Blaming the Victims...Again

Paper Dolls Bush/Cheney New Orleans Levees Design

I came across this story last night after returning from the Rising Tide conference (once again, what a fantastic job by the organizers)...anyway, the headline's about as insulting as it gets...and as wrong as it gets, as the accompanying article makes evident. Makes you wonder if AP/Associated Press is wrong. Maybe it should be IP, for Idiot Press.

Here's the headline: New Orleans repeating deadly levee blunders.

Um, let's start with a called out "Bullshit" right there: it's NOT New Orleans that's rebuilding levees that failed due to faulty design (as anyone attending Rising Tide III or who has done basic research can tell you). It's the Cheney/Bush administration, and the work, let's hope, will continue and hopefully be completed during the next administration (preferably WITHOUT paper levees--good heavens)...

The article itself goes on to note some of the major issues, particularly the fact the Cheney/Bush administration has only authorized 100 year flood protection (as opposed to 500 year...to be honest I don't know but doubt even 500 year protection is equivalent to Category 5 protection)...and that, as you might expect, under an administration that can hardly demonstrate less concern, the work itself is suspect.

Finally, just to dig the knife in a bit deeper, IP AP, not without more than a bit of scorn, quotes a couple of New Orleans residents--gasp--have the nerve to hope that their government might care enough to, oh, gee, I don't know, promote the fucking general welfare as well as ensure that an extremely important commercial corridor can survive...if for no other reason than the fact that subsequent generations might also want to utilize the country's major gateway to global commerce (as if protecting tax-paying, and yes, PATRIOTIC citizens isn't enough.) But no: welcome to the 21st century, where government is little more than a patronage racket and the press corpse is merely waiting for a decent funeral.

It's stories like this that remind me of how profound--yes, profound--Ashley Morris was and how much everyone misses him.

FYYFF!