The destruction of New Orleans?

“My wife went down to gulfport as a volunteer to help clean-up. She mostly had good experiences with everyone, including the locals, pitching in to help out. One of her friends went with a group to NO and had a completely opposite experience. They were setting up a shelter and she was unloading a truckload of cots and mattresses. All of the out of staters were breaking their backs, but when they asked the gaggle of teenage males complaining about the facilities to help unload they said, to her face, "We ain't helping no honky bi tches."
last edited: 8/30/07 5:46:44 AM”

“I missed the "doody head" stuff but the Sarge Meltdown is lookin' like a lot of laughs!”

“hyway - EVERYBODY I know who went there had a similar experience. I know many missionaries who went there to "help" clean up. They aren't "helping", they're doing it!

The NO people literally just stare at them out the window doing absolutely nothing.

My friends didn't complain. They saw it as an opportunity to teach - but the fact remains the NO people aren't doing squat to rebuild - but they're gladly taking your money.

Glad I didn't rush my money down there. All you people calling me a troll for suggesting you rethink sending your money there 2 years ago - next time maybe you'll think before knee-jerk reacting.

The worst is yet to come. Wait until the next hurricane to blow down that way. woo-haa!!!!

You should have just taken that money and burned it to keep you warm over the winters.”

““I missed the "doody head" stuff but the Sarge Meltdown is lookin' like a lot of laughs!”

If you think calling him out is a "meltdown", you really need to get out of the kitchen more.”

“I made some nice stir-fry chicken last night with snow peas, onion, bok choy and broccoli.”

“yummy!”

“can i get the Sarge Meltdown with extra baloney, please? hold the pickles”

“You just want the special sauce.”

“Yeah boy that Bag-O-Dinner stuff really saves time huh Marky Mark...(LOL)


You know the truth is the N.O situation was created by TWO people. Ray Nagin, and Governor Blanco both refused to take any action prior to the arrival of the Hurricane. Does anyone here remember the FLOODED School Buses? Why weren't they used?

We have some families from the famed 9th Ward. Their attitude if the busses has pulled up out front was "CAN YOU COME IN AND GET ME?"

Sorry but if you DO NOT keep flood insurance (in a city under sealevel) or plan for or evacuate prior to a hurricane....The best I can do in nominate you for a Darwin Award.”

“No Bag-O-Dinner in my kitchen, ya dang cracker!

I hand pick my produce and do all the prep work including chopping garlic......none of that minced crap in a jar.

Oh you guys just love Dubya sooooooo much.
I guess that's just how real love is.”

“I hand pick my produce and do all the prep work including chopping garlic......none of that minced crap in a jar. - Marko

Wow, I bet a lot of the other wives are jealous!”

“Yeah and...sniff sniff she didn't notice...(Lucy Arnez Voice if you can imagine)...he spent all day chopping that evil garlic and had to pass up a soak in a hot bubble bath...and he got some sauce on his Best Blouse (LOL).....


Marky...I am sooooo proud of you really...chopping your own garlic...Hey Sarge I bet to marky thats like hunting down that Mammoth and killing it with stone tools (LOL)....

MARKY THE GARLIC HUNTER....(LOL)....”

“No soup for you, ya little nazi punk!”

“
“They wanted them poor #&%!$s out of there.”

New Orleans two years after

by Greg Palast

[Thurs August 30] "They wanted them poor #&%!$s out of there and they ain't had no intention to allow it to be reopened to no poor #&%!$s, you know? And that's just the bottom line."

It wasn't a pretty statement. But I wasn't looking for pretty. I'd taken my investigative team to New Orleans to meet with Malik Rahim. Pretty isn't Malik's concern.

We needed an answer to a weird, puzzling and horrific discovery. Among the miles and miles of devastated houses, rubble still there today in New Orleans, we found dry, beautiful homes. But their residents were told by guys dressed like Ninjas wearing "Blackwater" badges: "Try to go into your home and we'll arrest you."

These aren't just any homes. They are the public housing projects of the city; the Lafitte Houses and others. But unlike the cinder block monsters in the Bronx, these public units are beautiful townhouses, with wrought-iron porches and gardens right next to the tony French Quarter.

Raised up on high ground, with floors and walls of concrete, they were some of the only houses left salvageable after the Katrina flood.

Yet, two years later, there's still bars on the windows, the doors are welded shut and the residents banned from returning. On the first anniversary of the flood, we were filming this odd scene when I saw a woman on the sidewalk, sobbing. Night was falling. What was wrong?

