Sundance Channel's 'Architecture School'

New Orleans is ground zero again thanks to Hurricane Gustav. The city is prominent in an MTV-style series called 'Architecture School' from the Sundance Channel. It chronicles the building of a house in New Orleans designed by students from Tulane University's architecture school. Hulu.com is making the first episode available online.

Everyone on the project has lots of enthusiam. There are extremely bright students, instructors, project managers and dedicated social workers from the non-profit housing group profiled and followed along as they work on the effort. However, not one individual offered any out-of-the-box thinking and/or skepticism by simply asking, "Hey, aren't we building in a flood plain? The city is sinking about 3 ft every 100 years. Is this even a good idea?"

Tough problems are best dealt with using both heart and mind. 'Architecture School' showed it had plenty of heart/passion and provides an excellent window into the art and science of architecture. But, to the discredit of the discipline, the program also shows that the Tulane project had little if any mind.

$3 billion will buy you a Senate confirmation vote

Shortly after the Katrina disaster, Senator Mary Landrieu sponsored a jaw dropping relief bill requesting $250 billion in disaster relief just for the State of Louisiana.

Ms. Landrieu didn't get everything she requested back then though the disaster relief in both private and public resources has been very generous.

Now comes reporting from the Politico (HT: Instapundit) that Ms. Landrieu traded a vote in support of Attorney General Mukasey for $3 billion in additional aid for Louisiana with the help of Senate Republicans:

While conservative senators have boasted recently about ditching the $1 million "hippie museum" earmark from a recent spending bill, they didn't bother touching billions for Louisiana.

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), in fact, put out a press release late last night declaring Thursday as "our $12 billion day." Indeed, Louisiana received $3 billion in home reconstruction aid that was dropped into the Defense spending bill late in negotiations. That bill cleared the Senate on Thursday. Louisiana will receive $7 billion of the $23 billion water resources development act money thanks to the resounding override of President Bush's veto of that bill. And the Pelican State will receive $2 billion in defense funds for various military projects and installations in that state under the Pentagon spending bill.

Bringing home the bacon for Louisiana certainly doesn't hurt Landrieu, who is the Republicans' top target in 2008 Senate elections.

But Senate Republicans late on Thursday night decided not to try to jettison Louisiana's $3 billion earmark for the Louisiana Road Home housing recovery program. Technically speaking, the late addition of that money to the defense spending bill could have violated Senate rules. But it would only have mattered if someone decided to raise a ruckus on the Senate floor.

According to Senate aides familiar with the behind the scenes negotiations, conservative Republicans backed off a threat to raise a point of order against Landrieu's money because Democrats agreed to give attorney general nominee Michael Mukasey a quick vote.

Landrieu left the Senate floor late Thursday night with a pile of money for her state...

PBS NewsHour Interviews John McCain; McCain claims Bridge to Nowwhere led to distrust on immigration reform

The PBS NewsHour recently interviewed presidential candidate John McCain (video, transcript) on a wide range on subjects.

McCain shared his strong sentiment against government pork barrel spending and attempted to link the Republican base's mistrust on spending to the failure of immmigration reform.

It's a shame that McCain is so strong on pork but still doesn't 'get it' with regard to illegal immigration. Apparetnly he has no one on his staff that will simply tell him that the issue is about respect for national sovereignty, the rule of law and his failure to recognize that he was part of the last amnesty shamnesty (a.k.a Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986). McCain should have known better considering he was warned about his against the party grain positions last year.

Highlights from the interview's transcript:

...JIM LEHRER: You mentioned trust, you mentioned Katrina, and the idea that the American people really do not trust the people running the government to get things done efficiently and effectively. You have been a United States Senator. What are your qualifications to actually run the government, to make it work, go from here to there?

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN: ...I have also fought hard against waste and unnecessary spending particularly in defense. I and others, but I led in a fight against a tanker that the tanker aircraft that the Air Force and Boeing and some corrupt people that later went to jail tried to foist off on the American people. I saved the taxpayers $2 billion, and I will continue to do that. I understand this defense procurement process and why it has to be fixed, why it is completely out of control. I will veto every pork barrel spending bill that comes across my desk and I will make these famous...

...But I'll tell you what's hurt more than anything else with our Republican base, and that's the bridge to nowhere, the out-of-control spending which has led to corruption. Americans are sad and frustrated by the war. Our base is angry because we've betrayed them on spending because the President didn't exercise his veto power, because members of Congress convinced the President that they needed these pork barrel projects in order to get reelected. They didn't get reelected and I hope that some day that we will make sure that they don't get their pork barrel projects...

...JIM LEHRER: So President Bush definitely in your opinion deserves these low approval ratings?

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN: I don't say that because I think that's up to the American people, but I say that we Republicans, the administration with the compliant and eager partners in the House and Senate, the Republicans, let spending get completely out of control. We presided over the largest increase in government since the Great Society. That's not Republicans. The bridge to nowhere, Jim, in every political campaign there's a tipping point, "I paid for this microphone," et cetera, the bridge to nowhere. I've talked to our Republican faithful and mention it and they all know what it was. They all know. They all know. And that tipped them so that in the 2006 election they just said I'm taking a hike. I'm taking a hike.

