Spirit of Louisiana 1976

I'm Depressed on This Anniversary....

2009-08-31T03:06:00.000-07:00

I should be feeling better--after all, Obama did commemorate Katrina and the flood in his radio address Saturday morning. To his credit he also brought up levees and coastal restoration. But only time will tell if these words will be backed up by action or be mere empty words.

I have been upset and feel as if I'm almost physically ill. I cannot help but flash back, see the scenes of rescues and of the afflicted at the Superdome and the Convention Center and think of how so many suffered during Katrina and the federal flood and are still suffering. And I can't help but wonder if Obama really cares about New Orleans. Because when I remember what happened during the flood and Katrina which turned the lives of so many upside down and think about the fact that Obama won't be going there (which he wasn't going to do anyway even if Ted Kennedy hadn't passed) I'm depressed.

And others are also turned off by the fact that Obama has paid so little attention to Louisiana and her problems and those of her neighbors in the Gulf Region--a wound which Obama's absence from Katrina observances has rubbed salt into.

Notes Ariella Cohen and Brentin Mock in Next American City,

There are many differences between George Bush and Barack Obama, but they do share one thing in common: While the Gulf Coast reeled in need of recovery, both presidents were on vacation. In 2005, when Hurricane Katrina struck and wiped out much of southeastern Louisiana, and the coasts of Mississippi and Alabama, Bush was at his Crawford, Texas getaway. Four years later, much of the housing and infrastructure lost in storm floods still has not been rebuilt—and yet today, on the disaster’s anniversary, Obama will not be marking the day with a groundbreaking or ribbon-cutting. He will be wrapping up a vacation on Martha’s Vineyard.

The president’s decision to stay on the east coast this week did not come as a surprise to the people of the Gulf Coast, where kudzu-covered playgrounds, closed schools and decaying roads inspire little trust in public officials. Yet even if predicted, the president’s absence still has managed to leave a bad taste in the mouths of many here who expected more from the country’s first black president, a former community organizer who campaigned on a promise that he would make it “clear to members of my administration that their responsibilities don’t end in places like the Ninth ward – they begin there.”

There's one thing wrong with tha above quote--it refers to flooding caused by "storm floods"--a natural disaster--when New Orleans' flooding was actually caused by the rupture of poorly-built federally-maintained levees--a manmade disaster. Obama doesn't seem to get this important distinction either, according to Harry Shearer. And more tragically, adds Shearer, Obama doesn't seem to care about the fact that the Army Corps of Engineers may, in rebuilding these levees, may be making some of the mistakes it made in the past. In short, Obama doesn't get it-and doesn't care.

Obama is also seen as ignoring Louisiana, New Orleans, and recovery. Says Jeff Crouere in Bayou Buzz,

When campaigning in New Orleans Obama declared that our recovery would be “a priority of my presidency.” Not only has it not been a priority, it has not even been on his radar screen. It is interesting that President Obama has not only neglected coastal restoration, but he has neglected to visit our state. The President has jetted from one end of the country to the other, but has bypassed Louisiana. It could be because of the fact that Louisiana is a red, Republican leaning state. If so, such political considerations are a horrible reason to ignore our area. President Obama was elected to represent the entire 50 states, not just the blue ones.

Crouere adds that the Vice President has yet to visit New Orleans, then goes on...

While numerous cabinet secretaries have visited the area, there is no substitute for a visit from the President. While the levee reconstruction and flood protection improvements are progressing and billions have been spent, it will be all in vain if the coast is not restored...

To be fair, there has been a little good news--namely that Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan has visited New Orleans, but even then one wonders how HUD will deal with the tremendous scope of the housing woes that still exist, not only in Louisiana but in Mississippi:

Stevonne Doughty is plenty frustrated by what hasn't happened since Hurricane Katrina wiped out thousands of homes along the Gulf Coast.

Doughty, 47, still lives in a three-bedroom trailer in Biloxi, Miss., that the federal government provided in 2006. The trailer sits near the house she used to rent before Katrina left it under eight feet of water and it was later demolished.

"When you see the casinos coming back, they're not doing it by themselves," said Doughty, a disabled nurse and mother who lives on Social Security. "Why not help the people? Most people don't want a handout; they want a hand up."

What depresses me is there's still a long way to go, it seems, before hope and change really reach New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf Region.

Ted Kennedy and NOLA

2009-08-31T03:04:00.000-07:00

Among all of his other accomplishments, Ted Kennedy can be remembered since Katrina and the federal flood happened as a legislator who proactively did what he could to help New Orleans' and the rest of the Gulf Region's people after the catastrophe.

He and Vicki personally not only contributed to agencies helping the disaster survivors, Vicki also encouraged others to do so:

The people of the Gulf Coast are suffering horrible devastation in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Some have said that this is the worst natural disaster in our nation's history, and officials fear that thousands of lives will be lost. Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their homes. They need food, water, clothing and a roof over their heads. From Louisiana to Mississippi to Alabama and even to Florida where Katrina first landed before barreling on towards New Orleans, our fellow human beings are in dire need of our help.

I grew up in Louisiana and have a large family and many friends who are still there. I spent my college and law school years in New Orleans, and I have a special love of that city and her people. So I am feeling this pain in a very personal way. But you don't have to be from the Gulf Coast to understand the magnitude of the human tragedy that we are witnessing on our television sets every day. In that special, American way, people across our great country are asking what they can do, and how they can help. That's why I'm writing you.

I hope that you can join Ted and me in making a contribution to the Red Cross or the Catholic Charities....

The people of the Gulf Coast are strong and resilient, and they have the character and determination to get through these terrible days. But for many, those days will turn into months and weeks and even years of hardship and heartbreak. Your help and support will make all the difference in the world to so many families. In some cases it will make the difference between life and death.

After Katrina and the federal flood, Kennedy, aware that people had been unwilling to evacuate because they didn't want to leave cherished pets behind, could relate to their predicament because of his own beloved dogs Splash and Sunny. He decided to co-sponsor a PETS Act to prevent such problems in the future by allowing people to evacuate with their pets.

"I wouldn't leave the house without Sunny and Splash," he said. "It's no surprise that so many people in New Orleans flat-out refused to be rescued if they couldn't take their pets with them."

Kennedy also called, albeit unsuccessfuly, for a cabinet-level Gulf Coast Redevelopment Authority. It is unfortunate that this idea did not come to fruition because perhaps had it been in existence more progress would have been made at rebuilding the Gulf Region. One must wonder if, had Kennedy been healthy enough to influence Obama in this regard, one such cabinet post would have come into existence.

All in all, Ted Kennedy, who passed at a time coincidentally close to the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the federal flood, can be remembered as a friend of New Orleans and her people and those of the rest of the Gulf Region.

NOLA Looks As If McCain Were President

2009-08-31T02:59:00.000-07:00

Where are the hope and change in New Orleans? When Barack Obama was a presidential candidate, he promised that

he would “keep the broken promises made by President Bush to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast” and take steps to prevent failures in emergency planning and response seen during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Specifically, Obama would ensure New Orleans has a levee and pumping system to protect the city against a 100-year storm by 2011, free up rebuilding funds that had been allocated but not released and to rebuild hospitals and schools.

However, at the fourth anniversary of Katrina and the federal flood, a forgotten New Orleans anxiously awaiting attention to her ills looks more as if "Let 'em eat cake" John McCain, instead of Obama, had won last November. Because, adds the Congressional Quarterly,

An August 2009 report from the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program concludes the region still faces major challenges due to blight, unaffordable housing and vulnerable flood protection.

Though New Orleans’ economy is weathering the recession fairly well, the report says some districts continue to have high numbers of vacant and blighted residences, and that essential service workers can’t afford fair market rents. And while 16 additional schools opened in the New Orleans area in the previous 12 months, the entire area remains vulnerable to storm-related flooding. A storm-surge protection system now being built by the Army Corps of Engineers would not adequately protect against another storm of Katrina’s magnitude, the report states.

Also, nothing is being done to protect and restore Louisiana's wetlands, valuable buffers against storms. This is not a local issue, but of national importance especially in this time of recession and volatile oil prices:

Katrina devastated not only Louisiana and its residents -- but the U.S. economy -- destroying infrastructure and damaging critical refineries so severely that some were out of service for a year, leading to a spike in the price of gasoline. Coastal wetlands are a first line of defense for coastal Louisiana communities because they reduce storm surge and protect levees. MRGO has damaged almost 600,000 acres of wetlands and coastal ecosystem, including totally destroying more than 27,000 acres of wetlands. Congress has been unable to fund restoration of MRGO wetlands – and four other major coastal restoration projects it authorized in the 2007 Water Resources Development Act -- because the Corps has not completed the design and engineering of the projects. The Corps says the MRGO Ecosystem Restoration Plan -- which must be completed before rebuilding MRGO wetlands -- won't be completed until March 2011, nearly three years after the congressionally-mandated deadline of May 2008.

Take a look at the alarming statistics from Facing South on the legacy of Katrina and the flood. They will show that four years after Katrina Louisiana is not close to being made whole and many of her people are still suffering grievously.

Eloquently laments Phyllis Montana LeBlanc, who appeared in Spike Lee's seminal "When the Levees Broke,"

I am living in New Orleans, Louisiana and it is the year 2009. The area I live in, New Orleans East still does not have a hospital with emergency faciilities. We are told that we should have one in 2 years. It has been 2005 since Hurricane Katrina and When The Levees Broke and we still are placed on the back burner. The city of New Orleans is scheduling the demolishing of public schools at beyond an alarming rate. Mental health clinics for the low-income are closing down (NOAH) New Orleans Adolescent Hospital has been set to close as cuts from Gov. "Bobby" Jindal. The President's Stimulus Package has been denied for the state of Louisiana for use to unemployment extended benefits, healthcare and education. Hurricane Katrina is still going on in New Orleans and it just keeps getting worse. The black neighborhoods are getting none of the money to rebuild our neighborhoods and it is coming up on 4 years since Hurricane Katrina. There is so much racial division in the city it is reminding me of the 50's and 60's. Murders every day on the news with 2,3 sometimes four shootings, stabbings etc...and it seems nobody wants to do anything to stop it. It seems because it's black youth killing each other, nobody cares. During Hurricane Katrina, folks seemed to be coming together and helping one another to get back on their feet but things have gone right back to square one, one race in their corner and the other races are back to their corners. Seperate but not equal. New Orleans fights to stay divided. Sad. So Sad.

It's high time New Orleans and her people were removed from the back burner. I'm sick and tired of being patient about this--while I cut Obama some slack during the first few months of his administration, it's about time we started hearing about the efforts to revitalize the Gulf Region that Obama promised. New Orleans' needs for strenghtened levees and so forth weren't even included in Obama's stimulus package. Because New Orleans and her people had to wait far too long during the Bush Administration for recovery. And it's not just Obama, it's Congress--and shamefully, a Democratic Congress--that has been dragging its feet. New Orleans is being neglected as if we had a President McCain and a Republican Congress.

The fact that Obama has been focusing on healthcare is no excuse--because one major problem in New Orleans is a shortage of healthcare facilities. Hospitals need to be rebuilt. So the situation in New Orleans ties right into the healthcare debate. It's unconscionable for him and his administration to keep their backs turned when such things as mental health facilities and emergency-care are still lacking in that beleaguered city--shortages that should be discussed as part of the healthcare debate.

By keeping New Orleans and Gulf recovery on the back burner, Obama is squandering a precious historic opportunity. Indeed, as far as I know, he isn't even planning to visit New Orleans on the fourth anniversary of Katrina and the federal flood. Which I'm sure a President McCain wouldn't do either--he, Palin and the rest of his administration would be too busy celebrating his birthday.

Maybe if Obama doesn't visit New Orleans on 8/29, New Orleanians and those who support her recovery should mount demonstrations in front of the White House and the US Capitol--to jog the memories of Obama and Congress.

New Orleans

2009-01-28T22:34:00.000-08:00

Pics are from Photobucket.

Magical Mystery Tour

2008-12-01T22:15:00.000-08:00

This slideshow is composed of pictures of the Pinnacles in Australia and of the Chile-Bolivia border region. The source of these photos is Webshots.

I jazzed it up by using Slide to apply the Remix style and the Negative effect.

Let's ask Obama to have New Orleans musicians play at the Inaugural

2008-11-29T18:48:00.000-08:00

(NOTE: This diary was originally posted on Daily Kos by azureblue, a musician who got his start in New Orleans. Per a request he made to readers in a comment under that diary, I am crossposting it here--because he and I feel this is an idea that needs as much attention and exposure as possible so hopefully Obama will pick up on it. The slideshow, however, was put together by me to show some of New Orleans' rich artists and rich cultural heritage which remain, which should not be allowed to evaporate in the face of BushCo's cultural genocide in Louisiana.)

The title says it all, but this grew out of a discussion last night about Obama's love for jazz, and the possibility of him having jazz players at the inauguration:

azureblue's diary :: ::
America's only true art form, jazz, came from New Orleans. All jazz can be traced back to a little park right outside of the French Quarter- Congo Square, where slaves were allowed to congregate and play music together. This, combined with the brass bands of New Orleans, and the piano players in Storyville, created jazz and the music that is so distinctively New Orleans. And this cultural heritage is gone. Wiped away because of the greed of George Bush, in his goal to give more money to his rich friends. Bush not only destroyed a city, he destroyed the roots of America's one great treasure- jazz. The musicians of New Orleans are scattered far and wide, their social structure in tatters, their ways of passing musical ideas from generation to generation, lost. The fabric of musical evolution torn. New Orleans had something very unique as far as music goes: All the musicians there learned from their peers and the previous generation, took it all in, and created new styles built on the old ones. Even the rock & rapper guys there will admit the influence, you can't escape it there- it seems to rise up right out of the ground.

I am a New Orleans musician, jazz and New Orleans R&B, (and, no, I am not trying to get work for myself). I know this first hand. Although I left the city for the west coast years ago, I saw first hand my musician friends ruined, some dead, their instruments destroyed, their sources of income flooded out. I saw them forced to put down roots in alien places. I see them returning and now trying to make a living in the city, doing what they love in the worst of circumstances. Trying to restore the life they had, their homes with little outside help.

Three years. Three long years of ruin and neglect, while America goes on to other "more important matters". Take a moment to use google maps / street view, and look for yourself: search Lakeview, and lower Ninth ward, and tell me this is America. This is horror, that America would let this go one for three years. Why has New Orleans, the rest of Louisiana and the Gulf Coast, been ignored like this?

Obama most likely will have Jazz at the White House for the Inauguration. He is known as a lover of jazz and he should step up and do something to help the art form, besides just listening. What better way to help jazz and the city that gave birth to Jazz, than to have New Orleans musicians perform for him? This will give work and recognition to them, and maybe be the first step this country takes to restoring the city and the treasure it gave America.

I wish I knew how to get this idea to Obama and his team,, but I am thinking that this is a good place to start. I hope that people who are in contact with him will see this "in Orange", and pass the idea along to him. My bone to pick with DK is that, for years, diaries about New Orleans have fallen off the page like stones. Can we rec this, add to it, and keep it up on the list, and maybe someone will get a word to our next President? It is the least we can do.........

The Hedge

2008-09-11T10:00:00.001-07:00

When she was three or four, her dad

planted The Hedge, of honeysuckle

that for years gave her home's yard

an edge--Spring's nourishing showers

purplish-pink flowers would bring, and

in its branches robins and other birds

would build nests and sing--followed

by Summer's juicy-tasting red berries,

bright and gay--good for birds, not

little kids, mom would say--then, in

Winter, the bushes' naked branches

clothed in snow, sometimes ice, added

to the chill landscape's silvery glow--

for about ten years, the bushes grew,

their branches spreading wide, and she

found the spaces between them, as a

small girl, a splendid place to hide--

while other kids would grow up with

a friendly cat or dog, The Hedge was

her constant companion as she was

growing up--until she was 13 and

left her childhood home and moved

away--but t'was a short drive from

her new home so she could still see

it anyway--for The Hedge's existence

she'd never given much thought to

its reason, nor asked why something

so gorgeous was there to brighten the

landscape every season--it was just for

beauty, she'd assumed--decorative,

pleasing to the eye, perhaps an

improvement to increase the property's

value--which is why she was so

dumbfounded when 1990 thereabouts

she drove by the old house to see The

Hedge being torn down, then came

home and told her dad this, wearing a

big frown--(he was in the autumn of

his life--but she hadn't known at the

time)--dad considered its destruction

a most distressing crime--then went on

to tell her something about which she'd

never had a clue--something poignant

that for all those years since it had been

planted she now wished she knew--

as a wise, kindly and loving King would

build a moat around his palace--to

guard his precious little Princess against

any acts of malice--her father had

planted The Hedge to protect her from

the nasty boy next door--who'd bitten

her and done other bad things her

Father just could not ignore--so The

Hedge was no mere ornament--but

a sign of her Father's love--his caring--

something she feels very bad to

realize she never truly did see--

through all of those years as a

bratty young girl, then a rebellious

teen--at times she'd felt he didn't

really love her--and was really

being mean--and she didn't see

him as the treasure she should have;

him in her thoughts she'd curse--but

she truly loved him, misses him and

The Hedge and pleasant memories of

both she now nurses--she now likes to

imagine her Father's contented life

over on the Other Side--living in a

gorgeous, spacious home with The

Hedge blooming outside.

The MSM's Silence On Post-Katrina Louisiana

2008-09-09T13:10:00.000-07:00

I wish I could say that Hurricane Gustav refocused more national attention on Louisiana's issues including vanishing barrier reefs and wetlands as well as the following, which I learned about this morning from a fellow Kossack living in the NOLA area who had evacuated when Gustav was on the way. Maybe it did--for only a few minutes.

For to put it bluntly, even in the New Orleans area even though the MSM gave out of state observers the impression that the area had escaped unscathed or was only lightly damaged, residents still have a major mess to contend with--and FEMA still doesn't seem to have learned from Katrina and the flood.

Here's the comment I posted on NBC's Daily Nightly If you can't find it, it's been censored.

Bear with me for being a bit picky about last night's coverage after Nightly's first-rate coverage of Gustav's hitting Louisiana last week, but I wish you'd aired more than just a headline about the suffering and devastation still prevailing in Houma and other areas of Louisiana.

As my NOLA-area friend has put it in an e-mail,

"Gustav and Katrina are forever intertwined. People were just starting to put K in perspective and at that moment we were on the run. The Gustav situation is not being covered. FEMA, again did not get the water, ice, tarps and MRE's to the disaster site. The supplies are starting to arrive TODAY. I have open sewerage on my lawn, spoiled food on the street, traffic congestion at the food stamp sites and on and on - same story. Those 10% insurance deductibles will not cover the type of damage that most received (shingles, fence, food, lodging). Nothing, absolutely nothing was learned from Katrina. All that money wasted on crony contractors instead of barrier island, wetlands and raised houses.

Also, I opened my paper this morning and discovered my neighbors were killed in MS during the evacuation. MS was just awful (blocked exits, guards with guns, accidents, no gas). Something needs to be done - I59 is a federal highway."
I just thought I'd pass the above on because amidst all of the Palindrone (which I call the incessant talk about and coverage of Sarah Palin) Gustav's aftermath is still major news because it shows that not too much has been learned in Katrina's wake.

Here's more from the Baton Rouge Advocate on FEMA's continuing to give Louisiana the shaft, which we haven't heard about from Brian Williams:

Shortages of food, water and ice Saturday in parishes hard hit by Hurricane Gustav prompted criticism of the Federal Emergency Management Agency from Gov. Bobby Jindal and promises of new truckloads of supplies from the agency.

FEMA officials said millions of meals-ready-to-eat, bottles of water and bags of ice were on the way, and they were shuffling supplies among the more than four dozen distribution sites around Louisiana to keep handing out provisions to the lines of people without power.

So we can't say this is due to Louisiana's having a Democratic governor this time.

And that's not all--storm-weary residents of NOLA are stressed out

As hurricane season has hit high gear with the passing of Gustav and the approach of Ike, doctors say they’ve seen a large increase in the number of prescription anti-depressant and anxiety medications as locals deal with the stress of strong storms that have tracked our way.

houmatoday.com has lots of good advice at dealing with disasters during the recovery including

devote some time to getting your stress level under control. Start by being patient with yourself and others. Don’t expect things to restore themselves instantly. Focus on the big picture instead of the little details. Determine what’s really important, and keep in mind that different people, even in your own household, will have different priorities.

Be tolerant of mood swings and expressions of disbelief, anger, sadness, anxiety and depression. Don’t overlook the feelings of children.

It also lists some surprising physical signs that an adult is under post-disaster stress as

Headaches or stomach problems.

Tunnel vision or muffled hearing.

Colds or flu-like symptoms.

as well as the usual symptoms such as depression, difficulty concentrating, feeling of hopelessness, etc.

Then there's power--indispensable to modern life--however, according to the Alexandria/Pineville Town Talk the power is still off for hundreds.

I hope that the Palindrone will soon fade and the MSM will take note of what really matters.

Last but not least, here are a couple of places to donate towards hurricane relief:
Network for Good. Or, as Barack Obama suggests, donate to the
Red Cross. Give what you can--but give. No amount will be too small. Thanks!

Stuffed Animals

2008-09-08T12:56:00.000-07:00

Now she's on waiting lists

for three apartment houses

one where she knows for

sure her cat won't be

allowed--the others, she

doubts he'll be allowed--

which means the only

animals she'll be able to

have will be

stuffed animals.

When this time comes she

worries about what will

become of her "baby"--

which has owned her (you

don't own a cat--a cat owns

you) for nine years and is

14 years old--she knows it's

hard to find good homes

for older cats--the way it's

hard to find good jobs for

older people and disabled

ones like herself. So she

dreads the day she'll need

to take him to the pound

where no wonder how

much she wishes she were

able to keep him and what

a lovable pet he'd make for

someone else, they'll tell

her he'll have to be "put

down." Were she not so

shy she'd ask, "Yeah, and

do we put people down

when they're older than a

certain age? I mean, even

criminals on death row are

treated better than--until

the order comes to execute

them or they die naturally."

