We elect politicians to give us government - The republicans give us lies and excuses.

Kevin Drum provides a chronology of the failure of the Bush administration to fund flood protection in New Orleans. Go look. It is a quick summary with sources.

In today's White House briefing, a reporter asked Scott McLennan if the criticisms of the funding cuts and poor planning were legitimate. Think Progress provides a transcript of the response.

MCCLELLAN: As I have indicated, this is not a time for politics. This is a time for the nation to come together for those in the Gulf Coast region and that's where our focus is. This is not a time for finger-pointing or politics. And I think the last thing that the people who have been displaced or the people who have been affected need is people seeking partisan gain in Washington. So if that's what you're talking about, that's one thing. Now, if you're talking about specific areas, I would be glad to talk about some of those, if that's what you want.

REPORTER: I'm talking about policy

REPORTER: One project, for instance, is the one where people felt they needed $60 million in the current '06 fiscal year, and they were given $10 million. Those types of projects. And a lot -

MCCLELLAN: Which project is this?

REPORTER: Southeast Louisiana Flood Control.

MCCLELLAN: Flood control has been a priority of this administration from day one.

This was one of the lies.

When you hear "We couldn't keep a hurricane from hitting New Orleans." that is one of the lame excuses. At "More on FEMA mismanagement" I explain what they could have done - but didn't.

You know why they didn't do anything? Because they wanted to invade Iraq and remove a nasty but non-threatening dictator without paying for it, and give tax cuts to their rich supporters.

The Iraq war and Bush's tax cuts have just unnecessarily cost thousands more American lives on top of the ones lost in Iraq.