The Hurricane is Innocent

[Yurt]

Blame, blame, blame, blame....

Katrina suit vs. Army Corps dismissed

NEW ORLEANS - A federal judge threw out a key class-action lawsuit Wednesday against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over levee breaches after Hurricane Katrina, saying that the agency failed to protect the city but that his hands were tied by the law.

U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval ruled that the Corps should be held immune over failures in drainage canals that caused much of the flooding of New Orleans in August 2005.

The ruling relies on the Flood Control Act of 1928, which made the federal government immune when flood control projects like levees break.

The suit led to about 489,000 claims by businesses, government entities and residents, totaling trillions of dollars in damages against the agency.


...

The Flood Control Act is counterproductive, Duval said, because it negates incentives for good government workmanship and creates an environment where "gross incompetence receives the same treatment as simple mistake."

don't blame it on the rain, yeah, yeah... (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080131/ap_on_re_us/katrina_levee_suit) --> think milli vanilli

Sure, the corps could have done a better job, but where is the accountability of the hurricane? What about NO itself that knew the levees were outdated?

And come on, suing the corps...it does no good. They have already received BILLIONS in aid. If the government could be held liable here, it is quite possible the government would build NO levees....and there would be almost no NO that owed its very existence, on a swamp, to those levees.

They should thank the corps for building the levees in the first place.

[JohnDoe]

Blame, blame, blame, blame....

Katrina suit vs. Army Corps dismissed

NEW ORLEANS - A federal judge threw out a key class-action lawsuit Wednesday against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over levee breaches after Hurricane Katrina, saying that the agency failed to protect the city but that his hands were tied by the law.

U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval ruled that the Corps should be held immune over failures in drainage canals that caused much of the flooding of New Orleans in August 2005.

The ruling relies on the Flood Control Act of 1928, which made the federal government immune when flood control projects like levees break.

The suit led to about 489,000 claims by businesses, government entities and residents, totaling trillions of dollars in damages against the agency.


...

The Flood Control Act is counterproductive, Duval said, because it negates incentives for good government workmanship and creates an environment where "gross incompetence receives the same treatment as simple mistake."

don't blame it on the rain, yeah, yeah... (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080131/ap_on_re_us/katrina_levee_suit) --> think milli vanilli

Sure, the corps could have done a better job, but where is the accountability of the hurricane? What about NO itself that knew the levees were outdated?

And come on, suing the corps...it does no good. They have already received BILLIONS in aid. If the government could be held liable here, it is quite possible the government would build NO levees....and there would be almost no NO that owed its very existence, on a swamp, to those levees.

They should thank the corps for building the levees in the first place.

THEY did NOT receive the BILLIONS in aid....some cronies and friends and family of our beloved gvt officials did, $100 billion and counting and the citizens have received basically NIL of that amount....and nil from their insurance companies too, for the most part...so once again, our gvt is useless for "we the people"....

as far as the ruling of the judge, i understand it and his hands are tied, but that law he is quoting, is unconstitutional imo. We have the RIGHT:

to petition the government for a redress of grievances. 1st amendment.

and as he said yurt, by having this law is telling our gvt that they can be CARELESS and CAREFREE when it comes to citizen lives.

[Hugh Lincoln]

The corps must be racist.

[Yurt]

THEY did NOT receive the BILLIONS in aid....some cronies and friends and family of our beloved gvt officials did, $100 billion and counting and the citizens have received basically NIL of that amount....and nil from their insurance companies too, for the most part...so once again, our gvt is useless for "we the people"....

as far as the ruling of the judge, i understand it and his hands are tied, but that law he is quoting, is unconstitutional imo. We have the RIGHT:

to petition the government for a redress of grievances. 1st amendment.

and as he said yurt, by having this law is telling our gvt that they can be CARELESS and CAREFREE when it comes to citizen lives.

JD, that would be the local government stealing the money. How is that the federal government's fault.

While you can "petition" the government for redress -- which the government DID by sending AID -- you have no right to sue the federal government. Lawsuits are not a right. And you are flat out wrong about lawsuits being the answer to hold people accountable. Once again, why did the people of NO, who knew about the levees, not fix the levees themselves? Why did they not "petition" the corps before? Further, is it the corps fault the NO grew so big BECAUSE of the levees? When the levees were built, NO was less than half the size. NO purposefully built houses on swamp land they knew had a high risk of flooding. If we all followed your logic, nothing would be built because the government would not want to waste the time worrying about lawsuits. Face it JD, life aint fair and sometimes shit happens.

Like hurricanes. Not saying lawsuits have no place, just that they are sorely abused today.

[JohnDoe]

JD, that would be the local government stealing the money. How is that the federal government's fault.

While you can "petition" the government for redress -- which the government DID by sending AID -- you have no right to sue the federal government. Lawsuits are not a right. And you are flat out wrong about lawsuits being the answer to hold people accountable. Once again, why did the people of NO, who knew about the levees, not fix the levees themselves? Why did they not "petition" the corps before? Further, is it the corps fault the NO grew so big BECAUSE of the levees? When the levees were built, NO was less than half the size. NO purposefully built houses on swamp land they knew had a high risk of flooding. If we all followed your logic, nothing would be built because the government would not want to waste the time worrying about lawsuits. Face it JD, life aint fair and sometimes shit happens.

Like hurricanes. Not saying lawsuits have no place, just that they are sorely abused today.

no i am not wrong yurt, i believe that LAWSUITS are precisely there to redress grievences if they can not be settled to satisfaction outside of court.

And all the rest that you said about the age and the swamp and the amount of people there now was the responsibility or the Army corp not the locals.