Now, they didn't become Democrats, but we lost the enthusiasm of our Republican base and we lost and confidence. So when we tried to reform immigration and we said that we would fix the borders, secure the borders, they didn't believe us. They didn't believe us. You've got to regain that trust and confidence. And by the way, you've got to secure the borders as well...

Some plain truths about the post-Katrina city

From Steve Chapman's read-the-whole-thing essay, 'Resisting the Obvious in New Orleans':

...The cost of the levee system envisioned by Sen. Clinton is tabbed at $40 billion. Restoring other infrastructure would increase the cost. The question is whether that's the best use of our resources. For $40 billion, you could give more than $61,000 to every Louisianan displaced by Katrina -- nearly a quarter of a million dollars for a family of four.

Here's the question that ought to be considered: Would those people prefer that the money be spent shoring up dikes around a natural lake? Or would they rather get the money themselves and decide whether to stay or migrate to less soggy terrain?...

BizzyBlog (thanks for Bizzylanche) also references a Larry Kudlow rant that adds some perspective:

...Think of this: The idea of using federal money to rebuild cities is the quintessential liberal vision. And given the dreadful results in New Orleans, we can say that the government’s $127 billion check represents the quintessential failure of that liberal vision...

Update: Tom Tancredo says New Orleans should get off the gravy train:

...“The amount of money that has been wasted on these so-called ‘recovery’ efforts has been mind-boggling,” said Tancredo, who is running a long-shot presidential campaign. “Enough is enough.”

Citing administration figures, the lawmaker said that $114 billion has been spent on the effort to rebuild a large stretch of the Gulf Coast after the storm hit New Orleans in August 2005 and claimed more than 1,600 lives.

“At some point, state and local officials and individuals have got to step up to the plate and take some initiative,” said Tancredo. “The mentality that people can wait around indefinitely for the federal taxpayer to solve all their worldly problems has got to come to an end.”

The lawmaker criticized in particular the amount that has been wasted through fraud and abuse, estimated at $1 billion.

“This whole fiasco has been a perfect storm of corruption and incompetence at all levels,” he added...

Related: Hurricane Katrina's Anniversary

Pork Barrel Politics Kills: Other thoughts from the blogsphere

Along with Porkopolis' posts (Pork Barrel Politics Kill (argues that gas tax dollars shouldn't be directed away from infrastructure), Pork Barrel Politics Kill Redux (looks at Senator McCain's statements)) several others have taken a look at Senator McCain's statment and the relationship between pork barrel politics and infrastructure maintenance:

• Instapundit:

  ...Actually [Senator McCain] blaming Congress for this [Minneapolis bridge collapse] particular tragedy is a bit hyperbolic. But we have big infrastructure needs, and we're spending money on other stuff -- and members would rather have their name on something shiny and new than on unglamorous repairs. So in terms of distorted priorities, he's got a point...

• Captain's Quarters:

  ...I fully support his [Senator McCain's] efforts to end earmarks and push towards legislative reform, but let's stick to the real consequences of earmark abuse. Those consequences are bad enough -- elected representatives selling out the American taxpayer to pad their own bank accounts and protect their incumbencies, while dragging more and more of our treasure out of our homes and businesses to fuel their thirst for power.

• Keith Milby:

  Considering Jack Murtha’s $150 million in pork McCain makes a very good point, that congress certainly could have done a better job with the tax payers money...

• National Tax Payer's Union:

  Senator John McCain is jumping on Kristina's bandwagon and suggesting that had Congress not wasted transportation money on frivolous earmarks the money could have been used more responsibly...

• HolyCoast:

  While I admire his willingness to point fingers at his free-spending colleagues, it was not a lack of money that brought the bridge down, but a lack of priority. The bridge had been recently inspected and Minnesota's share of transportation funding had gone up significantly in recent years. The money was there, it's just that the people in charge of it had other priorities (as pointed out here)..
  
  And why are all the fingers pointed toward the Federal government? This bridge was under the control of state and local agencies and it should have been their priority to keep it standing. Since Katrina every disaster is now assumed to have Federal responsibility while the locals seem to get off scott free for their lack of attention to matters.

The Red State of Mississippi

That's Red as in Communist Red.

What else do you call a state where the State Attorney General first re-writes existing legal contracts on insurance policies and then says he will sue a company if it stops conducting a specific type of business in the state?:

JACKSON, Miss. -- Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood said Friday he will seek legislation aimed at blocking State Farm Insurance Cos. from refusing to write new homeowners and commercial policies in the hurricane-battered state.

He said the plan was modeled after actions taken by Florida and would require any company that writes automobile insurance to write homeowners policies as well.

"We're looking at a robber baron in the face that is trying to make an example of Mississippi," Hood said of State Farm.

State Farm, Mississippi's largest home insurer, said Wednesday it has had enough of the "untenable" legal and political climate in the state and would not write new homeowners and commercial policies in a state still struggling to recover from Hurricane Katrina.

The company said the suspension would begin Friday and continue until the business climate in the state was more palatable.

A spokesman for State Farm Insurance Cos. said the decision was due, in part, to the wave of litigation the company has encountered since the Aug. 29, 2005, hurricane.

