Riba Rambles:
Musings of a Mental Magpie

Posted by Lis Riba at 11:50 AM

Back in the mid-eighties, Nickelodeon ran a behind-the-scenes program about movies, called (I believe) Lights, Camera, Action and hosted by Leonard Nimoy.

I distinctly remember a segment on Real Genius explaining precisely how they did the concluding house popcorn effects. [I believe it was largely a real house rather than miniature models.]

At any rate, I want to see that segment again...

By the way, while checking the IMDB page on Real Genius I started looking at actors' other credits. One minor character made a guest appearance in Wizards and Warriors. Boy, that title brings me back. Anybody else remember that short-lived series?

Whether you do or don't, like so many other obscure interests (though not Brothers) there's a pretty darned good website devoted to the show.

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:15 PM

Earlier today, I had a whole list of links compiled that I urgently wanted to blog about, then life happened and now I'm too tired to post. Maybe tomorrow you'll get a lengthy (if slightly stale) link salad from me.

BTW, if I were a better political blogger, I'd be fisking this myself, but I've got a hot link on Chertoff that hasn't been blogged!

Early last week, Before the true enormity of Katrina's devastation was evident, I noticed a Whitehouse.gov announcement for their "Ask the White House" feature. Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff was going to be answering questions on September 1st, presumably for National Preparedness Month.

At any rate, before it vanishes into the ether, here's Michael Chertoff answering citizens' questions on September 1.

As far as I can tell from quick technorati and icerocket searches, no other blogs have linked to this yet.

And, yes, I'm the "Lis from Melrose, MA" who asked

In cases of national emergency, how is Homeland Security coordinating with preexisting agencies like FEMA and the CDC?

I was actually only partially talking about New Orleans (I submitted the question on Monday or Tuesday, before we knew the scope of the disaster). My greater concern regarding DHS was bird flu (a subject I've been meaning to blog about since reading this post that "The head of the Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday that his agency --- and not the federal health establishment --- would manage the nation's response if a deadly new strain of bird flu evolved into a human pandemic." That power grab worried me even before we got an eyewitness view of DHS incompetence.)

Needless to say, watching the disaster unfold in New Orleans, I forgot all about "Ask the White House" until I had reason to check Whitehouse.gov and noticed my question was among the answered.

Still, there may be some useful fodder in there for the more pedantic among you with a penchant for parsing political prattle...

Posted by Lis Riba at 12:05 PM

George Lakoff has contributed his thoughts to the current crisis. And they're well worth reading.

A few excerpts (italics were Lakoff's, bold emphasis mine):

The moral of Katrina is mostly being missed. It is not just a failure of execution (William Kristol), or that bad things just happen (Laura Bush). It was not just indifference by the President, or a lack of accountability, or a failure of federal-state communication, or corrupt appointments in FEMA, or the cutting of budgets for fixing levees, or the inexcusable absence of the National Guard off in Iraq. It was all of these and more, but they are the effects, not the cause.

The cause was political through and through -- a matter of values and principles. The progressive-liberal values are America's values, and we need to go back to them. The heart of progressive-liberal values is simple: empathy (caring about and for people) and responsibility (acting responsibly on that empathy). These values translate into a simple principle: Use the common wealth for the common good to better all our lives. In short, promoting the common good is the central role of government.

The right-wing conservatives now in power have the opposite values and principles. Their main value is Rely on individual discipline and initiative. The central principle: Government has no useful role. The only common good is the sum of individual goods. It's the difference between We're all in this together and You're on your own, buddy. It's the difference between Every citizen is entitled to protection and You're only entitled to what you can afford. It's the difference between connection and separation. It is this difference in moral and political philosophy that lies behind the tragedy of Katrina.

A lack of empathy and responsibility accounts for Bush's indifference and the government's delay in response, as well as the failure to plan for the security of the most vulnerable: the poor, the infirm, the aged, the children.

[...]