But she's not good enough

at thinking on her feet--as

well as too shy--to make

such a speech--and even

if she's lucky enough to

find a good home for the

little guy on her own--she

knows how traumatic it'll

be for him, being torn from

her that way and maybe

never seeing her again--

figuring since he's so old

he's set in his ways--as

well as the fact that she

herself will miss the comfort

of his soothing purr as he

curls up in her lap while

she pets his soft furr as

she relaxes over a good

book. So the prospect of

giving her "baby" up makes

her very sad--she's been

giving him all the love and

attention she can--for who

knows when an apartment

will open up--and to prepare

for the a petless life

she's started collecting

stuffed animals--

Small, inexpensive ones like

the Beanie Babies she found

on sale at the neighborhood

grocery store two/$10.00--she

bought a pug and another dog

gray all over except for a

brown left ear, area around

the right eye, and tail--not a

breed she can recognize, but

cute--oddly though she'd

much rather have a cat as a

companion animal because

it'll purr and cuddle and

snuggle in her bed and in

her lap, she prefers dogs as

stuffed animals--

because of all the different

distinctive breeds she thinks

they look more interesting--

thinking about only being

allowed to have

stuffed animals--

takes her back to her

childhood up to the time

she was nine--when her

family got their first cat--

before that, all she had were

stuffed animals--

And then she was away in

college in the western part of

the state--pets weren't

allowed in the dorms--

she could only have

stuffed animals.

Now she hopes there's

plenty of time before all

the pets she can have are

stuffed animals.

Sarah Palin Should Have Mentioned Gustav......

2008-09-04T11:40:00.000-07:00

and its survivors across the wide swath of Louisiana which has been tortured by the devastation he left behind. Saying in last night's speech that she stands behind our fellow citizens in the area would only have been right--especially were she to have called upon other Americans to donate to the Red Cross as has Obama. (Link below the fold).

Now for the "meat"--following is a poem I've written to commemorate the third anniversary of Katrina and the federal flood. It is in the voice of the mother of 8-year-old and 9-year-old boys who have a disabled grandmother. While it is fiction, it's based on things people actually went through during Katrina and flood and in the aftermath.

8/29/05 And 8/29/08

Now we're on a bus heading who knows where

anxiously awaiting Gustav--nervously

wondering what will be there when

we get back--and when we can--memories of

the flood--wounds still raw--tearing us apart.

Those who weren't here would say about us--

we'd been warned Katrina'd come--so what

happened was our fault--but we couldn't

leave--no car, no bus--and besides we'd

thought we'd known for years our levees

would keep us safe--but they didn't--I

woke early that morning--sensed something

wasn't right--smelled shit, piss, vomit,

gas--other bad things I couldn't name--

maybe even death itself--I heard the

rushing water--got out of bed--it was

already up to my knees--and still

quickly rising--shook Noah, Jonah

awake shouting "Get upstairs--NOW!"--

Saw to Grandma 'Becca--their daddy's

mother--diabetes had robbed her of her

legs--we couldn't afford to buy her

new ones--I thanked the Lord I had

the strength to carry her--then

brought up her chair, insulin and

other meds--started going back for

food--but foul water was coming close

to the attic--found the ax I'd kept

there--cut a hole in the roof as the

boys made a flag--then each of them

and I took turns going out to wave

it--minutes turned to hours--we saw

helicopters but they didn't see us--

I'd check on 'Becca and give her her

shots and pills--it was sweltering and

I could tell that she wasn't doing

very well--and silently prayed the

Lord would see her through and that

we all be rescued--we were all hungry

and thirsty--rescue finally arrived--

asked me who all was there--"My sons

and their grandma--she's in a bad way,

you see--here's her insulin and all

the other stuff she needs."--they

took her and the boys--but not

enough room with others abroad so

they had to leave me--at first I

thanked the Lord 'Becca had been

rescued--and didn't worry thinking

the helicopter would be back soon

and that 'Becca and the boys were

going to be cared for--but it got to

be two long days before anyone came--

my city was gone--this brought tears

to my eyes--I just couldn't stop crying--

my neighborhood and much more under

water--wondering what had become of my

Mom, Dad, and sisters--had they gotten

out OK or drowned--and what about other

family, my friends, my church, the boy's

school, stores, my beauty shop--everyone

and everything else I'd known?--I just

couldn't believe what had happened to

my city, my home--where I've lived all

my life--I think I cried the whole trip

but then put myself together--they were

dropping me off on the overpass and

now I had to find 'Becca and the boys--

I first went to the Dome--but a guard

there told me it I couldn't go in.

"Well, do you remember a sick elderly

lady without legs, in a wheelchair--and

two boys--they're eight and nine?"--"No,

Ma'am," he said--"I'm sure I'd have seen 'em

had they got here on my watch."--then I

asked for food and water 'cause I hadn't

eaten for at least a week--he said they

didn't have any I could have--then said

I should go to the Convention Center--so

I did--on the way there was a store

where folks were taking what they needed

to survive--and I went in to see what I

could find--slim pickin's--hardly any

food left--but I was grateful for what

I could find--and at the same time

felt badly for having done what I'd

needed to do--so I left a note by the

register saying sometime I'd come back

and pay for what I took--finally I got

to the Convention Center where I was

turned off by the funk--in the crowds

I asked almost everyone I saw--"Have

you seen a sick older lady without

legs in a wheelchair and two school-

age boys?"--finally one man said, "I

think I seen 'em"--then took me to the

front wall of the Center where I saw

Noah and Jonah looking rather well--

aside from what they'd gone through--

but 'Becca's slumped over in her chair

covered in a blanket--each boy gives

me a silent hug--and Noah, on the

verge of tears, said, "She's gone--she

passed last night--nobody would give

her her shots or anything."--for the

second time I broke down--now only

had she been a wonderful grandma to

Noah and Jonah, she'd been like another

mother to me--soon after that was our

exile to Houston--now it's three years

later--I wish I could say our life is

cool--but both Noah and Jonah have

been having trouble in school--we've

all had nightmares, flashbacks--I've

nerves, low energy, feel very down--

overwhelmed--if I didn't know I need

to stay strong for the boys, I don't

know what I'd do--but I don't mean to

totally cry the blues--the good thing

in our life is we're back in NOLA--and

we've a home--now, it's with one of my

sisters and her remaining kids and gets

crowded--but I'm grateful we're not in

Houston where we just couldn't fit in

and got homesick rather fast--or

homeless--and though I'm saddened by

some things I see in this city--there

are other signs we're keepin' on

keepin' on in spite of everything--

those small baby steps NOLA's making

to come back--and today I pray

that we'll be able to return home

soon as now we're on the bus heading

who knows where anxiously awaiting

Gustav--nervously wondering what will be

there when we get back--and when we can....

Now for more about Gustav and related issues: dizzydean has posted an excellent, informative series on what Houma and the Chitimacha tribes have been going through in the wake of Gustav--a story which, with 24/7 coverage of Sarah Palin and the convention, the MSM have missed entirely.

Last but not least, here are a couple of places to donate towards hurricane relief:
Network for Good. Or, as Barack Obama suggests, donate to the
Red Cross. Give what you can--but give. No amount will be too small. Thanks!

Why The Obsession With Palin When Louisiana Is Hurting? (With Donation Info)

2008-09-04T08:51:00.000-07:00

As duplicative, repetitive diaries keep being posted on other sites about Sarah Palin, the agonizing aftermath of Gustav in Louisiana is being ignored, if it hasn't been forgotten already.

Don't get me wrong--but there's plenty of time to go into Palin's issues between now and the election (though as Obama has said, we shouldn't go into Bristol's pregnancy because that's a family problem of the Palins.) And those having to do with her work as a leader are important. But we should not lose sight of what's going on in Louisiana as we focus on them. Because the disaster and anguish continue in Gustav's aftermath.

Perhaps many are relieved that Gustav missed landfall at New Orleans. But according to this report,

other parts of Cajun country were not as lucky.

In low-lying parishes across Louisiana's southeastern and central coast, homes were destroyed and towns flooded.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said he has received reports of widespread damage across three parishes — Terrebonne, Lafourche and St. Mary — near where the eye of the storm hit.

This low-lying Cajun country is an area with a distinctive, fascinating culture which is now seriously endangered due to the vanishing of the wetlands which have been occuring at a rate of a football per half-hour.

In fact, dizzydean has posted an excellent series of diaries on the effect of Gustav on the Chitimacha tribes in the Houma area, who he says in effect are virtually being ignored in light of 24/7 Sarah Palin coverage.

While it is good news that New Orleans has been spared much of Gustav's fury due to being 75 miles away (according to one report I heard) from landfall, that doesn't mean Kossacks should out of relief go back to forgetting about Louisiana, which, still suffering after Katrina, now must endure new wounds. And even New Orleans herself waited until today to allow residents other than recovery and other essential workers to come back. In fact, regarding NOLA, it ain't over yet. In this diary Nightprowlkitty tells of evacuees who are anxious to go back home and see what became of their property.

In fact, the damage is widespread. This article adds,

there were unconfirmed reports of significant damage in northern Louisiana. "The storm was expected to head more west. Instead it went through Louisiana and so literally now you have a storm that has caused widespread damage through a wide geographic part of our state," Mr Jindal told a news conference.

It is not limited to southern Louisiana--it can be found as far north as Alexandria. While the blogger was lucky not to lose her house, she did lose a car and truck. According to the Alexandria-Pineville Town Talk, those cities experienced serious storm damage and the water situation there is critical. On top of this, flooding from Gustav's remnants is becoming serious.

Lafayette's newspaper theadvertiser.com reports two deaths from Gustav's storm system.

Not only Americans were affected by Gustav--its effects were tragically felt in Haiti, a country which previously been hit by several other storms and is so poor that the people have already been reduced to eating dirt.

And, as Gustav evacuees want to return home, Nightprowlkitty reminds those of us who may have forgotten that three years after Katrina and flood, people in New Orleans and evacuees who haven't been able to come back still need the compassion of their fellow Americans. Also, bear with me for linking a diary on John McCain, but because this is on his disaster relief record following Katrina and the flood, it's germane to this Blogathon. I'm sure that if he's elected he'll prove all of his election-year Gustav pronouncements to be a sham as well as further neglecting the post-Katrina recovery which still has a long way to go.

Here's more information from Tom Head on the post-Katrina situation in Mississippi in the Mississippi Human Rights Report.

Last but not least, here are a couple of places to donate towards hurricane relief:
Network for Good. Or, as Barack Obama suggests, donate to the
Red Cross. Give what you can--but give. Thanks!

Mileage Reports

2008-08-29T08:46:00.000-07:00

Sitting in her caseworker's car in the apartment

complex where she was planning to apply for a

new home she noticed the younger woman

filling out mileage records to turn in to her

superiors at the agency of which she herself

was a client--this flashed her back to 10-11

years ago when she'd been working for a

supervisor--an odd, temperamental sort of

fellow for whom she'd felt she'd been

working at sufferance and had been walking

on eggshells--he could be very kind, even

fatherly at times -- but at others could be

rather anal or even meanspirited -- the one

reason she'd put up with abuse -- the feeling

that she could never be sure which "boss"

she'd be dealing with -- was that with her

speech disability and emotional problems

would make it hard to find a new job were

she to quit -- she was tempted to tell her

caseworker how fortunate she was to

have her comlpany pay her mileage because

some companies -- like that she'd worked

for -- don't treat their employees this well --

because back in the late 90's when she'd

been working for this company and had

been filling out and turning in mileage

sheets as everybody else there was able

to do her supervisor lectured her about

filling in these reports -- so even though

she was earning only the minimum wage

and could barely afford the gas, it had to

be on her dime (I know, strange metaphor

the way gas prices are these days) --

she figured that perhaps the accounting

office had spoken to her supervisor about

her handing in mileage reports so one day

when she had to go there for another

errand (the gas for which was on her dime)

she stopped in at the accounting office to

apologize for asking for paid mileage and

the main accountant with whom she'd

spoken had said that was OK -- everyone

there turned in mileage reports and got

paid mileage -- so driving back to the

branch office across the river where she

worked she started crying because now

she felt she'd figured out for some weird

reason she'd been being made an exception

of -- but of course knew she could not

say anything to her supervisor about the

unfaitness of it all fearing his reaction --

snapping back to the here and now after

being flooded by these memories she felt

like crying but instead put on a bravura

performance of a business-like, "normal"

adult apartment-hunting -- knowing not

only would those at the front desk of the

rental office get a bad impression about her

-- she also didn't want to bore and burden her

caseworker with the distressing details of

her past working life because there was

nothing she could do about them now --

because she liked the young woman very

much -- she'd gotten to know her rather

well -- for example, being a voracious

reader the way she herself was (currently

the younger woman's in the process of

re-reading her Harry Potter books -- and

she herself has been into fantasy and sci-

fi lately, but while she's seen a couple of

Harry Potter movies, she hasn't gotten

around to any Harry Potter books yet)

--in fact, this was the first time she who had

decided long ago in light of her emotional

problems that she was unfit to marry and

have children ever felt maternal towards

someone (other than the four-legged furry,

purring creatures with whom she'd shared

her home and her life) -- after her business

for the day was concluded and she made it

home, she got her work done there, ate

dinner, sat down in her favorite comfy

chair, and felt it safe to cry.

There's Got To Be More In Life......

2008-08-21T13:30:00.000-07:00

She'd decided, two months

After giving up her '87 Olds

Too costly to fix

One month after her boss

Told her she'd soon

Be released from her job

Which she'd had for

Many years with kind folks

Who'd gotten to be like her family

She'd felt comfortable

In her home away from home

Were she a cat

She'd have purred

But job loss wasn't the worstt

Her final report said she

Didn't play well with others

Too emotional--poor judgment--didn't

Complete tasks quickly enough

Or too many mistakes

Didn't display creativity--

but her job hadn't offered her

the chance to be creative--

she also got a bad mark for

not doing what the boss wanted

because she had a better idea

And the agents liked that better

Poor concentration, poor memory

And she lacked a pleasant

Optimistic attitude. He also

Said others she worked with

Were reluctant to ask her for help

Those very others she'd thought

Had liked her as though they

were family. She realized now,

a dysfunctional family.

At the end of the report the

Boss added something to the

Effect she just didn't fit in

There--or any other office

With "normal" people. Reading

Again the report late one night

She was so distraught she

Thought she'd cross the highway

Between her bus stop and the

Office without checking the

Traffic. But then she decided

She wanted to live. Life still

Had too much to offer. She found

That she enjoyed being on her own

Schedule, rising when it was light

Out, not answering to others,

doing what she loved. Or "her own

thing" as they'd say when she was in

The sixth grade. She thought

There's got to be more to life....

Than paper clips and sticky notes,

Rubber bands and paper reams,

Copiers, postage meters and fax

Machines, and the general daily

Grind. She didn't miss getting up

And going to work before dawn,

And coming home when it was

Almost dark in the winter--

A stressful, fatiguing routine.

And then she decided that there

Was wisdom in the boss's words.

He'd brought up signs that she'd

Been having problems. And she agreed

For for years she'd known something

Was amiss with her--with her extreme

Mood changes and emotional displays

That had been untreated for all those

Many years--she'd thought she could

Handle them on her own. For having

been labelled "Learning Disabled" in

Her youth, she'd wanted to be "normal."

But going it alone didn't help--

For as she'd found it was

Full of dangers and pitfalls.

She decided it was time to start

Healing. She worried about how

Much this would cost, but found

A doctor who didn't charge much

So now she'd getting the help and

Meds she needs. Life still isn't

Perfect--she still isn't up to

A job--but now she hope she's

Finally on the right road.

Louisiana Environmental Disaster: Where Are The MSM?

2008-07-26T08:54:00.000-07:00

Back in 1988 when the Exxon Valdez ran aground, I can recall at least a few weeks of steady coverage by both the three major networks and cable news (just CNN at the time) of the disaster, its environmental impact, and efforts to clean it up.

But the fuel oil spill that happened in Louisiana earlier this week proves to be a much larger disaster with farther-reaching consequences--yet for some news briefs I've seen on NBC Nightly News and a couple of cable channels, there hasn't been the major coverage it should be getting. Why aren't the MSM taking it seriously?

And scorpiorising says,

it is somewhat shocking to me, given the size of the spill and its potential impact on fragile wetlands, that there isn't more help coming to help wildlife, and to help with cleanup.

In my view, the fact that the mainstream national media have been keeping coverage to a bare minimum has something to do with the lack of help for wildlife and cleanup.

The dire consequences of this disaster are already being seen: New Orleanians-area residents drink water from the river, so many are now buying bottled water.

Also, the Delta National Wildlife Refuge, where many waterfowl have their home base during the winter, is preparing for the disaster's future effects.

As he piloted his boat out of the refuge's headquarters in Venice on Thursday, manager Jack Bohannan pointed out thick black chunks of oil and multicolored sheens near the river bank. A floating water hyacinth caked in thick black muck floated by.

"Remember this is nothing compared to what's going to be happening," he said. "This is just a sign of things to come."

And I haven't run across anything yet in my sources, but I shudder to think of the impact a hurricane would have on this fuel oil spill.

Below is the comment I posted on NBC's Daily Nightly website. If it doesn't appear there later today, it's been censored:

Bear with me for being off-topic, but an environmental disaster is taking place that needs much more intensive coverage not only because of the difficulty of cleaning it up, but because of its long-term effects.

I mean the oil spill on the Mississippi at New Orleans. I will say that Nightly did headline the spill both last night and Wed., but that was not enough news coverage for such a big disaster. Where's Anne Thompson when we need her awesome environmental reporting?

This oil spill is a bigger disaster than the Exxon Valdez disaster, which received several weeks of steady coverage after it happened. It endangers Louisiana's fragile wetlands and could only add to the growing "dead zone" in the Gulf off Louisiana.

Could NBC be practicing self-censorship by keeping full coverage of this environmental disaster off the air, to make sure the Republicans stay in the White House?

Louisiana 1976

If this comment doesn't appear under NBC's Daily Nightly. it's been censored.

And last but not least, there was this intriguing comment by wordene:

This is the real reason why Grampy McSamepants didn't show up for his photo-op. Wouldn't want the Lazy Media to accidentally report some real news. They haven't filled their daily quota of propaganda disbursement.

This article by Huffpo's Karen Dalton-Beninato provides confirmation of this view, which makes sense to me.

(Bear with me for concluding with a quick rant, but I would have included some photos I found on flickr the way scorpiorising did, but I just can't get them to transfer over to DKos. Under one of her diaries, someone said there's a code you can pull up from a photographer's photostream, but there's no way I can find it? WTF? And I tried to see if Photobucket has anything, but they don't.)

Louisiana's Relationship From Hell: The Sequel

2008-07-21T08:15:00.000-07:00

For anybody who thought Louisiana would get a far better deal from BushCo under GOP Gov. Bobby Jindal than she did under Democratic Gov. Kathleen Blanco, they'd better think again. For Bush's pattern of abuse against Louisiana seems to transcend her politics. According to the Baton Rouge Advocate,

Bobby Jindal, angered over the increased costs that storm-wounded Louisiana must shoulder for construction of hurricane protection levees, asked Washington for more time — and a little fairness.

Under the latest war spending bill, Louisiana must kick in $1.8 billion by 2011 in order to activate $5.8 billion in federal funding needed to strengthen the New Orleans-area levee system.

Jindal said Louisiana’s share for repairs to the 360-mile, federally maintained levee system, is higher post-Katrina, than before the storm. "It seems ridiculous," Jindal said, tersely.

According to this Times Picayune article, Jindal is pressing Bush over Louisiana'a levee costs.

Jindal was quoted as saying,

"We think it's wrong that the state of Louisiana should be required to pay $200 million more in matching dollars than we would have paid (under rules in effect) before Katrina."

The article adds that

President Bush also could issue an executive order to trigger a provision included in the 1986 Water Resources Development Act, which would allow the state to pay back its share of construction costs over 30 years instead of three years, which presents a financial crisis for Louisiana.

and that California and Nevada have gotten such deals.

"We’re willing to pay our share; we just want the flexibility that has been offered to other states,”

Jindal was quoted as saying in the Advocate.

He also said in effect that Louisiana's having to pay such a large share of these costs would force her to make massive cuts in schools, social services, and coastal restoration.

In the Times Picayune Jindal was quoted as saying,

"We've encouraged people to come back to their homes, to their businesses....It would be irresponsible to ask the people of Louisiana to go through even one additional hurricane season without the protection they've been promised by their government. We will keep our word to the people of Louisiana."

According to the Advocate article, Jindal

also issued an ominous warning: “Over the next few years, we as a state have to make generational decisions on areas we want to protect and areas we want to restore.”

He said many federal policymakers have expressed sympathy for Louisiana, which suffered a one-two punch from hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, but that sympathy “needs to be translated into legislative action.”

“The administration can administratively give us the time we’re asking for,” Jindal said of President Bush, a fellow Republican. In the alternative, new language could be included in a congressional housing bill before Congress breaks for its August research.

Bush's discriminatory treatment of Louisiana is especially devastating at a time when storm season is heating up with Tropical Storm Dolly poised to enter the Gulf. While forecasters are calling for landfall at the Texas-Mexico border, this is only July. Who knows what the most active months of August and September will bring?

Also, a congressional delegation has been in New Orleans taking a look at the need still present nearly 3 years after Katrina and the federal flood hit.

For U.S. Rep. Laura Richardson, one member of a congressional delegation touring the New Orleans region, a few images from the opening two days made her wonder, "Do we live in America?"

She recalled a large family in St. Bernard Parish living in a FEMA trailer containing a single twin bed, with a bathroom that would cramp just one adult trying to bathe. The family was recently notified by FEMA that it would have to leave the trailer, according to Richardson, a Democrat from California.

Government has to "stop looking at a manual and look at the people," she said.

"Madness: A Bipolar Life"

2008-07-14T13:18:00.000-07:00

by Marya Hornbacher is the shattering sort of memoir about which I've a personal rule of not starting to read before bedtime. Because I won't want to put it down until it's finished.

When we first meet Marya, she's lying on the bathroom floor in a pool of blood, having severed an artery while cutting herself. This is what draws us into the living hell of her condition--rapid-cycling Bipolar I, the worst form of the disease.

We experience Marya's turbulent early life as she tells us about the "Goat Man"--who her mother tries to assure is a nightmare, but 4-year-old Marya knows is very real. She's seen him and felt his fur.

Marya also struggles with serious eating disorders, about which she has written in more detail in the Pulitzer Prize-nominated book Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia (P.S.)

She adds that back in the 70's children weren't diagnosed as bipolar and that even now there's a debate over whether or not children can have bipolar. Also, we learn that the term "bipolar" was first used in 1980--before that, the illness had been called manic-depression.

