Rich Whites Plot to Prevent Blacks from Returning to NO

[Teaser]

Chilling. We cannot allow this plan to stand.

"The green expanse of Audubon Park, in the city's Uptown area, has doubled in recent days as a heliport for the city's rich -- and a terminus for the small armies of private security guards who have been dispatched to keep the homes there safe and habitable. Mr. O'Dwyer has cellphone service and ice cubes to cool off his highballs in the evening. By yesterday, the city water service even sprang to life, making the daily trips to his neighbor's pool unnecessary. A pair of oil-company engineers, dispatched by his son-in-law, delivered four cases of water, a box of delicacies including herring with mustard sauce and 15 gallons of generator gasoline."

How do they want the city rebuilt?

"The power elite of New Orleans -- whether they are still in the city or have moved temporarily to enclaves such as Destin, Fla., and Vail, Colo. -- insist the remade city won't simply restore the old order. New Orleans before the flood was burdened by a teeming underclass, substandard schools and a high crime rate. The city has few corporate headquarters.

"The new city must be something very different, Mr. Reiss says, with better services and fewer poor people. "Those who want to see this city rebuilt want to see it done in a completely different way: demographically, geographically and politically," he says. "I'm not just speaking for myself here. The way we've been living is not going to happen again, or we're out."

I'm going to be writing a lot more about this. New Orleans, if it is rebuilt, must remain the beacon of culture and life it once was. Or at least, it must echo that life.

[Burma Jones]

1. Oh Lovely, A Disney-fied NO, or worse, Houston East.....

So, where will all the "servants" live, eh, St Bernards?

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. Exactly. They will put up a gate with a sign on it that says

"No Indigent People: (Po' folk, that mean y'all.)"

------------------------------------------------------
Ditch Bu$h and save the Gulf: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=106&topic_id=22507&mesg_id=22507

Then save the nation!
http://timeforachange.bluelemur.com/electionreform.htm

[saigon68]

109. ITS THE CLOROX PROJECT (A plan to whiten up New Orleans)

Fewer welfare queens and crack sellers </sarcasm>

[GreenPartyVoter]

110. Yep, that is the perfect name for it

------------------------------------------------------
Ditch Bu$h and save the Gulf: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=106&topic_id=22507&mesg_id=22507

Then save the nation!
http://timeforachange.bluelemur.com/electionreform.htm

[Mnemosyne]

135. At quick glance I thought you wrote,

"No intelligent people"!
On second thought I may not be too far off.

[Bridget Burke]

17. Houston has dawbacks but we're quite diverse.

I'm sure NO's upper crust hope many non-whites will choose to stay here.

And Houston is not Disneyfied at ALL!

[KamaAina]

33. I have done a complete 360 on Houston.

Instead of a soulless, corporate, car-dependent, red-state Enronville, I am now envisioning the place that has been Number One in resettling our people, including my buddy who works for the city of N.O.; the GLBT center there has set up an office for him!

Much obliged, y'all. Texas-bashing off.

[Nothing Without Hope]

72. Thanks from this native Texan (though living in MA). Houston is not

my favorite Texan city, but there is a deep and honest kindness in Texans that comes out easily. (Though much, much more needs to be done in working toward fair and open race/class interactions, as in other areas.) I love New England, but Texas will always feel like home. By the way, the distinctive and devastatingly funny Texan sense of humor often - by design - goes over the heads of people in the other parts of the country (except the deep South - they understand).

Despite the hatefulness of the Bushes and Delay and the other neocons who claim Texas as their home, I hope the evacuees find a warm welcome "deep in the heart of Texas." I believe they will.

[Burma Jones]

89. Yep, I used to live in Houston and you're diverse

But it (and pretty much every other US City) lacks the French-ness that makes N'awlins as great a place as it is. I cited Houston because it has a similar mix of industries and is the nearest major city to NO.

No offense to Texans, there is much to love in Texas and I am sorry if you were offended. And you are absolutely right, Houston ain't Disney-fied.

I think that the re-building will be done in a very coordinated way which will ruin the hodge-podge that makes up all of our interesting cities. I suppose that's to be expected, you can't replicate a couple centuries of development in a decade, but the redevelopment ought to be distributed to as many organizations as feasible to at least attempt some different approaches in rebuilding neighborhoods....

[mattclearing]

35. I've been calling it New Orlando. n/t

[KansDem]

43. Here...

The American Economic Gulag
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1762987&mesg_id=1763613

[kath]

134. Or Las Vegas East??

[aquart]

2. God, how stupid. Welcome to Sandusky South.

[displacedtexan]

4. Much of New Orleans had an indescribable mystique...

When you walked through many parts of town, you wondered what might be going on behind each door.

Rebuilding NO to look like Celebration, Florida would forever bury that singular mystique.

[Mutley]

5. Gee, Mr. O'Dwyer, why don't you tell us how you really feel?

Why not come out and say, "I want New Orleans to be rebuilt without the n-----s,"? At least be honest.

[oasis]

6. "It's Giulliani time"

[Ganja Ninja]

7. Of course that's why they're shipping them all over the country.

These people won't ever be able to get up enough money to go back to NO. Even if they could the place will be condemned as a hazardous waste site and will be filled over and brought up to sea level at tax payer expense. Then the vacant land will handed over free to Bush friendly developers.
And I guarantee that Bush is keeping track of every penny they give to families and individuals and will be billing them later to try and recoup the money. At the same time you know they'll lose track of several billion dollars in reconstruction funds.

[liberal N proud]

9. B-I-N-G-O!

Leave them dispersed all over the US with no means or plans to return them to their homes.
Many have been plucked from their ancestral homes.

[Child_Of_Isis]

11. These folks could disappear off of the face of the earth.

One by one. Over a period of months. Who would know it? Who would believe the story if it were told? An entire family disappears...no, they are not "missing", they have been "relocated".

Okay, I'll admit to being a conspiracy theorist.:P

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Teaser]

20. I think you are

talking about different people than your antecedant. At least, I hope so! :)

[undergroundpanther]

28. Talking about the rich racist pigs

THEY need to DIE.

[Trevelyan]

107. FEMA Deliberately Sabotaging Hurricane Relief Efforts

Multiple parishes revolt, use armed guards to defend against feds

Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones | September 6 2005

Numerous credible sources have come forward with examples of how the FederalEmergency Management Agency is deliberately sabotaging Hurricane Katrina relief efforts in New Orleans. This represents a ruthless attempt on the part of FEMA to impose a federal takeover of the area for their own benefit amid a tragedy that has already claimed anything up to 10,000 lives.

The mainstream media has picked up on this story but is whitewashing it as just another 'failure' of the federal government in dealing with the crisis.In reality the actions are part of a coordinated campaign to deepen the scope of the disaster in order to force through bumper funding increases for FEMA.

Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard (pictured below) appeared on Meet the Press Sunday and broke down in tears as he described FEMA's criminal activities."We have been abandoned by our own country. Hurricane Katrina will go down in history as one of the worst storms ever to hit an American coast, but the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina will go down as one of the worst abandonments of Americans on American soil ever in U.S. history."

