When everyday people rise to the challenge so much better than those who's supposed job it is to do so:

A trio of Duke University sophomores say they drove to New Orleans late last week, posed as journalists to slip inside the hurricane-soaked city twice, and evacuated seven people who weren't receiving help from authorities.
-snip-
"We found it absolutely incredible that the authorities had no way to get there for four or five days, that they didn't go in and help these people, and we made it in a two-wheel-drive Hyundai," said Hans Buder, who made the trip with his roommate Byrd and another student, David Hankla.

While telling their story on CNN they also showed footage they taped while driving into LA of empty school buses, dozens of them, driving away from LA. What the fuck has our government been doing?

Oh, right, being offensive beyond imagination (from the Salt Lake City Tribune, via Billmon).

Firefighters say they want to brave the heat, the debris-littered roads, the poisonous cottonmouth snakes and fire ants and travel into pockets of Louisiana where many people have yet to receive emergency aid.

But as specific orders began arriving to the firefighters in Atlanta, a team of 50 Monday morning quickly was ushered onto a flight headed for Louisiana. The
crew's first assignment: to stand beside President Bush as he tours devastated areas." (emphasis added)