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Thursday, September 01, 2005

Is there ANYTHING the Bush Administration doesn't fuck up?
Posted by Jill | 8:08 AM

Sidney Blumenthal outlines how the Bush Administration put the brakes on ANY efforts made prior to Sunday's hurricane to address the risks faced by the Mississippi Delta region:

A year ago the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed to study how New Orleans could be protected from a catastrophic hurricane, but the Bush administration ordered that the research not be undertaken.

[snip]

In 1990, a federal task force began restoring lost wetlands surrounding New Orleans. Every two miles of wetland between the Crescent City and the Gulf reduces a surge by half a foot. Bush had promised "no net loss" of wetlands, a policy launched by his father's administration and bolstered by President Clinton. But he reversed his approach in 2003, unleashing the developers. The Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency then announced they could no longer protect wetlands unless they were somehow related to interstate commerce.

In response to this potential crisis, four leading environmental groups conducted a joint expert study, concluding in 2004 that without wetlands protection New Orleans could be devastated by an ordinary, much less a Category 4 or 5, hurricane. "There's no way to describe how mindless a policy that is when it comes to wetlands protection," said one of the report's authors. The chairman of the White House's Council on Environmental Quality dismissed the study as "highly questionable," and boasted, "Everybody loves what we're doing."

"My administration's climate change policy will be science based," President Bush declared in June 2001. But in 2002, when the Environmental Protection Agency submitted a study on global warming to the United Nations reflecting its expert research, Bush derided it as "a report put out by a bureaucracy," and excised the climate change assessment from the agency's annual report. The next year, when the EPA issued its first comprehensive "Report on the Environment," stating, "Climate change has global consequences for human health and the environment," the White House simply demanded removal of the line and all similar conclusions. At the G-8 meeting in Scotland this year, Bush successfully stymied any common action on global warming. Scientists, meanwhile, have continued to accumulate impressive data on the rising temperature of the oceans, which has produced more severe hurricanes.

In February 2004, 60 of the nation's leading scientists, including 20 Nobel laureates, warned in a statement, "Restoring Scientific Integrity in Policymaking": "Successful application of science has played a large part in the policies that have made the United States of America the world's most powerful nation and its citizens increasingly prosperous and healthy ... Indeed, this principle has long been adhered to by presidents and administrations of both parties in forming and implementing policies. The administration of George W. Bush has, however, disregarded this principle ... The distortion of scientific knowledge for partisan political ends must cease." Bush completely ignored this statement.


The Bush Administration is so far in the pockets of developers and big business that what his donors wanted took precedence over everything -- even the safety of the American citizens in whose employ Bush is supposed to be. If science disagrees with developers and corporate executives, the word of the developers and executives wins out -- all the time (unless the executives are involved in the manufacture of contraceptives, then all bets are off, it seems).

No, Bush didn't create a hurricane, though in future, as more and more intense hurricanes strike our shores, we might point to the Bush Administration as blowing our last chance to do something about global warming. But his Development Über Alles policies have contributed to making this disaster as bad as it is -- in conjunction with his curious lack of response until the shit had already hit the fan and he was starting to look bad.

It's all part of a pattern that's now clear. The outgoing Clinton Administration briefed the Bushistas about the Al Qaeda threat -- so the incoming Bush Administration decided that by definition, anything that Clintonites were concerned about didn't matter. The Clinton Administration recognized the risks faced by the Delta region and shored up the Army Corps of Engineers after it had been gutted by Bush's father -- so the Bush Administration decided to gut it again -- because anything the Clinton Administration emphasized by definition doesn't matter. Add that to Bush's first instinct to flee a crisis and the lack of National Guard resources to address the crisis because of the Iraq deployment, and the only logical conclusion is that we have a bunch of incompetents -- and that's speaking charitably -- running the show.

And it gets worse. Today we have this:

A specialized urban search and rescue team from Vancouver will be joining the rescue efforts in Louisiana in the wake of hurricane Katrina.

B.C. Solicitor General John Les said the province decided to send Vancouver Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) after officials in Louisiana asked for help.

"We're the first non-U.S.-based team to be requested," said Les. "They're going to be helping as many people as they can."

CTV Vancouver has learned that the team will board a plane Wednesday night heading to Lafayette, Louisiana, where local authorities will direct them to devastated areas.


There's just one problem, as Kos reports:



Sounds great! Except for one problem -- this team wasn't allowed to fly into the US, blocked by Homeland Security from entering. A Canadian reader sends this report:

On tonight's news, CTV (Canadian TV) said that support was offered from Canada. Planes are ready to load with food and medical supplies and a system called "DART" which can provide fresh water and medical supplies is standing by. Department of Homeland Security as well as other U.S. agencies were contacted by the Canadian government requesting permission to provide help. Despite this contact, Canada has not been allowed to fly supplies and personnel to the areas hit by Katrina. So, everything here is grounded. Prime Minister Paul Martin is reportedly trying to speak to President Bush tonight or tomorrow to ask him why the U.S. federal government will not allow aid from Canada into Louisiana and Mississippi. That said, the Canadian Red Cross is reportedly allowed into the area.

Canadian agencies are saying that foreign aid is probably not being permitted into Louisiana and Mississippi because of "mass confusion" at the U.S. federal level in the wake of the storm.



Is the Cult of Bush so powerful that we Dare Not Speak of Its Incompetence?
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