Letting Things Slide
It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us. -- Walter Maestri, Jefferson Parish emergency management chief, June 8, 2004
The administration was content to let New Orleans fall off the radar screen while their focus was on rebuilding Iraq - in fact, it even reached the point that still-homeless Katrina refugees pooled their modest funds and took out a full-page ad in the Roll Call in a desperate bid for some official attention. The plan is, of course, that the refugees will simply give up and go away, so as to allow the connected and the wealthy to rebuild the city on their terms - without 'those people' underfoot.
Now, predictably, they'd like us all to talk about the new budget allocations for New Orleans's levy systems - which will still allow for 'manageable type' flooding, mind you. It's a lot easier than asking who underfunded the levees in the first place, or why all 50 states went bankrupt at once. And it's much easier than considering how successful we may be in rebuilding Iraq, having spent $300 billion pointlessly destroying it in the first place.
The administration was content to let New Orleans fall off the radar screen while their focus was on rebuilding Iraq - in fact, it even reached the point that still-homeless Katrina refugees pooled their modest funds and took out a full-page ad in the Roll Call in a desperate bid for some official attention. The plan is, of course, that the refugees will simply give up and go away, so as to allow the connected and the wealthy to rebuild the city on their terms - without 'those people' underfoot.
Now, predictably, they'd like us all to talk about the new budget allocations for New Orleans's levy systems - which will still allow for 'manageable type' flooding, mind you. It's a lot easier than asking who underfunded the levees in the first place, or why all 50 states went bankrupt at once. And it's much easier than considering how successful we may be in rebuilding Iraq, having spent $300 billion pointlessly destroying it in the first place.
Tags: Katrina
posted by Management at 4:05 AM
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