Author Topic: Bush Cut NO Flood Control 44% to Pay for Iraq  (Read 4340 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Deborah

  • Posts: 5383
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile
Bush Cut NO Flood Control 44% to Pay for Iraq
« on: September 01, 2005, 02:02:00 PM »
I'm not sure what compells a person to build a house, much less a city, on the waterfront or below sea level, and expect other tax/insurance payers to bail them out when a disaster happens, but....

"No One Can Say they Didn't See it Coming"
By Sidney Blumenthal
Former Clinton Advisor
August 31, 2005

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.
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/interna ... 55,00.html
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
gt;>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Hidden Lake Academy, after operating 12 years unlicensed will now be monitored by the state. Access information on the Federal Class Action lawsuit against HLA here: http://www.fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?t=17700

Offline Anonymous

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 164653
  • Karma: +3/-4
    • View Profile
Bush Cut NO Flood Control 44% to Pay for Iraq
« Reply #1 on: September 01, 2005, 06:15:00 PM »
This is going to be a big scandal in the months to come. Un-fucking-believable. I remember watching last friday, saturday night.. all the experts from the emergency planning deptartment of new orleans. They predicted EXACTLY what is happening now. Once they go thorugh and find THOUSANDS of dead, drowned victims in that city and realize it was the levees and not the storm that caused those deaths, there will be hell to pay. The bush cabal has a lot of blood on their hands, if there really is a god, as they seem to believe, I can't imagine they fare too well in his eyes.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline Anonymous

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 164653
  • Karma: +3/-4
    • View Profile
Bush Cut NO Flood Control 44% to Pay for Iraq
« Reply #2 on: September 02, 2005, 12:39:00 AM »
NAACP was on Primetime tonight claiming that while the wealthy might have lost a boat or dock, the poor and blacks were devastated.
He also believes the government has been slow to provide aid because those who are suffering are blacks and the poor. Not only did they loose their homes, many having nothing to return to, most do not have insurance. One in six didn't own a car.
Probably no accident that the levees in this area were inadequate. It would be interesting to know if the levees in more wealthy areas were reinforced before the funds were cut.
NAACP showed two news reports depicting racial bias.
Black man wading through waist high water carrying a trash bag, Caption referenced Looting.
White man and woman wading through chest high water carrying bags. Caption said some 'had been able to FIND food'.

While some indeed took non food items, many were taking food for survival. Some having not eaten in three days. Bush stated a zero tolerance policy. What? They were supposed to just sit and wait however long it took for relief aid... hmmmm.

http://online.northumbria.ac.uk/geograp ... atrina.htm
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline webcrawler

  • Posts: 1041
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile
Bush Cut NO Flood Control 44% to Pay for Iraq
« Reply #3 on: September 02, 2005, 01:12:00 AM »
Quote
On 2005-09-01 21:39:00, Anonymous wrote:

"

NAACP was on Primetime tonight claiming that while the wealthy might have lost a boat or dock, the poor and blacks were devastated.

He also believes the government has been slow to provide aid because those who are suffering are blacks and the poor. Not only did they loose their homes, many having nothing to return to, most do not have insurance. One in six didn't own a car.

Probably no accident that the levees in this area were inadequate. It would be interesting to know if the levees in more wealthy areas were reinforced before the funds were cut.

NAACP showed two news reports depicting racial bias.

Black man wading through waist high water carrying a trash bag, Caption referenced Looting.

White man and woman wading through chest high water carrying bags. Caption said some 'had been able to FIND food'.



While some indeed took non food items, many were taking food for survival. Some having not eaten in three days. Bush stated a zero tolerance policy. What? They were supposed to just sit and wait however long it took for relief aid... hmmmm.



http://online.northumbria.ac.uk/geograp ... atrina.htm

"


I agreed with the NAACP. My hope now is that when the goon squads start prosecuting people for stealing necessary things that the NAACP is going to step up to the plate and provide legal help.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
am looking for people who survived Straight in Plymouth, Michigan. I miss a lot of people there and wonder what happened and would like to stay in touch.

Offline Anonymous

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 164653
  • Karma: +3/-4
    • View Profile
Bush Cut NO Flood Control 44% to Pay for Iraq
« Reply #4 on: September 02, 2005, 08:26:00 AM »
The Perfect Storm        
Thursday, 01 September 2005  

"The river rose all day,
The river rose all night.
Some people got lost in the flood,
Some people got away all right.
The river have busted through clear down to Plaquemine:
Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline.

