Please send to every Member of Congress. For the Republican members you might want to tell them that they are faced with a much worse situation as a Party than in 1974 and they better do what Senator Goldwater and some of his courageous colleagues did in August of 1974 --- go to the White House and tell Bush and Cheney to resign.
------------------------------------------------------

September 6, 2005

Dear Senator xxxxx,

I call on you as a Representative of the People of the United States of America, to meet your Constitutional duty to defend the Republic against all enemies – domestic and foreign. Thus, I request that you go to the White House today, and demand that Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney resign.

Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney are responsible for the colossal destruction of the infrastructure of the United States of America.

The culmination of their coordinated indifference and willful neglect of the protective infrastructure of New Orleans and the appropriate actions to protect the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast is now fully visible to all.

The whole world is not merely watching they've made it clear they know exactly who are responsible.

We do not need to await leaked classified documents or whistle blowers or any form of insider information. We have all the facts we need to demand the immediate resignation and subsequent retribution by Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney and many of their minions.

The only Members of Congress for whom this is a ‘political issue’ are the Republicans. They must confront the decision of saving some vestige of the Republican Party, just as Senator Goldwater and a few of his colleagues confronted in August of 1974 when they went to the White House and told President Nixon to resign. I have communicated that reality to the respective staff of senior Republican Senators.

The whole world is watching and their revulsion is not confined to one political party or another, it is directed at the vast inhumanity demonstrated by Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney and all those aligned with their criminal neglect of the people of New Orleans, their unbounded avarice, and their total disregard for the law.

Thank you, in advance, for requesting the resignation of Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney, today.

Sincerely,

======================
For additional info:

http://www.democraticund...address=104×4650516

Thank you and Peace.

DAMN... this makes 9/11 casualties look like that of a car accident!

All because one President cut the ACOE budget.

What a damned shame!

Understandinglife (#1):

Done! And no less, it was sent to Congressman Dave Reichert, #6 neocon on moveon.org's top list of vulnerable Republicans.

I hope that people who voted for Bush in past election can now jump for joy as their chosen leader has litterally killed his own people by his own cavalier and uncaring attitude.

The government #1 job is to protect its own citizens and Bush had failed and his administration had failed.

Remember Bush and Cheney's campaign promise: Vote for us and we will protect you. Vote for John Kerry, you will be killed. Somebody should make an ad and run it on all TV stations in every counties in this country.

Had to turn the tv off. Republican PR on all day! Read from Raw Story's comments section on Bush to be in Charge of Investigation of his administration:

******

"Would a reminder to anyone who even considered Bush adm. to not be at fault be helpful? KBR a subsidiary of Halliburton got the contract to "clean up"! They're "cleaning up" all right!

Now, their Rove Public Relations campaign is to inundate the media with the faces of Bush, Rumsfeld, and all the mafia, day and night (24/7)to drown out any criticism of their idiocy. Turn off the tv long enough to not hear or see them. E-mail the networks to let them know you won't watch them at all if that is all we are going to be seeing/hearing.

Anywhere the Bush adm. could, they have cut funds for middle- or low-income American people, or tried to or did secure any pool of money anywhere (i.e., state pensions (FL (Enron, OH (coingate), trying to secure Social Security for Wall Street, etc.) In order to further the PNAC new world order, they have delved into and grabbed all or most of them to promote their "military/industrial" complex. We've already heard "tax cuts". (We see the results of that tactic. Our economy is in tatters.) Now, we suffer the embarrassment of Bush begging other countries for help. It may be time for "beating our swords into plow shares" my friends.

Let common sense dictate our politics, and if Democrats get rough, tough and ugly, it will be welcomed. How dare the Neocons try to intimidate us into timidity!

They are securing now any means of crowd control, sonic (expensive), you name it. They plan to use it on anyone who opposes them. Do you think the alternative to not opposing them would be better?!!! Think about that!

Just as I start to hit the "publish" button here, I see Daddy Bush's mug on Raw Story saying "some criticism of Geo. W is grossly unfair. Just more flooding of PR. What a dynastic mess!

Coreesa 09.06.05 - 2:12 pm"

Somebody please pinch me because I couldn't have really heard what I just heard at the Pentagon briefing:
in response to a question about why there was such a delay in response, rumsfeld just said "There WAS no delay".

This was on CNN. I don't know who the military guy next to him was & who the hell cares anyway
but they both were saying how QUICK the response was.

