Plaintiffs wrap up their case in MRGO trial - State - SunHerald.com
::snip::
Before stepping down from the witness box, U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval Jr. allowed Rodriguez to make a final statement. And the politician - a looming figure with his black and brown cowboy garb, big belt buckles, walking cane and blunt language - spoke with emotion.
"What it took Mother Nature to put together in 1,000 years, the corps destroyed it in 40 years," Rodriguez said, referring to the channel's destruction of marsh and swamp forest.
"I'll be totally honest with you," Rodriguez said. "I think, today, that the corps and the steamboat association should be indicted for murder. That's how I feel about the whole thing."
"Thank you, sir," Duval said.
The Corps of Engineers referred questions to the Department of Justice. Charles Miller, a Justice Department spokesman, said "we would have no comment in regard to" Rodriguez's statement.
more...........
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Elite engineering panel says New Orleans needs better protection - duh! - New Orleans Levees News and Views
::snip::
Before now, Levees.org had considered the NAS fairly incorruptible. But then we saw this opening sentence of the group's press release:
"Levees and floodwalls surrounding New Orleans -- no matter how large or sturdy -- cannot provide absolute protection against overtopping or failure in extreme events.."
The word "absolute" makes the sentence a truism, but did not stop publications like the BBC from publishing headlines like "Levees cannot save New Orleans."
This NAS press release is terribly damaging to the folks in New Orleans because it leads people to think New Orleans and the vicinity cannot economically be protected.
Dr. Han Vrijling, Professor of Hydraulic Engineering and Probabilistic Design at Delft University of Technology had this to say about NAS's opening sentence.
"...Levees will never give infinite protection, but it is economically wise to make levees in New Orleans very safe up to levels of failure of in average only once in 5000 years. Right now it's once in 100..."
The press release has the effect of announcing to the world that people should not trust American civil engineering.
more.....
::snip::
Before now, Levees.org had considered the NAS fairly incorruptible. But then we saw this opening sentence of the group's press release:
"Levees and floodwalls surrounding New Orleans -- no matter how large or sturdy -- cannot provide absolute protection against overtopping or failure in extreme events.."
The word "absolute" makes the sentence a truism, but did not stop publications like the BBC from publishing headlines like "Levees cannot save New Orleans."
This NAS press release is terribly damaging to the folks in New Orleans because it leads people to think New Orleans and the vicinity cannot economically be protected.
Dr. Han Vrijling, Professor of Hydraulic Engineering and Probabilistic Design at Delft University of Technology had this to say about NAS's opening sentence.
"...Levees will never give infinite protection, but it is economically wise to make levees in New Orleans very safe up to levels of failure of in average only once in 5000 years. Right now it's once in 100..."
The press release has the effect of announcing to the world that people should not trust American civil engineering.
more.....
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
DHS: Secretary Napolitano Announces Additional FEMA Funding for Katrina/Rita Public Assistance Projects
Blogger note:
Big Brother still AWOL on the levees
Thanks to Harry Shearer for quoting this gem:
"Dept Homeland Security chief Napolitano:
"No levee can be built high enough to withstand a hurricane like Katrina." "
Blogger Note:
The HEIGHT of the levees was NOT the problem. What a loser!
Blogger note:
Big Brother still AWOL on the levees
Thanks to Harry Shearer for quoting this gem:
"Dept Homeland Security chief Napolitano:
"No levee can be built high enough to withstand a hurricane like Katrina." "
Blogger Note:
The HEIGHT of the levees was NOT the problem. What a loser!
Amid e-mail controversy, Nagin Sanitation Chief Veronica White publishes book of FEMA wisdom - NOLA.com
Amid e-mail controversy, Nagin Sanitation Chief Veronica White publishes book of FEMA wisdom - NOLA.com: New Orleans Sanitation Director Veronica White has managed to keep a low profile since news broke early this month that she gave thousands of City Council e-mail files to a local lawyer before the city attorney could review them for sensitive information.
But she popped back into the spotlight this week with news of the publication of her book, "How to Maximize FEMA Funding After a Natural Disaster."
The 80-page paperback is on sale at Amazon and Barnes & Noble for $35, though Internet sites for both vendors indicate the book is not in stock, and a clerk at a local Barnes & Noble store said Tuesday that it has not yet been delivered to warehouses.
::snip::
"'How to Maximize FEMA Funding' was published by DEW Enterprises of Orleans, which was incorporated in September 2008 by David E. White -- who should not be confused with Mayor Ray Nagin's close friend and campaign treasurer, David A. White. David E. White is Veronica White's husband."
The only way this loser could get published, is because her HUSBAND is the publisher.
"80 page paperback.... for $35" oh boy! So hows that cleanup going in New Orleans, biatch?
Apparently the best way to "Maximize FEMA Funding" is to misappropriate the funds entirely, then profit off your failure by writing a book.... as if you were some kind of expert.
But she popped back into the spotlight this week with news of the publication of her book, "How to Maximize FEMA Funding After a Natural Disaster."
The 80-page paperback is on sale at Amazon and Barnes & Noble for $35, though Internet sites for both vendors indicate the book is not in stock, and a clerk at a local Barnes & Noble store said Tuesday that it has not yet been delivered to warehouses.
::snip::
"'How to Maximize FEMA Funding' was published by DEW Enterprises of Orleans, which was incorporated in September 2008 by David E. White -- who should not be confused with Mayor Ray Nagin's close friend and campaign treasurer, David A. White. David E. White is Veronica White's husband."
The only way this loser could get published, is because her HUSBAND is the publisher.
"80 page paperback.... for $35" oh boy! So hows that cleanup going in New Orleans, biatch?
Apparently the best way to "Maximize FEMA Funding" is to misappropriate the funds entirely, then profit off your failure by writing a book.... as if you were some kind of expert.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Harry Shearer: The First 100 Days in New Orleans
Harry Shearer: The First 100 Days in New Orleans
::snip::
He made a vague assertion that he'd make real the promises President Bush uttered that eerie, floodlit night in an otherwise-darkened Jackson Square, and all the administration has offered to New Orleans so far has been a fact-finding trip by Janet Napolitano, who observed that "no levee can be built high enough to withstand a hurricane like Katrina." So, more facts need to be found, at least for the DHS Secretary.
Here's one: there was not one dollar in the stimulus package, not one out of 700-billion-plus, to help the rebuilding of the tattered levee-floodwall system (despite the Corps of Engineers' statement, a few weeks ago, that, supposedly because of money shortfall, they would choose the "technically not superior" solution to the repair of one poorly-built floodwall; not one dollar out of 700-billion-plus to accelerate the restoration of the coastal wetlands that buffer New Orleans from stronger hurricanes, despite the fact that human activity, including Corps of Engineers-built canals and oil company pipelines, have caused most of the destruction of the wetlands. Not shovel ready? The only thing readier for a shovel is the hope that the new administration might really bring the nation's attention to the federal government's responsibility for the disaster, not just for the lackluster response, and might step up to its responsibility to do the job right this time.
All during the campaign, and then during the first 50 days, Obama partisans would say to me, "his heart's in the right place, just give him some time, he's got a full plate." Yet, the Corps is making decisions right now that chill the blood of New Orleanians concerned about their city's future, and Simon Cowell will be on welfare before this Congress will pass another stimulus bill. The money window is shut, and the administration has been content to focus the nation's attention on Latin American relations, on high-speed rail, on Bo -- on anything but the near-destruction of a great American city.
Nice 100 days' work. Happy Jazzfest.
Barack Obama
Obama's First 100 Days
::snip::
He made a vague assertion that he'd make real the promises President Bush uttered that eerie, floodlit night in an otherwise-darkened Jackson Square, and all the administration has offered to New Orleans so far has been a fact-finding trip by Janet Napolitano, who observed that "no levee can be built high enough to withstand a hurricane like Katrina." So, more facts need to be found, at least for the DHS Secretary.
Here's one: there was not one dollar in the stimulus package, not one out of 700-billion-plus, to help the rebuilding of the tattered levee-floodwall system (despite the Corps of Engineers' statement, a few weeks ago, that, supposedly because of money shortfall, they would choose the "technically not superior" solution to the repair of one poorly-built floodwall; not one dollar out of 700-billion-plus to accelerate the restoration of the coastal wetlands that buffer New Orleans from stronger hurricanes, despite the fact that human activity, including Corps of Engineers-built canals and oil company pipelines, have caused most of the destruction of the wetlands. Not shovel ready? The only thing readier for a shovel is the hope that the new administration might really bring the nation's attention to the federal government's responsibility for the disaster, not just for the lackluster response, and might step up to its responsibility to do the job right this time.
All during the campaign, and then during the first 50 days, Obama partisans would say to me, "his heart's in the right place, just give him some time, he's got a full plate." Yet, the Corps is making decisions right now that chill the blood of New Orleanians concerned about their city's future, and Simon Cowell will be on welfare before this Congress will pass another stimulus bill. The money window is shut, and the administration has been content to focus the nation's attention on Latin American relations, on high-speed rail, on Bo -- on anything but the near-destruction of a great American city.
Nice 100 days' work. Happy Jazzfest.
Barack Obama
Obama's First 100 Days
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Statement from plaintiffs' attorneys in corps lawsuit - NOLA.com
Statement from plaintiffs' attorneys in corps lawsuit - NOLA.com
Judge Duval ruled that the 17th Street, London and Orleans Avenue outfall canals were federal flood control projects and therefore statutorily immune from suit under the Flood Control Act of 1928. Joseph M. Bruno, the Plaintiffs' Lead Counsel in the consolidated Katrina litigation who along with a team of attorneys filed litigation on behalf of over 300,000 New Orleans residents, businesses, and property owners says the legal team intends to appeal the decision to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
"This decision, if allowed to stand, would mean that there is no Congressional oversight, nor review of the Corps' actions which, in this instance, resulted in the greatest engineering disaster in the history of this country," Bruno said. "On a more personal level, the families of the deceased, and the thousands of families who lost everything will have no way of seeking some justice and restitution. In this case, well over 300,000 homes and businesses were wiped out because of the Corps' arbitrary, capricious, and in many instances even reckless acts in carrying out its Congressional mandate. Now, more than ever, Congress needs to conduct a full review of the Corps' conduct by establishing an August 29 commission similar to the one established after September 11th tragedy without delay. We are calling upon all citizens to write their senators and congressmen to demand the Corps be held accountable." Bruno said.
In the 46-page decision, Judge Duval commented on the immunity shielding the Corps:
"This story-fifty years in the making-is heart-wrenching. Millions of dollars were squandered in building a levee system with respect to these outfall canals which was known to be inadequate by the Corps' own calculations. The Byzantine funding and appropriation methods for this undertaking were in large part a cause of this failure." Opinion, p. 44
"The cruel irony here is that the Corps cast a blind eye, either as a result of executive directives or bureaucratic parsimony, to flooding caused by drainage needs and until otherwise directed by Congress, solely focused on flooding caused by storm surge. Nonetheless, damage caused by either type of flooding is ultimately borne by the same public fisc. Such egregious myopia is a caricature of bureaucratic inefficiency." P.45
The lawsuit alleges that the Corps unilaterally abandoned the authorized plan of protection of the Lake Pontchartrain Hurricane Protection Project that was mandated by Congress in 1965 (the so-called "Barrier Plan"). The Barrier Plan would have protected metropolitan New Orleans from deadly storm surges entering Lake Pontchartrain from the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Borgne . As a consequence of that decision, the Corps finally had to implement a "High-Level Plan" which posed numerous known design problems, most notably weak foundation soils. This crucial change in the plan of protection for the New Orleans metropolitan area was made without the necessary authorization from Congress, and the plaintiffs argue that this lack of authorization removed the Corps from the immunity afforded by the Flood Control Act.
Furthermore, with regard to the 17th Street Outfall Canal, the plaintiffs contended that the stability of the canal embankment on the Orleans Parish side was severely compromised when the Corps authorized the dredging of approximately 470,000 qf of canal bottom by the New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board. The lawsuit alleges numerous instances of negligence and cites expert reports warning the Corps of the failure of the canal due to weak soils as far back as 1974. Since the Corps had authorized the dredging of the canal as part of a local drainage project, not a federal flood control project, plaintiffs contend that the Corps should not be entitled to the immunity afforded by the Flood Control Act.
