Sidney Blumenthal on hurricane preparedness

[unixronin]

....And other related failings.  Posted by skathic in neph_politics; originally printed in Salon.

Contrast to George W. Bush's repeated statements over the past couple of days that "no-one could have predicted the failure of the levees."  Lots of people did, Mr. President, including FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers.

Comments

[radarrider.livejournal.com]

McQ over at QandO responds to Blumenthal's article (http://www.qando.net/details.aspx?Entry=2488).

It's easy to lay back, and in the safety of the foreign press, take political pot shots in the wake of a disaster. But the fact that Blumenthal was a part of an administration which apparently did next to nothing for New Orleans when it could have leaves one less than impressed with his poisonous monday morning quarterbacking at this point. This threat didn't just materialize for New Orleans in the past 5 years. It was there during Blumenthal's 8 years as well.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

McQ is cherry-picking which parts of Blumenthals article he addresses, though, and focusing on the one he can appear to refute. I don't think Blumenthal is asserting at all that it's a new problem; far from it, that's part of his point -- that it's been a known threat for many years. Frankly, even if the money hadn't been re-allocated, there was an estimated ten years of work left on the levee reinforcement project -- it wouldn't have been finished anyway.

Blumenthal's point, as I read the article, is the Bush administration's pattern of suppressing science or even government studies that are counter to the Bush-Rove party line, punishing public servants who issue statements saying that reality doesn't happen to follow policy, rewarding those who drink the Kool-Aid and report the results they're told to. Granted, he largely focuses on the impact this has had on New Orleans; but much of what he's talking about -- diversion of levee project funds, loss of barrier wetlands to developers -- HAS been during the last five years on Bush's watch.

What's more, McQ attacks Blumenthal for things he didn't say. He cites a paragraph from Blumenthal's article, then one from the AJC; then he cites another paragraph, without attributing it, and attacks Sid Blumenthal on it. There's just one problem: That third cited paragraph isn't from the Blumenthal column.  It's from the AJC article, written by Bill Walsh, Bruce Alpert, and John McQuaid, of Newhouse News Service. McQ, however, deliberately implies Sid Blumenthal wrote it. Then he goes on to suggest that Blumenthal did nothing about the problem -- while a lot of the protection measures that were under way, before being slowed down or undone, including the establishment of the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, were done on Blumenthal's watch.

"If this was such an urgent project in the terms Blumenthal couches it, why were the 100 year old pumps and 100 year old levies still a 100 years old when he was where he could help make it the priority he now claims it is?", McQ demands. But that Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project -- created in 1995, on Blumenthal's watch -- included having the Army Corps of Engineers renovate and strengthen levees and pumping stations, exactly what McQ claims Blumenthal failed to make happen.

For McQ to say that Blumenthal's article is all and solely about New Orleans is both misleading and disingenuous. For him to misrepresent his citations in order to attack Blumenthal for things he never said is deliberately deceptive. And for him to say that Blumenthal did nothing when he could have, and is now pretending it's a brand-new problem in the last five years, is flat-out lying.

[drdemure.livejournal.com]

Shit, I've heard for years that the levees were a problem. We're governed by idiots.