The right wing Homeland Security regime promises to keep America safe, but the truth is that it can’t even get its facts about security in our neighborhoods right. Take, for instance, the way that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers botched the job in the area around New Orleans’ Lakeview neighborhood.

The Corps of Engineers released a report, very proud of itself, saying that the system of floodgates and pumps it had devised after the disaster of Hurricane Katrina would lower floodwaters in the Lakeview neighborhood and surrounding areas by five and a half feet. That would be impressive.

Suspicions began to grow, however, when people noticed that the official reports describing this level of protection didn’t have the original data required for anyone to check in. Then came reports from engineers who actually worked on the project. The engineers said that the floodgates and pumps would provide the neighborhood with protection against six inches of flooding, at best.

Two years after Hurricane Katrina, with millions of dollars spent, and all that Homeland Security has been able to protect the Lakeview neighborhood from is six inches of flooding? It’s clear that with the Republicans still in charge of the federal Executive Branch, we aren’t getting anything but the false bravado and mismanagement that made American neighborhoods vulnerable to natural disasters in the first place.

(Source: Associated Press, November 17, 2007)

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