This was not just incompetence (though there was plenty of it), not just a natural disaster (though nature played its part), not just Bush (though he is accountable). This is a failure of moral and political philosophy -- a deadly failure. That is the deep truth behind this human tragedy, humanly caused.

It is a truth that needs to be told, starting now -- over and over. There can be no delay. The Bush administration is busy framing it in its own way: bad things just happen, it's no one's fault; the federal government did the best it could -- the problem was at the state and local level; we'll rebuild and everything will be okay; the people being shipped out will have better lives elsewhere, and jobs in Wal-Mart!

Unless the real truth is told starting now, the American people will accept it for lack of an alternative. The Democratic response so far is playing right into Bush's framing. By delaying a response for fear it will be called "partisan," the Democratic leadership is allowing Bush to frame the tragedy. And once it is framed, it is hard to reframe! It is time to start now.

This is some of what I was trying to explain last night, but Lakoff goes several steps further than I was able to.

Lakoff also weighs in on the John Roberts nomination:

Hurricane Katrina should also form the context in which to judge whether John Roberts is fit to be chief justice of the United States Supreme Court. The reason is simple: The Katrina Tragedy raises the most central issues of moral and political principles that will govern the future of this country. Katrina stands to be even more traumatic to America than 9/11. The failure of conservative principles in the Katrina Tragedy should, in the post-Katrina era, invalidate those principles -- and it should invalidate the right of George Bush to foist them on the country for the next 30 years.

[Snipping five paragraphs on Roberts and the massive causal effects of his "narrow interpretations" (including The Case of the Hapless Toad)]

After the Katrina Tragedy, we cannot afford a radically activist Chief Justice with the same philosophy that has failed America so badly. The ultimate moral and political issues apply in both cases. John Roberts as Chief Justice would be a danger to our democracy and possibly to our very lives.

Read the rest! And then spread the word.

[I do have plans to write more about Roberts, but I'm still getting things together. Would y'all prefer many smaller posts on Roberts or one big omnibus?]

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:05 AM

Just saw this from Reuters:

NEW ORLEANS, Sept 6 (Reuters) - The U.S. government agency leading the rescue efforts after Hurricane Katrina said on Tuesday it does not want the news media to take photographs of the dead as they are recovered from the flooded New Orleans area.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, heavily criticized for its slow response to the devastation caused by the hurricane, rejected requests from journalists to accompany rescue boats as they went out to search for storm victims.

[...]

"We have requested that no photographs of the deceased be made by the media," the spokeswoman said in an e-mailed response to a Reuters inquiry.

What do you think?

Belated attempts at damage control? Do you think photojournalists will follow these rules? Given the images out already, do you think it will work?

Posted by Lis Riba at 11:35 PM

I hear from bloggers with cable that there's a new episode of The Daily Show tonight.

Can't watch that, but a new issue of The Onion is now online!

It features a special subsection God Outdoes Terrorists Yet Again with stories like:

• Louisiana National Guard Offers Help By Phone From Iraq
• Government Relief Workers Mosey In To Help
• Refugees Moved From Sewage-Contaminated Superdome To Hellhole Of Houston
• White Foragers Report Threat Of Black Looters
• Bush Urges Victims To Gnaw On Bootstraps For Sustenance

Remember when The Onion was satire? I think that changed around the time of Bush's inauguration.

Anyway, the latest issue includes other articles about Katrina, the Iraqi constitution, and other world events.

A much needed break, well worth reading.

Update: According to DailyKos diarists, tonight's Daily Show reveals that administration disasters are named alphabetically. This means Katrina is only their eleventh out of what could be up to twenty-six colossal failures. And then they very kindly provide the full list, so we know what to look forward to:

Update 2: No videos of last night's Daily Show yet online, but TV Squad provides an episode synopsis. Hooray for the humorists, providing a much needed dose of sanity.

Posted by Lis Riba at 11:15 PM

Just after I finished my previous post, I took one more glance at my blogroll before bed.

