Department of Homeland Absurdity

First up, Department of Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff. The Washington Post reports this morning that he said the following:

"The critical thing was to get people out of there before the disaster," he said on NBC's "Today" program. "Some people chose not to obey that order. That was a mistake on their part."

Now, even Trailhead has heaped scorn on those whose only reason for not evacuating was they don’t like being told what to do.

But that is not the case with the overwhelming majority of the people still trapped in New Orleans. They couldn’t get out beforehand. You see, they didn’t have the resources to evacuate.

Consider this. You have no car. Maybe you have a couple of kids. You live paycheck to paycheck. And, since you embrace “personal responsibility,” like the righties say you should, you don’t carry credit cards. It’s the leanest time of your month, the time when you’re making dinners out of the dregs from your frig – you know, the two remaining pieces of lunch meat, the one remaining egg and an old soft tortilla from the last time you made burritos. Then you hear on the radio (the one you bought from the proceeds of a summer job ten years ago when you were seventeen) that you are supposed to get the hell of out New Orleans right now.

You look in your wallet. You have $1.50. That was to be bus fare to work tomorrow. You have no family, or maybe your mom lives down the street and she has $1.75 until she gets paid.

Where do you go? The Superdome, probably.

At this late date, the chief of this country’s Homeland Security Department doesn’t understand this?

And of what importance is such a statement now? I don't give a good goddamn why people didn't evacuate, at this point. The time for scorn-heaping was before the hurricane, when we still had hopes that the truculent ones -- those with resources, at least -- could be shamed into leaving.

That time is past. Can we please just get them out?

(Via Atrios.)