Well, it may have helped. But the effort to block people from going out seems to have been lasting, and organized. And even a racist cop would know the risk he’s taking by blocking roads without backing from his hierarchy.

And this was applied from early on, instead of helping people.

For me, the explanation is simply that the unsaid consensus among right wingers (poor+black+too-dumb-to-follow-instruction=riotous) was acted upon.

I just wonder who exactly.

“As the National Guard delivered food to the New Orleans convention center yesterday, American Red Cross officials said that federal emergency management authorities would not allow them to do the same.”

“But the Federal Emergency Management Agency will not authorize the airboaters to enter New Orleans. Without that permission, they would be subject to arrest and would not receive security and support services.”

I have no doubt that the Red Cross is under significant pressure from FEMA to minimize the latter’s role in blocking their access to New Orleans.

It also appears it was the state government that kept people from walking out. Looks like FEMA didn’t have a chance to screw up too much, the state government did all that was possible.

I also ponder why Hillary’s bill to investigate this massacre only wants a federal investigation, while Frist’s bill wants a top-to bottom, no rock left unturned investigation?

Criminal charges are handled by prosecutors—no donations are needed (or useful). As for civil suits—I’ll be amazed if there aren’t lawyers falling all over eachoter to take high-profile (and, probabably, high-reward) cases like this on contingency.

The death toll results from the flood, the disorganisation, and, maybe in a big proportion, from these instructions.

Who gave the orders? Who planned that?

Meanwhile, the Army Times kindly informs us that they are all set to quell the “insurgency” from “Little Somalia”.

These reports and the reports of FEMA’s actions in stopping aid getting through make me start thinking that these organisations are just evil, like monsters in a horror movie. I could understand the flooding and the people being trapped as being caused, like most big disasters, by a series of bad decisions and failures (not upgrading the levees, not having an evacuation plan for all the people who don’t have cars, not having a disaster-resistant communications system, etc, etc), but once the disaster is recognised normally people start actually trying to help. The officials in these stories appear to be doing the opposite. They should be given the organisational equivalent of being dragged out behind the barn, shot with silver bullets, staked through the heart, the head cut off, the body burned and the ashes thrown into the fires of Mt Doom. They are so dysfunctional and evil this is the only way I can see to start putting things right.

I blame the War on Drugs for turning Andy Griffith into the Rodney King beaters.