The Federal Government Drops The Ball

A little fun on CNN this morning when blowhard Haley Barbour was challenged by Miles O'Brien. O'Brien had the temerity to suggest to Barbour that surely the federal government had enough notice of the storm to get assets in place and, after the storm, has failed to provide the kind of response our own military sent to the region post-tsunami. One shouldn't expect Barbour to be critical of "the federal government" (i.e. King George), and he wasn't. But O'brien, to his credit, hung in and Barbour was none too happy about it.

O'Brien's colleague, anchor Soledad O'Brien, also apparently had enough caffeine this morning challenging Director of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff on the question why there isn't an online registry for missing persons. I love it when morning talking heads like Ms. O'Brien say things like I'm not even from the area and am aware of people I cannot find, why isn't there an online registry?" Chertoff's pathetic response: we're working on it.

President Bush was at the helm of the S.S. Minnow while it ran aground. He's a take charge kind of guy. Asleep at the switch before the disaster, snoozing after.