"Murdered by Bureaucracy"

I saw this term on the WWL blog, from Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard. I can think of no better way to describe many of the dead.

FEMA and Homeland now say they didn't come in, more or less, because the governor of Louisiana and the mayor of New Orleans didn't ask them to. Which of course is not exactly true - both had been calling for help since Monday. (And the governor had already declared a state of emergency, contrary to the lies told by someone in the Bush Admin.) But what the hell - gotta save the image.

So remember everyone out there - if anything catastrophic happens to your state, march immediately down to your state capitol through walls of fire, raging rivers where streets used to be, armed warfare, white sheets of powdered anthrax, whatever, and volunteer to make sure every "i" is dotted, every "t" is crossed, every signature done in triplicate with red ink first green ink second and rainbow ink third and form XjQ760/5767A is correctly in order with the rest of the papers...

...or Homeland Security and FEMA will tell you to fuck off.