Katrina
This is just another example of either criminal negligence or intentional "ethnic cleansing"
and a "land grab" by Bush and his rich friends.
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WARNINGS
A Greg Palast special investigation for Democracy Now!
Monday, August 28. From New Orleans.
DON'T blame the Lady. Katrina killed no one in this town. In fact, Katrina missed the
city completely, going wide to the east.
It wasn't the hurricane that drowned, suffocated, de-hydrated and starved 1,500 people that
week. The killing was done by a deadly duo: a failed emergency evacuation plan combined
with faulty levees. Behind these twin failures lies a tale of cronyism, profiteering and willful
incompetence that takes us right to the steps of the White House.
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Homes To Be Rebuilt
Unfortunately, the rest of the New Orleans hasn’t fared much better. A recent report
from the Brookings Institution found that rent prices have sharply increased over the past
year, while unemployment rates remain higher than pre-Katrina levels. Crime levels are
also up in certain districts, and 60% of houses and businesses are not receiving electricity.
New Orleans’s current population is only at around half its pre-Katrina level.
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New Orleans Awaits Billions in Fed Aid
Friday August 25, 2006 7:46 PM
AP Photo NYOL714
By MICHELLE ROBERTS
Associated Press Writer
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - First came the floodwaters, then the paperwork. Billions of promised
federal dollars to fix New Orleans' crumbling infrastructure have gone largely untapped a year
after Hurricane Katrina. City officials complain that a snarl of red tape, restrictions and unexpectedly
high costs have kept hundreds of public buildings in disrepair, streets pocked with potholes and
most parks too dirty for children to play.
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Post, USA Today entirely forgot Bush claim that no one anticipated
levee breaches
Summary: On March 2, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and USA Today reported
on newly released video footage and transcripts documenting how, on the day before Hurricane
Katrina made landfall, President Bush was warned -- and expressed concern -- about the possibility
that the levees in New Orleans would be breached by the storm. But none of these reports mentioned
that these new tapes further contradict the claim Bush made on ABC's Good Morning America several
days after the storm hit that "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees."
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By MARGARET EBRAHIM and JOHN SOLOMON, Associated Press Writers 26 minutes ago
In dramatic and sometimes agonizing terms, federal disaster officials warned President Bush
and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach
levees, risk lives in New Orleans' Superdome and overwhelm rescuers, according to confidential
video footage of the briefings.
Bush didn't ask a single question during the final government-wide briefing the day before Katrina
struck on Aug. 29 but assured soon-to-be-battered state officials: "We are fully prepared."
Six days of footage and transcripts obtained by The Associated Press show in excruciating detail
that while federal officials anticipated the tragedy that unfolded in New Orleans and elsewhere
along the Gulf Coast, they were fatally slow to realize they had not mustered enough resources to
deal with the unprecedented disaster.
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'Bush team has largely written off New Orleans'
Posted on Thursday, February 16 @ 10:01:55 EST
And beyond the city, much of south Louisiana is threatened by the administration's
unwillingness to pay for restoration of wetlands.
Jennifer Moses, Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)
BATON ROUGE, LA. - Though most of New Orleans resembles Nagasaki after the bomb,
President Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress appear to have all but forgotten about
it. In his State of the Union address, the president mentioned New Orleans only briefly, and
at a news conference five days earlier, he declared in reference to promised federal reconstruction
funds, "I want to remind the people in that part of the world, $85 billion is a lot."
Unfortunately, nothing close to $85 billion has been spent, and that's because most of it is tied up
with something called the Stafford Act, which restricts the use of federal money for precisely the
kind of things that Louisiana needs to recover, particularly housing relief. It's like giving a kid a
dollar to spend on anything he likes as long as it's broccoli. In the meantime, most members of
Congress -- 87 percent of the House and 70 percent of the Senate -- haven't bothered to come
on down to the Big Easy at all.
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By ERIC LIPTON
WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 — In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Bush administration
officials said they had been caught by surprise when they were told on Tuesday, Aug. 30,
that a levee had broken, allowing floodwaters to engulf New Orleans.
But Congressional investigators have now learned that an eyewitness account of the flooding
from a federal emergency official reached the Homeland Security Department's headquarters
starting at 9:27 p.m. the day before, and the White House itself at midnight.
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By JAMES DAO
WASHINGTON, Jan. 26 — New Orleans could lose as much as 80 percent of its black
population if its most damaged neighborhoods are not rebuilt and if there is not significant
government assistance to help poor people return, a detailed analysis by Brown University
has concluded.
