Western Music Banned in Iran

How that played out inside the White House:

Advisor: President Bush, we have received intelligence that the president of Iran has banned all Western music in his country.

Bush: What? No Toby Keith? Fire up the smart bombs!

Advisor: No, sir. Not country western music, all music from the countries west of Iran.

Bush: The music of Kanye West? Good. I hate that punk. Saying I don’t care about black people. I have black friends! You can call me what ever you want, but don’t call me a racist. And don’t call me late for dinner.

[LAUGHTER]

Advisor: No, sir. The president of Iran did not ban the music of Kanye West. Well, actually, he did, because he banned ALL MUSIC COMING FROM THE WEST, including the United States.

Bush: We can’t have that. How are Middle Easterners gonna learn how to live under Democracy?

Advisor: Uhh... Should we send the president a message?

Bush: Yeah, that’s a good idea. Start off with: “We can’t have that. How are Middle Easterners gonna learn how to live under Democracy?”

Advisor: I’ll tell you what, sir. I’ll go let Mr. Rove know about this and let you get back to sleep.

Bush: Okay. But end the message with some Toby Keith, like: “And you'll be sorry that you messed with/The U.S. of A./'Cause we'll put a boot in your ass/It's the American way.” Yeah, I like that.

American Citizens? Bush Tapped That!

Why did he do it?

So, consistent with U.S. law and the Constitution, I authorized the interception of international communications of people with known links to al Qaeda and related terrorist organizations.

Funny. Bush doesn’t have a good record determining that:

The Bush administration sought to convince Americans before the invasion of Iraq that Saddam Hussein's government had links to bin Laden's al Qaeda. No such links have been proven.

He cleared the tapping of Iraqi citizens and then invaded Iraq. Could the U.S. be next?

(I really have nothing new to say about this. I just wanted to write that title.)

Do They Even Try to Get It Right?

From Yahoo News, as of 11:04 am:

No one knows just how deadly the season was, as many of Hurricane Katrina's victims in New Orleans are feared to have been carried away by flood waters, buried under rubble or even eaten by crocodiles.
(emphasis mine)

Crocodiles? Maybe if the bodies were carried all the way to the southern tip of Florida.

I guess it’s possible.

(I wrote “as of 11:04 am” because I am hoping an editor catches it and changes it.)

UPDATE: Alas, my skepticism is unfounded. Polimom finds evidence of the elusive Louisiana crocodile.

I, Too, Do Not Like Defeetists

Tonight, the President said this:

Defeatism may have its partisan uses, but it is not justified by the facts.

This rings so true to us New Orleanians.

We all know the defeetists. And they are not justified by the facts. When they say “I betcha five bucks I know where ya’ got dem shoes,” we know they do not really know.

We know that they will not respond “Payless,” or “Foot Locker,” or for those better off, “Sears.” We know they will say “On your feet,” and then expect payment for such an unjustified-by-the-facts statement.

Defeetists must be stopped. They have been driven away by Katrina, and must never be allowed to return to the New Orleans.

Wait a minute, it’s defeatists with an “a”? Never mind. I have no problem with them.

I'm a Saints Fan, But . . .

I watched more of Peyton and the Colts today in their failed attempt to go 14-0 than the Saints game. Is that wrong?

I feel dirty.

"We came to lift the city up."

Polimom pointed me to this Washington Post article about Hispanic workers in New Orleans, many of which are here illegally.

Polimom says…

What I can’t figure out (never could) is what Americans fear from these folks? I hear – all the time – about how they’re taking away our jobs. Really? Who among us is willing to live and work under such conditions, much less for these wages? I know I’m not.

These workers never paid into the system, so they expect far less out of it. American citizens have paid into the system, so expect more out of it. Unfortunately, the system is failing both.

Americans deserve decent housing and working conditions. So do migrant workers. New Orleanians deserve the right to come back and rebuild their community. They aren’t coming back or can’t get back to do that. Migrant workers are just filling in the gaps left by the government’s inability to craft a plan to return the residents they didn’t have a plan to evacuate in the first place.

Outside contractors are interested in making money. If they had to pay decent wages and provide decent housing, they wouldn’t make the crazy profits that justify their being here. So, don't expect them to help out the locals and *expect* them to take advantage of migrant workers.

For locals, just being here would be their justification. It would not be profit margin encouraging them to rebuild their own community.

Remember, that’s the goal: Rebuilding the community. And, as the WaPo article shows, we need someone to help:

Around midday, across from a church in eastern New Orleans, they spotted a woman in a garage, struggling with an armful of splintered wood. "I make you good price," Medina told her.

"How good?" Marie Croson responded.

Their first bite. Medina whispered something to Gonzalez and then blurted out, "Eight hundred dollars."

Then Croson was interested. She has been trying for weeks to get her house gutted. A church group from out of state had offered to do the work at no charge, but it backed off upon learning she had insurance, even though she has yet to receive a penny from her policy. A neighbor was demanding $4,000 to do the job, way more than she could afford.

We want to do it ourselves, but not enough of us are back. We want the government to help us, but it’s hard to get in touch with sometimes. The migrant workers are here and looking for someone to help. They are not taking anything away from Americans. If anything, they are giving something back.

And what do we do for them? Make life harder:

The House last night passed tough immigration legislation to build vast border fences, force employers to verify the legality of their workers and tighten security on the nation's frontier, but it rebuffed President Bush's entreaties to include avenues for foreign workers to gain legal employment.

This, My Friends, is Journalism

The NY Times didn’t wait for a press release. They didn’t wait for someone to call a press conference. They went out and got the information themselves.

What an effing original idea:

The Times conducted more than 200 interviews with relatives, neighbors and friends of the victims, and culled information from local coroners and medical examiners, census data, obituaries, and news articles.

The interviews add narrative and nuance to what has been a largely anonymous or purely statistical casualty list. Relatives were able to explain that what might have been listed as a simple drowning was really a tragic end to a rescue, or that medical care just a few minutes earlier might have meant the difference between life and death.

This is not the final word in how and who died in the storm. Two hundred interviews out of more than 1,000 dead do not show the whole story.

But it is the whole story for Velda Smith:

"It's ironic that you can survive a storm," but still die, said Velda Smith, who lost her sister-in-law and three teenage nieces to the floodwaters.

And for Vanessa Pereira, and Eddie Cherrie Jr., and Jack Bunn.

To those who did not lose a loved one after the storm, one person out of one million might be a tiny fraction. To the family members and friends interviewed by the NY Times, one is huge, and not just a number.

The article is a good read, though not for good reasons. But it is, without doubt, good journalism.

(Via DED Space.)

No Sleep ‘Til New Orleans

It looks like evacuees are staying close to home:

Hurricane Katrina may have emptied whole sections of New Orleans, but it hasn't set in motion the great national diaspora that was widely foreseen. Instead, the vast majority of displaced households are staying close to their former homes, postal records show.
***
Overall, more than 80 percent of all evacuees remained in the southern states nearest the gulf region, with the top destinations being suburban New Orleans, followed by Houston, Baton Rouge, La., Dallas and Atlanta.

I would guess that many of them are staying close to facilitate moving back.

Meanwhile, FEMA might be asking them to stay away:

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is encouraging hurricane victims living in hotels to consider moving out of state — even temporarily — until more housing becomes available in southern Louisiana.

If evacuees are staying in hotels anyway, why can’t they be staying in hotels here in New Orleans and the surrounding area? We need residents more than tourists. And, if FEMA pays the hotel costs, the residents get housing here in the city and the hotels make money. Win-win, no?

Just a thought. I’m not big on the tourism industry anyway. If it were up to me, I would turn all those downtown hotels into condos and apartments, revitalize downtown as a place to live, work, and shop – not just visit, and reclaim New Orleans for New Orleanians.

But, that’s another fight for another time.

