Bush is not responsible for New Orleans' plight
Posted By: sm on 2009-02-05
In Reply to: So torture is okay? - sm
Their wonderful mayor is and he loves it and still loves it. Bush didn't cause Katrina; sorry but you obviusly needed to hear that. Bush didn't cause all those folks to be standing around screaming for the government to help them. Now, on the other hand, their previous mayor WAS DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE for much of the disaster that took place afterwards and before. Why didn't he fix the levy with the 60 million dollars he was given years ago? Why isn't the citizens of New Orleans having a pissfit over that? I'll tell you why........because he's a black mayor. Bush had nothing to do with their situation, just like Obama would have had nothing to do wiht their situation. Mayor Ray Negan had LOTS to do with it. The only reason he wants everyone to come back and live there is because the more moochers living there, the more federal money, i.e., MY MONEY and YOURS, he will receive to once again squander away just like he has done for years.
They needed a new charity hospital; he could have built several with all the billions he has received but he didn't. Didn't hear any of those poor folks yelling about that did ya? No! They go for the white guy in power, which was Bush. Now, if that had been Obama, you would not have heard all the screaming and preaching about the big bad President.
On the other hand, the ones really hit hard by Katrina, the gulf coast of Mississippi, where was all their help? Why weren't they standing in the streets blaming the president for their plight? Because they were folks who worked for a living and never thought for a minute a human being cause a hurricane! They got up and got to work clearing and doing what they could until help came, which by the way should have been them first but it was those screaming in the streets down in New Orleans. Katrina hit the Mississippi gulf coast the hardest, a direct blow!
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First Iraq and now Bush leaves New Orleans rebuilding to future President.
Bush: New Orleans may need a decade
NEW ORLEANS, Aug. 28 (UPI) -- As he headed for the Gulf Coast on Monday, U.S. President George Bush told an interviewer he expects the rebuilding of New Orleans to take a decade.
Bush planned to spend the anniversary of the U.S. Gulf Coast landfall of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans after a visit to Biloxi, Miss. It was his 13th visit to the devastated area.
We can rebuild buildings, the question is can we rebuild its soul, he told April Ryan of American Urban Radio Networks. We can. I believe, 10 years from now April, you and I will be thinking about our time here, and trying to remember what it was like 10 years ago
Bush came under fire last year for apparently ignoring Katrina immediately after New Orleans flooded and then flying over the city in Air Force One.
Later White House spokeswoman Dana Perrino said she wasn't aware of a specific time period but that the president has said all along that it would take more than a year to rebuild New Orleans.
In terms of like, 10 years, I don't know about exact time frame, but it's certainly going to take several years, Perrino said.
Wrong. Democrats are responsible for the mortgage meltdown, not Bush....
McCain tried to tell them in 2005...Dems blocked the regulation he begged for for Fannie/Freddie. But the Dems were too deep in the pockets...Franklin Raines, Jamie Gorelick, James Johnson, Timothy Howard...all democrats, all walked away from fannie Mae with golden parachutes of millions...and we are left holding the bag. Fannie contributed more to Chris Dodd, Democratic head of Banking and COmmerce committe than any other senator in the past 20 years...followed closely by Barack Obama, who has only been IN the senate for 2 years...you do the math and follow the money. Democrats largely responsible for this. ANd you want to put one in the white house. Who wants to raise taxes in this financial crisis. What part of collapse of the economy don't you...and Mr. Obama...understand?
New Orleans
It heartbreaking what is happening to New Orleans..I visited twice and have always been fascinated with the city..It always had an eerie slant to it..Interview With The Vampire and Anne Rice fit that town so well..**sigh**..I keep flashing back to where I visited..So sad..
Is anyone else following what is going on in New Orleans?
This is just getting downright shameful. Whatever happened to the relief effort and helping people get back on their feet? Where the heck did our money go? The money grubbing venture capitalists are now succeeding in wiping out the few original residents who stayed and refused to go by demolishing their housing. These same people who stayed in their homes and made the best out of their situation for over two years are now being booted out. Smacks of ugly. I hope they choke on it.
New Orleans Snubbed
see gretawire.com
Do you live in New Orleans?
My aunt and uncle have lived there for over 60 years... they have always paid close attention to the money given the state, always hoping the mayor of new orleans would use it to repair and strengthen that very levy they too live near......
They told us about the 60 billion dollars when it came into the hands of the mayor and there was a major uproar amoung the citizens who actually paid attention as to where that money was......why it hadn't been put on the levy!!!!
Now, of course, I don't expect the moochers to care where that money went, as long as they got their monthly check and, of course, the mayor knew they couldn't care less.
But, like I said, I do know what I'm talking about as well as those who actually care about their state. Now, unless you were at the meetings with the mayor, which they were, or know those that were, which you obviously don't, you don't know what you're talking about.
AND, he could have even used those billions to upgrade the charity hospital, which I know for a fact he was asked to do by the administration who desperately needed to upgrade the hospital, but he didn't want to do that either, even though all his federal funding comes from all the projects and their inhabitants in his jurisdiction......ya know, their hospital, the one they go to for all their medical needs?
Why are you so quick to say no, that's not true? I think I know the answer..... why bother with you.
Anarchy and violence in New Orleans
Lots of news that there just isn't enough help and the whole city is breaking down. Bush has turned down planes and able-bodied assistance from Canada and Russia as well as offers from many other countries. Says we can handle it ourselves. Folks in New Orleans say FEMA is there but totally unorganized and not providing enough help. I'm thinking this is in the U.S. and it's a MESS. What kind of message are we sending to the world?
I'm getting pretty darn uptight about this whole situation.
Heck, Dubya won't even help out New Orleans
.
Yeah, its always Louisiana/New Orleans
get the attention. Oh, thats right. They are white and expected to rebuild at least part by themselves, which they have done. Not to be harsh, but when people live off the Govt in the first place, like MANY in New Orleans, they expect to live that way forever. I am afraid the entire country is headed in this direction. Obama is only making it worse. --socialism is real.
Well a hand up will not provide the people of New Orleans with sm
what they need in this time of crisis.
What are you smokin'? Do you think these people don't need emergency money now, they have lost everything.
