Critics Say Bush Undercut New Orleans Flood Control

Washington Post ^ | 9/2/05

[Uncle Joe Cannon]

Critics Say Bush Undercut New Orleans Flood Control

By Jim VandeHei and Peter Baker

Washington Post Staff Writers

Friday, September 2, 2005; Page A16

President Bush repeatedly requested less money for programs to guard against catastrophic storms in New Orleans than many federal and state officials requested, decisions that are triggering a partisan debate over administration priorities at a time when the budget is strained by the Iraq war.

Even with full funding in recent years, none of the flood-control projects would have been completed in time to prevent the swamping of the city, as Democrats yesterday acknowledged. But they said Bush's decision to hold down spending on fortifying levees around New Orleans reflected a broader shuffling of resources -- to pay for tax cuts and the Iraq invasion -- that has left the United States more vulnerable.

[I see my hands]

---

I'm afraid I will have to make the same charge. With a lib nothing "counts". There is no need to cite facts or be internally consistent in an argument.

They can be accused of urinating in a workplace coffee pot, deny it, be shown the security video of doing it, and still deny it.

Anything.. just words.. as long as they achieve your on-target second point.

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[ModelBreaker]

Even with full funding in recent years, none of the flood-control projects would have been completed in time to prevent the swamping of the city, as Democrats yesterday acknowledged.

The key talking point. Nothing they are whining about would have changed things one little bit. Keep hammering on this every time the subject comes up. And then ask why rats are trying to use death and destruction for dishonest political attacks. It's almost as if they are glad people are dying so they can blame it on Bush.

The second key point is that the levee that collapsed was just recently subject to massive reinforcement by the Army Corps. In other words, bringing the levees to full strength didn't prevent the problem.

Finally, the levees were built according to specs decided upon many years ago under rat leadership, to withstand a Level 3 hurricane. Katrina was a strong level 4. Whose fault is that?

[coconutt2000]

Let me see...



SARCASM

So chill.

[Arkie2]

First of all, my post wasn't an attack on you, just playing off your seeming innocence to make a point and secondly your post wasn't obviously sarcastic so maybe you should put the obligatory sarcasm tag at the end of your post if that's what you intend.

[Captainpaintball]

Post #25 should also be addressed to you.

[Arkie2]

Thanks for a new tagline!

[coconutt2000]

Look.... reread what you wrote and ask yourself, if that had been addressed to you, would you interpret it as a personal attack?

If you were playing off my original remark, it would've been better if you'd said, "They don't get it." rather than "You don't get it."

Anyhow, that said - text based web postings don't convey full rhetorical context - be it sarcasm or sincerity - all that well.

[Howlin]

To: Howlin; SideoutFred

To emphasize the correctness in saying that politics will make big decisions like this, recall this HISTORICAL FACT!

In 1998, the DoD and the US Army Corps of Engineers drafted a document detailing the fact that New Orleans was protected by levees which were designed to protect N.O. from a LEVEL 3 hurricane. These groups wanted to go into N.O. and assess what needed to be done to improve the levees to at least withstand a LEVEL 4 OR 5 hurricane.

This serious request and supporting information was deemed highly necessary to protect N.O. and was presented in full to the President of the United States for approval of this critical project.

THE REQUEST WAS DENIED BY WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON. For those interested in the details, they are available in the FEDERAL REGISTER as a matter of permanent record.

So, how many more deaths do we attribute to this horrid excuse for a criminal, negligent, incompetent excuse for a human being ???

In summary, politics in critical situations, usually costs lives, it always has.

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From thread:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1474414/posts

77 posted on 09/01/2005 8:48:42 AM EDT by Uncle Donuts (The sooner I can leave N. Va., the better.)

[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies | Report Abuse ]

[Uncle Donuts]

To emphasize the correctness in saying that politics will make big decisions like this, recall this HISTORICAL FACT!

In 1998, the DoD and the US Army Corps of Engineers drafted a document detailing the fact that New Orleans was protected by levees which were designed to protect N.O. from a LEVEL 3 hurricane. These groups wanted to go into N.O. and assess what needed to be done to improve the levees to at least withstand a LEVEL 4 OR 5 hurricane.

This serious request and supporting information was deemed highly necessary to protect N.O. and was presented in full to the President of the United States for approval of this critical project.

THE REQUEST WAS DENIED BY WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON. For those interested in the details, they are available in the FEDERAL REGISTER as a matter of permanent record.

So, how many more deaths do we attribute to this horrid excuse for a criminal, negligent, incompetent excuse for a human being ???

In summary, politics in critical situations, usually costs lives, it always has.