Mississippi is the latest state along the hurricane-vulnerable Gulf Coast to at least temporarily lose an insurer.

State Farm has more than 30 percent of the homeowners policies and 8.5 percent of the commercial policies in Mississippi.

Related:

• St. Paul Travelers Won't Renew Some Commercial Policies in New Orleans


• NPR Morning Addition report (with audio): Louisiana Businesses Worried by Insurance Cuts


• NPR Morning Addition report (with audio): Allstate Pulls Back from Insuring Coastal Homes


• Where's the national debate on rebuilding flood-prone areas?


• Discussions on alternatives to rebuilding New Orleans


• Flood Insurance Reform


• Mississippi's Attorney General wants to tear apart the foundation of contract law


• More on the Mississippi Attorney General and his efforts to rewrite contract law


• "To protect everything is to protect nothing."...Holman W. Jennkins, Jr.; Wall Street Journal Editorial


• Realism starts taking root in Louisiana's flood plains


• Popular Mechanics: Disaster Repetitive Loss Analysis in the Gulf States
  

Science Sunday: Wrap-up of recent advancements in science from EurekAlert!

Hofmeyr skull supports the 'Out of Africa' theory:
Dating of skull delivers the first fossil indicator that modern humans evolved in Africa.

Earliest evidence of modern humans in Europe discovered by international team:
Modern humans who first arose in Africa had moved into Europe as far back as about 45,000 years ago, according to a new study by an international research team led by the Russian Academy of Sciences and the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Spread of modern humans occurred later than previously thought, profs say:
The spread of modern humans out of Africa occurred 40,000 to 50,000 years later than previously thought, according to researchers including one Texas A&M University anthropologist.

Exploring the molecular origin of blood clot flexibility:
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the School of Arts and Sciences have shown that a well-known protein structure acts as a molecular spring, explaining one way that clots may stretch and bend under such physical stresses as blood flow. This knowledge will inform researchers about clot physiology in such conditions as wound healing, stroke and cardiovascular disease.

Brookhaven lab scientists stabilize platinum electrocatalysts for use in fuel cells:
Platinum is the most efficient electrocatalyst for accelerating chemical reactions in fuel cells for electric vehicles. In reactions during the stop-and-go driving of an electric car, however, the platinum dissolves, which reduces its efficiency as a catalyst. This is a major impediment for vehicle-application of fuel cells.Now, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have overcome this problem.

White blood cells in lung produce histamine seen in allergies:
In a surprise finding, scientists have discovered that histamine, the inflammatory compound released during allergic reactions that causes runny nose, watery eyes and wheezing, can be produced in large amounts in the lung by neutrophils, the white blood cells that are the major component of pus.

Gene that makes people 'early to bed and early to rise' demystified:
The recent discovery that a mutant "clock" gene made some people "early to bed and early to rise," a condition known as familial advanced sleep phase syndrome (FASPS), offered one of the first glimpses into the genetic basis of sleep in humans. Now, researchers report in the Jan. 12, 2007, issue of the journal Cell, published by Cell Press, new evidence that helps to explain just how their bodies' natural alarm clocks get set to such an early wake-up time.

Scientists discover new life forms in the Arctic Ocean:
An international team of scientists, including Université Laval biologist Connie Lovejoy, has discovered new life forms in the Arctic Ocean. The team's findings are reported in the Jan. 12 edition of the journal Science.

You still can't drink the water, but now you can touch it:
Engineers have developed a system that uses a simple water purification technique that can eliminate 100 percent of the microbes in New Orleans water samples left from Hurricane Katrina. The technique makes use of specialized resins, copper and hydrogen peroxide to purify tainted water.

Wheat can fatally starve insect predators:
A newly identified wheat gene produces proteins that appear to attack the stomach lining of a crop-destroying fly larvae so that the bugs starve to death. The gene's role in creating resistance to Hessian flies was a surprise to US Department of Agriculture and Purdue University researchers, discoverers of the gene and its function.

Why doesn't the immune system attack the small intestine?:
Answering one of the oldest questions in human physiology, researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have discovered why the body's immune system -- perpetually on guard against foreign microbes like bacteria -- doesn't attack tissues in the small intestine that harbor millions of bacteria cells.

Tumor-suppressor gene is critical for placenta development:
An important cancer-related gene may play a critical role in the development of the placenta, the organ that controls nutrient and oxygen exchange between a mother and her fetus during pregnancy, and perhaps in miscarriages. Those conclusions come from a new study of the retinoblastoma (Rb) gene in mice. In humans, this gene, when mutated, raises the risk of a rare cancer of the eye called retinoblastoma.

Scientists discover new, readily available source of stem cells:
Scientists have discovered a new source of stems cells and have used them to create muscle, bone, fat, blood vessel, nerve and liver cells in the laboratory. The first report showing the isolation of broad potential stem cells from the amniotic fluid that surrounds developing embryos was published today in Nature Biotechnology.

St. Paul Travelers Won't Renew Some Commercial Policies in New Orleans

From the Insurance Journal:

St. Paul Travelers said Dec. 1 that it will stop renewing many commercial insurance policies in the New Orleans area next year, stoking fears that other insurers are prepared to pull out of the market after Hurricane Katrina.

