Worse than a Scuzzbucket

Karl Rove - destination: hell



exceprt from the link, which is an excerpt from "Machiavelli's Shadow: The Rise & Fall of Karl Rove" by Paul Alexander


Instead of supplying relief to the city, Rove had devised a scheme whereby he could blame the failure of government to take action on someone besides Bush. "They looked around," Landrieu says, "and they found a Democratic governor and an African American Democratic mayor who had never held office before in his life before he was mayor of New Orleans -- someone they knew they could manipulate. Ray Nagin had never held public office and here he was the mayor of New Orleans and it was going underwater."

In short, Rove was going to blame Blanco for the failure of the response in Louisiana, and to do that he was going to use Nagin. He had already set the plan in motion on Tuesday with Nagin, who, even though he was a Democrat, was so close to the Republican Party that some members of the African American community in New Orleans called him "Ray Reagan." In 2000, Nagin had actually contributed $2,000 to Bush's campaign when he ran for president.

Michael Homan echoes my sentiments here

Ice is for comfort

From First Draft dot com, we learn that the ever "efficient" FEMA will no longer be supplying ice in response to the aftermath of disasterous hurricanes. " Ice is no longer part of the government's response to hurricanes" said Federal Emergency Management Director R. David Paulison.



"It takes a tremendous amount of resources, and it really doesn't accomplish much, other than making people feel good because they have a bag of ice," Paulison said.

Wow.

Mr. Paulison, having firsthand experience at ground zero in the weeks following the storm, I can tell you that the ice wasn't used to make us "feel good". The ice was used to keep our food safe to consume. The days following the storm were in the high 90's with humidity close to 100%. We received our first bags of ice 4 days after the storm from the local Walmart, not FEMA, Mr. Paulison.

You assclown.

Suspect Device responds in his own brand of honesty .

I guess this comes as a "lesson learned" from the federal agency. Last July, as I visited family in Massachusetts, my sister told me of this fiasco found at a Baltimore Sun weblog

GLOUCESTER, Mass. (AP) — After nearly two years, thousands of truck miles and $12.5 million in storage costs, a cold relic of the flawed Hurricane Katrina relief effort is going down the drain.

The federal government is getting rid of thousands of pounds of ice it had sent south to help Katrina victims, then north when it determined much of the ice wasn't needed. The Federal Emergency Management Agency had been hanging on to the ice in case it was needed for another disaster, but decided to get rid of it because it couldn't determine whether it was still safe for human consumption.

"We just didn't take any chances," FEMA spokeswoman Alexandra Kirin told the Gloucester Daily Times.

The ice, held at AmeriCold Logistics in Gloucester and at 22 similar facilities nationwide, is being melted. The cost of storing the ice at all the facilities since Katrina is $12.5 million.

The Army Corps of Engineers acknowledged after the August 2005 hurricane that it had ordered too much ice because of faulty estimates by local officials. Truckers received up to $900 a day to move the ice to storage sites around the country.

Gloucester received 118 truckloads of ice that September, but 99 of those were sent to Florida in October 2005 to help with relief efforts after Hurricane Wilma. By November 2005, only four truckloads, weighing between 40,000 and 84,000 pounds each, remained in Gloucester.

FEMA contracts required disposal of the ice three months after purchase, but Kirin said the agency decided to keep the excess ice for the 2006 hurricane season. With fewer storms than expected, the ice was not needed, and the agency decided not to save the ice for the 2007 season.

She added that FEMA tried to donate the ice, but "had no takers."

"Living on the Government Dole"

Apparently my last post about the tragic incident in Lakeview yesterday brought out the ire of a resident of California Here's the link to his blog entry and here's an excerpt:

Oh, and before that, Minshew chased away inspectors from FEMA -- there to check out the run-down government trailer still on his property -- by threatening them with a handgun.

As I read this tragic tale, one of the first things I wondered was why Katrina victims are still living on the government dole in rundown trailers. It's been three years, now.



Maybe I'm being a little sensitive, but it pissed me off.
But of course, it's been three years, and I should be over it, huh?

And to those of you who think similarly to the dolt above, read this.