We had Wal-Mart deliver three trucks of water, trailer trucks of water. FEMA turned them back. They said we didn't need them. This was a week ago. FEMA--we had 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel on a Coast Guard vessel docked in my parish. The Coast Guard said, "Come get the fuel right away." When we got there with ourtrucks, they got a word. "FEMA says don't give you the fuel."

Yesterday--yesterday--FEMA comes in and cuts all of our emergency communication lines. They cut them without notice. Our sheriff, Harry Lee, goes back in, he reconnects the line. He posts armed guards on our line and says, "No one is getting near these lines."

Why would FEMA, an organization supposedly tasked with helping in a time of crisis, deliberately cut police communication lines? This is a blatant example of sabotage and a sick push to make the disaster worse. In carrying out these actions, FEMA are no better than the animals who shot at rescue workers and helicopters.

Watch the video of the Meet the Press interview.

The mission of FEMA has never in reality been to bring people food and water and help in times of crisis. Alex Jones has attended numerous FEMA drills where the whole point of the exercise is to round people up, break up families and institute a brutal police state crackdown.

FEMA need to create a chaotic atmosphere in New Orleans so they can legitimize what they are doing.We now have multiple reports of police being ordered to guard key infrastructures in order to defend them from FEMA federal agents. Sheriffs in numerous different counties are guarding highways to keep FEMA out. FEMA is being treated as the enemy because they are sabotaging key facilities in an effort to intentionally worsen the already desperate scenes of horror in New Orleans.

FEMA is sabotaging lines of communication so their activities cannot be exposed to the wider relief authorities and the media. Commenting on the sabotage by FEMA of communication lines, Washington insider

Wayne Madsen states,

"Jamming radio and other communications such as television signals is part of a Pentagon tactic called "information blockade" or "technology blockade." The tactic is one of a number of such operations that are part of the doctrine of "information warfare" and is one of the psychological operations (PSYOPS) methods used by the US Special Operations Command."

Radio host Carol Baker who has been tracking the FEMA sabotage stated that Plaquemines Parish Sheriff Jeff Hingle had his deputies patrol the county line under orders not to let FEMA in.As is discussed in the Meet the Press interview, Jefferson Parish Sheriff Harry Lee also has armed guards patrolling the county line in order to prevent the FEMA sabotage.

FEMA has a number of executive orders that outline the total federal takeover of any US city.For a full synopsis of FEMA's executive orders in light of the hurricane, click here.

FEMA is clearly using this human catastrophe as a means of executing its decade long plans and providing the pretext for future takeover scenarios of all major American cities.Amongst a litany of government inaction and outright dereliction, this is the most alarming evidence to emerge yet that clearly indicates an agenda for the federal government to profit and expand its power from exploiting the aftermath of the hurricane.

[SoCalDem]

12. Fauxtopia, Louisiana (the New-New orleans)

Poor people have no place anymore in the New² Orleans.. It will be Stepford meets Disney with a nod to Vegas. It will be a faux city...sanitized and stage-managed.

There will be plenty of "newly-poor"..you know the ones.. the ones who used to be sort of middle class before Katrina did them in. They will be more than happy to live in crackerbox (but pretty) apartments just outside New² Orleans. They will commute into town to wait tables, cut hair, sweep up, mix drinks, change hotel sheets and sell lattes, and then at night they will leave Fauxtopia , LA.

Part of Fauxtopia will be closed off to the tourists. the oily parts and commercial parts will no doubt be located in a single area, that can do as it chooses without the pesky democratic leadership of old.. The ones who worried about pollution and regulations.

The poor were sent far and wide so that they would never again be a UNIT. They will never again be a voting bloc.

The land their old places stood on, will be parceled out to fatcats who will erect condos, townhouses and hotels.. The poor will not be able to afford to reutrn, and even if they did, they would not be able to afford to actually LIVE there again..

There will be no housing for the poor in Fauxoptia, LA.

[Virginian]

30. Donate to Habitat for Humanity. n/t

[JanusAscending]

103. It sounds more like they want it to be another SOUTH AFRICA

BEFORE NELSON MANDELLA!!!:grr:

[SoCalDem]

116. Servant class dutifully serving the ruling class

:puke:

harkens back to a time gone by,when things were "good" for the moneyed classes

[saigon68]

120. As in " Massa are your eggs done right ?"

[raccoon]

124. Sounds like Hilton Head, SC, especially the part about

people commuting in to work.

I've read that some people commute long distances--by bus--to work as slaves, I mean servants, in Hilton Head.

[txindy]

21. That certainly appears to be the most likely scenario

Eminent Domain will be used to take the land.

[kittykitty]

26. You betcha'! My friend thinks they deliberately let this happen so they

could develop those portions of NO that are wrecked. Bulldoze houses and burn it all up. All that land (toxic as it may be) to create who knows what? Al built with cheap Mexican labor. LIHOP

[FreedomAngel82]

52. Of course

And of course Halliburton will be leading the way with the "rebuilding". It's so disgusting.

[raccoon]

125. You got that right. nt

[Maple]

8. Link?

[TahitiNut]

15. Here's a link ...

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05251/567892.stm

[MildyRules]

10. That's appalling!!

Where did you find it?

[undergroundpanther]

13. Narcisstistic EVIL people

Need a good stomping .If THIS is what they do with thier money.. Franklty they do not deserve to have it. THe rich MUST be taxed and taxed and taxed to LIMIT thier greed and power they do not want to limit by themselves,because they are SICK,lest they create hell on Earth for 99% of the rest of us..The wealthy are our moral INFERIORS.

[Ganja Ninja]

32. Yup that's the answer - tax the shit out of them!

Take as much money as you can from them so they don't have it to buy politicians and TV networks.

[G_j]

16. "..developers, doing a break dance at this moment .."

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/09/07/1415225

BEVERLY WRIGHT: (founder and Director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice at Dillard University in New Orleans, LA.)

Yes. I believe that New Orleans will be rebuilt, because New Orleans is a world class city. I believe, however, that these questions are posed because of the way that New Orleans is being perceived at the present moment. And that is that it is a city that had a majority African American population, and that that population is acting in a way that's – that we shouldn't – less civilized than what we should be acting under these times of duress, so people are saying, ‘Well, maybe we shouldn't build it.’

On the other hand, I really believe that developers, some of them, are doing a break dance at this moment as they watch so many African Americans being removed from the city, of course, because of these circumstances, because now they will have a chance to rebuild it the way that they would like to build it, and that is without us. You hear people say that the city of New Orleans will be bigger, it will be better, it will be stronger. And we also know that the plan is for it to be whiter. And that is one of the reasons that those of us who are scattered all over do plan to return. We are in the process of trying to organize in some way that we will be at the table for the rebuilding of our particular community, but what is happening in New Orleans and the way some of it is being reported is no different from the way we were being reported before the hurricane. And so, you basically have all of the prejudice and racist kinds of feelings that people have about us being played out in the media now.

<snip>
Curtis Muhammad: (a veteran Student Non-Violent Cooordinating Committee organizer and co-founder of Community Labor United.)


...I don't think that there is a desire of the leadership of this Project New Orleans to bring those poor people back. They're scattering them as far as California. 300 have arrived in a school, a former teacher of mine. They are all the way up in D.C. These are poor people.
If they find a way to live, they are going to stay there.

