AFTER THE BREAK OF DAY

On the side of demo'g fema with intent, here is a link to an email I got this morning that lays out a timeline -
http://www.ocnus.net/artman/publish/article_20057.shtml

The author has a point of view that some would regard as bias; still, it's quite a timeline.

George, I seriously would like to know, why the USA now asked for more than the 15 submersible 15,000 ltr/min water pumps we already sent today, when the USA had so many own and even better ones.

I was reacting only to the implication that such pumps are found only in Germany.

And of course, it is useful to drag in anyone, any topic, which deflects discussion of the pathetic incompetence of the current administration. I suspect that someone in the Secret Service is detailed to tell the Shrub where his ass is if he needs to know, because all the evidence suggests that he couldn't personally find it with both hands and a wall chart.

Walter,

I am always proud of Germany. But when are they going to drop the word "christian" from the names of their political parties?

[...]
The 2004 hurricane season was the worst in decades. In spite of that, the federal government came back this spring with the steepest reduction in hurricane- and flood-control funding for New Orleans in history. Because of the proposed cuts, the Corps office there imposed a hiring freeze. Officials said that money targeted for the SELA project -- $10.4 million, down from $36.5 million -- was not enough to start any new jobs. According to New Orleans CityBusiness this June 5:


The district has identified $35 million in projects to build and improve levees, floodwalls and pumping stations in St. Bernard, Orleans, Jefferson and St. Charles parishes. Those projects are included in a Corps line item called Lake Pontchartrain, where funding is scheduled to be cut from $5.7 million this year to $2.9 million in 2006. Naomi said it's enough to pay salaries but little else.


"We'll do some design work. We'll design the contracts and get them ready to go if we get the money. But we don't have the money to put the work in the field, and that's the problem," Naomi said.

There was, at the same time, a growing recognition that more research was needed to see what New Orleans must do to protect itself from a Category 4 or 5 hurricane. But once again, the money was not there. As the Times-Picayune reported last Sept. 22:


That second study would take about four years to complete and would cost about $4 million, said Army Corps of Engineers project manager Al Naomi. About $300,000 in federal money was proposed for the 2005 fiscal-year budget, and the state had agreed to match that amount.


But the cost of the Iraq war forced the Bush administration to order the New Orleans district office not to begin any new studies, and the 2005 budget no longer includes the needed money, he said.
[...]

Given the literally billions of dollars poured into the Mississippi River projects since the 1830's, i find it more than a little naïve to attempt to paint this as a failure of local government, all the while attempting to exculpate the Federal government. I contend that your pointed ommission of the part played by the Corps, the responsibility of government in their projects, leads you to make charges against local administration which are opinions unsupported by anything other than your own prejudices.

I do greatly enjoy slamming the Shrub, both because he's such a loser, and because of the as yet untolled damage he has wrought on the nation i love. If it offends you, all the better.