Every man a Haitian refugee

Katrina has brought something up.

I can't recall anything like the sustained strenuous blogging of the past week. It's like something offstage has shown itself, gone off-script. And before it, or we, slip back into normalcy, those who have registered it want to capture its lineaments.

A few to not miss include Driftglass, Bionic Octopus (e.g., this), Alphonse.

The word "mismanaged" demonstrates caste limitations. This is not something that can be corrected by firing Michael Brown from FEMA - not that he's any more likely to be sacrificed than was Rummy or Rove. Nor is it something that will be laid to rest by newspaper editorials viewing the entire event as an admonition to the Chamber of Commerce and local planning and zoning officials to be more assiduous in their jobs.

Katrina brings up things like:

• Every community in the US is, in the best of times, a dynamic economic system designed to flee Haiti. Every community, except a few that have entirely succeeded in their flight, contains Haiti. Social failure is to be consigned to Haiti. Success is to escape it, and thereby become a refugee.

• Model Refugee Bush's 345 or so vacation days since taking office might have been better spent.

• The difference between addressing what needs doing and addressing the appearance of addressing what needs doing is often misconstrued.

Things to do via Sheila Lennon.