Letter to Bush from Michael Moore

[Wino you know]

You're both funny.
and I'm actually older than L.I.P.H.

[captainjoe]

You're both funny.
and I'm actually older than L.I.P.H.

So what was King George Washington like?

Just kidding! Check this book out http://search.barnesandnoble.com/bookse ... 6712&itm=1 if you like Washington. I read it straight through - cover to cover in one sitting.

[Wino you know]

Will do. Thanks.

[Sam]

Sam, I couldn't agree more with everything you've said. You have a great way of explaining things without stooping to the low level of ranting liberals, thanks for your insight.

CNF
Thank you!!! I wanted to say more,to elaborate more on it and other points but that had to do for the time alotted. ( GEE! imagine that! ) but I was pressed for time. We went out last night and met up with a few "blokes" from the U.K. Navy. They were great guys and alot of fun !!! ( but they talked kind of funny. LOL especially the Scotsman.LMAO!)

We had a great time. We are hoping time and weather permitting to get them out here for a cookout and enjoy the great American pass time of shooting and killing some poor helpless,defenseless cans or just punch some holes in some paper. Something that they don't get much of a chance to do much over there anymore. Also show them a little history of the area. A couple of the guys were ( to no surprise) history buffs.
Maybe do a little paddling around and look for gators or a little fishing. Just some relaxation and southern/American hospitality.

If you ever make to this area, you have an open invite, my friend. Just let me know.

[krusin1]

Since I brought him up, here's a little about Truman.

Truman was, in fact, originally a candidate supported by the KC mob. In fact, he named some figures with kind of shady pasts to influential posts. Truman was famously loyal to his people, which caused him some real problems, brought on some scandals, cost him a lot of popularity in the polls, etc. etc.

In Korea, Truman stuck by McArthur for a long time. When he finally did fire him, though, Truman's poll numbers went riduculously low, while McArthur came home to national recognition and parades.

(Little known fact... in Korea, McArthur had actually suggested using radioactive material to create a virtually impenetrable barrier between north and south. Crazy stuff, and a big part of why Truman fired him.)

Still, Truman made gutsy decisions, and has been given a decent grade by history mainly (IMHO) on the merits of having backbone and trying to do the right thing.

A lot of people agree that Truman screwed up most of the little things, but got the big decisions right. He also said what he meant, and meant what he said. Not necessarily a common trait among politicians.

Anyway, I guess I see some similarities between GW Bush and Harry S. Truman. Policies... in some areas alike, in some areas not. Both, though were loyal to their people, made gutsy decisions, and didn't worry so much about poll numbers.

Now, just to inflame a few... our recent ex-president who often made decisions based on polls, is probably going to end up ranked close to the bottom. Lots of opportunities to do good, most of them squandered...

For me, again, I'm not a Democrat, but I'd still sure like to see some Democratic candidates with backbone and integrity who can actually state and intellectually debate points of policy. There has to be more than "Bush is Evil."

[BananaWinds]

Sam, I couldn't agree more with everything you've said. You have a great way of explaining things without stooping to the low level of ranting liberals, thanks for your insight.

OMFGLMAO

He is usually on the bottom stair doing the spewing
J.F.C.

[citcat]

I just wish we could go back to when the budget was balanced, we weren't in war, gas prices were reasonable, and the Gulf Coast hurricane disaster never happened. But since that's not possible......we'll probably gripe about the politicians instead of getting things done and argue amongst ourselves. Common sense tells me something is seriously wrong here in our political system, but that's mostly the way it's always been. It takes a disaster or war to correct parts of the system, and here we have both. So let's see what happens now. The cream will rise to the top.(so to speak)
And I must say, I'm kinda surprised at the amount of right-wings here...I always associated Jimmy's songs and the laid back people who love them as leaning more to the left/middle.....????
wow....just shows to go ya

[sonofabeach]

I just wish we could go back to when the budget was balanced, we weren't in war, gas prices were reasonable, and the Gulf Coast hurricane disaster never happened. But since that's not possible......we'll probably gripe about the politicians instead of getting things done and argue amongst ourselves. Common sense tells me something is seriously wrong here in our political system, but that's mostly the way it's always been. It takes a disaster or war to correct parts of the system, and here we have both. So let's see what happens now. The cream will rise to the top.(so to speak)
And I must say, I'm kinda surprised at the amount of right-wings here...I always associated Jimmy's songs and the laid back people who love them as leaning more to the left/middle.....????
wow....just shows to go ya

ya know it's funny.
Ya hear the left wingers complain about the amount of right wingers here and the right do the same about the left.
Just an observartion.
Like Bocephus said "Can't we all just get a longneck"

