Anatomy of a Disaster

Kevin Drum educates here

More here, and what the dillholes in charge thought of their efforts here

FEMA to Katrina victims: Do as we say, not as we do

Josh covers it here...

One might note as an aside that the administration is putting a lot of weight on the claim that it simply wasn't foreseeable how bad things were going to be, even though people knew there was going to be a major storm. And yet a similar lack of foresight apparently leaves many of the victims with primary responsibility for their own deaths.

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But more specifically, and going back to what I said at the beginning, I'm pretty sure there was publicly available information on hand (from the Mayor, I think) before the storm even hit that a substantial minority of the population had not left the city. Whatever their moral culpability may be in Borwn's eyes, he knew those people were there. And yet, as I think we'll see over the course of the day, there's a concerted effort to say these facts were not known or were perhaps unknowable.

Watch for the rewriting of the history and more efforts to blame the disaster on its victims.

Scottie to Katrina victims: We obviously did a good job

Geez...

The White House on Thursday made available top Corps officials to assure reporters that cuts to the agency's budget did not cause the Katrina disaster. Even though the administration has chronically cut back on the Corps' own requests for funding -- including two key New Orleans-area projects -- White House officials trumpeted the administration's support for the Corps.

"Flood control has been a priority of this administration from Day One," McClellan said.

See, we support things by taking vital dollars away from it, but our empty words more than make up the difference... don't you see?!?!

Pleading ignorance

This sounds an awful lot like Condi's "Nobody ever thought someone could fly a plane into the WTC" quote... I mean, come on...

Where are the troops?

Seriously... CNN is down there at the Convention Center, which is rapidly becoming a symbol of this horrid tragedy, and yet... nothing.

Where is the National Guard? Where are the Blackhawks? Where is the relief effort?

When will someone start to ask if the slow response is due to all the troops being in Iraq?

It is fine to hold your nose at his speech, but damn... how about a little more on substantive issues? People are in seriously awful shape down there...

Gas Rationing at UNC

And so it begins:

FORMAL NOTICE: Fuel Restrictions at UNC Service Stations

To meet the Governor’s directive to suspend all non-essential state government traffic, the UNC at Chapel Hill Service Stations has begun restricting the issuance of fuel to essential service vehicles only.

Fuel transactions for essential state vehicles will be limited to 10 gallons per week to ensure that all essential vehicles have an opportunity to obtain fuel. Essential vehicles are currently defined as law enforcement vehicles, emergency response vehicles and vehicles that provide critical maintenance services to the campus.

No fuel will be issued to non-essential vehicles. Vehicles that serve an administrative role are considered non-essential.

Additionally, the Carolina Motor Fleet operation has been suspended for the foreseeable future. Motor Fleet vehicles will no longer be issued for travel until fuel supplies have stabilized. Customers are encouraged to continue reserving vehicles for future use, but no assurances can be given that reserved vehicles will be available on the requested date until the fuel supply situation stabilizes.

We recognize that this may cause some level of disruption in your planned activities and regret the necessity to take this action. But without any assurances that fuel supplies will resume in the near future, it is critical that the University retain sufficient fuel capacity to meet emergency and life-safety needs. Please be patient as the region struggles to resume normal operations. We will keep you informed as the situation
changes.

Can't say I am surprised... UNC and the other universities were already being cut to the bone at the legislature... and North Carolina is still taxing cigarettes at 5 cents a pack (lowest in the nation)

Update: Damn... shoulda known Atrios would get there first...

W: No Price Gouging

Here.

You know... *wink wink* *knudge knudge* say no more...