There is an e-mail discussion going on among liberal bloggers as to what to call those displaced by Katrina. On CNN earlier today, a representative from the Congressional Black Caucus chastised the media for using the term "refugees." He found it offensive that journalists were referring to American citizens as if they were foreigners. He opined that if we think about them as refugees then we'll begin (or rather continue) to treat them like refugees. Refugees seems to imbue a second class status upon them.

"Evacuees" and "survivors" are emerging as preferred terms. Others think that "refugees" is preferable because it will make people so uncomfortable - and because it reinforces the idea this is something that should not be happening in America.

From Terry Kindlon in the comments section of an earlier post:

I hereby propose that we start using the name "Bushville" for each and every refugee encampment. The bumbling of the Bush Administration and its utter inability to cope with a predictable and much anticipated natural disaster should provide the spark for a new populist movement in our beloved country that will reverse and vanquish the elitism, selfishness and insanity that has infected our government during the past 5 years.

Crooks and Liars reports that Rep. Robert Wexler called for FEMA Director Mike Brown to be fired in January.

Check out his background at War and Piece - he was an estate lawyer in Colorado until Bush tapped him for FEMA after 2001.

My lord, the guy heading FEMA has no qualifications. What was he doing before getting pulled into FEMA by the Bush administration in 2003? He was an estate planning lawyer in Colorado and of counsel for the International Arabian Horse Association Legal Department. And yes, it is the same Michael D. Brown.

posted by Last Night in Little Rock

"We will take the fight to the enemy." George W. Bush, speech, USAF Academy, June 2, 2004.

"We have met the enemy... and he is us." Walt Kelly, Foreward, The Pogo Papers, 1952-53.

Here's the audio of yesterday's radio interview with an extremely angry New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin.

The transcript of the interview, in which Nagin tells the feds to get off their as*ses is here.

Update: Please read Stranded by Clive Stafford Smith in today's Guardian. Mr. Smith founded The Justice Center, which needs help as outlined below:

************
Original Post 9/1/05

The Justice Center, located in New Orleans is home to four cutting edge, non-profit criminal defense offices. It houses:

• The Louisiana Crisis Assistance Center, a capital trial office providing indigent defense in Louisiana for over ten years.
• A Fighting Chance, a specialist capital defense investigative team.
• The Capital Appeals Project, the statewide office for capital appeals in Louisiana.
• The Innocence Project of New Orleans, part of the national network of innocence projects working to free those wrongly convicted.

They need help. From their bulletin:

If George Bush was the CEO of a large U.S. Corporation and mismanaged a project as big as the Katrina rescue effort, he'd be fired. What we have experienced, as Van Jones writes over at Huffington Post, is a monumental failure of leadership.

Michael Moore writes President Bush:

Dear Mr. President:

Any idea where all our helicopters are? It's Day 5 of Hurricane Katrina and thousands remain stranded in New Orleans and need to be airlifted. Where on earth could you have misplaced all our military choppers? Do you need help finding them? I once lost my car in a Sears parking lot. Man, was that a drag.

Also, any idea where all our national guard soldiers are? We could really use them right now for the type of thing they signed up to do like helping with national disasters. How come they weren't there to begin with?

The rest is just as good. Including the "p.s." about Cindy Sheehan.

by TChris

New Orleans police officers have experienced the same tragedy as the rest of the city's residents. Some have responded in heroic fashion. Others have quit.

Tourist Debbie Durso of Washington, Mich., said she asked a police officer for assistance and his response was, "Go to hell -- it's every man for himself."

The Chief of the Louisiana State Police says New Orleans officers have told him that they don't want to risk their lives for looters. It is presumably that kind of sentiment that has led to talk of "shoot to kill." Some looters are opportunistic, to be sure, but many are just trying to get basic supplies from stores that are in no position to sell them what they need.

The Washington Post reported Wednesday:

Vice President Cheney, who has spent part of August at his home outside scenic Jackson, Wyo., remains there today -- although his spokeswoman, Lea Anne McBride, doesn't call it vacation. "He's working from Wyoming today," McBride told me this morning.

And when is he coming back? "He will certainly be coming back. I'm not able to tell you the day right now. I don't have that handy."

Via America Blog.

I've been hearing all day that the Republicans are going to try to deflect criticism from Bush by blaming Louisiana Democratic Governor Kathleen Blanco. While I think Bush bears far more blame, it won't bother me a bit. She gave "shoot to kill" orders to the National Guard tonight.

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco warned rioters and looters in New Orleans on Thursday that National Guard troops are under her orders to "shoot and kill" to end the rampant violence in the city in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Announcing the arrival of 300 Arkansas National Guard troops in New Orleans fresh from service in Iraq, Blanco said, "these troops are battle-tested. They have M-16s and are locked and loaded." "These troops know how to shoot and kill and I expect they will," she said.

[Via Raw Story.]

Australia News: "It was like a concentration camp in there."

A must read from Arthur at Light of Reason and Atrios:

From CNN:

It’s hard to describe. It’s something I never could conceive of ever seeing in a major city like New Orleans. It is hard to believe. This is New Orleans, Louisiana we’re talking about. We spent the last few hours at the convention center where there are thousands of people just laying in the street. They have nowhere to go. These are mothers. We saw mothers. We talked to mothers holding babies. Some of these babies are 3, 4, 5, months old living in these horrible conditions. Putrid food on the ground. Sewage, their feet sitting in sewage. We saw feces on the ground. These people are being forced to live like animals. When you look at some of these mothers your heart just breaks. We’re not talking about a few families or a few hundred families. Thousands of people are gathered around the convention.