Michael Brown, the former director of FEMA, was grilled by Congress recently on his response to hurricane Katrina. When it came time to accept responsibility for the failures of the agency, he employed the usual tactic used by the members of the Bush administration. He blamed someone else. In this case Governor Blanco of Louisiana and Mayor Nagin of New Orleans.

According to Brown, his biggest mistake was in not realizing that Louisiana was dysfunctional. According to him he was doing a good job. The mess that resulted from Katrina was, again according to him, everyone else's fault but his.

Unfortunately for Michael Brown, that just isn't the case. Sure the state and local governments share some of the blame. But to shove the entire responsibility onto them is patently absurd.

Perhaps Michael Brown didn't understand what the letters stood for. It's a slip up anyone could make, really. Federal Equestrian Management Agency. Kind of explains a lot.

But seriously, why, according to the news reports, did he wait several hours after the storm had hit, to ask his boss if he should do anything? And even then, he was m9ore worried about his image and that of the agency's. It is because of this that he was so reviled.

We can do better. Before "homeland security" became such an in phrase, FEMA was a separate agency answerable only to the president. (Incidentally, am I the only one who thinks "homeland security" sounds really fascist?) The system worked then. If it ain't broke, why fix it?

Our country may never become perfect. It certainly wasn't before little George became president. But that doesn't mean we can't try. Next time someone gets the wild urge to rearrange government, maybe they ought to take a moment for reflection. Sometimes things are just fine as they are.

It seems that where ever you turn there is another conservative pundit screaming about the liberal bias in the media. Or someone in government complaining about a liberal conspiracy. Well, let me clue you into the truth. There isn't. The media is full of right wing conservatives, from Fox to CNN. The liberal voice gets shouted down. We can hardly hear it. And to top it off, they say liberal like it is a bad word and we should be speed slapped if we mention it. No, there isn't a liberal agenda, nor a liberal media. But maybe there should be. If nothing else it would be a refreshing change of pace.

And there are all kinds of issues that those with a liberal bent want to be heard on. The war in Iraq, for example. Why are we still there? It has been proven that the President lied to us about the reasons we went in there in the first place. Which brings up something else. If President Clinton could be impeached because he lied about sex, why can't Bush be impeached for something that actually cost people their lives?

So this is what I hope to do with this blog. I want to be that voice that doesn't get heard, or at least heard often enough. With luck there will eventually come some equality in the world of politics.

Over the weekend there were plenty of liberal voices making themselves heard in Washington D.C. and San Francisco. Unfortunately, Bush was out of town. He will do anything to avoid having to face the facts, it would seem. But if we start speaking up everyday, eventually someone will have to take notice.