So Bush knew about Katrina...

[Adam54]

http://news.yahoo.com/fc/US/Hurricane_Katrina/

...and the effects it would have far ahead of time.


Stunning news, that.

Well, no, but stunning that it's on video to prove it.

I....yeah. There's others better qualified than me to comment.

Adam-Just wanted to toss it out there...y'know...for the Republican spin doctors we have on call here.

[kah]

The only thing I have to say is "hind-sight is 20/20". Knowing Katrina is coming and is going to be big, and that the levees could fail is a lot different than saying they will. No one ever wants to believe something so terrible could happen until it actually does. It's easy to place blame, but in reality, we are a reactionary society. Those levees were not built to sustain a category 4 hurricane, let alone a 5. For all the money our government spends on hammers and toilet seats, you would think they would spend the same type of money to prevent just such a disaster. Unfortunately, the US doesn't work that way. We would rather fix a problem than prevent it. You also have to consider the fact that a lot of people who live in places prone to natural disaster, continue living there by choice. You will often hear them say "I stayed through Andrew," or "I survived the earthquake of --" or "the wildfires destroyed my house, but I rebuilt right on top of the olf foundation." Americans are stubborn. It's a fact.

[sickness]

I've generally stayed out of the political threads around here because it's just too tiring to go head to head every time I come in here but I've been seeing this in the news for the past several days and have thought about it a lot. It absolutely makes me sick.

[kah]

I'm sure it does. But does it surprise you? Numerous experts cited the same information both before and after the storm. Do you think if everyone had known that GW knew it was going to be a big storm and that the levees could fail, that anything would've been done differently? I don't really believe that pre-storm prep would've been handled any better. Maybe the damage control afterwards would've been better, though.

What I care about, is that so many people were stranded in that city for DAYS with no food, water, medical care, diapers, formula, etc. It stands to reason that if the warnings were so dire, more preparations would've been made for disaster aid, at every level. If Michael Brown was so convinced of devastation, then why did it take FEMA days to get down there? The Red Cross and Coast Guard had no problems getting volunteers to help.

Honestly, there is a lot of blame to spread around. It really irritates me that people seem to think that all problems in this country can be laid at the feet of the president, whomever that may be. In reality, he is not much more than a figurehead, given the power only to set an agenda and veto bills (and declare war, but not to carry it out). He needs a lot of support to actually get anything done.

I say we impeach the entire government and start over. Let's start their salaries at the average American's, and tell them they are getting social security and medicare to live off of when they retire. Let's put them in prison when they break the law. And I don't mean federal prison, I mean state maximum security prison. Let's accept that most Americans have made a few mistakes in their lives, and vote for people who have character. I'd rather vote for someone who overcame a drug habit, or survived an abusive marriage, than some jackass who appears to be lily-white, but bought(not earned) his Ivy League degree or only commited white-collar crimes he only served community service for.

I'm sorry. I've gone off on a tangent again. Moral of my rant- Government Bad- Disaster Bad- Let's get over the blame game and get it cleaned up.

[Intelligent_Design]

I'm sorry. I've gone off on a tangent again. Moral of my rant- Government Bad- Disaster Bad- Let's get over the blame game and get it cleaned up.


I agree, I think that The LA state Gov. has not received nearly enough criticism though.

[MPG]

I say we impeach the entire government and start over. Let's start their salaries at the average American's, and tell them they are getting social security and medicare to live off of when they retire. Let's put them in prison when they break the law. And I don't mean federal prison, I mean state maximum security prison. Let's accept that most Americans have made a few mistakes in their lives, and vote for people who have character. I'd rather vote for someone who overcame a drug habit, or survived an abusive marriage, than some jackass who appears to be lily-white, but bought(not earned) his Ivy League degree or only commited white-collar crimes he only served community service for.
Well-said. It's too bad that only very few people think like that.

[Corporal_Hicks]

I knew about Katrina.

Didn't you?

http://sio.jameswlanning.com/images/katrina_radar_large.jpg

If Bush was the only one that missed out on this thing coming, then that means Gov Blanco and Mayor Nagin knew well ahead of time...........AND STILL did nothing.



Besides, could you imagine the outcry from some had Bush put New Orleans into a state of martial law (which essentially it turned out to be) BEFORE the storm, in an attempt to protect the city's citizens?

Lets face it people, the ball was dropped on every level.

OF COURSE they knew it was coming.

Look at that f*cking radar!

This is old news to me.

[SlamShut]

My father worked for the US Army Corps of Engineers for most of his life. He tells me that they've been pushing for improvements to the levee system in New Orleans for roughly 30 years now. Nobody listens. As another poster above said, we'd rather fix problems than prevent them.

There is one good thing to come out of the Katrina disaster, though-- I was listening to one of Ray Nagin's speeches, and apparently we're going to have a CHOCOLATE CITY. (http://chocolatedome.ytmnd.com/) Yum!

