Just When you Thought You Had Heard it All From Mayor Nagin

[GeorgeWendtCFI]

From the AP:

NEW ORLEANS —

Only $1 billion of the $77 billion the city is seeking from the Army Corps of Engineers is for infrastructure damages it says it suffered because of levee breaches during Hurricane Katrina. The rest is for such things as the city's tarnished image and tourist industry losses.

The city "looked at everything and just kind of piled it on," Mayor Ray Nagin said.

"We got some advice from some attorneys to be aggressive with the number, and we'll see what happens," he said.

New Orleans has joined big business and thousands of homeowners in filing claims seeking compensation from the corps for damages sustained when the levees broke during the 2005 storm, flooding 80 percent of the city.

The claims allege poor design and negligence by the corps led to the failure of flood walls and levees.

The city attorney's office also considered such things as "decreases in the city's image, tourist industry activity and potential business industry, losses in the tax base and generated revenue, and a decrease in the city's overall population," in making the assessment, according to a statement from City Hall.

A spokeswoman for the mayor could not explain how the city quantified losses not tied to infrastructure. A 43-page form filed with the corps, reserving the city's right to sue for $77 billion, also provides little insight. It does not quantify "loss of tax revenue," for example, and supporting documents for city-owned properties, such as a police crime lab and libraries, omit any estimates of property values of flood-related damages, The Times-Picayune newspaper reported Saturday.

I really don't know how the people down there sleep at night.

[HeavyRescueTech]

and amazingly enough, none of the blame for what happened in NO is the fault of the mayor. go figure, the politician just wants to push the blame off onto the army. and at the cost of 77 billion. imagine that.

[scfire86]

I really don't know how the people down there sleep at night.

That's kind of the way I feel about those conservative folks who laughed at Ann Coulter's latest quip about John Edwards.

What are the odds of seeing both of these stories of loony right and left folks on the same day?

[ElectricHoser]

Maybe I should have been more aggressive on my taxes. What a bright idea.

[scfire86]

The funniest part of the conference where Coulter dropped the other "f" bomb on Edwards was Oliver North — he of the Iran-Contra scandal — presenting the "Defender of the Constitution Award.

Show me an ironometer that isn't pegging its needle over that one.