Bush administration ignored clear warnings

[tufsu1]

govt. officials at all levels are responsible...

so forget New Orleans for a minute and let's look at Florida....the levees holding Lake Okeechobee are in terrible shape....which is why there is such a concern every time a hurricane is aimed at south Florida....and why they often release water from the lake ahead of a storm.

And how many of you know about the levee in D.C. that holds back the Potomac from flooding the national mall...its also deteriorated and needs to be rebuilt....right now half of the buildings in the Foggy Bottom area are at risk of being designated as being in a FEMA flood zone....imagine the increased costs of insurance, etc. for that!

[tufsu1]

I fear foolishness such as yours will lead to a catastrophe one day - the loss of a city even.

Does the foolishness include denial of global warming?  Because if we do nothing (and you are wrong) than any # of our cities could be under water!

Once GW starts manifesting itself, I will start to worry.  The only problem is global average temperatures have been dropping:

that same logic has been given as the primary reason we were not prepared for the 9/11 attack....you seem to have no problem with the government spending money to minimize our risk of a potential future attack....so why not minimize our risk of the potential effects of global warming too?

[BridgeTroll]

that same logic has been given as the primary reason we were not prepared for the 9/11 attack....you seem to have no problem with the government spending money to minimize our risk of a potential future attack....so why not minimize our risk of the potential effects of global warming too? 

The difference is ... a clear and present danger.  It is real and tangible.  It happened and will likely happen again.  The people responsible for the first attack have vowed to do so again.  I would rather spend money on clearly repeatable and preventable catastrophes.  How about a couple billion to detect and defend the planet against asteroid or comet strike.  These things absolutely WILL happen again... as they have clearly happened in the recent past.  These two events have in the past wiped out the dominant creatures on earth more than once.  Climate change is infinitely more survivable than these two incidents... 

[tufsu1]

And yet "infrastructure spending as a proportion of GDP is at a higher level today than anytime since 1981."


http://cafehayek.typepad.com/

sure...but this is total spending at all levels of government....many local governments have enacted dedicated taxes for infrastructure projects (like Better Jax)...and btw, nationally these referendums usually pass overwhelmingly.

But that doesn't meant that state and/or federal spending has increased....and since the levees are the responsibility of the ACOE, they are federal.

Your chart also doesn't distinguish between types of infrastructure....for example, do prisons and courthouses count?  We sure have built a bunch of those in the U.S. over the last decade.

[tufsu1]

no...I never said it doesn't count....but Bush doesn't get credit for state and local funding.....and, since it appears I need to repeat myself, the levee system in the U.S. is managed by the ACOE and is federally funded.   

[Arsenal]

Why would anyone hate Bush? he kept us safe for 7 years, except for that one little slip-up in September.

A nearly perfect record!

Bravo and well done!

It's just commonsensical to love him.

I can see Bush's t-shirt... "I kept American safe for 2,921 days and all I got was this stupid t-shirt"

[Sigma]

http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=324774830779658

Probe Yourselves
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Thursday, April 16, 2009 4:20 PM PT

Finance: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants a broad "probe" of Wall Street, much like the 1932 Pecora Commission that led to sweeping bank reforms. Good idea. Let the probing begin â€" with Pelosi's Congress.

Named for its chief counsel, Ferdinand Pecora, the 1932 congressional commission dragged influential bankers and stockbrokers before its members for rough questioning â€" both of their business practices and private lives.

The Pecora Commission led directly to the Securities Act of 1933, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the creation of the Securities Exchange Commission in 1935 to oversee Wall Street.

Now Pelosi's calling for an encore. "People are very unhappy with these bailouts," she noted, especially the bonuses that went to executives. "Seventy five percent of the American people, at least, want an investigation of what happened on Wall Street."

No doubt, that's true. The problem is, what "happened on Wall Street" was a direct result of what happened on Capitol Hill. And we're not the only ones who believe that, by the way.

"Government policies, especially the Community Reinvestment Act, and the affordable housing mission that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were charged with fulfilling, are to blame for the financial crisis," wrote economist Peter Wallison, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, recently.

"Regulators also deserve blame for lowering lending standards that then contributed to riskier homeownership and the housing bubble." Exactly correct.

As such, Pelosi's proposed Pecora-style commission will be little more than a fig leaf to cover Congress' own multitude of sins â€" letting its members, the true creators of this financial mess, bash business leaders as they pose as populist saviors of Main Street from Wall Street predators.

Why do this now? Pelosi and her Democrat colleagues are feeling the heat from Tea Party demonstrations and growing voter anger over the massive waste entailed in the $4 trillion (and rising) stimulus-bailout bonanza. Again, the Democrats created all this spending. Now, as it proves unpopular, they just walk away from it.

On NPR Thursday, a reporter confronted Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the Financial Services Committee, with the fact that his $300 billion "Hope for Homeowners" program, passed with much fanfare last fall, had so far helped just one homeowner. One.

Frank's response: It was the fault of the "right." And Bush.

Truth is, Frank's party has been in charge since 2006. And during that time, Democrats have presided over one of the most disgraceful and least accomplished Congresses in history. This financial mess began on their watch, yet they pretend otherwise.

What better way to take the heat off yourself than by pointing accusing fingers at those most unlikable of people â€" Wall Street bankers? That's what the Pelosi-Pecora Commission will do.

It won't get to the bottom of our financial crisis; it will carefully select scapegoats to be ritually shamed by the liberal media, stripped of their wealth, and exiled. Then new rules will be imposed that will no doubt make things worse. And the cycle will begin again.

We're not saying Wall Street has no blame for the financial meltdown. But Wall Street didn't create the subprime mess. Congress, through repeated interventions in healthy markets, did. And when the whole thing failed, it was Congress' fault.

We'd be happy to support a 9/11-style commission to look into the causes of the financial meltdown. But only if Congress agrees to put itself in the dock. Anything less would be a sham.

[BridgeTroll]

Clearly to simply line his own pockets... he is after all... eeeevil....

[NotNow]

StephenDare!, do you have access to a simple table of world temps over the last twenty years?

[NotNow]

Huh?  I simply asked for information.  If you don't have it, or don't want to provide it, just say so. 

[Midway ®]

Huh?  I simply asked for information.  If you don't have it, or don't want to provide it, just say so. 

Here is 77 pages of global warming stuff from Sir Charts a Lot:
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/forum/index.php/topic,1342.0/topicseen.html

I'm sure you can find what you are looking for somewhere in there.

[carpnter]

How did this thread go from a 5 year old thread on the recession to global warming/climate change?

[Ocklawaha]

And how many of you know about the levee in D.C. that holds back the Potomac from flooding the national mall...its also deteriorated and needs to be rebuilt....right now half of the buildings in the Foggy Bottom area are at risk of being designated as being in a FEMA flood zone....imagine the increased costs of insurance, etc. for that!

Holy @#%#$%^$%^*$@

Do you mean that Washington D.C. could be in danger of being wiped out in a flood?

WOW, we should be so lucky.

[southsider1015]

are you under the impression that global warming influenced the Bush Era World Trade Center Bombing by Osama Bin Laden?  (you know, the guy that the Obama Administration hunted down and killed?)

The Obama administration had nothing to do with finding Bin Laden.  They made the bottom line Go decision after he was found, but any President would have made the same decision.  So many documentaries explaining the history, I'd recommend you watch a few before claiming this.

[JeffreyS]

You have to give Obama a lot of credit on this one. Bush pulled the funds in the Bin Laden search, Romney famously said he wouldn't move heaven and earth just to find him either but Obama took the opposite approach and dedicated heavy resources into finding Bin Laden.