The White House was warned that Katrina might breach the levees. The President stayed at the ranch, then said “no one anticipated the breach of the levees.”
The Washington Post has found the smoking gun about the Bush Administration’s criminal dereliction of duty in (not) dealing with Katrina as it was happening:
“I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees.”
— George W. Bush, September 1.
A storm of Katrina’s size would “likely lead to severe flooding and/or levee breaching.”
— Email from the National Infrastructure Simulation and Analysis Center to the White House’s situation room, Aug. 29.
Author: Mark Kleiman
Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out.
Books:
Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken)
When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist
Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993)
Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989)
UCLA Homepage
Curriculum Vitae
Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com
View all posts by Mark Kleiman