Cutting the Fat to Pay for Katrina

I accidently posted this to another blog of mine so here it is a little late.

When we went to "war" with Iraq no one ever said we would have to cut any budgets to pay for it. To say we would have to take away from the people of the United States to pay for the war would have put even more controversy into it. So emergency acts were put into place and money was hurled over the Atlantic ocean.

Unfortunately there doesn't appear to be any care of controversy over aiding Katrina. Already there are people reading through the constitution saying federal help is not obligatory. It doesn't help that everyone is talking about cutting programs nation wide to pay for Katrina. That only fuels the flames of all the "Article 1. Section 8ers". There are suggetions that Lousiana should pay for the damage from the natural disaster by themselves despite their being unable to generate income with most of the city shut down.

Taxpayers for Common Sense Vice President Keith Ashdown (requires Real Media Player) points out that it would be great for the people in Louisiana to help shoulder the burden of paying for the disaster if not for the fact that only 4 of the 34 who've been given contracts for reconstruction were out of state. Two of the largest are those who are getting contracts in Iraq without public bids. It's unfair to think the citizens of New Orleans should have to shoulder a burden that they are unable to bear.

Since the country is rolling the way of the offset, I guess we have to find places to "cut the fat".
Instapundit in conjunction with www.truthlaidbear.com has been finding some places where the budget has gotten a little porky.

Along the way I've seen these articles.

The Gavina Access Project: A Bridge to Nowhere

"The Porn Police"

Also TCS has made their own fiscal offsetting budget.

Let's see if Congress wants to follow the lead of the people finding ways to cut costs so everyone can stop trying to make tragically jobless, homeless and impovershed people pay for a natural accident.

Only Now Am I Starting To Grasp The Meaning Of Institutional Racism

President Bush may not be racist. Dick Cheney may not be racist. Former FEMA head Brown, "Condi" and those photographers Chris Graythen and Dave Martin may not be racist at all.

There is no need for anyone to be actively or extrovertly racist today. Institutions from schools to government to corporations were originally designed over the course of centuries to hold back people of color. Since Jamestown, Africans and then African-Americans were not allowed to read, write, speak their native tongue and were debased of their cultural background. After the Civil War slavery turned into share-cropping and share-cropping has turned into bad credit and inadequate jobs. It took a hundred years after "slavery ended" before the Black person was allowed into the boiling stew that is America and it is only this last couple of generations that has started easing up on racial divisions. Still, the slack recent peoples have given to the color line has not been enough to lift the racial cloak that has covered this country. Only an active change can abolish the racist institutions left standing since the beginning of America.

It is not enough for the recent generations to be tolerant, color-blind or neutral in opinion. Neutrality will only allow racism's continued existence. Active destruction of racial barriers is the only way to create a level playign field.

http://pkarchive.org/column/091905.html
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1139640
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/19/AR2005091900543.html
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-091905katrina_lat,0,7596816.story?coll=la-home-headlines
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/opinion/articles/050912/12simon.htm
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=1136969
http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/9/19/134911/458

Peter Daou and His Blog Analysis

Everyone else was doing it so I figured I'd do it to. It looks like a good report anyway.
Peter Daou talks about the blog-politician-media triangle needed to create victory.

It makes sense. The way the Daou triangle works you can get rid of those pesky judges who decide who runs the country.

Stealing from the Poor to Feed the Rich

As New Orleans is reopened to its population, residents trickle back into the city. Mayor Nagin invited New Orleans back into the city and

(Drafted and unfinished in 2005, posted on 1/31/08)

Bush: 59 years old and going on 35

President Bush still fails to do well in the polls. Even after a recent speech of his he fails to rally even his base. A 35% rating of of good or excellent for his response to Katrina doesn't say much for him.

I do like the fact that for the first time in Bush's Administration African-Americans are in support of his proposals for rebuilding New Orleans. It really shows where this country's heart is at. You have a city that is one of the cultural bases of the nation and white people are opposed to rebuilding it. That's rich.

Maybe we need a hurricane in Beverly Hills, no? That wouldn't help. They would have some reason for Beverly Hills being more important than New Orleans. Somehow they would put a spin on it as if it had nothing to do with money. Sort of like how Cheney pretends he doesn't care about where the money is going down in the Katrina aftermath.