Judge Duval ruled that the 17th Street, London and Orleans Avenue outfall canals were federal flood control projects and therefore statutorily immune from suit under the Flood Control Act of 1928. Joseph M. Bruno, the Plaintiffs' Lead Counsel in the consolidated Katrina litigation who along with a team of attorneys filed litigation on behalf of over 300,000 New Orleans residents, businesses, and property owners says the legal team intends to appeal the decision to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
"This decision, if allowed to stand, would mean that there is no Congressional oversight, nor review of the Corps' actions which, in this instance, resulted in the greatest engineering disaster in the history of this country," Bruno said. "On a more personal level, the families of the deceased, and the thousands of families who lost everything will have no way of seeking some justice and restitution. In this case, well over 300,000 homes and businesses were wiped out because of the Corps' arbitrary, capricious, and in many instances even reckless acts in carrying out its Congressional mandate. Now, more than ever, Congress needs to conduct a full review of the Corps' conduct by establishing an August 29 commission similar to the one established after September 11th tragedy without delay. We are calling upon all citizens to write their senators and congressmen to demand the Corps be held accountable." Bruno said.
In the 46-page decision, Judge Duval commented on the immunity shielding the Corps:
"This story-fifty years in the making-is heart-wrenching. Millions of dollars were squandered in building a levee system with respect to these outfall canals which was known to be inadequate by the Corps' own calculations. The Byzantine funding and appropriation methods for this undertaking were in large part a cause of this failure." Opinion, p. 44
"The cruel irony here is that the Corps cast a blind eye, either as a result of executive directives or bureaucratic parsimony, to flooding caused by drainage needs and until otherwise directed by Congress, solely focused on flooding caused by storm surge. Nonetheless, damage caused by either type of flooding is ultimately borne by the same public fisc. Such egregious myopia is a caricature of bureaucratic inefficiency." P.45
The lawsuit alleges that the Corps unilaterally abandoned the authorized plan of protection of the Lake Pontchartrain Hurricane Protection Project that was mandated by Congress in 1965 (the so-called "Barrier Plan"). The Barrier Plan would have protected metropolitan New Orleans from deadly storm surges entering Lake Pontchartrain from the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Borgne . As a consequence of that decision, the Corps finally had to implement a "High-Level Plan" which posed numerous known design problems, most notably weak foundation soils. This crucial change in the plan of protection for the New Orleans metropolitan area was made without the necessary authorization from Congress, and the plaintiffs argue that this lack of authorization removed the Corps from the immunity afforded by the Flood Control Act.
Furthermore, with regard to the 17th Street Outfall Canal, the plaintiffs contended that the stability of the canal embankment on the Orleans Parish side was severely compromised when the Corps authorized the dredging of approximately 470,000 qf of canal bottom by the New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board. The lawsuit alleges numerous instances of negligence and cites expert reports warning the Corps of the failure of the canal due to weak soils as far back as 1974. Since the Corps had authorized the dredging of the canal as part of a local drainage project, not a federal flood control project, plaintiffs contend that the Corps should not be entitled to the immunity afforded by the Flood Control Act.
Federal Emergency Management Policy Changes After Hurricane Katrina: A Summary of Statutory Provisions
CNN.com - Report: Criticism of FEMA's Katrina response deserved - Apr 14, 2006
CNN.com - Report: Criticism of FEMA's Katrina response deserved - Apr 14, 2006:
"Inspector general: 'Much of the criticism is warranted'
From Mike M. Ahlers
CNN Washington Bureau
Friday, April 14, 2006; Posted: 3:00 p.m. EDT (19:00 GMT)"
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- After being roundly criticized in a slew of media, congressional and government reports, the Federal Emergency Management Agency's internal watchdog Friday returned its own verdict on the handling of Hurricane Katrina: The criticism against FEMA is largely deserved.
In a hefty 218-page report, the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general writes that the federal government and FEMA received "widespread criticism for a slow and ineffective response to Hurricane Katrina."
"Much of the criticism is warranted," Inspector General Richard L. Skinner writes.
The report gives an account of FEMA's recent history and response to Katrina, covering ground that has been well-plowed in recent months, although adding some details.
It describes manpower problems, a decline in planning for natural disasters as attention focused on possible terrorist scenarios, and confusion over the roles and responsibilities of officials in responding to disasters.
It culminates with 38 recommendations to FEMA's director and to the agency's parent organization, the Department of Homeland Security.
Among the findings:
Comprehending the disaster:
With the communications infrastructure destroyed, it took FEMA officials about three days after landfall to grasp the magnitude of the hurricane's destruction.
Meeting expectations:
FEMA has long held that state and local governments should be prepared to survive 72 hours before federal intervention. But the report says, "It is unclear whether this is responsive to the needs of a state and the needs of disaster victims." The report continues: "What is clear is that a 72-hour response time does not meet public expectations, as was vividly demonstrated by media accounts within 24 hours after landfall."
New response plans:
The federal government was phasing in two "watershed planning documents" when Katrina struck -- the National Response Plan and National Incident Management System. Katrina exposed "severe deficiencies" in the response plan, such as the role of the principal federal officer, the person designated to coordinate the federal government's response. Then-FEMA Director Michael Brown was designated as such a person for Katrina.
The role of emergency managers:
The report questions the need for "emergency managers," one of 14 functions carried out by FEMA staff members during an emergency. Agency staffers who created the "emergency manager" function said it was "hastily designed, is incomplete and has not been fully implemented," the report says.
Integrating federal and state command structures:
The report says the federal government and the state of Louisiana, in particular, had "great difficulty" in meshing their command structures and "never fully achieved a unified command with FEMA."
Emergency housing:
The report cites numerous shortcomings with delivering housing. It notes that cruise ships contracted to provide shelter for emergency relief workers were 35 percent occupied during the first 30 days after the disaster. "At that occupancy rate, the cost to FEMA was approximately $3,363 per week per evacuee, which was about three times higher than the existing per diem rate for federal government workers in the area," the report says.
Search and rescue:
FEMA was ill-prepared to conduct the massive search-and-rescue function. Its federally coordinated teams conducting secondary building searches found spray-painted symbols indicating that state teams already had looked through the buildings.
Ice, water and supplies:
FEMA needs to improve the tracking of supplies. Some FEMA and state workers said they had to order twice as many supplies to get half of what they needed, primarily because they had no confidence in the system.
Disaster drills:
FEMA conducted large-scale natural disaster exercises between 1995 and 1998 but then opted for smaller ones with fewer participants. FEMA officials also said it became more difficult to maintain relationships with local officials when the job of awarding grants was transferred to another unit within the Department of Homeland Security.
"Inspector general: 'Much of the criticism is warranted'
From Mike M. Ahlers
CNN Washington Bureau
Friday, April 14, 2006; Posted: 3:00 p.m. EDT (19:00 GMT)"
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- After being roundly criticized in a slew of media, congressional and government reports, the Federal Emergency Management Agency's internal watchdog Friday returned its own verdict on the handling of Hurricane Katrina: The criticism against FEMA is largely deserved.
In a hefty 218-page report, the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general writes that the federal government and FEMA received "widespread criticism for a slow and ineffective response to Hurricane Katrina."
"Much of the criticism is warranted," Inspector General Richard L. Skinner writes.
The report gives an account of FEMA's recent history and response to Katrina, covering ground that has been well-plowed in recent months, although adding some details.
It describes manpower problems, a decline in planning for natural disasters as attention focused on possible terrorist scenarios, and confusion over the roles and responsibilities of officials in responding to disasters.
It culminates with 38 recommendations to FEMA's director and to the agency's parent organization, the Department of Homeland Security.
Among the findings:
Comprehending the disaster:
With the communications infrastructure destroyed, it took FEMA officials about three days after landfall to grasp the magnitude of the hurricane's destruction.
Meeting expectations:
FEMA has long held that state and local governments should be prepared to survive 72 hours before federal intervention. But the report says, "It is unclear whether this is responsive to the needs of a state and the needs of disaster victims." The report continues: "What is clear is that a 72-hour response time does not meet public expectations, as was vividly demonstrated by media accounts within 24 hours after landfall."
New response plans:
The federal government was phasing in two "watershed planning documents" when Katrina struck -- the National Response Plan and National Incident Management System. Katrina exposed "severe deficiencies" in the response plan, such as the role of the principal federal officer, the person designated to coordinate the federal government's response. Then-FEMA Director Michael Brown was designated as such a person for Katrina.
The role of emergency managers:
The report questions the need for "emergency managers," one of 14 functions carried out by FEMA staff members during an emergency. Agency staffers who created the "emergency manager" function said it was "hastily designed, is incomplete and has not been fully implemented," the report says.
Integrating federal and state command structures:
The report says the federal government and the state of Louisiana, in particular, had "great difficulty" in meshing their command structures and "never fully achieved a unified command with FEMA."
Emergency housing:
The report cites numerous shortcomings with delivering housing. It notes that cruise ships contracted to provide shelter for emergency relief workers were 35 percent occupied during the first 30 days after the disaster. "At that occupancy rate, the cost to FEMA was approximately $3,363 per week per evacuee, which was about three times higher than the existing per diem rate for federal government workers in the area," the report says.
Search and rescue:
FEMA was ill-prepared to conduct the massive search-and-rescue function. Its federally coordinated teams conducting secondary building searches found spray-painted symbols indicating that state teams already had looked through the buildings.
Ice, water and supplies:
FEMA needs to improve the tracking of supplies. Some FEMA and state workers said they had to order twice as many supplies to get half of what they needed, primarily because they had no confidence in the system.
Disaster drills:
FEMA conducted large-scale natural disaster exercises between 1995 and 1998 but then opted for smaller ones with fewer participants. FEMA officials also said it became more difficult to maintain relationships with local officials when the job of awarding grants was transferred to another unit within the Department of Homeland Security.
BBC NEWS | World | Americas | 'Thousands dead' in New Orleans
BBC NEWS World Americas 'Thousands dead' in New Orleans:
"Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said 1,700 truckloads of essential supplies were on their way there."
"Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said 1,700 truckloads of essential supplies were on their way there."
NAACP Legal Defense Fund -- News
NAACP Legal Defense Fund -- News
Among the issues identified by the commission were rampant housing discrimination against prospective African-American renters who survived the storms; racially-exclusive apartment listings on housing web sites that were designed to assist evacuees in finding housing after the storms; and discriminatory local policies designed to keep storm survivors out of certain neighborhoods and lock them out of opportunity. The commission also found that federal housing officials have been slow to respond to these abuses. The commission will release a comprehensive report on the state of fair housing enforcement, to be presented to Congress at the end of this year.
Among the issues identified by the commission were rampant housing discrimination against prospective African-American renters who survived the storms; racially-exclusive apartment listings on housing web sites that were designed to assist evacuees in finding housing after the storms; and discriminatory local policies designed to keep storm survivors out of certain neighborhoods and lock them out of opportunity. The commission also found that federal housing officials have been slow to respond to these abuses. The commission will release a comprehensive report on the state of fair housing enforcement, to be presented to Congress at the end of this year.
NAACP Legal Defense Fund -- News
NAACP Legal Defense Fund -- News
"As we commemorate the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, and anxiously await the arrival of yet another storm brewing in the Gulf of Mexico, the news from the Gulf Coast remains discouraging. Despite some notable individual success stories, meaningful relief and stability have not reached the masses through what has been a largely market-driven recovery effort. For every pocket of hope, there are much larger pockets of despair. Seriously misplaced priorities of federal, state and local officials have stalled progress and provided precious little justice for the people of the Gulf Coast. And all the while, people who have returned to the Gulf Coast and storm survivors who are scattered throughout the country (collectively, the Katrina Diaspora) still struggle, many in disbelief that this nation's leaders would permit their continuing suffering.
Three years after the storm, critical housing issues still affect the Katrina Diaspora. Many of us know families who have rebuilt their homes. Yet, for every family that has returned, we see new policies being implemented that virtually guarantee that others will never make it back. Thousands of homeowners who were promised funds to help them to rebuild have been left with sizable financial gaps, with black and poor homeowners having the largest gaps of all thanks to funding formulas that reward those who had greater financial means before the storm. And some residents in forgotten coastal communities in Mississippi and Alabama have been altogether left out of funding considerations. Meanwhile, renters – who comprised the majority of the pre-Katrina population in New Orleans – have not received a dime of direct assistance from the state-run Community Development Block Grant disaster relief program. People living in FEMA trailers faced the double sucker-punch of first learning that the trailers contained toxic levels of formaldehyde and then being ordered to move out of the trailers by local officials seemingly more concerned with the aesthetics of neighborhoods than the plight of the people living there. Since the hurricanes, rental rates have nearly doubled in some areas as affordable housing has become increasingly scarce and the city's homeless population has risen to an all-time high of nearly 12,000 people. Yet, a miniscule number of new housing units are primed for construction and over 4,500 structurally sound public housing units have been demolished. "
More....
"As we commemorate the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, and anxiously await the arrival of yet another storm brewing in the Gulf of Mexico, the news from the Gulf Coast remains discouraging. Despite some notable individual success stories, meaningful relief and stability have not reached the masses through what has been a largely market-driven recovery effort. For every pocket of hope, there are much larger pockets of despair. Seriously misplaced priorities of federal, state and local officials have stalled progress and provided precious little justice for the people of the Gulf Coast. And all the while, people who have returned to the Gulf Coast and storm survivors who are scattered throughout the country (collectively, the Katrina Diaspora) still struggle, many in disbelief that this nation's leaders would permit their continuing suffering.
