Hi. Very nice blog. I\’ve been reading your other entries all day long..lol….

Hi. Thanks for the good read….

It’s a question of competence. I would be glad to look at the two job by job. Love to. Start with Interior: Babbitt v. Norton, the latter a mining polution lawyer. Steven Griles, mining lobbyist. Forest Service: Mike Dombeck v. Dale Bosworth. Fish biologist; Forester. Mark Rey undersecretary of Agriculture, a timber lobbyist. He replaced a Yale ecology professor. It’s an open and shut case of competence and unqualifed incompetence. Do the math.

(NOTE FOR SATURDAY: This ran yesterday but since some other weblogs have joined in on this issue, we’re moving it from yesterday’s blog and reposting it today. We will continue to add links of blogs on this issue. Scroll down because NEWER posts……

….and as well all know, Democrats never do that. No, Bill Clinton never hired his campaign donors for plum jobs in Washington. No, its only Republicans who do that.

They wanted to but it was retracted.

Yes, that is true but why has it recently been so exacerbated? Why is it becoming as sharp as a precipice ready to lacerate our country? What is causing this problem? Is it because a cadre of “wealthy fraternity boys” who are “drunk with power” are in control?

Yes, maybe that is our problem –PUNKS ARE CONTROLLING OUR COUNTRY! Punks who give their friends tax write-offs; punks who cut off social programs; punks who give away government contracts to cronies; punks who lose nine billion dollars of our tax money in Iraq, that no one can account for; punks that out source good paying jobs and replace them with minimum wage positions; punks that could care less about health care, education and our environment. PUNKS THAT ONLY CARE ABOUT THEMSELVES!

And let’s look ahead, at their future plans. We know they already squandered 300 billion dollars in Iraq. Now let’s see what tax dollars they plan to misappropriate in the gulf coast. The former Director of FEMA Joseph Allbaugh, who was responsible for bringing Michael Brown to FEMA, has subsequently formed the Allbaugh Company with his wife. This company is a consulting firm that advises other companies, on how to acquire lucrative disaster relief government projects. His clients are: Halliburton; a wireless phone company; Shaw Group an engineering and construction company and UltraStrip a company which manufactures water-filtration systems; etc…

They have all the bases covered. Why else would any of these punks work for the federal government, unless they could eventually make a fortune. If there is over 200 billion at stake for the restoration of the Gulf Coast, it is mind boggling to think how much money will mysteriously disappear.

The gulf cost might become a financial Bermuda Triangle. Now you see the money and now you don’t!

We can only hope some money reaches the poor survivors who truly deserve it! But hope might be the only thing these survivors have.

However, our government is planning well. They are thinking non-stop about how to: suspend wage labor laws; suspend environmental regulations and how to cut additional taxes for their wealthy friends–all in the name of facilitating the restoration of the gulf coast. These punks know how to squeeze lemons from the poor, so that they can drink the lemonade!

Since Katrina was 30 in insurance claims, we aren’t that far behind.

Here’s one list:
http://www.eas.slu.edu/hazards.html

But that list is focused on economic impact and there’s only one from the US (Katrina at #2).

Let’s look at a list that ranks based on the human toll:

http://www.nbc10.com/news/4030540/detail.html

Or you could just go on hurling insults, as opposed to arguments, when, in fact, I agree with the basic premise that Bush, as President, is ultimately responsible and that the Government failed miserably to anticipate and react to the disaster.

And if we’re talking about strawmen – the fact that I take advantage of government services has nothing at all to do with my experience and expectation that government is ineffective and inefficient.

As I noted in an earlier post, Michael Brown is looking better all the time. And I’m not alone in that thought….

Again steve lives in a major metro area and is totally dependant on government for everything.

The record for responses was better than this. In fact it didn’t really fail until Charlie so your one straw man ahead of yourself. Look closer.

I don’t mean to make too much of the topped versus breached distinction – you make a good point. Interestingly, the Army Corps of Engineers, who had been working on the levees since the impetus for their improvement, hurricane Betsy, hit New Orleans in 1965.

This is what government does:

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d051050t.pdf

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-050901corps,1,7189346.story?coll=chi-news-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true

You depend on it at your peril.