As a teen Marya abuses street drugs and, in order to obtain them because she doesn't have much money, trades promiscuous sex for them. Also, she begins drinking heavily on top of her eating disorders which prove life-threatening and for which she ends up in the hospital.

She's taken to her mother's psychiatrist who diagnoses her with depression (which those with eating disorders were thought to suffer from then) and prescribed Prozac--the "in" med of the time, but the worst thing you can give someone with bipolar.

Later in life she experiences the surreal roller-coaster of an illness that, even after she's finally been properly diagnosed at the age of 24, she still doesn't take seriously. Because bipolar, like diabetes, is a disease that must be managed throughout one's life. She doesn't take presctibed meds and instead drinks in order to self-medicate. One day she has 17 drinks and still doesn't think she's had too much. Also, she still has anorexia and bulimia at times. This sort of thing ruins her liver and otherwise threatens her life.

In the best of times, she energetically works for a magazine; in the worst she's hospitalized more than a few times--sometimes even enduring electroshock treatment which wipes out large blocks of her memories. And because she's so ill she must endure heavy side-effects from her meds.

Sometimes there's even some humor in her story--like when she mentions being in a new psychiatrist's office and notices that she sees the same magazine there as she's seen in all other psychiatrists' offices. She adds that the pictures on the waiting room walls are the same in every office. This reminds me of Johnny Carson's joke about there being only only one fruitcake and around Christmas everybody sends it to everybody else.

Everyone who has bipolar or any other mental illness needs a steady rock in her life--and Marya's has always been her mother. Her mother visits her when she's in the hospital and, when she has to recover in her mother's home, supports her throughout and treats her with kindness and gentleness.

Such a far cry from my own movie-buff mother who, since I was unable to deliiver the "Oscar-winning performance" of tight emotional control she demanded, verbally/emotionally abused me for years as I was growing up--but that's subject for another diary that I'll write when I feel up to it. I don't feel like it now.

I can, however, relate to many other things Marya went through, although so far I've escaped the substance abuse, self-injury, and promiscuous sex, and never have had it badly enough to be hospitalized. But in ways, my life has been just as surreal and disjointed between the disease and its fallout as was hers. I've been coming down from a manic or high hypomanic episode and mentioned this to my psychiatrist who said I should up the Depakote to 4 a day--so I'll give that a try. Wish me luck!

"Madness" reads like a novel and is a very fast read. It'a a must read whether you've bipolar and want to know about another person's experience with the condition, know someone with bipolar and want to better understand what they're going through, or just want to learn about bipolar. You won't want to miss it.

Yes, There Is A Double Standard......

2008-06-27T13:49:00.000-07:00

going on regarding what politicians and other people have been saying about this current flooding and what they said after the federal flood about New Orleans and those it impacted. I was cynical enough and had had my suspicions as I noticed that something was missing.

To wit: Nobody, even though some of the currently-affected communities along the Mississippi which had also been affected in the flooding of 1993 have been flooded again, has been telling the folks in these communities that they should not rebuild......

While, regarding New Orleans, people from then-Speaker of the House Denny Hastert on down almost immediately started calling for the bulldozing of New Orleans and turning her into swampland.

According to the author of this LSU Reveille editorial, there has been such a double standard--which confirms my suspicions.

But what the author talks about is only the tip of the iceberg. Because there's more: what got and still gets my hackles up about New Orleans is the fact that the MSM, by showing mostly-black and poor flood survivors, affected American's perceptions of New Orleans, including those of the Bush Administration. This is in spite of the fact that actually people of all races and classes were impacted by the flooding. I know I've said this often before, but it's germane to what I'm about to add.

While regarding Iowa and the rest of the Midwest, while as with the fact that not all impacted by the New Orleans flood were black, not all flood survivors in the Midwest are white, the perception on the part of some seems to be otherwise. Lately a cesspool of disrespect for New Orleans and Louisiana, if not outright racism, has overflowed. It's a replay of the abusive remarks racist Americans would further torture an anguished Louisiana with after the flood.

And Tim Wise adds more about stereotypes and other misconceptions about both the people of Iowa and of New Orleans, which have been even now working to New Orleanians' detriment:

there's Rush Limbaugh, who has decided to use the flooding in Iowa not to demonstrate compassion, but as an opportunity to make derogatory statements about poor black folks: specifically those caught by the flooding in New Orleans after Katrina in 2005.

This week, as folks in Iowa, Indiana and parts of Illinois have watched flood waters rise ever higher, Limbaugh took to the air to contrast these supposedly good and decent people who have joined forces to help each other, with the presumably evil, lazy and violent folks of New Orleans, who we are told, did nothing but foment criminality and wait for the government to save them during flooding there in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Thus, we have his statement of a few days ago, in which he noted that in the midst of the devastation in the Midwest:

"I see people working together. I see people trying to save their property...I don't see a bunch of people running around waving guns at helicopters. I don't see a bunch of people running shooting cops. I don't see a bunch of people raping people on the street...I see the heartland of America. When I look at Iowa and when I look at Illinois, I see the backbone of America."

Well, we all know Limbaugh is an Extremely Annoying wingnut gasbag with racial attitudes that are more than a little questionable, but Wise adds:

Sadly it isn't only Limbaugh who has been making these kinds of comparisons. Millions of us have also been subjected to the e-blast missives making the rounds, which seek to contrast the law-abiding, God-fearing, and (let us not forget) mostly white farming folks of the Midwest to the black, urban, and congenitally defective folks of the Big Easy. If you haven't received something like this from a friend, relative or co-worker yet, just wait, because you probably will soon.

But what all of these like-minded rants indicate--whether spewed to 20 million pliant sheep via the airwaves, or posted on a pathetic little blog read by no one--is the dishonesty of those offering them up. Either that, or the fundamental ineptitude of the same when it comes to doing basic research, fact-checking, or merely paying attention to the fundamental differences between the flooding of New Orleans and that of rural and small town Iowa communities.

Examples of racist and otherwise anti-New Orleans comments by other Americans can be seen in the comments under these posts in Sean Hannity's forum and in Black Spin. Take a look at the negative, stereotypical remarks on this forum where Iowa's relative paucity of crime is discussed. Fortunately they're interspersed with those of others better informed as to what happened in New Orleans during and after the flood as well as the differences (e.g. population density) between New Orleans and Iowa communities.

Wise lists the major differences in how the federal government handled the New Orleans disaster, and in other aspects. He mentions that not only were there very few escape routes out, residents were actually prevented from escape by armed police from a neighboring parish. And how many didn't have access to cars they could use for escape. He reminds us of how tens of thousands were jammed into the Superdome and the Convention Center. Last but not least, he tells us not only how the Department of Homeland Security kept the Red Cross from entering New Orleans, FEMA itself didn't show up for several days. None of which happened in Iowa.

And I'm going to add that I predict that Iowa and the rest of the states impacted by this flooding will be better treated by BushCo as long as they're still in office, than was Louisiana. If anyone needs more evidence that BushCo has been attempting to carry out ethnic cleansing, if not outright cultural genocide, in Louisiana, this is it.

Wise adds later in the article:

So consider Limbaugh's formulation, where he says, "I don't see a bunch of people running around waving guns at helicopters, I don't see a bunch of people running shooting cops. I don't see a bunch of people raping people on the street."

Fair enough. Those things aren't happening in Iowa. Yet, according to multiple post-Katrina investigations, and stories written up by the Associated Press, the Los Angeles Times, the New Orleans Times Picayune, the Guardian (London), the New York Times, Popular Mechanics, Reason Magazine and the American Journalism Review, they weren't happening in New Orleans either. Reports of shooting at helicopters, or rapes or murders were almost entirely false. There were no murders in the evacuation centers, few if any sexual assaults (and none on the street as Limbaugh claimed), no helicopters fired on, and no police officers shot by residents. Yes, there was looting, although by a distinct minority of persons trapped in the city, and overwhelmingly for necessities like food, medicine, water,and clothing to replace the rotting, soaked rags people were wearing after wading through waist-deep water. And according to persons on the ground in the flood zone, even the luxury items taken were typically used as barter chips, to get rides out of the city for oneself and one's family when it became obvious that large scale assistance wasn't going to arrive any time soon. In other words, reports of widespread thuggery in New Orleans during the flooding have been greatly exaggerated, if not entirely fabricated, and have only remained believable to millions because of the race and class biases that allow people to believe the worst about poor black folks even without a shred of actual evidence.

Oh, and not to put too fine a point on it, but the notion that there has been no looting in the Midwest, presumably because white rural folk are more civilized than their black and urban counterparts is demonstrably untrue. There have been several reports of theft in Columbus, Indiana, for instance--mostly people taking things out of folks' front yards that have been left out to dry--and in Cedar Rapids, police recently made their first looting arrest (though there have been other reports of theft as well), of a white woman who was stealing alcohol from a local bar.

(I hope I didn't quote Wise too extensively, and bear with me if I did, but he was an excellent source who put everything into perspective. It was from reading Wise that I learned of crimes that had happened after Indiana and Iowa flooding--when in contrast, during and after the New Orleans flood, you heard all over the place about violent crime in New Orleans--then weeks later when such stories were debunked, there wasn't much about that in the MSM--so the more ignorant still have the impression that New Orleans was something like a Thid World trouble spot back then>)

Back to New Orleans--HuffPo's Georgianne Nienaber reports that a new call has been made for an 8/29 Commission. Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu had drafted the legislation, but per Nienaber

To this date, Republicans have blocked the bill and it is languishing in committee.

I hope some of these Senators, probably racists who want to blow off New Orleans because they erroneously see her as a "black" city, are from states affected by the current Midwest deluge--that would be karmic.

I'm frustrated and discouraged........

2008-06-14T11:10:00.000-07:00

because for the last three months I've organized a NOLA/Gulf Blogathon on Daily Kos to call attention to the fact that, although Katrina and the federal flood happened close to three years ago, their lingering after-effects and the recovery of New Orleans and the other communities haven't been getting the attention they need to be getting. From such people/groups as the mainstream media, politicians (including presidential candidates) and others.

The last time I organized a Blogathon, it was hard to get people to sign up, and the latest time I announced one to sign up for, nobody other than me signed up. And even worse, I can't even think of anything really new to write about--which makes me reluctant to try to get others to commit for this month.

So I decided it would be a good idea to hold off on any more Blogathons until Wed., Aug. 27--Thurs. Aug. 28, figuring that around that time, between 8/29's anniversary and the picking up of hurricane season, there would be more of an interest.

What I Found on the Bus

2008-05-27T14:35:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning I was enroute to the mall when I noticed the bus driver reading a piece of paper. I was just a little annoyed that she wasn't giving her undivided attention to the road, but curious about what she was reading. Later that day I was taking another bus back to the mall from the theatre--and noticed a passenger sitting across from me showing someone next to him a page identical to the one I'd seen the bus driver reading that morning. Curiouser and curiouser. So when I boarded the bus to go home, naturally when I saw an identical sheet of paper in the seat across from the one I was planning to sit in, I had to pick it up. It says:

It's Nearly Midnight

My bed remains unmade

As I stare at each wrinkle in my bed sheets

I think of the Ocean's waves

Which will drown me to sleep

by
Richard J. Dillon
Militia of the Immaculate
5/21/08

9/11 and 8/29--What's Different?

2008-05-23T12:56:00.000-07:00

This diary is intended as something of a rant. Because this saddens me and makes my blood boil every time I think about it.

But before I vent, here's a caveat: as I said in yesterday's diary, 9/11 tore me apart. So this is by no means intended as a put-down of the trauma 9/11 survivors went through or a complaint about the well-deserved sympathy and support they've gotten.

Rather, what pisses me off is is the fact that survivors of 8/29--whether of Katrina, the federal flood, or of Rita--have not been receiving the equal aid, synpathy, or other treatment to that received by 9/11 survivors, that they deserve. What blueintheface brings up--the fact that Daily Kos hasn't been paying enough attention to New Orleans and Katrina, is the tip of a very big iceberg involving the MSM and many politicians that has been keeping storm and flood survivors from getting the attention they have a right to receive.

In fact, I'm going to argue that Katrina, Rita, and federal flood survivors, and the city of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana, should be getting more federal aid than 9/11 survivors, and the city and state of New York, because 9/11 survivors, unlike 8/29 survivors, have warm, safe, comfy homes because all that was destroyed in New York during 9/11 were the Twin Towers. Far more, over a wider area, was destroyed during 8/29 than was destroyed during 9/11. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

9/11 and 8/29 are the most tragic things that have occured in this country so far in this century. After both, there were massive outpourings of support, aid, and sympathy from all around the country and most of the rest of the world.

But there the similarity ends. After 8/29 FEMA by means of all sorts of bureaucratic roadblocks did what it could to slow the arrival of relief and rescue worked and aid in drowned New Orleans and the Mississippi and Louisiana communities obliterated to the slabs by Katrina. And supplies and rescuers from overseas were turned away or squandered by the Bush Administration. This in an odd parallel to the way Burma's government has been keeping foreign relief workers out, which Bush himself, seemingly having forgotten what his own administration did during Katrina and the flood, has been protesting.

9/11 had its well-publicized heroes--the firefighters and police who received national adulation. But the heroes of Katrina and the flood--Coast Guard members who rescued New Orleanians from rooftops and sweltering attics, and homegrown groups such as the Cajun Navy and the NOLA homeboys who were mentioned in Douglas Brinkley's fine book "The Deluge"--are mainly unsung. Although there has been the rare exception such as Sunday's Extreme Makeover Home Edition finale which took place in New Orleans and featured a banquet for heroes of the flood and the recovery, why don't we hear so often about the heroes of 8/29 as as we do about the heroes of 9/11?

Then there was how the media handled the tragedies--I mean, regarding advertising. While both at first received wall-to-wall coverage on cable, these networks during 9/11 had the sensitivity and respect for the fallen, not to mention the tragedy itself, not to air commercials. Which is as it should have been--it would have been jarring and in poor taste to have the network cut away from scenes of the planes hitting and the towers falling to a cheery cereal or cat food commercial.

Why, then, didn't these networks show the same taste, respect, and sensitivity during Katrina and flood coverage? Interspersed with scenes of people wading through filthy water to the high ground of the overpasses, and of devastated Mississippi, were all sorts of commercials--which were not only annoying but also inappropriate in light of the tragedy, to say the least.

But the following two things really make my blood boil--the first is that apparently there's no such thing as 9/11 fatigue, and close to seven years later it still doesn't look like 9/11 will soon be forgotten. But many including the MSM, politicians, and most of the DKos community either have forgotten the tragedies of 8/29 or suffer from "Katrina fatigue." As will be noted at length later, even the DCCC seems to have forgotten the reality people in New Orleans and the surrounding parishes must deal with, as it refused to fund Gilda Reed.

The worst is the disparity between how 9/11 victims and survivors and the state and city of New York have been treated by BushCo and the way 8/29 victims and survivors, New Orleans, and Louisiana have been treated. In what I like to call an "Emperor has no clothes" moment because it exposes an uncomfortable truth, Sen. Mary Landrieu last year made the controversial observation that

“I often think we would have been better off if the terrorists had blown up our levees...Maybe we’d have gotten more attention.”

As previously noted, massive outpourings of aid and other support took place after 9/11 and 8/29. In the case of 9/11 victims, survivors, and heroes, not only has the sympathy continued to this day, they have gotten a great deal of respect from their fellow Americans. And on top of this families of people who died on 9/11 received $1.4 million apiece in compensation for their loss.

What's unfair about this is 9/11 survivors may have lost loved ones, but they still have comfortable homes to return to--unlike Katrina and flood survivors who besides losing loved ones lost their homes, and often their physical and mental health, and not only have never received $1.4 million apiece in compensation--money that would go a long way towards rebuilding their homes and lives--but, the way things look, will never be so lucky.

This is because a BushCo busily engaged in spinning New Orleans' levee failures as being the fault of New Orleans and Louisiana has thus abdicated its responsibility in this matter so it obviously won't do what it has a moral obligation to do. And loathesome Sen. Joseph Lieberman has supported BushCo by refusing to empanel an 8/29 Commission which would carry out an 8/29 investigation. As a result, not only will those who lost loved ones on 8/29 never receive the compensation to which they're entitled, attention to 8/29 and its lingering aftereffects will continue to be next to non-existent. Lieberman should be called to accounting because on his shoulders rests the blame for the fact that those who lost family members on 8/29 will not be justly compensated.

Regarding the survivors of 8/29, while they're still receiving sympathy from some quarters and groups of volunteers are still going to the Gulf Region to help build houses, it seems that on the part of many other Americans, if they haven't completely forgotten 8/29, this sympathy has evaporated. And it evaporated quickly after "Katrina fatigue" set in among them.

I saw this on such MSNBC blogs as "First Read," Daily Nightly, and Rising from Ruin, a Mississippi blog, where New Orleanians were often stereotyped by commenters venting their Katrina fatigue as lazy ingrates who sat around waiting for hand-outs and whining for help instead of picking themselves up by their bootstraps and racist comments about "Welfare babies" and worse were made. (But how do you pick yourself up by your bootstraps when your boots were washed away in the flood?) And it made me very sad to see Louisiana derided as a state full of lazy people and not treated as though she were a part of the United States.

But to be fair, in response to people's cruel comments there were also made thoughtful, sympathetic comments such as the following:

Something has been bugging me--not only here but under other entries...I adore Mississippi. I admire the way Mississippians, after having endured America's worst natural disaster and against immense odds have been valiantly struggling together to rebuild their communities and pick up the pieces of their lives. It's also good how Mississippi's leaders from Gov. Barbour on down to Mayor Longo and other local officials have their act together.

God forbid that central Illinois should see a disaster--like a huge quake on the New Madrid Fault--that would be of Katrina's magnitude--but were something like that to happen here, I would hope that the people of this area would come together and Illinois' leaders act with the same sort of bravery and can-do pioneer spirit exhibited by Mississippi's.

However, my heart goes out to everyone in Waveland, Bay St. Louis, Long Beach, and the rest of Mississippi's Gulf Coast. Even the best teamwork and the ablest leaders don't take away the fact that you have loads of hard work remaining and many hardships that continue. Mississippi is still in a lot of pain, and I'm sure many are under psychic strain, having had your traumas and losses. There is only so much you can do by yourselves, and it will be years before everything is O.K. in Mississippi.

That being said, I also love Louisiana very much. And it saddens me to see people picking on her and beating up on her while she's down. Why do people often call her people (especially New Orleanians) "lazy," "whiners," "negative," or say they're "sitting around waiting for hand-outs?" I find such comments and other insults insensitive, callous, and meanspirited.

Wholistically speaking, Mississippi suffered the worst NATURAL disaster and PHYSICAL wounding from Katrina. Louisiana endured the "shock and awe" of a massive MANMADE disaster that not only seriously hurt her physically, but caused grave PSYCHOLOGICAL wounds as well. The wiping out of 80% of her largest and most historic and identity-defining city, with the dispersal of more than half of her residents to other parts of Louisiana and all around the nation snapped Louisiana's life in half. She will never be the same state again. And less than a month later, Rita obliterated villages on her southwest coast the same way Katrina did in Mississippi.

Thinking about this can bring tears to my eyes--but something truly heartbreaking is currently darkening Louisiana's life and sapping her of the strength--the healthy human resources--she needs to recover from last year's storms and to cope with any new challenges during this hurricane season. As if the still-unhealed physical wounds from the storms and New Orleans' flooding weren't enough, Louisiana is in a world of hurt from intensely painful emotional wounds as well. If it were possible for a state to cry from pain, Louisiana would.

Her people are just wearing down, afflicted with what officials are calling "Katrina brain"--general fatigue brought on by disruption of their lives--involving difficulty concentrating, mood swings, and mild depression. Also, approximately 500,000 of her people have since the storms been suffering from severe psychological damage--beset by sleeplessness, nightmares, chronic stress, and substance abuse.

Stress has been causing normally stable, law-abiding people to become unhinged, and according to a report in yesterday's Times-Picayune, "post-Katrina issues of displacement, anxiety, stress..." could partly be to blame for 8 weekend shootings in New Orleans and Jefferson Parish in which 4 were killed. And yet another symptom of the emotional turmoil wracking Louisiana--wife abuse has also increased in New Orleans, where shelter space and affordable housing are hard to find.

Most poignant of all, a fragile, exhausted Louisiana has been tortured by an excruciating epidemic of anxiety, depression, and suicides. This is not confined to the New Orleans area--it is statewide. When evacuees fled New Orleans for Baton Rouge, Shreveport, etc., they took their "baggage"--traumas and losses--with them. In fact, Baton Rouge, now Louisiana's most populous city overwhelmed by an influx of evacuees, is a "hot spot" for this epidemic. Saddest of all--Louisiana has insufficient resources to ease the anguish of the afflicted.

There may be a small ray of hope in the federal grant of $35 million to Louisiana Spirit, a crisis counseling program. While such counseling can keep smaller problems from becoming major ones, it's a bit of a "Band-Aid" measure because the funds cannot be used for medications or other intensive treatment, so anyone already seriously ill won't get the help they desperately need. So for Louisiana it's like being a cancer patient who's given only aspirin--which relieves her pain without treating its underlying source which is killing her.

The anguish of Louisiana's afflicted is getting worse now that hurricane season is at its peak. While the prospect of a new storm's hitting Mississippi this year or anytime soon has me very worried because it's the last thing you need with all the devastation you still have and all you need to do, Mississippi is a strong, otherwise-healthy state, and I'm confident that were worst to come to worst, you would deal with a new storm with the same fortitude with which you handled Katrina. However, I cringe at the thought of that happening to Louisiana. She fell apart when New Orleans' levees failed--a new disaster could push her over the edge.

So, please go easy on Louisiana and her people. After Katrina and Rita, she needs to be gently and compassionately nursed back to health. She does not need her people put down as "whiny," "lazy," etc. She--like Mississippi--needs the support and sympathy of other caring Americans to help her recover and become whole again.

That post first appeared on "Rising from Ruin" in 2006 but I reprinted it in near-entirety because the situation it describes still prevails for the most part--if it has not gotten worse due to BushCo's neglect of New Orleans and Louisiana and the fact that politicians and the MSM for the most part have not been paying attention to storm and flood recovery.

