The Dish

Tell me: did the Bush administration need permission from governor Blanco to get orders to the U.S.S. Bataan to help and rescue survivors? Money quote:

The USS Bataan, a 844-foot ship designed to dispatch Marines in amphibious assaults, has helicopters, doctors, hospital beds, food and water. It also can make its own water, up to 100,000 gallons a day. And it just happened to be in the Gulf of Mexico when Katrina came roaring ashore. The Bataan rode out the storm and then followed it toward shore, awaiting relief orders. Helicopter pilots flying from its deck were some of the first to begin plucking stranded New Orleans residents. But now the Bataan’s hospital facilities, including six operating rooms and beds for 600 patients, are empty.

“Could we do more?” said Capt. Nora Tyson, commander of the Bataan. “Sure. I’ve got sailors who could be on the beach plucking through garbage or distributing water and food and stuff. But I can’t force myself on people. We’re doing everything we can to contribute right now, and we’re ready. If someone says you need to take on people, we’re ready. If they say hospitals on the beach can’t handle it … if they need to send the overflow out here, we’re ready. We’ve got lots of room.”

No coordination, so far as I can see.

When the Weekly Standard is publishing quotes like this:

In the parking lot outside the hangar sits George Lainart, a police officer from Georgia, who has led a flotilla of nine airboats over land to try to pitch in with the rescue. But his crew has been on the bench for two days, waiting for FEMA to assign them a mission. After making serial inquiries, Lainart is climbing out of his skin, and I later find out that his team circumvented FEMA altogether, got down to New Orleans, and stayed busy for five days straight. Though he shredded his hull by running over asphalt, cars, fire hydrants, and other debris, his crew saved nearly 800 people.

“FEMA was holding up everything, they didn’t have a clue,” complains Lainart. “They were an absolute roadblock, nobody was getting anywhere with those idiots. Everybody just started doing their own missions.” While opinions on the ground differ wildly as to who deserves the most generous serving of blame pie among George W. Bush, Louisiana’s governor, and New Orleans’ mayor, everyone I speak with agrees that FEMA officials should spend their afterlives in the hottest part of Hell without any water breaks.

Just remember: Michael Brown is still nominally the head of FEMA.

JPod sees no reason to broadcast images of the dead. Why not? My view has been that 9/11 should not have been censored, the beheading of Nick Berg should not have been censored, Abu Ghraib should not have been censored and the Katrina aftermath should not be censored. By that I mean self-censorship by wimpish media or actual censorship, as in Abu Ghraib and attempted in New Orleans, by the Bush administration. We are in a war. We need to see the evidence of the enemy’s barbarism, and our leadership’s incompetence and detention policies. What is Instapundit’s position on all these cases? I can’t tell from this.

The mayor of Dallas is useless as well, it seems:

In Houston, local officials complained that FEMA’s computer system kept crashing. In Ocean Springs, Miss., officials started turning people away from a FEMA disaster recovery center three hours before closing time, saying they were overwhelmed. “There is so much chaos and dysfunction going on with the federal government that Dallas can’t wait any longer for federal help,” said Mayor Laura Miller of Dallas.

Just another Blue State Bush-hater, right?

THE TWO CHENEYS: Even in a disaster, he spins:

In his first tour of the damage, Cheney offered an upbeat assessment of what he called the “very impressive” current response efforts. “I think the progress we’re making is significant,” he said.

Meanwhile, back on planet earth:

A Republican with close ties to the White House, also speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Mr. Bush had made clear that he wanted a change, a view reinforced by Vice President Dick Cheney’s fact-finding trip to Mississippi and Louisiana on Thursday. Mr. Cheney, the Republican said, came back with a progress report that was critical of Mr. Brown’s management.

Memo to the public: this guy will tell you anything.

I never knew that the late chief justice was once hooked on a prescription narcotic for several years. Jack Shafer reminds us – and of the double standard when it comes to prosecuting drug use.

