Friday, September 02, 2005

Molly Ivins On New Orleans

The incomparable Molly Ivins checks in with an excellent column, Why New Orleans is in Deep Water.

While Ivins doesn't blame George W. Bush for Hurricane Katrina, she does talk in concrete terms about Bush budget cuts and federal priorities that contributed to how bad the devastation has become.


"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.'"


You can read the rest here.