Even the DCCC has sleazily betrayed Louisiana and her people--look at how they refused to fund the candidacy of Gilda Reed in LA-01 and thus managed to sell out that long-suffering district to a well-financed Republican slimeball with a well-oiled campaign machine and deprived the people of a representative who would actually work in their and Louisiana's best interests instead of doing BushCo's and the GOP's dirty work.

I'd been wondering if Gilda would run again, but was very sad to read,

After the way my own party treated me, what legitimate Democrat is going to be willing to run in November as a sacrificial lamb? I have been asked by dedicated local Democrats to carry on the fight. It is going to take years, though, to come out from under the debt incurred by running once. Twice is out of the question no matter how progressive and determined I am to invoke change. Hurry up, campaign finance reform!

She adds,

Hurricane recovery and coastal restoration are still top issues. People in all 6 parishes are gasping for air, including the areas which had no flood waters. The victor Scalise claims hurricane recovery is tops but has done little in the state legislature in the almost 3 years since Katrina to address this. And just what will he be able to do as a freshman, minority-party rep known for his extreme partisan attacks on the very people he must now work with? We in LA-01 are again without appreciable representation.

I strongly doubt that the DCCC would have treated a Democratic candidate in a New York City district after 9/11 or even as late as this year as shabbily as they did Gilda. But I guess that to those corrupt scumbags, Louisiana is a small, poor state with few potential contributors to the DCCC, and consequently doesn't matter.

As Kossacks we need to make our voices heard and loudly demand for New Orleans, Louisiana, and the rest of the Gulf Region and their storm and flood survivors the same sort of attention, respect, and above all compensation that New Yorkers and others who survived 9/11 have gotten. And that 8/29 never be forgotten.

How An Illinois Gal Got "Katrina Brain"

2008-05-22T11:14:00.000-07:00

I've often imagined many in the DKos community have been wondering why I care so much and have been so passionate in my support of New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf Region from afar, after having been to New Orleans but once, over 30 years ago. And how Hurricane Katrina and the federal flood have had such a tremendous, shattering impact on me though I witnessed them safe and dry far from the sea in central Illinois. And how not only could I be well-deservedly hard on BushCo, but even take Clinton and Obama to task for not paying enough attention to New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf Region. And why I feel so strongly about this I started the NOLA/Gulf Blogathons. I'll go into that in more detail below the fold--but first I'll tell you how 9/11 impacted me.

I was, to make a long story short, traumatised. Here's how I first heard about the attacks--it wasn't in my car because I'd been listening to a tape instead. But when I arrived at work and turned on my radio I heard a chaotic jumble of info that wasn't clear until there was a news story that put it all together. On top of that one of my co-workers had heard from someone else that the Sears Tower had also been hit--which was much too close for comfort--2 1/2 hours away. But fortunately that turned out to be a rumor.

After that, for at least the next few months, I was all shook up. I don't have a crystal ball--so I felt as if anything could happen at any time, fearing that I'd be hearing of new terror in Chicago, Los Angeles, New Orleans...all around this country. Because around this time, although there were no new explosions, the anthrax attacks took place. And I did some things I'm embarrassed to admit now. Looking back on them, I know they were foolish, but they made perfect sense to me at the time the way the world situation appeared to be.

But several years went by and, while terrorist bombings took place in Spain, Britain and elsewhere overseas, no further attacks occured in this country. So I gradually became less apprehensive that anything like another 9/11 would happen here.

Now for Katrina and the federal flood. I'd begun following hurricanes on the Weather Channel in 2004 when four struck Florida. So naturally when Katrina formed, crossed Florida, and then entered the Gulf and strengthened to a Cat 5, and storm trackers forecasted that it was going to directly impact New Orleans, I started paying close attention. And was more than a little shook up, because of the doomsday predictions that she would be wiped out and uninhabitable for many years afterwards.

Because I may have been to New Orleans over 30 years ago, but since then, have traveled there many times in spirit. I love that beautiful city and the rest of Louisiana, and have always enjoyed reading about New Orleans and Louisiana and the distinctive culture there. And seeing movies filmed there.

Then on 8/29 Katrina made that jog to the left and instead made first landfall at Buras, Louisiana, then made a second landfall in Mississippi. I was as relieved as was everybody else on the outside, unaware of what had actually happened in New Orleans, to hear newspeople and even people in the French Quarter, away from the danger zone, who didn't know what was really going on say New Orleans had "dodged the bullet."

But soon I was to learn of the true scope of the disaster, as the Lower 9th, Gentilly, Lakeview and the rest of the lower-lying areas of New Orleans rapidly filled with water from Lake Pontchartrain due to the failure of levees that should have been maintained by the federal government.

And the spirit-shredding things I saw while glued to the set--people waiting on rooftops for rescue or wading through what was called a "toxic soup" to the overpasses that served as high ground, FEMA's and other bureaucrats' blocking aid and rescuers--all broke my heart and made me very sad and angry that our own government was treating people this way.

But even more distressing was how soon after the disaster other Americans would complain about hearing news out of New Orleans in such places as the MSNBC blog Rising from Ruin In response to which was posted, originally in the summer of 2006:

I don't understand why so many are tired of hearing about New Orleans. I am aware that some are unhappy with the fact that Katrina's damaging effects in Mississippi, Alabama, etc. were barely covered compared to those of the flooding in New Orleans. I'm not trivializing this, because Mississippi did catch hell from Katrina as she obliterated or nearly obliterated whole communities as she did so. But the storm blew right through. After she had gone, Mississippians were free to begin assessing the damage, cleaning up debris, and taking other halting steps towards putting their shattered lives back together. So, Mississippi got a head start on recovery.

However, for Louisiana, the day of Katrina's landfall was only the beginning of at least a week of hell not for the faint of heart. Besides New Orleans' massive flooding, Louisiana was tortured by huge fires which made New Orleans' skyline resemble Baghdad's and could not be put out in spite of ironically being surrounded by floodwaters.

Louisiana felt the anguish of those who'd been forced to gravitate to the Superdome and Convention Center--which quickly metastasized into hot, humid, dark, filthy, festering sores where rapes and other violence took place and from where hordes of hungry, thirsty, sick, suffering humanity cried out for help on national TV. And waited...and waited...and waited.

Louisiana fell apart in the sickening sort of collapse usually seen only overseas--where the streets of New Orleans became Baghdad's. Louisiana was torn apart by leaders--Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin--who bickered and pointed fingers instead of working together to make order out of the chaos. In fairness, though, this catastrophe was off the charts, the likes of which had not been seen in America in many years. The levee breaches and rapid flooding had been a sort of "shock and awe." Is it any wonder that they were at a loss regarding what to do--let alone not being able to get together on dealing with a rapidly deteriorating situation?

And Louisiana was also embroiled in a relationship from hell with a Bush Administration clueless as to how to handle her excruciating crisis. Not to mention FEMA--I read in Michael Eric Dyson's Come Hell or High Water where, In Jefferson Parish, FEMA cut the telephone lines. Now, WHY would FEMA have done that? I mean, it doesn't make sense because this was LOUISIANA--not some foreign land with which America was at war.

And it took almost a month before the floodwaters were pumped out of New Orleans, then Rita hit and caused some new flooding, so residents couldn't even begin assessing the damage and cleaning up until the floodwaters were out of there.

Fast forward to a year after Katrina. It is shameful that with all the hardships New Orleanians, Mississippians, etc. are going through, the broadcast media is not reporting as much out of the storm zone as it should be... This near-total news blackout prevails in spite of the fact that Louisiana and Mississippi still desperately need help. Maybe having more attention paid to what people in those states must deal with could at least get FEMA to release the allocated money it has been sitting on, if not get more money appropriated.

Louisiana is especially in a world of hurt. New Orleans is a "tale of two cities"--small areas including her French Quarter which are in relatively good shape and large areas such as the Lower 9th and Lakeview which look worse than Baghdad. Her water, power, and sewerage systems are in war zone-like conditions. Her streets are full of potholes. Her fire department, schools, justice system, hospitals, etc. are not up to serving a city even of her diminished size. Her mental health system is having a breakdown.

And Louisiana's "Road Home" program, which is supposed to help her flooded-out homeowners if insurance didn't cover their losses, is bottled up in red tape. Also, Louisiana wasn't able to get enough money to sufficiently help her homeowners. (I don't feel like going into the sordid details of what happened to it at length right now--but originally Louisiana came up with the Baker Plan, (which the "Road Home" replaced) which would have been more helpful to her homeowners. In short, Louisiana got the shaft from the Bush Administration.)

I did what I could to help out by donating money, which since my income is low was a drop in the bucket in light of the desperate need, but was the best I was able to do. It depresses me, the way I've been sensitive to the suffering there, that I'm unable to do more, like going down there and helping out. This makes me feel helpless.

Here's something very unfair that happened to me on the MSNBC political website First Read after I posted the following after the first Democrats' debate on Apr. 26, 2007:

Where was the solidarity of the Democrats--with the exception of Obama, who mentioned New Orleans in a sentence--with the Katrina survivors? Why did nobody speak out regarding the importance not only to survivors but to the rest of America of making Louisiana, Mississippi, and the rest of the storm zone whole? I would not have been surprised by the "let them eat cake" Republicans' being silent on this matter in support of their "Dear Leader's" inaction. But for the Democrats--reputedly members of a "party for the people"--to thus remain silent is at the very least cowardly, at the worst, a betrayal of their own principles. Obeying the debate's rules is not a valid excuse--it smacks of the Nuremberg defense, "I was only following orders." The Democrats should have stood up and spoken out about the slowness of the recovery in Louisiana, Mississippi, and the rest of the storm zone, against Bush Administration neglect, and in support of Katrina and Rita survivors. There was a lot of "Wag the Dog" crap about abortion and the "right to life"--I have to ask, What about New Orleans' right to life? What about the right of people now in Houston, Atlanta, and other cities, who now cannot afford to do so because of the housing shortage, to return? The Democrats should have stood up to Brian Williams and let him know what really matters.

A mean-spirited wingnut who was rich enough to be able to afford to send his or her step-daughter to New Orleans to help build houses, who signed himself/herself "Katrina Fatigue" practically yelled at me for the way I kept bringing Katrina and New Orleans up:

I am not so sure I would continue to hound Brian Williams as you have done and continue to do across every board you can access. At least he is giving you the opportunity to express yourself. Once he gets as tired of your NOLA tirades as most of the rest of us are, he might just pull the plug. By the way, as I have previously asked you, how much time have you spent on site in NOLA, post Katrina. I ask, because my step-daughter is there again for the next two weeks. Her church rotates members in for two week intervals. There must be something you could do to help there. If you took all the time you spend writing these angry, repetitive dissertations, you would have time to go help.
Katrina Fatigue

Here's my reply:

Katrina Fatigue--God bless your step-daughter for going to the storm zone with her church and helping out. This is something I would dearly love to be able to do myself, but I'm too fragile physically and financially to do so. It breaks my heart that I am unable due to these circumstances to do this myself. So all I can do is offer my moral support and a sympathetic ear to Katrina survivors and cheer on those who are able to help or otherwise do right for Katrina survivors. And let those who don't treat Katrina survivors right know my serious dissatisfaction. I hope you are having a good day after judging me.

And "Katrina Fatigue" replied:

you judge us all the time. If you wish to fully exercise your right to free speech, including verbally attacking all who have a different opinion from you, then it is unfair for you to take the position of victim when we choose to exercise our own right to free speech.

Having to deal with this kind of insensitivity is one of several reasons I rarely if ever visit "First Read" anymore.

Now for "Katrina Brain." The mental health problems including depression, anxiety and PTSD that developed in New Orleans and among evacuees elsewhere in Louisiana are well-known, and then there are cognitive issues arising from the stress of living in a disaster zone, colloquially called "Katrina Brain" which make life disjointed and surreal. New Orleans blogger Slate recounts struggles with Katrina Brain:

Out with friends last weekend, one of them said: "Do you have Katrina brain? I do. I'm forgetting things all the time, forgetting words, names, where I put things down." I said that yes, that had been happening to me as well. We went on to talk about some of the other Katrina brain issues. I just tried to light my cigarette with my chapstick. Didn't phase me, that kind of thing happens a lot around here. People are gaining weight, losing weight, and not on purpose. Most of us forgive the flakiness of others because we're a little flaky ourselves. It's Katrina Brain. It's a disjointed kind of thing. They need to put xanax and prozac in the water system.

The other day I walked out of my house, fairly normal place: power's on, phone works, AC will really crank up if necessary. I got somewhere on Gov Nicholls around Dauphine and the dog stopped to sniff something intently. My brain didn't register that this something no doubt smelled intriguing to a dog. It was three refrigerators on the sidewalk with the telltale Katrina brown color on the outer walls of them. I hadn't noticed them, they were part of the landscape for so long that they didn't seem strange. But these were strange. It's nine months later and there they were. Hadn't seen one in a while but the brain didn't process this as an anomaly. Probably had just been removed from an apartment or condo building. Maybe not enough work crews. At this point, they are actually something that should stand out since all the others were hauled away, but here they were with my dog straining at the leash to sniff them. ::::::JOLT:::::::

Time can be strange here. Katrina Brain seems to warp time a little. A lot of us still struggle with what day or date it is. The friend who coined the K Brain term was asking if we find ourselves drinking a little more. Most of us said that although we're not drinking every day, we might have three instead of two when we do go out. Everyone at the table (6 of us) nodded in agreement and the pharmacy companies must love New Orleanians. So many of them are medicated these days, then of course there are the ones who aren't.

Now for vicarious trauma. While I Googled this but couldn't find any useful material specifically on vicarious trauma in individuals who watched Katrina and the federal flood unfold from far-off states, Rodney Luster, Ph.D defines it in general as

exposure to another’s traumatic event and the observer’s reactions as a result of that same event.

He adds:

A partial list of things to look for in yourself or others after exposure to a disturbing event, story, communication exchange, media, or news footage include the following: anxiety, hyper-vigilance, intrusive imagery or flashbacks, hyperactivity, night-terrors, rage reactions, mood swings, reduced ability to cope with daily stressors, social withdrawal, avoidance behaviors with certain situations, depression, despair, hopelessness, recurring anger, self-blame, guilt and shame, compulsive or aggressive behaviors, sleep disorders, concentration problems, disconnection from others, loss of interest in outside activities, and phantom physical pains.

I think I've been experiencing the vicarious trauma of seeing what happened not only to New Orleans and her people during and after 8/29 but also how BushCo has treated her in her effort to recover--and identified with her people, and consequently come down with "Katrina Brain." I feel the mental/emotional pain of those struggling to come back and wish there were more I was able do for them.

Besides, even though I live a safe distance from any coast, I am aware that central Illinois is subject to tornadoes and we even had a 5.2 earthquake 3 or so weeks ago. The New Madrid fault system runs under our feet.

Now you may be wondering exactly how an Illinois gal like myself could show the symptoms of "Katrina brain." Little cognitive glitches due to pre-occupation, for one. For example, when I wrote in an e-mail, "When you walk with a cain, people are awfully nice to you. As if I'd been thinking of the story of Cain and Abel. Or Sen. John McCain.

I think my "Katrina brain" comes out in my over-sensitivity--my short fuse. Which is why I find it so hard to deal with the way so many, even on this site, seem to have forgotten Katrina and New Orleans and the way the MSM and all candidates have been giving them short shrift. It's not only as if they've written off a valuable part of this country but also as if they're unaware that something similarly catastrophic could happen to their state or city next. And here's something that particularly saddens me and makes me almost physically ill--the way people deride New Orleans and Louisiana and her people.

And sometimes "Katrina brain" has the paradoxical effect on me where I know I need to write about New Orleans and Katrina to call them to this community's attention, but can't come up with things to say. I just feel emotionally drained.

When there's another disaster like the China earthquake, the Burma cyclone, or last fall's California wildfires, I flash back. I'll watch the news coverage and inevitably look for comparisons to Katrina, the flood, and how BushCo handled them. I'll notice the fact that China's govdernment responded more quickly to the quake than did BushCo to Katrina. Or the hypocrisy of how Bush has been protesting the fact that Burma hasn't been letting in foreign relief workers--when BushCo itself didn't let in relief supplies and rescuers from overseas as New Orleans drowned. It's as if BushCo had cruelly wanted people in Louisiana to die.

Lastly, when hurricane season rolls around, as this year's will about one and a half weeks from now, I become apprehensive even though I live so far from the sea. I'm just fearful of another Katrina and what it could do to a still-recovering New Orleans. And a Louisiana whose coastline has been washing away at the rate of a football field every half-hour. Hearing predictions that a storm could enter the Gulf raises my hackles (and, of course, I don't want to see one hit anyplace else on the US mainland, either.)

This diary has been difficult to finish because the way I identify so much with people in New Orleans I've also been experiencing what one of my NOLA friends calls "yin and yang" as if I were living there (as well as regarding several other matters in my own life I eventually plan to write about.) But I'd like to close this diary, which so far has been something of a downer, on a positive, if not inspiring note.

It sounds strange to speak of gifts from Katrina, but oddly, I received a few. Interestingly, for at least a month or two before Katrina hit, I'd been getting these awful near-migraines almost every day. But then Katrina hit and New Orleans drowned, and the headaches vanished to almost nothing. I still only rarely get such headaches anymore. It's as if Katrina, the flood, and the aftermath gave me something outside my head to focus on.

Then there are a couple of new interests sparked by the disaster. Such as the food. New Orleans-type food I can afford is hard to find around here, but soon after Katrina I first visited, and quickly developed an addiction to the food at, Popeye's, which not only has good affordable food and a wonderful NOLA-type ambiance including New Orleans, zydeco, blues, and other Louisiana music, but is also walking distance from my home. I eat lunch there almost every Sunday, and sometimes have ordered their jambalaya to go.

Now for music. I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that in my youth when I visited New Orleans, I hadn't been interested in any of the distinctive kinds of music that can be found there or elsewhere in Louisiana. And I hadn't even heard of Dr. John, Marcia Ball, Eric Lindell, BeauSoleil, Irma Thomas, Tab Benoit, Buckwheat Zydeco, Nathan and the Zydeco Cha Chas, John Delafose, Rosie Ledet, or any of the other artists whose Louisiana music I now have in my collection. But now I'm familiar with their music, which is now one of my favorite kinds. So Katrina and the flood have had for me, as one of my NOLA friends has out it, its yin and yang.

Kudos to ABC

2008-05-20T11:55:00.000-07:00

It's rare for me to have anything good to say about the mainstream media, and even rarer for me to watch a "reality show," because "reality television" isn't.

But after seeing it promo'ed Saturday night, I determined that a reality show that was going to air Sunday night was going to be "Must-See TV." Because I knew it would have socially-redeeming value. I have only kudos for the show, ABC, and all who contributed to it for because it was heartwarming and inspiring to see and left me with a warm, fuzzy feeling.

This reality show is Extreme Makeover Home Edition's Louisiana grand finale, which was aired Sunday night and was about the makeovers of the Westwego home of the Usea family, and a New Orleans neighborhood church aptly named the Noah's Ark Baptist Church.

When the show was announced Feb. 14th, executive producer Denise Cramsey said,

"Even three years later, the gulf region is still suffering in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and I believe it is going to take the entire nation to re-build, which is why it makes sense that we would need an extreme coalition of builders from all across this country to pull together and help make a difference in New Orleans for deserving families on the show."

Teams from 12 different states including the Carolinas, Florida, Mississippi, Montana, Oklahoma, and Louisiana herself participated in the makeover.

"This show is about the barn raising of the 1900s. Where community comes together to change lives. Louisiana is that life, and this time the community is our nation. To make a real difference along the gulf coast will take the nation. We make that step by bringing builders together, some who lost their houses and business, and others we have met in our fifty state tour." Says Conrad Ricketts, executive producer for the show.

He added,

"To end our fifty state tour in Louisiana, talks to the nation about family, extended family,neighborhood, and community. And how we as a nation can join together to help rebuild, says Ricketts."

The Usea family's men were firefighters who heroicly rescued people during the flooding and served under harsh post-disaster conditions in the federal flood's aftermath. A couple had lost their home so they all had to live in a small, cramped house with their extended family. It's so crowded that Grandma Grace must share a bed with 5-year-old Abby.

Through the show one sees and hears hints of how emotionally strung out Louisianians have been since the flood and how their neighborhoods and communities have been torn apart. Grandma Grace often tears up as she describes her family's uncomfortable life, which causes them to get on each others' nerves, and Pastor Willie Walker shows how his church looks as if a bomb had hit it. He also tells how because his congregation has had to use a temporary church, his community has been turned upside down. He also tells of old people and others giving up and dying.

The Extreme Makeover Home Edition folks send all of the Useas and Pastor Walker and his family on well-deserved vacations at Disney World, where they periodicaily are able to see on TV the progress of the makeovers. The house and the church are completely demolished.

Both the home and church are built in a distinctive way which is both "green" and is designed to hold up better in a storm. Both are raised, and parts of each are round, which has the purpose of causing storm winds to blow around instead of directly impacting any particular side. And the house is built with openings in the crawl space so flood water can drain out instead of staying under the house.

During this time a banquet is held for the mainly-unsung heroes of Katrina, the flood and the aftermath--firefighters, Coast Guard members, educators, etc. to give them some well-deserved recognition. It was especially poignant to see a teacher tell how her students had been impacted by the flood--for example, she mentioned one student who'd thought his friends were dead, and another who asked if the school had any crayons--or if they were under water.

But then comes the big feel-good momemt--when the Useas see and explore their beautiful, spacious brand-new home and Pastor Willie and his staff see the new church. For not only do the Useas and Pastor Walker have a new home and church--they also have lovely all-new furniture and other trimmings--for example, the Noah's Ark Baptist Church has a pantry chock-full of food they can use to feed the poor. And Pastor Willie's church has a new van and the younger Usea brothers, Chad and Brad, each have shiny new trucks.

I'd like to conclude this part of the diary with, "And they all lived happily ever after," but while this was an upbeat, inspiring program, it also drove home the fact that many are still struggling to rebuild, and survive, in the Gulf Region nearly 2 years after Katrina, Rita, and the federal flood. One must think about what's going on as the cameras are off--and never forget what happened in that area of our country.

McCain: Friend--Or Foe--Of NOLA?

2008-04-25T10:20:00.000-07:00

Yesterday on a campaign stop replete with photo-ops in New Orleans, Sen. John McCain made an attempt to distance himself from the failings of the Bush Administration during Katrina and the federal flood by saying "Never again..." and spinning himself as someone who would have been more proactive than had Bush regarding this disaster.