"Louisiana, Louisiana,
They're trying to wash us away,
They're trying to wash us away?."
-- Randy Newman, Louisiana 1927

The destruction of New Orleans represents a confluence of many of the most pernicious trends in American politics and culture: poverty, racism, militarism, elitist greed, environmental abuse, public corruption and the decay of democracy at every level.

Much of this is embodied in the odd phrasing that even the most circumspect mainstream media sources have been using to describe the hardest-hit victims of the storm and its devastating aftermath: "those who chose to stay behind." Instantly, the situation has been framed with language to flatter the prejudices of the comfortable and deny the reality of the most vulnerable.

It is obvious that the vast majority of those who failed to evacuate are poor: they had nowhere else to go, no way to get there, no means to sustain themselves and their families on strange ground. While there were certainly people who stayed behind by choice, most stayed behind because they had no choice. They were trapped by their poverty - and many have paid the price with their lives.

Yet across the media spectrum, the faint hint of disapproval drips from the affluent observers, the clear implication that the victims were just too lazy and shiftless to get out of harm's way. There is simply no understanding - not even an attempt at understanding - the destitution, the isolation, the immobility of the poor and the sick and the broken among us.

This is from the "respectable" media; the great right-wing echo chamber was even less restrained, of course, leaping straight into giddy convulsions of racism at the first reports of looting in the devastated city. In the pinched-gonad squeals of Rush Limbaugh and his fellow hatemongers, the hard-right media immediately conjured up images of wild-eyed darkies rampaging through the streets in an orgy of violence and thievery.

Not that the mainstreamers ignored the racist angle. There was the already infamous juxtaposition of captions for wire service photos, where depictions of essentially the same scene - desperate people wading through flood waters, clutching plastic bags full of groceries - were given markedly different spins. In one picture, a white couple are described as struggling along after finding bread and soda at a grocery store. But beneath an almost identical photo of a young black man with a bag of groceries, we are told that a "looter" wades through the streets after robbing a grocery store. In the photo I saw, this evil miscreant also had a - gasp! - pack of diapers under his arm.

Almost all of the early "looting" was like this: desperate people - of all colors - stranded by the floodwaters broke into abandoned stores and carried off food, clean water, medicine, clothes. Perhaps they should have left a check on the counter, but then again - what exactly was going to happen to all those perishables and consumer goods, sitting around in fetid, diseased water for weeks on end?  (The mayor now says it could be up to 16 weeks before people can return to their homes and businesses.) Obviously, most if not all of it would have been thrown away or written off in any case. Later, of course, there was more organized looting by criminal gangs, the type of lawless element - of every hue, in every society - whose chief victims are, of course, the poor and vulnerable. These criminal operations were quickly conflated with the earlier pilferage to paint a single seamless picture of the American media's favorite horror story: Black Folk Gone Wild.

But here again another question was left unasked: Where were the resources - the money, manpower, materiel, transport - that could have removed all those forced to stay behind, and given them someplace safe and sustaining to take shelter? Where, indeed, were the resources that could have bolstered the city's defenses and shored up its levees? Where were the National Guard troops that could have secured the streets and directed survivors to food and aid? Where were the public resources - the physical manifestation of the citizenry's commitment to the common good - that could have greatly mitigated the brutal effects of this natural disaster?

(30 Comments)
Read More/Comment...  
http://www.chris-floyd.com/
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline Anonymous

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 164653
  • Karma: +3/-4
    • View Profile
Bush Cut NO Flood Control 44% to Pay for Iraq
« Reply #5 on: September 02, 2005, 08:31:00 AM »
Friday, September 2nd, 2005

Dear Mr. Bush:

Any idea where all our helicopters are? It's Day 5 of Hurricane Katrina and thousands remain stranded in New Orleans and need to be airlifted. Where on earth could you have misplaced all our military choppers? Do you need help finding them? I once lost my car in a Sears parking lot. Man, was that a drag.

Also, any idea where all our national guard soldiers are? We could really use them right now for the type of thing they signed up to do like helping with national disasters. How come they weren't there to begin with?

Last Thursday I was in south Florida and sat outside while the eye of Hurricane Katrina passed over my head. It was only a Category 1 then but it was pretty nasty. Eleven people died and, as of today, there were still homes without power. That night the weatherman said this storm was on its way to New Orleans. That was Thursday! Did anybody tell you? I know you didn't want to interrupt your vacation and I know how you don't like to get bad news. Plus, you had fundraisers to go to and mothers of dead soldiers to ignore and smear. You sure showed her!

I especially like how, the day after the hurricane, instead of flying to Louisiana, you flew to San Diego to party with your business peeps. Don't let people criticize you for this -- after all, the hurricane was over and what the heck could you do, put your finger in the dike?

