Game on Bitches..........

Was Posted to fd on Feb 3, 2006

The fight over the Baker bill that would aid Louisiana Katrina victims by providing funds to buy out their homes at 60% equity got serious Thursday….

The debate over how to rebuild homes and communities destroyed by Hurricane Katrina erupted into public warfare between Louisiana and the White House on Thursday as the Bush administration sharply denounced the state’s preferred solution and the author of the Louisiana plan accused the administration of misleading the public in an effort to kill the proposal.
Bush’s reconstruction czar Don Powell launched a “media blitz” that included an op-ed in the Washington Post and TV appearances and a press conference in which he announced another 18 billion for hurricane relief. However details on where the money would go will not be available for another 10-30 days.

Richard Baker a Louisiana Republican, and sponsor of the popular Baker bill was Outraged…..

“That Mr. Powell would take out op-ed space specifically to undermine my legislation is disappointing to say the least,” Baker said in a written statement. “That he would use that column to spread gross mischaracterizations of the legislation is just disturbing. If I had any worries that my legislation was dead, I am now certain that it isn’t, or else Mr. Powell would not be shooting at it.”
He said that the White House suggestions that Louisiana’s housing problems can be solved by helping 20,000 homeowners outside flood zones rebuild is ludicrous, given the estimates that 200,000 homes were either seriously damaged or destroyed.

“If you relegate the solution to just helping people outside the flood zone then your relegating most of our country to not receiving housing help in the event of a major catastrophe like Katrina,” Baker said.


Later in the day Baker got a call from the White House saying let’s talk about housing.


If the administration would devote a sizable portion of the new $18 billion to housing in Louisiana, Baker said, “We could be a long way to meeting the problem.”

But early indications are that the emergency financing is intended for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Housing and Urban Development and Small Business Administration, and perhaps for damaged military facilities in the hurricane zone, not for new major housing restoration programs.

Reaction to the new spending proposal was uncertain because no details were provided.


The Bush administration has never supported fellow Republican Richard Baker’s bill which does have bi-partisan support in Louisiana. Of course they won’t give details on the $18 billion for 30 days. They are stonewalling. The Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee has agreed to a Feb. 15 hearing on the legislation at which time the bill will either live or die. If the administration dangles enough out there to make it look like they are going to do something then the bill will be seen as unnecessary. If they can get through 30 days with that, the bill goes away and so does Louisiana’s best chance for recovery.Don't trust that in 30 days Bush will will put any of that $18 billion to buy out home owners. If that was the intent they would have said so now.

I know you would want to do something worthwhile to help the Louisiana victims of Katrina. This is your chance. The Baker bill is very popular in Louisiana. People want it because it is essential to recovery. Without the Baker bill everything that 200,000 homeowners had will be worthless. Absolutely worthless. They will face foreclosures and walk away from their former lives with nothing. And developers will buy the land up cheap and make a killing. (one of the most prominent developers is a Bush pioneer and leader of the NOLA rebuilding commission…. Read about this after the jump)

I spoke with Rep. Baker’s office and and to help they urge you to call your representatives and ask that the bill be brought to a vote. Please call your reps. and the White House. Use this link to Call or Email your representatives in Washington (Just Enter your zip code. You will get an email and an info link for all your rep, senators and White House. Phone numbers are at info links)

Hold Bush to his promise of rebuilding NOLA.

From Scout:

Scout’s analysis on the Baker Bill from scoutprime Jan 26…..

I am almost surprised at the Bush administration's transparent support in helping big business rebuild NOLA. Amongst residents and LA officials there has been widespread support for the Baker Bill which has been viewed as absolutely essential to rebuilding NOLA. However Bush has never supported it and informed Baker earlier this week that the White House will not support it now or in the future.

Bush's pointman in rebuilding NOLA, Donald Powell states why.......

The bill would add a federal bureaucracy and set up what would be a government real estate agency, "which we don't think is a good business," said Mr. Powell, a former chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
It's no coincidence that 2 of New Orleans biggest businessmen on the Bring Back New Orleans commission are not concerned about passing the Baker Bill. Real estate developer Joe Canizaro was in fact foretelling for it's demise 2 weeks ago...