But does McCain really represent a change from BushCo incompetence, if not outright genocide, in New Orleans? Would a McCain administration really aid New Orleans' recovery? Is McCain a friend of New Orleans, or a foe?

While in New Orleans, McCain listed some priorities for the city's recovery.

He said the Army Corps of Engineers can "refurbish its image" if it follows through and provides upgraded levee protection by 2011. He also called for investment in more extensive Category 5 hurricane protection and the restoration of the barrier islands and wetlands that protect New Orleans from storm surge.

McCain said health care services must be restored in struggling areas, such as the Lower 9th Ward, so displaced residents can feel confident about returning home.

But there are some contradictory things that make McCain's attempt to distance himself from BushCo on New Orleans look like spin. First of all, regarding the Lower 9th Ward, he is reported to have said

he was not sure if he would rebuild the lower 9th ward as president.

"That is why we need to go back is to have a conversation about what to do-rebuild it, tear it down, you know, whatever it is,” he said.

Aside from this, I haven't heard much of anything else McCain would do if elected that would repair the damage done by the federal flood--and BushCo neglect--to New Orleans.

And a Huffpo article quotes an AP article saying that McCain said in New Orleans that had Katrina happened on his watch,

he would have immediately landed his plane at the nearest Air Force base...

But the author of this article reminds us that, to the contrary, as Katrina happened,

Senator McCain wasn't far off from President Bush. In fact, the two were standing right next to each other.

celebrating Sen. McCain's birthday.

And then there's Sen. McCain's voting record. Per the Democratic National Committee,

McCain voted against relief measures for Katrina victims multiple times, as well as voting against an investigation into the failures of the government response. McCain also voted against providing additional funding for first responders' communication systems, despite claiming today:

We know that we had a situation where first responders were unable to communicate with each other. Where government agencies were getting information by watching cable television, rather than having a flow of information themselves.

And last but not least--when controversial remarks by Barack Obama's pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright have been quoted all over the place, far more rarely do we hear that McCain endorser Pastor John Hagee has been quoted saying that New Orleans was destroyed because of her people's sinful ways.

So regarding the question "Is McCain a friend or foe of New Orleans? I'll have to say, like many Rethugs, he's a foe. And if McCain is elected, New Orleans can expect more of the same.

That Shaky Feeling.....

2008-04-18T08:32:00.000-07:00

When I awoke this morning, and was still half-asleep, lying on my back, I felt an unusually shaky feeling. This was close to 5AM. Having been having my health issues lately and recently had my dose of fluoxetine upped, I was at least a little worried--then I rolled on my side and the disturbing feeling went away.

Soon after that I turned on a morning news show on cable and they had a breaking news bulletin. An earthquake had been felt in Illinois! It turned out to be a 5.2 on the Richter Scale, and had been felt not only in neighboring states but also in such places as Georgia and Cincinnati. Imagine my relief when I realized it hadn't just been me! The epicenter was West Salem in Southern Illinois, and was the strongest quake felt in Illinois since 1895.

Earth Day #2: Bush Killing Coastal Louisiana

2008-04-18T08:30:00.000-07:00

This is Part 2 of an Earth Day-themed series on environmental issues in the Gulf Region after Katrina and the federal flood.
In the first part of this Earth Day series, the environmental devastation experienced by New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf Region was discussed. This installment will focus on Louisiana's wetlands which are being washed away and the sinking of New Orleans and the rest of southern Louisiana.

When conservationist Mike Tidwell wrote his seminal work Bayou Farewell, in 2003, he predicted how a massive storm would destroy New Orleans. In the opening pages of this book, he said,

A devastating chain reaction has resulted from the taming of the Mississippi and now the entire coast is dissolving at breakneck speed...and New Orleans itself is at great risk of vanishing. A major hurricane approaching from the right direction could cause tens of thousands of deaths.

Tidwell also described visiting the Louisiana coast in 1999, traveling with Cajun fishers and observing their unique way of life, and seeing drowned graveyards, telephone poles, and forests. Since the 1920's Louisiana has lost an astonishing amount of land--equivalent to the state of Rhode Island--to the sea. The levees designed to protect New Orleans from flooding have been part of the problem. As described by Tim Fitzpatrick in this article,

Natural landscaping can be considered a city's Achilles' heel when it is faced with an oncoming hurricane. New Orleans, being below sea level, is a prime example of that. The city lies at the bottom of a "soup bowl" with the Mississippi River running right through it. As the river reaches the Gulf of Mexico, it slows down and creates a fan of sediment or what is commonly known as a delta. This sediment could have traveled thousands of miles through 40 of the 48 contiguous states before it eventually dumps into the Gulf. It is such a huge amount of sediment being transported that the Earth's crust literally sags underneath it. Every time a sag forms, new sediment fills the gap. Through millions of years, the Mississippi has changed course east and west creating six delta lobes, which has formed the entire coastline of southern Louisiana. Lake Pontchartrain, twice the size of New Orleans, lies on the lip of the bowl to the north and coastal wetlands lie to the east, west, and south of the city. Flood control engineering was designed to hold back spring floods and make New Orleans an important port city for oil exploration and transportation. This man-made flood control concept contributed to the disappearance of coastal wetlands. Since silt and nutrients, the bread and butter for marshland growth, were unable to be replenished, the existing land sunk and the wetlands turned to open water. A natural sponge for soaking up the floodwaters and protecting New Orleans against hurricanes had disappeared.

In his later work, The Ravaging Tide, Tidwell describes how after the publication of Bayou Farewell, it was a struggle to get leaders outside Louisiana to take action on this issue. He says that Louisiana's conservative Republican governor Mike Foster

publicly committed himself to waging "jihad" against the problem of coastal erosion, pushing the issue to the top of the legislative agenda.

As far back as the early '70's, adds Tidwell, geologists at Louisiana State University had come up with a plan, called Coast 2050, to restore Louisiana's shores. It said a

series of feasible engineering projects not only could counteract much of the subsidence but could actually create new barrier islands and wetlands fairly rapidly. This would involve permanently closing some of the most damaging canals and channels, like the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet. It would also invlove harnessing the great land-building power of the Mississippi River itself. By building several gate-like "control structures" right into the levees of the river, the sediment-rich water could be released and then surgically guided via pipelines and manmade canals to areas in greatest need of wetland and barrier island development.

But the $14 billion price tag was too steep for a Bush Administration which had no qualms about throwing hundreds of times that much money away in Iraq. Bush consistently ignored requests for coastal restoration funding from both Foster, his successor Kathleen Blanco, and members of Louisiana's bipartisan congressional delegation.

In fact, ironically, Bush seemed prepared to sacrifce Louisiana in favor of Iraq--even before Katrina and the federal flood brought to light this seriously misplaced priority.

Despite the growing crisis, the president somehow found millions of dollars for the restoration of wetlands in Iraq while Louisiana lay dying on the table. Saddam Hussein had drained a vast area of wetlands inhabited by some of his staunchest enemies--the so-called Marsh Arabs...the Bush Administration in 2004 proposed spending ten times more federal money restoring wetlands for these Arab people than for restoring the Louisiana coast for Americans. Congress ultimately denied the request, but Bush actually sent wetland experts from Louisiana (Emphasis mine) to Iraq anyway to help spend the millions of dollars he persuaded Japan and Italy to invest in the project.

Only in the summer of 2005, just before Katrina struck, did Congress finally appropriate $570 million in new coastal restoration money for Louisiana...Even this amount was allocated over the objections of the White House.

Will a new Democratic Administration give Louisiana coastal restoration the attention and financing it needs before New Orleans is permanently wiped out and the distinctive Cajun culture of the Gulf Coast there is gone forever? We all need to make sure our Democrats know the importance of this issue--and not just in Louisiana and the rest of the Gulf Region, but in an increasingly energy-hungry world in which coastal erosion is bringing corrosive salt water closer and closer to oil installations. Indeed, Sen. Mary Landrieu has used the term "America's Energy Coast" to call attention to the value of this vital part of the country. Because as long as we are dependent on fossil fuels, we ignore the need to protect coastal Louisiana at our peril.

Earth Day #1: Katrina and the Environment

2008-04-17T07:50:00.000-07:00

This is the first part of a 2-part Earth Day-themed series on environmental issues in the Gulf Region.

Not only were Katrina, the federal flood, and Rita massive human tragedies, they were for reasons which will be detailed below easily this nation's biggest environmental calamity.

And their potential impacts on human health and life in New Orleans and in the rest of the affected area are still being assessed over 2 1/2-years later.

Soon after Katrina and the flood, long-term environmental damage was predicted in the affected area, potentially hazardous to human health. And this damage includes not only contamination but also the additional sinking of New Orleans:

Inside the flooded areas Louisiana were 60 chemical plants, oil refineries and petroleum facilities. Flooding caused six major oil spills between the mouth of the Mississippi River and New Orleans and several smaller spills in other places. Fifty thousand barrels have been recovered, but Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials estimate another 160,000 barrels were not recovered. Each barrel contains about 42 gallons of oil.

Oil from the 350,000 flooded vehicles in the area will take several years to decompose. The sewage system was also overrun during the hurricane. The EPA announced on Sept. 16 high levels of E-coli, a toxin-producing bacterium, in sediment around the city.

Pollution is not the only environmental factor preventing the safe rehabilitation of New Orleans. Geology Professor Jack Ridge doubts the city can sustain further sediment weathering. "Subsidence is one of the greatest threats to New Orleans," he said. Built on the Mississippi Delta, New Orleans rests on soil infiltrated with mud from the river. As the city develops and more structures are built, the accumulation of weight squeezes water out of the muddy ground. New Orleans is sinking further below sea level.

There will be more on the sinking of New Orleans in Part 2 of this series. And the following could have long-term environmental impacts--and this time not just in Louisiana and Mississippi, but they could add to global warming. According to this
Washington Post article,

New satellite imaging has revealed that hurricanes Katrina and Rita produced the largest single forestry disaster on record in the nation -- an essentially unreported ecological catastrophe that killed or severely damaged about 320 million trees in Mississippi and Louisiana.

The die-off, caused initially by wind and later by weeks-long pooling of stagnant water, was so massive that researchers say it will add significantly to the global greenhouse gas buildup -- ultimately putting as much carbon from dying vegetation into the air as the rest of the nation's forest takes out in a year of photosynthesis.

In addition, the downing of so many trees has opened vast and sometimes fragile tracts to several aggressive and fast-growing exotic species that are already squeezing out far more environmentally productive native species.

The article adds that forests over an area about the size of Maine were destroyed, and also says

Efforts to limit the damage have been handicapped by the ineffectiveness of a $504 million federal program to help Gulf Coast landowners replant and fight the invasive species. Congress appropriated the money in 2005 and added to it in 2007, but officials acknowledge that the program got off to a slow start and that only about $70 million has been promised or dispensed so far. Local advocates said onerous bureaucratic hurdles and low compensation rates are major reasons.

"This is the worst environmental disaster in the United States since the Exxon Valdez accident . . . and the greatest forest destruction in modern times," said James Cummins, executive director of the conservation group Wildlife Mississippi and a board member of the Mississippi Forestry Commission. "It needs a really broad and aggressive response, and so far that just hasn't happened."

Then there are the human costs of this disaster that can be attributed to its environmental impact on the region. Survivors are being exposed to pollutants and other hazards to long-term health from the formaldehyde-emitting FEMA trailers many thousands still live in to dusts and molds that contaminate New Orleans' air and have caused "Katrina cough." Also, when the toxic floodwaters of New Orleans receded, they left behind all sorts of pollutants including lead, arsenic, asbestos, and other heavy metals in such places as playgrounds, schoolyards...all over. People cleaning out their homes and gutting them are being exposed to toxic dusts and molds which have been contributing to New Orleans' elevated post-Katrina death rate.

All of the above are issues environmentalists must tackle in a post-Katrina Gulf Region. But there's more. In tomorrow's installment, there will be more about the sinking of New Orleans and the rest of southern Louisiana and efforts to halt before a unique part of this country is wiped off the map.

Walmart And Katrina--Heroic Or Opportunistic?

2008-04-04T07:23:00.000-07:00

Conventional wisdom has been that the true friends of New Orleans and other parts of the Gulf Region during the federal flood and the onslaught of Katrina and Rita were not FEMA or any other organization of the federal government. They include several big-box stores including a much-maligned Walmart. But there's far more to this story than meets the eye. More below the fold.....

When Bush was busy celebrating McCain's 100th birthday and then fiddling as New Orleans drowned, and BushCo's officials were busy sitting on their hands and figuring out how best to blame Louisiana Gov. Blanco and New Orleans Mayor Nagin for the disaster, and relief supplies supposedly had been held up from reaching the area (including Walmart supplies!) by a mean-spirited federal bureaucracy, Walmart has been praised as having been heroically busy engaging in relief activities.

In the first two and a half weeks following Katrina, Wal-Mart shipped 2,500 containers to the region and delivered another 517 containers post-Rita. Wal-Mart also set up satellite links for its stores that lost phone or Internet service so that they could stay connected to headquarters; Wal-Mart stores in areas that were without power for weeks were able to keep generators in stock.

Here are some examples of Walmart's efforts, which are why it's being touted as a place to go for disaster relief:

A Kenner, La., employee used a forklift to knock open a warehouse door to get water for a retirement home.
A convoy of Wal-Mart trucks carrying supplies for victims of Hurricane Katrina waits to enter New Orleans three days after the storm hit.

In Marrero, La., employees allowed police officers to use the store as a headquarters and a sleeping place, as many had lost their homes.

In Waveland, Miss., assistant manager Jessica Lewis ran a bulldozer through her store to collect basics that were not water-damaged, which she then piled in the parking lot and gave away to residents. She also broke into the store's locked pharmacy to supply critical drugs to a hospital.

And according to the Washington Post,

Wal-Mart's response to Katrina -- an unrivaled $20 million in cash donations, ...truckloads of free merchandise, food for 100,000 meals and the promise of a job for every one of its displaced workers -- has turned the chain into an unexpected lifeline for much of the Southeast and earned it near-universal praise....

However, this article says Walmart in essence saw Katrina as an opportunity to improve its image. The article's author notes that a Walmart whose image had rapidly been going downhill hired the Edelman public-relations firm, and that

When Hurricane Katrina hit, the Edelman teams sprang into action. Initially, Wal-Mart's old stingy inclinations surfaced. The company contributed a measly $2 million to relief efforts and indicated that workers at stores shut down by the storm would receive only three days of additional pay. Yet it quickly switched gears. A few days later, on September 5, Lee Scott was on hand to make a $15 million contribution when former Presidents Bush and Clinton announced the launch of their private fundraising campaign for hurricane victims. Both Bush Senior and Clinton (whose wife Hillary, now a U.S. Senator from New York, used to serve as a director of Wal-Mart while she was a corporate lawyer in Arkansas) sang the praises of the company for its cash donation. Clinton also commended Wal-Mart for announcing that employees forced to flee their home because of the hurricane would be rehired at their new location.

The article adds that Walmart, which has made far more in profits than it has donated, has used the needs in the Gulf Region as an opportunity to profit as well as a marketing opportunity and a public relations coup. Several examples are cited--including when

a FEMA official spent some $66,000 on relief supplies during a single shopping trip to a Wal-Mart store in Louisiana.

Says the New York Times,

The $66,000 Wal-Mart bill, the company says, was for a truckload of goods ordered directly from the retailer's headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., but attributed to the La Place store for accounting purposes. A television set and a sofa on the Forest Service list were for out-of-town firefighters to rest between grueling runs...

Walmart, flush with cash from previous corporate welfare, found barely a dent in its gains.

The giant distribution centers in Louisiana and Mississippi that were mobilized to provide aid were-like virtually every one of the company's warehouses-built with government subsidies. The 20-year-old facility in Brookhaven, Mississippi received more than $1.5 million in infrastructure assistance and millions more (the exact amount is unknown) in tax breaks. The newer facilities in Louisiana got much more. The distribution center in Opelousas, which opened in 1999, received an estimated $33 million in tax breaks and infrastructure help. The one in the town of Robert, opened in 2001, enjoyed subsidies of more than $21 million. In other words, each of these two Louisiana distribution centers received more or less the same amount in government assistance as Wal-Mart has spent on hurricane relief. The company is still far ahead of the game-even without considering the rest of the more than $1 billion it has received in development subsidies across the United States.

So, in light of what happened during and after Katrina, Rita, and the federal flood, should Walmart have done any less? No--in fact, don't buy (pun intended) the idea that Walmart was a hero of Katrina. And in fact, Walmart should have done more.

Demand The Truth About NOLA Levees.....

2008-03-31T13:14:00.000-07:00

as well as just, fair compensation for federal flood survivors who lost family members in the manmade disaster of New Orleans' levee breaches.

With the start of hurricane season a little over a month away, New Orleans' storm preparation and flood protection deserves a close look. These things are far more important than Wrightgate or Bosniagate. Because unlike these tempests in teapots, human lives depend on the safety and strength of New Orleans' levees.

Mary Landrieu

has said she intends to file a bill, the 8/29 Investigation Act, shortly after Congress reconvenes on March 31.

"It's very important to really understand with this nonpartisan commission what happened and make sure this never happens again," Landrieu said Wednesday.

Which per this surprising news in a commentary in the New Orleans weekly Gambit is being blocked by, among others, none other than Louisiana Sen. "Bitter Vitter" of diapers fame.

Sen. Landrieu tried to introduce the bill twice last year as an amendment to the 2007 Water Resources Development Act. That made sense because the water bill, which became law, authorizes projects for the Corps. Unfortunately, Landrieu was stonewalled both times by partisan objections. "We have the general support of the Democratic leadership, but Republicans haven't been very welcoming of an investigation of a subject that may show significant failings on the part of the current administration," Landrieu says. "Otherwise, it would have just sailed through."

The most egregious lack of support comes from Louisiana's junior senator, David Vitter. Although Vitter offered lip service to Levees.org, saying he favors such an inquiry, he isn't even a co-sponsor of Landrieu's bill. Vitter also failed to respond to repeated requests by Gambit Weekly for an interview on the subject.

But back to the levees themselves--every time federal culpability for their failure has been brought up, there have been those who've propagated the meme--a Big Lie first set into motion by a BushCo intent on discrediting Louisiana, Gov. Blanco, and her other Democratic leaders at the time--that Louisiana and New Orleans had been responsible for levee maintenance and upkeep.

This spin is counteracted by the following comment, which also contains detailed info on how previous presidents of both parties have more competently handled major disasters, and how Dubya himself dealt with 2004 hurricanes in an electoral vote-rich Florida led by his brother in that election year by azureblue:

....here are a few tidbits about Bush's string of failures, the first showing how Bush caused the flooding of new Orleans:

It is simple: no money to repair, things (levees) fail. The ACOE gets blamed rightly, but the truth is the ACOE had been begging for money rom Bush & Bush kept cutting the fund to rebuild the levees and stopping work in progress:
February 2001
Bush proposed half of what his own officials said was necessary for the critical Southeast Louisiana Flood Control Project (SELA)--a project started after a 1995 rainstorm flooded 25,000 homes and caused a half billion dollars in damage
February 2002
Bush provided just $5 million for maintaining and upgrading critical hurricane protection levees in New Orleans--one fifth of what government experts and Republican elected officials in Louisiana told the administration was needed. Bush knew SELA needed $80 million to keep working, but the he only proposed providing a quarter of that.
February 2004
The SELA project sought $100 million to strengthen the levees holding back the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, including the industrial canal- which is where the levee gave way, but Bush offered only $16.5 million. The Army Corps of Engineers asked for $27 million to pay for hurricane protection upgrades around Lake Pontchartrain--but the White House cut that to $3.9 million. Levee repairs around Lake Pontchartrain and the IC, stopped because of budget shortfalls.

Comparing previous disaster responses:
President Nixon -- August 1969 when Cat-5 Hurricane Camille hit the MS coast, President Nixon had already 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 two dozen helicopters to assist the Coast Guard and National Guard within hours after the skies cleared.

President Clinton -- September 1999, Hurricane Floyd -- Cat-3, was bearing down on the Carolinas and Virginia. President Clinton was in New Zealand meeting with President Jiang of China. He declared the area a Federal Disaster so the National Guard and Military can begin to mobilize. 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.

President Bush (41) -- August 1992 -- was in the midst of a campaign for re-election. Yet he cut off his campaigning and went to Washington where he martialed 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.

But look what Georgie does for FL:
Right after Hurricane Charley first made landfall on Aug. 13, 2004, Bush declared the state a federal disaster area to release federal relief funds. Less than two days after Charley ripped through southwestern Florida, he was on the ground touring hard-hit neighborhoods.

Illegitimus non carborundum

by azureblue on Wed Mar 26, 2008 at 08:28:35 AM PDT

azureblue also discusses various evacuation-related snafus which have been blamed on the Bush Administration spin machine on Louisiana and New Orleans. He adds that it was Bush's fault, not that of Louisiana officials, that bus evacuation stopped:

Peter Pantuso of the American Bus Association said he spent much of the day on Wednesday, Aug. 31, trying to find someone at the Federal Emergency Management Agency who could tell him how many buses were needed for an evacuation, where they should be sent and who was overseeing the effort. This is a group of companies that could, if asked, rapidly provide large amounts of transportation.
Instead the agency had farmed the work out to a trucking logistics firm, Landstar Express America, which in turn hired a limousine company, which in turn engaged a travel management company. Landstar Express is a subsidiary of Landstar System, a $2 billion company whose board chairman, Jeff Crowe, also was chairman of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, one of the nation's premier business lobbies, from June 2003 until May 2004.
Jeff Crowe owns LandStar Express that had a $100million contract with FEMA to provide emergency evacuation services. LandStar Express didn't start working on the New Orleans evacuation until TWO DAYS AFTER Katrina hit. Then they subcontracted to a limo company who subcontracted to a Virginia travel agent... They were trying to find 300 buses.
Meanwhile Greyhound and another company were trying to contact FEMA to offer 3500 buses at cost.
For this idiocy, LandStar's contract has been raised to $400million.

