Third World America - Arianna Huffington [108]
127 Three weeks after the Deepwater Horizon: Associated Press, “BP Oil Spill Underwater Video Shows Oil Gushing Like Steam from Geyser,” 13 May 2010.
128 Within a week, Obama administration officials: “Ken Salazar Calls Gulf Coast Disaster a ‘Grave Scenario’ and ‘Very Catastrophic,’ ” Associated Press, 2 May 2010.
129 Katrina looked like it could be bad but: Joby Warrick, “White House Got Early Warning on Katrina,” 24 Jan. 2006, www.washingtonpost.com.
130 Even though we now know that people in the Fed were forecasting: Ryan Grim, “Greenspan Wanted Housing-Bubble Dissent Kept Secret,” 3 May 2010, www.huffingtonpost.com.
131 But the government promised to protect homeowners: Dan Levy, “U.S. Foreclosure Filings Rise 16% as Bank Seizures Set Record,” 15 Apr. 2010, www.businessweek.com.
132 In October 2009, the unemployment rate hit 10.2 percent: Peter S. Goodman, “U.S. Unemployment Rate Hits 10.2%, Highest in 26 Years,” 6 Nov. 2009, www.nytimes.com.
133 When BP first applied to operate the Deepwater Horizon: Marian Wang, “After Spill, More Gulf Drilling Plans Got Environmental Exemptions,” 11 May 2010, www.propublica.org.
134 Let’s start with Iraq, an unnecessary war: Margaret Griffis, “Casualties in Iraq: The Human Cost of Occupation,” 8 May 2010, www.antiwar.com.
135 and American taxpayers three-quarters of a trillion: Matthew Duss, Peter Juul, and Brian Katulis, “The Iraq War Ledger: A Tabulation of the Human, Financial, and Strategic Costs,” Center for American Progress, 6 May 2010, www.americanprogress.org.
136 And for what? As the Center for American Progress: Ibid.
137 In the run-up to the war, General Eric Shinseki: Eric Schmitt, “Threats and Responses: Military Spending; Pentagon Contradicts General On Iraq Occupation Force’s Size,” 28 Feb. 2003, www.nytimes.com.
138 U.S. deputy secretary of defense Paul Wolfowitz told Congress: House Committee on the Budget, Hearing on FY 2004 Defense Budget, 27 Feb. 2003.
139 The Bush administration also told the public: Andrew Natsios, Nightline, 1 Oct. 2003, www.abcnews.com.
140 To say the administration massively underestimated: James Glanz and T. Christian Miller, “Official History Spotlights Iraq Rebuilding Blunders,” 13 Dec. 2008, www.nytimes.com.
141 The New York Times described our reconstruction efforts: Ibid.
142 In late 2002, Charles Prince was put in charge: Eric Dash and Julie Creswell, “Citigroup Saw No Red Flags Even as It Made Bolder Bets,” 22 Nov. 2008, www.nytimes.com.
143 The banking giant was already knee-deep: Ibid.
144 According to a former Citigroup executive: Ibid.
145 “I’ve thought a lot about that,” Rubin said: Ibid.
146 Former Fannie Mae CEO Franklin Raines: Marcus Baram, “Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Hearing,” 9 Dec. 2009, www.huffingtonpost.com.
147 We saw a familiar insistence on ignoring all warnings: Diana B. Henriques and Alex Berenson, “The 17th Floor, Where Wealth Went to Vanish,” 14 Dec. 2008, www.nytimes.com.
148 Well, financial fraud investigator Harry Markopolos, for one: Gregory Zuckerman, “Fees, Even Returns and Auditor All Raised Flags,” 13 Dec. 2008, www.wsj.com.
149 In the wake of 9/11, Condoleezza Rice assured us: Dan Collins, “ ’99 Report Warned of Suicide Hijacking,” Associated Press, 17 May 2002.
150 Except, of course, the 1999 government report: Ibid.
151 After Katrina, the Bush White House read: Joby Warrick, “White House Got Early Warning on Katrina,” 24 Jan. 2006, www.washingtonpost.com.
152 Then there is the high priest of “Who Could Have Known?”: Neil Irwin and Amit R. Paley, “Greenspan Says He Was Wrong on Regulation,” 24 Oct. 2008, www.washingtonpost.com.
PART 5: SAVING OURSELVES FROM A THIRD WORLD FUTURE
1 But just three years later, as John Kao points out: John Kao, Innovation Nation (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007), 4.
2 We had a similar reaction to the Soviets’ launch of Sputnik: Ibid., 6.
3 President Obama captured this essential part: Barack Obama, “Remarks by the President on the ‘Education to Innovate’ Campaign,