If the people rise up, which we are pushing for, this is part of what our meeting is about, if the people demand oversight and transparency of all funds collected on their behalf and make priority the reintegration and the construction of places to live for displaced people, rather than casinos and hotels and condominiums, the people will come back.

[raccoon]

126. And the people who are saying this....

"...a city that had a majority African American population, and that that population is acting in a way that's – that we shouldn't – less civilized than what we should be acting under these times of duress, so people are saying, ‘Well, maybe we shouldn't build it.’ "

..would of course, be acting like perfectly well-behaved ladies and gentlemen, Boy & Girl Scouts, under those hellish conditions.

Nobody ever knows how they'd act in a given situation UNTIL THE RUBBER MEETS THE ROAD and they are in that situation themselves.

What a crock, what an absolute crock.

[Sandpiper]

18. They want a giant Gated Community

Blissfully free of darkies, po' folks, and other "undesirables."

[DURHAM D]

19. I can hear / see the 10:00 pm parade down Canal and Bourban

Street now. Mickey singing to Minnie "Is you is or is you ain't my baby ?"

[G_j]

22. "New Orleans: A Geopolitical Prize"

http://www.stratfor.com/news/archive/050903-geopolitics_katrina.php

New Orleans: A Geopolitical Prize

By George Friedman

September 01, 2005 22 30 GMT -- The American political system was founded in Philadelphia, but the American nation was built on the vast farmlands that stretch from the Alleghenies to the Rockies. That farmland produced the wealth that funded American industrialization: It permitted the formation of a class of small landholders who, amazingly, could produce more than they could consume. They could sell their excess crops in the east and in Europe and save that money, which eventually became the founding capital of American industry.

But it was not the extraordinary land nor the farmers and ranchers who alone set the process in motion. Rather, it was geography -- the extraordinary system of rivers that flowed through the Midwest and allowed them to ship their surplus to the rest of the world. All of the rivers flowed into one -- the Mississippi -- and the Mississippi flowed to the ports in and around one city: New Orleans. It was in New Orleans that the barges from upstream were unloaded and their cargos stored, sold and reloaded on ocean-going vessels. Until last Sunday, New Orleans was, in many ways, the pivot of the American economy.

<snip>

The ports of South Louisiana and New Orleans, which run north and south of the city, are as important today as at any point during the history of the republic. On its own merit, the Port of South Louisiana is the largest port in the United States by tonnage and the fifth-largest in the world. It exports more than 52 million tons a year, of which more than half are agricultural products -- corn, soybeans and so on. A larger proportion of U.S. agriculture flows out of the port. Almost as much cargo, nearly 57 million tons, comes in through the port -- including not only crude oil, but chemicals and fertilizers, coal, concrete and so on.

A simple way to think about the New Orleans port complex is that it is where the bulk commodities of agriculture go out to the world and the bulk commodities of industrialism come in. The commodity chain of the global food industry starts here, as does that of American industrialism. If these facilities are gone, more than the price of goods shifts: The very physical structure of the global economy would have to be reshaped. Consider the impact to the U.S. auto industry if steel doesn't come up the river, or the effect on global food supplies if U.S. corn and soybeans don't get to the markets.


<snip>

[Karmadillo]

23. What a deal,huh? First the ruling elite refuses to protect NO

from destruction by spending $14 billion of the nation's money to restore wetlands and rebuild levees. Then it gets to spend $100s of billions of the nation's money to build a New Orleans to its liking. Every day is fun day when you're never held accountable for your actions.

[moondust]

24. Historian Douglas Brinkley was on Aaron Brown

a couple nights ago. He is director of the Eisenhower Center in New Orleans.

BROWN: You know, it, Doug, it's easy, I don't know if it's easy, but it's easier, to build buildings again. I mean, you take a lot of money and you can build buildings and the French Quarter can be the French Quarter and it's the math.

I wonder if you think that the culture of New Orleans, this most unique of American cities, has been destroyed.

BRINKLEY: No, because culture's in the souls of people, and it's -- it means something to be from New Orleans. I can't tell you how many -- you talk about jazz, it's not just going to a jazz museum or a jazz club. It's in the schools of New Orleans, the people that you see in the Astrodome, or you're seeing in Baton Rouge, they have that spirit, that free expression which jazz is the world's great gift of democracy all over, the concept of the spontaneity and expressing oneself through music.

New Orleans is one of the most-loved cities in the world. It's not really even an American city. It's an international heritage site. And that energy of those people and that soulfulness of those human beings are around, and they're going to stay in New Orleans.

And on a purely architectural note, the French Quarter's in pretty good shape. So are the historic homes up St. Charles and what's known as uptown, or Audubon Park, Tulane University, area. So some of it, tourism, which is number one industry in town, is intact, what people come to New Orleans to see.

What's been destroyed, and what, the tragedy of New Orleans, is one of neglect. It's, you know, we, some people call New Orleans the Big Easy. But the other term (INAUDIBLE) the city time forgot. And one of the charms of New Orleans was its Mom and Pop stores and this kind of localism.

And I'm afraid some of that has been taken away. And I hope we -- it doesn't get rebuilt in a strip-mall fast-food franchisey way, because New Orleans has always kept an individual identity as an international port city. And I hope and pray that it'll continue to remain as such.

Transcript

[demo dutch]

63. It all depends on the vision of the city, hopefully there will be

enough input into the city planning and they don't rush into the rebuilding process. Otherwise I envision miles and miles of cement blocks surrounding the French Quarter

[nuxvomica]

122. Minor note: "The City that Care forgot"

That's the old term for New Orleans that I think Brinkley was trying to think of. I'm surprised I haven't seen it referred to that way in any coverage but it is kind of ambiguous and I guess some folks think it's derogatory.

[Straight Shooter]

25. There was a very good reason that the French Revolution occurred.

A very good reason, indeed, that the aristocrats were systematically driven out and guillotined.

Who would have thought that New Orleans would have such a disgusting underbelly of low-life as these white folks.

[Sarojin]

68. Anyone who's spent more than an hour there would have n/t

[aquart]

80. Guillotine. A fine and useful invention.

We should build some.

[IndyOp]

27. I have a pretty simple solution for the rich of New Orleans -

if you don't want the way you had been living to happen again - consider letting the 'underclass' in on some of the action - good schools, healthcare, decent homes and jobs. You would have a completely different demographic AND you might get into heaven.

Remember: It is harder for a rich man to get into heaven than it is for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle.

:grr: :nuke:

[undergroundpanther]

34. These pigs don't want that

Because the underclass with the resources given would OUTSHINE THEM as people, and be better people than the rich are,they'd use the money to make the world a better place and do great things the rich egomaniacs will not or cannot do. These white rich pigs are SICK morally bankrupt narcissists and bullies. They bully with their hoarding of wealth bullies bully because they can't do.. These rich pigs can't handle equality and anything that brings up the underclass more scares tHe FUCK out of these classist racist control freak MORALLY INFERIOR wealthy evil hearted racist people.It means they are UNFIT human beings.And do not deserve their comforts and they know they would lose their privileges.They'll never admit that especially to themselves narcissists are incapable of introspection. Better these rich thugs be wiped off the EArth,I wish there was an incurable racist rich man plague.

[Southpaw Bookworm]

48. Right on, UP

They know that couldn't compete if there playing board was level.

