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Lessons from Katrina

What a new study of Gulf Coast recovery effort teaches Iowa

By Matthew Philips | Newsweek Web Exclusive

Jun 19, 2008 | Updated: 2:51 p.m. ET Jun 19, 2008

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Posted By: fan_chor-cheung @ 06/26/2008 3:31:35 PM

Comment: The Mississippi flood which include the flood at Iowa and subsequently those in Illinois was God's disapproval of Obama as presidential candidate. The flood at Illinois on June 18, 2008 was especially serious. The flood water has broken many dikes and levees. Iowa was the first state in the primary presidential election for Obama and Illinois is Obama's home state. In May 2008 when the Democrat governor of Oklahoma endorsed Obama, in two days tornadoes on Oklahoma killed 100 people and destroyed $1 billion of properties. This had confirm that there is a God/Environment and He is against Obama. God even hates the aphabet "O". The fact that Iowa similar "I. O. Wa." or "I. O. U." probably means the Black community may have owed Washington or the U. S government or the American people in general something very important. What they are, many of you should be able to determine yourselves? I am here only to help you understand the messages from the Environment so that future disasters can be averted. Future disasters to the U. S. will certainly confirm my prophecy.
- Posted By: LIKEITIS @ 06/26/2008 16:00:40
  
  Comment: AND NOW FOR THE ABSURDLY OVER RELIGOUS ZEALOT AWARD: AND THE WINNER IS.............FAN_CHOR-CHEUNG!
  
  JUST GUESSING THAT YOU ARE CHINESE, BUT WHAT SAY YOU(OH ORACLE OF GOD) ABOUT THE RESENT EARTH QUAKES AND DEATH IN YOUR NATIVE LAND.......BET YOU ARE A LITTLE EASIER ON THEM!
  
  THERE IS NO GOD, PERIOD!
  
  IF THERE WAS A GOD, HE OR SHE WOULD HAVE STRUCK YOU DOWN FOR BEING SO OVERTLY CRITICAL OF PEOPLE IN DISTRESS!
  
  IN ANY CASE, WATCH AS "GOD" ALLOWS OBAMA TO BECOME THE MOST POWERFULL MAN ON THE PLANET!
  
  OBAMA '08! IF ONLY TO SHUT UP THE RELIGIOUSLY RETARDED! LOL!
Posted By: LIKEITIS @ 06/26/2008 1:30:14 PM

Comment: Lessons from Katrina............................

HUH, THAT HAS BEEN A GOOD LESSON!

LESSONS LEARNED!

#1) DON'T CONTRIBUTE TO SOCIETY BY WORKING AND PAYING TAXES

#2) BUY A HOUSE FOR $3000.00 BELOW SEA LEVEL AND IN A FLOOD PLAIN

#3) LIVE ON PUBLIC ASSISTANCE FOREVER (UNEMPLOYMENT, THEN FOOD STAMPS AND WELFARE)

#4) IGNORE A WEEK LONG PLEA TO VACATE BECAUSE OF NATURAL DISASTER

#5) LOOT AND DESTROY ANYTHING THAT ISN'T YOURS

#6) ACT AS A LEACH ON SOCIETY FOR AS LONG AS POSSIBLE AFTER THE ABOVE LESSONS(3 YEARS)

#7) ASK CONGRESS TO REBUILD A CITY DEVOID OF ANY GOOD REASON, AND MAKE THAT REBUILDING EQUAL 500,000.00 PER CAPITA, WHEN THE ENTIRE CITY'S CONTRIBUTION IN THE LAST 5 DECADES ISN'T THAT MUCH!

#8) REFUSE TO ACCEPT ANY RESPONSIBILITY FOR MYSELF AND INSIST ON FREE EVERYTHING FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE! (HOUSING, FOOD, HEALTH INSURANCE, AND OF COURSE FREE SOCIAL SECURITY SINCE I WILL REFUSE TO WORK)!

#9) IGNORE THE ABSURD LEVEL OF RACIST COMMENTS BY THE RE-ELECTED MAYOR("CHOCOLATE CITY NAGEN"), BY STILL EVEN CONCIDERING MORE FREE HAND OUTS!

#10) BELIEVE IN THE B.S. THAT "DO WHAT I SAY, NOT WHAT I DO" PRIZE WINNER GORE SAY'S ABOUT RISING SEA LEVELS AND STILL BE STUPID ENOUGH TO REBUILD THAT WORTHLESS BELOW SEA LEVEL CITY ANYWAY!