Advertisement
The state's largest commercial insurer will stop renewing property business policies for an undisclosed number of small- and mid-sized businesses, mostly in Orleans Parish, starting in March, a spokeswoman for the St. Paul, Minn.-based company said.

It wasn't immediately clear how many businesses would be affected, but The St. Paul Travelers Companies Inc. writes about 14 percent of the state's policies...

Related:

• NPR Morning Addition report (with audio): Louisiana Businesses Worried by Insurance Cuts
• NPR Morning Addition report (with audio): Allstate Pulls Back from Insuring Coastal Homes
• Where's the national debate on rebuilding flood-prone areas?
• Discussions on alternatives to rebuilding New Orleans
• Flood Insurance Reform
• Mississippi's Attorney General wants to tear apart the foundation of contract law
• More on the Mississippi Attorney General and his efforts to rewrite contract law
• "To protect everything is to protect nothing."...Holman W. Jennkins, Jr.; Wall Street Journal Editorial
• Realism starts taking root in Louisiana's flood plains
• Popular Mechanics: Disaster Repetitive Loss Analysis in the Gulf States
  

Hurricane Katrina's Anniversary

Suggested readings to help reflect on the 1 year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina:

• New York Post Editorial: STORM, SOUND & FURY (emphasis added):

  ...No one can deny the horrific loss of life or the tens of billions in property damage. One of America's most treasured urban gems, New Orleans, was deluged and all but destroyed. As Bush said yesterday, the damage was "unimaginable."
  
  Yet the response - by residents and the government - was hardly the cataclysmic failure that it was made out to be. And that news outlets, and Democrats, continue to insist it was.
  
  Take those breathless early reports of snipers, roving gangs, rapes and mass deaths. They set a tone that endures still.
  
  But guess what?
  
  Most of it never happened.
  
  Likewise, Bush team efforts were (and still are) portrayed as an unmitigated disaster, proof that Bush & Co. aren't just incompetent, but also lack compassion, particularly for poor blacks. A photo of Bush surveying damage from his plane rather than the ground fuels such claims.
  
  "If the bungled federal response to Hurricane Katrina called into question the president's competence," The New York Times wrote yesterday in a front-page editorial disguised as a news story, "that Air Force One snapshot, coupled with scenes on the ground of victims who were largely poor and black, called into question something equally important to Mr. Bush: his compassion."
  
  Democrats are milking the theme: "We know the storm was a tragedy," Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said last week, "but a bigger tragedy is how the federal government responded." New York Sen. Chuck Schumer readily admits that Democratic candidates for the Senate cite the storm every chance they get.
  
  The truth? As former reporter Lou Dolinar wrote on these pages Sunday [ed. see MEDIA MISSED A WILDLY SUCCESSFUL NEW ORLEANS RESCUE DRIVE ], the response "may have been the largest, most successful aerial search-and-rescue operation in history."
  
  The Coast Guard, state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and National Guard rescued 70,000 people. They pre-positioned food and supplies and set up medical facilities that treated 5,000 victims (and delivered seven babies).
  
  Sure, mistakes were made: New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, for example, didn't have an evacuation plan. But Katrina's enduring narrative - that Bush blew it - is nearly as destructive to the picture of what happened as the storm itself.
  
  Officials have much to learn from Katrina about how better to prepare for disasters, both natural and man-made.
  
  But the critics - and the media - also have much to learn.
  
  Question is: Will they?
  



• Coyote Blog: Katrina was Government Revealed
  
  
• USA Today: Katrina cost continues to swell (HT: BizzyBlog via email)
  
  

  The fiscal impact of Hurricane Katrina, the most costly natural disaster in U.S. history, shows no sign of ending.
  
  Congress has already approved $122 billion in spending, and is now paving the way for Gulf Coast states to get billions more. As much as $20 billion for coastal restoration could come from offshore-drilling royalties in the next few decades. Louisiana has been seeking $14 billion for that purpose...
  

• WSJ.com Opinion Journal: The Tragedy of New Orleans (HT: BizzyBlog):
  
  

• The MSM won't cover it; but the blogsphere discusses the option of not rebuilding in New Orleans.
  
  
• The Federal/State of Louisiana emergency response agreement , Details on Federal and State Response to Katrina and the rest of Hurricane Katrina coverage (found on the side bar) from Porkopolis.
  

Popular Science: New Orleans: Not Quite Stormproof

Popular Science has a nice animation that goes along with their article detailing the ills that possibly await New Orleans (empahis added):

...One startling finding, revealed in a 6,000-page tome released in June, is that nearly two thirds of the flooding could have been prevented had the Corps simply fortified the weak soil conditions that ultimately caused the levees to collapse. Since then, the Corps has installed “T-walls” around the levees that will bolster them against smaller storms, yet its long-term defense plan for Katrina-style nightmares, illustrated here, could be at least another decade, and potentially billions of dollars, away from completion...

(HT: Wizbang)

Related: Where's the national debate on rebuilding flood-prone areas?

NYT: 'Breathtaking' Waste and Fraud in Hurricane Aid

Fair Warning: Reading the following in a sound proof room is advised so as not to disturb others with your screams of frustration. Don't miss the irony associated with the fraud case of Louisiana Department of Labor clerk, Wayne P. Lawless.