Three years after the storm, critical housing issues still affect the Katrina Diaspora. Many of us know families who have rebuilt their homes. Yet, for every family that has returned, we see new policies being implemented that virtually guarantee that others will never make it back. Thousands of homeowners who were promised funds to help them to rebuild have been left with sizable financial gaps, with black and poor homeowners having the largest gaps of all thanks to funding formulas that reward those who had greater financial means before the storm. And some residents in forgotten coastal communities in Mississippi and Alabama have been altogether left out of funding considerations. Meanwhile, renters – who comprised the majority of the pre-Katrina population in New Orleans – have not received a dime of direct assistance from the state-run Community Development Block Grant disaster relief program. People living in FEMA trailers faced the double sucker-punch of first learning that the trailers contained toxic levels of formaldehyde and then being ordered to move out of the trailers by local officials seemingly more concerned with the aesthetics of neighborhoods than the plight of the people living there. Since the hurricanes, rental rates have nearly doubled in some areas as affordable housing has become increasingly scarce and the city's homeless population has risen to an all-time high of nearly 12,000 people. Yet, a miniscule number of new housing units are primed for construction and over 4,500 structurally sound public housing units have been demolished. "
More....
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Engineer testifies of 'hurricane highway' in MR-GO trial News for New Orleans, Louisiana Top Stories News and Weather for New Orleans wwltv.com
::snip::
"Bob Bea, a civil engineer with the University of California at Berkeley, said Katrina's flooding would have been minimal if the 76-mile Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet had not been built or if the Army Corps of Engineers had maintained it properly.
"This was not a natural disaster, this was a manmade disaster," said Bea, who specializes in studying engineering disasters and risk management and who, by his own account, has spent about 10,000 hours studying the levee failures during Katrina.
The testimony came at the end of the first week of a federal trial against the corps." "
::snip::
"During the first week of testimony, plaintiffs' experts testified the gulf outlet was a disaster.
John Day, an emeritus professor of marine and environmental sciences at Louisiana State University, said the outlet destroyed large areas of freshwater swamp, 15-foot-high marsh grasses and cypress forest because it let salt water from the Gulf of Mexico wash inland.
He said the corps was told repeatedly the outlet was destroying wetlands southeast of New Orleans and that the agency should block the salt water intrusion. But he said those warnings were ignored, even as the corps' own studies showed the importance of wetlands."
Blogger Note:
Make sure you read the last sentence!
::snip::
"Bob Bea, a civil engineer with the University of California at Berkeley, said Katrina's flooding would have been minimal if the 76-mile Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet had not been built or if the Army Corps of Engineers had maintained it properly.
"This was not a natural disaster, this was a manmade disaster," said Bea, who specializes in studying engineering disasters and risk management and who, by his own account, has spent about 10,000 hours studying the levee failures during Katrina.
The testimony came at the end of the first week of a federal trial against the corps." "
::snip::
"During the first week of testimony, plaintiffs' experts testified the gulf outlet was a disaster.
John Day, an emeritus professor of marine and environmental sciences at Louisiana State University, said the outlet destroyed large areas of freshwater swamp, 15-foot-high marsh grasses and cypress forest because it let salt water from the Gulf of Mexico wash inland.
He said the corps was told repeatedly the outlet was destroying wetlands southeast of New Orleans and that the agency should block the salt water intrusion. But he said those warnings were ignored, even as the corps' own studies showed the importance of wetlands."
Blogger Note:
Make sure you read the last sentence!
Thursday, April 23, 2009
ISS - FBI opens inquiry into death of Henry Glover
ISS - FBI opens inquiry into death of Henry Glover
"Police, according to Tanner, then seized both the auto and Tanner's body. The car, a Chevrolet Malibu, was eventually discovered in an isolated spot along the Mississippi River. Inside was Glover's severely burnt corpse, which had been reduced to little more than ashes and bone fragments, autopsy records and photos show. No witness has yet come forward to describe how the car caught fire."
Blogger Note:
Nazi pigs dispose of their most outspoken critics first; in the most horrible ways.
"Police, according to Tanner, then seized both the auto and Tanner's body. The car, a Chevrolet Malibu, was eventually discovered in an isolated spot along the Mississippi River. Inside was Glover's severely burnt corpse, which had been reduced to little more than ashes and bone fragments, autopsy records and photos show. No witness has yet come forward to describe how the car caught fire."
Blogger Note:
Nazi pigs dispose of their most outspoken critics first; in the most horrible ways.
Miss. Mayor Indicted In Katrina Fraud - CBS News
Miss. Mayor Indicted In Katrina Fraud - CBS News: "(AP) The mayor of Gulfport, an area hit hard by Hurricane Katrina, has been charged along with his wife in a 16-count federal indictment related to an allegedly false claim for disaster assistance.
Mayor Brent Warr issued a statement Wednesday saying the charges have nothing to do with his role as mayor and he will continue to run the city."
What? He commits insurance fraud off the clock?
Mayor Brent Warr issued a statement Wednesday saying the charges have nothing to do with his role as mayor and he will continue to run the city."
What? He commits insurance fraud off the clock?
ISS - Mister GO goes to trial::snip::
""It's the most expensive catastrophe in United States history. And it's actually man made," Jonathan Andry, the plaintiffs' lawyer, told CBS News Monday.
In his opening comments, Judge Duval, who is hearing the case without a jury, also called the case "the first real trial" about Hurricane Katrina, the levees and the role of the federal government. "This is a significant case that could affect hundreds of thousands of people," Judge Duval said Monday. "You all know what this is about:...What did the Corps know, when did it know it, and when should it have known?"
The federally-funded MR-GO was dug into the swamps southeast of New Orleans in the 1960s as a shortcut between New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico. For years coastal advocates charged that the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal agencies allowed energy companies to decimate Louisiana's coastal wetlands, the best buffers against hurricanes, with projects like MR-GO. Residents, environmentalists, civil rights groups and policy makers steadily argued for MR-GO's closure, as the channel continued to grow in size due to erosion, bringing with it daily tidal flows of salt water that killed wetlands, marsh and cypress swamp forests. Hurricane experts warned that the destruction of wetlands around MR-GO eliminated a key barrier to advancing storm surges, and that MR-GO's faulty design created a funnel effect, accelerating the force and strength of storm surges. But all these warnings went unheeded.
On Monday the plaintiff's expert on geology and the coastal environment, Sherwood M. Gagliano, testified that the channel was "one of the greatest catastrophes in the history of the United States." According to the New York Times, Gagliano cited reports from as early as 1957 that claimed the canal would pose a danger to the people of St. Bernard Parish and reports of his own dating from 1972 that warned of the increased flooding risk from wetlands destruction. He also testified that the Corps was aware of such research and even prepared a report in 1988 that mentioned the possibility of catastrophic damage to urban areas from MR-GO. Despite such assessments, Gagliano explained that the Corps did little to reduce the risk.
Yet, the Corps has consistently argued that the canal's effect during Hurricane Katrina was insignificant. But at the direction of Congress, the Corps has begun to close the MR-GO canal using 434,000 tons of rock.""
""It's the most expensive catastrophe in United States history. And it's actually man made," Jonathan Andry, the plaintiffs' lawyer, told CBS News Monday.
In his opening comments, Judge Duval, who is hearing the case without a jury, also called the case "the first real trial" about Hurricane Katrina, the levees and the role of the federal government. "This is a significant case that could affect hundreds of thousands of people," Judge Duval said Monday. "You all know what this is about:...What did the Corps know, when did it know it, and when should it have known?"
The federally-funded MR-GO was dug into the swamps southeast of New Orleans in the 1960s as a shortcut between New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico. For years coastal advocates charged that the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal agencies allowed energy companies to decimate Louisiana's coastal wetlands, the best buffers against hurricanes, with projects like MR-GO. Residents, environmentalists, civil rights groups and policy makers steadily argued for MR-GO's closure, as the channel continued to grow in size due to erosion, bringing with it daily tidal flows of salt water that killed wetlands, marsh and cypress swamp forests. Hurricane experts warned that the destruction of wetlands around MR-GO eliminated a key barrier to advancing storm surges, and that MR-GO's faulty design created a funnel effect, accelerating the force and strength of storm surges. But all these warnings went unheeded.
On Monday the plaintiff's expert on geology and the coastal environment, Sherwood M. Gagliano, testified that the channel was "one of the greatest catastrophes in the history of the United States." According to the New York Times, Gagliano cited reports from as early as 1957 that claimed the canal would pose a danger to the people of St. Bernard Parish and reports of his own dating from 1972 that warned of the increased flooding risk from wetlands destruction. He also testified that the Corps was aware of such research and even prepared a report in 1988 that mentioned the possibility of catastrophic damage to urban areas from MR-GO. Despite such assessments, Gagliano explained that the Corps did little to reduce the risk.
Yet, the Corps has consistently argued that the canal's effect during Hurricane Katrina was insignificant. But at the direction of Congress, the Corps has begun to close the MR-GO canal using 434,000 tons of rock.""
Newsman Norman Robinson testifies he considered suicide, turned to alcohol after Hurricane Katrina - NOLA.com
Newsman Norman Robinson testifies he considered suicide, turned to alcohol after Hurricane Katrina - NOLA.com: "His testimony came during the third day of a trial in which he and four others hope to prove their case that the Army Corps of Engineers' failure to maintain the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet created a speedway for Katrina storm surge that destroyed their property."
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
FindLaw: Hurricane Katrina Victims Lawsuit Against the Federal Government and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Norman Robinson, Kent Lattimore, Lattimore & Associates,
Tanya Smith, Anthony Franz, Jr., and Lucile Franz v.
United States of America and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
April 25, 2006
New Orleans property owners sued the federal government and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, alleging that they knew or should have known that the Mississippi Gulf River Outlet's ('MR-GO') "design was flawed" by failing to account for the channel's "inherent and known capability of serving as a funnel or conduit [during] storm surges" and how they affected levees in New Orleans and St. Bernard Parsish.
The plaintiffs owned homes, businesses, and property that was destroyed during Hurricane Katrina. They content that the storm flooding caused by an improperly constructed MR-GO destroyed their homes, property, businesses, and changed their lives for the worse.
The plaintiffs also alleged that the Army Corps of Engineers "failed to 'armor' levees on both banks of the MR-GO." Armoring is a process used to construct a stronger, water-
Read the 45 page lawsuit: HERE
Norman Robinson, Kent Lattimore, Lattimore & Associates,
Tanya Smith, Anthony Franz, Jr., and Lucile Franz v.
United States of America and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
April 25, 2006
New Orleans property owners sued the federal government and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, alleging that they knew or should have known that the Mississippi Gulf River Outlet's ('MR-GO') "design was flawed" by failing to account for the channel's "inherent and known capability of serving as a funnel or conduit [during] storm surges" and how they affected levees in New Orleans and St. Bernard Parsish.
The plaintiffs owned homes, businesses, and property that was destroyed during Hurricane Katrina. They content that the storm flooding caused by an improperly constructed MR-GO destroyed their homes, property, businesses, and changed their lives for the worse.
The plaintiffs also alleged that the Army Corps of Engineers "failed to 'armor' levees on both banks of the MR-GO." Armoring is a process used to construct a stronger, water-
Read the 45 page lawsuit: HERE
Levees.tv
Embed these videos on your site,
with code at this LINK
Are you starting to get it?
It wasnt a "Natural Disaster" it was an "Engineering Disaster"
Embed these videos on your site,
with code at this LINK
Are you starting to get it?
It wasnt a "Natural Disaster" it was an "Engineering Disaster"
Monday, April 20, 2009
.
Lawsuit Against Army Corps Over Katrina Begins - NYTimes.com
NEW ORLEANS — A groundbreaking civil suit begins in federal court here today to consider claims by property owners that the Army Corps of Engineers amplified the destructive effects of Hurricane Katrina by building a poorly designed navigation channel adjacent to the city.
The Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet, a 76-mile-long channel known locally as MR-GO and pronounced “Mister Go,” was completed in 1968 and created a straight shot to the Gulf of Mexico from New Orleans. The suit claims that the channel was flawed in its design, construction, and operation, and that those flaws intensified the flood damage to the eastern parts of New Orleans and St. Bernard parish.
If they win, the plaintiffs — a local newscaster, Norman Robinson, and five other people whose
more....
2theadvocate.com | News | MRGO closing to boat traffic — Baton Rouge, LA
2theadvocate.com | News | MRGO closing to boat traffic — Baton Rouge, LA
By AMY WOLD
Advocate staff writer
Published: Apr 20, 2009
Comments (0)
The long-awaited closure of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet will reach another milestone Wednesday, when the channel becomes officially closed to boat traffic.