YEA I LEARNED ALOT OF LEASONS,BUT I BET WE DON'T GIVE 10% OF THOSE HAND OUTS TO THE FLOOD VICTIMS IN IOWA, AND THEY WERE ACTUALLY EMPLOYED TAXPAYERS!
Posted By: Nins @ 06/21/2008 2:28:42 PM

Comment: Readers, be informed, and beware! Sam Bodman, US Energy Secretary, is a Bush appointed Yes-man. Bodman states that insufficient production is making oil prices soar. Bush wants you to think that the OPEC countries are responsible for high oil prices, but the truth is, OPEC has been significantly increasing production over the past several months. Where is all that oil going? It's being stockpiled by US investment banks, who are creating a fake shortage to drive up the price. Congress has already started to investigate this criminal practice. Bush, who has deregulated the banking industry, tries to blame it on OPEC. By now you should be familiar with Bush's MO: he says you should be very afraid of Muslims.

Who you should really be afraid of are investment bankers at Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Lehman Brothers. Check this out:

Michael Masters of Master Capital Management (a global investment manager) testified before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Government Affairs a couple of weeks ago. Quotes from his testimony:

"Today, Index Speculators are pouring billions of dollars into the commodities futures markets, speculating that commodity prices will increase. In the popular press the explanation given for rising oil prices is the increased demand from China. According to the DOE, China's demand for petroleum has increased in the last five years from 1.88 billion barrels to 2.8 billion barrels, an increase of 920 billion barrels. Over the same five year period, Index Speculators' demand for petroleum futures has increased by 848 million barrels. THE INCREASE IN DEMAND FROM INDEX SPECULATORS IS ALMOST EQUAL TO THE INCREASE IN DEMAND FROM CHINA. Index Speculators have now stockpiled, via the futures market, the equivalent of 1.1 billion barrels of petroleum, effectively adding EIGHT TIMES as much oil to their own stockpile as the US Government has added to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve over the last five years."

"The Senate has asked the question "Are Institutional Investors contributing to food and energy price inflation?" And my unequivocal answer is "YES." In this testimony I will explain that investment banks are one of, if not the primary, factors affecting commodities prices today. Clearly, there are many factors that contribute to price determination in the commodities markets; I am here to expose a fast-growing yet virtually unnoticed factor, and one that presents a problem that can be expediently corrected through legislative policy action..."

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission is ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL. They're supposed to be protecting us from these kinds of abuses, but Bush allowed loopholes in the CFTC regulations that you can drive a truck through. An oil truck, that is.

Links to Masters' Senate testimony, and 2 articles:
http://hsgac.senate.gov/public/_files/052008Masters.pdf
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20011.htm
http://globalresearch.ca/
Posted By: JackGBoyd@hotmail.com @ 06/20/2008 5:34:33 PM

Comment: Bruce W has it exactly right. The levees need to be dismantled and the delta needs to be restored. This is the only long term solution.
Posted By: BruceW @ 06/20/2008 4:59:38 PM

Comment: The article says it all. In the absence of artificial funding to prop up unsubstainable communities, market forces have taken over and people have moved on to find new opportunity. It may sound harsh, but it is the only true long term solution. If we rebuild any flood-ravaged community, we fit the textbook definition of insanity - doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results.

It doesn't matter how many billions of dollars we pour into rebuilding; eventually, another storm or another flood will come along and we will either have to do the same thing all over again, or finally learn our lesson and move to higher ground.
Posted By: TheVigil @ 06/20/2008 4:42:25 PM

Comment: I find it somewhat surprising that in *all* of the articles on the summer flooding that I've seen, there's no mention of the possibility of climate change.

The river in Cedar Rapids crested *six feet* above its historic high. We've now seen severe flooding and thunderstorms causing property damage in Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Missouri, Vermont, South Carolina, Minnesota, New Jersey, Mississippi, and Nebraska. There's also been severe flooding in Guadalajara, Mexico...Pradesh, India...and China's Sichuan province (in that case displacing more than 1,000,000 people). And central England flooded badly last summer.

