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Super (and Fat) Tuesday
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Watching Obama's speech from my flu bed in New Orleans--what a way to celebrate Mardi Gras, by waiting in line for a prescription at a freezing Walgreens!--my first question was: If this guy's so smart, why'd he, or his handlers, schedule this impressive speech at an hour when they knew the broadcast networks would have abandoned the Super Tuesday story? Hillary and Huckabee used that schedule to their benefit, gaining valuable free time on the broadcast nets, while both Obama and McCain had to settle for cable.
My second question was: was he talking about New Orleans? Hillary, of course, made a glancing wave at the city, conjoining it with some other city elsewhere in one of those "from the nurse in....to the student in...." concoctions. Obama, in his "yes, we can" peroration, referred to a woman whose house was swept away in a vicious storm. Where? The Mississippi Gulf Coast? The recent tornado alleys of Tennessee and Arkansas?
He was having it both ways, allowing the attention-starved people of New Orleans (why'd you guys schedule Mardi Gras on Super Tuesday, anyway?) to believe they'd been thrown a crumb, while avoiding responsibility for focusing on what really happened here--the betrayal of the city by a federal government that swore to protect it. The new word that should be inserted in that formulation, incidentally, is "knowingly". In a decision last week throwing out half of the citizens' lawsuit against the US Army Corps of Engineers, Federal Judge Stanwood Duval castigated the Corps thusly:
"While the United States government is immune for legal liability for the defalcations alleged herein, it is not free, nor should it be, from posterity's judgment concerning its failure to accomplish what was its task," the judge wrote. "This story -- 50 years in the making -- is heart-wrenching. Millions of dollars were squandered in building a levee system with respect to these outfall canals which was known to be inadequate by the corps's own calculations."
He added, in a postscript made more bitter by tonight's failure by the candidates to say anything remotely substantive about this situation:
"It is not within the court's power to address the wrongs committed. It is hopefully within the citizens of the United States' power to address the failures of our laws and agencies."
Most of the national media have long since given up bringing the facts of why New Orleans flooded to the public's attention. Now, the candidates, all working their poll-approved themes, choose not to take the judge's cue. Who the hell will?
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It boils down to one thing, Mr. Shearer. – Character. Maybe you do not, but I trust a person who has run a clean campaign, raised funds from the grass roots, worked as a community organizer, and has no problem admitting mistakes or being bold enough to demonstrate good judgment at a time where it imperiled his political career. I believe such a person would have and will to do the right thing regarding New Orleans. I trust Obama to do that more than I trust Clinton, McCain, or any other candidate out there. So, even if he did not conduct his appearance in New Orleans in a manner that comports with your reasonable standards, I trust that he will aggressively pursue and achieve positive objectives in your hometown. As someone who does not live in New Orleans, I admit my ignorance about much that happened there, but I do appreciate your dissatisfaction with any seemingly less-than-effective measures to address the issue. I just trust that Obama will do the right thing, based not upon his ability to wax eloquent, but based on his wisdom and judgment. I sincerely believe that he and the administration he chooses him will get it right.
I'd like to vote for None Of The Above please.
Sorry to hear you missed the Gras, it was a nice one!
Well, Harry, you will. I never thought that you, of all people, would be a national treasure. But it seems that you are. I have learned more about what happened in NOLA from you than from anyone. The MSM doesn't give a rat's behind and Bush's federal government, even less. The mask of faux empathy has become the working script, the false brand, which in most cases stands for nothing, leads to nothing. The American people are left to dig up their own information from disparate sources, like Le Show, like NPR, like BBC. The preposperous gasbag of spin by the power centers is really only out to exploit something, to sell someone, to cover somebody's behind, to make a buck. If this sounds like faint praise, it isn't. Thank you very much for your obstinent truth telling.
We get both of our short comings in the same sentence. How unprepared fema was( emergency management?) and how our political system plays to the rich and lobbyists, We the people has been pushed aside for show me the money. if it was manditory to vote most of the lobby money would be wasted. Instead we get the rich running against the rich for a position most want to use to further their portfolios. A president is not a role model for America its closer to a retirement plan for the rich.
Harry, you responded to Azureblue with "You're confusing two different systems/projects."
This is a very key point that really supports your opinion that the ACOE is solely responsible. Is there a way you can add this note to your original post directly, its hard to find buried in the comments.
As a political football, I think that polling experts (ah joy) have certainly counseled Obama and Hillary to 1. Keep their message positive and 2. not to go there as Nawlins was up to a few days ago the hook that Edwards was using. Now that he is out of the running, perhaps either of them can pick up it up as a platform element. (have we all become armchair poli-advisors??? gllarrrkkk....)
As always, you rock just for keeping on trying to make a difference when you could be goofing off.
