If you were inclined to disbelieve the three independent forensic engineering reports that blamed design and construction errors by the US Army Corps of Engineers for the more than 50 levee breaches that resulted in the flooding of New Orleans in 2005, the behavior of the Corps towards its critics might induce you to take a second look at the matter.
WWL-TV, a television station that actually appears to take the phrase "local news" with an unusual (for this country) degree of seriousness, is reporting that Corps employees have been logging on to nola.com, a main news aggregating and commenting website for local news, to denigrate critics of the agency:
...Donley said he also noticed these users who attacked corps critics were using corps equipment. He made a spreadsheet of the activity over six weeks at the end of December and beginning of January.
"During that six-week period, there were nearly 700 comments from corps IPs, the same group of people I had been watching for over two years," Donley said. "So this was not an isolated incident."
Remember, the Corps--which itself admitted some culpability for the 2005 levee failures--is tasked with the responsibility for repairing the "hurricane protection system" mandated by Congress. One would hope, given the fact that this task is running behind the scheduled completion date of 2011, that Corps employees would be spending their time helping to keep the city safe, instead of attacking critics of the agency.
But in New Orleans, when the subject is the Corps, and its federal overseers, hope is something that was left at the starting gate last November. And change is what's being appropriated.
UPDATE (6/19): Jon Donley now explains why he's gone public:
The Times-Picayune has attempted a limpid response today on the WWL story here: http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/06/army_corps_of_engineers_lets_w.html#preview
The comments section is rabid. You'll spot me, nonewsladder and backhandpath. I've had to split in two to handle these beotches from the Corps, they are everywhere no lie.
However, our Hero Jon Donley has published his explanation of why he came forward about this in the first place. http://www.jondonley.com/2009/06/affidavit-on-smear-campaign-against-corps-critics/
I think y'all will enjoy what he has to say about these Spin'filtraitors.
The TP has tried to marginalize this man as "an internet consultant who worked for Nola.com", when it turns out that far from being some Temp Laborer as portrayed, Mr. Donley is a Founding Editor in Chief of Nola.com, with over a decade on the Job. He should win a Pulitzer for his roll in keeping it together at Nola.com during the flood.
Nola.com does not want to investigate whether they are aiding and abetting the commission of a felony.
This is a big problem and a big story. These Astro-turfers, looks to me, are committing crime by using Our computers to attack Us.
Anyway, don't get me started. You can find me on the Ladder.
Thanks again, Harry.
Editilla~New Orleans Ladder
The saddest act of forgetfulness comes from the top, it appears. I've said it before, and I'll repeat it again. I don't believe we'd be looking at a president Obama, if it were not for the Bush administration's handling of the Katrina debacle.
Obama was able to use the Bush administration's inept handling of everything it touched, with the Katrina debacle being the one most vicerally vivid in people's minds, to say it was time to change management.
Now, as it looks like NO will get the same level of Army Corps of Engineer incompetence it suffered before, in the building of new substandard levees, one can't help but feel a sense of betrayal.
So c'mon, Sara Palin! Say something nasty about NO! Hey Rush! Bad mouth the Big Easy on your radio show! The folks down there could sure use the publicity.
The guest host asked for callers to say what they thought was the single most important thing to improve life in their city. Not one caller mentioned, "fixing the levees" or "raising the houses above storm surge level" or "repairing the wetlands". In over an hour, not one.
Assuming those calls weren't screened out ----which I guess they might have been---I just would like to say that it doesn't matter what New Orleans' murder rate is, how crummy the schools are, or whether the mayor makes backroom deals and takes family vacations instead of doing his job---- if the city floods again.
It just won't matter.
Of course it's infuriating to find that our tax dollars are, apparently, being used by COE employees to run a smear campaign against those trying to get some justice from the COE. Disturbing, but, at this point, not surprising in the least.
It's easy to see why hope is a hard thing to come by in NO these days. An investigation is definitely in order. I want MY tax dollars paying for strong levees, not smear campaigns against folks trying to get those strong levees built.
On a lighter note, loved the performance on Conan! The great music on "Back From The Dead" is on it's way from Amazon, and I love the packaging! Quite a bargain! Takes me back to the old days of LPs filled with fun extras. I hope it's a big seller for you guys.
I wish you'd apply some of your logic and persistence to the financial "experts' who are every bit as incompetent as the Army Corp of Engineers, and are currently drowning the US economy in a sea of debt to prop up the insane idea of using fractional reserve banking to increase the money supply by creating money as debt out of thin air.