FEMA: Creator of Disaster and Tragedies

from the Associated Press:
Draft plan: FEMA may use trailers in new disaster


The government may house disaster victims in trailers this hurricane season as a last resort, despite promises never to use them again because of high levels of formaldehyde found in trailers used after the Katrina catastrophe
FEMA Director R. David Paulison has said there will be no more trailers while he is in office. But his deputy says that's not a sure thing should there be another catastrophic disaster.
"We're putting our head in the sand," deputy administrator Harvey Johnson said in an interview Monday. "If we had a Katrina again, there's probably no way we could respond to a Katrina without having to deploy all available options, which will include travel trailers."

fuckmooks.

Meanwhile, in FEMA's latest effort at obtaining positive press, before dawn this morning a resident of a FEMA trailer since Hurricane
Katrina was shot and killed as the Federal Agency
tried to reclaim his formaldehyde-ridden trailer.

From Yahoo news
NEW ORLEANS - A nearly 10-hour standoff with a police SWAT team ended Wednesday morning when police fatally shot the mentally ill occupant of a federally supplied trailer in one of the neighborhoods hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina.
Federal Emergency Management Agency workers alerted police Tuesday afternoon after a man with a handgun ordered them to leave the trailer in an overgrown, weedy lot in the affluent Lakeview neighborhood after an inspection, authorities said.
The confrontation began after 49-year-old Eric Minshew, wearing a gun in his waistband, threatened FEMA workers who were attempting to reclaim the trailer in which he was living, police said.
The man locked himself inside a partly gutted home adjacent to the trailer. Police got into the downstairs part of the home, but the man shot at them twice, causing no injuries, officials said. Authorities shot the man around 2 a.m. after he pointed a handgun at officers who tried to arrest him, police said. The man later died at a hospital.
The man's brother told police that he was mentally ill and had been untreated for years, according to a statement from Officer Garry Flot, a police spokesman.
The man's trailer was the only one visible for blocks. The whole block appeared abandoned, the houses unrepaired since the storm, their windows broken.

how many swat teams does it take to control one mentally ill man?

The FEMA inspection was a first step toward reclaiming the trailer. The federal agency has been pushing to get residents out of trailers across the Gulf Coast, in part because possibly dangerous levels of the chemical formaldehyde have been found in many of them.
FEMA spokesman James McIntyre said the agency cannot release any specifics about the case, such as when the man got the trailer or whether anyone else lived there with him.

There's more information here at the TP website.
The cracks in the mental health services in New Orleans is criminal.
What a multi-faceted tragedy, this legacy of the bumbling crooked Bush administration, the embarassing ineptittude of Blanco realm, the laissez-faire attitude of the self-serving Nagin and the farce that is FEMA.


First the story of the formaldehyde in trailers and now the agency wants to dump people out on the streets.

Some people will say that it's been almost three years, why haven't these people found a place to live? No one know the answer to this.

There are countless stories as to why people are still living in these poisonous tin cans.

Don't judge these people, folks, unless you've been in their shoes.

Another Scuzzbucket

From the great state of Illinois comes this "intellectual" editorial

Despite more than $22 million in repairs, a levee that broke with catastrophic effect during Hurricane Katrina is leaking again because of the mushy ground on which New Orleans was built, raising serious questions about the reliability of the city’s flood defenses.


So began an AP story Thursday about that sad, swampy city to our south. It begs the question: Why in the world should Uncle Sam spend billions rebuilding New Orleans?

Here’s a city that sat largely below sea level, between a big lake and a mighty river, not far from the ocean and in the middle of Hurricane Alley.

It’s a miracle that it survived as long as it did. Its destruction was inevitable. To rebuild the low-lying portions would be worse than foolish. It would set the residents up for another tragedy and more loss of life.

The Federal Government could better spend our billions helping former New Orleans residents get on with their lives — somewhere on high ground.

Levees and flood walls are not reliable protection when mother nature is on a rampage. We learned that in St. Louis in 1993.

But, Mr. Gallagher, St. Louis and all affected areas were repaired following the '93 floods, were they not? You pompous midwestern ass.

I am damn tired of this type of thinking. These self-appointed pundits have all the answers, don't they?

I'm happy so see that many NOLA bloggers have commented with great intelligence on this moron's editorial.

Bayou Liberty Pirogue Races

The 58th annual Bayou Liberty Pirogue Races will be June 1 from 1 to 7 p.m. at the St. Genevieve boat launch near the Bayou Liberty bridge west of Slidell. This is an entertaining small festival and is great for people watching.

Here are prior entries in this blog

about this event

Dumb

Greg Peters lashes out at the powers that be and then sme with a deeply felt post that gave me the same adrenaline rush as the FYYFF post of by the much missed Ashley Morris. Damn I miss him.