Tracking Down the “Unknown” Evacuees in Texas

I don’t really know what to say about this article from the Gainesville Daily Register (that’s Gainesville, TX). But, for some reason, I think it would make a good movie:

A team of six FEMA representatives from Montana arrived Tuesday morning to begin looking for the “other” evacuees. The team consists of Phillip Arrow Top Knot, Douglas Malatare, Maurice Bear, Joseph Bear, Gloria Bear and Marcedes Old Person.

The team is from the Blackfoot Tribe located in Montana.

“Fifty of them were hired to work for FEMA last year in Florida, and it worked out so well that this year FEMA hired 300 of them,” Fletcher said. “Maybe there aren't many hurricanes or major disasters in Montana.”

A group of Native Americans show up in a Texas town tracking down people in need of help with no where to go.

And they’re good at what they do:

FEMA policy forbids its employees from making comments to the press, so the Montanans declined to comment on their work in Gainesville. But their actions may speak louder than words.

“They said they found three rooms at the Ramada and five at the Holiday Inn Express that were occupied by evacuees, and they had barely started looking,” Fletcher noted.

I’d go see that movie.

This is actually a positive story. The county doesn’t have the resources to help the “unknown” evacuees, so they are trying to hook them up with FEMA who can help them.

The only thing is, I can’t find any info on the web about this Blackfoot/FEMA Tracking program – not that I don’t think it is a bad idea. Like any good journalmalist, I need to confirm my sources. Those internets can be sketchy sometimes.

The President Will Speechify the Nation

Don’t miss it! This Sunday, 8pm CST. Live from the Oval Office, your tax dollars present: the President of the United States of America!

Topic: “Why it’s more important to spend money destroying Iraq instead of building bigger levees.”

I wonder if he will talk about this cool archeological find:

An excavation project on the Syrian-Iraqi border has uncovered an ancient settlement wiped out by invaders 5,500 years ago.

The ancient invaders didn’t find any WMDs, so he probably won’t address it. Plus, he no doubt is pissed because somebody invaded Syria before he could.

However, the researchers did supply yet another rationale he could use for attacking Iraq:

The discovery of the devastated remains of the ancient trading center suggests that the urge to attack and conquer cities is as old and basic as the need to build them, the researchers said.

I think that would make number 28 on the list.

Say the Magic Word. It’s Mandatory.

I am still watching Blanco’s Wednesday testimony in front of the House Select Committee on C-SPAN.org. (I know. I’m slow. And I can't find a transcript anywhere.)

The republican members of the committee seem to be stuck on two fantasies. They just can’t get over the pictures of flooded school buses and the fact that Blanco and Nagin didn’t say the magic word “mandatory” earlier.

The buses were never in play. Many people chose to stay. And the people who the system really failed – the invisible people – they were never in the plans to be picked up.

And, as far as the magic word goes, as Blanco put it: “Now, because the word mandatory was not used until Sunday morning does not mean that we were not evacuating the area.”

Reps. Rogers, Shays, Davis, et al. seemed to believe that if the state and city officials had just said “mandatory,” all those who had elected to stay and all the poor, elderly, handicapped, and otherwise incapable of leaving would have been teleported on to the school buses in that picture and would have been whisked driverless out of the city.

Well, generally I think the editorial writers at the Times-Pic do a mediocre job. But, addressing these two republican post-Katrina fetishes, Jarvis DeBerry’s latest editorial hits a home run just with the title:

We needed levees, not more buses.

Maybe if we say the magic word we can get Category 5 protection. Because it’s mandatory! Mandatory, y’erd me!

Et Tu, Cyril?

He says he's not coming back:

"Would I go back to live?" Neville asked. "There's nothing there. And the situation for musicians was a joke. People thought there was a New Orleans music scene -- there wasn't. You worked two times a year: Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest. The only musicians I knew who made a living playing music in New Orleans were Kermit Ruffins and Pete Fountain. Everyone else had to have a day job or go on tour. I have worked more in two months in Austin than I worked in two years in New Orleans.

"A lot of things about life in New Orleans were a myth."

He's got a point. Our music scene was great despite ourselves. We need to take care of the things we love about New Orleans now more than ever. Because, given the chance, they can easily go wherever they want.

White People are Mutants!

Does that mean I can join the X-Men now?

Cool:

The skin color of Europeans may have turned white after their ancestors migrated from Africa because of a single mutation among the 3 billion genetic "letters" that make up the human genome, scientists reported Thursday.

Was It Racism?

Chris Lewis, a New Orleans evacuee who spent time in the Superdome after Katrina and then at Camp Gruber in Oklahoma, tries to answer this question in an editorial in the Tahlequah Daily Press:

Was it racism? Not in the traditional sense. I think it was inefficiency allowed to run amok due to the apathy toward those left behind. Many of those considered less than intelligent for having stayed were, in fact, simply too sick, too old, and too poor - myself included - to have motive, means or opportunity to leave. Those who rendered those judgments never thought to ask why someone might stay behind in a disaster zone, aside from ascribing such behavior to either simple stupidity or stubbornness.

He’s right. It wasn’t racism in the traditional sense. It was racism aimed at the invisible race – that race of people who are invisible to us Americans everyday. We walk right by them, not even seeing them. And, if we see them, we pretend like we didn’t. We don’t talk about them much. And you normally don’t see the invisible race on TV.

But, for the first time, when Katrina hit and the levees broke, people all around the U.S. turned on their TVs and saw the faces of the invisible race – at the Superdome, at the Convention Center, at I-10 and Causeway, being rescued from roof tops and flooded porches. They were of all colors, but mostly black. They were poor. They were elderly. They were sick. They were mentally ill. They were homeless. All the people we don’t usually see were there.

Some people who were not part of the invisible race got caught up in the fray. They, no doubt, felt like they didn’t belong. Some actually arranged to be evacuated before the invisible people that surrounded them, which is fine. We want everyone to be safe.

Last Wednesday, the Governor touted her evacuation of southern Louisiana. She said the state succeeded in evacuating 1.2 million people in 36 hours. It was a success because the only people it did not include were those who chose to stay behind and the invisible people we could not see.

Mr. Lewis, in his editorial, says that he was “one who found himself shoulder-to-shoulder with people whom I previously shared no commonality, or bond. Indeed, people I felt an inherent need to avoid throughout my life…,” and concludes with this:

Was it racism? Was it apathy? Was it incompetence? I think, be it one, two, none or all of those things to you as an individual reader, what it should be to us all, as a people, is a wake-up call.

We woke up after Katrina and saw the invisible race. As its members are now displaced throughout the nation, let’s not let them fade away again.

Priorities!

Since money spent in Iraq is money that can not be spent to rebuild the Gulf Coast, I reserve the right to opine on the war in Iraq even though this is a blog focusing on the greater New Orleans area.

Having said that, a vote today in the House of Representatives rejected a withdrawal from Iraq:

In a 279-109 vote, the GOP-controlled House approved a resolution saying the chamber is committed "to achieving victory in Iraq" and that setting an "artificial timetable" would be "fundamentally inconsistent with achieving victory."

They neglected to define victory. Is victory killing every terrorist in the world? Is it just killing every terrorist in Iraq? What the hell is victory? Wouldn’t it be funny if victory were withdrawing? Do they even know what victory is? What kind of statement is that?

The good gentleman from Florida disagrees with me:

But Rep. Bill Young, R-Fla., said Congress needed to make a statement that it was committed to winning. "This is a global war on terror, and if we don't win the battle in Iraq, where else might we win it or, where else might we have to fight it?" he said.

Oh, that’s right. I forgot. We’re fighting them over there so that we can’t build bigger levees over here. Priorities!

Part of I-10 Flooded for Five Hours

Can we build a Mounes overpass, not underpass, please? When the city flooded after Katrina, the only way into the city by car was River Road because the I-10 was flooded at, guess where? The same place it flooded yesterday morning.

