National

Murder, MySpace, Babysitters, Betrayal: The Best National True Crime Stories of 2007

Filed under: National

They are the modern versions of monster stories.

True Crime writers seek out such tales every day, finding them in two sentence-long police blotter blurbs, law enforcement sources lamenting the one that got away, or victims looking for justice. They pile on hours of research and interviews, building a case while crafting a narrative. But unlike campfire tales, these monster stories cannot be embellished. The tale must be told straight. And as you will read in this collection, no amount of creativity can rival the treachery and depravity of the non-fiction world.

This year's tales include two internet identity hoaxes ending in mental torture or tragedy. One traces the final steps of a civil rights pioneer who vanished almost 70 years ago. Another outlines a daughter's slavish devotion to her criminal mother. A G-man turned criminal. A serial killer brought to justice. A crack-maker turned cake baker. A monster who gets his due.

These are the stories of the darker side of American life, told in Village Voice Media's newspapers across the country.

—Compiled by VVM Staff

"Monster Next Door," by Malcom Gay, is the tale of Michael J. Devlin, who kidnapped two boys, one of whom lived with him for an extended period of time.



In "Broken Lives on Crystal Drive," Keegan Hamilton learns the tale of Lori Drew, a 47-year-old woman who used a fake MySpace profile to mentally torture her teenage neighbor, Megan Meier, who wound up committing suicide.



Josh Olson describes a twisted story of internet love and betrayal "The Life and Death of Jesse James," by Josh Olson.



Sean Gardiner traces the story of crack maker turned cake baker Chaka Raysor in "The Fudgitive."



Rebecca Meiser chronicles Lisa Hall's slavish devotion to her criminal mother Joan in "Mother's Keeper."



R. Scott Moxley documents a sensational gang murder trial that puts infamous Southern California criminal Billy Joe Johnson on the witness stand in "White Power with a Lisp."



Kristen Hinman writes about pugnacious criminal defense attorney Frank "Tony" Fabbri, who ran afoul of the law in "Guilt-Edged."



"The Babysitter Killer," by Jared Klaus, finds the cops catching up, 30 years later in a Cleveland suburb, to serial child murderer Ted Lamborgine.



Chad Garrison's
"Dead Pool," looks at civil attorney Lionel Sands' claim that his wife accidently drowned in their swimming pool.



Jesse Hyde writes "House of Death," about a dozen men who were tortured, killed and buried in a small house in Juarez as the U.S. government was listening.



"The Mystery of Lloyd Gaines," by Garrison, is the story of the St. Louis civil-rights pioneer who vanished without a trace almost 70 years ago.



"An Uphill Battle," by Adam Cayton-Holland, tells the story of Lance Hering, a soldier who doesn't want to go back to Iraq, so he enlists his buddy to help him drop off the grid.



Jared Klaus writes about prominent attorney Jack Morrison's snookering by master con artist Paul Monea in "Jailhouse Rock."


In
"Fashion Foul," Glenna Whitley details how clothing designer Anand Jon prowled the country for fresh, young models. Many claim their encounters with him ended in rape.



"High School Sexical," by Deirdra Funcheon, tells the story of high school drama teacher Andrew Foster, who cops say controlled kids "in a fashion similar to that found in cults."



Tamara Lush writes "The G Man and the Snitch," the tale of decorated FBI agent turned criminal John Connolly.



And Francisco Alvarado's "Marijuana Goes Upstate," a piece about Florida moving into the number two spot when it comes to grow houses.

Posted by at January 8, 2008 2:10 PM | Comments (0)

 

Convention Wisdom

Filed under: National

Party People in the Xcel Center?

If you think a magestic backdrop and a thriving bar scene will factor into the selection of the site for the '08 Democratic and Republican national conventions, the Center for Responsive Politics has some numbers for you. The D.C.-based money-in-politics watchdog group has just released a comparison of the five metro areas vying to host the confabs--to be clear, Minneapolis/St. Paul being one of the areas, not two. Cheeky watchdogs, they titled the report "'08 Presidential Conventions are Big Bid-Ness."

Why bid-ness? Because the bids may well hang on the willingness of a city's political patrons to step up and pay for cheese puffs, ice sculptures and balloons.

While contributions to presidential campaigns and the national parties are limited, unlimited private donations are allowed for conventions. The Federal Election Commission presumes that money contributed to host committees from private sponsors serves the interests of the city and is not politically motivated. A Campaign Finance Institute study concluded that this is an unreasonable assumption for all donors because "many of the firms also have strong federal interests as reflected by their political contributions and their chief executives' fundraising activities." A CFI task force found that the FEC's current policy towards host committee contributions is "inconsistent with the spirit, if not the letter" of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, which was intended to prohibit "soft money," or unlimited contributions from corporations, labor unions and other interests to the national political parties.