On the heels of GAO report: $1.4 billion in bogus assitance to hurricane 'victicms' comes this story from the New York Times (emphasis added):

WASHINGTON, June 26 — Among the many superlatives associated with Hurricane Katrina can now be added this one: it produced one of the most extraordinary displays of scams, schemes and stupefying bureaucratic bungles in modern history, costing taxpayers up to $2 billion...

...The tally of ignoble acts linked to Hurricane Katrina, pulled together by The New York Times from government audits, criminal prosecutions and Congressional investigations, could rise because the inquiries are under way. Even in Washington, a city accustomed to government bloat, the numbers are generating amazement.

"The blatant fraud, the audacity of the schemes, the scale of the waste — it is just breathtaking," said Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, and chairwoman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee...

...The estimate of up to $2 billion in fraud and waste represents nearly 11 percent of the $19 billion spent by FEMA on Hurricanes Katrina and Rita as of mid-June, or about 6 percent of total money that has been obligated...

..."There are tools that are available to get money quickly to individuals and to get disaster relief programs running quickly without seeing so much fraud and waste," said Gregory D. Kutz, managing director of the forensic audits unit at the G.A.O. "But it wasn't really something that FEMA put a high priority on. So it was easy to commit fraud without being detected."...

...The most disturbing cases, said David R. Dugas, the United States attorney in Louisiana, who is leading a storm antifraud task force for the Justice Department, are those involving government officials accused of orchestrating elaborate scams.

One Louisiana Department of Labor clerk, Wayne P. Lawless, has been charged with issuing about 80 fraudulent disaster unemployment benefit cards in exchange for bribes of up to $300 per application. Mr. Lawless, a state contract worker, announced to one man he helped apply for hurricane benefits that he wanted to "get something out of it," the affidavit said. His lawyer did not respond to several messages left at his office and home for comment...

...R. David Paulison, the new FEMA director, said in an interview on Friday that much work had already been done to prevent such widespread fraud, including automated checks to confirm applicants' identities.

"We will be able to tell who you are, if you live where you said you do," Mr. Paulison said.

But Senator Collins said she had heard such promises before, including after Hurricane Frances in 2004 in which FEMA gave out millions of dollars in aid to Miami-Dade County residents, even though there was little damage.

Mr. Kutz said he too was not convinced that the agency was ready.

"I still don't think they fully understand the depth of the problem," he said.

In retrospect, Exploring the relocation option for Hurricane Katrina victims seems more resonable now then when recommended.

GAO report: $1.4 billion in bogus assitance to hurricane 'victicms'

GAO Finds Mismanagement of Hurricane Aid:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government doled out as much as $1.4 billion in bogus assistance to victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, getting hoodwinked to pay for season football tickets, a tropical vacation and even a divorce lawyer, congressional investigators have found.

Prison inmates, a supposed victim who used a New Orleans cemetery for a home address, and a person who spent 70 days at a Hawaiian hotel all were able to wrongly get taxpayer help, according to evidence that gives a new black eye to the nation's disaster relief agency.

Agents from the General Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, went undercover to expose the ease of receiving disaster expense checks from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The GAO concluded that as much as 16 percent of the billions of dollars in FEMA help to individuals after the two hurricanes was unwarranted.


The findings are detailed in testimony, obtained by The Associated Press, that is to be delivered at a hearing Wednesday by the House Homeland Security subcommittee on investigations.

To dramatize the problem, GAO provided lawmakers with a copy of a $2,358 U.S. Treasury check for rental assistance that an undercover agent got using a bogus address. The money was paid even after FEMA learned from its inspector that the undercover applicant did not live at the address.

"This is an assault on the American taxpayer," said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the subcommittee that will conduct the hearing. "Prosecutors from the federal level down should be looking at prosecuting these crimes and putting the criminals who committed them in jail for a long time."...

Is the Big Easy Ready for the Next Big Storm?

'Storm Cloud over New Orleans' is a special report by the Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch (emphasis added):

Hurricane season officialy opens June 1, and experts foresee another year of unusually intense storm activity.

Scientist at the University of Colorado are predicting a total of 17 named storms and nine hurricanes, five of them rated at a Category 3 or stronger on the Saffir-Simpson scale of 1 to 5. They calcualte that the probability for at least one major hurricane hitting the Gulf Coast is 47 percent-well above the last century's average 30 percent. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Admininstration also expects a very active season, with 13 to 16 name storms, eight to 10 hurricanes, and four to six major hurricanes.

Unfortunately, the protective infrastructure in New Orleans-a city still recovering from the devastation wreaked by last year's Hurricane Katrina-remains unprepared to face another major storm...

Where's the national debate on rebuilding flood-prone areas?

A society with limited resources sometimes has to make "tough love" decisions with those limited resources.

By 2010, Congress estimates that $97 billion will have been spent in Hurricane Katrina relief (see Table A-1, pg 108 of the CBO's The Budget and Economic: Years 2007 to 2016). The Heritage Foundation estimates the final cost could be twice that amount.

