They do have a point though. The mainstream media obviously have the ability to get into those places. Unfortunately, they aren't well organized to do relief missions... that's FEMA's job. FEMA supposedly has a budget for this, so why aren't they rescuing people? And if this is how they respond to a natural disaster we knew about a week in advance, what happens when there's a significant terrorist attack?
I'd been wondering just how quickly it was reasonable to expect to be able to get aid into the area, just how far away they had to position potentially-useful ships and aircraft, then I ran across a comparison of past hurricanes to this one and noted that other presidents had had the Navy and the Coast Guard follow the hurricane in. Doh! Of course -- hurricanes do change direction, but they rarely back up, right? So the USNS Comfort could've been already en route before Katrina hit (I don't know what her travel time is from Baltimore to New Orleans, but sending her out on Sunday instead of Thursday would still have gotten her there days earlier than she'll get there now). And any ship in the area with helicopters aboard could've been within range before the flood peaked. There was no preparation -- things broke down at multiple levels ... and even worse, some things didn't so much break down as fail to even get started.
ARGH!
(And now there's the news that on the one hand the National Guard and Homeland Security (not sure whether thats Federal DHS or state DHS) had been telling the Red Cross they weren't allowed in, partly because "if you bring in food, people won't want to leave", and at the very same time the National Guard was turning back people who were trying to leave. WTF?! Are they trying to increase the death toll?)
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ARGH!
(And now there's the news that on the one hand the National Guard and Homeland Security (not sure whether thats Federal DHS or state DHS) had been telling the Red Cross they weren't allowed in, partly because "if you bring in food, people won't want to leave", and at the very same time the National Guard was turning back people who were trying to leave. WTF?! Are they trying to increase the death toll?)