I have had to RW Hacks say this to me... Need some info

I have had from RW Hacks say that the levees did not break, but that eye witnesses said they say a barge turring around at the time, and crash into the levees...

I think that is total Bullshit, but I want to ask this...

Is there large boat traffic in the water way that makes up the 17th street levee?

I have only been to NO once and I was not there to admire the dikes.

If this is an emerging talking point, we need to squash it.

Can anyone NAME that eye witness and verify this? No, no one can. It did not happen.. Otherwise, isnt this hearsay ? I mean, I could say I heard that an eye witness saw some detonate a nuclear device that set off the big tsunami.

I would quanantine these people. They're idiots.

For what its worth I used to work on a towboat on the lower Mississippi as a deckhand and I can tell you even a loaded barge could not damage a levee like that.

without question. They really are a mindless cult.

First of all it really wasn't a levy even though it's been labeled that. It technically was a flood wall that was backed up with fill.
If a barge had broken the wall it would have been washed into the city when the wall broke.

....if there was a barge floating on Lake Ponchartrain you can bet that it had broken loose from somewhere and did not belong there. I would think that a barge that caused a 300' break in the levee would have been logged either into the levee or gone over it as the wall broke sending thousands of gallons of water per minute over the break. Sounds like a phony RW talking point to me.

that the "bardge" would be in the lower 9th ward, sucked there by the break it made? Yes?

As for sources, no sources, it was something they heard, Whoooo

What the FUCK would that boat have been doing on the river and the time of the hurricane?? Unlike Bush and FEMA it didn't sneak up of NO,it was well known DAYS in advance.

Jesus.....

I was reading a blog that some heard on the radio that they were going to blow up that levee in order to save the more affluent neighborhoods in NO

I read it here i think...

If the levee in the north area looked like it was poing to give, or be topped, they were going to blow the 17th street levee in order to move the water that a way, off the other one...

the diffrence was the lower 9th ward (where the levee broke) was poor black, and the north was richer and whiter...

I am just repeating what I read, I HAVE NOTHING THAT SAYS THIS IS TRUE.

During a hurricane, there would be NO BOAT TRAFFIC.

Sounds to me like the guy confused real life with a made for TV movie on FX.

Barges don't just turn around in the middle of a class 5 hurricane and then motor away. One could have been washed against a structure such as the floating hotel that washed up against the bridge (causing minor damage) but it would have still been there.

I would say.....so what?

Bush's shoddy mismanagement of our infrastructure is bad, but the real crime happened when FEMA dragged ass to the scene of a disaster then just stood around for days while American citizens needed saving. He just let them die.

Barge that!

Its a wonder how the sheepacans are grasping at straws to cover good old GW's behind, yet agin. Lets play the blame game and look for a scapt goat. Bush just last year cut the funds to rebuild dams, levees and dykes by another 50% to cover his BS war and his tax cuts for the rich. Its a shame that we the people are more concerned with what grown ups do behind closed doors then we are about a president that lied to get us into another no win war. He stole two elections and no public out cry. We all know the funny bussiness that went on during the last election, I voted in a afro american area and stood in line for 21/2 hours to cast my vote and my mother who lives in the burbs was done voting in 15 minutes, it was a white area. What happened in NO just shows will happen if the terrorists attack again. There was a week of warnings that a level 5 hurricane on the way and nothing was done to ready for it. Do you think the terrorists are going to give us a week to get ready for an attack? A safer america? we are left on our own when it comes to the republicans and the sheepacan followers. Now the sheepacans are trying to blame god and mother nature for this mess, but we know that it wasn't mother nature or god that was the cause, it was GW's greed and the greed of corparate america that caused this.

Just keep that in mind.

Was is the "unpredictable perfect storm" or "foreseen inevitability" - they have to pick.

If the NOLA gov't and the State Gov't etc are to be blamed (even though we're not playing the "Blame Game" right?) then they can NOT be held responsible for the "perfect storm" senario.

The issue is the RESPONSE.

You don't need to know the facts. "OK, say there was this barge - then the New Orleans Gov't certainly can't be held accountable for predicting THAT to happen, in spite of all that we've been hearing from the right about how the local gov't should have prepared, etc, - and they certainly were in no position to act once it happened - but where was BUSH once it DID?"

The REAL LIFE/DEATH question is "What if this were a terrorist attack - a dirty bomb? Are CITIES supposed to be prepared for such an unexpected thing? (evacution, temporary housing, toilets, food, water, etc) How long should we be expected to wait for the Feds (National Guard, etc) to come in after a terrorist attack - A WEEK???"

Just looking at the aerial images, I see bridges that are too low and are not draw bridges), no barge traffic, no ship facilities, and it leads to a dam with no lock. Oh - and no boats either.

At Google Maps, you can look at the post-Katrina images.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=New+orleans&ll=30.017851,-90.121102&spn=0.008931,0.015207&t=e&hl=en

Where did the "Barge" go?

Follow south - there is nowhere to go.
It can't go north - bridge and debris block.
It's not in the neighborhood.
Did it climb over the dam to one of the smaller canals?

In other words the usual BS to cover for Bush.

I'm getting debunk fatigue.

:shrug:

Even if true, what difference would it make?

If the levee was hit, so I was told, that would make all the arguments about Bush underfunding the ACE to fix them go away...

"They did not break because of Bush, it was because of a bardge"

Whether they broke because of the underfunding is immaterial. If this is what could have happened due to underfunding, why were they underfunded.

That's the weakest talking point yet. You need help with THAT talking point? Are there ANY you can fend off yourself?!?

the levees that are to blame.

That claim has the same legitimacy as the RW talking point you mention until these bozos offer any proof to support what they say.

I just heard on NPR there was a barge pushed along by a 20 foot storm surge that contributed considrably to one of the breeches.

Maybe I should hold off on making unsubstantiaded rebuttals.

sorry.

As much as they like to pump up Bush and blame everyone else for everything you'd think they'd be all over that story. Wonder where NPR got the info,from some idiot Freeper calling in??

I'll do some searching on GOOGLE and the MSM but again I've never heard the barge story ANYWHERE.

Even if a barge had broke one, the other two would have still flooded the city. Also, to my knowledge, no barge driver would try and turn around a boat in the middle of a canal when the length of the boat is greater than the width of the canal. Why try something impossible? Unless of course it was done on purpose, and again there's no evidence yet that supports this.