Our federal politicians have yet to face the sinking facts on New Orleans and surrounding areas (New Orleans Sinking Faster Than Thought, Satellites Find (HT: BizzyBlog via email) ) and give our country the debate it deserves:

Should New Orleans and other flood-prone areas be rebuilt at tax-payer expense?

Note that the question says nothing of private efforts to rebuild. It solely addresses public finance decisions.

Those that argue that the call for such a debate makes one guilty of 'knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing', should first answer the following: If New Orleans didn't exist, would you advocate for building it today in the sinking flood plain?

Moreover, there is historical precedence for such debate. After the 1993 Mississippi Flood, the National Research Council authored a report called Reducing Future Flood Losses. One of the primary recommendations of the report was to "Avoid developing the floodplain unless absolutely necessary".

We do future generations a disservice by using all heart or all brains when tackling tough problems. So far the country has been generous and responded with heart to the human tragedy of Katrina. The federal government may be avoiding the debate, but other segments of our society are starting to make rational decisions with regard to hurricane-prone areas (see: Hunt is on for insurance coverage).

It's now time to use a combination of heart/mind and debate the reconstruction.

Related:

• Exploring the relocation option for Hurricane Katrina victims
• Providing assistance to the victims of Hurricane Katrina responsibly
• Discussions on alternatives to rebuilding New Orleans
• The Hurricane Katrina 'Special Series' links on the Porkopolis side-bar

Walter Williams: Economics of prices

Next time someone you know accuses a gas station of price gouging have them read Walter Williams' 'Economics of prices'. If he doesn't get it on the first go-round, have him read it again..r-e-a-l s-l-o-w-l-y!...and repeat until Williams' wisdon settles in:

Here's what one reader wrote: "Williams, I can understand how the destruction of Hurricane Katrina and Middle East political uncertainty can jack up gasoline prices. But it's price-gouging for the oil companies to raise the price of all the gasoline already bought and stored before the crisis." Several other readers made similar allegations. Such allegations reflect a misunderstanding of how prices are determined.

Let's start off with an example. Say you owned a small 10-pound inventory of coffee that you purchased for $3 a pound. Each week you'd sell me a pound for $3.25. Suppose a freeze in Brazil destroyed half of its coffee crop, causing the world price of coffee to immediately rise to $5 a pound. You still have coffee that you purchased before the jump in prices. When I stop by to buy another pound of coffee from you, how much will you charge me? I'm betting that you're going to charge me at least $5 a pound. Why? Because that's today's cost to replace your inventory.

Historical costs do not determine prices; what economists call opportunity costs do. Of course, you'd have every right not to be a "price-gouger" and continue to charge me $3.25 a pound. I'd buy your entire inventory and sell it at today's price of $5 a pound and make a killing.

If you were really enthusiastic about not being a "price-gouger," I'd have another proposition. You might own a house that you purchased for $55,000 in 1960 that you put on the market for a half-million dollars. I'd simply accuse you of price-gouging and demand that you sell me the house for what you paid for it, maybe adding on a bit for inflation since 1960. I'm betting you'd say, "Williams, if I sold you my house for what I paid for it in 1960, how will I be able to pay today's prices for a house to live in?"

If there's any conspiracy involved in today's high gasoline prices, it's a conspiracy of cowardice and stupidity by the U.S. Congress. Opening a tiny portion of the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil and gas production, according to the U.S. Geological Survey's mean estimate, would increase our proven domestic oil reserves by approximately 50 percent. The Pacific, Atlantic and eastern Gulf of Mexico offshore areas have enormous reserves of oil and natural gas, but like the Alaska reserves, they have been put off limits by Congress. Plus, the U.S. Office of Naval Petroleum and Oil Shale Reserves estimates the world supply of oil shale at 1.6 trillion barrels, of which 1.2 trillion barrels are in the United States.

Because of costly regulations and political restrictions, U.S. nuclear energy production is a fraction of what it might be. Nuclear power creates 75 percent of France's electricity, nearly 50 percent of Sweden's and only 20 percent of ours. Nuclear energy is very safe. That's something to keep in mind when we hear of tragic deaths of coal miners. There would be fewer mining deaths if we used less coal and more nuclear power for electricity generation.

You say, "What about the effect on prices of all those oil company profits and CEO pay and retirement benefits?" If Congress mandated that CEOs work for zero pay, gasoline prices would fall by less than a penny. If Congress mandated that oil companies earn zero profit, gasoline prices might fall by 10 cents; of course, we'd have to worry about gasoline availability next year.

CEOs tend to be cowards when dealing with politicians and environmental extremists, but I have a recommendation that requires only a modicum of courage. At each gasoline station they should put up photos, perhaps videos, of penguins, caribou, polar bears and other critters frolicking along Alaska's coastal plain. Then have a voice-over or caption reading:

Don't be selfish. Your paying $3, $4 and $5 a gallon for gas keeps these critters happy and their play space clear of oil rigs.

Media Coverage of Katrina: A modern-day Roshomon or bias?

Akira Kurosawa's famous film Rashōmon is a masterpiece that delves into the difficulty of getting to the truth of a matter when there are conflicting witness accounts. The film left such an impression that the term Rashomon effect is now used to describe subjectivity of perception when recalling events.

