, we can do no wrong.

Other venues: Belgium used to be willing to try cases of genocide performed outside its borders (legal theory tested in the bringing of justice to some murdeours nuns in Rwanda), but it has stepped back in horror once the issue of Israel's mass murders by the current Prime Minister were brought to the court. (His role in the Qibia massacre is not disputed; it's just that no court seems to have jurisdiction.)

We're probably stuck with US-internal procedures. And it is just a good thing that so many people want to move up in the world - Barak Obama and the despicable Frist both seem willing to push the issue. I do not believe Frist has any sort of acceptable (to a sentien being) motivation, but Obama... ...he may be just the ticket. US courts. US lawyers.

It's something to hope for, in any event.

This is how you sell the case for shrinking governmental functions. You run a facility down, de-fund it and strip it of its best people. Then when the populace notice that it doesn't work any more, you say, "True. It's a waste of government money, and the private sector could do it better and cheaper." Send out the contracts for bid (or not...*cough*Halburton*/cough*), and voila! Privatisation. You're even doing it by public demand.

By the time the cost savings don't materialise, you're already onto the next privatisation project.

The thing that scares me is, what other pieces of essential governmental function have been de-funded and run down, with us all still unaware? What other foundations of the house have been left ready to collapse?

ARC is now training "spontaneous" (i.e. inexperienced) volunteers to serve in their Katrina relief effort. Here's the session I attended:

http://www.sqvalleyredcross.org/chapterinfo/katrina.htm

Minimum 3 week rotation, working (and living) in a shelter (somewhere) distributing food/goods. (Was supposed to fly out w/in 24 hrs.; postponed until Tuesday, so at least now I'll have wicking socks and DEET.)

Apparently, using untested volunteers is not S.O.P.: normally, ARC expects volunteers to have had some local experience before they're sent out on national disaster relief.

Anyway, as we endured a super-compressed version of the obligatory "make no assumption / pass no judgment" homily, we were reminded that none of us had any way of knowing, for a fact, whether the people we'd be serving had actually "chosen" to stay behind.

Thus - slightly more than halfway through a 4 hr. session - were we rendered potentially more qualified than Michael Brown.

Potentially, because it was clear from the subsequent chuckling that (a) plenty of the people in that room personally believed Katrina's victims HAD made that choice, including (b) the ARC instructor. Also, while we were assured of discomfort and exhaustion, we were also assured of safety: no, we would NOT be going into N.O. proper. "Not to get shot at." Lotsa folks expressing worry about this, relief at instructor's response.

Still, despite the apparent FauxNews Weltanschauung, these people are going down there anyway.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/03/AR2005090301653.html

When the director of DHS is quoted as saying "on Saturday and Sunday I expected a standard hurricane", he has demonstrated gross incompetence or negligence and should be fired immediately.

Won't happen, though. He's a Bush selection.

I think the lesson here is that when you're a baby-making theocracy, you don't have to do better.

Sarcasm Alert

Yeah, just rape women of the proper phyiologicaly charateristics to try to maximize the probabilty that the offspring will have the desired physical characteristics and treat them like breeder animals requiring surveillane to make sure they dont abort or drop the fetus too early or commit suicide with a pregnancy -they- don't want, etc., and don't let them do any activity besides eat for junior and get mild exerise and be prevented from any activitie or actions potentially interfereing with the pregancy...

Time to republishe Suzette Haden Elgin's dystopia novels, and The Handmaid's Tale, and Walk to the End of the World, perhaps?

I've been struck by the feeling of perfunctoriness of the Administration's response to this crisis, and in particular that of Bush...

It's as if it's a movie set, not reality. Maybe that is what they think it is: a disaster movie, where things are terrible but will all turn out right in the end, as per the script.

Potemkin Disaster Planning and Potemkin Crises Operations. Set up the site for Political Ad video footage shot and Media Photo-Op, and archive for post-production for future Public Information Dissemination Spin Operations. Note the US Goverment and its parasite Robber Baron Outfits (once upon a time there was the term "Beltway Bandits"--that is to IEM and Halliburton and such as few grasshoppers in the yard are to a locust invasion) advertising for Public Information Officers--now WHY is there a need for massive numbers of Official Mouthpieces? Whatever ever happened to "write press release, hold press conference inviting mass of reporters, tell them to get the hell out of the way of the people trying to deal with the emergency, there will be updates. Remember how the press conferences were handled during the Gulf War?!

Or maybe it's simply another example of how they believe their own rhetoric.