And as far as the money that was wasted by local gvt....a real problem! BUT, the major incompetencies with the money WAS THE FAULT of the federal gvt, congress....for not accounting for our money that they poured out like it was water, for not requiring benchmarks for the money, for hiring big companies to do reconstruction projectw that used illegal aliens instead of getting the locals back to work, the federal gvt or fema for handing out credit cards to people who were not even living in new orleans.... believe me alot of mismanagement by gvt all the way around, local and federal and we the people are at least $100 BILLION shy and nothing to show for it...shit, i think the estimate was $30 billion for 5 years for everyone in our country to have universal health care.... ???? $100 billion is alot of dough to have no results, our dough....i blame congress for not being good stewards of our money.

jd

[theHawk]

no i am not wrong yurt, i believe that LAWSUITS are precisely there to redress grievences if they can not be settled to satisfaction outside of court.


Whats the point of sueing the government though? Its all just tax dollars, and citizens should not be taxed in order to pay for lawsuits. Or would you support cutting welfare funding in order to pay for lawsuit settlements?

[MtnBiker]

Who are they kidding, we all know Bush hates black people and blew up the levees.

[Yurt]

JohnDoe;193988]no i am not wrong yurt, i believe that LAWSUITS are precisely there to redress grievences if they can not be settled to satisfaction outside of court.

Simply "believing" does not make your point right. Check the law, you will find I am right. Start with this case and then follow the subsequent cases -- Chisholm v. Georgia. Sovereign Immunity is very real and very entrenched in western law.


And all the rest that you said about the age and the swamp and the amount of people there now was the responsibility or the Army corp not the locals.

Bullcaca, the knew full well they were building on a swamp land. Stop blaming others for everything. JD, it comes down to this -- suing the federal government is not at all like suing a private company over some tort. The private company is purposefully putting their product into the stream of commerce, making a profit and enjoying the protection of the government. The government though is not putting a product out there for sale, for better or worse, the government tries to make our life better by bringing order to things. If the government had not put levees in (at federal tax payer dollars) you woudl probably whine about how they "should" put the levees in. Well they did. The government is not perfect. But hey, for almost 40 years those levees did a good job on that swamp land.


And as far as the money that was wasted by local gvt....a real problem! BUT, the major incompetencies with the money WAS THE FAULT of the federal gvt, congress....for not accounting for our money that they poured out like it was water, for not requiring benchmarks for the money, for hiring big companies to do reconstruction projectw that used illegal aliens instead of getting the locals back to work, the federal gvt or fema for handing out credit cards to people who were not even living in new orleans.... believe me alot of mismanagement by gvt all the way around, local and federal and we the people are at least $100 BILLION shy and nothing to show for it...shit, i think the estimate was $30 billion for 5 years for everyone in our country to have universal health care.... ???? $100 billion is alot of dough to have no results, our dough....i blame congress for not being good stewards of our money.


blah, blah, you're right, its all the feds fault for not checking on everything single thing the local government did with the money -- where's your faith in local government??? Funny how you forgive them ...

[JohnDoe]

Simply "believing" does not make your point right. Check the law, you will find I am right. Start with this case and then follow the subsequent cases -- Chisholm v. Georgia. Sovereign Immunity is very real and very entrenched in western law.



Bullcaca, the knew full well they were building on a swamp land. Stop blaming others for everything. JD, it comes down to this -- suing the federal government is not at all like suing a private company over some tort. The private company is purposefully putting their product into the stream of commerce, making a profit and enjoying the protection of the government. The government though is not putting a product out there for sale, for better or worse, the government tries to make our life better by bringing order to things. If the government had not put levees in (at federal tax payer dollars) you woudl probably whine about how they "should" put the levees in. Well they did. The government is not perfect. But hey, for almost 40 years those levees did a good job on that swamp land.




blah, blah, you're right, its all the feds fault for not checking on everything single thing the local government did with the money -- where's your faith in local government??? Funny how you forgive them ...

yurt, i have no idea where your opinion on the local gvt getting the $100 billion and the local gvt being the one that wasted it! please link up to these facts.

And :) stop blaming others (the local gvt) for everything!!!!

But why isn't suing the federal gvt like suing a private company that wronged you or was negligent?

How do you redress grievences with the federal gvt in your opinion then???

jd

[Yurt]

yurt, i have no idea where your opinion on the local gvt getting the $100 billion and the local gvt being the one that wasted it! please link up to these facts.
And :) stop blaming others (the local gvt) for everything!!!!

But why isn't suing the federal gvt like suing a private company that wronged you or was negligent?

How do you redress grievences with the federal gvt in your opinion then???

jd

You want a link when you already admitted it -- ;)


no i am not wrong yurt, i believe that LAWSUITS are precisely there to redress grievences if they can not be settled to satisfaction outside of court.

And all the rest that you said about the age and the swamp and the amount of people there now was the responsibility or the Army corp not the locals.

And as far as the money that was wasted by local gvt....a real problem! BUT, the major incompetencies with the money WAS THE FAULT of the federal gvt, congress....for not accounting for our money that they poured out like it was water, for not requiring benchmarks for the money, for hiring big companies to do reconstruction projectw that used illegal aliens instead of getting the locals back to work, the federal gvt or fema for handing out credit cards to people who were not even living in new orleans.... believe me alot of mismanagement by gvt all the way around, local and federal and we the people are at least $100 BILLION shy and nothing to show for it...shit, i think the estimate was $30 billion for 5 years for everyone in our country to have universal health care.... ???? $100 billion is alot of dough to have no results, our dough....i blame congress for not being good stewards of our money.

jd

JD,

I already told you that the government gave you redress....

[Abbey Marie]

Who are they kidding, we all know Bush hates black people and blew up the levees.

MB, did you forget? He personally diverted Katrina's course, so it would hit where the most black people lived.