Condi Rice should expect some heat over this:

Just moments ago at the Ferragamo on 5th Avenue, Condoleeza Rice was seen spending several thousands of dollars on some nice, new shoes (we’ve confirmed this, so her new heels will surely get coverage from the WaPo’s Robin Givhan). A fellow shopper, unable to fathom the absurdity of Rice’s timing, went up to the Secretary and reportedly shouted, “How dare you shop for shoes while thousands are dying and homeless!” Never one to have her fashion choices questioned, Rice had security PHYSICALLY REMOVE the woman.

She's also working on her backhand with Monica Sales at the U.S. Open. And, as Drudge reports, last night she attended a Broadway play.

Watching the news, I see hundreds of people outside the convention center and the Superdome in New Orleans - they have been pushed out of both places. There are tiny infants and elderly people and all kinds of other people--sick, tired, hot, dehydrated, hungry--without water and food and toilets for days now, according to eyewitness reporters on the scene. Some will die. Attorney General Gonzales is on tv now saying that security and law and order is a top priority.

Getting food, water and medical care to these people should be the top priority. Law and order should not be the top priority. Even getting them out of New Orleans is not as crucial as getting them food, water, medicine before they are moved.

HSA Chief Michael Chertoff was just on tv, again promising that massive food, water and supplies are on their way. But it's clear that the people outside the superdome haven't received them. There are buses waiting outside of New Orleans that are not moving in.

Counting on FEMA is problematic. Since Bush moved it into Homeland Security, critics say that disaster relief has gotten the short shrift compared to counter-terrorism related activities.

Update: Crooks and Liars has the video:

********
President Bush appeared on Good Morning America today. He said,

"I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees."

Really? Didn't anyone on his staff tell him about the New Orleans Times-Picayune series Washing Away, which reported:

Though protected by levees designed to withstand the most common storms, New Orleans is surrounded by water and is well below sea level at many points. A flood from a powerful hurricane can get trapped for weeks inside the levee system. Emergency officials concede that many of the structures in the area, including newer high-rise buildings, would not survive the winds of a major storm.

...and in 2004, the emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana raised concerns that the president's budget shifted money away from finishing the levees to pay for the war in Iraq.

I did happen to catch President Bush's hum-drum live speech yesterday. Leading editorials in today's papers are far more critical. The New York Times writes in Waiting for a Leader:

George W. Bush gave one of the worst speeches of his life yesterday, especially given the level of national distress and the need for words of consolation and wisdom. In what seems to be a ritual in this administration, the president appeared a day later than he was needed. He then read an address of a quality more appropriate for an Arbor Day celebration: a long laundry list of pounds of ice, generators and blankets delivered to the stricken Gulf Coast. He advised the public that anybody who wanted to help should send cash, grinned, and promised that everything would work out in the end.

The Los Angeles Times:

It's not just the left criticizing President Bush over his belated response to the Katrina catastrophe, it's also those that used to praise him:

AS THE EXTENT of Hurricane Katrinas devastation became clearer on Tuesday millions without power, tens of thousands homeless, a death toll unknowable because rescue crews cant reach some regions President Bush carried on with his plans to speak in San Diego, as if nothing important had happened the day before. Katrina already is measured as one of the worst storms in American history. And yet, President Bush decided that his plans to commemorate the 60th anniversary of VJ Day with a speech were more pressing than responding to the carnage.

A better leader would have flown straight to the disaster zone and announced the immediate mobilization of every available resource to rescue the stranded, find and bury the dead, and keep the survivors fed, clothed, sheltered and free of disease.

by TChris

The New York Civil Liberties Union takes issue with NYPD’s assertion that it behaved with utmost professionalism during last year’s Republican National Convention.

The NYCLU report 'Rights and Wrongs at the RNC: A Special Report About Police and Protest at the Republican National Convention' recommends the establishment of an independent City agency to oversee the planning and management of large demonstrations. The report says the most troubling aspect of the NYPD's actions during the Convention was its resort to mass arrest tactics that resulted in large numbers of innocent people being swept into police custody.

More than 90 percent of the arrests ended with dismissals or acquittals -- hardly stellar police work. The report (pdf) also condemns “the pervasive surveillance of lawful demonstrators, and the illegal fingerprinting and prolonged detention of nearly 1,500 people charged with mostly minor offenses.”

The Governor of Lousiana has ordered a mandatory evacuation of the city in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. 475 buses are en route to transport up to 25, 000 people from the Superdome to the Astrodome.

Blanco said she wanted the Superdome - which had become a shelter of last resort for about 20,000 people - evacuated within two days, along with other gathering points for storm refugees. The situation inside the dank and sweltering Superdome was becoming desperate: The water was rising, the air conditioning was out, toilets were broken, and tempers were rising.

A little bit of history:

The Big Easy

In the land of spicy music and melodic foods - better known as New Orleans - the pursuit of good times is not merely a diversion, but a way of life. From its beginning in 1718 as a French real estate scam, and centuries of settlement by other ethnic cultures, the unlikely city built in the midst of a swamp has remained tenaciously French in style and outlook. In spite of an early history filled with hurricanes, floods and fires, political upheavals and plagues of yellow fever, the French joie de vivre and love of celebrating endured and is still part of the lifestyle.

Via Crooks and Liars and George .

While millions of Americans have lost their homes or lives in the devastation wrought by hurricane Katrina, Bush not only goes about business as usual, he plays the guitar.

He couldn't even do a ballad? Not even, While My Guitar Gently Weeps? Jeez...

posted by Last Night in Little Rock

I heard this on Air America an hour ago, and I had to find it myself, and here it is: While we were pouring money into the War in Iraq, we were funding it in part by taking money from disaster preparedness. Since 2003, FEMA gave no money to Orleans and Jefferson Parishes in Louisiana, even though it recognized the flooding risks from a hurricane or levee breach as reported here about four hours ago.

Maestri [the local EM director] is still awaiting word from FEMA officials as to why Louisiana, despite being called the "floodplain of the nation" in a 2002 FEMA report, received no disaster mitigation grant money from FEMA in 2003 ("Homeland Insecurity," Sept. 28). Maestri says the rejection left emergency officials around the state "flabbergasted."

Indeed, the June 6th edition of New Orleans CityBusiness reported that the 2006 federal budget would cut another $71M from the Corps of Engineers budget used to protect New Orleans from flooding.

And that is on top of the previous failures to appropriate during Bush's oil war. I guess that cut isn't going to happen now.

This is incredible:

40,000-50,000 people in the superdome, including seriously injured people, and evacuees from the Hospitals. There are no running water or sewage facilities -- and no power. Temperatures are in the 90's within the building

One man just committed suicide by jumping. 'Unrest' is growing within the superdome - and their are there are now military as well civilian police on the scene. There are now several; major fires in view of city. There is evidently a fair amount of oil and gas floating on the flood waters.

Water is still rising and the Mayor is just now being evacuated by helicopter as City hall is now surrounded by water that can only be reached by small boat, water is about 3 feet deep at the steps of City Hall. 80% of New Orleans is totally submerged now, and will likely become 100% submerged tonight.

President Bush is cutting his vacation short by two days to monitor the hurricane damage...from Washington. Americablog says it's too little too late, but here's the real complaint.