T H U R S D A Y , S E P T E M B E R 0 1 , 2 0 0 5Is This Disaster Natural Or Man-Made?by Michael in New York on 9/01/2005 07:17:00 PMThe Independent in UK juxtaposes the tragedy in Iraq and thedevastation in the Gulf states and uses the headlines "In Iraq,a Man-Made Disaster" and "In America, a natural Disaster."Certainly the hurricane is natural.</p><p> But the plans to prepare forthis hurricane, the indifference to the death and destruction byBush even AFTER the hurricane struck and the incompetence inreacting to it are all man-made.</p><p> The Guardian in the UK gets itand spells it out with "Why City's Defences Were Down."It points out that the American Society of Civil Engineers madeclear how vulnerable New Orleans was because of man-madeengineering, the possible diversion of funds to shore up thelevees towards Iraq and the indifference of Bush towards poorpeople.</p><p> Most significantly, Bush has had FOUR YEARS to tryand develop plans for evacuating cities -- plans that HE WASRESPONSIBLE FOR since 9-11 changed everything and thepossibility of a terrorist attack meant evacuating a city wasnow a distinct possibility the president must plan for.</p><p> Whetherit's a dirty bomb, some other chemical attack or a naturaldisaster, Bush had to be prepared to evacuate a majorAmerican city.</p><p> Clearly he has failed miserably.</p><p> If this were aterrorist attack, the anger over his incompetence would beten-fold.</p><p> It still should be.Lloyd Dumas, professor of political economy and economicsat the University of Texas at Dallas, criticised thegovernment's failure to oversee a more efficient evacuation."It's remarkable that with the massive restructuringof the federal government that took place with theestablishment of the Department of HomelandSecurity, they don't have more well thought-outplans to evacuate a city like New Orleans," he said....Professor Dumas added that not enough provisionseemed to have been made for poor people. "Theredoesn't seem to have been much attention paid to peoplewho didn't have private automobiles," he said. "I didn'thear anything about school buses or city buses being usedto aim people out of town...."In fact, Greyhound buses stopped running on SATURDAY, according toone report.</p><p> I've heard NO reports of school buses or other publictransportation being made available.</p><p> So poor people who wanted toget out were trapped.The war in Iraq was also being seen as playing a part in thefederal response to the crisis.</p><p> Many members of theNational Guard who would normally have beenswiftly mobilised to help in evacuation are on duty inIraq.</p><p> Although US air force, navy and army units weredeployed to assist, the locally-based National Guard isdepleted by the demands of the war.So the hurricane is natural.</p><p> But the preparations for it and thesluggish, confused response afterwards is purely man-made and thebuck stops with Bush.</p><p> What were Bush's priorities?The corps has long wanted to strengthen some of thelevees which have been sinking, and on its websiteyesterday said it planned to build a further 74 miles ofhurricane defences.</p><p> But according to local media, it was lastyear refused extra funding by the White House whichwanted to save money to pay for homeland security againstterrorism. "In its budget, the Bush administration Daily KosCheers and Jeers: Rum and Coke FRIDAY! - Fromthe GREAT STATE OF MAINE... *Loud andTumultuous Late Night Snark* (With a generousassist from Dan's place) "Yesterday, tocommemorate the 40th an...12 minutes ago HuffPost PoliticsPlayboy's Barbi Twins Target GOP Rep.</p><p> HastingsOver Wild Horses - The U.S.</p><p> House recently passedthe "Restore Our American Mustangs Act," whichwould protect wild horses in 10 western states byproviding additional land and...18 minutes ago FiredoglakeBarofsky Report: What Happened to All That TARPMoney? - The special inspector general for TARPsays Treasury should demand information aboutwhat the banks did with the money they got fromTARP.</p><p> Treasury didn't ...39 minutes agoPlum LineHappy Hour Roundup - *** Ben Smith kind ofagrees with me about Obama not really offering atraditional apology for criticizing the Cambridgecop, and Ben puts it well:42 minutes ago Crooks and LiarsDude, Where's My $500,000,000,000? - From anJ O H N ' S P H OT O S AMERICAblog News| A great nation deserves the truth: Is This...http://www.americablog.com/2005/09/is-this-disaster-natural-o... 1 of 57/24/09 10:38 PMemailer: This is Democrat Alan Grayson askingChairman Ben Bernanke where the Federal Reservesent $500,000,000,000 last year.</p><p> And ChairmanBerna...1 hour agoShow AllA M E R I C A B L O G T V Visit our AMERICAblog TV site.see all 329 videos >I collect with vodpod Southern Poverty LawCenter calls on CNN to A two minute explanationof the warped and cynical The economy is better.But....</p><p> Judge order San Diego toget rid of the seals Massive brawl in SouthKorean parliament Mormons may havesecretly baptizedNext 6AMERICAblog News| A great nation deserves the truth: Is This...http://www.americablog.com/2005/09/is-this-disaster-natural-o... 2 of 57/24/09 10:38 PMEzra KleinTab Dump39 minutes agoWonk RoomF-22 Killed BySeven-Meme Voltron1 hour agoDaily DoseWill Doctors in theHouse, SenateInfluence Debate?2 hours agoThe TreatmentDoes the GOP ReallyHave an AlternativePlan in the Works?2 hours agoManaged CareMattersFresh Health WonkReview awaiting yourperusal12 hours agoG AY P O L I T I C S Visit our new gay politicssection, AMERICAblog Gay.F E E D S Blog RSS AMERICAblog TV RSS Twitter RSSTwitter Feed Get the blog by email: Subscribe me! 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