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You know that bumper sticker that says, "if you're not outraged then you're not paying attention"? I thought I understood it before, because I thought I knew outrage. But after reading things like this, either I was wrong or we need a new word for what I'm feeling today.

DURHAM -- A trio of Duke University sophomores say they drove to New Orleans late last week, posed as journalists to slip inside the hurricane-soaked city twice, and evacuated seven people who weren't receiving help from authorities. The group, led by South Carolina native Sonny Byrd, say they also managed to drive all the way to the New Orleans Convention Center, where they encountered scenes early Saturday evening that they say were disgraceful. "We found it absolutely incredible that the authorities had no way to get there for four or five days, that they didn't go in and help these people, and we made it in a two-wheel-drive Hyundai," said Hans Buder, who made the trip with his roommate Byrd and another student, David Hankla. Buder's account -- told by cell phone Sunday evening as the trio neared Montgomery, Ala., on their way home -- chronicled a three-day odyssey that began when the students, angered by the news reports they were seeing on CNN, loaded up their car with bottled water and headed for the Gulf coast to see if they could lend a hand.

Read the full account. The details are even worse than the lead would imply. Then, if you can stand it, take a look at this:

ON THE USS BATAAN -- While federal and state emergency planners scramble to get more military relief to Gulf Coast communities stricken by Hurricane Katrina, a massive naval goodwill station has been cruising offshore, underused and waiting for a larger role in the effort. The USS Bataan, a 844-foot ship designed to dispatch Marines in amphibious assaults, has helicopters, doctors, hospital beds, food and water. It also can make its own water, up to 100,000 gallons a day. And it just happened to be in the Gulf of Mexico when Katrina came roaring ashore. The Bataan rode out the storm and then followed it toward shore, awaiting relief orders. Helicopter pilots flying from its deck were some of the first to begin plucking stranded New Orleans residents. But now the Bataan's hospital facilities, including six operating rooms and beds for 600 patients, are empty. A good share of its 1,200 sailors could also go ashore to help with the relief effort, but they haven't been asked. The Bataan has been in the stricken region the longest of any military unit, but federal authorities have yet to fully utilize the ship. Captain ready, waiting "Could we do more?" said Capt. Nora Tyson, commander of the Bataan. "Sure. I've got sailors who could be on the beach plucking through garbage or distributing water and food and stuff. But I can't force myself on people. "We're doing everything we can to contribute right now, and we're ready. If someone says you need to take on people, we're ready. If they say hospitals on the beach can't handle it ... if they need to send the overflow out here, we're ready. We've got lots of room."

There is no rational explanation for why this ship is going unused. None. And whoever is responsible for not issuing the order for them to engage fully should be brought up on criminal charges when this is all over. And please, don't try and tell me that its some low level junior officer to blame. The nation might have bought that in Iraq. But not here.

Oh wait... it looks like we already know why the ship isn't fully engaged. Read and weep.

"Northcom started planning before the storm even hit. We were ready when it hit Florida, because, as you remember, it hit the bottom part of Florida, and then we were planning once it was pointed towards the Gulf Coast. "So, what we did, we activated what we call 'defense coordinating officers' to work with the states to say, 'OK, what do you think you will need?' And we set up staging bases that could be started. "We had the USS Bataan sailing almost behind the hurricane so once the hurricane made landfall, its search and rescue helicopters could be available almost immediately So, we had things ready. "The only caveat is: we have to wait until the president authorizes us to do so. The laws of the United States say that the military can't just act in this fashion; we have to wait for the president to give us permission."

Those aren't the comments of a partisan politician. They're from a BBC interview with NorthCom Lt. Commander Sean Kelly. Northern Command, for those of you who don't know, overseas all active-duty military operations inside the United States. If this is true - and you have to imagine that it is given the source - lack of orders from the president may be directly responsible for this. When the investigation comes, and it will, this needs to be very, VERY high on the agenda.

And then, finally, if you can handle it, I've borrowed these links from a post over at DailyKos. No doubt there will be plenty of blame to go around. But since the Bush administration seems determined to blame local officials, its important to keep things like the following in mind:

FEMA won't accept Amtrak's help in evacuations FEMA turns away experienced firefighters FEMA turns back Wal-Mart supply trucks FEMA prevents Coast Guard from delivering diesel fuel FEMA won't let Red Cross deliver food FEMA bars morticians from entering New Orleans FEMA blocks 500-boat citizen flotilla from delivering aid FEMA fails to utilize Navy ship with 600-bed hospital on board FEMA to Chicago: Send just one truck FEMA turns away generators (See entry from 3:32 P.M. by Ben Morris, Slidell mayor) FEMA: "First Responders Urged Not To Respond"

Do you need any more proof that the idiots in charge of FEMA need to be removed? And removed now, not three months from now? There are still thousands of lives at stake here. Hello? Culture of life anyone?

And no, for the record, blaming local officials is not going to cut it here. Yes, OF COURSE, there will be plenty of blame to go around. But after reading through the above stories, to see officials saying things like this is just mindblowing:

"The way that emergency operations act under the law is the responsibility and the power, the authority, to order an evacuation rests with state and local officials," Mr. Chertoff said in his television interview. "The federal government comes in and supports those officials."

