Bush's war on FEMA and his fundamental misunderstanding of disaster relief programs

Bush decided to enter Labor Day weekend, 1 year after Hurricane Katrina destroyed an entire city, displaced hundreds of thousands of Americans and (so far) has cost the US government more than $100 Billion, by "getting out in front" and issuing an Executive Order to "Improve Assistance for Disaster Victims". The most substantive action taken by the administration by virtue of this EO is the creation of another beaurocratic layer of government; a special Task Force on Disaster Assistance Coordination. So, what's the problem? FEMA HAS NO REPRESENTATION on this task force, despite the fact that FEMA (and ONLY FEMA) is responsible for administering disaster assistance programs for both victims and local and State governments. Following Katrina's landfall, the Federal government suffered from beaurocratic paralysis. FEMA Director Michael Brown, having to work through an incompetent surrogate in Michael Chertoff, was never given the authorities or the tools necessary to rapidly respond to the needs of those who were affected. Yet, the administration's most significant policy adjustment on the 1 year anniversary of Katrina manages only to further cripple the one agency capable of fixing what the Bush administration themselves broke. Mr. Bush has shown (again) that his administration would prefer to hackishly strengthen the amorphous nothingness otherwise known as DHS to the detriment of anyone who may suffer from a future disaster. Incompetence. There's no other word.