And don't listen to those who, in the coming days, will reveal how you specifically reduced the Army Corps of Engineers' budget for New Orleans this summer for the third year in a row. You just tell them that even if you hadn't cut the money to fix those levees, there weren't going to be any Army engineers to fix them anyway because you had a much more important construction job for them -- BUILDING DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ!

On Day 3, when you finally left your vacation home, I have to say I was moved by how you had your Air Force One pilot descend from the clouds as you flew over New Orleans so you could catch a quick look of the disaster. Hey, I know you couldn't stop and grab a bullhorn and stand on some rubble and act like a commander in chief. Been there done that.

There will be those who will try to politicize this tragedy and try to use it against you. Just have your people keep pointing that out. Respond to nothing. Even those pesky scientists who predicted this would happen because the water in the Gulf of Mexico is getting hotter and hotter making a storm like this inevitable. Ignore them and all their global warming Chicken Littles. There is nothing unusual about a hurricane that was so wide it would be like having one F-4 tornado that stretched from New York to Cleveland.

No, Mr. Bush, you just stay the course. It's not your fault that 30 percent of New Orleans lives in poverty or that tens of thousands had no transportation to get out of town. C'mon, they're black! I mean, it's not like this happened to Kennebunkport. Can you imagine leaving white people on their roofs for five days? Don't make me laugh! Race has nothing -- NOTHING -- to do with this!

You hang in there, Mr. Bush. Just try to find a few of our Army helicopters and send them there. Pretend the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are near Tikrit.

Yours,

Michael Moore
http://www.MichaelMoore.com

P.S. That annoying mother, Cindy Sheehan, is no longer at your ranch. She and dozens of other relatives of the Iraqi War dead are now driving across the country, stopping in many cities along the way. Maybe you can catch up with them before they get to DC on September 21st.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline Anonymous

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 164653
  • Karma: +3/-4
    • View Profile
Bush Cut NO Flood Control 44% to Pay for Iraq
« Reply #6 on: September 02, 2005, 10:11:00 AM »
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline Cynthia

  • Posts: 318
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile
Bush Cut NO Flood Control 44% to Pay for Iraq
« Reply #7 on: September 03, 2005, 12:25:00 AM »
I cannot comprehend, why, anyone who is entering a shelter for safety and expecting 160 mile an hour winds would fail to bring food with them.
Did they expect the banks and grocery stores to be open? Did they really expect to return home? Almost every month in one of my bills, tucked in is an emergency planning brochure.
This is a horrific situation, but people need to stop blaming the government for EVERYTHING and realize they could have helped themselves too.  Packing simple things like tuna, peanutbutter, water and MEDICATION!
 This was NOT an earthquake or an attack! There was several days of warnings. I live in Conn. on the shoreline. Here the water fortunately is cooler and the hurricanes lose their strength when we get hit. When we have warnings, the people here plan for it. I own a supermarket and  I see how people prepare. On the Gulf Coast, you would think they would be much better at this than us on the northern Atlantic Coast.

Please, I am not being cold nor uncaring. I cry when I see some of these stories on the TV.
 Now I am hearing that because most are people of color, that is why they have been ignored. Please! It only shows just how unprepared our country is for a true disaster.

FYI, ABC's website has several charities if you want to help. The red cross has such a high overhead with too many people making 6 figures, they turn me off. There are churches listed there too. I think they can work on a more personal level. At my business, we have chosen The Salvation Army.(I don't know what their employees make, but I know they do good things).
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline webcrawler

  • Posts: 1041
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile
Bush Cut NO Flood Control 44% to Pay for Iraq
« Reply #8 on: September 03, 2005, 01:02:00 AM »
Quote
On 2005-09-02 21:25:00, Cynthia wrote:

"I cannot comprehend, why, anyone who is entering a shelter for safety and expecting 160 mile an hour winds would fail to bring food with them.
Did they expect the banks and grocery stores to be open? Did they really expect to return home? Almost every month in one of my bills, tucked in is an emergency planning brochure.
This is a horrific situation, but people need to stop blaming the government for EVERYTHING and realize they could have helped themselves too.  Packing simple things like tuna, peanutbutter, water and MEDICATION!
 This was NOT an earthquake or an attack! There was several days of warnings. I live in Conn. on the shoreline. Here the water fortunately is cooler and the hurricanes lose their strength when we get hit. When we have warnings, the people here plan for it. I own a supermarket and  I see how people prepare. On the Gulf Coast, you would think they would be much better at this than us on the northern Atlantic Coast.

