Responsibility is in short supply at the top these days.

It seems that the Bush administration penchant for blaming everyone else for failures at the top has trickled down to even lowly municipal agencies. Here's what New York City's Administration for Children's Services Commissioner John Mattingly said after the the allegedly murderous death of 7-year-old Nixmary Brown this week: After telling the New York Daily News "that the agency's training and policies are top notch," he said, "but the recent deaths of four children [including Nixmary]... suggest caseworkers and managers aren't doing enough."

Sure John and the soldiers and guards at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo are responsible for the deaths and torture at those prisons.

Nixmary - rest in peace!