Representative Mark Foley, Republican of Florida, said FEMA should be separated from the Department of Homeland Security. "FEMA should not be hindered by a top-heavy bureaucracy when they are needed to act swiftly to save lives," Mr. Foley said.

Since FEMA's absorption into Homeland Security, its ties to state emergency programs have been weakened, and it has reduced spending on disaster preparation, critics say.

The approach to disaster management changed with the arrival of President Bush, experts in emergency management say. Mr. Bush appointed Mr. Allbaugh, who was Mr. Bush's chief of staff when he was governor of Texas.

Testifying before Congress in 2001, Mr. Allbaugh said he was concerned that federal disaster assistance had become "an oversized entitlement program" and made it clear that the new administration wanted to curtail FEMA's mission.

His goal, he said, was to "restore the predominant role of state and local response to most disasters."

While Mr. Allbaugh was FEMA director, the Bush administration, with the backing of Congress, reversed the emphasis on preventing flooding, cutting the formula for such federal grants by half.

"It just does not make good sense," said Larry A. Larson, director of the Association of State Floodplain Managers.

FEMA's budget in recent years under the Bush administration has grown, from $4.6 billion in 2002 to $5.038 billion as originally enacted this fiscal year.

But after the 2001 terrorist attacks, the agency was merged along with 21 other agencies into the newly formed Department of Homeland Security. Grants previously distributed directly to local and state governments were assigned to a separate Homeland Security office. As a result, three out of every four so-called federal preparedness grants now are spent on counterterrorism.

Representative Thompson, whose Mississippi district was damaged by Katrina, said that during the Bush administration, FEMA had lost its focus.

"FEMA went back to being treated like a political resting place for favors that were owed," he said. "The entire emphasis of it was demoted."

No doubt there will be logistical problems. There were logistical problems putting on big events in New Orleans even in the best of times. But the Republicans held their convention there in 1988, and should return 20 years later. They will go to a city that then will, no doubt, still be scarred by the catastrophe of the last week, but back on its feet, and a perfect venue for a testament to the American spirit.

KAthryn:

Four days after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, the country remains in crisis. The situation of Americans trapped by flooding grows increasingly desperate, and government resources and planning have proven woefully inadequate. There is nothing more important to the American people right now than saving lives, sheltering American citizens, and rebuilding homes.

But what are the priorities for the Bush Administration and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist? They are moving ahead with a plan to further starve federal coffers.

As we fight to stop John Roberts from being confirmed to the Supreme Court, we must also fight Sen. Frist's proposal to repeal the estate tax. In a display of particular insensitivity, he plans to call a vote as early as Tuesday!

This would shift roughly $1.5 billion per week from the federal treasury into the pockets of the heirs to the nation's biggest fortunes at a time when thousands of Americans -- many of whom are among the nation's poorest -- have lost everything to Hurricane Katrina and are looking to the government for help.

Okay these pictures have been emailed to me fifty times in the last couple days. Blogs all over the place are up in arms about them. They show a white couple with some bread and the caption says they found it. Another picture shows a black guy with a bag of something in tow. He's called a looter.

Assuming all of the assumptions people make about them are true, it does strike me as a good example of racial bias in the press.

But I'm not sure all the assumptions are true. First of all, they appear to be from two different news agencies, AFP and the AP. Last night some fellow on O'Reilly said they were both from the AP and hence were proof of racism on the part of AP. It would be bad if a single news agency had this discrepancy. But considering that AFP and AP might have different rules, you can't immediately assert that it's a racial thing. They both seem to be from Yahoo news, so perhaps Yahoo wrote the captions? I just don't know. There also might be different facts involved. I don't know what's in the giant bag the black guy is tugging along behind him. Perhaps he really did loot the grocery store for more than mere essentials? The white couple found the bread and soda "from" a local grocery store. Did they go in it?

Anyway, I don't really have a dog in this fight. It probably is an example of racial bias. But, people keep sending me the picture as if it's a sweeping indictment of the entire country and -- oddly -- the Bush administration (like that guy on O'Reilly last night) and I got fed up.

Update: Snopes got there first and better. Check it out if your interested in this. Conclusion: the racism case is hard to make.

Katrina's aftermath presents Bush with his greatest emergency since the 2001 hijacked airliner attacks, and comes as he is struggling with the lowest approval ratings of his presidency and rising discontent with the Iraq war.

On Capitol Hill, a fellow Republican, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist asked for hearings on the federal response to the hurricane.

Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican who heads the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, and Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, the panel's top Democrat, said they would begin an oversight investigation next week into what they called an ''immense failure.'' Katrina's aftermath presents Bush with his greatest emergency since the 2001 hijacked airliner attacks, and comes as he is struggling with the lowest approval ratings of his presidency and rising discontent with the Iraq war.

But one of the drill participants, Col. Michael L. Brown, then-deputy director of the Louisiana emergency preparedness department, told the Baton Rouge Advocate newspaper that, in a worst-case scenario, there would be only so much government agencies could do.

"Residents need to know they'll be on their own for several days in a situation like this," Brown, who is not related to the FEMA director, told the paper.

Haven't read much about this in the news .... but a Navy info source that I receive sent this out this morning.

Thanks to the Navy's new readiness model 28 ships were ready to get underway within 24 hours.

Bataan (a helicopter carrier) and HSV (High Speed Vessel) 2 Swift, out of Naval Station Ingleside, Texas, are off the affected coastline providing support. Four MH-53s (huge helos capable of moving 40-50 troops) and two HH-60s (capable of moving about 20 troops) off the Bataan are flying medevac and search and rescue (SAR) missions in Louisiana, and supporting the Coast Guard's 8th District. Bataan's hospital and staff has been augmented by an additional contingent from the Navy's Bureau of Medicine (BUMED), consisting of 85 personnel, including 12 physicians and 4 surgeons.

The Iwo Jima (large helo carrier) Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) is sailing from Norfolk, Va. loaded with disaster-response equipment. The USNS Arctic (T-AOE 8 - an oiler, ammunition and stores (as in refrigerated stores)) is currently off the Gulf Coast. USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7) (large helo carrier), USS Shreveport (LPD 12) (large helo capable troop transport ship), and USS Tortuga (LSD 46) (large, helo capable troop transport ship) are expected soon. A medical staff augmentation for Iwo Jima is expected to be en route tomorrow.

The hospital ship, USNS Comfort (T-AH 20), is departing Baltimore by September 3 to bring some 270 medical staff, capable of supporting 250 hospital beds, to the Gulf region. Project Hope has offered to embark additional medical personnel, and the Air Force's Surgeon General has offered to provide still further staff if needed.

USS Harry S. Truman (aircraft carrier) (CVN 75) and USS Whidbey Island (LSD 41) (same as Tortuga above) are sailing today for areas off the Gulf Coast in support to FEMA relief operations. Truman will serve as a command center and an afloat staging base, and will carry additional helicopters from Naval Air Station Jacksonville to support search and rescue efforts. Whidbey Island will bring to the region the ability to employ a movable causeway.

USS Grapple (ARS 53) (salvage ship) is currently en route in order to assist with maritime and underwater survey and salvage operations.

Military Sealift Command has transferred control of five of its ships to the Navy's Second Fleet to provide further support to relief efforts. USNS Bellatrix, Altair, Pillilau, Bob Hope, and Argol are in the Gulf of Mexico already (all capable of carrying lots of food stuffs, and supplies). USNS Arctic is also at sea in the Gulf and acting as a FEMA support ship and providing logistics services support for the other ships at sea.

Navy helicopters from Jacksonville and Mayport, Fla., are supporting relief efforts, and Navy Seabees from Port Hueneme, Jacksonville, and Norfolk are on scene or making preparations to deploy to assist in relief operations.

USNS Pollux is operating onboard dialysis equipment for the patients of a local hospital, providing diesel fuel for area hospitals' generators, and providing meals and berthing to relief workers.

When he arrived at the Astrodome about 10 p.m. Wednesday, 20-year-old Jabbar Gibson modestly confessed that he had commandeered a school bus in New Orleans, then picked up about 70 passengers before heading out for the 13-hour trek to Houston.

KANYE WEST ON NBC FUNDRAISER: 'GEORGE BUSH DOESN'T CARE ABOUT BLACK PEOPLE... They're saying black families are looting and white families are just looking for food...they're giving the (Army) permission to shoot us'... Actor Mike Myers asked people to donate... then Kanye West went on a tirade about Iraq... MORE...

What Hurricane Katrina started, Republicans are doing their best to make even worse - turning a natural calamity into a horrific national embarrassment and scandal. First, President Bush shortchanged New Orleans of the funds it needed to secure itself from flooding. Then, he drained Louisiana and surrounding states of the National Guard troops and equipment they need to impose order within their own borders. When disaster struck, Bush dawdled in Texas while thousands were without food, water and shelter. And the capper: U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert adds insult to injury this week by suggesting that rebuilding the great American city of New Orleans "doesn't make sense" ...