Please, I am not being cold nor uncaring. I cry when I see some of these stories on the TV.
 Now I am hearing that because most are people of color, that is why they have been ignored. Please! It only shows just how unprepared our country is for a true disaster.

FYI, ABC's website has several charities if you want to help. The red cross has such a high overhead with too many people making 6 figures, they turn me off. There are churches listed there too. I think they can work on a more personal level. At my business, we have chosen The Salvation Army.(I don't know what their employees make, but I know they do good things)."


Maybe they didn't have much food to pack to begin with. Ever run out of food and had to go stand in free food lines or eat at free meal sites?
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
am looking for people who survived Straight in Plymouth, Michigan. I miss a lot of people there and wonder what happened and would like to stay in touch.

Offline Anonymous

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 164653
  • Karma: +3/-4
    • View Profile
Bush Cut NO Flood Control 44% to Pay for Iraq
« Reply #9 on: September 03, 2005, 09:13:00 AM »
Quote
On 2005-09-01 15:15:00, Anonymous wrote:

"This is going to be a big scandal in the months to come. Un-fucking-believable. I remember watching last friday, saturday night.. all the experts from the emergency planning deptartment of new orleans. They predicted EXACTLY what is happening now. Once they go thorugh and find THOUSANDS of dead, drowned victims in that city and realize it was the levees and not the storm that caused those deaths, there will be hell to pay. The bush cabal has a lot of blood on their hands, if there really is a god, as they seem to believe, I can't imagine they fare too well in his eyes. "


I contest that this will not be a scandal whatsoever. In fact. The media will not only not mention it, they will forget they even reported about the initial budget cut to begin with.

....and Bush will be hailed as a hero for handling the situation perfectly, because he makes no mistakes, and holds no accountability for any of his policies whatsoever. Trust me, by the time the spin machine is done with all of this, he will come out smelling like a rose, and the country will be clamoring and begging to vote him in for a third term, because people have short memories, and they are stupid.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline Antigen

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 12992
  • Karma: +3/-0
    • View Profile
    • http://wwf.Fornits.com/
Bush Cut NO Flood Control 44% to Pay for Iraq
« Reply #10 on: September 03, 2005, 10:14:00 AM »
Bill Maher made a very good remark last night. He was interviewing a reporter and asked if, maybe the silver lining to this dark cloud may be that we get our press corps back.

Eskimo: "If I did not know about God and sin, would I go to hell?"
Priest: "No, not if you did not know."
Eskimo: "Then why did you tell me?"
--Annie Dillard, "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek"

« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
"Don\'t let the past remind us of what we are not now."
~ Crosby Stills Nash & Young, Sweet Judy Blue Eyes

Offline Anonymous

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 164653
  • Karma: +3/-4
    • View Profile
Bush Cut NO Flood Control 44% to Pay for Iraq
« Reply #11 on: September 03, 2005, 11:41:00 AM »
Our only salvation is that there is no such thing as a third term. Bush CANNOT ruin our country after 2008.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline Cynthia

  • Posts: 318
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile
Bush Cut NO Flood Control 44% to Pay for Iraq
« Reply #12 on: September 03, 2005, 12:07:00 PM »
Quote
On 2005-09-02 22:02:00, webcrawler wrote:

"
Quote

On 2005-09-02 21:25:00, Cynthia wrote:


"I cannot comprehend, why, anyone who is entering a shelter for safety and expecting 160 mile an hour winds would fail to bring food with them.

Did they expect the banks and grocery stores to be open? Did they really expect to return home? Almost every month in one of my bills, tucked in is an emergency planning brochure.

This is a horrific situation, but people need to stop blaming the government for EVERYTHING and realize they could have helped themselves too.  Packing simple things like tuna, peanutbutter, water and MEDICATION!

 This was NOT an earthquake or an attack! There was several days of warnings. I live in Conn. on the shoreline. Here the water fortunately is cooler and the hurricanes lose their strength when we get hit. When we have warnings, the people here plan for it. I own a supermarket and  I see how people prepare. On the Gulf Coast, you would think they would be much better at this than us on the northern Atlantic Coast.



Please, I am not being cold nor uncaring. I cry when I see some of these stories on the TV.

 Now I am hearing that because most are people of color, that is why they have been ignored. Please! It only shows just how unprepared our country is for a true disaster.



FYI, ABC's website has several charities if you want to help. The red cross has such a high overhead with too many people making 6 figures, they turn me off. There are churches listed there too. I think they can work on a more personal level. At my business, we have chosen The Salvation Army.(I don't know what their employees make, but I know they do good things)."




