Posted on 09/10/2005 9:09:47 AM PDT by STARWISE
Politics: Louisiana's senior senator, whose brother is lieutenant governor and whose father was New Orleans' mayor, is blaming President Bush for "the staggering incompetence of the federal government." Come again?
It's understandable that on the Sept. 4 edition of ABC's "This Week," Mary Landrieu said of President Bush, "I might likely have to punch him — literally" if he or members of his administration made any more disparaging remarks about local authorities and their pre- and post-Katrina efforts. Some are and were family.
Brother Mitch Landrieu is lieutenant governor of Louisiana. Father "Moon" Landrieu was not only mayor of New Orleans, but also later became secretary of housing and urban development under President Carter.
(snip)
Despite Landrieu's complaints of budget cuts and paltry funding, the fact is that over the five years of the Bush administration, Louisiana has received more money — $1.9 billion — for Army Corps of Engineers civil works projects than any other state, and more than under any other administration over a similar period. California is a distant second with less than $1.4 billion despite a population more than seven times as large.
(snip)
The problem was at the local level. The ambitious plan fell apart when the state suspended the Levee Board's ability to refinance old bonds and issue new ones. As the Times-Picayune reported, Legislative Auditor Dan Kyle "repeatedly faulted the Levee Board for the way it awards contracts, spends money and ignores no-bid contract laws." Blocked by the state from raising local money, the federal matching funds went unspent. By 1998, Louisiana's state government had a $2 billion construction budget, but less than one-tenth of one percent, or $1.98 million, was dedicated to New Orleans levee improvements. By contrast, $22 million was spent that year to renovate a home for the Louisiana Supreme Court.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
Nine months before Katrina, three top Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness officials were indicted by a federal grand jury in Shreveport and charged, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Louisiana, "with offenses related to the obstruction of an audit of the use of federal funds for flood mitigation opportunities throughout Louisiana."
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What a snakepit ... Mary Landrieu and her LA buddies need an excorcism.
WitchMary Ping!
Now it's a mosquito pit, toxic pit, dung hole.....third world pit hole.
The Big Easy? The big pit hole.
It will only improve after this.
People are only offended by the truth
HELLO?!?!?!
What's this ... a reporter actually reporting the facts???
I thought it was all FEMAs fault ?
No silly ... it's Bush's fault
Get your DNC talking points straight, will ya ;0)
This is a good article. I think this may have legs, it ought to but in the democratic din it won't be unless it gets spread around.
Ping
And I wonder how many people's lives were endangered when New Orleans Chief of Homeland Security, Terry Ebbert, said this to the AP about the levee breach in the early days of the disaster
"It's a very slow rise, and it will remain so until we plug that breach.The words "false sense of security" come to mind.I think we can get [the breach] stabilized in a few hours"
Oooops, sorry -- it's already started HERE
This is a very good article....I do think this type of information is going to come out eventually.... according to Rush now even the Dem. Senators are backing away from an investigation...why? maybe it is because of information like this....
*relapses into young skate punk circa late 80's speak*
Dag!
Where'd all the loot get Bogarted to?
with conspiracies and stupidity abounding:
"The big question that all of us need to ask ourselves is: Would this have happened and would the aftermath have been so bad if New Orleans was actually New England? And it's pretty clear that the answer to that is “no.” In fact, we know how the administration responded to these kinds of disasters when we look at how Bush handled Florida and the hurricane there when his brother was governor."
I've been wondering how the States Homeland Security Officials are chosen?
Good Ammo for a smackdown of an uneducated lefty.
BTTT
The levee that has been holding back the truth of Louisiana politics is breaking and the politicians from the Governor down will be naked.
Douglas Brinkley was on t.v. last nite. I forget what channel and he was slamming LA officials so bad I couldn't believe it. He talked about the corrupt politics in LA and the corrupt levee boards. I didn't see him attack the Federal Govt. at all. I was totally shocked.
Big bump. The truth hurts, eh Senator Landrieu?
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