Do they really think we're going to accept red tape as an excuse for the deaths of hundreds and maybe thousands of people? Really? Forget for a moment that its clear from the facts as we already know them that the excuse makes no sense, even if it were true its still an unacceptable answer. The delays went on for DAYS, not hours. There is no amount of red tape that can account for that in a situation such as this. None.

Remember "everything changed on 9/11?" You're right, it did. Homeland security became, rightly so, the number one concern for this president. They've been preparing 4 years for a disaster to hit. 4 years. And after all that time, when they totally and completely fail us in the first real post-9/11 test, their excuse is....

RED TAPE?

My god. These guys are so unbelievably pathetic they can't even get the political response to the crisis right! The one thing that matters LEAST right now and they even blow that!

Following 9/11, the president received praise far and wide for his actions. But in the months and years since, I've often wondered what precisely those actions were? So he went to the scene, grabbed a bullhorn, and gave a speech? Anyone - literally anyone - could have, and would have, done that. That was beyond obvious.

But words, as I'm constantly reminding people, aren't the same thing as actions. And it is by our actions, and not our words, that we should be judged. (Yes, I'll remind you again, Jesus would have undoubtedly agreed wholeheartedly with that statement) What precisely did he DO that deserved so much praise? Truth be told, once the day had passed, words were what we needed most, and on that score he did indeed deliver. But what exactly did he do that won him praise as a "strong leader." Have our standards for leadership become so low that we now require nothing more than words?

But this week... this week the man couldn't even deliver words, let alone actions. Actions would have saved lives. Actions would have prevented hundreds, maybe even thousands, of needless deaths. Actions would have made all the difference. Why did it - why is it still - taking so long to get things done? Is this really the best his administration can do? Don't give me words - give me actions. Nothing else matters.. Because if this is indeed the best you can do, please - get the hell out of the way and let us find someone who can do better.

And one last thing. To those of you on the right who think this is all about partisan politics - Excuse my french, but you need to shut the fuck up, and you need to do it now. Whoever is at fault here must be held responsible. Local, state, federal, Democrat, Republican, it doesn't matter. To even think that this is about politics is to entirely miss the point. Honor the fallen, support the troops, and all that, right? Thousands of your fellow countrymen have died needlessly, and it happened here at home, not in some far away foreign land. In case you've forgotten, yes, country does come before party, and its time we all start acting that way.

I'm sorry, but I'm done for the day. I can't take any more of this. This is NOT the best we can do. We all know it. Now what exactly are we going to do about that?

UPDATE: Before stepping away from the computer for the night, I made one last check of the blogs and came across this post from Andrew Sullivan:

BUSH'S OWN PLAN: The 2004 National Response Plan explicitly states that, at times of any natural or manmade incident, including terrorism, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the population, infrastructure, environment, economy, national morale, and/or government functions, the federal government pre-empts local and state government in its responsibility to act quickly. After 9/11, the administration wisely dispensed with the formalities of deferring to local authorities (which, of course, in this case had already issued a state of emergency as early as August 26). The attempt by the spinners to blame this on the obviously overwhelmed and incompetent local authorities, doesn't fit with the Bush administration's own rules. Proof positive can be read here. Keep digging, Karl.

They didn't follow their own plan. And there is no amount of spinning that can hide that. None. Yes, Andrew, fire Brown now. And then work your way up the chain of command.

Am I alone on this one? Hardly. The New Orleans TP is actually the one leading the charge:

Now Editor Amoss, in an interview with The Oregonian in Portland, has explained why the paper wrote it: "We needed to address the president directly....We felt that this is ultimately his failure, and it is a colossal one that may have cost lives, and certainly much physical damage to our community." Why the open letter format? Amoss said the editorial staff thought it needed to present a more direct tone about the federal failures than it could in a conventional editorial. The newspaper is hardly known for Bush bashing. It made no endorsement for president in 2004, unhappy with both candidates. Amoss has been editor since 1990. He pulled no punches in the interview in addressing FEMA officials: "It's a preposterous notion, that they couldn't get in here and their hands were tied. If any of us had experienced anything like that (level of failure) in our own companies, it would mean instant termination. The government ought to be held accountable in the same way."

UPDATE II: And one last point on the White House's disgusting attempts to shift the blame. Some quotes from today found on the blog of New Orleans' own WWL TV::

A quote from NO Chief of Police Compass:

We were sleeping on the streets. I had the same underwear on for five days. There were no restroom facilities. I had two of my officers commit suicide because they were worried about their families. The sacrifices our police officers faced were unprecedented in the history of the United States.

And then, from Ben Morris, Mayor of Slidell, another quote

We are still hampered by some of the most stupid, idiotic regulations by FEMA. They have turned away generators, we've heard that they've gone around seizing equipment from our contractors. If they do so, they'd better be armed because I'll be damned if I'm going to let them deprive our citizens. I'm pissed off, and tired of this horse$#@@."

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