I Found this Deeply Upsetting

This week, the Governor of Louisiana--Kathleen Blanco--submitted over 100,000 documents from the time just before and just after Hurricane Katrina hit. The most upsetting were the series of letters between Blanco and the President just before and after the storm hit:

"I have determined that this incident will be of such severity and magnitude that effective response will be beyond the capabilities of the state and the affected local governments and that supplementary federal assistance will be necessary," Blanco wrote.

Three days after the storm, Blanco wrote Bush asking that the 256th Louisiana National Guard Brigade be sent home from Iraq to help. The governor also asked for more generators, medicine, health care workers and mortuaries.

Five days later, Bush assistant Maggie Grant e-mailed Blanco aide Paine Gowen to say that the White House did not receive the letter.

"We found it on the governor's Web site but we need 'an original,' for our staff secretary to formally process the requests she is making," Grant wrote. "We are on the job but appreciate your help with a technical request. Tnx!"

Kanye West got into a lot of heat for saying, after the storm, that President Bush doesn't care about black people. While that may not be true, I would like to know when 'can't be bothered' becomes 'doesn't care'.