Again, the administration claims ignorance

In another classic case of the White House not knowing what's going on, they belatedly put the gag on Michael Brown, who began testifying today before the congressional committee investigating the government's response to Hurricane Katrina.

At the beginning of the session, the committee chairperson made it very clear that she had contacted the White House to see if executive privilege applied to Brown, which would mean he wouldn't be allowed to discuss any communication between himself and the oval office.

The white house declined, and Brown began detailing the sad chain of non-events that led to the worst aftermath of the worst natural disaster in our nation's history.

A couple of hours later, White House spokeswhore Scott McClellan was angrily waving a copy of the New York Times on the doorstep, ranting about misrepresentation. True to their style, the administration claimed ignorance of the hearing.

Next thing you know, Brown's not allowed to talk about any communications he had with the president regarding the disaster.

It's no suprise, but it's becoming apparent that the only government agency that did what it was supposed to do during and after Katrina was the National Weather Service.

Unfortunately, no one took them seriously. Two days after landfall, dubya was still on vacation at his ranch, da veep was fly-fishing in Wyoming, The chief of staff was in Maine, and Chertoff boarded a plane to Atlanta to attend a conference on avian flu.

The state was unprepared, the city was undecided, and everyone was understaffed and undersupplied.

Of course, it didn't help that the National Guard troops that normally would have been available to help, were off fighting dubya's war instead of being there like they were supposed to, just for such an emergency as this.

Its obvious that our federal government is not equipped to handle natural disasters. They can bluster all they want about terrorism, but when it comes down to it, they don't know how to deal with Mother Nature and her tantrums.

Should FEMA be a part of Homeland Security? It's obvious that they're not getting the attention they deserve, based on the money going to anti-terrorist activities vs. protection from natural disasters.

Let's hope that the hearings being held will shed some light on where our priorities lie, and not just on where the blame lies in this national disaster.