Meanwhile
Looking for buses
Members of Blanco's staff were struggling to find buses and get them to where they were needed.
The first mention of buses among her top advisers comes from Chief of Staff Andy Kopplin, who sends out a missive to many in the executive ranks. "We need you to find buses that can go to N.O. asap," Kopplin wrote.
In an e-mail, Kim Hunter Reed, Blanco's policy director, complained on the afternoon of August 31 that she needs to know where to send the needed assistance.
"I am getting these calls to (sic) and I have buses and water but can't get word on where and how to send," wrote Reed, who in a separate note that same day also said she needed direction from the Louisiana State Police and the American Red Cross.
According to the timeline, Blanco says she learns late Wednesday, Aug. 31, that "a number of the promised FEMA buses are finally crossing into N. Louisiana, 7 or 8 hours away from New Orleans."

Sunday, August 28
MAYOR NAGIN ISSUES FIRST EVER MANDATORY EVACUATION OF NEW ORLEANS:
"We're facing the storm most of us have feared," said Nagin. "This is going to be an unprecedented event." [Times-Picayune]
"Special arrangements will be made to evacuate persons unable to evacuate themselves."
This is referring to evacuating people to an emergency shelter within the city, not evacuating people to points outside the city. The Mayor did implement an emergency bussing system that evacuated the city's poor and disabled to the Superdome. This can be verified by reading the plan at
http://www.cityofno.com/...

Thursday, September 1
MAYOR NAGIN ISSUES "DESPERATE SOS" TO FEDERAL GOVERNMENT:
"This is a desperate SOS. Right now we are out of resources at the convention centre and don't anticipate enough buses. We need buses. Currently the convention centre is unsanitary and unsafe and we're running out of supplies."

DHS failed to use catastrophe response plan in Katrina's wake

The Homeland Security Department did not use a plan for handling catastrophes in its response to Hurricane Katrina, even though some officials say that doing so could have saved lives and brought the chaotic situation in New Orleans under control.
The department didn't activate a section of the National Response Plan
http://www.dhs.gov/...

TRENT LOTT, MS SENATOR, DIVERTS SHIP BASED HELP TO MS. NOT JUST ONE SHIP-TWO

From the Chicago Tribune, September 4, 2005: The US Bataan:
"While federal and state emergency planners scramble to get more military relief to Gulf Coast communities stricken by Hurricane Katrina, a massive naval goodwill station has been cruising offshore, underused and waiting for a larger role in the effort.
"The USS Bataan, a 844-foot ship designed to dispatch Marines in amphibious assaults, has helicopters, doctors, hospital beds, food and water. It also can make its own water, up to 100,000 gallons a day. And it just happened to be in the Gulf of Mexico when Katrina came roaring ashore."
Tyson dispatched a landing craft from her ship -- 90 miles up the Mississippi River to New Orleans, carrying medical personnel, food, water. It was over halfway there when it was ordered back to the Bataan because the Bataan itself had been ordered to Mississippi

Investigation finds Red Cross agreed to withhold Orleans aid, operates in tandem with Homeland Security
http://rawstory.com/...

in Blanco's testimony before Congress:
"I requested massive federal assistance in letters to President Bush on Aug. 27 and Aug. 28 -- before the storm's landfall," she said in one. "I spoke with President Bush on Sunday (Aug. 28) and Monday (Aug. 29) and told him I needed everything he had. I believed FEMA officials who told me that every federal resource was at my disposal. I believed this meant every single available resource."
Later on in the talking points document, she responds to a hypothetical question about what she did wrong in response to Katrina.
"I believe my biggest mistake was believing FEMA officials who told me that the necessary federal resources would be available in a timely fashion," she said."

The Original can be viewed on line at:
http://www.nolarises.com/...

Illegitimus non carborundum

by azureblue on Wed Mar 26, 2008 at 08:44:17 AM PDT

And remember that picture of all of those flooded school buses, that had been spun as a sign of Mayor Nagin's and Louisiana's incompetence? Actually, Louisiana had wanted to use those buses for evacuation--but FEMA, whose rules specified that buses had to have air conditioning, which those buses didn't have, would not allow her to use those buses.

I've reprinted azureblue's comments from under this diary here because they tell a story that you won't hear from the corporate-owned mainstream media--yet a story far more accurate. What actually happened during the manmade disaster of New Orleans' levee breaches, and the continued effort to keep it covered up, are why we must keep a focus on and demand the truth about New Orleans' levees.

Katrina, PTSD Not Over For Louisiana

2008-03-27T12:23:00.000-07:00

While the mainstream media have been concentrating on Bosniagate, Wrightgate, and other scandals, Louisiana and the rest of the Gulf Region are being tortured by the after-effects of Katrina, the federal flood, and by PTSD. It's time the media including bloggers got over the relative trivia of both Bosniagate and Wrightgate and asked our candidates what really matters--why they've been downplaying the continued suffering of the Gulf Region, and what each plans to do if he/she becomes President.

Here's why the continuing trauma lived by Louisiana, Mississippi, and the rest of the Gulf Region needs to be brought up often and not allowed to die. And the continued suffering of their people must not be forgotten. Their people matter--they vote, pay taxes, and send their young people off to fight in Bush's wars just like anybody else. This is why there needs to be on Daily Kos a continuing series of blogathons at least monthly on this topic. We must be persistent and not let our voices be drowned out by a flood of campaign diaries.

First of all, New Orleans' medical care crisis festers on--yet Gov. Bobby Jindal questions the need for a large Charity Hospital which has not re-opened since the flood.

However, Jindal has announced a a comprehensive plan for bringing Louisiana back from her nervous breakdown by boosting mental health care in New Orleans.

Today, Governor Bobby Jindal and DHH Secretary Alan Levine held a press conference in New Orleans to announce legislation to address the mental health care crisis, which will be taken up in the legislative session beginning next Monday.

Jindal said, “The broken pieces in our mental healthcare system affect every Louisianian, but the problem is especially acute in New Orleans. New Orleans officials estimate that the annual suicide rate has more than tripled since Hurricane Katrina...and the World Health Organization estimates that tens of thousands of people in the storm-affect region today have a serious mental illness. We must take a comprehensive approach to address this crisis – one that incorporates the needs of patients, law enforcement, and the community as a whole.”

But Jindal needs to do more--for the painful post-flood mental health crisis wracking Louisiana affects not only New Orleans, but Baton Rouge, Shreveport--any place around the state to which evacuees dispersed with their "baggage" of losses and traumas to find themselves in unfamiliar surroundings in which they're now homesick. And now they're seeking treatment for depression, anxiety, PTSD--and finding it very hard to find.

Then there's this surprising news in a commentary in the New Orleans weekly Gambit. The leading blocker of an 8/29 Commission to look into what happened to the levees has been none other than "Bitter Vitter" of diapers fame.

And the Road Home Program continues to keep its applicants in limbo as they're forced to wait long months for the money they need to get on with their lives. That's not all--poor applicants who'd had titles to their homes through succession have found that the state is unable to pay their legal aid bill.

And these are only a few of the heart-wrenching stories out of New Orleans, the rest of Louisiana's storm and flood ravared parishes, and the Gulf Region in general. These things are making life hell for the people who live there. Such stories--the need to make sure what the people are going through there is not forgotten--are why the mainstream media needs to renew its focus on them.

NOLA Survivors Should Be So Lucky

2008-03-27T12:20:00.000-07:00

The other day it was reported that the state of Virginia, nearly a year after the Virginia Tech massacre took place, will be awarding the families of the students killed $100,000 per student in compensation.

This got me to thinking about the comparison of this issue and how the survivors of the failure of NOLA's federally-maintained levees are being treated.

For NOLA flood survivors who lost family members including breadwinners due to this massive manmade catastrophe not only are not seeing one red cent in compensation for these individuals. We are witnessing mainstream media silence about the culpability of a federal goverment which should have kept up these levees and a Bush Administration which first cut the funding for these levees back in 2001 in the first place.

Instead, BushCo and its corporate media mouthpieces, on the extremely rare occasions this issue has been covered, have been spouting the Big Lie that the city of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana had been responsible for levee maintenance and upkeep.

So it's as if, unlike the lives of the young people at VA Tech which had so tragically been cut short, the lives of those who drowned in New Orleans matter not one whit to a federal government desirous of absolving itself of its guilt in their deaths. I mean, of course, you can't put a price on a human life and similar cliches, but such money might help the bereaved put their lives back together.

When conservative guru Grover Norquist uttered his now-infamous mantra about making government so small you could drown it in a bathtub, little did he know how appropriate this metaphor would be regarding BushCo's drowning of New Orleans.

But back to flood survivors who lost family members on 8/29. They deserve, and should demand, the same attention, respect, and above all compensation received by the surviving family members of the VA Tech students--or of 9/11, for that matter. And they need to demand it loudly in a way other Americans and the mainstream media can hear.

Will Bush Flee To Paraguay?

2008-03-27T12:14:00.000-07:00

No, I don't mean immediately--though that would be nice. I mean, after the next President is inaugurated. Because a massive compound supposedly is being prepared for Bush and his family in that country. So Bush, according to rumor, will be following in the footsteps of such notorious "bad guys" as Nazi scientist Joseph Mengele and ousted Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza who found Paraguay a welcoming, extradition-free haven.

The White House has denied this story. Which of course it would. But there must be something substantive to it for there to have been such a story in the first place. So does the Bush family have a Paraguayan compound or doesn't it?

According to an Associated Press article that appeared in the Chicago Examiner last Friday, Bush's younger brother Neil has recently visited Paraguay and met with that country's president Nicanor Duarte and a delegation from the Universal Peace Federation, a group associated with the Rev. Sun Myung Moon. (While the article makes no mention of the rumored Bush compound, the reader has to wonder if there may be more to Neil Bush's visit to Paraguay than meets the eye.)

Reports first surfaced in the fall of 2006 that Bush has purchased land in Paraguay for such a compound. As the article says,

"An Argentine official regarded the intention of the George W. Bush family to settle on the Acuifero Guarani (Paraguay) as surprising, besides being a bad signal for the governments of the region. Luis D Elia, undersecretary for the Social Habitat in the Argentine Federal Planning Ministry, issued a memo... in which he spoke of the purchase by Bush of a 98,842-acre farm in northern Paraguay, between Brazil and Bolivia..."

As we can see confirmed by the Associated Press News Service in their article titled "Jenna Bush joins UNICEF program in Paraguay"...

"Jenna Bush came to this poor, landlocked South American country to take part in a UNICEF program for young professionals who volunteer in its activities here... UNICEF released few details about the program involving the 24-year-old daughter of U.S. President George W. Bush, citing security concerns."

These reports suggest the these actions being taken by the Bush Family are in response to the expected War Crime Charges being filed by the International Committee for the Red Cross....

Hmmm. While Paraguay does have an extradition treaty with the US, there's also a good deal of corruption there--so if the right officials there are paid off, they'll look the other way.

Bush is also believed to have purchased this land because of its massive supply of fresh water as part of his approach to global warming. The writer of this piece ominously asks,

You think he knows something we don't?

We also find out, in an intriguing article published in Nov. 2006, that First Daughter Barbara,

upon returning from Paraguay where she is overseeing the Bush Families Massive Compound, which we have previously reported on in our October 15 report titled “US President Bush Makes Massive Land Purchase In Paraguay Ahead Of Expected War Crimes Charges“, survived an attempt on her life after being targeted by an assassin while entering her hotel in the Argentina capitol of Buenos Aires.

The article adds that Americans who heard about this in the news were told that this had been a "mugging." It seems odd, in light of the Secret Service protection Barbara would have as a First Daughter, that someone would be able even to get close enough to her to mug her.

You won't find this in the mainstream US media, folks, even though it would have been worthy of a 60 minutes piece, back in the day when 60 Minutes had balls, and you could strike terror into the heart of any executive or government official by telling him or her the 60 minutes crew was waiting out front. Or an NBC Nightly News report by Lisa Myers, or any other investigative report. This is because

American propaganda organs, as always, have not released this information to their people choosing instead to describe this assassination attempt as a ‘mugging’, which is beyond our belief to understand as the American Presidents Family are the most protected human beings in the World. Even more incredible than this report are these same American propaganda organs reporting that the wounded Secret Service bodyguard was also ‘mugged’ in an ‘altercation’ in a bar.

The article goes on to add that this happened days after a

similar attack upon the Clinton Family compound in Chappaqua, New York.

Now for more about Paraguay. This country's border region with Brazil and Argentina has for years not only been a hotbed of smuggling drugs, weapons and other contraband, but also, as the MSM focuses on such so-called "War on Terror" sites as Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia, has been a long-unsung venue in this war. The Hezbollah members who blew up the Israeli embassy and a Jewish Cultural Center in Argentina in the 90's are said to have come out of this terrorist haven.

And on June 1, 2005, according to the Council on Hemispheric Affairs,

the Paraguayan Congress signed off on an agreement bringing over 400 U.S. troops to that country for “joint training and humanitarian operations.” The deal, which is initially slated to last 18 months, sparked criticism and speculation among both watchdog groups and officials of neighboring South American governments, regarding possible motives behind the presence of U.S. troops in such large numbers in a country long renowned for its crime, corruption and contrabanding. The first of what will be 13 such detachments numbering less than 50 U.S. military personnel arrived on July 1, with a new contingent of 45 soldiers following on July 24. COHA was soon able to establish that the initial reports that 400 troops would be arriving in Paraguay referred to the aggregate number of U.S. troops being sent to the country over the 18 months. This confusion in the size of troop levels to be deployed had been distorted by the lack of clear information coming from the Pentagon regarding U.S. military actions in Paraguay through 2006.

This development has bugged Paraguay's neighbors.

Aside from Argentina’s tart reaction, Adam Saytanides observed in his November In These Times article that in late July “Brazil reportedly launched military maneuvers along the Paraguayan border, a move seen as an expression of Brazilian discontent with Paraguay.” He goes on to note that Brazil’s foreign minister was not amused when he sternly admonished the Duarte government, saying “Paraguay must understand that the choice is between Mercosur [the trade bloc of which Paraguay is a member] and other possible partners.” Nevertheless, the U.S. appears determined to make sure that Paraguay does not “fall to the terrorists.”

And this US involvement in Paraguay was as of Sept. 2006 among the 25 most censored stories there was. This is why you haven't seen anything on CNN, NBC Nightly News, or elsewhere in the mainstream media. So unless we dig for this information, we don't know how deeply Paraguay matters to a US not only engaged in a "War on Terror" against the extremist groups rumored to have bases in the Tri-Border region but also wanting to set up military bases close to Venezuela's ally Bolivia, with which Paraguay has had an interesting relationship.

The U.S. has vested a long-time interest in Paraguay...With Evo Morales’ somewhat anti-U.S. regime in power in Bolivia, it seems that Paraguay in the near future may again even more importance from Washington’s geo-strategic point of view, if it hopes to meaningfully counter-balance the leftward shift in the region.

A factor that Washington may try to utilize to promote close ties with Paraguay could be that the U.S. has been a friend of Asunción for a long time while the same could not be said of the Bolivians, who have had strained relations with its neighbor ever since the Chaco War in the 1930s. That conflict eventually saw Asunción emerge as the victor, which La Paz has neither forgiven nor forgotten. Bolivia, under Evo Morales, has attempted to emphasize its relationship with Venezuela rather than Paraguay, and the Bolivian leader has picked up on Chávez’ geopolitical strategy, culminating with last year’s decision to build a number of bases along the lengthy borders. Bolivian Army Commander General Freddy Bersatti has declared that these are not bases between the two countries, but rather “border modules.”

A possible site for such a base would be

at Puerto Quijarro, located 200 kilometers away from Paraguay’s Bahia Negra. Added to the difficult terrain in that part of the country, there are a number of rivers flowing across the border. As a Peruvian intelligence officer interviewed by COHA observed, “In the jungle, the rivers are like roads,” meaning that Bolivian troops could be sent to the border with Paraguay, if necessary and without too much difficulty. An October 11, 2006 article in El Mundo by Ramy Wurgaft, observed that the new Bolivian base will also be close to Mariscal Estibarriaga, where, according to rumors, the U.S. wants to build a base of its own, perhaps to preside over the Guarani Aquafier, the biggest underground reserve of agua dulce in the world.

If this location sounds familiar, this is because it's the

Acuifero Guarani

mentioned above, where the Bush compound supposedly will be. Per a post in
Wonkette, which puts it all together, this military base will protect Bush's compound. And here's another interesting fact: the Rev. Sun Myung Moon has also bought land in this part of Paraguay.

These reports are only the beginning--Google President Bush Paraguay Compound and related topics like I did and see what you can come up with. Probably enough for several diaries. It's surprising that so far there has been only one diary on this topic in Daily Kos and that was published in April of last year. So get busy and Google this, folks--what you come up with will be far more interesting than yet another campaign diary!

Colombia Vs. Venezuela & Ecuador: Why This Is Important

2008-03-05T07:37:00.000-08:00

While the big world news story NBC Nightly News and other news outlets have been focusing on has been the fact that Prince Harry has been fighting in Afghanistan, something major has been going on in South America that could have major implications for our future.

Unfortunately it seems that usually when people in the US think about what's going on south of our border in Mexico and Central and South America, they think of the fact that undocumented immigrants are coming in from Mexico and those other countries.

However, they should (and this includes the MSM and all presidential candidates) start taking notice of the fact that the following threatens to start a new war in South America. Venezuelan troops have been deployed to the Colombian border. Also, Ecuador, which is on Venezuela's side, has sent troops to her border with Colombia, so Colombia is caught in the middle.

This is important--and not only because such a war could cause refugees to migrate north and find their way into the US as undocumented immigrants. Firstly, Venezuela is a major oil producer (Ecuador also exports oil) and if you think you're paying way too much for gas now, just wait until war involving these two oil producers breaks out.

Regarding Colombia, as of now her

defense minister said Monday that he would not be provoked into mobilizing troops in response.

However, I figure that's assuming Venezuela and Ecuador don't actually invade Colombia or otherwise attack her. Also,

President Bush said the United States will stand by Colombia and criticized Venezuela’s government for making “provocative maneuvers.” Colombia has received some $5 billion in U.S. aid to fight drugs and leftist rebels since 2000.

This, especially is why we should pay close attention to Colombia vs. Venezuela and Ecuador. This situation started escalating when

Colombia troops crossed the border with Ecuador and killed Raul Reyes, a top commander of the Colombian FARC rebels who had set up a camp there.

If war were to break out in that region, I wouldn't put it past Bush to send troops from our already-overextended military there. There are already hints that this has covertly been going on, in order to aid Colombia:

Several Latin American leftist leaders have suggested the U.S. was intimately involved in executing the raid that killed Reyes. Colombian military officials have said U.S. satellite intelligence and communications intercepts have been key to putting the FARC on the defensive.

On Tuesday, a spokesman for the U.S. Southern Command would neither confirm or deny American military participation. “We do provide intelligence support to partner nations but I can’t get into details on operations,” Jose Ruiz told the AP from Miami.

However, the US, as many including the MSM and politicians have been focused on Iraq and Afghanistan, and the possibility of action in Iran, not to mention the daily grind of the campaign, is and has been militarily involved in Latin America in a way that has been under the radar. And Colombia has been the largest recipient of such aid, to the tune of

$9.3 million in military training aid since 2000, an increase of almost 90% over six years [as of 2005 when this article was written]

This involvement, which has included troops, has been because of Colombia's drug war.

To end with a prediction, were a hot war to break out involving Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador, the Bush Administration, especially in light of the fact that the US military is already involved in Colombia, will be sending troops in large numbers to the region. And in light of the fact that we're already overextended, could end up instituting some sort of draft to provide these additional troops. For pulling them out of Iraq where so many already are would be out of question for a BushCo bound and determined to keep them there.

Another Reason I Like Barnes & Noble

2008-03-04T09:02:00.000-08:00

Bear with me for doing some volunteer advertising in this diary for one of my several "homes away from home," a store which provides a feast for the senses.

If you regularly visit Barnes & Noble, you've familiar with their extensive selection of books you can browse through--on some of which you can get some good deals. It's where I found Chris Rose's excellent collection of post-Katrina columns, "1 Dead In Attic."

You're familiar with the peaceful, homey ambience, with the pleasant music played over their sound system. (That's how I found out about the Fats Domino tribute album Goin' Home.)

And you're familiar with their music department's "Red Dot" system, where not only can you listen to bits and pieces from albums in the store, you also can listen to ones that aren't in stock, that you can have ordered.

You're familiar with the tantalizing aroma from their coffee shop--and may even have eaten goodies there....

But here's yet another reason to enjoy shopping at Barnes & Noble. Or visit their website (though I find actually shopping at the store much more pleasurable.) Or buy stock in that company. Per a recent report in the Times-Picayune, Barnes & Noble chairman Leonard Riggio is planning

an initiative that should place at least 120 families into new houses built with energy-efficient features and elevated to a height that should protect them from future floods. Riggio, the chairman of Barnes & Noble, plans to spend $20 million from his family's charitable foundation on the effort.

In announcing this effort,

Riggio, a devotee of New Orleans music, opened his speech with a reference to Randy Newman's song about the 1927 Mississippi River flood, which includes the lines, "Louisiana, Louisiana, they're trying to wash us away . . ." He said no flood could wipe out the music, food, culture and "genius" that New Orleans has bequeathed the rest of the country.

"Despite the enormity of Katrina's fury, a point was proved once again. No storm or flood or disaster could ever destroy this city, because its people are too resilient and too resourceful, too proud and too anchored in deep roots, to ever be washed away," he said

The only thing that's sad about this is the fact that were it not for philanthropists such as Riggio,
Brad Pitt, and others, and volunteer groups such as Habitat for Humanity who've been building
Musicians Village, New Orleans and her people would be getting far less help because of the inaction of BushCo. And the help from all these individuals and groups is a drop in the bucket compared to what's needed--homelessness is still a major problems in New Orleans. And these homeless, as Crashing Vor says,

are not the cliched caricatures that people think of when they hear the word "homeless." The majority are not transients from elsewhere, but former homeowners and renters from this city. They were not "mainstreamed" to the street from mental institutions, but flooded out of their homes by the failure of a flood-protection system that, by law, their city and state were not allowed to touch, that system being the sole responsibility of the Army Corps of Engineers.

And on the topic of the ACOE, per the Times Picayune, there are plans to build recreational stuff around the Bonnet Carree Spillway. That's a waste--I mean, I'd rather see the money that's being spent on that used to upgrade New Orleans' levees to protect the people living there from a future Cat 5 storm. But what do I know? I'm just an interested observer and blogger from the Midwest.

Finally I'm Getting Help!