Good grief. There are mannnny Americans who still live paycheck to paycheck and if the little they have is wiped out, they have nowhere to go. But some people don't see it that way. I call them the I got mine generation.
Rita waters flood New Orleans..sm
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Fast-rising water brought by the outer edge of Hurricane Rita spilled over a freshly patched levee in New Orleans on Friday and flooded a deserted neighborhood of the already devastated city.
Water from the industrial canal, where the levee breached during Hurricane Katrina more than three weeks ago, was submerging houses in the particularly hard-hit Ninth Ward section on the city's east side.
Water also poured out from under the canal's western barrier, which faces the historic French Quarter roughly three miles away.
An official with the New Orleans Fire Department said flooding reached a mile inland west of the canal. It also reached as far north as Interstate 10, which divides the city.
The area had been nearly dried out in recent days.
Residents have not been permitted to return since Katrina hit the ward, where nearly all the small, one-story houses appeared damaged beyond repair.
Searches by rescue teams, who have been going door to door seeking storm victims, were suspended.
Water had begun to seep under the weakened levee late on Thursday, but officials said they did not expect flooding on such a scale so soon.
It's frustrating, but there ain't nothing you can do about Mother Nature, said Henry Rodriguez, president of nearby St. Bernard Parish, also heavily hit by Katrina on August 29.
He said he had driven through the area and saw floodwaters reaching 10 blocks from the levee.
We were hoping this wouldn't happen, but with Rita knocking at our door, we're stuck with this, said Mark Heimann, a spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
He said he was not aware of any levee breaches elsewhere in the city, emptied of most of its 450,000 residents by Katrina.
© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.
Check your own timeline. He was not flying over New Orleans...
when the levee breached. He was on the ground in Arizona. The corps of engineers had been telling New Orleans and the state of LA that the levees would not hold in a bad storm, but they chose to spend the money elsewhere.
Let's be real here. The whole city is below sea level. As engineers have said even since Katrina, in a huge storm like Katrina and gustav, they might not hold. Nothing Bush can do about that.
That is a ridiculous, mean statement. I repeat...if Obama had been present, he would have been going about his usual day as President also, expecting people to do their jobs. And if he suggests otherwise, I would be the first to call him a liar.
The hurricane is what killed people. George Bush did not kill people.
If he had been a Democratic president, would you be saying this? Of course you wouldn't, you would be defending him right down the line.
That is the difference between you a hard line party follower, and me, an independent not beholden to ANY party. I would be defending that President no matter WHAT party he was in. THe people he trusted to do the job failed him. The state and local authorities failed their constituents.
And bottom line...it was the hurricane that killed people and destroyed property. Not George Bush. Just like it will be the hurricane this time, but EVERYONE learned from the last one, including state and local authorities, and the Republican governor of Louisianna has done an outstanding job in moving that along. Former Dem Governor Blanco is no longer in politics. Wonder why that is.
That being said...it was no one person's fault. All can share some of the blame.
But don't see you attacking anyone but George Bush.
Wonder why THAT is?
Water Rising in New Orleans....Get your tissues. OMG Katrina.
Rescuers Race to Save Katrina Victims |
Tuesday, August 30, 2005 
NEW ORLEANS — Rescuers along the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast pushed aside the dead to reach the living Tuesday in a race against time and rising waters, while New Orleans sank deeper into crisis and Louisiana's governor ordered storm refugees out of this drowning city.
As looters stripped stores of items, sometimes in front of police, violence broke out in the Big Easy. At around 11 p.m. EDT, two gunmen with AK-47s fired shots into a police station. No one was hurt, and the men fled into the city's French quarter section.
Meanwhile, two levees broke and sent water coursing into the streets of New Orleans a full day after the city appeared to have escaped widespread destruction from Hurricane Katrina. An estimated 80 percent of the below-sea-level city was under water, up to 20 feet deep in places, with miles and miles of homes swamped.
The situation is untenable, Gov. Kathleen Blanco said. It's just heartbreaking.
One Mississippi county alone said its death toll was at least 100, and officials are very, very worried that this is going to go a lot higher, said Joe Spraggins, civil defense director for Harrison County, home to Biloxi and Gulfport.
Several victims in the county were from a beachfront apartment building that collapsed under a 25-foot wall of water as Katrina slammed the Gulf Coast with 145-mph winds. And Louisiana officials said many were feared dead there, too, making Katrina one of the most punishing storms to hit the United States in decades.
After touring the destruction by air, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said it is not of case of homes being severely damaged, they're simply not there. ... I can only imagine that this is what Hiroshima looked like 60 years ago.
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said hundreds, if not thousands, of people may still be stuck on roofs and in attics, and so rescue boats were bypassing the dead.
We're not even dealing with dead bodies, Nagin said. They're just pushing them on the side.
The flooding in New Orleans grew worse by the minute, prompting the evacuation of hotels and hospitals and an audacious plan to drop huge sandbags from helicopters to close up one of the breached levees. At the same time, looting broke out in some neighborhoods, the sweltering city of 480,000 had no drinkable water, and the electricity could be out for weeks.
With water rising perilously inside the Superdome, Blanco said the tens of thousands of refugees now huddled there and other shelters in New Orleans would have to be evacuated.
She asked residents to spend Wednesday in prayer.
That would be the best thing to calm our spirits and thank our Lord that we are survivors, she said. Slowly, gradually, we will recover; we will survive; we will rebuild.
A helicopter view of the devastation over the New Orleans area revealed people standing on black rooftops baking in the sunshine while waiting for rescue boats. A row of desperately needed ambulances were lined up on the interstate, water blocking their path. Roller coasters jutted out from the water at a Six Flags amusement park. Hundreds of inmates were seen standing on a highway because the prison had been flooded.
Sen. Mary Landrieu (news, bio, voting record) quietly traced the sign of the cross across her head and chest as she looked out at St. Bernard Parish, where only roofs peaked out from the water.
The whole parish is gone, Landrieu said.
All day long, rescuers in boats and helicopters pulled out shellshocked and bedraggled flood refugees from rooftops and attics. Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu said that 3,000 people have been rescued by boat and air, some placed shivering and wet into helicopter baskets. They were brought by the truckload into shelters, some in wheelchairs and some carrying babies, with stories of survival and of those who didn't make it.