Lashawn Barber is a “rising star” of the conservative blogosphere, according to Hugh Hewitt. The Powerline guys are “big fans.” Today, Lashawn responds to a story in the Boston Globe where two gay activists say they intend to compile an online list of all those who have signed the petition to remove all legal protections from gay couples in Massachusetts. The activists want to make sure that gay people know which of their friends and neighbors want to remove their rights to form a legal family. Seems like an aggressive but reasonable tactic to me. The information is public; it’s an opportunity for people who favor gay equality to identify and persuade people who don’t, or simply to avoid businesses that favor discrimination, and so on. The first person to be engaged in this way described the activists as “gracious”. Barber has a different idea for a response:

What do all these rabid activists plan to do with the information? Mail letters? Call and harass people who signed the petition? Show up on their doorsteps? There are laws against trespassing, and the last time I checked, it was legal to own a gun in Massachusetts.

Here’s the question: why not mail letters trying to persuade people out of their position? Why not try and persuade people who disagree with you? Besides, wouldn’t you be proud to have signed a petition that bars gay marriage, civil unions, domestic partnerships and the like, if that’s your position? Why wouldn’t you be eager for a dialogue? Why is your first thought about gay activists coming to your door is that you’d be prepared to shoot them? Maybe I don’t want to know the answer to that last question.

“I graduated from Tulane University School of Law in 1987. One of the fondest memories of my time in New Orleans was going to Bennie’s Bar every Thursday night to see Charmaine Neville perform. Bennie’s was a converted shotgun house with a bar in the front entrance that only served Dixie Longnecks for $1 and Bud Longnecks for $1.50. The stage was in the back and there were no chairs. Bennie’s had a $2 cover charge to see great New Orleans rhythm and blues artists like Ms. Neville. The place was always packed. There was no place on the planet like it.

Charmaine Neville was a crowd favorite. She would sing for hours, and always involved the audience. Every night she would perform “hit the road Jack.” She would pull some drunk schnook out of the crowd to play the part of Jack. Charmaine would then tell off the no-good fellow, much to the audience’s amusement. On more than one occasion I got to be Jack. I would ham it up and get on my knees and beg her to take me back only to have her boot me off the stage.

Bennie’s was one of those “only in New Orleans” places, where you didn’t need to have a lot of money to have a good time. A good-natured fun-loving spirit flowed as freely as the music and drink. Charmaine Neville was so much a part of that spirit. You can understand why should couldn’t leave and had to stay and help.

It is heartbreaking to not only hear her story but to watch it on video. Every day my thoughts and feelings are flooded with anger and saddness. America can’t let this great city down again. We need to rebuild New Orleans and restore its charm and history and make it better than ever.” Amen to that. This wasn’t just any city. This was New Orleans. Last night in Ptown, they organized a benefit for the Red Cross. Every drag queen did an act, hosted by the funniest post-drag drag artist I’ve ever seen, Dina Martina. The mood was boozy, brash, boisterous, sad. And all of that fit the city we were still mourning. It will come back. So will America – and a functioning government.

Brown has gone. But he wasn’t quite “fired.” He was “reassigned.” Money quote:

Less than an hour before Brown’s removal came to light, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Brown had not resigned and the president had not asked for his resignation. McClellan did not directly answer a question about whether the president had full confidence in Brown. “We appreciate all those who are working round the clock, and that’s the way I would answer it,” he said.

Still: great news. Thanks to everyone in the blogosphere who helped raise the cry for someone competent to run the federal response to a catastrophe. You helped keep the pressure up. And it worked.

“For the last week the federal government and its state and local counterparts have consistently been behind the curve. The American people overwhelmingly know that the current situation is totally unacceptable,” and for that reason, “it is a mistake to get trapped into defending the systems and processes which clearly failed.” – Newt Gingrich, getting it.

Remember the hanging and beating of an Afghan prisoner at Bagram, while his knees were pummeled to a pulp until he died? The second soldier implicated has just been acquitted. The bottom line in the AP story is the following: “No one has been charged with the detainee’s death.” As one of the other soldiers said in a previous investigation: “I just don’t understand how, if we were given training to do this, you can say that we were wrong and should have known better.” The shame deepens. They’re not even scape-goating any more. No one is accountable for the U.S. military torturing someone to death. And, yes, the victim was hooded at the time he was beaten. It’s the American way now.