When people outside New Orleans ask, "what happened to all the federal money?", the question is echoed by those in the city. One answer: the Road Home program, designed by the State to insure that Louisiana, in this case, would be less corrupt than Chicago, Boston, or Washington, D.C., has instituted a Kafkaesque array of hoops for applicants for the money, designed to compensate homeowners for the damage caused by the federal flood, to jump through.
Now the Times-Picayune reports there's a new twist to the process that adds another layer of frustration to the process, a twist that would stun even Kafka. To avoid the possibility of paying homeowners compensation for damage they've already (improbably) received an insurance settlement for, the Road Home is now stalling insurance payments until they can review any imaginable paperwork. So now homeowners can wait an unconscionably long time for both their own insurance settlement and the federal compensation.
What's not to like?
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a few weeks ago I was watching Olbermann and he said that some levees were filled with old newspapers for reinforcement. It didn't get much coverage in the MSM but it probably will if the levees fail again.
It wasn't the levees themselves.
It was on the West Bank, along the Harvey Canal. At a few (they say) joints in the concrete floodwall, newspaper was used as a backing material for a joint sealant. More here: http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-28/1209187810171060.xml&coll=1
It was floodwalls and NOT on the westbank, but instead on the MRGO in St. Bernard. Reread the not accurate or well written article. In addition these are similar in style to the very floodwalls that failed on the 17th Street Canal in Lakeview on Bellaire Drive.
Here is the accurate report.
http://www.wwltv.com/video/news-index.html?nvid=239109
I see. I did misread the article. My mistake.
Streaming video is blocked by my network, so I can't view your link. I have never seen the WWL video report.
Thanks for the correction.
Just another case of government taking care of it self. I was guilty of innocence, i believed our government would take care of the people, i actually thought that such a high profile case couldn't be hidden from the people, or the press. But, i got a rude awakening, they did their dirty work right out in the open. Not afraid of reprisals, Is every part of American government on the take? Have we been blind to this for so long that , its a normal thing? These criminals we elected need to be brought to justice, starting with the ring leader, George W. ............Maybe Obama is right and this country is headed in the wrong direction. Is change really possible? how many toes need to be stepped on? How many impeachment hearings until the people control the government ? Send a signal to Washington, Email the crooks, tell them enough! Show your support for CHANGE . Obama all the way, we the people needs to mean something again.
Obama hasn't got a prayer as long as the American people remain the gutless lot we have become! Yes, the problem is lead by Washington, but our acquiescence to their malfeasance is just as criminal. There need to be consequences for their behavior, and there are not. When a politician is hanged for the treasonous act of taking a bribe, when "spin" is redefined as LYING to the American people, and results in dereliction of duty charges, when "earmarks" are called by their proper name, theft, we will have a chance! Until then, we are a wholly owned subsidiary of the corporate system. We must consciously cut corporate headquarters out of our lives, buy produce from a farmer, buy everything you can from the producer. The idea that we need Walmart to survive is a fallacy, they are predators, KILL THEM!
The Repubs will do everything in their power to keep money out of the hands of poor folks (esp. poor black folks) in NOLA. Don't believe me? Just watch ...
Compare the response to the unpredictable earthquake in China with the predicted hurricane destruction in New Orleans. China sent $5million plus food and medicines immediately; U.S. just offered China $500,000. Chinese Premier Wen Jia Bao went immediately to Sichuan and even cut his hand helping to remove the injured; Bush took days to get around to an imperial helicopter tour followed by a staged photo op outside a famous church in New Orleans. People devastated in Sichuan still helped others and the army was immediately mobilized; while those fleeing from the 9th ward in New Orelans across the bridge to dry areas in Algiers were turned away and threatend with being shot coupled with grossly insufficient military and police mobilized.
The neocons are fond of saying that we are engaged in two world wars: World War IV is about the global war against terrorism, while World War III has been under way some time it is the war between systems--capitalism versus socialism--for hearts and minds. Well look at the difference between what advanced capitalism based on greed, profit, selfishness and the profit motive delivered and has yet to deliver in New Orleans versus what a poor nation like China, based on collective security and service to people not profits can deliver even when ppor and suffereing catastrophes worse than Katrina. The main damage from Katrina came not from the hurrricane but from broken levees not built properly because of the profit motive and imperatives.
Ask Rev. Hagee....perhaps this is just another part of God's punishment of New Orleans. Isn't endless paperword a devilish device in itself?
The state created the program, not the federal government.
Not accurate. Created and recreated (because of DC's repudiation of the plan) under duress from the Bush administration, and a Congress fearful of losing their own funding for favored pet projects, one way to delay delay delay. Therefore it appears it is all Louisiana's fault. Not true, Bush's fault.