But that will not be the end of the work that is needed, members of the MRGO Must Go coalition say.
“While they shut the channel down to boat traffic, MRGO is still an accident waiting to happen,” said Aaron Viles, of the Gulf Restoration Network.
The MRGO is blamed with bringing salt water from the Gulf of Mexico into the freshwater marshes in St. Bernard Parish and hastening marsh and land loss.
The wetlands — and cypress forests — that used to exist are what members of the MRGO Must Go coalition would like to see restored for ecological and hurricane protection reasons, said Wilma Subra, consultant with the Louisiana Environmental Action Network.
Marylee Orr, director of LEAN, agreed.
“I think a lot of people say it’s closed so it’s not a reason for concern,” Orr said. “It’s not done.”
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is building a rock closure on the man-made shipping channel between New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico at Bayou La Loutre in St. Bernard Parish. The structure will include 433,500 tons of rocks piled 450 feet wide at the bottom of the structure and 12 feet across at the top, according to a corps news release.
The top of the structure will be about eight feet above sea level. The project is about 50 percent complete and is expected to be completed by July, said Greg Miller, senior project manager for the MRGO project.
Enough work has been done that the water depth over the project has gone from 40 feet to about 14 feet, which makes it hazardous for boats still using the channel that need 12 feet of draft, he said. That’s why the channel will be officially closed to boat traffic Wednesday, Miller said.
On the ecosystem restoration side, the corps is working on a feasibility study and Environmental Impact Statement that Congress approved in the 2007 Water Resource Development Act or WRDA.
That study will look at restoration in areas impacted by the channel stretching all the way from north of Lake Maurepas down through the channel area and even into Mississippi, he said. In all, the feasibility study is looking at project area measuring 3.86 million acres — about 6,000 square miles, Miller said.
“It’s a very large area,” Miller said.
To better manage the large area, the corps has broken the study area into more manageable pieces and met with people interested in that specific area, he said. One of the most recent meetings included discussion about the central wetlands in St. Bernard Parish between 40 Arpent levee and the MRGO levee.
NEXT PAGE » 1 2
BLOGGER NOTE:
Interesting that they would publish this TODAY.
It shines a favorale light on the US Army Corps of Engineers.... when their trial begins TODAY for the utter failure of 53 levee breaches!!
Levees.Org
Levees.Org
""Dr. Ivor van Heerden, the coastal scientist who saved lives in New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish, and led the state's independent Team Louisiana investigation into Hurricane Katrina levee failures, has been fired by Louisiana State University - without explanation.
The New York Times quotes Dr. Charles Delzell, an LSU professor and president of the LSU chapter of the American Association of University Professors as saying,
“It’s a clear case of retaliation for his (van Heerden's) criticism of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.”
If you agree and want to do something, call the LSU President John Lombardi at (225) 578-2111 and ask him to consider re-hiring Dr. van Heerden. You can also email him at lombardi@lsu.edu
You can also sign the petiton below urging the Chancellor of LSU to reconsider his action.""
Sign Petition and/or join www.Levees.org
""Dr. Ivor van Heerden, the coastal scientist who saved lives in New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish, and led the state's independent Team Louisiana investigation into Hurricane Katrina levee failures, has been fired by Louisiana State University - without explanation.
The New York Times quotes Dr. Charles Delzell, an LSU professor and president of the LSU chapter of the American Association of University Professors as saying,
“It’s a clear case of retaliation for his (van Heerden's) criticism of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.”
If you agree and want to do something, call the LSU President John Lombardi at (225) 578-2111 and ask him to consider re-hiring Dr. van Heerden. You can also email him at lombardi@lsu.edu
You can also sign the petiton below urging the Chancellor of LSU to reconsider his action.""
Sign Petition and/or join www.Levees.org
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Hurricane Expert Fired by Bush Allies at LSU
Hurricane Expert Fired by Bush Allies at LSU
"Van Heerden was the leader of "Team Louisiana," the official independent state-funded investigation of the Katrina flooding. That panel found that the levee failures reflected poor design, bad science and shoddy engineering on the part of the Corps. The Bush Administration had held the levee failures were an "act of God." "
God does create some deficient beings, look at the former presiturd!
However, these levees were poorly designed, built and the maintenance was underfunded. All on account of the evil designs of gwb.
This story disgusts me.
"Van Heerden was the leader of "Team Louisiana," the official independent state-funded investigation of the Katrina flooding. That panel found that the levee failures reflected poor design, bad science and shoddy engineering on the part of the Corps. The Bush Administration had held the levee failures were an "act of God." "
God does create some deficient beings, look at the former presiturd!
However, these levees were poorly designed, built and the maintenance was underfunded. All on account of the evil designs of gwb.
This story disgusts me.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
War and Piece:
War and Piece:
September 03, 2005
If he could go to Baghdad, why didn't Bush go to the New Orleans Superdome or the Convention Center? It was bizarre for all of the country and much of the world to be watching those scenes for days on our TVs and news reports, and for Bush's photo ops to be in areas that were far less critical. I know there are security considerations but his visit seemed extraordinarily hollow even by this administration's standard of ultra-stage managed events.
Dutch viewer Frank Tiggelaar writes:
There was a striking dicrepancy between the CNN International report on the Bush visit to the New Orleans disaster zone, yesterday, and reports of the same event by German TV.
ZDF News reported that the president's visit was a completely staged event. Their crew witnessed how the open air food distribution point Bush visited in front of the cameras was torn down immediately after the president and the herd of 'news people' had left and that others which were allegedly being set up were abandoned at the same time.
The people in the area were once again left to fend for themselves, said ZDF.
Tuesday Update: Rivka has an accounting of the differences between what my correspondent Frank Tiggelaar thought he heard on the German TV reports and what appeared to actually air.
Posted by Laura at September 3, 2005 09:54 AM
September 03, 2005
If he could go to Baghdad, why didn't Bush go to the New Orleans Superdome or the Convention Center? It was bizarre for all of the country and much of the world to be watching those scenes for days on our TVs and news reports, and for Bush's photo ops to be in areas that were far less critical. I know there are security considerations but his visit seemed extraordinarily hollow even by this administration's standard of ultra-stage managed events.
Dutch viewer Frank Tiggelaar writes:
There was a striking dicrepancy between the CNN International report on the Bush visit to the New Orleans disaster zone, yesterday, and reports of the same event by German TV.
ZDF News reported that the president's visit was a completely staged event. Their crew witnessed how the open air food distribution point Bush visited in front of the cameras was torn down immediately after the president and the herd of 'news people' had left and that others which were allegedly being set up were abandoned at the same time.
The people in the area were once again left to fend for themselves, said ZDF.
Tuesday Update: Rivka has an accounting of the differences between what my correspondent Frank Tiggelaar thought he heard on the German TV reports and what appeared to actually air.
Posted by Laura at September 3, 2005 09:54 AM
Katrina offers lesson on wetlands protection
Katrina offers lesson on wetlands protection
Wetlands could have protected New Orleans, experts say, if so many acres hadn't been destroyed by years of alterations to the Mississippi River.
Wetlands could have protected New Orleans, experts say, if so many acres hadn't been destroyed by years of alterations to the Mississippi River.
Bill would reimburse La. Katrina doctor
Bill would reimburse La. Katrina doctor - WXVT-TV Delta News -
Accused but not indicted for euthanizing patients
Accused but not indicted for euthanizing patients
Court rules against homeowners in flood insurance case - Breaking News Updates New Orleans - Times-Picayune - NOLA.com
Court rules against homeowners in flood insurance case
Times-Picayune - NOLA.com
Posted by Associated Press August 02, 2007 2:20PM
"As a result, the panel found those who filed the suit "are not entitled to recover under their policies," she said.
More than a dozen insurance companies, including Allstate and Travelers, were defendants.
The decision overturns a ruling by U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval Jr., who in November sided with policyholders arguing that language excluding water damage from some of their insurance policies was ambiguous. "
BlogNote:
(note date of story)
{This is relevant to my last post}
Looks like the judge in Mondays case against Army Corps of Eng. has ruled in favor of the people, against the insurance companies in the past.
That decision was squashed in appeals.
The hearing on Monday (see post below this) may be a last chance for the victims of government incompetence; or more accurately gov't evil!
They knew they vulnerabilty of those levees.
Times-Picayune - NOLA.com
Posted by Associated Press August 02, 2007 2:20PM
"As a result, the panel found those who filed the suit "are not entitled to recover under their policies," she said.
More than a dozen insurance companies, including Allstate and Travelers, were defendants.
The decision overturns a ruling by U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval Jr., who in November sided with policyholders arguing that language excluding water damage from some of their insurance policies was ambiguous. "
BlogNote:
(note date of story)
{This is relevant to my last post}
Looks like the judge in Mondays case against Army Corps of Eng. has ruled in favor of the people, against the insurance companies in the past.
That decision was squashed in appeals.
The hearing on Monday (see post below this) may be a last chance for the victims of government incompetence; or more accurately gov't evil!
They knew they vulnerabilty of those levees.
.
Judge gives go-ahead to MRGO suit - NOLA.com
Judge gives go-ahead to MRGO suit
He clears way to hear case against corps
Saturday, March 21, 2009
By Susan Finch
Staff writer
A federal court judge in New Orleans cleared the way Friday for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to face trial next month in a lawsuit that claims the agency's failure to heed environmental laws in building and maintaining the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet caused environmental damage that led to massive flooding in New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish during Hurricane Katrina.
The case, which Judge Stanwood Duval is scheduled to hear without a jury starting April 20, was filed by WDSU-TV news anchorman Norman Robinson and five other plaintiffs whose homes or businesses in eastern New Orleans, the Lower 9th Ward and St. Bernard Parish were swamped during the August 2005 storm .
"We are pleased to have overcome this final hurdle to securing the first trial for Katrina victims and to holding the Army Corps accountable," said Los Angeles lawyer Pierce O'Donnell, the plaintiffs' lead trial counsel in the nearly three-year-old case. "Battling the federal government with its own army of lawyers and unlimited resources has been a daunting ordeal."
- - - -snip - - -
Judge gives go-ahead to MRGO suit
He clears way to hear case against corps
Saturday, March 21, 2009
By Susan Finch
Staff writer
A federal court judge in New Orleans cleared the way Friday for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to face trial next month in a lawsuit that claims the agency's failure to heed environmental laws in building and maintaining the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet caused environmental damage that led to massive flooding in New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish during Hurricane Katrina.
The case, which Judge Stanwood Duval is scheduled to hear without a jury starting April 20, was filed by WDSU-TV news anchorman Norman Robinson and five other plaintiffs whose homes or businesses in eastern New Orleans, the Lower 9th Ward and St. Bernard Parish were swamped during the August 2005 storm .
"We are pleased to have overcome this final hurdle to securing the first trial for Katrina victims and to holding the Army Corps accountable," said Los Angeles lawyer Pierce O'Donnell, the plaintiffs' lead trial counsel in the nearly three-year-old case. "Battling the federal government with its own army of lawyers and unlimited resources has been a daunting ordeal."
- - - -snip - - -
Friday, April 10, 2009
FEMA director defends giving away hurricane supplies - CNN.com#cnnSTCText#cnnSTCText
FEMA director defends giving away hurricane supplies - CNN.com#cnnSTCText#cnnSTCText: "WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The director of Federal Emergency Management Agency on Sunday defended giving away an estimated $85 million in hurricane relief supplies, blaming Louisiana officials for turning down the stockpiles."
Hurricane Katrina: News & Videos about Hurricane Katrina - CNN.com
Hurricane Katrina: News & Videos about Hurricane Katrina - CNN.com:
"93 Stories on Hurricane Katrina"
"93 Stories on Hurricane Katrina"
Senate Committee On Homeland Security FEMA Reform Director: Jessica Fliegelman
Senate Committee On Homeland Security FEMA Reform Director: Jessica Fliegelman
.pdf version: http://www.idia.net/Files/ConferenceCommitteeTopicFiles/62/PDFFile/C07-SHS-FEMAReform.pdf
Rutgers Model Congress
1
Introduction
Established in 1979, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is
responsible for coordinating emergency management for disasters. Initially, disaster
management had been divided among numerous federal agencies; FEMA absorbed those
functions to centralize and improve disaster response efforts. Once the president has
authorized a disaster declaration, FEMA is called upon to work with state and local
officials to respond to the disaster.