I think that all decent people sympathize with the Citizens of New Orleans, that have suffered from such a devastating storm and it's after effects. From Brownsville Texas, all along the Coast up to Maine, have suffered from Ocean Storms. Why is New Orleans the Only Problem Child of Coastal Cities?
We had terrible local flooding here in Chicago, so much so that we have over our existance, install our sewer pipes right on the Street and raise the Buildings some 30' in some areas. We also had to Hand dig a Sanitary Canal to keep flood waters from polluting our Drinking water. As the City Grew, we eventually had to have the "Deep Tunnel" dug to handle our Flooding problems.
This is what New Orleans must do. If recovering your below sea level areas are really that important, then a Deep Tunnel project must be started, with the Muck that is dug out, used as land fill to raise the City of New Orleans back above Sea Level, and if possible, use any excess Muck to build additional barrier Islands to protect the City.
While we in Chicago just treat the water and release it back into the Illinois river, I would recommend that New Orleans use their Deep tunnel as a Reservoir to feed Desalination Plants for Fresh water supplies. Add a Thorium Fueled Nuclear Power plant nearby, and you could use the sewer water to make Hydrogen & Oxygen which in turn could be sold off as "Green Fuel" for Governmental fleet vehicles, and for the public as well.
Until you Effectively provide adequate drainage for New Orleans, and other below sea level areas, levees and other cosmetic measures are just an Expensive Illusion of Protection, that will be Doomed to Fail again, regardless of what a Judge may exhort!
Either fix your city so that Storm waters can effectively drain off, or let it go back to nature. We want Solutions, Not Democratic Belly-aching over a Problem you guys caused, and knew ahead of time would happen, and still couldn't get out of your own way.
HARRY RESPONDS: Who's the 'you guys" that caused this problem? Who carved thousands of roads and canals and pipelines through the coastal wetlands that served as New Orleans' buffer against stronger storms? I believe it was the oil and gas industry, encouraged by the Feds (who take all the offshore tax revenue, a unique situation among states with such resources). Who decided not to let the Mississippi replenish its natural delta with sediment, by straitjacketing the river and dumping the wetland-building nutrients deep in the Gulf? I believe that was the United States Army Corps of Engineers. Why don't you read up? You'd see that the "muck" dug up from any tunnel project is far too porous to be useful as landfill--that's a mistake the Army Corps made when it assumed that the muck would be sufficient to anchor the floodwalls, rather than drilling down deeper. But thanks for your advice. And, if it's all just the same, you can have the nuclear power plant near your city.
And why was New Orleans the only "problem child"? Because we're the only one that was promised, by Congress, a flood control solution designed and constructed by the Federal Government. As I said, read up.
Harry, as usual, your insight is on-target. Perhaps we can get this issue brought up at the Obama visit tomorrow??? (Thurs 2/7) -- so that he can carry our message out into the national limelight where it sorely needs serious exposure.
As for the Fattest of Tuesdays, sorry to hear you were illin', as it was one of the most epic Gras of this NOLA native's life - the Golden Eagles with Big Chief Monk Boudreaux put on a fantastic display during their parade march from Valence&Magnolia to Second& Dryades, and Frenchman St was simply "off the hook"!
A note to all you HuffPost readers out there who are not from -- nor live in -- New Orleans: we all know there has been a real lack of local municipal leadership in our city (from the Mayor's Office to the City Council to the ineffective city departments), but there is a HUGE responsibility owed to our city by the Federal government due to the broken promises, project failures, and overall incompetence that is OWNED by the various units of the Fed (FEMA, DHS, ACOE, the White House, etc.) that literally turned a blind eye to their "efforts" over the past 40-50- years in New Orleans.
'Nuff said - Happy Ash Wednesday (or for many here in NOLA who overdid it a bit yesterday it's "Crash Wednesday") to all, and let's hope we are entering a Lenten season filled with hope and fresh beginnings of new positive & productive efforts to solve issues in the future -- not just for us folks here in NOLA, but for all Americans.
So, Harry, am I right? Your beef isn't with post-breach relief (buses, trailers, FEMA, et al) or with local politicians; it's with the ACE's faulty design of the levees, and with the courts/congress for failing to allow N.O. residents to collect damages in a negligence lawsuit. Is that it?
If that judge is correct in saying that justice lies in the hands of the "people," have Louisiana congressmen formally introduced a bill to get the ball rolling?
