1. Regarding the looting, the "sit on my butt and wait for gummint to help, and the "I'm looting to get back at the system" issues: those are welfare-culture issues, not race issues. I've spent time in NO, and it just so happens that (a) NO has a very large black population and (b) NO has a large welfare population. They aren't looting because they are black, so please, let's leave race out of it.
2. Regarding the preparation: anybody who has driven thru or even seen a frickin' aerial photo POSTCARD of NO knows that a Cat 4+ hurricane will turn it into a lake. We knew 48+ hours out that Katrina would be a MONSTER and that it was aimed straight at NO. In fact, according to what I've seen in the news, GWB personally asked the Governer of LA to order a mandatory evacuation of NO last Friday. So, as of last Friday, the head of FEMA and the head of the armed services should have been sitting in a room, with the Louisiana crisis management folks on speakerphone, planning how to find and airlift MREs, water, and med supplies -- even if it meant cutting thru red tape and tearing up USAF flight schedules and calling folks in on the weekend.
OK, it is easy for me to monday-morning quarterback, but hey, I only spent 12 years in uniform planning for crises, and that's a helluva lot more qualification than FEMA director Brown has had.
Sorry, rant off.