[citcat]

I just wish we could go back to when the budget was balanced, we weren't in war, gas prices were reasonable, and the Gulf Coast hurricane disaster never happened. But since that's not possible......we'll probably gripe about the politicians instead of getting things done and argue amongst ourselves. Common sense tells me something is seriously wrong here in our political system, but that's mostly the way it's always been. It takes a disaster or war to correct parts of the system, and here we have both. So let's see what happens now. The cream will rise to the top.(so to speak)
And I must say, I'm kinda surprised at the amount of right-wings here...I always associated Jimmy's songs and the laid back people who love them as leaning more to the left/middle.....????
wow....just shows to go ya

ya know it's funny.
Ya hear the left wingers complain about the amount of right wingers here and the right do the same about the left.
Just an observartion.
Like Bocephus said "Can't we all just get a longneck"

well, good...balance is good!!!
I'll take a longneck, as long as it's filled with tequila and lime!

[Sam]

I just wish we could go back to when the budget was balanced, we weren't in war, gas prices were reasonable, and the Gulf Coast hurricane disaster never happened. But since that's not possible......we'll probably gripe about the politicians instead of getting things done and argue amongst ourselves. Common sense tells me something is seriously wrong here in our political system, but that's mostly the way it's always been. It takes a disaster or war to correct parts of the system, and here we have both. So let's see what happens now. The cream will rise to the top.(so to speak)
And I must say, I'm kinda surprised at the amount of right-wings here...I always associated Jimmy's songs and the laid back people who love them as leaning more to the left/middle.....????
wow....just shows to go ya

ya know it's funny.
Ya hear the left wingers complain about the amount of right wingers here and the right do the same about the left.
Just an observartion.
Like Bocephus said "Can't we all just get a longneck"

well, good...balance is good!!!
I'll take a longneck, as long as it's filled with tequila and lime!

I do agree both sides can go too far and then become a circle.....each becoming what they profess to oppose....and become the oppressors that they percieve to be out there.

Our political system has become what it is because of voter apathy and greed. People don't care enough to vote....people saying "My vote dosen't matter". People not getting involved or caring enough to get involved with the process.
Ergo we get the goverment that people that do care enough to vote and actually do vote and get involved give us.

Screw party lines! It is not about being this party or that....it is about what is best for "WE THE PEOPLE".....instead we are forced to a different choice of candidates...."Which one will do the least amount of damage..." But overall "WE THE PEOPLE" allowed this to happen by nothing but scheer apathy....the few that do vote and actively participate, are few in number compared to the majority of the eligible voting populace.
So many people have sacrificed their lives, limbs, blood, sweat, and other things people have no clue of or seldom think of..... Just so people have the power and Right to vote....It is up to the individual to choose vote or not to vote....and I do not think/feel voting simply because it is "my party line" even when one does not like the individual. That is selfish to everyone else and denying sound judgement in voting.

Something Michael Moore who is really a Canadian and not an American needs to consider before he goes turning out some product that espouses his extremist left wing views.....

If anyone that watched his last "work" about 9/11 watches the counter to it ...they will some of the same people and they denounce what Michael Moore "creatively edited" what they actually said.
Meanwhile Moore is paying reportedly somewhere around $3,000.00 US Dollars a week to lose weight... If he can afford to do that....one would think he could afford to be quite generous to the people and victims of Katrina and renting helicopters or chartering planes and bringing in much needed help and supplies.... Other actors have done such......Why not Michael Moore who just slams President Bush but ignores the failures of the Mayor of New Orleans and the Governor of La.
( BTW why don't we hear more about the people of Alabama and Mississippi or the people in the bayous? )

Tequila and lime on the side Please. I don't care for beer to be contaminated.

[sonofabeach]

ya know, my dad looks a lot like Michael Moore, the hair, sizewise, even down to the ball caps and shirts and even a lot of his views. We tell him all of the time that he could be a Michael Moore look alike for some $$$...And on top of that his name is Michael...It's fun giving him hell about it.
We also get into a lot of political arguements or more like just bickering. Not that I'm a right winger by any means but he's so far left that it's fun to get him going and watch him rant. He'll come over and I'll saying something like, "ya know dad, Bush is a man of the people". Then we just sit back and watch him go off for minutes on end.
And don't even get him started on conspiracy theories....

