They said it better

Sometimes someone else expresses what you were trying to say so much better. My post from yesterday about my extreme anger and disappointment with the federal response to Hurricane Katrina was one of those times.

Several other people captured my feeling of helplessness, anger, and disappointment much better than I could put into words.

At Daily Kos, Hunter nailed what I was trying to say:

We have witnessed two disasters this week. The first was an act of nature. The second was not. The second disaster, still ongoing, is unforgivable.

That's the only word that comes to mind, a word I keep repeating to myself. These deaths, these men, these women, these infants dying now in these hours didn't have to happen. They did not have to die waiting for convoys to gather outside their city or for reservists to stand alongside their shattered police forces. They did not have to wait in darkness and fear for help to arrive, only to struggle for days without that help ever coming.

This is not politics. This is not partisanship.

This is unforgivable.

Part of this disaster is the fault of the government of New Orleans. But clearly, even their best plans would've been overwhelmed, and the state and federal government have not backed them up. Effectively, there was no government in New Orleans for five days.

You have just got to listen to this interview (2.3 MB MP3, transcript here) with the Mayor of New Orleans. He is righteously angry, totally frustrated. It is simply damning. At the end of the it, the mayor and the interviewer both break down crying. Every American needs to listen to this!

Even the Washington Times said it better than me: Time to crack heads.

Today, finally, troops are moving into New Orleans to restore order and deliver food and water. Bush is on the scene. Time for him to show some leadership. Crack some heads.