Whoa... I didn't print the above articles. I just copied/pasted them here. And if the "I told you so" club includes mass media outlets (not left-leaning outlets) like USAToday, Reuters, and the Wall Street Journal (to only mention the major players) I'd say that's a pretty big club - which is growing by the hour. The more we learn about the horrors going on in New Orleans and other communities this "club" will no longer be a club but rather the MASS Majority, it'll be undeniable. Will "heads roll"? Doubt it. It'll be neatly controlled, spun and ironed out until we will no longer notice the rotting corpses in the streets, those who've gone without food/water for the past 5-days, no security/National Guard until yesterday, etcetera, etcetera.

Yes. I'm on the left and we have many right-wingers on the board. I'm speaking out but I've said my piece and will say no more. Release the attack dogs, righties, but prepare for worse days ahead.

Saludos, MadridMan

desert_dweller writes: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is part of the Executive Branch (Dept. of the Army, Secretary of Defense, President). The Congressional Delegation appropriates funds, the DOD allocates those funds according to its perceived priorities. So, even if the Louisiana or Mississippi Congressional delegations fought for and got more funding, it was appropriated to DOD for the Army and not specifically for flood control. The Corps of Engineers has always been a stepchild in the Army; but given the resources it usually gets the job done, including flood control. The Corps' resources & personnel have been systematically drawn down to rebuild Iraq's Infrastructure: the priorities coming from the Pentagon (DOD).

Apparently the crumbling Infrastructure in the U.S. was not as high a priority (in the eyes of G.W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld) as Iraq's.

Your comment about the Louisiana Congressional Delegation not being aggressive enough tells me you don't fully understand how the system works

Although I agree, that Bush did cut the funds for the needs of the New Orleans flood district considerably, I'm not going to chastise him for a hurricane having done this amount of damage.

If you read carefully, into what these sources are saying, nobody thought in terms of a CATEGORY 5 hurricane, they thought about lesser ones.

Therefore, it's strongly possible that "any modifications" of the levees would not have been enough to make them safe for the storm that happened. Saying that's not the case is rediculous, and politically motivated.

I think it's rediculous to turn this into a political bashing party when people are dying on the streets. Its time to pull together, and quit pointing fingers. It gets old in a hurry.

Lets solve the problem, then resolve why it happened, in a logical order.

Wolf

Who get chastise? FEMA? When does he start accepting responsibility? At least Harry Truman said the buck stop here.

I think like the Iraq War, he thinks he can do things on the cheap. 10 Billion dollar for what? But do not worries they the short change this area because like the Speaker of the House said in the New York Times

Nice people these Right Wing Republicans. They see their fellow Americans down on the luck and guess they have to beat them down further.

Bill

Eddie: As I understand your input, the congress pass a certain amount of money for the DOD. Then hands them a check and says "here, go spend this as you deem fit." I would have my serious doubts that is the way that works. Congress keeps a tab on the money that is doled out, and insists on knowing where it is going before they cut the check. You notice I did not say a "close tab."

BillofNYC: Yeah you are right, us right wingers are terrible rotten nasty people. I think I will put on my steel toe boots and go kick some homeless people,tell them to get off their lazy a-- and go to work. Of course guys like you don't want to talk about the thousands of hours that guys like me have put into Habitat for Humanity, or all of the materials that I have donated to that cause. You also fail to mention how the congressman clarified his point.

Let me tighten those boot laces good and tight, I make sure I feel the grinding feeling when I kick that lazy a--. Gimme a break.

Hey DD

I notice you ducked the issue by not even answering any of my statements. Typical “Right Wing” Republican BS!

Are you one of those good standing Republicans that plans or wishes to assassinate someone too? Are you one of those Republicans that says God brought this about because of the sinful ways of the U.S.A.? God strikes out on US and bring this to the worst off in the country because of abortions? But God has no problem with the death plenty or the homeless.

I am done with you and feed up. I will not waste anymore time on this thread!

Bill

Bill,

Apparently you didn't read what I posted. The plan, as recommended by the Corps of Engineers, did not include the capability of being able to stop the levees from washing out if there was a CATEGORY 5 storm, yet you totally ignored that fact. I can only guess that you did it because it wouldn't have fit your "Bush bashing" agenda.

Now, you go right on bashing Bush, and posturing that its all "right wingers," and I'm going to shake my head in amazement as to how dumb that comment is, since I am not a right-winger, but a person who knows the difference between bashing someone for political gain, and placing the responsibility for what happened on the bureaucrats who failed to develop a solid storm evacuation program for something of a larger magnitude.

Since the people of New Orleans, who are in charge of such preparations, and they are left wingers, should we sit here and bash them for not having a plan for a CATEGORY 5 storm? Not at all. A storm of this magnitude is almost impossible to stop from causing massive damage, and no matter how you plead with people to leave the city, a lot don't, because they figure they can "ride it out."

Had officials "forcibly" removed people from NO, and the storm didn't cause this much damage, I believe you'd be one of the first people on the beat screaming that the Bush administration was a Gestapo agency because they forced people from their homes for apparently no reason.

Leave politics out of this thing. Let's focus our energy on getting these people to safety, and fed. That's priority one, not a political agenda.

Wolf

Oh how I long for the days of bubba. His do nothing approach while ensuring the people "I feel your pain." Please, give me a break.

Spain will help with 70,000 oil barrels per day to help with oil supply. For a total of 2,1 oil barrels in the next months (other countries will help as much as 60 million barrels).

France has offered rescue teams who are located in their Caribbean colonies.

Italy is going to send equipment (water pumps, power generators,tents,...) and personel to the zone, as well as two Hercules airplanes.

Australia offered 8 million dollars and specialized rescue teams.

Japan offered 0,5 million dollars worth of specialized equipment.

Germany offered money and/or specialized equipment as needed.

European Union offered any assistance needed.

Even Fidel made a public minute of silence for the victims of the hurricane.

Is your press echoing this international help?

Frankly, I can't understand the idea of "the rest of the World hates us, we are on our own to solve our own problems". US don't need money (your Congress has aproved a 10,000 million dollars to face the disaster, which is as much as 20% of Spain's government budget for a year). You just need specialized equipment and teams with the know-how to face that kind of crisis. And that is being offered world-wide.

Fernando

Frankly, I can't believe that you guys are wasting time bickering and pointing political fingers. From the very first post I suspected that the tone of this thread was going to go south and you guys proved me right.

My question to you all, is what are YOU doing to aid in the relief efforts? Why be worried about what the next guy is doing if you aren't doing anything (that isn't an accusation, that is a rhetorical question).

For the past two days, my husband and I have been glued to our computers helping my family launch a local effort (Philadelphia area) that is quickly gaining local attention. Our goal is that individual citizens step up to the plate and help in anyway possible. I am posting a link to the website that we have developed over the past two days. Madridman, if you feel that it is inappropriate, I apologize. Edit as you see fit.

If you know of local efforts happening in your community, by all means, feel free to post about it on the website: Katrina Kare .

I beg of you all to put your differences aside, and focus on the massive effort that is going to be needed to rebuild the Gulf Coast. This bickering is going nowhere fast and is not doing anyone any good.

Fernando, thank you for posting the international aid that is being offered. Hopefully some of the more ethnocentric posters will realize that people outside the USA do care and are stepping up to the plate.

Mecky, I hope you saw this article in CNN today. Perhaps it will satisfy your curiosity.

Come on guys. Come together and get the work done!