The "Strange Doctrines" Undercroft

So Tragic

From the Daily Telegraph:

DOCTORS working in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans killed critically ill patients rather than leave them to die in agony as they evacuated....

"We divided the hospital's patients into three categories: Those who were traumatised but medically fit enough to survive, those who needed urgent care, and the dying....

"I had to make life-or-death decisions in a split second....

"Under normal circumstances some could have lasted several days. But when the power went out, we had nothing...."

This didn't have to happen.

(Via Neuroethics & Law Blog.)

Risky Business

"Fix it." Those were the president's words to aides as he listened to tales of the dysfunctional federal response to Katrina. Perhaps he should look in the mirror and give the same counsel.

Is There a Draft in Here?

Via TPM, from the WSJ:

Ten U.S. Army recruiters are offering volunteer help for Katrina evacuees at Houston's Astrodome. But the recruiters, struggling to keep enlistment up during Iraq war, are also available with options for the jobless. "Our intent is to approach the evacuees at the right time for them,'' says Army spokesman Douglas Smith.

Qualifications

If you have (1) a heavily padded resume and (2) a starched shirt, there's about to be an opening at FEMA.

Shorter Charles Krauthammer

Shorter Charles Krauthammer:

Progressives are trying to hold Bush and his appointees accountable for their failure in mitigating the Katrina disaster, which is basically the same thing as burning witches and exterminating Jews.

As Krauthammer himself might say, "This kind of stupidity merits no attention whatsoever." So please don't click the link. And stop reading this post.

(Via Media Matters.)

It's Just Like...Camping--Er, Right?

"Now tell me the truth boys, is this kind of fun?"
--Tom Delay, to three refugee boys housed in the Astrodome, as per DomeBlog.

(Via Wonkette.)

Built to Live In

Here's Andrew Sullivan:

QUOTE OF THE DAY II: "'The good news is - and it's hard for some to see it now - that out of this chaos is going to come a fantastic Gulf Coast, like it was before. Out of the rubbles of Trent Lott's house -- he's lost his entire house - there's going to be a fantastic house. And I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch.' (Laughter)." - president George W. Bush, today. Just think of that quote for a minute; and the laughter that followed. The poor and the black are dying, dead, drowned and desperate in New Orleans and elsewhere. But the president manages to talk about the future "fantastic" porch of a rich, powerful white man who only recently resigned his position because he regretted the failure of Strom Thurmond to hold back the tide of racial desegregation.

Priorities, Pt. III

Don't ever make the mistake of thinking the President hasn't been staying busy during the Katrina catastrophe.

(Via TPM.)

Priorities, Pt. II

No, no: third fret, Mr. President. Third fret.

(Via TPM.)

Priorities

Howell Raines in the Guardian:

What other American president, one wonders, would fail to house these people in the decent barracks available at the closed and active military bases scattered throughout the South? The plain fact is that Jimmy Carter did a better job of housing the Mariel refugees from Cuba than Bush has done with the citizens of New Orleans.

The populism of Huey Long was financially corrupt, but when it came to the welfare of people, it was caring. The church-going cultural populism of George Bush has given the United States an administration that worries about the house of Saud and the welfare of oil companies while the poor drown in their attics and their sons and daughters die on foreign deserts.