Beyond belief

I suggested the other night that FEMA's incompetence bordered on malice. Take a look at these stories assembled at Daily Kos. The Times has more on the White House campaign to smear state and local officials in Louisiana (OK, they call it a "plan to ease political damage"). A similar story appears in the Guardian (where you don't need to register). Frank Rich notes, among many other salient observations, the irony in the president's willingness to dart back to the White House from Texas to sign the Terry Schiavo bill, while lingering on vacation and attending fundraisers while Katrina was moving in. As Josh Marshall said in a post I cited the other night, "It's almost awe-inspiring to see the level of energy and coordination the Bush White House can bring to bear in a genuine crisis. Not hurricane Katrina, of course, but the political crisis they now find rising around them." I can't express my disgust any better than Joe of Americablog already has. And there's a good editorial in the LA Times today.

But we can all rest easy knowing the president has promised his own investigation into what went wrong.