It should be noted, though, that there were slightly over $38B worth of Army Corp. Engineer projects for upstream alleviation, spilloff grounds, and levee design that were openly opposed since 1997 by the National Wildlife Fund, PETA, River Conservation Forum, and the World Wildlife Fund (on the left) and the National Taxpayers Union, Taxpayers America, and WasteRot organizaitons on the right. Since 1997, every proposal that the Army Corp of engineers has put up for levee redesign has been bitterly opposed by heavy lobbying groups on both sides of the isle, to the extent where the feasibility of moving forward with them was nil.
I think I've said this, but my oldest brother has worked for the Pentagon for almost 4 years now, before then with the USMS, and so on.. and these projects were so bitterly opposed that I don't know what people expected. There were tons of people on both sides who lobbied in committee to get the cuts put into place.. and still, for many, the cuts were nowhere near enough. I'm not saying that's right, I'm just saying, let's not pretend that Bush (or anyone) operated in a vaccuum; the pressures against the Army Corp of Engineers were severe. I'll have a longer post later; I'll talk to him later tonight and see how things go ;) CW -----Original message----- From: "Eli Allen" [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Wed, 31 Aug 2005 15:52:58 -0500 To: "The Hardware List" hardware@hardwaregroup.com Subject: Re: [H] It's bad, really bad - Katrina > While I do agree that living below sea level like that is a bad idea this > was preventable. There was a major levee construction project whose funding > was cut by Bush (~$250 million) If Bush didn't cut the funding the levees > wouldn't have broke so easily like they did. > > http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001051313 > > Eli > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Gary VanderMolen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "The Hardware List" <hardware@hardwaregroup.com> > Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2005 5:32 PM > Subject: Re: [H] It's bad, really bad - Katrina > > > >> It's so American. Don't teach birth control, fight abortion. Don't > >> prepare for mathematical certainty, worship the melodrama of numerically > >> insufficient rescues. > > > > The only certainty is that Mother Nature is unpredictable. How much > > money should we throw at this bottomless pit? If you design levees for a > > Cat 3, next time it will be a Cat 4 hurricane. People should not live > > below sea level when they are so close to massive bodies of water. > > > > > > Gary VanderMolen > > > > >