Whether or not our actions have contributed to this weather - "proving" it is not possible and is likely to stay that way, providing plenty of wiggle room for those who deny the possibility outright - it's unreasonable to not at least *consider* that greenhouse gas emissions might have something to do with this. The American citizens rapidly losing lives and livelihoods to unnatural weather deserve to at least have the possibility looked into.
Posted By: crx1 @ 06/20/2008 4:20:44 PM

Comment: People in the Midwest have dealt with flooding like this in '82, '93, and this year. I had it in March and April in my area. We don't stand around waiting for the goernment to take care of us - we get busy and work together ourselves. AND if anyone tries to cause trouble we've got the guns to protect ourselves and our neighbors, not rely on a bunch of crooked cops who are out looting themselves.
Posted By: archmsu @ 06/20/2008 3:45:31 PM

Comment: Where is all the looting and crime like in New Orleans? Maybe it's because these people aren't so dependent on the government like the folks in New Orleans. What was so scary about Katrina, was the quick and total break down of society down there. But what is most disturbing about this, is that we could have prevented it. If only our government, especially Congress, was alittle more pro-active and actually paid attention to this country's crumbling infastrucure instead in-fighting and playing political games. What if we would have taken all the money spent on pork-barrel spending and put it into our infastructure? I think this generation of Congressmen and women, will known as the "What If," congress. They can't even manage our country's infastructure, which is one of thier major responsiblities. They're too worried about social concerns and elections these days to get anything productive done. Where are my %^&ing tax dollars going? This is really starting to piss me off, i'm sharping my pitch-fork right now!
Posted By: JHartleyCAE @ 06/20/2008 2:52:14 PM

Comment: The reaction of the country not to invest in completly rebuilding New Orleans doesn't strike me as a lack of will, but one of intelligence. Having a major city below sea level in a hurricane prone area doesn't make sense.
Posted By: candler98 @ 06/20/2008 2:50:48 PM

Comment: The flooding in the mid-west should teach people in New Orleans somthing, that working together and not waiting on someone else to do it for you is the way to go, also you have not herd of any shootings, rape , or blaming someone for this like you did in the welfare state of New Orleans. New Orleans needs to take notes on the midwest . and learn how to take care of yourself and not live of the gov.
Posted By: pinkpanther87413 @ 06/20/2008 1:46:31 PM

Comment: Another Lesson, to be learned!
We laufghed at Gore, as a moron! We Should have listened!
Mistake number 2
- Posted By: candler98 @ 06/20/2008 14:53:01
  
  Comment: you are stupied to think that this has any thing to do with global warming, this has been happing since the river was put their by GOD
Posted By: pinkpanther87413 @ 06/20/2008 1:40:33 PM

Comment: What did we learn
If you want you guard or reservist They are in Iraq, not at home, where they belong-did we learn-NO!
If you think your insured-your not!
If you believe the current admin would spend ONLY 2yrs rebuilding-that's plenty! We still need 10 more years rebuilding Iraq!
Will the current admin help you stand against the ins industry-NO, it's in there pocket not to!
Will the politicians remember the mistakes-NO! Track record sucks!
Will you ever get back to normal-not if the Government can help it, and the GOP, will use you, as a political quagmire, way past Nov voting!
Will you matter when the huricains start comming-NO your oil less!
Will you matter AFTER the election-depends on who wins! Current S.O.P.-NO!
Funny how NO is N.O. could be used in the same context?
Mother nature says move, you move! What makes you any different than N.O.? NOTHING!
MISTAKE NUMBER 1!
Posted By: C. MacLean @ 06/19/2008 10:10:42 PM

Comment: The lesson we didn't learn from Katrina, and the one we won't learn from the current floods, is that Nature ulimately has the last say. It is madness to continually build and re-build homes and businesses in areas that are prone to flooding.

If we insist on living in dis-harmony with the land, we will continue to lose life and property every time.

The lesson is - don't build in flood prone areas. Period.
Posted By: revhank @ 06/19/2008 4:05:52 PM

Comment: How telling that Mr Nathan would compare our national commitment to safety and infrastructure to that of Persian Gulf countries. After all, if we weren't so frantically pouring our resources into that part of the world, we could afford to address the state of our levees, bridges, roads, etc, and contribute so much more to the true safety of our citizens than does our current DHS. Meantime, flood victims in the midwest can expect pretty much the same sorts of support as New Orleans got, and in the same measure.
- Posted By: pinkpanther87413 @ 06/20/2008 13:43:39
  
  Comment: to true! the same support of N.O.-none!
  - Posted By: archmsu @ 06/20/2008 15:10:44
    
    Comment: It doesn't matter who is in charge (Republicians or Democrats), the federal government especially Congress, has not paid attention to this country's infastructure in decades. Plus, when you build your home or business in a flood plain.......expect floods.