MELISSA BLOCK, host: News analyst Daniel Schorr.</s>SCHORR: In the wake of Katrina, that may have to be amended `and then      your friend may turn out to be dysfunctional.'  We are learning the hard      way about the costs of stinting on infrastructure to pay for tax cuts and      the war in Iraq, and we are learning the hard way about the cost of      entrusting emergency response to the political cronies and contributors      who people this administration; this despite many warnings, notably from      The New Orleans Times-Picayune three years ago that the levees and the      flood walls were `fragile.</s>SCHORR: Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has      been spending a lot of time on television explaining to aroused      interlocutors why he was about the last to know of the thousands of      citizens languishing in the convention center.  In a job that calls for a      high degree of professionalism, Brown's previous experience was in      overseeing horse shows.  He got the FEMA job on the recommendation of his      old college chum Joseph Allbaugh, who had been the president's national      campaign manager and who left FEMA to create a lobbying firm.  So what      happens when decision-making in a dire emergency is left to political      amateurs?  First, an argument about division of authority while people      are dying.  Meanwhile, as the Chicago Tribune reports, the USS Bataan, a      well-equipped support ship with water, medicine and operating rooms, lay      for several days anchored off the Gulf Coast without orders.</s>SCHORR: What happens is that Wal-Mart tries to deliver three truckloads of water      to Jefferson Parish and is turned away by FEMA.  On NBC television, Aaron      Broussard, the president of the parish, dissolves in sobs as he accuses      the federal government of the worst abandonment of Americans.  Newsweek      describes a strange paralysis as Bush officials try to define who is      responsible for what.  This has become a crisis of confidence not only in      agencies and officials but in the whole concept of national government.      This is Daniel Schorr.</s>MELISSA BLOCK, host: Complete NPR coverage of Katrina's aftermath is at our Web site,      npr.org.
NPR senior news analyst Daniel Schorr says that the government's "strange paralysis" after Hurricane Katrina has resulted in a widespread loss of confidence in government agencies and officials — and more significantly, with the whole concept of the role of the federal government.