Digby speaks to what I've been so angry about: that people weren't allowed in to help, and the people in New Orleans weren't allowed to just walk out.:

I think we can all understand the overwhelming nature of this disaster. And there should have been more adequate planning and a better response, no doubt about it. But the decision to deny immediate aid to people in the city is the worst decision of all. Read that story. These tourists were treated like shit by the authorities everywhere they went, just like the locals. Whoever made the decision to deny those people relief and then deny them the ability to leave when they tried to save themselves has blood on his or her hands.

Indeed.

I wonder if our 'conservative' friends would accept an eyewitness report from some nice, middle-class Britons about their experiences in-- and getting out of-- New Orleans:

Mr Scott said: "The American people were fantastic, they couldn't do enough for us. I wish I could say the same for the American authorities.

"We had 72 Army ration packs for 40 people for five days.

"We had to break into all the vending machines in the hotel and we got all the snacks out of those.

"I have nothing but contempt for the American authorities. The only person who seems to be trying to do anything is the Mayor of New Orleans and that man is banging his head against a brick wall."

Such strident anti-Americanism!

The leavings of Death's rich harvest in the wake of Katrina have not been counted, cannot be counted until the water has subsided and every single room in every single structure has been individually searched.

How many survived the storm yet died for want of rescue? For want of water, or food?

Now, no doubt in the name of respect for the dead, we will not be allowed to see them.

Mamie Till would have understood.

By way of The News Blog, a first person account of life in New Orleans immediately after the hurricane. The most horrifying thing is the story of the Gretna sheriff's department:

As we approached the bridge, armed Gretna sheriffs formed a line across the foot of the bridge. Before we were close enough to speak, they began firing their weapons over our heads. This sent the crowd fleeing in various directions. As the crowd scattered and dissipated, a few of us inched forward and managed to engage some of the sheriffs in conversation. We told them of our conversation with the police commander and of the commander's assurances. The sheriffs informed us there were no buses waiting. The commander had lied to us to get us to move.

We questioned why we couldn't cross the bridge anyway, especially as there was little traffic on the 6-lane highway. They responded that the West Bank was not going to become New Orleans and there would be no Superdomes in their City. These were code words for if you are poor and black, you are not crossing the Mississippi River and you were not getting out of New Orleans.

And then it gets yet worse:

Unfortunately, our sinking feeling (along with the sinking City) was correct. Just as dusk set in, a Gretna Sheriff showed up, jumped out of his patrol vehicle, aimed his gun at our faces, screaming, "Get off the fucking freeway". A helicopter arrived and used the wind from its blades to blow away our flimsy structures. As we retreated, the sheriff loaded up his truck with our food and water.

The federal government's actions regarding Hurricane Katrina has been non-feasance amounting to malfeasance.

The scale of continuing incompetence here is astounding. It isn't just that FEMA failed in the intial rush, people might forgive that, but that FEMA is like a freaking hemaroid, blocking help to this day. They lied to the American people, which is one thing. But when the American people came to help, even Wal Mart, they were blocked by FEMA.

Via the incomparable Shakespeare's Sister (who, I'm sure, is not as old as her name sounds) one more piece of evidence that the Regime is either incompetent, evil, or perhaps both:

1000 of Louisiana's citizens responded to the public's pleas for help. They were prevented from helping by Dwight Landreneau's agency, the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries which had been taken over by FEMA.

Not only is this regime doing damned little to help the people of New Orleans-- they're actively preventing private citizens from helping.

We are so fucked.

The more I read, the more astonished I get. I found this email reference over on The News Blog in a comments thread, apparently written by someone in Gretna (a suburb of New Orleans):

We have set up a very slick compund/ base camp for Gretna Police dept. Gnenerators/ ac, tents, bathrooms, you name it. It's a block away from our warehouse/ compound. We are very fortunate to be a part of that team (Gretna) They were light years ahead of preparing for the storm and it shows. The force is tired and stressed b/c of the threat of all the New Orleans cast aways attempting to come over the bridge into Grtetna. They have a round the clock police line. They are armed with riot guns and machine guns. [emphasis mine]

Somehow, it makes a horrible kind of sense.

A Serb/Croat/Bosnian kind of sense.

God help us all.

Filed under "Now WTF?":

A friend on a lawyer listserve sent me this story. This kid is definitely getting a pro bono lawyer. He found an abandoned bus in New Orleans, packed it with survivors, and drove it to the Astrodome. The reaction of the officials? They're going to charge him with theft. Unbelievable.

Now ain't that just some shit?

This kid takes an abandoned bus and evacuates a lot of people to Houston.

The reporters all characterize it as "theft." Somehow, I think if the refugees had been white, they would have called it "commandeered" and lauded him as a hero.

Its almost enough to make a man paranoid.

Filed under "WTF?"

U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla) has urged President Bush to fire Michael Brown as undersecretary of the Homeland Security Department in charge of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Wexler cited reports in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that FEMA under Brown's management inappropriately gave away $30 million in disaster relief funds to people in the Miami, Florida, area even though they were not affected by Hurricane Frances, which made landfall more than 100 miles away.

I've read elsewhere that this guy is an incompetent twit of the first order.

Thus, given the proclivities of the Regime, I expect Michael Brown to get the Medal of Freedom any day now.

Mrs. B is on a tear lately. She's actually writing to our senators and our congressman, giving them hell over the Bushite Regime's failure of leadership in the Gulf Coast.

That's not something she's generally moved to do; I've always been the ranter of the family. Pretty damn good at it, I might say... but I won't.

Me, I'm torn between mute rage and black despair.

dead bodies lining the streets... in America...

I can't for the life of me understand the people that I know who support the Regime. The obvious incompetence of this merry band of looters... but then, perhaps their competencies lie elsewhere.

Its a dead nuts certainty that the Bush Regime are masters of the lie and the smear. They're world class hucksters. And they behave like gangsters.

Loyalty to George Bush is the most prized talent of his entire organization (I can't for the life of me refer to them as an administration anymore).

dead bodies lining the streets... in America...

Four days in the Superdome with no food and no water.

In America.

I've been staying away from the news, lately. Hasn't hurt that I've been out of town for a couple of days; and the only time I've been near a live TV has been passing through hotel lobbies, but now that I'm home I still just don't want to watch.

Got an email from a dear friend who lives in- or at least, lived in New Orleans. She reports that there's been a shark sighting in in the flood waters around the Landmark Hotel in the Metairie area.

A fucking SHARK?!!

Jumpin' Jeebus on a pogo stick. Not enough to have sewage, filth, bodies both animal and human-- and now you have to look out for a fucking shark.

Meanwhile, as our fellow citizens suffer and die, depressing news has reached Fat Castle: I've heard that the United States Government has refused help from Russia, Canada, Venezuela, and a lot of other countries. We'll get back to that sometime soon.