apologies to walmart and national embarassment

i've been talking shit about walmart for not sending aid for a few days now...seeing as how they were all over it in florida the last few years. turned out i need to eat those words...they sent thousands of gallons of bottled water in a caravan of trucks...only FEMA turned them away, told them they weren't needed.

seems this was a recurring theme in the government's response to a situation that apparently nobody high up in goverment saw coming (although it seems pretty fucking obvious that any moron could predict a city built below sea level would become a festering cesspool of a lake if a big storm hit...but hey, thats just me). heard that the administration turned down international aid...the navy had a ship just off shore right after the storm...rode the storm out and then followed it towards shore awaiting orders and an opportunity to help. they had a few thousand beds and top-notch medical care to offer...along with water and food. some of their helicopters got to snatch people of rooftops...but other than that they are still floating in the waters off the coast, just now ordered to help out near biloxi. FEMA has also turned down countless offers of aid from cities across the country...chicago was mobilizing before the storm and made washington aware it was willing and able to send hundreds of medical, law enforcement and service personel along with equipment down to the gulf coast...to this date FEMA only requested one team of rescuers. you just kind of have to blink in amazement at shit like this.

evacuation orders were given...no transportation out of the city was given to those in the most dire need (interestingly enough they happened to be the black/poor neighborhoods that got left behind...hmmm). once they finally started...the evacuation out of the superdome took about two days...why were those people sitting there for 4 days beforehand? i understand it is not human nature to be prepared for the absolute worst...but it doesn't make it any easier to listen and watch.

Clarence Page put it simply today..."Hurricane Katrina was the first big test of President Bush's proud invention, the Department of Homeland Security, and it flunked."

still...i like to remember that every time this country has faced such horrific events it has eventually responded by bettering itself. i hope that this will raise questions in the masses that need to be addressed...questions of race, class, preparedness, security, spending, education...this country can do better...it has to.