Set yer VCRs - I'm going to be on the BBC world news tonight I got an email earlier from the planning producer at the BBC world news asking if someone from DU could take part in a 2-3 minute interview on tonight's broadcast. Since Skinner's not here, I'm it. I'll be heading over to the studio in DC just before 8pm eastern tonight. They seem to want to talk about the suggestion that Bush's appearance in New Orleans was timed to coincide with aid reaching the Superdome.

If the (doomed) Geena Davis show "Commander-In-Chief" makes it to November sweeps, they will roll out a heavily promoted and poorly written "Hurricane" episode (probably a two-parter) ala "The West Wing" after September 11th. The hurricane will demolish Miami instead of New Orleans so the Democratic writers can feel that post-hurricane looting, murdering, and raping can happen in red states, too. The climax of the episode will focus on the fact that Geena Davis was caught crying on camera, having a Bianco/"Courage Under Fire" moment. When confronted with this fact, the nation will rally behind their President when she angrily asks her interviewer, "what would you have me do--ignore it or just play golf like a man would?"

Rich, As a degreed Mechanical Engineer (with very limited experience in hydrology, I'd be the first to admit), I was disappointed by how slow the repair process was, specifically regarding the 17th Street Canal levee. It seems to me that the attempts to re-establish the levee at the break point were misguided at best: the gap is large, the levee underneath eroding, and unstable. It seemed to me a far more obvious solution was to use the Hammond Highway bridge (a newly constructed bridge just north of the levee break) as a logicalt area to establish a cofferdam. Then, once water flow over the broken section of the levee was stopped, re-establish the levee, and then start pumping out. The bridge provides a hard point for landing supplies, is accessible from Lake Ponchartrain (esp. via barges, which could carry large volumes of materials and equipment). This could have been done relatively easily as opposed to trying to establish a new levee section in rushing water. The only disadvantage that I could see would have been that the cofferdam would then have to be removed once the original levee was reestablished, but that's a minor problem given the level of flooding that ensued during the feeble attempts to plug the levee itself. Interestingly, from the limited photos I've seen, it seems that two cranes are now on the bridge. Wonder what's next in the minds of the engineers on site?

It is not. It is - or ought to be - a disgrace and an embarrassment to Louisiana and New Orleans. I see the way Florida prepares for and responds to hurricanes; I see the way Mississippi and Alabama are dealing with this one; I've seen the Carolinas and Virginia deal with hurricanes, too. I've been in Miami and Norfolk when hurricanes hit, though not as severe as this one, and seen folks come together to support each other in the crisis. I see the outpouring of support from surrounding states and from the federal government heading to Louisiana as fast as it can. And then I see citizens of New Orleans shooting, raping, burning, and plundering while their government officials stand by helplessly....

I just read your spot-on piece about the Coming Battle Over New Orleans. Sadly, I think the New Orleans Flood has destroyed Republicans in the eyes of many poor and black people around the country. Ken Mehlman's extension of the olive branch to the NAACP is long-forgotten, the "September 10th" of racial reconciliation speeches. Whenever the GOP will try to outreach to Blacks, white and black Democratic leaders will say, "remember New Orleans!" The new battle cry of racial demagoguery will be even more effective than the Florida recount fiasco of 2000. Even though I think that the city and state (Democratic leaders of a predominately black city) stranded those innocent people at the SuperDome and Convention Center, the Republican party will be blamed for leaving poor blacks high and dry.

The only way I can see any hope is if Bush throws the whole weight of his administration toward rebuilding New Orleans into an even better city for these people who were obviously overlooked as everyone high-tailed it out of New Orleans. I don't think it'll happen and I'll be sad to see GOP efforts fail while Democrats continue string black voters along.

With a cigar-chomping general in the convoy's lead vehicle, the camouflage-green National Guard trucks rolled through muddy water up to their axles to reach the convention center, where 15,000 to 20,000 desperate and often seething refugees had taken shelter.

New Orleans Police Superintendent Eddie Compass got a hero's welcome as he rode down the street on the running board of a box truck and announced through a bullhorn to thunderous applause: "We got 30,000 people out of the Superdome and we're going to take care of you."

"We've got food and water on the way. We've got medical attention on the way. We're going to get you out of here safely. We're going to get all of you," he said.

As he came down the road, elderly people gave thanks and some nearly fainted with joy. Compass also warned that if anyone did anything disruptive, the troops would have to stop distributing the food and water and get out.

