Katrina-Related Misdeeds and Incompetence by the Administration?

On the one hand, I don't like those who simply look for reasons to criticize the administration. (There are, after all, so many legitimate reasons to do so.) Furthermore, I have some inclination to think that our attention should be on the disaster rather than politics.

On the other hand, it's not like people like me can actually do anything about this (other than giving money, which doesn't actually take up time or energy). So trying to say something true about the administration's response seems like a reasonable undertaking.

First let me say that laypeople like me don't know much of anything about how difficult such operations are and how they normally proceed. So our judgments should be tentative at this point.

However, I must say that I would never have guessed that our response to a disaster like this would be so sluggish and anemic. Although I am under the impression that such operations are more difficult than many people think, and I would never expect the government to take care of a problem of this magnitude anything like overnight, I've been surprised and alarmed by how half-hearted and inefficient our response has seemed. Surprised and alarmed enough that I've resolved to tuck away some extra extra water and granola bars in case anything similar ever happens around these parts.

Again: having no real understanding of these matters, my expectations may simply have been wildly unrealistic, but Kevin Drum reports passes on some info that seems to support my impressions.

I don't want to sing the same note over and over, but I can't help being reminded of the early stages of military action in Afghanistan, up to and including the Tora Bora debacle: our response seems to be timid, half-hearted, and proceeding at half speed. And that does not seem to be the fault of the yeomen on the ground.

[Addendum: An Instapundit reader says that FEMA advises local governments not to expect federal aid for 72 to 96 hours after a disaster. This gives us some objective touchstone for evaluating the administration's response.]

[Some comments on this post at Centerfield are interesting, including some of the more restrained parts of Tully's. Centerfield, incidentally, is one of the saner parts of the 'sphere.]

[Reuters pulls few punches, referencing the administration's "botched" rescue efforts, it's attempts to shift blame, and Bush's "rare admission of error".]

[Die-hard knee-jerk Bush partisan David Frum possibly making sense. Possibly a first at the NRO.]