I've refrained from making any comment, and I'm not planning to make any further comment either.

I only have two points to make, which have been made elsewhere, better, and in more detail. These, though, are the two most important points that I think have come from this disaster:

* First, the US Government has spent billions over the last four years on planning to survive disasters, fuelled by terrorism fears. Katrina was an event that was expected, that they had days (if not weeks) of warning about - and still they couldn't manage to respond until days later. A week later, people were still being rescued. Imagine how they'd have coped if there'd been no warning...

* Second, George W. Bush, responding to criticisms that the relief effort was racially prejudiced, said that (I'm paraphrasing here, if the lazyweb can supply a direct quote and a source I'd be grateful) "The hurricane didn't discriminate, and neither did the relief effort". Even if that statement is true, it's not telling the full story - the evacuation effort certainly discriminated. The evacuation effort depended on people taking themselves out of the area, something which the poorer people weren't able to do.

That's all, goodnight.