Dirty South Report
Texas
Two new polls show Hillary up in Texas, where, according to James Carvilles, she must win, along with OH and PA. CNN has Hill up 50-45, Survey USA has her up 50-48. From SurveyUSA:
BUT: there is “give” in these numbers that must be mentioned in the same breath. Among Hispanic voters, Clinton leads 2:1. SurveyUSA estimates that Hispanics make-up 32% of Democratic primary voters in a Primary today. If Hispanics vote in larger numbers, Clinton’s lead is larger than the 5 points shown here. If Hispanics vote in smaller numbers, Obama runs stronger than these numbers show.
Where’s Drudge on this? Anytime Obama sneezes he covers it like it’s 9/11. I believe that, after the NYT and WaPost, Drudge is the most important US news site, with GoogleNews maybe fourth. Why can’t Drudge run his site more objectively?
Louisiana
Last night I saw Josh Clark read from his Katrina memoir Heart Like Water. He was great, and the book’s prose is ferocious and gorgeous, though he did piss the crowd off a bit by saying 9/11 disappeared faster than Katrina. Psychological wounds are often deeper than physical, and New York’s trauma is forever embedded.
NOLA, by Mario Tama, Getty
Clark also told the crowd about Louisiana’s disappearing wetlands, which have been destroyed over decades by oil rigs and levees, and are actually what caused Katrina. “Louisiana provides over one-fifth of all domestic oil and gas,” Clark said. He called the wetlands a national tragedy. Read below and you’ll agree.
Here’s an oped Clark wrote about it for the Boston Globe:
TAGS: attack, Boston, Congress, election, Hillary, New York, NSA, obama, paris, polls, Seafood, Texas, warDisaster is only one marsh away
By Joshua Clark | August 29, 2007New Orleans
THE LAST THING I heard sitting in my boarded-up, trembling New Orleans apartment before the power went off at dawn on Aug. 29, 2005, was that Katrina was about to make landfall 70 miles south in Plaquemines Parish. Sadly, it was the last thing many people would ever hear about the parish.On Katrina’s second anniversary, we must revisit New Orleans, yes, but it is the regions south of the city that hold the key to its survival, as well as the economic and ecological well-being of the whole country. None are perhaps so vital as Plaquemines Parish, the county that begins five miles down the Mississippi River from the city and runs into the Gulf of Mexico. Just as Plaquemines was ground zero for Katrina, it is too for wetlands erosion. It is the fastest-disappearing landmass on the face of the earth, a national crisis that America can avoid.
Louisiana’s coast is unique. There are almost no beaches, only 3.4 million acres of marsh and swamp between New Orleans and the Gulf. These wetlands have always buffered Louisiana from hurricanes, because storms fueled by warm water die when they hit land. But largely because the wetlands that might have absorbed Katrina’s storm surge had been eroded, New Orleans flooded. And if we let the Gulf creep up next to the edge of New Orleans, it will take one storm to wipe the city away.I saw such a tragedy foreshadowed in Plaquemines. When the flooding receded, it left hardly a shadow because there was nothing to make one. For its size, the parish is one of the richest places on Earth. Oil rigs blotch its horizons, refineries light its nights like science-fiction cities, and giant shrimp, oyster, and fishing boats troll its water. While it supplies the country with seafood, fuel, and immense federal tax revenues, it faces obliteration as a consequence.
Thousands of miles of channels have been dredged for oil pipelines and navigation, funneling saltwater from the Gulf into freshwater marshes, killing vegetation that holds them together. Ironically, these very channels kill the pipelines’ main defense against storms — the wetlands. And so damage caused by Katrina and Rita shut down 90 percent of crude oil production in the Gulf, and gasoline prices soared because Louisiana provides over one-fifth of all domestic oil and gas.
Disregarding Plaquemines’ unique culture, or its massive habitat for endangered species, or that Louisiana’s wetlands are the largest coastal ecosystem in North America, a good percentage of the things you use everyday probably came through Plaquemines’ waterways, part of the world’s largest port system.
But in reaping the benefits of this region, America sows the seeds of its destruction. Most of Katrina’s damage to Louisiana was man-made, because in 75 years we have undone 2,500 years of wetlands growth.
Unlike earthquakes, wildfires, or terrorist attacks — after which no one questions rebuilding the affected areas — wetlands erosion is preventable through river diversion and hydrological restoration projects. The science and engineering is here, now. But the policy is not. That must change.
The consequences from Katrina, in lives and dollars, have already been staggering. To begin wetlands restoration and help prevent a similar future tragedy, it would take a fraction of the $116 billion in federal money already allocated to hurricane relief.
Congress has approved by wide margins the latest Water Resources Development Act, one provision of which calls for $2 billion for Louisiana coastal restoration. That is about one-seventh of what experts say is needed, but now President Bush is threatening to veto even that. If he makes this grievous error, we must push Congress to override his veto. Otherwise, it will soon be too late for regions like Plaquemines, and hence for New Orleans.
Katrina’s damage is far from healed. And yet, despite the brief interest spurred by its second anniversary, the storm is fading from the news. The president did not even mention it in his last State of the Union address. When he spoke on Jackson Square during Katrina’s aftermath, I huddled with others around a radio two blocks away. He said, “There is no way to imagine America without New Orleans.” And we cheered at his words, because for two weeks we had all witnessed New Orleans without America. Please, don’t abandon us again. None of us can afford it.
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