I've been working massive hours these past two weeks so I haven't had much time to pay attention to the Katrina situation. From what little I've seen, it's incredibly tragic and my thoughts definitely go to the families and friends of those who are involved in that terrible situation.
It's also amazing to see how the situation brings the best and worst out of people. I've read a lot of articles on the subject this evening and I'm just amazed at the vitriol and emotion involved on it.
I thought I'd chime my 2 cents.
There was an article called "Why are all the looters black?". I'm not sure what the point of it is. Okay, the looters featured on television have more pigment in their epidermis than I do. On average, the men and women seen looting on television are genetically a mixture of around 75% African ("African-Americans" have, on average, quite a bit of European genes in them). So, okay, what's the point? Is the argument that that genetic mixture is more prone to stealing? It is a commentary on culture? It doesn't really say. What's the point? It seems to me that those who are economically not capable of leaving are probably more likely to be of that genetic type because several hundred years ago Europeans decided to have slaves that were visually easier to identify and collaborated with African tribes who were willing to collaborate with them to sell them slaves. In turn, having only been released from slavery only a bit over a century ago -- but still very restricted in rights and being at a severe disadvantage due to not having an intact family structure have tended to be poorer. Thus, if it's mostly poor people left in devastated areas and most poor people are genetically predisposed to having more pigment (i.e. "being black") then yea, they're going to be the ones looting.
I could just as easily say "Why are so many of the looters male?" or "Why is so much of the violence there being done by men?"
On a similar vein, there's "Why are so many corporate criminals, white?" I'd argue that it's pretty much the same as above but in reverse. Most wealthy people are white, therefore most criminals who are wealthy will tend to be white as well.
Then there are numerous posts making the rather absurd argument that somehow this whole mess is the result of the Federal government. Please. First, not to be unsympathetic but for better or worse, the people who didn't evacuate when they were told to evacuate bear some of the burden. This didn't sneak up on us, we knew for days that a category 5 hurricane was going to hit the area. Second, the mayor of New Orleans sucks. The city busses should have been evacuating people before the storm hit. Third, the governor of Louisiana sucks. Why didn't they have their act together? Why wasn't the national guard activated in full before it hit? There have been plenty of studies that said that a good hurricane hit would wipe out New Orleans because of its levies. They had days to prepare. It's not the federal government's job to wipe the asses of the state and local authorities. Blaming Bush (or Clinton or whoever) is asinine. It's as bad as blaming the weather on them (which would be funny except there are people out there who blame them for the weather).
This situation isn't quite like the Tsunami and I doubt it'll get anywhere near the outpouring of support it did. For one thing, there was plenty of warning about this one. I did watch the coverage just hours before it hit and there were people on Bourbon street having a "Hurricane party". Come on. The other issue is how out of control the situation is. Regardless of how much pigment the looters have, images of people looting, shooting at police, raping, etc. do nothing to instill sympathy.
The violence and mayhem going on in what is left of New Orleans also helps drive home (to me) how biased the reporting in Iraq has been. Look how quickly Americans can turn on each other in time of crisis and when there is a vacuum or order. Is it really any shock that there's violence in Iraq? It really demonstrates how pathetic the "insurgency" in Iraq must be. They should send over some New Orleans looters and gang members to Baghdad to teach the "insurgency" how to conduct a proper uprising.
Cheers! 