Over the past few days, police officers turned in their badges. Rescuers, law officers and medical-evacuation helicopters were shot at by storm victims. Fistfights and fires broke out at the Superdome as thousands of people waited in misery to board buses for the Houston Astrodome. Corpses lay out in the open in wheelchairs and in bedsheets. The looting continued, and the police chief said even officers are breaking into stores for food and water. "Our officers have been urinating and defecating in the basement of Harrah's Casino," Compass said. "They have been going in stores to feed themselves."

Subject: Jesse Jackson ...
... manages to keep his eyes on the prize in the midst of catastrophe:

'Jackson questioned why Bush has not named blacks to top positions in the federal response to the disaster, particularly when the majority of victims remaining stranded in New Orleans are black: "How can blacks be locked out of the leadership, and trapped in the suffering? It is that lack of sensitivity and compassion that represents a kind of incompetence."’

--The Wall Street Journal had an excellent article on the levees a day or two ago. Posted in the Corner. Also look at this.

The added trouble with the levees (or flood walls) is that the high water creates hydrostatic pressures that forces water into the soils that support the levees. With the soils saturated with water, the support for the structure of the levees is compromised.

The engineers there, not only have to stop up the gaps but keep water from percolating through the surround soils.

One way to do that is by dewatering the surrounding soils by drilling many well points and pumping the water out of the saturated ground. Another is creating coffer dams that isolate the area. Or combinations of these.

Any solution will require a lot of heavy equipment, access to the area and time.

Sure they’ll get it done, but it will be difficult and longer than politically expedient.

--Bottom line; it depends. The key is the water flow rate in the breach, and that’s kind of tough to judge, even now. Having said that, the fact that ACE can only reach the area by helicopter is not encouraging. Reason? You simply cannot “airlift” enough “fill” fast enough for that wide, that deep. A.) the flow has to be stopped, (or darned near stopped) and B.) you have to get dump trucks in there.

Once he flow stops, you can in theory get the job done by chopper, but based on how those “supersacs” are sinking down into the abyss when the choppers are dropping them, it’s going to take one hecuva lot of trips to do the job. 10,000? 50,000? Who really knows. Based solely on what I see, it’s going to take several days at least until the hole is plugged and you can turn the pumps in the city on. THEN, you’re looking @ two more weeks until the H20’s gone.

"When the tsunami hit, we saw pleas from stars, celebrities," said Sanders, who said he has friends and family affected by the horrific storm. "They reached out, reached into their pockets and gave thousands, consequently millions, to a cause. Somehow or someway, we don't see the same response, even though it's in our own backyard.

"We feel this."

"To see the city of New Orleans, a place where I am from, looking like a Third World country is hard," Ricard said. "It is not going to take one person; it is going to take a nationwide effort for this to get done."

U.S. AIRLINES PROVIDE EMERGENCY AIRLIFT FOR NEW ORLEANS EVACUEES ATA to Coordinate Unprecedented Civilian Relocation Program for Federal Government

Washington, DC, September 2, 2005 – The Department of Homeland Security, the Air Transport Association and the Department of Transportation today announced that the airline industry has launched “Operation Air Care” to provide emergency airlift to more than 25,000 New Orleans residents stranded in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

“DHS is truly grateful to the airlines for their immediate and generous contribution to help us to bring hurricane victims to safety,” said Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Jackson.

“This extraordinary civilian airlift is unprecedented in U.S. history, and is a shining example of how America can come together to help those in need,” said ATA President and CEO James C. May. “Our member airlines have willingly offered to help the federal government get the job done and we will continue these efforts until they are no longer needed.”

"We've cleared the runways and are watching the skies to make sure these humanitarian flights get in and out safely," said U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta. "From the moment Hurricane Katrina passed, the DOT has been working around the clock to put the people and equipment in place to sustain a massive airlift operation."

The plan, which was crafted late in the evening Thursday, allowed the first flight to New Orleans at 8 a.m. today. Participating airlines will provide aircrafts and service to airlift evacuees. Flights will depart from Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport to sites designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, such as Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.

Passenger carriers participating in this effort include Alaska, America West, American, ATA, Continental, Delta, Jet Blue, Northwest, Southwest, United, US Airways, and Air Canada. Cargo carriers also are providing support, including ASTAR Air Cargo, Federal Express and UPS Airlines.

This all-volunteer effort is being coordinated by the Air Transport Association and its member carriers, who are providing aircraft and crews who have volunteered their time to this incredible effort.

The Air Transport Association is the trade group representing the nation’s leading airlines. ATA members transport more than 90 percent of all passengers and cargo in the United States.

