Barking at shovels

Help refused!

Dear God. The news actually finally has me frothing mad. The Canadian government offered New Orleans a blank cheque on disaster relief assistance, and Bush refused:

Canada will send the United States any help needed in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, Prime Minister Paul Martin told President George W. Bush on Thursday....

Martin said Bush didn't ask for help, but predicted he will. ...

[Gen. Rick Hillier, chief of the Canadian defence staff] said Canada could provide transport planes or helicopters, electrical generators, water purification systems, small boats for navigating the waterways of the region and engineering equipment and expertise.

He said his staff are planning to load a selection of such gear about a warship to be ready in the event Washington asks for help.

It's best to be prepared, he said.

"We want to help. We believe that's what being friends and allies is all about."

For the record, disaster relief is one of the things the Canadian military actually is pretty good at. DART, the Disaster Assistance Response Team, is specifically tasked with rapid response to catastrophe, anywhere in the world. In particular, it has a field hospital and an aircraft-portable water-purification plant, last deployed to Sri Lanka after the tsunami. I'm playing armchair general here, but how can this stuff not be fucking useful in the bayou right now? But I guess the Pentagon hasn't finished figuring out what they need.

It's goddamn inhuman. Can we have some fucking adults back in charge, please?

[via Making Light]