What total BS. The death count is being pumped by people looking to cash in on this thing. Mark my words: there won't be 1,000 dead in total.

Now you even have the mortuaries lining up to get prepayments for fictitious bodies from FEMA.

Want to make a bet most of the "bodies" they incinerate and claim $$$$ for will be dead dogs and cats?

Estimates are that upwards of 50% of money contributed by individuals and passed out by Governments in National Emergencies gets STOLEN and this is just somebody else angling in on the loot.

Anybody ever meet an honest Mortician?

I didn't think so.

As far as the so called "disaster" in New Orleans; this has been predicted for 100 years and nobody can build a levee that will resist a large Hurricane. Instead of dumping Misssissippi river dredgings for the last 100 years at Sea they should have been using it to BUILD NEW ORLEANS UP!

I say this is a good chance to do it right in New Orleans. NO new buildings unless they are built on foundations that raise the lowest floor 15 feet above the flood level and NO new residences unless they are built on land that has been raised using dredgings from the Mississippi.

By the way: THANK GOD for Bush. The ignorant crooked Democrat/Liberal Machine of New Orleans was more intent on protecting THEMSELVES than helping the people!

Thank you, UnderstandingLife #1, for that letter...copying it & sending it now. Please 6 or 7 MILLION of you please do the same. Over & over & over.

Jesus just when I thought their bullshit couldn't possibly get any deeper or more foul.

I'll send it to whoever I can think of to pass along. Sending it to Michael Moore for one.

Send it to whoever has access to lots of people so they can pass it on.

Jimmo: "THANK GOD for Bush."????? Don't blame God for George W. Bush. Bush is what he is in spite of God, not because of God.

What's wrong with you?

The right wing spin machine is starting to crank up against the Government of Louisiana
Bush the Puss has the bully pulpit via corporate media
and he will only partly win, because people are waking up

What utter crap.

It is NOT the president's job to "take care of" the people of a natural disaster. People need to take care of themselves.

Read the constitution.

Government's duties are laid out there for all to see. I doubt one percent of bradbloggers have even read the document.

So now the pResident doesn't care?

Keep talking there Ken.

The more you show your hatred, the more America sees into the world of the neocons. The more they see, the more they turn to the Progressives.

Yes Ken you're right, the job of the president is not to take care of US citizens. They should take care of themselves - and stop paying their taxes.

It is NOT to wage wars in foreign lands either based on totally fabricated lies either, but Bush does that rather well.

It is NOT to divulge the names of undercover CIA agents (read treason) but Bush is a pro at that sort of thing.

The job of president is NOT to have homosexual prostitutes in the White House for all-night flings but Bush like that sort of thing.

There are a lot of things that are not in the job description og the office of President but Bush has taken them on. With all the credit he loves to take also goed all the blame.

Bush should be be led down Pennsylvania Ave. on a dog leashm, in an orange jumpsuit, with a sandbag over his head, by an Iraqi, en route to trial for Treason. Fllowed closely by Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Pearle and Wolfowitz.

That and only that would be justice.

I am just in total shock at all I have found out. I am speechless.

This is insanity. Some lady where I work said, "I don't want to sound right wing, but all those girls down there would flash their breasts for beads", as though it were some sort of retribution God had.

Even Jesus washed the feet of Mary Magdeline. These people are horrid.

How about if Jimmo volunteers to go to New Orleans and help gather the dead and count the bodies so we can be certain exactly how many there are? We wouldn't want to be handing out money with no accountability, now, would we? After all, this isn't Iraq. And these aren't energy companies.

Hey, they're finally thinking on a large scale. Too bad it's with morticians, rather than buses, food and water.

16 JPentz

These are not Christians, they do not follow the teachings, they make stuff up. Christ was a PEACEMAKER, who cared only for the sick and poor.

and some people are just ignorant. We have a festival in Key West every year in Oct. much like Mardi Gras, and the 'bead collectors' seem to be tipsy tourists, not locals.

17 Cambridgeknitter

Sorry, Jimmo can't go, his job is to monitor this blog 24/7 He is here more than I am!

Ken and Jimmo too: I like this quote, from a "furriner" of course, but doesn't your hero Bush love to compare himself to Churchill???:

"The responsibility," of government, Churchill told the British Parliament "for the public safety is absolute and requires no mandate. It is in fact, the prime object for which governments come into existence."

