I heard today on NPR that DCCC Chair Rahm Emmanuel is planning on using well-deserved Katrina criticism along with Bush's other infamous crimes in the his national issue-focused drive to retake the house in 06. We all know why:
- Bush cuts funding for the Army Corp of Engineers by 1/3 to pay for... you guessed it: TAX CUTS FOR THE RICH and his ILLEGAL, LYING OIL WAR WITH IRAQ. Guess who does need it... you guessed it: NEW ORLEANS, WHO WON'T RECOVER UNTIL THE LEVEES ARE SOUND.
- Speaking of the levees, Bush's Corp of Engineers cronies got caught lying about putting sand in their newly reconstructed levees... how pathetic, yet typical, see blockquote below. Who gave the orders to skimp? Shit, ANOTHER investigation needed.
- STOP George's pictures speak a thousand words
Warning Sounded About Levees
An expert panel monitoring reconstruction of New Orleans's hurricane-protection system warned federal engineers last month about the presence of weak, sandy soils in a newly rebuilt levee, the panel's leader said yesterday, escalating a dispute over the soundness of the government's rebuilding effort. [snip]
Seed's group, an engineering panel funded by the National Science Foundation, and a separate Louisiana panel of experts have questioned the reconstruction effort, saying the Corps is misleading state residents into believing the levee system will be safe by summer.
In the letter, Seed said he and another Berkeley engineer personally observed Corps contractors constructing a section of the levee using "clean, fine grained sand, which is highly erodeable."
When the problem was pointed out, a Corps officer ordered the contractor to remove the material, Seed wrote. But later, at a different site a few miles south, the engineers discovered and sampled more sandy material. Lab tests confirmed the presence of "highly erodeable clean sands along major stretches of these evolving levee embankments," Seed wrote.
Seed said Corps officials at the site acknowledged the problem and "were, in fact, eager for advice from us." The officials wanted to know how "they might, later, provide some measure of slope face protection to mitigate what they admitted was an unsafe condition," Seed wrote.
I agree that the 06 election should be a referendum on Bush and his pack of cronies in Congress. What do you think?