Hurricane Politics

With all the politics surrounding Katrina and New Orleans, a minor amount of real hard news has come out about the corruption within the city limits and the Mayor's and city council's domain. Why? Trying to learn what and to where that corruption extends one is left to only surmise. Gambling aboard all the ships within the city limits for sure points to some kind of paid favors. But how has that and other sorts of crime contributed to the vast amount of poverty that has existed within the city limits which, by some counts, is estimated to be one third of the population? Has the mayor been held accountable? Will he be held accountable buy some fact finding reporter? This condition of welfare and poverty and a seriously substandard school system has been around for many, many generations. Now is the time for exposure, but the media is to caught up in writing picture captions and sound bites. What have the city's elected officials been doing all these generations?

The levy commission was spending money on roads to casinos, on a casino, on construction projects but not on the levy. Four out of five major pumps were not in working condition when they were called on. Twenty five of one hundred and fifty small auxiliary pumps were all that worked when called on. The levy commission was not prepared to repair any of the four breaks in the levy under emergency conditions, it was left to the Army Core of Engineers.

The presidents ambitious plans to restore the area with money, job education, and tax breaks for entrepreneurs is all well and good but if the money is put into the hands of the mayor or any of the city council you can kiss the taxpayer money good by and expect substandard results.

To build and improved wall around the city of New Orleans that will hold against a future category five hurricane would cost in the prohibitive billions. I say let the rest of the country assimilate the poor that have already moved out or have nothing to come back to. Those that have something to come back to or had insurance to replace what they lost should come back. The government should repair the infrastructure where they can but there should be limits. No one really wants it to go back to the way it was, a poverty zone..