That’s what someone from Iowa just said to me. Take a look for yourself:

More here. This is apparently the independent teevee station in the area and doing a good job of covering events there.

If you have money, or time, think about donating some to the Red Cross or similar organizations. It seems Bush’s cronies at FEMA can’t do more than give speeches.

Via Scholars and Rogues comes this disturbing little blerb that seems almost drugged to calmness in this discussion of what will could happen in the event of an emergency that ’requires’ martial law:

But gun confiscation is exactly what happened during the state of emergency following Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, along with forced relocation. U.S. Troops also arrived, something far easier to do now, thanks to last year’s elimination of the 1878 Posse Comitatus act, which had forbid regular U.S. Army troops from policing on American soil.

If martial law were enacted here at home, like depicted in the movie “The Siege”, easing public fears and quelling dissent would be critical. And that’s exactly what the ’Clergy Response Team’ helped accomplish in the wake of Katrina.

Dr. Durell Tuberville serves as chaplain for the Shreveport Fire Department and the Caddo Sheriff’s Office. Tuberville said of the clergy team’s mission, “the primary thing that we say to anybody is, ’let’s cooperate and get this thing over with and then we’ll settle the differences once the crisis is over.’”  Read more 

What nightmares do Black parents tell their Children?  Read more 

Chertoff better not eat in any black-owned restaurants in NOLA. Really, the arrogance of these people is stunning at times. It wouldn’t surprise me if some overworked, low-level FEMA employee just shot him, the next time he got out of a taxpayer funded hookermobile car.

And we’ve got to do a much better job, frankly, of how we manage the process of recovery. We still have tens of thousands of people who suffer the lingering effects of Katrina. And as the city of New Orleans and as the state of Mississippi and the state of Louisiana try to recover and rebuild in what is a mammoth task, we have to make sure that FEMA does not become so enmeshed in its own bureaucratic processes sometimes that they lose sight of the need to have simple common sense and humanity in dealing with the public. So we’re going to have to continue to crack down and make sure we get this job done.

As Scout points out:

Can someone please give Chertoff an organization chart for DHS so we can remind Michael that FEMA is that little box below YOU. Perhaps you should crack down on yourself Mr. Secretary.  Read more