Dinty Moore breaks long silence on terrorism

So far I haven't posted anything about Hurricane Katrina. I don't really have anything original to say. But this whole thing sucks. If you haven't already, or even if you have, donate to hurricane relief through the American Red Cross, United Jewish Communities, Union for Reform Judaism, Mazon, or any of the other organizations addressing this disaster. If you have housing to offer, post it on MoveOn's Hurricane Housing site. And if you have time to go down to Louisiana and help out, volunteer with your local Red Cross chapter.

Pursuing Tzedek is a new blog that just started last week and has so far been all-Katrina.

Craigslist is providing message boards for missing people, temporary housing, transportation, etc.

A number of writers are drawing parallels to Eicha, including Chayyei Sarah (via Abacaxi Mamao) and the Village Voice (via Pursuing Tzedek).

I'm filled with rage about everything, just like this cartoon squirrel. Where the fuck has the government been? The Department of Homeland Security has supposedly been preparing for the next terrorist attack for four fucking years, and this is all they've come up with? A Talking Points Memo reader writes in:

Wouldn’t part of any homeland security preparation be the handling of refugees? Virtually any serious terrorist attack (explosion, nuclear, biological) would entail a large number of displaced persons. Wasn’t anything done along these lines? I would have thought we would have pre-positioned refugee resources (tents, MRE's, water purification, generators, emergency medical care) near major population centers in the event of mass exodus.

And an Andrew Sullivan reader has a similar point.

For more on this criminal negligence, check out Rich, Dowd, Krugman, and even Brooks.

Frank Rich writes:

Surely it's only a matter of time before Mr. Chertoff and the equally at sea FEMA director, Michael Brown (who also was among the last to hear about the convention center), are each awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom in line with past architects of lethal administration calamity like George Tenet and Paul Bremer.

Given other recent events, as well as Michael Chertoff's previous job (federal appellate judge on the Third Circuit), does this mean we're about to see Chief Justice Chertoff?