G.O.P. officials say Cheney opposed a czar largely out of his affection for standard operating procedure. [yeah right] But a presidential adviser tells TIME that Cheney was also concerned that the new office would invite more meddling by Congress and create another power center. "If you appoint a czar and he doesn't get what he wants, like if you start to tamp down the spending, all he has to do is go to the press and create sympathy for his viewpoint and make it difficult for the President," the adviser says. Bush and his inner circle agreed, with little debate, top aides said.

So you go Bush administration. Keep pretending like you aren't running a money game under the public.

America is starting to wise up to you. It's taken everyone long enough. I just hope another "9/11" doesn't occur so ratings can be bolstered before '06 and '08.

p.s. Please excuse my absense. School and work find time to take time from me.
Might I recommend looking at the other blogs on the sidebar when I get a little slow.

May I acknowledge DailyDissent

The Buck stops where?

For the first time in his presidency Bush decided to personally shoulder the blame.

President Bush took responsibility Tuesday for breakdowns in the
federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina, saying the massive storm
had "exposed serious problems in our response capability."

But President Bush still says flaws occurred "at all levels of government".

At the same time

(Drafted in 2005 but posted on 1/31/08)

Barbara Bush, George W Bush, Racist?

Something that strikes me as amazing is that racism exists but some people refuse to believe it does.

There must be an incredible number of people who are either racist, sexist, apethetic or at least prejudiced to a degree that it hurts others in some way. It is hard to get an accurate number because you can't just send out a questionnaire expecting everyone to be forthrite.

I imagine if I walked up to Barbara Bush and asked "Do you care about all people," she'd give a resounding "Yes!" Unfortunately for her it is statements like this that show where her heart is at. Then we are supposed to believe George W. Bush's apple hasn't fallen far from that tree?

I originally saw the link to the article at Beautiful Horizons

(Drafted in 2005 and posted on 1/31/2008)

Booooo!!!!

Court Rules U.S. Can Indefinitely Detain Citizens

By Jerry Markon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 9, 2005; 12:27 PM

A federal appeals court ruled today that the president can indefinitely detain a U.S. citizen captured on U.S. soil in the absence of criminal charges, holding that such authority is vital to protect the nation from terrorist attacks.

Read on...

Hooray!!

FEMA Chief Relieved of Katrina Duties

By LARA JAKES JORDAN
The Associated PressFriday,
September 9, 2005; 1:35 PM

WASHINGTON -- Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown is being removed from his role managing Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.

Brown is being sent back to Washington from Baton Rouge, where he was the primary official overseeing the federal government's response to the disaster, according to two federal officials who declined to be identified before the announcement.

Brown will be replaced by Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad w. Allen, who was overseeing New Orleans relief and rescue efforts.

Read on

It's a start. Still, he's probably going to be used as the scapegoat. I doubt they'll throw too much fire at anyone else. You'd think Bush would have let him stay seeing as we're not supposed to play the "blame game" or use "politics" during a time of need.

Turns Out the Federal Government Cares Less About Louisiana than I thought

What Little I Thought the Government Cared About Louisiana I Found this morning is a facade.

An article in the Washington Post shows much of the $1.9 billion in funding to the Army Corp during Bush's 5 year administration has funded projects that may have been unnecessary.

"Before Hurricane Katrina breached a levee on the New Orleans Industrial Canal, the Army Corps of Engineers had already launched a $748 million construction project at that very location. But the project had nothing to do with flood control. The Corps was building a huge new lock for the canal, an effort to accommodate steadily increasing barge traffic.

Except that barge traffic on the canal has been steadily decreasing"

Often inaccurate reports were used to get projects approved despite a series of independent investigations "criticizing the Army Corps construction projects as wasteful pork-barrel spending".

For all those who think Bush has done all he possibly can, when money was actually requested for projects to reduce flooding and shoring up the levees around Lake Pontchartrain not even one fifth of the original request was given. "Louisiana's delegation requested $27.1 million for shoring up levees around Lake Pontchartrain, the full amount the Corps had declared as its "project capability." Bush suggested $3.9 million, and Congress agreed to spend $5.7 million". $14 billion dollar plans were scaled back to $2 billion by administration officials limiting the amount that could be done in restoring coastal marshes, Louisiana's natural barrier against hurricanes.

I think the best thing that can be said is even if these projects were completed Katrina still would have torn the levees down. Still, Bush and his administration did nothing to help relieve the flooding before Katrina, they took days to start aid in Louisiana and it will take time to see if their efforts are reflecting what they have actually been capable of.

Ammendment 4:24 AM Sep 8, 2005
"you give it directly to state officials, you can kiss a good amount of it goodbye." from Ripclawe
I just noticed this blogger talking about the same subject and figured I would link it.

