Accountability.

Just to be clear so that everybody is on the same page: holding our leaders accountable for the actions while in office is not a blame game. It is, in fact, the essential and most crucial part of a democratic republic. Yes we must work hard at the rescue and recovery operations on the Gulf Coast and prepare for the rebuilding of New Orleans, but there are quite a few people in this country and in the government who are not piloting helicopters, digging through rubble, identifying bodies or handling logistics at this point in time. Those people are therefore able to ask and investigate questions of 1) who was responsible and 2) why they failed.

Nobody is blaming a hurricane on the president; they are, however, concerned about the state of readiness that he has promised to the nation in regards to a catastrophic event. They are not blaming him for the flooding of New Orleans, which would've likely occured in a reduced state had the levees been completed; they are asking why he felt the need to eat cake and play a guitar while it happened. We are not saying that the president should himself be danging from a helicopter to rescue people; we simply gasp that he would keep said helicopters on the ground for a photo op when the evacuation was in its most harrowing stages.

And this is not even getting to the fact that FEMA Director Brown still has a job. And that Dick Cheney is just now letting us know that he still exists. And that Condoleeza Rice was shoe shopping and taking in a Broadway show while Germany and Canada were offering expert flood rescue assistance, aid that was denied until it became too embarassing and dangerous for us not to.

Any mention of a 'blame game' is quite simply bullshit. Mistakes are allowable if they are quickly remedied and learned from. However, if there is anything we've learned about this Administration, admitting a failure is worse than the failure itself. And that is our tragedy.