However, Canizaro also said that even without the Baker bill, he thinks enough federal money will be available -- in the form of Federal Emergency Management Agency grants and other sources -- to make homeowners whole. The panel estimates it will cost $12 billion to buy out every home that received at least 2 feet of water, but Canizaro said he expects only half of the flooded homes will be bought out in the end.


And Donald Bollinger is quoted in today's NYT saying this......

"Everybody wants to think that if the Baker bill fails we have no other solution," he said. "I don't agree with that at all. I know we need a tool similar to that."
It's laughable that Bush is worried about adding federal bureaucracy when he had no problem in doing just that with the Medicare Part D plan. What is important here is what is "good for business." Adding clumsy bureaucracy is OK if Big Business structures it and profits from it. If not, then another "tool similar" will be found.

It must be asked just what "tool" exactly are the Bush Boys, Canizaro and Bollinger, and fellow big businessmen on the Bring Back New Orleans commission looking for? Clearly it's not the Baker bill.

A little history first. There were 3 NOLA rebuilding committees formed initially: the Mayor's, the City Council's and the Governor's. But it was the Mayor's Bring New Orleans Back (BNOB) commission that prevailed when Bush met with and supported them....

That's not all that differentiated them. Canizaro who has been the leading force in the BNOB commission contributed over 1 million dollars to Republicans since 1997. Bollinger, who owns the 3rd largest shipbuilding company in the country, contributed over $130,000. Canizaro was one of 22 wealthy business leaders whom President Bush invited to lunch in 2001 to discuss his tax cut for the wealthy. Is it all that surprising that Bush"sanctioned" them to be the rebuilders of NOLA?

And there is evidence they are dominating the BNOB commission. The NYT reported in October that there were "sharp divisions"and several areas of "trouble" within the BNOB one of which was some commissioners stating they were the "B team" that was being excluded from meetings. Meetings which Canizaro did attend. Two commissioners stated this at the time.....

"No one goes over with us what they discuss at those lunch meetings," said Oliver M. Thomas Jr., one of the commission's 17 members and president of the City Council. "It would be nice if they did."
Added W. Anthony Patton, a small-business owner on the commission, "Let's just say I haven't been invited to any lunches, either."


So just what is being planned by the Bush Boys in these secret meetings? There may be some clues. Powell said that the $6.2 billion in Community Development Block Grant funds will go to help 20,000 homeowners. Yet there are over 200,000 homeowners whose homes have been destroyed. What will happen to the other 185,000? I doubt they will see any CDBG money as "Mr. Powell has all but put state officials on notice that close watch will be kept on the Community Development Block Grant money." And Mr. Bollinger concurred saying, "I think we have to demonstrate to Congress and the president that we are going to handle our C.D.B.G. grants responsibly."

Now think about that a minute. In effect they are saying they will do everything possible to make sure only those 20,000 homeowners receive a federal government buyout and none of the other 185,000.

So what fate awaits the rest? Without government money it appears they face either......

1) free market forces determining what they will receive

or worse

2) Eminent Domain...... "commissioners say, not every neighborhood will be sustainable and there will be a need to use eminent domain to seize some property"

So if you severely limit the number of people to receive a buyout you leave a large number of homes (ie Land) available to be bought up cheap or taken. With that much land on the market at once and sellers needing to sell, it most likely will be very cheap

Just kill the Baker Bill, be so called 'good stewards' of CDBG funds and viola.

It's a Bush Boy's dream come true.........buy the land cheap, develop it and then the Big Payoff.

You know it may be more accurate to say Bush is THEIR Boy after all.

One thing is for sure .......the people of NOLA? They got no Boy at all.

UPDATE: Read Baker's & bankers Reaction on how Bush's plan will render land worthless and be a "death blow" to Louisiana.

Of course as I've stated above developers will profit handsomely

Chertoff Should Resign

Was posted to fd on February 1, 2006

Homeland Security head Michael Chertoff’s role in the Katrina debacle is slowly coming to light and it isn’t pretty. The GAO released a critical report today in which they placed blame upon Chertoff for not providing leadership and not activating the National Response Plan on time or properly. (see earlier post) It appears the Senate has Chertoff in the crosshairs also. Joe Lieberman asked Ray Nagin today at the Katrina hearings about a story he heard……

LIEBERMAN: I heard a story I want to ask you if you could recollect it in your own words that sometime later in the week perhaps Saturday, Secretary Chertoff came to town and went to the FEMA staging area which was at the New Orleans Saints practice field

NAGIN: Ya…You heard about that huh?

