Making Baby Jesus Cry - Page 220

Sexual Harassment Panda · 09-01-2005, 08:55 PM

in Thine infinite Wisdom, please list on the FEMA website our own Operation Blessing, right behind the Red Cross and America's Second Harvest, so that we may justly benefit from the largesse of those good, good Americans who may be moved to donate cash or clothing or food - oh hell, just cash - for the victims of this terrible, terrible hurricane disaster, which Thou in Thy Almighty Wisdom hath sent to smite the gays and pornographers inhabiting that most ungodly of American cities. Amen.

Pat Robertson

P.S. And Lord, if you could put us ahead of all the other charities that are suitable for a US government disaster relief website, such as Adventist Community Services, B'nai B'rith International, Catholic Charities USA, Christian Disaster Response, Christian Reformed World Relief Committee, Church World Service, Convoy of Hope, Lutheran Disaster Response, Mennonite Disaster Service, Nazarene Disaster Response, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, those creepy Salvation Army types, Southern Baptist Convention Disaster Relief, United Jewish Communities, and United Methodist Committee on Relief, we'd be most grateful. Amen.

Sidd Finch · 09-01-2005, 09:15 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by SlaveNoMore
Since I'm not playing Teresa today*, let me guess...

We're now blaming the New Orleans disaster on Bush.

* As in Kerry, as in Heinz, as in ketchup, as in....well. you get it

Give it a couple of days. Your team will be blaming Clinton.

SlaveNoMore · 09-01-2005, 09:45 PM

Quote:

Tyrone Slothrop
A friend just pointed me to this article in the Chicago Tribune:

Funding cuts led way to lesser levees

By Andrew Martin and and Andrew Zajac
Washington bureau
Published August 31, 2005, 10:24 PM CDT

WASHINGTON -- Despite continuous warnings that a catastrophic hurricane could hit New Orleans, the Bush administration and Congress in recent years have repeatedly cut funding for hurricane preparation and flood control.

The cuts have delayed construction of levees around the city and stymied an ambitious project to improve drainage in New Orleans' neighborhoods.

For instance, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers requested $27 million for this fiscal year to pay for hurricane protection projects around Lake Pontchartrain. The Bush administration countered with $3.9 million, and Congress eventually provided $5.7 million, according to figures provided by the office of U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.).

Because of the budget cuts, which were caused in part by the rising costs of the war in Iraq, the corps delayed seven contracts that included enlarging the levees, according to corps documents.

Much of the devastation in New Orleans was caused by breaches in the levees, which sent water from Lake Pontchartrain pouring into the city. Since much of the city is below sea level, the levee walls acted like the walls of a bowl that filled until as much as 80 percent of the city was under water.

Similarly, the Army Corps requested $78 million for this fiscal year for projects that would improve draining and prevent flooding in New Orleans. The Bush administration's budget provided $30 million for the projects, and Congress ultimately approved $36.5 million, according to Landrieu's office.

"I'm not saying it wouldn't still be flooded, but I do feel that if it had been totally funded, there would be less flooding than you have," said Michael Parker, a former Republican Mississippi congressman who headed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from October 2001 until March 2002, when he was ousted after publicly criticizing a Bush administration proposal to cut the corps' budget.

A corps plan to shore up the levees began in 1965 and was supposed to be finished in 10 years but remains incomplete. "They've never put enough money in to complete it," Parker said. He complained that the corps' budget has been regularly targeted by the White House because public works projects are perceived as pork and aren't considered "sexy."

"Go talk to the people who are suffering in New Orleans," Parker said. "Ask them, `Do they think it's pork?' "

Joseph Suhayda, an emeritus engineering professor at Louisiana State University who has worked for the Army Corps of Engineers, said the corps simply didn't have enough money to build the levees as high as the designs called for.

"The fact that they weren't that high was a result of lack of funding," he said, noting that part of the levee at the 17th Street Canal--where one of the breaches occurred--was 4 feet lower than the rest. "I think they could have significantly reduced the impact if they had those projects funded. If you need to spend $20 million and you spend $4 or $5 million, something's got to give."

Officials for the Army Corps of Engineers declined to comment on the reasons for the budget cutbacks.

Fred Caver, who retired in June as the corps' deputy director of civil works, said there is always competition for funding and "you're never going to get everything you want."

But he said a reluctance to invest in unglamorous public works projects and especially heavy demands on the budget, from the war in Iraq and entitlement programs, have added to the difficulty in securing funding for corps projects.