It’s not on their website, but Fox 8 TV news reported last night that the new pumping station located at the Mounes underpass (near the Jeff/Orleans border) still does not have power and is not staffed 24 hours. According to an engineer they spoke to, it is supposed to sense flooding and start the pumps automatically. But, without power, the sensors aren’t on, and someone has to be there to turn on the generators for the pumps to work.

Why doesn’t the pumping station have power yet? What the hell is Entergy doing?

A Better and Stronger Headache

"The levee system will be better and stronger than it ever has been in the history of New Orleans," said Donald Powell, the top federal official for Hurricane Katrina reconstruction.

Okay… yeah… I don’t think that’s the standard we should go by. It shouldn’t be too hard to build “better and stronger” levees than the ones that fell apart in a storm that didn’t make a direct hit on New Orleans. There are no “better and stronger” levees than the Mississippi River Levees which we already have, and I don’t see enough funds in that $3.1 billion dollars Bush is offering up to surround southeastern Louisiana with those 25 foot monsters which, to my knowledge, have never failed down in this area. And an incredible volume of water runs through them.

Sugar Ray Nagin is happy, though (same article):

"I want to say to all New Orleanians, to all businesses, it's time for you to come home, it's time for you to come back to the Big Easy," Nagin said.

Not so fast. According to this Times-Picayune graphic (pdf), by the start of next year’s hurricane season, June 2006, only repairs, temporary improvements, and better designed levees will have been completed. It is not until June 2007 that any fortifications (stronger levees) will be in place.

I think that’s why the Governor is less optimistic in her invitation to the people and businesses of southern Louisiana (same article):

Calling it a down payment on greater protection for all of south Louisiana, Gov. Kathleen Blanco said the announcement "is a strong signal to our families that they can come home and rebuild."

A “strong signal” vs. “come home.” Let’s see what the experts have to say in the same article.

Joseph Suhayda, a coastal scientist and retired Louisiana State University professor who helped design computer programs allowing the modeling of the effects of storm surge on New Orleans…[says this is] "the federal government simply saying they would finally do what they had committed to doing in 1965," when the Lake Pontchartrain and Vicinity Hurricane Protection Project was authorized by Congress. "In that regard, they aren't restoring to Category 3 levels, they're finally getting there, just 45 years late."

Hmmm, 45 years late. But wait, are we really there yet?

Ivor van Heerden, director of the LSU Hurricane Center… [says] "The problem is the design criteria they had in the past wasn't for a Category 3 hurricane; Katrina proved that," he said. "The breaches at London Avenue and 17th Street were caused by surges generally associated with a Category 1 storm."

Simulations run by the LSU Hurricane Center showed a true Category 3 storm passing west of the city would flood the entire West Bank and downtown New Orleans with the current protection system in place, van Heerden said.

45 years late for levees that would withstand only a Category 1 surge and would still allow the West Bank and downtown to be flooded in a true Category 3.

My head still hurts.

(Props to the Times-Picayune which is rocking on their levee coverage.)

Da Po’ Boy Goes Off Topic

I always thought it was a little exaggerated when people made fun of professional athletes referring to themselves in the third person. But, in today’s Times-Pic we have these quotes (all emphasis mine):

Aaron Brooks on his performance this season:
“It's not that I'm disappointed in how I've played this season. One season does not define who Aaron Brooks is. And I've got many things to look forward to in the future, personally, on the field and off the field.”

Joe Horn on Brooks’ benching:
“It's a sad day. It's a sad day for Joe Horn because that's the only guy who's been throwing me the ball for the past five, six years. So I'd be stupid to stand here and tell you that I'm happy that it happened.”

Darren Howard on being placed on the inactive list:
“The bottom line is this situation has nothing to do with Darren Howard's knee," Howard said. "This is all about Darren Howard and the New Orleans Saints not growing with each other. That's the bottom line.”

In this crazy world of hero worship, even the heroes worship themselves. That’s how da po’ boy sees it, anyway.

We Are Not Crooks

I am watching yesterday’s testimony of Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin on C-SPAN.org.

I see the first question asked to the Governor and her staff was not about the evacuation. It was not about the rescue. It was not about levees. It was not about how many people died. It was about how federal money given to Louisiana in 1999 was spent.

The congressman who asked the first question, because he is on the appropriations committee that will decide how much money the state gets, reffered to $170 million the state received over the past six years to improve communications during a disaster, and warned he doesn’t like that only $15 million of it had been spent and warned that he wants to know why, implying that we aren't using it properly.

WTF?

Why does everyone think we are corrupt? Why does everyone think we take money from the federal government and put it in our pockets? Is he trying to send a message, like, “We’re watching you! Don’t spend the money we give you on the wrong things!” Because, if he is, he needs to direct that message first to the top and ask Bush why he is spending never-ending billions on a war that he started over "intelligence" even the Prez says was bullsh*t.

Dammit! If this narrative keeps getting played, Louisiana might not get the full federal funding it needs because of the perception that we will steal it. This will have the same deadly results as the perception (rumor) that rescue helicopters were getting shot at: the rescues stopped, and people suffered.

If the federal government thinks we are corrupt, it won’t give us all the money we need to rebuild our cities and rebuild our levees. Or, they will slap on so many bureaucratic hoops to jump through (like oversight committees) to get to the funds that nothing will ever get done in a timely manner.

Either way, people will suffer.

We are no more corrupt than anyone else. Now, buy me some Cat. 5 levees for Christmas!

UPDATE: That's more like it!

Reuters: New Orleans levees to get $3 billion upgrade

I Invoke the Gods on Behalf of the Saints

O, Muses, born of Zeus’ love with Memory,
Sing of the glorious deeds of our great heroes of lore!
So your daughters and sons may rejoice
And our warriors may taste victory once more.

(UPDATE 12/15: I don't think my invocation worked. Brooks was benched for the season and doesn't think he will be back next year and Darren Howard, our franchise player, says he doesn't plan on re-signing with the Saints.)

I invoke the Muses of the Lower Garden District to inspire the authors of the epic poem that is the tale of the Saints. As the Fates spin what may be the last yarns, I await to see the destiny of our heroes.

But, where is our Achilles? Where is our Heracles? All we have to celebrate are the exploits of our heroes of old.

And that’s all the Saints faithful really want: heroes to praise. Archie Manning. Bobby Hebert. Eric Martin. George Rogers. Rueben Mayes. Dalton Hilliard. Ricky Jackson. Pat Swilling. Vaughan Johnson. Sam Mills. Frank Warren. Wayne Martin. Bruce Clark. Morten Anderson. Hoby Brenner. John Tice. Jim Dombrowski. Stan Brock. Jack Del Rio. Hokie Gajan. Ironhead. Mel Gray. Kenny Stabler. Dave Wilson. Bum Phillips. Jim Mora. John Fourcade. Dave Waymer. Brian Hansen.

As we tell our stories, these names come up time and again. Some were the good guys. Some were the bad guys. Some were both. They certainly weren’t always the best. In fact, they usually weren’t even any good. But they were our heroes because they were characters in our myths – the mythology of the Saints fan.

Notice my pantheon of football gods comes from the 1980s. That’s when this Saints fan’s mythology was written. But, we all have our own - unique to our experience.

Who of today’s Saints will become the heroes of tomorrow’s mythology? Are any of them worthy? Will they be in some other city’s pantheon? Will they be the first heroes of the San Antonio Santos?

I will consult the Oracle and hope the Muses hear my plea, and the plea of this fan, dillyberto, who inspired this post.

How They Died

This story never gets better:

Nineteen bodies were found on the overpass where Interstates 610 and 10 split, where they were dumped or where people died while waiting to be rescued. Nearly 80 people died in pairs, found together in or near their houses.

A vast majority of the victims of Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent levee breaks in New Orleans died alone.

In America, they died alone.

