Much of the FEMA Failure Predictable.

The inept response of the Bush administration to the damage done in the Gulf states was surprising to many, but those on the inside knew better.

"I've been beating this drum for the past two years," Bruce Baughman, director of the Alabama's Emergency Management Agency and a former top FEMA official, told NEWSWEEK. "What I've seen happening is a total de-emphasis on natural disaster planning."

And even some in congress have seen this coming.

"All Chertoff wants to do is chase terrorists and repeal parts of the Constitution," Dingell told NEWSWEEK.

While Dingell is correct about Chertoff, he and others in Congress are not without a fair amount of blame. While the President did get to select these officials, the Senate is then suppose advise and consent. The act of rubber stamping persons of questionable ability simply because the President selected them is a huge and unforgivable mistake.

FEMA is led, not by experts in disasters, but with political hacks; Friends of George, loyal but clueless.

What should scare the hell out of everyone is this pattern of placing loyal but inept persons into vital spots isn't limited to FEMA. The Republican Congress has failed in it's responsibility to oversee the administration, and who they select to work for the American people.

This total breakdown in responsibility, where the President selects persons based on political ties, not ability, and the Republican congress rubber stamps these same rotten selections, leaves us in the position where we are actually thrilled to learn that Their screwed up response may not have killed the 10,000 we thought it had.

Wow, good news, they only killed 5,000 (or more, or less, no one knows) Americans, we should all feel so much better now.