[krusin1]

And I must say, I'm kinda surprised at the amount of right-wings here...I always associated Jimmy's songs and the laid back people who love them as leaning more to the left/middle.....????
wow....just shows to go ya

Being one of the right wings, I'm not necessarily surprised that there are so many of us here. The idea of freedom to go/do what you want is pretty appealing to us right-wing, stay-out-of our pocket, government can't-tell-me-what-to-do types.

I'm actually more surprised by the fact that Jimmy's politics lean left.

Think about it... he's definitely making full use of our free market sytem, he tends to be very independent (Mailboat records, flies his own plane, etc.), and seems like other people intruding on how he lives his life annoys him.

Remember, to the right of Republicans are those who want even less government interference, all the way to the extreme, the Anarchists. To the left of Democrats are the ultra-libs, Socialists, and Communists. I would expect Jimmy to be more Anarchist than Communist.

I'm guessing his left-leaning politics were heavily, heavily influenced by Vietnam. I find quite a few left-leaners view most of the world through that prism. Most of the right wingers I know don't necessarily do that.

Just my two cents. Feel free to flame away.

[BananaWinds]

I just wish we could go back to when the budget was balanced, we weren't in war, gas prices were reasonable, and the Gulf Coast hurricane disaster never happened. But since that's not possible......we'll probably gripe about the politicians instead of getting things done and argue amongst ourselves. Common sense tells me something is seriously wrong here in our political system, but that's mostly the way it's always been. It takes a disaster or war to correct parts of the system, and here we have both. So let's see what happens now. The cream will rise to the top.(so to speak)
And I must say, I'm kinda surprised at the amount of right-wings here...I always associated Jimmy's songs and the laid back people who love them as leaning more to the left/middle.....????
wow....just shows to go ya

ya know it's funny.
Ya hear the left wingers complain about the amount of right wingers here and the right do the same about the left.
Just an observartion.
Like Bocephus said "Can't we all just get a longneck"

actually I don't hear conservatives ever complain about the # of liberals,
please show me some examples?
What I DO see day in & day out is liberal bashing ...
show me some conservative bashing? I don't see any?

[BananaWinds]

And I must say, I'm kinda surprised at the amount of right-wings here...I always associated Jimmy's songs and the laid back people who love them as leaning more to the left/middle.....????
wow....just shows to go ya

Being one of the right wings, I'm not necessarily surprised that there are so many of us here. The idea of freedom to go/do what you want is pretty appealing to us right-wing, stay-out-of our pocket, government can't-tell-me-what-to-do types.

I'm actually more surprised by the fact that Jimmy's politics lean left.

Think about it...Just my two cents. Feel free to flame away.

I'm Independant / not conservative, so don't worry, I won't flame you bud
just this comment, Jimmy is the head parrothead, he's compasionate, cares about other people & is charitable = those are liberal ideologies, NOT conservative ones

[PirateJeff]

Has anyone else noticed that since everyone is figuring out that Mayor "no sense" Nagan and Governor "slow on button" Blanco are really to blame for most of the slow response in the diaster, that the news channels are now blaming the "whole system" instead just blaming the president because the looney liberals don't want to blame their own? That might the longest question I have ever written.

[a1aara]

Is Bush to Blame for New Orleans Flooding?
He did slash funding for levee projects. But the Army Corps of Engineers says Katrina was just too strong.

September 2, 2005

Summary



Some critics are suggesting President Bush was as least partly responsible for the flooding in New Orleans. In a widely quoted opinion piece, former Clinton aide Sidney Blumenthal says that "the damage wrought by the hurricane may not entirely be the result of an act of nature," and cites years of reduced funding for federal flood-control projects around New Orleans.

Our fact-checking confirms that Bush indeed cut funding for projects specifically designed to strengthen levees. Indeed, local officials had been complaining about that for years.

It is not so clear whether the money Bush cut from levee projects would have made any difference, however, and we're not in a position to judge that. The Army Corps of Engineers - which is under the President's command and has its own reputation to defend - insists that Katrina was just too strong, and that even if the levee project had been completed it was only designed to withstand a category 3 hurricane.



Analysis



We suspect this subject will get much more attention in Congress and elsewhere in the coming months. Without blaming or absolving Bush, here are the key facts we've been able to establish so far:

Bush Cut Funding

Blumenthal's much-quoted article in salon.com carried the headline: "No one can say they didn't see it coming." And it said the Bush administration cut flood-control funding "to pay for the Iraq war."

He continues:

Blumenthal: With its main levee broken, the evacuated city of New Orleans has become part of the Gulf of Mexico . But the damage wrought by the hurricane may not entirely be the result of an act of nature.