"They just messing all over us. Putting me out our own house. We come to go back to our own home and when we get there they got the police there putting us out. Oh, no, this is not right. I'm coming here from Texas seeing if I can get my house back. But they said they ain't letting nobody in. But where we gonna go at?"

Idiot me, I asked, "Where are you going to go tonight?"

"That's what I want to know, Mister. Where I'm going to go - me and my kids?"

With the help of Patricia Thomas, a Lafitte resident, we broke into an apartment. The place was gorgeous. The cereal boxes still dry. This was Patricia's home. But we decided to get out before we got busted.

I wasn't naïve. I had a good idea what this scam was all about: 89,000 poor and working class families stuck in Homeland Security's trailer park gulag while their good homes were guarded against their return by mercenaries. Two decades ago, I worked for the Housing Authority of New Orleans. Even then, the plan was to evict poor folk out of this very valuable real estate. But it took the cover of a hurricane to do it.

Malik's organization, Common Ground, wouldn't wait for permission from the federal and local commissars to help folks return. They organized takeovers of public housing by the residents. And, in the face of threats and official displeasure, restored 350 apartments in a destroyed private development on the high ground across the Mississippi in the ward called, "Algiers." The tenants rebuilt their own homes with their own sweat and their own scraps of cash based on a promise of the landlords to sell Common Ground the property in return for restoring it.

Why, I asked Malik, was there this strange lock-out from public housing?

Malik shook his dreds. "They didn't want to open it up. They wanted them closed. They wanted them poor #&%!$s out of there."

For Malik, the emphasis is on "poor." The racial politics of the Deep South is as ugly as it is in Philadelphia, Pa. But the New Orleans city establishment has no problem with Black folk per se. After all, Mayor Ray Nagin's parents are African-American.

It's the Black survivors without the cash that are a problem. So where New Orleans once stood, Mayor Nagin, in connivance with a Bush regime more than happy to keep a quarter million poor folk (i.e. Democrats) out of this swing state, is creating a new city: a tourist town with a French Quarter, loose-spending drunks, hot-sheets hotels and a few Black people to perform the modern version of minstrel shows.

Malik explained, "It's two cities. You know? There's the city for the white and the rich. And there's another city for the poor and Blacks. You know, the city that's for the white and rich has recovered. They had a Jazz Fest. They had a Mardi Gras. They're going to have the Saints playing for those who have recovered. But for those who haven't recovered, there's nothing."

So where are they now? The sobbing woman and her kids are gone: back to Texas, or wherever. But they will not be allowed back into Lafitte. Ever.

And Patricia Thomas? The middle-aged woman, worked sweeping up the vomit and beer each morning at a French Quarter karioke joint. Not much pay, no health insurance, of course. She died since we filmed her - in a city bereft of health care. New Orleans has closed all its public hospitals but for one "charity" make-shift emergency ward in an abandoned department store.

And the one bright star, Malik's housing project? The tenants' work was done this past December. By Christmastime, they received their eviction notices - and all were carried out of their rebuilt homes by marshals right after the New Year, including a paraplegic resident who'd lived in the Algiers building for decades.

Hurricane recovery is class war by other means. And in this war of the powerful against the powerless, Mr. Bush can rightly land his fighter plane in Louisiana and declare that, unlike the war in Iraq, it is, indeed, "Mission Accomplished."


http://www.GregPalast.com

”

“Tilt's up!!”

“WOW...public housing...is THEIR HOUSE..? LOL Any other examples of the end result of socialisim?

YO...YOU PAY for it, I doan do S--t to keep it but it be MY house! (LOL)”

“Why don't you guys move to Mexico?    I hear they really know how to keep the underclass in their place.”

“There's an echo in here”

“what hogwash. If its the US Government doing this, then why has it only happened in New Orleans.”

“Because New Orleans is the ONLY place with Poor Black people in the South maybe...?”

“Geez Tilt, Guatemala really knows how!”

“It's not what the government is doing that's the problem - it's what the people are and are not doing. The government is just throwing them our money - it's them who are screwing it up.

The government needs to stop giving them money - but for the reason that it's being wasted by the people of N.O.”

“Sarge, the heroine bill for the NO inhabitants is equal to the Afghan GNP.”

“hey tilt, if you build a housing project and the property becomes a prime location. It is in the governments, and the underclass', interest to sell it to the highest bidder and build 2 housing projects somewhere else.”

“Whatever. the Prez finally got off his lazy ass and took a helicopter tour FOUR DAYS AFTER the hurricane hit. His aides probably came in and told him to turn off the Nitendo and check out some coverage. I can see it now..."There's looting going on? Hey, where'd all that water come from? Get me Heck of a Job on the line..."

