Our president is scheduled to address the nation tonight from the former city of New Orleans. Surely somewhere in his address he will repeat his the-buck-stops-here sentiment. But the more I think about his apology, the more worthless & futile it seems.

I certainly agree that someone somewhere has to claim responsibility for the inefficiencies and downright idiocies of this administration, but why let Bush off so easily with just a simple “I’m responsible”? Why not force an apology from ex-FEMA Director Brown? [Perhaps Attorney General Gonzalez could make some “quaint” torture suggestions.]

I’ve been reading a lot of political philosophy lately, and if there’s one theme that the classical thinkers have in common with the Enlightenment thinkers, it is questioning the origin of justice. Does justice come from the gods, or is it something merely legislated by a society? One thing is for sure: if there were any justice, Brown would be bailing water out of New Orleans bucket by bucket until he died. [Or was gang-raped by a band of criminals & petty thugs scavenging their way across the drowned Gulf Coast; afterwards, I’d even consent to a full pardon for him.] Instead he gets to “save face” by simply resigning and moving on to his next sinecure.

But now that Bush has “taken responsibility” for the lack of any real federal response to Hurricane Katrina, why should he stop there? Shouldn’t he also take responsibility for the daily suicide bombs in Iraq? [Before the US invasion & occupation, there was not 1 single suicide bomb in the entire country. Ever.] The tens of thousands of civilians killed in Afghanistan & Iraq by the US military? The thousands of US soldiers killed in 2 wars built entirely on lies? The lies & baked intelligence fed to the public regarding WMDs? The terrorist attacks of September 11th? All his fault—much more so than a hurricane!—and yet not a peep.

At the very least, shouldn’t his underlings & appointees take some of the fall? But even the sneaky and very snakey Dr. Anaconda Lies got to completely ignore warnings that bin Ladin was determined to attack within the US while she served as the National inSecurity Advisor, to go on national television & defend her incompetence & stupidity, and then to be promoted to chief diplomat of our country.

At this rate, I’d be all for bringing back the guillotine for politicians guilty of gross negligence & what any real leader would see as treason. Some heads would roll, but eventually we’d get some decent people in charge.