noise to signal

Reposted posts

(Here are the rants I posted while I was in the middle of changing hosts)

A perspective from outside the US
Passed on by an Australian co-worker:

Thirty years ago after Cyclone Tracy, within 36 hours, including Christmas Day, Australia had a flotilla of planes flying aid and equipment in and people out of Darwin. Almost 100,000 people were evacuated to other capital cities within hours and days, not weeks. The evacuation of Darwin was finished in four days, not started. And in contrast to Katrina, the severity of Tracy was largely unexpected.

 

Even still more cheery information
Mr. Jahrling, ever the bluebird of sunshine, continues to feed me links like this depressingly-titled article from Scientific American: Drowning New Orleans. Nobody could have predicted it, my ASS. That article is from October of 2001. If you don't look at anything else, check out this chilling illustration.

 

Next, Rove takes fiddle lessons
It just keeps getting better, or worse, depending on your perspective. The greatest natural disaster in modern American history is happening. Bush finally drags himself away from his vacation, and tells people down there not to be naughty looters and to chin up, it's all going to be OK. And instead of walking back and forth with a concerned look in DC or, say, the FEMA offices in Houston, what does Dr. Condi do?

Breaking: Condi Rice Spends Salary on Shoes

What does surprise us: Just moments ago at the Ferragamo on 5th Avenue, Condoleeza Rice was seen spending several thousands of dollars on some nice, new shoes (we’ve confirmed this, so her new heels will surely get coverage from the WaPo’s Robin Givhan). A fellow shopper, unable to fathom the absurdity of Rice’s timing, went up to the Secretary and reportedly shouted, “How dare you shop for shoes while thousands are dying and homeless!” Never one to have her fashion choices questioned, Rice had security PHYSICALLY REMOVE the woman.

Come on, people. New Orleans has become a gruesomely realized scene from Hieronymous Bosch. And Condi goes fucking shoe shopping?

 

Homeland security, my ass
Well, we're not quite up yet, but I still had to post a link to this article.

Why the Levee Broke
[ . . . ]
New Orleans had long known it was highly vulnerable to flooding and a direct hit from a hurricane. In fact, the federal government has been working with state and local officials in the region since the late 1960s on major hurricane and flood relief efforts. When flooding from a massive rainstorm in May 1995 killed six people, Congress authorized the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, or SELA.

Over the next 10 years, the Army Corps of Engineers, tasked with carrying out SELA, spent $430 million on shoring up levees and building pumping stations, with $50 million in local aid. But at least $250 million in crucial projects remained, even as hurricane activity in the Atlantic Basin increased dramatically and the levees surrounding New Orleans continued to subside.

Yet after 2003, the flow of federal dollars toward SELA dropped to a trickle. The Corps never tried to hide the fact that the spending pressures of the war in Iraq, as well as homeland security -- coming at the same time as federal tax cuts -- was the reason for the strain. At least nine articles in the Times-Picayune from 2004 and 2005 specifically cite the cost of Iraq as a reason for the lack of hurricane- and flood-control dollars.

[ . . . ]

UPDATE: Here's an eloquent piece by Molly Ivins on the same subject, courtesy of Mr. Jahrling.