It's a very obvious equation really:

Bush & Co. = Oil and Arms

Oil and Arms + War in the Middle East = Increased profit for Bush & Co.

Oil + Refinery capacity devastated by natural disaster = Profit for Bush & Co.

Bush & Co. benefit from this all. There is no denying that, whether you believe in conspiracy theories or not.

__________________
I'll tell you this no eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn
You may bury my body, down by the highway side,
so my old evil spirit can get a Greyhound bus and ride.
You and I must fight to survive

Yeah and those aliens...they came down cause Bush invited them to...and they took a unch of the oil back to the mothership with them and it left us with high prices and stuff.

You guys crack me up!

__________________
Not many people know this, but I'm really famous!

Begging your pardon, but I didn't sit here like some and try and rationalize my poor choice of words {let it flood}. I simply admitted to my mistake and moved on to, OPPORTUNITY. U & Sue, on the other hand, threw out a few very intelligent responses.

Which reminds me. Aliens. Anyone else heard of this? What date? How many? Can U prove that?


PROB

And the plot thickens. Still think I'm insane about COLLUSION? Take a gander at this little beauty. Hot off the presses.


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/19/wo...ss&oref=slogin


PROB

"Well, in regards to Katrina, you clearly sad Bush 'Just let it flood'. I'd like to know what he could have done to stop it."

New Orleans had long known it was highly vulnerable to flooding and a direct hit from a hurricane. In fact, the federal government had been working with state and local officials in the region since the late 1960's on major hurricane and flood relief efforts. When flooding from a massive rainstorm in May 1995 killed six people, Congress authorized the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, or SELA.

Over the next 10 years, the Army Corps of Engineers, tasked with carrying out SELA, spent $430 million on shoring up levees and building pumping stations, with $50 million in local aid. But at least $250 million in crucial projects remained, even as hurricane activity in the Atlantic Basin increased dramatically and the levees surrounding New Orleans continued to subside.

Yet after 2003, the flow of federal dollars toward SELA dropped to a trickle. The Corps never tried to hide the fact that the spending pressures of the war in Iraq, as well as homeland security -- coming at the same time as federal tax cuts -- was the reason for the strain. At least nine articles in the Times-Picayune from 2004 and 2005 specifically cite the cost of Iraq as a reason for the lack of hurricane- and flood-control dollars. Newhouse News Service, in an article posted in The Times-Picayune Web site, reported: "No one can say they didn't see it coming."

In early 2004, as the cost of the conflict in Iraq soared, President Bush proposed spending less than 20% of what the Corps said was needed for Lake Pontchartrain, according to this Feb. 16, 2004, article, in New Orleans City Business:

"The $750 million Lake Pontchartrain and Vicinity Hurricane Protection project is another major Corps project, which remains about 20% incomplete due to lack of funds, said Al Naomi, project manager. That project consisted of building up levees and protection for pumping stations on the east bank of the Mississippi River in Orleans, St. Bernard, St. Charles and Jefferson parishes." "The Lake Pontchartrain project was slated to receive $3.9 million in the president's 2005 budget, Naomi said about $20 million is needed." "The longer we wait without funding, the more we sink", he said. "I've got at least six levee construction projects that need to be done to raise the levee protection where it should be. Right now I owe my contractors about $5 million, and we're going to have to pay them interest."

On June 8, 2004, Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, told the Times-Picayune: "It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us." That June, with the 2004 hurricane season starting, the Corps' Naomi went before a local agency, the East Jefferson Levee Authority, and essentially begged for $2 million for urgent work that Washington was now unable to pay for.

From the June 18, 2004 Times-Picayune: "The system is in great shape, but the levees are sinking. Everything is sinking, and if we don't get the money fast enough to raise them, then we can't stay ahead of the settlement," he said. "The problem that we have isn't that the levee is low, but that the federal funds have dried up so that we can't raise them."

The 2004 hurricane season was the worst in decades. In spite of that, John McCain and the Republicans came back in the spring with the steepest reduction in hurricane and flood control funding for New Orleans in history. Because of the proposed cuts, the Corps office there imposed a hiring freeze. Officials said that the money targeted for the SELA project, $10.4 million, down from $36.5 million, was not enough to start any new jobs.

According to a New Orleans City Business news story, "The district has identified $35 million in projects to build and improve levees, floodwalls and pumping stations in St. Bernard, Orleans, Jefferson and St. Charles parishes. Those projects are included in a Carps line item called Lake Pontchartrain, where funding is scheduled to be cut from $5.7 million this year to $2.9 million in 2006. Naomi said it's enough to pay salaries but little else. "We'll design the contracts and get them ready to go if we get the money. But we don't have the money to put the work in the field, and that's the problem, " Naomi said. But the cost of the Iraq war and the tax cuts forced the Bush administration to order the New Orleans district office not to begin any new studies, and the 2005 budget no longer includes the needed money, " he said.

The Newhouse News Service article published a story that observed, "The Louisiana congressional delegation urged Congress earlier this year to dedicate a stream of federal money to Louisian's coast only to be opposed by the White House. In its budget, the Bush administration proposed a significant reduction in funding for southeast Louisiana's hurricane protection project. Bush proposed $10.4 million, a sixth of what local officials say they need."

Washington knew that this day could come at any time, and it knew the things that needed to be done to protect the citizens of New orleans. But in the tradition of the riverboat gambler, the Bush administration decided to roll the dice on its fool's errand in Iraq, and on a tax cut that mainly benefited the rich. They lost that gamble, big time. The president told us that we needed to fight in Iraq to save lives here at home. Yet, after moving billions of domestic dollars to the Persian Gulf and into the pockets of millionaires, there were bodies floating through the streets of Louisiana.

I also said that I used a "BAD CHOICE OF WORDS". U should actually read for a change.


PROB

I often think the same thing. He's had one of the hardest presidencies in history. Recession, hurricanes, terrorism, wars, the housing bubble, and all the while people were making fun of him for his poor speaking abilities. It's a good thing we had him. If we had anyone else our government could have easily been spending 5 trillion a year, and the deficit could be much higher.

Oooh, angry are we? You should try using the proper spelling of "you" for a change.

Being a KID and not knowing better, I understand your frustration.


PROB

So you think I'm a kid and that I'm frustrated?