kudos to you, dagnabbit...

Okay so I've decided that today I need to do something I just hate doing. I need to compliment some people that technically I loathe. But you know, sometimes you just have to acknowledge that they occasionally get it right. Maybe it's a good karma thing.

Firstly, kudos to the English test cricket team for stealing back the Ashes from Australia for the first time in 18 years. For you American types not familiar with the noble game of cricket, this link explains the origins of the Ashes series. The Ashes stay with England or Australia, depending on who wins the series. We've had them 18 long years and England has been seriously partying since winning this year's series.

Secondly, and this is much harder to do, kudos to Dubbya for taking responsibility for the federal government's poor response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

"Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government," Bush said at joint White House news conference with the president of Iraq.

"To the extent the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility," Bush said.

The president was asked whether people should be worried about the government's ability to handle another terrorist attack given failures in responding to Katrina.

"Are we capable of dealing with a severe attack? That's a very important question and it's in the national interest that we find out what went on so we can better respond," Bush replied.

Compare this from September 1:

"George W Bush gave one of the worst speeches of his life yesterday," says the New York Times in an editorial.

"He advised the public that anybody who wanted to help should send cash, grinned, and promised that everything would work out in the end.

"And nothing about the president's demeanour yesterday - which seemed casual to the point of carelessness - suggested that he understood the depth of the current crisis."

Don't get me wrong. I still think the man is an oaf and has been a poor president. After all, the above only took place two weeks ago. However, today I have to give credit where credit is due. Some have quoted Kerry, who is right when he says:

"The President has done the obvious, only after it was clear he couldn’t get away with the inexcusable."

But the point is: it was the right thing to do, and he did it. So just for today, Dubbya, kudos to you.