[kah]

You know, you are the only person I've heard take that comment and make it sound good. LMAO. Nice one, Slam.

[Jakester]

Seah, that's a pretty picture, but it's clearly made up. The real country doe not have green and white lines on it and I don't think hurricanes are multi colored. This is a clear fabrication created to discredit Bush.

(someone's gotta play Leiter).

[Meathead]

The problem here is that Dubya's administration loses either way.

If they tried to shore up the levees, and they broke, then they would have been criticized for not doing enough.

If they did nothing, they get accused of not caring.

The only way this could have turned out well is if there had been consitent improvements with the finishing touches being put on by the time Katrina hit, and seeing as NOTHING had happened in the 30 years previous...

[sickness]

I knew about Katrina.

Didn't you?

http://sio.jameswlanning.com/images/katrina_radar_large.jpg

If Bush was the only one that missed out on this thing coming, then that means Gov Blanco and Mayor Nagin knew well ahead of time...........AND STILL did nothing.



Besides, could you imagine the outcry from some had Bush put New Orleans into a state of martial law (which essentially it turned out to be) BEFORE the storm, in an attempt to protect the city's citizens?

Lets face it people, the ball was dropped on every level.

OF COURSE they knew it was coming.

Look at that f*cking radar!

This is old news to me.

I'm with ya, man. I was even calling for martial law give the state of chaos in the aftermath.

[sickness]

My father worked for the US Army Corps of Engineers for most of his life. He tells me that they've been pushing for improvements to the levee system in New Orleans for roughly 30 years now. Nobody listens. As another poster above said, we'd rather fix problems than prevent them.

There is one good thing to come out of the Katrina disaster, though-- I was listening to one of Ray Nagin's speeches, and apparently we're going to have a CHOCOLATE CITY. (http://chocolatedome.ytmnd.com/) Yum!

Speaking of your parents, Slammy, how's the Slamtirement community working out for the SlamParents?

[American]

I agree, I think that The LA state Gov. has not received nearly enough criticism though.
Understatement, Osirus. Nagin deserves some of the crap too.


The problem here is that Dubya's administration loses either way.

If they tried to shore up the levees, and they broke, then they would have been criticized for not doing enough.
Maybe, but i think they would at least give Bush credit for trying.


My father worked for the US Army Corps of Engineers for most of his life. He tells me that they've been pushing for improvements to the levee system in New Orleans for roughly 30 years now.
The Levee Board and the ACE squandered the money:

In December of 1995, long before the presidency of George W. Bush, the Orleans Levee Board, a local government agency in charge of the construction and maintenance of floodgates and levees, stated in a Times-Picayune article that state officials had obtained over $60 million in flood control funding. This money was intended to fund the launch of a $140 million flood-control campaign including 41 separate projects. The board promised New Orleans residents that the “few manageable gaps” in the levee system would be “sealed within four years, completing our circle of protection.”

A few months later, the Levee Board was mired in a scandal regarding the violation of a number of state bidding laws. Legislative Auditor Dan Kyle was quoted in the Times-Picayune that he had "repeatedly faulted the Levee Board for the way it awards contracts, spends money and ignores public bid laws."
Kyle further stated that the Board was nearing bankruptcy and should not be allowed to refinance any bonds or issue new ones until an acceptable plan for reaching solvency had been submitted. This blatant mismanagement of funds resulted in the Levee Board being unable to spend the matching federal funds and thus the projects lay dormant.

Want more? In 1998 the Louisiana government had a $2 billion construction budget but only $1.98 million of that money was earmarked for flood control projects. During that same period however, the state was able to spend $22 million to build a new State Supreme Court Facility and $35 million on an expansion of the New Orleans Convention center.

In 1999, the Louisiana legislature appropriated $49.5 million for improvements to the levee system, but the State Bond Commission gave the projects a “Priority Five” ranking, grouping it with minor projects that had little chance of getting full funding.

A Washington Post article reveals that the Army Corp of Engineers had launched a $748 million dollar project at the New Orleans Industrial Canal (the one that flooded the city). However, this project had nothing to do with flood control. The project’s aim was to build a new lock for the canal to accommodate increased barge traffic even though barge traffic in the canal has been decreasing for more than a decade. Further analysis shows that the existing lock could have been rebuilt at a fraction of the cost of building a new one. It’s worth noting that the levee broke very near the location of this questionable lock project.

Another pork-barrel project involved deepening the waters at the Port of Iberia at a cost of $194 million. This project initially failed a Corp of Engineers cost-benefit analysis, but Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu (a Democrat) sneaked language into an unrelated spending bill ordering the Corp to redo its calculations. The Corp also spends in excess of ten million dollars per year dredging little-used waterways for barge traffic that has never been as busy as forecasted by state officials.

Article (http://www.nationalledger.com/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi?archive=1&num=665)