"...(hey, let's put our buddy in this position)."

Sounds like the same thinking that just knew that you only need a tiny army to win in Iraq, because the Iraqis would all welcome the Americans with open arms and democracy would flower.

Rhetoric, meet reality.

Reality? The delusion and True Belief and I Am The TRUTH, I HAVE NO DOUBTS AND NEVER MAKE MISTAKES! quotient of the Schmuck, Cheney (and where has Cheney been?), and their Good Buddies is so great, "Six cats couldn't make them see." ["My mistress has such a desire [not to see] so strong that six cats [witch familiars for a powerful witch] couldn't make her see [what she didn't want to see." -- The Rescue of Ranor.

Rhetoric, meet reality.

Paula:

Reality? The delusion and True Belief and I Am The TRUTH, I HAVE NO DOUBTS AND NEVER MAKE MISTAKES! quotient of the Schmuck, Cheney (and where has Cheney been?), and their Good Buddies is so great, "Six cats couldn't make them see." ["My mistress has such a desire [not to see] so strong that six cats [witch familiars for a powerful witch] couldn't make her see [what she didn't want to see." -- The Rescue of Ranor.

Exactly. They will see only what they want to see, and will find ways to see it even when it is contradicted by what is before their eyes.

Our hope is not that they will see, it is that we do—the critical mass of people who will hold them to account. After seeing the anger out there (from the media, from commentators like David Brook), I have some hope that this will happen. If the weasels who normally support them and are angry now don't backtrack for reasons of political expediency.

Suppose that they know they're going to win the 2006 and 2008 elections. Then this could be the first of a series of graphic lessons.

If you don't vote republican, you get nothing.

We haven't seen yet how much better alabama and mississippi and red louisiana are having it. If they're almost as bad off then it doesn't fit. But why should Bush do anything to support people who don't support him? "If you're not for me, you're against me."

I wouldn't have thought this country could be turned into a water empire. But if they think they have a decent shot at it, why wouldn't they try?

I think what they meant is that there are not many roadways/passageways in and out of New Orleans and if tons of Red Cross workers are coming in, they may block the roads or cause delays for those coming out.

That was the way I read it at first, anyway.

"For three days, Corps officials had lamented the difficulty of gaining access to the canal, but yesterday a local contractor, Boh Bros. Construction Co., apparently drove to the mouth of the canal and started placing a set of steel sheet pilings to isolate the canal from the lake. This job was finished yesterday afternoon."

I assume that the canal takes discharge water from currently flooded-out pumps, and so the actual breach needs to be closed, but it isn't urgent.

There's other aspects of the story which lead me to wonder if the USACE is being set up as a scapegoat.

It used to be that air space was kept clear around the President's plane when it was in the air, and all air traffic stopped at the airport it would be landing at for approximately an hour before said landing.

The no-fly over a city where the President is speaking seems to be the result of 9/11. I'm going to do some digging on this, I'd think it causes one hell of an ATC problem...

Lori Coulson

Anonymous: Your interpretation works well as far as "keep people from evacuating" goes, but how would Red Cross's traffic "encourage others to return"?

I have tried very hard, but I cannot come up with any interpretation that doesn't boil down to "you know how those po' folk will do anything for a handout".

Anyone who hasn't read/watched the interview with my Parish President posted over at ThinkProgress, please do. I think this was the interview that, along with the scandal of keeping the Red Cross away from the stranded, starving folks awaiting rescue, finally broke down all barriers to my assuming actual malice on the part of FEMA, Homeland Security, and Bush.

We had Wal-Mart deliver three trucks of water. FEMA turned them back. They said we didn’t need them. This was a week ago. FEMA, we had 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel on a Coast Guard vessel docked in my parish. When we got there with our trucks, FEMA says don’t give you the fuel. Yesterday — yesterday — FEMA comes in and cuts all of our emergency communication lines. They cut them without notice. Our sheriff, Harry Lee, goes back in, he reconnects the line. He posts armed guards and said no one is getting near these lines...

Blocking flow is absolutely vital, though. If the back of the levees get much eroded, you're looking at an unrecoverable problem. (If the whole thing stays waterlogged for a year or so, very likely the same.)

Three Carnival cruise ships to aid Katrina relief

WASHINGTON, Sept 3 (Reuters) - The U.S. government has chartered three luxury cruise liners -- Ecstasy, Sensation and Holiday -- for the next six months to provide temporary housing for victims of Hurricane Katrina, Carnival Cruise Lines said on Saturday.

