Confirmed: Bush Visit Halted Food Delivery

From the main New Orleans newspaper, the Times-Picayune, we have confirmation of something I've held off on publishing because it almost sounded too bad to be true – even for George W. Bush.

The Times-Picayune reports that three tons of food earmarked for evacuees in St. Bernard Parish and on Algiers Point, and ready for delivery by air, sat on a New Orleans bridge Friday afternoon when air traffic was halted to facilitate Bush’s visit.

The food, which had been provisioned by Democratic Congressman Charlie Melancon, sat on the Crescent City Connection Bridge all afternoon as Bush surveyed damage across southeast Louisiana. This was five days after Hurricane Katrina struck and came at a time when hunger was hitting critical mass in the storm's aftermath.

“We had arrangements to airlift food by helicopter to these folks, and now the food is sitting in trucks because they won’t let helicopters fly,” Casey O’Shea, Melancon's chief of staff, said Friday afternoon.

The food may have finally made it into the hands of the survivors late Friday night – well after King George had departed the area.