h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I was going to post a link to this article rather than paste it here, but the paper where I read it, The Tulsa World, doesn't have a free online subscription and I was too lazy to hunt up a paper that does. As usual Molly Ivins says things I agree with, and she says them much better than I ever could. I'm sure some of the Americans on my friends list have already read this, but I suspect that my non-American friends haven't. It explains the situation really well.

New Orleans, Bush and politics
By MOLLY IVINS Creators Syndicate
9/2/2005

AUSTIN, Texas -- Like many of you who love New Orleans, I find myself taking short mental walks there today, turning a familiar corner, glimpsing a favorite scene, square or vista. And worrying about the beloved friends and the city.

To use a fine Southern word, it's tacky to start playing the blame game before the dead are even counted. It is not too soon, however, to make a point that needs to be hammered home again and again, and that is that government policies have real consequences in people's lives.

This is a column for everyone in the path of Hurricane Katrina who ever said, "I'm sorry, I'm just not interested in politics."

Look around you this morning. I suppose the NRA would argue, "Government policies don't kill people, hurricanes kill people." Actually, hurricanes plus government policies kill people.

One of the main reasons New Orleans is so vulnerable to hurricanes is the gradual disappearance of the wetlands on the Gulf Coast that once stood as a natural buffer between the city and storms coming in from the water. The disappearance of those wetlands does not have the name of a political party or a particular administration attached to it. Many environmentalists will tell you more than a century's interference with the natural flow of the Mississippi is the root cause of the problem, cutting off the movement of alluvial soil to the river's great delta.

But in addition to long-range consequences of long-term policies like letting the Corps of Engineers try to build a better river than God, there are real short-term consequences, as well. It is a fact that the Clinton administration set some tough policies on wetlands, and it is a fact that the Bush administration repealed those policies -- ordering federal agencies to stop protecting as many as 20 million acres of wetlands.

Last year, four environmental groups cooperated on a joint report showing the Bush administration's policies had allowed developers to drain thousands of acres of wetlands.

Does this mean we should blame Bush for the fact that New Orleans is underwater? No, but it means we can blame Bush when a Class 3 or Class 2 hurricane puts New Orleans under. At this point, it is a matter of making a bad situation worse, of failing to observe the First Rule of Holes (when you're in one, stop digging).

Had a storm the size of Katrina just had the grace to hold off for a while, it's quite likely no one would even remember what the Bush administration did two months ago.

It's just plain political bad luck that, in June, Bush took his little ax and chopped $71.2 million from the budget of the New Orleans Corps of Engineers, a 44 percent reduction. As was reported in New Orleans CityBusiness at the time, that meant "major hurricane and flood projects will not be awarded to local engineering firms. Also, a study to determine ways to protect the region from a Category 5 hurricane has been shelved for now."

The commander of the Corps' New Orleans district also immediately instituted a hiring freeze.

Our friends at the Center for American Progress note the Office of Technology Assessment used to produce forward-thinking plans such as "Floods: A National Policy Concern" and "A Framework for Flood Hazards Management." Unfortunately, the office was targeted by Newt Gingrich and gutted years ago.

In fact, there is now a government-wide movement away from basing policy on science, expertise and professionalism, and in favor of choices based on ideology. If you're wondering what the ideological position on flood management might be, look at the pictures of New Orleans -- it seems to consist of gutting the programs that do anything.

Unfortunately, the war in Iraq is directly related to the devastation left by the hurricane. About 35 percent of Louisiana's National Guard is now serving in Iraq, where four out of every 10 soldiers are guardsmen. Recruiting for the Guard is also down significantly because people are afraid of being sent to Iraq if they join, leaving the Guard even more short-handed.

The Louisiana National Guard also notes that dozens of its high-water vehicles, humvees, refuelers and generators have also been sent abroad.

This, in turn, goes back to the original policy decision to go into Iraq without enough soldiers and the subsequent failure to admit that mistake and to rectify it by instituting a draft.