Bush Says Don’t Call Him a Racist

…because the federal response to Hurricane Katrina was equally as slow for whites as it was for blacks. At least, I think that’s what he is saying:

“I heard, you know, a couple of people say ... ‘Bush didn't respond because of race – because he's a racist,’ or alleged that,” Bush said. “That is absolutely wrong. And I — I reject that.”

He then added that the real reason he didn’t respond quickly was because he is the worst president ever.

Okay, he didn’t say that last part. That was me.

But racism and the charge of racism are in play in the aftermath of Katrina. How can it not be in the South?

Looking at the latest percentages of identified Katrina-related deaths, however, there is not a great disparity between black and white deaths. Of the 488 victims identified and whose information has been released publicly, 49% are black and 47% are white.

Is this evidence that the federal response was not racist? The right of the blogosphere (using older stats) would say yes.

Remember, though, there are still 587 bodies yet to be examined, or the family must be notified before the information is released, or a positive identification has not been made, or the identity can not be determined. Those percentages can change as more victims are identified or as more bodies are recovered.

Whether the percentages change or not, deaths after the storm is not a valid rubric to use in order to grade how racist (or not) the federal government is or was right after the storm hit. Overall, what the government did before the storm to protect New Orleanians, during the storm to keep New Orleanians safe, immediately after the storm to rescue New Orleanians in need, and what the government plans to do for the displaced New Orleanians now and to help those trying to rebuild must be examined to determine racism involved.

We might find at the end of the day that it is not black New Orleanians that the federal government has neglected, but New Orleanians of every color.

And *age*. The numbers show (pdf) that 64% of identified post-Katrina deaths (including the 21 non-Katrina related deaths) were over the age of 60. That is the most damning number of all, because they had given to the system their entire lives, only to see crappy levees built, a crappy evacuation plan that didn’t include their specific needs, and a crappy rescue that couldn’t save some of those that managed to survive.

Yes, racism probably contributed to the tragedy of Katrina. But, a lot of other –isms were no doubt involved, too.

Jeez, I just bummed myself out.

The Company You Keep - Part 2

CNN: U.S. isolated on climate change

More than 150 nations, including nearly every industrialized country except the United States, agreed Saturday to negotiate a second phase of mandatory cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.

Look, the only debate concerning global warming is happening outside the scientific community. At the very least, in combination with naturally occurring warming, human-made greenhouse gases are making things worse, for the world and especially the Gulf Coast.

Why the Gulf Coast? Hurricanes. They are the planet’s way of moving hot air from the equator up north to the Arctic. The more hot air there is in the equator, the more hot air that needs to move south to north. That can be expressed in tropical storms of higher frequency and/or higher intensity.

The Gulf Coast lies in the middle of this heat-transfer path. It is in our best interests on the coast to do whatever we can to lessen global warming, including signing on to the freaking Kyoto Protocol.

Here’s an article I hope shows my amateur science isn’t full of shiznit.

The Company You Keep

Simply because you are against the death penalty does not mean you defend those sentenced to be murdered.

I do not know much about Stanley Williams, but no man or woman should be killed by the state.

However, if you disagree with me, Digby has a list of the countries which condone state sanctioned murder. What is interesting are the countries not on the list:

With the exception of Belize, Guatamala and some Caribbean islands we are the only country in North America, South America or Europe to have the death penalty.

We need to execute a Category 5 protection plan. Not our own citizens.

UPDATE: Come to find Stanley Williams was born in New Orleans before moving to California. And Tookie appears to be his middle name, even though I repeatedly see it in quotes ("Tookie").

Grass Not Always Greener on the Other Side

And the land isn't always higher.

The repopulation of the Greater New Orleans area may be starting in West Jefferson, with a proposed 20,000-home development on the “Churchill Farms tract, part of a 9,393-acre swath that extends east about nine miles from the St. Charles Parish line.”

OK, here’s an elevation map of the GNO area.

See all the blue in West Jefferson? Looks a lot like the blue in New Orleans East that got flooded by the storm surge from Katrina, doesn’t it?

Now, imagine that Katrina goes west of the Mississippi. The storm surge goes west, too. Would it reach West Jeff? I hope not. But, if I am reading this Hurricane Pam graphic (pdf) right, that area gets over 10 feet of surge in this fictitious Category 3 scenario.

But wait, there’s a levee (same article):

Plans call for the levee to be widened and raised to 10 feet to protect against a fast-moving Category 3 storm by next hurricane season, said Cahill, who has complained in recent months that some parts of West Jefferson's overall levee system would not stave off a "Category 0" storm. He added that Category 5 protection could be achieved at Cataouache for $10 million to $20 million from federal coffers.

“[W]ould not stave off a ‘Category 0’ storm.” My head hurts. Nevertheless, welcome to the West Bank.

And, speaking of blue, look at all the blue in East Jefferson west of the 17th Street Canal. If you live there, you need to be as vocal as New Orleans residents in demanding improved levees.

About That Louisiana Purchase…

Is there an out clause?

Because, Joan Fox writes to the Times-Pic that she wants to make a deal:

Dear France,

Greetings from Louisiana! We are shopping for new owners, and we immediately thought of you! Our present rulers haven't been taking very good care of us and we are looking for a better deal.

According to the National Archives (click Read More…), “President Thomas Jefferson was a strict interpreter of the Constitution who wondered if the U.S. Government was authorized to acquire new territory.”

Any real estate lawyers out there care to look into this?

(via People Get Ready)

The NY Times Writes an Editorial

Title: Death of an American City

Salient point:

If the rest of the nation has decided it is too expensive to give the people of New Orleans a chance at renewal, we have to tell them so. We must tell them we spent our rainy-day fund on a costly stalemate in Iraq, that we gave it away in tax cuts for wealthy families and shareholders. We must tell them America is too broke and too weak to rebuild one of its great cities.

When I criticize the federal government – the President, Senators, Representatives – it is not personal. Yes, I do not like the President and his cronies, but I am not attacking these men and women personally. I am attacking their policy decisions. Their decisions hurt America.

A disaster befell the Gulf Coast. New Orleans was especially affected. On a smaller scale, many Americans, all over the country, go through this in their every day lives. Crises are not limited to hurricanes.

But, the Bush administration has made policy decisions that have made the U.S. impotent to respond to tragedy, both at the regional level – that of Katrina – and the personal level – that of the level of a family which has fallen on hard times for whatever reason.

The Bush administration has shaped an America where the laws and law enforcement exist solely to ensure that the rich and powerful keep what they have – their riches and their power.

In the case of New Orleans, which has always been used as a conduit for money rather than a place to keep it, this is never more clear. Oil, cargo, and industry flow through this great city, but the benefits never stick around. The rich and powerful have concluded that they can find another New Orleans to make their millions, and so this one is expendable.

But let’s not call it the "Death of an American City." Let us call it what it is:

The Death of America.

Mardi Gras is Bigger than Ever

In Galveston!

Good for them. This year's theme is “A traditional Mardi Gras,” with an unofficial second theme, “A Salute to the Gulf Coast.”

Dr. John will perform. Bards of Bohemia will roll. (Yes, that Bards of Bohemia.)

Should be fun. At least somebody will have a traditional Mardi Gras. Although, having never been to the Mardi Gras in Galveston, there is one thing I don't understand:

Tickets at the gate for the second weekend are $15 for Friday and $20 for Saturday. A discount two-day pass is on sale for $25 at www. mardigrasgalveston.com.

Tickets? A two-day pass? Huh?

Not Going Down without a Fight

Like engineers would be that easy to get rid of:

Save Tulane Engineering.

Ashley Morris: the blog makes a good point, and tells us, "Save things worth saving."

What If We Had a Mardi Gras in New Orleans and No New Orleanians Came?

The Mayor wants Mardi Gras to go on next year.

However, when he was in Atlanta, it seemed like he didn’t:

The mayor said he agreed that holding Mardi Gras would be inappropriate. He said he had tried to persuade tourism officials in New Orleans not to hold it next year but was overruled.

