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Katrina Comes Home to Roost

By Sidney Blumenthal, The Guardian. Posted September 2, 2005.


President Bush is to blame for the scale of the disaster as a result of his administration's policies and actions.
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Biblical in its uncontrolled rage and scope, Hurricane Katrina has left millions of Americans to scavenge for food and shelter and hundreds to thousands reportedly dead. With its main levee broken, the evacuated city of New Orleans has become part of the Gulf of Mexico. But the damage wrought by the hurricane may not entirely be the result of an act of nature.

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.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune, which before the hurricane published a series on the federal funding problem, and whose presses are now underwater, reported online: "No one can say they didn't see it coming … Now in the wake of one of the worst storms ever, serious questions are being asked about the lack of preparation."

The Bush administration's policy of turning over wetlands to developers almost certainly also contributed to the heightened level of the storm surge. In 1990, a federal task force began restoring lost wetlands surrounding New Orleans. Every two miles of wetland between the Crescent City and the Gulf reduces a surge by half a foot. Bush had promised "no net loss" of wetlands, a policy launched by his father's administration and bolstered by President Clinton. But he reversed his approach in 2003, unleashing the developers. The Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency then announced they could no longer protect wetlands unless they were somehow related to interstate commerce.

In response to this potential crisis, four leading environmental groups conducted a joint expert study, concluding in 2004 that without wetlands protection New Orleans could be devastated by an ordinary, much less a Category 4 or 5, hurricane. "There's no way to describe how mindless a policy that is when it comes to wetlands protection," said one of the report's authors. The chairman of the White House's Council on Environmental Quality dismissed the study as "highly questionable," and boasted, "Everybody loves what we're doing."

"My administration's climate change policy will be science based," President Bush declared in June 2001. But in 2002, when the Environmental Protection Agency submitted a study on global warming to the United Nations reflecting its expert research, Bush derided it as "a report put out by a bureaucracy," and excised the climate change assessment from the agency's annual report. The next year, when the EPA issued its first comprehensive "Report on the Environment," stating, "Climate change has global consequences for human health and the environment," the White House simply demanded removal of the line and all similar conclusions. At the G-8 meeting in Scotland this year, Bush successfully stymied any common action on global warming. Scientists, meanwhile, have continued to accumulate impressive data on the rising temperature of the oceans, which has produced more severe hurricanes.


Digg!

Sidney Blumenthal, a former assistant and senior advisor to President Clinton and the author of "The Clinton Wars," writes a column for Salon and the Guardian of London.

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Rod from Canada
Posted by: Rod from Canada on Sep 2, 2005 12:30 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
When I read reports like this, I am almost at a loss when it comes to adjectives appropriate to describe the behaviour of the Bush Administration/the American federal govenment. I will repeat what I said in an earlier post, and that is that I think that there are very close parallels between the Katrina disaster, and how it has been handled (and what has led up to it) and the Chernobyl disaster in the former Soviet Union. And it is well known what that disaster eventually led to.

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dave
Posted by: geckosfeet on Sep 2, 2005 12:43 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Yeah. But how we do we stop them?

Thousands STILL stranded. Many will die before its over.

When NO is cleaned up it wll be that much easier for Bush to turn whats left over to developers. Lacking money to rebuild, the poor will be forced to abandon their land. The monied will swoop in like vultures and erect levees to protect their investments. Waterfront office parks and businesses conveniently located near the French Quarter.

They are starving us out. Slowly but surely they are strangling opposition.

I hope I am wrong and old and cynical. But I leave it Bush and his cronies to prove that.

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and what if another storm hits?
Posted by: nakis on Sep 2, 2005 12:54 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Only idiots would argue that the Bush administration isn't cupable for failing the American people (again) here.

But what if, just what if another storm comes through soon. Hurricane season last until November.
Which makes the neglect of this adminstration even more criminal. They betrayed the American public. Needlessly caused the death of at least hundreds.
A poor nation like Cuba pulls out all the stops to protect the people.
A poor nation Venezuela offers help in the millions of dollars but the White House denies it and calls it counterproductive.
The feds needed to be there before the storm and right after. They set up our citizens for a nasty fall. And if another storm hits it will be twice as bad.
If just for the possibility of another storm massive efforts should be underway to protect the area. But they are not.

Why?