Oh my God, it was hell, said Kioka Williams, who had to hack through the ceiling of the beauty shop where she worked as floodwaters rose in New Orleans' low-lying Ninth Ward. We were screaming, hollering, flashing lights. It was complete chaos.
Frank Mills was in a boarding house in the same neighborhood when water started swirling up toward the ceiling and he fled to the roof. Two elderly residents never made it out, and a third was washed away trying to climb onto the roof.
He was kind of on the edge of the roof, catching his breath, Mills said. Next thing I knew, he came floating past me.
Across Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, more than 1 million residents remained without electricity, some without clean drinking water. An untold number who heeded evacuation orders were displaced and 40,000 were in Red Cross shelters, with officials saying it could be weeks, if not months, before most will be able to return.
Emergency medical teams from across the country were sent into the region and President Bush cut short his Texas vacation Tuesday to return to Washington to focus on the storm damage.
Federal Emergency Management Agency director Mike Brown warned that structural damage to homes, diseases from animal carcasses and chemicals in floodwaters made it unsafe for residents to come home anytime soon. And a mass return also was discouraged to keep from interfering with rescue and recovery efforts.
That was made tough enough by the vast expanse of floodwaters in coastal areas that took an eight-hour pounding from Katrina's howling winds and up to 15 inches of rainfall. From the air, neighborhood after neighborhood looked like nothing but islands of rooftops surrounded by swirling, tea-colored water.
In New Orleans, the flooding actually got worse Tuesday. Failed pumps and levees apparently spilled water from Lake Pontchartrain into streets. The rising water forced hotels to evacuate, led a hospital to boatlift patients to emergency shelters, and drove the staff of New Orleans' Times-Picayune newspaper out of its offices.
Officials planned to use helicopters to drop 3,000-pound sandbags and dozens of giant concrete barriers into the breach, and expressed confidence the problem could be solved. But if the water rose a couple feet higher, it could wipe out water system for whole city, said New Orleans' homeland security chief Terry Ebbert.
A clearer picture of the destruction in Alabama became to emerge Tuesday: cement slabs where homes once stood, a 100-foot shrimp boat smoldering on its side, people searching for swept-away keepsakes. The damage in some areas appears to be worse than last year's Hurricane Ivan.
In devastated Biloxi, Miss., areas that were not underwater were littered with tree trunks, downed power lines and chunks of broken concrete. Some buildings were flattened.
The string of floating barge casinos crucial to the coastal economy were a shambles. At least three of them were picked up by the storm surge and carried inland, their barnacle-covered hulls sitting up to 200 yards inland.
One of the deadliest spots appeared to be Biloxi's Quiet Water Beach apartments, where authorities estimated 30 people were washed away, although the exact toll was unknown. All that was left of the red-brick building was a concrete slab.
We grabbed a lady and pulled her out the window and then we swam with the current, 55-year-old Joy Schovest said through tears. It was terrifying. You should have seen the cars floating around us. We had to push them away when we were trying to swim.
Said Biloxi Mayor A. J. Holloway: This is our tsunami.
Looting became a problem in both Biloxi and in New Orleans, in some cases in full view of police and National Guardsmen. One police officer was shot in the head by a looter in New Orleans, but was expected to recover, Sgt. Paul Accardo, a police spokesman.
On New Orleans' Canal Street, which actually resembled a canal, dozens of looters ripped open the steel gates on clothing and jewelry stores, some packing plastic garbage cans with loot to float down the street. One man, who had about 10 pairs of jeans draped over his left arm, was asked if he was salvaging things from his store.
No, the man shouted, that's EVERYBODY'S store!
Looters at a Wal-Mart brazenly loaded up shopping carts with items including micorwaves, coolers and knife sets. Others walked out of a sporting goods store on Canal Street with armfuls of shoes and football jerseys.
Outside the broken shells of Biloxi's casinos, people picked through slot machines to see if they still contained coins and ransacked other businesses.
People are just casually walking in and filling up garbage bags and walking off like they're Santa Claus, said Marty Desei, owner of a Super 8 motel.
Insurance experts estimated the storm will result in up to $25 billion in insured losses. That means Katrina could prove more costly than record-setting Hurricane Andrew in 1992, which caused an inflation-adjusted $21 billion in losses.
Oil prices jumped by more than $3 a barrel on Tuesday, climbing above $70 a barrel, amid uncertainty about the extent of the damage to the Gulf region's refineries and drilling platforms.
By midday Tuesday, Katrina was downgraded to a tropical depression, with winds around 35 mph. It was moving northeast through Tennessee at around 21 mph, with the potential to dump 8 inches of rain and spin off deadly tornadoes.
Katrina left 11 people dead in its soggy jog across South Florida last week, as a much weaker storm. |
I bet that New Orleans, Biloxi and everyplace else could sure use some National Guard help right now
Bush is not busy with this hurricaine. He is biking in Idaho or Montona or somewhere after giving a speech to the VFW about how we have to stay in Iraq to honor those killed in Iraq. But wouldn't it be really really helpful if the National Guard was in Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama instead of Iraq being killed to honor those already killed. Another thing, if he talked to Sheehan or this soldier, he would have to talk to ALL of them, God forbid.
Dennis Hastert Questions Rebuilding New Orleans
Wouldn't it be nice if precautions could be taken to build this city correctly to prevent another tragedy? Nah.... Bush won't go for that. Killing people in Iraq is more important.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/01/AR2005090101482_pf.html
Hastert Questions Rebuilding New Orleans
The Associated Press
Thursday, September 1, 2005; 5:04 PM
WASHINGTON -- It makes no sense to spend billions of dollars to rebuild a city that's seven feet under sea level, House Speaker Dennis Hastert said of federal assistance for hurricane-devastated New Orleans.
It looks like a lot of that place could be bulldozed, the Illinois Republican said in an interview Wednesday with The Daily Herald of Arlington, Ill.
Hastert, in a transcript supplied by the newspaper, said there was no question that the people of New Orleans would rebuild their city, but noted that federal insurance and other federal aid was involved. We ought to take a second look at it. But you know we build Los Angeles and San Francisco on top of earthquake fissures and they rebuild too. Stubbornness.
