It troubles me greatly that, apparenty, able volunteers are being turned away. Earlier in the week a group from Canada was turned back at the border, and a group of doctors from Jamaica were told to stay home. All while our own government seemed to do nothing. I know New Orleans well enough to know the Convention Center they keep talking about. It's directly on the Mississippi, and is the spot where riverboat tours left from. Large container ships pass by there every day. Apparently even Katrina didn't do anything to block the port in any way. So... why couldn't the Coast Guard and Navy help deliver supplies: THEY COULD HAVE DOCKED SOME FAIRLY BIG SHIPS RIGHT AT THE CONVENTION CENTER. And then I saw Ted Koppel interviewing the head of FEMA on Thursday evening, and apparently he just heard there was a problem that day.

There seems to be a level of imcompetence operating here that just staggers. Granted, we're talking about 100 miles of Gulf coastline basically erased from the map, so any response is bound to seem feeble for a few days. Even so, you'd think it wouldn't take 5 days for a visible response from the federal government. Something is just plain wrong.