Killing New Orleans Posted by Lorelei Kelly

Katrina's wicked aftermath in Louisiana and Mississippi is heart-wrenching for Americans.  But some of our tears should be shed in fury. The shocked, looting-obsessed blatherers on TV obviously finds it distasteful to bring up politics as we watch our nation's most unique city sink into a deadly brew, yet we need to face the fact that our leadership's track record on keeping Americans safe at home  is clearly not a priority. 

Water destroying New Orleans has always been a matter of national defense. Despite this, and  aided and abetted by conservatives, President Bush has gutted the Federal Emergency and Management Agency (FEMA) exiled the National Guard to purgatory in Iraq, and stripped flood control and mitigation programs --just to mention three relevant items.  Though these actions did not cause the hurricane, they left New Orleans vulnerable and now bereft. Conservative politics and the safety of American citizens  have come full circle on the Gulf Coast and collided in spectacular horror with the citizens taking the hit.  Natural disasters are in the hands of God.  Incompetence and ideology are ours to claim, however, and today they reign supreme.

A broken levee wall is what caused the city to drown. For years the walls have been sinking.  Starting in the 1960's, the federal government began working with regional state and local officials on major hurricane and flood relief efforts.  Congress authorized the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, or SELA in 1995. Yet after 2003, the flow of federal dollars toward SELA dropped to a trickle. As blogger Attytood  notes,  the Corps never tried to hide the fact that the spending pressures  of the war in Iraq, as well as homeland security -- coming at the same time as federal tax cuts -- was the reason for the strain. The $750 million Lake Pontchartrain and Vicinity Hurricane Protection project is another major Corps project, which remained about 20% incomplete due to lack of funds. That project consists of building up levees and protection for pumping stations on the east bank of the Mississippi River. In early 2004, as the cost of the conflict in Iraq soared, President Bush proposed spending less than 20 percent of what the Corps said was needed for Lake Pontchartrain.

FEMA enfeebled: FEMA's Project Impact, a model mitigation program created by the Clinton administration, was  canceled outright under Bush and conservative congressional leadership. Federal funding of post-disaster mitigation efforts designed to protect people and property from the next disaster was cut in half.. In Louisiana, requests for flood mitigation funds were rejected by FEMA this summer.

The tradeoffs are appalling. In Fiscal Year 2006, Louisianan's will spend 78.4 million dollars on Cold War boondoggle missile defense.  They will spend 1.7 billion for the war in Iraq.  Mississippi will spend 42.9 million on missile defense and 918.7 for the war in Iraq. This would have paid for the levee repair with change.

Bush's tax cuts for the wealthiest 1% of Americans would have translated into 930 million dollars for Louisiana and 707.1 million for Mississippi.  Louisiana spent 1.6 million dollars on abstinence only education programs last year.

Like a macabre parody of Thomas Frank's economic thesis, Louisiana's congressional delegation became majority conservative in the last election.  Senator David Vitter was designated the most conservative of the freshman class by the National Journal this year. He has voted for every tax cut as well as for the invasion of Iraq . A cursory check on a vote rating website showed similar results for the mostly Republican Louisiana delegation.

Although it is not linear, there is a relationship between budget priorities and people dying right now.  These terrible tradeoffs are what happens when your political leadership relies on an extreme ideological base --many of whom attack reasoned debate as treasonous and any questioning of our national priorities as communism redux. Maybe it will now be obvious.  Our leadership is a bunch of towel-snapping fraternity boys who are not interested in government.  Likewise, their mean spirited power base--instead of governing--would rather stand on the last radioactive pile of rubble with a megaphone yelling "I told you so!"  Maybe this will be more clear to middle Americans as they watch our precious New Orleans drown.

Comments

[rosignol]

Likewise, their mean spirited power base--instead of governing--would rather stand on the last radioactive pile of rubble with a megaphone yelling "I told you so!"

Gee, I wonder who I've seen doing that lately... oh, right... it was you.

[Alex]

Lorelei,

Life is about tradeoffs and it is quite silly to suggest that if only there is no war in Iraq and if only there was no missle defense system and if only George Bush were not President, then New Orleans would be safe and sound and everyone would be sleeping happy thoughts and the world would be a wonderful place. Of course, in order to be properly disdainful of the President, we would also have to ignore for the momment that the wonderfully inept and corrupt local governments in New Orleans and Louisianna seemed to be incapable of even the weakest type of response. Its leaders seemingly incapable of doing anything other than crying on television.

Using your reasoning, the right can use the same logic by picking those government spending programs they don't like (money they say is wasted on teacher's unions or the arts, etc.) and saying, well if only the government didn't spend money on X or Y, then New Orleans would be ok. It would be an equally disingenuous statement and equally hysterical.

Becuase of this, your comments do come across as nothing other than a politically motivated attack and thus I personally find some distaste in them coming at this time.

