Rush on New Orleans: Can anyone help refute this?

[TheFarseer]

Rush is saying they shouldn't give New Orleans or Louisian anything because Bush already gave them money to fix the levies and they spent it on other stuff. It's on in the cube next to me :eyes: Any truth to this claim?

[leftofthedial]

1. Rush said it

that's all the evidence you need to know it's a lie.

[KingFlorez]

2. It's garbage

He didn't tell that the plan was orignally to plug up the levee with him.

[SteppingRazor]

3. This is actually partially true...

Federal money for levee improvement has been diverted by Louisiana to other projects.

The horrid part of this argument is that, because of this, the state is no longer entitled to aid -- so, if someone makes a mistake, they should be hung out to dry?
Seems like a hell of a thing for The pillpopper to be saying.

[Brotherjohn]

10. Well, yes and no.

When you need X + Y + Z money for various projects, and you only get X amount, you need to partition your resources.

The federal government has starved localities, particularly Louisana when it comes to levee protection, and everything else. This hasn't been unique to the Bush administration, but it's worse with his admin, and his admin specifically cut levee protection (and drastically).

N.O. is a city with a large percentage of the population below the poverty line, has horribly underfunded schools, and general all-around poor infrastructure (oh yes, some of this can always be blamed on the locals).

If the federal government gives you pennies on the dollar for everything requested in every area, and if you have an anemic tax base, you aren't going to have the luxury of building the nicest levees in the world. And levee protection of the sort needed in New Orleans is the type of project that has always been beyond the scope of what local governments can afford, which is why the Army Corps of Engineers comes into play, not to mention the national consequences of not having a steady gas and oil supply (as we have all now experienced first-hand).

Louisiana delegations have been arguing these things for decades, throughout which time New Orleans has had many other needs as well, and the federal government has been basically snubbing nearly every request from local authorities for real coastal protection projects.

So Rush, please, don't talk to me about N.O. not building some miraculous levee system that you, with your "wisdom on loan from God", could apparently build for pennnies on the dollar.

[jobycom]

13. A lot of the wetlands destruction was caused by oil eploration and drillin

Thus, corporations profitted from their destruction. So if we can't use tax dollars to pay for them, we should go after the oil companies. Then, of course, gas will go up even more, but one could, and should, argue that oil prices were kept down by cost-cutting on things like wetland preservation, so that we all profited from the wetland destruction. Thus, we should all help clean it up, either through paying more for gas and making gas companies pay for the repairs, or through taxes.

If we don't pay, then we will pay when New Orleans vanishes completely, and oil companies will have to spend more to ship their product.

That's the biggest flaw to the Republican mindset. They always see things only in terms of the immediate and local. They have no ability to understand connections, and interdependence. A Republican makes a million dollars, and he thinks "I've earned a million dollars. What a man I am!" A liberal makes a million dollars, and he or she thinks "America has been very good to me. How fortunate I am!"

[SteppingRazor]

14. Oh, you're quite right as to why Louisiana was forced...

to appropriate funds for other areas. I completely agree, and my post should've been more specific. As usual, Rush just threw out a random factoid, which in and of itself was true, but was utterly lacking in context. It's the man's standard MO -- for that matter, it's the MO of the entire conservative media.

[Lerkfish]

4. The exact opposite is true:

the locals and the army corps of engineers requested x amount to fix the existing levees.
BushCo gave them about one tenth of what they requested (dont ask me to do the math!)

at any rate, BushCo took money AWAY from them to fund Iraq War, and to boot, removed their national guard and all th amphibious equipment.

[fooj]

5. I understand that a large portion of the funds

were re-directed for Iraq

[jobycom]

11. hehe. Yeah, true. All that National Gaurd training wasn't there when it

was needed, was it?

[NoPasaran]

15. It sounds like Louisiana shouldn't have invaded Iraq

Oh wait... they didn't.

[fooj]

6. I understand that a large portion of the funds

were re-directed for Iraq

[Patchuli]

7. Rush needs to do his time

for buying drugs illegally and STFU.

[NoAmericanTaliban]

8. Part of money diverted to help out corporate interest

some of the money was diverted to increase the size of the river lanes so that more & larger barges could navigate them. This of course helped the barge owners who could then make more money. I believe it was some Republican from Missouri that pushed for this.

[jobycom]

9. Some truth to it, many lies to it

New Orleans has been begging for money for their levees for decades, as well as money to restore the Louisiana wetlands. The government has given them some money for levees, but never nearly as much as NOLA has asked for. They've refused bills to restore the wetlands on many occasions, including last year, IIRC.

In addition, they have slashed money for levee repairs from already approved budgets as recently as last year.

On the other hand, New Orleans has misused money that should have been set aside for levee repairs. There seems to have been a case where money given New Orleans for general waterway repairs were used to build docks for casinos and/or riverboats. This is Louisiana, and Louisiana has long been known for its corrupt governments.

But there have been far greater boondoggles given to cities, and most funding requests have been denied. By far, most of the money New Orleans has been given for levee and waterways maintenance has gone to just that. You can use Limbaugh's rationale to deny money to any local or state government, and most federal agencies--FEMA included. And the military. Tell Rush we should quit funding the military because it constantly mis-spends money given it. Then watch him sputter.

[Brotherjohn]

12. I love your last paragraph. Absolutely on point, and the one thing ...

... I didn't address in mine above.

[madmom]

16. well what about th fact that bush was given money to fight terrorists...

and used it for other stuff?:mad:

[JohnnyBoots]

17. Why are we rebuilding Iraq and giving money to Pakistan when we

need it at home. WTF?????

[librechik]

18. yeah, that damn New Orleans took the levee money and blew it on

Iraq.

Wait...

nope--this is heinous spin of the most craven kind. The money for the levees was cut and spent on Iraq instead. Bush did this PERSONALLY.

But since no one can track Katrina money now, apparently, the Pukkkes will use the opportunity to continue to smear its enemies--even though it is the one throwing the money into a black hole.