That's Molly Ivins, whose loathing for Bush is monumental. It's my opinion that she may tell the truth but not always the whole truth, if you get my drift. Like the folks who looked at Hastert's remark about "should we rebuild" without including the context that made it clear he was musing on the way we will rebuild on locations that, on the face of it, don't necessarily make a lot of sense because we're stubborn.

I think that a broad cross-section of Americans can shoulder blame for what happened in New Orleans. I also think that at this point finger-pointing is less important than drawing a variety of lessons so that something like this doesn't happen again.

What might those lessons be? One -- when New Orleans is rebuilt, how about a change in the building codes so that everything built has to be able to withstand a Category 5 hurricane? Two, when doing distater planning for a community where so many folks are in appalling poverty, we have to recognize the fact that at the end of the month they have no money left and cannot go out and purchase a five-day food and water supply to sustain their families in a place like the Superdome. That kind of food is expensive -- and the reality of the end of the month stretch just hit me this morning. I could go on and on, but it could be summed up by this: we need to have national conversations about two issues in relationship to each other, and those two issues are social justice and individual responsibility.

The National Guard was there and could have maintained order if it hadn't been fully occupied with search and rescue.