Two of the ships, the Ecstasy and Sensation, have a maximum capacity of 2,606 each and will be based in Galveston, Texas, while the third boat, the Holiday, has a maximum capacity of 1,800 and will likely be docked in Mobile, Alabama, the Miami-based company said.

Yeah, I know. It's probably no different than putting people up in a Holiday Inn. Actually, scratch that -- ship staterooms are tiny. The only "luxury" involved is probably carpeting and chrome in the dining room.

Nah, the luxury is the always-open entertainment and dining, plus lots of little things like laundry service. Really, though, the luxury ships are the big ones, and the ones best equipped to ferry people any substantial distance.

Marie Antoinette said "Let them eat cake;"
Michael Brown said "For heaven's sake,
They all were told to evacuate!
If I heard that I wouldn't wait,
I'd get in the back of my long black car
And tell my driver to take me far
Away."

And when somebody hollered "Shame!"
He said "It isn't the time to blame
Chertoff, Bush, and Brown."

CHORUS.

I'm workin' on it.

In acutalty, the Red Cross was kept out of NO the day before landfall by Katrina. They wanted to stock the Superdome and were told NO by Nagin.

Now, today, it is simply too dangerous to go in.

Here is the American Red Cross page:
http://www.redcross.org/faq/0,1096,0_682_4524,00.html

Acess to New Orleans is controlled by the National Guard and local authorities and while we are in constant contact with them, we simply cannot enter New Orleans against their orders.

The state Homeland Security Department had requested--and continues to request--that the American Red Cross not come back into New Orleans following the hurricane. Our presence would keep people from evacuating and encourage others to come into the city.

Note that it says specifically, "back into New Orleans following the hurricane". Not before, following. Not because it's not safe for them, but because their "presence would keep people from evacuating".

That's what the Red Cross says they were told.

As to too dangerous to go in, you realize that the International Red Cross, of which the American Red Cross is part, goes into refugee camps in war zones in third world countries. Are you saying that the United States at peacetime is more dangerous than a war zone in the Congo or Sierra Leone, say? Because that's really saying something.

Here is my real question Why the Hell did Bush not cut short his vacation until days after this catastrophe. Am I the only person who is more angry at this than anything else. He could have easily given Fema the all clear but he didn't and so they waited before the national guard which i am sure they will be blamed for.

A couple of quotes from it:

Thursday, Dawn

About 3-5000 people still in our location. I received word that the FEMA official said that they were pulling out. Until this point, FEMA was providing no medical assistance, but they were helping to obtain transportation for these people. The transportation was inadequate, to say the least, and now they were pulling out? I approached the official and asked him whether it was true that they were pulling out and, if so, why. I was told that, yes, they were leaving, and he was unsure why. His comment, as he shrugged his shoulders, was that the decision had been made by "people above my pay grade." Rumor was that shootings in New Orleans had spurred someone higher up in FEMA to pull back. This was ridiculous. We were 1.5 miles outside of New Orleans proper. At that time, we had no security problem. We did not have a security problem until later that day when transportation slowed almost to a standstill. No more FEMA. Very little transportation. No coordination. It is Thursday -- three days post storm! There was no gunfire at our location. Only people in dire need of medical assistance and transportation. The lack of transportation for the people caused more of them to become medical patients. Dehydration and exhaustion. The FEMA official walked away leaving our crew, the local EMS crew from Austin City, and a mass of people -- patients lying on the interstate in their own urine and feces.

Late Thursday night/Friday morning (About 1 am)

(after moving from I-10 to the airport)

Why did FEMA leave us? I was told "off the record" that the official statement would be this:

'When city planners (Dr. Maestri) had discussed this doomsday scenario in New Orleans, FEMA officials had told them that the city would have to hold out for 48 hours. Then the Feds would be on the ground to provide support. The excuse for taking so long was going to be that the hurricane hit on Monday, but because of the 17th Street Canal break, which happened Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, this would be classified as an evolving disaster. Not until the lake equilibrated with the water in the city (hence, not until the city was 80 percent underwater) and the water stopped rising did FEMA consider to be on the clock. This did not happen until early Thursday morning.'

Something comes to mind involving fair trials before capital punishment. Start at the top and work down until you find someone who knew it was wrong and protested it.

...I think I'm going to be sick now.

Laughter is not a bad idea. (re Jay Leno's line: I was told FEMA's attitude in 1994 was along the lines of "Here's a check, here's water, here's food; what else can we do for you? Please, let us help you.")