People are now dying for lack of water, medicine, and sanitation in New Orleans and throughout the Gulf Coast. People are waiting to be rescued. The Mississippi is closed to business. East Coast states are now running out of gas, oil, diesel and it will spread. Over a million people are homeless, jobless…. The poverty rate and impact just sky rocketed…

but:

Bush had a photo op buying a new guitar and Condi Rice bought $1000 shoes. The shareholders of Halliburton just made a windfall so they can go shopping too.
After 9/11, Americans were told to "go shopping" ... the patriotic thing to do.
"Let them eat cake" keeps surfacing in my thoughts...followed by "When in the course of human events...."


From the NYT:

Some will prosper. Shares in Halliburton, the oil services company, sold for $8.60 in early 2002, when the oil economy was depressed. Yesterday, they hit $63.44, setting a record for the first time since 1997.

THERE was no mention of conservation when President Bush spoke Wednesday. By yesterday, he was talking of the need to conserve, but only in a general manner.

Perhaps the politicians are paralyzed by memories of the way Jimmy Carter was mocked for wearing a sweater as he urged us to adjust our thermostats during another energy crisis. The 55 miles per hour speed limit somehow seems to be a violation of the fundamental rights of American drivers. Sacrifice speed to help avert soaring prices? Surely you must be kidding.

There are other possible effects of Katrina that could hurt the economy. If the Port of New Orleans cannot get back to full capacity soon, a lot of Midwestern grain may have trouble finding a way to market. Railroad capacity is limited, making it hard to get that grain to other ports.

From Steve Gilliard:

George Bush has failed.

He has failed his office, he has failed the people of New Orleans, who he was elected to serve.

But most of all, he has failed the country.

This is not what Americans expect people to do in Bosnia. If Bosnians had been treated like the citizens of New Orleans, Americans would have been outraged. Wes Clark would have been retired in disgrace. It would have been a national disgrace. Americans would have been shamed to have failed the people of Bonsia so badly.

Yet the American bitter-enders, Goldberg, Limbaugh and Hannity, see no problem with Americans dying in the streets in an American city.

This is a national disgrace, a failure of imagination and leadership as bad as Bull Run. The weakness of Bush and his insanely incompetent leadership is murdering people as slowly and cruelly as the Serbs did. The anguish of the people is painful to watch.

Air drops, Special Forces teams, SEALs with their water craft, the expensive panoply of men we train to a razor's edge, who can save lives as well as take them. If this was Darfur, they would be on the ground, setting up resources, establishing security, preparing for the arrival of infantry units to protect the refugees. Instead, FEMA says help is coming, while people exist without water and food in broiling heat. The imagination which led to the dropping of humanitarian food packages over Afghanistan in yellow packages is missing here.

They bring in the pararescuemen, but a small team, not pulling every available PJ, CCT member and Special Forces team they can grab to begin the process of security. The National Guard wants to handle it. They can't. If they could, people would be getting help. The hospitals would be getting help. Instead, they wait and lie vunerable to the gangs which have always lived in the city.

The buses are taking people from New Orleans to Houston where they can sit overnight only (the stadium is full and the toilets plugged... no portipotties??). But these are the poor refugees...NIMBY is rearing it's ugly head.