[IndyOp]

112. Hey UP - have you considered you running for congress?

I want more Dems with Bloody Knuckles!

[T Town Jake]

29. Yep. And "eminent domain" as unleashed by SCOTUS...

...in the Kelo ruling a few months back is just how they're going to "rebuild" NO into the perfect little Tom & Daisy Buchanan enclave, free of all those "troublesome" poor people. The fact that most of them were from minority communities is just icing on the cake to these asshats.

:puke:

Quick! Where are all those so-called "liberals" who were praising the Kelo ruling to the rafters as a fount of "progressive" jurisprudence (and flaming those who disagreed with freeper accusations) a few months back? I'd sure like to hear from them at this juncture...

[FreedomAngel82]

54. It is interesting

It is interesting that they had that ruiling earlier this year and scientists have been predicting this event for years and then a few days after the event happened Halliburton got the contract to rebuild and FEMA kept people out from rescuing and now they're transporting them to various places around the country. It's all very interesting and suspecious.

[MN ChimpH8R]

31. What the $#&*

"Mr. O'Dwyer has cellphone service and ice cubes to cool off his highballs in the evening. By yesterday, the city water service even sprang to life, making the daily trips to his neighbor's pool unnecessary. A pair of oil-company engineers, dispatched by his son-in-law, delivered four cases of water, a box of delicacies including herring with mustard sauce and 15 gallons of generator gasoline."

That arrogant SOB should be introduced to this piece of equipment:

[undergroundpanther]

37. Make sure it's sharp

Because these people are stiff necked ,stone hearted ,lizard skinned thugs. I bet as thier evil head went into the basket there would be no blood.

[Chovexani]

36. They're gonna turn it into South Branson, I know it

And keep all the people out who actually made the place interesting.

[Ron Green]

60. It's been heading that way for a while.

Back in my New Orleans stompin' days, in the '60s and '70s, there were not the constant madding mobs down Bourbon Street, and some of the real charm of the city shone through. In recent years it has seemed to be more a frat-party, street-puking kind of scene, as if to grab the trappings of Mardi Gras without any of the cultural background.

I don't have much hope for a 21st-Century recapturing of the unique conditions that spawned New Orleans.

[opihimoimoi]

38. Neo Carpet Baggers, all of them....

[Egalitariat]

39. a box of delicacies including herring with mustard sauce

I eat these when I'm fishing. They cost $.49 a can and are a lot like sardines. It's amazing what becomes a "delicacy" in such a tragedy.

[KamaAina]

40. This snotty Yuptown attitude has been the problem all along

These assholes who are cooling their highballs (the only kind of balls they have) with ice cubes while their neighbors die of thirst are simply continuing the white Yuptown tradition of pretending that the other New Orleans doesn't exist, except when their Mardi Gras krewes need flambeau (torch) carriers (the yupazoids actually throw pennies at their feet!) :grr:

Mr. (?) Reiss is correct, up to a point: The new city must be something very different. Indeed.

[defiant1]

81. For real....

Notice how these bastards didn't open up their homes, for their own state's people, and they are content with all those po folks being shipped across the country.

:puke:

Goddamn fucking capitalists.

[Siena]

41. link?

[momisold]

42. Similar story in WSJ.

Here is an interesting quote:

"He (Mr. James Reiss, white Chairman of NO's Regional Transit Authority) says he has been in contact with about 40 other New Orleans business leaders since the storm. Tomorrow, he says, he and some of those leaders plan to be in Dallas, meeting with Mr. Nagin (NO mayor) to being mapping out a future for the city."

Wondering how Nagin will fit in to all this?

[notadmblnd]

44. and where do the think that the labor they hire

is going to live while the rebuilding is going on. With who they hire and what they pay them we know that they'll have to live near where the work will be done. How are they not going to let poor people back in the city. You can't canvince me they won't use cheap labor.

[volitionx]

45. I SAY LIHOP!

LIHOP.

Just look at the facts.

The neo-cons want to privatize FEMA and every other part of our government, while letting disasters happen so that they can enrich companies like Halliburton with the reconstruction contracts (like Iraq).

I bet you a million dollars (figuratively!) that Halliburton will get the reconstruction contract for New Orleans.

I also bet you that the plan was to let the disaster happen, ship all of the blacks out of the state and especially N.O., as a diaspora, so that they won't be a voting block, like other posters have said.

Imagine how FUCKING ANGRY the victims would be in the 2006/2008 elections...but no, they were all shipped off to states that were overwhelmingly REPUBLICAN OR DEMOCRATIC, but NOT swing states, right?

Am I wrong here?

That way, the diaspora cannot change, let's say, Texas politics, or California politics, because their numbers are too small, while they could potentially change the results in swing states. Note how few of them have been sent to Denver, which is in a state that was BARELY REPUBLICAN in 2004. (I live in Colorado).

No, they went to REPUBLICAN OR DEMOCRAT-DOMINATED states where they couldn't change national political outcomes.

And they sure won't be voting in Louisiana in 2006 if they're no longer Louisiana residents, will they?

Tell me I'm wrong. I may indeed be full of crap. But maybe not!

The whities will rebuild New Orleans into a faux town, devoid of all of its uniqueness. What a fucking shame. I never got to visit New Orleans, and now I never will, even if they rebuild it, because it'll be FAKE, like everything else these suburb-loving, capitalist fascists touch.

[underpants]

50. I say SHUT UP

Let's keep our heads about us.

[volitionx]

61. I say WAKE UP!

Bush scandals and crimes:

1. 9/11 coverup, white-wash, and obstruction of justice.

2. Lying us into Iraq War.

3. Letting Osama escape.

4. Valerie Plame.

5. Social Security scam.

6. Stealing 2000 election.

7. Stealing 2004 election.

8. War profiteering by Halliburton and Carlyle group, etc.

9. Developing new nukes.

10. Extraordinary Rendition to countries that use torture.

11. Guantanamo.

12. Abu Graib.

13. Connection to Saudi Royal Family and Bin Ladens

14. Underfunding FEMA and levee improvements.

15. Hiring FEMA and DHS heads who have no experience in disaster relief.

16. No Child Left Behind.

17. Medicare scam to benefit big pharma.

18. Enron.

19. Killing up to 100,000 civilians in Iraq.

20. Not guarding Iraqi historic sites and museums after invasion.

21. Falsifying environmental reports that look bad for Bush

22. Diebold.

23. Destroying the environment for a quick buck.

24. ANWR.

25. Anti-union activity.

26. Patriot Act, many provisions of which are UNCONSTITUTIONAL.

27. Tax cuts in a time of war.

AND MANY, MANY MORE!

BUT NO, I'M OVERREACTING. The neo-cons didn't really write their philosophical blueprint in "Rebuilding America's Defenses", don't really have a think-tank called the PNAC, and don't really plan on icreasing the number of imperial military bases (currently at least 800 worldwide). Oh no, you're right, and I'm wrong.

NOT.

The neo-cons are actually, LITERALLY, the Corporate Fascist Party.

If you can't see this, you don't see much.

[FreedomAngel82]

55. Halliburton already got the contracts

They got it a few days after the event happened. They've been "awarded" the contracts to rebuild New Orleans. Why else do you think Cheney is there? To survey the area and help "plan" the rebuilding. I'm sure Cheney is in negotations with other corproations in town as well to "help rebuild".

