From ThisModernWorld:

For the past couple years, critics of the administration have been trying to point out a couple of things: (1) Iraq is diverting resources from actual homeland security and (2) the situation in Iraq is almost certainly a complete cock-up. Well, the first point has been proven at far too high a price, and as for the second–they can lie about Iraq and plenty of people will believe them. Iraq’s a long ways away. But this is New Orleans, Louisianna, and we’re all watching the biggest fuckup in history play out in real time. Just think about this: we’ve all made a lot of jokes about the Department of Homeland Security over the past four years. But apparently, the Department of Homeland Security has absolutely no plan for dealing with devastation on this scale, which is supposedly the thing we’ve all been worried about for four years. Neither do they seem to have given much thought to the transportation of refugees after a catastrophic event. In this case, we had 24 hours notice and the vast majority of the population got out on their own. If a terrorist attack of this magnitude were to occur, it would occur without warning, and the refugee problem would be exponentially greater. But right now, they can’t even get in enough busses to get those people out of the Superdome. It may turn out that that stupid color coded chart really is Homeland Security’s proudest achievement.

A later entry points out that FEMA head Michael Brown admitted on CNN to Paula Zahn that the Feds “had no idea” about the convention center situation until yesterday. Quoth Tom:

If you live in a major American city, you better pray there’s never a terrorist attack of this magnitude. Because this is the best these fuckers can do with several day’s notice before the disaster hits and 90% of the city having had time to evacuate beforehand. So unless the terrorists are kind enough to give advance notice, you are well and truly fucked.

Sweet Lord.