Posted 9/07/2005 05:11:00 PM by Douglas

Anyone remember the good old days of September 12, 2001, when the attacks were over and all you could do was watch CNN with your jaw on the floor? But at least it was over. Well, it's now eight days after Katrina and it's still unfolding.

Officials named Vibrio vulnificus as a likely culprit in the deaths. The bacterium can lead to dangerous infections in people with open cuts and wounds who are exposed to such things as hurricane floodwaters, said Tom Skinner, a spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC is also investigating a potential outbreak of norovirus, an infection infamous for causing stomach ailments on cruise ships, among refugees housed in the Houston Astrodome, Skinner confirmed.

The outbreak, along with a spate of diarrheal illnesses in Mississippi, is the first indication that infectious diseases may be beginning to hit people in emergency shelters across Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and other states.

Who knows, maybe the CDC is wrong. If this disaster does nothing else for the reputation of the federal government, I honestly hope it instills a severe distrust in government everywhere. I'd like to know the opinion of the average New Orleanian in the Astrodome as to whom they are more grateful: People like:

• Jabbar Gibson:

  What began as an act of sheer panic turned into what has been called a “magnificent journey” that placed Gibson among the heroes emerging from the horrors of Hurricane Katrina.
  
  “I knew how to get over the fence, and where the keys were, so I felt it was worth the chance,” said Gibson, whose age was given by another channel as 18.
  
  Although he had only eight passengers on board when he set off on Highway 10 towards Texas, Gibson picked up many more, young and old, stranded beside the road during the eight-hour journey.
  
  “By the time we gotten here we had all kinds of folk on board, from mothers with young babies to people in their seventies and eighties,” said Gibson, speaking from Houston. “And when we ran out of gas we had a whip-round and everyone gave me enough cents to fill up and get here.”

• Wal-Mart:

  Over the next few days, Wal-Mart's response to Katrina -- an unrivaled $20 million in cash donations, 1,500 truckloads of free merchandise, food for 100,000 meals and the promise of a job for every one of its displaced workers -- has turned the chain into an unexpected lifeline for much of the Southeast and earned it near-universal praise at a time when the company is struggling to burnish its image.
  
  Cliff Brumfield, executive vice president of the Brookhaven-Lincoln County Chamber of Commerce, said he was impressed with Wal-Mart's preparations.
  
  "They were ready before FEMA was," he said

  OR
• Barbara Bush:

  Commenting on the facilities that have been set up for the evacuees -- cots crammed side-by-side in a huge stadium where the lights never go out and the sound of sobbing children never completely ceases -- former First Lady Barbara Bush concluded that the poor people of New Orleans had lucked out.
  
  "Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this, this is working very well for them," Mrs. Bush told American Public Media's "Marketplace" program, before returning to her multi-million dollar Houston home.

• Tom DeLay

  On Tuesday, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, sought to deflect criticism of the federal response before announcing that House hearings on the issue had been canceled -- and pressing for a joint review instead.
  
  "The emergency response system was set up to work from the bottom up," DeLay said late Tuesday.
  
  DeLay added that Alabama and Mississippi did a much better job of responding quickly than Louisiana. Alabama and Mississippi have Republican governors. Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco is a Democrat.

• George Bush:

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

• Ray Nagin:

  Now get off your asses and do something, and let's fix the biggest goddamn crisis in the history of this country.

It's sickening, but let's compare and contrast, shall we? A private company responds quicker than the Federal Emergency Management Agency. A kid steals a school bus and probably saves dozens of lives, while a millionaire's wife says that diseased squalor is adequate for the underprivileged. Then there's the whiner that bitches at the federal government for more help, while the House Majority Leader of the United States Congress explains how Republican states are so much better cared for by their Republican Governors. Hey, Tom, how many of the Republican cities are still under water?

The blame game will go on for years, so can we at least wait 'till all the bodies in New Orleans are at least recoverable, and the people in Biloxi and Gulf Port have power again before we start pointing the finger?

None of the ass-hats are going to get fired, anyway, so let's just hope they don't become too much of an impediment before the real heroes can do all they can.