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...

Katrina vs. the Tsunami

I understand they were dealt a major blow, but knock off the tsunami comparisons... 54 deaths is horrible, and I truly feel for the families, but get a grip: the tsunami took out some quarter of a million people.

Bribes to hold your newborn in Bangalore

There should be a special circle in Hell for people like this...

The Heartland

I don't know which is more retarded: that a 22 year old man would get married to a 14 year old girl (with the blessings of the parents, no less) or that the state of Nebraska would go after him for statutory rape now that they have a child, thereby creating a fatherless child in the hands of a mother who can't even drive yet.

Update: Oooh... I just finished the article... it's like watching a train wreck (he has learning disabilities, she isn't interested in college but "wants to become a nurse")

Do not mess with the Halliburton Administration

Here:

A top Army contracting official who criticized a large, noncompetitive contract with the Halliburton Company for work in Iraq was demoted Saturday for what the Army called poor job performance.

The official, Bunnatine H. Greenhouse, has worked in military procurement for 20 years and for the past several years had been the chief overseer of contracts at the Army Corps of Engineers, the agency that has managed much of the reconstruction work in Iraq.

The demotion removes her from the elite Senior Executive Service and reassigns her to a lesser job in the corps' civil works division.

Ms. Greenhouse's lawyer, Michael Kohn, called the action an "obvious reprisal" for the strong objections she raised in 2003 to a series of corps decisions involving the Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root, which has garnered more than $10 billion for work in Iraq.

Dick Cheney led Halliburton, which is based in Texas, before he became vice president.

This says it all...

Buried in a long post, Digby related this old joke and compares it to the timidity that the Democrats are currently displaying on Iraq:

Howard and Joe are facing the firing squad. The executioner comes forward to place the blindfold on them. Howard disdainfully and proudly refuses, tearing the thing from his face. Joe turns to him and pleads: "Please Howard, don't make trouble!

Such a nice summary. It is just beyond me that the Dems are not even attempting to find their collective balls on this issue given how badly the Republicans have screwed things up, how much corruption is running wild, and how low Dubya's approval ratings are... it's beyond me.

Dissent in the states...

I understand that people will try to paint their political foes in certain ways, but this is simply retarded:

Meeting briefly with reporters Monday aboard Air Force One, Trent Duffy, a White
House spokesman subbing for Scott McClellan, said that President Bush believes
that those who want the U.S. to begin to change course in Iraq do not want
America to win the overall "war on terror."

Yeah... we liberals really want to hurt America... the ridiculousness and lack of civility is appalling but also standard operating procedure for this White House.

This part was nice too:

Speaking to reporters, Duffy said that Bush "can understand that people don't
share his view that we must win the war on terror, and we cannot retreat and cut
and run from terrorists, but he just has a different view. He believes it would
be a fundamental mistake right now for us to cut and run in the face of
terrorism, because if we've learned anything, especially from the 9/11
Commission Report, it is that to continue to retreat after the Cole, after
Beirut and Somalia is to only empower terrorists and to give them more
recruiting tools as they try to identify ways to harm Americans.

I will give him Somalia... the military decision on the ground was poor and the political decision thereafter was as well, but on the rest? Retreat? Clinton launched 70 cruise missiles at terrorist camps in Sudan and Afghanistan after the Cole bombing, but perhaps you remember that the right derided the move as wagging the dog.

Dillholes...

An accurate capsule of the Dubya presidency

This sums it up:

In brief remarks outside the exclusive resort where he is vacationing, Bush
gave no indication that he would change his mind and meet with Sheehan, who lost
a son in Iraq and has emerged as a harsh critic of the war there, when he
returns to his Texas ranch Wednesday evening.

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Bush said most military families have a different viewpoint than Sheehan.
"She doesn't represent the view of a lot of families," he told reporters.

Dubya has no interest in hearing anything else that what he wants to hear... it doesn't matter if his assertion is true (note how he finely chops it to just military families), and it doesn't matter if some opinion he wont hear is in the majority... he just doesn't care.

Bat-Shit Crazy

Robertson calls for the assassination of Chavez

I can understand it... it is, after all, a very Christian thing to do.

And let's not forget that Robertson has called on more than one occasion for God to create some openings on the Supreme Court so Roe v. Wade can be overturned.

Update: Atrios points out why Robertson wants to off Chavez... but I can take that better than "I have to one-up my Daddy so I can work out my issues."

Your required Roberts reading

Some sketchy views on minorities and women... a product of privilege?

Remember: Roberts is Dubya with better grades

Utah startign a police state?

We'll see how this plays out... I would love to see some footage!