Recently in Hurricane Katrina Category

Congress can't even find the time to support -- even only symbolically -- New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region.

Sports Illustrated's Peter King visited New Orleans for the NFL Draft, and he's rightly disgusted about our national lack of reaction to the disaster.

Well, my wife and I were in a car last Wednesday that toured the hardest-hit area of New Orleans, the Lower Ninth Ward. We worked a day at a nearby Habitat for Humanity site on Thursday, and we toured the Biloxi/Gulfport/Long Beach/Pass Christian gulf shore area last Friday. And let me just say this: I can absolutely guarantee you that if you'd been in the car with us, no matter how much you'd been hit over the head with the effects of this disaster, you would not have Katrina fatigue.

What I saw was a national disgrace. An inexcusable, irresponsible, borderline criminal national disgrace. I am ashamed of this country for the inaction I saw everywhere.

Oh. Oh. This is going to put a dent in the "state and local" conservative talking point. The Washington Post's Spencer S. Hsu writes about an upcoming report concerning the response to Hurricane Katrina:

The 600-plus-page report lays primary fault with the passive reaction and misjudgments of top Bush aides, singling out Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, the Homeland Security Operations Center and the White House Homeland Security Council, according to a 60-page summary of the document obtained by The Washington Post. Regarding Bush, the report found that "earlier presidential involvement could have speeded the response" because he alone could have cut through all bureaucratic resistance. (emphasis added)

But, really. Doesn't that miss the point? Our president was on vacation. He can't be expected to react to that. It's the hurricane's fault for coming during that time period.

How dare anyone expect our dear leader to cut short one of his vacations to deal with a catastrophe? Shouldn't we know our place? Understand that we are not to question this president's motives or operations?

Or do we remember that we live in a Constitutional Republic and point out the obvious: President George W. Bush decided it was more important to stay on vacation while the federal government failed to do the job it promised to do in the case of a natural disaster.

Heck of a job, Bushie.

Read this story from the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

Abdulrahman Zeitoun of New Orleans writes about his experiences rescuing storm victims, and about his arrest and ordeal on suspicion of terrorism and looting.

Believe it or not, this is the United States of America. Really.

Oh, my. Congressional Democrats actually showed a little spine and have refused to participate in the Republicans' proposed whitewash Katrina investigation.

Yes, even our Democratic leaders somehow found the courage to oppose lending a bipartisan sheen to a panel on which Republicans had the majority and Democrats did not have full subpoena power.

It is always nice to see a little common sense break out. Now, let's actually try to make the need for an independent investigation an issue, okay?

It appears that the Republican strategy to rebuild their political ratings in the wake of Hurricane Katrina is to spend huge sums of money -- of course, without much oversight, accountability, and transparency.

The huge sums of money are needed. But just as necessary are oversight, accountabiliity, and transparency in the spending of these funds. And we need look no further than Iraq to see that the Bush Administration is fond of none of those latter three concepts.

Josh Marshall rightly expresses the big potential problem here:

Maybe you want to spend $200 billion on rebuilding the Delta region too. Fine. Something like that will probably be necessary. But don't fool yourself into thinking that what's coming is just a matter of a different chef making the same meal. This will be Iraq all over again, with the same fetid mix of graft, zeal and hubris. Cronyism like you wouldn't believe. Money blown on ideological fantasies and half-baked test-cases.

You could come up with a hundred reasons why that's true. But at root intentions drive all. You'll never separate this operation or its results from the fact that the people in charge see it as a political operation. The use of this money for political purposes, for what amounts to a political campaign, tells you everything you need to know about what's coming.

Sometimes the radical Republicans surprise even me. I thought they might let a decent interval go by before trying to turn the Hurricane Katrina relief effort into a radical conservative test case.

How foolish of me. As Jim VandeHei and Jonathan Weisman write in the Washington Post:

Bush already has dispatched his top strategist, Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, and other aides to assemble ideas from agencies, conservative think tanks, GOP lawmakers and state officials to guide the rebuilding of New Orleans and relocation of flood victims. The idea, aides said, is twofold: provide a quick federal response that comports with Bush's governing philosophy, and prevent Katrina from swamping his second-term ambitions on Social Security, taxes and Middle East democracy-building.

Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), a Bush ally, said the recovery effort provides conservatives with an unusual opportunity to test ideas that have been hard to sell on a national scope, including vouchers to cover education for dislocated students and tax incentives for business investment. "There are a whole host of ideas being looked at," Kyl said.

Yep. That does sound like a political campaign.

Do you feel confident about where this is headed?

Knight Ridder reports that it may not be the person who was fired earlier this week. We may have to look a bit higher up the chain of command. As Jonathan S. Landay, Alison Young and Shannon McCaffrey write:

WASHINGTON - The federal official with the power to mobilize a massive federal response to Hurricane Katrina was Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, not the former FEMA chief who was relieved of his duties and resigned earlier this week, federal documents reviewed by Knight Ridder show.

Even before the storm struck the Gulf Coast, Chertoff could have ordered federal agencies into action without any request from state or local officials. Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown had only limited authority to do so until about 36 hours after the storm hit, when Chertoff designated him as the "principal federal official" in charge of the storm.

Josh Marshall is right: we need to get to the bottom of this. As he writes:

This is a description rather than a direct quote. And the specifics of just what was said matter. But if the account is accurate, the contention seems to be that an US Army policy -- presumably intended for warzones -- trumps the decision of a US federal court on American soil. And I don't think you've got to be much of a wild-eyed civil libertarian to find that a tad problematic.

There are good reasons why we place such copious restrictions on the use of combat troops on American soil -- not because there's something wrong with the Army but because the training for war-fighting and policing civilians and/or disaster relief are quite different and the two don't easily mix.

Atrios rightly extends his appeciation to the reporters and editors at the New Orleans Times-Picayune and other local outlets for their heroic work during and after Hurricane Katrina.

I have been loading and reloading the Times-Picayune and WWL Television web sites several times a day since this crisis began. The journalism is really first rate.

If you are interested in the Katrina story, you would do well to see what these reporters are putting together each day in the face of challenges and personal tragedy.

Newsweek's Evan Thomas has put together a must-read story about how President George W. Bush failed to grasp Hurricane Katrina's severity until days after the deadly storm hit.

The reality, say several aides who did not wish to be quoted because it might displease the president, did not really sink in until Thursday night. Some White House staffers were watching the evening news and thought the president needed to see the horrific reports coming out of New Orleans. Counselor Bartlett made up a DVD of the newscasts so Bush could see them in their entirety as he flew down to the Gulf Coast the next morning on Air Force One.

How this could be—how the president of the United States could have even less "situational awareness," as they say in the military, than the average American about the worst natural disaster in a century—is one of the more perplexing and troubling chapters in a story that, despite moments of heroism and acts of great generosity, ranks as a national disgrace.

We have a president who refuses to see reality. Who has his aides so scared that they are afraid to tell him the truth. Who went to bed without acting on Monday after hearing a request for help from Louisana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco. Who did not appear to fully understand the dire situation under a confrontation with Louisana officials on Friday!

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of U.S. citizens suffered. Thousands died.

This is beyond reprehensible.

(Hat tip: Americablog.)

One of the tragic stories that will emerge from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is how the horrible new bankruptcy bill will impact on those people struggling to keep their lives together after the storm.

As the Los Angeles Times editorialized on Friday:

As the Times' Peter Gosselin reported Wednesday, the new bankruptcy law treats those affected by a natural disaster the same as the deadbeat who spent it all on luxury cars, jewelry and cocaine.

Thankfully, some forward-thinking Democrats have submitted legislation that would lessen the burden of the new bankruptcy bill on those impacted by Hurricane Katrina.

For a great discussion on this important subject, take a look at the Warren Reports blog on TPM Cafe. You'll see how it targets natural disaster victims, health care victims, the middle class, and small business entrepreneurs.

But the credit card companies? They do well. Priorities, you know.

Taking up an Instapundit reader's challenge, Kevin Drum recaps the backgrounds of the last four FEMA Directors, those who have served under both Presidents Bush and President Clinton.

Guess which president actually had the gall to hire someone with emergency response experience?

My friend JR had an appropriate reaction to this story in the e-mail she sent:

I want these racist cowards rounded up and shamed for the untold death and misery they caused.

Update: Digby has the transcript of an interview with New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin in which he mentions this immoral behavior last week.

Josh Marshall quotes a Wall Street Journal story that shows how military recruiters are working what they hope is a target-rich environment at the Houston Astrodome.