Go read Greg's post and you'll find out what I mean.

Hurricane Season '08

There's some chatter in the NOLA blogsphere regarding the upcoming hurricane season, which runs from June 1 thru November 30th. It's interesting to read different perspectives and news items about this six month period that takes place in the heart of summertime in the Gulf Coast.



Our governor has had his crew put together a list of things that everyone should have on hand for an evacuation. here's the website . I just checked my little rubbermaid containter and have most of the stuff ready to go. I also put all of my important papers in a neat little box with handles to easily carry it. I certainly hope we won't have to evacuate, because that would entail getting five cats into five cat carriers. No easy task.

After living thru Katrina and all her wrath and dealing with the aftermath, I'm not complascent, but I'll think twice about leaving. I'm just wondering how many trees that were weakened by the storm will meet their demise this season.

I'm with Chris over at Prytania Waterline and probably won't leave unless there's a Cat 3 or higher headed toward us.

The ever-eloquent Mark Folse over at Toulouse Street reflects on the start of another hurricane season which ends with this quote which gives me goose pimples: One thousand days and counting: why do we stay, and why do more come home each day? They come and stay because it is home, and because in the civics class, film-strip America we were all raised to believe in the government does not tell you where to live. We will do it alone if we must, Sinn Fein. It may at times be bitter-bitter, but in the end it is our heart.



Tim of the nameless blog reflects on his feelings about his whole post Katrina experience and feelings. This post pulls at my heartstrings.


The Library Chronicles details the city of NOLA's plan to "get people out" in case a storm is headed this way as well. I can already see the chaos Nagin's "plan" will cause.

here's one of the better hurricane web pages for up-to-date information

Heads Up, New Orleanians

Humid City has publised and email by Matt McBride, who is a well placed thorn in the side of the hapless Corpse of Engineers in New Orleans.

In his email, Matt discusses the necessity of the public release of a final report on the London Avenue canal load test, held last summer. That report has already been through independent peer review.

For those of you who aren't from this area, The London Avenue Canal Levee and floodwall was breached during or shortly after Hurricane Katrina in late August of 2005. This breach contributed to the flooding of New Orleans. Some has speculated that were it not for the breachs most of western Gentilly may have been spared from major flooding.


click pic for full-sized version


Quoted from Matt's email to the citizens of New Orleans:

The report undoubtedly contains a great deal of information about seepage in existing floodwalls, as that’s what the load test was all about. Getting it released would definitely shine light on what the Corps currently knows about leaks through levees and floodwalls, much more so than a press conference and vague promises of future reviews. They’ve already got the information, so why not put it out there?


good question.

thanks to Loki for the heads up

Because They Have No Words

“We call them dumb animals, and so they are, for they cannot tell us how they feel, but they do not suffer less because they have no words." – from the novel Black Beauty by Anna Sewell.


I don't know if I've been living in a cave or something, but this is the first I've heard about a play about rescuing animals post Katrina. “Because They Have No Words” had its world premiere on September 2, 2006 at The Lounge Theatre in Los Angeles.




The play is now
in Chicago. It focuses on the efforts of animal rescuers and is based on co-writer Tim Maddock's personal experience rescuing animals in the aftermath of Katrina. Maddock also stars in the production.




In September of 2005, Tim loaded his car with food, water, clothing and rescue gear, said goodbye to his partner and his dog, and drove straight into the heart of one of the greatest natural disasters in our country's history. During his time in New Orleans, Tim witnessed great human tragedy and stupendous bureaucratic blunders. From the stranded animals somehow able to weather the storm, to the frantic, grief-stricken families searching for the pets they were forced to abandon, the flood of emotion was a constant reminder of the failures of a city, a state, and a nation to respond when their citizens needed them most.

Here's a link to an article about his experiences.

Thanks and God Bless you, Tim

Ghost of Katrina Still Haunts Louisiana

An excellent piece at bayou buzz dot com written by
Ron Chapman, an award winning columnist who teaches at Nunez Community College and has been a businessman and activist.

Here is an excerpt:

We have all lost that certain little something that had meaning if not real value. That one thing that makes all of our losses touch closer to the heart. That is what those who have not experienced Katrina will never understand. That sense of personal violation that never disappears. It has nothing to do with insurance, Road Home, or bricks and mortar. It has to do with an intangible sense of loss