Gambling in the pork barrel--someone rolled snake eyes

[Skidmore]

and the losers were the people of NO. This cannot be hammered home enough. Consistently the federal budget has been drawn up to fund the biggest porkers in spite of clear national assessments of what priorities should be. Likewise, the administration only will sign off on budget packages that pass big globs of pork onto its financial backers. The administration gambled with both terrorism and hurricaine danger. They miscalculated BADLY. With 9/11, they were able to blame an external agent and rally the support of the people using patriotism and fear. With Katrina, the finger needs to be pointed back to DC. Somewhere someone looked at stats and made a risk determination, calculating that hurricaines would more likely blow off course and if there was damage of any sort it would largely affect the poor. People would forget about the poor after a while. We cannot let the poor be forgotten. This crap shoot killed. It needs to be handed back to the powerful at all levels of the federal government, from those who proposed the budget to those who voted for those priorities to those who signed off on them.

[Cocoa]

1. you nailed it

they just gambled -- perfect word -- that the hurricane everyone knew was coming wouldn't come on thier watch.

This is what the pundits call Bush's "boldness." This is why the pundits despised Kerry and Gore so much. Kerry and Gore are so fucking boring they would have chosen to shore up the levee instead of giving all that money away to the rich.