The Bush administration's disastrous policies are beginning to bear terrible fruit:

- An over-reliance on National Guard troops in Iraq, which has led to shortage of personnel able to respond to the devastation wrought by Katrina.

- Budget busting tax-cuts for the wealthy which have led to the evisceration of the Army Corps of Engineeers, the entity responsible for the upkeep of the extensive levee system that has now failed, with terrible results.

- Those tax cuts, unprecedented in a time of war, have led to an ever-growing federal deficit. This debt-load will surely be negatively affected by the huge expenditures that will be necessary to recover from this cataclysm.

- An absolute failure, despite 4 years of purported planning for just such a Homeland Security incident, on the part of the Federal government to respond effectively to this disaster. If this is the kind of faltering performance we can expect from the Feds in the event of a major terrorist attack, it may behoove citizens to start breakin' out the duct tape.

- A wrong-headed energy policy which has done nothing to curb consumption, leaving the country acutely vulnerable to oil supply disruptions, such as the one that is now occurring.

On the other hand Bush had been monitoring the situation between bike rides and jam sessions, and he "rushed" back to Washington as soon of the political consequences of inaction became clear.  ¶ 12:18 PM