[invoman]

You obviously have not read all of my posts on this thread. I assign most of the blame to Nagin and Blanco. However, I don't hold the Feds blameless for their initial, bleated response to NO.

I might be inclined to agree with you. If you would phrase the last part ('Fed blameless') this way:

The Feds share some responsibility for failing to recognize, or even believe, the complete incompetence of the local and State 'leaders' sooner.

Just a thought process I'm working through. I might be wrong.

[kabar]

I'll buy that, but there were some "paperwork" impediments that hampered an immediate response once the levees had broken.