i don't understand

so since the bush administration has said we don't want to play the blame game (and then promptly went to blame state and local officials about not asking for federal help early enough), i've been digging through records to see just what the feds were doing compared to the locals, bureaucracy-wise.

and there's something weird. bush's declaration of an emergency for louisiana parishes covers middle and upstate louisiana, but not the coastal parishes. am i just dense and missing something?

here's the list: Allen, Avoyelles, Beauregard, Bienville, Bossier, Caddo, Caldwell, Claiborne, Catahoula, Concordia, De Soto, East Baton Rouge, East Carroll, East Feliciana, Evangeline, Franklin, Grant, Jackson, LaSalle, Lincoln, Livingston, Madison, Morehouse, Natchitoches, Pointe Coupee, Ouachita, Rapides, Red River, Richland, Sabine, St. Helena, St. Landry, Tensas, Union, Vernon, Webster, West Carroll, West Feliciana, and Winn.

the very parishes for which the hurricane warnings were in effect are not among them:

WWUS74 KLIX 281550 NPWLIX [...]
LAZ038-040-050-056> 070-282100 - ASSUMPTION - LIVINGSTON - LOWER JEFFERSON - LOWER LAFOURCHE - LOWER PLAQUEMINES - LOWER ST. BERNARD - LOWER TERREBONNE - ORLEANS - ST. CHARLES - ST. JAMES - ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST - ST. TAMMANY - TANGIPAHOA - UPPER JEFFERSON - UPPER LAFOURCHE - UPPER PLAQUEMINES - UPPER ST. BERNARD - UPPER TERREBONNE

quick map here.

at first i thought maybe they were already covered from a previous declaration (louisiana itself declared a state of emergency for tropical storm cindy, which ended on august 4, and one for hurricane dennis, ending o august 7), but can't find anything about that other than a FEMA disaster aid declaration for cindy from august 23 (wow, that much later; cindy hit july 5).

axis of evil

first there was some good news this morning: families displaced by hurricane katrina will receive debit cards good for $2,000 to spend on clothing and other immediate needs.

alas no good news can last for long.

in the very same article alaska governor frank murkowski, a republican (quelle surprise!), said he had concerns about the potential for abuse. "That's a lot of money. The question is how do you separate the needy from those who just want a $2,000 handout".

well, i tell ya, frank -- i guess it takes one to know one when it comes to abuse. you're the governor of alaska, which has just gotten itself the mother of all pork barrel projects, a $223 million bridge to an island with 50 people.

how you asshole dare to even open your big, fat, crooked mouth is beyond me. how any decent conservative can stand not to denounce you is beyond me. how any self-proclaimed christian can support people like you, oh man, i hope your god is watching.

attention climate geeks

science magazine has just made publicly available a selection of articles related to hurricanes, coastal disasters, and disaster policy.

via janetmk.

OMG castles

japanese ones. very, very cool site, with google maps so one can see the relationship to the landscape; historical info, and pictures.

via metafilter.

i am starting to like metafilter. it doesn't do threading, but it has the bare bones of a sequencer (it shows how many new comments since last time i refreshed, and it can immediately plop me down on the new ones), and i can see all the comments a specific poster has made (something which LJ sorely, sorely lacks). it's still a far cry from usenet, but it doesn't suck quite as much as most weblog software.