If you think all this means R.T. Rybak may get to do some nominating, you might want to hedge your bets. According to the report, 78 percent of Minnesotans may have voted for John Kerry in the '04 election, but 56 percent of Minnesota political donations went to Republicans.

Bonus reading for geeks who really care: There's a blog dedicated to tracking convention lobbying. The posts are signed by someone who styles himself simply Matt and has a seemingly boundless interest in arena square footages, traffic patterns and such.

Posted by Beth Hawkins at August 7, 2006 2:34 PM | Comments (0)

 

New Orleans dodges a bullet

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Estimated cost of hosting Democratic Convention in NOLA: $70 million

Estimated benefits of the last DNC convention in Boston: $50-$100 million

And those were described in the City Pages article linked above as "grossly inflated." More at Demconwatch.

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at July 14, 2006 3:14 PM | Comments (1)

 

A phone company with backbone and a Congressman without one

Filed under: National

Federal law dating back to 1934 requires that telephone companies protect the confidentiality of their customers' communication. Yet only Qwest among the major phone companies defied the Bush Administration when the NSA asked it to turn over the phone records of their clientele. Actually, according to USA Today, Qwest's lawyers didn't refuse the request; they simply asked that the NSA first clear it through the courts specifically charged with enforcing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, as required under federal law. The USA Today story quoted numerous sources as saying that the NSA didn't pursue the matter with Qwest because they thought the FISA court would not agree with the surveillance plan. The 79 percent of the Twin Cities market that uses Qwest should feel better that it takes our privacy--and existing laws--seriously.

Meanwhile, faced with a choice of embracing the Republican Party's legacy of limiting the reach of government or remaining loyal to the Bush Administration, U.S. Representative Mark Kennedy, a candidate for the Senate in November, opted for Bush. "There is no question that the government has a responsibility to take all necessary steps to protect American citizens, including monitoring conversations with terrorists or their affiliates, while protecting our fundamental civil liberties," Kennedy says in today's Strib. The 4th Amendment to the Constitution requires probable cause for search and seizure. That's pretty fundamental.

Posted by Britt Robson at May 12, 2006 10:20 AM | Comments (0)

 

Russ Feingold to introduce presidential censure

Filed under: National

Wisconsin senator and probable 2008 presidential candidate Russ Feingold is taking the floor of the U.S. Senate today to introduce a resolution to censure President George W. Bush. Feingold, a member of the Senate Judiciary and Intelligence committees, has stated Bush's domestic surveillance program is illegal and that censure would send a "clear signal" that his actions were "wrong." Click here to download the resolution.

Posted by Corey Anderson at March 13, 2006 3:16 PM | Comments (0)

 

Ports, UAE and the local connection

Filed under: National

Guess which former Minnesota congressman is de-scandalizing the scandal?

Talking Points Memo has a scoop about the Gopher state's connection to the United Arab Emirates/Dubai Ports World issue. Which state politico would have the kind of reach into the higher echelons of Washington right-wing think tanks and policy firms required for such prestige?

That's right, it's Vin Weber! Weber, a six-time congressman from Minnesota who's been a busy little beaver since he left office, is working for Clark and Weinstock--a DC-based "consulting firm" that apparently has mastered the art of spin. Weber's firm will essentially deal with damage control.

Salient passage from an agreement unearthed by Josh Marshall from Clark and Weinstock, billing itself as specializing in "reputation and crisis management," and UAE: "Enhance the reputation and understanding of UAEs as a strategic U.S. ally through the major media and other opinion-makers based mainly in New York and Washington."

(What? No Blotter?)

Say what you will about Weber's crass opportunism, he appears to be doing his job very well. To wit, check out the front page story in the New York Times about from yesterday praising the security of ports in Dubai.

Posted by G.R. Anderson Jr. at February 27, 2006 1:31 PM | Comments (4)

 

Bush approval ratings remain low

Filed under: National

A substantial majority of Minnesotans continue to disapprove of the job being done by President Bush, according to the latest poll numbers released by SurveyUSA today. The sampling of 600 adults, with a +/- error of four percentage points, found that 56 percent of residents surveyed disapproved of the President's work, while just 39 percent approved. The SurveyUSA tracking numbers have remained steady in recent months, but show a substantial erosion of support for Bush during the last year. Last May, the President's job approval rating among Minnesotans was a comparatively healthy 47 percent, while 49 percent disapproved of his work.

