Keeping the buck firmly where it belongs

And the pile-on continues.

In the wee small hours of this morning, a Kossack who is also a meteorologist says that he knows FEMA ignored official warnings.

It should be said over and over again, the resulting devastation in New Orleans was absolutely not some sort of unforeseen surprise. When I hear Bush or any of his political appointees in FEMA and Homeland Security (all of whom are in full "CYA mode") talk about not anticipating the level of devestation in New Orleans, I become infuriated!!! It was well known -- well before landfall -- by local emergency managers, scientists, and anyone with common sense what devestation awaited those locations in Katrina's path, NOLA specifically. Of course, in this Administration, science means about as much as last week's losing lottery ticket -- used chewing gum wrapper.

Keith Olberman delivered quite a smackdown on last night's Countdown.

But, nationally, these are leaders who won re-election last year largely by portraying their opponents as incapable of keeping the country safe. These are leaders who regularly pressure the news media in this country to report the reopening of a school or a power station in Iraq, and defies its citizens not to stand up and cheer. Yet they couldn't even keep one school or power station from being devastated by infrastructure collapse in New Orleans — even though the government had heard all the "chatter" from the scientists and city planners and hurricane centers and some group whose purposes the government couldn't quite discern... a group called The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

King George visited Louisiana again yesterday. My analogy in this case is when one of the kids keeps opening the refrigerator, as if they expect something new to show up every time they open it. But it's the same stuff that was in there the last time you looked. The water isn't going to magically disappear each time you visit, George.

Thanks, Renee, for the update on Barbara Bush's still-undisturbed beautiful mind. I'm just waiting for her to say "Let them eat cake." (Just remember, this is the same party that portrayed John Kerry as an aristocratic elitist who is out of touch with regular people.)

ThinkProgress reports that Bill Frist will postpone the estate tax vote. Nice of him to finally get around to it although I don't think he should get credit for doing something he never should have done in the first place. He's also postponed the Roberts confirmation hearings.