Did you see Bill Moyer's on Keith Oberman the other day? Moyers reported that seventy percent...70%!!!... of all Americans have no net worth at all!
If you think that 70% with no net worth is bad, just wait until a few years of Hilliary's or Obama's tax increases. The figure will be 99+.
Neocon troll alert!
First, let's call a spade a spade here: Deficits are just taxes you haven't paid yet -- with interest. If Obama, or whoever, "raises" taxes, it's because of the Reagan / Bush / Bush deficits. This resembles nothing so much as third world people paying for the extravagance of leaders like Marcos, Suharto, and "Papa Doc" Duvalier.
Welcome to Northern Haiti!
Confining this discussion to taxes and spending is misdirection, though, in comparison to the *real* money: subsidies and loopholes.
Three-quarters of W's net worth came to him because he was able to con the citizens of Arlington Texas into building his otherwise money-losing baseball team a stadium. And he got the additional subsidy of claiming this income as "capital gains" so was taxed at a lower rate than the rest of us paycheck-earning schlubs.
Read David Cay Johnston's "Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill" for the full story.
So while politicians will talk about petroleum, for example, as though all the options available are either tax or spend. What about closing the depletion allowance loophole? [Crickets and silence!...]
Couldn't agree more. U.S. taxpayers are giving something like $9 billion a year in subsidies to the oil companies. Despite Exxon making record profits---not just for an oil company, not just for an American business, but a record profit for any business in the history of the world ---they're still receiving subsidies. Sick.
The good sisters used to tell us gambling was a vice. When the Catholic church began to allow bingo, the gates of hell were opened. Either you, Technician, are part of the 1% of the people who own 60% of the U.S. or you are a gambler who thinks you too could be a "rich'en" (to quote the great James Dean in the movie Giant). Well, never mind then. I forget how rich some are here.... or intend to be.
The great thing about paying taxes in Europe is they actually get something for their taxes. Us? We get to see our taxes pounded into a hole in the sand. Mark my words, this war goes on becaue the right people are making money. The Democratic contest goes on for the same reason.
The problem in one word: georgewbushandfellowrepukelicans.
The thieves in Wasgington got to it before the thieves in Louisiana. The best part you can still blame the crooks in the Big Easy.
You are accurate Seawolf, most of the money slated for recovery went to contractors such as KBR with ties to administration, along with Halliburton. The same administration that paid about $3,000 for a blue tarp on a roof, that actually cost about $75.
Something I have been saying a long time. The government is not really there to help you. They are trying to keep as much money as they can for themselves. The founding fathers knew this. That is why they did not see the constitution as "living, breathing". You liberals have got the government you deserve....too bad it had to foist on the rest of us too.
I just cannot believe you are surprised by any of this. If the government were not involved NO would be much farther on the road to recovery.
Really? New Orleans would be on the road to recovery without the involvement of the government? The government has barely been involved and New Orleans has still not recovered. And where would the money come from to rebuild areas such as the 9th Ward come from, in a private industry ruled by rich, white men? People who are more interested in tearing down low income housing because they see more profit in building condos for their equally rich, white friends. Congress, ruled by the Democrats, even in the Senate albeit by a slim majority, has had and continues to have the opportunity to REALLY fund the recovery of New Orleans and still has not done it. Just as the Republicans hold projects hostage by filibustering or threatening to filibuster bills, or the president to veto them, the Democratic party can simply refuse to fund/go along with Republican projects until they regain some semblance of sense. But they are also mostly funded by the same rich, white, and ultimately racist corporations, and as we all know, you don't bite the hand that feeds you.
They are all sitting around waithing for the government. If there was not an expectation that the government was going to come in there and do something everyone would do one thing or the other on their own.
As for what would happen if there was no government money involved. Who says money would not flow in form private sources......except for the fact that the area is below sea level which makes it a bit bit risky to build there. That is what happens, government uses tax dollars to encourage folks to build where maybe it is not very smart thing to do....then you criticize that same government for not helping when the inevidible catrasophy comes. Using my tax dollars all the while.
Most housng in this country get built privately...at all price levels.
According to your ilk, everyone who has their homes and lives destroyed is just a bunch of whining idiots waiting for a handout. Easy to say until the moment it happens to you. The proof that there is no God is that no tornado has yet wiped out your house and the rest of your city, because you'd be singing quite a different tune right away.
Stop acting like you're the only one who pays taxes around here.
