Even if you’ve been following the ongoing catastrophe that is the aftermath of Katrina, you might not know exactly how bad it still is down there, even though the Bush administration is congratulating itself on getting relief down to New Orleans (though not in an organized fashion, or in nearly enough numbers, or being at all close to restoring a semblance of order to the city).

The media, long unwilling to toe the party line or rock the boat when it comes to the administration’s many failings, has finally broken ranks. Crooks and Liars has a number of illuminating clips, including CNN’s Anderson Cooper excoriating Lousiana Senator Mary Landrieu; Paula Zahn shocked to hear that FEMA director Michael Brown had only just learned of the refugees in the New Orleans Convention Centre; and perhaps most frightening of all, utter meltdown on Fox News’ “Hannity and Colmes” from Geraldo Riviera and Shepard Smith, both practically pleading on their knees for the refugees of the Superdome.

And then there’s the whole Kanye West thing, which is really just a testament to how fucked up things are, that he not only seems serious but that we wonder if he could be right. And lest you get away with thinking things are much better now that a truck convoy has driven past the Superdome, Louisiana’s WWL-TV reports that New Orleans is still a ghoulish nightmare:

After several days in the street with little water and less food, people around the convention center began imagining that the storm was somehow a vehicle for ethnic cleansing. One black man insists that authorities want everyone corralled into the convention center – not to facilitate an orderly evacuation, but so police can ignite the gas and blow them up.

“They want us all crazy so they can shoot us down like dogs!” a woman shouts.

Already I’ve heard people talk of the possibility of riots in other cities if the current state of affairs continues. There’s still no idea of how many people might still be in New Orleans or how to deliver aid to them, let alone evacuate them; no one has a clue what the death toll is, or how long it will takee to rebuild, or even IF it makes sense to rebuild. And now the tide is turning; where once was shock and horror, there’s now nothing but seething anger and outrage.