FEMA "Detention Camps"

Valhall from abovetopsecret.com describes temporary housing under the watch of FEMA as a concentration camp.

One of the most ludacris statements made by a FEMA "host" was "The occupants of the camp cannot leave the camp for any reason. If they leave the camp they may never return. They will be issued FEMA identification cards and "a sum of money" and they will remain within the camp for the next 5 months. "

FEMA seems to like turning away help be it from Wal-Mart, Red Cross, Churches or family who has taken time and resources out of their busy life to help those in need. Maybe FEMA needs a concious overhaul.

kudos for the find on Escaton tavella

Uggabuga encapsulates the nonsense in one of his timelines.

Uggabuga has a nice timeline being made in reference to Katrina. There are also links to several other timelines across the net.

Uggabuga encapsulates the nonsense in one of his timelines.

Credit to dd because I saw his comment first.

Failure by FEMA

http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tporleans/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tporleans/archives/2005_09.html#077574

This article mentions some of the failure in response the federal government, FEMA and even local LA leaders had to Katrina.

With gas prices soaring above $3 a gallon and threatening the U.S. economy, Bush met with Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and his economic advisers about Katrina's economic impact.
Bush said they all agreed the storm's damage to the gas supply was a "temporary disruption" and urged Americans to use prudence in filling up over the next few weeks.
"Don't buy gas if you don't need it," he said in Oval Office remarks with his father and Clinton at his side.
Gasoline sellers have been fast to raise prices, to more than $3 a gallon and in some places far higher, because of a sudden drop in supplies, prompting accusations they are artificially setting high prices to profit from the disaster.
Asked in an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America" if U.S. oil companies should forfeit profits during the crisis, Bush said instead American corporations should contribute cash to hurricane relief funds.
Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, seized on that comment. He said that while Bush was "asking ordinary Americans to do more, he ought to show some real leadership, and call on his friends in Big Oil to join in the sacrifice and stop gouging American families at the gas pump."
In the ABC interview, Bush drew no line between those looting stores for survival supplies like food and water and those stealing television sets that are of no use with electricity out in New Orleans.
"I think there ought to be zero tolerance of people breaking the law during an emergency such as this, whether it be looting, or price-gouging at the gasoline pump or taking advantage of charitable giving, or insurance fraud," Bush said.
Looting has run rampant in New Orleans as stranded victims of Hurricane Katrina await emergency assistance.
...Bush temporarily waived the Jones Act, which will allow foreign tankers to deliver oil to U.S. ports to ease disruptions in oil supplies. He said the government was working with energy companies to repair and reactivate major refineries and pipelines.
Bush acknowledged these steps would not solve the problem of getting enough gasoline to market.
Bush also said he expected Saudi Arabia to do "everything they can" to provide more oil, although he noted the Saudis had "limited capacity" to do so.
...
In the interview, Bush defended his own decision to wait until Wednesday to return to Washington and cut short by a couple of days a monthlong working vacation at his Texas ranch. Now is not a time to play politics, he said to Democratic critics.
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tporleans/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tporleans/archives/2005_09.html
Let’s be clear: Officials in New Orleans and elsewhere in Louisiana are hardly blameless in this tragedy. Official preparations for the storm centered on an evacuation plan designed to hasten the flow of private vehicles out of the city. This system worked well, and many more lives would have been lost without it. But as is now obvious, the plan did not take sufficient account of those who would not or could not evacuate on their own.
No federal presence was evident as the storm in the Gulf gathered strength and chugged toward us. If Blanco and Mayor Ray Nagin thought in the days before landfall that the federal government wasn’t pulling its weight, they should have said so loudly and frankly.
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tporleans/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tporleans/archives/2005_09.html#077560
Bush resisted demands for an inquiry into what went wrong in federal relief in first few days after Katrina hit. He said it was more important to focus on human rescue for now.
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tporleans/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tporleans/archives/2005_09.html#077558
Nagin also remained defiant, rebuffing recent criticism from federal authorities and media representatives who have tried to shift the blame for the slow response for support to the local and state levels.
"I welcome that," he said. "I welcome the criticism. My question to them is, 'Where were you? Where the hell were you?' "
Nagin said he witnessed the storm's devastation firsthand and toured the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center and Superdome, where people were living in what he called "subhuman" conditions.
"I saw babies dying and old people so bad off they screamed, 'Just let me lay down and die.'
"(The critics) can talk that. Bring it on. I'm ready for it."
"I think one of the things people want us to do is play the blame game," he said.
He said it is important to understand what went wrong to improve federal, state and local coordination in the event of a terrorist attack
Bush said Vice President Dick Cheney would visit the disaster area Thursday to assess relief efforts and cut any red tape keeping rescuers from survivors.[one such red tape would be having the national guard keep RedCross away. Or what about the red tape that said zero tolerance. Who were the looters you were referring to?]
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tporleans/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tporleans/archives/2005_09.html#077553
WASHINGTON - President Bush and congressional leaders promised Tuesday to investigate why the initial federal response to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina was, by wide agreement, slow and inadequate.
Bush, who is readying a $40 billion aid package to supplement the $10.5 billion approved by Congress last week, also met with Education Secretary Margaret Spellings to discuss ways to help school districts around the country that are taking in thousands of students displaced from their own schools by the hurricane.
"We must try to restore some sense of structure and normalcy to their lives as quickly as possible," Spellings said. "And that includes helping schools accommodate these new students, who will need books, clothes and other supplies."
Bush said now is not the time "for the blame game," but at some future date, he would personally oversee an investigation into how Katrina rescue efforts were handled by federal, state and local officials.
Bush said he is working with his Cabinet to develop a comprehensive plan for both immediate and long-term housing for the estimated 1 million people displaced by Katrina and to ensure that people can collect their Social Security checks and other benefits no matter where they are living.
He is sending Vice President Dick Cheney to the Gulf Coast region Thursday to evaluate recovery efforts.

