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I wrote this for anoter group, but it's just as valid here, so I'll post it again.
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I heard some FEMA spokesman interviewed on BBC radio today saying that the scale of the disaster means that they can't just rush into it, they have to carefully assess the situation before committing resources.
Bullshit.
Within 48 hours rescue teams were on the ground working IN ASIA after the Tsunami - having left from the UK on boxing day.
The US government displayed supreme arrogance.
The US Army engineering corps asked for $70million to keep the levees safe this year, and the federal government gave them $30mill - because The War Against Terror (or T.W.A.T. as it should be known) was using all the cash up.
In the Netherlands (another place below the sea level) they invested the equivalent of $20billion over the pat 50 years - their aim was to ensure that the area has no more than a 1 in 10,000 chance of being flooded by the sea once in every year.
The PLANNED defense level for N.O. was 1 in 200, and the government OF THE RICHEST COUNTRY ON EARTH failed to keep that going.
And now?
The cost will be about $20billion (they tell me on the BBC today) to repair N.O.
A US Army Engineer was saying it'll take them SIX MONTHS to pump the water back out.
SIX MONTHS!
It only took 2 days to get in.
Somehow I think the democrats will get in next time.
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Overhead, the Albatross hangs motionless upon the air,
And deep beneath the rolling waves,
In labyrinths of Coral Caves,
The Echo of a distant time
Comes willowing across the sand;
And everthing is Green and Submarine
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