A reader e-mails: “You are correct about the corruption. But equally bad right now is the fact that the city and state leader *cannot* handle this, and are totally lost. The mayor of NOLA is in complete denial (he spoke last night of the refugees in the Superdome “waiting it out”) except when he’s angry (publicly blaming others for the levee break not being fixed) ; the governor of LA is emotionally broken. She keeps speaking of “trying to figure out” how to evacuate people; “trying to figure out” how to put refugees somewhere else, etc. As you noted, she can’t even say that looting is wrong; the most outrage she can muster is “where are they taking the loot to, anyway?” She can’t even see that her brokenness demonstrates that no one is in charge, and the more that people see that, the more utter chaos and lawlessness are spread.

Honestly, I think it is clear that the state and local authorities *cannot* do this. The federal govt needs to come in Right Now. FEMA waiting on the outside isn’t the issue. Getting command authority into the hands of people who can make decisions and take action is the point.

It’s time for us to demand the feds to take control before this nightmare of anarchy swallows all of Louisiana.”