Archived material Access restricted Article
Rantburg

Today's Front Page   View All of Sat 11/21/2009 View Fri 11/20/2009 View Thu 11/19/2009 View Wed 11/18/2009 View Tue 11/17/2009 View Mon 11/16/2009 View Sun 11/15/2009
1
2009-11-21 -Lurid Crime Tales-
In New Orleans, Elation Over Katrina Liability Ruling
Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.
Posted by KBK 2009-11-21 00:00|| || Front Page|| [12 views ]  Top

#1 a pleasantly startled New Orleans was still trying to decipher what it meant.

Translation: How much more money can Landrieu get for her vote???
Posted by Cornsilk Blondie 2009-11-21 02:42||   2009-11-21 02:42|| Front Page Top

#2 print up the money and deliver it to them in wheel barrows
Posted by Jumbo Slinerong5015 2009-11-21 06:46||   2009-11-21 06:46|| Front Page Top

#3 Itn mean deh Jubilee!


Lassen Sie den guten Zeitrollen yawl hundz
Posted by Perry Stanford White 2009-11-21 07:22||   2009-11-21 07:22|| Front Page Top

#4 Free 'Vision' card, free meds, soon to have new housing thanks to good old Standwood and the Army Corpse of Engineers. Remember folks, he's the one who said we could stay in the Hotels for ever after Katrina. Thank you Bill Clinton for bringing us pro-abortion Standwood. I think I see some lawyers coming down the street and knocking on doors right now!
Posted by Besoeker 2009-11-21 08:16||   2009-11-21 08:16|| Front Page Top

#5 Haven't the suffering American taxpayers already paid these moochers 2-3X of the total damage? Throw in New Orleans to pay off the balance and we'll call it even. Then America can turn New Orleans, hell the entire county, into America's Landfill. We'll let you rebuild when the trash rises to 20 feet above sea level.
Posted by ed 2009-11-21 09:47||   2009-11-21 09:47|| Front Page Top

#6 many residents of New Orleans and its surroundings have maintained that the flood that wrecked their lives was the government's fault

You mean the levee commissions? Oh, that's right - they don't have the money. My bad.
Posted by Pappy 2009-11-21 10:45||   2009-11-21 10:45|| Front Page Top

#7 have maintained that the flood that wrecked their lives was the government's fault

I maintain these people complaining are the ones at fault. They pick the government and now that their negligent hiring practices may or may not have come back to bite them in the ass, they're looking at making their employees the scapegoats.
Posted by Mike N. 2009-11-21 10:59||   2009-11-21 10:59|| Front Page Top

#8 Are they trying to tell us that GWB didn't dynamite the 9th Ward levee? I don't believe it.
Posted by Muggsy Glink 2009-11-21 11:19||   2009-11-21 11:19|| Front Page Top

#9 When you live in a permanent dewatering pit, like New Orleans is, and depend upon pumps to keep you dry, you can expect to have a few damp days.

This is a triumph for lack of responsibility and ripping off the federal government and the US taxpayer.

The only good news I see is that people that do this will be floating around in Hurtin' Pond when the money tap dries up.
Posted by Alaska Paul 2009-11-21 11:33||   2009-11-21 11:33|| Front Page Top

#10 My prayer is somewhere, somehow, someone will find and catch a dozen or so live, previously thought extinct prehistoric iniopterygian (albino ratfish) and declare the entire region an endangered habitat.
Posted by Besoeker 2009-11-21 11:41||   2009-11-21 11:41|| Front Page Top

#11  Free 'Vision' card, free meds, soon to have new housing thanks to good old Standwood and the Army Corpse of Engineers.

Awesome! Plus 5 internets!
Gives key to the camps to Berserker!

Damn you don't see good shit like this anymore. Thanks mein!
Posted by Perry Stanford White 2009-11-21 11:42||   2009-11-21 11:42|| Front Page Top

#12 Surely they meant Nagin's government's fault?
Posted by lex 2009-11-21 11:55||   2009-11-21 11:55|| Front Page Top

#13 I know Rantburg can be an especially callous group without regard for "feelings" but all of you should be ashamed for what you're saying here. When California goes under by earthquake are you going to say, "It's your fault for having a bunch of liberals in your govt." or when any number of natural disasters destroys a signigicant part of America, will you never admit the U.S. government has an obligation to it's citizens no matter what their class, race, or political ideology is? The USACOE did not build satisfactory levees and people died. You're damn right the government is responsible and when you're held responsible, you have to pay. And so the better it goes to people who lost everything in New Orleans.
Posted by Yo Adrian 2009-11-21 16:30||   2009-11-21 16:30|| Front Page Top

#14 Yo Adrian

Read 'The Storm' by Dr. Ivor van Heerden former Deputy Director of the Louisiana State University (LSU) Hurricane Center. Plenty of advance warning and blame to go around. Responsible citizens knew what to expect and left town. Irresponsible citizens remained at home awaiting the gummit cheese.
Posted by Besoeker 2009-11-21 16:55||   2009-11-21 16:55|| Front Page Top

#15 You definitely have a point about the advance warning but to suggest that people there hung around in pursuit for financial gain is silly. Many of them had no financial gain to begin with and couldn't go anywhere. Instead they did what we,or (I), would expect them to and "hold down the fort", so to speak. They never imagined Katrina would be so bad. I think alot of opinion about this is influenced by racism and, I'm not calling anyone here racist, these kinds of comments are, in my opinion, extensions of the racial sterotypes of poor blacks looking for free money. Which doesn't accurately explain what this situation is...government negligence that needs to be held into account. But, not for nothing, I will check out "The Storm" Besoeker...
Posted by Yo Adrian 2009-11-21 17:02||   2009-11-21 17:02|| Front Page Top

#16 Why would California go under by earthquake, 746? They've got stringent building codes, and for the most part builders and homeowners are willing to pay the extra cost to abide by them.