When the enormity of this disaster first became evident, I read a suggestion that New Orleans could be the focus of a new WPA-style initiative. Not only giving jobs to the newly unemployed, but giving them an important say in rebuilding their communities.

I knew those were pie-in-the-sky hopes for this administration, but I hoped there'd be time in the process for someone to advocate for such, raising the idea in popular discourse.

Too late.

Josh Marshall has already found these pointers on post-disaster contracting online:

The government increasingly relies on contractors to run day-to-day operations. Vendors become even more important when disasters such as Katrina strain the government's resources. In the past, such as during the reconstruction of Iraq, this haste has led to contract mismanagement and a disregard for procurement law.

[...]

The vast majority of emergency contracts are being awarded outside of the centralized posting system that is normally required. Indeed, on its home page, FedBizOpps states, "Due to the immediacy of emergency opportunities, it is unlikely that opportunities dealing with the hurricanes will be advertised through the FedBizOpps system."

So much for accountability and openness...

BTW, one other story I didn't have time to blog. Remember a few weeks ago I wrote about Bunnatine Greenhouse -- who was responsible for rewarding private contracts from the Army Corps of Engineers, until she started raising questions about Halliburton? She blew the whistle on their unprecedented no-bid contracts. Well, since I wrote that, she's been demoted.

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:55 PM

"I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub."
 -- Grover Norquist

Articles continue to pour in regarding FEMA's malfeasance, misfeasance and nonfeasance in New Orleans.

• 4 private jet ambulances turned back empty (on Wednesday)
• 1000 volunteer firefighters used for PR
• Three college kids evacuated 7 from the Convention Center in a Hyundai

If those aren't enough, just scroll down and read what I've been writing these past few days. Scores of my recent posts detail ways in which FEMA hindered rescue and relief efforts for those in New Orleans.

Aaron Broussard (President of Jefferson Parish) said if "the American government would have responded like Wal-Mart has responded, we wouldn't be in this crisis." Matters got so bad, he posted armed guards against FEMA because of their attempt to cut communication lines in his parish. [Source & transcript]

Given all the problems caused by red tape, and the way so many generous Americans have stepped forward, it almost sounds tempting to reduce or eliminate the government's role and just let people get to it.

Don't fall for that line.

That's probably just what they want you to think...

While I can understand and accept that "Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice," this week's incompetence squarely benefits the ideology those in power have been espousing for decades.

I mean, this administration camapigned on a platform that the government's the enemy, get the government out of the way and let private charity take the forefront.

The stories coming out of New Orleans are so blatant and so stupid that I can't help wondering if the chaos wasn't in some respects intentional. By stymieing all offers to help with red tape, they're sowing further distrust in the federal government.

FEMA was a competent agency under Clinton. This is not the fault of FEMA, it's the fault of the Bush administration. I've lost count of the number of articles in reputable publications describing how the Bush administration has systematically gutted the agency and slashed its budget. They lowered FEMA's status from Cabinet-level and buried it within Homeland Security. They handed the directorship over to a failed horse judge whose college roommate was on the selection committee. His top staffers aren't much more qualified. L.A. Times: "‘They've taken emergency management away from the emergency managers,’ complained Morrie Goodman, who was FEMA's chief spokesman during the Clinton administration. ‘These operations are being run by people who are amateurs at what they are doing.’"

We should toss the incompetent bums out before the next disaster strikes; but be careful in how you advocate that not to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

The Prospect describes what we're seeing as "the classic self-perpetuating conservative strategy for discrediting government -- mismanaging and underfunding public services and then reaping political gain from the resultant anti-government sentiment."

To prevent them from getting away with that may require a little more care in how we express ourselves.

A few other quotes in a similar vein:

     Lambert (on Corrente)

Kinda makes you wonder about all those stories about FEMA actually turning away help. It's not just isolated incidents, but a pattern. Why would they do that?

     Lambert (again)

It's almost as if a right-wing ideologue decided to create an object lesson that nobody should trust the government to help them...

