They should have prayed.

There’s news that the Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort is in the Gulf of Mexico and is expected to arrive in New Orleans sometime later today. After getting its orders to sail from FEMA last Friday the ship left at 11:17 PM the same day from Baltimore. Unfortunately, Hurricane Katrina struck last week and many hundreds, if not thousands, of people who could have benefited from a modern, fully equipped hospital instead suffered and died in vain waiting days to be cared for.

Imagine if the doctors and patients at Charity, University and other hospitals could have been spared the horrific consequences of FEMA’s inattention to details.

We’ve heard a lot about all the stuff that had been “propositioned” by FEMA before the Hurricane struck ----that still didn’t manage to get into the city for almost a week----but Navy ships apparently weren’t one of them.

I guess, Michael Brown and Co. were waiting for an explicit request from state and local governments before acting. (The words “lead time” aren’t in the FEMA lexicon.) According to memos written by Brown, five hours after Katrina struck, he was seeking approval from Michael Chertoff to send 1000 DHS employees to the disaster area within 48 hours. Naturally, after making sure they had the proper training “to help the life savers,” according to Homeland Security spokesperson Russ Knocke.

Brown wrote these employees would be there to “convey a positive image of disaster operations to government officials, community organizations, and the general public.” (Boy, looks like that part of the plan kind of crashed and burned.) Brown’s sense of urgency, during this “near catastrophic event,” is neatly conveyed by him closing with, “Thank you for your consideration in helping us to meet our responsibilities.” [AP]

It sounds almost like he wasn’t sure Chertoff was going to sign off on the plan! This is language you use in a business situation when you’re asking for some petty cash to buy pizza for a staff party. This is so emblematic of the low priority this administration gives to the role of the federal government in matters not related to making war or handing out welfare checks to the rich. ‘Let the states and faith based charities deal with this sort of thing, we’re busy doing the business of America, which is business.’

Speaking of doing business, Haliburton’s subsidiary KBR is tapping into a $500 million Navy contract to do emergency repairs at Navy and Marine bases damaged by Katrina. The fact that the pentagon is still investigating hundreds of millions of dollars in overcharges by KBR in Iraq doesn’t mean they can’t continue to rip off the American tazpayer here at home.

[By the way, I'm sure this has nothing to do with anything, but former FEMA director Joe Allbaugh, who gave Michael Brown his job, just happens to be a lobbyist for KBR. But, as I say, I'm sure its all on the up and up.]

The “underprivileged” at the Astro Dome:

Barbara Bush, the queen mum, is worried the “evacuees” living in the palatial surroundings of the Astro Dome might be enjoying their stay a little too much. “What I’m hearing, which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas.” God forbid! That’s all Texas needs, more minorities! “And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so to this is working well for them.” Yes, too well. W. says everybody will get back to the way they were and made whole again. [Audio]

Well, maybe not whole, if that means not going back to living below the poverty line again. What does “underprivileged” mean anyway? This is a word people who are very privileged use to describe their inferiors. What this disaster needs is a lot more Eleanor and way less Barbara.

Talking points: it wasn’t all bad.

The administration’s emergency spin effort is claiming that blame for the pathetic and criminal federal non-response to Katrina should be withheld until there’s time to “assess what worked and what didn’t work.” Interesting choice of wording: it implies there actually was something that worked. If there was, this is what ought to be thoroughly investigated.

National Day of Prayer: Sept. 16

I just saw W. on the TV and besides giving $2000 debt cards out to people who don't have an internet conection or a phone to register for them, he's calling for a national day of prayer next Friday.

That's great. Maybe, he should have called for prayer while Katrina was on the way to New Orleans. If people knew then he wasn't going to do anything they might have been better off.

What about those of us that don't believe in that mumbo jumbo, by the way? Are the satan worshipers allowed to pray? Just wondering.