Here's another example of the sort of muddled thinking that results from thinking of politics rather than of governance. It isn't just that it silly or mean spirited nonsense, it is also that the political thinker is unable to make useful analyses of situations and actions. [via Notional Slurry]

But the diehard Bush shills (no bit of right-wing sliminess is beneath them, it is said) are busy blaming the local officials. (Ask yourself: supposing there really were, say, 200 school buses available, how would that have made possible the evacuation of 100,000 people from New Orleans?)

Sliminess? That seems as abundant on the left, as evidenced here, as the right. I agree, they are both slimy.

The fact is that the perpetually corrupt NOLA political establishment did blunder horribly. The fact is that FEMA was not prepared to deal with a real disaster, especially one that took place in such a corrupt and poorly governed place. Politicians on both sides do bear responsibility for this, both for creating the dependency culture with a fatalist attitude due to economic decline and poverty, and then failing to manage their creation during a disaster.

The post goes on in a pathetic attempt to make New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin look less than criminally negligent and corrupt, and it is done for the sole purpose of shifting blame to Bush. It's totally insane. Then it really gets loopy by trying to even make Mary Landrieu look good, and concludes by defending this sort of partisan deceit.

assigning blame now often gets negligent public officials to act; that's the main reason for assigning blame, and lots of it! (We all know why the alleged President cancelled the last few days of his vacation, and then finally travelled to the Gulf Coast, with troops in tow, and it had everything to do with the blame being correctly heaped on his Administration.) Second, while we might agree that National Guardsmen and doctors in New Orleans shouldn't be spending time blogging and writing op-eds about who is to blame, it is ludicrous to suggest that those of us who can make no concrete contribution to relief efforts--which includes just about every law and philosophy professor in the United States--shouldn't do what we can do, which is collect information, analyze, and evaluate.

If only. There's no information collection, analysis or evaluation going on here. This is gutter politics seeking to conceal information and spew prior opinions. There's no thought involved. All the references are to the self serving statements of culpable politicians. The shoddy argument that having cited these political talking points, assigning blame based on them is not only justified but useful, demonstrates how political behavior effectively lowers the IQ dramatically.

Politics is a nasty, stupid business. Most of NOLA's problems can be traced to politics - all flavors - as governance was completely neglected. IF we wish to assign blame it should go to politicians and their supporters, as a group. They should all be ashamed of themselves not still shrieking in indignation at one another.