find whatever they could to bash the administration on hurricane recovery

They didn't have to look very hard...

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"You can't fix stupid..." ~ Ron White"
"I never said I wasn't a brat..." ~ Talidapali

I wish you weren't serious. If you are, you can probably survive a monster natural disaster with no money, no gas, no food, no place to go. If you are, you can probably re-build you house with your own hands since the insurance company won't pay. If you are, I bet you wouldn't mind moving to Houston, Atlanta, Memphis, with only the clothes on your back and no possibility of returning "home". If you are serious, I am saddened there are so many like yourself in this country that are so hardened there is no feeling left for our neighbors in need.

No place on earth was ever ideal for a settlement of gadzillion white men with all our lust for more and more...more permenant structures, more chemicals to make stronger tomatoes, more plastic crap than even God could ever have imagined, trash from paper cartons from McDonalds, beer cans everywhere, A/C and electric gadgets demanding more and more power grids, and of course the destruction of a sustainable environment in order to park all those cars. Even the air and rivers are burdened with toxic chemicals. It's not the place or the space, it's mismanagement that causes most of the problems.

Everyone knew the levees might collapse. Why did the government do nothing? We all saw the nightmare after Katrina. Why didn't the government rush in to save the people? We all see that as of now little help from Washington is trickling down to New Orleans. Why is the government so callous? Very likely the cause is people who think like you do, who see a wonderful opportunity to solve the levee problem by just getting rid of the city. Other cities in the world are located below sea level with levees that work. What? Is our American engineering just too dumb to build them? Are we spending too much in Iraq (and now maybe Iran) to maintain our infrastructures?

It takes tremendous gall to suggest that such a major tragedy, so many unnecessary deaths, and so much neglect by Washington, could be a gift! I don't know what kind of God you worship, but he sure isn't my kind of God. Heartlessness has never been an attribute of the true Divine. That distorted mean-spirited God-image so many people of "faith" worship, who has only sin on his mind, and revenge for anyone who takes a mis-step, is a bogey-man made up by ancient priests to scare people. God is love, pure and simple. It's a fact that is often debated, but it is in the end the absolute Truth. Anyone who thinks otherwise is deluded...and sometimes even dangerous.

You have, you know, used his name in vain by saying what you did, so say seven Hail Mary's and run around the block.

Hmm, let's "depopulate" San Francisco, Los Angeles, St. Louis, and Memphis because they sit on major earthquake faults and will be devastated when a "big one" finally hits. Let's "depopulate" Portland & Seattle since they're so close to potentially active volcanoes.

And once we get New Orleans cleared out we can start on Miami, which is also endangered by global warming.

Look, snark aside, there is plenty to think about in rebuilding New Orleans with respect to how to handle future flooding (some areas may need to be left as green space, etc.). But just casually suggesting we "depopulate" a place thousands of people call home is pretty damn callous.

"The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones." - John Maynard Keynes

good question - here is one link that I found:

(link...)

Is the Orleans Levee Board doing its job?
Critics allege corruption, charge the board with wasteful spending

FREE VIDEO
New Orleans levee board negligent?
Sept. 14: An NBC News investigation reveals that the New Orleans levee board spent millions on pet projects that had nothing to do with protecting the city. Correspondent Lisa Myers has the story.
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I watched the Katrina coverage with great interest - as part of the South La. diaspora from the oil bust in the 80's - and still with lots of family there. Political corruption is a way of life and "point of pride" in South La.

The hurricane did little damage in NOLA - it was the failed levee's that caused the flooding.

(link...)

Three myths about the Katrina recovery efforts.

Local governments control the disbursement of federal funds, e.g., do you now where the millions in Empowerment Zone dollars have gone locally?

Louisiana government has been the bottleneck to the recovery efforts - contrast that with Missisippi's recovery. see Myth number two.