Then, the Mayor said he *did* want Mardi Gras next year, but with a little help from the tourism industry:

"I want to see a Mardi Gras," Nagin said Tuesday, "but I want to see the hotels and the tourist industry do something more substantial for New Orleanians."

Oh, and it looks like in order for Mardi Gras to roll next year, it will have to be sponsored.

Should we have Mardi Gras next year?

Full disclosure: Right after Katrina, I was looking forward to Carnival. I wanted to go sit with my family on St. Charles with a couple boxes of chicken and beer, watch the lil’ po’ boy run around catching a bunch of beads I ain’t got room for in my house, get drunk and tired, and eventually get into a fight with da po’ wife.

But I realized that I was yearning for pre-Katrina Mardi Gras – and a romanticized version at that. Overall, I have been yearning for a romanticized pre-Katrina version of New Orleans, and sometimes that gets in the way of my post-Katrina planning.

Yes, having Mardi Gras next year will send the message that the Mayor and the tourism industry want: New Orleans is open for business. But, to cancel Mardi Gras would send a more powerful message to the nation: We are not back to normal and we need your help.

Which one is more accurate? Which one helps us in our mission to rebuild?

More Evidence of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

In the news:

Scientists: Fissure Could Become New Ocean

"We believe we have seen the birth of a new ocean basin," said Dereje of Addis Ababa University. "This is unprecedented in scientific history because we usually see the split after it has happened. But here we are watching the phenomenon."

Plate tectonics are far too complicated for mere mortal scientists to comprehend. There must be a higher being involved in such an earth-changing event.

"The entire system is broken . . .

. . . and we need to fix it before the next major disaster strikes, whether it's another hurricane or — Heaven help us — a terrorist attack," said U.S. Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-La.

Another report slamming the federal response after Katrina. This time it is the emergency medical response that is criticized, something that should have worked better considering all that terrorist-attack planning that the feds have funded since 9/11.

It described doctors using manual resuscitation masks rather than ventilators for hours and patients lying on the floor in New Orleans' international airport.

It also said medical supplies from the Strategic National Stockpile failed to reach medical teams within 12 hours, as stipulated under disaster plans, instead taking three days to get to New Orleans — and even then there was a shortage.

No doubt, the doctors involved did the best they could under the circumstances. The point is: the circumstances should have been better.

The rest of the country needs to understand that the federal government failures in New Orleans could happen anywhere in the country in the event of a catastrophic disaster, natural or human-caused. It doesn’t matter how prepared the local officials were. All their resources were destroyed. That can happen because of a flood or nuclear bomb – which means it could happen anywhere.

The federal government response to a catastrophic disaster must be flawless. I think Katrina showed we're not quite there yet.

The Last Thing We Need

Don't listen to this man.

I'd never been to New Orleans. Figured it was time I went. And after a weekend down there, I urge you to go, too.

We don't need tourists down here. We need residents.

While many of the city's more than 38,000 hotel rooms are shuttered, and many of the 18,000 that remain are filled with workers, there is vacancy.

If there are vacancies, fill them with New Orleanians.

The article goes on to describe a visit to New Orleans like a visit to the zoo: First, you see the Asian Domain. Then, the Primates. After that, make your way over to the Reptile Encounter. Only, in this scenario, the people are the caged animals, seen in their natural environment gutting out their homes. Don’t forget your camera.

A lot of people think we can’t survive without tourism down here. I disagree. Now is our chance to kick our addiction to tourism. Let’s build New Orleans for New Orleanians.

Mike Tidwell Gives Up on NOLA...

...because Bush already has. (via The Dead Pelican)

He writes in the LA Times:

We should call it quits not because New Orleans can't be made relatively safe from hurricanes. It can be. And not because to do so is more trouble than it's worth. It's not. Instead, the hammers and brooms and chain saws should all be put away and the city permanently boarded up because the Bush administration has already given New Orleans a quiet kiss of death.
***
As someone who dearly loves New Orleans, it pains me immeasurably to call for this retreat. I mean what I say. Shut the city down. To encourage people to return to New Orleans, as Bush is doing, without funding the only plan that can save the city from the next Katrina is to commit an act of mass homicide.

C'mon, Bush. I know we're not Iraq, but we do have some oil down here. Throw a dog a bone!

Race Matters More than Ever

Rebuilding may be battle of black and white.

This article which ran in the Dallas Morning News is an excellent summary of where race relations in New Orleans were right before Katrina and how the history and feared future of race relations here is affecting the recovery.

In a nutshell:

The racial divide affects almost every rebuilding question: which neighborhoods will be rebuilt and when; how public housing will be reconstructed; how to protect the city from future disasters; and who will call the shots – the white-dominated business community, black politicians or outsiders.

It also hits on a point I like to make, but many disagree with: A tourism-based economy is bad for the people who live here. Tourism employs paid servants at working-poor wages. The money generated by tourism never trickles down to the low wage earners. It pools in the hands of the few at the top at the expense of the masses on the bottom. As the article puts it:

Before Katrina slammed ashore on Aug. 29, the New Orleans economy was so heavily staked on jobs in hotels, restaurants, bars and other purveyors to visitors that some dubbed it a tourism ghetto.

I hope a "tourism ghetto" isn't on the list of future plans for New Orleans.

How to Inspect a Levee System

The right way:

But Wolff, who worked for the corps from 1970 to 1985, said inspections of levees in the districts where he worked, from Missouri to California, were much more formal events. They involved crews of as many as eight engineers who drove and walked the levees, and seldom covered more than 10 miles in a day.
(emphasis mine)

The wrong way:

Corps and Levee Board officials last month admitted their annual inspections typically were little more than quick driving tours. Inspection of the 17th Street Canal levee usually took place from a stop on the Old Hammond Highway, rather than a thorough walk or drive of the flood control structure that is 15,000 feet long.
***
The agencies said they conducted more frequent informal inspections, typically when personnel were going to the levees for other purposes. For instance, the Levee Board said it relied on grass cutters to report any problems they might see.
(emphasis mine)

Eight engineers versus grass cutters. My head hurts.

Flood Control Group Can’t Meet in NOLA…

…because of lack of flood control.

For only the second time since the attack on Pearl Harbor, a group devoted to flood protection along the Mississippi River has moved its yearly meeting outside New Orleans - this time to the St. Louis area because of the widespread hurricane and flood damage.

This just made me chuckle – but no snorting.

100,000 Pages of Katrina Documents

If I can find the link, I’ve got some reading to do. In the meantime, I’ll settle for the mainstream press as a filter.

The day before Katrina, Blanco asked for help from the federal government:

"I have determined that this incident will be of such severity and magnitude that effective response will be beyond the capabilities of the state and the affected local governments and that supplementary federal assistance will be necessary," Blanco wrote.

David Vitter delivered the federal government’s response:

White House senior adviser Karl Rove wanted it conveyed that he understood that Blanco was requesting that President Bush federalize the evacuation of New Orleans.

The resulting tug-of-war between the state and the national governments for control of the evacuation and rescue caused nothing but trouble.

Who to blame? I guess it depends on if you think “supplementary federal assistance” = “federalize the evacuation of New Orleans.”

Democracy in Limbo

The February elections in New Orleans are postponed.

I know that it would be a nightmare to have them and ensure a fair election. And, given the present speed of the recovery, which is not too slow but not fast enough, I do agree that elections can not be held in February.

However, while the elections may be in limbo, the electorate is in purgatory. They are being punished for sins not of their doing.

Displaced New Orleanians, be they in Houston, Atlanta, Memphis, or Jackson, have no voice in their adopted communities. And now, they have no voice in their own communities. A people without voice is a people without power.

The gift of democracy having been temporarily taken away from them, they can no longer hold their representatives accountable for their actions before and after Katrina. They can no longer participate in the democratic government that they are actively petitioning for help.

I keep thinking somebody should have done more. But that somebody includes me, which bums me out.