---

From thread:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1474414/posts

[zarf]

If YOU were the President, and you were looking to cut funds somewhere, would you cut levee construction in Louisiana, or FIFTEEN BILLION G__DDAMNED DOLLARS for AIDS in Africa? Money for Louisiana, or the F!#*^ing tsunami relief.

Sounds nice and easy but the Prez doesn't have a line item veto and you obviously don't understand politics.

Pork is the name of the game in DC and the laundry list of priorities is endless.

Face it, Americans act after the horse is out of the barn. This hurricane is just another in a long line of examples.

If we can build the Hoover dam, we can make New Orleans free from a flooding threat. It just takes the right conditions to get funding. Now's the time.

[Arkie2]

All the more reason to add the sarcasm tag at the end of your post.

[Mo1]

THE REQUEST WAS DENIED BY WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON. For those interested in the details, they are available in the FEDERAL REGISTER as a matter of permanent record

As I have stated many times

These Liberals DO NOT want to go down this road of blaming Bush

Because they WILL lose this argument

[coconutt2000]

Forget it. I'll accept the apology you so want to make for attacking me personally. /sarcasm

[Arkie2]

They won't lose the argument because only a few people like you will know the facts. The MSM will never let this particular fact see the light of day. If the public isn't informed they will come to the conclusion the MSM wants them to come to.

It's not about facts. It's about shaping opinion.

[Arkie2]

There you go! Now you're gettin' it!

As for an apology, don't hold your breath. /no sarcasm intended/

[Congressman Billybob]

This is regurgitated vomit from the New York Times. It is as dishonest and incompetent in the Washington Post as it was in the Times. Only, since the Post is a day late, they could have been warned off the story by the simple method of reading the blogs on the Internet.

That makes the reporters and editors at the twice times the fool. Click below as to why.

Congressman Billybob

Latest column: "Tide of Lies Swamps NY Times: Employees Riot and Steal Office Supplies"

[Mo1]

the MSM doesn't have the control over the public like it once did

[backhoe]

  2004 Amazingly Precise Prediction of New Orleans Disaster -- This was entirely predictable and inevitable to anyone who has followed the issue.

 

  Hurricane Pam Exercise Concludes [2004]

 

 

 MSM: Take Note - Clinton's Contribution to the Katrina Disaster ( Must Read )

Source:

 The Federal Register ^

 People have been talking for years about what would happen should a hurricane this size hit that city, and I'd be willing to bet you there were lots of federal dollars passed from hand to hand over the years to prepare for this.
I will be astounded if some of those reporters don't ask the obvious questions: Where did the money go, why weren't officials prepared? It's not like it was a secret this could happen someday.

 

 

 Q.3. Why only Category 3 protection?
A.3. That is what we were authorized to do. [Answer by the Corps of Engineers]

 http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/083005cccawwlunwatering.45718845.html

 There are already the accusations that federal money was diverted away from improving NO's levee system for other purposes, likely the war.Yes, Sidney Blumenthal already planted that political urban press using the foreign press to launder out the Clinton fingerprints. The way to shoot it down is to explain that the fed money was there but because LA refused to put up any of the state matching funds that were required by law before the fed money could be spent. Since LA made it clear for several years that they weren't going to provide those matches and expected the feds to pay 100%, the money was diverted to other needs, of which there were many.

 There will be congressional hearings.

Let's hope they're brutally honest hearings, too. There's massive corruption involved here, as well as unbelievable incompetence, and (in the case of the looters) a fair bit of a society reaping what it has sown.

[Crim]

The levies that failed where in good order and complete... Corps officials: Funding levels not to blame for flooding By Andrew Martin and Andrew Zajac Washington Bureau Published September 1, 2005, 8:39 PM CDT WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Thursday that a lack of funding for hurricane-protection projects around New Orleans did not contribute to the disastrous flooding that followed Hurricane Katrina. In a telephone interview with reporters, corps officials said that although portions of the flood-protection levees remain incomplete, the levees near Lake Pontchartrain that gave way--inundating much of the city--were completed and in good condition before the hurricane. However, they noted that the levees were designed for a Category 3 hurricane and couldn't handle the ferocious winds and raging waters from Hurricane Katrina, which was a Category 4 storm when it hit the coastline. The decision to build levees for a Category 3 hurricane was made decades ago based on a cost-benefit analysis. "I don't see that the level of funding was really a contributing factor in this case," said Lt. Gen. Carl Strock, chief of engineers for the corps. "Had this project been fully complete, it is my opinion that based on the intensity of this storm that the flooding of the business district and the French Quarter would have still taken place." Your dogs are not only barking up the wrong tree...all your dogs aint barking...