Blog of New Orleans

Archives | RSS

« Piano Lesson Extended | Isolated Incidents »

Monday, September 28, 2009

Facebook/Twitter/Social Media / News & Politics / New Orleans Life / Media / Barack Obama / Weather / General

Harry Shearer to Obama: Time's up

Posted by Kevin Allman on Mon, Sep 28, 2009 at 7:29 PM

Harry Shearer, part-time New Orleans resident and full-time passionate partisan for the city, has been grumbling for months about President Barack Obama's promises to the Gulf Coast during the 2008 presidential election, and contrasting those promises with the fact that Obama has yet to come to New Orleans, almost a year into his presidency. (Obama says he'll be here by year's end.)

This morning's announcement that Obama will be traveling to Copenhagen to make a pitch for Chicago (his hometown) to host the 2016 Olympics seems to have been a line in the sand for Shearer, who now writes:

I found this story interesting as the ultimate rebuke to the months of comments from people here regarding the Obama administration's torpor when it comes to remedying the aftermath of the failure of the federal levees in New Orleans. "Give him time," they said, "he's got a lot on his plate".

Here's one thing he's got on his plate, so far untouched: a report from the Office of Special Counsel, delivered to the White House and Congress this past June, confirming almost all the allegations by Corps of Engineers whistleblower Maria Garzino that the hydraulic pumps installed by the Corps at the three "outflow" canals whose (Corps-built) floodwalls failed on August 29, 2005, were not robust enough to meet testing standards and cannot be operated on site in the required manner in the event of a storm surge event. (The OSC examines whistleblower complaints; in this case, they hired an outside engineering expert to review Garzino's complaints.) There has been no reaction from the White House to the OSC report; the pumps sit there, waiting to fail should a surge enter Lake Ponchartrain.

My headline, phrased in question form earlier this year -- "Obama to New Orleans: Drop Dead?" -- is ready to be repunctuated.

Is Harry right or wrong?

Tags: Blog Watch, News & Politics, New Orleans Life, Media, Barack Obama, Weather & Storms, General

        
Tweet

Share

Speaking of...

Quotes of the Week
- Jan 31, 2012
More »

Comments (3)

Showing 1-3 of 3

Add a comment

Are you kidding me? Harry is Forking Right On! Obama is blowing us, man. He blew us for the Anniversary. That event is not some light weight memorial to the foibles of predatory capitalism. It is still an exposed compound fracture of our Body Politic and screw any President that doesn't get it. Screw them when they go to Martha's Vineyard for vacation for Goddess sakes??? Hell yeah. We are no one's political football and will soon rule all of football when the Saints teach this ill distracted nation the Smell of Greatness in January. Hell yeah screw anyone who doesn't get it, but especially the President who told us all with a twinkle in his eye that he does get it --and then went to play forking golf. Obama does Not Get It. Grrrr.

report

dislike

Posted by Editilla~New Orleans Ladder on September 28, 2009 at 8:26 PM

New Orleans has been slandered like no other city in the history of America. We are still told our floods were our fault despite the indisputable fact that the Corps short sheeted New Orleans. I find it offensive when that the President still refers to our disaster as 'natural'. The president used our losses to help him win the election. He made a lot of promises in our regard. It is disappointing the president has not apparently even taken the time to learn the truth about our flood. The Corps used 17.5 feet below sea level sheet-piles where they should have been 60 feet and the walls fell down with lots of floodwall freeboard still exposed. The same engineers are still in charge and are constantly caught in mistakes and lies. We deserve competent engineering. We deserve vindication from all the slander and myths. We deserve a more attentive president.

report

dislike

Posted by CrescentCityRay on September 29, 2009 at 12:20 PM

This is so upsetting.

report

dislike

Posted by termite on September 29, 2009 at 2:08 PM

Subscribe to this thread:

By Email