As for New Orleans, almost half of the city is below sea level, mostly due to subsidence I believe, which means that sooner or later another storm will be powerful enough to breach or wash over the levees no matter how powerful the pumps or well-maintained the levees. Given that, it would be better for all involved to accept that even the infinitely deep pockets of the federal government are incapable of complete protection and rebuild (or not) accordingly. The only other option is to take from Peter to pay Paul: where would you choose to take billions of dollars from the federal budget to pay for this?
Posted by trailing wife">trailing wife  2009-11-21 17:08||   2009-11-21 17:08|| Front Page Top

#17 TW, I didnt say nothin
Posted by 746 2009-11-21 17:57||   2009-11-21 17:57|| Front Page Top

#18 Yo Adrian, people are objecting to the sense of entitlement and feeding frenzy off taxpayer funds that occurred after Katrina.

One small personal example. My mother lives next door to a house that was defaulted just before Katrina. After Katrina, a family moved in, on taxpayer support. For three years. Didn't work, even in a town w/ very low unemployment. Were unfriendly. Added nothing to the neighborhood. Finally, after the bank milking the taxpayers for 3 years, they sold the home to a young couple. I assume the Katrina are still mooching off the taxpayer somewhere.
Posted by ed 2009-11-21 18:13||   2009-11-21 18:13|| Front Page Top

#19 I assume the Katrina couple are still mooching off the taxpayer somewhere.
Posted by ed 2009-11-21 18:17||   2009-11-21 18:17|| Front Page Top

#20 TW, I didnt say nothin

You are absolutely right about your innocence, 746, and I apologize. Yo Adrian is the one that should have been aimed at. Periodically I screw up badly -- I will try to do better in the future. In the meantime, let me buy you a drink at the O Club to make up for it? It's one of the links in yellow box on the right of the front (WoT) page. Non-officers like us are welcome, too.
Posted by trailing wife">trailing wife  2009-11-21 18:29||   2009-11-21 18:29|| Front Page Top

#21 I'm such a moron,O-club : Officers Club, I've been tryin to figure the name out now for a long time
Posted by 746 2009-11-21 18:43||   2009-11-21 18:43|| Front Page Top

#22 The Philippines just suffered multiple Katrina style storms. Now they don't have massive federal aid or a welfare state. (however a lot of the flooding was caused by blocked drainage systems but I digress...)

I can't help but wonder which group will recover first - the Katrina 'victims' who have been sitting around for years now waiting for someone to fix it for them. Or the poor Filipino people who know that help isn't forthcoming and they will have to do their own.
Posted by CrazyFool 2009-11-21 18:46||   2009-11-21 18:46|| Front Page Top

#23 They never imagined Katrina would be so bad.

People don't seem to realize KATRINA WASN'T THAT BAD. It went east of New Orleans (putting the city on the weak/dry side) and it weakened to a Cat 2 before it did hit (it did pack a Cat 4 surge though.)

Another thing - the levees were not really designed and built by the Corps - they evolved over 120 years. The Corps did manage the 'improvements' over the past few decades but they built on a lot of unknown foundation (which was what failed.) And the local levee districts were responsible for monitoring and maintaining - which they couldn't be bothered with (the positions were political patronage and dinner clubs, for practical purposes.) The Corps is not blameless, but they sure aren't the whole problem either.
Posted by Glenmore 2009-11-21 18:57||   2009-11-21 18:57|| Front Page Top

#24 Why would California go under by earthquake, 746? They've got stringent building codes, and for the most part builders and homeowners are willing to pay the extra cost to abide by them.

Building codes, earthquake insurance/earthquake authority, regular exercises by disaster response personnel, etc. Not to mention a slightly different mindset.

And it's cynicism, not racism. It stems from knowing that New Orleans is the poster child for Corruption. The USCOE may have been at fault, but so are are the numerous levee commissions and the city for not adequately building and, more importantly, maintaining their infrastructure. And both the city and the state played politics before, during and after the disaster.

The irony is that two other states were affected by Katrina. They responded better, got less in funds, and are in overall better shape now than New Orleans. But the news crews never seemed to have reported on that.
Posted by Pappy 2009-11-21 18:58||   2009-11-21 18:58|| Front Page Top

#25 @Yo Adrian

Free money. Race has little to do with it. It's culture.

That link currently has a number of interesting items. Like the one smoker who got $300M from Phillip Morris - which is probably more than Madoff actually lost out of the money given to him for investment, including the charities.
Posted by KBK 2009-11-21 22:39||   2009-11-21 22:39|| Front Page Top

#26 I don't have any more sympathy for the people of New Orleans than I do for the people of Florida. You live on the coast, you get hurricanes. Deal with it. Especially if you are below sea level. You can't blame the government for a natural disaster.

Especially when your own local government was such a disaster.
Posted by DarthVader 2009-11-21 22:55||   2009-11-21 22:55|| Front Page Top

23:57 Cornsilk Blondie
23:02 KBK
22:56 KBK
22:55 DarthVader
22:54 Dale
22:48 eLarson
22:39 KBK
22:34 Pappy
22:31 Pappy
21:52 Chief
21:44 gorb
21:41 gorb
21:31 gorb
21:26 twobyfour
21:23 Frank G
21:22 Barbara Skolaut
21:16 rammer
21:02 rhodesiafever
20:58 gorb
20:51 lex
20:34 KBK
20:33 KBK
20:30 rhodesiafever
20:02 DarthVader









Paypal:
Google
Search WWW Search rantburg.com