[Libloather]

New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin speaks at a Veterans Day ceremony at The National D-Day Museum in New Orleans, La., Friday, Nov. 11, 2005. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

Another story on Yahoo describes Nagin having trouble getting reelected - if there's an election at all.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20051111/pl_usatoday/neworleanselectionmayorbothupinair

[DJ Taylor]

"Another story on Yahoo describes Nagin having trouble getting reelected - if there's an election at all."

Nagin will be reelected. The Democrats will demand that Nagin's evacuated constituents be allowed to vote by absentee ballot and a sufficient amount of ballots will magically appear to ensure his reelection.

[Mark was here]

"I think there needs to be a redevelopment plan that we can look to and understand what the scope and extent is," said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska. "That's when you will get buy-in from Congress."

Any thing any one from Alaska has to say about spending money wisely is a total joke and waste of time. Until they drop their stupid "bridge to no where" they are just a bunch of buffoons, with no room to talk.

[trebb]

"I think over time we should keep reinforcing it and eventually get to a Category 5," Burns said. "That way we can spread the cost out over time."

Idiotic statement - instead of doing it right, from the get-go, ensure it ends up costing 10 times what it should by "spreading it out".

[CajunConservative]

We produce a lot of heating fuel, gasoline, synthetic rubber for tires, the base products for a lot of building materials, detergents, and other petrochemical byproducts that we all use every day. Perhaps we could stop allowing the oil and gas industry from destroying our natural hurricane buffers, the coastal wetlands.

Let's see, how many states refuse any drilling off their coasts or refuse to allow drilling in ANWR? These same states also refuse to have more refineries built too.

[I still care]

"Bush repeated his commitment to rebuilding the Gulf Coast. But when asked if he supported Category 5 hurricane protection, he declined to answer."

"Even an enthusiastic supporter of rebuilding, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., said she was confused about who is calling the shots."

How can she make a decision when Bush hasn't? Sbe needs him to take a stand, so she can take an opposite one and call him a Repubican idiot or meanie.

I think that's how the Democrats are taking their positions nowadays.

[greasepaint]

keep in mind that the levees in New Orleans
are owned by the 'Orleans Levee Board', a state agency,
not the Army Corps of Engineers,

although the C-o-E may have some part in
their design.

[deport]

Protection from the strongest hurricanes, state and local officials say, is essential to giving residents and businesses the confidence they need to return and rebuild.

---

How in the heck do you protect a city/county/area from the ravages of a Cat. 5 hurricane? My guess is it's impossible as the winds of a storm rated at a Cat 5 would do damage or even massive damage to most structures. Not a single area along the Gulf Coast from Texas to Florida has that assurance against a Cat 5 is my guess.

A storm of that magnitude would wipe out Houston to a large degree if it came up the ship channel. Wind would have the desk of the executives in the high rises sitting on the runways at Bush IAH and how much rising water damage would be done is a guess.

They need to get realistic.

[sgtbono2002]

Nothjing wrong with rebuilding New Orleans higher--as long as higher means on Higher ground. Its plain stupid to try to beat Mother Nature. Tear down the homes under sea level and build them, where they belong --on higher ground. Cheaper easier and smarter.

[Condor51]

This is nuts.
$62,000,000,000 (billion) to rebuild a city of 484,674 people?!?

That's $127,921.04 EACH. For a family of four that's $511,684.14

Hell, just give them the money, tell them to move, then bulldoze the city and turn it back into a 'wetland' (swamp).

Okay, we keep the port open, but that's it.

[goldstategop]

A Category 5 hurricane is once in a lifetime event. My personal opinion is its cheaper to just raze New Orleans and let its inhabitants start new lives elsewhere. And many already have. It makes no sense to rebuild a city in a vulnerable location only to be destroyed by another hurricane. The federal dollars going to New Orleans could have spent much more effectively after razing the place, on helping the city's people start new. Yeah, its puts Ray Nagin and a corrupt city bureaucracy out of business. But that's a blessing in disguise and Mother Nature helped to lay bare the greatest of failings: that of man.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[4woodenboats]

"Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., is preparing a letter that she hopes Senate colleagues will sign that expresses their commitment to rebuilding the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., said colleagues think he is looking for a blank check rather than merely a show of support."

"I think they are confusing, quite frankly, some sort of full authorization with that initial statement," Vitter said. "I'm trying to educate them that I'm not avoiding the normal stages of the process and just want a general, solid statement that leaves plenty of room for questions to be answered."

Hmmmmmmm, let's take a look at this. President not jumping high enough or fast enough, eh?

Landreiu & Vitter demanded $250,000,000,000.00 of our tax dollars on top of all the millions of dollars of personal donations, thousands are taken in homes across the nation to make a new start, and help literally comes from all over the world. Even Sean Penn of Iraqi Childrens Hospital fame went boating for floaters in search of fans.

The Red Cross, Salvation Army, and yes ,FEMA and dozens of organizations with thousands of volunteers we'll never know all the names of swarmed the area to help, and what did they get for their troubles?

The rescuers were held at bay where they couldn't help anyone when they citizens needed it most, the media, the mayor and governer immediatly go on a smear campaign against Bush, even though they ignored his and every other relevant official's urgent pleas to get the damn city evacuated, and virtually every black civic leader and congressman in the country polish up their racist badges and scream their racist, hate filled messages into the night, our president provides $62,000,000,000.00 to a state that is already being fined for defrauding the government out of millions of dollars that was supposed to be spent on the levy but wasn't, and they're wondering why they're getting the bum's rush?

It's because they're an ungrateful bunch of bums!!!

When are they gonna figure out that the only reason the libs and the media paid any attention to them in the 1st place was because they were useful idiots who helped lower Bush's poll numbers for a short while? (hint: too late)

Now that the players are done with them, they can become heros for a day by blasting Bush for wasting too much money on a bunch of corrupt public officials! It'll be "Bush Funnels Billions To Corporate Insiders", demands for "Accountability", "Commissions", "Grand Juries", and these same smug politicians that slammed FEMA for not having 5 gallons of gas on every doorstep while Katrina was still in diapers will wonder what happened to all their new friends. They really, really ought quit while they're ahead.

[dirtboy]

Protection from the strongest hurricanes, state and local officials say, is essential to giving residents and businesses the confidence they need to return and rebuild.

And that's the problem. The levees were supposed to withstand a Cat 3. They couldn't hold out strong Cat 1 winds, which is what NOLA got hit with on the weak side of Katrina.

If they are built to supposed Cat 5 specifications, do we really know what that means? Recall that Jim Cantore was in a location where the NHC thought there would not be surge - and he had to help evacuate veterans to the second floor. What if tens of thousands of NOLA residents stay behind, believing that the new levees would hold back a Cat 5 - and they don't?

It's insane to try and keep the parts of NOLA that are well below sea level from becoming a lake. Rebuild a smaller NOLA, move residential areas to higher ground further west, and avert the future tragedy.