I've never been to New Orleans, so I don't know the place very well, but in the days leading up to Katrina's landfall, I read plenty of scenarios, and they all cited some variation on the scenario that eventually came to pass. In the days since the levees broke, I've seen plenty to indicate that everybody whose job it was to know, knew that this was a big problem that needed addressing -- and that it wasn't being addressed.

So, I have to believe this was a foreseeable event. It's apparent that it wouldn't have taken a rocket scientist -- or even an MBA -- to see this coming.

What's more, I don't for a moment buy the story of administrative incompetence that's constantly offered up to explain why White House policies never seem to get the results that we're so vehemently promised they will.

So there has to be another explanation. Well, yeah, there's a brand new frontier for Halliburton, but they could have been brought in right away.

So why the delay? Why did it take so long to get the aid in there?

Hmmm . . . I wondered on this for a while. But little by little, it all added up.

First came the story about Pat "the Assassin" Robertson's prominent place on the FEMA list of organizations to contact if you'd like to volunteer or donate to disaster relief. If you haven't already, go look at the list.

How many organizations on that list aren't affiliated with some sort of church or ministry?

All right, though. That really proves nothing. After all, churches are the most obvious organizations to be starting up charities, so it makes sense.

But then, then I read GOPLies' diary about the soup kitchen the VfP have set up down there. And I read the subject line of Gary Boatwright's comment posted beneath it:

Yep. Veterans for Peace got there, set up, and started relief work before the National Guard did. Sounds great, right?

Until the implications start to sink in.

Think about what conservative commentator Jack Cafferty said:

Sounds like he's waking up, right? Recognizing that the Bushistas belong as far from the levers of power as possible?

Not quite.

As the Philadelphia Enquirer puts it:

That's the million-dollar question, all right. And as America moves to pick up the pieces, that's the question that's going to be percolating in the the national subconscious:

Why?

Some obvious answers have already been offered. Budgetary irresponsibility. Cronyism. An unhealthy obsession with Iraq. A callous indifference to the plight of the predominantly-black population.  There can be little doubt that each of these has played a part in bringing about the present circumstance. That is to say, there can be little doubt in our minds.

It's important to keep in mind that we're liberals. We believe that the government can actually help people -- that the government should actually help people -- that in a situation like this, the government must step in and help people.

That's liberal thinking.

There's a whole other world of thought out there, a philosophy which questions whether government should ever intervene, that dismisses the idea that the government can actually help people. These are the people who accept mere incompetence as an explanation for what the rest of us see as blatant criminal behavior.

It's easy for conservatives to accept incompetence as an excuse for government failures, because conservatives honestly believe that the government can only make things worse.

And the people in the White House right now are out to prove it.

Boatwright again: "You beat the National Guard in?"

Cafferty again: "This is the government the taxpayers are paying for."

Do you hear it yet?

No?

All right, try this one:

Who said that? George W. Bush said that.

And that's what's most alarming about all this: the administration is acknowledging that there's a problem. And this administration only sees a problem if it has a "solution" in mind. They only admit a mistake if it's accompanied by a "lesson" learned. Like the "lesson" they learned from 9/11, that the best way to prevent terrorism is to invade countries at random until everybody stops hating us. Or the "lesson" they learned from lying about Iraq, that they need a partisan Republican in charge of the CIA to keep the intelligence analysts in line.

Oh, yeah: The Ownership Society has learned a "lesson" from the New Orleans flood, and they can't wait to teach it to America. That's why they're allowed to see problems with the federal response, but if we do it it's callous politics. They're way out on a limb here, and it would be disastrous if the public came away from this thinking that this tragedy was aggravated by sheer indifference on the part of the administration. Watch as a new idea seeps through the right wing, perfectly explaining the problem.

Still lost? Let TownHall.com columnist Mary Ham spell it out for you:

Y'see:Not encumbered with rules and regulations. Not hindered by concepts like transparency and accountability. Free to do what they want, when they want to.

Do I smell a Republican talking point cooking?

I'm astounded already.

Bring it on home, Ms. Ham.

"A few new believers."

Wink, wink.

(Wanna go look at that list again?)