LIEBERMAN: Ya..Ok So I’m right so far……





Here is VIDEO of Nagin’s account of the story (Direct link, 3 minutes)


As I said earlier, there should be calls for Chertoff’s resignation.

God Is Watching Us

Here's a music video of my visit to the 9th Ward...
Music: Nanci Griffith
9th Ward: God is Watching Us

I'm in New Orleans

I hope you'll
go
to
the
New Orleans Blog

Big Announcement

OK last week I hinted at more news to come. Well here it is. Some folks who are regular commenters at another blog have decided to try to raise funds to send me to New Orleans! A website is now up and running that explains what is happening and how to contribute if you so desire. It is also an opportunity to get involved in the news you want.
So I hope you go vist the site HERE.
Peace
scout

UPDATE: Grand News! In less than 24 hours we have met our fundraising goal!!!!
Thanks to everyone. I will be blogging from New Orleans Feb. 27-March7
scout

We're Hanging At First Draft

We're hanging out at First Draft.

I'm not abandoning this blog but my energy will be going into First Draft.
Teddy and I hope you will come visit.

Nagin has a story about Chertoff

Nagin had this story about Chertoff today.

CLICK to VIEW Video

Change Is Good

Remember in the movie Apollo 13 how the astronauts felt when they finally abandoned the LEM that had saved their lives? I'm feeling a bit like that now.

I have been offered the opportunity to join the great blog First Draft and I have accepted. I will reach many more people than I do here in my cozy little lem. But I know I have some wonderful people who visit here regularly and I do hope you will follow me over to First Draft. I hope you will bring your comments because I truly love reading what you think. Now I know registering at First Draft can sometimes be difficult...something to do with ferrets and chinchillas. If you have any trouble email me and I'll move heaven and earth to get you settled in.

I won't jetison my little (lem) blog just yet. In fact I hope to have another big announcement in the next day or 2. But starting tomorrow I will be at First Draft. Well in fact I put up a small post there tonight on the SOTU.

So I hope to see you there. And thank you for the wonderful journey we've had here.

Riesz and EPT could you email me? thanks-- scoutprime@charter.net

Female Soldiers Died to Avoid Rape

Pam's House Blend has a disturbing post on females soldiers in Iraq who died of dehydration and the reason why will piss you off.

May she rest in peace

"She'll be remembered as a strong woman whose grace and dignity held up the image of her husband as a man of peace, of racial justice, of fairness," said the Rev. Joseph Lowery, who helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with Dr. King and then served as its president for 20 years. "I don't know that she was a civil rights leader in the truest sense, but she became a civil rights figure and a civil rights icon because of what she came to represent."

I would agree with Rev. Lowrey on the first point and disagree on the latter.

I met Coretta Scott King once when as a young teen I spent parts of a summer doing civil rights work in a small Missisippi town. (story here) There was a voter registration drive going on at the time and Mrs. King and Ralph Abernathy came to town to speak at a small but packed church.

What I remember is a women of strength and Grace. I can not remember a thing she said but I remember her presence and the importance of her being there to the people who respected and admired her. She was definitely a leader of civil rights to those in that church. She was an inspiration to carry on what could still be dangerous work even then. I am grateful I had the opportunity to be inspired by her presence.

Landrieu to Run For Mayor

The Times Picayune reports that Louisiana Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu will soon announce he is running for mayor of New Orleans.

Say bye bye to Ray Nagin

NOLA Society Women Hit DC

(Women of the Storm with blue umbrellas to symbolize blue tarped roofs of NOLA)

140 of NOLA's prominent women lobbied members of Congress today to come to NOLA and see it for themselves. They call themselves Women of the Storm and offered members an all expensepaid trip to NOLA. They believe if more would see it for themselves they would realize the need for more federal support. So far only 55 representatives and 30 senators or 16% of Congress has visited NOLA. Some of the prominent women included:

Verna Landrieu, the 73-year-old matriarch of one of Louisiana's political dynasties
Olivia Manning, wife quarterback Archie Manning and mother ofPeyton & Eli
Anne Milling, 65, an eminent community activist

The Times Picayune reports this .....