The procedures for disaster response were intended to preserve the state’s
jurisdiction in handling emergencies, as state and local authorities are best equipped to
act in times of crisis. As a result, it takes longer for the federal government to be able to
mobilize its resources when the disaster is beyond the capacity of the states. Although
these procedures were intended to preserve the state’s jurisdiction in handling
emergencies, in recent years FEMA has been assuming an increasing role in handling
these disasters. In the 1980s and 1990s, FEMA began assuming an expanded role in the
response to natural disasters and with that, increasingly drew criticism from the media,
the public, and even other branches of the government. FEMA first drew significant
national attention for its inadequate response to Hurricane Andrew which struck Florida
in 1992. Delayed response, late arrival of troops, and shortages of supplies all
contributed to exacerbated damages and increased suffering for the hurricane victims.
Following Hurricane Andrew, Congress discussed possible reforms for the
agency, but the most effective changes were implemented by FEMA itself to better
coordinate disaster management in the future. The next major change came under the
Clinton Administration, in which President Bill Clinton elevated FEMA leadership to
cabinet level status. A change in leadership also improved the effectiveness of FEMA, as
director James Lee Witt helped FEMA operations run more smoothly through the 1990s,
helping the agency garner a reputation of efficiency and expediency. Other significant
adjustments were still in store for FEMA, and in March 2003 the agency became a part of
the newly-minted Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The move was intended to
Page 5
Rutgers Model Congress
2
further consolidate the various forms of emergency management. As a result of limited
resources and employees, however, FEMA was ultimately unprepared for future
disasters, most notably in its response to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in August
2005. After the hurricane, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and the House
Homeland Security Committee both conducted investigations into FEMA’s handling of
disaster. Findings from both committees revealed extensive waste, fraud, and abuse.
FEMA employees were also criticized, many of whom seemed to be unqualified,
inexperienced political appointees.
The Senate Homeland Security Committee issued a report offering
recommendations for improving FEMA, including keeping the agency within the DHS
but elevating its status within the department. Senators Nancy Collins (R-ME) and Joe
Lieberman (D-CT) introduced legislation based on that recommendation with opposing
legislation introduced by Senators Trent Lott (R-MI) and Hillary Clinton (D-NY) to
restore FEMA to an independent cabinet-level agency. In the House of Representatives,
a similar bipartisan split occurred between those who agreed with Collins and Lieberman
and those supporting Lott and Clinton. Ultimately, Congress agreed to elevate FEMA
within the structure of the DHS. Bipartisan cooperation helped pass the reform proposals
and established a basis for further efforts to improve emergency management for future
natural disasters. Still, questions regarding the reform of FEMA persist.
.pdf version: http://www.idia.net/Files/ConferenceCommitteeTopicFiles/62/PDFFile/C07-SHS-FEMAReform.pdf
Rutgers Model Congress
1
Introduction
Established in 1979, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is
responsible for coordinating emergency management for disasters. Initially, disaster
management had been divided among numerous federal agencies; FEMA absorbed those
functions to centralize and improve disaster response efforts. Once the president has
authorized a disaster declaration, FEMA is called upon to work with state and local
officials to respond to the disaster.
The procedures for disaster response were intended to preserve the state’s
jurisdiction in handling emergencies, as state and local authorities are best equipped to
act in times of crisis. As a result, it takes longer for the federal government to be able to
mobilize its resources when the disaster is beyond the capacity of the states. Although
these procedures were intended to preserve the state’s jurisdiction in handling
emergencies, in recent years FEMA has been assuming an increasing role in handling
these disasters. In the 1980s and 1990s, FEMA began assuming an expanded role in the
response to natural disasters and with that, increasingly drew criticism from the media,
the public, and even other branches of the government. FEMA first drew significant
national attention for its inadequate response to Hurricane Andrew which struck Florida
in 1992. Delayed response, late arrival of troops, and shortages of supplies all
contributed to exacerbated damages and increased suffering for the hurricane victims.
Following Hurricane Andrew, Congress discussed possible reforms for the
agency, but the most effective changes were implemented by FEMA itself to better
coordinate disaster management in the future. The next major change came under the
Clinton Administration, in which President Bill Clinton elevated FEMA leadership to
cabinet level status. A change in leadership also improved the effectiveness of FEMA, as
director James Lee Witt helped FEMA operations run more smoothly through the 1990s,
helping the agency garner a reputation of efficiency and expediency. Other significant
adjustments were still in store for FEMA, and in March 2003 the agency became a part of
the newly-minted Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The move was intended to
Page 5
Rutgers Model Congress
2
further consolidate the various forms of emergency management. As a result of limited
resources and employees, however, FEMA was ultimately unprepared for future
disasters, most notably in its response to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in August
2005. After the hurricane, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and the House
Homeland Security Committee both conducted investigations into FEMA’s handling of
disaster. Findings from both committees revealed extensive waste, fraud, and abuse.
FEMA employees were also criticized, many of whom seemed to be unqualified,
inexperienced political appointees.
The Senate Homeland Security Committee issued a report offering
recommendations for improving FEMA, including keeping the agency within the DHS
but elevating its status within the department. Senators Nancy Collins (R-ME) and Joe
Lieberman (D-CT) introduced legislation based on that recommendation with opposing
legislation introduced by Senators Trent Lott (R-MI) and Hillary Clinton (D-NY) to
restore FEMA to an independent cabinet-level agency. In the House of Representatives,
a similar bipartisan split occurred between those who agreed with Collins and Lieberman
and those supporting Lott and Clinton. Ultimately, Congress agreed to elevate FEMA
within the structure of the DHS. Bipartisan cooperation helped pass the reform proposals
and established a basis for further efforts to improve emergency management for future
natural disasters. Still, questions regarding the reform of FEMA persist.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
New Orleans' Mayor Says Investors Will Come : NPR
New Orleans; Mayor Says Investors Will Come : NPR
Listen Now
"Before the storm,
the area had a Wal-Mart and two hospitals: Lakeland and the larger Methodist Hospital. Now there is only one supermarket to serve 60,000 people — and no hospital."
BlogNote:
This story only 2 weeks old.
It has been almost 4 years!!
Listen Now
"Before the storm,
the area had a Wal-Mart and two hospitals: Lakeland and the larger Methodist Hospital. Now there is only one supermarket to serve 60,000 people — and no hospital."
BlogNote:
This story only 2 weeks old.
It has been almost 4 years!!
The 8 Stages of Genocide
The 8 Stages of Genocide
THE GENOCIDAL PROCESS
Prevention of genocide requires a structural understanding of the genocidal process. Genocide has eight stages or operational processes. The first stages precede later stages, but continue to operate throughout the genocidal process. Each stage reinforces the others. A strategy to prevent genocide should attack each stage, each process. The eight stages of genocide are classification, symbolization,dehumanization, organization, polarization, preparation, extermination, and denial.
Classification
All languages and cultures require classification - division of the natural and social world into categories.
We distinguish and classify objects and people. All cultures have categories to distinguish between “us” and “them,” between members of our group and others. We treat different categories of people differently. Racial and ethnic classifications may be defined by absurdly detailed laws -- the Nazi Nuremberg laws, the "one drop" laws of segregation in America, or apartheid racial classification laws in
South Africa. Racist societies often prohibit mixed categories and outlaw miscegenation. Bipolar societies are the most likely to have genocide. In Rwanda and Burundi, children are the ethnicity of their father, either Tutsi or Hutu. No one is mixed. Mixed marriages do not result in mixed children.
Symbolization
We use symbols to name and signify our classifications. We name some people Hutu and others Tutsi, or Jewish or Gypsy, or Christian or Muslim. Sometimes physical characteristics - skin color or nose shape - become symbols for classifications. Other symbols, like customary dress or facial scars, are socially imposed by groups on their own members. After the process has reached later stages (dehumanization, organization, and polarization) genocidal governments in the preparation stage often
require members of a targeted group to wear an identifying symbol or distinctive clothing -- e.g. the yellow star. The Khmer Rouge forced people from the Eastern Zone to wear a blue-checked scarf, marking them for forced relocation and elimination.
Dehumanization
Classification and symbolization are fundamental operations in all cultures. They become steps of genocide only when combined with dehumanization. Denial of the humanity of others is the step that permits killing with impunity. The universal human abhorrence of murder of members of one's own group is overcome by treating the victims as less than human. In incitements to genocide the target groups are called disgusting animal names - Nazi propaganda called Jews "rats" or "vermin"; Rwandan Hutu hate radio referred to Tutsis as "cockroaches." The targeted group is often likened to a “disease”, “microbes”, “infections” or a “cancer” in the body politic. Bodies of genocide victims are often mutilated to express this denial of humanity. Such atrocities then become the justification for revenge killings, because they
are evidence that the killers must be monsters, not human beings themselves.
http://www.genocidewatch.org/8stages1996.htm (page 2 of 6)
Credit where credit is due:
[This article was originally written in 1996 and was presented as the first Working Paper (GS 01) of the Yale Program in Genocide Studies in 1998.
1. Gregory H. Stanton is the James Farmer Professor of Human Rights, The University of Mary Washington, Fredericksburg, Virginia; President, Genocide Watch; Chairman, The International Campaign to End Genocide; Director, The Cambodian Genocide Project; Vice President, International Association of Genocide Scholars.]
BLOGNOTE:
Pay close heed to stage 3; Dehumanization.
I mentioned it in my last post.
ALSO ;
VERY IMPORTANT to the case in New Orleans!
From http://www.genocidewatch.org/8stages1996.htm (Page 1 of 6)
The Genocide Convention is sometimes misinterpreted as requiring the intent to destroy in whole a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. Some genocides have fit that description, notably the Holocaust and Rwanda. But most do not. Most are intended to destroy only part of a group. The Genocide Convention specifically includes the intentional killing of part of a group as genocide. It reaffirms this definition when it includes as among the acts that constitute genocide "deliberately
inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part'. Those who shrink from applying the term "genocide" usually ignore the "in part".
BlogNote (cont'd)
Many were allowed to escape, in fact the deaths are only a messy inconvenience to the powers that be. They only needed the people out of the way so those in power could satisfy their agenda. The agenda I speak of is to lay claim to the vacated, depopulated lands in New Orleans. The crippled society of New Orleans did not show up to vote Democratic as usual. So, 'Wormwood' is 'Under New Management'until a champion for the people of the American Diaspora suits up and shows up with a viable plan for restoring the land for the people, by the people and of the people. When only developers and fat greasy oil barons show up to vote... they will vote for their own wallets and screw the people to hell. We have an elitist, global agenda stealing the money that should be used to restore the city FOR the people; not to make the rich richer. Wormwood is doomed to be haunted by the cries of mothers draped over tiny pink and blue coffins. The ghosts of the elderly who could not escape the floods; whose taxes did not go to pay for levee repairs, but were instead sent to pay for bombs and bullets to murder innocent brown people overseas instead.
Yes, I have a problem with that.
THE GENOCIDAL PROCESS
Prevention of genocide requires a structural understanding of the genocidal process. Genocide has eight stages or operational processes. The first stages precede later stages, but continue to operate throughout the genocidal process. Each stage reinforces the others. A strategy to prevent genocide should attack each stage, each process. The eight stages of genocide are classification, symbolization,dehumanization, organization, polarization, preparation, extermination, and denial.
Classification
All languages and cultures require classification - division of the natural and social world into categories.
We distinguish and classify objects and people. All cultures have categories to distinguish between “us” and “them,” between members of our group and others. We treat different categories of people differently. Racial and ethnic classifications may be defined by absurdly detailed laws -- the Nazi Nuremberg laws, the "one drop" laws of segregation in America, or apartheid racial classification laws in
South Africa. Racist societies often prohibit mixed categories and outlaw miscegenation. Bipolar societies are the most likely to have genocide. In Rwanda and Burundi, children are the ethnicity of their father, either Tutsi or Hutu. No one is mixed. Mixed marriages do not result in mixed children.
Symbolization
We use symbols to name and signify our classifications. We name some people Hutu and others Tutsi, or Jewish or Gypsy, or Christian or Muslim. Sometimes physical characteristics - skin color or nose shape - become symbols for classifications. Other symbols, like customary dress or facial scars, are socially imposed by groups on their own members. After the process has reached later stages (dehumanization, organization, and polarization) genocidal governments in the preparation stage often
require members of a targeted group to wear an identifying symbol or distinctive clothing -- e.g. the yellow star. The Khmer Rouge forced people from the Eastern Zone to wear a blue-checked scarf, marking them for forced relocation and elimination.
Dehumanization
Classification and symbolization are fundamental operations in all cultures. They become steps of genocide only when combined with dehumanization. Denial of the humanity of others is the step that permits killing with impunity. The universal human abhorrence of murder of members of one's own group is overcome by treating the victims as less than human. In incitements to genocide the target groups are called disgusting animal names - Nazi propaganda called Jews "rats" or "vermin"; Rwandan Hutu hate radio referred to Tutsis as "cockroaches." The targeted group is often likened to a “disease”, “microbes”, “infections” or a “cancer” in the body politic. Bodies of genocide victims are often mutilated to express this denial of humanity. Such atrocities then become the justification for revenge killings, because they
are evidence that the killers must be monsters, not human beings themselves.
http://www.genocidewatch.org/8stages1996.htm (page 2 of 6)
Credit where credit is due:
[This article was originally written in 1996 and was presented as the first Working Paper (GS 01) of the Yale Program in Genocide Studies in 1998.