If I were still Catholic, I would offer my suffering up to the poor souls in purgatory - or New Orleanians. Same thing.

I Call Bullsh*t

This article is racist:

FEMA Pulls Out of Lower Ninth
Agency Calls for Troops, Reporting Threats of Violence

The only way this article gets run in the Washington Post is a bunch of editors and writers hold a stereotype that when a group of angry black people get together they are unruly and unlawful and would lash out against whoever was around them.

The reporter talked to two officials - not even official officials, but officials representing other people's stories. I don't run this story in my paper unless I have talked to the Army Corps workers who were threatened or have a police report saying that's what happened.

This stereotype has played out various times through the Katrina disaster: multiple murders, raping of children, shooting at rescue helicopters, gangs wandering around up to no good. Evidence for these acts doesn't exist. But, the media propagated it and the viewers believed it because they turned on the TV and saw mostly black faces. The stereotype defeated the facts.

Most likely, it did not happen. If people in the Lower Ninth were threatening ACE workers, it probably went something like this:

"Dude, your levees suck."

That's not a threat. That's a fact.

My Hurricane Recovery Team

Coffee - strong, black - and Advil.
Yours?

Arrrrrrgggggg!!!!!!

Bush Administration Rule #1: If policy does not correspond to reality, do not change policy. Change reality.

Rumsfeld: Don't call them 'insurgents'

WASHINGTON -- More than 2 1/2 years into the Iraq war, Donald H. Rumsfeld has decided the enemy are not insurgents.

"This is a group of people who don't merit the word `insurgency,' I think," Rumsfeld said Tuesday at a Pentagon news conference. He said the thought had come to him suddenly over the Thanksgiving weekend.

"It was an epiphany."

I am glad that when I have an epiphany, it does not become national policy. My epiphanies are limited to things like better ways to wipe my ass. I can't imagine the entire country all wiping its ass just like me.

Umm, speaking of asses, Rumsfeld also tried to change the reality of the general standing next to him at the press conference. However, General Pace apparently is reality-based:

A reporter asked Pace what U.S. commanders in Iraq are supposed to do if they find Iraqi forces abusing prisoners. Pace replied that if inhumane treatment is observed it is a service member's duty to stop it.

"I don't think you mean they have an obligation to physically stop it - it's to report it," Rumsfeld said, turning to Pace.

Replied the general: "If they are physically present when inhumane treatment is taking place, sir, they have an obligation to try to stop it."

Don't Call It a Comeback

A democratically elected Saddam?

Iraqis have asked Saddam Hussein’s defence team to mull the possibility of fielding the ousted dictator as a candidate for future elections, one of his lawyers said in remarks published on Wednesday.

He would have to run as a republican, given their propensity to be accused of breaking the law while in office.

I wonder who would win a runoff between Bush and Saddam? Hmm, tough choice. I wonder what Saddam's position is on Category 5 protection. (Note: This is sarcasm.)

Damn It Feels Good to Be the President

Your Right Hand Thief yields to 50 Cent's authority on whether George W. Bush is a gangsta. 50 thinks he is a gangsta. But, I respectfully disagree, and cite the Geto Boys on what a gangsta really is:

Damn it feels good to be a gangsta
A real gangsta-ass ni**a plays his cards right
A real gangsta-ass ni**a never runs his f*ckin mouth
Cuz real gangsta-ass ni**as don't start fights
And ni**as always gotta high cap
Showin' all his boys how he shot em
But real gangsta-ass ni**as don't flex nuts
Cuz real gangsta-ass ni**as know they got em
And everythings cool in the mind of a gangsta
Cuz gangsta-ass ni**as think deep
Up three-sixty-five a year 24/7
Cuz real gangsta ass ni**as don't sleep

W never plays his cards right (see Iraq), always runs his mouth (Bring ‘em on), starts fights and never finishes them (see Afghanistan), does nothing but flex his nuts (see political capital), everything’s not cool in his mind, and think deep? C’mon.

He’s not a gangsta. He’s a prankster.

And Verse 4 of the above song is a good example of satire, a “real-ass” gangsta using “gangsta” a pejorative term:

And now, a word from the President!
Damn it feels good to be a gangsta
Gettin voted into the White House
Everything lookin good to the people of the world
But the Mafia family is my boss
So every now and then I owe a favor gettin' down
like lettin' a big drug shipment through
And send 'em to the poor community
So we can bust you know who
So voters of the world keep supportin' me
And I promise to take you very far
Other leaders better not upset me
Or I'll send a million troops to die at war
To all you Republicans, that helped me win
I sincerely like to thank you
Cuz now I got the world swingin' from my nuts
And damn it feels good to be a gangsta

Full disclosure: I know nothing of what it is to be a gangsta. Da Po’ Boy had his high school moments riding around in the hooptie with the 6x9’s propped up in the back with towels and the amplifier in the glove box pumping Dr. Dre and the Chronic. But if I were a gangsta, this name generator says my name would be “Head Cop Killa.” Yikes.

Bush is "Janky Hoopti Rida." Make your own jokes.

(edited for sensitivity)

Maybe Now the Da Po' Boy Can Go to Tulane

"Some New Orleans college students don't want to return."

Oh, I guess not:

Tulane says 80% of its students have already re-registered. Loyola University, which received little damage, just started registration and can only say more than half for now. The situation will likely be more dire at schools like Xavier and Dillard, which are poorer and suffered more storm damage.

Why do "poorer" and "suffered more storm damage" always seem to go together?

Their New Orleans

I once asked the question, “What’s the next big city to flood?” The answer given was Sacramento, according to the city’s newspaper.

This shows that we are not alone.

The question shouldn't be: “Why rebuild in New Orleans?” It should be: “Why build in areas which may flood?” And the answer is because people live there. New Orleans is not the only place protected by levees, and the country needs to invest in plans to keep those places safe.

The LA Times gets it:

Most of Sacramento is saved from routine flooding only by miles of levees, many of dubious reliability. Area flood-control officials say that more than 300,000 people and 140,000 structures could be affected by a serious flood.

***

In general, homeowners are not required by lenders to carry flood insurance, even if they live in flood plains. And many do not. That means taxpayers will doubtless be stuck with the bill when and if Sacramento becomes another New Orleans.

Pay now, or pay more later.

And, please, politicians, let’s invest in some infrastructure. When we privatize everything and leave it up to private companies or contractors to take care of public services, the public doesn’t get served. I guess there is just no money in building levees the right way.

Old News is Good News...

...when it's news to me.

I am making my way through an old 2002 series done by the Times-Picayune called "Washing Away."

I know I read it when it was first published, but I either didn't pay attention our just didn't connect the dots when they were writing headlines like:

LAST LINE OF DEFENSE: Hoping the levees hold
Army Corps of Engineers officials say hurricane levees in the New Orleans area will protect residents from a Category 3 hurricane moving rapidly over the area. But computer models indicate even weaker storms could find chinks in that armor.

The graphic under that headline in JPG and PDF (same link, scroll down) is the best illustration of our levee system that I have seen yet.

It's like a maze - follow the surge up the MRGO to the Industrial Canal into the Lower 9th and through the cracks in (or over) the levees into St. Bernard.

Even today, it's hard to be thankful when three years ago someone was sounding an alarm.

And looking at how extensive the levee system is around the lake, do we know if *all* the pilings were driven low enough?

Somebody bedda ax somebody. Y'herd me?

My Holiday Wish List

All da po’ boy wants for Christmas is:

1. A Category 5 protection plan (where levees are just a part of the plan)
2. Basic services (electric, gas, hospitals) returned in New Orleans
3. Affordable housing or alternatives so New Orleanians can come home

Keep me in mind when you are standing in line at the shopping malls this Friday.

Breaking News the New Orleans Way

Check out these headlines:

Corps of Engineers to Rebuild Levees Using Roman Candy

Frank Davis Fish ‘n Game Report: Carrollton and I-10 Underpass

Pave Our Lake Spokesman: "Told You So."