Statement issued by Randall L. O'Donnell, Ph.D., President/CEO, Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics

Thursday, Sept. 1, 2005

I am so proud of the entire staff of Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics, who all provided extraordinary effort over the past 24 hours to carry out to perfection the largest single pediatric medical transport in history, and to provide care for the 24 patients evacuated from Children's Hospital of New Orleans. I wish our entire community could have watched in awe as I did in the wee hours of the morning as ambulances from Children's Mercy, MAST, Liberty, Claycomo and perhaps others lovingly delivered these children from the downtown airport to our hospital. There were indeed tears mixed with the smiles of the children and their parents as they immediately felt like they were at home here.

I invite everyone's prayers for the children who arrived here unaccompanied, the whereabouts of their families unknown. Our psychosocial support teams and all of our staff will wrap their arms around these children, but we also will need to be prepared to address their longer-term challenges.

I know there is a tremendous amount of stress being faced by those whom I communicated with at the children's hospital in New Orleans over the past two days. I know how eagerly they grasped at us being a lifeline to them. Our prayers should be with all of their hospital staff as well for their heroic efforts and the challenges they will continue to face (many have lost their homes), as their hospital officially closed this morning.

I am so grateful for the outstanding support provided by our elected officials such as Senator Kit Bond, who took immediate action and removed all barriers for us, and Governor Matt Blunt, whose support of the Missouri Air National Guard (who are absolutely fantastic!) helping with this transport was instantaneous. Representatives Emanuel Cleaver and Dennis Moore have offered their support without question. And I'm so proud of our entire community, which has responded overwhelmingly with offers of lodging, financial support and other help for these families. I know that this is the most caring community on earth.

Hey I'm all for the loosey-goosey informal nature of blogs. But before you declare there are reports of cannibalism, you should at least try to nail that down a bit (I searched google news and there's nada. Nothing on the TV either.). This is especially true if you're going to offer sweeping condemnations of America based on these "reports." And it's particularly true when you open the floodgates of righteous self-aggrandizing as Robinson does in that post. He says no one is coming to help blacks in New Orleans. Um, what news is he watching?

Meanwhile, it is reported that Klingons have seized control of the French Quarter.

Interesting point, from a reader:

Jonah,

In addition to that note from Junkyardblog--if I recall, there was a mandatory evacuation order given. If it's so mandatory, why didn't the city react to move people? Great, so there are people with no means of transport. Like he said, get them to a street & transport them out (unless mandatory just means, "we really think you should probably leave").

Anyway, I'm not sure how to feel with the federal government's response yet, though it did seem slow. But a little help from the city/state beforehand would have gone a long way.

Keep up the great work.

The makers of Grand Theft Auto, or some similar outfit, will make a video game about the New Orleans crisis. It will be in terrible taste. It will sell very well.

Subject: Pollyanna + Apologist = Kathyn Jean Lopez

Rod, Derb, and JPod are the only ones left with any sense.

The "poor and black have been left behind" meme is now in full swing on CNN and MSNBC. I just heard Lester Holt ask Tom Delay "most of the people who've been left behind are poor and black what does that say about our country right now?" Delay rightly answered that most of the refugees bused to Houston are poor and black too.

But let's be honest about all this. Would it make sense any other way? Why the feigned surprise? I'm not saying the situation is right or good. Nothing about this situation is right or good. But for nearly a week we've been told that the poor don't have the means to leave. They don't have cars. They don't have extended social networks which can take care of them, etc etc. We've also been told the obvious fact that the majority of N.O. residents are black. And now suddenly people are shocked that the unfortunate souls left in New Orleans are poor and black? How exactly could it have worked out otherwise? Under what scenario would people expect that rich people would be crowding into the Superdome as poor people watched from relative comfort elsewhere?

Similarly, we're increasingly hearing the suggestion that order hasn't been achieved because the government cares less about poor black people. Spare me. This is such grotesque bad faith. Where is there one scintilla of evidence for those motives to be ascribed to Bush or the government in general?

There are all sorts of things to be shocked or dismayed or disappointed by, but this is rhetorical point scoring at its cheapest and most disingenuous.

A reader:

I just got back from helping out at the Astrodome. Most of the refugees look fine (energetic even) except for the ones in sick bay. A lot of those are old people who were probably sick before the hurricane. There is good order with lots of cops (some on horses). Everybody is lining up in an orderly fashion. A lot of the refugees look pretty hardened. My 25 year old daughter went with me and she said she felt a little afraid of the refugees.

Houstonians are volunteering like crazy and they are turning volunteers
away in droves. The people running the show are not real well organized
but there is so much help it does not matter. Lots and lots of supplies
are being donated.