Come on - you want Progressives to be taken seriously but it is this type of hysterical screed that makes people like myself unfortunately turn to the right when we have to make our decisions in November.

[alkali]

Alex writes:

Life is about tradeoffs and it is quite silly to suggest that if only there is no war in Iraq and if only there was no missle defense system and if only George Bush were not President, then New Orleans would be safe and sound and everyone would be sleeping happy thoughts and the world would be a wonderful place.

That is certainly an excellent defense of the notion of never holding anyone accountable.

Consider this:

The Bush administration really did cut spending on levee programs that protect New Orleans. That really happened. They really made that choice.

The Bush administration really did substantially dismantle and defund FEMA once they took office. That really happened. They really made that choice.

Were those choices good ones? No, they weren't.

Come on -- you want the right to be taken seriously but it is this type of wishful thinking that makes people like myself unfortunately turn to the left when we have to make our make our decisions in November.

[Spiker]

Anyone who fails to acknowledge that this Administration's policies have contributed to the problems underscored in the hurricane's aftermath (not to mention global warming) should be considered an ignorant criminal. Bush, Cheney, and indeed, every single appointed member of this Administration and its supporters in Congress, who should face charges for "crimes against humanity" for conducting the war in Iraq, should also now face additional charges for their policies contributing to the horrors on the Gulf Coast. Better yet, they should be summarily executed so money saved on legal costs could go to the poor survivors who toiled to make New Orleans the "Big Easy". Oh yeah, and just who is benefitting from price gouging at the gas pumps?

[fat sam]

wow, Rosignol commenting at 1:52 AM, a whole 26 minutes after LK posted-- and he always seems to be first. just lurking n' lurking...sounds like somebody's got a cruuu--ush.

[fat sam]

one other thing. Know what I find "distasteful" Alex? (it's rhetorical, bear with me) People drowning like rats in a cage, cornered into death by rising waters. THAT'S what I find distasteful. and your faux disappoinment; well actually, I just find it crass.

[Bo]

The New Orleans disaster reflects unpardonable leadership failure at all levels; city, state and federal. The city's precarious situation has been known for decades and nothing was done. Compare that with the Netherlands, where massive systems of dikes, pumps and locks safeguard that country's coastal regions. Bush deserves a portion of the blame as he could not have been ignorant of the potential for this disaster but many others are equally responsible, on both sides of the political divide.

[J Thomas]

Suppose it had been terrorist bombs breaking the levees. This is our first test of Homeland Security.

So why are we so much worse prepared than we were for Hurricane Andrew which hit Florida? For Andrew they had the aid system prepared ahead of time, ready to move in when the storm passed. They had it thought out what was likely to be needed.

This time they basicly threw up their hands and said "Nobody could have predicted it" and now we're patching together a plan ad hoc.

You can say that there are many others responsible, but there are no democrats responsible at the national level, and Bush has primary responsibility at the national level. If there are Louisiana state or local democrats who share responsibility the people of Louisiana can deal with them.

It looks like restoring NO is important to getting our oil production and imports back. I don't care that NO was a democratic stronghold, Bush should have taken care of the oil. He shouldn't have let narrow political concerns delay the restoration of our oil supply. That was bad for the whole economy, not just blue states. It was dead wrong.

[Angryman]

And Alex, do you know what I find distasteful?

You.

[David]

I agree with Lorelei, life is about trade-offs, and our nation spends 1.1 billion dollars per day on the military (the defense budget). Our nation is unique in this astronomical level of military spending. That is what we traded. What we thus don't get is help for the poor in normal times, no health care (Our nation is unique among industrialized nations for this too.), and no help for those now struck by tragedy.

It's not a dreamy 'if only there was no war' lament. It's the clear headed truth that these people drove our nation into an unnecessary war, at enormous cost in lives, money, and moral credibility. War was chosen, not thrust upon us. Like one choses which car to buy. Tax cuts for the rich were chosen. Free trade agreements were chosen and jobs went south. Big business leaders benefitted from each of these choices. Normal work-a-day Americans did not.

We have an office of Homeland Security, we have FEMA... where were they? No plan? No preparations made as the storm lumbered towards New Orleans? Why not?

This administration has just shown itself again for all who choose to see: It cares not one jot for normal American people.

It's not new for them. It's not just this incident. It is a chronic condition of theirs, channeling power and money unto themselves and their rich associates. Unaccountable for their words, secretive, acting as they please, all the while feigning morality. And as team members tend to emulate the actions of the leaders, the morality of America is following suite. Life is becoming a cut-throat pursuit of money. The rich are good, the poor are bad. The rich drive away, the poor wade through flood waters.

The world is truly shocked at the lack of American response to the distress of their own people.

If you supported Bush and the Iraq war and the defense budget, then shed no crocodile tears for New Orleans. This is the trade-off you chose. This is the America you seem to want.