will Bush have a Katrina problem?

[Irvine511]

to be clear: i don't think Bush caused the hurricane. however, both Bush and the Iraq War can be legitimately blamed for the poor state of the New Orleans' levees:


http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001051313


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."

Also that June, with the 2004 hurricane season starting, the Corps' project manager Al Naomi went before a local agency, the East Jefferson Levee Authority, and essentially begged for $2 million for urgent work that Washington was now unable to pay for. From the June 18, 2004 Times-Picayune:

"The system is in great shape, but the levees are sinking. Everything is sinking, and if we don't get the money fast enough to raise them, then we can't stay ahead of the settlement," he said. "The problem that we have isn't that the levee is low, but that the federal funds have dried up so that we can't raise them."




read on, there's more ...

 

[melon]

I do not blame the war specifically. I blame Bush and his persistent lack of foresight into anything. When it came to preventing 9/11, I honestly do not blame him directly for it happening. But I do blame the fact that his focus for all the months prior to it happening was on the missile defense shield--something very unrelated to low-tech Islamist terrorism that we currently have to deal with. After all, giving nearly $40 million to the Taliban in April 2001 for their efforts in the war on drugs honestly proves to me that he was clueless.

And if you notice in the hurricane thread here, I posted an article where the Bush Administration had repeatedly opposed federal money to help with Louisiana's coastal degradation, even though it was long identified as one of the three largest potential disaster scenarios in this country. And then when Louisiana finally gets a bone thrown at them? It's literally pennies compared to what all estimates had placed the costs to be at. But this is the president that promised billions in AIDS money, and then wholly failed to fund it.

He's a real disaster of a president who completely lacks any foresight. But he sure loves those tax cuts for the wealthy.

Melon

 

[MissVelvetDress_75]

 

[dazzledbylight]

I'm glad you guys got that info out here.

I was actaully in the middle of posting {paraphrasing it, since i don't think i can do cut & paste where i was usuing a comp} parts of that info in the late afternoon, but got chased outta there by a overly- officious person time-wise-- so i had to abandon my efforts to inform.

u-know-who

'cutbacks'