The easiest way to make a head explode is to sit it down in front the television and make it listen to Michael "Brownie" Brown's opening statement before the (un)bi-partisan committee to investigate the response to Hurricane Katrina.

A few highlights:

1. Mr. Brown essentially blamed the victims for their lack of preparedness.
   
2. Mr. Brown specifically blamed Governor Blanco and Mayor Nagin and stated that he couldn't have anticipated that his "...biggest mistake was not realizing Louisiana was dysfunctional."
   
3. Mr. Brown defended his resume and experience and specifically said "I know what I'm doing. I think I'm doing a pretty darned good job of it."
   
4. His opening statement continually referenced how small FEMA is, the fact that it's not a first responder, and basically tried to shift blame to the locals.

On a purely human level this is just deplorable. If you spend all of your time trying to deflect blame and defend your own record, you do nothing to really determine the level of culpability of FEMA and, conversely, the rightful level of culpability on the locals. Nothing will be learned and that's just a travesty.

I live in Washington DC. I would really, truly like to see an honest evaluation by all parties. If we even improve response by 25% it would be a huge accomplishment. I can't believe that all that will come out of this is an ass covering. Where is our humanity and our concern for those who lost their lives??

I am disgusted.