mississippitom, perhaps you need to review your high school civics lessons.

First, forget the rhetorical. This disaster was the first test of our post-9/11 homeland defenses. I think everyone is in agreement, we flunked the test spectacularly.

It was the current president's administration which completely restuctured our nation's disaster and emergency relief services in the wake of 9/11. Yes? Can we all agree on that?

It was the current president who created the cabinet level Department of Homeland Security. Yes? Can we all agree on that?

It was the current president and his administration who appointed the two men who are most responsible for disaster preparedness in the US, the Secretary for the Department of Homeland Security and the Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Yes? Can we all agree on that?

The liberal and conservative movements in this country, both Democrat and Republican, have been carping at us, the nation's citizenry, that we must all be accountable. It's all about personal responsibility and being accountable. Yes? Can we all agree on that?

OK. So where does the buck stop? It is our government officials whom we put our faith and trust in to protect us in times of disasters and national emergencies. Yes? Can we all agree on that?

So. Why aren't are elected officials, and their political appointees (who just happen to also be veterans of those same elected officials' political campaigns for election/re-election) to be held personally responsible for the actions in the interest of our nation they are sworn to uphold and serve? That isn't crucifying. That is holding our public servants accountable, especially where they have erred, sinned, etc.

It seems to me, mississippitom, you are suggesting that our public servants should not be held accountable for what appears to be gross mismanagement of both the public's disaster relief resources and abandonment of the public trust. As ardent Bush supporter and conservative columnist for the New York Times put it yesterday:

""The first rule of the social fabric - that in times of crisis you protect the vulnerable - was trampled...Leaving the poor in New Orleans was the moral equivalent of leaving the injured on the battlefield."

Something went terribly wrong with the management of this disaster, mississippitom, and the buck stops with the president of the United States. He is the man at the helm of the US government. He appointed these people to their positions of responsibility and authority. He is our highest elected official. We have the constitutional right and citizen's duty to petition him and his government and take them to task when they fail us.

That is what democracy is all about. It isn't about red and blue states. It isn't about conservatives and liberals. It isn't about how much you like the man or detest him.

It is how our form of representative government is intended to work when those whom we trust to govern fail us.