Hastert's press secretary, Ron Bonjean, said Hastert was not suggesting New Orleans should be abandoned or relocated. The speaker believes that we should have a discussion about how best to rebuild New Orleans so as to protect its citizens, he said. What he is saying is that rebuilding the city in the same way is not sensible.
There are some real tough questions to ask, Hastert said in the interview. How do you go about rebuilding this city? What precautions do you take?
Hastert announced Thursday that the House, currently at the end of its summer break, would return for an emergency session Friday to approve some $10 billion in federal aid for hurricane victims.
In the wake of this disaster, the people of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida should know that the United States Congress stands ready to help them in their time of need, he said in a joint statement with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.
New Orleans collects dead as officials dodge blame
By Mark Egan
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - New Orleans began the gruesome task of collecting its thousands of dead on Sunday as the Bush administration tried to save face after its botched rescue plans left the city at the mercy of Hurricane Katrina.
Except for rescue workers and scattered groups of people, streets in the once-vibrant capital of jazz and good times were all but abandoned after a mass exodus of hundreds of thousands of refugees into neighboring Texas and other states.
Battered and sickened survivors made no attempt to disguise their anger: We have been abandoned by our own country, Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish, just south of New Orleans, told NBC's Meet the Press.
It's not just Katrina that caused all these deaths in New Orleans, Broussard said. Bureaucracy has committed murder here in the greater New Orleans area, and bureaucracy has to stand trial before Congress now.
After a nightmare confluence of natural disaster and political ineptitude that al Qaeda-linked Web sites called evidence of the wrath of God striking America, National Guard troops and U.S. marshals patrolled the city, stricken in the days after the hurricane by anarchic violence and looting.
Local and federal officials said they expected to find thousands of corpses still floating in flood waters or locked inside homes and buildings destroyed by the devastating storm that struck the U.S. Gulf coast last Monday.
When we remove the water from New Orleans, we're going to uncover people who died hiding in houses, who got caught by the flood. People whose remains will be found in the street, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told Fox News.
AS UGLY AS YOU CAN IMAGINE
There'll be pollution. It is going to be about as ugly a scene as you can imagine.
Later, Chertoff flew into New Orleans and said the search for storm victims would be arduous. Let me be clear: we're going to have to go house to house in this city, he said. This is not going to happen overnight.
President George W. Bush, who in a rare admission of error, conceded on Friday that the results of his administration's relief efforts were unacceptable, said on Saturday he would send 7,200 more active-duty troops over three days. Continued ...
© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.
See link for entire article.
NOTES FROM NEW ORLEANS: A Hard Head Makes A Soft Behind...sm
NOTES FROM NEW ORLEANS: A Hard Head Makes A Soft Behind
By Deborah Cotton
By now, you’ve heard the election results – Mayor Nagin against Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu in the run-off, the mayor coming away with the a large number of the Black vote, including those of my Black friends who swore they were done with him. As one brother later told me, “At the end of the day, I had to go with my own.”
Forcing the issue of having a Black mayor for New Orleans, even when all his actions demonstrate an inability or unwillingness to make issues important to the Black community a priority, in the hopes that it will help us reclaim our ‘Chocolate City’, strikes me as, well…hard-headed.
I went to the Sheraton Election Night to cover Nagin’s speech. The room was filled with nothing but Black faces, so shocking considering just two months ago, you couldn’t hardly find a Black person with a New Orleans driver’s license who had anything nice to say about our Mayor’s on-the-job performance. I looked into those faces, faces of friends and people I’d met out at rallies and neighborhood planning meetings, all of whom openly discussed their dissatisfaction with the current leadership. But this mayor’s race was no longer about the future of New Orleans. This race has become about race.
At Nagin’s Election Night party, there was a distinct feeling of Black people welcoming the prodigal son back home, of redemption of the husband who strayed. Once it was clear his White majority supporters were backing anyone but him, he started out on the ‘Back To Africa’ tour so many of our prodigal sons and daughters have performed in – OJ Simpson, Mariah, Vanessa…and was successful in securing a large number of Black votes. There were literally tears in the eyes of many of the women there, cracked voices calling out “We love you!” “Speak your truth!” They loved that he said “Chocolate City” and pissed White people off.
The room was electric and his speech had some profound moments. But then… the classic Nagin kicked in and he said something that fell like a bad note in his otherwise melodic song.
“This economic pie is getting ready to explode. And it will be shared equally. I want the community to get more comfortable with the Ray Nagin type. The Joe Canizaro type...”
Smiles and tears froze.
Joe Canizaro is a local land developer and one of President Bush’s biggest campaign contributors. When Nagin tapped his choices for the ‘Bring Back New Orleans’ advisory panel that would create a rebuilding plan for New Orleans, he followed Canizaro’s advice and stepped over local talent and intelligentsia and hired consultants from Los Angeles called the ‘Urban Planning Institute’, of which Canizaro was a long time board member. Many New Orleanians were upset they had so little representation on the BNOB panel. And the ones that were included on the panel, like City Council President Oliver Thomas, voiced frustration at being dis-included from many a luncheon and social gathering were decisions and deals were made about the rebuilding plan. When the plan was finally unveiled, it was clear to those watching why the planning lunches were secret.
When the BNOB committee presented it plan to the public at the Marriot Hotel last November, we saw a map of New Orleans on the overhead screen that had large green swatches over areas that the ULI recommended for permanent closure -the Ninth Ward, New Orleans East, and Gentilly. These areas are predominately Black communities. Even more telling about the agenda of the planners was the fact that the plan made no mention of where else in New Orleans the residents of these closed Black neighborhoods could move to.
A plan for a new New Orleans. “Oh, we don’t know where ‘those’ people went…” Residents were absolutely livid. So much so that the ULI returned to the community months later with a revised plan that said the neighborhoods proposed for phasing out would be given four months to prove they could repopulate and be viable or the city would begin a forced buy-out program. There still seemed to be a lack of understanding on the part of the from-out-of-town panel that people have not been able to repopulate their neighborhoods because their houses are destroyed, the insurance companies are denying claims across the board, landlords are price gouging the rental market, and FEMA’s STILL not provided even half the trailers requested.