Scott Milburn, a spokesman for the White House Office of Management and Budget, declined to comment about the specific allegations regarding funding for hurricane-related projects in Louisiana. However, he said, "The president signed into law a $100 million increase for the corps for the current fiscal year compared to the previous year's level."

Historically, New Orleans has built bigger and more ambitious levees every time the city floods, Suhayda said.

"They would live with the conditions that they had until there was an event," he said. The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 prompted a major upgrade to the levees around New Orleans, he said. The levees were upgraded again to handle a Category 3 storm after Hurricane Betsy hit New Orleans in 1965.

In the years since then, local officials have warned that a catastrophic storm was inevitable and sought more funding to improve the area's hurricane preparedness to handle larger storms. In July 2004, for instance, federal, state and local officials staged a simulation in which a "Hurricane Pam" slammed into New Orleans with 120 m.p.h. winds and created havoc that was eerily similar to that of Hurricane Katrina, including widespread building damage and death.

"Since 1995, we've been replaying these scenarios out in various degrees. As we got together to do these, the people in the parishes would say, `Make them as bad as possible so we can get some attention,' " said Suhayda, who participated in the Hurricane Pam exercises.

"Unfortunately, our way for dealing with these disasters is after the fact," he said.

OTOH, a lot of New Orleans residents got those tax cuts in recent years, so maybe it's a wash, no pun intended.

I wrote the Fed and asked for a 300 million dollar grant for lawtalkers.com.

I got a stamped response. Bulk rate, at that.

SlaveNoMore · 09-01-2005, 09:46 PM

Quote:

Sidd Finch
Give it a couple of days. Your team will be blaming Clinton.

The Yankees or the J.E.T.S Jets Jets Jets?

notcasesensitive · 09-01-2005, 10:02 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Sexual Harassment Panda
in Thine infinite Wisdom, please list on the FEMA website our own Operation Blessing, right behind the Red Cross and America's Second Harvest, so that we may justly benefit from the largesse of those good, good Americans who may be moved to donate cash or clothing or food - oh hell, just cash - for the victims of this terrible, terrible hurricane disaster, which Thou in Thy Almighty Wisdom hath sent to smite the gays and pornographers inhabiting that most ungodly of American cities. Amen.

Pat Robertson

P.S. And Lord, if you could put us ahead of all the other charities that are suitable for a US government disaster relief website, such as Adventist Community Services, B'nai B'rith International, Catholic Charities USA, Christian Disaster Response, Christian Reformed World Relief Committee, Church World Service, Convoy of Hope, Lutheran Disaster Response, Mennonite Disaster Service, Nazarene Disaster Response, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, those creepy Salvation Army types, Southern Baptist Convention Disaster Relief, United Jewish Communities, and United Methodist Committee on Relief, we'd be most grateful. Amen.

Interestingly (or not) that particular charity is missing from the list taken from the FEMA website and posted on craigslist. Damn San Franciscan Sodomites.

sebastian_dangerfield · 09-02-2005, 12:34 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
A friend just pointed me to this article in the Chicago Tribune:

Funding cuts led way to lesser levees

By Andrew Martin and and Andrew Zajac
Washington bureau
Published August 31, 2005, 10:24 PM CDT

WASHINGTON -- Despite continuous warnings that a catastrophic hurricane could hit New Orleans, the Bush administration and Congress in recent years have repeatedly cut funding for hurricane preparation and flood control.

The cuts have delayed construction of levees around the city and stymied an ambitious project to improve drainage in New Orleans' neighborhoods.

For instance, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers requested $27 million for this fiscal year to pay for hurricane protection projects around Lake Pontchartrain. The Bush administration countered with $3.9 million, and Congress eventually provided $5.7 million, according to figures provided by the office of U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.).

Because of the budget cuts, which were caused in part by the rising costs of the war in Iraq, the corps delayed seven contracts that included enlarging the levees, according to corps documents.

Much of the devastation in New Orleans was caused by breaches in the levees, which sent water from Lake Pontchartrain pouring into the city. Since much of the city is below sea level, the levee walls acted like the walls of a bowl that filled until as much as 80 percent of the city was under water.

Similarly, the Army Corps requested $78 million for this fiscal year for projects that would improve draining and prevent flooding in New Orleans. The Bush administration's budget provided $30 million for the projects, and Congress ultimately approved $36.5 million, according to Landrieu's office.

"I'm not saying it wouldn't still be flooded, but I do feel that if it had been totally funded, there would be less flooding than you have," said Michael Parker, a former Republican Mississippi congressman who headed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from October 2001 until March 2002, when he was ousted after publicly criticizing a Bush administration proposal to cut the corps' budget.

