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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Dear Visionaries:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>About New Orleans and the hurricane: I think we
should open our homes and I have asked Mayor Comstock and City Supervisor Gary
Riedner to open the discussion of how we might be of the most use. I think our
natural 'sister city' in this would be Baton Rouge, home of LSU... and I was
touched with President White's offer of aid as well. I have to say that my
friendship with many mayors and council members from southern Louisiana,
Mississippi and Alabama makes me think of people I am concerned for as I write.
There's not a whole lot left of some of these places whose council members and
mayors have been great partners of the City of Moscow in the National League of
Cities. I hope we can do something meaningful and soon.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I also was e-mailed this earlier today and I offer
it for your consideration and thought.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>All the best,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Linda Pall</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Moscow City Council</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face=Arial
size=2>+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Why New Orleans
is in deep water<BR><BR></FONT><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"><FONT
id=byline>Molly Ivins, Creators Syndicate<BR></FONT><FONT id=date>Published
September 1, 2005</FONT><BR><BR></DIV></FONT></FONT>
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<DIV class=text>AUSTIN, Texas -- Like many of you who love New Orleans, I find
myself taking short mental walks there today, turning a familiar corner,
glimpsing a favorite scene, square or vista. And worrying about the beloved
friends and the city, and how they are now.<BR><BR>To use a fine Southern word,
it's tacky to start playing the blame game before the dead are even counted. It
is not too soon, however, to make a point that needs to be hammered home again
and again, and that is that government policies have real consequences in
people's lives.<BR><BR>This is not "just politics" or blaming for political
advantage. This is about the real consequences of what governments do and do not
do about their responsibilities. And about who winds up paying the price for
those policies.<BR><BR>This is a column for everyone in the path of Hurricane
Katrina who ever said, "I'm sorry, I'm just not interested in politics," or,
"There's nothing I can do about it," or, "Eh, they're all crooks
anyway."<BR><BR>Nothing to do with me, nothing to do with my life, nothing I can
do about any of it. Look around you this morning. I suppose the National Rifle
Association would argue, "Government policies don't kill people, hurricanes kill
people." Actually, hurricanes plus government policies kill people.<BR><BR>One
of the main reasons New Orleans is so vulnerable to hurricanes is the gradual
disappearance of the wetlands on the Gulf Coast that once stood as a natural
buffer between the city and storms coming in from the water. The disappearance
of those wetlands does not have the name of a political party or a particular
administration attached to it. No one wants to play, "The Democrats did it," or,
"It's all Reagan's fault." Many environmentalists will tell you more than a
century's interference with the natural flow of the Mississippi is the root
cause of the problem, cutting off the movement of alluvial soil to the river's
delta.<BR><BR>But in addition to long-range consequences of long-term policies
like letting the Corps of Engineers try to build a better river than God, there
are real short-term consequences, as well. It is a fact that the Clinton
administration set some tough policies on wetlands, and it is a fact that the
Bush administration repealed those policies--ordering federal agencies to stop
protecting as many as 20 million acres of wetlands.<BR><BR>Last year, four
environmental groups cooperated on a joint report showing the Bush
administration's policies had allowed developers to drain thousands of acres of
wetlands.<BR><BR>Does this mean we should blame President Bush for the fact that
New Orleans is underwater? No, but it means we can blame Bush when a Category 3
or Category 2 hurricane puts New Orleans under. At this point, it is a matter of
making a bad situation worse, of failing to observe the First Rule of Holes
(when you're in one, stop digging).<BR><BR>Had a storm the size of Katrina just
had the grace to hold off for a while, it's quite likely no one would even
remember what the Bush administration did two months ago. The national press
corps has the attention span of a gnat, and trying to get anyone in Washington
to remember longer than a year ago is like asking them what happened in Iznik,
Turkey, in A.D. 325.<BR><BR>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."<BR><BR>The commander of the corps' New Orleans district also immediately
instituted a hiring freeze and canceled the annual corps picnic.<BR><BR>Our
friends at the Center for American Progress note the Office of Technology
Assessment used to produce forward-thinking plans such as "Floods: A National
Policy Concern" and "A Framework for Flood Hazards Management." Unfortunately,
the office was targeted by Newt Gingrich and the Republican right, and gutted
years ago.<BR><BR>In fact, there is now a governmentwide movement away from
basing policy on science, expertise and professionalism, and in favor of choices
based on ideology. If you're wondering what the ideological position on flood
management might be, look at the pictures of New Orleans--it seems to consist of
gutting the programs that do anything.<BR><BR>Unfortunately, the war in Iraq is
directly related to the devastation left by the hurricane. About 35 percent of
Louisiana's National Guard is now serving in Iraq, where four out of every 10
soldiers are guardsmen. Recruiting for the Guard is also down significantly
because people are afraid of being sent to Iraq if they join, leaving the Guard
even more short-handed.<BR><BR>The Louisiana National Guard also notes that
dozens of its high-water vehicles, Humvees, refuelers and generators have also
been sent abroad. (I hate to be picky, but why do they need high-water vehicles
in Iraq?)<BR><BR>This, in turn, goes back to the original policy decision to go
into Iraq without enough soldiers and the subsequent failure to admit that
mistake and to rectify it by instituting a draft.<BR><BR>The levees of New
Orleans, two of which are now broken and flooding the city, were also victims of
Iraq war spending. Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson
Parish, said on June 8, 2004, "It appears that the money has been moved in the
president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in
Iraq."<BR><BR>This, friends, is why we need to pay attention to government
policies, not political personalities, and to know whereon we vote. It is about
our lives.<BR><BR>----------<BR><BR>Molly Ivins is a syndicated columnist based
in Washington. E-mail: info@creators.com </DIV><FONT
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