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» Good question Nakis Posted by: Olympiada
New Orleans
Posted by: Rod in 83706 on Sep 2, 2005 1:01 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
New Orleans should not have been built where it is to begin with. Now that the levees are breached, the remaining residents should be rescued, and the site abandoned. Building a city below sea level in hurricane country is just stupid.

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» RE: New Orleans Posted by: gh
» RE: New Orleans Posted by: jlamb
» RE: New Orleans Posted by: Rod in 83706
» RE: New Orleans Posted by: Nheduanna
funraising redux as 1st Bush action?!
Posted by: lbjer on Sep 2, 2005 2:04 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I was sickened beyond belief that bush's first action was to repeat the fundraising duo of Clinton and Bush 1. The gov't. should not turn to fund raising as it's primary response to overwhelming tragedy. It's the way Bush has tried to run everything- turn over responsibility to others and do it on the cheap. Somebody save us from this man, please.

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funraising redux as 1st Bush action?!
Posted by: lbjer on Sep 2, 2005 2:05 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I was sickened beyond belief that bush's first action was to repeat the fundraising duo of Clinton and Bush 1. The gov't. should not turn to fund raising as it's primary response to overwhelming tragedy. It's the way Bush has tried to run everything- turn over responsibility to others and do it on the cheap. Somebody save us from this man, please.

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They are dressing up a pig, and trying to sell it as a swan.
Posted by: dbgill on Sep 2, 2005 2:21 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
They are dressing up a pig, and trying to sell it as a swan. The politicians and their apologists were out in force on the airwaves yesterday and today, outnumbering the presence (or lack thereof) of national guardsmen; but unable to control the media as they had during the Iraq invasion and occupation, the images belied their rhetoric. Tragic scenes unfold before our American eyes, showing only the tip of the human suffering and misery. It could have been in large part prevented, but for the selfish interests and indifference of those power brokers who had siphoned off funding, troops, and resources from the areas most hard hit. Sadly, I listened to even members of the "loyal opposition" fall over themselves to congratulate the administration on its pathetic response to this worst of disasters; that they had the temerity to do so on national airwaves showed me first-hand the level of fear and beholden compromise they have fallen into with the even greater tragedy that is the Bush administration.

The ghost of James Orwell rose and sent shudders down my spine as Bush and his lackeys described that what we saw with our eyes wasn't so, that draconian cuts in Corps of Engineers water levee projects were all along "their top priority", and bloated bodies floating in the streets was in fact an "excellent response of the Federal government".

The racist, code-speaking Rush Limbaugh could hardly contain his glee, chastising the left for not rescuing "their people", because "no white people stayed around for the impending disaster... if they don't have cars, then why don't they?"

I have waited long enough for this national nightmare to end, the reality is upon us, and won't fade away with the light. My daughter and I are packing up as many non-perishable foodstuffs as we can fit in our car, my tools and tents, and driving to Louisiana to do what we can. I stayed away from the polls last November, dissatisfied with our lot of choices, but never again, never again.

David Gill
Lakewood, Colorado

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I don't need to vote...it doesn't matter anyway.
Posted by: Schnookums on Sep 2, 2005 4:51 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I am reminded of a Simpsons episode in which Kang and Kodos (alien brothers from another world) possess the bodies of presidential canditates Clinton and Dole to gain control of the United States. As their logic goes, the American public will have to vote one of them into power and it doesn’t matter to the aliens which one eventually wins because they have the same goal of enslaving the American public to build an interglactic ray-gun to destroy another planet. Even after Homer exposes the aliens true idenity the day before the election in front of all the cameras, Kang is still voted into power. The end of the episode has the Simpson family chain-ganged together working on the project, and Homer exclaiming to Marge; “Don’t blame me, I voted for Kodos”.

This is how I feel right now. This is how many Americans felt going into ballot boxes last fall. This is why historically only half of our eligible voting population votes during a presidential election (even less for midterm and special elections). New Orleans may well still be under water if Kerry was president (and Bill Clinton wasn’t ‘all that' either, just to set the record straight for the right side among us) and that is what frustrates me the most right now. This isn’t solely Bush’s problem, this isn’t all Bill Clinton’s fault either, and this didn’t just start with Reganomics. It has been going on for a long long time. Too long. Thomas Jefferson, of Continental Congress fame, once wrote of citizens responsibility to keeping the government accountable: "If once they become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress, and Assemblies, Judges, and Governors, shall all become wolves”. Today we are lead by a pack of wolves, and the alpha male is rabid. We must start holding our representitives accountable…all our representitives. We must start to help our neighbors, friends, and family understand why this is so important. Blogging is one thing, but I am about ready to take to the streets with a bullhorn. I will resist that urge, but it is time to engage the ignorant public about how to go about change and why it is important. Please join me in this endevor...