The levees of New Orleans, two of which are now broken and flooding the city, were also victims of Iraq war spending. Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, said on June 8, 2004, "It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq."

This, friends, is why we need to pay attention to government policies, not political personalities, and to know whereon we vote. It is about our lives.

Here you go:

http://www.creators.com/opinion_show.cfm?columnsName=miv

Thanks Witty. I didn't even think of going directly to the syndicate. Now everyone can bookmark the syndicate and read Molly regularly. And she is definitely worth reading.

Ok, I am going to point out three things and then I'm going to shut up about all this. In the coming months/years when you question why this disaster happened (above and beyond not being able to control hurricanes) and why relief efforts were too little too late and why one of the most unique, vibrant cities in the world is very likely going to be abandoned to the sea remember this -

Two-thirds of the population of New Orleans is African American.

Over 30% of the population of New Orleans is living below the poverty line.

The residents of New Orleans voted Democratic in the last two Presidential elections.

Granted I'm an old cynic and becoming more cynical with every breath I take. But if this tragedy doesn't have class and racial discrimination written all over it, then nothing does.

Egads, but I love Molly Ivins.

Be cynical about this, too: the National Guard and all their supplies and assistance waited for the president's order to roll in. The president issued that order on Thursday to coincide with his visit to the area.

The National Guard are all gung-ho, with shoot-to-kill orders, to stop the looting. In other words, the priority is to protect property, not save the people.

The LA Times today said that the NG didn't actually encounter any snipers, looters, or any other "bad" elements. What they enocountered was a whole lot of defeated people.

I'm just looking at the TV again and you can't help compairing this against the Tsumi last christmass, and I can't help wondering why the clearing up has'ent started, the "third world" inhabitance seem to be able to "clear up" "offer assistance" to each other and salvage their lives alot better than "first world" inhabitance? strange?

Molly is right on again.

When National security is always pointing to other countries before protecting their own ,this is bound to happen. Taking the majority of military from the areas most likely to need them during a Natural Disaster was protested at the begining. We are in a predicted cycle of increased Hurricanes.

If they knew enough to evacuate 3 days ahead then they had plenty of time to stock pile food,water and medical supplies at a safe location. What ever happened to the standard of evacuating the sick from hospitals and nursing homes first?

What human does not know food and water are essential?
Thia is shocking neglect for a rich country.

Most of the people are weak and dazed and not causing problems. The people who are causing problems now, did so before.

Those particular southern states know 30 percent are living below the proverty level. Most of them are working poor, don't forget half of those counted as poor are children . They had no means of leaving just before pay day. The end of the month, no money syndrome is a standard for the poor. Improving their standard of life was never a priority.

Greed changed the course of the largest river in the US in order to make more land, taxes and private money where swamps and natural flood plains previously existed (like Florida) without protecting with the best of safety measures.
Disgusting, dangerous greed.

When I flew into N.O. several times I was always amazed how little land and how much swamp there is!
I always thought if ever there is a place in the US that seemed like another country it is N.O. - it's more like France.

In the south there are still a lot of blacks that do not vote. Many believe their votes do not count. There is still too little effort given to showing voting can change things.
A Democrat view in the deep south is usually different from most Democrats in other areas of the US. These areas recently affected have been notorious for voting fraud and disinfrancising the poor and black voters.

Attitudes and trust in the process down south have not changed much since the battles to register voters in the 1960s. Most of the poor blacks in the south still do not vote These non voters figure they do not stand a chance at affecting change for themselves no matter whom is in office I sure do not assume they voted Bush in!

I'm not American and don't fully understand everything that lies behind this, but from my side of the Atlantic, the reports I've heard seem to lead to the same conclusions that are reached in this article, which puts them so well. Thanks for posting it here, Hyp. Regarding my own reactions to events, I'm afraid I can't put them into words.