Once again Palast digs the freakin’ dirt on the assholes who fucked New Orleans when the levees failed under conditions that were way below spec. Read it and weep America… one day soon this kind of dog and pony show may just visit your locale.
Here’s a snippet:
“That leaves the big, big question: WHY? Why on earth would the White House not tell the city to get the remaining folks out of there?
The answer: cost. Political and financial cost. A hurricane is an act of God – but a catastrophic failure of the levees is a act of Bush. That is, under law dating back to 1935, a breech of the federal levee system makes the damage – and the deaths – a federal responsibility. That means, as van Heeden points out, that “these people must be compensated.â€
The federal government, by law, must build and maintain the Mississippi levees to withstand known dangers – or pay the price when they fail.”
Curtsey to Ana Maria for this.
What “1935 law” is he talking about? Under the 1928 Flood Act, the feds have NO liability. The local tort bar is attempting to use the navigation purpose of MRGO to move from the Flood Act to the ordinary Federal Tort Claims Act (1946). However, that’s a loser, too, because of the exemption for discretionary action. See 28 U.S.C. § 2680 and Dalhite v. US, 346 U.S. 15 (1953).
So, whatever recovery is to come from the levee failures is through appropriations by Congress, not from judgments of courts.
Comment by Kelly Haggar — December 3, 2007 @ 6:39 am