Just as the BNOB panel began to take public comments after their presentation of the revised plan, a huge Black man bellowed out like a sonic boom from the back of the room:
“You’re not taking my land!! If you come trying to take my property, you’re gonna have a baby Iraq on your hands! Nobody worked the jobs I’ve worked, taking crap from employers I didn’t wanna take, to make my note every month to sit here and have you tell me I can’t rebuild MY own home!! That’s my house and if you thinking ‘bout coming to take my land, you betta come heavy. And Joe Canizaro – I HATE YOU!”
Mr. Harvey’s explosion was a pivotal moment in this early phase of our reconstruction. His face made the front page of the paper and he’s since been interviewed by dozens of media outlets. His roaring outburst exposed the stifled anger, disgust, rage, pain, and grief so many homeowners felt at the slap in the face by these Los Angeles-based, Nagin-Canizaro sponsored planners.
Blacks here have an over-arching mistrust of Canizaro. And the moment Nagin uttered his name on Election Night as someone we need to be checking for, we witnessed the first signs of the prodigal son returning to his old ways.
I looked at the Black faces around me, their responses to his Canizaro remark, and saw frozen smiles – and determination. Determination to go forward, against all the signs and track record of what they knew they didn’t want, for fear of losing our Black foothold in local government.
“Don’t we even get to keep that?”, we ask ourselves here in the New Orleans. ‘We lost our homes, every last stick of furniture, every appliance, photo albums and grandmother’s jewelry and all our files and the dog too and family, friends, neighbors we grew up with – everything that give context and meaning for even being here in this life…’ The only thing many Black people got out of here with before the levees broke, besides our memories, was their Black skin. And a feeling is alive here that if we lose our Black leadership, the only thing that survived in New Orleans, we won’t have a future here.
When I first moved to New Orleans, I was saturated in blackness and I loved it. Black people were everywhere and it really felt like another country, other than the United States. One of my favorite jaunts then, and still today, is to go to City Hall and revel in the family vibe where ‘my folks’ are running things. No other public office have I ever felt so comfortable, so…relevant. And so included.
I, too, am still constantly wrestling with strong emotions about being a Black public figure, a Black woman, tearing away from the fold, away from ‘the Black man’. I’d love nothing more than to be wrong about Mayor Nagin’s ability to lead us out of darkness. But…you know - especially you ladies - how you know something deep inside that you don’t want to be true, so you say to yourself, ‘Maybe I’m wrong…’ But later on, when the sh-t hits the fan, you realize how foolish it was to doubt what your wisdom and intuition told you.
New Orleans can’t afford false pride based on race. Our empire has been completely demolished. Sometimes, there’s so much to do, so much wrong here that needs addressing, and you get so overwhelmed trying to hold it together, you just sit back down and start crying. Crying for the old days.
And that’s when faith comes in. Faith that if we walk on what we know is His truth, that He’ll provide the best outcome. And if we force things to be our way, moving from a limited, human mentality of fear, we’ll just end up with more of this hard knocks life.
My grandmother used to tell me whenever I was cutting up, “A hard head makes a soft behind!” Her words came rushing to me when Mayor Nagin finished his speech and the DJ fired up the room with a song from the Gap Band:
‘Oops! Upside Your Head’
Sounds like foreshadowing to me…
Deborah Cotton is a freelance journalist and public speaker based in New Orleans, covering on-the-ground stories of the city’s recovery and chronicling the rebuilding efforts of the historic Ninth Ward. She can be reached at Deborah.cotton@gmail.com.
* From now until May 7th, check out her election/Jazz Fest coverage in her daily blog ‘The Second Line’ on http://blackvoices.aol.com
Thank you for being responsible..
enough to read up on someone and not take someone else's talking points and pass them off as fact. I am amazed at how many people are quick to jump on the bandwagon of rumor, name calling and hatred just because someone else has a different opinion. To those of you who can't do your own homework on the candidates without a little help from the far left or the far right, please don't vote, it is a waste of your time. Please don't vote for someone based solely on gender, color, military service or age.
As I said in my other post, there are a lot of gullible people out there who believe anything and everything they read. Do your own research, branch out further than Fox News, MSNBC, NY Times, etc. Educate yourselves!
Because someone is responsible for us being where we are...
people we trusted to be taking care of us, and they sold us down the river. And that is wrong. I would be saying the same thing if it were the Republicans responsible. They have been responsible for other things, sure they have. I am not an id*ot. However, this crisis, this huge crisis we find ourselves in, was completely avoidable. And I believe they should be held accountable. This is a really big deal. We are going to be on the hook for a huge amount of money before this is over. I guess I am the only one who cares how we got here. But I do care.
No, I'm responsible for my own "O"
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You mean the same way O is not responsible for
Rev Wright's sermons, Tony Rezko's shady deals, Bill Ayers actions 40 years ago, Acorn's discrepancies and Blago's corruption?
Yes, because I am responsible I am SOL
Exactly... oh because I have never been late on a payment, you wont help me? I have to be at least 3 months behind on my mortgage? No thanks.
Even though I lost the 50K I put down and I'm in an upside down mortgage (in a west coast state)...
I also bought at the height of the market in an ARM (7 years) with a stated income, probably someone they never should have given a loan to, however I can afford it! For now at least...
Yes it irks me like no other that I can't refinance simply because I've done the right thing.
it is quite disturbing
good luck to you!
Yes, he is responsible...(sm)
He's responsible for cleaning Bush's deficit, 2 wars, an economic meltdown that Bush ignored, etc..etc...etc...
The owner is responsible for her pet.
I do not hate cats, but I don't particularly like them either. And I especially do not like doing my puttering in my flower bed and unearthing a nice fresh pile of cat poo. It's disgusting. But back to the issue at hand. Is there a reason why this woman cannot keep this cat in the house? Other than the fact that she is secretly enjoying this in some perverse way? It's really pretty simple. Keep. The. Cat. In. The. House. Period.
who they hold responsible for what?
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This is about responsible leadership.
No blame game here. That's your job. This is about what Bush did and did not do while the catastrophe was unfolding in front of our very eyes. Your post demonstrates the blind eye you are turning toward the abysmal response on the part of Bush and the feds. Bush was on vacations turning his blind eye. The viewing audience did not turn that same blind eye, and they remember seeing all the local official's pleas for help fall on deaf ears. This is what republicans do. Deny, divert and dismiss in their hurry to make anybody and everybody else responsible for their own failures. All the spin in the world will not change what the American people are smart enough to figure out for themselves. Ask them who failed New Orleans.