I'm getting quite a few emails on the bus thing along these lines:

You are assuming those buses can run and have gasoline in them...........remember, they have been under water for over 3 days now??? Sheesh, people. Get your heads out of your a***s and think constructively.

Me:Speaking constructively, I think if you actually read the posts you'll discover that we were talking about using them before the flooding to evacuate people or having them ready in case of an emergency.

Now, some folks have fairly asked where the buses could have been kept. Not knowing the geography, I don't know for sure. But it seems to me if people have been talking about these levees breaking for decades, and if you know that they can only withstand a cat 3 hurricane, you might have an evacuation plan at the ready which calls for moving vehicles to high ground or putting them in parking structures above the likely flood level or something like that. Again, as I said, Jeb Bush did this sort of thing routinely in Florida. Has there been any evidence that local authorities acted on anything like a serious emergency plan? In other words, maybe some other buses were set aside and I simply haven't heard about it?

Next time, maybe pull over, offer help, and discuss frankly how wonderful it must feel that fellow Americans will pull over to help strangers, and how awful it is that the Bu$h (mis)Administration has left thousands to suffer and die in America. Keep talking loudly and hit as many points as you can. Either the Bu$hBot will learn something, or the Bu$hBot can tell you to leave and refuse your help. Either way, you win and have done the right thing.

I understand, demgurl.

Completely and totally.

The last few days have been REALLY difficult for me at work. I have been full of the most seething, white hot rage at these people-- the ones who were proclaiming their support for Bush before the election. Now they're all "Oh I sent so much to the Red Cross."

I feel like snapping "It's the LEAST you could fu[**]ing do, you selfish bastard. It's because of you and your selfishness that this happened."

One of them asked me this morning was I ok...I looked upset. I had just heard New Orleans' mayor on Air America in the car. I told her I was very upset about New Orleans and tried to turn around so my tears wouldn't show.

"Oh I know..." she began, "but they're getting relief in there today...."

And honestly, I turned around with HATE in my eyes, and through clenched teeth, said "That's NOT what I was upset about." We gazed at each other, and she knew EXACTLY what I meant.

But I've been cautioned before about politics. So I bit my tongue until it bled and left it at that.

Don't feel bad. We're liberals, but we're not stupid. I'm having a really bad problem with this too.

Next time, stop to help, do everything right, be the bigger person, and then when you're ready to drive off say, "You want might be intersted to know that you were just helped by a LIBERAL. It's what we DO. HELP people."

Try not to kick yourself too much. we're not perfect.

12:58 P.M. - WASHINGTON (AP): Rep. John Sweeney, R-N.Y., urged President Bush to appoint former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani or two former military officials to run the ground response in the Gulf Coast, saying local authorities are not up to the task. Sweeney suggested Giuliani or retired generals Colin Powell and Tommy Franks could take charge of the much-criticized hurricane relief efforts

I did not stop to help a [Bush] supporter today.

I had no idea how deeply my hate for that man ran. My lack of an interaction, with a * supporter is still haunting me a couple of hours later.

I was on my home and was on the ramp getting off the highway. I saw a mini-van on the side of the road. There was a lady standing next to the van and in her arms she held her child. I can only assume her mini-van had broken down. I don't know, perhaps with so many gad stations being out of gas, she had also run out. I slowed down and started to pull over to offer her a ride. At the very last second I noticed a "W" sticker on the back of her vehicle and I sped up and drove off.

I feel really bad as a human being. That child is not responsible for their parent's belief system. They are innocent and do not deserve to be out in the heat. (It is warm but not so bad that they would even break a sweat) I try not to punish people for what they believe.

On the other hand, so many hateful thoughts went through my head. I wondered how a person could see what was going on in NO and still have one of those awful stickers on their car. How could they support an awful excuse for a human being that has let our country down and is letting Americans die after they have made it through the storm? How can someone be so blind and so stupid?

I thought that if she loves * so much, maybe he would come along and help her the same way he is rescuing all of those poor people in the weather stricken part of our country. Let's see what her hero can do for her.

I never did go back. I was so upset with that sticker and with the fact that someone would support an idiot who is so clearly running our country into the ground.

So why am I writing this? It is not to boast, I really feel bad about passing this child and not picking up their mother. Perhaps it is for a catharsis of sorts? That would be an educated guess. I suppose it is because I feel conflicted and I am writing this to try and sort through what I am feeling. There are two emotional sides, for me, on this incident and neither seems completely right or wrong to me. Even writing this, I am still not able to work through what happened. I feel like I am floating between right and wrong and am unable to grab either side.

Thanks for listening.

