Lousiiana

Things to check on later. Thomas Lipscomb reports at Tech Central a number of facts that I did not know. He provides no links. I am hoping to confirm them.

1. The Mayor of New Orleans is reported to have shouted, Get off your asses, and let's do something" -- and then continued doing nothing himself, but add to the deluge by bursting into tears.
I knew the governor had resorted to tears, but Naigin? Something to check on.
UPDATE: The radio interview is online here at CNN. The mayor is a wealth of disinformation and distraction. Example: "...thousands of people that were stuck in attics, man, old ladies. ... You pull off the doggone ventilator vent and you look down there and they're standing in there in water up to their freaking necks." The mayor sneers at the talk of getting school bus drivers to come to take people out. He doesn't say who was talking about it, but his solution is clearly bigger: "I'm like, "You got to be kidding me. This is a national disaster. Get every doggone Greyhound bus line in the country and get their asses moving to New Orleans."

He also criticizes unnamed people for "And they allowed that pumping station next to Pumping Station 6 to go under water. "

Did he break into tears? NO

2. Troops finally searching the Convention Center on Monday found an elderly man and a young girl, battered to death, among the corpses. Something to check on.

3. Three Louisiana officials were indicted for stealing emergency relief funds prior to Katrina. Something to check on.
UPDATE: Nov 30, 2004. Story brief from the Shreveport Times:

Three face federal charges of covering up misuse of funds. By Raechal Leone rleone@gannett.com Three state officials were indicted Monday on federal charges of covering up a misuse of federal funds intended to repair and prevent flood damage. The indictment states that the money was actually used to bridge a $175,000 shortfall in the state's military department, the parent of the Louisiana Department of Homeland.

Indictments and details from DoJ.

Two of the individuals charged, MICHAEL C. APPE, 51, of Mandeville, Louisiana, and MICHAEL L. BROWN, 61, of St. Francisville, Louisiana, are senior employees of the Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. Both APPE and BROWN are charged with conspiracy to obstruct a federal audit; BROWN is additionally charged with making a false statement.

Serious stuff.