I have worked in the civil engineering field for over 20 years and have been to New Orleans involved with their hydraulic facilities (pumping stations, sumps, piping, etc.). Virtually anything can be planned, designed and built for, IF it is funded and not ignored. Anyone can see Bush is way over his head in this job, if he was my CEO, well, the stockholders would have fired him loooooooong ago.

DAve,

For an engineer, you sound pretty damn stupid. What churchill may or may not have said is irrelevant.

The constitution plainly lays out the duties of the federal government. You want to ignore it and substitute quotes from Churchill?

What an idiot.

To Ken:

You need to do a little more research before you come on here with what you think is going to be a witty, smartass remark or all you do is expose your own ignorance. The New Orleans levee system was built to withstand a Category 3 hurricane, and I'll make it simple for you Ken, there are five categories of hurricanes, 1 being the smallest and 5 being the largest/most destructive. So everyone who'd care to look into it would know that this was the case. They could have been reinforced to withstand a Category 5 hurricane (yes Ken, that IS feasable, shitbrain) a couple years ago but the Bushites slashed the funding for it over the numerous and loud complaints of the Louisiana congressmen who said in so many words that this would mean Jefferson Parish (and other parts) would be under water in the event of a major hurricane. So, predictably, New Orleans' levee system failed when 'Katrina' hit it, a Category 4 hurricane. Think about it Ken if it is not asking too much here, why would you think the engineers who designed it would have said it could withstand up to a Category 3 hurricane? You make it sound like they would've just said, "Well, it can handle a big storm" but not specified how big. No, they designed it to handle a Cat.3, was not improved upon and it was hit with a Cat.4, and failed, very predictably.

That post was also directed at the Repubinazi troll "Jimmo".

JACK D. WOOD
September 6, 2005
Editor, Pahrump Valley Times
Dear Sir or Madam:
I, like many others, have watched in stunning disbelief at the utter failure of the federal, state and local governments in New Orleans and Jefferson Parish, Louisiana. Expected deaths are up to 40,000 according to the Shelbyville Times-Gazette.
I am a retired California lawyer having practiced criminal law for 27 years as Assistant District Attorney in Butte County, Deputy District Attorney in Ventura County, and criminal law in private practice.
From the evidentiary information from media reports, President George W. Bush, Michael Chertoff, Secretary of Homeland Security, and Michael Brown, Undersecretary and head of FEMA are guilty of either murder in the second degree or manslaughter, felonies, least under California law. The District Attorneys in the affected Parishes in Louisiana can, and should, file criminal homicide charges against all three of those individuals, secure arrest warrants, initiate arrests, and jail each.
I have, personally and successfully prosecuted individuals for homicide on less evidence than exists against Bush, Chertoff and Brown.
Each owed legal obligations for the safety of persons that died from drowning while the federal, state and local agencies delayed rescue four or more days. Their dilatory failure to discharge the duties of their offices and rescue of those individuals constituted gross negligence which proximately resulted in their deaths.
President of Jefferson Parish, Aaron Broussard, Sunday, on NBC’s Meet the Press, illustrates the wanton disregard for the life of an elderly woman. Mr. Broussard informed Tim Russert that FEMA stopped delivery of truckloads of water by Wal-Mart. Further, that a Coast Guard vessel at the port in Jefferson Parish informed officials they had thousands of gallons of diesel fuel available. When Parish officials rushed trucks to the port docks to secure the badly needed fuel they were informed FEMA had ordered the Coast Guard not to deliver the fuel. Additionally, Broussard stated FEMA cut emergency communication lines in Jefferson Parish requiring Parish Sheriff, Henry Lee, restore the lines and place guards to prevent further tampering with them.
Mr. Broussard also stated an elderly woman, trapped in a flooded Jefferson Parish nursing home, called seeking rescue on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday being assured on each call she would be rescued. No one ever came. She drowned Friday night.
The willful and wanton disregard of pleas for help by people in clear danger of imminent death warrants criminal prosecution, not just administrative or political accountability.

Sincerely,
JACK D. WOOD
Attorney at Law, Retired.
Pahrump, NV 89048

Please don't waste your energy trying to reason with jimmo & his ilk. It's pointless.
A mentor of mine once told me that when someone is spewing idiotic, hateful talk, it's helpful to think of them as a tv that someone's left on. I mean, you wouldn't try to argue with a tv set, right?

Though I must confess I have yelled at my set once or twice lately.

