LTTE draft. Help me tighten.

[Pacifist Patriot]

It's only 211 words but I'd still like to tighten it up a bit and make it more readable. I was just tossing thoughts down on paper. Can someone offer suggestions. Thanks!

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Every American deserves answers to the following questions:

- Why did President Bush tell Good Morning America he didn’t think anyone anticipated the levee breaches when aside from official reports, Popular Mechanics published on September 11, 2001 and the New Orleans Times-Picayune published on June 8, 2004 about the threat?

- Why did President Bush fire Michael Parker, head of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from October 2001 until March 2002, when he predicted this disaster?

- Why did the Bush administration cut funding for levee maintenance in New Orleans?

- Why did President Bush celebrate VJ-Day two weeks late, attend a birthday party, appear at fundraisers, and strum a guitar while his constituents drowned?

- Why do gas prices take six weeks to drop following a decline in the price of oil but six seconds to increase dramatically following a hurricane, especially after a quarter of record profits for big oil?

- Why is anyone surprised by looting when much of the Army and National Guard is in Iraq, the Navy doesn’t deploy ships until days later, poverty-stricken people believe they have nothing else to lose, and a moral tone has already been established by a profligate administration and corporate looters?

- Why isn’t the media asking these questions?

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. It's not bad as is. Makes all the right points. Did you catch Molly Ivins

piece? She made good points about draining wetland that used to be a buffer for NOLA. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4548546

[Pacifist Patriot]

5. I love her.

[GreenPartyVoter]

8. Me too. Have you thought of offereing your LTTE to Skinner for a

DU activist corps media blaster project?

[Pacifist Patriot]

9. Not yet. I'll do that.

[GreenPartyVoter]

10. More articles

http://www.newsdissector.org/blog/

[kansasblue]

2. I'll help...

If you would find Bush actual quote on the levies and use it that would be powerful.

Your case is strong, don't undermine it with hyperbole

"but six seconds to increase dramatically "

[Pacifist Patriot]

4. Good point. I'll simply say "six hours to rise"

[flamin lib]

3. Already pretty tight, but here's my take:

Every American deserves answers to these questions:

- Why did President Bush tell Good Morning America he didn’t think anyone anticipated the levee breaches when, aside from official reports, Popular Mechanics and the New Orleans Times-Picayune published articles in 2004 about the threat?

- Why did President Bush fire Michael Parker, head of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in March 2002 when he predicted this disaster?

- Why did the Bush administration cut funding for levee maintenance in New Orleans?

- Why did President Bush attend a birthday party, appear at fundraisers, and strum a guitar while his constituents drowned?

- Why do gas prices take six weeks to drop following a decline in the price of oil but six seconds to increase following a hurricane, especially after a quarter of record profits for oil companies?

- Why is anyone surprised by looting when much of the Army Reserve and National Guard is in Iraq, poverty-stricken people believe they have nothing else to lose, and a moral tone has been established by a profligate administration and corporate looters?

- Why isn’t the media asking these questions?

[Pacifist Patriot]

7. Thank you!

[G_j]

6. good letter, if you need some numbers

if you need some numbers, this article has a lot of them.


http://www.alternet.org/story/24871 /

Why the Levee Broke

By Will Bunch, Attytood. Posted September 1, 2005.


Washington knew exactly what needed to be done to protect the citizens of New Orleans from disasters like Katrina. Yet federal funding for Louisiana flood control projects was diverted to pay for the war in Iraq.

=====

<snip>
Over the next 10 years, the Army Corps of Engineers, tasked with carrying out SELA, spent $430 million on shoring up levees and building pumping stations, with $50 million in local aid. But at least $250 million in crucial projects remained, even as hurricane activity in the Atlantic Basin increased dramatically and the levees surrounding New Orleans continued to subside.

<snip>
The $750 million Lake Pontchartrain and Vicinity Hurricane Protection project is another major Corps project, which remains about 20% incomplete due to lack of funds, said Al Naomi, project manager. That project consists of building up levees and protection for pumping stations on the east bank of the Mississippi River in Orleans, St. Bernard, St. Charles and Jefferson parishes.


The Lake Pontchartrain project is slated to receive $3.9 million in the president's 2005 budget. Naomi said about $20 million is needed.

<snip>
On June 8, 2004, Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, told the Times-Picayune: "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."

<snip>
The 2004 hurricane season was the worst in decades. In spite of that, the federal government came back this spring with the steepest reduction in hurricane- and flood-control funding for New Orleans in history. Because of the proposed cuts, the Corps office there imposed a hiring freeze. Officials said that money targeted for the SELA project -- $10.4 million, down from $36.5 million -- was not enough to start any new jobs. According to New Orleans CityBusiness this June 5:

..more..