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Thursday, September 01, 2005
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Below is a history of funding for the Lake Pontchartrain and Vincinity Hurricane Protection project. (Note: This was the levee system that broke. Due to lack of funding, major construction stopped in 2004 — the first such stoppage in 37 years.)
2004:
Army Corps request: $11 million [Link]
Bush request: $3 million [Link]
Approved by Congress: $5.5 million [Link]
2005:
Army Corps request: $22.5 million [Link]
Bush request: $3.9 million [Link]
Approved by Congress: $5.7 million [Link]
2006:
Bush request: $2.9 million [Link]
Today, Scott McClellan claimed that “flood control has been a priority of this administration from day one.” This figures show that the administration has consistently budgeted far less that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has requested for flood control in Louisiana. And over the last several years, the gap between what the Corps requested and what the administration budgeted has increased.
(Via Think Progress.)
11:05:22 PM 
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Unbelievable:FEMA has released to the media and on its Web site a list of suggested charities to help the storm's hundreds of thousands of victims. The Red Cross is first on the list. The Rev. Pat Robertson's "Operation Blessing" is next on the list. Shame and decency have disappeared.
(Via Daily Kos.)
11:03:52 PM
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Here's a chronology of the Bush "Administration" attempts to destroy Fema and rollback coastal protection over the past five years, all documented. Some highlights:
January 2001: Bush appoints Joe Allbaugh, a crony from Texas, as head of FEMA. Allbaugh has no previous experience in disaster management.
April 2001: Budget Director Mitch Daniels announces the Bush administration's goal of privatizing much of FEMA's work. In May, Allbaugh confirms that FEMA will be downsized: "Many are concerned that federal disaster assistance may have evolved into both an oversized entitlement program...." he said. "Expectations of when the federal government should be involved and the degree of involvement may have ballooned beyond what is an appropriate level."
Summer 2004: FEMA denies Louisiana's pre-disaster mitigation funding requests. Says Jefferson Parish flood zone manager Tom Rodrigue: "You would think we would get maximum consideration....This is what the grant program called for. We were more than qualified for it."
June 2004: The Army Corps of Engineers budget for levee construction in New Orleans is slashed. Jefferson Parish emergency management chiefs Walter Maestri comments: "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."
And it goes on. But, hey, we got tax cuts, we got that great economy, we got a war half way around the world. How much more damage can this government do over the next three years?
4:15:49 PM
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Liberals hate Freedom, America, God. How about puppy dogs? Do they hate puppy dogs, too? This guy is dummer than dirt.
12:58:14 PM
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On this day when a big chunk of our country is in need of help, and we're having to spend billions to help our neighbors, Ken Mehlman of the Republican National Committee sends out an email in support of the Paris Hilton Tax Cut:
For the last four years, President Bush and Republicans in Congress have championed a pro-growth agenda that has brought tax relief to millions of Americans. Historic legislation in 2001 and 2003 put America on the track to economic growth, and today our economic outlook is bright. There is more work to do, however, to ensure that tax-paying Americans can keep more of their own hard-earned income.
When they return from their August recess, Senators will consider a key issue: elimination of the death tax. The death tax is an unfair double taxation of income, which hurts America's small businesses and farms and threatens job growth. Unfortunately, Senate Democrats are working hard to oppose our efforts to eliminate this unfair tax.
How many Americans in need will be helped by this tax? None. Everyone that's not totally filthy rich now is exempt from inheritance taxes. Clearly, nothing's more important to the RNC than giving Paris Hilton and her ilk an even bigger tax break. We've got to continue to keep an eye on this crowd -- who knows what they'll try to slip by us in the wake of the hurricane.
12:30:48 PM
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Now this looks pretty exciting. It's a database tool, a la phpMyAdmin, implemented in Ajax. Right now, it's pretty sketchy at least on Safari, but it has potential, and could probably take the place of or supplement phpMyAdmin. I wonder if it will really offer the real benefits of a good SQL tool, like SQLyog, but at any rate it'll be something to watch.
11:25:31 AM
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This is a good roundup of all the warnings about the inevitability of the New Orleans disaster and the lack of reaction to them by governments
9:47:10 AM
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It's good to know there was at least a divine reason for this to happen! The moral midgets at WorldNet Daily say God did it.
Hurricane Katrina walloped New Orleans just two days before the annual homosexual "Southern Decadence" festival was to begin in the town, an act being characterized by some as God's work.
I like the moral relativism of using "characterized by some." Of course, "some" in this case is WorldNet Daily itself.
"Let us pray for those ravaged by this disaster. However, we must not forget that the citizens of New Orleans tolerated and welcomed the wickedness in their city for so long," Marcavage said. "May this act of God cause us all to think about what we tolerate in our city limits, and bring us trembling before the throne of Almighty God."
9:21:21 AM
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Xeni Jardin:
caption: President Bush plays a guitar presented to him by Country Singer Mark Wills, right, backstage following his visit to Naval Base Coronado, Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005. Bush visited the base to deliver remarks on V-J Commemoration Day. (AP Photo/ABC News, Martha Raddatz). Link.
Meanwhile, during those same hours, in Mississippi: Volunteers rescue a family from the roof of their Suburban, which became trapped in floodwaters on US 90 in Bay St. Louis, Miss. (Ben Sklar / AP) August 30, 2005.
(Via Boing Boing.)
Let's not forget this picture. And where's congress now? On vacation.
9:09:59 AM
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Too busy planning tax cuts for Paris Hilton.
The federal government so far has bungled the job of quickly helping the multitudes of hungry, thirsty and desperate victims of Hurricane Katrina, former top federal, state and local disaster chiefs said Wednesday.
The experts, including a former Bush administration disaster response manager, told Knight Ridder that the government wasn't prepared, scrimped on storm spending and shifted its attention from dealing with natural disasters to fighting the global war on terrorism.
8:54:57 AM
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George W. Bush gave one of the worst speeches of his life Wednesday, especially given the level of national distress and the need for words of consolation and wisdom.
(Via The New York Times > Most E-mailed Articles.)
I think either Ronald Reagan or Bill Clinton would have hit a home run yesterday, with a call for the nation to come together, to sacrifice, to get us through these days. The narcissistic Bush was just lame and depressing.
8:43:48 AM
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Here's a Scientific American piece from October 2001, calling New Orleans a disaster waiting to happen.
The city lies below sea level, in a bowl bordered by levees that fend off Lake Pontchartrain to the north and the Mississippi River to the south and west. And because of a damning confluence of factors, the city is sinking further, putting it at increasing flood risk after even minor storms. The low-lying Mississippi Delta, which buffers the city from the gulf, is also rapidly disappearing. A year from now another 25 to 30 square miles of delta marsh--an area the size of Manhattan--will have vanished. An acre disappears every 24 minutes. Each loss gives a storm surge a clearer path to wash over the delta and pour into the bowl, trapping one million people inside and another million in surrounding communities. Extensive evacuation would be impossible because the surging water would cut off the few escape routes. Scientists at Louisiana State University (L.S.U.), who have modeled hundreds of possible storm tracks on advanced computers, predict that more than 100,000 people could die. The body bags wouldn't go very far.
It's clear that it didn't take a genius to predict this disaster. It did, however, take a particularly American kind of genius to cut $71 million from the Louisiana Corps of Engineers, and close Congress' Office of Technology Assessment because you didn't like the work they did, or send 35 percent of Lousiana's National Guard half way around the world to fight a senseless war.
8:08:03 AM
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© Copyright 2005 Steve Michel.
Last update: 10/1/2005; 12:08:01 AM.
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