Subj : Re: Um...no comment?
To   : alt.tv.farscape
From : Jim Larson
Date : Fri Sep 02 2005 00:59:07

From Newsgroup: alt.tv.farscape

RR wrote:

> 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. 
> 
> 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."
> 
> By Sidney Blumenthal
> Salon.com Wednesday 31 August 2005
> 

(You're trying to make Iwa explode, right?)

-- 
Jim

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