Now this is the kind of thing that pisses me off!
- Katrina victim sues U.S. for $3 quadrillion
Federal government hit with 489,000 damage claims after hurricane
NEW ORLEANS – Hurricane Katrina’s victims have put a price tag on their suffering and it is staggering — including one plaintiff seeking the unlikely sum of $3 quadrillion.
The total number — $3,014,170,389,176,410 — is the dollar figure so far sought from some 489,000 claims filed against the federal government over damage from the failure of levees and flood walls following the Aug. 29, 2005, hurricane.
Of the total number of claims, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it has received 247 for at least $1 billion apiece, including the one for $3 quadrillion.
“That’s the mother of all high numbers,” said Loren Scott, a Baton Rouge-based economist.
For the sake of perspective: A mere $1 quadrillion would dwarf the U.S. gross domestic product, which Scott said was $13.2 trillion in 2007. A stack of one quadrillion pennies would reach Saturn.
Some residents may have grossly exaggerated their claims to send a message to the corps, which has accepted blame for poorly designing the failed levees.
“I understand the anger,” Scott said. “I also understand it’s a negotiating tactic: Aim high and negotiate down.”
Sorry, but they are the ones who chose to live in a toilet bowl, they are the ones who chose to live below sea level. And now they want to turn their personal misfortunes into jackpor justice against the United States’ government — which means, against you and me and all of the other taxpayers.
- The corps released zip codes, but no names, for the 247 claims of at least $1 billion. The list includes a $77 billion claim by the city of New Orleans. Fourteen involve a wrongful death claim. Fifteen were filed by businesses, including several insurance companies.
The right answer: don’t give these people one freaking dime! Yeah, they suffered a tragedy from what would legally be termed an act of God. And the US has poured billions into that sinkhole to rebuild it, to provide housing for people whose homes were destroyed, for all sorts of relief. But when there are 247 lawsuits for over a billion dollars, I get pissed off, and I mean really pissed off.
Well, it was an act of God which destroyed their homes; let them sue the Almighty.
No surprise here, after all this is America where you can make millions if you sue Starbucks because your coffee is too hot. Blame the trial lawyers too because I’m sure they came out the woodwork in N.O. to take advantage of Katrina.
Anyone who lives below sea level behind a wall of dirt built by the gummint is NUTZ! It doesn’t matter what you build, Momma Nature is going to take it back sooner or later.
You’re just a heartless Republican. Racist!
Without judging the merits of these lawsuits, I have to say this is one of the few ways the government might ever be held accountable for what happened in New Orleans. That’s why conservatives dislike the courts so much; they’re one of the few places where one citizen really is as good as another.
BTW, Mr. Ghost, it was McDonald’s that got smacked with that coffee lawsuit. Again, I can’t judge the legal merits, but you may be interested to know that the Wall Street Journal, that bastion of irresponsible liberal beliefs, ran an article sympathetic to the plaintiff.
Maybe they should just sue the representatives of the Almighty on earth.
The reality is if you look at the mess called the Levee system in NOLA, there is no one party responsible. You can start with Congress and its joke of a way of allocating funding to build these. You can blame the designers of designing to have to be built to the funds allocated by Congress. You can fault the patchwork, hodge-podge systems of local governments wanting different styles of levees to not interfere with the municipalities. You can blame environmentalists for making one road block after another, and then stopping the one project that would have done more good than the 300 miles of dikes and levees. You can blame Congress for only authorizing Catagory 3 protection. You can blame the local levee boards for not maintaining the levees and re-allocating funds. And that is the tip of the iceberg. And you can blame the people who lived there for insisting on this protection with the ultimate answer they will lose again one day. And you can blame anybody you want for allowing this mistake of nature for ever happening.
Geez, that’s an exorbitant sum.
I like the “toilet bowl” choice, in any case.
[...] Some of those guys have no sense of humor. Specifically, Dana Pico at Common Sense Political Thought, is mad about a Katrina-related lawsuit. One person is looking for 3 quadrillion dollars. Ha! [...]
The Bitter Scribe wrote:
And why ought the government to be held responsible for a hurricane striking New Orleans? Does George Bush now control the weather?