Not Rebuilt

Guess how this story ends up:

A strong Category 3 hurricane strikes the below-sea-level city of New Orleans; the levees break, designed by the US Army Corps of Engineers to withstand a Cat 3 storm, the levees show signs of poor construction. Thousands are killed, but millions upon millions are heartbroken by the deep racism and neglect which the storm uncovers.

The president, who had previously rushed to the centers of storm-wrecked towns in Florida, flies overhead, 3 days later. His political cohorts call for immediate aid, for the "red tape to be cut."

Was the red tape cut? How successful has the president's plan been in getting aid to the affected- in rebuilding the city - in investigating the causes of the flood and the inept governmental emergency response?

Rather than cutting the red tape for the investigation, The Administration has added more- stonewalling investigators, refusing to answer questions or turn over documents.

In terms of the rebuild process, rebuilding commissions are heavily weighted toward Admin cronies- which is, of course, the core problem that led to an inept response to the emergency in the first place.

With all that red tape cut, with all those lofty promises, why has so little been accomplished?

Nearly five months after Hurricane Katrina swamped New Orleans, President Bush's lofty promises to rebuild the Gulf Coast have been frustrated by bureaucratic failures and competing priorities, a review of events since the hurricane shows.

While the administration can claim some clear progress, Bush's ringing call from New Orleans's Jackson Square on Sept. 15 to "do what it takes" to make the city rise from the waters has not been matched by action, critics at multiple levels of government say, resulting in a record that is largely incomplete as Bush heads into next week's State of the Union address.

The problems include the slow federal cleanup of debris in Mississippi and Louisiana; a lack of authority for Bush's handpicked recovery coordinator, Donald E. Powell; the shortage and poor quality of housing for evacuees; and federal restrictions on reconstruction money and where coastal communities can rebuild.

With the onset of the hurricane season just four months away, there is no agreement on how to rebuild New Orleans, how to pay for that effort or even who is leading the cross-governmental partnership, according to elected leaders. While there is money to restore the city's flood defenses to protect against another Category 3 hurricane, it remains unclear whether merely reinforcing the levees will be enough draw residents back.

New strains emerged this week when Bush aides rejected a plan by Rep. Richard H. Baker (R-La.) to set up a government corporation that would buy back the mortgages of storm-damaged homes around New Orleans. Instead, the government limited the use of $6.2 billion in grants to the rebuilding of 20,000 homes destroyed outside federally insured flood zones.

Dismayed state and local officials said the president's approach does not provide help for an additional 185,000 destroyed homes. They warned that the federal government's halting recovery effort is undermining, at a critical juncture, the confidence of homeowners, insurers and investors about returning.

There's a lot of corrupt activity with this Administration. There's CIA leaks, leading to the first federal indictment of a top-level Administration staff member in generations [that is still ongoing!]; there's wire-tapping, which has yet to be proven as anything other than inefficient, unnecessary, and illegal activity; there's very tight connections between Republican officials, including the President, and one of the worst fund-scandals in recent political US history; there's the likelihood that top-level officials designed a torture program against international law.

There's a lot of sleaze in The Administration.

But of all of this- the persistent mismanagement during the duration of the Katrina crisis exhibits the worst crime- that The Administration does not care; and that they are incapable of taking positive action; and that they are willing to sell out every political connection they can and never willing to take action.

This is madness.