[mongo]

62. I think you are right about the swing states

Ohio not getting evacuees
By CONNIE MABIN, Associated Press Writer

CLEVELAND – About 1,000 Hurricane Katrina victims who were supposed to be sent to Ohio no longer are coming to the state – at least for now, the Ohio Emergency Management Agency said Wednesday.

OEMA spokesman Fred Stratmann said the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Wednesday halted evacuation flights out of Texas, including those scheduled to arrive in Ohio today. The state had expected to get victims who were being temporarily housed at the Astrodome in Houston, where more than 250,000 evacuees are taking shelter.

“As of right now we are no longer getting any evacuees in Ohio,” Stratmann said. He said the hurricane victims expected here did not want to go so far away from home.

“Their goal is to return home when the rebuilding and the recovery process is complete, and it’s apparently a lot easier to do that from Texas than in Ohio,” Stratmann said.

http://www.timesreporter.com/left.php?ID=45355&r=3

[CAcyclist]

71. Interesting, the Same Thing Is Happening In California

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/09/08/MNG09EK6MU1.DTL

California's plans to receive up to 1,000 victims of Hurricane Katrina were placed on hold Wednesday by federal officials, who told state leaders that victims were reluctant to be sheltered in the Golden State because it is too far from their homes.

[noiretextatique]

91. given the precedent of iraq

i'd say you should keep on talking, and perhaps some others will wake up.

[TankLV]

114. You are certainly on the mark but wrong on one point:

HALLIBURTON ALREADY GOT THE "ONLY" CONTRACT - NO BID, OF COURSE!

[FighttheFuture]

46. In the meantime, FEMA Concentration camps are started up...

http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/005385.php

On Angels' Wings, Or Beelzebub's Back?

There are some very interesting stories coming out about the Katrina evacuees and where they are going for shelter. On the one hand, The Real 43rd President of the United States, Al Gore, arranged for about 130 people to be flown to Tennesse for care and succor.

In the meantime, some are being taken to Utah without their knowledge;

....

You must watch Bu$hitCo on everything they do, 24/7; like a malicious child pyromaniac with matches!

[mtnester]

47. Of course they are...why the heck do you think they are being sent to BFE?

Or as close as you can get to that if you are poor and from NOLA. If you get on a plane, and get told you are going to Texas (not too far away) and then in mid flight get told there is a change of plans and you are going to UTAH...how many of them d'ya think would have signed on to that particular destination? (no offense to Utah, it is the distance I am referring to).

Poor, do not have two sticks to rub together, and BTW, you are going to (for them) BFE...enjoy your screw...I mean ride.

Oh, and forget about voting too, you are lost now, we cannot figure out where your "jurisdiction is".

Planned to the T...that is why it took so long...those they did not kill outright, they PLANNED on where to send them. How many are going to Blue States? How many are going to CLOSE red states that are on the verge of being blue? (they stopped sending them to Ohio cause Ohio Repubs said WTF, you want to COST us, these people are going to HILLIARD, it could CHANGE an outcome, blah blah).

The five days spent lallygagging around? They were planning.

[Streetdoc270]

59. NPR this AM

was talking about this very thing, they had a guy on who was just put on a plane without being told where they were going and wound up in Pheonix AZ!

[raccoon]

127. Your last paragraph....ooooh, you may be right.

"The five days spent lallygagging around? They were planning."

[FreedomAngel82]

49. Disgusting pig!!!

Ugh! I hate them! This could be why Halliburton "won" the contracts so closely to win the event happened.

[im10ashus]

51. Do you have a LINK to that?

I don't trust an unverifiable source.

[momisold]

56. I don't have an online subscription

to The Wall Street Journal, but my boss gets a paper copy (that's where I got the little quote I put in earlier). The story was on the front page of today's edition. You can see the first few lines of the story on the home page of WSJ, but have to have an online subscription to see the whole story.

[im10ashus]

85. Thanks for that information.

:hi:

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

117. Link to Salon summary...

It's in the War Room so you'll have to search a bit - their piece is entitled "Highballs, herring and fewer poor people" by Tim Grieve.

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/index.html?blog=/politics/war_room/2005/09/08/journal/index.html

What the heck, it's only 4 paragraphs:

When the Wall Street Journal engages in class warfare, you can usually be pretty sure which side it's on. Not so today. In a front-page headline, the Journal comes pretty close to sneering at some of the swells who have survived Katrina quite nicely, thank you. "Old-Line Families Escape Worst of Flood and Plot the Future," the headline says. "Mr. O'Dwyer, at His Mansion, Enjoys Highball With Ice; Meeting With the Mayor."

Now, maybe you're thinking that Mr. O'Dwyer, whoever he is, doesn't deserve that kind of singling out. And maybe you're right. The Journal doesn't tell us much about Ashton O'Dwyer's worldview -- just that he's hanging out in his palatial home on New Orleans' "grandest street," surrounded by a cache of weapons, the herring with mustard sauce that was delivered yesterday and all those icy cold cocktails.

But the Journal does provide a glimpse into the thinking of some of the other rich white folks who have survived Katrina relatively unscathed. The Journal introduces us to one James Reiss, a man who "helicoptered in" an Israeli security company to protect his New Orleans home from looters. When the city is rebuilt, Reiss says, it should be a very different place than it was before. "Those who want to see this city rebuilt want to see it done in a completely different way: demographically, geographically and politically," Reiss tells the Journal. "I'm not just speaking for myself here. The way we've been living is not going to happen again, or we're out."

We'll let the Journal handle the translation. What Reiss means, the paper says, is that "the new city must be very different ... with better services and fewer poor people."

[kskiska]

53. I lived in NOLA for a while

and when initially engaging in conversation with most whites, the comment most often heard is, "It's all for the n***ers," meaning that any project supposedly intended for the general public becomes solely the property of or for the benefit of blacks, because whites will stay away from any public facility such as the Audubon Park swimming pool if blacks are using it. Most whites have abandoned the city of New Orleans for Metairie, except for the Quarter and the Garden District. They send their kids to private schools; therefore, the public schools in New Orleans are mostly black.

[WeRQ4U]

57. "The way we've been living is not going to happen again, or we're out."

Yeah, from what it sounds like, you guys had it rough. :eyes:

What a bunch of hooey.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

118. I'd like to pack their bags before punching them.

Then I'd steal their bags and donate it to the less fortunate evacuees.

[jokerman93]

58. That didn't take long

...almost as if they'd thought about it before.

So when does the class war begin?

[demo dutch]

64. Some will never come back simply too traumatic! Others will!

[RaleighNCDUer]

69. Think about it.

I am a middle-aged male who lives in NC. I've been wanting to move back to the mid-west for several years. I'm single. I'm fully employed, and then some (55 hrs/wk) at below average wages in a relatively expensive town. With job prospects as they are, I'd be an idiot to pick up and move because I have near non-existant savings and reasonable work benefits. If I worked at saving I might be able to afford to move in a year -- assuming I had a job there I could move into.

That's me.

A displaced person from NO is flown to W. Virginia. He's lost everything he owns. He has family to look out for, gets a stipend from the government which does not meet his expenses. He has to get a job, but all that's available is minimum wage work. Saving is impossible.