HARRY RESPONDS; Let's shuck right down to the cob, as Paul Harvey likes to say. Post-disaster response is a disgrace at all levels, and FEMA's continuing responsibility for the formaldehyde fumes in the trailers is an ongoing scandal. But, in any talk about rebuilding New Orleans, what's important is understanding what went wrong in the Katrina event, understanding that it was a long-term, bipartisan failure of a Federal agency under insufficient independent supervision. Louisiana's Congressional delegation has done major work getting, against the Administration's opposition, something resembling an almost-fair percentage of offshore oil revenues (which, up to now, have been denied to the state by the US) for long-term coastal wetlands restoration. But, as you can see from the comments, without leadership from beyond the state, NO's case against the federal government gets dismissed as special pleading by whiners. This is where some Presidential candidate--any one--could make a real, substantive difference. Up to now, just the sound of crickets. BTW, this will make big news down the line when the other half of the lawsuit--the one against the Corps for failures of the MR-GO and Industrial Canal levees--comes to judgement, and the eye-popping damage numbers come out.
Harry - p.s. I forgot to include the slaughters in Africa (and my list is only HALF of The Shock Doctrine). Obama and Clinton will be diminished by the mainstream if they dare to be angry. I wonder where our anger will lead, if it will ever matter.
p.p.s. Hope you feel better.
Harry - I felt a wave of nausea as I voted for Obama in S.F. yesterday. Kucinich, Edwards, Biden, Dodd, all were still on the ballot but have been silenced. I am 1/2 way through The Shock Doctrine and I see the application in N.O. I see no one willing or able to even begin to call for accountability of what, every day, is another 'known' element of each thing that poliiticians have destroyed and then profitted from. I don't have any answer. Ny husband is an old labor lawyer who daily reminds me that it is the struggle, the not giving up, the putting energy where you can and, in numbers, leading the leaders. But the leaders have tanks. What happened in Chile, Bolivia, Poland, China, Russia, Iraq, has now happened in New Orleans. I think it was a trial run. Who will be next?
I once heard Noam Chomsky say that a scandal only exists in the US if one branch of government steps on the prerogatives of another.
Thus mere total incompetence, with catastrophic consequences, is not a scandal, because no powerful interest's interests were involved.
Thus, I suggest the answer to your question, "Who the hell will?" is "Probably nobody."
It's the sort of structural problem presidents occasionally address at the end of their terms, however, when they don't have to worry about ruffling feathers, so perhaps toward the end of Pres. Obama's administration, circa 2016?
Can y'all wait that long? I'm investing in the sandbag concession on Canal Street in the meantime.
And BTW, still swooning to Judith Owen's version of "Night and Day" as performed at Burlington's Flynn Theater two weeks ago.
No disrespect to earnest commenters, but please note that FEMA did NOT contribute to the CAUSE of the flooding; the US Army Corps of Engineers owns the cause of the flooding outright.
To wit: levees KNOWINGLY built to lower actual capabilities than design standards dictated.
It ain't the storm. It ain't FEMA. It's incompetence. Non-partisan, multi-administration, incompetence of an organization charged with professionalism that has failed the public trust.
~ A licensed civil (but not always polite) Professional Engineer
From now on out, Mardi Gras, the Jazz & Voodoo & FQ Fests, etc., will be bittersweet for the people of New Orleans- stark reminders of how this nation and its leaders turned their backs on the city:
"So glad to go to New Orleans to have a good time- party, eat, & enjoy Louisiana, but when it comes to restoring the city, oh, no, sorry, we're too busy with other things. Like Brittany...."
That is not to say the people are not grateful for what efforts have been made, and the hundreds of orginazations that came down to help rebuild, but it isn't enough, and this nation COULD have recognized how bad the flooding was and launched a full scale recovery effort.
But it did not. America betrayed and abandoned New Orleans. Bush The ACOE are responsible for the flooding of new Orleans, but the people fo America refused to raise a ruckus and make its leaders get off their butts and get to work.
And New Orleans people will remember this for a long, long time.
Goddamn it Harry. I used to look forward to your posts.
Now, I struggle to bring myself to read yet another reminder of our country's utter abandonment of New Orleans, and the entire Gulf Coast. Or of my fellow engineers' utter incompetence.
The American Atlantis is our nation's shame.
How many other presidents have lost an entire American city on their watch?
HUTT, two, three, four,
Eat the apple,
F*ck the Corps.
Since we lost Edwards, we lost the kind of voice you want to hear about New Orleans and other significant problems in this country.
Going against my earlier inclinations, I cast my vote for Hillary. A correctly functioning FEMA would have made a big difference in New Orleans. "Hope" and "change" doesn't get us there. Paying attention to boring bureaucratic details does. Hillary represents just as big a change from the Bush years as Obama does, and just as world-shaking a change in what our president looks like as he does. But, in addition, she represents "on the ground" reality about what it takes to have a functioning government that aids citizens on a day to day basis.
Sharon Toji
HARRY SUGGESTS: Again, please re-read Judge Duval's comments quoted in my post. He is not talking about the post-disaster response (FEMA, etc), but about how the disaster was caused--which he identifies, corruscatingly, as the willful construction of inferior levees and floodwalls by the US Army Corps of Engineers.
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