Interesting coversation over at NRO between Cliff May and Rich Lowery:
Mr. Lowry
I teach history at a small liberal arts denominational college in central Louisiana, and spend too much time on NRO every day. Among the classes I teach is one on Louisiana Politics and Government, and thought you mind the following interesting and useful.
Regarding the levee system in New Orleans, one cannot truly understand how lucky the city was just have the system that was in place without understanding the truly Byzantine structure of New Orleans politics, which requires separate governing boards for each levee that is built.
Rather one agency that is in charge of flood prevention, there are scores. Building in redundancies would have required more boards, which would have lessened the political power of those on the existing boards. I seriously doubt that even now, after this catastrophe, that we in Louisiana will see this system change because the structure is mandated by the Louisiana Constitution. Any change requires not just statewide approval, but must also be approved by a majority of voter in Orleans Parish. Given how many local politicians whose fiefdoms would disappear, that will not happen, and so we will see this disaster occur again.
Rich, your history teach has answered my question.
So now a question for the MSM: Why have there not been stories on the ?Byzantine structure of New Orleans politics, which requires separate governing boards for each levee that is built.??
Some of those boards obviously failed to do their jobs and, more to the point, this was obviously a flawed system that the political elites of New Orleans and Louisiana should have fixed long ago.
Could it be that it?s so much more gratifying to blame Bush and ?Global Warming? and other usual suspects than to fault local machines which — I assume ? comprised almost exclusively of Democrats)?
For the left it’s always more gratifying Bush. Why else do they breath?
It’s amazing to me that with 40 million a year going to the region for flood control in the last decade, which obviously was not enough, that the only one they will blame is this Administration. This disaster was divined over two decades ago, not too hard to imagine since N.O. is a city completely below river level and in some area’s below sea level.
News that more help in on the way:
The military is increasing the National Guard force on the storm-ravaged Gulf coast to 30,000 and 3,000 regular Army soldiers may be sent to help end lawlessness in New Orleans, officials said on Thursday.
The moves would bring to nearly 50,000 the number of part-time Guard and active-duty military personnel committed to the biggest domestic relief effort in U.S. history after Monday’s onslaught by killer Hurricane Katrina.
The scum we have seen during this crisis is just plain disgusting, reports such as this:
11:41 am
Name: Dave Gibbs
Home: 713 822-0141
Email: wdgibbs01@aol.com
Subject: My Hurricane Story — Trapped Persons
Story: There are 7 people trapped in the Gallary Row apartments at 448 Julia Street (corner of Julia and Magazine). They were attacked by armed gang who hijacked their truck and drove it through a locked gate in the parking garage. They are unable to leave the building due to the heavy presence of large, well-organized armed looters. They expect the building to be attacked at any moment.
The trapped people are lightly armed (one shotgun and one pistol) but there are numerous entry points into the apartments. Currently the trapped people are holed up on the roof. Please send help ASAP.
While I cannot claim to know if the above is true, sadly it would not surprise me. I spend many hours out of my day at work surrounded by the scum of the earth, they prey on the weak and will take any advantage to get what they desire. Sad, real sad.
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