<p>More and more facts show that the failures were not primarily the Feds.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.cnsnews.com/Nation/archive/200509/NAT20050907a.html[/url]”>http://www.cnsnews.com/Nation/archive/200509/NAT20050907a.html</a></p>
<p>Perhaps more and more opinions are trying to (mis)direct matters from the Federal Government. Interesting though the Natioinal Weather Service (NOAA) a FEDERAL agency had all the necessary info in advance of the event and predicted pretty much all that ended up happening on the Gulf Coast. </p>
<p>Although a Federal agency was getting the info, doesn’t seem anyone was paying attention. Apparently none of 'em knew where New Orleans was until 2 or 3 days after the hurricane hit. Took Cheney nearly two weeks to find the place.</p>
<p>As far as the levee issue, the amount of money needed could only come from the federal government and work done by the Army Corps of Eng. They ignored the matter and rolled the dice that the perfect storm would never hit and left the people of the region, the largest port in the region, etc. etc. to face the odds.</p>
<p>“As far as the levee issue, the amount of money needed could only come from the federal government and work done by the Army Corps of Eng.”</p>
<p>Oh, I did not realize that protecting the French Quarter and New Orleans had become the sole responsibility of the federal government! </p>
<p>Louisiana would have loved such a scenario. One of the reasons why so many contracts were delayed in the past is the inability or unwillingness of Louisiania and New Orleans to contribute their share of the costs of coastal projects. Most infrastructure projects require an equal participation from the States.</p>
<p>The port is very important…that should have been protected</p>
<p>The the feds cutting so much money from states, every state had to cut money</p>
<p>In California, we did too.</p>
<p>Look at every state budget, and you will see really horrid cuts cause so much money is needed in Iraq</p>
<p>And yet our state money goes to pay for rebuilding Iraq</p>
<p>California is free to raise taxes and drive more people to Nevada, Oregon, Arizona and the like.</p>
<p>Oh no, Barrons, our new celebrity governor followed the Republican game plan to a “T”: Cut taxes, raise tuition at the state U’s, slash funding for primary and secondary schools, and run a budget deficit that our children will have to pay back along with their school loans once they get into the workforce. We’re well on our way to achieving your ideal state of today’s wealthy getting ever richer at the expense of everyone else in society - particularly the coming generations. By all means, cut taxes some more - all taxes do is benefit everyone in society, instead of only the deserving elite.</p>
<p>CNSNews is a real hoot. Thanks for pointing me to anohter hilarious “news” source. Folks, just take a look at their “special reports”</p>
<p>Here’s the titles of three of the most recent:</p>
<p>9/1/2005 – Records Confirm at Least Seven ATF Gun Show ‘Stings’
8/25/2005 – Anti-War Protests Target Wounded at Army Hospital
8/23/2005 – ATF, Virginia Police Accused of ‘Persecuting’ Gun Shows</p>
<p>Bet you won’t hear about such things from any mainstream source!</p>
<p>FYI, CNS now stands for Cybercast News Service, but originally stood for Conservative News Service! Wonder how hard they had to dig to put together Barron’s link? Finally, who actually read the link? It hardly supports barron’s headline. It is consistent, however, with the GWB strategy to shift the blame to the locals. (don’t suspect Rove helped in the writing? Another “leak” to a reporter?) Keeping in mind also that Louisiana, like most states, has just come off 4 years of horrendously difficult state budgets.</p>
<p>On Blaming the Locals</p>
<p>Read this piece on <a href=“http://www%5B/url%5D”>http://www</a>. tpmcafe.com
Gretna’s Choice</p>
<p>By Pascal Riche | bio</p>
<p>From: Politics</p>
<p>My advice for the Congressional commission which will investigate into how the Hurricane Katrina disaster was handled in New Orleans: dont forget to pay a visit to the Chief of the Police of the city of Gretna, across the Mississippi river bridge.</p>
<p>When we left New Orleans, on Friday September 2, after having discovered -as reporters- the horrors of the Convention Center, we picked up a couple who wanted to flee the town. They told us that they had already tried to evacuate on foot, but some policemen forced them to turn back on the bridge. </p>
<p>Sep 10, 2005 – 09:48:23 AM EST</p>
<p>“It’s like a jail, here”, they said. I found this information unbelievable.</p>
<p>Since then, other eyewitness accounts confirmed that police officers sealed this bridge, close to the Center Convention, prohibiting people from escaping the New Orleans trap. </p>
<p>See Denise Moores story , for instance. Or you can read
this account from two San Francisco paramedics, Larry Bradshaw and Lorrie Beth Slonsky: sheriffs even fired their weapons over their heads to dissuade the crowd from going ahead. The police explained that they wanted no Superdomes in their city".</p>
<p>On Sunday (4 September), New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin was interviewed on a special edition of ABC’s Nightline. He explained that when people tried to cross the bridge, they were met (at the county line) with attack dogs and police officers with machine guns saying You have to turn back….</p>
<p>Gretna, in Jefferson Parish, is a mainly white suburban town of 18,000 inhabitants. In the aftermath of Katrina, three quarters of the inhabitants still had electricity and running water. The Gretna Police Chief Arthur Lawson admitted that he gave the order to block the bridge, explaining that there was “no food, no water, no shelter” in his nice town.</p>
<p>If we had opened the bridge, he said, our city would have looked like New Orleans does now: looted, burned and pillaged.</p>
<p>Property over life?</p>
<p>(further to my post above and the response) Yes, as far as the levee issue the amount of money ultimately necessary could only come from the federal government. That is not a political issue, it is not a partisan issue. It is merely a matter of practicality and reality (remember reality, I think it was last seen some time before the Bush administration). </p>
<p>IMO no city government could raise the billions required to address the levee issue, just as no city government could raise the amount of money that will now be needed to rebuild the Gulf Coast, which for New Orleans alone will probably be 3 times what it would have taken to put in a modern levee system. The rebuilding issue is now further complicated as any lender, gov’t agency etc. will now have to deal with remediation of toxins that are present, etc. etc. before any loans for building can be funded, guaranteed, etc. Private lenders ain’t doing that. It will be Feds and coming back full circle as to what would have prevented this, it was the Feds.</p>
<p>To this end, it was a Federal agency (FEMA) that last did a study in 2001 predicting the very outcome that has now taken place in the Gulf. It was a Federal agency (NOAA) that within days of this disaster warned of and predicted precisely what took place. Unfortunately, arguments and the present “spin” to direct this from the federal government and the Bush war machine are just political and partisan (not factual) matters IMO. It is the “spin” that is the lifeblood of this admin. with contrary opinion (or heaven forbid contrary fact) being its kryptonite.</p>