2008-02-29T13:42:00.000-08:00

Just couldn't wait until tomorrow to share my good news!

This afternoon I had my appointment at the neighborhood clinic. The doctor was not only a very nice guy (which is always good in a doctor) he was very helpful. He listened to what I had to say and gave me a couple of mood and symptom questionnaires to fill out. The sort of thing Ed at the Human Service Center should have done.

And best of all, he gave me a couple of prescriptions: one for Zyprexa, a mood stabilizer, and the other for the generic form of Prozac. The Kroger next door charges only $4 for generics.

Also, he said I could get free counseling from the counselor in the clinic. I also need to get bloodwork done next week, because it needs to be done at a separate lab. And I've another appointment to let the doctor know how things are going on Fri., Mar. 14th.

So while I know it's going to take a long time for the meds to work, or maybe even to find the right combination of meds, I'm glad I'm finally on that road to feeling better.

Oscar-Winning Performers

2008-02-23T12:24:00.000-08:00

During this weekend when Sunday night the Academy Awards will be handed out, we must all or most all be recognized as Oscar-winning performers. That's what we more often than not feel we have to be in the movies of our lives.

I mean, emotionally-speaking. Because from the start, unless our parents are care-free regarding this sort of thing, they tell us we must never cry or otherwise break up in public. Or not get angry. Or otherwise display the fact that we may be hurting inside.

So we put on our Oscar-winning performances. If we work, we do so because it would not be "professional" to burst into tears or get angry. If we're with our friends, we do this so they won''t feel uncomfortable. And in public we do this so people won't stare at us. And even if we're at home, our acting skills may have been so ingrained that we don't give our Oscar-winning performances a rest. The show must go on.

But even though our performances are Oscar-winning, we don't get little gold statuettes. Instead the emotions simmer inside until we get things such as ulcers, heart disease, and cancer. And if we're already biologically predisposed to do so, because we're keeping our pain inside become depressed and/or bipolar--which makes it harder to keep putting on our performances.

I recall a blog from about a week ago where the writer said she wondered how the people around her could be so happy--like the moms she saw who'd be picking up their kids from school everyday. What I read made me wonder if they were really this happy--or if they were putting on Oscar-winning performances.

I've been putting on Oscar-winniing performances for much of my life (I'm 50.) I've been depressed since my late 20's, and had been keeping it well-hidden thinking I could hang in there. But lately my acting talent has begun to fail. In my last year in my job I'd started getting emotional--for example, crying or getting angry or becoming agitated--in certain situations. I'd thought in spite of this I'd been doing O.K.--but my last report before I was let go was a bad one. Which means I won't be getting an Oscar this year.......

Do I Have To Kill Myself So They'll Help Me?

2008-02-21T10:29:00.000-08:00

The "they" refers to the Human Service Center in Peoria, Illinois. Monday morning I first called the local mental health association, describing my depression, etc. and asked for resources. I was referred to the Human Service Center.

The Human Service Center in Peoria, Illinois is to helping people like me who need help what FEMA has been to helping New Orleanians after the federal flood. It's run by the Fayette Companies. Here's a link to their corporate/public relations bullshit.

The first time I called the Human Service Center, the receptionist said she was putting me through to Bill, the intake guy. All I got was his voice mail. I think this happened three times--after which I'd started crying. Because I thought an agency supposedly helping people in distress should provide human beings to talk to. I asked to be able to talk to a human being.

Then, the receptionist said she was connecting me to their Emergency Response Services. Again, all I got was voice mail. So I called again and was instructed to call back in a half-hour, which I did--and got the same results. Except that when I called again after that, I was instructed to leave my phone number so Bill could get back to me. I left my cell number--then had the presence of mind to ask for the Human Service Center's address.

Fortunately it was easy to get to by bus, so I took the next one there. During which, I never heard back from Bill. The receptionist asked if I'd been told to come down there. I said No, then told about all the calls I'd made. By that time I was feeling terrible--which I also told her.

She asked me to wait--and soon Bill appeared. I told him about the depression (no chance to bring up the bipolar--he was so hurried) and how it had gotten so bad I knew I needed meds for it. He said the first opening for an appointment would be at 12:30 Feb. 29th, after which I told him about my clinic appointment for that day. So he said I should keep that and if they thought I needed help they'd refer me to the Human Service Center. He did mention that I could talk to someone in Emergency Response Services if I wanted to.

So I did. Bad idea. Because the person I talked to was an extremely clueless jerk with an artificial arm named Ed. (The jerk--not the arm!) Now, I know it must seem politically incorrect for me to mention his arm--but believe me, I would never have brought it up, had I been able to get the help I need. For if he knew what he was doing, this would not have made a difference. But for a reason I'm bringing up below, I'm mentioning it.

And Ed is the actual first name he gave, me, folks--I only wish I also knew his last name because this asshole deserves all the bad publicity he can get. I'm singling him out for criticism because he's the only person there I dealt with at length.

I told Ed everything--about my depression/bipolar, which I'd had for years, that in the last couple of years had steadily gotten bad enough for me to need meds, how this had affected my job and I now need to apply for disability. He asked me a few questions like if I was having trouble sleeping, which I have been. And I showed him the symptom checklist I'd filled out.

Ed told me in effect that the Human Service Center has no interest in helping someone like me--who has no history of mental health treatment. This in spite of the fact that I had been crying and had told not only him but Bill and others there that I desperately need treatment including meds. He said the Human Service Center is only interested in helping what it calls a "target population" of people who've already had mental health problems and been getting treatment for them.

He also wouldn't give me any info about applying for disability, saying people can only get that when there was a history of being disabled. (He was wrong--I just read in a book on bipolar yesterday that you can get disability if you've either had a disability for a year or more, or have a disability that's expected to last for a year or more--which depression or bipolar would.) I had no chance to tell him that due to low energy I don't feel up to the effort and the stress of looking for a new job.

And at any rate--suppose I was being properly treated with the combination of meds (once those that would be effective for me were found) and counseling I need to be getting? Perhaps I'd feel well enough to seek employment and work. But until this happens, I don't know.

More about Ed--I wonder what his qualifications are and how he got hired (affirmative action because of the arm, maybe?), because of the obvious disconnect between the way I've been feeling and what I know I suffer from and the meds and other help I both need and deserve. And what he thought I'm going through and his not thinking I need help.

For a while I had the surreal feeling of being in a commercial, in which Ed would come out and say, "I'm no counselor--but I did spend the night at a Holiday Inn Express." Or, "I'm not a counselor--but I play one on TV." Or, "We can't help you--but I've got some good news--I just saved a bundle on car insurance by switching to Geico!"

In short--Ed is incompetent at dealing with people who really need help for their mental problems and are reaching out for it. He's to people like me what FEMA's Michael Brown was to the people of New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Heckuva job, Eddie!

And, considering how they feel about mental health care, I wouldn't be surprised if Ed were somehow involved with the Church of Scientology or some other anti-medication cult. Because here's where I imagine Ed and Tom Cruise would see eye-to-eye: he said doctors are often too quick to prescribe medications. Perhaps in some cases this is true--but it wouldn't be in my case.

Ed also gave me a new Emergency Response Services number to call if I ever needed to call a hotline--but I don't think I'll call that one. I'd probably get someone's voice mail. He also suggested that I ask the clinic I'd made the appointment at to move the appointment up--which they weren't able to.

Then Ed, after I'd told him I enjoyed being online, suggested that I "journal"--which I told him I've been doing, in the sense of blogging. In fact, one of the more clueless things Ed said was that he thought I was sad Monday because the library was closed that day and I couldn't get online and was missing my support network!

So I told Ed I would be blogging--because little did he know I was way ahead of him. Unknown to him, I was already mentally going over what I was going to say in my diary about this experience incluuding Ed--which I'd been planning to diary on, whether I got help out of my quest for help or not. So others could learn from my experience.

And little does Ed know he's going to get his 15 minutes of fame out of this diary! I mean, you can't make this stuff up! The only good thing about my session with Ed, aside from material for this diary, was that it was free--so all I wasted was my time.

Lastly about Ed and Bill, the intake guy--I also wonder how big a role sexism played in the way they gave me the shaft. I wonder if both just saw me as a complaining, whining, neurotic woman who wanted attention. They just patronized me and treated me as if what I'm going through was no big deal. How seriously would they have treated what I had to say and the problems I was struggling with, had I been bearing a penis and balls? And explained the fact that I hadn't sought treatment for so long because I'd manfully been fighting to deal with my problems on my own? Had I been a man, I imagine they would have been far more helpful--even if they were unable to help me, they probably would have given me places I could go for what I needed.

Where does one go if she suspects she's been subjected to sex discrimination or disability discrimination (I also wonder if I hadn't been taken seriously because of my speech disablilty), anyway? And above all, do I have to kill myself so they'll help me?

Ed and everybody else at the Human Service Center should get out of the business or at least reform as an agency prepared to help people who realize that they're afflicted with major mental problems that have been adversely beeh affecting their lives and are reaching out for help for the first time. If there were any justice in the world, Ed would be fired and have to go without health insurance--then start suffering from depression, etc. the way I have and be denied help by the Human Service Center.

I mean, what good is the Human Service Center if they won't even help people who due to lack of insurance or whatever reason have been forced to let mental problems go untreated. Aren't they even aware that this could be when such people most need help because their problems have gotten worse due to lack of treatment? And don't they know that when people's mental ills go untreated, more often than not, they'll get worse?

Here's something I need help with: I'm planning to crosspost this on depressiontribe, Docudharma, and have posted it in Daily Kos--but does anybody know of any mental health care consumer blogs (or health care consumer blogs in general) where consumers can post their bad experiences getting or trying to get mental health care? Or other website/blogs for people with depression, etc., who might benefit from reading about my experience? I think the word about how unhelpful Ed and the Human Service Center have been in my situation needs to get out in order to alert others.

And I've an idea: Here's the phone number for the Human Service Center. (309)671-8000. If this sort of thing bothers you, call them and tell them that they're very wrong to be rejecting people seeking mental health treatment who haven't already been getting this treatment. Maybe if they're flooded with irate phone calls on this topic, someone there will listen.

Hotline

2008-02-16T10:02:00.000-08:00

Last night I was feeling really tired, having had trouble sleeping the night before, and went to bed around 6:30. But still I couldn't fall asleep.

Then, deciding I wouldn't be able to wait until my Feb. 29th appointment, I called a Hot Line number I'd been e-mailed earlier that day. I tried their line for at least an hour--it was busy. So I started wondering if I'd been given the right number and took a short rest from calling.

I was also worried about others who'd been trying to call the hotline--if I, who was looking for information on a place to make an appointment for treatment was constantly getting the busy signal, what about people in even worse trouble, like someone thinking of suicide?

Then, I tried again. I got through on the second try.

The woman I spoke to sounded kind and pleasant when I told her about my depression and possible bipolar and need for treatment because I don't have insurance--and was very helpful--steering me towards a couple of places I could call on Monday. She also asked me qujestions about my living situation and was also kind enough to ask me if I'd be O.K. that night--which I'd thought I would be.

So now I'm counting the hours until Monday morning--hoping they will steer me towards the help I need. Wish me luck! I won;t be online Monday because the library's closed for President's Day, but hope to have some good news by Tuesday.

Wish Me Luck!

2008-02-15T12:20:00.000-08:00

After the 2 blogs I wrote yesterday, I've some better news.

On the way home from the library, I'd been planning on stopping at the Kroger in my neighborhood. Next door to this store is a clinic.

So I wondered if they'd be able to help me, and after I'd done my shopping, stopped there to ask the receptionist what they charge since I've no insurance. She said it's based on income.

But I don't know what I was thinking (especially in light of my having felt so desperate for help and relief earlier) because the clinic had been about to close for the night, but I procrastinated on making an appointment.

A decision I later that night regretted--because I just couldn't fall asleep thinking of how dumb I'd been to put something like that off.

So first thing this morning, I went back to that clinic. They gave me an appointment for 1PM on Fri., Feb. 29th. So wish me luck!

Though, if I decide I can't wait until then, I can always try calling the crisis help line, which my friend who'd been able to get the Cymbalta suggested!

Her Happy News Made Me Cry, Or Tired Of Not Knowing Where To Turn

2008-02-14T13:29:00.000-08:00

Just this afternoon I read a few blog posts from the past few days by one of my friends on this site. She had some good news: after having gone for some time without treatment, she'd gone to the free clinic and was able to get Cymbalta. And now she's been having side-effects such as drowsiness, nausea, etc.--but the Cymbalta has gotten rid of her back pain, and she's otherwise feeling much better.

I know I should be very happy for her--she's very lucky to seemingly have found a way out of her suffering--but instead I've been crying on and off. Because I know I need meds and other help. In fact, this morning I posted the same blog ("I Hate Writing About Myself") I posted earlier this afternoon on another website where I'm a member, and received all sorts of kind, helpful replies--many of which suggested that I get treatment--and soon.

But I just don't know where to turn, I don't know where I can find a free clinic, for openers. And this is making me very sad.

I Hate Writing About Myself....

2008-02-14T13:26:00.000-08:00

when it comes to personal problems. They're difficult to write about. And I know there are folks who've far worse problems and who are in far worse shape and in far worse situations than I am. And I'm grateful that I'm not in their shoes.

And more important things are going on in the world--things about which I've often been writing and will be writing more. So I'm not a whiner.

But currently I'm in a situation where I can use some support and friendly advice...

About a month ago, I lost my job. Others were also let go. But I got a bad write-up at the end of 2007 that said in effect that I hadn't been fitting in well, hadn't been doing my job right or in a timely manner or following directions well, hadn't been showing much creativity (when this had been the sort of job you couldn't show much creativity in--if you did, you weren't following directions!) And that I hadn't been showing a positive attitude or been pleasant or shown an optimistic outlook. Or been playing well with others. (O.K.--the last is made up, but you get the picture.)

This was all news to me because I'd worked at that company for 20 years. While it wasn't the perfect job and I hadn't been perfect, I hadn't thought I'd been that bad, either. I'd never heard or gotten any complaints. The write-up I got at the end of 2006 had been much better.

I've been wondering if some of the problems in the latest write-up at my old job could have been due to untreated depression and/or bipolar symptoms. I've been at least mildly depressed for much of my life--though I've never had it looked into or been treated for it. Or I may be bipolar--I'm not sure because I can be at times irritable and impatient, not have much tolerance for frustration, and get angry easily. In fact I nearly got into trouble (by almost being kicked out of a group I'd enjoyed participating in) because I'd blown up. While I most often feel "down," I've occasionally felt very "up"--not the sort of mania you hear about where one runs out and buys a flashy sports car and does other wild things--but just enough to be feeling unusually good.

For about the past 2 1/2 years up to now, the depression has been at its worst. This is due to the emotional impact on me of a certain event and its aftermath with which I've been obsessed and that I want to go into in more depth at another time when I feel up to it, because it's a separate diary in itself that will be difficult to write. I hadn't seen anyone for this problem when I was working because I doubted that the company's health plan would have covered mental health treatment. And now I don't have any sort of health insurance.

I also have AD/HD, which had been diagnosed in the Dark Ages of the late 60's when it was called a "learning disability" Interestingly, cases of bipolar can be confused with AD/HD and vice-versa, because of similar symptoms such as low frustration tolerance, irritability, and impulsivity. Or one could have both. As Jon P Bloch, Ph.D, writes in ....The Everything Health Guide To Adult Bipolar Disorder,

Frequently, bipolar children are misdiagnosed as having AD/HD. What makes this especially unfortunate is that the medication often prescribed for this are stimulants that exacerbate the bipolar symptoms. It is also possible for a child to be both bipolar and to have AD/HD.

Ritalin didn't work for me so I was prescribed Dilantin and phenobarbital for it for about six years. And I've mild cerebral palsy that makes my speech sound strange and affects my motor skills. I often have trouble with pain and fatigue. In spite of these things, I managed to hang in there at my old job, where accommodations had been made for me and most of my co-workers had been kind and understanding--but I guess I hadn't been doing as well as I'd thought I was.

Now I feel physically and emotionally wiped out. I just haven't been feeling up to the stress of job hunting (nobody around here with the sort of work I can do is hiring, anyway.) or the demands of a full-time job. Low energy. When I had been working, I'd come home with so little energy left I often didn't even feel up to making myself dinner--all I felt up to doing was reading or watching TV or a DVD.

I also don't think I'd be very good at a new job because of some of the symptoms (besides having a short fuse, I've lost it by crying over little things or nothing. This has happened pretty often lately.) So I've been wondering what there is out there (about 2 1/2 hours from Chicago) when it comes to getting disability or other sorts of help after my current means of support (details confidential) runs out after a few months.

I also wonder--how legitimate are those websites there are ads for that offer work online? I don't own my own computer--are they worth investing in a computer for? Can one really make a decent living from them, or are they the equivalent of those envelope-stuffing and other work-at-home ads you used to see in magazines?

Also, sometimes when working on this blog, I see this little ad that says you can earn extra money from having them place advertising on your blog. I don't recall the company name offhand--in fact, when I tried to have it come up, it didn't. But "Google" was part of it. Is it really affiliated with Google," or a soundalike company? Also, how well does something like that pay, if the blog doesn't get much traffic? I mean, I don't think anybody's been reading my blog because nobody's posted comments or anything. And since my daily computer time is limited, I haven't had time to add too much to this blog yet. It's only about three weeks old.

Well, thanks so much for reading this far. I hope I haven't bored you--at least, this isn't yet another campaign diary. Hoping for some good suggestions, advice and ideas....

Where Was Obama Thursday?

2008-02-09T13:07:00.000-08:00

In spite of the fact that Louisiana is holding her primary today, Williams somehow has managed to maintain his and "Nightly's" news blackout on New Orleans. He had nothing about Obama's appearance in that city, which should have focused new attention on her and on storm and flood recovery. Nor did Williams air anything about Bill Clinton's appearances there yesterday.

An Open Letter to Brian Williams follows--if it doesn't appear on Daily Nightly, it's been censored.

Dear Brian,

My NOLA friend recently said that Louisiana had turned out to be important due to Super Tuesday's not being conclusive for the Democrats--and added, "Maybe there is justice after all."

Sadly, so far she has been proven wrong because you and your newscast don't seem to be into justice. Your campaign coverage has sucked because of the way in order to maintain your self-censorship and news blackout on New Orleans you've been spinning Washington State as the big contest instead of covering in depth the lead-up to Louisiana's primary.

Were you even aware that Barack Obama campaigned in New Orleans Thursday--and Bill Clinton appeared there yesterday, in his wife's place? You did not even cover Obama's appearance at Tulane--where Obama said his administration would do a much better job rebuilding New Orleans than has the Bush administration. This would have been an excellent opportunity to cover Obama's Gulf Region plan. And yesterday you could have done what CNN did--aired a piece on how frustrated New Orleanians are that New Orleans and Katrina haven't been treated as valid campaign issues. That would have been far more important and newsworthy than last night's coverage out of Washington State--which has been spun as the "biggie" for obvious political reasons.

Or, on Thursday when you could have covered Obama's Tulane speech, were you too busy covering the CPAC wingnuts nostalgic for Ronald Reagan, regarding whose successors, as Michael Eric Dyson says in his book "Come Hell Or High Water: Hurricane Katrina And The Color Of Disaster,"
"...As the ideological children of Ronald Reagan, Bush and his adminstration have thrived on tax cuts, downsizing, the neglect of civic infrastructure, the shredding of the safety net, the will to privatization, the drgrading of the public sector, and advocating Reagan's idea that government is the enemy of the people. The Bush administration's incompetence in Katrina was the most devastating indictment of such a philosophy...."

Your support of these CPAC whackjobs, the Bush administration, and the party that drowned New Orleans and doesn't want to rebuild her is showing in this coverage decision.

I saw your Mardi Gras newsbrief Tuesday--but since that was a newsbrief and not a story, last night's newscast is the 31st since you last aired a full report out of New Orleans. You need to reopen your New Orleans bureau permanently and bring back full coverage out of that city.

Louisiana 1976

Don't Give To The Red Cross

2008-02-07T08:31:00.000-08:00

If you want to donate to the tornado survivors in Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas, a better bet would be to make your donation to the Salvation Army. Links to that organization along with other info can be found in this diary.

Because the Red Cross is actually an organization which, per a commenter under the above-mentioned diary,

is thoroughly politicized, the Bush hacks who aren't competent enough for government work are corralled there.

There are too many worthy charities to waste money on that quasi-governmental mess.

by lgcap

What has gotten me riled up about this topic was reading about the Red Cross in remarks under that tornado diary and remembering how, when I used to post under another blog, one of the commenters who's a physician said that as a Red Cross volunteer he'd wanted to go into New Orleans after the flood and had been told at the time that he couldn't--the city was too dangerous.

This didn't make sense to me--I mean, aren't places where disasters have happened usually dangerous in some way or another? But the Red Cross' reasoning comes to light in this following remark, also under the above-linked diary:

I'm sorry, but Red Cross...
....as an organization permanently lost me for their support after their horrendous performance during Katrina in New Orleans and their "buy in" to the whole racist theme that the city was too dangerous to enter and that rendering help would mean residents wouldn't be evacuated....even as 10s of thousands were suffering and in need. There was no excuse for that.... That was really F'ckd up.

by LakeSuperior

And it's not just anonymous Daily Kos bloggers who say something's "F'ckd up" in the Red Cross--here's more:

While many were outraged that the Red Cross failed to enter New Orleans, unsafe conditions and reports of shootings and lootings may have informed the decision. The Red Cross is not chartered to conduct search and rescue operations.

We "will not put [our] own workers in harm's way," Red Cross spokesperson Renita Hosler told RAW STORY.

Hosler explained that the Red Cross was "at the table" with "Emergency Management" numerous times while conditions deteriorated in New Orleans and that a decision was reached that if the group set up shop within the city, it might encourage others to come back, creating a secondary crisis.

Hosler confirmed that authorities turned down repeated offers by the Red Cross to enter New Orleans with supplies. New Orleans, she asserted, was considered too unsafe for the Red Cross to enter.

The article also says that the Red Cross,

although mandated by its Code of Conduct to remain independent of government, is officially part of the Bush Administration's national security apparatus.

Hmmm. This means that the Red Cross, at the time New Orleans flooded had been, instead of the helpful, rescuing charity its proponents paint it as being, a partner in crime with a BushCo which had been imposing its Final Solution in Louisiana. This makes the Red Cross, like BushCo, is guilty of genocide--standing idly by as poor people in Louisiana drowned.