1. Gregory H. Stanton is the James Farmer Professor of Human Rights, The University of Mary Washington, Fredericksburg, Virginia; President, Genocide Watch; Chairman, The International Campaign to End Genocide; Director, The Cambodian Genocide Project; Vice President, International Association of Genocide Scholars.]
BLOGNOTE:
Pay close heed to stage 3; Dehumanization.
I mentioned it in my last post.
ALSO ;
VERY IMPORTANT to the case in New Orleans!
From http://www.genocidewatch.org/8stages1996.htm (Page 1 of 6)
The Genocide Convention is sometimes misinterpreted as requiring the intent to destroy in whole a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. Some genocides have fit that description, notably the Holocaust and Rwanda. But most do not. Most are intended to destroy only part of a group. The Genocide Convention specifically includes the intentional killing of part of a group as genocide. It reaffirms this definition when it includes as among the acts that constitute genocide "deliberately
inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part'. Those who shrink from applying the term "genocide" usually ignore the "in part".
BlogNote (cont'd)
Many were allowed to escape, in fact the deaths are only a messy inconvenience to the powers that be. They only needed the people out of the way so those in power could satisfy their agenda. The agenda I speak of is to lay claim to the vacated, depopulated lands in New Orleans. The crippled society of New Orleans did not show up to vote Democratic as usual. So, 'Wormwood' is 'Under New Management'until a champion for the people of the American Diaspora suits up and shows up with a viable plan for restoring the land for the people, by the people and of the people. When only developers and fat greasy oil barons show up to vote... they will vote for their own wallets and screw the people to hell. We have an elitist, global agenda stealing the money that should be used to restore the city FOR the people; not to make the rich richer. Wormwood is doomed to be haunted by the cries of mothers draped over tiny pink and blue coffins. The ghosts of the elderly who could not escape the floods; whose taxes did not go to pay for levee repairs, but were instead sent to pay for bombs and bullets to murder innocent brown people overseas instead.
Yes, I have a problem with that.
Class or Race Warfare?
Hurricanes are no respecters of persons.
We expect more from people.
Was the government guilty of racial or class warfare in New Orleans?
Or both?
Could it be because that city happened to vote Democratic, that the city was allowed to be 'cleansed'. Could it be that the most prevalent class and race of the Big Easy was just an unhappy coincidence? Was it an Inconvenient truth... or a convenient truth?
All good questions that I think I can help shed some light on.
Systemic prejudice has been evident from the foundations of this country.
We wiped out whole civilizations of "savage" indians. Who wouldnt be savage if they knew they were earmarked for death? Self defense can bring out the worst in people.
Terrorism is nothing new. The government can use terror to get what they want; or rather, what the agents who put them in office want.
Gov't can use the prejudices of the people to act (or not act) in prejudicial ways; Furthermore, to get approval (or allow disapproval of tax money for the neediest)
Great disasters can be a distraction to run intercept for outrageous actions that would otherwise be spotted as incontrovertibly evil in its scope. Failure to act in an emergency situation by agents whose sole responsibility is to bring aid to the victims of said emergency; is wholly unpardonable and that agency should be deemed an accomplice. The hurricane had two official conspirators. The Army Corps of Engineers FAILED to maintain the levee system to a level adequate to the safety of
two million people of New Orleans. The pumps that kept the city dry and drinking water fresh, also malfunctioned.
These duties should be color blind. Were they?
The other conspirator, FEMA wanted us to think they were incompetant. That they were having a bad hair day. But, why should they rush in to save people from a house they set on fire? Does not one hand know what the other hand does? It really doesnt matter, when the ends justify the means. A little negligence can be expected. "The city that care forgot" was not a victim of a few bumbling missteps; FEMA withheld and forbade help to these victims. A categorically evil plan was carried out. Fresh water was denied these people; thousands died in sweltering, New Orleans summer, swamp heat.
Can we trust the government to count the bodies?
Look how irresponsible they have been with Iraqi citizens murdered, "We dont do body counts." US Army General Tommy Franks.
The way they see it the bodies are just the stuff somebody else sweeps up after their house was exterminated.
Is there any need to count dead cockroaches?
Not at all. See:
"The 8 Stages of Genocide"
Stage 3:Dehumanization
Classification and symbolization are fundamental operations in all cultures. They become steps of genocide only when combined with dehumanization. Denial of the humanity of others is the step that permits killing with impunity. The universal human abhorrence of murder of members of one's own group is overcome by treating the victims as less than human. In incitements to genocide the target groups are called disgusting animal names - Nazi propaganda called Jews "rats" or "vermin"; Rwandan Hutu hate radio referred to Tutsis as "cockroaches." The targeted group is often likened to a “disease”, “microbes”, “infections” or a “cancer” in the body politic. Bodies of genocide victims are often mutilated to express this denial of humanity. Such atrocities then become the justification for revenge killings, because they
are evidence that the killers must be monsters, not human beings themselves.
(to be continued)
We expect more from people.
Was the government guilty of racial or class warfare in New Orleans?
Or both?
Could it be because that city happened to vote Democratic, that the city was allowed to be 'cleansed'. Could it be that the most prevalent class and race of the Big Easy was just an unhappy coincidence? Was it an Inconvenient truth... or a convenient truth?
All good questions that I think I can help shed some light on.
Systemic prejudice has been evident from the foundations of this country.
We wiped out whole civilizations of "savage" indians. Who wouldnt be savage if they knew they were earmarked for death? Self defense can bring out the worst in people.
Terrorism is nothing new. The government can use terror to get what they want; or rather, what the agents who put them in office want.
Gov't can use the prejudices of the people to act (or not act) in prejudicial ways; Furthermore, to get approval (or allow disapproval of tax money for the neediest)
Great disasters can be a distraction to run intercept for outrageous actions that would otherwise be spotted as incontrovertibly evil in its scope. Failure to act in an emergency situation by agents whose sole responsibility is to bring aid to the victims of said emergency; is wholly unpardonable and that agency should be deemed an accomplice. The hurricane had two official conspirators. The Army Corps of Engineers FAILED to maintain the levee system to a level adequate to the safety of
two million people of New Orleans. The pumps that kept the city dry and drinking water fresh, also malfunctioned.
These duties should be color blind. Were they?
The other conspirator, FEMA wanted us to think they were incompetant. That they were having a bad hair day. But, why should they rush in to save people from a house they set on fire? Does not one hand know what the other hand does? It really doesnt matter, when the ends justify the means. A little negligence can be expected. "The city that care forgot" was not a victim of a few bumbling missteps; FEMA withheld and forbade help to these victims. A categorically evil plan was carried out. Fresh water was denied these people; thousands died in sweltering, New Orleans summer, swamp heat.
Can we trust the government to count the bodies?
Look how irresponsible they have been with Iraqi citizens murdered, "We dont do body counts." US Army General Tommy Franks.
The way they see it the bodies are just the stuff somebody else sweeps up after their house was exterminated.
Is there any need to count dead cockroaches?
Not at all. See:
"The 8 Stages of Genocide"
Stage 3:Dehumanization
Classification and symbolization are fundamental operations in all cultures. They become steps of genocide only when combined with dehumanization. Denial of the humanity of others is the step that permits killing with impunity. The universal human abhorrence of murder of members of one's own group is overcome by treating the victims as less than human. In incitements to genocide the target groups are called disgusting animal names - Nazi propaganda called Jews "rats" or "vermin"; Rwandan Hutu hate radio referred to Tutsis as "cockroaches." The targeted group is often likened to a “disease”, “microbes”, “infections” or a “cancer” in the body politic. Bodies of genocide victims are often mutilated to express this denial of humanity. Such atrocities then become the justification for revenge killings, because they
are evidence that the killers must be monsters, not human beings themselves.
(to be continued)
New Orleans Pursues Foreign Aid - CBS News
New Orleans Pursues Foreign Aid - CBS News
(AP) The cash-strapped city of New Orleans is turning to the rest of the world for help to rebuild as federal hurricane recovery dollars remain slow to flow.
Kenya Smith, director of intergovernmental relations for Mayor Ray Nagin, said city leaders are talking with more than five countries. He would not identify the countries, saying discussions were in the early stages. But he said the city is "very serious" about pursuing foreign help.
"Of course, we would love to have all the resources we need from federal and state partners but we're comfortable now in having to be creative," Smith said. He did not know what obstacles the city would have to overcome if it got firm pledges for aid, but "we want to make sure we're leaving no options unexplored."
"While this is not the easiest route," Smith said, "it is what it is."
For months, Nagin has complained that bureaucracy is choking the flow of much-needed federal aid dollars to New Orleans, slowing the city's recovery. As of June 8, the city said it had received just over half of the $320 million that the government has obligated for rebuilding city infrastructure and emergency response-related costs.
The city has estimated its damage at far more than that: at least $1 billion. Katrina struck Aug. 29, 2005, bursting levees and flooding 80 percent of New Orleans.
Discussions with foreign representatives have been happening on and off, but Smith said the city became re-engaged after a news report in April that millions of dollars in aid offered by foreign countries after Hurricane Katrina went unaccepted by the federal government.
It was not clear how much of the original aid offered, $854 million, remained on the table. One of the original offers came from Cuban President Fidel Castro, who proposed sending more than 1,000 medical personnel to New Orleans.
The federal government accepted about $126 million from foreign sources and encouraged some countries to give instead to private groups such as Katrina Fund sponsored by former presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice told a congressional committee last month.
Nagin said city officials are now trying to skirt the Bush administration and contact foreign governments directly "to see if we can get some of those dollars coming here."
Separately, Adam Sharp, a spokesman for U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Louisiana Democrat, said Landrieu is working with the government of Saudi Arabia on ways it can help restore New Orleans' City Park.
In addition, Landrieu joined some colleagues in asking Rice to respond to whether the United States is better positioned now to accept foreign aid should the need arise again.
© MMVII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
BlogNote:
I am posting this AP story in whole because there are several points I want to use in my college paper.
Let me know if you want me to take it down at the end of this semester!
Questions raised by this story:
How trustworthy is the "Katrina Fund sponsored by former presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush" ??
""Of course, we would love to have all the resources we need from federal and state partners but we're comfortable now in having to be creative," Smith said.
"
WHY are you comfortable with being creative? Why not hold their feet to the fire? WHY NOT go after FEMA/bush for manslaughter? The levees were not patched ON PURPOSE. Its called "Disaster Capitalism" LET IT HAPPEN, just like 911... They have a business plan waiting in the wings. For 911 it was the "New Pearl Harbor" which gave a cause for war and obscene profits for the military-Industrial-prison complex.... with Katrina they had an ethnic cleansing AND multi-billion dollar land grabbing, construction contracts, and privatization JACKPOTS!!
(AP) The cash-strapped city of New Orleans is turning to the rest of the world for help to rebuild as federal hurricane recovery dollars remain slow to flow.
Kenya Smith, director of intergovernmental relations for Mayor Ray Nagin, said city leaders are talking with more than five countries. He would not identify the countries, saying discussions were in the early stages. But he said the city is "very serious" about pursuing foreign help.
"Of course, we would love to have all the resources we need from federal and state partners but we're comfortable now in having to be creative," Smith said. He did not know what obstacles the city would have to overcome if it got firm pledges for aid, but "we want to make sure we're leaving no options unexplored."
"While this is not the easiest route," Smith said, "it is what it is."
For months, Nagin has complained that bureaucracy is choking the flow of much-needed federal aid dollars to New Orleans, slowing the city's recovery. As of June 8, the city said it had received just over half of the $320 million that the government has obligated for rebuilding city infrastructure and emergency response-related costs.
The city has estimated its damage at far more than that: at least $1 billion. Katrina struck Aug. 29, 2005, bursting levees and flooding 80 percent of New Orleans.
Discussions with foreign representatives have been happening on and off, but Smith said the city became re-engaged after a news report in April that millions of dollars in aid offered by foreign countries after Hurricane Katrina went unaccepted by the federal government.
It was not clear how much of the original aid offered, $854 million, remained on the table. One of the original offers came from Cuban President Fidel Castro, who proposed sending more than 1,000 medical personnel to New Orleans.
The federal government accepted about $126 million from foreign sources and encouraged some countries to give instead to private groups such as Katrina Fund sponsored by former presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice told a congressional committee last month.
Nagin said city officials are now trying to skirt the Bush administration and contact foreign governments directly "to see if we can get some of those dollars coming here."
