Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu (D)
United States Senator Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., today made the following statement on flooding in the Midwest. Sen. Landrieu is chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Disaster Recovery Subcommittee.
Sen. Landrieu said:
"My heart goes out to the families who have been displaced by flood waters, to the communities that have been washed away by the Mississippi River and the communities still under threat. It is a situation with which Louisianians are all too familiar.
"Nearly three years since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the flooding in the Midwest this month punctuates the need for a major national investment in flood control infrastructure all over the United States. As a percentage of GDP, we spend about two-thirds less today on civil works projects than we did in 1960. This disastrous flooding shines a stark spotlight on weakening levees and dams that are failing to protect American communities from rising water. Equally as important as strengthening our infrastructure is the need for a reformed government disaster response arm to ensure disasters such as this are managed swiftly and effectively.
"My subcommittee will continue working to reform FEMA and the Stafford Act, and I will be working with my colleagues in the Midwest to ensure the best possible government response to the floods. I and all Louisianians stand ready to support the affected states just as they stood with us in our most challenging time."
Before the cynics out there start to comment on what they surmise to be Landrieu’s agenda, please take the time to research and or read Paul Alexander’s new book Machiavelli's Shadow: The Rise and Fall of Karl Rove published by Salon. Paul Alexander writes about how Karl Rove played politics while New Orleans drowned.
This “review” is taken from
From Dan Froomkin’s “White House Watch” of June 6
"Instead of supplying relief to the city, Rove had devised a scheme whereby he could blame the failure of government to take action on someone besides Bush. . . .
"Here was Rove's strategy: Praise Haley Barbour, the Republican governor of Mississippi; praise Michael Brown and FEMA; blame [Louisiana governor Kathleen] Blanco, the Democrat. . . .
"Rove sold the story, as he had in the past, through the media. On Wednesday, while Blanco was trying to get help from the White House, her staff began receiving calls from reporters questioning her handling of the disaster, almost all of them citing as their sources unnamed senior White House officials."
Senator Landrieu will need all the support she can garner to get the 8/29 bill off the ground and out of committee.
I am concerned that the forces behind disaster capitalism will try to torpedo her. Why?
My article on Mother Nature vs. Water Policy was picked up by the right wing press and is being used as an opportunity to say the floods were deserved.
Stay informed. Stay tuned in.
