Wasting Away Again

The US Army Corps of Engineers took responsibility Thursday for the flooding of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina and said the levees failed because they were built in a disjointed fashion using outdated data. "This is the first time that the Corps has had to stand up and say, `We've had a catastrophic failure,"' Lt. Gen. Carl Strock, the Corps chief, said as the agency issued a 6,000-page-plus report on the disaster on Day 1 of the new hurricane season. The Corps said it will use the lessons it has learned to build better flood defenses. "Words alone will not restore trust in the Corps," Strock said, adding that the Corps is bound "to fulfilling our important responsibilities." The $19.7 million report ... Wait wait wait, $20 million dollars to tell us you fucked up? This is why we hate our own government. And what's more, they've spent 800 million to rebuild the same system that fared so splendidly last time, with plans to spend an additional 3.7 billion. Without a dollar one going to replenish the coast that used to buffer the city and all the other parishes, or find the bodies. Irrelevant, not ready, unresponsive and unreliable. Same as ever.