The national numbers are almost as bad for Bush. SurveyUSA found that 41 percent of voters across the country approve of the job he is doing, while 56 percent disapprove. In only 12 states do the President's supporters outnumber his detractors. Utah is the most pro-Bush state, with 61 percent of residents giving his White House tenure the thumbs up.

Residents in 14 states gave the President lower approval ratings than Minnesotans, including Ohio and Arkansas, both of which Bush carried in 2004. Ohio, owing to its size and electoral votes, is particularly striking. Just 38 percent of residents indicated that they approved of the job the President is doing, while 60 percent disapproved.

Posted by Paul Demko at January 17, 2006 5:44 PM | Comments (0)

 

Dubya speaks, Norm barks

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MN junior Senator responds to Prez's war ... uh, plan

Norm Coleman staked his claim on President Bush's latest address to the nation last night, wasting no time in firing off a press release of his own.

"This evening President Bush did what he needed to do," Coleman "said" in a statement that hit e-mail inboxes just 30 minutes after the Prez wrapped his speech. "He offered the American people a candid progress report at a turning point on the path to democracy in the Middle East."

Coleman went on to prove just how much of the president's bluster he's willing to swallow. (Click through to read the whole statement.)

"While hailing historic milestones being made toward self government and freedom in Iraq, the president also acknowledged the setbacks and challenges that have marked this noble mission.

The president's address comes days after millions of Iraqis of all segments of society braved the memory of tyranny and the threat of terrorists to vote to elect their own leaders and together chart a course for the future. He communicated a clear strategy for continuing our important mission, based not on an end date but on a successful outcome, reminding us that 'not only can we win the war in Iraq--we are winning the war in Iraq.'

And we are mindful that this success is based on the courage and sacrifice of our men and women in uniform. For their bravery we thank them and pray for their continued safety. I am confident that as progress continues, our priorities will change as we help the Iraqi people take charge of their country."

Posted by G.R. Anderson Jr. at December 19, 2005 1:01 PM | Comments (0)

 

Bush's poll tumble: the fine print

Filed under: National

The Harris Poll released on November 17 contains the lowest approval rating for George W. Bush yet logged by any major survey firm: 34 percent, compared to 65 percent disapproval. That's down 16 points from Bush's 50 percent approval a year ago, around the time he was re-elected. And it's 14 points below his Harris Poll high-water mark for 2005: 48 percent back in February.

As the media have noted repeatedly, the Republicans in Congress aren't faring much better in the court of opinion. Their 2005 Harris rankings, approval number first:

November 27% 69%
August 32% 64%
June 37% 58%
April 36% 61%

But there is a kicker that nearly everyone seems to have overlooked. The Democrats in Congress remain even more unpopular than their Republican counterparts. Their Harris ratings from the same periods:

November 25% 70%
August 31% 65%
June 33% 61%
April 34% 64%

It appears the grand Democratic strategy of standing back and letting the Republicans sink themselves is working roughly as well as it did in the 2004 campaign.

Read the WSJ's free-database story on the 11/17 Harris Poll.

Posted by Steve Perry at November 23, 2005 9:44 AM | Comments (0)

 

Lino Lakes Correctional Facility: the other body of Christ

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A federal trial taking place in Iowa this week could determine the future of faith-based initiatives, or at the very least, the future of the InnerChange Freedom Initiative, a Bible-based prison reform program offered at prisons in Iowa, Texas, Kansas, and Minnesota. The IFI program has been offered at Lino Lakes Correctional Facility, just north of the Twin Cities, since July 2002.

The lawsuit filed against Iowa's Newton Correctional Facility by the D.C.-based organization Americans United for the Separation of Church and State contends that IFI is unconstitutional because it uses state and local tax dollars to promote Christianity. The Iowa Legislature has appropriated $310,000 from the Healthy Iowans Tobacco Trust for a value-based program at Newton. In Minnesota, 22 percent of IFI's funding comes from the state.

The lawyer for Americans United told the AP that the program has turned an entire unit of a state prison into an evangelical church. The lawsuit also claims that prisoners who sign up for the program get preferential treatment such as separate living quarters, special visits from family members, and access to computers. And according to prisoners who have testified, in order to be adopted into the program they must sign an agreement that they will subscribe to the teachings of InnerChange, which only promotes Christianity. In other words, Jews, Muslims, and anyone else who isn't Christian must convert in order to be a part of the reform program. The trial is expected to continue through next week.