"A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot
survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for
he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst
those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the
alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor
appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he
wears their face and their garments, he appeals to the baseness that lies
deep in the hearts of all men.
He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to
undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it
can no longer resist.
A murderer is less to fear"

Marcus Tullius Cicero 42 BC

"...to have the representation real, the election must be real: and that where the election is a fiction the representation is a fiction also"

Thomas Paine

"America is a tragic picture of the death of a great hope..."

(author?)

26 Joan

I agree, it's hopeless. But just a little shocking to see this level desperation and aggression, posting the same crap over and over. I call it the 'desperation samba'.

Maybe a universal remote control? OFF!

What a complete lARSEhole!

Yes, Nana, I wish I had one!!

From William Rivers Pitt's essay,
"Washing Away the Conservative Movement"

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090605A.shtml

"....This is the Law and Order and Terror government," writes MSNBC newsman Keith Olbermann in his blog. "It promised protection - or at least amelioration - against all threats: conventional, radiological, or biological. It has just proved that it cannot save its citizens from a biological weapon called standing water...."

Buhw@cker

LOL Thanks for the new word!

I'll add it to my list;
rat rooter
chunder puddle

Kraig: A New Orleans National Guard member said it best today on a LIBERAL talk radio show when interviewed. He said New Orleans has ALWAYS known it will get hit and hit bad and the levees will break becuase NOTHING man builds can hold off nature for long. That was the reason so many impoverished people and rampant crime ruled New Orleans; anybody with the ability to GET OUT........GOT OUT decades ago!

The Netherlands (not in a HURRICANE ZONE) laughed at the idea of being able to protect a marshland from a Hurricane or disease plus New Orleans history is FULL of mass outbreaks of disease.

The best thing for New Orleans is to level it, let nature have it BACK and start over with something farther North.

As far as who's fault this was: it is the fault of the nincompoops that built levees in the first place and gave people a false sense of security 100 years ago.

31 Joan

Yes, I read K Olbermans blog today, and he reminded me that this regime had a strong advertising campaign of "protection" promises.

And the body count goes up.

Great letters, Understandinglife and Mr. Jack D Wood. Mr. Wood, I hope this lawsuit , and others, against Bush and his cohorts proceeds. Time is of the essense!

#32
NANA, I've been called some nasty things in my time but ......Buhw@cker???

I had just finished listening to Brad's interview on the Lars Larson Show and one word sprung to mind!

"lARSEhole"

(You say ASS, and I say ARSE! Let's call the whole thing off!) apologies to Satchmo.

The silence is deafening.

I asked why did the Democratic mayor of New Orleans not have the hundreds of school buses used to evacuate the city?

No one is answering. The mayor himself is now saying "no comment".

The Democratic governor of Louisiana did nothing but cry on national tv and then have a meltdown. Wow.

Meanwhile, thousands of New Orleans residents crowded into the superdome, where there were ZERO backup generators, ZERO lights, and the toilets were all running over.

Gangs of black youths were raping the women and children (using flashlights, presumably - at least THEY were prepared)

So what are we hearing from the bradbloggers? Why, the PRESIDENT is responsible for this lack of planning.

Jesus.

And Kraig, the mental genius claims it was Bush's responsibility to build the levees up to withstand a Cat 5 hurricane.

Kraig, it would take 100 billion dollars and 30 years to accomplish that. It would be akin to building 10 Hoover Dams.

President Bush is not responsible for leading the refugees to safety. The citizens have a responsibility to look out for their own safety. The mayor and governor have a responsibility to look out for the citizens of their state.

They dropped the ball.

Ken,

Your lack of compassion in the face the most horrible tragedy that America has endured is
very un-nerving. Your feeble attempt to justify the deaths by alleging that it is o k because it would have taken to much time and money to avoid it, is lame.

Most of those victims died not because they chose to live in an area which had the potential to be hit by floods or hurricanes but because after they were hit they were sentenced to death by the actions of FEMA and the lack of action by bush.

You and your opinions are insignificant.

JIMMO
"What total BS. The death count is being pumped by people looking to cash in on this thing. Mark my words: there won't be 1,000 dead in total."

I'm put a $1000 against that statement ,what odds are you giving ,you sound pretty cocky as we say down under ,10 to 1 ,50 to 1 ,100 to 1 ?

