The devastating detail in this [NOAH] thing though-- the killer political "hook", as it were-- is in the "remediated" properties that were actually gutted by fresh-faced Christian teenagers who came down to NOLA and busted their asses to help out this stricken city. When the public learns that corrupt cronies used the labors of Christian teenagers to scoop federal recovery dollars... well then we have us a national story.
One of the firms that billed the city for work down by those fresh-faced Christian young men and women is Smith & Associates, which is owned by C. Ray's brother-in-law, Cedric Smith. Alas, Smith & Associates only billed the city for $350, according to the Times-Pic.
Could it be that Nagin, knowing what a boondoggle that his remediation program was likely to become, or already was, told his brother-in-law to get the hell out of it? These quotes in the Times Picayune's story from Amanda Davis, the Homeowner Coordinator for the Episcopal Diocese Disaster Response office certainly grabbed my attention:
"The idea of this program always seemed silly to us, because we have hundreds of volunteers each month," she said. "There's no reason to hire professional demolition crews to gut houses for old people."
"It was always kind of funny, though," Davis said. "We knew at the time that something weird was going on. They wouldn't e-mail the lists. You had to drive by City Hall and pick it up from somebody."
