The coverup is in progress.

AmericaBlog is reporting that every Republican senator voted against forming an independent, bipartisan investigation of what went wrong (except Vitter of Louisiana, who simply didn't vote, probably because voting in either direction would have generated significant backlash from either his constituents or his party).

Every Democrat (except Corzine of New Jersey, who also didn't vote at all) voted for it.

Those voting against can't claim to be representing their constituents — 76% of the public was in favor of such an investigation.

Hat tip to the Swing State Project, which has posted contact information for each of these senators, for people that want to ask them why they made the choice that they did.

Reporters Without Borders has reported about journalists that have been attacked by police in New Orleans for documenting abuse:

Peter Fimrite, a reporter for the San Fransisco Chronicle, has also written a first-hand account of being held at gunpoint... apparently just for being outside at night with a cell phone, trying to find signal.

Kevin Drum has linked to a UPI article confirming that the Gretna police did in fact close the only route out of New Orleans (that I described earlier here), trapping refugees inside the flooding city, with the claim that if they let the refugees out, the refugees would obviously also destroy Gretna:

Jacob Applebaum has been documenting the attempts by a number of people working with CUWireless to set up a low power, FCC-approved FM radio station to provide information to the people taking refuge in the Houston Astrodome; currently, the only way the evacuees have of getting news is via newsletters or the PA system, and the PA system isn't really suited for continuous information updates on things such as job updates, food, housing, or other information useful for getting people back on their feet and productive. (For more information on what the radios were to provide, see here.)

Two paramedics, Larry Bradshaw and Lorrie Beth Slonsky, have written a first-hand account of how they were trapped in New Orleans... by police from Gretna, the nearest city, who deliberately trapped them there so they couldn't cause problems in Gretna, and then harassed them so they wouldn't be visible to the media once they organized a camp visible to passing aircraft.

Continuing the previous tales of obstruction of assistance and other abuse of resources, President Bush has now pulled highly trained firefighters to walk beside him as living props in a photo op. Never mind that New Orleans is in dire need of firefighters, the local ones being overworked and exhausted, this particular act of abuse is just icing on the cake for when FEMA called for a thousand firefighters, not to put out fires or help with rescues... but to work as "community relations" officers handing out flyers.

Feministing has linked to another first-hand account from a family escaping New Orleans, this time a British family from Wallasey, who had gotten stuck because they had not brought their drivers licenses with them on their trip. Particular note was made of their observation of police misbehaviour, including an incident where police refused assistance when the girls on top of the roof trying to get help refused to flash their breasts:

A 2nd Lieutenant in the Army Corps of Engineers sent an e-mail criticizing Bush to Steve Gilliard's blog. Less than 24 hours later, she was court-martialed for it. This continues the tradition of the military going after any of its members who criticize the president even on their own time, but encouraging those who make public endorsements.

Those clever with the net can probably still find the text of the letter in Google's cache, but as Steve has chosen to pull the full name and the publication of the letter to try to keep this brave, but foolhardy engineer from excessive vengeance, and the officer herself has made it unavailable from her LiveJournal page, I won't be republishing it here. Once it's over, for better or for worse, I may revisit this decision, as I did archive it.

Collections of links have been posted at Daily Kos and Constructive Interference.

I have nothing to add, except that the last of the Kos links is actually nothing more than FEMA asking people not to charge in blindly without coordination, which is perfectly valid. Or it would be, if FEMA was actually coordinating them.

I may be straying into tinfoil hat territory here, but I'm starting to wonder if FEMA was given directions to reduce the impact on neighboring areas by killing as many New Orleans citizens as they thought they could politically get away with.

They cut the Jefferson Parish emergency communication lines in New Orleans. The sherriff reconnected them and had to post armed guards to keep them from being cut again.