Wednesday morning, on the Imus Show, Senator McCain defended President Bush for not saying more about Hurricane Katrina in the State of the Union, saying the President was "fully cognizant of the challenge we still face in New Orleans."
To dedicate a mere two paragraphs to one of the worst disasters to hit the United States -- a disaster that this President incompetently responded to, costing countless lives -- tells us all we need to know about this Administration's real concern about New Orleans and the suffering that has occurred there, regardless of Sen. McCain's ridiculous defense.
But the Senator missed a bigger point. What Katrina showed us is not just the disparities that exist in our society; it mercilessly revealed how woefully unprepared our Department of Homeland Security is to respond to a crisis. Watching the bungled response by Brownie and the gang, Americans were left to wonder how a Government that couldn't respond to an event that was predicted for days in advance could possibly protect us from a terrorist attack. We know they couldn't protect us on 9/11 and Katrina showed us that they won't be able to protect us the next time.
Rather that presenting us with warmed-over policy proposals that will never see the light of day; rather than pretending that he suddenly cares about energy conservation (does anyone really believe that? After all it was Ari Fleischer, the president's spokesman, who said the President believes that the right to consume massive energy resources was "an American way of life") he should have dedicated at least a portion of his State of the Union to making clear that he has learned the lessons of Katrina and that Americans will not needlessly die again because the "CEO President" doesn't know how to run his operation.
Next to chopping wood, Bush's favorite pastime has to be spinning yarns about "evil doers" and trying to scare the living daylights out of us. He did it throughout the speech Tuesday night and we can be sure the White House will continue to run their 24/7 campaign to keep Americans in a constant state of fear. And you know what? We should be scared. We know that there are people who want to attack us and we also know that our government is incompetent when it comes to responding to disasters.
What the President didn't say last night -- that our ports are protected; that our intelligence gathering has been improved; that communications within the government has been streamlined; that our airports are safe; that there is a plan to respond to a dirty bomb or the poisoning of our water supply -- is what is newsworthy. And it doesn't make me feel very safe.