The week in review piece on the "cleavages" of race and class and the aftermath of the hurricane is woefully incomplete but worth reading nonetheless for it's analysis of the city's social geography and a few powerful quotations.

Richard Bernstein's piece on European reactions is also interesting. I think the phrase "intellectual looting," levied against critics of the racialized dimensions of the federal response, or lack thereof, to the hurricane and its victims, really ought to be turned against the administration which so callously ignored the plight of poor New Orleans residents in the days immediately before the hurricane hit and four nearly half a week after it passed on as the city drowned and corpses floated in the streets, yet nevertheless engaged in self-congratulations like those proferred by Cherttoff, Brown, and Bush throughout the last several days. We need to be very clear about how and why what happened happened, because to do anything less would be to spit on the memories of all the people who have lost their homes, their livelihoods, loved ones, and/or lives.