After reading Lou Dilnar's 'Katrina: What the Media Missed' (HT: BizzyBlog via email), the Rashomon effect would be a plausible explanation for the huge disparity in accounts about the rescue effort in New Orleans. But only media bias would account for the record not being corrected.

Key excerpt's from Mr. Dilnar's must read piece:

Remember the dozens, maybe hundreds, of rapes, murders, stabbings and deaths resulting from official neglect at the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina? The ones that never happened, as even the national media later admitted?

Sure, we all remember the original reporting, if not the back-pedaling.

Here's another one: Do you remember the dramatic TV footage of National Guard helicopters landing at the Superdome as soon as Katrina passed, dropping off tens of thousands saved from certain death? The corpsmen running with stretchers, in an echo of M*A*S*H, carrying the survivors to ambulances and the medical center? About how the operation, which also included the Coast Guard, regular military units, and local first responders, continued for more than a week?

Me neither. Except that it did happen, and got at best an occasional, parenthetical mention in the national media. The National Guard had its headquarters for Katrina, not just a few peacekeeping troops, in what the media portrayed as the pit of Hell. Hell was one of the safest places to be in New Orleans, smelly as it was. The situation was always under control, not surprisingly because the people in control were always there.

...There were problems, true: FEMA melted down. Political leaders, from the Mayor to Governor to the White House, showed "A Failure of Initiative", as a recent House report put it. That report, along with sharply critical studies by the White House and the Senate, delve into the myriad of breakdowns, shortages and miscommunications that hampered relief efforts.

Still, by focusing on the part of the glass that was half-empty, the national media imposed a near total blackout on the nerve center of what may have been the largest, most successful aerial search and rescue operation in history...

...--Why didn't the Guard fly in porta-potties as the crowd at the Dome stewed in its own rich and savory juices? Well, toilets worked through Tuesday afternoon, and by stinky Wednesday, search and rescue missions continued to ramp up and still had the highest conceivable priority. Had helicopters been diverted, people trapped in attics, on rooftops, and in broken-down hospitals would have died. Other apparently brutal behavior, such as ignoring visible corpses scattered around the city, were also seen as a distraction from the main task.

--Many survivors in the Dome complained of food and water shortages, a charge that reverberated through the media echo chamber. According to Maj. Bush, the Guard stuck to strict rationing - one MRE and one liter of water per day, exactly what troops got in combat in Iraq. Because so many victims were being brought in so quickly in an open-ended rescue operation, the Guard wasn't taking any chances of running out of supplies by opening an all-you-can eat buffet. It started out with a 3-day supply for ten thousand people, and ultimately brought in 300,000 MREs and 397,000 liter bottles of water, a 30-day supply for 10,000 people. And as Maj. Bush points out, there wasn't a single death from dehydration - a constant threat to those waiting to be rescued from rooftops and attics in the 100-degree heat and in the steamy atmosphere of the Dome as well.

--Why wasn't the Superdome evacuated sooner? National Guard officials on the scene saw no need for it until Thursday, and they were right. First, all resources at their disposal were, quite correctly, focused on search and rescue and lifesaving, rather than on re-supply and the comfort level of those saved. Had they deployed helicopters for marginal tasks, people still stuck on rooftops or languishing in powerless hospitals would have died. When rescues began to taper off on Thursday, they began to shift resources to evacuation. In other words, they had a plan: rescue, triage, hydrate, evacuate. Not exactly rocket science, but if you leave out the rescue and triage part, as the national media did, the rest makes no sense. The Guard spent the week after Katrina in an exquisite balancing act between the needs of healthy survivors in the Dome, the care of the sick and injured in the Arena, and hauling in the tens of thousands who faced death on rooftops and in attics. Then they could worry about getting the hell out of town.

--Why did the evacuation take so long? The full evacuation proceeded rapidly once it began on Thursday, Maj. Dressler said. Once again, however, the use of the Superdome as a staging area distorted perceptions: Even as the previously rescued were being bused away, more were arriving by helicopter, boat, and under their own power as rescue operations reached a crescendo. The new arrivals delayed the completion of evacuation until well into the weekend...

...FEMA failed miserably. Yet the Coast Guard, a branch of the much-maligned Department of Homeland Security, operated precisely according to plan and saved up to 30,000 lives amid near total destruction. The National Guard Bureau helped run the show. The State Guard and regular military, which owes its extraordinary professionalism to the administration's insistence on training and equipage for service in Iraq, saved tens of thousands more.

That's the real story of Katrina. But the national media isn't about to acknowledge it unless the administration makes its own case, something that, so far at least, it hasn't begun to do.

Peggy Noonan speaks truth to power

Baseless Confidence:

It may take a defeat in November for the GOP to unlearn the lessons of power.

Thursday, May 11, 2006 12:01 a.m. EDT

What's behind the president's, and the Congressional Republicans', poll drop? All the bad news that's been noted, from Iraq and Katrina to high spending and immigration. What's behind the bad decisions made in those areas? Detachment from the ground.

Power is distancing.

When you've been in Congress for a while, or the White House for a while, you both forget too many things and learn too many things.