Separately, Adam Sharp, a spokesman for U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Louisiana Democrat, said Landrieu is working with the government of Saudi Arabia on ways it can help restore New Orleans' City Park.
In addition, Landrieu joined some colleagues in asking Rice to respond to whether the United States is better positioned now to accept foreign aid should the need arise again.
© MMVII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
BlogNote:
I am posting this AP story in whole because there are several points I want to use in my college paper.
Let me know if you want me to take it down at the end of this semester!
Questions raised by this story:
How trustworthy is the "Katrina Fund sponsored by former presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush" ??
""Of course, we would love to have all the resources we need from federal and state partners but we're comfortable now in having to be creative," Smith said.
"
WHY are you comfortable with being creative? Why not hold their feet to the fire? WHY NOT go after FEMA/bush for manslaughter? The levees were not patched ON PURPOSE. Its called "Disaster Capitalism" LET IT HAPPEN, just like 911... They have a business plan waiting in the wings. For 911 it was the "New Pearl Harbor" which gave a cause for war and obscene profits for the military-Industrial-prison complex.... with Katrina they had an ethnic cleansing AND multi-billion dollar land grabbing, construction contracts, and privatization JACKPOTS!!
The Still Smoking Gun
A reminder of official prejudice:
Bush admin did NOT include New Orleans (see red circle)in the Official Declaration of emergency, because they KNEW there would be a cataclysmic event and a free remodel (see 75% funding underlined) of a "failed social system" should be denied. Hell, they wanted the city wiped out and rebuilt by cronies with condos and a globalist mecca for profit, and whoredoms.
The smoking gun:
[click to enlarge in same screen]
The neo-cons have abused their power in the rebuilding of New Orleans. What little funding was available for rebuilding, was abused by diverting money to charter schools, private hospitals and other forms of privatization. Keeping the citizens away kept government small and color coded (racist and republican). The New Orleans flood was allowed to happen as a cleansing of one culture to make way for another.
A city built on the blood of innocents deserves a new name.
"Corpus Insontis"**, or "Wormwood"....
Can Obama turn it around?
~gr8fuldaniel
*"The Bodies of Innocents"*
Bush admin did NOT include New Orleans (see red circle)in the Official Declaration of emergency, because they KNEW there would be a cataclysmic event and a free remodel (see 75% funding underlined) of a "failed social system" should be denied. Hell, they wanted the city wiped out and rebuilt by cronies with condos and a globalist mecca for profit, and whoredoms.
The smoking gun:
[click to enlarge in same screen]
The neo-cons have abused their power in the rebuilding of New Orleans. What little funding was available for rebuilding, was abused by diverting money to charter schools, private hospitals and other forms of privatization. Keeping the citizens away kept government small and color coded (racist and republican). The New Orleans flood was allowed to happen as a cleansing of one culture to make way for another.
A city built on the blood of innocents deserves a new name.
"Corpus Insontis"**, or "Wormwood"....
Can Obama turn it around?
~gr8fuldaniel
*"The Bodies of Innocents"*
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
The Hurricane Katrina Diaspora | Gongol.com
The Hurricane Katrina Diaspora Gongol.com: "Please note: This page contains three data sets. The first is from September 1, 2005. The second is from September 3, 2005. The third is from September 11, 2005. The final set is the most comprehensive, though no map has been generated yet due to the size of the data block collected."
BlogNote: Only 416K are accounted for in this EARLY report (Sept 05)
BlogNote: Only 416K are accounted for in this EARLY report (Sept 05)
Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog: What will happen to the New Orleans diaspora?
Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog: What will happen to the New Orleans diaspora?
What will happen to the New Orleans diaspora?
A psychologist provides a nice attempt to empathize with the horrible dislocation provided by evaporating a community of several hundred thousand into culturally very different terrain:
Imagine sending people who have been assimilated into the most stable demographic population in America into cities and towns all over the US who are as unprepared as the victims to understand their sense of dislocation and their support needs. The lower Gulf States have a language, a history, a social dynamic, a faith, a societal structure, and a ritual system unlike any other in America. These people have lived in and been acculturated to this system for generations. When the dust settles and the mud dries, we are going to see all over America, a nation that will lose patience with the needs of a foreign refugee population. Abandoned once again, the fury and the trauma that have been momentarily quieted by the outpouring of empathy and support post-crisis, will rise larger and more terrible than we have been equipped as a nation to handle. I hear it now, over and over, in the survivor stories, in the loss of self, and the need to reclaim dignity and power.
Right now, numbness is being replaced by magical thinking. "People want me here--here is better. I think I'll stay here." What is going to happen when reality sets in? The bulk of people who are planning to stay don't understand the system here. Even though we abut borders, we are a vastly different nation. At least we are southerners. What is going to happen to the thousands being sent to Connecticut or Illinois or New Jersey? They are being offered free apartments, furniture etc, by generous and well meaning people who haven't thought the long term consequences through very well. A lot of the apartments are in areas where they won't have transportation or jobs. What is going to happen six months down the road when the magic wears off and the help slowly fades? How about the holidays for a people who thrive on ritual, tradition, and celebration?
The trauma they are experiencing is so profound that we have no cultural term or machinery set up for it. The dead and nameless bodies by the thousands rotting in the water, arriving dead on the buses with them, or dying next to them in the shelters are a huge festering wound that no one dares mention. This is a true Diaspora the likes of which we haven't seen since Reconstruction. The immediate needs that are being addressed ignore the greater traumas yet to be spoken. No governmental system can survive the number of wounded and disillusioned people that we are going to see sprouting up all over America. Something far greater and more organized has to be done.
Some will move to Utah, others will spend five months in a FEMA concentration camp:
EMA will not allow any of the kitchen facilities in any of the cabins to be used by the occupants due to fire hazards. FEMA will deliver meals to the cabins. The refugees will be given two meals per day by FEMA. They will not be able to cook. In fact, the "host" goes on to explain, some churches had already enquired about whether they could come in on weekends and fix meals for the people staying in their cabin. FEMA won't allow it because there could be a situation where one cabin gets steaks and another gets hot dogs - and...
it could cause a riot. [...]
He then precedes to tell us that some churches had already enquired into whether they could send a van or bus on Sundays to pick up any occupants of their cabins who might be interested in attending church. FEMA will not allow this. The occupants of the camp cannot leave the camp for any reason. If they leave the camp they may never return. They will be issued FEMA identification cards and "a sum of money" and *they will remain within the camp for the next 5 months. [...]
My mother then asked if the churches would be allowed to come to their cabin and conduct services if the occupants wanted to attend. The response was "No ma'am. You don't understand. Your church no longer owns this building. This building is now owned by FEMA and the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. They have it for the next 5 months." This scares my mother who asks "Do you mean they have leased it?" The man replies, Yes, ma'am...lock, stock and barrel. They have taken over everything that pertains to this facility for the next 5 months." [...]
Mom appeared to have cornered the market in five counties on pop-tarts and apparently that was an acceptable snack so the guy started shoving them under the counter. He said these would be good to tied people over in between their two meals a day. But he tells my mother she must take all the breakfast cereal back. My mother protests that cereal requires no cooking. "There will be no milk, ma'am." My mother points to the huge industrial double-wide refrigerator the church had just purchased in the past year. "Ma'am, you don't understand...
It could cause a riot."
He then points to the vegetables and fruit. "You'll have to take that back as well. It looks like you've got about 10 apples there. I'm about to bring in 40 men. What would we do then?"
My mother, in her sweet, soft voice says, "Quarter them?"
"No ma'am. FEMA said no...
It could cause a riot. You don't understand the type of people that are about to come here...."
Others will wind up in jail:
A man who fled Louisiana with his family to escape Hurricane Katrina has been jailed in Atlanta for asking motorists for handouts. James Scott said he had slept in a car for days with his brother, sister and her two young children before they decided to ask for help. Nearly broke, the family drove......
more.....
New Orleans Diaspora A "Blessing"? | Planetizen
This bonehead must have been channeling Barbara "The Cow" Bush (Who, no doubt, found a silver lining to all genocides): New Orleans Diaspora A "Blessing" | Planetizen
The article is predictable from the title, above.....
I like this comment after the article:
The article is predictable from the title, above.....
I like this comment after the article:
Interesting point, but perhaps anti-urbanist and even racist
Submitted by vtboy99 on Mon, 01/22/2007 - 21:00.
While I do agree with the author's argument for dispersing concentrations of poverty and at the same time integrating disparate socioeconomic constructs, it seems as if the article is ever-so-slightly tinged with elements of anti-urbanism, and perhaps even racism.
Was the city of New Orleans unsustainable prior to Hurricane Katrina?
Or were the socioeconomic conditions which persisted for decades before the catastrophe just a direct result of the standard deindustrialization of America's urban economies? Post-industrial and globalization forces have left countess American urban neighborhoods with an aftermath of extreme segregation and concentrations of poverty and crime over the past 50 years. The author's argument for depopulating inner city neighborhoods in order to make them more sustainable could also be made for countless other districts in cities such as: St. Louis, Cleveland, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Bridgeport CT, Oakland, Detroit, Bronx NY, Gary IN, Newark, Camden, Richmond CA, etc etc.
The author is taking the typical "pro-small government", Reaganist, post-modern approach for pointing the finger in New Orleans on the "bloated, corrupt welfare state", as if there were no other social or economic factors to take into consideration. Perhaps Adam should take a course in urban economics and urban history before he attempts to write an article of such magnitude. Reality ends up being much more political and messy than the author would care to admit.
And what if a natural disaster would happen to befall upon one of those cities mentioned above? Would the author hold the same opinion regarding the support of the "emptying out" of those predominately lower income, black areas in other cities? I believe so. He is merely using the term "unsustainable" as a way of justifying the horrendous and devoid emergency response efforts after Hurricane Katrina on the part of the local, state, and federal governments in providing adequate food, shelter, and reconstruction resources to those who have called New Orleans home for countless generations.
To fill in the apparent leadership vacuum, the free market and private sectors were deliberately and intentionally allowed to guide the entire planning and redevelopment process, through the strong encouragement of George W. Bush, Ray Nagin, Kathleen Blanco, Mary Landrieu, Albert Ratner (Forrest City Partners), Joseph Canizaro, Congress for the New Urbanism, and the Urban Land Institute. Hyper-privatized, segregrated, master-planned city building, in the tradition of J.C. Nichols and his Country Club District in Kansas City. That's what is happening to New Orleans, and that's why it is completely failing. Andres Duany happens to be an outspoken supporter of J.C. Nichols; Duany even did a documentary about the guy. Scary connection!
By the way, as a side note, J.C. Nichols promoted the technique of mortgage "redlining" and restrictive covenants to segregate his affluent "communities" from Jews and Blacks. Not sure if Peter Calthorpe realized that dirty little secret when he won the J.C. Nichols "Visionaries in Urban Development" prize a few months ago. He probably did, but it really doesn't matter to him. Gotta get those "New Urbanist", transit-oriented projects built, regardless of who provides your financing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Clyde_Nichols
And now we have "New Orleans 2007". A disneyfied, predominately white, ghost of its former self. Oh, and by the way, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have decided to now call the "Big Easy" home.
Perhaps they feel it's a bit safer now...
Here's an article by Mike Davis entitled "Who is Killing New Orleans". It provides a much better take on the current state of affairs in the Crescent City.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060410/davis
A Feminist Response to LaBruzzo's Sterilization Plan | A Katrina Reader
A Feminist Response to LaBruzzo's Sterilization Plan
Date Published:
09/27/2008
For those who are not aware, on Tuesday, September 23rd, Rep. LaBruzzo of Metarie, Louisiana (a suburb of New Orleans) made the statement that, so that Louisiana wouldn't be in an economic crisis, he's looking to propose a bill to "voluntarily" sterilize the number of people he feels are dependent on the government as a way to decrease the state burden.
Attached is the official response from the WHJI and the NOWHC, as well as two articles that appeared in local newspapers within a day of LaBruzzos racially and gendered coded statement.
An Intersectional, Reproductive Justice Feminist Response to LaBruzzo's Sterilization Plan . . .
