There are no words

The sheer incompetence just gets worse and worse. I can't help wonder how many people have died who didn't need to. How many people died not of Katrina or her aftermath, but ultimately were garroted by red tape.

• FEMA Director Michael Brown on Thursday night said he had just learned about the people in the convention center “factually”, days after it was reported in the news. Similarly, Homeland Security Director Chertoff apparently learned of the same during a live television interview.


• New Mexico National Guardsmen were offered to Louisiana by Gov. Bill Richardson to LA Governor Kathleen Blanco on Sunday, the day before the hurricane hit, and she accepted. But... paperwork needed to get the troops en route didn’t come from Washington until late Thursday. Apparently no one in the White House knows how to operate a fax machine?


• Michigan National Guardsmen were prepped and ready to leave by Tuesday at the latest, but were not formally requested (and thus, couldn’t leave) until Tuesday night in Mississippi and late Wednesday in Louisiana.


• Saturday, Bush ordered 7,000 additional active duty troops to join 10,000 additional National Guard troops in heading down to New Orleans. This nearly doubles the number of people on the ground, but begs the question why this wasn’t ordered back when it might have saved some lives?

Sickening.

Liam.