While images of poor, black residents stranded at the Superdome have lingered, many middle- and upper-class neighborhoods also were flooded but received far less attention. The women, who represent a Who's Who of New Orleans society, offer a starkly different image of Katrina's victims. Along with their designer bags and strings of pearls, they carried bright blue umbrellas, symbolizing the tarps covering their pockmarked roofs.

I don't care Who they are at least they're organizing and doing something.

A Ban I Can Get Behind

From WaPo.....

At least five Midwestern states are considering legislation to ban protests at funerals in response to demonstrations by the Rev. Fred Phelps and members of his Topeka, Kan.-based Westboro Baptist Church, who have been protesting at funerals of Iraq war casualties because they say the deaths are God's punishment for U.S. tolerance toward gays.

Though the soldiers were not gay, the protesters say the deaths, as well as Hurricane Katrina, recent mining disasters and other tragedies are God's signs of displeasure. They also protested at the memorial service for the 12 West Virginia miners who died in the Sago Mine.

Here's a Candidate for Worst Person in the World

Leonard J. Samia is "one of Boston's largest and most notorious landlords." His Samia partnership owns Louisburg Square Apartments in New Orleans. After Katrina hit many of the apartments remained intact and unharmed. So evacuees who had not yet returned home thought they had dodged that proverbial bullet. But Samia launched an aggressive 3 month campaign to remove all the tenants from the 200 apartment complex in order to lease the apartments for higher rents to contractors and such......

In interviews with the Globe, former tenants, their lawyers, neighborhood residents, housing advocates, and community activists said it was a concerted, relentless eviction effort. In those interviews, stories emerged of attempts by the complex's managers to oust tenants despite a statewide eviction moratorium; of demolition crews gutting the apartments of tenants who had not yet returned after fleeing the hurricane; of units emptied of personal possessions by contractors, and of contractors and building employees who then cherry-picked valuables such as VCRs and televisions from trash heaps; of contractors now living in the same apartments that tenants were told were uninhabitable; of license plates removed from tenants' cars in the complex parking lot and then towed as abandoned vehicles; of access to mailboxes blocked by the demolition and locked laundry facilities; and of garbage and construction debris piled near doorways, attracting flies and vermin that created intolerable living conditions.

Samia has been unavailable for comment so the Globe went to his home.....

Samia did not return several calls for comment and was not available at his Brighton office last week. A woman who answered the door at Samia's house -- a six-bedroom mansion perched on a one-acre wooded lot with a gated driveway, high stone fence, security cameras, and a statue of a large camel in Lexington's wealthy, historic Meriam Hill neighborhood -- said ''no comment" and slammed the door.

Read the rest though be forewarned it will piss you off because Samia is the Worst Person in the World. I wonder if Keith has seen this story?

New Documents Show Further FEMA Failures

Documents released by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee show that FEMA refused aid from The Interior Dept which offered FEMA:
300 dump trucks and other vehicles,
300 boats,
11 aircraft
400 law enforcement officers to help search and rescue efforts.

An internal email shows that FEMA called off its search and rescue operations just 3 days after Katrina struck.

This makes me wonder what horrors the Bush administration is hiding in the documents it refuses to release to Congress.

Bush Won't Meet with Blanco....Again

From WWLTV....

Blanco is scheduled to attend President Bush's State of the Union address on Tuesday and testify before a Senate committee on Thursday.
Bottcher (Blanco's press secretary) says Blanco asked to speak with Bush about housing assistance for hurricane victims but has not heard back from the White House on whether that discussion will occur.

Bush refused to meet with Blanco when she was in Washington in December.

Seems a "uniter not a divider" would meet the governor.
I bet Haley Barbour would get a meeting.

If it happened to them it could happen to any of us....

The Times Picayune has a great editorial entitled "Don't Leave Us to Foreclosure" on the need for the Baker bill. If you're not familiar with it this editorial will get you informed. They also take Bush and his "reconstruction czar" Powell to task and blow holes in their reasoning to block the Baker bill. Finally they make the argument as to why the rest of America should perk up and take heed. I love the Times Picayune. They are what a paper should be. Here's part but read the rest too......

