In(s)anity ...
Vol. VI, Art. 15

Louisiana’s Senator Mary Landrieu appeared on Washington Journal’s C-SPAN today (Friday February 3rd), and stated that the federal government was spending $ 4 billion dollars each week on its war in Iraq, while ignoring pleas for modest relief funds from hurricane-ravaged Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Texas. Her comments came in the wake of a Pentagon announcement that the president’s 2007 budget request to Congress will include $ 439.3 billion for the Department of Defense.

Senator Landrieu also made it a point to remind C-SPAN viewers that the levees on the Mississippi are owned, and theoretically maintained, by the federal government and not by Louisiana. These are the same levees that were allowed to fall into disrepair in spite of repeated warnings by the Army Corps of Engineers. If the federal government was a privately-owned entity, its willful negligence in New Orleans would have brought severe penalties from the courts. Those holding the reins, however, are well aware of the immunity they enjoy.

The Senator is right in the middle of things and she has good reason to complain after hearing about the budget being prepared for Congress by the president. According to the New York Times:

“WASHINGTON — The White House will ask Congress for an additional $ 70 billion to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for the remainder of the fiscal year — nearly double some government estimates of what would be needed just a few months ago — and will also seek $ 50 billion more as a down payment for those wars in 2007, administration officials said ...

“The new war request was announced a day after the House of Representatives cut nearly $ 40 billion from the budget, mostly from social programs, to help fend off rising deficits ...

“The Congressional Budget Office said yesterday that it estimates the 2006 deficit will be at least $ 337 and may reach $ 400 billion or higher, depending partly on the cost of the Iraq War ...

“Meanwhile, the Bush administration also said yesterday it would seek an additional $ 18 billion — to help build the devastated Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

“The hurricane relief money would fund a new veteran’s hospital in New Orleans and help small businesses to recover, Reuters reported. Most of the money was expected to be disbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which was roundly criticized for its lackluster response to the hurricanes last year.

“That announcement sparked immediate criticism. ‘I am highly concerned that the administration’s proposal, which lacks details, will put more money into dysfunctional bureaucracies like FEMA and won’t adequately address urgent needs such as housing, levees, and flood protection,’ Senator Mary L. Landrieu, Democrat of Louisiana, said in a statement.”


The folks in Singapore are more concerned about the situation in and around the Port of New Orleans than the U.S. government is. Here’s what the BUSINESS TIMES wrote in its Feb. 3rd issue:

“New Orleans port coming back but needs money.”
“Costly to relocate warehouses along badly damaged Industrial Canal.”

“(New York) The Port of New Orleans, mauled by Hurricane Katrina last year, is recovering steadily but will need millions of dollars if it has to relocate warehouses and facilities along its badly damaged Industrial Canal. ‘The number of ship calls is back up to about 65 to 75 percent of pre-Katrina activity,’ Port of New Orleans spokesman Chris Bonura said in an e-mail reply on Monday to questions sent by Reuters.

“Port officials said late last year that New Orleans should be back to 80 percent of capacity by March. Trains account for about 40 percent of the cargo imported and exported via the port, with trucks taking the remaining 60 percent of the goods. The port is the fifth largest in the US.

“New Orleans had accounted for 20 percent of US export and import trade. Until Katrina wreaked havoc last August, the port had more than 107,000 jobs, US $ 2 billion in earnings, US $ 13 billion in spending and paid out US $ 231 million in taxes statewide. The port handles more than half the country’s agricultural exports as barges bring down wheat, soybeans and corn from the American heartland to the Gulf Coast city. It also housed over half of the world’s zinc traded on the London Metal Exchange. New Orleans is the second leading coffee port in the US after New York.

“The main problem facing the port will be what to do with the severe losses inflicted by Katrina on properties along the Industrial Canal. The port of New Orleans is roughly divided into two. The upriver portion containing the most modern terminals accounting for 70 percent of normal cargo traffic sustained little to moderate damage from the storm. The Industrial Canal section linking the Mississippi River to Lake Ponchartrain was devastated by floodwaters that were 6-8 feet deep when the levees protecting the city broke.

“‘We have some limited operations restarting along the Industrial Canal, but not nearly to the extent that we had before Katrina,’ said Mr. Bonura. New Orleans Cold Storage, which used to be the biggest exporter of chickens in the country, ‘has one of its three warehouses up and running and they are working their first ship this week’, he added. But dredging on the main channel serving the Industrial Canal Properties has been suspended and officials are considering what to do next.

“Mr. Bonura said they are ‘seeking funding to move those facilities along the canal elsewhere so they can get more reliable deepwater access’. He added: ‘Ships can call (on) the Industrial Canal properties through a lock that links the river and the canal, but there are many restrictions and costs in doing so.’

“And the cost of ‘moving those facilities would take about US $ 350 million and that’s where the federal government and state government come in’, Mr. Bonura said.”

[Don’t hold your breath, Mr. Bonura.]