Well I would do Mccain's Running mate.

[MikeJones]

I remmber the night she was announced as running mate they said sarah palin nude become on of googles top searches

[R13]

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- Now the Democrats aren't the only ones who can try to capitalize on the negative buzz growing around Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the prospective Republican VP candidate.

Intrade, an online prediction market based in Dublin, created a contract Tuesday morning on the likelihood that John McCain will drop Palin as his running mate. After opening at a probability of just 3%, the odds on Palin being cut from the ticket climbed to 18% around 9 a.m. and have since settled at around 12%.

Intrade is a place for betting enthusiasts to turn a small profit on everything from the latest auction of works by controversial British artist Damien Hirst to Britney Spears' chances of landing in rehab. Contracts on a possible future event are bought and sold by users of the site, like a stock on the NYSE.

Chad Rigetti, Intrade's VP of Business Development, says traders on the site asked Intrade to create the newest market after stories about Palin, including her teenage daughter's pregnancy and her involvement in a group that did corporate fundraising for controversial Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, flooded the news. The pool has been open for less than twelve hours, but has already attracted more than 950 trades. Intrade estimates that about $2300 has been traded on the Palin withdrawal contract.

Placing a Palin withdrawal at even 12% seems bullish; no presidential candidate has withdrawn his VP selection since Thomas Eagleton left Democratic candidate George McGovern's ticket in 1972.

Intrade has demonstrated some success in predicting political choices (forecasting the selection of Biden), but also volatility: Palin's chances of landing the nomination vacillated wildly in the hours before McCain announced the pick.

Rigetti points out that while some traders are putting Palin on the chopping block, they're still giving her 97% odds in a separate market for the VP nomination. He thinks that many traders are playing both markets, which means they believe a withdrawal won't come until later in the election season.

Intrade monitors its traders' demographics, but it's too early to tell who's betting on a Palin pullout. Some of the naysayers could be Republicans: Rigetti says that, unlike polls, the election markets don't always represent political beliefs. "People have a real money incentive," he says. "They're betting with their head and not their heart."

http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/02/tech...tune/index.htm

[1inStripes]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: sup-rbeast</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Deny all ya want..here's all you need to know about the levee situation to know who was responsible...and it answers your questions on funding...

Before Katrina, the Bush administration cut funding for the levees in order to divert the money to Iraq, and to build airports etc. etc. Ya just have to wonder how much of it ended up in Halliburton's coffers.


Bush "Essentially Froze"? Monies Needed By the Army Corp of Engineers. The Washington Post wrote, "Since coming to office, Bush has essentially frozen spending on the Corps of Engineers, which is responsible for protecting the coastlines, waterways and other areas susceptible to natural disaster, at around $4.7 billion."? [Washington Post, 9/2/05]

Project Cuts Created Vast Damage During Hurricane Katrina. The Ponchatrain Levee Project and the West Bank Levee Project were both underfunded by the Bush Administration, receiving fractions of the monies requested by the Amery Corp of Engineer after internal deliberations. The flaws in the Ponchatrain Levee Project, which included both the 17th Street canal and the London Avenue, were responsible for equalizing the water level in Lake Ponchatrain and the city, all the way from the Industrial Canal to the Orleans-Jefferson parish border and from Lake Ponchatrain to the Mississippi River. The West Bank levees also sustained substantial, though less devestating, damage. Concrete slopes, making up the West Bank levees, were cracked by Katrina when they were hit by barges and a dry dock tossed from the Mississippi by Hurricane Katrina. [Times-Picayune (New Orleans), 9/23/05; http://www.nola.com/katrina/graphics/flashflood.swf, accessed 08/10/06; Washington Post, 9/2/05; Times Picayune (New Orleans), 2/8/05]

2005: Bush Cut Monies To Vital Ponchatrain Levee Project. The Washington Post wrote "in recent years, Bush repeatedly sought to slice the Army Corps of Engineers' funding requests to improve the levees holding back Lake Pontchartrain, which Katrina smashed through, flooding New Orleans. In 2005, Bush asked for $3.9 million, a small fraction of the request the corps made in internal administration deliberations. Under pressure from Congress, Bush ultimately agreed to spend $5.7 million."? [Washington Post, 9/2/05]

2005: Bush Cut Money To Construct West Bank Levees. While Bush's budget does listed the West Bank hurricane protection levee construction project as a priority, Bush's budget provided less than half the funds necessary for the project. The $28 million included in Bush's budget was less than half the $63 million the corps said is needed for fiscal year 2006. [Times Picayune (New Orleans), 2/8/05]

2005: For fiscal year 2006, the corps' New Orleans division was allocated $290 million, a $34 million reduction from the amount allocated for fiscal year 2005 by Congress. This figure was almost $300 million less than the district said it needed to complete proposed and ongoing construction projects. [Times Picayune (New Orleans), 2/8/05]