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Small MS town forgotten but heavily afflicted as well
Posted by: maxpayne on Sep 2, 2005 6:25 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Please keep focus
Posted by: kpribani on Sep 2, 2005 8:20 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I understand that in defense of the hurricane's victims, people feel compelled to criticize the lack of response by the federal govt. I'm pissed as hell too. I have four generations of family in Pascagoula, MS and the Red Cross just arrived today. The media has not focused a lot on the cities beyond New Orleans that are COMPLETELY devastated, but things are just as bad, if not worse, in other areas. I've heard that in my own county, 100,000 of the 130,000 people are without homes. Two and three story homes are piles of wood now. Many of my friends and family members have lost their homes and life-long residents of our community have died.
I urge everyone, whether you're religious, spiritual, atheist, whatever, give your hearts and minds to the people that are still suffering. If that is in the form of prayer, pray. There is time for placing responsibility. Please, now, do everything you can to help my family and all of the families affected by this tragedy. Donate supplies or money. In the weeks to come when more people can travel to the coast, come and help with clean up and redevelopment. Pray for us to whomever or whatever. Even if the govt. does not have the same focus, right now, let's keep OUR focus on the people and do everything WE can to help.

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» RE: Please keep focus Posted by: decembrist
This article gets around!
Posted by: mim on Sep 2, 2005 8:34 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
In case any of you are interested: someone posted this article to a message board on iVillage, the Internet home of Good Housekeeping, Redbook and similar mags. I found it while I was looking for recipes. The reply posts (at least when I visited) were ALL in agreement with the article.

And Sidney Blumenthal, in case you're reading this, the FDA is the Food and Drug Administration, not the Federal Drug Administration.

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When corporatists rule, wetlands and people are no 'count...
Posted by: diof09 on Sep 3, 2005 6:22 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Mr. Blumenthal's statement: "The Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency then announced they could no longer protect wetlands unless they were somehow related to interstate commerce."

That sums up pretty well IMHO why the people of New Orleans weren't protected with adequate levees and then ignored in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane and levee breaches. They didn't fit into these corporatists' mindset of value or "interstate commerce". When you have corporatists in charge whose whole mindset is geared toward making money, and then spinning and rationalizing about it, it must be pure cognitive dissonance for these people when reality finds a way to seep through. In this case, it came crashing in on Hurricane Katrina.

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Even if the study had been enacted upon it was ten years away
Posted by: theraininsplain on Sep 3, 2005 9:27 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The Clinton adminsitration turned this idea down early in their administration. Is he to blame also? Or is this just a Bush bashing exercise?

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Not Exactly The Truth
Posted by: NoPCZone on Sep 3, 2005 10:05 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
First, I am no fan of GWB and did NOT vote for him either time.
That said, a great deal of the scope of the disaster has to do with the underlying ineptitude of our Federal, State and Local governments.

1- Why is it that the Cat 3 system for New Orleans approved during the Vietnam War era is STILL incomplete? That covers many Presidents/Cabinet Officers and Members of Congress of BOTH political parties. GWB is just the latest in a long line.

2- Although the Dept of Homeland Security is a new thing, almost every agency it controls has existed for longer than most Americans have been alive. Disaster relief and recovery planning and exercises have been the recipient of untold billions of dollars since at least the early days of the Cold War, when communities were to plan and prepare for evacuation and/or recovery in the event of a Nuclear Attack. Obviously, most of this money was wasted or funneled to political friends and pet contractors.

3- About 1/3rd of the New Orleans Police Department deserted the citizens of the community they were sworn to protect and serve. We have no figures for Orleans and other Parish law enforcement agencies. The next time any politician tries to deify local law enforcement and equate them to soldiers and marines I'm calling BULLSHIT and throwing fruit.

4- The only organization of the entire mix of Federal/State/Local groups involved that have stood tall have been the Men & Women of the United States Coast Guard. The smallest and leanest of our uniformed services had operations running BEFORE Katrina had even left the area. With Tropical Force winds still blowing, these dedicated professionals were up and running and have evacuated more people by air than all Department of Defense agencies combined, despite having far fewer resources.

