Subj : Re: Um...no comment? To : alt.tv.farscape From : John Iwaniszek Date : Fri Sep 02 2005 04:59:41 From Newsgroup: alt.tv.farscape "RR" wrote in news:a0QRe.210679$0f.188639@tornado.texas.rr.com: > 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 >>> >> >> >> >> Here's a timeline for the gutting of FEMA, starting, you guessed it, >> in 2001. >> >> http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2005_ 09/007023.ph >> p > > Is is just me, or - based on the above info - does this smack of > heaping amounts of bullshit insult to injury?: > > http://www.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/09/01/katrina.fema.brown/index.html > I would say that it's just about par for the course. And I don't golf. .