Tuesday, September 06, 2005
I hate to blame Bush again...
But fuck, he does leave himself wide open.
Southeast Louisiana Project funding:
2004:
Army Corps request: $11 million
Bush request: $3 million
Approved by Congress: $5.5 million
2005:
Army Corps request: $22.5 million
Bush request: $3.9 million
Approved by Congress: $5.7 million
2006:
Bush request:$2.9 million
Incidentally this amount that Bush had earmarked for the project for 2006 is LESS than the amount that Rowing New Zealand is getting to spend thanks to Sport and Recreation New Zealand (SPARC) for the four year period between the Athens games held in 2004 and the Beijing games in 2008.
That's right folks. Those 4 gold medals at the World Rowing Championships that we are rejoicing over came at the the cost of 4.5 million NZ dollars plus for winning them they received a 1 million dollar bonus.
So little old NZ can spend more on a bunch of athletes sitting on their arses rowing up and down a lake for 4 years than Bush can ask for from congress to save lives?
We live in strange times indeed.
The following excerpts are from an article by Sheila Grissett which appeared in the June 8th, 2004 edition of the Times-Picayune.)
For the first time in 37 years, federal budget cuts have all but stopped major work on the New Orleans area's east bank hurricane levees, a complex network of concrete walls, metal gates and giant earthen berms that won't be finished for at least another decade.
"I guess people look around and think there's a complete system in place, that we're just out here trying to put icing on the cake," said Mervin Morehiser, who manages the "Lake Pontchartrain and vicinity" levee project for the Army Corps of Engineers. "And we aren't saying that the sky is falling, but people should know that this is a work in progress, and there's more important work yet to do before there is a complete system in place."
...
"I can't tell you exactly what that could mean this hurricane season if we get a major storm," Naomi said. "It would depend on the path and speed of the storm, the angle that it hits us.
"But I can tell you that we would be better off if the levees were raised, . . . and I think it's important and only fair that those people who live behind the levee know the status of these projects."
...
The Bush administration's proposed fiscal 2005 budget includes only $3.9 million for the east bank hurricane project. Congress likely will increase that amount, although last year it bumped up the administration's $3 million proposal only to $5.5 million.
"I needed $11 million this year, and I got $5.5 million," Naomi said. "I need $22.5 million next year to do everything that needs doing, and the first $4.5 million of that will go to pay four contractors who couldn't get paid this year."
...
The challenge now, said emergency management chiefs Walter Maestri in Jefferson Parish and Terry Tullier in New Orleans, is for southeast Louisiana somehow to persuade those who control federal spending that protection from major storms and flooding are matters of homeland security.
"It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay," Maestri said. "Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us."
...
Levee-raising is only part of the flood-related work that has stopped since the federal government began reducing Corps of Engineers appropriations in 2001, as more money was diverted to homeland security, the fight against terrorism and the war in Iraq.
Southeast Louisiana Project funding:
2004:
Army Corps request: $11 million
Bush request: $3 million
Approved by Congress: $5.5 million
2005:
Army Corps request: $22.5 million
Bush request: $3.9 million
Approved by Congress: $5.7 million
2006:
Bush request:$2.9 million
Incidentally this amount that Bush had earmarked for the project for 2006 is LESS than the amount that Rowing New Zealand is getting to spend thanks to Sport and Recreation New Zealand (SPARC) for the four year period between the Athens games held in 2004 and the Beijing games in 2008.
That's right folks. Those 4 gold medals at the World Rowing Championships that we are rejoicing over came at the the cost of 4.5 million NZ dollars plus for winning them they received a 1 million dollar bonus.
So little old NZ can spend more on a bunch of athletes sitting on their arses rowing up and down a lake for 4 years than Bush can ask for from congress to save lives?
We live in strange times indeed.
Comments:
And further to that:
Te Arawa get 36 million in their settlement.
meanwhile high performance sport got 19 million prior to the Athens games and is seemingly getting plenty more this time round if you look at Rowing and Cycling getting over 10 million between them post Athens.
Where the fuck do people get off bitching about treaty settlements when we then go and spend truckloads on building up muscles on a couple of thousand athletes (which will disappear soon after they stop training).
I assume these wads of cash will be full and final settlements and will stop by say... 2010? Or will they drag on and on and on for centuries leaving many tax payers scratching their head and wondering why they are paying about 5 million bucks for a gold medal?
Te Arawa get 36 million in their settlement.
meanwhile high performance sport got 19 million prior to the Athens games and is seemingly getting plenty more this time round if you look at Rowing and Cycling getting over 10 million between them post Athens.
Where the fuck do people get off bitching about treaty settlements when we then go and spend truckloads on building up muscles on a couple of thousand athletes (which will disappear soon after they stop training).
I assume these wads of cash will be full and final settlements and will stop by say... 2010? Or will they drag on and on and on for centuries leaving many tax payers scratching their head and wondering why they are paying about 5 million bucks for a gold medal?
I'm getting fired up thinking about this!!!
There are literally hundreds of "carded athletes" as they are called who receive funding from SPARC and many more at the "elite level" who benefit from this high performance funding and what do we get back out of it?
