Year: 2005

Moran has compiled a time-line that does its utmost to be fair to the federal authorities. I linked to it earlier, but here it is again. Alas, much of what he says the feds were doing is largely reports of what they said they were doing, including numbers of troops being deployed and so forth (troops that in many cases simply didn’t show up). He also omits some of the worst Bush gaffes, and any account, as he concedes, of what wasn’t done. If you want to get the president off the hook and put all the blame on the locals, Moran’s time-line is your best bet. I still don’t think it does the trick. Neither, by the way, does Moran. His bottom line is that everyone is to blame, but he is curiously silent about the president. Here’s his conclusion:

If I may be allowed a personal opinion?

This has been a clusterfuck from the get go on all levels and with a few unbelievably heroic exceptions – mostly the LA Fish and Wildlife employees who were out in boats rescuing people almost before the storm passed and our selfless military who performed with their usual spectacular competence and courage. I am convinced that any Commission or Congressional investigation – if even slightly impartial – will find enough stupidity, incompetence, panic, blame shifting, lying, and bureaucratic ass covering to sate the appetite for name calling and blame assigning of even the most partisan among us.

This was a failure of leadership and competence. But it was also a failure of will. And for that, you need look no farther than the mirror in your bathroom, dearest readers. We elected this crew. We elected the Congresses over the past 25 years – Democratic and Republican – that failed to do the things necessary to make New Orleans safer.

Amen to that. I have no doubt that Blanco was far too dilatory and Nagin less than skilfull when it counted. They take their fair share of the responsibility. But you know what? Blanco and Nagin weren’t elected as commanders-in-chief. The fundamental reason George W. Bush was re-elected was his commitment to national security and a government able to deal with post-9/11 real crises and calamities. That was his promise. And when the first real post 9/11 test came, he flunked it.

FEMA is trying to censor the reality in New Orleans, under the guise of “respect” for the dead. Money quote:

[O]n Tuesday, FEMA refused to take reporters and photographers along on boats seeking victims in flooded areas, saying they would take up valuable space need in the recovery effort and asked them not to take pictures of the dead. In an e-mail explaining the decision, a FEMA spokeswoman wrote: “The recovery of victims is being treated with dignity and the utmost respect and we have requested that no photographs of the deceased by made by the media.”

The press should ignore those requests, get boats themselves and show the world what has actually happened. (Hey, much of the media was ahead of FEMA during the worst of it. Why not again now?) That goes for any intrepid bloggers with camera-phones or anyone else who can slip through the censorship net. If necessary, faces can be blurred to protect the dignity of the dead. But it matters that we see the full consequences of government delinquency. That’s what the press is for. Ignore FEMA. Photobloggers, here’s an opportunity for important and necessary work.

Mark Shea, sinister Ratzingerian, tries to parse Bush’s words of praise for Michael Brown.

Josh Marshall adds another.

See if you can tell the difference. My favorite:

Throughout the Gulf Coast, Caucasian suburbanites attempting to gather food and drink in the shattered wreckage of shopping districts have reported seeing African-Americans “looting snacks and beer from damaged businesses.” “I was in the abandoned Wal-Mart gathering an air mattress so I could float out the potato chips, beef jerky, and Budweiser I’d managed to find,” said white survivor Lars Wrightson, who had carefully selected foodstuffs whose salt and alcohol content provide protection against contamination. “Then I look up, and I see a whole family of [African-Americans] going straight for the booze. Hell, you could see they had already looted a fortune in diapers.”

Take it away, Sean Hannity.

The Bull Moose calls it like it is.

A helpful and damning chronology of Katrina and local and federal responses. All the facts in it have links. I haven’t had time to examine every single detail, and the website is a left-wing one, but it looks accurate to me. Update: Here’s another time-line, compiled by a right-wing website. I link. You decide.

Rick Santorum adds his two cents: “I mean, you have people who don’t heed those warnings and then put people at risk as a result of not heeding those warnings. There may be a need to look at tougher penalties on those who decide to ride it out and understand that there are consequences to not leaving.” I’m not making this up. Maybe for all the dead people, their grieving families can pay a fine or something. You can watch him blame the victims here.

Louisiana’s Homeland Security department won’t let them into New Orleans. Of course, the Bush team wouldn’t let them into parts of Abu Ghraib as well. A reminder: my criticism of the feds is not meant to imply that the local authorities performed well. They performed pretty badly, especially in not ordering mandatory evacuations earlier. But from August 27 on, the president had full authority to act. He failed. Thousands of Americans are dead – under horrible conditions – as a result. That would be a national disaster before 9/11. After 9/11, it’s criminal negligence.

The details are almost indescribable:

“Arkansas National Guardsman Mikel Brooks stepped through the food service entrance of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center Monday, flipped on the light at the end of his machine gun, and started pointing out bodies. “Don’t step in that blood – it’s contaminated,” he said. “That one with his arm sticking up in the air, he’s an old man.”
Then he shined the light on the smaller human figure under the white sheet next to the elderly man.
“That’s a kid,” he said. “There’s another one in the freezer, a 7-year-old with her throat cut.”
He moved on, walking quickly through the darkness, pulling his camouflage shirt to his face to screen out the overwhelming odor.
“There’s an old woman,” he said, pointing to a wheelchair covered by a sheet. “I escorted her in myself. And that old man got bludgeoned to death,” he said of the body lying on the floor next to the wheelchair.

Note that these people were not killed by the force of a hurricane, but by the lack of response to it. (Hat tip: Jeff.)