Jim Ancona <jim@a...> wrote ..
> Ken North wrote:
> >>1.  The conditions of the levees and dikes are well-known in
> >>emergency planning circles.  Requests for funding to repair
> >>them have been routinely turned down.
> > 
> > Congress started funding the Southeast Louisiana (SELA) Urban Flood Control
> > Project in 1995. SELA was a long-term capital works project. The U.S.
> Army Corp
> > of Engineers spent more than $400 million on levees and pumps.
> 
>  From this morning's Washington Post 
> (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/07/AR2005090702462.html):
> 
> "Before Hurricane Katrina breached a levee on the New Orleans Industrial
> Canal, the Army Corps of Engineers had already launched a $748 million
> construction project at that very location. But the project had nothing
> to do with flood control. The Corps was building a huge new lock for the
> canal, an effort to accommodate steadily increasing barge traffic.
> 
> "Except that barge traffic on the canal has been steadily decreasing.
> 	
> "In Katrina's wake, Louisiana politicians and other critics have 
> complained about paltry funding for the Army Corps in general and 
> Louisiana projects in particular. But over the five years of President
> Bush's administration, Louisiana has received far more money for Corps
> civil works projects than any other state, about $1.9 billion; 
> California was a distant second with less than $1.4 billion, even though
> its population is more than seven times as large."
> 
> So the problem wasn't lack of funding as such, it was which projects 
> were funded. Not surprisingly, the politicians were more interested in
> funding those that would bring short-term political benefits rather than
> in protecting against a hurricane that might not come for 50 years.
> 
> Read the article--there's plenty of blame to go around, and no 
> technological solutions evident.

trying to solve political problems with technology is just another version of the Golden nail (or hammer...depends where one is standing) anti-pattern.

I think the solution to this particular problem is clear; all heads should roll should roll who were in the chain of command, with the potential for criminal charges to be pressed.

ph ya, perhaps a deep rethink of the potential for failure in a representative democracy set within the context of capitilism as primary motivating factor is in order as well. 

Wont even go into the idea that 99% of the people should vote when asked as their single civil duty, but we all really know our taxes are our real vote.

my 2p, Jim Fuller