Interesting email, from my new Tank-truck guy:

Mr. Goldberg: I'm sick and tired of the media's treatment of the Katrina relief efforts. I run a trade association of tank truck carriers trying to assist in the relief efforts by transporting food and potable water. I'm in regular contact with many of the companies, and here are some "on the ground" facts:

1) Large trucks (80,000 lbs. gross weight) almost always have to use the Interstates. For trucks attempting to come in from outside the area, most of those roads (approaching the disaster area) are either closed or have bridges out. The so-called secondary roads may be somewhat passable, but their bridges (over rivers and streams) are not built to sustain such loads. Simply stated, you can't get there from here.

2) Trucks domicled in those areas (because that's where the companies traditionally serve customers) are still underwater, thus the equipment is not accessible;

3) Nobody in their right mind is going to take loads of gasoline and fuel oil into a city controlled by unfriendly folks carrying automatic weapons. A tank truck loaded with 8,000 gallons of gasoline can produce a very impressive fire;

4) Those local trucking companies can't contact their drivers. There's no power, thus (even) cellular is unavailable, and many of the drivers homes (in places like Kenner, Slidel, Metarie, etc) have been destroyed and families dispersed. I have one member with about 120 drivers and mechanics in that immediate area. To date, management has been able to contact 12. Those in the National Guard have been mobilized and are not available to drive.

5) Pumps -- needed to load the vehicles -- don't work because there's no power;

Finally, it's very interesting to see the media not-so-subtly inferred racism. NO's neighboring communities, noted above, and others are mostly composed of middle-class white neighborhoods. They too were flooded with the same level of devastation and face the same food/water shortages. So far, they've been "off camera". I'm genuinely puzzled by this.

If only George Bush could join the Governor in a photo-op "cry-a-thon" all of these problems would go away.

NEW YORK (Dow Jones/AP) _ The Oreck vacuum cleaner company expects to reopen its New Orleans-area plant within the ten days as it temporarily relocates its headquarters to Dallas.

Family-run Oreck Corporation is a big part of the Gulf Coast business fabric with headquarters on the shores of the Mississippi and a big factory in nearby Long Beach, Mississippi.

Its headquarters is expected to be inaccessible for weeks, so the company is setting up a home office for now in Dallas and is trucking in temporary housing for staff.

Shelter is also being provided for workers at the company's Long Beach factory, which appears to have escaped major damage.

The company has also resumed processing orders after shifting its call center to Denver and determining that most of its inventory was undamaged.

Oreck employs about a thousand people.

Stratfor is a little overblown. The area across Lake Ponchatrain appears not to have suffered anywhere near the level of damage as south of the Lake, (basically a normal type hurricane) and already is home to much of the metro population (St. Tammany is the fastest growing part of LA). Baton Rouge is basically undamaged, swollen with refugees, and only 75 miles up an Interstate. The areas across the Mississippi, on into Cajun country, didn’t sustain catastrophic damage.

Far from optimal conditions for sure, but a workforce for the POSL will be able to find accommodations, albeit with long commutes.

The Salvation Army is running out of food and supplies to help survivors of Hurricane Katrina, and fears "donor fatigue" could put relief efforts at risk, a spokesman for the U.S. aid agency said on Friday.

Re that picture I linked to earlier, lots of folks are annoyed.

From one reader:

As far as I can tell, the vast majority of the physical suffering in New Orleans is of those who remained in the city notwithstanding what I understand to have been a mandatory evacuation order. Now, some stayed on purpose - that's one thing. But I'm willing to bet that the majority of those who stayed stayed because they had no way to get out of New Orleans - they didn't have a car or couldn't afford to drive it anywhere far enough out of town. (Also, although this isn't entirely predictable from a planning standpoint, poor people don't have money at the end of the month.)

So why didn't New Orleans (or any city) have a plan to use whatever transportation facilities (like, uh, buses) it had available to transport those who couldn't get out of town but who wanted to? That's something that can't be discounted as "armchair quarterbacking" or under the "we had no idea it would be this bad" excuse. If you are going to tell people to evacuate a place, you need to help those who can't evacuate get the hell out - and unlike the post-hurricane issues, the required resources are almost entirely predictable ahead of time - every city knows how many cars it has, how many residents are on welfare, etc.

Imagine how different the picture would be today if the only ones still in N.O. were those who had chosen to ride out the storm.

and...

Jonah:

I count 205 busses. When I was a kid, I remember that school busses could carry 66 people. If that is still the case, 13,530 people could be carried to safety in ONE trip using only the busses shown in that picture.

One trip.