If I find it difficult to move halfway across the country, with all my advantages, how is this guy going to do it? At best, it will be years before he can make the move. Even if he were to throw caution to the winds and head back with absolutely no prospects, he's got to provide for the family, get ahold of some wheels, and then, when he gets there, he finds that his neighborhood doesn't exist anymore.

He's a permanent transplant.

[demo dutch]

92. Wonder if the victims can sue for crimes of humanity?

[Teaser]

65. Link ( can some mod insert in post?)

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/WSJ_White_rich_escape_New_Orleans_chaos_dont_want_blacks_poor__0908.html

[madrchsod]

66. ya right

why don`t people like this stupid racist not bother me? cause they have been around since we decided to get together in klans,tribes,ect., and they will be around until humans die out.

"the grand hotel. always the same.people come. people go.... nothing ever happens"

[klyon]

67. Did I just cross over into an aternate dimension?

I heard an offical serveral days ago say don't come back. I didn't know he meant forever.......

KL

[neuvocat]

70. That is of course if the city ever gets bailed out.

Hurricane season won't be over until November, from what I understand.

[Opusnone]

73. Messrs. O'Dwyer, Reiss, Fayard, et al

Where have they been hiding? If these guys won't help their fellow Americans who will?

It's been over 10 days since the storm hit and the first I'm hearing of the wealthier areas.

I'm happy they are okay as I wish no ill on anyone.

Sure wish they could have spared some pool water to cool someone down.

The Golden Rule is now in effect. Not the one that says "Do unto Others..." but the one that says, "Those With the Gold Make the Rules. This will not be pretty to watch, but why worry your beautiful minds with that, anyway?

REAL Americans have other priorities that demand our attention.

Namely, shelter/housing, jobs (with some form of daycare), medicine (there's a whole lot of diabetics these days), education (accent on continuing education and trade schools), communications, etc. And always take care of the military both here and abroad

DU'ers, don't get trapped into a black/white argument. Many of the displaced are not black.

[Helga Scow Stern]

74. They've been doing this around the world, why not here?

The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050502/klein/3

by Naomi Klein

snip--
Now the bank is using the December 26 tsunami to push through its cookie-cutter policies. The most devastated countries have seen almost no debt relief, and most of the World Bank's emergency aid has come in the form of loans, not grants. Rather than emphasizing the need to help the small fishing communities--more than 80 percent of the wave's victims--the bank is pushing for expansion of the tourism sector and industrial fish farms. As for the damaged public infrastructure, like roads and schools, bank documents recognize that rebuilding them "may strain public finances" and suggest that governments consider privatization (yes, they have only one idea). "For certain investments," notes the bank's tsunami-response plan, "it may be appropriate to utilize private financing."

As in other reconstruction sites, from Haiti to Iraq, tsunami relief has little to do with recovering what was lost. Although hotels and industry have already started reconstructing on the coast, in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia and India, governments have passed laws preventing families from rebuilding their oceanfront homes. Hundreds of thousands of people are being forcibly relocated inland, to military style barracks in Aceh and prefab concrete boxes in Thailand. The coast is not being rebuilt as it was--dotted with fishing villages and beaches strewn with handmade nets. Instead, governments, corporations and foreign donors are teaming up to rebuild it as they would like it to be: the beaches as playgrounds for tourists, the oceans as watery mines for corporate fishing fleets, both serviced by privatized airports and highways built on borrowed money.

In January Condoleezza Rice sparked a small controversy by describing the tsunami as "a wonderful opportunity" that "has paid great dividends for us." Many were horrified at the idea of treating a massive human tragedy as a chance to seek advantage. But, if anything, Rice was understating the case. A group calling itself Thailand Tsunami Survivors and Supporters says that for "businessmen-politicians, the tsunami was the answer to their prayers, since it literally wiped these coastal areas clean of the communities which had previously stood in the way of their plans for resorts, hotels, casinos and shrimp farms. To them, all these coastal areas are now open land!"

Disaster, it seems, is the new terra nullius.
--snip

A special office for this was created last August:

snip--
Last summer, in the lull of the August media doze, the Bush Administration's doctrine of preventive war took a major leap forward. On August 5, 2004, the White House created the Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization, headed by former US Ambassador to Ukraine Carlos Pascual. Its mandate is to draw up elaborate "post-conflict" plans for up to twenty-five countries that are not, as of yet, in conflict. According to Pascual, it will also be able to coordinate three full-scale reconstruction operations in different countries "at the same time," each lasting "five to seven years."
--snip

[G_j]

75. excellent article

frightening

[raccoon]

128. Condi is SUCH a dickhead

"In January Condoleezza Rice sparked a small controversy by describing the tsunami as "a wonderful opportunity" that "has paid great dividends for us." "

The arrogance, insensitivity, greed, selfishness, just plain EVIL of these horrible people. That they have the NERVE to say these things IN PUBLIC.

[Jon8503]

76. Totally disgusting people. Like to see how in the hell they are going

to keep the people out. Are they planning on the politics of this country changing to where we are going to be told where we can live. Bull Shit, if anybody that lived there before wants to go back, I just do not see how they plan on keeping them out.

Idiots.

[WI_DEM]

77. what is the link to this?

[Nothing Without Hope]

78. Just think of the enormous money to be made if the poor are "cleared off"

and redevelopment to the taste of the neocons and their corporate cronies & rich donors can proceed unchecked.

Oil refineries (doubtless the Saudis would invest), more shipping infrastructure, resorts...imagine. And the neocons have never been averse to blood money. To them, the poor are basically vermin.

[Nothing Without Hope]

79. Like "ethnic cleansing," this is "economic cleansing." So very neocon.

To them, the poor are vermin. And you know what people do to vermin that are in the way of what they want.

[confludemocrat]

88. no, this is ethnic cleansing --stop with pussified euphemisms (n/t)

[Raksha]

104. It's both...ethnic and economic cleansing....

...political cleansing too! What a great chance to get rid of that pesky blue blotch in an otherwise red state...or so they think, anyway. Personally, I don't think the Gulf Coast is going to be Republican again for a very long time to come.

[TankLV]

115. It's a dessert topping AND a floor cleaner!

And it tastes great, and looks good too!

[trogdor]

82. If you consult the oracle of Mapquest...

...you will find that the Astrodome is about ten minutes' drive from Tom DeLay's district. I'll guess that the other suburban districts that surround Houston are also occupied by "R's". I don't think the Hammer wants any of those poor people using their $2000 check cards to set up residence in his district to deliver pizza. Why, some of them might even register to vote, and that would be bad...real bad.

[ktowntennesseedem]

83. I'm all in favor of fewer poor people and social transformation.

But don't you dare try to accomplish that by replacing the poor with wealthy and the black with white, etc. etc. Give the poor the means to escape their poverty, and empowere them to transform their own communities and cities!

Like any modern city, NO had (intentional past-tense) it problems and short-comings, and there are many things that should be changed and improved. But those problems do not lie in people or groups, but in the ways some people and groups treat others. If they want "improve" the future city by cleansing it, we're better off leveling it to create South Lake Pontchatrain.