A corps plan to shore up the levees began in 1965 and was supposed to be finished in 10 years but remains incomplete. "They've never put enough money in to complete it," Parker said. He complained that the corps' budget has been regularly targeted by the White House because public works projects are perceived as pork and aren't considered "sexy."

"Go talk to the people who are suffering in New Orleans," Parker said. "Ask them, `Do they think it's pork?' "

Joseph Suhayda, an emeritus engineering professor at Louisiana State University who has worked for the Army Corps of Engineers, said the corps simply didn't have enough money to build the levees as high as the designs called for.

"The fact that they weren't that high was a result of lack of funding," he said, noting that part of the levee at the 17th Street Canal--where one of the breaches occurred--was 4 feet lower than the rest. "I think they could have significantly reduced the impact if they had those projects funded. If you need to spend $20 million and you spend $4 or $5 million, something's got to give."

Officials for the Army Corps of Engineers declined to comment on the reasons for the budget cutbacks.

Fred Caver, who retired in June as the corps' deputy director of civil works, said there is always competition for funding and "you're never going to get everything you want."

But he said a reluctance to invest in unglamorous public works projects and especially heavy demands on the budget, from the war in Iraq and entitlement programs, have added to the difficulty in securing funding for corps projects.

Scott Milburn, a spokesman for the White House Office of Management and Budget, declined to comment about the specific allegations regarding funding for hurricane-related projects in Louisiana. However, he said, "The president signed into law a $100 million increase for the corps for the current fiscal year compared to the previous year's level."

Historically, New Orleans has built bigger and more ambitious levees every time the city floods, Suhayda said.

"They would live with the conditions that they had until there was an event," he said. The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 prompted a major upgrade to the levees around New Orleans, he said. The levees were upgraded again to handle a Category 3 storm after Hurricane Betsy hit New Orleans in 1965.

In the years since then, local officials have warned that a catastrophic storm was inevitable and sought more funding to improve the area's hurricane preparedness to handle larger storms. In July 2004, for instance, federal, state and local officials staged a simulation in which a "Hurricane Pam" slammed into New Orleans with 120 m.p.h. winds and created havoc that was eerily similar to that of Hurricane Katrina, including widespread building damage and death.

"Since 1995, we've been replaying these scenarios out in various degrees. As we got together to do these, the people in the parishes would say, `Make them as bad as possible so we can get some attention,' " said Suhayda, who participated in the Hurricane Pam exercises.

"Unfortunately, our way for dealing with these disasters is after the fact," he said.

OTOH, a lot of New Orleans residents got those tax cuts in recent years, so maybe it's a wash, no pun intended.

Ty, if you're trying to create a "Bush is to blame" bridge here, I suggest changing your name to Ty Webb, a more appropriate moniker for a person offering such a suggestion.

If anything, the blame lies with what Louisiana's state reps and senators, as well as the local politicians. They knew the problem was facing them and fucked up. Bush can't be your target on every disaster. And I think its fucking cheap to start blaming him here. He's fucked up loads of shit, but he din't create this mess. If Louisiana had madde it a priority to get lev ees it needed, it would have gotten them. At a minimum, the millions needed could have been raised at the state level or diverted from other federal funding the state squandered elsewhere.

Its a tragedy. You can blame Bush if we don't have enough natl guard to get the place under control, but blaming him for the levee break is nearly as idiotic as the shmucks who suggest his refusal to join Kyoto has caused this mess.

And its no rebuttal to say "federal money wass earmarked for certain things... Louisiana can't just divert it to levee building," or "levee building is the exclusive job of the Army corps of engineers." Bullshit. If Lousiana's govt were responsible and thought ahead, it could have made all sorts of arrangements to get the federal money put into levee projects. But it didn't. and I'll bet all of its scumbag senators and congressmen have piles of high profile, vote getting, useless pork projects all over the state...

Hank Chinaski · 09-02-2005, 01:19 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by sebastian_dangerfield
Ty, if you're trying to create a "Bush is to blame" bridge here, I suggest changing your name to Ty Webb, a more appropriate moniker for a person offering such a suggestion.

If anything, the blame lies with what Louisiana's state reps and senators, as well as the local politicians. They knew the problem was facing them and fucked up. Bush can't be your target on every disaster. And I think its fucking cheap to start blaming him here. He's fucked up loads of shit, but he din't create this mess. If Louisiana had madde it a priority to get lev ees it needed, it would have gotten them. At a minimum, the millions needed could have been raised at the state level or diverted from other federal funding the state squandered elsewhere.

Its a tragedy. You can blame Bush if we don't have enough natl guard to get the place under control, but blaming him for the levee break is nearly as idiotic as the shmucks who suggest his refusal to join Kyoto has caused this mess.

