White House Needs Someone to Blame

Hippie Killer has a great take on the White House response to Katrina.

"The thing with this natural disaster is, there's no way for Bush et. al. to politicize it. There's no brown boogie man to fight. We can't drop bombs on it and make it better. And those little jingoistic platatudes Bush likes to feed us re: The War On Terror just won't work this time.

It's very telling that they don't even understand that Bush could, as one person said, ensure Republican dominance to the end of the century if instead of holding press conferences and going from photo-op to photo-op, Bush just went to the convention center and handed out bottled water."

The remarks by FEMA Director Mike Brown that "victims bear some responsibility for their situation" and President Bush's "Zero tolerance for looters" comment are two attempts to shift responsibility for the Administration's failed response to the victims.

I have news for you. If my family went without food or my child needs diapers, then I am going to take the food where I can find it. It's not like the shopkeeper is there to accept payment anyway. Not to mention the thousands of people who did as they were directed and went to the Superdome or Convention Center only to be stranded without food or water in a deathtrap. Saying that these folks "bear some responsibility" is unconscionable.

While no one is responsible for the hurricane, the delayed response to help our fellow Americans is an utter failure on behalf of all of us.