     Brad DeLong

[I]f we elect people who don't think a functioning government is very important, we shouldn't be surprised when it turns out we don't have a functioning government.

In the end, the role the government should've been playing in the Gulf Coast is a vital function of government. We deserve better.

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:50 PM

The press corps were on fire today:

Q I just want to follow up on David's questions on accountability. First, just to get you on the record, where does the buck stop in this administration?

MR. McCLELLAN: The President.

Q All right. So he will be held accountable as the head of the government for the federal response that he's already acknowledged was inadequate and unacceptable?

MR. McCLELLAN: The President's most important responsibility is the safety and security of the American people. He talks about that often. That is his most important responsibility. Again, there's going to be plenty of time to look at the facts and determine what went wrong and what went right and how the coordination was between the state and federal and local authorities. Right now we've got to continue doing everything we can in support of the ongoing operational activities on the ground in the region to help people.

Q Well, the President has said that this government can do many things at once: It can fight the war on terror, it can do operations in Iraq, and aid and comfort people in Louisiana. Can it not also find time to begin to hold people accountable? It sounds, Scott, as if the line that you're giving us -- which is, you don't want to answer questions about accountability because there's too much busy work going on --

MR. McCLELLAN: Wrong. No, wrong.

Q -- is a way of ducking accountability.

MR. McCLELLAN: You don't want to take away from the efforts that are going on right now. And if you start getting into that now, you're pulling people out that are helping with the ongoing response, Terry. Not at all. The President made it very clear, I'm going to lead this effort and we're going to make sure we find out what the facts were and what went wrong and what went right. But you don't want to divert resources away from an ongoing response to a major catastrophe. And this is a major catastrophe that we -- and we must remain focused on saving lives and sustaining lives and planning for the long-term. And that's what we're doing.

Q And there are people in Louisiana and Mississippi who are doing that job very well. Your job is to answer the questions.

MR. McCLELLAN: And I have.

Q By saying you won't answer.

MR. McCLELLAN: No, by saying that there's a time to look at those issues, but now is not the time, Terry.

Or how about

MR. McCLELLAN: Again, this is getting into trying to finger-point and play the blame game. This is not the time for that. There are people who are really in need. Terry was down there in the region. He saw what has happened to the people on the ground and how they have lost everything --

Q I think they might want some answers, too.

MR. McCLELLAN: -- and how they have lost everything they had.

Q In addition to help, they might want some answers, too.

MR. McCLELLAN: And they're going to get them. But now is not the time, Terry.

Q No, it is the time, Scott.

And those are just two exchanges.

I heard that on this morning's Imus, Tim Russert gave a scathing critique of the administration's handling, and Oprah focused on the tragedy during her show today. So the story is spreading beyond the usual news junkies.

I also saw several Katrina timelines you might find worth glancing at, by

• Kos
• Uggabugga
• Nobody Knows Anything

Be sure to notice what Bush was doing the first days of the disaster...

Posted by Lis Riba at 5:55 PM

I've already mentioned HurricaneHousing.org, a volunteer effort launched on Friday to help hurricane evacuees find housing. They've currently got over 165,000 listings.

Over lunch, I spotted on the WWLTV Blog:

(AP): Victims of Hurricane Katrina scrambling for housing in their temporary new hometowns can access a new Web site designed to link renters directly with property owners with an apartment, house or room to rent.
The site, www.HurricaneHousing.net, has a search engine that allows users to choose the city, parish or county where they are seeking housing in a seven-state area that includes Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Texas, Arkansas and Georgia.
The site was developed by real estate agents, many of them swamped with phone calls from displaced residents who won't be able to return to their water-logged homes anytime soon.
Because many people don't immediately have Web access, officials with Louisiana Realtors noted that FEMA was attempting to set up Internet stations at shelters that are packed with evacuees.

While I'm all for helping those in need, does this give anyone else an uncomfortable feeling of private industry trying to profit off the similarity in domain names?