To "Jimmo":

I don't understand why you have to try to dumb it down by saying "nothing manmade can withstand a hurricane". Well, actually I do. You say it because you're wrong, you probably somewhere in the back of your tiny little mind know you're wrong, and it's easier for people like you (if I may stretch the meaning of the word "people") to throw up your hands after something like this and say "nothing could've been done. Oh well" as a feeble attempt to console yourselves that your fascist elitist bourgeois oligarchy who thinks "privatizing" civil defense/emergency response [and giving the wealthiest 2% of the population huge tax cuts with the burden shifted onto the poor and middle class in 2 ways, one directly and one indirectly by gutting public programs like levee improvement] is a good idea, that they "did all they could". Well, you're wrong. And you need to do a little more research there "Jimmo". See, as I stated plainly in the above post #23 which you are forcing me to rehash here again in the probably vain hope that it will sink in this time, YES it IS possible to design and build levees that will survive a Category 4 and 5 hurricane intact. It is do-able, and this is not like trying to get cold fusion down, O.K.? It was proposed a few years ago but (guess who?) Bush cut the funding for it to almost nothing. Not the Louisiana senators. Not the black mayor of New Orleans you heartless pieces of shit are so desperately trying to foist the blame onto. Bush did. Deal with it.

Furthermore, anyone with at least half a working mind can tell that a huge hurricane is a national-level disaster, not some small matter that can be alleviated with just state resources. If a large foreign army of 400,000 men was landed at the mouth of the Mississippi would individuals such as yourself be harping on how the Louisiana Nat'l. Guard should be driving them back into the sea on their own? I think it would take a construction crane to be able to pull your head out of your ass.

Lars Larson hates his wife I bet.

sam,

you make no sense. Every literate person in America knew the precarious nature of New Orleans. It has been studied to death.

The people who stayed did so in direct opposition to suggestions, then orders, from their mayor. The mayor had no plan whatsoever for evacuation.

This was a failure at the local level. By a Democrat mayor and a Democrat Governor. Crying and sobbing is not leading.

JUST IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
What does "F" mean in FEMA

FEMA's preparation, performance and questionable largesse during the four 2004 Florida hurricanes stands in stark contrast with its abysmal failure in New Orleans in the wake of Katrina. While severe, the four Florida hurricanes (Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne) caused under 100 deaths and $22 billion in damage, a fraction of Katrina's destructive force. Yet FEMA's proactive role and President Bush's timely and personal involvement in Florida bear no relation to 2005:

When Bush signed the declaration of federal disaster for LA & MS when the hurricane hit at that point it became a federal responsibility. Therefore, FEMA had the primary responsibility.

I'm sure that local and state government share some blame, but the ultimate responsibility belonged to the federal government. Go to the FEMA website and you will see (if they haven't removed it to cover their rears) that FEMA has primary responsibility.

BushCo are circling the wagons and placing the blame at the local and state level. That is why you hear Lisa Myers pointing out how New Orleans had all those unused buses. Now could it just be the buses were already under water and they couldn't get to them in time?

Why hasn't the media pointed out that Bush and his administration remained on vacation even after the hurricane hit when they should have all returned to D.C. immediately?

I've said for years that beach front properties should not be allowed on the East coast or Gulf region because they always get wiped out and the gov't allows them to be rebuilt. Stupid!!

I heard it said that after Katrina everything in LA, MS, & AL within two miles of the shore line was wiped out. That proves my point. Setback should be two miles from the shoreline in every one of these states.

Why New Orleans was ever built on land below sealevel is beyond me. However, that has no bearing on what happened now since it was built long ago. The levees should have been fixed period.

The lame and weak minded are in power and so there is no surprise at their lack of understanding.

Nor is it any surprise that the minority of americans, who are impressed with such ignorance masking as savvy, and who post here, would make likewise feeble attempts at parroting this foolishness.

One of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers, is the below-sea level land of the Netherlands.

For 2000 years they have significantly prevailed and today it is said of this area:

"Today, approximately 27 percent of the Netherlands is actually below sea level. This area is home to over 60 percent of the country's population of 15.8 million people (link here).

I would not recommend this in the United States where the president WORKS HARD at making sure there is not enough to take care of the people's levees, and instead WORK HARD to make greatest engineering joke "in that part of the world" happen.

Suffice it to say: "The Dutch and their ancestors have been working to hold back and reclaim land from the North Sea for over 2000 years. Over 2000 years ago, the Frisians who first settled the Netherlands began to build terpen, the first dykes to hold back the water."

