"It's a misallocation of resources. Completely," said the Texas firefighter.

Firefighters who volunteered to help in the Gulf Coast, thinking they would be emergency workers, are shuffed to be community relations officers for FEMA. Others are used as props for a Bush photo op.

Salt Lake Tribune story

( text mirrored behind the LJ cut )

FEMA Follies

"WASHINGTON (AP): The government's disaster chief waited until hours after Hurricane Katrina had already struck the Gulf Coast before asking his boss to dispatch 1,000 Homeland Security employees to the region – and gave them two days to arrive, according to internal documents.

"Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, sought the approval from Homeland Security Secretary Mike Chertoff roughly five hours after Katrina made landfall on Aug. 29. Brown said that among duties of these employees was to "convey a positive image" about the government's response for victims."

(AP story via WWL)

Note that in '69, President Nixon mobilized the National Guard BEFORE Hurricane Camile actually hit.
And the country had the Vietnam War going on at the same time.

Also, a UPI story of Nagin's latest evacuation order entitles it "Roust begins of New Orleans squatters"

How does one become deemed a "squatter" in one's own home?

I HOPE the order is designed to give law officers the power to force evacuation of criminals and it will be very selectively used, rather than to force people from their homes who are actually set with enough supplies as emergency planners long told them to be.