Combining data from the 2000 census with federal damage assessment maps, the study
provides a new level of specificity about Hurricane Katrina's effect on the city's worst-flooded
areas, which were heavily populated by low-income black people.
Of the 354,000 people who lived in New Orleans neighborhoods where the subsequent damage
was moderate to severe, 75 percent were black, 29 percent lived below the poverty line, more
than 10 percent were unemployed, and more than half were renters, the study found.
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January 25, 2006
By ERIC LIPTON
WASHINGTON, Jan. 24 - The Bush administration, citing the confidentiality of
executive branch communications, said Tuesday that it did not plan to turn over certain
documents about Hurricane Katrina or make senior White House officials available for
sworn testimony before two Congressional committees investigating the storm response.
The White House this week also formally notified Representative Richard H. Baker,
Republican of Louisiana, that it would not support his legislation creating a federally
financed reconstruction program for the state that would bail out homeowners and
mortgage lenders. Many Louisiana officials consider the bill crucial to recovery, but
administration officials said the state would have to use community development
money appropriated by Congress.
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January 24, 2006
By ERIC LIPTON
WASHINGTON, Jan. 23 - The White House was told in the hours before Hurricane
Katrina hit New Orleans that the city would probably soon be inundated with floodwater,
forcing the long-term relocation of hundreds of thousands of people, documents to be
released Tuesday by Senate investigators show.
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By LARA JAKES JORDAN
Associated Press Writer
January 24, 2006, 2:27 AM EST
WASHINGTON -- The government's plans to evacuate people from New Orleans
in the approach of a catastrophic storm were only 10 percent complete a month
before Hurricane Katrina, newly released documents show.
"If you think soup lines in the Depression were long, wait till you see lines" at
collection points in New Orleans, Transportation Department regional emergency
officer Don Day said at a July 29 briefing with federal and state authorities.
"We're at less than 10 percent done with this ... planning when you consider the
buses and the people," Day said at the briefing, according to notes taken by
contractors Innovative Emergency Management Inc. of Baton Rouge.
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12/13/2005 @ 3:01 pm
Filed by RAW STORY
Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington, a progressive legal watchdog group,
sued the U.S. State Department this afternoon after it failed to turn over records surrounding
the government's preparedness and response to Hurricane Katrina.
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FEMA reimbursements mainly benefit higher income groups
SUN-SENTINEL INVESTIGATION
For the four Florida hurricanes in 2004, the reimbursements amounted to $242 million.
Eighty percent of the money went to applicants in middle- and upper-income areas, including
45 residents of the moneyed island of Palm Beach and 221 people in a posh Orlando suburb
with sprawling estates on lakes and fairways.
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Drowned city cuts its poor adrift
The waters have receded but the mainly black, low-income citizens of New Orleans are
now the victims of rising rents, forced evictions and plans that favour the better off, reports
Peter Beaumont.
When Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans it was the city's poor - almost exclusively
African Americans - who were left to fend for themselves as the city drowned in a lake of
toxic sludge. Now, three months on, the same people have been abandoned once again by
a reconstruction effort that seems determined to prevent them from returning. They are the
victims of a devastating combination of forced evictions, a failure to reopen the city's public
house projects, rent gouging and - as in the case of Mildred - a decision to write off whole
neighbourhoods.
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FEMA Official Says Boss Ignored Warnings
By HOPE YEN, Associated Press Writer
In the midst of the chaos that followed Hurricane Katrina, a Federal Emergency
Management Agency official in New Orleans sent a dire e-mail to Director Michael
Brown saying victims had no food and were dying. No response came from Brown.
Instead, less than three hours later, an aide to Brown sent an e-mail saying her boss
wanted to go on a television program that night — after needing at least an hour to
eat dinner at a Baton Rouge, La., restaurant.
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Minority Firms Getting Few Katrina Pacts
By HOPE YEN, Associated Press Writer Tue Oct 4, 2:17 PM ET
Minority-owned businesses say they're paying the price for the decision
by Congress and the Bush administration to waive certain rules for Hurricane
Katrina recovery contracts.
About 1.5 percent of the $1.6 billion awarded by the Federal Emergency
Management Agency has gone to minority businesses, less than a third of the
5 percent normally required.
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Twenty-five Questions about the Murder of the Big Easy
By Mike Davis and Anthony Fontenot
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The Invisible Body Battalion
A private firm's undertaker unit is witnessing the
human cost of Katrina. But they're not talking.
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"Americans Are Being Brainwashed"
Former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury on New Orleans
Interview is very informative. New Orleans was federalized by
FEMA 2 1/2 Years Ago.
