Subj : Re: Um...no comment?
To   : alt.tv.farscape
From : RR
Date : Fri Sep 02 2005 01:13:20

From Newsgroup: alt.tv.farscape

John Iwaniszek 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?)
>>>>
>>>
>>> (I've been tracking the flood conrol budget cuts for a few days.)
>>
>> (Watch this get next to no coverage in the general media.)
>>
>
> Actually, I think that it has been covered on MSNBC, CNN, a little on
> PBS, and one of the dinosaur networks (CBS?).
>
> Also, WAPO and the NYT I think mentioned it.
>
> The FEMA gutting won't get covered, and it has everything:  Cronyism,
> mission redirection, budget cuts, and partisanship at the expense of
> competence.  It's a real passion play just waiting for the right star
> to sign.

You totally get my nomination for narrator.

-- 
RR

"It's been my experience that every
  time I think I know 'where it's at,'
      it's really somewhere else."
      - William Holden - S.O.B.

.