Chapter 7: Guns and Butter

1
Chapter 7 Guns and Butter
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Governor Blanco made two moves to secure her
independence from Washington.First, she created
a philanthropic fund for the victims of
KatrinaNext, she hired James Lee Witt to
advise herWitt was Clintons former FEMA chief
(p.110)
3
Chertoff, Housing Secretary Alphonso Jackson, and
White House domestic policy advisor Clause Allen
met with black leaders to discuss the impact of
race and class on the governments role (p. 111)
4
The two-hour meeting was attended by
Congressional Black Caucus chair, Baltimore
representative Elijah Cummings among other.
(p.111)
5
Through a spokeswoman, Cummings said the
gathering was meant to correct the perception
that Bush was indifferent to black
suffering.(p.111)
6
I think a lot of people in the African American
communityand others, by the wayshare Bushs
view that the results of his efforts have been
unacceptable (p.111)
7
In 2001, a FEMA report concluded that a
catastrophic hurricane in New Orleans wasamong
the three likeliestdisasters facing the
country. (p.78)The other two were a terrorist
attack in New York and an earthquake in San
Francisco
8
Articles in the Houston Chronicle, Times-Picayune
of New Orleans and National Geographic all ran
articles predicting the worst natural disaster
in the history of the United States. (p.79)
9
PBSs science show, NOVA featured an episode
(early 2005) on the potential for destruction and
the FX Networks Oil Storm (June 2005) portrayed
the effects of a battering storm on the oil
industry near New Orleans.(p.80)
10
As a group of journalists observed,engineers
up and down the Mississippi River have talked
about the disaster that would result if New
Orleans bulwark of levees and flood walls were
hit (p.80)
11
The Bush Administration might have known since it
was responsible for budget cuts to the Army Corps
of Engineers programs that literally may have
stemmed the tides of Katrina.(p.80)
12
Since 1995 430 million in federal funds were
aimed at strengthening the leveesanother 250
million have dried up. The culprit the war in
Iraqwhichstymied the National Guardand
diverted critical resources from the Army Corps
(p.80)
13
Bush and Brown should have at least known about
the deadly levee situation after FEMA hired a
private company, IEM, Inc.to run an eight-day
emergency response drill in 2004 for a fictional
killer hurricane (p.81)
14
Dubbed Hurricane Pam, the fictional storm
overwhelmed the levees.Hurricane Pam forced a
fictitious evacuation of a million
peopleThousands more needed rescue. Nearly
600,000 buildings were destroyed. (p.82)
15
Unfortunately, the company didnt get the chance
to finishto design a plan to address unresolved
problems like evacuating sick and injured
folkbecause their funding was cut. (p.82)
16
Hurricanes are the greatest single factor in the
erosion of wetlands. But there are other factors,
too.End of Summary of Chapter 5
17
Regarding wetlands surge-prevention qualities,
National Geographic says research after
Hurricane Andrew (in Florida) showed that every
linear mile of wetland cut the height of the
surge by three inches. (p.84)
18
In 2004, upon returning from fact-finding in
Iraq Governor Blanco wrote a letter to the New
York Times, applauding the paper for urging the
restoration of Iraqi wetlands but pointing out
the lack of federal support for her state. (p.85)
19
Blanco argued that in their rewriting of the
energy bill, Senate Republicans killed spending
provisions addressing Louisianas coastal loss
(p.86)
20
The spending provision would have given Louisiana
a share of profits from lucrative off-shore oil
drilling,
21
adding an estimated 1 billion to the states
coffers and allowing Louisiana to subsidize
natural barriers against a devastating hurricane
like Katrina. (p.86)
22
The failure to do so will now cost 25 billion to
rebuild the region.
23
In her letter Blanco acknowledged that Congress
has begun restoring the Chesapeake Bay and the
Florida Everglades, and now were restoring
Iraq's wetlands.
24
National leaders should address an environmental
and economic crisis more significant than any of
these the loss of Americas Wetland in coastal
Louisiana. (p.86)
25
End of Summary of Chapter 5
I must say, this storm is much bigger than
anyone expected. FEMA director, Michael Brown
(p.77) I dont think anybody anticipated the
breach of the levees. --President Bush (p. 77)