What the hell is going on down there?

I don't know what your local news is reporting about the situation in New Orleans, but from where I'm sitting (in front of the computer) it looks to be unfathomably dire. And I'm not just talking about property damage and bloated corpses floating around. I'm talking women being raped in emergency shelters, angry mobs preventing cops from interfering in acts of lawlessness, armed gangs patrolling the streets, very pregnant women who haven't had food or water for days, sniper fire preventing evacuation of a hospital, and a guy shooting his sister in the head over a bag of ice.

This is crazy, apocalyptic shit. And it doesn't star Tom Cruise or Don Cheadle.

What are our nation's leaders doing right now? And would they be doing anything differently if the desperate faces of these stranded hurricane victims weren't black? Maybe it's just that Bush makes decisions as slowly as he reads those fekakteh speeches, but thousands of Americans look to have been abandoned by a President and a nation who seem more concerned with rising gas prices than with getting them the hell out of there.

Mayor Issues Desperate SOS
Black People Loot, White People Find