Like my girlfriend said, "Bring the dutch to show how it is done". Their government protects their people by keeping the levees in good shape ... so they don't have to blame the victims.

Imagine the blame bu$hit would have to drum up if 27% of the US was below sea level as the Netherlands are ... millions would die and the states and local governments would be blamed even tho they do not maintain the levees.

How lame ... how very lame ... how very weak. As weak as an american levee composed of the integrity of bu$hit.

In case anyone was wondering, my comment #45 was directed toward #8 and #12, NOT #44.

Shorter Ken: the existence of FEMA, and its mandate, are unconstitutional.

Be an interesting question for Roberts at his confirmation hearing. All you'd have to do is find a Senator willing to get laughed out of the room.

Don't waste your time on trolls people. You've got better things to do.

Rumsfeld, Secretary of "Defense", is the boss of the Army Corp of Engineers. They are in charge of the levees that failed and flooded and killed thousands of americans. I mean killed them in "that part of the world".

He has been killing around the world lately, so why not at "home" too?

He is the one who said "you go to war with the army you have", and who used a rubber stamp to sign the "we are sorry" letters to the parents and family of the dead.

Yesterday he said the rescue relief and other activities were not late and everything was on target. So I guess "you go to rescue when you want to" is his latest motto.

Meanwhile, the danger posed by pumping the toxic water (the Corp of Engineers, under Rumsfeld's leadership, has produced by letting the levees degenerate and break) back into the rivers, lakes, and the gulf, could cause another catastrophe (link here).

"Toxicologists and public health experts warned yesterday that pumping billions of gallons of contaminated water from the streets of New Orleans back into the Gulf of Mexico - the only viable option if the city is ever to return to even a semblance of its former self -would have a crippling effect on marine and animal life, compromise the wetlands that form the first line of resistance to future hurricanes, and carry deleterious consequences for human health throughout the region."

I love the comment by Ben, to run an add with Bush/Cheney saying, "Vote for Kerry and you'll be killed", then show 9/11 & Katrina, and the WTC buildings crumbling in the background, and bombs going off in Iraq.........

Nice comment by Joseph Goebbels...OOPS! I mean "JIMMO"...

Ken: Does that include corporations? How come the Bush Administration is constantly giving billions of dollars of "corporate welfare" away? You don't make sense! How come you don't say that corporations should take care of themselves, instead of getting billions of taxpayer dollars?

Hmmm - an entirely different take.... muhaha

http://www.heraldsun.new...515201%255E25717,00.html

DREDD:

For your information:

The Dutch HAVE been to New Orleans, time and again to study the levees at our request, and have said on the record, time and again, that there is no levee that could be built that would protect the city from a once in a hundred years Hurricane.

Just a little geography lesson for you: The Netherlands is NOT in a Hurricane zone which is WHY they are successful at building dikes that do not fail.

Jeeeezzzz........................ some people's kids are real ignorant.

Sue Bush?? Maybe Mr. Wood should have studied Constitutional Law

Sure seems to me the real finger pointing needs to be towards the state and local governments - maybe Bush should sue them for gross negligence of duty....

Re: NETHERLANDS:

Netherland's Delta Works
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

In the North Sea Flood of 1953 a break in the dikes and seawalls in the Netherlands killed 1,835 people and forced the evacuation of 70,000 more. 10,000 animals drowned, and 4,500 buildings were destroyed. To prevent such a tragedy from happening again, an ambitious flood defense system was conceived and deployed, called the Delta Works (Dutch: Deltawerken).

This project was intended to improve the safety of the lower areas of the Netherlands against severe storms and flooding; since more than one third of the nation's land lies below sea level, this is no simple task. Dunes along the entire seashore were raised by as much as 5 meters, while the islands in Zeeland province were joined together by dams and other large scale constructions to shorten the coastline. The most sophisticated and famous of these dams is the Oosterscheldekering (left of the leftmost "i" on the satellite image), which can be opened and closed to keep the sea at bay while preserving the saltwater river delta for wildlife and the fishing industry.