Posted by Lis Riba at 5:50 PM

Four quotes seen in this morning's reading:

• The homeless men of St. John's Hospice don't have much. But they are gathering their pennies - literally - to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
• In Huntsville, 14 prison trusties helped the Red Cross and church volunteers. The trusties are minimum-security offenders allowed out under guard supervision to help with community projects.
   
• Barbara Bush: "And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this [evacuation to makeshift hurricane shelters in Houston] is working very well for them."
• George H.W. Bush: "I think some of the criticism had been grossly unfair, particularly when they suggest the president doesn't care and all of that."

Maybe somebody ought to tell the Bushes that people will stop criticizing them for appearing uncaring when they actually stop acting so damn callous.

Al Gore chartered a private flight to evacuate the elderly and infirm (and has been trying to keep a low profile publicity-wise regarding it). Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling is taking in a family of nine. Though we need the rental income, we've listed our apartment on HurricaneHousing.org and are apparently among over 160,000 people nationwide offering to open our homes. And I'm reading scores of stories about private Americans opening their hearts and wallets to personally assist the victims of Katrina.

There's this large ranch in Crawford Texas that's still sitting idle and could probably house some evacuees. Sure, it would be a publicity stunt, but it would also ensure housing to at least one family in need.

For other techies reading this, if you're looking for a way to help besides monetarily, somebody's set up a Katrina Help wiki, and they're seeking volunteers to do data entry and data cleanup for their PeopleFinder. If you've got a fast net connection at home, this is one way to contribute.

Posted by Lis Riba at 11:00 PM

Oh, one brief funny note from last night's movie (no spoilers).

Before the trailers, the theater aired (what we soon realized was) a commercial.

A bunch of people chair-dancing in the desert.

Then autobody parts materialized around them, revealing an SUV.

The announcer named it "The Hummer H3"

The entire audience laughed.

Admittedly, the audience were documentary-viewers in an arthouse in Somerville, MA, but still, that doesn't bode well for SUV manufacturers...

PS: Oh look, Car and Driver says the Hummer H3s actually do get double-digit fuel milage. Below twenty, but they claim it's better than ten...

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:50 PM

Last night, I watched the 60 Minutes segment on Katrina and then Ian and I went out to the Somerville Theatre to watch Murderball. [We were considering the drive-in double-feature of March of the Penguins and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but somehow wheelchair rugby seemed better suited to our moods, plus it required a lot less fuel.]

Though it may seem callous so soon after the disaster, we talked about the political ramifications.

Scandal after scandal, I've been waiting for the American public to wise up about this administration.

But this is big, it's going to affect everyone, and it's going to continue to play out for a long, long time.

We're all seeing higher gas prices. And it doesn't just affect our own driving habits, but in this just-in-time economy it means an increase in the price of everything we might purchase. It's harvest time, and not only is the nation's main port out of commission, but trucking will cost more than ever. Who knows when we can regain our oil-producing capacity? Plus, winter heating season is approaching...

Speaking of food, I've heard that one-third of our seafood comes from the Gulf. Given the contaminants likely to be polluting the area, I suspect those prices will rise and we'll see shortages. If you like fish, may want to enjoy it now.

We've just added another half-million to million people to the unemployment rate. Survivors are streaming into communities as far away as Minnesota, Massachusetts and Arizona. But most affected will be the Bush-supporting Red States, in part due to their proximity.

SwingStateProject writes

"Geographically, Bush's incompetence has put the entire south in play. As the harvest forces tough conversations about transportation, the Midwest will also come into play."

And someone on DailyKos observed:

Floridians were looking very closely at the federal response to this disaster. Florida is a bigger, richer state than Louisiana, but, according to this friend, they wouldn't even come close to being able to handle this disaster alone.

I have no idea what the final death toll will be, but I'm certain it'll be greater than 9/11. [I heard somewhere that New Orleans officials are trying to deter speculation to avoid adding to the misery of survivors still seeking friends and relatives.] But Aaron Broussard's breakdown is just a verbal account of some probably horrific images to come. I've already heard the first reported cases of dysentery...

