The infamous US con blogger Michelle Malkin is all over this. She is waspish:

United Nations Undersecretary-General Jan Egeland--yeah, the same jerk who called America "stingy" during the Indonesian tsunami disaster last year--has come around to offering the U.N.'s help to victims of Hurricane Katrina (hat tip: Catez Stevens, who has more):

United Nations Undersecretary-General Jan Egeland, who oversaw relief efforts after the Indian Ocean tsunami in December 2004, offered Washington U.N. assistance in a formal letter to new U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton.

"The United Nations stands ready to help with any kind of disaster expertise that might be required ... in full recognition that the United States is the country in the world that possesses the greatest civilian and military search and rescue and recovery assets themselves," Egeland told Reuters in an interview.

He said U.S. officials had thanked the U.N. for its offer, but had not requested any assistance so far.

This is also worth noting, since so many readers have been wondering:

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said earlier on Wednesday 10 to 12 foreign governments have offered general assistance to the United States to deal with the hurricane aftermath but no decision had been made about how these offers might be used.

Would be nice to know which 10-12, wouldn't it?

Then she notices that even British are largely indifferent to U.S. Plight:

If British Prime Minister Tony Blair had not been vacationing in the Caribbean yesterday, it seems a safe bet he would have announced to the world that Britain feels deep sympathy for its freshly wounded ally, the United States.

He might have been wrong.

In fact, to judge by the reaction of some Londoners yesterday to Katrina's rising death toll, Britons seem to feel the United States is overdrawn on sympathy...

What to say? Is this a reaction to the mischevious "world leader" who is too reckless about global warming and war-making consequences, and who finally got into trouble himself?  As an excuse, we can still say that the world seems to be as much shocked as the US President.

Chirac sent some condoleances to Bush. The French text can be found here.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

Betty sent her standard condolence message to Shrub. Ex colonies outside the COmmonwealth get shorter ones.

"I was deeply shocked and saddened to learn of the deaths and injuries caused by Hurricane Katrina, and the scale of the damage and destruction now becoming apparent across the southern states.

"My sympathy goes to you and the people of the United States, especially to the families of those who have lost their lives, to the injured and to all who have been affected by this terrible disaster.

Straw just noted that there were only a few Britons affected and the combine efforts of three consular offices would be available to help them.

Blair is on holiday in Barbados.
His deputy Prescott for Americans is in comprehensible.

According to this article Schroeder sent his condolences to Bush two days ago on the 30th.
What puzzles me is, that I am given the impression that the US is/was REFUSING international help at least until yesterday. I read an article by a German Red Cross person, that stated the reason that they did not collect was because they have not been asked to get involved, after they made their offer.
This has now changed, a look at their website reveals, that they are now collecting as well.

It seems to be down to a not very well coordinated rescue organisation. But there certainly is lots of expression of sympathy.

One reason, why there is not such a public outpooring of condolence as f.e after the Tsunami, is that
everybody was expecting a Hurrican to hit NO. So maybe they thought, ah well, America has those all the time, and we don't always say something, when a Hurrican hits Florida. The extend of the devastation caused is dawning so slowly for these foreign leader, almost as slowly as for Bush, seen to play the guitar on the 30th.

Why would anybody send condolences to a country whoms leader himself is so blatendly obvious not concerned?

Both in case of Germany.

Condolences in the form of a letter and an offer to help in every available way if asked for help.
(It´s only sensible to want to know what kind of help is needed.)

(Audio clip in German from the premier news show in Germany "Tagesschau".)
http://www.tagesschau.de/audio/0,2773,OID4693926_NAV_BAB,00.html

First half mentions that Germany stands ready to help if the US government asks for specific help. Like water purification equipment, prefabricated homes and so on. And that Chancellor Schroeder has ordered all government departments to check what else could be offered.
Foreign secretary Fischer adds that the German embassy will assist any German citizen stranded in the disaster zone. But that for now there doesn´t seem to be any German victims.
(Last part mentions Green politicians blasting away at Bush.)

Russia offered help too.
WASHINGTON, September 1 (Itar-Tass) - The United States said it is thankful to Russia for the readiness to provide assistance in eliminating the consequences of the Katrina hurricane, but believes it can handle the crisis on its own.
http://story.russiaherald.com/p.x/ct/9/cid/723971d98160d438/id/fe6c94040bd73b28/

By the way, so far even the Canadian help seem to have trouble just getting into the USA.

