Today Obama will be making an extremely short stop in New Orleans. Or what my favorite NOLA blogger calls a "tinkle-stop tour." In New Orleans, he'll be visiting a charter school and participating in a town hall meeting in the Lower 9th Ward.
In contrast, his next stop will be San Francisco, where he'll be spending four times as much time--16 hours. This has caused Harry Shearer to say,
Total elapsed time in SF: sixteen hours. They must have experienced a hell of a federal disaster there. Four times worse, you figure?
I should be feeling better--after all, Obama did commemorate Katrina and the flood in his radio address this 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. More below the fold...
As duplicative, repetitive diaries keep being posted on other websites 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.
(Edited for quick hit to Louisiana portion ... full piece unedited after the jump! This is why registering voters is SO IMPORTANT. It's not just to ensure that folks register for the first time, but also to ensure that the Registrar of Voters has the RIGHT ADDRESS on file. - promoted by ryan)
In 2000, Florida's disastrous effort to purge former felons from voter rolls resulted in the disenfranchisement of hundreds if not thousands of legitimate voters and clearly influenced the outcome of the presidential contest in that state. History may repeat itself this November with states taking potentially reckless and unlawful measures to clean voter rolls before Election Day.
Project Vote has recently expressed concern to Louisiana Secretary of State Jay Dardenne over the state's method of removing voters from rolls, as reported in the Times on Tuesday. Project Vote has learned that Louisiana compares voter lists with other jurisdictions, purging voters solely upon apparent database matches of first name, last name and birth date. With millions of people living in a multi-state region, it is not uncommon to find more than one John Smith born on the same day. Additionally, the possibility of human and typographical error that occur in all large databases creates a greater risk of unjustified disenfranchisement.
"A spokesman for Louisiana's secretary of state said that all voters found to have duplicate registrations were sent at least one warning letter and sometimes two, but that the last such actions were done some 13 months ago," the Times reported.
Here's the choice quote from Dardenne's office:
"We're specifically not doing it right in front of an election," said Dardenne's spokesman.
[Comments from Ryan]Thirteen months ago? Hmmm ... that WAS right before the gubernatorial and legislative elections last fall, Mr. Spokesman. Matter of fact, last June ... a mere 4 months prior to those elections. That sounds like right in front of an election, don't ya think?
§9(k) was created to award capital funds to public housing authorities affected by natural disasters. In the last several years, however, Congress has not allocated funds for disaster relief under § 9(k), which effectively bars Gulf Coast public housing authorities from accessing FEMA grant money when there is a pre-existing account at HUD.
Congressman Cazayoux stated:
"As we have seen too often, the biggest obstacle that Gulf Coast residents face is not the will to rebuild; it is red tape from the federal government. My bill provides a common-sense fix to HUD that improves FEMA's ability to directly assist public housing authorities trying to rebuild affordable and quality housing for those who need it. This measure is an important step in the long-term recovery of Louisiana and Mississippi."
Now before all y'all conservatives go crazy about a Democrat bashing the red tape of government ... this fits in quite well with the idea that most Democrats share that government ought to be efficient. It's not so much that it ought to be small, but efficient. For historical examples of this belief within the Democratic Party, I point y'all to then- Senator Harry Truman's "Truman Committee" during World War II, which saved American taxpayers some $15 billion in wasteful spending during the war.
Could you imagine the Bush Administration allowing a subcommittee of Congress to challenge the billing practices of KBR or Halliburton? If you can, I have a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell ... please contact me.
And one more thing ... this is Congressman Cazayoux's first bill in the House, and it deals with helping people in a positive way. We elected another Congressman the same day to fill out the remainder of Governor PBJ's term - Congressman Scalise.
Pray tell, what was Congressman Scalise's first bill about? A resolution to express support for the designation of National D-Day Remembrance Day. That's all fine and dandy, but when you've got folks in your district struggling to rebuild their lives and their homes after Katrina, shouldn't your priority be to help make it easier for them to do so?