Reporters who were amid the stench and starvation aren't soon likely to forget. I'm an NPR listener and am still incredulous at Robert Siegel getting so testy. Fox News reporters broke down on camera and cut off suited- studio-bound Hannity's calls for "perspective." Bush is losing his base.

And if that weren't enough, the grand jury in the Valerie Plame case ends its term in October, which means we should be seeing some indictments within the next month.

Then, I woke up this morning and saw two dismaying stories in the morning news:

One, the White House smear machine is running full out trying to falsely blame state & local officials for the enormity of the disaster. For the record, no matter what anyone else says, the Louisiana governor did request federal assistance before the storm hit, and here's the proof. More worrisome is that even after they've been lied to, the Washington Post still wouldn't expose the "senior administration official" who used cover of anonymity to spread slander.

Our "leaders" couldn't interrupt their vacation for a life-threatening disaster, but when their own political careers are at stake, they're now pulling all the stops...

Second thing I woke up to was the announcement of John Roberts for Chief Justice. From what I've read, I don't like the idea of Roberts on the Court at all, but especially not for Chief Justice. I find his priorities and extant opinions and lack of experience unsuitable, though I hadn't really been ready to write it all up now. So all I can think of is divide and conquer. When we should continue to focus our attention on the Gulf Coast, Bush is trying to distract us from a unified response. [Remember, Roberts was named earlier than expected in a time when the Valerie Plame case was heating up. The number of Roberts papers that went unreviewed are clear proof.]

Dissent is not unpatriotic, and, well, given the caliber of other Bush appointees, the unsuitability of Michael Brown to FEMA or Bolton to the UN, I think the Senate should give pretty close scrutiny to any other people he picks.

Heck, I think you could make an argument to the American people that this administration has proven its unsuitability for running this country and I think the Dems in charge would be justified in using that as their argument for deferring all the administrations nonessential requests until they undertake a full investigation...

Posted by Lis Riba at 4:30 PM

Been working on another, longer post, but just came across this timeline of the 1906 quake. Now keep in mind, this happened nearly a century ago, when America lacked modern transportation and communication, but it's quite instructional:

The earthquake struck at 5:13 AM.

By 7 AM federal troops had reported to the mayor.

By 8 AM they were patrolling the entire downtown area and searching for survivors.

The second quake struck at 8:14 AM.

By 10:05 AM the USS Chicago was on its way from San Diego to San Francisco; by 10:30 the USS Preble had landed a medical team and set up an emergency hospital.

By 11 AM large parts of the city were on fire; troops continued to arrive throughout the day, evacuating people from the areas threatened by fire to emergency shelters and Golden Gate Park.

St. Mary's hospital was destroyed by the fire at 1 PM, with no loss of life, the staff and patients having already been evacuated across the bay to Oakland.

By 3 PM troops had shot several looters, and dynamited buildings to make a firebreak; by five they had buried dozens of corpses, the morgue and the police pistol range being unable to hold any more.

At 8:40 PM General Funston requested emergency housing - tents and shelters - from the War Department in Washington; all of the tents in the U.S. Army were on their way to San Francisco by 4:55 AM the next morning.

Prisoners were evacuated to Alcatraz, and by April 20 (two days after the earthquake) the USS Chicago had reached San Francisco, where it evacuated 20,000 refugees.

So consider that history lesson, as we continue to criticize the slowness of response to the current disaster.

PS: A few more FEMA failures for when you have the stomach. [Volunteer firefighters from Houston who've been denied admittance since Tuesday!]

Posted by Lis Riba at 11:10 PM

Since I know some people are despairing, here's something to brighten your day in the teeniest of ways:

US Airforce Lt. Nathan Brosheal holds a kitten rescued and airlifted to New Orleans International Airport in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Louisiana. (AFP/James Nielsen)

[As first seen on TalkLeft, which has a different photo of the small survivor]

Postscript while browsing: Yay for Joseph and Patches: before finding shelter and evacuating the city together. The latter link also includes some places to donate.