Video clip:
http://www.canada.com/toronto/video/GN050831bourbeau.html

Either the Bush administration is totally disorganised and doesn´t know what to do. Or they don´t want to admit that the USA might "need" foreign help.

FYI, Someone has made tomorrow International Blogging for Disaster Relief Day.
From the Katrina Aftermath blog:

I guess those are my sentiments right now too...

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. -Voltaire

International reaction Part II

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. -Voltaire

Thank you, Upstate NY and poemless for your kind replies upthread.  I apologize to everyone for being overwrought.  This is why I haven't been commenting here.  But I think that we all need to look at what is going on over here and understand it for what it is.

So what is it?  Is it a system simply overwhelmed by a disaster as they've been saying?  I don't think so.  Here's my evidence:

We knew this would happen and made no preparations.  We seemingly do not have the resources, but we're not marshalling the resources either.

We left the poor to drown and die.  We slowly took some to the SuperDome.

There has been no food and water in the SuperDome.  Why not?  Where are the supplies that should have been rushed there?

On Monday we knew the levee was breached and we knew the catastrophic consequences of that.  We did nothing.

We had no federal response until late Wednesday.

The helicopter that everyone thought was sandbagging the breach on Tuesday was not sandbagging the breach.

Monday we knew the levee was breached and all survivors would die if not evacuated.  Where were the helicopters and boats?

No one tried to plug the breach until Wednesday.

Yesterday, citizens comandeered a bus to the Astrodome -- why could they get there and official buses could not?

The statements make no sense -- if we can bus anyone out of the Superdome, why have we not gotten more buses?  why have we not gotten a truckload or two of food and water there?

Why is there no radio contact?  Where are the food drops?  Why are military helicopters sitting waiting?  Why are they denying the reports of being shot at?  Why is there no communication?  Why are we not opening hotels and motels to evacuaees?

We have done nothing.  We've left a few local people to deal with this with no assistance.  We're telling other countries and municipalities that they can't help.  We let the crucial 72 hour window slip by and are now sending troops to deal with the chaos we let happen.

I don't know what all this means or what to do, but it's not right.

Maybe we can eventually make language a complete impediment to understanding. -Hobbes

Federal authorites caught unprepared by disaster (FT)

 (...)

But Mr Bush acknowledged that authorities had not been prepared for the catastrophe. As efforts continued to evacuate the flood-stricken city, which has been wracked by looting and other crime, Mr Bush said: "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees."

(...)

For a country that has spent the four years since September 11 preparing for another major terrorist attack, the failure to prevent or mitigate such an enormous natural disaster is likely to set off fresh debate.

Emergency management officials in Louisiana had warned for years that New Orleans would be unable to withstand such a big hurricane, but funding for plans to strengthen the levees and prevent floods has fallen by nearly half in the past four years.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

You might want to update!

According to Fox News :) the following countries or organisations have offered assistance:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,168203,00.html

Boats, aircraft, tents, blankets, generators, cash assistance and medical teams have been offered to the U.S. government in Washington or in embassies overseas.

Offers have been received from Russia, Japan, Canada, France, Honduras, Germany, Venezuela, Jamaica, Australia, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Greece, Hungary, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Mexico, China, South Korea, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, NATO and the Organization of American States, the spokesman said.

And that article even included:
Still, Bush told ABC-TV: "I'm not expecting much from foreign nations because we hadn't asked for it. I do expect a lot of sympathy and perhaps some will send cash dollars. But this country's going to rise up and take care of it."

Decided to sample a bit of the forum over at Gazeta Wyborcza. Now GW happens to be a left-liberal (Euro sense) paper of generally excellent quality. The forum threads have a tendency to draw lots of racists because GW is the paper Polish racists love to hate, seeing it as the mouthpiece of the Jewish-liberal-masonic conspiracy to destroy the world. The forum's quality also tends to be of very poor quality. That said, even by the standards of the forum the scale of vicious racism is just stunning. Sweet god these people sound like some redneck Klan members.  
The actual articles are pretty standard accounts of the unfolding horror. No real commentary.

Rzeczpospolita (right-liberal) Poland's other good quality newspaper praises Bush, slams Dem critics, the liberal media, and not so subtly indulges in attacks against blacks 'who need no reason' to riot. Yuck.
Bush po huraganie