...By 2003 the federal funding for the flood control project essentially dried up as it was drained into the Iraq war. In 2004, the Bush administration cut funding requested by the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for holding back the waters of Lake Pontchartrain by more than 80 percent. Additional cuts at the beginning of this year...forced the New Orleans district of the Corps to impose a hiring freeze.

We can confirm that funding was cut. The project most closely associated with preventing flooding in New Orleans was the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Hurricane Protection Project, which was "designed to protect residents between Lake Pontchartrain and the Missisippi River levee from surges in Lake Pontchartrain," according to a fact sheet from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. (The fact sheet is dated May 23, long before Katrina). The multi-decade project involved building new levees, enlarging existing levees, and updating other protections like floodwalls. It was scheduled to be completed in 2015.

Over at least the past several budget cycles, the Corps has received substantially less money than it requested for the Lake Pontchartrain project, even though Congress restored much of the money the President cut from the amount the Corps requested.

In fiscal year 2004, the Corps requested $11 million for the project. The President's budget allocated $3 million, and Congress furnished $5.5 million. Similarly, in fiscal 2005 the Corps requested $22.5 million, which the President cut to $3.9 million in his budget. Congress increased that to $5.5 million. "This was insufficient to fund new construction contracts," according to a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' project fact sheet. The Corps reported that "seven new contracts are being delayed due to lack funds" [sic].

The President proposed $3 million for the project in the budget for fiscal 2006, which begins Oct. 1. "This will be insufficient to fund new construction projects," the fact sheet stated. It says the Corps "could spend $20 million if funds were provided." The Corps of Engineers goes on to say:

Army Corps of Engineers, May 23: In Orleans Parish, two major pump stations are threatened by hurricane storm surges. Major contracts need to be awarded to provide fronting protection for them. Also, several levees have settled and need to be raised to provide the design protection. The current funding shortfalls in fiscal year 2005 and fiscal year 2006 will prevent the Corps from addressing these pressing needs.

The Corps has seen cutbacks beyond those affecting just the Lake Pontchartrain project. The Corps oversees SELA, or the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control project, which Congress authorized after six people died from flooding in May 1995. The Times-Picayune newspaper of New Orleans reported that, overall, the Corps had spent $430 million on flood control and hurricane prevention, with local governments offering more than $50 million toward the project. Nonetheless, "at least $250 million in crucial projects remained," the newspaper said.

In the past five years, the amount of money spent on all Corps construction projects in the New Orleans district has declined by 44 percent, according to the New Orleans CityBusiness newspaper, from $147 million in 2001 to $82 million in the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.

A long history of complaints

Local officials had long complained that funding for hurricane protection projects was inadequate:

October 13, 2001: The New Orleans Times-Picayune reported that "federal officials are postponing new projects of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Control Program, or SELA, fearing that federal budget constraints and the cost of the war on terrorism may create a financial pinch for the program." The paper went on to report that "President Bush's budget proposed $52 million" for SELA in the 2002 fiscal year. The House approved $57 million and the Senate approved $62 million. Still, "the $62 million would be well below the $80 million that corps officials estimate is needed to pay for the next 12 months of construction, as well as design expenses for future projects."
April 24, 2004: The Times-Picayune reported that "less money is available to the Army Corps of Engineers to build levees and water projects in the Missisippi River valley this year and next year." Meanwhile, an engineer who had direct the Louisiana Coastal Area Ecosystem Restoration Study - a study of how to restore coastal wetlands areas in order to provide a bugger from hurricane storm surges - was sent to Iraq "to oversee the restoration of the 'Garden of Eden' wetlands at the mouth of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers," for which President Bush's 2005 gave $100 million.
June 8, 2004: Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, told the Times-Picayune:
Walter Maestri: It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq , and I suppose that's the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us.

September 22, 2004: The Times-Picayune reported that a pilot study on raising the height of the levees surrounding New Orleans had been completed and generated enough information for a second study necessary to estimate the cost of doing so. The Bush administration "ordered the New Orleans district office" of the Army Corps of Engineers "not to begin any new studies, and the 2005 budget no longer includes the needed money."
June 6, 2005: The New Orleans CityBusiness newspaper reported that the New Orleans district of the Corps was preparing for a $71.2 million reduction in overall funding for the fiscal year beginning in October. That would have been the largest single-year funding loss ever. They noted that money "was so tight" that "the New Orleans district, which employs 1,300 people, instituted a hiring freeze last month on all positions," which was "the first of its kind in about 10 years."
Would Increased Funding Have Prevented Flooding?

