Reuters: (Bush) Budget cuts delayed New Orleans flood control work

[truthpusher]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050901/pl_nm/weather_katrina_funding_dc_1

Budget cuts delayed New Orleans flood control work

By Andy Sullivan
7 minutes ago

Bush administration funding cuts forced federal engineers to delay improvements on the levees, floodgates and pumping stations that failed to protect New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters, agency documents showed on Thursday.

The former head of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the agency that handles the infrastructure of the nation's waterways, said the damage in New Orleans probably would have been much less extensive had flood-control efforts been fully funded over the years.

"Levees would have been higher, levees would have been bigger, there would have been other pumps put in," said Mike Parker, a former Mississippi congressman who headed the engineering agency from 2001 to 2002.

(snip)

complete story: http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050901/pl_nm/weather_katrina_funding_dc_1

[wakeme2008]

1. Drip Drip Drip

the word is getting out and making Bush look like the ass he is :)

[slor]

18. I hope it is Splash Splash Splash...

soon. He also has tenet to worry about too.
<http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20050831-091719-1217r.htm>

[BlueStateBlue]

24. I hope he drowns

Just like all those poor people in NO.

[arcos]

2. kicked and recommended nt

[VegasWolf]

3. Just rated it up on Yahoo. nt

[Zenlitened]

4. Well, at least the money was used to turn Iraq into a glittering democracy

Oh, wait...

:grr:

[texpatriot2004]

15. Don't forget the glittering party he threw for himself back in Jan.n/t

[Connie_Corleone]

5. Don't forget to rate it up.

[KamaAina]

6. I've been saying it all day: Criminal negligence

The money was apparently embezzled ("diverted") from the Army Corps of Engineers to pay for the quagmire in Iraq. Jefferson Parish emergency manager Walter Maestri has alluded to this in press interviews.

Whoever is responsible for this, be it Rumsfeld or even Bush** himself, should be imprisoned alongside the refugees from Orleans Parish Prison, or failing that, at Gitmo.

[calimary]

10. Criminal negligence and gross dereliction of duty. Not to mention

World-Class INCOMPETENCE.

He's running our country just like he ran his three Texas oil companies: STRAIGHT INTO THE GROUND.

Visualize IMPEACHMENT!!!!!!!!!!!
Now, go DO something about it!!!!!!!!!!!

[TankLV]

42. Misfeasance, malfeasance.

That's exactly what those words are for.

Where are our democratic "leaders"? They should all be screaming for his head!

[Samantha]

33. Some people call it "depraved indifference"

Either term works though.

[chomskysright]

38. "Malevolent Neglect": it captures position of 'do-er'

[Megahurtz]

7. Good Going, Chump. n/t

[shockingelk]

8. Should have BUILT THE PIE HIGHER

... earlier.

[calimary]

9. KICKED AND RECOMMENDED!

Now I'm gonna go do the same to the yahoo story.

One tiny, tiny silver lining about Katrina. It appears to be the last, loudest, and most effective wake-up call. I'm gratified to see that people are starting to connect the dots, all the way back to where the buck is supposed to stop. At the FUCK'S desk. Even the media is on this now.


I'm back. Just did so.

All I can say is - this is a story appropriately "sited." On yahoo. And that's what I wanted to shout as I read it - YAHOO!!!!!!

[MidwestTransplant]

11. Wait what about Clenus...it's Clenus' fault. Look over here.

Clenus' fault. He lied about sex.

[VegasWolf]

12. Bush says levees not needed, prayer works better. nt

[howmad1]

29. Yea, he probably prayed for Katrina.....

....to take the attention from:
Cindy Sheehan
Carl Rove
John Roberts
Highest military death toll in August
Failing Iraq constitution
Sinking poll numbers
Longest vacation in history
Able Danger
Tom Delay
Jack Abrahmoff
Gas prices

Jesus, if I were him I'd pray for the rapture tomorrow. What a prick!

[JoFerret]

13. Rate it up

...spread the word.

[Lenore]

14. AOL Poll: how is President Bush doing? (re Katrina)

http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20050831184309990017

56% say "poor"

Be sure to vote!

[Prodemsouth]

16. Done and kick.

Story needs to get out there! The Miss Congressman actually worked under Bush.

[jazzjunkysue]

23. 57% poor, 18 excellent

Bet the 18 had a shower and a hot meal today.

[howmad1]

30. Done! 58% Poor

[EST]

44. Now

In response to Hurricane Katrina, how is President Bush doing?
Poor 59%
Excellent 15%
Too early to tell 10%
Good 9%
Fair 8%
Total Votes: 72,533

[acmavm]

48. Friday 5:36 a.m CST

In response to Hurricane Katrina, how is President Bush doing?
Poor 60%
Excellent 14%
Too early to tell 9%
Good 8%
Fair 8%
Total Votes: 77,444

[BrightKnight]

17. done - n/t

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

19. Hey we got to give *'s buddies their tax cut.

Infrastructure improvements? That can wait.

