of course it did

Bush: Media had more details on Katrina than gov't "There was no situational awareness, and that means that we weren't getting good, solid information from people who were on the ground, and we need to do a better job," Bush told ABC News in excerpts of an interview to be aired on Tuesday evening. "In many cases we were relying upon the media," he said. "And when you have the media have better situational awareness than the government, the American people are saying, 'Wait a minute. What is happening?'

"The media always does and always will. That's, umm, kinda like.... their job. All this does is highlight Bush's ignorance of the 'real world'. Local and State first responders and emergency managers even rely upon the media for information and situational awareness. Add this to the long list of reasons why the Bush administration might want (and need) to develop a healthy relationship with the people whose job it is to actually inform, rather than drive artificial wedges and spread unfounded rhetoric about "media bias" whenever the news turns bad. I thought this administration put a premium on personal responsibility. Seriously, the longer Bush continues to live in the sheltered protection of his bubble of propaganda and rhetoric, the further out of touch he will fall... and America will continue to suffer because of it. Oh yeah, and 1 more thing:

"The chaotic scenes were very troubling. It just -- it was very unsettling for me to realize our fellow citizens were in near-panic, wondering where the help was," Bush said.

Then why did it take you until Wednesday to abandon your Crawford vacation? And why, if this was so troublesome, did you decide to put Air Force 1 within eye-shot of victims who were still stranded on rooftops and make the decision to continue flying all the way back to Washington? Shorter version: Why didn't you stop? [update:] Looks like I'm not the only one who finds the extent to which President Bush is out-of-touch disturbing... almost dangerous. Garrison Keillor's latest at Salon.com, titled simply Impeach Bush, is a must read from top to bottom:

You hear young people talk about America as if it's all over, and you trust that this is only them talking tough. And then you read the paper and realize the country is led by a man who isn't paying attention, and you hope that somebody will poke him. Or put a sign on his desk that says, "Try Much Harder."

Do we need to impeach him to bring some focus to this man's life? The man was lost and then he was found and now he's more lost than ever, plus being blind.

~

The U.S. Constitution provides a simple ultimate way to hold him to account for war crimes and the failure to attend to the country's defense. Impeach him and let the Senate hear the evidence.