Airport Cat @ 76

I can’t say that I’m sorry to have left New Orleans, or that I will even miss it much. I saw the workings of the Orleans Levee District up close, and they and the other levee districts bear a huge part of the responsibility for the failures of levees around the city. Levee construction was typically 70% federally funded, with 30% local funding and yes, the levees were underfunded for years. However, those that were built were not built anywhere nearly as well as they should have been … and construction management was mostly the responsibility of the levee districts, OLD in particular. Levee maintenance and inspection was also the responsibility of the levee districts, and they did a piss-poor job of that as well. I could go on all night about this, but here’s what it is: a lot of the damage was self-inflicted because thoroughly corrupt agencies like the Orleans Levee District were not only tolerated, but entrusted with overseeing the levees which were intended to protect life and property. I will never understand why the s.o.b.s were not run out of town on a rail, tarred and feathered. Yes, USACE didn’t do what they were supposed to do, but at least give them the credit for taking responsibility for their failures, something that the levee districts never did and likely never will.

If you won’t miss New Orleans, then you never truly lived here in the first place — you just inhabited some space. Your points about the Levee District are largely valid (and horrifying to anyone who cares about the city), but there’s no way to really live in New Orleans without having it claim a major portion of your heart. I’m not trying to insult you; no place is suitable for everyone, and New Orleans definitely isn’t a one-size-fits-all kind of place. As for me, I was born here, lived here until I was 6 (when my parents divorced), and moved away knowing even at that age that I would return one day. It was always my second home since my father stayed here, and I’ve been back for good since 1993. I’d rather die here than live anywhere else.

Last comment for tonight, I promise — but I’d also like to point out that the Army Corps of Engineers only “[took] responsibility for their failures” after south Louisianians hounded them into doing so. I don’t see that they deserve a great deal of credit for that.

I can’t say that I’m sorry to have left New Orleans, or that I will even miss it much. I saw the workings of the Orleans Levee District up close, and they and the other levee districts bear a huge part of the responsibility for the failures of levees around the city. Levee construction was typically 70% federally funded, with 30% local funding and yes, the levees were underfunded for years. However, those that were built were not built anywhere nearly as well as they should have been … and construction management was mostly the responsibility of the levee districts, OLD in particular. Levee maintenance and inspection was also the responsibility of the levee districts, and they did a piss-poor job of that as well. I could go on all night about this, but here’s what it is: a lot of the damage was self-inflicted because thoroughly corrupt agencies like the Orleans Levee District were not only tolerated, but entrusted with overseeing the levees which were intended to protect life and property. I will never understand why the s.o.b.s were not run out of town on a rail, tarred and feathered. Yes, USACE didn’t do what they were supposed to do, but at least give them the credit for taking responsibility for their failures, something that the levee districts never did and likely never will.

If you won’t miss New Orleans, then you never truly lived here in the first place — you just inhabited some space. Your points about the Levee District are largely valid (and horrifying to anyone who cares about the city), but there’s no way to really live in New Orleans without having it claim a major portion of your heart. I’m not trying to insult you; no place is suitable for everyone, and New Orleans definitely isn’t a one-size-fits-all kind of place. As for me, I was born here, lived here until I was 6 (when my parents divorced), and moved away knowing even at that age that I would return one day. It was always my second home since my father stayed here, and I’ve been back for good since 1993. I’d rather die here than live anywhere else.

Huge, huge thanks to T. Rex for making this post, and to everyone who sent donations for William. He had a steroid shot yesterday and seems to be doing better. We’re praying to every deity in this and any other cosmos that he will be with us a while longer.

Great article but one minor correction. Having lived in New Orleans for several years I take exception to your observation: “A toxic cocktail of incompetence and corruption meant that the Army Corps of Engineers built shitty levees that weren’t supposed to collapse, but did.” The Army Corps of Engineers usually does a passable job on the levees. What did transpire, however, was that their funding was drastically cut and the funds for maintaining the leeves, a constant job, simply weren’t there. Let’s make sure that the blame goes where it truly belongs…directly on the shoulders of the Bush (mal)administration!

Besides, they’ll greet us in the streets with flowers, candy and pretty women dressed in French maid outfits (or young policemen if that’s your thing…Larry).

… Couldn’t stop listening downstairs, and that B-52 was great!

Speaking of which…perhaps someone could put up Love Shack by the B-52s, in honor of Senators Craig and Vitter.

The Blind Boys of Alabama, singing Amazing Grace to the tune of House of the Rising Sun.

Wow!

You could do this for one of them. It’s what they opened with last night.

burnspbesq,
i have been looking for your posts all through three or four threads to hear about the concert.
and since this IS EPU land i shall look some more.
~ fall at your feet

Off topic (perhaps my specialty), but one thing that I hope doesn’t get lost in the shuffle during the upcoming elections is that besides all the rampant criminality, incompetence, and inherent amorality of the Republican party, their ideas have been extensively field tested and THEY DON’T WORK. I firmly believe that should be the Democrat’s mantra: “Republican ideas don’t work.” Can I get a witness?

DING! A generation of American’s has been raised on the gospel according to Ayn Rand or, as my Marxist friend used to call it, the Unseen-Hand Job. Ronald Reagan would continually babble about “unleashing the miracle of free enterprise.” And, it works in some cases, but in others it bombs badly.

The key place where doctrine of minimizing government involvement is a documentable disaster is in the area of health care. We pay twice the amount per person for health care as the average of the top 30 industrialized nations. And we rank last in health statistics. And we don’t even care for 40% of our population until they qualify for the emergency room. But of course, just like my Marxist friends, the conservatives will say that we haven’t tried a pure enough form of their doctrine.

Bullshit! Other industrialized countries have done a lot of experimentation regarding what works and doesn’t work. They aren’t hiding their secrets. All we have to do is look. My answer to my conservative friends is “I’m from Missouri. Show me where your ideas are workign better than the French system.”

Of course, they have a million horror stories about the French system. But I have a similar cache of stories about ours, and they are worse. But then I also have statistics, and those statistics aren’t good for us.

fahrender @ 296

just a driveby…..

Glenn Greenwald spells it out clearly and unmistakeably:

We’re on our way to war with Iran. The train has already left the station. All of the usual suspects are on board.

How do we stop the train?

You can’t stop trains. But you can make engineers wish they had stopped. How in this case? By sponsoring big freeway signs saying: “Don’t attack Iran!! Why should we wait hours in gas lines to protect Israel?”

These are not things that I neither approve nor advocate. But you asked a question.

Why would they work? Because the main impetus behind attacking Iran is indeed the Israel Lobby. And, they know that there is (unfortunately) sufficient anti-semitism in the U.S. for there to be a major anti-Israel backlash if Americans are alterted to that fact and then have trouble getting fuel for their SUVs.