When greed trumps need

While a lot is being made of the NOLA "holdouts" in the poor neighborhoods and the "voluntary evacuations" continue among the toxic stew of the 9th Ward, where first hand accounts speak of being voluntarily evacuated at gunpoint, nobody seems to be bothering the private security in the wealthy white neighborhoods that somehow remained dry and relatively unscathed by storm damage. Of course the Blackwater contractors and the owners of these multi-million dollar homes have their own guns and the government "security forces" don't seem inclined to disarm them.

I mean who else is going to save the Mercedes and other expensive acroutrements of the "I've got mine, so screw you if you don't" crowd. And the privileged class knows how to "rough it" while sitting in the midst of death and deprivation.

As the sun set, the men had hurriedly chained up the cast-iron fence and locked themselves into the 10,000-square-foot, gray-green Greek Revival mansion for the night. Three dogs, three handguns and five shotguns kept them company.

Earlier in the week, the men feasted on Cornish hens and jumbo shrimp. Now they had exhausted their supply of meat and seafood, but there was a bit of good news: There was plenty of champagne in the ice chest.

"It's like luxury camping," said Crouch, 42, founder of an architectural restoration company. His own multimillion-dollar home was nearby, but he set up operations in this even fancier mansion because it still had running water and functioning phones.

What does it say about the vaunted "ownership society" when all these elites who benefited from the White House, "save the rich from taxation program" can afford to spend $1,000 a day guarding their possessions, but couldn't open their hearts and their stores to give away spoiling food to save the lives of their fellow Americans? How do men sleep at night, knowing they have enough champagne, while hundreds of babies died because they didn't bring in water for the evokes instead?

If they were poor, they would be called cockpits. Since they're not, Bush calls them "his people."