Perhaps...as individuals are responsible for the way they act...
and the politics of personal destruction, frankly, suck. No matter who is on the receiving end. And this has been particularly nasty, hateful and sexist toward Palin...but Obama supporters are a different breed. They cut the hide off Hillary in strips too. It is a strange phenomenon.
a responsible American
how about you being a responsible American too and stop blaming EVERYTHING on republicans. Do you think the Dems had no role in the current situation in this country? Take your head out of the sand. There is enough blame to go around for both the republicans AND the democrats. And a responsible American would embrace the freedom of respect the other opinions of other people. We all have a right to express our opinions and be respected for them, not criticized for not thinking just like you.
Democrats are not responsible
for the mess we are in. It's the republicans and all their deregulation, for one thing. How about the war in Iraq and the huge deficit we now have? And then there are the corporate tax breaks. All of those things have contributed to the mess we are in. The money didn't trickle down, did it? It only made the top 1% of the people in this country better off. Those aren't things the democrats have done.
The republicans made this mess and then they have the gall to turn around and blame the democrats. Do you know why? Because there are those out there who don't know better and will believe them. That's what they are relying on. The republicans got into office with lies and misleading the public and they are still trying the same tactics. Hopefully enough people will not buy into it this time.
No, he's not responsible for anyrthing....
He wasn't responsible for going to Selma, AL of all places and trying to kiss up to them, relating how he was born because of the marches, when the marches didn't even take place until 4 years after he was born.
When I hear Obama say how saddened he is to hear this or better yet, do like McCain who has already taken the time to call this lady's family and care about her well being, then we'll talk.
No black people don't start anything. It's always just the whites. You can believe whatever helps you sleep at night.
It works both ways. Reverse discrimination is alive and well in the U.S. as well.
responsible obama
I sleep at night just fine..as far as Obama is concerned with his going to Selma; I belive that people there are intelligent enough to know what is and is not true regarding his statement; and for those who believe everything he says..that is their perogative...as I said, the Bill O'Reilly's, Pat Buchanans and like of the world can spout bigotry, hatred and division all they want and those who cannot see it for what it is are indeed blind and driven by the same hatred and bigotry that they themselves will never admit to. I will say that the majority of remarks made here about black people and other minorities have been bigoted, hateful and mean - how do you think it makes me feel when I come here and see remarks like 'towelhead', 'oreo' etc. Most people say '**gger' is just a word too but you have no idea what it feels like when you are called one - I have experienced this and it feels like someone is spitting in your face and then they slap you. Do you know what it is like to be literally run out of a neighborhood you chose to live in, have your windows broken, cross burned on your lawn, children threatened and even your dog killed because 'your kind' (meaning me) we dont want here? I know what it is because I have lived it, yet always being mindful of the fact that most people, be they black, white, red, brown, etc - are basically decent people who do not condone this type of behavior yet there are those who think it's okay. When you have lived through something like this then perhaps you can tell ME something.
No, it's to make them RESPONSIBLE for themselves!
Can't you read?
Throwing money at them will not help.
Until they start demanding more of THEMSELVES, there is nothing anyone else can do to FORCE them to learn.
(There. I CAPPED the important words for you, seeing as you had a problem comprehending my last post.)
P.S. I'm glad you're not my kid.
Wrong again. I am not responsible for
spreading joy to anybody else who is so miserable that they cannot stand it until they make everybody else around them just as miserable. This sludge has no power over me or what I feel about the amazing transformation we are about to witness in this country, and I intend to enjoy every single moment of it, despite obamaknockers best efforts at killjoy. Like most Obots, I can walk and chew gum at the same time.
Get ready for a compliment. Giving up is the smartest thing you've said all night.
But you are responsible for your own posts, jj. sm
I'm not surprised this "sm" poster was you above. Same tone and defensive style that you have from time to time.
But I personally did enjoy your first post about Baltimore crowds greeting Obama. It was a nice story.
The government is not responsible....(sm)
for shielding kids from everything. You're right, it is natural curiosity, but realistically you cannot control that. Kids are smarter than you give them credit for. If a young boy wants to see a naked female, then guess what? He'll figure out a way to do that with or without the internet. What did they do before the internet came along? It's a waste of time and money for the govt to try to alter the progression of nature.
And yes, I believe in sex education, but think it is the parents' responsibility to do it. When a child starts asking questions, he deserves real answers.
I think the question is, would you rather him learn by you teaching him about these things, grasping what he can from a glimpse at an internet page, or maybe just the girl next door? It's up to parents to provide guidelines for their children, not the govt.
BTW, not everyone that looks at porn on the internet is a social deviant. Curiosty does not end at age 12.
Bill Clinton is no more responsible for 9-11 than..sm
you or I am. It is Al quaeda who is responsible.
OK, he didn't take Osama bin Laden when he was offered up by the Sudan. Do you actually think taking bin Laden down would have stopped 9-11. So, Osama was the only terrorist out there. 9-11's plan had been in motion and was much bigger than Osama. Case and point, the fact that this admin. is not even focusing the bulk of their attention on Osama, so that's a mute point.
And I wouldn't try to defend the DEFICIT that Bush has brought to the White House because I'd take a projected surplus over a projected never ending deficit anyday.
No one is saying that they don't grow up to be good or responsible?!
All I am saying is they would have wanted you home, instead of a babysitter or someone else! No one said anything about the quality of person they turn out to be!? Little children need their moms and that is the truth! I know, I used to work at a daycare and how they would leave those poor little babies is beyond me! I couldn't do it! And it was anywhere from 8 to 12 hours a day! And then they would get jealous if they got attached to us!? Hello!? Who is raising them?! Not you lady! And I'm not talking about single moms either. These were "business" women who had husbands and felt the need to support their "lifestyle" and to give their kids "everything," when all they REALLY wanted was their love and time! I may not have the nicest, newest, biggest house, but my kids want for nothing, including me, and I am there for them!
