Go to A Distant Drum of the Coming Revolution
- Add a comment
- Go to Ignorance on display in rhe hurricane news
And speaking of odd . . .
. . . It is definitely odd that Bush is asking for donations to charity while the liberal loudmouths do not. They should
all be working on this.
posted by
WriterofLight
on September 5, 2005 at 7:14 PM
| link to this | reply
Welcome, saul relative!
Glad to have you on board. I salute Ms. Dion and all other donors. You are right on with your discussion of how this was foreseen. As far as I know, the only thing that truly wasn’t foreseen was the looting and anarchy, and it makes me absolutely sick to hear people who should have the moral authority to condemn it make excuses for it instead. I also grab the Maalox et al over the liberals’ insistence that only Bush is responsible for decades – yea, centuries – of inadequate flood protection for New Orleans. Once again – the funding was to continue maintenance of status-quo protection against a Category Three storm rather than upgrading to Category Five protection, and that protection was never funded by any president. (This is not to mention liberal opposition to any kind of construction for environmental reasons – always more important to protect a rat or snake than 600,000 people!)
Damon, good to hear from a long-time reader. Don’t be such a stranger here. Your account is factual, but – as I pointed out above – incomplete. Blumenthal and all these other critics are being dishonest because they are not presenting the full story of the city’s flood protection. And why are Blumenthal et al silent about failed city and local administration?
And as a follow-up to Senator Landrieu’s ranting about how pitiful one “crane” looked on the levee – less than 48 hours after her insulting remarks about the hard-working construction crew on the levee, the job was done. Sit down and shut up, Senator.
posted by
WriterofLight
on September 5, 2005 at 7:12 PM
| link to this | reply
take a spin in the direction of truth. Dubya and the bobblheads he
works with and represents seem to have no problem haranguing the multitudes for charitable contributions, but show me where the president, who, by the way, is a corporate pimp millionaire, has donated anything near the amount of money even Celine Dion has contributed ($1 million), and she's Canadian!!
He appeals for charities but doesn't go for the PR coup of actually donating himself? The governor of Louisiana is a political opportunist no better than that insufferable ass in the White House, playing Monday-morning quarterback. And they are all full of crap when they say they had no idea this could happen, from Dubya to the mayor of New Orleans (and the other gulf areas as well). A century of scientific articles, government studies, and think-tank scenarios have supplied them all with reams and reams of material. They knew it could happen; they just counted on nature to just play along until their collective asses were out of office or retired before it did happen.
posted by
saul_relative
on September 5, 2005 at 9:26 AM
| link to this | reply
Talking...
...of spin, this post is just class!!!
"Contrast that to the President making direct appeals for donations to the Red Cross and Salvation Army, and ask yourself who is doing more to actually help."
He's making direct appeals on behalf of charities. Does this not seem to you just an teeny bit odd? He's consistently slashed flood control budgets over the past few years - presumably to pay for the war in Iraq - and now he has the nerve to ask for donations from his hard-pressed tax payer to fill the gap that HE chose to leave, and through which Katrina battered her way through and killed thousands.
You want numbers? References? Then here you go...
"In 2001, FEMA warned that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters in the U.S. But the Bush administration cut New Orleans flood control funding by 44 percent to pay for the Iraq war." Sidney Blumenthal writing in Der Spiegel.
Kinda damning, huh?
But that's not all.
This from the same source...
"A year ago the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed to study how New Orleans could be protected from a catastrophic hurricane, but the Bush administration ordered that the research not be undertaken. After a flood killed six people in 1995, Congress created the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, in which the Corps of Engineers strengthened and renovated levees and pumping stations. In early 2001, the Federal Emergency Management Agency issued a report stating that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters in the U.S., including a terrorist attack on New York City. But by 2003 the federal funding for the flood control project essentially dried up as it was drained into the Iraq war. In 2004, the Bush administration cut funding requested by the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for holding back the waters of Lake Pontchartrain by more than 80 percent. Additional cuts at the beginning of this year (for a total reduction in funding of 44.2 percent since 2001) forced the New Orleans district of the Corps to impose a hiring freeze. The Senate had debated adding funds for fixing New Orleans' levees, but it was too late."
There's even more, but space dictates that's enough for now.
I suggest your Dear Leader takes a good long look at some of his funding decisions. He's got no problem spending $192,348,000,000 and counting on the war in Iraq (www.costofwar.com) but didn't feel he could find a fraction of that to save his own people.
It's pathetic.
D
posted by
DamonLeigh
on September 5, 2005 at 6:50 AM
| link to this | reply
WriterofLight
If enough of us continue to probe for the truth, and tell it when we find it, maybe, just maybe we might make a small dent in the folks who are to lazy to look behind the spin. Good post, keep up the good work.
posted by
twodog
on September 4, 2005 at 5:23 PM
| link to this | reply