Joe

Rich, that's a sobering analysis from Stratfor. It reminds me that I learned last night that nearly half of all the stored zinc in the world is in New Orleans right now.

New Orleans: A Geopolitical Prize

By George Friedman
...
During the Cold War, a macabre topic of discussion among bored graduate students who studied such things was this: If the Soviets could destroy one city with a large nuclear device, which would it be? The usual answers were Washington or New York. For me, the answer was simple: New Orleans. If the Mississippi River was shut to traffic, then the foundations of the economy would be shattered. The industrial minerals needed in the factories wouldn't come in, and the agricultural wealth wouldn't flow out. Alternative routes really weren't available. The Germans knew it too: A U-boat campaign occurred near the mouth of the Mississippi during World War II. Both the Germans and Stratfor have stood with Andy Jackson: New Orleans was the prize.

Last Sunday, nature took out New Orleans almost as surely as a nuclear strike. Hurricane Katrina's geopolitical effect was not, in many ways, distinguishable from a mushroom cloud. The key exit from North America was closed. The petrochemical industry, which has become an added value to the region since Jackson's days, was at risk. The navigability of the Mississippi south of New Orleans was a question mark. New Orleans as a city and as a port complex had ceased to exist, and it was not clear that it could recover.

The Ports of South Louisiana and New Orleans, which run north and south of the city, are as important today as at any point during the history of the republic. On its own merit, POSL is the largest port in the United States by tonnage and the fifth-largest in the world. It exports more than 52 million tons a year, of which more than half are agricultural products -- corn, soybeans and so on. A large proportion of U.S. agriculture flows out of the port. Almost as much cargo, nearly 17 million tons, comes in through the port -- including not only crude oil, but chemicals and fertilizers, coal, concrete and so on….

The oil fields, pipelines and ports required a skilled workforce in order to operate. That workforce requires homes. They require stores to buy food and other supplies. Hospitals and doctors. Schools for their children. In other words, in order to operate the facilities critical to the United States, you need a workforce to do it -- and that workforce is gone. Unlike in other disasters, that workforce cannot return to the region because they have no place to live. New Orleans is gone, and the metropolitan area surrounding New Orleans is either gone or so badly damaged that it will not be inhabitable for a long time….

The displacement of population is the crisis that New Orleans faces. It is also a national crisis, because the largest port in the United States cannot function without a city around it. The physical and business processes of a port cannot occur in a ghost town, and right now, that is what New Orleans is. It is not about the facilities, and it is not about the oil. It is about the loss of a city's population and the paralysis of the largest port in the United States….

At the United Nations, the official spokesman for Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the U.S. was the country best prepared in the world to deal with such a natural disaster.

But he added that the sheer size of the catastrophe meant outside help might be useful.

"The American people, who have always been the most generous in responding to disasters in other parts of the world, have now themselves suffered a grievous blow," he said.

Lots and lots of email along these lines:

Jonah -

I can't believe that you posted your "Navy Commander" reader's comments without comment. A few of his assertions defy commonsense.

"Yes, things went wrong but, believe it or not, many more things went right. "

What things? What single thing on a local level went right? The decision to evacuate the city? It was a day late. The ability to evacuate those who had no means to do so themselves? No existent. The ability to maintain control of looting? Nope.

"The First Responders moved in and did their job."

They did? By what measure? What discernible effect did the job of the first responders (I assume he means the local authorities) have on the current situation? For instance, would it be safe right now to drop in food and water to the convention center, with no stabilizing federal force pre-positioned to control the crowd? If not why not? And whose fault would that be?

The fact is that the the scene on the ground is a total and complete failure of the local and state authorities having any foresight and ability to protect and defend their own constituents. The fact that the federal government has been caught flat-footed by the local authorities complete inability to maintain any kind of order is not that surprising. I don't think anybody could have anticipated the utter chaos the local authorities are not only complicit in, but completely responsible for. The failure here is on a local level, plain and simple. Simply put, it is not unreasonable for the federal goverment to expect the locals to hold down the fort for a few days until the cavalry can arrive.

And of course the federal cavalry will arrive. And of course, I and all my friends in all 50 states will be paying for the bail out and the clean up and the rebuilding. Something that could have been prevented if the local planners in a city built several feet below sea level had had the incredible forsight required to prevent or at the very least prepare for the aftermath of a massive flood. Gosh, who could possibly have foretold the possibility of a hurricane that causes massive flooding in N.O.? I mean, what are the chances?

From a reader:

Yesterday on WAFB 9 Baton Rouge, covering New Orleans a news anchor said: "Don't believe any rumors unless you hear them from us".