Quotapollooza

Tim Russert:

Second-guessing is easy, but it is also, I think, a requirement of those in a free society to challenge their government, when the primary function of the government is to protect its citizens and they haven’t been protected

Matthew Yglesias

Apparently, the president of the United States doesn't "think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees." That's false, of course, but the tragic reality is that none of the relevant policymakers do seem to have anticipated this. And that's insane.

Tom @ corrente:

This is the best George W. Bush's government can do to protect you right now. This is apparently the very best they can do. This is a helluva way to take care of "homeland security," huh? The guard units that are supposed to help us all in these situations are thousands of miles away and the agency that is supposed to be in charge of such matters is politicized to the point of incompetence.

Freepers:

When a truckload of MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) finally arrived in to help feed the masses, that have not had any food or water; you would think that these people would be grateful.

That seems to be not the case in the eyes of some people. Yes, that is right, there are some people that have refused to have anything to do with the MREs. A case in point, a woman that was hollering the loudest about not having anything to eat, was handed an MRE and refused it. The reason? It had not been heated.

From the comment string of the Freeper column referenced above:

I don't know what sort of MRE's were distributed but most of the dinner entrees are indeed unfit to eat without being heated. I am not defending the rabble but the 'ready to eat' portion of MRE needs to have the fine print read.

Again, from the comments, the payoff… wait for it…

I saw 2 people on foxnews last night. the woman said the food wasn;t heated and that "nobody could eat that stuff". I'm sure she has no problem eating greasy KFC.

Scott Mehno (just because I understand his pain):

…with all the usual hubris [Peggy Noonan] has learned to pack in her pristine diatribes she obviously believes are making a difference in somebody’s life, Ms. Noonan patriotically chastises the victims she’s just had executed: ‘I wonder,’ she writes ‘if the cruel and stupid young people who are doing the looting know the power they have to damage the country, I wonder, if they knew it they’d stop it.’

Let’s turn that question around a moment for our own big finish. I wonder, Ms. Noonan, if the readers who swallow your self-righteous pap realize you write this nonsense from an ivory tower light-years removed from the poor people fighting for their very lives in the underwater hellhole formerly known as New Orleans, I wonder, if they’d beg you to stop.