The conclusion: Either we are being lied to in an effort of spin-control, or the people in charge of our government are incompetent beyond all comprehension or belief.

Personally, even though I despise being lied to, it is safer for my country if …

Thanks for dropping by. You might also be interested in my historical perspectives on rebuilding cities.

I think that there are actually only two directions in which we can go if we really want to address the failures that aggravated what would have been a terrible disaster regardless of what we’d planned or done. Neither the city of New Orleans nor the state of Louisiana are departments of the federal government. We could make them so. Or we could abandon the illusory security of FEMA, the Department of Homeland Security, and other similar public relations entities and devolve the responsibility back to state and local government.

The failure of the levees is a variant of a “tragedy of the commons” problem. The fundamental issue here is placing the responsibility for flood control on the Mississippi on the Army Corps of Engineers and, consequently, at the discretion of Congress. Liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans have all fought adequate funding for flood control along the Mississippi. Would it fare better if placed on the shoulders of state and local governments? Probably not.