Very Revealing about the Administration's Criminal Negligence or intentional
criminal acts regarding Katrina
Mentality is "like that of the brown shirts that followed Hitler"
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A visibly angry Mayor Daley said the city had offered emergency, medical and
technical help to the federal government as early as Sunday to assist people in
the areas stricken by Hurricane Katrina, but as of Friday, the only things the
feds said they wanted was a single tank truck.
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FEMA Cut Emergency Communication Lines: Witnesses
FEMA Turned Away Aid, Rescue Crews, Cut Emergency Communication
Lines: Witnesses
Agency draws ire of frustrated volunteers and donors
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EXPLOSIVE RESIDUE FOUND ON FAILED LEVEE DEBRIS!
Ruptured New Orleans Levee had help failing
By: Hal Turner September 9, 2005 3:36 PM EDT
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Michael Brown, FEMA’S Corrupt Head, Helped Bush Win Florida
Michael Brown, the embattled head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, approved payments in excess of $31 million in taxpayer money to
thousands of Florida residents who were unaffected by Hurricane Frances and
three other hurricanes last year in an effort to help President Bush win a majority
of votes in that state during his reelection campaign, according to published reports.
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Bush surrounds Louisiana with armed Mexican troops
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The Storm That Ate The GOP
Who will pity the soulless Republican Party now that Katrina is mauling
their regime?
By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Can you hear that? That low scraping moan, that painful scream, that
compressed hissing wail like the sound of an angry alligator caught in a
vise?
Why, it's the GOP, and they're screaming, "No, no it can't be, oh my
God, please no, this damnable Katrina thing is just an unstoppable PR
disaster for us!"
After all (they wail), who woulda thought dissing all those poor black
people and letting so many of them die in filth and misery in the
Superdome while our pampered CEO president enjoyed yet another vacation
would cause such an ugly backlash, such harsh criticism of the glorious,
rich-über-alles GOP creed?
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Very Painful Questions About New Orleans
By America's Patriot
9-8-5
There's something very wrong with the chronology of the levee breaks in
New Orleans
Do you find it highly suspicious that the levees in New Orleans broke at4:00 AM on August 30th?
The main storm surge from Hurricane Katrina would have been washed into
Lake Pontchartrain at about 7:00 AM on August 29th when the
counterclockwise motion of Katrina was pushing water from the Gulf of
Mexico into the lake.
Why is there a 21 hour discrepancy between the storm surge and the
collapse of the levees?
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Police kill at least 5 in New Orleans
Gunmen open fire on contractors; no workers reported killed
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The Great New Orleans Land Grab
The 17th Street Canal levy was breeched on purpose
by Ernesto Cienfuegos
La Voz de Aztlan
Los Angeles, Alta California - September 7, 2005 - (ACN) There were numerous incidents that occurred during and immediately after Katrina struck that point to the "unthinkable". It now appears that a sophisticated plan was implemented that utilized the "cover of a hurricane" to first destroy and than take over the City of New Orleans ? As the world watched the events unfolding, one could not help think that something was terribly afoot concerning the rescue by FEMA of the city's poor and predominate Black population. It seems that a well laid out plan was put into effect to grab valuable real estate from well established but poverty stricken Black families of New Orleans ? What is being implemented now is nothing less than a sophisticated scheme to purge and ethnically cleanse what Whites have termed "Black and 'welfare bloated' New Orleans.
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Firms with Bush ties snag Katrina deals
Sat Sep 10,11:03 AM ET
Companies with ties to the Bush White House and the former head of
FEMA are clinching some of the administration's first disaster relief
and reconstruction contracts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
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Carla Binion: 'The unfeeling president should be
held accountable'
Date: Thursday, September 08 @ 09:39:03 EDT
Topic: Commander-In-Thief
By Carla Binion
The novelist E. L. Doctorow once said of George W. Bush,
"He is the president who does not feel. He does not feel for the
families of the dead, he does not feel for the 35 million of us who
live in poverty." Bush's disconnect from normal human feeling, his
general lack of seriousness and abysmal leadership skills have always
been evident. His response to the recent hurricane has only highlighted
them. What are the consequences of our failure to hold Bush accountable?
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Let the Dead Teach the Living
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Thursday 08 September 2005
They have turned a gigantic warehouse into a makeshift morgue
in the Louisiana town of St. Gabriel. Doctors and forensic specialists
wait there for the bodies to come in, bodies with no identification,
bodies that have spent days submerged in water, bodies gnawed by
dogs and rats and 'gators. The doctors have posted a hand-lettered
sign on the wall: "Mortui Vivis Praecipant." It means, "Let the dead teach the living."
