Responsibility

I keep hearing from Republicans on the news that this isn't a time for blame. We shouldn't be playing politics with this tragedy. But what I haven't heard anyone on the news or even in the blogosphere say yet is that the issue isn't "politics" in the abstract term we ususally use it in. This reminds us that politics has real life consequences. This is really about responsibility. The federal government had a resposibility to the people of New Orleans. Those are Americans down there who just saw their city destroyed around them, and they were trapped in the ruins. Without food. Without water. Without medicine. And the president spend the first couple of days playing golf and having a barbecue. The secratary of state went to a broadway play and then went out buying thousand dollar shoes. It is perfectly legitimate to ask why the hell they weren't working 20 hour days trying to get relief and rescue efforts organized. Homeland Security and FEMA have both been shown to be completely incompatant. That's been evident to the entire country.

And now they're trying to weasle out this and pass the blame, and god damn it we're not going to let them get away with it. Not for some abstract political gain, to get a few more points on a Pew poll or something. But because if these people aren't held responsible for the thousands of deaths that have occured needlessly this week, then it will just happen again. I don't think one person involved in this catastrophy will be fired, and I want everyone to see that. Everybody needs to see that clip of Bush saying "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job" or whatever it was. Because that's how this administration has been treating people responsible for intelligence failures and chaos in Iraq. And now this. And hopefully it will finally sink in this time, and the poll numbers will finally get to the point where even someone as stubborn as Bush will be forced to find some people who know what the hell they're doing to run these agencies that responsible for life and death mobilizations. And hopefully it will lead the American people to understand how important it is to have someone in office who's number one priority is not cronyism.