Where's Huey Long When We Need Him?

From Reason Hit & Run comes this gem, via a liberal weblog, by way of the Chicago Sun-Times:

A visibly angry Mayor Daley said the city had offered emergency, medical and technical help to the federal government as early as Sunday to assist people in the areas stricken by Hurricane Katrina, but as of Friday, the only things the feds said they wanted was a single tank truck...

Daley said the city offered 36 members of the firefighters' technical rescue teams, eight emergency medical technicians, search-and-rescue equipment, more than 100 police officers as well as police vehicles and two boats, 29 clinical and 117 non-clinical health workers, a mobile clinic and eight trained personnel, 140 Streets and Sanitation workers and 29 trucks, plus other supplies. City personnel are willing to operate self-sufficiently and would not depend on local authorities for food, water, shelter and other supplies, he said.


Last night on Nightline, Ted Koppel interviewed a pissed-off Louisiana congressman who described how he found National Guardsmen sitting on their hands waiting for orders to move out.

Amazing.

Tragically, I fear most people will miss the point, saying "if only we had the right people in charge," instead of realizing that waiting for government to bail you out at anytime is a sucker's bet.

The Ole' Kingfish is long gone, folks. In the long run you can only count on yourselves.