Kanye West Speaks Out Against the Treatment of Black People

I hate the way they portray us in the media. You see a black family, it says, "They're looting." You see a white family, it says, "They're looking for food." And, you know, it's been five days [waiting for federal help] because most of the people are black. And even for me to complain about it, I would be a hypocrite because I've tried to turn away from the TV because it's too hard to watch. I've even been shopping before even giving a donation, so now I'm calling my business manager right now to see what is the biggest amount I can give, and just to imagine if I was down there, and those are my people down there. So anybody out there that wants to do anything that we can help -- with the way America is set up to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off, as slow as possible. I mean, the Red Cross is doing everything they can. We already realize a lot of people that could help are at war right now, fighting another way -- and they've given them permission to go down and shoot us!

NBC has quickly distanced itself from West, while some American commentators attacked his comments.

So Kanye West says the President is slow to help, the war in Iraq is taking resources that could be used in New Orleans and permission has been given to shoot black people in New Orleans.

Vacation is Over... an open letter from Michael Moore to George W. Bush

Friday, September 2nd, 2005

Dear Mr. Bush:

Any idea where all our helicopters are? It's Day 5 of Hurricane Katrina and thousands remain stranded in New Orleans and need to be airlifted. Where on earth could you have misplaced all our military choppers? Do you need help finding them? I once lost my car in a Sears parking lot. Man, was that a drag.

Also, any idea where all our national guard soldiers are? We could really use them right now for the type of thing they signed up to do like helping with national disasters. How come they weren't there to begin with?

Last Thursday I was in south Florida and sat outside while the eye of Hurricane Katrina passed over my head. It was only a Category 1 then but it was pretty nasty. Eleven people died and, as of today, there were still homes without power. That night the weatherman said this storm was on its way to New Orleans. That was Thursday! Did anybody tell you? I know you didn't want to interrupt your vacation and I know how you don't like to get bad news. Plus, you had fundraisers to go to and mothers of dead soldiers to ignore and smear. You sure showed her!
I especially like how, the day after the hurricane, instead of flying to Louisiana, you flew to San Diego to party with your business peeps. Don't let people criticize you for this -- after all, the hurricane was over and what the heck could you do, put your finger in the dike?

And don't listen to those who, in the coming days, will reveal how you specifically reduced the Army Corps of Engineers' budget for New Orleans this summer for the third year in a row. You just tell them that even if you hadn't cut the money to fix those levees, there weren't going to be any Army engineers to fix them anyway because you had a much more important construction job for them -- BUILDING DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ!

On Day 3, when you finally left your vacation home, I have to say I was moved by how you had your Air Force One pilot descend from the clouds as you flew over New Orleans so you could catch a quick look of the disaster. Hey, I know you couldn't stop and grab a bullhorn and stand on some rubble and act like a commander in chief. Been there done that.