On Thursday and Friday, there was a NOLA/Gulf Blogathon over at Daily Kos to bring attention to the issues that folks down here are still dealing with two and a half years after Katrina.
It is the Great Forgetting. After thirty-odd months, the nation has moved on. Katrina and all that it wrought has fallen out of the national conversation. The devastation caused by both the storm and the incompetence of the government are just dim, uncomfortable memories for most of the nation.
Which is exactly how the insurance industry likes it.
The insurance industry doesn't want you paying too much attention, because what's happening on the gulf coast will probably be coming soon to a town near you. While the nation's distracted and insurance reform is now bottled up in the Senate, the industry is once again moving to protect profits at the expense of the rest of us, particularly those living on the gulf. And make no mistake: these are not isolated cases- This is an industry-wide effort.
One of the best Mississippi bloggers, Ana Maria, who writes A.M. in the Morning, notes that Mississippi Congressman Gene Taylor, has been kicking ass and taking names on this issue. He introduced a bill in the House that the insurance industry is fighting tooth and nail. As for the rest of the blogathon ... see below.
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. More below the fold.....
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, on Daily Kos, 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?
There's a new ad over on the left under The Washington Independent ad I discussed earlier. This one's for the Mississippi Senate race. Apparently, there is a strong Democratic candidate - Ronnie Musgrove - that is leading in the polls as I write. Lord knows that the GOP has run roughshod over MS politics the last few decades, and it's nice to see Democrats fighting back.
There is a pretty good Mississippi blog that discusses Mississippi politics, CottonMouthBlog, and I'm sure they will discuss that Senate race in detail, in addition to the MS-01 race that is getting some attention in northern Mississippi.
As anybody who regularly watches candidates' debates knows, questions about Katrina and New Orleans have been extremely rare, even though this is a valid national campaign issue. Here's a chance to vote for such a question to be asked during either of the two debates, one Republican, one Democratic, which are slated for Los Angeles on Jan. 30th and Jan. 31st, and will be aired on CNN.
John Edwards' remark Monday night about having opened his campaign in the Lower 9th and saying he thought Americans were surprised at how much devastation still remains in New Orleans came just in time. Because after having heard nothing on the topic from him for several weeks, I'd been wondering if he'd fallen silent on the issue. However, he needs not only to say more, but also to assume leadership on New Orleans and Katrina. Unfortunately, Edwards' website's issues page just like Barack Obama's and Hillary Clinton's, makes no mention of New Orleans or Katrina above the fold. So even Edwards is falling very short of being the sort of candidate New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf Region need.
Bear with me for posting a Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.-themed diary a day late. Because of the holiday, the libraries where I do my computer work were closed. And last night's Democrats' debate, along with other things that have been on my mind, have made me wonder how the Rev Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would feel about.....
This was written by Louisiana1976 early last week. He/she is now posting pieces here as well.
Jesse Jackson, Jr., in stumping for Barack Obama, was correct in pointing out after the New Hampshire primary that Hillary Clinton did not cry for Katrina.
Apparently, based on what's above the fold on her issues page, Clinton doesn't seem to think that Katrina's impact on the Gulf Region or the loss of 80% of New Orleans due to the failure of federally-maintained levees is that big a deal today--as if the fact that the continued suffering of many in the disaster zone close to 2 1/2 years after the flood doesn't matter. And this is morally wrong.
This is a diary from a blog I found while surfing the 'net. Due to his work with relief agencies in New Orleans for a year after Katrina hit, Nathan Empsall has an informed perspective regarding the problems caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Finally, some good news for the Gulf Coast from Congress! (But with a catch, as described below.) The Iraq War supplemental passed by Congress wasn’t just an Iraq War supplemental. It also contained $6.4 billion in funding for Katrina recovery. The bill isn't perfect, but it's a good start. According to the Times Picayune, the funding included:
