As everyone can tell here, and across the net, the politics of Katrina has erupted on the left and in the media-formally-known-as-mainstream. Captain Ed Morrissey has probably done the right thing, he is focusing on helping and has a ban on the discussion of politics in this event.

I will have plenty to say later on about the madness of the coverage and the political debate surrounding Hurricane Katrina and flood aid, but I won’t be drawn into it now, not by ridiculous rappers who spew garbage on prime-time network TV nor by the asinine and biased reporting that presumes that the federal government has all responsibility for the citizens of a city, rather than the city itself or the state in which it resides.
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I’m starting a moratorium on debating the politics of the relief at Captain’s Quarters for a fortnight. I hope my fellow bloggers will join me, on the right and the left.

Actually, I think the top bloggers like Morrissey and Malkin do better to help mobilize support. Their vast readership and the victims are better served by focusing on the efforts at hand. Us smaller blogs can do more on a personal level (we donated money already and are preparing our house for some long term guests).

But I cannot join the good captain in his moratorium. Simply because the events of the last week show the other side has no intention of stopping themselves. So while the people who are working to save lives struggle with their challenge, and the most visible bloggers help mobilize the nation, I think I will do best protecting their flanks and, let’s be honest here, reputations.

The ridiculous, and at times completely childish, complaints about the response to the disaster in New Orleans have been a terrible poison which has been added on top of a human tragedy. Death and destruction are terrible enough without adding looting, raping, and propogandist finger pointing.

Yes, I put them all in the same category. Captain Ed Morrissey has probably done the right thing, he is focusing on helping an has a ban on the discussion of politics in this event. When CNN’s Solidad O’Brien went off on the head of FEMA for not watching enough TV so he could ignore the information coming from the Mayor of New Orleans and the Governor of Louisianna I decided this had gone too far.

When Suzanne Malveaux, also of CNN, tries to claim there was no help coming form the feds to George Bush Sr, and Bill Clinton jumps in to set things straight I though maybe the left would tak a cue from Bill. But then Kuckoo Kos tried to call off the memorial activities for 9-11, Randi Rhodes libelously claimed Bush did not care for poor, black democrats, and some rapper uses a telethon for raising money to claim Bush doesn’t care about blacks.

The tragic truth is that New Orleans and Louisianna are responsible for disaster responses and they blew it. The blew it before and they blew it after, and everyone in the federal side of this relief effort has been doing their best not to say a word about it. The feds have been taking all this heat so as to not cause bitterness in the ranks of all the people who need to get the job of saving and evacuating lives done.

Ed Morrissey explains the situation here, but Machiavel at Redstate has the timeline of incompetence here.

As Machiavel shows, the mistakes began early on, as we treated Katrina like every other hurricane we have seen in the last 10 years, even though it was clearly indicating it was the kind of storm you see once in a 100 years:

August 25-26, 2005: Katrina hits South Florida.

August 26, 2005, 5:23 p.m.: Meteorologist Jeff Masters: “Threat threat of a strike on New Orleans by Katrina as a major hurricane has grown… It would be no surprise if later advisories shift the forecast track even further west and put Katrina over New Orleans.”

August 26, 2005, 11:25 a.m.: Masters: “I’m surprised they haven’t ordered an evacuation of the city yet. While the odds of a catastropic hit that would completely flood the city of New Orleans are probably 10%, that is way too high in my opinion to justify leaving the people in the city. If I lived in the city, I would evactuate NOW! There is a very good reason that the Coroner’s office in New Orleans keeps 10,000 body bags on hand. … New Orleans needs a full 72 hours to evacuate, and landfall is already less than 72 hours away.”

The urge to deny a slowly growing threat is normal. We do not want to have to be in a life threatening battle. We, as a nation, had this myopic problem leading up to 9-11. Some raised the alarms, too many continued on normally – oblivous or simply wanting to not know. But there comes a time when leaders need to act. And in this case, Goerge Bush had to push leaders into action:

August 27, 2005, afternoon: Mayor Nagin says “this is not a test,” “batten down the hatches” – but evacuation is still voluntary.

August 27, 2005, 7:34 p.m. Loy: “I can’t emphasize enough what a bad decision I think it is for New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin to delay the mandatory evacuation until tomorrow morning… Will Ray Nagin go down in history as the mayor who fiddled while New Orleans drowned? Could be.”

August 27, 2005, evening: Governor Blanco interrupts Mayor Nagin at dinner Update [2005-9-2 18:54:36 by machiavel]: after President Bush appeals for a mandatory evacuation of the city, telling him to call the National Hurricane Center. He subsequently orders a mandatory evacuation for Sunday, 24 hours before landfall.

The local leaders needed to be prodded by Bush to act. All other regional leaders had acted by now.

Between Ed Morrisey and Machiavel you see numerous more mistakes in preparation and response. But the most glaring mistakes have been by a shrill and uneducated news media wildly throwing around claims. When all is said and done I think we need to demand some minimal requirements from the media if they wish to have access to these events. As I pointed out, CNN reporters took over the seats of people in need of rescue to get film footage. That is outrageous.

More here and here at Powerline. More here and here from Mac at Mac’s Mind – who knows about evacuation efforts and hurricanes having lived through both.

Lori Byrd comments here and here.

DJ Drummon responds here

Betsy Newmark comments here.

Mark In Mexico has the evacuation order and highlights the responsibilities for all the actions to be taken. Surprisingly it never mentions George Bush.

Mark Coffey highlights a disgusting piece of …work from HowLow MoDo here,