They always create money by keeping a "Fraction" of their deposits in "Reserve" and lend out the rest, "creating money" out of thin air and "Debt" (for the borrower) in the process.
If you don't like the fractional reserve banking system creating money, then guess what, no home loans, car loans, business loans, or credit cards, and that would put a real stranglehold on the economy.
You see, Joe Smith deposits 100 dollars in the bank, the bank keeps 50% (a fraction) in reserve, and lends out $50 John Jones. Jones puts the money in his bank account to pay for his goods/services. Joe Smith's account still says $100, but John Jones has $50 more, so the money supply is now $150. THAT'S WHAT A BANK DOES. I suppose we could bury our money in the ground.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZXFK8z9WXo
I have become so cynical of this country, I am not even surprised by this evil anymore. Citizens need to confront this government and demand justice.
I agree with the person who said we should get rid of the Corps. They are not only not doing their job--they won't even evaluate a problem or return a call. AND, out of Chicago--they are snotty.
AND, they are only one part of government failing to do their job. I could name another half dozen agencies I have personally dealt with who COULD NOT or WOULD NOT resolve a problem within their jurisdiction.
God help us. The government is helping itself!
It's not "the government" that's the problem.
It's the BROKEN government.
The government that Republicans have so infamously crippled, starved, shrunk and nearly drowned for the last 30+ years.
You have to post this item because you have no.... absolutely none... nada "expertise" in civil engineering. You have passion for New Orleans, but you have no academic, scholarly, or professional standing in anything related to flood control construction.
If you were Joe Delps vinyl siding sales manager from Des Moines you might have the very same views, but no chance in hell to get them featured on The Huffington Post. Yet, when the people who do know something about it appear en masse on a web site Harry Shearer (cartoon voice extraordinaire) has nothing to come back with except to cry foul for a group having a voice on flood control construction. You have nothing because you are just an actor.
You cite three independent studies. Did you participate in them? That's all you are qualified to say. After that, you are totally out of viable material. The flood causes have been studied by knowledgeable experts and we all now have the opportunity to assess them as "average joe citizens" and contribute to the American democratic way of free inquiry and expression of views.
When are we going to get out of this anti-tax mentality?
This is a deep vein in the American psyche, which the GOP has successfully mined for decades. We just have to keep hammering on the connection between the services people want to receive and the money it costs to pay for them, and letting them know how the corporations keep shirking their duty, shifting the burden to the rest of us.
Just look at the Texans who think Texas could survive on it's own, as they clamor for secession. And one is their Governor no less!
Americans can be some of the silliest, and most easily frightened people in the entire world sometimes. No wonder our politicians find it so easy to manipulate and use us. How we ever became a super power is beyond me. I guess people in this country used to be made of sterner stuff.
And btw, Federal (civil service) employees are governed by The Hatch Act which limits activity. In addition, the Corps of Engineers, as a part of the military is governed by Department of Defense Directive 1344.10:
http://www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/corres/pdf/134410p.pdf
Surely, corps spokesperson Ken Holder knows this. It seems like they're fighting for their lives.
I would like to know if the COE violated Federal Code here, by using our tax-funded computers, thus committing Felony.
Perhaps y'all can see for yourselves, and interpret this better than I.
UNITED STATES CODE ANNOTATED
TITLE 18. CRIMES AND CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
PART I--CRIMES
CHAPTER 47--FRAUD AND FALSE STATEMENTS
§ 1030. Fraud and related activity in connection with computers.
Section (3): intentionally, without authorization to access any nonpublic computer of a department or agency of the United States, accesses such a computer of that department or agency that is exclusively for the use of the Government of the United States or, in the case of a computer not exclusively for such use, is used by or for the Government of the United States and such conduct affects that use by or for the Government of the United States.
Section (5) subparagraph (B) clause (iv) --a threat to public health or safety.
(I would like to add this clause, since we really don't know if the Corps is telling the truth regarding just what their employees are doing with these computers on our dime, ie: for whom the Bar Codes.)
(v) --damage affecting a computer system used by or for a government entity in furtherance of the administration of justice, national defense, or national security.
http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/cybercrime/1030NEW.htm
Everyone reads Harry, soooo...any'youz out there a Federal Prosecutor?
Editilla~New Orleans Ladder