So now the USACE comes out and openly admits that they aren't planning to build Cat 5 levees, not that they'd actually know how to in the first place. What an amalgamation of pure fucking incompetence. Not the civilians that work there, but the people running the show are incompetent fuckmooks. I say that we line them up on their knees on a levee, and put a bullet in the head of each one in charge that knowingly covered up something, causing thousands to die.
They are guilty of treason, and the levees should be armored with their worthless skulls.
"The federal government is committed to building the best levee system known in the world." : Donald Powell, Bush's Katrina recovery Czar. You lying, cocksucking, piece of shit, assgoblin fuckmooks. I want your entire families to die on a rooftop in a manmade flood. Fuck you, you fucking fucks.
Wow. That feels better. So much for my Top Secret security clearance.
Ray Davies joins Shelley Midura.
Finally, the people of Iraq have something to feel good about. Good for them.
Team GOP is sweating: every voting machine is hackable. Uh, yeah, we knew that already. How else would you have won?
The driver shouldn't be charged -- the news directors should be charged with the deaths of the pilots and reporters. For crying out loud, why do we need 4 helicopters to cover a chase? Why is there a chase anyway? Howzabout one police chopper and a bunch of guys on the ground? Ridiculous.
Why do New Orleanians value the Saints so damned much? Because the only leadership in the entire fucking city and parish and state comes from them. Once again: Aaron Stecker is the next Fast Freddie. "New cornerback Jason David has added an extra step of motivation. He drops and performs 10 pushups each time he drops an interception or fails to make a deflection."
"Hey, where would you rather be: Jackson, Miss.; 95 degrees; a thousand percent humidity. You gotta love it!" -- Drew Brees
Gotta love that Jason David. Kinda makes me miss drum corps.
Posted by: Michelle | 29 July 2007 at 05:27 PM
Don't mention drum corps. Don't mention DCI. Don't mention me being in a top 12 corps in 82 that I'm actually ashamed of.
Posted by: ashley | 29 July 2007 at 07:54 PM
Damn there was a lot in that one.
Posted by: mominem | 29 July 2007 at 10:10 PM
You must have been a little pent up housed. There was a lotta shit in that post, the USACOE being most of it.
Posted by: Marco | 30 July 2007 at 05:47 AM
*sigh*
That sounds much better than a div III corps that you're ashamed of, even if it was once a top twelve corps. We went to the show in Lafayette a couple of weeks ago, so I had some nostalgia. Just a little. I'm over it. But now I'm curious and will have to devise a plan to get that corps name out of you.
Loved that story about Faine and the beads!!! Redemption.
Posted by: Michelle | 30 July 2007 at 08:29 AM
Michelle: Sky Ryders. Or as we called them "Guy Ryders" or "Score Divers". If I had it to do over again, I would have bit the bullet and done Blue Devils.
Posted by: ashley | 30 July 2007 at 08:44 AM
The TP is only about a year late with this story. The Corps reported to Congress last summer that the Saffir Simpson designation of Category 5 is based on wind speed, and that wind speed is only one part of what makes a hurricane destructive and deadly. Levees are not designed to withstand or defend against wind. The LACPR preliminary report is available online if you want to read all the details. Rather than attempt to fit storm protection into theoretical storms by Cat as was done previously with the Standard Project Hurricane back in the 1950s and 60s, the Corps is using a statistical approach that supports a risk-bassed analysis. So just like the innundation maps released last month that showed flooding potential for annual probablility storms of 1-in-50, 100 and 500, the LACPR is looking at 1-in-100, 400 and 1000 year storms. With its big headline, is the TP admitting that they have not be paying attention or did not care to notice until now?
And the final selection of what New Orleans gets, if we get anything at all, will be made by Congress and the President. Why did Congress ask for such a study in the first place? Could it be to put off the decision until later when the denial of protection will cause less of a natioanal backlash?
Peace,
Tim
Posted by: Tim | 30 July 2007 at 08:19 PM
The real focus of my ire is not even the corps in this case; it's the feds.
First, they claim the will build "the best levee system known in the world".
Now, since the USACE is using this statistical approach, they aren't even building 1-in-400 year protection.
The Dutch, btw, have 1-in-10000 year protection.
Posted by: ashley | 30 July 2007 at 08:50 PM
Then maybe your ire is pointed in the wrong direction.
Question: if the USACE and Congress both really were comitted to "whatever it takes" would that even matter? Is there any evidence that throwing money at the USACE makes anyone safer? Or is it just rewarding them for incompetence?
Last time I checked, the Corps couldn't manage to build a rock weir and a mud wall with $120M:
http://www.nola.com/weblogs/print.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tpupdates/archives/print114833.html
So while it would be nice to get commitment to and funding for massive levee improvements, IMO it's a lot more important to get real oversight from groups like the ASCE and Van Herdeen's LSU group.
Ultimately we'd get a lot more real protection from spending the already-allocated funds on competently engineered projects than we would from giving another $5B to the USACE to just piss away.
Whether or not that oversight is happening is still very much an open question. I'd like to know more about this if any of the blog regulars know what is going on there.
Posted by: Will | 31 July 2007 at 10:31 AM
The TP actually issued a correction on that headline, since the Corps said the current plan would protect against a Cat 5 like Camille. I think it was printed Monday. I often feel like the TP's copyeditors believe that they work at a tabloid.
Posted by: Frolic | 31 July 2007 at 11:34 AM