Even knowing the Democrats are responsible....
for this mess we are in and going to be on a 7billion dollar hook if they have their way....we are cleaning up THEIR mess...and your Mr. Obama is second on the list for donations from Fannie...he has gotten almost as much in 4 years as some senators in 30 years...even KNOWING that...you want to put him in the White House. How can you possibly ignore that??
Well, the fact that they are largely responsible for...
the problem we find ourselves in right now and the fact that he was 2nd on the donations list from fannie among all senators throughout their careers and he has only been up there what...3 years? I would think that should be enough to apologize for.
Tell that to the democratic congress - they are responsible
And while people are getting laid off left and write the democratic congress who gave the bail outs are not giving back any of the money. And the people who ran FM/FM are not giving back any of the money. And the money that was given for the bail outs but instead the people used it to take lavish vacations and put more money in their pockets are not giving it back, and the DEMOCRATIC congress is not enforcing that they should give it back.
Very responsible and insightful post.
Enough of this childishness already!
We are ONE nation and our nation has elected President Obama. At least give the man a chance to succeed or fail before you crucify him.
Here is responsible lending practices
Canadian banks are typically leveraged at 18 to 1 -- compared with U.S. banks at 26 to 1.
Fareed Zakaria
NEWSWEEK
Feb 16, 2009
The legendary Editor of The New Republic, Michael Kinsley, once held a "Boring Headline Contest" and decided that the winner was "Worthwhile Canadian Initiative." Twenty-two years later, the magazine was rescued from its economic troubles by a Canadian media company, which should have taught us Americans to be a bit more humble. Now there is even more striking evidence of Canada's virtues.
Guess which country, alone in the industrialized world, has not faced a single bank failure, calls for bailouts or government intervention in the financial or mortgage sectors. Yup, it's Canada. In 2008, the World Economic Forum ranked Canada's banking system the healthiest in the world. America's ranked 40th, Britain's 44th.
Canada has done more than survive this financial crisis. The country is positively thriving in it. Canadian banks are well capitalized and poised to take advantage of opportunities that American and European banks cannot seize. The Toronto Dominion Bank, for example, was the 15th-largest bank in North America one year ago. Now it is the fifth-largest. It hasn't grown in size; the others have all shrunk.
So what accounts for the genius of the Canadians? Common sense. Over the past 15 years, as the United States and Europe loosened regulations on their financial industries, the Canadians refused to follow suit, seeing the old rules as useful shock absorbers. Canadian banks are typically leveraged at 18 to 1—compared with US banks at 26 to 1 and European banks at a frightening 61 to 1. Partly this reflects Canada's more risk-averse business culture, but it is also a product of old-fashioned rules on banking.
Canada has also been shielded from the worst aspects of this crisis because its housing prices have not fluctuated as wildly as those in the United States. Home prices are down 25 percent in the United States, but only half as much in Canada. Why? Well, the Canadian tax code does not provide the massive incentive for over consumption that the U.S. code does: interest on your mortgage isn't deductible up north. In addition, home loans in the United States are "non-recourse," which basically means that if you go belly up on a bad mortgage, it's mostly the bank's problem. In Canada, it's yours.
Ah, but you've heard American politicians wax eloquent on the need for these expensive programs—interest deductibility alone costs the federal government $100 billion a year—because they allow the average Joe to fulfill the American Dream of owning a home. Sixty-eight percent of Americans own their own homes. And the rate of Canadian homeownership? It's 68.4 percent.
Canada has been remarkably responsible over the past decade or so. It has had 12 years of budget surpluses, and can now spend money to fuel a recovery from a strong position. The government has restructured the national pension system, placing it on a firm fiscal footing, unlike our own insolvent Social Security. Its health-care system is cheaper than America's by far (accounting for 9.7 percent of GDP, versus 15.2 percent here), and yet does better on all major indexes.
Life expectancy in Canada is 81 years, versus 78 in the United States; "healthy life expectancy" is 72 years, versus 69. American car companies have moved so many jobs to Canada to take advantage of lower health-care costs that since 2004, Ontario and not Michigan has been North America's largest car-producing region.
I could go on. The U.S. currently has a brain-dead immigration system. We issue a small number of work visas and green cards, turning away from our shores thousands of talented students who want to stay and work here. Canada, by contrast, has no limit on the number of skilled migrants who can move to the country. They can apply on their own for a Canadian Skilled Worker Visa, which allows them to become perfectly legal "permanent residents" in Canada—no need for a sponsoring employer, or even a job. Visas are awarded based on education level, work experience, age and language abilities. If a prospective immigrant earns 67 points out of 100 total (holding a Ph.D. is worth 25 points, for instance), he or she can become a full-time, legal resident of Canada.
Companies are noticing. In 2007 Microsoft, frustrated by its inability to hire foreign graduate students in the United States, decided to open a research center in Vancouver. The company's announcement noted that it would staff the center with "highly skilled people affected by immigration issues in the U.S." So the brightest Chinese and Indian software engineers are attracted to the United States, trained by American universities, then thrown out of the country and picked up by Canada—where most of them will work, innovate and pay taxes for the rest of their lives.
If President Obama is looking for smart government, there is much he, and all of us, could learn from our quiet—OK, sometimes boring—neighbour to the north. Meanwhile, in the councils of the financial world, Canada is pushing for new rules for financial institutions that would reflect its approach. This strikes me as, well, a worthwhile Canadian initiative.
JTBB - are you ever going to hold him responsible
For things he is doing. If he's in there the next 50 years (god help us) are you still going to blame Bush. Obama promised things during his campaign. He has broken those promises. Now your saying it's not his fault? Lets blame the previous administration? For promises the O made and has broken? For going back on his word? It's the previous administrations fault???? He said he was not going to do certain things (re: Patriot Act) but now has changed his tune. Helloooooo. This is the O doing this. Has nothing to do with previous administration, but if your going to pull that little stunt, then you must blame the previous administration before that (B.C.) because GW inherited a lot of crap he had to deal with.
Ask the American people who they hold responsible.
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Tell it to the Lone Star. W is solely responsible
More premedicated murder and gestapo police state policies than any gov in history heere. Hope he gets brought up on the criminal charges he deserves so he can get a taste of his own medicine.