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Bush lifts wage rules for Katrina
President signs executive order allowing contractors to pay below
Prevailing Wage in Affected Areas.
September 8, 2005: 9:42 PM EDT
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush issued an executive order
Thursday allowing federal contractors rebuilding in the aftermath of
Hurricane Katrina to pay below the prevailing wage.
The Arrogance of These Corrupt Criminals is Inconceivable
Now Halliburton can pocket even more of our tax dollars. These criminals are
the REAL looters. Isn't there a shoot to kill order for looters????
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Dr. Teresa Whitehurst: 'How Bush will use Katrina'
Date: Wednesday, September 07 @ 08:49:22 EDT
Topic: Commander-In-Thief
A sneak preview of the coming damage-control campaign
By Dr. Teresa Whitehurst, BuzzFlash
"Already, many Americans don't remember Bush's initial halting response to 9/11, from
which he recovered after a few days with his iconic moment shouting through a bullhorn
atop the rubble at ground zero. Still, recovering politically from Katrina is likely to take
more effort. There is no foreign enemy against which to rally."
-- For Bush, A Test of Political Skill, 9/6/05
I'm always suspicious when I hear people like Newt Gingrich and other conservatives criticize the Bush administration, because it's nearly always a ploy, a tactic used when overwhelming public discontent threatens to rain on the Bush parade. When the whole nation gets up in arms about something, there's no point trying to justify or excuse one's actions; in fact, that would be a stupid thing to do because it would escalate public anger that's already at the boiling point.
A brief mea culpa is in order, quickly followed by a brilliant defensive campaign that the mainstream media will be obliged to support.
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George W. Bush Investigates! Bob Cesca
Wed Sep 7, 1:25 AM ET
Rick Santorum says that hurricane victims who remained
in their homes should be penalized. The Republicans
are rushing to get the first of the relief dollars
to... Mississippi , where Trent Lott's highly acclaimed
front porch once existed. The Chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff and the Secretary of Homeland
Security are getting their major catastrophe
information from newspaper headlines that don't exist
other than in Karl Rove's imagination -- and making
decisions (or not) based on those imaginary headlines.
And George W. Bush, the man responsible for appointing
and/or supporting these criminally negligent excuses
for "protectors of the homeland", is going to oversee
an investigation into what went wrong.
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Can FEMA do anything right?!! Look at this list!
Just click on this link above.
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America's meltdown—get ready for the next unnatural disaster
By Lynn Landes Online Journal Contributing Writer
September 5, 2005 (www.EcoTalk.org)—America is in a meltdown.
And the world is watching. We are a nation of haves and have-nots governed
by lunatics and liars. I don't know if Bush and his neocon friends are completely
incompetent, criminally insane, or just really, really evil. Whatever the case,
I'm afraid that another un-natural disaster, worse than Katrina or 9/11, is just
around the corner.
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Ethnic cleansing in the USA
They ain't going back. Even if they had a way to get back, which they don't
for the very same reason they didn't have a way to evacuate, they won't be
able to afford to live in the rebuilt city. Governor Owens has apparently been
told the details of the Plan. This is what ethnic cleansing looks like. Could it
be that the failure of the government to even attempt to supply food and water
to the refugees for days was an attempt to kill off the oldest and sickest - the
ones who would eat up government resources in the future - before the rest were
shipped out to their permanent new homes across the country?
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GOP Leaders Rush Aid…To Millionaires
Four days after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast , the
country remains in crisis. The situation of Americans trapped by
flooding grows increasingly desperate, and government resources
and planning have proven woefully inadequate. There is nothing
more important to the American people right now than saving lives,
sheltering American citizens, and rebuilding homes.
But what are the priorities for the Bush Administration and
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist? They are moving ahead
with a plan to further starve federal coffers.
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Despite everything, next week the Republicans intend to finish the legislative process of permanently ending the estate tax, thus "shifting
some $1.5 billion a week - about the same as the Iraq war - from the
public treasury to the bank accounts of the heirs to the nation's twenty
thousand biggest fortunes" (see also here).
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A Can't-Do Government
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Before 9/11 the Federal Emergency Management Agency listed the three most likely catastrophic disasters facing America : a terrorist attack
on New York , a major earthquake in San Francisco and a hurricane strike
on New Orleans . "The New Orleans hurricane scenario," The Houston Chronicle
wrote in December 2001, "may be the deadliest of all." It described a potential
catastrophe very much like the one now happening.
So why were New Orleans and the nation so unprepared? After 9/11, hard
questions were deferred in the name of national unity, then buried under a
thick coat of whitewash. This time, we need accountability.
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New Orleans -The Real Problem