And this caption under a picture of a molded ceiling:

"Green is the new black."

News worthy of the Onion? How about The Creole Tomato.
The tagline says it all:

"If you aint from here, you won't get it."

And the disclaimer on the About Us page says the rest:

Everything on this site is fake. That means not real. Made up. Please don't sue us. Some of us have property damage.

A Reptile in Every Coffee Pot

Great news! The Folgers plant in New Orleans is back up and running:

The Folgers coffee plant in New Orleans has resumed operating at full capacity after disruptions from Hurricane Katrina, and retailers should see supply return to normal by early December, a Procter & Gamble Co. vice president said on Thursday.

***

The New Orleans plant, the largest coffee-making facility in the country, produces more than 50 percent of P&G's coffee. P&G controls about 40 percent of the coffee market in the United States, the top coffee consuming nation.

And, look! To celebrate, there’s a souvenir in select vacuum-sealed bags:

Morris, 77, of Ainsworth, found a dead baby turtle in the 2-pound package of Folgers coffee last Sunday.

***

She said a customer service representative for the company dismissed the find, explaining that because many Folgers plants are based in New Orleans the turtle might have ended up in the coffee as a result of Hurricane Katrina.

Yeah, probably not. But it does make for a good headline from Iowa's Washington Evening Journal:

Strange additive not “the best part of waking up”

I wonder if freeze-dried baby turtle tastes like chicory?

If Scientists Can’t Do It…

Then we will have to rely on politicians to teach us the real science:

…the state Board of Education approved science standards for public schools Tuesday that cast doubt on the theory of evolution.

***

The new standards say high school students must understand major evolutionary concepts. But they also declare that the basic Darwinian theory that all life had a common origin and that natural chemical processes created the building blocks of life have been challenged in recent years by fossil evidence and molecular biology.

In addition, the board rewrote the definition of science, so that it is no longer limited to the search for natural explanations of phenomena.

I guess if science is no longer limited to the search for natural explanations of phenomena, then that would make it easier to cast doubt on the theory of evolution.

I have attended quite a few New Orleans School Board meetings. And even with all the craziness that usually occurs there, I have never heard anyone propose to rewrite the definition of science so they can inject intelligent design (a.k.a. creationism) into the classrooms. We must have more members of the posse here.

Entergy on Energy: Uncertain at This Time

What do you do when your city was hit by a hurricane, flooded by a levee breach, you don’t have electricity and the only power company in the area is bankrupt? You wait.

Here is the Entergy New Orleans Electric Restoration Progress update. Heavily flooded areas like Lakeview, West End, and Gentilly will get power completely back in 2-6 months. Parts of New Orleans East and the Ninth Ward: “Uncertain at this time.”

At a town hall meeting for the residents of those “uncertain” areas on Saturday, Dan Packer, CEO of Entergy N.O., said the pace of restoring energy will be slow.

Why will it be slow? Well, yeah, Katrina did some serious damage and the flooding didn’t help. But, as Packer pointed out, Entergy is bankrupt. It takes a bankrupt company longer to do things than a normal company.

That’s great. Entergy of N.O. has a monopoly in New Orleans. They are the only company working to fix the electricity in the city. And they are bankrupt.

People can’t get FEMA trailers on their property until they have water, sewerage, and electricity. A lot of them are just waiting on electricity. They want to get started rebuilding, but they can’t get back in the area to do it. There is not enough housing and they won’t get a trailer until the power is back. Things are certainly uncertain at this time.

Go with the Flow

When you are caught in a strong undertow, you don’t fight it. You don’t go against the current. You go with it. You move parallel to the coast until you are out of the undertow, and you can get back to dry land without a struggle.

Well, when it comes to how New Orleans will prepare for the next big hurricane, we are fighting the current. We are going to argue about whether gates should have been built to stop the storm surge instead of just levees. We are going to blame the federal government for not building the levees right. We are stuck in the past instead of looking to the future.

We need to go with the flow, or rather, the surge.

Can we even build a levee or barrier that can stop the storm surge of a category 5 hurricane making landfall slightly west of the city? We certainly can’t protect the lower parishes like St. Bernard and Plaquemines. Katrina’s storm surge was catastrophic in those areas.

The storm surge of a big hurricane will come in. We need to tell it where to go. Instead of fighting it, we need to direct it.

Southern Louisiana evolved over millions of years to take a big hurricane every now and then, so there is a place for the water to go. We need to find where that place is, figure out a way to channel a massive storm surge there, and get it done. If we raise our structures off the ground and build them strong enough to withstand the movement of the water, the whole city can be a channel for the storm surge to go to a happy place.

Or, we could just rebuild the city every fifty years. Either way.

No FEMA Love for the Houma Nation

If you had asked me yesterday to name a Native American tribe in Louisiana, the only one I could have come up with is the Houma people (yes, I willingly admit my ignorance).

Well, according to the federal government, my ignorance knows no bounds because it doesn’t recognize the Houmas as an official Native American tribe. And, because of that, the Houma people didn't receive relief assistance for Hurricane Rita like the other officially recognized tribes:

The Chitimacha Tribe of Louisiana and the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe - both federally recognized - received mobile homes for displaced families and other supplies from Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Red Cross. But the Houmas, who aren't recognized as a tribe by the federal government, said they were left to fend for themselves.

Terrebonne Parish, where many of the Houmas live, was hit harder by Rita than Katrina. The Houma people that applied for federal aid received it like any other non-tribe applicant. But this doesn’t take in account that members of a tribe are more than just a collection of unrelated individuals. When the federal government deals with tribes, it is like they are dealing with sovereign nations.

From the Kansas City Infozine:

"We treat the federally recognized tribes with public assistance directly through the tribal governments ... on a government-to-government basis," he [FEMA Tribal Liaison Joseph Hesbrook] said. "The Houma Nation would have gotten a little more direct help if they had federal status."

According to the above linked article, the United Houma Nation is not a federally recognized tribe because “it lacked a distinct community, a leader and records of descendants.” Also, the Houmas don’t dress like the Washington Redskins mascot and do the tomahawk chop like at Atlanta Braves games.

And, in case you’re wondering where the President stands on the sovereignty of Native American nations, watch this video, taken in August 2004, to see him (painfully) say this:

"Tribal sovereignty means that it's sovereign. I mean, you're a – you've been given sovereignty, and you're viewed as a sovereign entity. And therefore the relationship between the federal government and tribes is one between sovereign entities."

And, yes, that is laughter in the background.

The Next Big City to Flood Could Be…

Sacramento?

That’s what the Sacramento Bee says.

Sacramento's levees offer less protection than those in many other cities. Officials worry they could fail or overtop if a large late winter or early spring storm system brought more water than they were designed to handle.

Wow, sound familiar? Levees may fail in a strong storm. It’s crazy to hear that a Katrina-sized disaster can happen to another even bigger city. Let’s hope they do something about it before it happens.

Big Erl Needs Help

Based on their record profits announced just a few days ago, you would think Big Erl is doing just fine. So, why, in the run up to these profits, was the federal government doing this?

On October 7, the U.S. House of Representatives narrowly passed a bill that would give federal insurance to oil refiners whose expansion projects are delayed by lawsuits or regulatory snags. It also put the Energy Department in charge of permits for new refinery projects as a way to speed up approvals.

***

Less than three months ago, the president signed into law a Republican-written energy bill giving $14.5 billion in tax breaks and incentives to the energy industry.

Subsidies? Tax breaks? Incentives? Fast-tracking permits at the expense of the environment? Is that what you do for an industry that is about to announce record profits? How big does Big Erl want to get? Didn’t anyone see that Big Erl probably didn’t need any help? There’s no way that Katrina and Rita could be the cause of these crazy profits, so someone must have seen them coming.

Our coastal wetlands (and therefore New Orleans) don’t have a chance if Big Erl has this much pull in Washington.

Let’s Just Blame the Locals, Especially If They are Democrats

Last Thursday:

Bodies of people killed by Hurricane Katrina went uncollected for more than a week in the New Orleans area as the federal government waited for Louisiana's governor to decide what to do with them, according to memos released Thursday by a Republican-led House committee.

Translation of the committee's findings:

See, no Republicans screwed up here. It was that Democrat Governor of Louisiana that delayed the recovery of all those dead people. (Did we mention she was a woman?).

Now:

A company assigned the delicate duty of collecting Hurricane Katrina's dead in Louisiana wanted out of the federal job days later, complaining of a "bureaucratic quagmire" in its dealings with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Kenyon International asked FEMA to find someone else to do the work in a Sept. 11 letter to Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen, head of the agency's response to Katrina. The disaster management company stayed on the job, however, and signed a contract with the state of Louisiana days later.

Translation of the governor's actions:

The federal government FEMA’ed up the recovery operation just like it screwed up the rescue operation, and the state of LA had to come rescue the recovery.

That’s a Lot of Backup

The headline says it all:

US has 161,000 troops in Iraq, highest of the war

That’s more troops in Iraq than when we invaded in 2003. But wait, it’s just backup:

U.S. commanders have said American-trained Iraqi government security forces took the lead in protecting the voting process in the referendum and would do so again for the Dec. 15 elections, with U.S. troops serving as backup.

Meanwhile, Today in Iraq.

Hurricane Resistant Houses

CBS Homes Florida, LLC, builds houses with fiberglass skeletons and panels. On their website, they claim:

CBS structural framing is termite proof, water proof, mold proof, earthquake resistant, and withstands hurricane and tornado force winds in excess of 350 MPH (130 MPH destroys wood and concrete block construction).

Termite Proof? Sweet, we could use that down here in New Orleans.

Water proof? I’m down.

Mold proof? Check.

Earthquake resistant? Um, I guess you can’t be too careful.

Withstands hurricane force winds in excess of 350 MPH? Priceless.

Why aren’t we ordering some of these yesterday? Put some fiberglass homes up on stilts and you got yourself a hurricane proof city. The home owner can come up with what it would cost to rebuild a traditional wood frame house, and the federal government can chip in and pay whatever else is needed to do it with fiberglass. This way, if the government pays for prevention now, it won’t have to pay more later.

And, check out what labor is needed:

A crew of 5 transports and erects the exterior support walls with a crane and adds the roof in one day. One 2,000 square foot house can be built in 48 minutes on the production line or in 2 hours on-site using local labor.

Mr. Mayor, Mrs. Governor, what else do you need?

Prezidentin’ Is Hard Work

Here’s the transcript of President G.W. Beard’s (see previous post for facial hair reference) remarks on the resignation of Scooter Libby.

Now here’s the translation:

It’s hard goddamn work being the President. And I ain’t got time to be talkin’ up here about indictments and what not. I gotta a job to do. And it’s hard work. The only thing Scooter did wrong was get caught. So I’m gonna look you media fellas in the eyes and tell you he’s a good guy who worked hard - just like me. It’s hard work.

Then I’m gonna tell you that we got a system here. And it says you’re innocent until proven guilty. Then I’m gonna laugh out loud as I think of all those Ay-rabs down in Gitmo who will never get a trial. It’s hard work being so funny.

Then, before I go, I’m gonna tell you what to report on instead of this scandal. I’m protecting the American people. I’m getting the economy moving. And I am going to name somebody to the Supreme Court. And if that don’t work, my next stunt will be jumping the Snake River Canyon in a rocket.

Thank you very much.

What he didn’t say was breaking the law would not be tolerated in his White House. I guess he’s already got enough to worry about, with the hard work and all.

George W. Bush = Facial Hair

Wow, Stephen Pizzo comes to battle with a shotgun. Via Cursor, I came across his website News for Real for the first time and read this post entitled “What Now?” In it, he calls G.W. Bush a “‘beard’ for others” and a “Forest Gump from the Dark Side.”

He also sums up why the country is lost right now:

It's a moment new to America, a leader who himself needs to be led, now unled.

I am neither a Democrat nor a Republican, so my dislike of G.W. Bush is not a partisan play. He really is a tool, in the sense that he is manipulated by the evil forces of the world to further their messed up agenda which only benefits themselves. I think this was evident in the federal response after Katrina.

So, basically, what Stephen Pizzo said.

Did I mention that he calls W. a “beard?” A fucking beard. That’s awesome.

No Money? We Just Need More Inmates Making Phone Calls

There’s really nothing to this article “Katrina dries up Sheriff's Office revenue.” It sounds like only vacant jobs will be eliminated in the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office and their surplus, plus a loan, will keep services going for a while.

But, I found this bit interesting:

And the Sheriff's Office loses out on inmate telephone fees, which bring in an estimated $670,000 a year, Rivera said.

How much are phone calls in prison? They must have my phone plan.

Looking for Common Ground?

Here it is. And here’s how you can help.

Common Ground Collective has been serving the Algiers community since right after Katrina. Read about what they are doing. And if you think you can do it in your area, do it. If you want to help them, help them. This isn’t thinking outside the box. It’s thinking green, something we need more of in New Orleans.

Big Erl’s Getting Bigger

A few hurricanes temporarily shutting down your production apparently isn’t bad for business if you’re Big Erl.

Oil profits are exploding.

ConocoPhillips, up 89%.

Exxon Mobil, up 75%.

Shell, up 68%.

BP, up 34%.

Marathon Oil, net income more than tripled.

Chevron will release numbers tomorrow.

From the above linked article:

The world's five biggest publicly traded oil companies -- Exxon Mobil, BP, Shell, Chevron and France's Total SA -- are expected to combine for 2005 profit of $106.7 billion, based on average analyst estimates in surveys by Thomson Financial. That would mark a 26 percent increase from last year.

A lot of that oil is produced and refined in the Gulf coast, at the expense of the coast itself. A lot of canals were dug out through the wetlands to move oil products around, contributing to the wetlands loss that allowed Katrina’s storm surge to pound Plaquemines and St. Bernard Parish, and to break the levees that flooded the city of New Orleans.

Pony up, Big Erl. $106.7 billion is a lot of money. Some of that can go to fixing what you broke.

10/28/05 UPDATE: Chevron up only 12%. Boo hoo. Darn hurrickens.

There’s 50 States in the Union, Right?

Well, when it comes to the best work environments by state, we aren’t even in the top fifty. Louisiana ranks 51 in the Work Environment Index which “rates working environments in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., in terms of average pay, employment opportunities, employee benefits, percentage of low-income workers, fair treatment between genders and ability for employees to unionize.”

I can’t say I’m surprised. Louisiana has been bending over backwards for businesses at the expense of workers for as long as I can tell. We sold our soul, as well as the coastal wetlands, to the oil industry. Chemical plants and oil refineries pollute our air and water. Look how Tom Benson and the Saints jerk the city of New Orleans around. And we rely so heavily on the tourism industry that pays wages which only contribute to our working poor.

If you were shocked by the scenes of poverty in the flood waters of Katrina, be shocked by this, too. It is not cool to accept this crap anymore.

Speaking of New Orleans. . .

I started this weblog four days before I packed my family in a car and ran from a storm called Katrina. I wanted to speak for my city, New Orleans. I wanted to promote what was going right in my city, shine a light on what was going wrong, and hold the powerful accountable for the plight of the powerless. While I believe these goals to be valiant before the storm, I see them as essential after Katrina. The problems of my city are now out in the open. The solutions are scattered somewhere in the debris that still lines our streets weeks after the hurricane made landfall. As New Orleanians return to their city, they are going to talk about what happened. And they are going to talk about it like only New Orleanians can. And they are going to find solutions like only New Orleanians can.

Down here, we speak a different language. We speak New Orleans.

On this blog, I’m going to speak New Orleans. Feel free to listen.