Nixon -- August 1969, Hurricane Camille, President Nixon readied the National Guard and ordered all Gulf rescue vessels and equipment from Tampa and Houston to follow the Hurricane in. There were over 1,000 regular military with 24 helicopters to assist, within hours after the skies cleared.
Clinton -- September 1999, Hurricane Floyd, was bearing down on the Carolinas and Virginia. President Clinton was in Christchurch, New Zealand - meeting with President Jiang of China. He declared the areas affected by Floyd "Federal Disaster Areas". Then he cut short his meetings overseas and flew home to coordinate the rescue efforts. All one day BEFORE a Cat-3 hit the coast.
Bush (41) -- August 1992- Hurricane Andrew, Bush was campaigning for re-election. Yet, he cut off his campaigning the day before to engage the largest military operation on US soil in history. He sent in 7,000 National Guard and 22,000 regular military personnel, and all the gear to begin the clean up within hours after Andrew passed through Florida.
Bush (43)-- August 2004 --Hurricane Charlie, Right after Hurricane Charley hit, Bush declared Florida a federal disaster area. Two days after, he was there, handing out water.
Bush (43) -- August 2005 --Hurricane Katrina bears down on the Gulf Coast. Bush is on vacation. The day before Katrina makes landfall, Bush rides his bike for two hours. The day Katrina hits, he goes to John McCain's birthday party. Bush goes to San Diego, to play guitar with a country singer.
You were saying?
I agree that the Bush admin did not do a great job with Katrina. And disaster relief is in most cases a proper function of government.
But I don't think it should be a role of government to hand out tax dollars to these people so that they can rebuild their houses in the same place. This will happen again someday. Regardless of who is president.
Oh right. No one should get to live in New Orleans because destructive weather happens there occasionally. So tell me, where do we put all of the American citizens who will need to be relocated once we close the rest of these places off, as well, for being too vulnerable: San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City, New Jersey, Houston, Galveston, San Antonio, the entire Midwest, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Maryland, Delaware, Massachussetts, Connecticut, Virginia, Hawaii, Washington and EVERYWHERE ELSE that might possibly get hit by a hurricane, earthquake, tornado, volcanic eruption, etc.?
Remember, this was a FEDERAL disaster that caused the problems in New Orleans - not Hurricane Katrina itself. Since it was the federal government's fault, it requires a FEDERAL solution. End of discussion.
It is not so much "the government" as THIS government. Storm refugees were bused to hotel chains owned by Bush friends, charging up to $400/night/room. Then there was the FEMA trailer debacle. The money spent on just these two boondoggles could have built a heckuva lot of homes and put many people to work.
Consider the (shudder) government projects built by the WPA and CCC under FDR following the First Republican Great Depression. FDR invested in infrastructure, giving jobs to people who had long been out of work. Until recently we lived near the Blue Ridge Parkway, a CCC project that to this day brings tourists and income to rural towns all along its route. Imagine where we might be now if the big bad government hadn't invested in the Interstate system. Or if we (the people) HAD invested in a national high-speed rail system.
One need only read Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine to get a clear picture of what happened in New Orleans and elsewhere. (http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine) It also partly explains why Burma doesn't want our "help." After the tsunami, as after the major Florida hurricanes in 2004, not-so-wealthy people who owned prime property were driven off their land by reconstruction disaster capitalists, who replaced fishing villages and retiree trailer parks with resorts and condos. With such a good friend in the White House to dole out the funds, the disaster parasites are in hog heaven.
I think government is good at roads and streetlights, police and fire protection and things like that.
I think they are bad at retirement, welfare and social engineeringin general. I think most of FDR's programs prolonged the depression rather than end it. The data bears this out.
You think, you think... Where are the citations? Who are you, and would we even remember your (real) name after you were dead for two weeks, much less believe you now.
"Social Security has been highly effective in reducing poverty among the elderly. The program is responsible for removing more people from poverty than all other government programs combined. " from http://www.cbpp.org/1-27-00socsec.htm
The "private" health care system the U.S. enjoys now is literally the most costly in the world (German single-payer costs only 60% of ours). Yet the public health outcomes in things like life expectancy and infant mortality lead the World Health Organization to rank the U.S. 37th in the world in quality of healthcare. The high ranking nations all have single-payer, government sponsored healthcare. The Sacramento Bee says we have outcomes roughly like those in Puerto Rico, but pay six times more for the privilege.
The right-wing delusion that leads you to conclude "I think" is a citation is just a fantasy. Wake up!
Bladernr1001 said: You liberals have got the government you deserve....too bad it had to foist on the rest of us too.
