It's not about partisanship, it's about accountability

And it's about taking responsibility for what happens on your watch.

We've seen little of either from the Bush Administration.

Reuters:

Hurricane Katrina's devastation of New Orleans -- and the delay helping stranded people get out or even get water and food -- is raising doubts that U.S. cities may be ill-prepared to cope with a potentially worse disaster: a major attack.

Four years after the September 11, 2001, attacks, the storm disaster marked the first time the federal government has invoked its post-September 11 response plan aimed at enhancing Washington's ability to deal with national incidents.

But as Americans reeled at images of death and desperation among the city's refugees, experts on domestic security said a nuclear or biological attack on a big U.S. city could cause greater mayhem, and unlike the storm, come without warning.

The New Orleans disaster is already viewed as an illustration of what can go wrong in an American city under siege.

"In many ways, this is a test of our national capacity," said James Carafano, senior research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation. "If we can't do this 24-7-365, we aren't doing our job for preparedness."

So aside from allowing Federal officials to monitor what we read and pulling aside grandmothers for strip searches at airports and putting anti-war activists on no-fly lists, what on earth is all that so-called "homeland security" money doing?

Yesterday the right-wing noise machine was blaming Scary Negroes for not being smart enough to leave, when the fact is that they lacked the RESOURCES to leave. Today, Bush is frantically spinning the blame machine, right before saying that FEMA, led by a guy who got fired from running the now-defunct International Arabian Horses Association , is doing a great job. This morning he insulted the intelligence of even the American Public, by pretending to be on top of things, right before departing for a bunch of photo-ops with white people in Mobile, Alabama and places less hard-hit than New Orleans, and sending Laura down to the relatively plush (by comparison to the SuperDome or New Orleans Convention Center) confines of the Cajundome, to bounce a black baby on her lap so they can show how compassionate the Bushes are.

But there's no escaping the fact that this administration has fucked up mightily, and if the disaster itself can't be laid at their feet, the slowness of the response can.

Digby explains:

This event is emblematic of Republican governance. It encompasses every fuck-up they've perpetrated since they took over the entire national governament --- failure to plan, embracing only the best case scenario, lagging response, ignoring the experts, slashing funds and endless, endless happy talk that we can SEE WITH OUR OWN EYES is bullshit. (They are already saying that nobody is reporting all the "good news.")

The fact that most of these refugees (a word that I can hardly believe I'm typing) are black and poor residents who were unable to leave and were therefore, left to die, is emblematic also.

No, this is all about politics. It is about a GOP era of massive tax breaks for very rich Americans, billion dollar a week elective wars that we are losing while more and more people fall into poverty and the infrastructure of this country crumbles around our ears.

This failed experiment in free-market magical thinking can be summed up entirely by pictures of dead elderly Americans on the streets of New Orleans.

And Atrios notes what this Administration's "actions" are going to involve:

Look for the Republican response in the coming weeks: tax cuts for favorite industries and wealthy people, relaxation of environmental and labor laws, an massive infusion of funding for "faith based relief efforts," etc.... in other words, same shit different day.

Think of the millions of people who voted for George W. Bush last year because they believed he was the competent one, the one who'd keep them safe from terrorists.

Do they still believe that?

Can anyone still have faith in this country's emergency preparedness, other than the Kool-Aid drinkers who would defend him if he was raping infants on television?