Katrina Report "Rips" White House

Here's the wire story, but let's look beneath it from senators calling for the abolition of FEMA to the implications of the post-Katrina report.

I don't think there is an argument from anyone that the Bush Administration handled Hurricane Katrina as badly as humanly possible, despite all the back-slapping and self-congratulations they handed themselves at the time - and with which they still laud themselves.

But I do NOT believe the White House response to Katrina was a mistake. We might see it as an extraordinary failure, but I happen to believe the devastating failure was purely intentional, that it was no coincidence it occurred in a city where 70% of the population was black or other minorities and in which the people served most poorly also happened to be very poor.

Consider that Mr. Bush fraudulently rode into power on the backs and wallets of people like Grover Norquist and Tom DeLay who specifically want to have government fail so it doesn't intrude in their lives, meaning they won't be taxed.

Now consider the fact that from the energy policy meets in the summer of 2001, to 9-11, to the federal response to the Enron debacle (Enron also bought Mr. Bush's entrance into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue) to Afghanistan and Iraq and right through til today, all this administration has done is prove that the government cannot be trusted to do the work it is supposed to do.

Katrina comes along, and the Bushies could handle it a number of ways. But New Orleans is poor and black. They put people in charge who couldn't manage their own belts. They did nothing to make certain that the poor could get out of New Orleans or that goods and services would reach these people to survive. Then, every moment since then, they've done everything they can to make it worse. Rich whites get immense help while the poorer and darker people are, the more likely their requests for trailers, housing, basic services, or loans to rebuild is rejected in 9 cases out of every 10.

The Bushies figured it would be more palatable to the American people to see this kind of failure occur in a largely black and poor city. But failure was the plan. And they achieved it beautifully.

Get rid of FEMA? No. Get rid of the Bushies. Increasingly, I am coming to believe we must get rid of everything in Washington, DC as it currently operates.