Pretty funny that the "conservatives" have controlled not only the agenda but the government ever since Reagan was elected and now BR1.001K's blaming the liberals for the government. As for who's foisting it upon the rest of us, you should look in the mirror and be ashamed.
"Pretty funny that the "conservatives" have controlled not only the agenda but the government ever since Reagan was elected....."
I do not agree with this statement on a couple of grounds:
1. There is not much difference betweent he 2 parties. They both are in an arms race to see who can hand out the most tax payer dollars for such unconstitutional things as farm susbsidies, welfare, drug programs, healthcare and on and on.
2. The minority party still has a great deal of power to shape and block legislation. Especially in the last 10 of 12 years where the majorities have been very slim at best.
However, overall, I do blame the liberals for big government going all the way back to FDR or even TR. When we decided to go down the path of government as the paternal entity that was a liberal concept. And we did this largely without constitutional amendments. So now we have this large, wasteful out of control government that eats our tax dollars for lunch.......yes, I do blame liberals for this.
How wrongheaded can the hardcore 25% be? Here's your proof! 100% wrong all the time, just like their leaders. New Orleans, and the surrounding areas, has become EXACTLY what liberals predicted it would become with 'compassionate conservatives' in charge. Conservatives, and their friends who they award with lucrative government contracts, have ripped off the system and the taxpayers just as we predicted. BUT IT'S STILL ALL OUR FAULT!!! They laugh all the way to the bank as people suffer and die, but it's the liberals who are to blame. There really is no hope for these morons. Their worldview is as bassackwards as it is possible to be.
Spot On!!!
I love New Orleans, so it was only proper that my middle aged siblings and I spent our stimulous checks on a long weekend there last week.
After spending literally thousands of dollars on accommodations, shopping, eating, gambling and tipping, we thought we'd drive through the lower 9th Ward before leaving NOLA to pay our respects and observe the damage for ourselves.
Alas, as the driver of the minivan we rented for the trip, I was the victim of a scam artist who caused a fender bender between our vehicle and his truck filled with people.
My insurance company has informed me that all 7 passengers in his truck (yes, there were 7 people in one truck) have made claims that they were injured- even though they all were unscratched, ambulatory and reported no injuries at the scene.
This sham of an event has left me bitter and unwilling ever to return to New Orleans, or even Louisiana.
This phony insurance scam will end up costing me and my insurance company thousands of dollars.
Imagine how much that money could have helped the entire community rather than just a few greedy creeps?
When victims develop a sense of entitlement that leads them to commit criminal acts against well-meaning people, they damage their own psyches and become perpetrators rather than victims.
Folks, if you want to help NOLA and the region damaged by Katrina, send checks.
I wouldn't advise paying one's respects in person, however. That's a sucker's game.
I loved your comment and the others. I am from Alexandria La. We were taught from a young age to be careful when in NO. What happened to you is nothing unusual. It was going on before the flood and will continue. And even before the flood you never went to the 9th ward. The ninth ward was government funded slums, and HUD rentals. Thats the reason the houses are not getting rebuilt. Most of the people there did not own them. And being below a levee no flood insurance. You took a big chance if you drove through there.
I love Louisiana and I recommend you try again and go to Lafayette next time or even Baton Rouge the real La. New Orleans has to much hipe to live up to. The Big Easy is only easy if you have a lot of money or understand what areas are for tourists and never go looking like a tourist or alone, always in a group.
Remember Gov Edwards? All the years La had known about the levees and did nothing but sit back and wait. But no let's blame the federal government. I'm just a bit disappointed in my favorite state that always prided itself on individuality and standing up for itself.
Is Rapides Parish still dry? It's little wonder your people taught you that those drinking people down in New Orleans were not to be trusted. It's funny that you recommend Lafayette or Baton Rouge to people seeking "the real Louisiana," but not Alexandria. There are at least three Louisianas. New Orleans, Lafayette and Baton Rouge are in one of them. Alexandria is in one of the others.
As for the Ninth Ward: Many of the homes there were owned by the same family for generations. The rate of ownership in the Ninth is higher that the rate of the City as a whole. Apparently few had flood insurance; being below sea level has nothing to do with it (the levees, you know. the Corps got together with FEMA and figured out what the rates should be). I'd like you to produce some data on the "government funded slums, and HUD rentals." Where are those?
Edwin Edwards? Isn't he from up your way somewhere? Avoyelles Parish, I think.
Some nonsense to clear up, here. Since 1965, the United States Army Corps of Engineers has had exclusive authority and responsibility for building Hurricane Protection levees around New Orleans.
Posted May 14, 2008 | 07:58 PM (EST)