You forget why they sent you. You forget it's not that you're charming and wonderful. You forget it's not you. You become immersed in a Washington conversation, a political conversation, that is, by definition, unlike the normal human conversation back home. To survive and thrive, national politicians have to speak two languages, Here and Home. Actually it's more than two languages, it's two cultures. It's hard to straddle cultures...

...The Republicans talk about cutting spending, but they increase it--a lot. They stand for making government smaller, but they keep making it bigger. They say they're concerned about our borders, but they're not securing them. And they seem to think we're slobs for worrying. Republicans used to be sober and tough about foreign policy, but now they're sort of romantic and full of emotionalism. They talk about cutting taxes, and they have, but the cuts are provisional, temporary. Beyond that, there's something creepy about increasing spending so much and not paying the price right away but instead rolling it over and on to our kids, and their kids...

...One gets the impression party leaders, deep in their hearts, believe the base is . . . base. Unsophisticated. Primitive. Obsessed with its little issues. They're trying to educate the base. But if history is a guide, the base is about to teach them a lesson instead.

Read the whole thing!

C-SPAN: a valuable source of information on the illegal immigrtion debate

Following up on yesterday's coverage of the illegal immigration debate, C-SPAN's Washington Journal this morning has Steven Camorata, Research Director for the Center for Immigration Studies, debunking myths, providing detail facts, and offering common sense solutions.
(ed. Direct link to video will be placed here later today once archive is available)
(Update: Video Archive (real media format) is now available. Mr. Carmorata's interview starts at 1:23:04 into the program. Use the viewer's scroll bar to navigate to that time segment).

Here is the opening paragraph to Mr. Carmorata's report 'Dropping Out: Immigrant Entry and Native Exit From the Labor Market, 2000-2005':

Advocates of legalizing illegal aliens and increasing legal immigration argue that there are no Americans to fill low-wage jobs that require relatively little education. However, data collected by the Census Bureau show that, even prior to Hurricane Katrina, there were almost four million unemployed adult natives (age 18 to 64) with just a high school degree or less, and another 19 million not in the labor force. Perhaps most troubling, the share of these less-educated adult natives in the labor force has declined steadily since 2000.

Popular Mechanics: Disaster Repetitive Loss Analysis in the Gulf States

From Popular Mechanics Now What?, The The Lessons of Katrina (HT: BizzyBlog):

The chart above shows repetitive-loss property claims under the National Flood Insurance Program and the dollar amounts paid on those claims. (A repetitive-loss property is one with multiple insured losses due to floods within a 10-year period.) The five Gulf Coast states account for more than half the claims filed--a clear indication of the vulnerability of property in Hurricane Alley. The chart does not reflect claims made because of Katrina, Rita and Wilma. Insured losses for those storms are expected to top $22 billion.

Their recommended solution:

NEXT TIME: Folks in Tornado Alley and along the San Andreas fault don't get federally backed insurance, so why should taxpayers subsidize coastal homes, many of them vacation properties? Before we start rebuilding "bigger and better," Congress should reform the flood insurance program. A good start: Structure premiums so the program is actuarially sound and clamps down on repetitive claims.

Another option is for the government to buy out homeowners in vulnerable communities, just as it did along the Mississippi River following the floods of 1993. "The only problem is that it is going to cost more to buy out properties along the shore than it is to do it in North Dakota," says Andrew Coburn of Duke University's Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines. "The concept is still solid. It's just going to take more dollars."

AP's convenient amnesia...Facts don't matter when they don't support the "It's all Bush's fault" meme

The Drudge Report is showcasing this Associated Press video blaming Bush, yet again, for the New Orleans flood. Here's their teaser:

Katrina: The Warnings Bush Received

Watch as President Bush is briefed on the arrival of Hurricane Katrina, in this video obtained exclusively by The Associated Press. Hear what aides told him just before the storm hit the Gulf Coast. (March 1)

The video report goes on to highlight and contrast a FEMA briefing Bush was involved in detailing the oncoming storm and a interview with ABC News after the storm hit where he's quoted as saying, "...no one could have predicted the scope of this storm...".

That's the same Associated Press that reported the following (emphasis added):

Mandatory evacuation ordered for New Orleans
8/28/2005, 10:48 a.m. CT
The Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — In the face of a catastrophic Hurricane Katrina, a mandatory evacuation was ordered Sunday for New Orleans by Mayor Ray Nagin.

Acknowledging that large numbers of people, many of them stranded tourists, would be unable to leave, the city set up 10 places of last resort for people to go, including the Superdome.

The mayor called the order unprecedented and said anyone who could leave the city should. He exempted hotels from the evacuation order because airlines had already cancelled all flights.

Gov. Kathleen Blanco, standing beside the mayor at a news conference, said President Bush called and personally appealed for a mandatory evacuation for the low-lying city, which is prone to flooding....

Hey AP...try this theory on for size:

Officals, including the President, call for a

M A N D A T O R Y
E V A C U A T I O N

in New Orleans...everyone leaves the city...levees get breached...flood damage follows, but no one gets hurt because they have been

E V A C U A T E D!

Oh...what's that? The local officials didn't follow their own evacuation plan? Guess facts don't matter when they don't support the "It's all Bush's fault" meme.