There’s been a recent and major change in my life. I’ve updated my Facebook account.

I am no longer listed as having a moderate political affiliation. I am now, somewhat half-heartedly, listed as a liberal.

What drove me to make such a change? President George W. Bush.

My defection is a serious blow to Bush. I supported his campaign in 2000. I rallied behind him after 9/11. I took part in “anti-anti-war” protests during the 2003 Iraq invasion.

Last fall I even thought he was a better candidate than John Kerry. But enough is enough.

The way President Bush has handled himself in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina has been disheartening and deplorable.

Bush is not responsible for the devastation in the South. The hurricane did that.

Nor is Bush responsible for the levees breaking. Numerous administrations knew about those dangers.

Bush is responsible, however, for being lazy and uncaring since Aug. 27.

Since the onset of the devastation, Bush has done nothing but gloss over the destruction, show a lack of empathy and even interfere with and misuse valuable volunteers.

Bush’s first survey of the damage didn’t happen until two days after the hurricane hit, and he only looked out the window of Air Force One. Sen. Frank Lautenburg (D-N.J.) said it best last week: “It was not enough for the president to bank his plane and look at the window and say, ‘Oh, what a devastating sight.’ Instead of looking out the window of an airplane, he should have been on the ground giving the people devastated by this hurricane hope.”

Things only got worse for Bush. On Sept. 1, Bush sat down with Diane Sawyer on ABC’s Good Morning America and uttered these now infamous words.

“I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees. They did anticipate a serious storm. But these levees got breached. And as a result, much of New Orleans is flooded. And now we are having to deal with it and will.”

Really, Mr. President?

Perhaps you just don’t read National Geographic. The magazine predicted almost these exact circumstances in an October 2004 article titled “Gone with the Water.”

Former Mississippi senator Michael Parker said, “We’ve talked about it and said it in speeches on the floor of the Congress that we needed to be better prepared … yet the funding was not there.”

I guess Bush doesn’t pay much attention to his own Congress either.

But don’t despair! Bush is concerned about the things that really matter now.

In a press conference on Sept. 2 Bush stated, “The good news is – and it’s hard for some to see it now – that out of this chaos is going to come a fantastic Gulf Coast, like it was before. Out of the rubbles of Trent Lott’s house – he’s lost his entire house – there’s going to be a fantastic house. And I’m looking forward to sitting on the porch.”

That’s right, thousands are homeless and President Bush has the audacity to voice his concern over the home of a man who makes $175,000 a year as the Senate majority leader.

Never before have I seen Bush’s lack of empathy on such a grand scale.

What’s taken the actions of Mr. Bush over the top is his apparent misuse of volunteers willing to help with the recovery of the South. In what can only be described as American bureaucracy at its best, nearly 1,000 firefighters from around the nation were ordered to Atlanta, where they were forced to take a one-day training course on such topics as sexual harassment, according to a report in a recent Salt Lake Tribune article. The course was required before the firefighters were allowed to get to the task at hand. For many the task at hand was handing out fliers along the Southern coast. There are people stranded on rooftops and the federal government has certified search and rescue personnel handing out fliers.

It gets better.

As specific orders were being handed out, 50 firefighters were given orders to board a plane and head to Louisiana. Their mission: to stand beside the president as he tours devastated areas. What a valuable way to use 50 fresh bodies.

In the past few weeks all Bush has done is make a mess of the situation and a fool of himself.

Maybe someday, after Bush is no longer in office, I’ll be proud to be a conservative again, but for now I don’t feel comfortable being associated with Bush in any way.

I know Bush-bashing is something we hear a lot of, but Bush-bashing, coming from me and other long time Bush supporters, is a big blow.

Columns reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily that of the Northern Star staff.