There will be those who will try to politicize this tragedy and try to use it against you. Just have your people keep pointing that out. Respond to nothing. Even those pesky scientists who predicted this would happen because the water in the Gulf of Mexico is getting hotter and hotter making a storm like this inevitable. Ignore them and all their global warming Chicken Littles. There is nothing unusual about a hurricane that was so wide it would be like having one F-4 tornado that stretched from New York to Cleveland.

No, Mr. Bush, you just stay the course. It's not your fault that 30 percent of New Orleans lives in poverty or that tens of thousands had no transportation to get out of town. C'mon, they're black! I mean, it's not like this happened to Kennebunkport. Can you imagine leaving white people on their roofs for five days? Don't make me laugh! Race has nothing -- NOTHING -- to do with this!

You hang in there, Mr. Bush. Just try to find a few of our Army helicopters and send them there. Pretend the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are near Tikrit.

Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
www.MichaelMoore.com

P.S. That annoying mother, Cindy Sheehan, is no longer at your ranch. She and dozens of other relatives of the Iraqi War dead are now driving across the country, stopping in many cities along the way. Maybe you can catch up with them before they get to DC on September 21st.

People Getting Necessities Are Not Looting

I just want to clarify that the negative connotation behind the word looting is a great disservice to the people of New Orleans.

But Now That It Has Happened, Still Not Enough Was Being Done

With school, work and no bots or workers to help me, it is completely impossible to keep up with all the garbage the administration is throwing at American... or should I say New Orleans. Is America too dense to see someone force fed Bush the word "stabilize" so the National Guard could go gun slinging before anyone is allowed to help in the city?

Stephanie from thinkprogress.org
Apparently in Jefferson Parish, according to Parish President Aaron Broussard:
“Let me give you just three quick examples. We had Wal-Mart deliver three trucks of water, trailer trucks of water. FEMA turned them back. They said we didn’t need them. This was a week ago. FEMA–we had 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel on a Coast Guard vessel docked in my parish. The Coast Guard said, “Come get the fuel right away.” When we got there with our trucks, they got a word. “FEMA says don’t give you the fuel.” Yesterday–yesterday–FEMA comes in and cuts all of our emergency communication lines. They cut them without notice. Our sheriff, Harry Lee, goes back in, he reconnects the line. He posts armed guards on our line and says, “No one is getting near these lines.” Sheriff Harry Lee said that if America–American government would have responded like Wal-Mart has responded, we wouldn’t be in this crisis. ”
This is from Meet the Press with Tim Russert, from Sept 4, 2005.

At the same time not even Red Cross was allowed to give aid in New Orleans. The National Guard was ordered to keep everyone out until the situation was stabalized. Bush started asking for people to donate to Red Cross.

Maybe this is it. Maybe his response time is just slow. I seriously can't continue writing on this. Just donate to Red Cross

Drug Cartels?

Wanna play a game of six degrees of seperation? I recently heard from a friend that his father near New Orleans has heard there are cartel drug dealers taking advantage of the disaster by using the are to funnel drugs into the United States. Apparently

(Unfinished draft from 2005 posted on 1/31/08)

A Lot of the Destruction from Katrina Could Have Been Prevented

I know everyone has already seen the National Geographic article but I'm going to link to it anyway. There are so many threats out there that the elite already know about yet they refuse to remove them.

In the October 2004 edition of National Geographic Magazine there is an eerily accurate description of a figurative hurricane much like Katrina.

Excerpt from the article:

It was a broiling August afternoon in New Orleans, Louisiana, the Big Easy, the City That Care Forgot. Those who ventured outside moved as if they were swimming in tupelo honey. Those inside paid silent homage to the man who invented air-conditioning as they watched TV "storm teams" warn of a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. Nothing surprising there: Hurricanes in August are as much a part of life in this town as hangovers on Ash Wednesday.

But the next day the storm gathered steam and drew a bead on the city. As the whirling maelstrom approached the coast, more than a million people evacuated to higher ground. Some 200,000 remained, however—the car-less, the homeless, the aged and infirm, and those die-hard New Orleanians who look for any excuse to throw a party.

The storm hit Breton Sound with the fury of a nuclear warhead, pushing a deadly storm surge into Lake Pontchartrain. The water crept to the top of the massive berm that holds back the lake and then spilled over. Nearly 80 percent of New Orleans lies below sea level—more than eight feet below in places—so the water poured in. A liquid brown wall washed over the brick ranch homes of Gentilly, over the clapboard houses of the Ninth Ward, over the white-columned porches of the Garden District, until it raced through the bars and strip joints on Bourbon Street like the pale rider of the Apocalypse. As it reached 25 feet (eight meters) over parts of the city, people climbed onto roofs to escape it.