And its no rebuttal to say "federal money wass earmarked for certain things... Louisiana can't just divert it to levee building," or "levee building is the exclusive job of the Army corps of engineers." Bullshit. If Lousiana's govt were responsible and thought ahead, it could have made all sorts of arrangements to get the federal money put into levee projects. But it didn't. and I'll bet all of its scumbag senators and congressmen have piles of high profile, vote getting, useless pork projects all over the state...

penske penske penske

SlaveNoMore · 09-02-2005, 01:22 AM

Quote:

sebastian_dangerfield
Ty, if you're trying to create a "Bush is to blame" bridge here, I suggest changing your name to Ty Webb, a more appropriate moniker for a person offering such a suggestion.

If anything, the blame lies with what Louisiana's state reps and senators, as well as the local politicians. They knew the problem was facing them and fucked up. Bush can't be your target on every disaster. And I think its fucking cheap to start blaming him here. He's fucked up loads of shit, but he din't create this mess. If Louisiana had madde it a priority to get lev ees it needed, it would have gotten them. At a minimum, the millions needed could have been raised at the state level or diverted from other federal funding the state squandered elsewhere.

Its a tragedy. You can blame Bush if we don't have enough natl guard to get the place under control, but blaming him for the levee break is nearly as idiotic as the shmucks who suggest his refusal to join Kyoto has caused this mess.

And its no rebuttal to say "federal money wass earmarked for certain things... Louisiana can't just divert it to levee building," or "levee building is the exclusive job of the Army corps of engineers." Bullshit. If Lousiana's govt were responsible and thought ahead, it could have made all sorts of arrangements to get the federal money put into levee projects. But it didn't. and I'll bet all of its scumbag senators and congressmen have piles of high profile, vote getting, useless pork projects all over the state...

Welcome back to the fold, mon ami

Penske_Account · 09-02-2005, 01:25 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
penske penske penske

Right on! I blame the liberals.

Ty@50 · 09-02-2005, 01:26 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Sidd Finch
Give it a couple of days. Your team will be blaming Clinton.

It turns out the Dems trying to make NO into a political issue actually so disgusts the population that they lose more seat in 2006 than they did in 2004.

Should I be using spoiler space?

SlaveNoMore · 09-02-2005, 01:40 AM

When good socks go bad....

Ask penske

Penske_Account · 09-02-2005, 01:41 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Ty@50
It turns out the Dems trying to make NO into a political issue actually so disgusts the population that they lose more seat in 2006 than they did in 2004.

Should I be using spoiler space?

No, anyone in their right mind can see that coming.

sebastian_dangerfield · 09-02-2005, 01:54 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by SlaveNoMore
Welcome back to the fold, mon ami

I'm just being fair. Its fucking offensive to blame the President on this one. And that kind of reactionary leftie shit is what's ruined the Democratic party. Its fucking childish. Everything is Bush's fault.... The idiots who write those shitass accusatory pieces just fuel the public's perception that any left leaning person is an idiot.

I almost smashed my new television this evening watching some stupid lefty asswipe try to confuse morons into the belief that somehow, Bush's lack of environmental concern caused or contributed to the fucking hurricane. When that shit doesn't work for those fuckheads, they degenerate to this argument that "rich republicans" damned the Mississippi to make money, and that caused a lack of silt, which caused NO to sink below sea level.

I hate Bush, but he did not break the fucking levee.

Penske_Account · 09-02-2005, 02:25 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by sebastian_dangerfield
I'm just being fair. Its fucking offensive to blame the President on this one. And that kind of reactionary leftie shit is what's ruined the Democratic party. Its fucking childish. Everything is Bush's fault.... The idiots who write those shitass accusatory pieces just fuel the public's perception that any left leaning person is an idiot.

Sebbie, there is no escape. Don't make me delete you, you do not yet realize your importance. You have only begun to discover your power. Join me and Spanky and Slave and Club et al, and we will complete your training (including but not limited to phottoshoppe instruction). With our combined strength, we can end this destructive conflict and bring order to the Board.

Penske_Account · 09-02-2005, 03:05 AM

A Rhode Island lawyer trying to collect a $116 million terrorism judgment against the Palestinian Authority has obtained a court-ordered freeze on all its US-based assets, severely limiting most Palestinian economic and diplomatic activities in the United States at a critical moment for the fledgling government. ''We're looking for money," said Robert Tolchin, a New York-based lawyer working with Strachman. ''If you create a cost for doing wrong, people will be motivated to stop doing wrong."