Blumenthal implies that increased funding might have helped to prevent the catastrophic flooding that New Orleans now faces. The White House denies that, and the Corps of Engineers says that even the levee project they were working to complete was not designed to withstand a storm of Katrina's force.

White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, at a press briefing on September 1, dismissed the idea that the President inadequately funded flood control projects in New Orleans :

McClellan: Flood control has been a priority of this administration from day one. We have dedicated an additional $300 million over the last few years for flood control in New Orleans and the surrounding area. And if you look at the overall funding levels for the Army Corps of Engineers, they have been slightly above $4.5 billion that has been signed by the President.

Q: Local people were asking for more money over the last couple of years. They were quoted in local papers in 2003 and 2004, are saying that they were told by federal officials there wasn't enough money because it was going to Iraq expenditures.

McClellan: You might want to talk to General Strock, who is the commander of the Army Corps of Engineers, because I think he's talked to some reporters already and talked about some of these issues. I think some people maybe have tried to make a suggestion or imply that certain funding would have prevented the flooding from happening, and he has essentially said there's been nothing to suggest that whatsoever, and it's been more of a design issue with the levees.

We asked the Corps about that "design issue." David Hewitt, a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers, said McClellan was referring to the fact that "the levees were designed for a category 3 hurricane." He told us that, consequently, "when it became apparent that this was a category 5 hurricane, an evacuation of the city was ordered." (A category 3 storm has sustained winds of no more than 130 miles per hour, while a category 5 storm has winds exceeding 155 miles per hour. Katrina had winds of 160 mph as it approached shore, but later weakened to winds of 140 mph as it made landfall, making it a strong category 4 storm, according to the National Hurricane Center.)

The levee upgrade project around Lake Pontchartrain was only 60 to 90 percent complete across most areas of New Orleans as of the end of May, according to the Corps' May 23 fact sheet. Still, even if it had been completed, the project's goal was protecting New Orleans from storm surges up to "a fast-moving Category 3 hurricane," according to the fact sheet.

We don't know whether the levees would have done better had the work been completed. But the Corps says that even a completed levee project wasn't designed for the storm that actually occurred.

Nobody anticipated breach of the levees?

In an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America" on September 1, President Bush said:

Bush: I don't think anyone anticipated breach of the levees ...Now we're having to deal with it, and will.

Bush is technically correct that a "breach" wasn't anticipated by the Corps, but that's doesn't mean the flooding wasn't forseen. It was. But the Corps thought it would happen differently, from water washing over the levees, rather than cutting wide breaks in them.

Greg Breerword, a deputy district engineer for project management with the Army Corps of Engineers, told the New York Times:

Breerword: We knew if it was going to be a Category 5, some levees and some flood walls would be overtopped. We never did think they would actually be breached.

And while Bush is also technically correct that the Corps did not "anticipate" a breach - in the sense that they believed it was a likely event - at least some in the Corps thought a breach was a possibility worth examining.

According to the Times-Picayune, early in Bush's first term FEMA director Joe Allbaugh ordered a sophisticated computer simulation of what would happen if a category 5 storm hit New Orleans. Joseph Suhayda, an engineer at Louisana State University who worked on the project, described to the newspaper in 2002 what the simulation showed could happen:

Subhayda: Another scenario is that some part of the levee would fail. It's not something that's expected. But erosion occurs, and as levees broke, the break will get wider and wider. The water will flow through the city and stop only when it reaches the next higher thing. The most continuous barrier is the south levee, along the river. That's 25 feet high, so you'll see the water pile up on the river levee.

Whether or not a "breach" was "anticipated," the fact is that many individuals have been warning for decades about the threat of flooding that a hurricane could pose to a set below sea level and sandwiched between major waterways. A Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) report from before September 11, 2001 detailed the three most likely catastrophic disasters that could happen in the United States: a terrorist attack in New York, a strong earthquake in San Francisco, and a hurricane strike in New Orleans. In 2002, New Orleans officials held the simulation of what would happen in a category 5 storm. Walter Maestri, the emergency coordinator of Jefferson Parish in New Orleans , recounted the outcome to PBS' NOW With Bill Moyers:

Maestri, September 2002: Well, when the exercise was completed it was evidence that we were going to lose a lot of people. We changed the name of the [simulated] storm from Delaney to K-Y-A-G-B... kiss your ass goodbye... because anybody who was here as that category five storm came across... was gone.

