From their website: * Acess to New Orleans is controlled by the National Guard and local authorities and while we are in constant contact with them, we simply cannot enter New Orleans against their orders. *The state Homeland Security Department had requested–and continues to request–that the American Red Cross not come back into New Orleans following the hurricane. Our presence would keep people from evacuating and encourage others to come

Courtesy Mudville Gazette. HOW DARE YOU FIGHT A WAR ON TERROR WHILE PEOPLE ARE THIRSTY, MR BUSH!  WHERE IS YOUR COMPASSION?*

This Is Not Over’s Miss Alli: People are going around and around about who should have done what at what time to get food and water to the victims of Katrina, and to get the buses there to evacuate people from the city who didn’t get out on their own, and to get medical care to the elderly so they wouldn’t die, and to get control of the shelter areas

Following up on my earlier post, I tracked down the email addresses of WaPo reporters Manuel Roig-Franzia and Spencer Hsu, the two gentlemen responsible for the story suggesting Bush requested Governor Blanco cede authority to the feds on Friday. At question here, though, is which Friday—Aug 26, before the storm hits landfall? or Sept 2, after the looting and in advance of the martial law declared by Nagin?  Context suggests

Rusty has the details on the freeing of American Hostage Roy Hallums.  See also, Commissar. This is fantastic news.  Welcomed, in the face of so much ridiculous partisan bitterness over a natural disaster.

Me: “So –” Long: “—Don’t look at me.  FEMA is the Devil!  Michael Brown, he’s who you want.  He is a witch!  A witch!  Burn him…!”* **** update:  “BURN HIM…!”*

Changing directions for just a moment from the Katrina fallout to pressing foreign policy concerns, Bill Kristol’s editorial in the latest Weekly Standard seems to hit some important points of concern.  Referencing Bush’s August 24 Nampa, Idaho speech, Kristol writes: In the face of mixed news from Iraq, and mixed signals from the administration, some of the president’s supporters and subordinates have been going wobbly. They’ve been denying that the

From ABC News: In New Orleans, those in peril and those in power have pointed the finger squarely at the federal government for the delayed relief effort. But experts say when natural disasters strike, it is the primary responsibility of state and local governments — not the federal government — to respond. New Orleans’ own comprehensive emergency plan raises the specter of “having large numbers of people … stranded” and

So notes John Cole, in a post long on common sense. Cole also links to this AP report that at first blush seems to make a pretty damning case against the timeliness of FEMA’s response: The government’s disaster chief waited until hours after Hurricane Katrina had already struck the Gulf Coast before asking his boss to dispatch 1,000 Homeland Security employees to the region _ and gave them two days