The strangulation of FEMA,ignoring levee maintenance and repair, failure to send in troops to maintain security as is done automatically in other disasters fits in perfectly with the Bushies and the Radical Right's general anti-government mania.
These people deeply and completely disagree with FDR's statement that government is the best form of self-help, to the point of being willing to let babies and old people die to insure that government exists only to invade other countries and transfer money from the working people to the filthy rich.
It is NOT by accident that the only action which Bush has taken is to send Poppy and the Clenis to raise PRIVATE $. A radical-right academic has already hit the airwaves claiming that federal government has no place in helping in this situation: check out this deeply disquieting post on Lawyers, Guns & Money:
http://haloscan.com/tb/farlio/112558692140939890
Face it, folks - we're all on our own.