George W. Bush

Chertoff and Brownie are not anomolies

Paul Krugman's column on Monday posited that FEMA was not the only government agency to be headed by political cronies of Bush and therefore dangerous in the extreme to American citizens. Krugman pointed out that the EPA, the FDA, Treasury and Homeland Security departments all suffer from what he calls "the FEMA syndrome." And since the piece saw print on Monday, we have already learned, via the recent leaked memo, that Chertoff, not Brownie, was in the driver's seat of the car driving anywhere but the Gulf Coast as Katrina hit. Let's reiterate Krugman's concern:

And finally, what about the department of Homeland Security itself? FEMA was neglected, some people say, because it was folded into a large agency that was focused on terrorist threats, not natural disasters. But what, exactly, is the department doing to protect us from terrorists?

Terrorists don't provide week-long warnings like Katrina did. Bush is not simply incompetent. He is, quite literally, dangerous. His actions have already gotten a lot of Americans killed, and, unless he starts making serious changes in all of his top level positions (do we really believe that Condi or Rummy or John Snow gives a damn about ordinary Americans?), we are going to see more homeless, more toxically poisoned, more dead Americans.