The residents are completly disheartened and for this reason, unmotivated to think anything will make a difference. They were sleeping in other people's feces in the "shelter" and the national and state guards that were supposed to be there to help were, tah-dah, in Iraq because poor planning on the part of D.C. (again) created a backdoor draft. Very cool.

And I agree. Watching Sarge whine his little pu$$y ass off is high-larious!!!”

“If he would have went immediately, you would have claimed he was going for the publicity.

roseymonster - Lay off the personal insults. I haven't provoked you that way. Keep it civil. This is getting to be a habit of yours. Do we know each other? No? Then what's your problem?



last edited: 8/30/07 8:32:42 AM”

“The silly libbies can't quite grasp the concept that the local Democrat 'leaders' may just be responsible for most of N.O.s problems.
It's all Bush's fault is all their little minds will grasp.”

“But wait a minute, shouldn't Bush get the credit for all the communities/States surrounding NO who have put themselves to right? I mean if everything that happens comes under his leadership then I think he did a damn fine job with Mississippi. Of course everyone who lives in Mississippi is white and there national guard units are sitting out the war in Iraq.”

“The hurricane didn't even hit N.O.
MS took the major hit.”

“Ethnic cleansing...............mercenaries........WOW!

Coming to a town near you!”

“yep, thats why Mississippi is all white these days. The Bush Administration has already cleansed it.”

“THE BIG EASY'S BILLION DOLLAR BOONDOGGLE


The idea of using federal money to rebuild cities is the quintessential liberal vision. And given the dreadful results in New Orleans, we can say that the government's billions spent so far represents the quintessential failure of that liberal vision, says Lawrence Kudlow, host of CNBC's Kudlow & Company.

Consider:

So far, the federal government has spent $127 billion (including tax relief) on post-Katrina New Orleans.
The entire gross domestic product (GDP) of the state of Louisiana is only $141 billion, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.
If the relief money had been divvied up among residents, the $127 billion would come to $425,000 per person.
So the cash spent there nearly matches the entire state's GDP, says Kudlow. And to make matters worse, by all accounts New Orleans isn't even fixed. Further, according to an article by Nicole Gelinas at the Manhattan Institute:

New Orleans has earned the distinct honor of becoming the murder capital of the world.
The murder rate is 40 percent higher than before Katrina and twice as high as other dangerous cities like Detroit, Newark, N.J., and Washington, D.C.
Right from the start, New Orleans should have been turned into a tax-free enterprise zone, says Kudlow. No income taxes, no corporate taxes, no capital-gains taxes. The only tax would have been a sales tax paid on direct transactions. A tax-free New Orleans would have attracted tens of billions of dollars in business and real-estate investment. This in turn would have helped rebuild the cities, schools and hospitals. Private-sector entrepreneurs would have succeeded where big-government bureaucrats and regulators have so abysmally failed.

http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=14955”

“What an incredibly shameful moment in American history.  Some people can try to defend it, try to deflect Bush's responsibility.  They can type a billion words on every website and blog they can find, but the record of what happened will remain.

The recurring question:   is he willfully (and criminally) negligent, woefully incompetant.... or mentally ill?

I'm thinking it's a combination of all three, in varying percentages, depending on which fiasco you choose.”

“Don't be a piker, you gotta give Baltimore "honorable" mention when it come to murder statistics.

Them kids ain't exactly slackin' when it comes to bustin' caps.”

“I believe that when Butch did a fly-over on New Orleans after the storm he was just curious(George) to see where in the hell it was.”

“I know you guys can't really believe that what is happening in New Orleans is really the federal government's fault? You just hate Bush so much you turn a blind eye to facts, anecdotal evidence, local corruption, cash spent by the government and private donations, volunteer efforts ranging from small groups up to high profile actors, constant attention by the press (at least the first year) and congress, successful efforts in surrounding areas, and on and on and on. An amount of effort that in any other area of the US would have been 10 times as much effort needed to put things to right. Yet, New Orleans is still nowhere near recovered.

hate is such a terrible thing. You guys should look into a self help group to find some serenity within yourself.
last edited: 8/30/07 9:13:33 AM”

“What an incredibly shameful moment in American history. Some people can try to defend it, try to deflect Bush's responsibility. They can type a billion words on every website and blog they can find, but the record of what happened will remain.

The recurring question: is he willfully (and criminally) negligent, woefully incompetant.... or mentally ill? - Tilt

Translation - "People can soundly refute me with all the facts, all the supporting statistics and documentation out there, but it will never overcome my pathological hatred of Bush and assigning the fault directly to him."
last edited: 8/30/07 9:27:54 AM”

“Mutt all this hatered comes to the fact that they COULD NOT, Try as they might, steal the election in 2000. Florida has come out for Bush EVERY TIME it was counted. In fact there a good possibility if the "military votes" (those people the libbies support sooooo much) had ben counted Bush would have won BIGGER.

