What the F...?

I'm amazed, nay, gobsmacked at the depths some District Attorneys will stoop.

If the shit falling from a great height over FEMA's response to Hurricane Katrina wasn't bad enough, there is this and, just to confirm - though the BBC is a well-respected organistion - there is this.

For four days FEMA screwed around, 'umm-ed' and 'ahh-ed' and made excuses about what to do in the aftermath of this mighty storm. People, as we saw on the television, were left to fend for themselves; to find food and clean water as they could, most stole it.

Doctor Pou, and others, did the best they could under atrocious conditions, especially when the power went out. What do you do with the critically ill/injured who can't be moved, but the water's rising? Do you allow those patients to drown slowly, simply because some asshole in charge - who wasn't there and remains safe hundreds of miles away - believes all life is sacred and no situation warrants an easy death? Or do you make the tough decision based on what you know, at that time?

Hindsight has 20-20 vision, and all the armchair critics have come out to play: "They should have done this, or they should have done that." But they weren't there, didn't go through the disaster that was Katrina.

All the good works of those doctors and nurses who didn't abandon the patients will now be ignored, invisible against the wrath of a state government hunting for scapegoats.

I have no doubt that in the days ahead, someone is going to come out and say: "See, even while the city suffered, we still managed to maintain some sort of law and order and those who committed crimes will be punished."

Are they going to go after those people who had to, gasp, steal food and clean water to survive? Have they prosecuted the rapists of Superdome yet? The child molesters? The looters?

Well, FUCK THAT! Prosecute FEMA for gross incompetence leading to the deaths of hundreds, prosecute those responsible for the non-maintenance of the Levies, prosecute the President who did Fuck All while patting FEMA on the back for doing a good job, for knowing they were doing nothing, for refusing immediate international help.

Doctors make difficult decisions every, single day - in normal weather; what moral horror did they go through knowing their patients were going to die slowly, painfully, in the humid heat, without relief, because of incompetence and indifference?

The affidavit posted on the CBS site makes for some dry reading. Taken as it is, it's damning; there is no mention of the electricity going out, the lack of staff, the rising water and temperatures, the conditions of the patients, the stench of death, fetid water, spoiling food, unwashed bodies, of desperation. Nope. Just the facts.

I really hope sanity prevails in this case, but I have my doubts given the glee with which the charges were laid. Someone, apparently, has to be responsible, and it looks like it will be the doctor and nurses.