Brownie shames Bush and himself

Casting to the winds his masters' media manipulation injunction against playing "the blame game," disgraced FEMA director Michael Brown indulged today in a shameless and disgusting exercise of self-justification.

Testifying before congress about his and his patrons' epic failure to protect and rescue Americans from the disaster of Hurricane Katrina, Brown played the game of blame for all it was worth.

"My biggest mistake was not recognizing by Saturday that Louisiana was dysfunctional,"

It is not often that I take personal offense at the mutterings of mealy-mouthed, self-serving politicans. This is one of the cases in which I do.

Mr. Brown, Louisiana was not dysfunctional. Louisiana was hit by a category 4 hurricane. In the years prior to this event, Mr. Brown, Louisiana begged the federal government to help it protect its citizens from this disaster which was not merely predictable, but predicted. The United States Army Corps of Engineers was unable to properly maintain the New Orleans levees due to the decimation of its funding. Protecting the people of New Orleans from this predicted disaster was, in the end, less important to the federal government than were upper-income tax cuts and a bridge to Nowhere, Alaska.

Louisiana was not dysfunctional in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Mr. Brown. Louisiana was under siege. The citizens of Louisiana, Americans all, looked to their federal government, looked to you, Mr. Brown, to provide the aid to which they were entitled. I use that word most deliberately.

American citizens, Mr. Brown, are entitled to the protection of their government. They look to their government to keep them safe from enemies, foreign and domestic. They depend on their government to provide the framework for rescue and recovery in the event of attack or natural disaster. It is entirely appropriate that they should. If citizens are not entitled to the protection of their governement, then government has no purpose and citizenship no meaning.

Louisiana did not fail its citizens during and after Hurricane Katrina. The United States Government failed. The presidency of George W. Bush failed.

The Mayor of New Orleans tried to get his people out of harm's way. The job was too big for the municipal government. The governor of Louisiana asked President Bush for help, for all he had to give, but it arrived too late and even then it was far from all he had to give.

Our president campaigned for re-election on the promise - what he assured us was the ironclad promise - that he would keep us safe. We had every right to hope that this assurance was not merely a rhetorical construction to justify and defend the Iraq War. Were we wrong? The dead of New Orleans, as they took their last breaths, might have gasped, "yes, you fools."