Posted by Lis Riba at 1:50 PM

From CNN:

The U.S. government has received offers of support from dozens of nations across the globe.
As of Friday, the White House had not accepted any offers, but Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the State Department was "working very closely with the Department of Homeland Security to match up what is available with what is needed."

Here's a list of offers from over fifty countries yet to be acted upon.

Of course, Condi is travelling again (more photo ops with hurricane victims), so I'm not sure who is actually coordinating these offers...

But it shouldn't be surprising at this point in the crisis. Look what the Chicago Tribune reveals about our own unused resources:

While federal and state emergency planners scramble to get more military relief to Gulf Coast communities stricken by Hurricane Katrina, a massive naval goodwill station has been cruising offshore, underused and waiting for a larger role in the effort.
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. A good share of its 1,200 sailors could also go ashore to help with the relief effort, but they haven't been asked. The Bataan has been in the stricken region the longest of any military unit, but federal authorities have yet to fully utilize the ship.
Captain ready, waiting
"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....
"I figured we would be a big help in New Orleans. We've got electricity, and the police could have charged up their radios. We've got water, toilets. We've got food."

Posted by Lis Riba at 12:25 PM

Actually watched some of the Sunday gasbags this morning. Woke up too late to see Mary Landrieu's narrated flight over the levees (the fake staging referenced in this entry) but I did catch Meet the Press. Transcript is already up, so I'll quote directly:

SEC'Y CHERTOFF: My understanding is, and again this is something that's going to go back--we're going to go back over after the fact is--the plan that the New Orleans officials and the state officials put together called for the Superdome to be the refuge of last resort. We became aware of the fact at some point that people began to go to the Convention Center on their own, spontaneously, in order to shelter there. And I think it's for that reason that people found themselves without food and water and supplies.

Does he seriously expect people to believe that thousands of individuals thought of the convention center on their own, and just, what?, broke in to use the locked facilities?

I don't think so.

That contradicts everything I've read about police officers and guardsmen directing people to head towards the convention center. Let's see what I can find:

• Shreveport Times: "Sylvester said she and her two sons, ages 14 and 6, and her 12-year-old daughter were rescued by boat from their home, taken to dry land in downtown New Orleans and told to go to the convention center, where they would be picked up."
• MSNBC: "They were told to go to the convention center."
• KWTX: "The tourists were then told to go to the convention center where they found an angry crowd, but no food or water."

Those are quotes from people on the scene.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff: "people began to go to the Convention Center on their own, spontaneously"

Who do you believe?

PS: Also on Meet the Press was a heartbreaking interview with the president of Jefferson Parish. Think Progress has a transcript but I hope somebody gets a video up soon and here's the video. Here's what he said:

Three quick examples. We had Wal-Mart deliver three trucks of water. FEMA turned them back. They said we didn't need them. This was a week ago. FEMA, we had 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel on a Coast Guard vessel docked in my parish. When we got there with our trucks, FEMA says don't give you the fuel. Yesterday -- yesterday -- FEMA comes in and cuts all of our emergency communication lines. They cut them without notice. Our sheriff, Harry Lee, goes back in, he reconnects the line. He posts armed guards and said no one is getting near these lines...

Russert kept trying to cut him off during this litany, but he kept going. This is where he concluded and finally broke down:

I want to give you one last story and I'll shut up and let you tell me whatever you want to tell me. The guy who runs this building I'm in, Emergency Management, he's responsible for everything. His mother was trapped in St. Bernard nursing home and every day she called him and said, "Are you coming, son? Is somebody coming?" and he said, "Yeah, Mama, somebody's coming to get you." Somebody's coming to get you on Tuesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Wednesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Thursday. Somebody's coming to get you on Friday? and she drowned Friday night. She drowned Friday night! [Sobbing] Nobody's coming to get us. Nobody's coming to get us...

On ABC's This Week Howard Raines said this administration was beyond playing the blame game and was in blame business. What they ought to be is ashamed...