disgust aimed at the REAL looters, from Liberal Street Fighter

Definition:

an·ar·chy (ăn’ər-kē)
n., pl. -chies.
Absence of any form of political authority.
Political disorder and confusion.
Absence of any cohesive principle, such as a common standard or purpose.

[New Latin anarchia, from Greek anarkhiā, from anarkhos, without a ruler : an-, without; see a-1 + arkhos, ruler; see -arch.]

There is a disturbing trend in the media to focus on looters. (A diary by mrcurmudgeon at dailyKos justaposes the captions describing white refugees and black refugees from Yahoo News is instructive of the tenor of these stories). As often happens in America, there is a nasty edge of blame in these stories, an edge of disgust and condemnation toward the desparate people stripping stores clean.
Lets look again at that definition: Political disorder and confusion:

BATON ROUGE — Gov. Kathleen Blanco called for an
evacuation of the 20,000 storm refugees from the
Superdome after she visited the hurricane-damaged
stadium Tuesday evening for the second time of the
day.

She set no timetable for the withdrawal but insisted
that the facility was damaged, degrading and no longer
able to support the local citizens who had sought
refuge in the Dome from Hurricane Katrina.

“It’s a very, very desperate situation,” Blanco said
late Tuesday after returning to the capital from her
visit, when she comforted the exhausted throngs of
people, many of whom checked in over the weekend.
“It’s imperative that we get them out. The situation
is degenerating rapidly.”

Now, this is an overwhelming disaster, but there seems to have been little or no planning, and this isn’t even the direct hit that some feared had been heading New Orlean’s way:

State officials are establishing evacuation sites,
which will be outside of Orleans Parish, where power
is expected to be off for many days if not weeks.
Blanco said the commodes are not working in the Dome.

Details of how and when the evacuation will take place
are now being determined.

Meanwhile, the Boy Prince who is running this country into the ground and into infamy is busy playing golf and play(ing) a guitar presented to him by Country Singer Mark Wills:

No leadership is apparent. Several organizations are frantically trying to help, to plug the holes in the levees, to help stranded and injured people, yet two days after this huge storm there is no apparent leadership or coordination.

To the definition again:

Absence of any cohesive principle, such as a common standard or purpose.

Louisiana governor calls for prayer as conditions worsen

Anger was rising along with the muddy water in New Orleans.

Mayor Ray Nagin on Tuesday night blasted what he called a lack of coordination in relief efforts for setting behind the city’s recovery.

“There is way too many fricking … cooks in the kitchen,” Nagin said in a phone interview with WAPT-TV in Jackson, Mississippi. (Full story)

Nagin was fuming over what he said were scuttled plans to plug a 200-yard breach near the 17th Street Canal, allowing Lake Pontchartrain to spill into the central business district. (Map)

An earlier breach occurred along the Industrial Canal in the city’s Lower 9th Ward.

The rising flood waters overwhelmed pumping stations that would normally keep the city dry. About 80 percent of the city was flooded with water up to 20 feet deep after the two levees collapsed. (See video of knee-deep and rising water in the French Quarter — 1:19)

Nagin told CNN that at least 30 buildings had collapsed but that no attempt had been made to determine a death toll.

“There are dead bodies floating in some of the water,” Nagin said. “The rescuers would basically push them aside as they were trying to save individuals.”

Nagin said that as of late Tuesday “a significant amount of water” is flowing into the bowl-shaped city and sections of the city now dry could be under 9 or 10 feet of water within hours.

“The bowl is filling up,” he said.

Frustration was also rising among people who now find themselves refugees in their own city.

Thousands of people were being housed in the Louisiana Superdome, where toilets were overflowing and there was no air conditioning to provide relief from 90-degree heat.

Nagin estimated the number of people in the Superdome at between 12,000 and 15,000 people as of late Tuesday. He said they could be there for a week unless evacuated sooner.

As fingers are pointed at desperate and frightened people, it becomes increasingly apparent that the government is asleep at the switch. This is, of course, a huge disaster, but we were told over and over that “things are different now” after 9/11.

Homeland security starts at home, and desperate people will do as they will when their government fails and social structures break down. Empty campaign promises of leadership are revealed as just that: empty. As the finger pointing ramps up, it might be a good idea to look at that definition again:

ABSENCE OF ANY FORM OF POLITICAL AUTHORITY.