I encourage all responsible people to ignore this message
This kind of rhetoric is old. Responsible people are well informed. Responsible people read both sides and make their own decisions on what they believe or don't believe. To tell people not to listen or to have someone banned is NOT responsible. It is the exact hate filled rhetoric the left-wingers spew.
If you don't like what she has to say don't listen to her, but this is a complete turnoff telling people what they should or shouldn't listen to. Makes me want to listen all the more. I am tired of division and name calling. That is why I am not a liberal anymore. As for spreading trash...yes, I do see that a lot.
Pastors would be held responsible from the pulpit just teaching
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Hold your president responsible!! Call your senators!!
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One question, does Able Danger prove that Bill Clinton is responsible for 9-11?
I don't think so. That is what the poster on this thread is suggesting.
If you want to claim that the democrats in congress were not equally responsible for their votes...
there is no talkin' to ya. But anyone who knows how voting works, knows the Dems share responsibility for any action or inaction that was taken.
I still say Petraeus knows more about it than Barack Obama does. And frankly, than you or I do.
Yes, that is the same thing we heard about Viet Nam, so no matter what we promised them about helping them, we just left. And the worst genocide in history followed right behind...the killing fields of Cambodia. And here the left is...wanting to do it again. No matter what indeed. Sigh.
Bush aides challenge Biden's boasts of Bush slapdowns.
Aides to former President George W. Bush are challenging the veracity of Vice President Joe Biden's claim this week of having privately castigated Bush, who does not remember the incident or an earlier episode in which Biden claims to have similarly rebuked Bush.
Biden spokesman Jay Carney declined to specify the dates of his boss's purported Oval Office scoldings of Bush. Nor would he provide witnesses or notes to corroborate the episodes.
"The vice president stands by his remarks," Carney told FOX News without elaboration.
Those remarks include a shot that Biden took at Bush on Tuesday.
"I remember President Bush saying to me one time in the Oval Office," Biden told CNN, "'Well, Joe,' he said, 'I'm a leader.' And I said: 'Mr. President, turn and around look behind you. No one is following.'"
That exchange never took place, according to numerous Bush aides who also dispute a similar assertion by Biden in 2004, when the former senator from Delaware told scores of Democratic colleagues that he had challenged Bush's moral certitude about the Iraq war during a private meeting in the Oval Office. Two years later, Biden repeated his story about dressing down the president.
"When I speak to the president - and I have had plenty of opportunity to be with the president, at least prior to the last election, a lot of hours alone with him. I mean, meaning me and his staff," Biden said on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" in April 2006. "And the president will say things to me, and I'll literally turn to the president, say: 'Mr. President, how can you say that, knowing you don't know the facts?' And he'll look at me and he'll say - my word - he'll look at me and he'll say: 'My instincts.' He said: 'I have good instincts.' I said: 'Mr. President, your instincts aren't good enough.'"
Bush aides now dispute the veracity of both assertions by Biden.
"I never recall Biden saying any of that," former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said after reviewing detailed notes of Bush's White House meetings with Biden, which include numerous direct quotes from Biden. "I find it odd that he said he met with him alone all the time. I don't think that's true."
Fleischer said that whenever Bush met with Sen. Biden, the meeting also included a congressional counterpart so as to not "antagonize" the House.
Karl Rove, former White House political adviser, also was skeptical of Biden's claim to have spent "a lot of hours alone" with Bush.
"I remember checking on such a Biden exaggeration while at the White House and no one witnessed the meeting and his comments in remotely the same way," Rove said.
Candida P. Wolff, Bush's White House liaison to Capitol Hill, said the only meetings she remembered between Bush and Biden also included other lawmakers. She said such meetings were held in the Cabinet Room or the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, not the Oval Office, and certainly did not last for "hours."
"The president would never sit through two hours of Joe Biden," Wolff said. "I don't ever remember Biden being in the Oval. He was such a blowhard on all that stuff - there wasn't a reason to bring him in."
Andy Card, former White House chief of staff, reviewed the two Biden claims and said: "This does not ring true to me. I doubt that it happened."
A spokesman for Bush declined comment, although a person close to the former president said Bush does not remember either episode.
This is not the first time the veracity of Biden's assertions has been challenged. In 1988, he dropped out of the presidential race after being accused of plagiarizing British Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock. The Washington Post also cited "the senator's boastful exaggerations of his academic record."
Last year, liberal Slate magazine recalled that "Biden's misdeeds encompassed numerous self-aggrandizing thefts, misstatements, and exaggerations that seemed to point to a serious character defect."
Also last year, Biden came under fire for telling a questionable story about being "shot at" in Iraq.
"Let's start telling the truth," Biden said during a presidential primary debate sponsored by YouTube in July. "Number one, you take all the troops out -- you better have helicopters ready to take those 3,000 civilians inside the Green Zone, where I have been seven times and shot at. You better make sure you have protection for them, or let them die."
But when questioned about the episode afterward by the Hill newspaper, Biden backpedaled from his claim of being "shot at" and instead allowed: "I was near where a shot landed."
Biden went on to say that some sort of projectile "landed" outside a building in the Green Zone where he and another senator had spent the night during a visit in December 2005. The lawmakers were shaving in the morning when they felt the building shake, Biden said.
"No one got up and ran from the room-it wasn't that kind of thing," he told the Hill. "It's not like I had someone holding a gun to my head."
Seven weeks after claiming to have been "shot at" in Iraq, Biden again raised eyebrows with another story about his exploits in war zones -- this time on "the superhighway of terror between Pakistan and Afghanistan, where my helicopter was forced down."
"If you want to know where AL Qaeda lives, you want to know where bin Laden is, come back to Afghanistan with me," Biden bragged to the National Guard Association. "Come back to the area where my helicopter was forced down, with a three-star general and three senators at 10,500 feet in the middle of those mountains. I can tell you where they are."
But it turns out that inclement weather, not terrorists, prompted the chopper to land in an open field during Biden's visit to Afghanistan in February 2008. Fighter jets kept watch overhead while a convoy of security vehicles was dispatched to retrieve Biden and fellow Sens. Chuck Hagel and John Kerry.
"We were going to send Biden out to fight the Taliban with snowballs, but we didn't have to," joked Kerry, a Democrat, to the AP. "Other than getting a little cold, it was fine."
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