Maybe they didn't have much food to pack to begin with. Ever run out of food and had to go stand in free food lines or eat at free meal sites?"

No, I never did thankfully.Although my Father has as a child. He also didn't speak english (which made it much more difficult) and had no parents, only older sibilings.
What I know is that is you are poor/ low income, the government provides you with food stamps..now called EBT. My point is that there was TIME to PLAN. As for the elderly, I cannot say what kind of services are offered in the Gulf area. I only know what we have in my hometown.

Do you believe, that number of people, actually had no funds, for ANY FOOD?[ This Message was edited by: Cynthia on 2005-09-03 09:11 ]
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline Nonconformistlaw

  • Posts: 789
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile
    • http://survivingstraightinc.com
Bush Cut NO Flood Control 44% to Pay for Iraq
« Reply #13 on: September 03, 2005, 12:24:00 PM »
cynthia said ------"the government provides you with food stamps..now called EBT."------

If my recollection is correct...everyone I have known on food stamps----received them at the BEGINING of the month....by the time the last week of the month rolls around....the stamps are usually gone or almost gone....hmmm since the evacuations started the 27th....I just bet the poor residents of N.O. did not have much in the way of food stamps just conveniently laying around for an urgent and unexpected need to stock up....

So I definitly believe they had little or no money for food or transportation.[ This Message was edited by: nonconformistlaw on 2005-09-03 09:26 ]
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
quot;In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.\" George Orwell

Offline webcrawler

  • Posts: 1041
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile
Bush Cut NO Flood Control 44% to Pay for Iraq
« Reply #14 on: September 03, 2005, 01:06:00 PM »
Quote
On 2005-09-03 09:07:00, Cynthia wrote:

"
Quote

On 2005-09-02 22:02:00, webcrawler wrote:



"
Quote



On 2005-09-02 21:25:00, Cynthia wrote:





"I cannot comprehend, why, anyone who is entering a shelter for safety and expecting 160 mile an hour winds would fail to bring food with them.



Did they expect the banks and grocery stores to be open? Did they really expect to return home? Almost every month in one of my bills, tucked in is an emergency planning brochure.



This is a horrific situation, but people need to stop blaming the government for EVERYTHING and realize they could have helped themselves too.  Packing simple things like tuna, peanutbutter, water and MEDICATION!



 This was NOT an earthquake or an attack! There was several days of warnings. I live in Conn. on the shoreline. Here the water fortunately is cooler and the hurricanes lose their strength when we get hit. When we have warnings, the people here plan for it. I own a supermarket and  I see how people prepare. On the Gulf Coast, you would think they would be much better at this than us on the northern Atlantic Coast.







Please, I am not being cold nor uncaring. I cry when I see some of these stories on the TV.



 Now I am hearing that because most are people of color, that is why they have been ignored. Please! It only shows just how unprepared our country is for a true disaster.







FYI, ABC's website has several charities if you want to help. The red cross has such a high overhead with too many people making 6 figures, they turn me off. There are churches listed there too. I think they can work on a more personal level. At my business, we have chosen The Salvation Army.(I don't know what their employees make, but I know they do good things)."










Maybe they didn't have much food to pack to begin with. Ever run out of food and had to go stand in free food lines or eat at free meal sites?"


No, I never did thankfully.Although my Father has as a child. He also didn't speak english (which made it much more difficult) and had no parents, only older sibilings.

What I know is that is you are poor/ low income, the government provides you with food stamps..now called EBT. My point is that there was TIME to PLAN. As for the elderly, I cannot say what kind of services are offered in the Gulf area. I only know what we have in my hometown.

Do you believe, that number of people, actually had no funds, for ANY FOOD?[ This Message was edited by: Cynthia on 2005-09-03 09:11 ]"



Food stamps are not enough to cover grocercies. Like NCL stated they are usually gone by the end of the month. I coordinate an emergency food program and the 2 days we distributed food this week we helped 85 households. Most of those people get food stamps. The end of the month is the busiest time where I work.

I think that the people down there stranded did have minimal food in their homes and could not pack much. There was a period in my life my cabinets were close to empty and I didn't even have a dollar to catch the bus. Struggling is real and there is a lot of people out there that are. It's not even about who's on welfare not supporting themselves anymore. People working 40 hours a week can't even afford to eat right because their bills are not leaving much left over to spend on food.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
am looking for people who survived Straight in Plymouth, Michigan. I miss a lot of people there and wonder what happened and would like to stay in touch.