--by Matthew Barge



Sources



Sidney Blumenthal, "No one can say they didn't see it coming ," salon.com, 31 August 2005

Deon Roberts, "Bush budget not expected to diminish New Orleans district's $65 million," New Orleans CityBusiness, 07 February 2005

Manuel Torres, "Flood work to slow down; Corps delays new projects," Times-Picayune, 13 October 2001

Mark Schlefistein, "Corps sees its resources siphoned off; Wetlands restoration officials sent to Iraq ," Times-Picayune, 24 April 2004

"Mark Schleifstein, "Ivan stirs up wave of safety proposals; Hurricane-proofed stadium is one idea," Times-Picayune, 22 September 2004

Deon Roberts, "Bush budget not expected to diminish New Orleans district's $65 million ," New Orleans CityBusiness, 07 February 2005

Mark Schleifstein, "Bush budget cuts levee, drainage funds; Backlog of contracts waits to be awarded," Times-Picayune, 08 February 2005

"Bush budget fails to fund flood control in New Orleans ," New Orleans CityBusiness, 14 February 2005

Deon Roberts, " New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers faces ," New Orleans CityBusiness, 06 June 2005

Will Bunch, "Did New Orleans catastrophe have to happen? 'Times-Picayune' had repeatedly raised federal spending issues," Editor & Publisher, 31 August 2005

Toby Eckert, "Could disaster have been prevented?," Copley News Service, 02 September 2005

Jim VandeHei and Peter Baker, " Critics say Bush undercut New Orleans flood control ," Washington Post, 02 September 2005

"The City in a Bowl ," Transcript, NOW, Public Broadcasting Service, 20 September 2002

Jon Elliston, " A Disaster Waiting to Happen ," bestofneworleans.com, 28 September 2004

Scott Shane and Eric Lipton, " Government saw flood risk but not levee failure ," New York Times, 02 September 2005

Paul Krugman, " A can't-do government ," New York Times, 02 September 2005

"Lake Pontchartrain, LA and Vicinity Hurricane Protection Project, St. Bernard, Orleans, Jefferson, and St. Charles Parishes, LA ," Project Fact Sheet, US Army Corps of Engineers New Orleans District, website, 23 May 2005

"Fiscal Year 2006: Civil Works Budget for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ," Department of the Army, February 2005

"Press Briefing by Scott McClellan ," whitehouse.gov, 01 September 2005

Karen Turni, "Upgrade of levees proposed by corps; gulf outlet levee may be too low, officials worry," Times-Picayune, 12 November 1998

John McQuaid and Mark Schleifstein, "The big one: A major hurricane could decimate the region, but flooding from even a moderate storm could kill thousands. It's just a matter of time," Times-Picayune, 24 June 2002

[Wino you know]

Has anyone else noticed that since everyone is figuring out that Mayor "no sense" Nagan and Governor "slow on button" Blanco are really to blame for most of the slow response in the diaster, that the news channels are now blaming the "whole system" instead just blaming the president because the looney liberals don't want to blame their own? That might the longest question I have ever written.

But a damn good question, Jeff.
Especially since the governor of Louisiana was turning away national guardsmen bringing in supplies and medicine in the immediate aftermath of that disaster.
Of course, the media would want you to believe otherwise.

[jackiesic]

I caught the tail end of a story about the Sierra Club and something to the effect that they sued the Corp of Engineers in 1996 to prevent work on the NO levee system. I've googled some key words but would like to read more. Has anyone else seen such a story?

UPDATED:
This relates to the question I posed
http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/b ... 080824.asp

[Sam]

Has anyone else noticed that since everyone is figuring out that Mayor "no sense" Nagan and Governor "slow on button" Blanco are really to blame for most of the slow response in the diaster, that the news channels are now blaming the "whole system" instead just blaming the president because the looney liberals don't want to blame their own? That might the longest question I have ever written.

Most excellent question!!! But again the POTUS did what he was suppose to do.....GEE do we wonder what the "liberals" and MSM would be saying if President Bush HAD chosen to overide the Governor and the mayor??
Abuse of power? ect..

The MSM detest President Bush so much they would never concede that it was NOT his fault and blame any Demoncrat... They are too busy wanting payback for the Eight year reign of shame by our previous President and Co-President. They want to return to the Sixties where it was cool to bash the goverment. and be a liberal.... trouble is there is a vastt difference in what was a liberal then, and the left wing socialists of today that hide behind the name "liberal".

[Key Lime Lee]

It's always cool to be critical of the government, and its in the truest spirit of being an American.