[laylah]

84. Teaser

Is there a link for this info? My (ex)mother-in-law was born and raised there and her parents and brother are (were?) buried there. While she is not wealthy-wealthy, she is well to do; HOWEVER, she would disagree with this idea IMMENSELY. I would like to have her see this information.

Thanks in advance!

Jenn

[BrklynLiberal]

86. Criminal Plot Underway in the New Orleans Swamp

Criminal Plot Underway in the New Orleans Swamp
It is mighty suspicious the New Orleans "refugees" (as the corporate media call the Americans removed from the disease-ridden swamp left in the wake of Hurricane Katrina) are being relocated far and wide. Most of them will probably never return and will end up in ghettoes in Baton Rouge, Houston, and elsewhere (it appears Baton Rouge is being groomed as an expansive slum, since the rebuilt New Orleans will be a casino and tourist destination with time-share condos and luxury housing). It should be noted that the usual suspects will "remove debris" and supposedly "restore electric power" and "repair roofs" (an absurd declaration, considering many if not most of the homes in the New Orleans swamp will be condemned). "The Navy has hired Houston-based Halliburton Co.," the Houston Chronicle reported on September 1, well before the current effort to "rescue" and "evacuate" those not killed outright during the storm and afterwards, as Bush was on vacation and FEMA twiddled its thumbs, allowing as many residents as possible to die before people who actually have a conscience and are not neoliberal sociopaths began to scream and demand Bush be impeached for criminal negligence. "Halliburton subsidiary KBR will also perform damage assessments at other naval installations in New Orleans as soon as it is safe to do so," that is to say after the "refugees" have been relocated in distant slums. "FEMA privatized hurricane disaster recovery planning for New Orleans and Southeastern Louisiana. The firms that received the contract are big GOP contributors," writes Wayne Madesn.** For some reason I am not surprised.

As for the hardy who have stayed behind, determined to rebuild their lives and city, expect the swamp of New Orleans to be declared a health hazard and the remaining residents (or poor and middle class residents with no stake in the new corporate Las Vegas on the Mississippi) to be removed by the National Guard and Army at gunpoint. "On the sixth day of disaster and despair, an urgent new problem erupted: disease. A suspected outbreak of dysentery compelled authorities in Biloxi, Miss., to hurriedly evacuate hundreds of people from a shelter. Medical experts have warned of epidemics sweeping through crowded, unsanitary shelters," reports Knight Ridder.

"By early Saturday morning, buses had evacuated most people from the frightening confines of the Superdome," notes al-Jazeera. "At the equally squalid convention centre, thousands of people began pushing and dragging their belongings up the street to more than a dozen air-conditioned buses, the mood more numb than jubilant." It is obvious the fiasco that was the Superdome -- in essence a prison where old people and babies died from neglect and gangbangers roamed free to terrorize, murder, and rape -- and the convention center are designated departure points for depopulating the ruined city. Abandoning people at these departure points -- sans water, food, or medical care -- was part of the psychological warfare plan: people are desperate to escape these two fetid and disease-ridden prisons and are thankful to be relocated, probably to never return. Most of them are unaware their homes will be bulldozed by Halliburton and the land sold for pennies on the dollar to corporate developers.

<snip>

more..

http://kurtnimmo.blogspot.com/
.....................................................................................................................................

** http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/
September 4, 2005 -- WMR contacted by spokesperson for James Lee Witt. Yesterday, WMR reported that according to a June 3, 2004 press release from Innovative Emergency Management (IEM), Inc. it received a FEMA contract to develop a "Catastrophic Hurricane Disaster Plan for New Orleans & Southeast Louisiana." The IEM press release stated that among its team partners was James Lee Witt Associates. Witt was FEMA director under President Clinton and he restored that agency's disaster recovery effectiveness after President George H. W. Bush's ineffective response to Hurricane Andrew in 1992. According to Witt's spokesperson, James Lee Witt Associates continues to be fraudulently listed on IEM's web site as a team partner for the over $500,000 FEMA contract work.The IEM press release that contains the erroneous information has been disappearing and reappearing, another sign of something suspicious with the contractor.

IEM, which is an 8-A minority-owned firm, apparently used Witt's name as a "buy in" ploy to lock in the FEMA contract. What is fishier is that the IEM press release was reportedly sent out before the FEMA contract was actually awarded. After IEM began the work on the FEMA contract, it never once used Witt's company and did not pay it one cent. Informed sources claim that IEM, owned by a big donor to the GOP, is notorious for not completing work after contracts are awarded. The Catastrophic Hurricane Disaster Plan for New Orleans and Southeast Louisiana was no exception. Mr. Witt is now acting as a pro bono disaster recovery adviser for Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco. Witt's spokesperson was frank is stating, "you don't really think the Bush administration would have given a contract to someone who worked for Bill Clinton?" That is very true. The issue with the incomplete FEMA hurricane preparedness plan is in IEM's and its actual partners' court. James Lee Witt, likely America's most effective FEMA Director, had nothing to do with the IEM work and he now needs all the support the nation and state of Louisiana can muster as he prepares to confront America's worst natural disaster in its history.

[confludemocrat]

87. If that attitude stands, this will lead to serious violence (n/t)

[mcscajun]

90. "The way we've been living is not going to happen again, or we're out."

Good. Don't let the door hit you on your rich white asses on the way out of N.O.

BTW...I'm white. Duh.

[DanCa]

93. unfortunately this doesn't surprise me. Not one damn bit.

[madeline_con]

94. "... burdened by a teeming underclass ..."

So, who will wait on their high and mighty asses?

They will have to allow the "teeming underclass" back in to clean up after them and maintain their lawns, the assholes!! :mad:

[neohippie]

95. It wasn't the elite that made NOLA famous anyway...

The poor and working class people of New Orleans are responsible for most of the celebrated facets of that city, the jazz born from the bar rooms and brothels, the social aid and pleasure clubs that started the Mardi Gras tradition, etc....

I say good riddance to the elite, let them live someplace more like themselves, in plastic fantasy world like Disney has created.

[madeline_con]

97. Please, we have enough assholes in FL....

we do NOT need anymore plastic picket-fenced "communities" like Celebration, FL. Thank you very much!

[Patchuli]

96. Mr. Reiss is a racist pig

and doesn't deserve to live anywhere near NO. NO must be the old NO, only better and that doesn't mean whitebread only! I hope those rich asshats go away and stay away!

Dear sweet Jesus, how I detest these people!!!!

[Zhade]

98. Well, here's hoping that if they do rebuild in this manner...

...that another hurricane wipes these greedy, amoral scumbags off the fucking face of the earth.

Yeah, I said it, and I stand by it.

[Algorem]

101. they'll get away in their flying cars

[noiretextatique]

105. i believe that would be kismet too

i imagine they would "find" food vs. "looting" it...

[all.of.me]

99. well, then, bye!

[GoddessOfGuinness]

100. They could have "better services and fewer poor people"...

If they were willing to pay respectable salaries to people who provide services.

These fuckers will never have the city of their dreams because they are too greedy to reach out to those less fortunate. They forget that the poor people who lost everything are the ones who scrubbed their public toilets, mopped their floors and emptied their trash. Do they suppose they won't need these people, or that they'll need fewer of them in New New Orleans?

Ignorant prickusses.