But that is really the base of all their hatered. The libbies wanted so BAD to say LOOK AMERICA REELECTED BILL CLINTON (LOL) but it didn't happen so there is still ZIP ZERO NADA of any legacy for the libbies.”

“XL, what I can't understand is why otherwise reasonably intelligent and rational people (I'm being generous here) have such a retarded black/white viewpoint in regards to Bush. It's absurdly reductionist. Clearly, the picture on who to blame in NOLA is complicated and multifaceted. But to people like Tilt, there's only one person at fault out of the 300+ million in America: Bush. That's not only dumb, that's MarkO dumb.”

“"Hatered"??

No...............literacy!
(boy, I gotta watch my spelling or I am sooooo toast!)

Rock on, you buttheads!

When you wingnuts get frustrated its all about "hatred".

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!”

“Ol' tiltpoo and his eke have a very bad case of BDS.”

“That's not only dumb, that's MarkO dumb.”
Mutt
11:48:19 AM

LOL!”

“KMA!!”

“That would take a week

-Dom Deluise (LOL)

OH...LOL

http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070830/NATION/108300092/1001

Marshall Plan after World War II (1947-1951) (16 Nations) total price 107. Billion (adjusted for inflation)

New ORLEANS (2005-2007) $127 Billion...

It is time to give it up and pull out of New Orleans.
last edited: 8/30/07 10:08:20 AM”

“Let me tell you how things really are happening in New Orleans.

I can tell you stories of people I know personally that have lost everything but, from day one have worked their butts off and are now getting back on their feet. I am so proud of these people. The people were working and doing the right thing before Katrina and they are working and doing the right thing now. Most of these people evacusted on their own and didn't have to be rescued from a rooftop. They took care of their own safety.
We also have the elderly of New Orleans. I would say that New Orleans pre-Katrina had more elderly people than an average us city. Many of the young, above average wage earners had already moved out of the city proper. They were still connected to the city but they had moved to bedroom communities on the North Shore of Lake Ponchatrain or area to the west where I live. These people also went in before the storm hit and got their relatives out. Those elderly have either died or not returned for the most part.
Then we have the New Orleans working underclass. Many of them do work at low wage jobs which are tourist related. Most of these people live paycheck to paycheck. They had no buffer account to handle Katrina.
Then we have the New Orleans welfare underclass. These are the people that you see on TV, these are the people that have been dependant on government support before and after the storm. Many of these people lived in the destroyed 9th ward. Prestorm these people were concentrated in the 9th ward and now one really cared what they did as long as they did it there. Now with the 9th ward destroyed they are scattered across the city. Some of these people actually have changed their lives, they found work post Katrina and are now productive. Unfortunatly many others have not found that calling. With the redistribution of population crime is now everywhere. The New Orleans police for all their faults, pre-Katrina they kept crime under control if the more civilized portions of the city. Now you do not feel safe anywhere. Even in the downtown and french quarter areas you do not feel safe anymore. Tourism is still way down post Katrina. If those people are going home with that same sense of insecurity then it is game over for New Orleans economically. Tourism is all the city has left to keep it afloat. Most of the downtown area is still plagued with empty offices. The companies that were there have moved on to Houston, Atlanta, Baton Rouge and other cities. If the sea can be kept out long enough then New Orleans will recover eventually. It has everytime this has happened in the past. It will however require billions and billions of more tax dollars to do so. There is no doubt that we could have relocated every citizen for a much cheaper price, but that is not how we do it in America.
last edited: 8/30/07 10:29:09 AM”

“It will however require billions and billions of more tax dollars to do so. There is no doubt that we could have relocated every citizen for a much cheaper price, but that is not how we do it in America.

Which is why this country won't last much longer.”

“New ORLEANS (2005-2007) $127 Billion...

It is time to give it up and pull out of New Orleans.


A new congressional analysis shows the Iraq war is now costing taxpayers almost $2 billion a week -- nearly twice as much as in the first year of the conflict three years ago and 20 percent more than last year -- as the Pentagon spends more on establishing regional bases to support the extended deployment and scrambles to fix or replace equipment damaged in combat.

The spike in operating costs -- including a 20 percent increase over last year in Afghanistan, where the mission now costs about $370 million a week”

“The subject is N.O., peeps, not the war. ;-)”

“bm - How many American citizens are going to die after the next hurricane that blows by NO? You cool with that?”

“1,000th post”