Thousands drowned in the murky brew that was soon contaminated by sewage and industrial waste. Thousands more who survived the flood later perished from dehydration and disease as they waited to be rescued. It took two months to pump the city dry, and by then the Big Easy was buried under a blanket of putrid sediment, a million people were homeless, and 50,000 were dead. It was the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States.

When did this calamity happen? It hasn't—yet. But the doomsday scenario is not far-fetched. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) lists a hurricane strike on New Orleans as one of the most dire threats to the nation, up there with a large earthquake in California or a terrorist attack on New York City. Even the Red Cross no longer opens hurricane shelters in the city, claiming the risk to its workers is too great.

"The killer for Louisiana is a Category Three storm at 72 hours before landfall that becomes a Category Four at 48 hours and a Category Five at 24 hours—coming from the worst direction," says Joe Suhayda, a retired coastal engineer at Louisiana State University who has spent 30 years studying the coast...

A prediction by climatologists of more frequent powerful storms, an immenent danger according to Shea Penland, a geologist of the University of New Orleans and one of the top three threats in the United States according to FEMA were not enough to goad our government into an effictive response.

Alfred Naomi, project manager for the Army Corp of Engineers "had warned for years of the need to shore up the levees." The Bush Administration and Republican Congress constantly cut back on funding for projects that would build and improve levees, floodwalls and pumping stations. He had drawn up plans to build a Category 5 protection system that would have cost $2.5 billion dollars, a meager amount in comparison to the tens of billions of dollars and thousands of lives that have been and will be lost to this catastrophe.

At the same time natural defensive barriers were being destroyed. Louisana marshes were disappearing at the rate of 1 acre every 33 minutes despite nearly half a billion dollars spent over the last decade to preserve it.

Even without the $2.5 billion dollar plan the Bush Administration interfered with a decade long $430 million plan from the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project (SELA). Funds were diverted to Iraq in 2003. Couple that with the Tax-Cuts from 2001-2003 and you can see the burden engineers in New Orleans had to endure. After 2004, the worst hurricane season in decades, the government still made large cuts in the budget forcing Louisiana to raise regional taxes.

There were several cases where the federal government hampered the development of the project. The Louisiana Congressional delegation recieved $10.4 million after requesting over $70 million in recent years. A project to better shore up the banks of Lake Pontchartrain for $15 million was denied. After a request for $4 million over the next four years the Bush Administration agreed to give $300,000 that the state agreed to match and they were then asked to do no study so the funds could be used for the Iraq war this year. It doesn't help further to know the Louisiana National Guard had many of their troops sent to Iraq further hampering the ability to rescue victims in the immediate stages.

There is much more to see in the articles below.

Why is it Mr. Bush is allowed to ignore the threats that are real and visible at our homeland? He chased imaginary threats going after Iraq. He speaks about the welfare of the United States when we have a disaster that may be 15 times more deadly than 9/11 and has caused more destruction than any other disaster. Where it took him several minutes to respond to America being attacked it has taken him several days to respond to Katrina. This isn't a plane that was diverted from a 5 hour course. This is a hurricane that took several days for it's damage to materialize.

Perhaps I am wrong to judge him. Maybe he is slow. Maybe he honestly doesn't care about New Orleans and he wants us to accept that. Maybe he just believes Iraq is the most important thing in the world rihgt now. The priorities are not straight in this mans mind.

Credits:
Common Dreams
Editor&Publisher.com
National Geographic
TPM Cafe

New Orleans Injustice

George has ordered the ground forces in New Orleans to draw no distinction between looting food and water and nonessential items...

Bush drew no line between those looting stores for survival supplies like food and water and those stealing television sets that are of no use with electricity out in New Orleans. "I think there ought to be zero tolerance of people breaking the law during an emergency such as this, whether it be looting, or price-gouging at the gasoline pump or taking advantage of charitable giving, or insurance fraud," Bush said in an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America." Looting has run rampant in New Orleans as stranded victims of Hurricane Katrina await emergency assistance. "If people need water and food, we're going to do everything we can to get them water and food. But it's very important for the citizens in all affected areas to take personal responsibility and assume kind of a civic sense of responsibility so the situation doesn't get out of hand, so people don't exploit the vulnerable," Bush said.

No one seems to realize that President

(drafted, unfinished, in 2005 and posted in 1/31/08)