Caught on tape

Being in Sydney should mean we're ahead of the US dateline- and time-wise, but I find I'm usually miles behind and no where close to catching up. So if you see stuff here that you've seen long ago or repeated ad nauseum elsewhere, that's the price you pay; it's all new to me. And in that vein, I've just seen the following from the Face The Nation tv program played sometime recently (not sure exactly, but it looks like Sep 4th):

Bob Shieffer wrapped up Face the Nation today with this (click "Video" to see the tape on Windows Media Player):
Video

SCHIEFFER: "Finally, a personal thought. We have come through what may have been one of the worst weeks in America's history, a week in which government at every level failed the people it was created to serve. There is no purpose for government except to improve the lives of its citizens. Yet as scenes of horror that seemed to be coming from some Third World country flashed before us, official Washington was like a dog watching television. It saw the lights and images, but did not seem to comprehend their meaning or see any link to reality.
As the floodwaters rose, local officials in New Orleans ordered the city evacuated. They might as well have told their citizens to fly to the moon. How do you evacuate when you don't have a car? No hint of intelligent design in any of this. This was just survival of the richest...."

(http://www.crooksandliars.com/2005/09/04.html#a4787)

As I've said before, there's plenty blame to around and around and ...