I just learned the name of the federal bailout program for the nation’s reckless speculator class.

It’s called the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

The acronym for it is…TARP.

It took less time for the Congress to write away $700 billion than it did to get food and drinking water to the thousands stranded at the Convention Center three years ago.

The function of a tarp is to protect a damaged roof from the elements until a proper repair can be made. It’s meant to be a temporary patch. It’s something everyone knows can’t work by itself or be permanent.

So what’s is the plan to fix the structural damage to our highly leveraged and highly shredded financial system?

“Plan? What plan?

Isn’t this $700 billion TARP enough?”

Man, not even FEMA would try to bill the taxpayers $700 billion for a tarp.

I knew it was just a matter of time before the rest of the country caught up (or caught down) with New Orleans. I just didn’t expect to happen so soon.

Millions are losing their properties. Millions more will lose their job. Tens of thousands of businesses will close their doors. Communities will be challenged. Lives uprooted.

All because a federal system, engineered at great tax payer expense for the benefit of a few insiders, finally got tested and proved to be gravely wanting.

And it’s all being covered over with a $700 billion tarp – until the next storm comes.

“Brownie here’s doing a heck of a job.”

New Orleans can console itself with the fact it knows how to be broke with grace – something the rest of the country has long forgotten – and has much better food and music.

Ask not for whom the bell tolls America…