The Women's Health & Justice Initiative[1] and the New Orleans Women's Health Clinic[2] condemn Representative John LaBruzzo's recent legislative plans to pay poor women to get sterilized and reward rich, educated people to have children. The sterilization policy currently being advocated by Representative LaBruzzo is a blatant form of reproductive violence and population control policies of blame and disenfranchisement, rooted in this country's long and continual history of eugenics. The legislation and criminalization of black and poor women's bodies, sexuality, fertility, and motherhood are being used as regulatory tools for economic and ideological justification for eugenics. If Mr. LaBruzzo is really concerned about ending poverty and reducing social burdens on the state, he would not be advocating punitive social polices that restrict women's reproductive autonomy, but instead would be focusing his attention on ending corporate welfare and holding the corporate giants of Wall Street accountable for the disastrous state of the country's economy. Stigmatizing and blaming the bodies and reproductive capabilities of black and poor women, and other marginalized communities, as the cause of poverty, mask Representative LaBruzzo's unwillingness to fully examine the complex structural causes of poverty and inequality in our society. Reproductive violence and sterilization abuse at the hands of elected officials should be challenged and condemned. Women receiving public assistance and housing subsidies have RIGHT to have or not have children, as well as the RIGHT to parent the children they do have and control their birthing options[3] without punitive racial discrimination and economic exploitation policies designed to denied their RIGHT to exist and achieve full protection of their human rights. All women, regardless of their race, sexuality, ability, household size, economic, housing, and citizenship status, have the right to live whole healthy lives free of control, violence, regulation, and coercive social policies designed to exploit their economic vulnerability for sterilization and contraception abuse.
Social justice organizations, activists, organizers, and advocates are encouraged to use the following as talking points challenging Representative John LaBruzzo's eugenic agenda.
Eugenics, Reproductive Violence, Population Control, and Sterilization Abuse
The sterilization policy currently being advocated by Representative John LaBruzzo is a...
more.....
ANOTHER God Damned Nazi Republican. May he get cancer and his wifes womb be barren. shitbag.
Date Published:
09/27/2008
For those who are not aware, on Tuesday, September 23rd, Rep. LaBruzzo of Metarie, Louisiana (a suburb of New Orleans) made the statement that, so that Louisiana wouldn't be in an economic crisis, he's looking to propose a bill to "voluntarily" sterilize the number of people he feels are dependent on the government as a way to decrease the state burden.
Attached is the official response from the WHJI and the NOWHC, as well as two articles that appeared in local newspapers within a day of LaBruzzos racially and gendered coded statement.
An Intersectional, Reproductive Justice Feminist Response to LaBruzzo's Sterilization Plan . . .
The Women's Health & Justice Initiative[1] and the New Orleans Women's Health Clinic[2] condemn Representative John LaBruzzo's recent legislative plans to pay poor women to get sterilized and reward rich, educated people to have children. The sterilization policy currently being advocated by Representative LaBruzzo is a blatant form of reproductive violence and population control policies of blame and disenfranchisement, rooted in this country's long and continual history of eugenics. The legislation and criminalization of black and poor women's bodies, sexuality, fertility, and motherhood are being used as regulatory tools for economic and ideological justification for eugenics. If Mr. LaBruzzo is really concerned about ending poverty and reducing social burdens on the state, he would not be advocating punitive social polices that restrict women's reproductive autonomy, but instead would be focusing his attention on ending corporate welfare and holding the corporate giants of Wall Street accountable for the disastrous state of the country's economy. Stigmatizing and blaming the bodies and reproductive capabilities of black and poor women, and other marginalized communities, as the cause of poverty, mask Representative LaBruzzo's unwillingness to fully examine the complex structural causes of poverty and inequality in our society. Reproductive violence and sterilization abuse at the hands of elected officials should be challenged and condemned. Women receiving public assistance and housing subsidies have RIGHT to have or not have children, as well as the RIGHT to parent the children they do have and control their birthing options[3] without punitive racial discrimination and economic exploitation policies designed to denied their RIGHT to exist and achieve full protection of their human rights. All women, regardless of their race, sexuality, ability, household size, economic, housing, and citizenship status, have the right to live whole healthy lives free of control, violence, regulation, and coercive social policies designed to exploit their economic vulnerability for sterilization and contraception abuse.
Social justice organizations, activists, organizers, and advocates are encouraged to use the following as talking points challenging Representative John LaBruzzo's eugenic agenda.
Eugenics, Reproductive Violence, Population Control, and Sterilization Abuse
The sterilization policy currently being advocated by Representative John LaBruzzo is a...
more.....
ANOTHER God Damned Nazi Republican. May he get cancer and his wifes womb be barren. shitbag.
A Katrina Reader | Readings by & for Anti-Racist Educators and Organizers
A Katrina Reader Readings by & for Anti-Racist Educators and Organizers
A PERSPECTIVE ON ANTI-RACIST KATRINA SOLIDARITY:
This reader is compiled by a team of white anti-racist solidarity activists. We believe that:
The U.S. government left the African American people of New Orleans to die -- before, during and after Katrina;
African American and indigenous peoples of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast resisted the government’s deadly practices, and continue to resist, as they have for centuries;
All Katrina Survivors have the Right to Return; and the Right to Rebuild their communities with self-determination and racial, economic, gender, environmental, ability and global justice;
A committed, organized, strategic and sustained mass movement has the potential power to hold the government accountable for its genocidal practice, past and present; and to force it to respect and protect the human rights of all Katrina Survivors;
This movement for the Right of Return and to Rebuild will be led by those most affected by Katrina and by governmental policies: African American, Latin@ and Vietnamese communities, and indigenous nations. It will also require multi-racial, multi-generational, national and international solidarity to win;
The Katrina survivors’ struggle for justice and self-determination will last for decades. The solidarity movement must be built to last for decades also;
The grassroots racial justice movement in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast may become the catalyst for a Third Reconstruction;
The power of the people united will never be defeated! Another world is possible.
A PERSPECTIVE ON ANTI-RACIST KATRINA SOLIDARITY:
This reader is compiled by a team of white anti-racist solidarity activists. We believe that:
The U.S. government left the African American people of New Orleans to die -- before, during and after Katrina;
African American and indigenous peoples of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast resisted the government’s deadly practices, and continue to resist, as they have for centuries;
All Katrina Survivors have the Right to Return; and the Right to Rebuild their communities with self-determination and racial, economic, gender, environmental, ability and global justice;
A committed, organized, strategic and sustained mass movement has the potential power to hold the government accountable for its genocidal practice, past and present; and to force it to respect and protect the human rights of all Katrina Survivors;
This movement for the Right of Return and to Rebuild will be led by those most affected by Katrina and by governmental policies: African American, Latin@ and Vietnamese communities, and indigenous nations. It will also require multi-racial, multi-generational, national and international solidarity to win;
The Katrina survivors’ struggle for justice and self-determination will last for decades. The solidarity movement must be built to last for decades also;
The grassroots racial justice movement in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast may become the catalyst for a Third Reconstruction;
The power of the people united will never be defeated! Another world is possible.
Oprah Katrina Homes - Oprah.com
Oprah Katrina Homes - Oprah.com
Oprahs website is a lot of fluff so its hard to find what she has done to bring people home to New Orleans.
It appears NOTHING!
She is building some houses in Houston, TX and some more in Houma, LA about 60 miles from New orleans. Map (Houma is lower left, New Orleans upper right)
I am surprised Oprah didnt use any of her powerful influence to repair New Orleans.
The land grab continues.
Obama retracted his damning words for bush.
Oprahs website is a lot of fluff so its hard to find what she has done to bring people home to New Orleans.
It appears NOTHING!
She is building some houses in Houston, TX and some more in Houma, LA about 60 miles from New orleans. Map (Houma is lower left, New Orleans upper right)
I am surprised Oprah didnt use any of her powerful influence to repair New Orleans.
The land grab continues.
Obama retracted his damning words for bush.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
View revision differences
Barack Obama used harsh language to condemn the broken promises of his predecessor gwbush;
Then a week later the official statement was scrubbed
Then a week later the official statement was scrubbed
View revision differences
(Legend: DELETED)
Barack Obama used harsh language to condemn the broken promises of his
predecessor gwbush;
Then a week later the official statement was scrubbed
ORIGINAL:
Katrina
President Obama will keep the broken promises made by President Bush to rebuild New
Orleans and the Gulf Coast. He and Vice President Biden will take steps to
ensure that the federal government will never again allow such catastrophic
failures in emergency planning and response to occur.
President Obama swiftly responded to Hurricane Katrina.
Citing the Bush Administration's "unconscionable ineptitude" in responding to
Hurricane Katrina, then-Senator Obama introduced legislation
requiring disaster planners to take into account the specific needs of
low-income hurricane victims. Obama visited thousands of Hurricane survivors in
the Houston Convention Center and later took three more trips to the region. He
worked with members of the Congressional Black Caucus to introduce legislation
to address the immediate income, employment, business, and housing needs of Gulf
Coast communities.
President Barack Obama will partner with the people of the
Gulf Coast to rebuild now, stronger than ever.
Friday, April 3, 2009
War Against the Weak
War Against the Weak by Edwin Black
How American corporate philanthropies launched a national campaign of ethnic cleansing in the United States, helped found and fund the Nazi eugenics of Hitler and Mengele — and then created the modern movement of "human genetics."
In the first three decades of the 20th Century, American corporate philanthropy combined with prestigious academic fraud to create the pseudoscience eugenics that institutionalized race politics as national policy. The goal: create a superior, white, Nordic race and obliterate the viability of everyone else.
How? By identifying so-called "defective" family trees and subjecting them to legislated segregation and sterilization programs. The victims: poor people, brown-haired white people, African Americans, immigrants, Indians, Eastern European Jews, the infirm and really anyone classified outside the superior genetic lines drawn up by American raceologists. The main culprits were the Carnegie Institution, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Harriman railroad fortune, in league with America's most respected scientists hailing from such prestigious universities as Harvard, Yale and Princeton, operating out of a complex at Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island. The eugenic network worked in tandem with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the State Department and numerous state governmental bodies and legislatures throughout the country, and even the U.S. Supreme Court. They were all bent on breeding a eugenically superior race, just as agronomists would breed better strains of corn. The plan was to wipe away the reproductive capability of the weak and inferior.
Ultimately, 60,000 Americans were coercively sterilized — legally and extra-legally. Many never discovered the truth until decades later. Those who actively supported eugenics include America's most progressive figures: Woodrow Wilson, Margaret Sanger and Oliver Wendell Holmes.
American eugenic crusades proliferated into a worldwide campaign, and in the 1920s came to the attention of Adolf Hitler. Under the Nazis, American eugenic principles were applied without restraint, careening out of control into the Reich's infamous genocide. During the pre-War years, American eugenicists openly supported Germany's program. The Rockefeller Foundation financed the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute and the work of its central racial scientists. Once WWII began, Nazi eugenics turned from mass sterilization and euthanasia to genocidal murder. One of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute doctors in the program financed by the Rockefeller Foundation was Josef Mengele who continued his research in Auschwitz, making daily eugenic reports on twins. After the world recoiled from Nazi atrocities, the American eugenics movement — its institutions and leading scientists — renamed and regrouped under the banner of an enlightened science called human genetics.
See link in margin to buy the book
How American corporate philanthropies launched a national campaign of ethnic cleansing in the United States, helped found and fund the Nazi eugenics of Hitler and Mengele — and then created the modern movement of "human genetics."
In the first three decades of the 20th Century, American corporate philanthropy combined with prestigious academic fraud to create the pseudoscience eugenics that institutionalized race politics as national policy. The goal: create a superior, white, Nordic race and obliterate the viability of everyone else.
How? By identifying so-called "defective" family trees and subjecting them to legislated segregation and sterilization programs. The victims: poor people, brown-haired white people, African Americans, immigrants, Indians, Eastern European Jews, the infirm and really anyone classified outside the superior genetic lines drawn up by American raceologists. The main culprits were the Carnegie Institution, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Harriman railroad fortune, in league with America's most respected scientists hailing from such prestigious universities as Harvard, Yale and Princeton, operating out of a complex at Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island. The eugenic network worked in tandem with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the State Department and numerous state governmental bodies and legislatures throughout the country, and even the U.S. Supreme Court. They were all bent on breeding a eugenically superior race, just as agronomists would breed better strains of corn. The plan was to wipe away the reproductive capability of the weak and inferior.
Ultimately, 60,000 Americans were coercively sterilized — legally and extra-legally. Many never discovered the truth until decades later. Those who actively supported eugenics include America's most progressive figures: Woodrow Wilson, Margaret Sanger and Oliver Wendell Holmes.
American eugenic crusades proliferated into a worldwide campaign, and in the 1920s came to the attention of Adolf Hitler. Under the Nazis, American eugenic principles were applied without restraint, careening out of control into the Reich's infamous genocide. During the pre-War years, American eugenicists openly supported Germany's program. The Rockefeller Foundation financed the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute and the work of its central racial scientists. Once WWII began, Nazi eugenics turned from mass sterilization and euthanasia to genocidal murder. One of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute doctors in the program financed by the Rockefeller Foundation was Josef Mengele who continued his research in Auschwitz, making daily eugenic reports on twins. After the world recoiled from Nazi atrocities, the American eugenics movement — its institutions and leading scientists — renamed and regrouped under the banner of an enlightened science called human genetics.
See link in margin to buy the book
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