Louisiana Governor, Senators Go to Holland

Associated Press ^ | Jan 9 | DOUG SIMPSON

[george76]

Gov. Kathleen Blanco left for Holland on Monday to learn how the Dutch created the huge flood-control system that protects a land much farther below sea level than Louisiana.

The trip means the Democratic governor will miss President Bush's visit to New Orleans, scheduled for Thursday...

The governor was among more than 40 government, business and education leaders - including Sens. David Vitter and Mary Landrieu ...

Landrieu said the ambassador told her about that country's flood of 1953, when 1,800 people died.

"He said, `Why don't you all come over and see what we've done since then?'" Landrieu recounted.

Katrina has been blamed for more than 1,300 deaths, the vast majority of them in Louisiana.

Holland recently completed a 50-year program to build dams, seawalls, and surge barriers designed to protect the south of the country against almost any storm.

...others have questioned whether areas of Louisiana 3 to 5 feet below sea level should be rebuilt or returned to marshland.

[yevgenie]

Pray tell explain how having a bunch of morons visit Holland is going to prevent the next catastrophe?

[msnimje]

Who is paying for the trip? Will this impact her chances of being reelected (currently at ZERO)? Would her constituents rather she keep her arse home and fix their CURRENT problems?

[Ninian Dryhope]

Drug test them all as soon as they get off the plane back in the states.

[george76]

Did Mayor Naglin move his family to Dallas, Texas...buy a home and put his kid(s) in a Dallas school?

"When the going gets tough, the tough get going..."

We taxpayers are sending them on a nice trip.

[TheForceOfOne]

I bet their flight has a "lay over" in Amsterdam on the way back. Got to spend that Katrina money somewhere.

[Ellesu]

Odd this trip has been planned since November and Blanco's name was never mentioned as going until Bush announced he was coming to LA this Thursday.

[LegendHasIt]

If they were serious about getting some help on their water problems, I could see them sending for some engineers from the Holland system....

But this little junket will provide nearly as much real value as McCain's trip to Antartica will.

Just another tax-money wasting vacation at the people's expense.

[Rockitz]

I don't think this trip to Holland will help them learn how to keep the levee board from spending all of the budget on gambling interests instead of shoring up the levee system.

[melt]

I'd like to float another idea to these incompetent idiots.

[george76]

Looking for the red lights.

Did they ever find those lost buses?

[K-oneTexas]

Hopefully the Katrina windfall isn't paying for this. Hopefully it isn't a Congressional junket either.

I can see value in that these folks might be the only ones on the planet that know what their doing when it comes to living in a 'high water zone'. Maybe valuable lessons will be learned.

Louisiana can pay for their implementation back home. (Who am I kidding.)

[stboz]

Pissing into the wind. New Orleans is toast mud. Sinking is sinking is sinking. Ain't gonna stop. Give it up.

[george76]

Or like Glenn's trip as a pay off by Clinton on the space shuttle.

[ItsForTheChildren]

Quick, Louisiana! Change the locks!

[Tall_Texan]

Blanco: "No, Hans. The biggest dyke we ever had in New Orleans was Rosie O'Donnell. Why do you ask?"

[george76]

Your tax dollars at work.

[Westlander]

With the wealth of knowledge they will bring back, if they start building flood barriers today-they'll be ready in 2056.

[boomop1]

They could have got the DVD from the Discovery channel or History one of um, saved a little tax payer money..

[TheForceOfOne]

Blanco says she'll be ready to evacuate N.O. in a couple of weeks. She says the preparations for Katrina are on schedule, all that is standing in the way is finding out where Karl Rove hid the buses. :P