However, there is an ongoing fundamental discussion about the basics of the Delta Works: the mainland is subsiding and due to climate changes sea levels are rising. Eventually the dikes will have to be made higher and wider, causing even more local subsidence. This is a long term uphill battle against the sea, which many feel cannot be won. Some people argue that relocation of population centres and giving up land to the sea would be a longer lasting solution than to 'fight the sea'. However, the Netherlands have a very high population density and can ill afford the loss of habitable and arable land.

http://en.wikipedia.org/...ane_risk_for_New_Orleans
An international perspective
The Dutch have long had experience of coping with flooding and below sea level cities. As U.S. military engineers struggled to shore up breached levees, experts in the Netherlands expressed surprise that New Orleans' flood systems failed to restrain the raging waters. With half of the country's population of 16 million living below sea level, the Netherlands has been preparing since floods in 1953 that killed 2,000 people. The nation installed massive hydraulic sea walls known as the Delta Works.

After heavy rains several times in the 1990s nearly caused Dutch rivers to overflow their banks, the Netherlands instituted a new policy of "room for the rivers", involving the maintenance of flood plains and nomination of a few smaller settlements on these plains which if necessary would be sacrificed to protect major cities. It also created financial incentives and regulations to encourage the depopulation of these flood plains over time. This environmental-based flood plain approach is directly opposed to the longstanding engineering-based approach, common throughout the Western world, of creating ever higher and stronger artificial flood defenses, concreting river banks, straightening river courses and reclaiming flood plains for development. In the US, the importance of wetlands as natural flood defenses had been increasingly recognised, but there were other priorities.

DRED: YOU MUST READ BOTH BITS OF INFORMATION AND THEN APOLOGIZE TO ME.

Dan,

Don't obfuscate. The mayor of New Orleans had no plan for evacuation. He had alread told the residents they were on their own, and they were.

He didn't even use the 250 buses available to him. He had no generators, no lights, no water available at the superdome.

He did nothing. If he was a republican you would be turning yourself inside out criticising him. Same for the governor. She had a meltdown on tv. She did nothing.

This is democrat leadership? Jeses.

36 SORRY BUSHW@cker! LOL

Hard to type when your seeing 'RED'!!!
(as in ,my eyes are BLEEDING'!)

By chance, I talked with several W voters over the weekend. I didn't start the conversations, they were random meetings with strangers (cashier here or there) who themselves opened up conversation about New Orleans. I loved their closings...that Bush was an asshole and they couldn't believe they voted for him.

It is unfortunate however that it took this much obviousness.

Good job, Miss P!

I was wondering how many Bushie voters regret their choice now....

I am wondering... if the election were held today, would Bush be packing his bags tonight??

The Dutch engineers have been doing it for 2000 years.

If we add up their losses in the situations where storms have hit them for 2000 years, the yearly loss is minor when one takes into consideration they have near 10,000,000 (millions) of people living below sea level.

New Orleans has 500,000 (thousands). And the Dutch do not have the financial resources the US has.

To compare 2000 years against 60 years (Corp put in charge in 1940's) or 200 years (louisiana purchase til now) and millions to thousands puts it in perspective.

No wonder the American engineers call the dutch work one of the engineering wonders of the world. And no wonder the dutch engineers say you can't do it with 5.7 million which is all the white house and congressional neoCon fascists would grant to do it with. But they gave $5,000,000,000 CASH to the warlords of Iraq to buy their "support".

The difference is that their politicians do not spend the upgrade and repair money on wars and excess, instead of on the levees, like our neoCon politicians do.

I apologize for jimmo's dorkiness at not being able to see it the way engineers do, but instead as the neoCon killers, rapists, and ghouls do.

It seems to me that Bozo Bush and his circus want the poor people to riot. Why else are they f@#*ing dragging their damn feet?!!!

Thanks to Understandinglife. I lost your thread to your letter on DU--I copied it and then called 9 House Reps and two Senators--using some of your wording--it was a great help!

With all this back and forth on whose responsibility the NO debaucle rests, please read the December 2004 National Response Plan. You can get the gist of it at: http://www.noquarter.typ.../09/criminal_neglig.html

Thanks too to Jack Wood. Now we know what we feel has credence (sp?).

FEMA Wants No Photos of Dead

------NEW ORLEANS — The U.S. agency leading Hurricane Katrina rescue efforts said Tuesday that it does not want the news media to photograph the dead as they are recovered.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, heavily criticized for its slow response to the devastation caused by the hurricane, rejected journalists' requests to accompany rescue boats searching for storm victims.

An agency spokeswoman said space was needed on the rescue boats.

"We have requested that no photographs of the deceased be made by the media," the spokeswoman said in an e-mail.-------