[Zynx]

102. Eh, torn on this. It's immoral to force people to go back and live there.

If some of the displaced population of New Orleans doesn't want to move back, then they won't, old-line racists or no old-line racists.

[Trevelyan]

106. Pelosi: Bush Administration Undermines Workers Rights

http://democraticleader.house.gov/press/releases.cfm?pressReleaseID=1163

Pelosi: Bush Administration Undermines Workers Rights for Livable Wages in Hurricane Stricken Areas

Washington, D.C. – House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi released the following statement this evening in response to President Bush’s executive order rescinding the Davis-Bacon Act in hurricane stricken areas, allowing employers using federal disaster assistance money to pay unfair wages to workers in the areas affected by Hurricane Katrina.

“The Davis-Bacon Act was signed into law in the Great Depression, a time when scurrilous employers were taking advantage of the desperation of American workers to care for their families. At that time, and for more than 70 years since then, the federal government has demanded that when taxpayer money is spent, workers should be paid a livable wage.

“But today, the Bush Administration demonstrated the latest example of its anti-worker agenda, with an executive order rescinding the requirements of the Davis-Bacon Act for areas hit by Hurricane Katrina. That means that as workers return to their lives and livelihoods on the Gulf Coast, the Bush Administration wants to use federal money to exploit them by paying less than the prevailing wage.

“It's this simple: Hurricane Katrina took away their jobs, now resident Bush will take away their wages when they find new jobs. This is a partisan and punitive decision that will make economic recovery much harder for workers and their families.

“Now is a time to come together to rebuild and restore, not undo years of hard-won worker's rights. Democrats call on President Bush to immediately rescind this order,so that American families can get on with the hard work of rebuilding their lives.”

[xray s]

108. maybe DINO Nagin will switch back to R in the next election

Oh..and I notice this other rich ass white guy guy was in charge of mass transportation....wonder what he was telling Nagin to do with those buses before Katrina hit

A few blocks from Mr. O'Dwyer, in an exclusive gated community known as Audubon Place, is the home of James Reiss, descendent of an old-line Uptown family. He fled Hurricane Katrina just before the storm and returned soon afterward by private helicopter. Mr. Reiss became wealthy as a supplier of electronic systems to shipbuilders, and he serves in Mayor Nagin's administration as chairman of the city's Regional Transit Authority. When New Orleans descended into a spiral of looting and anarchy, Mr. Reiss helicoptered in an Israeli security company to guard his Audubon Place house and those of his neighbors.

[azureblue]

111. Yes, but

The Mayor of New Orleans, and the Mayor before him, etc.,are mostly black. They won't let "those kind of people" steamroller the city into a Disneyland.
And what is forgotten here, is a few things:
One, there are many races in New Orleans, and a lot of racial mixing.

Two, the whites that live there know where the city's cultural heritage comes from- they won't let an old house be bulldozed- they'd rather rebuild it, even if it has to go back to the frame.

Three, the mighty 9th ward was and is home to some of the city's musical giants, and no one is going to let it become a wasteland of Mc Mansions.

Four, the city has, for years, been tearing down the projects, breeding ground for crime, drug use, and the vicious circle of poverty. I can bet they will not be rebuilt again

Finally, and most important, the city will turn against any effort to alter what it is- look at what Wal Mart ran into. Time and again, "outsiders" have been defeated, and they will again.

But there is a point made- the city is home to way too much poverty. The city leaders know that, and they will see this as a way to do something about this, but not by preventing the return of the poor, but by rebuilding the neighborhoods in a way to give poor people a path and strength to dig themselves out of poverty and in a way to discourage crime.

Just because one rich idiot says something doesn't mean that everyone in the city's upper class thinks like that. And most don't.

To really understand what New Orleans culture is about, you have to understand two things- the Krewes, and the mixed race groups. Frankly, it's easy to find a "black" person there, but it's hard to find a person of 100% "black" (what ever that is) heritage. It's this creole blend that makes the city what it is- Italian-African Negro-Choctaw Indian, or French-Caribbean Negro-Caucasian. And French-Jewish-Spanish.

The Krewes hold the power, and there are Krewes for all ethnic groups, They all treasure, preserve and advance the history and culture of New Orleans. They will make sure the City will not lose its culture. Watch & wait till the Mardi Gras parades roll.

[littleraf]

137. The Mayors Don't Hold the Power

The power's always been in the hands of the businessmen, the men who bankroll the mayoral candidates campaigns. They're the ones pushing this scheme. I have to ask though, if these businessmen really think they've got all the answers then what's been stopping them from turning New Orleans into a utopian paradise before now? It can't be the black electorate because by their own admission they (the white business/social elites) have been choosing the black community's leaders for them all these years.
Besides, the biggest hurdle will be how do the poor people who didn't have enough money to leave New Orleans on their own return when things get rebuilt? After people have had a year to settle into a new home the idea of "returning" anywhere will become less urgent. Not to say nobody will return but the black majority New Orleans has had these last 35 years is likely gone and will take another 20 years to redo.

[Fire Walk With Me]

113. It would be interesting to see who buys up all that land.

[Counterpuncher]

119. Hmmmmm...

I was thinking that most of the poor that were evacuated will never return, at least not most of them. They will most likely end up in the slums of Houston, Arkansas or wherever they were bussed, while Halliburton gets paid major $$$ to bulldoze their houses and build casinos where they stood. Kinda helps shed a little light on why some of the survivors are refusing to leave their houses and must be removed by force. They know, if only intuitively, that they will never return.

[Dunvegan]

121. Forum Newbie Question: What does the acronym LIHOP stand for?

[nookiemonster]

123. Let It Happen On Purpose.

http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/index.php/LIHOP

[ArkDem]

129. Great source.

[MellowOne]

130. To quote Laura Bush

This IS "disgusting."

[halobeam]

131. There's an article about rebuilding the communities after Hur. Andrew..

they said the mistakes they made were attending to rebuilding the small and big business's and housing for the owners of these business's first and NOT simultaneously building residences for lower and middle income families. The result was the lower paying jobs to work at these business were not filled and therefore businesses either failed or suffered considerably because the lower and middle class families had to leave the area and didn't fill the jobs.

I'm paraphrasing, obviously, but this is vital to a communities success and the Floridian's were sorry they didn't recognize the value in all of it's residents.

I'm still trying to find the article, it was something like "lessons learned from Andrew", etc.

[CitySky]

132. there is a silver lining, you know

take a deep breath and visualize... a Blue Texas. okay okay don't throw tomatoes at me yet. :ducking tomatoes: I agree that there is much that is wrong about turning N.O. into the Vegas strip.

But here in Harris County (where Houston is located) were were allllllmost 50/50 D's & R's for the 2004 election. I think our new neighbors just tipped the scales.

If enough people who were trapped in a poverty cycle truly do get a chance at a fresh start, with decent housing and a job and a life of dignity, here in Houston... I for one will be happy to give anyone who decides to stay here a big hug :hug:, a helping hand in whatever way I can, and a voter registration card. :patriot:

Welcome, neighbors! :hi: Y'all can stay as long as y'all need to.

Now join me, please, in visualizing Texas blue...

[Karenina]

133. Ethnic cleansing.

:kick:

[bluedog]

136. its called"Operations Royal Flush"

http://neworleans.craigslist.org/vnn/94968428.html