And it was also mentioned under the tornado diary how the Red Cross' response to the wildfires in California had been good and that its being under new management could be the reason. Maybe so--but then, maybe that area of California doesn't have a large concentration of poor people of color that BushCo wanted to ethnically cleanse.

Back to Louisiana--there should be some way bereaved families, knowing that the Red Cross' inaction had contributed to the loss of their loved ones, could institute legal action against that organization--and I don't mean by merely filing a lawsuit. That would be too kind. Instead, those responsible for the Red Cross' decision not to go into New Orleans should be charged with murder.

Where's Mark Geragos when you need him?

"Blink Of An Eye".....

2008-02-06T13:23:00.000-08:00

by Rexanne Becnel is an emotionally-gripping love story about a woman who survives both Katrina and her own inner demons.

When we meet Jane she's 47 (and I easily identified with her because I, too, was 47 at the time Katrina hit.) The love of her life is her brother Clark, who's like a 5-year-old trapped in a 42-year-old body because he has Downs' Syndrome. The institution he's in is evacuating to Baton Rouge.

At this time Jane is planning on committing suicide--and because she knows Katrina is coming, she decides to do this by drowning in the hurricane's surge. But, as she's in her car going under, she sees a black-and-white dog against the windshield. So instead of killing herself, she decides to rescue him. The tag on his collar says "Lucky." (This I could also relate to, because that's my cat's name.) Soon she meets Lucky's owners and they become friends. Lucky's owners then evacuate to Memphis and leave Lucky behind with her because they can't take him where they're going.

Then, in the storm's aftermath, Jane meets Ben Comeaux, a Cajun doctor who's helping out. Jane had been a nurse before she'd embarked on her downward spiral--so she also volunteers. But she's afraid about what will happen when her story comes out--about how she'd become addicted to prescription drugs. And lost her license. Especially in light of the fact that her boss is a real jackass who has it in for her.

So--will Jane and Ben get together? How will Clark fare? And how will everything turn out regarding Jane's nursing license? You'll have to read "Blink Of An Eye" to find out!

Open Letter to Brian Williams

2008-02-05T07:55:00.000-08:00

Dear Brian,

Last night I found extremely annoying your reference to China's severe winter weather and how her government has been responding to it as "China's Hurricane Katrina."

This would not have bothered me, and I wouldn't be writing, had you and "Nightly" regularly and in detail been covering recovery efforts and other news out of Louisiana and Mississippi. But since last night's was the 27th newscast since you last aired anything out of New Orleans or elsewhere in the Gulf Region, this use of "Hurricane Katrina" is one of my pet peeves.

The terms "Hurricane Katrina" and "Katrina" need to be copyrighted. For their use to describe other disasters trivializes the storm and the manmade levee failures its surge brought about. It's especially insensitive to both survivors and their supporters aware of how you haven't been covering the remaining devastation from and lingering hardships and suffering 2 1/2 years after 8/29. Or such hopeful signs of recovery as this year's Mardi Gras.

Please permanently re-open your New Orleans bureau and bring back full, regular coverage of the aftermath of and recovery from the real Hurricane Katrina.

Finally!

2008-02-04T11:59:00.000-08:00

Over two weeks ago I'd signed up to join MyDD but hadn't received a response.

Today in my e-mail I finally found confirmations from them--hooray!

So to anybody else who's been trying to join MyDD and not heard back yet, hang in there....

Politico Stole Two Elections

2008-02-04T11:57:00.000-08:00

Note: Originally I'd planned on posting this Friday, but the library was closed due to bad weather. But it's still current...

Below the fold is how Politico screwed Katrina/Rita/flood survivors in Louisiana and Mississippi, and their supporters, out of having a question relevant to their plight asked during last Wednesday's and Thursday's debates.

On Saturday, Jan. 26, I diaried a way, per colorofchange.org, to vote on Politico for the following debate question:

Two years after Katrina and Rita and Gulf Coast schools, hospitals, police stations, roads and flood protection still lie in ruins, keeping displaced residents from returning and communities from recovering. Will you support H.R. 4048, the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act, as President to rebuild community infrastructure and create job and training opportunities for residents?

At that time, that question had been among the top five for both parties' debates. When it hadn't been asked the Repubs, I'd thought it would be asked Obama and Clinton....

Then, Thursday afternoon, I found an ominous, urgent email that had arrived Wednesday afternoon, after I'd left the library, from the man spearheading the effort tp get this question asked. He said that the vote totals for debate questions had been

"reset to zero"

by Politico and that voting for Repub debate questions would be reopened at 7:55 PM EST Wednesday. And the questions mixed up so anyone wanting this question asked would have to scroll through 150 questions to find it. This is why we didn't hear this question asked of the GOP candidates.

And there was going to be the same set up for the Democratic debate--with the vote totals

"reset to zero"

and voting reopening at 7:55 PM EST Thursday, and the questions mixed up. So, in the Democratic debate, neither the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act question, nor anything else having to do with New Orleans or Katrina, was asked of Obama and Clinton.

So our votes for this question didn't count--because they were just thrown out when the vote totals had been "reset to zero." And I hadn't been able to vote either time because I have to go to a library to use a computer and can't go there that late in the day (6:55 PM CST). Nor was I able to diary this Thursday so others could vote, because I'd found out about it after I'd already posted a diary that day.

This snafu begs several questions:

1.) Why did Politico chuck all the previous votes they'd received for debate questions and reset the vote totals to zero before the debates?

2.) Why did they mix up the questions so one had to hunt for the Gulf Coast Civic Works question? And,

3.) Why wasn't voting reopened until 7:55 PM EST each day?

These questiona are rhetorical because the answers are obvious. It's because of undemocratic dirty tricks on the part of Politico. The

"reset to zero"

of each vote and flat-out dishonesty are obviously a deliberate act of sabotage by supporters of BushCo's genocide in Louisiana to keep New Orleans and Katrina from being brought up in what may be the final presidential debates before the fall.

The wingnuts at Politico stole these "elections" because they want to perpetuate the BushCo-friendly media's Big Lies: that Katrina and New Orleans are old news, don't matter, aren't valid campaign issues, and are just "black issues."

These despicable individuals, having noticed that the Gulf Coast Civic Works question has been so popular (#3 for the Republicans, #1 for the Democrats by Wednesday afternoon), decided to disenfranchise all who'd voted for it by throwing out all the previous votes to ensure that it would never be asked.

And these slimebuckets must have assumed that many of the people who'd voted for this question were ones whose only access to a computer would be at a library or at their day job, who wouldn't be able to get online at 7:55 PM EST. In other words, they weren't interested in having the candidates address issues of interest to those who aren't as well-off as they are--so they wanted to make it vwer4y difficult, if not impossible, for people who can't afford to have computers in their homes to vote.

So only blissed-out rich fucks who've neither experienced disaster nor supported people who have were permitted to let their voices be heard by Politico. Hence the fact that all previous votes had been chucked and voting was reopened at 7:55 PM EST each day.

Politico's having done all these things to guarantee that the Gulf Coast Civic Works question would not be asked is a shameful collusion with those who would keep New Orleans and Katrina from being discussed in debates and otherwise keep them out of the news. Because silence will allow BushCo, out of sight and out of mind, to continue implementing its Final Solution in Louisiana.

Whoever decided in the first place to "reset" Politico's vote to zero and throw out all the previous votes is a loathesome, unAmerican piece of scum who needs to be held accountable. He'd fit right in in a country where election results are pre-ordained--not in America.

We all need to visit Politico, sign up, and post remarks wherever we can to let them know how we feel about how they so dishonestly ensured that the question on the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act would never be asked. We need to raise such a stink it drives home to them the fact that New Orleans and Katrina, which many people are still dealing with 24/7, today, are valid campaing issues and we need to know where our candidates stand. We also need to spread the word about what Politico did to keep Katrina and New Orlean from coming up in their debates, so others will know what they're about.

Bush's NOLA Surprise

2008-01-31T10:22:00.000-08:00

In last year's State of the Union address (which I'd taken to calling his State of Denial address for this very reason) Bush had never said a word about New Orleans, the Gulf Coast, or Katrina--as if he'd written off an entire area of the country. So I didn't expect them to be mentioned Monday night.

You could have knocked me over with a feather when Bush first mentioned "armies of compassion" on the Gulf Coast, then announced that NOLA will be the venue of the next North American Summit with Canada and Mexico.

What is this--NOLA's "not ready" to host a fall presidential debate, per the site selection commission--yet she can, per Bush, host a summit of three world leaders in April?

Bush's announcement that New Orleans would be this summit's venue, after the debate rejection and all the other ways BushCo has given Louisiana the shaft, makes me think of an abusive husband who regularly beats his wife, disses her, and is mean-spirited towards her in other ways. Then presents her, not because it's her birthday or some other special occasion, but out of the blue, with an expensive, yet non-useful, gift. On getting a surprise like that, she'd be wise to immediately be suspicious. Because after his mistreatment of her it should be an obvious clue that her husband is up to no good. And that the worst may be yet to come.

This upcoming summit does not make me any less angry about the fact that New Orleans was screwed out of the opportunity to host any of this fall's presidential debates. Reason being, a debate held in New Orleans would be a useful gift for her--it would force the nominees of both parties to talk about how they feel about BushCo's neglect of the area and how they plan to remedy the damage it has done when they're in office. I doubt such things would be hashed out or even brought up during a North American Summit. So we still need to call for some sort of presidential debate to take place in New Orleans, at which New Orleans and Katrina-related issues are discussed.

And while the North American Summit will generate plenty of media attention, it would probably be the wrong kind of attention--namely the kind which glosses over the fact that large areas of New Orleans are still devastated and many there are still hurting physically, mentally/emotionally, and financially. Here's how BushCo and their compliant corporate-owned media will probably spin it, against a backdrop of a shiny French Quarter or maybe homes that have been rebuilt: "Look, Americans, New Orleans is just fine. She's rebuilt. She doesn't need help." (Or somehow they'll manage to cover the summit without even mentioning New Orleans or Louisiana--see how an example of this happened last night, below.) So to make a long story short, the summit won't really do anything for New Orleans and her people. She'll just provide an attractive photo-op backdrop.

And I'm worried about the prospect of violent demonstrations and protests--which per the Times-Picayune article linked above, have happened during other such summits and led to violence. While I've been calling for demonstrations and protests in support of New Orleans, to call attention to her problems, and against such things as the debate rejection, and would like to see them during the summit, they need to be attention-getting yet peaceful as were the Jena rallies. Because violence is the last thing an already-hurting Louisiana needs.

And the fact that Edwards has just bowed out of the campaign does not bode well for New Orleans and her people. I doubt that either Democratic candidate who's left will take up where Edwards left off regarding New Orleans. Hillary, for whom New Orleans has been off the radar, will just let her die--and Obama hasn't been much better.

Now for how NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams covered this. The lede was Edwards' quitting the race. But, unbelievably, neither Brian Williams nor Andrea Mitchell, both of whom are owned and operated by GE, the world's largest defense contractor, mentioned the key fact that this took place in New Orleans.

WTF? An Open Letter which I'm attempting to post on
Daily Nightly follows. If it doesn't appear there, it's been censored.

Dear Brian,

Because John Edwards ended his candidacy in the very city in which he'd kicked it off--New Orleans--I paid close attention to your coverage and Andrea Mitchell's report.

What's odd about what I heard is what I didn't hear: any mention of New Orleans by you or Andrea. And very little of Edwards' surroundings could be seen. A viewer unaware that Edwards was in New Orleans could have figured that he instead was where Andrea signed off from--Washington.

Your and Andrea's non-mention of New Orleans goes against something I seem to recall having learned in 3rd- or 4th-grade English when we were first taught how news stories were properly written: to answer the questions: "Who?," "What?," "Where?," "When," "Why?," and "How?." In last night's coverage of Edwards, there was no answer to "Where?."

Furthermore, "Nightly" also has not covered the most interesting thing Bush said in his State of the Union address: the announcement that New Orleans will be the site of the next North American Summit. It would have been far more worthwhile Tuesday night had you aired a piece on this announcement and on New Orleanians' reaction to this news, than some of the dreck you did cover such as that story on midlife crises around the world. My friend in New Orleans doesn't think this summit will be any help to New Orleans and her people.

Why has "Nightly" been for the past month or so censoring news out of New Orleans? Have your highers-up--perhaps on orders from GE, the world's largest defense contractor, demanded that you and your newspeople maintain a news blackout on New Orleans by not even mentioning her? Because they're afraid that mentioning New Orleans could remind Americans of the remaining devastation and hardships, and BushCo's neglect of that city? And that they could call for aid--which might lessen the amount of money available for defense spending, which otherwise would go into GE's bank accounts?

Since as noted, New Orleans had not been mentioned in the coverage of Edwards' bowing out, and Andrea signed off from Washington, I'm counting last night's newscast as the 24th since you aired anything out of New Orleans.

Also, I have it on good authority that NBC doesn't have the real, permanent New Orleans bureau that it should have--but a local TV station that temporarily serves as one when fly-in newspeople are in town.

"Getting to Brian

I really believe your daily questions about NOLA finally got to him. Did you see the look on his face when he said "NOLA Bureau". Very strange indeed. The fly ins camp out in the WDSU studios which I assume is their NOLA Bureau. Anyway, thanks for your persistance, it got to them. Also, heard that Pelosi and Reid have sent a strongly worded letter requesting demolition stop until the housing crisis is eased.

by chigh on Sat Dec 15, 2007 at 04:03:01 PM PST"

If NBC had a real, permanent New Orleans bureau, perhaps we would have gotten some real coverage out of New Orleans of Edwards' leaving the campaign instead of a shoddy piece obviously assembled from film clips and narrated out of Washingtonh, with no mention of New Orleans. NBC needs to re-open, permanently, or at least until New Orleans is really on the way to being rebuilt, its New Orleans bureau, now.

Louisiana 1976

Bush: What's He Up To?

2008-01-29T08:49:00.000-08:00

In last year's State of the Union address (which I'd taken to calling his State of Denial address for this very reason) Bush never said a word about New Orleans, the Gulf Coast, or Katrina--as if he'd written off an entire area of the country. So I didn't expect him to mention them last night.

You could have knocked me over with a feather when Bush first mentioned "armies of compassion" on the Gulf Coast, then announced that NOLA will be the venue of the next North American Summit with Canada and Mexico.

What is this--NOLA's "not ready" to host a presidential debate, per the site selection commission--yet she can host a summit of three world leaders?

Bush must be up to something---more later.

Prediction

2008-01-26T10:58:00.000-08:00

Astrologist Susan Miller appeared on one of the morning cable news shows (no comment as to which one) and she sees Hillary winning the South Carolina primary because she's a Scorpio (and some other astrological mumbo-jumbo that went in one ear and out the other.) Interesting because Obama, per the polls, is doing so much better than Hillary. But we saw what happened in New Hampshire--so you never know.

Midwestern Mardi Gras

2008-01-26T10:17:00.000-08:00

While the Midwest isn't known for having much to do with Mardi Gras, it can still be found in places around here. For example, some local group recently advertised a Mardi Gras festival complete with creole cuisine and New Orleans music. Pity it cost $75 a head--had it been free, I'd have been interested. Especially in the creole food!

And then there was the King Cake I was able to buy at my neighborhood Kroger's the other day. It was big--almost too unwieldy to carry home on the bus, with all the other stuff I bought, but I managed. And it'll probably last about a week--if not longer, since I'm the only one eating it. It's a beautiful cake, with the purple, green, and yellow granulated sugar on top of that melt-in-your mouth white icing. It was also decorated by Mardi Gras beads--a strand each of purple, green and gold. This was the first King Cake I'd tried--and the way it tastes reminds me of cinnamon rolls (which is good, since I love cinnamon rolls.) Yum!

The Disclaimer

2008-01-26T10:11:00.000-08:00

At the libraries where I do my online work, once I try to get on the Internet, up pops this disclaimer:

"When you send information to the Internet, your information may be seen by others. Do you wish to continue?"

I think if my information isn't seen by others, I must be doing something wrong.

What's The Matter With The Democrats?

2008-01-25T11:23:00.000-08:00

The worst thing about this campaign so far has been how little attention has been paid the situation in New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf Region impacted by Katrina and Rita.

This has been bi-partisan. Had it been only the Rethugs, I'd put it down to their usual let 'em eat cake attitude--like when Barbara Bush said in the Astrodome in effect that the flood evacuees were going to have a better life there then they did back home in New Orleans. And now many such evacuees are stranded in Houston, miserable because they're homesick for Louisiana but unable to return, because of the lack of affordable housing in New Orleans.

But except for John Edwards, whose efforts haven't been getting the media attention that they should, the Democrats have also been keeping their heads in the sand on this continuing issue that is still having a deleterious impact on so many.

What's the matter with the Democrats on this issue? It's got to be more than simple Katrina fatigue.

Could it be that Louisiana and Mississippi are so small in terms of population--which means too few convention delegates--and electoral votes--to fight for?

Could the Democrats have written them off as "Red" states--not only Haley Barbour's fiefdom but also Jindal's Louisiana--in spite of the fact that BushCo's ethnic cleansing and cultural genocide turned her into a "Red" state?

Could it be that they're poor states (the two poorest in the nation)--which means not much in terms of contributions to campaigns?

Could it be that Katrina and flood survivors don't have well-oiled, well-moneyed special interest groups which can speak up for them--and make enough noise to attract not only media attention (which has also been in short supply--more on this at a future time) but also attention from Democratic candidates looking for votes?

Or could it be that there's more to this inattention behind the scenes?

Now, don't get me wrong--I will vote for whoever the Democratic nominee is in November, because obviously the GOP will continue BushCo's genocide by neglect in New Orleans, and a third-party vote would be wasted.

It's time for a change on the part of the Democrats--time for them to open their eyes to New Orleans and Katrina and start focussing on this issue. They should do it yesterday.

Bring NOLA To The Debates

2008-01-25T11:09:00.000-08:00

Times Picayune columnist Chris Rose recently has an interesting idea. He tells in this column how he attempted to book a lot of Oxford, Mississippi's 650 hotel rooms for the night of the presidential debate to be held there. And found that they'd already been booked. So here's another idea:

Since the Commission on Presidential Debates won't be bringing any of its debates to New Orleans, why can't New Orleanians and those who support New Orleans bring New Orleans to all four debates that are scheduled by this august body for this fall?
Here's how this can be done: For each day any of these debates has been scheduled, New Orleans activists should plan to flood (pun intended) the city it will be held in with busloads of demonstrators. These busloads could come not only from New Orleans but also cities with large concentrations of evacuees who've been unable to return--Houston, Atlanta, etc. People from the Mississippi Gulf Coast and elsewhere in the disaster zone, still stuck in FEMA trailers or otherwise having trouble with Katrina recovery would also be invited to participate.
These protests could start in Oxford on Sept. 26th. And they hopefully would be huge enough to tie up traffic--so massive neither the candidates and their people nor members of the media, nor any of the other debate principals including the esteemed Paul G. Kirk, Jr. and the rest of the BushCo lackeys on the commission--would find it easy to make their way to the debate venue.
And these New Orleans demonstrations should not be simple marches and rallies. That would be too mundane--not good enough for a New Orleans that wants to show Paul G. Kirk and the rest of America that she can put on a big event--and not just do so in New Orleans. The protests would need to include New Orleans musicians who'd perform jazz, the blues, zydeco, and other music for which New Orleans and Louisiana are famous. And other performers including dancers. Each protest could be like a mini-Mardi Gras. The demonstrators would also have to set up props like FEMA trailers and a homeless people's tent village--which they could call Bushvilles and Republican Row.
Last but not least, there should be trucks with cooking facilities like there are at festivals. Where po'boys, gumbo, jambalaya, and all sorts of other New Orleans treats could be sold--with proceeds going to New Orleans charities engaged in rebuilding and helping her people recover. (And in the case of Oxford and the rest of the places in which the debates are being held, that would probably be the most delicious food people there have had in years!)
Also, when the debates take place, New Orleans demonstrators would need to swarm into the venues and, during the debates, shout out questions about New Orleans and Katrina. And not shut up until their questions are answered or at least until New Orleans and Katrina are being talked about. Rude? Yes--but sometimes rudeness is necessary to get attention. And unfortunately during this campaign attention to New Orleans and her problems, which have not been treated as campaign issues, so far has been in very short supply. Being nice, quiet, and polite clearly has not worked. New Orleans has been ignored, and her people disenfranchised and treated as if they were invisible. It's time for New Orleanians to be seen and make their voices heard.
And there would be no way either the candidates or the mainstream media would be able to ignore these demonstrations and maintain their credibility. So they would hopefully attract attention to New Orleans and let the rest of America know that her people's plight continues.
These demonstrations sound like a complex plan--but based on the success of last fall's Jena rallies, they would be doable. The seeds just need to be sown in the blogosphere for an idea such as this to come to fruition. It's time to get to work on this--now.
And here's another idea to get a presidential debate for New Orleans:

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Please post this following e-mail to Brian Williams on NBC Nightly News' blog, http://dailynightly.msnbc.msn.com/">Daily Nightly.

Dear Brian,
In spite of the historic, tragic impact of Katrina and New Orleans' flood not only on Louisiana and Mississippi but on America as a whole, and the fact that the Bush Administration has been neglecting New Orleans' recovery, this dual disaster has very rarely come up in presidential debates.
So I am calling on NBC News to sponsor a presidential debate on these topics to be held in New Orleans this fall. This seems to be the only way this disaster and the slow recovery, which are still having traumatic effects on people in Louisiana and Mississippi, will be talked about.
Remember the way Yucca Mountain, a local issue of interest only to Nevadans, was discussed in the last Las Vegas debate, which you moderated? Katrina and the flood, which unlike Yucca Mountain, have had national importance and are still affecting Americans, should be discussed at least as well as has Yucca Mountain. And a debate in New Orleans may be the only way this will happen.
And New Orleans would be the ideal venue for the presidential nominees to discuss many other domestic campaign issues because in effect New Orleans after the flood has been the "canary in the coal mine" regarding these things: the economy, health care, the environment, civil rights, poverty, education, immigration, the elderly, children, etc.
I hope you and NBC News will give this idea serious consideration. A New Orleans debate as she is recovering would be historic, and we need a debate in New Orleans.

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