Investigation? We don't need no investigation.

I don't think we need a rocket scientist or a panel of disaster experts spending months and dollars on telling us what went wrong in governments' - local, state and federal - handling of the Katrina disaster. The reasons why we screwed up so badly are obvious.

The immediate causes are incompetent people, poor planning, slow implementation and inept management of whatever planning there was, poor communications, budget cutting, little or no leadership, "it can't happen here" attitudes.

However, as Brian Hughes of Oak Bluffs points out in the Vineyard Gazette, a local paper here on Martha's Vineyard, this disaster has been in the works for a while, at least looking at our federal government. Mr. Hughes does not mince words. Let me quote from his letter to the editor.

"The election of Ronald Reagan began a 28-year destruction of the accomplishments of the New Deal, the social contract and the sense of shared responsibility. Even the Democratic party abandoned the poor. The long progression of regression has led us to George Bush and a federal government unwilling and unable to effectively intervene in the disaster in New Orleans.

A federal government that cannot provide health care to 45 million American citizens.

A federal government that wants to set the market free to destroy Social Security and the stability of our eldest citizens' lives.

A federal government that refuses to tax the wealthiest of our citizens but is happy to tax the poor and the middle class to fund the adventurism of the rich.

A federal government that marshals an army of the poor and disadvantaged to advance the interests of the rich.

A federal government that turns away when faced with the awful truth about the death rate of our babies.

A federal government of the rich, by the rich and for the rich.

And we are responsible, we the middle class."

The letter concludes, "Government is not the problem, it's the people we elected to government and it's our responsibility to throw them out. (my emphasis)

"Them" are most of our politicians at all levels. We need to take our government back from the professional hacks who have been destroying this country for too long.

I know I'm whistling Dixie when I say we don't need an investigation. Politics demands one. I hope that Bush appoints Nagin, Blanco, Brown and Chertoff to the panel, which, of course, Bush should chair. I'm sure that this panel will be as impartial as any panel Bush will appoint.