Rep. Baker's plan would make it possible for homeowners to avoid foreclosure, get at least 60 percent of their equity back and have resources to use toward a new home. This is not a government giveaway. The government bonds used for the buyouts would be repaid by the sale of property to developers, who would have to put the land back into use. It is a practical, targeted solution to an immense problem.

There seems to be some sentiment that South Louisiana has gotten enough government help and that people here should have expected flooding. That ignores a crucial fact: the federal government's Army Corps of Engineers told us that our levees would keep us dry.

Families who settled inside the flood plain knew to expect occasional street flooding during a rainstorm. But they had no expectation that canal floodwalls would buckle and fill their homes with 8 or 10 feet of water for weeks on end.

If 180,000 families in greater New Orleans are left with worthless homes and no way to get rid of them, everyone else in this country who lives in a vulnerable spot should be worried. And that means that most of them should be worried.

More than half of Americans live along the 19,924 miles of coastline in this country. How many millions more live in river valleys, on fault lines or in Tornado Alley?

Yes, there are risks in living near water. But New Orleanians believed that those risks had been minimized. We should not be written off simply for choosing to make this place our home.

Who's Running the Show?

The NYT has a good article on a "White House that was plagued by the fog of war" in responding to Katrina. It raises grave concerns on how capable this administration is to protect us. However since the White House is withholding documents and not allowing aides to testify it is difficult to assess the problem and blame.

There is also a question of whether the White House should be making disaster decisions....

But Mr. Duffy, echoing a point made by Mr. Rapuano, said: "The White House should not be making combat decisions in Iraq. The same is true for a domestic emergency response."

Mr. Rapuano is the deputy assistant to the president for homeland security who according to the NYT was "the senior official in charge of managing storm events at the White House when the hurricane struck."

What are Mr. Rapuano's qualifications for managing a natural disaster? Here is his work history....

• was previously the senior policy advisor for national security to the Energy Secretary handling a wide range of programs and issues related to nonproliferation, intelligence, counterintelligence, homeland defense and special access programs
• served as director of the international affairs and nonproliferation department at Southern Research Institute
• worked supporting the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Office of the Secretary of Defense in the development of national security policies related to weapons of mass destruction
• served as special assistant to the assistant secretary of defense for international security policy, as a foreign affairs specialist in the Office of the Secretary of Defense,
• counterproliferation program manager for DynCorp
• served on active duty as an infantry officer in the Marine Corps

I'm not sure if he's just a WMD policy wonk or a CIA spook but I would agree with Mr. Rapuano's assessment that the White House shouldn't make natural disaster decisions if a guy with his qualifications is to be in charge.

The NYT also revealed this tidbit........Mr Rapuano "acknowledged that he left the White House about 10 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 29, the night the storm hit."

Like many others I know I was up past 2 in the morning on the 29th glued to CNN coverage of Hurricane Katrina. But I'm just a concerned citizen. Just saying.........

Bush the Obstructor

Friday Bush criticized Louisiana officials for not having a recovery plan. Of course Mayor Nagin had to come out today and state that that there is indeed a plan.

It is ridiculous that any Louisiana official has to jump through these hoops to prove they are indeed working on recovery. More important it is incredibly disingenuous of Bush to point fingers at anyone.

It is Bush that has held up the Baker bill.
It is Bush that has cheated NOLA out of Cat 5 levee protection.
It is Bush's FEMA that hasn't produced the flood maps yet.

All of the above are critical corner stones of the recovery process.

The Baker bill is necessary for homeowners to decide if they will rebuild or cut their losses and move on.

Bush has only promised funding that will in effect bring Cat 3 levee protection. Without Cat 5 hurricane protection businesses and homeowners will be reluctant to rebuild if they are to be washed out again perhaps next year or the year after.

Finally FEMA is in charge of producing federal flood maps that will "provide critical information for residents trying to decide whether -- or how high -- to rebuild their damaged homes" and "could drive new building codes and standards that try to minimize future flood damage." But they are not done yet.

If presented with this I suppose Bush would say.... heh I'm a constructor, not an obstructor.
Perhaps I shouldn't give him any ideas.