The standard for service has been shown by the USCG, and should be applied to ANY agency of ANY government that serves our people. Our government is filled with too many careerist bureaucrats who's best talent's are foot-dragging, paper-pushing and passing the buck. All of our people deserve better and if you can't hack it get out of the way.

BTW- Note to GWB
'The Buck Stops Here' applies to all presidents and you have failed miserably. I hope your cronies have enjoyed your time in power, because you won't be seeing it again. I'm not a Democrat, but have no use for your kind.

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Corruption
Posted by: Olympiada on Sep 3, 2005 2:09 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
My goodness our government is corrupt. We the people need to rage at the government. This is like a John Le Carre novel. This is crazy. This is insanity. Where is the government's accountability?
I think a parliamentary systems would work better.
And what the heck is the US doing pulling out of the UN?
How stupid.
Oh I really dislike my country's government.
I hope more people vote as a result of this. And I say this because many young people I know do not participate as a result of anger. Many angry young blacks that I know do not vote because they are so enraged. I know that kind of thinking. I dropped out of high school. You get so mad you take it out on your self.
We need to pay attention to the young people, to their thinking and reign it in when it gets unhealthy. We need to show them we care. Young people need to know that we care. Youth is a time of idealism...If we do not listen to the youth, we have no hope.

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» Icons are for fools Posted by: greenthinginwater
» RE: Icons are for fools Posted by: ALANHESTER
» RE: Icons are for fools? Posted by: Olympiada
» RE: Icons are for fools? Posted by: greenthinginwater
» God is not an Icon - ? Posted by: Olympiada
» RE: God is not an Icon - ? Posted by: greenthinginwater
» green thing in water Posted by: Olympiada
» RE: green thing in water Posted by: greenthinginwater
» Algae Posted by: Olympiada
Katrina Comes Home To Roost
Posted by: FactGiver on Sep 4, 2005 8:38 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
"The buck stops here!!!" George W. Bush should be presidential like President Harry S. Truman. But it's hard to be humble when you perceive that you're perfect and that all of your budget cuts and policy decisions were right.

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NOLA Residents for the Rebuild effort - We Demand you Hire Locals!!!
Posted by: liz_mclellan on Sep 5, 2005 3:19 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
http://www.petitiononline.com/tru56ppa/petition.html

To: US Congress

When Iraq was destroyed the rebuilding contracts went to American companies such as Kellog Brown and Root and Halliburton taking all that profit out of the hands of Iraqis and giving it to Bush cronies.

New Orleans is going to be rebuilt. ALL of that work should go to local New Orleans people. New Orleans people need work. New Orleans people need thier beloved city to rise again. New Orleans and the rest of us need New Orleans to be the multicultural gumbo at it's full glory again. All the materials where possible should be bought from New Orleans and Louisianna business people, from local sustainable local resources. All supply and subcontract orders should go to the people of Louisianna. If the local ecomony of our beloved New Orleans is going to recover it is going to be because NOLA rebuilds herself...not because contracts go to outside contractors from far away who benefit from thier relationship to the Bush administration. New Orleans without it's residents is a Disneyland for the rich. Instead we need a WPA project making it possible for NOLA residents to rebuild thier own town.

New Orleans is the soul of America. Without it's residents it has no soul.

Save the soul of America... support NOLA residents in moving home and rebuilding thier own beloved hometowm with our help, with our money and support.

Federal monies must be made available to follow through on the subsidence mediation, levee and channel projects. Where large outside contractors are ABSOLUTELY nessesary they MUST hire and TRAIN local residents to do the work and get paid for that work.

Cronyism killed New Orleans, by putting a man with O DISASTER RECOVERY experience in charge of the effort. Localism will save it. The people of NOLA will save it.

STOP IT BEFORE CRONYISM BURIES HER.

Thank you please pass this on!

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

nola4nola.blogspot.com

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Fertility Rate
Posted by: Olympiada on Sep 10, 2005 4:23 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The United Nations special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa accused the Bush administration of responsibility for a condom shortage in Uganda -- the result of the administration's evangelical Christian agenda of "abstinence."

Ok this makes me mad! I was thinking about this. The fertility rate for Ugandan women is 7 children per woman! What! 1 is a challenge for me.

This gives me incentive to go to the UN website and join in the accusation against the Bush administration. This is insanity.

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