From Talking Points Memo, a pointer to this interview with a funeral director who will be working in Gulfport working with the dead: Funeral director deploys to hurricane region A co-owner of Shelbyville-based Gowen-Smith Chapel has been deployed to Gulfport, Miss., to help with recovery since Hurricane Katrina, and his business partner here has described the grim task there. “DMort is telling us to expect up to 40,000 bodies,” Dan Buckner said, quoting officials with the Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team, a volunteer arm of Homeland Security….

Nola.com has a report up on the bodies piled up at the Convention Center, many of them dead by violence, and some of those children. It’s a gruesome, difficult read. Arkansas National Guardsman Mikel Brooks stepped through the food service entrance of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center Monday, flipped on the light at the end of his machine gun, and started pointing out bodies. “Don’t step in that blood – it’s contaminated,” he said. “That one with his arm sticking up in the air, he’s an old man.” Then he shined the light on the smaller human figure under … Continue reading →

Barbara Bush: Things Working Out “Very Well” for Poor Evacuees from New Orleans NEW YORK Accompanying her husband, former President George H.W.Bush, on a tour of hurricane relief centers in Houston, Barbara Bush said today, referring to the poor who had lost everything back home and evacuated, “This is working very well for them.” … In a segment at the top of the show on the surge of evacuees to the Texas city, Barbara Bush said: “Almost everyone I

I have to agree completely with Michael at Americablog on this: What went wrong? BUSH STAYED ON VACATION DURING THE WORST NATURAL DISASTER IN OUR COUNTRY’S HISTORY. CHENEY STAYED ON VACATION DURING THE WORST NATURAL DISASTER IN OUR COUNTRY’S HISTORY. RICE STAYED ON VACATION DURING THE WORST NATURAL DISASTER IN OUR COUNTRY’S HISTORY. Why isn’t this topic number one for every journalist worth their salt?

From War and Piece: Dutch viewer Frank Tiggelaar writes: There was a striking dicrepancy between the CNN International report on the Bush visit to the New Orleans disaster zone, yesterday, and reports of the same event by German TV. ZDF News reported that the president’s visit was a completely staged event. Their crew witnessed how the open air food distribution point Bush visited in front of the cameras was torn down immediately after the president and the herd of ‘news people’ had left and that others which were allegedly being set up were abandoned at the same time. The people … Continue reading →