Fair enough for the Swindells and Twadells who produce the goods but what of the cash down the toilet from all those who the public has never heard of and will never hear of?
Sparc actually does a good job of pumping funding into all sorts of public sporting and recreation organisations that benefits you and I or at least encourages us to get of our arses but I really have to question the amount being spent at the top level and wonder if it's even sustainable as other larger countries with bigger economies could render our increased financial efforts obsolete. Not to mention better spent elsewhere.
There are literally hundreds of "carded athletes" as they are called who receive funding from SPARC and many more at the "elite level" who benefit from this high performance funding and what do we get back out of it?
Fair enough for the Swindells and Twadells who produce the goods but what of the cash down the toilet from all those who the public has never heard of and will never hear of?
Sparc actually does a good job of pumping funding into all sorts of public sporting and recreation organisations that benefits you and I or at least encourages us to get of our arses but I really have to question the amount being spent at the top level and wonder if it's even sustainable as other larger countries with bigger economies could render our increased financial efforts obsolete. Not to mention better spent elsewhere.
Did Bush approve the budget, or did Congress? What it have made any difference? This article suggests not:
"Corps engineers had known for years that the mostly earthen levees holding back Lake Pontchartrain were designed to protect the city from a weak Category 3 hurricane - not a Category 4 with Katrina's punch."
Also,
Worse for the editorial writers were statements by the chief engineer of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Lt. Gen Carl Strock: "I don't see that the level of funding was really a contributing factor in this case. Had this project been fully complete, it is my opinion that based on the intensity of this storm that the flooding of the business district and the French Quarter would have still taken place."
-Dinkas
"Corps engineers had known for years that the mostly earthen levees holding back Lake Pontchartrain were designed to protect the city from a weak Category 3 hurricane - not a Category 4 with Katrina's punch."
Also,
Worse for the editorial writers were statements by the chief engineer of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Lt. Gen Carl Strock: "I don't see that the level of funding was really a contributing factor in this case. Had this project been fully complete, it is my opinion that based on the intensity of this storm that the flooding of the business district and the French Quarter would have still taken place."
-Dinkas
# posted by 
: 6 September 2005 at 22:32
: 6 September 2005 at 22:32
Dinkas,
Firstly Congress gave even more than Bush asked for. He would have been satisfied giving even less it appears.
Secondly, who fucking knows if it would have saved lives or not.
Fact of the matter is IT COULD have saved lives yet was underfunded.
You can't defend the undefendable.
Firstly Congress gave even more than Bush asked for. He would have been satisfied giving even less it appears.
Secondly, who fucking knows if it would have saved lives or not.
Fact of the matter is IT COULD have saved lives yet was underfunded.
You can't defend the undefendable.
Didn't they decide 30-40 years ago to build a levee which could sustain a category 3 hurricane?
This was a category 4 hurricane, the current levee couldn't have stopped it.
-Dinkas
This was a category 4 hurricane, the current levee couldn't have stopped it.
-Dinkas
# posted by : 7 September 2005 at 17:00
: 7 September 2005 at 17:00
Generally, the mere touching of another wihout their consent constitutes assault (it has historically been called battery as assault is the fear of a threat that someone will committ battery).
I remember one (English ?) case we looked at where someone spat at a police officer and the spit hit the back of the police officer's shirt and he wasn't aware he had been spat at. It was still assault.
-Dinkas
I remember one (English ?) case we looked at where someone spat at a police officer and the spit hit the back of the police officer's shirt and he wasn't aware he had been spat at. It was still assault.
-Dinkas
# posted by : 7 September 2005 at 17:10
: 7 September 2005 at 17:10
Dinkas, I think you are missing the point.
Nobody has a crystal ball to stare into and know what mother nature is about to throw at them, but the underfunding of levee projects or related "security issues" as they are called says a hell of a lot about where the Bush administrations priorities are.
Chasing shadows in dry barren lands makes it appear like they are actually doing something useful, but basic investment in infrastructure ranks way down the list.
It doesn't matter whether or not it would have sustained a category 4 hurricane or whether they have rabbit-proofed it or made sure a plague of locusts don't come and eat through it.
The simple fact is the experts on the ground needed more money to bring it up to scratch and the Bush administration weren't interesting in giving them anywhere near enough. Yet are more than willing to spend tens of billions of dollars on foreign soil protecting America from dicators without weapons and draconian laws on home soil.
And how bout' dem gun laws?
Nobody has a crystal ball to stare into and know what mother nature is about to throw at them, but the underfunding of levee projects or related "security issues" as they are called says a hell of a lot about where the Bush administrations priorities are.
Chasing shadows in dry barren lands makes it appear like they are actually doing something useful, but basic investment in infrastructure ranks way down the list.
It doesn't matter whether or not it would have sustained a category 4 hurricane or whether they have rabbit-proofed it or made sure a plague of locusts don't come and eat through it.
The simple fact is the experts on the ground needed more money to bring it up to scratch and the Bush administration weren't interesting in giving them anywhere near enough. Yet are more than willing to spend tens of billions of dollars on foreign soil protecting America from dicators without weapons and draconian laws on home soil.
And how bout' dem gun laws?
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