I should be working, but searching for grants isn't nearly as much fun as this.

NOW, CENSOR: FEMA bans photo crews from recording the dead bodies in the streets of New Orleans. (Hat tip: Hart's Big Picture.)

Censor? How about, oh, simple human frickin' decency?

Does he still have a blog? Talk about irrelevance.

I DEMAND my dead bodies!!

Since when did we start caring about decency on TV??

Well, Slub's perfectly right about snapping newporn pictures of dead bodies. I'm old enough to remember when the NY Post slipped a photographer into the morgue to get a pic of John Lennon's corpse, which they ran on the front page. Acouple days later people all over New York were wearing T-shirts with the picture, above the caption: "Aren't You Ashamed to Read the New York Post?" Depressing to think that the 80s can give us lessons in common decency.

Having said that... Oh, God. This is all very new to me, I just hope I do it right... The thing is, I agree with Andrew Sullivan about FEMA. There, I said it. That story about the firefighters used as PR guys for FEMA has been getting a fair amounot of play in the Salt Lake media, and Michael J. Totten has a more comprehensive and less hysterical round-up of FEMA malfeasance here.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to take a long, hot shower. Sully may be right on this one, but agreeing with him still just feels wrong.

Well, I happen to think the dissemination of information is kinda important in a situation like this. They don't have TV's (or, rather, no power to run them), most probably don't have radios with batteries still running, and there are no paperboys delivering newspapers.

The best use of firefighters? Certainly they have skills that would be useful in other tasks. But right now there's also a massive military presence down there, and those boys have some skills, too.

The army, after all, is highly skilled at taking an unlivable piece of real estate and quickly putting up shelter and infrastructure to support 10,000 folks.

Ace, I would agree with you about the importance of restoring communications, if in fact that's what these guys were doing. In fact, they were distributing fliers with FEMA's 1-800 number, and not much else. Hence my description of them as PR guys; it sounded more like delivering the message that FEMA cares, rather than FEMA actually caring.

Totten also links to stories about water and fuel being turned away by FEMA on grounds that contracts hadn't been finalized, and the president of Jefferson County claims that FEMA has twice disconnected their emergency communications (which sounds so off-the-wall that basically I'm waiting to hear more before I make a judgment).

Obviously it's going to be a long, long time before we know the whole story of what happened with Katrina, but bullheaded counterproductive behavior isn't exactly unknown to federal bureaucracies. Lord knows I don't want to start sniping like the Kos kids, but I'm reluctant to give the city, state and federal people a pass on this one. The difference between the response to 9-11 and the response to Katrina is undeniable, and very sad.

I hope no one's getting the impression firefighters are standing around with their thumbs up their butts down there. The NY Daily News has a nice piece on NY firefighters giving back some of that 9-11 love.

I hope no one's getting the impression firefighters are standing around with their thumbs up their butts down there

Now where would we get that idea?

Redstate has a takedown on Broussards complaint that FEMA turned backed the Walmart water trucks. Apparently the water didn't go back but was diverted to an area in greater need. This morning there was talk about the confusion as to whom people were referring when they mentioned FEMA. Apparently, LA has a Homeland Security Department of its own. Some have apparently confused LA Homeland Security with the fed Homeland Security and FEMA. Only time will tell.

Cripes, what a jackass...

The press should ignore those requests, get boats themselves and show the world what has actually happened. (Hey, much of the media was ahead of FEMA during the worst of it. Why not again now?) That goes for any intrepid bloggers with camera-phones or anyone else who can slip through the censorship net. If necessary, faces can be blurred to protect the dignity of the dead. But it matters that we see the full consequences of government delinquency. That's what the press is for. Ignore FEMA. Photobloggers, here's an opportunity for important and necessary work.

Really...is gay marriage really this important?

Because that's the foundation of Sully's anti-Bush hatred. And it's driving him insane.

If Sully wants to see dead people, he should just visit that 'rotten' website and leave the victims of Katrina alone.

He's hit a new low. Seriously.

I don't see why their should be censorship about this, really.

I mean, yeah, taste and all, but whatever. I feel for the families but the public has the right to see, gruesome as it is.

My daughter was watching Oprah when I got home from work yesterday and they were all over the place showing bodies, even to the point of donning latex gloves so they could demonstrate rigor mortis and point out the putrid rotting flesh and gas filled abdomins. No shit.

I don't know. I guess it's just a respect for the dead sort of thing - I don't like that Sully regards the dead as an anti-Bush prop.

abdomin = abdomen. bad fingers.

Okay, Bluetards, the difference between showing those dead babies killed by Katrina (mandatory) and those killed by abortion (forbidden) is what, exactly?

I'm not a Bluetard (great term, btw) but I personally am not comfortable with showing either.

We have an abortion clinic here in town and there's almost always a guy in front with pictures of dead fetuses. I'm not real big on that.

Me neither, Slu -- just pointing out the hypocrisy.

Ah. That's what I figured.

But I hope you're not accusing the left of hypocrisy. Because they'd never be guilty of such a thing.

Because that's the foundation of Sully's anti-Bush hatred. And it's driving him insane.

Has Sully ever used the name Coop before? Because there's definitly some insanity involved in that boy.

Hmmm...

Sully's about to blow a gasket. Insty traffic hasn't thrown any links his way in sometime now. He keeps getting more outlandish as the days and weeks go by. Shoot, I don't think Bill Maher has invited him on his HBO hack fest in 6 months. To sum it all up, when your entire life revolves around your ass, you tend to make an ass out yourself.

What makes ANDREW SULLIVAN such a nit wit is he born witout a brain or did it roll out his ear one night while in bed?