I have to give them credit though, this is a great sounding talking point. Right up to the point where one examines the facts behind it. But, as usual, they will never let the facts get in the way of a good talking point, and this one is good.

Apples and oranges. You keep referring to study–one which the head of the US Army Corps of Engs is on record as saying is a non-starter—as the only potential improvement that was cut.

That simply isn’t true.

JayC and JD seem to think they know more than the experts. They know so much that they can categorically rule out the notion that *any* of Bush’s levy cuts had *any* impact.

What would compel them to make such dramatic declarations of fact about an area they know so little about? Why, the fact that they are whores, of course.

These projects WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN COMPLETED.

I’m done with you idiots.

Go ahead and continue to mentally masturbate and take pride in knowing that you are helping so many in the area with your accusations that this is all Chimpy’s fault.

You simps deserve each other.

I’m sorry to sound facetious when people are dying.
One more thing, this comparison to the tsunami is rediculous. There were hours not days to escape the tsunami, and no warning system. Doesn’t the Gulf get a hurricane 3 or 4 times a year?

It was rain flooding Lake Ponchatrain that did it! That levee was known to be weak and that particular location was due to be repaired in 2003. THAT VERY FUCKING LOCATION!

OMG THESE PEOPLE MAKE ME WANT TO SCREAM!

We’re naming it Lake George, ’cause it’s his frickin fault. Have you seen all that data about the levee projects’ funding being cut over the past three years by the Prez, and the funding transferred to Iraq? The levee, as designed, might not have held back the surge from a direct Class 5 hit, but it certainly would not have crumbled on Monday night from saturation and scour erosion following a glancing blow from a Class 3. The failure was in a spot that had just been rebuilt, not yet compacted, not planted, and not armed (hardened with rock/concrete). The project should have been done two years ago, but the federal gov’t diverted 80% of the funding to Iraq. Other areas had settled by a few feet from their design specs, and the money to repair them was diverted to Iraq.
The NO paper raised hell about this time and again, to no avail. And who will take the blame for it? The Army Corps, because they’re good soldiers and will never contradict the C in C. But Corps has had
massive budget cuts across all departments (including wetland regulatory) since Bush took office, and now we’ve reaped what was sown. It really pisses me off to see the Corps get used by the Administration to shield Bush — they do great work when they’re funded. This was senseless, useless death caused not by nature but by budget decisions.

FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers have been crying Cassandra for years, and Bush did not listen. Even if he had not requested those cuts in his budgets, he still has derelict in his duty. That he made those cuts — that jut compounds the problem. We all agree that Bush’s hurricane/flood prevention strategy was running on borrowed time. I just happen to think he should be held responsible for it, and you just want to give him a pass. Responsibility only applies to Dan Rather and Kofi Annan in your world. It’s simply pathetic.

Wrong.

There may not be more hurricanes because of global warming, but there’s plenty of evidence that warmer water and climate make the storms more powerful.

CS

Read it again, cons. Bush ignored the warnings, defunded the levees, and put politics over competence. Anyone who defends that truly does hate America.

This fact is indisputable: we will never know because AWOL George diverted monies away from completing the levee projects. IOW, AWOL George gave NOLA no chance as opposed to a good chance.

Yeah well maybe you can explain with your knowledge of physics how a 15 foot wall can withstand a 22 foot storm surge.

More foolishness from Jay. The levee system was designed with the understanding it was very likely weather-related storm surges would crest levees. There would be flooding, some of it manageable by the pumping systems; some of it would overwhelm the existing pumping systems (a problem deferred because of AWOL George).

What happened last weekend was that two levees completely failed; they were breached. The issue isn’t one of height–it’s of strength.

The first thing that Bush, his administration and everyone on down the chain to the mayor of NO should have done was to expect the worst. No one could have aniticipated that the levees would not hold? Gimme break. That’s the first thing they should have anticipated and planned for.

So what could have been done in two days? Develop a realistic and workable evacuation plan, set up shelters in outlying regions for evacuees, move Guard troops and equiptment to the edges of the effected area for rapid response, plan a reliable communications systems beyond private civilian cell phones, move naval hosptical ships near the region for rapid response, coordinate with the Army Corps of engineers to see what was needed if the levees broke, etc, etc. Many of these things have happened in the days since Katrina hit. Some have yet to be worked out. Little of it was done in the two days before when it would have made the most difference. Doing all of this and more in the two days leading up to the disaster would have been a herculean task and would have required real leadership. Yes, we are all Americans and we should all be pissed that our government had failed us so miserably.

It s hard to believe, but Jay C and the other cons literally have no problem with the fact that Bush defunded the levees.

Fact: Congress has reduced levee funding over the last four years.
Fact: One of the projects that didn’t receive funding would have studied category 4 and 5 protection for a period of 4 years, beginning in 2004, with some sort of conclusion to be delivered in 2008.
Fact: Regardless of any funding problems, nothing would have been done to prepare the levee system for a cat 4 or 5 hurricane before 2008.
Fact: Congress’ levee funding cuts had no impact on the events of this week.

Reasonable people can debate just how many federal tax dollars should go into funding the levee system. However, blaming the disaster we are seeing today on the cuts made to date, is just not supported by the facts.

All this being said, I’m sure TomY et. al. will continue to spout their new anti-Bush talking point, not having a clue as to what they’re talking about.

The Bush administration should not be bragging about last Tuesday s disaster declaration.

Well gee, that’s because McClellan was talking about federal emergency declaration made regarding Katrina this past Saturday.

The levees that wouldn’t have been able to withstand this kind of storm. The levees that could weren’t scheduled to be studied until 2008.

I would have sent in Natl Guard the minute the storm died down

11,000 were ready by late Tuesday.

I would have dropped food so that our fellow Americans wouldnt be sitting there and starving like this is a damn 3rd world country.

Dropped food? Drop it where? Into streets flooded with water?

Oh and the storm did not happen “5 days ago.” It didn’t make landfall until this past Monday and didn’t clear the entire area until Tuesday.

or protecting the wetlands between NO and the Gulf