PunditGuy

Randall, we’re waiting for you to name a source for your lead sentence. If you don’t have one, we expect an immediate retraction.

Appearing at the same moment online.

h/t Gawker

It’s a valid question.

NYT, Alessandra Stanley: “It was as those images of mounting desperation and disorder began dominating the screen that Washington suddenly seemed to snap to attention. The mounting indignation on the ground spilled over into a televised appearance by Michael Chertoff, the secretary of homeland security. As Mr. Chertoff tried to reassure viewers that the federal authorities had matters under control, CNN and Fox News split the screen and had him speak alongside images of stranded refugees, looters, and a bare-chested man, knee-deep in water, battering a store window with a baseball bat.”

I was watching that interview as well as others featuring government officials and the contrast was remarkable.

Related: Delusional, Dysfunctional, Divisive, and Defiant

Buses arrive at the New Orleans Convention Center, Bush comforts refugees, and the Coast Guard evacuates the stranded.

   

Before leaving for Mobile, Alabama to begin his tour of the Gulf States, the president had this to say.

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT UPON DEPARTURE
The South Lawn

9:02 A.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Secretary Chertoff and I just finished a meeting with Secretary Rumsfeld, General Myers, other members of my Cabinet, as well as General Honore, Admiral Keating, who is in charge of NORTHCOM — General Honore who is our active duty general on the ground in Louisiana, as well — and Mike Brown, who is the head of FEMA.

There’s a lot of aid surging toward those who have been affected: millions of gallons of water, millions of tons of food. We’re making progress about pulling people out of the Superdome. There’s an issue right now at the convention center of New Orleans that General Honore briefed us on. We’re trying to get food and medicine to the convention center. He’s working with the governor, and the adjutant general, and the mayor, to deploy 600 of the newly arrived MPs to secure the site, so that the food and medicine and water can get in there.

A lot of people are working hard to help those who have been affected, and I want to thank the people for their efforts. The results are not acceptable. I’m headed down there right now. I’m looking forward to talking to the people on the ground. I want to assure the people of the affected areas and this country that we’ll deploy the assets necessary to get the situation under control, to get the help to the people who have been affected, and that we’re beginning long-term planning to help those who have been displaced, as well as long-term planning to help rebuild the communities that have been affected.

I’m looking forward to my trip down there, and looking forward to thanking those on the ground, and looking forward to assure people that we’ll get on top of this situation and we’re going to help people that need help.

Thank you.

Even though it’s a bit late, these are the right words.

Michele Catalano has a first hand account from a friend who is in Houston helping refugees at the Astrodome.

Yes, they’re a few days late, but at least they’ve arrived.

National Guardsmen Pour Into Louisiana

Thousands of National Guardsmen with food, water and weapons streamed into Louisiana on Friday to bring relief to New Orleans’ suffering multitudes and put down the looting and violence. “The cavalry is and will continue to arrive,” said one general. The assurances came amid blistering criticism from the mayor and others who said the federal government had bungled the relief effort and let people die in the streets for lack of food, water or medicine.

In Washington, President Bush admitted “the results are not acceptable” and pledged to bolster the relief efforts with a personal trip to the Gulf Coast on Friday.

In the coming weeks there will be plenty of opportunities to debate the lack of early response, the ‘deer in the headlights’ reaction of local and national leadership, and the breakdown of the command structure. For now though, let’s live in the moment, and be grateful that the refugees who are left in New Orleans will finally be getting the aid they need, and will leaving the city soon. 

Watching Fox News right now (7:40 AM PDT) – buses, fire trucks, transport vehicles, 18 wheelers with food and water, medicine on the way to the New Orleans Convention Center. Great news.

National Guardsmen flowing in. Their goal is to take control of the Convention Center area. Hopefully they’ll beat down the thugs that have been causing a lot of the trouble we’ve been hearing about.

Help is (finally) on the way.

WWL-BLOG – Col. Henry Whitehorn, chief of the Louisiana State Police, said he heard of numerous instances of New Orleans police officers – many of whom from flooded areas – turning in their badges.

“They indicated that they had lost everything and didn’t feel that it was worth them going back to take fire from looters and losing their lives,” Whitehorn said.

The interdictor interviews “Bigfoot”, a bar manager and DJ on Bourbon Street who is stranded with 10,000 others at the New Orleans Convention Center.

Hour after hour they watch buses pass by filled with people from other areas. The people are so desperate that they’re doing anything they can think of to impress the authorities enough to bring some buses. These things include standing in single file lines with the elderly in front, women and children next; sweeping up the area and cleaning the windows and anything else that would show the people are not barbarians.

The buses never stop.

Related: Delusional, Dysfunctional, Divisive, and Defiant