Robert Siegel was practically daring Chertoff to call him a liar over the fact that there were people at the convention center. Chertoff kept dodging it, saying they had no such reports. DUDE. Siegel had John Burnett on the phone RIGHT THEN and THERE who way saying on the order of a couple thousand.

I heard that and my jaw just dropped. How could he not know?

NBC just had a photographer on at the convention center -- I saw the people right there on my tv. He said three people had died just when he was there. I guess he was there a few days ago, they aired footage, but no supplies (like, say, water) were delivered until yesterday. He brought Harry Connick, Jr., there too -- he's describing going through with Connick and with the only guy who apparently seems to be in charge there, who he described as "if you want to get sterotypical," looking like a looter. Which I assume to mean young and black.

I heard that and my jaw just dropped. How could he not know?

He had no reports that arrived through "official channels"?

These are bureaucracies. God forbid they should have to improvise a response to a once-in-a-lifetime event.

Oh, and not for nothing, but I heard someone this morning making an excellent point, but now I forget who -- weren't we supposed to be spending the past four years preparing for a catastrophic event?

Is this the satellite picture whose authenticity bon was wondering about? Or was it this (real one)?

No.

eta: and on ita's edit, yes.

Hang on - lemme find it....

It was the real one, or one like it. And note that even the "false" picture is a real hurricane pic, not someone's photoshop baby. It's just not Katrina.

Here: [link]

IIRC someone else figured out where this actually came from....

eta: nebber mind. We're good.

It's unearthly how pretty those are.

Liars.

"I don't know if it's the Governor's problem, or the President's problem, but somebody needs to get their ass on the plane, and do something."

I watched some of Anderson Cooper interviewing Sen. Landrieu on CNN last night, and he was berating her about the fact that the politicians seem to be spending more time patting each other on the back than actually doing anything useful. He was still irate later reporting on Larry King's show.