Just mind-boggling, when you think about it:

From late Aug. 25, when Hurricane Katrina first slammed into the southeast coast of Florida through 5 p.m. Sept. 4, the Red Cross had opened 470 shelters and evacuation centers in 12 states and had sheltered 135,535 men, women and children. The shelter census of 118,556 for the night of Sept. 3 sets a Red Cross record for one-night accommodation. Nearly half of that shelter population -- 56,387 -- was housed in 74 centers in Texas, with an additional 41,135 in 133 shelters in Louisiana and 12,870 in 102 shelters in Mississippi.

Meanwhile, the Red Cross has served more than 2.6 million meals and more than 3.3 million snacks to storm victims and rescue workers. In addition to the food being provided at shelters, tens of thousands of people are being served from 249 Emergency Response Vehicles (ERVs) throughout Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

Law Prof Ellen Podgor of the White Collar Crime Law Prof Blog, asks:

Is it criminal to make statements over the wires that are dishonest? If you happen to be a government official does it reach the level of being a scheme to defraud of "honest services"? Is the government a corporation and therefore subject to the collective knowledge of other officials within their midst; the US government holds corporations to this standard? Is it specific intent, recklessness, or negligence, and does it make difference?

I have a lot of questions. The bottom line is that after listening to the CNN video clip on AOL here, reading TalkLeft here, reading the Times-Picayune open letter to President Bush here, and John Lewis' letter in Newsweek here and being horrified by the incompetency and disregard of too many these past few days, one has to wonder if this reaches a level of criminality. And if not, should it?

Thoughts, anyone?

Huntsville, Texas is home to the nation's most populous Death Row. At least one of every four residents of the town is a prison inmate. Now, the inmates have been called upon to serve, and they are doing so admirably. The evacuees are grateful for their help:

And so they found refuge here, beside the red brick walls of the Texas death house.Many called it heaven. With emergency shelters stretched tight from New Orleans to Houston, eight buses carrying more than 300 survivors of the flood ended up here in the proud "prison city" of Texas, 80 miles north of Houston, where every third or fourth resident lives behind bars, in seven prisons that confine 9,000 to 15,000 inmates.

The First Baptist Church, which backs up on Huntsville's oldest prison unit, including the nation's busiest execution chamber, was ready with cots, showers, fresh clothes and hot food. And prison trusties in white uniforms to clean and cook.

Meanwhile, back in Iraq:

Fighters loyal to militant leader Abu Musab Zarqawi asserted control over the key Iraqi border town of Qaim on Monday, killing U.S. collaborators and enforcing strict Islamic law, according to tribal members, officials, residents and others in the town and nearby villages.

Via Atrios, former first lady Barbara Bush on NPR:

Former First Lady Barbara Bush said Monday that living in the Astrodome in Houston was working out well for many of the 15,000 hurricane victims there because they were underprivileged anyway.

Her exact words:

"And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this -- this [she chuckles slightly] is working very well for them."

Crooks and Liars has the audio .

Update: Billmon.

This is pretty incredible:

The Chicago Tribune reported that a huge assault ship, the USS Bataan, had been deployed in the Gulf of Mexico when the hurricane struck. Despite the fact it had six operating rooms and 600 hospital beds, and was willing to help, Fema did not use it all week.

by Last Night in Little Rock

Earlier today Talkleft posted Plenty of Blame to Go Around. The NY Times has a devastating article today entitled After Failures, Government Officials Play Blame Game.

The Neo-Cons talk about personal responsibility of the victims to go on, completely forgetting about the personal responsibility of every government official who had his or her hands on the NOLA District Corps of Engineers budget cuts or the budget of the Federal Emergency Mismanagement Agency.

by Last Night in Little Rock

AOL users: AOL has a 3:19 video clip from CNN that I could not find on CNN's website entitled Chertoff Fact Check. It has video clips of the various positions taken by DHS Secretary Chertoff and FEMA Director Michael Brown before and after Katrina struck where they are caught, shall we say, flip flopping? Some would say flip flopping, but I'm going to say lying to CYA, forgetting that everything a public official says or does is on videotape.

They deny that this scenario could occur, yet they studied this specific scenario months before Katrina struck, etc. The list painfully goes on forever, and we don't have to recount it any more. CNN.com also has a story Clinton: Government 'failed' people with a video link.

If we can find "Chertoff Fact Check" on CNN's website, we will post it here as an update.

The LA Times:

In the chaos that was Causeway Boulevard, this group of refugees stood out: a 6-year-old boy walking down the road, holding a 5-month-old, surrounded by five toddlers who followed him around as if he were their leader.

They were holding hands. Three of the children were about 2 years old, and one was wearing only diapers. A 3-year-old girl, who wore colorful barrettes on the ends of her braids, had her 14-month-old brother in tow. The 6-year-old spoke for all of them, and he told rescuers his name was Deamonte Love.

Not everyone has praise for New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin. Law Prof Michael Froomkin at Discourse Net says, "Long before FEMA dropped the ball, local authorities decided they didn't need one." [hat tip to Making Light.]

Say hello to the new blog Fema Failures, by a doctor in Washington, DC who writes:

I am outraged at the response of FEMA to Hurricane Katrina. Consequently, I have created a site expressly designed to list these failures. Users are welcome to use this site to: 1) Better inform themselves regarding the remarkable negligence and dissimulations of FEMA and the Bush Administration 2) Add information of their own.

New information will be added as it comes to light.

by TChris

Disregarding his mother's admonition not to speak ill of the dead, Alan Dershowitz discusses the legal legacy of Chief Justice Rehnquist.

So here’s the truth about Chief Justice Rehnquist you won’t hear on Fox News or from politicians. Chief Justice William Rehnquist set back liberty, equality, and human rights perhaps more than any American judge of this generation.

Update: Laurence Tribe takes a friendlier, but still realistic, view: