"No one can say they didn't see it coming"
- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Sidney Blumenthal
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.
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.
In February 2004, 60 of the nation's leading scientists, including 20 Nobel laureates, warned in a statement, "Restoring Scientific Integrity in Policymaking": "Successful application of science has played a large part in the policies that have made the United States of America the world's most powerful nation and its citizens increasingly prosperous and healthy ... Indeed, this principle has long been adhered to by presidents and administrations of both parties in forming and implementing policies. The administration of George W. Bush has, however, disregarded this principle ... The distortion of scientific knowledge for partisan political ends must cease." Bush completely ignored this statement.
In the two weeks preceding the storm in the Gulf, the trumping of science by ideology and expertise by special interests accelerated. The Federal Drug Administration announced that it was postponing sale of the morning-after contraceptive pill, despite overwhelming scientific evidence of its safety and its approval by the FDA's scientific advisory board. 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." When the chief of the Bureau of Justice Statistics in the Justice Department was ordered by the White House to delete its study that African-Americans and other minorities are subject to racial profiling in police traffic stops and he refused to buckle under, he was forced out of his job. When the Army Corps of Engineers' chief contracting oversight analyst objected to a $7 billion no-bid contract awarded for work in Iraq to Halliburton (the firm at which Vice President Cheney was formerly CEO), she was demoted despite her superior professional ratings. At the National Park Service, a former Cheney aide, a political appointee lacking professional background, drew up a plan to overturn past environmental practices and prohibit any mention of evolution while allowing sale of religious materials through the Park Service.
On the day the levees burst in New Orleans, Bush delivered a speech in California comparing the Iraq war to World War II and himself to Franklin D. Roosevelt: "And he knew that the best way to bring peace and stability to the region was by bringing freedom to Japan." Bush had boarded his very own "Streetcar Named Desire."
Bush is completely aloof, not in touch with reality. He already broke the record for most days in vacation held by our other great leader reagan.
This president is horrible in catastrophies, shows his lack of cojones and leadership. Just like in 9/11, and Iraq his admin. was presented with the facts of a catastrophy in New Orleans, and they decided to ignore them, in all three cases with tragic results.
Where will he fail us next?
What other tragedy will this president ignore/bring upon us?
interesting side note in case you guys hadn't heard this before...at the beginnings of the season the nola meterologists said that the 2005 hurricane season predictions set the gulf coastal states to have as high as a 44-56% chance of getting hit by a hurricane, if not a massive one...
hey tingaling, you really do have a reading problem don't you? or perhaps it's a comprehension problem? facts are facts and the fact that this administration cut funding that could have prevented the major flooding from the levee break does make it his fault...you right wing nuts only read every other sentence....
Did you read the story above?
Have you read a newspaper?
Do you know how any of this works.
He cut the funds to make New Orleans safe from a hurricane, that everyone knew could destroy New Orleans. What do you call that? I call it homocidal negligence.
This was no secret, I have heard that this could happen for years now. His policies made it worse.
What do you think tagalong? huh? If you want to read dumber things, just read any of bushes speech transcripts.
IT WAS A HUGE NATURAL DISASTER. A force by which no one can say whether or not certian steps which may have been taken could have contained it.
you say right wing nut but that is incorrect. I did not vote for Bush but I am tired of everyone pinning all that is wrong with our country, the world on the politicians, they are merely reactionary to our society. The Society of you, me and everyone else who looks at others to blame and ingores their own contribution to what is wrong. Those with money, be it developers or whoever pressure the government to get what they want, why? Money. How is this possible? People want what they provide so they know there is a profit. Those people at different times are all of us. I would find it more correct to blame all of us and the comfortable lives we carve out for ourselves instead of placing a larger concern on more important issues. The easy thing to do is just blame the people WE voted for (maybe not you in particular but a lot of your fellow americans.)
as negligent as it is to cut funding from FEMA and ignore a high-risk area, and as much as i despise the bush administration, and am a bleeding blue blood heart liberal, I have to say that this goes a bit beyond me.
ultimately the disaster happened and i think it's of poor taste to politicize the event. why squabble politics when the lives of millions are irrevoccably changed. shouldn't we spend our time figuring out solutions to current problems than pointing fingers at who's responsible?
reinforcing levees might have worked this time, but it all seems like a duct-tape fix to me that would merely delay a disaster of this magnitude.
IT IS NOT POLITICIZING IT IS ACCOUNTABILITY THAT IS AT STAKE.
I FEEL FOR THOSE PEOPLE THAT WERE VICTIMS,
BUT WE CANT SAY THAT BECAUSE IRAQ HAPPENED, THE HURRICANE HAPPENED, BUSH IS OUT OF BOUNDS FOR:
A-CRITICISM
B-ACCOUNTABILITY
BY YOUR LOGIC, BUSH CAN DO WHATEVER HE WANTS AND W CAN'T SAY ANYTHING. I'M ANGRY BY HIS MISMANAGEMENT OF ALL THESE SITUATIONS. I DONT CARE IF HE WAS VOTED IN OR NOT, HE IS STILL ACCOUNTABLE TO ALL OF US.
WE ARE ALLOWING THIS PRESIDENT TO LITERALLY GET AWAY WITH MURDER.
melquiades, you are politicizing this. There are still people trying to get out of the city. The dead haven't even been buried. I'm all for a debate, but right now we should be discussing how to help those people and not placing blame.
admittedly, i have a very strong dislike of g.w.bush, still i don't think i'm willing to attribute this to him. but have we ruled out the possibility of lingering Y2K glitches?
even led zeppelin knew about it.
"When The Levee Breaks"
If it keeps on rainin', levee's goin' to break,
When The Levee Breaks I'll have no place to stay.
Mean old levee taught me to weep and moan,
Got what it takes to make a mountain man leave his home,
Oh, well, oh, well, oh, well.
Don't it make you feel bad
When you're tryin' to find your way home,
You don't know which way to go?
If you're goin' down South
They go no work to do,
If you don't know about Chicago.
Cryin' won't help you, prayin' won't do you no good,
Now, cryin' won't help you, prayin' won't do you no good,
When the levee breaks, mama, you got to move.
All last night sat on the levee and moaned,
Thinkin' about me baby and my happy home.
Going, going to Chicago... Going to Chicago... Sorry but I can't take you...
Going down... going down now... going down....
George Bush is a complete fucking idiot. There is substantile scientific proof that not only has a large metor not only struck our Earth in the past, but will probably do so again in the future. What does Shrub do about this? Plays cowboy in Crawferd while a 5 mile chunk of Neptune could be heading our way.
just a thought...release of greenhouse gases
into the atmosphere...thereby changing the earth's
ozone layer and the atmosphere in general...has been
theorized for years to be capable of changing weather
patterns and causing unusual weather conditions...
bush's policies have not helped this situation..but even
though i'm not necessarily a fan...i would also say that
many presidents before him have been negligent as well.
i don't think bush is helping the situation however..to say
the least.
i do agree that this is not really the right time for this debate
though...i can't imagine what some of these people are going
through.
This just in - There may be a major georaphic altering earthquake somewhere in California sometime in the next 1000years. But our we developing a foam layer to absorb the earths pent up rattling rage? No! We just allow people to go on living with the status quoe paying insurance for their property to defend such calamities. Screw you Bush, and while Im at it - Fuck off God.
evilplat even though you're a total smartass and I'm pretty sure I disagree w/your politics those last two comments made me smile - not easy to do today. Thanks.
evilplatypus, the disasters you are talking about are far-fetched, not much or too expensive to fix. NOLA wasn't, it has been predicted for years.
Im sorry if ya'll feel this way, Ill stop now, but Im still outraged, and I hope that at least some of you are. Bush has put us at more danger everywhere.
Bad Foreign Policy
Bad Environmental Policy
Ill sop now, mourn for NOLA, and while you are at it, for the USA
i'm not sure that the cuts made by bush would have helped or not. to me the salienbt point is that the welfare of many has been short-changed by this administration for the good of a few. they promised to preserve wetlands - then gave them away to developers. they slashed funding to pay for a war that was un-necessary. politizing it? don't you think dumbya leaving his record long vacation two days early and diverting to fly over the site is politizing? search for survivors, bury the dead, and make sure no one like chimpy is ever elected again.
No one's (at least I'm not) defending George Bush (or any of the other politicians who participate in the political process) on anything. My point is that to fixate on one person you hate, perhaps justifiably, is to ignore the complex reality of a situation like this. This trivializes your other, LEGITIMATE points and arguments about this president.
Melquiades - The world is about risk. Life is about risk. Politics is about risk. Economics is about risk. Standing in the middle of the freeway is a risk. Swimming with a shark is risky. Living in a trailor in Nebraska has its risks. Living in a city 8 feet below the water is a risk. 50 years of politicians in New Orleans pissing away funds on such novelties as money losing gambling boats while they knew their levees where not able to resist a surge stronger than a cat-3 hurricane is down right comical.
the more salient critique might be leveled at the feds (whether you include bush or not) for the approval for development/erasure of the protective wetlands along the gulf coast of louisiana.
we may or may not be able to stop natural disasters through artificial means like levees and pumping, but there is no excuse for knowingly destroying the land's natural means of taking care of itself - and us. we knew the implications of this development, but it was allowed to go forward for profit.
still couldnt the government had, say several hundred thousand bottles of water, certain medications, ready made meals sitting in a warehouse that would have allowed us to get some much needed help on the ground sooner. isnt all of this part of homeland security???anyway, cryin wont help ya.prayin wont do ya no good. when the levee breaks mama you gotta move...
Though I'm typically a corporation-basher, I'm proud to report that the Hoosier State's own Eli Lilly has stepped up with a donation of $1mil cash and $1mil in insulin and other medicines.
Whether any infrastructure exists to deliever this donation remains to be seen.
i'll step up and defend bush. jeez, i can't believe all the idiots here blaming bush for the devistation created by not only a hurricane, but a complete lack of preperation/foresight by the residents, the city, and the state, combined with a slow response by the local agencies and relief agencies. The 'blame' for this if any, goes directly on the shoulders of the city and the state. the CAUSE of the problems go many years into the past, unfortunately the EFFECTS happened very quickly.
heres to a positive hope the people of New Orleans get help quick and this disastor is quickly resolved.
As someone from New Orleans who escaped and was looking online to see discussions. We all know that all the infrastructure in this country is old and needs massive redoing. The levees have been a huge problem and many people are with out homes like me. Mine was burried by the flooding water from the 17th street canal break. In school we learned that this was the problem and that the Core of Engineers was working on a solution. Unfortunately we see that engineers look at thigns as numbers. Engineers havea tendency to be tunnel visioned like all professionals.
Instead of arguing about all of this find out what you can do to help these people. We help the Tsunami now help your country. Politics are not going to get me back to my house. Get my portfolio back. Redo my artwork. It is not going to get the poor housing.
Think about WHERE DO YOU PUT AND HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH UP TO 3 MILLION PEOPLE DISPLACED AND HOMELESS?
I don't have income any more and am stranded in San Antonio. Please lets help find ideas and use our design and problem solving education to helping people live and build new lives.
o+
nobody is blaming bush for the hurricane. that would obviously be unfair. however - this is the third case of people dying due to the incompetent actions of his administration. the other two? 9.11 and iraq.
so what is his response? he told good morning america yesterday - "I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees..." this is a bald-faced lie. as it was when they said no one could imagine anyone flying airplanes into buildings. this time everyone anticipated it. his administration tooks steps that made it worse.
ohhh i was so pissed when I heard that. Not 3 weks ago I saw a (PBS) NOVA special on the levees failing in NOLA, the wetlands, etc.... He is aloof out of touch, and a moron to say the least.
Did anyone listen to All Things Considered last night. Robert Segel was pissed at that too. His interview with Homeland Security chief is my favorite interview ever.
We're not blaming Bush for the hurricane- We're blaming him for not reacting fast enough. Troops should have been in the city within 24 hours of the storms passage. Food, medical supplies, and temp. shelter should have been provided to the refugees. Order and logistics should have been instigated within 24 hours.
As I ranted in the other post, Bush and his entire administration should step down. for their lack of poor leadership. The fact that so many people have died since the storm is disgraceful and there are no excuses for the lack of order.
Oh ,and one of his responsibilities when he took office was to care for the welfare and health of the American citizens and that of the country as a whole.
Five questions for you guys:
1). How old is the dowtown core and immediate surrounding area of New Orleans and how long have people been inhabiting this area with the realization that they are actually below sea level?
2). When were the levee systems constructed and do you realize they were designed and built to withstand Cat. 3 storms?
3). How can you equate funding cuts (although a very bad decision by the president last year - as stated in the article) to the utter decimation of a city that has existed well over a hundred years in an area that is ultimately a "sitting duck" with a levee system designed to withstand a much smaller storm?
4). Have you cosidered the devistation in both Gulfport and Biloxi? How do you relate cut funds to those cities? They have been basically erased from the surface of the earth. At least the people of NO have homes they can attempt to salvage and businesses to which they can return after the floods have receeded. The people of Gulfport and Biloxi have absolutely nothing.
5). Thought - Do you think the people of Venice (Italy) would be outraged with political leaders should the ocean waters rise drastically to flood the city, realizing the city was constructed in a swamp to begin with and has existed as such for hundreds of years? They would likely and will likely be infuriated by our (you and I) reliance on the automobile and aid in global warming and increased melting of the ice pack.
I think Bush has made some terrible decisions, but it is quite a stretch to pin this natural disaster on him exclusively.
"I think Bush has made some terrible decisions..."
agreed.
"but it is quite a stretch to pin this natural disaster on him exclusively"
not exclusively, and i doubt anyone would. but...
the fact that this very occurrence has been a hot subject in n.o. over the lasts couple of years, however, is a key point and one relevant to the ire at bush. at issue:
1. money earmarked for levee construction and flood protection was redirected to the war effort. simple as that.
2. key wetlands which protected the shore and served as breaks for storm surges have been allowed to be developed or erased over the past 5 years, a function of their downgrading as critical protected lands at the behest of developers and industry.
3. homeland security has been a burden rather than a help in this instance, slowing down and confusing the response. national guard are looking to local law enforcement for directions; locals are looking to the national guard. no one knows who's supposed to be directing.
he's not the only one responsible. and there is a history of vulnerability. but it comes down to what signals were available and what was done about them. sound familiar?
1)the area has been inhabited for centuries--actual dates can be found in the interwebnet. formally settled by europeans in the late 1600's
2)current system in the 1930's, i think. but, again the www can probably tell you more accurately. as they say on Reading Rainbow: don't take my word for it; check it out yourself.
3)let's just say a whole host of US political figures have ignored this issue, not just bush. see below.
from the Times-Picayune, February 17, 1995: An Army Corps of Engineers "hit list" of recommended budget cuts would eliminate new flood-control programs in some of the nation's most flood-prone spots - where recent disasters have left thousands homeless and cost the federal government millions in emergency aid.
Clinton administration officials argue that the flood-control efforts are local projects, not national, and should be paid for by local taxes.
Nationwide, the administration proposes cutting 98 new projects in 35 states and Puerto Rico, for an estimated savings of $29 million in 1996.
Corps officials freely conceded the cuts, which represent only a small portion of savings the corps ultimately must make, may be penny-wise and pound-foolish. But they said they were forced to eliminate some services the corps has historically provided to taxpayers to meet the administration's budget-cutting goals.
and on February 8, 2000: For the metropolitan New Orleans area, Clinton's budget was seen as a mixed bag by local lawmakers and government officials. For instance, while Clinton called for $1.5 billion to be spent at Avondale Industries to continue building LPD-17 landing craft, his budget calls for significantly less than what Congress appropriated last year for Lake Pontchartrain and vicinity hurricane protection and for West Bank flood control projects.
4)gulfport and biloxi, while having massive destruction, will not face the magnitude of problems that N.O. will mainly due to the recession of the storm surge and easier access to repair of infrastructure.
5)venice faces it's own unique problem and is in the process of solving it--the political red tape has slowed this process to a crawl, but then again, the water is rising at a crawl's pace. not in immediate danger as was n.o.
still people insist on blaming bush..? where was the governor and mayor? when 911 happened both the mayor and governor were LEADING the effort with actual leadership, directing the recovery effort, not screaming 'where is the help'. where was the plan of action by the governor and mayor for the impending disaster, they knew it was coming, THEY got out of harms way....the very people who knew best (or should have known best) of how to deal with the city and state, disappeared, didn't lead, and allowed the situation to worsen and get out of control. period. but i guess its easier to blame the administration then to use your brain.
o+
It seems to me that the people who are Blamimg Bush are backing it up with facts. Everyone knows that the problem is more than any mayor or state can handle. If you havent noticed, this is a National Disaster that has hit multple states. This is specifically the reason FEMA was created. Unfortunatley Bush is phasing out FEMA's authority and financing to foucus on DHS. So ya Bush is to blame.
b.s losdogedog, i've seen no leadership out of louisiana and specifically new orleans. all the other states that have been hit have shown strong leadership and direction. that is the key. there were 1,000's of working and empty buses (school and otherwise) in the city when the mandatory evacuation was ordered. did the mayor get people loaded and out? no. and there's countless other pre-emptive measures that could have been taken to save thousands of lives and take the load off emergency help. speaking of FEMA, louisiana, and specifically NO knew for several decades of the impending danger of hurricanes, yet what disaster training or emergency systems did they have in place? none. no-one is realising this isn't a surprise problem,and to just blame bush is beyond moronic.
i think that the developement of the wetlands would have been more of a local government or state government screwing the pooch rather than the federal. unless those wetlands were owned by the federal government i dont see how it would be just the feds signing off on the deal. there are wetlands near my home in NE florida that developers have been trying to get at for a while and their has been no involvement of the feds unless you count a house rep speaking up about it.
ive heard several times on the news of people saying i survived such and such hurricanes without a problem so i thought this would be the same.... the lack of full information to the public is the main failing of all of the admins involved. Not telling them how much stronger this storm was compared to most of the others.
when the levee breaks...
"No one can say they didn't see it coming"
- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Sidney Blumenthal
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.
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.
In February 2004, 60 of the nation's leading scientists, including 20 Nobel laureates, warned in a statement, "Restoring Scientific Integrity in Policymaking": "Successful application of science has played a large part in the policies that have made the United States of America the world's most powerful nation and its citizens increasingly prosperous and healthy ... Indeed, this principle has long been adhered to by presidents and administrations of both parties in forming and implementing policies. The administration of George W. Bush has, however, disregarded this principle ... The distortion of scientific knowledge for partisan political ends must cease." Bush completely ignored this statement.
In the two weeks preceding the storm in the Gulf, the trumping of science by ideology and expertise by special interests accelerated. The Federal Drug Administration announced that it was postponing sale of the morning-after contraceptive pill, despite overwhelming scientific evidence of its safety and its approval by the FDA's scientific advisory board. 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." When the chief of the Bureau of Justice Statistics in the Justice Department was ordered by the White House to delete its study that African-Americans and other minorities are subject to racial profiling in police traffic stops and he refused to buckle under, he was forced out of his job. When the Army Corps of Engineers' chief contracting oversight analyst objected to a $7 billion no-bid contract awarded for work in Iraq to Halliburton (the firm at which Vice President Cheney was formerly CEO), she was demoted despite her superior professional ratings. At the National Park Service, a former Cheney aide, a political appointee lacking professional background, drew up a plan to overturn past environmental practices and prohibit any mention of evolution while allowing sale of religious materials through the Park Service.
On the day the levees burst in New Orleans, Bush delivered a speech in California comparing the Iraq war to World War II and himself to Franklin D. Roosevelt: "And he knew that the best way to bring peace and stability to the region was by bringing freedom to Japan." Bush had boarded his very own "Streetcar Named Desire."
Bush is completely aloof, not in touch with reality. He already broke the record for most days in vacation held by our other great leader reagan.
This president is horrible in catastrophies, shows his lack of cojones and leadership. Just like in 9/11, and Iraq his admin. was presented with the facts of a catastrophy in New Orleans, and they decided to ignore them, in all three cases with tragic results.
Where will he fail us next?
What other tragedy will this president ignore/bring upon us?
For more information on the mismanagement of this tragedy, at all levels of the government
interesting side note in case you guys hadn't heard this before...at the beginnings of the season the nola meterologists said that the 2005 hurricane season predictions set the gulf coastal states to have as high as a 44-56% chance of getting hit by a hurricane, if not a massive one...
blaming bush for a natural disaster....this is the dumbest thing i've read yet.
hey tingaling, you really do have a reading problem don't you? or perhaps it's a comprehension problem? facts are facts and the fact that this administration cut funding that could have prevented the major flooding from the levee break does make it his fault...you right wing nuts only read every other sentence....
Did you read the story above?
Have you read a newspaper?
Do you know how any of this works.
He cut the funds to make New Orleans safe from a hurricane, that everyone knew could destroy New Orleans. What do you call that? I call it homocidal negligence.
This was no secret, I have heard that this could happen for years now. His policies made it worse.
What do you think tagalong? huh? If you want to read dumber things, just read any of bushes speech transcripts.
IT WAS A HUGE NATURAL DISASTER. A force by which no one can say whether or not certian steps which may have been taken could have contained it.
you say right wing nut but that is incorrect. I did not vote for Bush but I am tired of everyone pinning all that is wrong with our country, the world on the politicians, they are merely reactionary to our society. The Society of you, me and everyone else who looks at others to blame and ingores their own contribution to what is wrong. Those with money, be it developers or whoever pressure the government to get what they want, why? Money. How is this possible? People want what they provide so they know there is a profit. Those people at different times are all of us. I would find it more correct to blame all of us and the comfortable lives we carve out for ourselves instead of placing a larger concern on more important issues. The easy thing to do is just blame the people WE voted for (maybe not you in particular but a lot of your fellow americans.)
as negligent as it is to cut funding from FEMA and ignore a high-risk area, and as much as i despise the bush administration, and am a bleeding blue blood heart liberal, I have to say that this goes a bit beyond me.
ultimately the disaster happened and i think it's of poor taste to politicize the event. why squabble politics when the lives of millions are irrevoccably changed. shouldn't we spend our time figuring out solutions to current problems than pointing fingers at who's responsible?
reinforcing levees might have worked this time, but it all seems like a duct-tape fix to me that would merely delay a disaster of this magnitude.
yes, the more important thread would be "Katrina - what can we do?"
Ants, Tagalong,
You're correct, but let's allow those more fixated on hating and politicizing than helping keep busy among themselves, out of the way.
IT IS NOT POLITICIZING IT IS ACCOUNTABILITY THAT IS AT STAKE.
I FEEL FOR THOSE PEOPLE THAT WERE VICTIMS,
BUT WE CANT SAY THAT BECAUSE IRAQ HAPPENED, THE HURRICANE HAPPENED, BUSH IS OUT OF BOUNDS FOR:
A-CRITICISM
B-ACCOUNTABILITY
BY YOUR LOGIC, BUSH CAN DO WHATEVER HE WANTS AND W CAN'T SAY ANYTHING. I'M ANGRY BY HIS MISMANAGEMENT OF ALL THESE SITUATIONS. I DONT CARE IF HE WAS VOTED IN OR NOT, HE IS STILL ACCOUNTABLE TO ALL OF US.
WE ARE ALLOWING THIS PRESIDENT TO LITERALLY GET AWAY WITH MURDER.
melquiades, you are politicizing this. There are still people trying to get out of the city. The dead haven't even been buried. I'm all for a debate, but right now we should be discussing how to help those people and not placing blame.
whatever,
good luck in the search and rescue effort, A
Melquiades, capital letters don't bolster your case.
admittedly, i have a very strong dislike of g.w.bush, still i don't think i'm willing to attribute this to him. but have we ruled out the possibility of lingering Y2K glitches?
even led zeppelin knew about it.
"When The Levee Breaks"
If it keeps on rainin', levee's goin' to break,
When The Levee Breaks I'll have no place to stay.
Mean old levee taught me to weep and moan,
Got what it takes to make a mountain man leave his home,
Oh, well, oh, well, oh, well.
Don't it make you feel bad
When you're tryin' to find your way home,
You don't know which way to go?
If you're goin' down South
They go no work to do,
If you don't know about Chicago.
Cryin' won't help you, prayin' won't do you no good,
Now, cryin' won't help you, prayin' won't do you no good,
When the levee breaks, mama, you got to move.
All last night sat on the levee and moaned,
Thinkin' about me baby and my happy home.
Going, going to Chicago... Going to Chicago... Sorry but I can't take you...
Going down... going down now... going down....
George Bush is a complete fucking idiot. There is substantile scientific proof that not only has a large metor not only struck our Earth in the past, but will probably do so again in the future. What does Shrub do about this? Plays cowboy in Crawferd while a 5 mile chunk of Neptune could be heading our way.
just a thought...release of greenhouse gases
into the atmosphere...thereby changing the earth's
ozone layer and the atmosphere in general...has been
theorized for years to be capable of changing weather
patterns and causing unusual weather conditions...
bush's policies have not helped this situation..but even
though i'm not necessarily a fan...i would also say that
many presidents before him have been negligent as well.
i don't think bush is helping the situation however..to say
the least.
i do agree that this is not really the right time for this debate
though...i can't imagine what some of these people are going
through.
This just in - There may be a major georaphic altering earthquake somewhere in California sometime in the next 1000years. But our we developing a foam layer to absorb the earths pent up rattling rage? No! We just allow people to go on living with the status quoe paying insurance for their property to defend such calamities. Screw you Bush, and while Im at it - Fuck off God.
evilplat even though you're a total smartass and I'm pretty sure I disagree w/your politics those last two comments made me smile - not easy to do today. Thanks.
evilplatypus, the disasters you are talking about are far-fetched, not much or too expensive to fix. NOLA wasn't, it has been predicted for years.
Im sorry if ya'll feel this way, Ill stop now, but Im still outraged, and I hope that at least some of you are. Bush has put us at more danger everywhere.
Bad Foreign Policy
Bad Environmental Policy
Ill sop now, mourn for NOLA, and while you are at it, for the USA
It aint easy
i'm not sure that the cuts made by bush would have helped or not. to me the salienbt point is that the welfare of many has been short-changed by this administration for the good of a few. they promised to preserve wetlands - then gave them away to developers. they slashed funding to pay for a war that was un-necessary. politizing it? don't you think dumbya leaving his record long vacation two days early and diverting to fly over the site is politizing? search for survivors, bury the dead, and make sure no one like chimpy is ever elected again.
Don't despair, Melquiades.
No one's (at least I'm not) defending George Bush (or any of the other politicians who participate in the political process) on anything. My point is that to fixate on one person you hate, perhaps justifiably, is to ignore the complex reality of a situation like this. This trivializes your other, LEGITIMATE points and arguments about this president.
Melquiades - The world is about risk. Life is about risk. Politics is about risk. Economics is about risk. Standing in the middle of the freeway is a risk. Swimming with a shark is risky. Living in a trailor in Nebraska has its risks. Living in a city 8 feet below the water is a risk. 50 years of politicians in New Orleans pissing away funds on such novelties as money losing gambling boats while they knew their levees where not able to resist a surge stronger than a cat-3 hurricane is down right comical.
the more salient critique might be leveled at the feds (whether you include bush or not) for the approval for development/erasure of the protective wetlands along the gulf coast of louisiana.
we may or may not be able to stop natural disasters through artificial means like levees and pumping, but there is no excuse for knowingly destroying the land's natural means of taking care of itself - and us. we knew the implications of this development, but it was allowed to go forward for profit.
still couldnt the government had, say several hundred thousand bottles of water, certain medications, ready made meals sitting in a warehouse that would have allowed us to get some much needed help on the ground sooner. isnt all of this part of homeland security???anyway, cryin wont help ya.prayin wont do ya no good. when the levee breaks mama you gotta move...
Though I'm typically a corporation-basher, I'm proud to report that the Hoosier State's own Eli Lilly has stepped up with a donation of $1mil cash and $1mil in insulin and other medicines.
Whether any infrastructure exists to deliever this donation remains to be seen.
who needs terrorist with GB at the helm. GOD HELP US!!!
i'll step up and defend bush. jeez, i can't believe all the idiots here blaming bush for the devistation created by not only a hurricane, but a complete lack of preperation/foresight by the residents, the city, and the state, combined with a slow response by the local agencies and relief agencies. The 'blame' for this if any, goes directly on the shoulders of the city and the state. the CAUSE of the problems go many years into the past, unfortunately the EFFECTS happened very quickly.
heres to a positive hope the people of New Orleans get help quick and this disastor is quickly resolved.
Well, now there is a shoot to kill order against looters in the city...
As someone from New Orleans who escaped and was looking online to see discussions. We all know that all the infrastructure in this country is old and needs massive redoing. The levees have been a huge problem and many people are with out homes like me. Mine was burried by the flooding water from the 17th street canal break. In school we learned that this was the problem and that the Core of Engineers was working on a solution. Unfortunately we see that engineers look at thigns as numbers. Engineers havea tendency to be tunnel visioned like all professionals.
Instead of arguing about all of this find out what you can do to help these people. We help the Tsunami now help your country. Politics are not going to get me back to my house. Get my portfolio back. Redo my artwork. It is not going to get the poor housing.
Think about WHERE DO YOU PUT AND HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH UP TO 3 MILLION PEOPLE DISPLACED AND HOMELESS?
I don't have income any more and am stranded in San Antonio. Please lets help find ideas and use our design and problem solving education to helping people live and build new lives.
o+
nobody is blaming bush for the hurricane. that would obviously be unfair. however - this is the third case of people dying due to the incompetent actions of his administration. the other two? 9.11 and iraq.
so what is his response? he told good morning america yesterday - "I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees..." this is a bald-faced lie. as it was when they said no one could imagine anyone flying airplanes into buildings. this time everyone anticipated it. his administration tooks steps that made it worse.
ohhh i was so pissed when I heard that. Not 3 weks ago I saw a (PBS) NOVA special on the levees failing in NOLA, the wetlands, etc.... He is aloof out of touch, and a moron to say the least.
Did anyone listen to All Things Considered last night. Robert Segel was pissed at that too. His interview with Homeland Security chief is my favorite interview ever.
The admin now is doing what they do best spin control....
http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/09/02/bush.katrina.ap/index.html
Hope fully it will get people help faster.
interview with Chertoff on NPR
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4828771
"It's as if the entire Gulf Coast were obliterated by the worst kind of weapon you can imagine," the president said. - http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/09/02/bush.katrina.ap/index.html
which is why we need to stay steadfast in oure resolve with the freedom haters and their WMD's
We're not blaming Bush for the hurricane- We're blaming him for not reacting fast enough. Troops should have been in the city within 24 hours of the storms passage. Food, medical supplies, and temp. shelter should have been provided to the refugees. Order and logistics should have been instigated within 24 hours.
As I ranted in the other post, Bush and his entire administration should step down. for their lack of poor leadership. The fact that so many people have died since the storm is disgraceful and there are no excuses for the lack of order.
Oh ,and one of his responsibilities when he took office was to care for the welfare and health of the American citizens and that of the country as a whole.
hey, isn't that our motto?
is this somehow my fault?
Five questions for you guys:
1). How old is the dowtown core and immediate surrounding area of New Orleans and how long have people been inhabiting this area with the realization that they are actually below sea level?
2). When were the levee systems constructed and do you realize they were designed and built to withstand Cat. 3 storms?
3). How can you equate funding cuts (although a very bad decision by the president last year - as stated in the article) to the utter decimation of a city that has existed well over a hundred years in an area that is ultimately a "sitting duck" with a levee system designed to withstand a much smaller storm?
4). Have you cosidered the devistation in both Gulfport and Biloxi? How do you relate cut funds to those cities? They have been basically erased from the surface of the earth. At least the people of NO have homes they can attempt to salvage and businesses to which they can return after the floods have receeded. The people of Gulfport and Biloxi have absolutely nothing.
5). Thought - Do you think the people of Venice (Italy) would be outraged with political leaders should the ocean waters rise drastically to flood the city, realizing the city was constructed in a swamp to begin with and has existed as such for hundreds of years? They would likely and will likely be infuriated by our (you and I) reliance on the automobile and aid in global warming and increased melting of the ice pack.
I think Bush has made some terrible decisions, but it is quite a stretch to pin this natural disaster on him exclusively.
once again, no one is pinning the natural disater on bush, but the preparation of the government before and after has been very, very slow.
"I think Bush has made some terrible decisions..."
agreed.
"but it is quite a stretch to pin this natural disaster on him exclusively"
not exclusively, and i doubt anyone would. but...
the fact that this very occurrence has been a hot subject in n.o. over the lasts couple of years, however, is a key point and one relevant to the ire at bush. at issue:
1. money earmarked for levee construction and flood protection was redirected to the war effort. simple as that.
2. key wetlands which protected the shore and served as breaks for storm surges have been allowed to be developed or erased over the past 5 years, a function of their downgrading as critical protected lands at the behest of developers and industry.
3. homeland security has been a burden rather than a help in this instance, slowing down and confusing the response. national guard are looking to local law enforcement for directions; locals are looking to the national guard. no one knows who's supposed to be directing.
he's not the only one responsible. and there is a history of vulnerability. but it comes down to what signals were available and what was done about them. sound familiar?
and with a community of ppl where 32% of it's population are in poverty, the government and bush should have known that they would need help.
quickly,
1)the area has been inhabited for centuries--actual dates can be found in the interwebnet. formally settled by europeans in the late 1600's
2)current system in the 1930's, i think. but, again the www can probably tell you more accurately. as they say on Reading Rainbow: don't take my word for it; check it out yourself.
3)let's just say a whole host of US political figures have ignored this issue, not just bush. see below.
from the Times-Picayune, February 17, 1995:
An Army Corps of Engineers "hit list" of recommended budget cuts would eliminate new flood-control programs in some of the nation's most flood-prone spots - where recent disasters have left thousands homeless and cost the federal government millions in emergency aid.
Clinton administration officials argue that the flood-control efforts are local projects, not national, and should be paid for by local taxes.
Nationwide, the administration proposes cutting 98 new projects in 35 states and Puerto Rico, for an estimated savings of $29 million in 1996.
Corps officials freely conceded the cuts, which represent only a small portion of savings the corps ultimately must make, may be penny-wise and pound-foolish. But they said they were forced to eliminate some services the corps has historically provided to taxpayers to meet the administration's budget-cutting goals.
and on February 8, 2000:
For the metropolitan New Orleans area, Clinton's budget was seen as a mixed bag by local lawmakers and government officials. For instance, while Clinton called for $1.5 billion to be spent at Avondale Industries to continue building LPD-17 landing craft, his budget calls for significantly less than what Congress appropriated last year for Lake Pontchartrain and vicinity hurricane protection and for West Bank flood control projects.
4)gulfport and biloxi, while having massive destruction, will not face the magnitude of problems that N.O. will mainly due to the recession of the storm surge and easier access to repair of infrastructure.
5)venice faces it's own unique problem and is in the process of solving it--the political red tape has slowed this process to a crawl, but then again, the water is rising at a crawl's pace. not in immediate danger as was n.o.
still people insist on blaming bush..? where was the governor and mayor? when 911 happened both the mayor and governor were LEADING the effort with actual leadership, directing the recovery effort, not screaming 'where is the help'. where was the plan of action by the governor and mayor for the impending disaster, they knew it was coming, THEY got out of harms way....the very people who knew best (or should have known best) of how to deal with the city and state, disappeared, didn't lead, and allowed the situation to worsen and get out of control. period. but i guess its easier to blame the administration then to use your brain.
o+
It seems to me that the people who are Blamimg Bush are backing it up with facts. Everyone knows that the problem is more than any mayor or state can handle. If you havent noticed, this is a National Disaster that has hit multple states. This is specifically the reason FEMA was created. Unfortunatley Bush is phasing out FEMA's authority and financing to foucus on DHS. So ya Bush is to blame.
b.s losdogedog, i've seen no leadership out of louisiana and specifically new orleans. all the other states that have been hit have shown strong leadership and direction. that is the key. there were 1,000's of working and empty buses (school and otherwise) in the city when the mandatory evacuation was ordered. did the mayor get people loaded and out? no. and there's countless other pre-emptive measures that could have been taken to save thousands of lives and take the load off emergency help. speaking of FEMA, louisiana, and specifically NO knew for several decades of the impending danger of hurricanes, yet what disaster training or emergency systems did they have in place? none. no-one is realising this isn't a surprise problem,and to just blame bush is beyond moronic.
i think that the developement of the wetlands would have been more of a local government or state government screwing the pooch rather than the federal. unless those wetlands were owned by the federal government i dont see how it would be just the feds signing off on the deal. there are wetlands near my home in NE florida that developers have been trying to get at for a while and their has been no involvement of the feds unless you count a house rep speaking up about it.
ive heard several times on the news of people saying i survived such and such hurricanes without a problem so i thought this would be the same.... the lack of full information to the public is the main failing of all of the admins involved. Not telling them how much stronger this storm was compared to most of the others.
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