:sarcasm:

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

20. Related story

White House Backpedals on Flood Control

By ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press Writer



WASHINGTON - The White House scrambled Thursday to defend itself against criticism that it has consistently proposed cutting the budget for Army Corps of Engineers water and flood control projects — including several that could have mitigated the disaster in New Orleans.

Just in February, President Bush proposed cutting the Corps' budget by 7 percent. The year before, Bush proposed a 13 percent cut.

Both cuts are part of an annual ritual in Washington in which the president shortchanges lawmakers' pet projects, knowing Congress will restore the money later on.

On Thursday, however, the Bush White House made available top Corps officials to assure reporters that cuts to the agency's budget did not cause the disaster. Even though the administration has chronically cut back on the Corps of Engineers' own requests for funding — including two key New Orleans-area projects — White House officials trumpeted the administration's support for the Corps.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050901/ap_on_go_pr_wh/katrina_bush_budget

[DS1]

21. George Bush just killed more Americans than the terrorists on 9/11

And he didn't even have to ship them off to a foreign country to do it.

[killbotfactory]

22. Now let's not get political...

When Bush fucks up and causes huge amounts of damage to the country it's time to be bipartisan.

[bhuddaboy]

34. Is That Why?

Today I heard clips of President Bush, Scott McClellan, and the director of FEMA all parrot the same line - that now is not the time to be political. I guess if I had a hand in causing this disaster by moving military resources to Iraq and cutting flood control funding, I would probably be saying the same thing.

[TankLV]

43. That's what some moles here in DU - who just joined in MAY were

telling us yesterday!

It would be "bad form" I guess to point out the obvious criminality.

[RSchewe]

25. Oooof! n/t

[kerryin2004]

26. worst president ever.

How he got two terms is beyond me.

[davekriss]

31. Especially since his only qualification...

...was a disasterous one term as Governer of Texas.

[lakeguy]

27. rated, this should get out!!

[truthpusher]

28. now the 4th story on Yahoo...rate it up!!!

http://news.yahoo.com/

[Liberty Belle]

32. Rate this story five stars & e-mail it to someone, even yourself

to boost the rating up higher.

[SunDrop23]

35. Why does Scott McClellan get a free pass for this bullshit?

"White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the administration had funded flood control efforts adequately."

That is complete and utter bullshit.

[MeatLoafZero]

36. C'mon, let's be fair...

As much fun as it is to blame this administration for everything from Global Warming and oil prices to bad Chinese food and ring around the collar, this was going to happen sooner or later.

The levees have been part of New Orleans since 1724, and have never been adequate. Even the current build was only rated for a Category 3 hurricane.

According to another section of the article, the levees haven't been swift projects.

Parker said a project dating to 1965 remains unfinished and that any recent projects would not have been in place by the time the hurricane struck even if they had been fully funded.

40 years to complete a project seems excessive, even for our government.

Didn't they only start talking about upgrading the levees a few years ago? That's not enough time to even complete the environmental impact studies.

Nature will out, eventually. They didn't heed the warning signs when the wetlands disappeared.

[buddysmellgood]

37. Anyone else notice how we manage to read this stuff days before the main

stream goes near it.
I don't watch TV anymore. The paper is old as soon as it's printed. Even the MSM websites can't compete.

[chomskysright]

39. b' cause we are CREATING THE NEWS

[laureloak]

40. Me thinks the chickens have come home to roost. nt

[jessicazi]

41. Why couldn't LA use some of the gambling taxes

to pay for the projects? Honest question, and I have a freeper up my ass asking it.

[JoFerret]

49. All that oil, all those gambling profits

....and now the face of the real NOLA is shown - poor, desperate and dispossessed. Where are the profits from those local industries?

[thereismore]

45. I hope his levee breaks. n/t

[chomskysright]

46. '20 FEET OF WATER' in the Streets of Evangeline:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/
By Chris Floyd, Empire Burlesque

"The river rose all day,
The river rose all night.
Some people got lost in the flood,
Some people got away all right.
The river have busted through clear down to Plaquemine:
Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline.

"Louisiana, Louisiana,
They're trying to wash us away,
They're trying to wash us away...."
-- Randy Newman, Louisiana 1927

The destruction of New Orleans represents a confluence of many of the most pernicious trends in American politics and culture: poverty, racism, militarism, elitist greed, environmental abuse, public corruption and the decay of democracy at every level.

Much of this is embodied in the odd phrasing that even the most circumspect mainstream media sources have been using to describe the hardest-hit victims of the storm and its devastating aftermath: "those who chose to stay behind." Instantly, the situation has been framed with language to flatter the prejudices of the comfortable and deny the reality of the most vulnerable.

It is obvious that the vast majority of those who failed to evacuate are poor: they had nowhere else to go, no way to get there, no means to sustain themselves and their families on strange ground.

[drfresh]

47. Kick.. vote it up! 4 stars currently -nt

No text really. What would I say? This is my first "kick"...