Decreased Funding Was Known To Increase Hurricane Risk. A 2004 Times Picayune article entitled, "Shifting federal budget erodes protection from levees; Because of cuts, hurricane risk grows,"? warned of the danger of the Bush administration and Republican Congress' actions. The article stated, "For the first time in 37 years, federal budget cuts have all but stopped major work on the New Orleans area's east bank hurricane levees, a complex network of concrete walls, metal gates and giant earthen berms that won't be finished for at least another decade.."? Al Naomi, the corps' senior project manager, said, "When levees are below grade, as ours are in many spots right now, they're more vulnerable to waves pouring over them and degrading them."? [Times-Picayune (New Orleans), 6/8/06]

2004: Army Corps Warned Of A Levee Breach. In 2004 Corps' project manager Al Naomi noted, "When levees are below grade, as ours are in many spots right now, they're more vulnerable to waves pouring over them and degrading them... We're not below storm-surge elevation yet, but we will be if we stop raising our levees as they subside."? [New Orleans Times-Picayune, 6/8/04]

2004: Emergency Management Official Said Levees Couldn't Be Finished Because Money Diverted To Iraq. IIn June of 2004, Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish told the Times-Picayune: "It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us."? [Editor and Publisher, 8/31/05]

2004: Bush Funding Cuts Stopped Necessary Construction On Levees. Until 2004, construction on the Lake Pontchartain and Vicinity Hurricane Protection Project, the levee system whose failure cause the massive flooding, had been ongoing for 37 years. But due do lack of funding from the Bush Administration, construction was halted in 2004. [Knight-Ridder, 8/31/05; New Orleans Times-Picayune, 6/8/04; New Orleans City Business, 6/6/05]

2002: Times-Picayune Warned Of Impending Disaster. "The tragedy that destroyed a vibrant metropolitan area that was home to 1.4 million people and the city proper that was a national cultural treasure was not simply imagined but foreseen with a prescience that now seems eerily precise. Three years ago, New Orleans' leading local newspaper, The Times-Picayune, reported that the very existence of the Big Easy was at risk and hundreds of thousands of lives imperiled by exactly the sequence of events that occurred this week."? [Los Angeles Times, 9/2/05]

2002: Head Of Army Corps Fired For Criticizing Funding: If Projects Had Been Funded By Bush Flooding Wouldn't Be So Bad. "Mike Parker, a former Mississippi congressman who was booted as civilian head of the Corps in 2002 after criticizing the White House budget office, said Hurricane Katrina was so powerful that flooding was inevitable. But it might not have been as bad. "?I'm not saying that this would not have occurred in New Orleans in this situation,' Parker told The Associated Press. "?I am saying that there would have been less flooding if all the projects had been funded.'"? [Associated Press, 9/1/05]

2001: FEMA Ranked Hurricane Hitting New Orleans As One Of The Three Most Likely Catastrophes To Hit The U.S. In 2001. In 2001, a FEMA report ranked a massive New Orleans hurricane as one of the three most likely catastrophes facing the US, along with a San Francisco earthquake and a Terrorist Attack in New York. "[If] a Category 3 storm or greater with at least 111 mph winds [were to hit the city] the results would be cataclysmic, New Orleans planners said."? [Houston Chronicle, 12/1/01]

Emergency Preparedness Director Furious With Bush's Hurricane Protection Cuts. A study to determine ways to protect the region from a Category 5 hurricane was shelved. Terry Tullier, the New Orleans emergency preparedness director, said he was furious but not surprised to hear that study had been cut from the Bush budget. "I'm all for the war effort, but every time I think about the $87 billion being spent on rebuilding Iraq, I ask: What about us?"? he said. "Somehow we need to make a stronger case that this is not Des Moines, Iowa, that we are so critical that if it hits the fan in New Orleans, everything this side of the Rockies will feel the economic shock waves."? [Times-Picayune, 9/22/04; New Orleans City Business, 6/6/05]

<span style='font-size: 14pt'>So, come again...who's to blame??</span> </div></div>



Wasn't money that was sent to NO for years then used by the local government for other things? If they are not going to follow through with why its there, and using it for other "city improvements" let them fix it on their own. The money was sent year after year and nothing was done if I am not mistaken. If their not gonna use, pull it and use it elsewhere.

[SBG]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: raider13</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Intrade monitors its traders' demographics, but it's too early to tell who's betting on a Palin pullout.</div></div>

I think it's safe to say that given the chance no guy is going to be doing a "Palin pullout." LOL

[sup-rbeast]

When the Corps of Engineers (part of the FEDS who are responsible for the levees as part of the waterways) complain that they aren't getting the money from Washington, I think it is hard to point the finger at $$$ being spent elsewhere (besides Iraq, and other "centerpieces" of the Bush admin.). The facts are the feds didn't fund a budget to bolster the levees, were warned that in a huge storm they would fail, then lied and acted surprised when they did fail, and then waited 10 months after the storm to appropriate the money. Call it what you want, I call it a failure of the administration first and foremost.