Posted by at October 28, 2005 11:05 AM | Comments (2)

 

Blackberry? Black Humor

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From today's Los Angeles Times:

"OH MY GOD!!!!!!! I just ate an MRE [military rations] and crapped in the hallway of the Superdome along with 30,000 other close friends so I understand her concern about busy restaurants."

--Text message sent two days after Hurricane Katrina by Marty Bahamonde when he learned that an aide to his boss, Michael Brown, was fretting over dinner reservations.

There's an article associated with this, but really the quote says all you need to know.

Posted by Beth Hawkins at October 21, 2005 2:00 PM | Comments (0)

 

Winging It

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DC-9 engine shoots flames; takeoff aborted

The Associated Press reports that a Northwest flight from Minneapolis to Minot returned to the gate this morning after an aborted takeoff. "It was basically just an engine failure," airport spokesman Pat Hogan explained, in what might turn out to be the understatement of the week. This is the second flight in a week that appears to have been forced back to the gate by mechanical troubles.

Why now, six weeks after the start of the mechanics' strike? It's only a guess, but here goes: Airplanes are so safe because they're engineered with all kinds of redundancies and are maintained according to carefully crafted schedules. Poor maintenance doesn't necessarily have an immediate effect; chances are you can defer work, and then defer it again. Odds are the plane will fly. Probably.

Airlines lose money while planes are on the ground. Consequently mechanics often feel pressured to "pencil-whip" a plane--to sign off on its airworthiness as quickly as possible. One way is to defer maintenance. This is why a mechanic's airframe and powerplant license is so important: It's a license to tell management that safety is about to get in the way of that whole on-time performance thing. (An issue CP explored in some depth here.)

On a related note, check out the Sunday Star Tribune's review of FAA inspection reports filed since the strike began: The piece by Tony Kennedy and Paul McEnroe makes a pretty airtight case that the strike is having an impact on the safety of the traveling public.

Still feel like flying?

Posted by Beth Hawkins at October 3, 2005 2:21 PM | Comments (0)

 

Katrina cronyism

Filed under: National

The Center for Public Integrity has set up a new web site to track Katrina-related contracts awarded by the federal government. "Profiting From Katrina" keeps tabs on the cronyism and waste already coming to light. Among the dubious contracts awarded so far: $236 million to Carnival Cruise Lines for refugee housing and $568 million to Ashbritt, a company with ties to Mississippi Governor (and former Republican National Committee chairman) Haley Barbour, for trash removal.

Posted by Paul Demko at September 28, 2005 12:25 PM | Comments (0)

 

Why the Dems sat out the DC anti-war rally

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The investigative reporter Wayne Madsen posted this note over the weekend:

"Anti-war protest in Washington, DC today. Very few Democratic members of Congress to appear. Reason: The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), according to Democratic insiders on Capitol Hill, put out the word that any member of Congress who appeared at the protest, where some speakers were to represent pro-Palestinian views, would face the political wrath of AIPAC. According to Democratic sources on the Hill, Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts was the chief conveyor of the AIPAC warning to his colleagues. At the time of this report, three members of Congress were to address the anti-war protestors: Reps. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA), John Conyers (D-MI), and Lynn Woolsey (D-CA). The word is that AIPAC will direct its massive campaign support to Woolsey's neo-con and pro-Iraq war primary challenger, California State Assemblyman Joe Nation, who has strong connections to the Rand Corporation, one of the Pentagon's chief war-making think tanks. Woolsey represents California's Marin and Sonoma counties. September 26 Update: In the end, the antiwar rally apparently only drew only one member of Congress as speaker: Georgia Democratic Representative Cynthia McKinney.

Visit the Madsen Report

(Via Michael Donnelly, Counterpunch)

Posted by Steve Perry at September 27, 2005 5:00 PM | Comments (1)

 

Houston freeways: Cadillac Ranch, the SUV edition

Filed under: National

Hurricane Rita's jog to the north last Friday was lucky not just for those who stayed in Galveston and Houston but likewise for those who tried to flee, only to find themselves stuck on Texas interstates. From Wednesday onward, gas stations in the Houston area and all along the main routes north and west turned up empty, temporarily stranding thousands and gumming up traffic for miles. After Rita passed on Saturday, Texas officials from Houston Mayor Bill White on up the line vowed to find out what happened.

One root of the problem was evident in the aerial shots of clogged freeways: They were choked with trucks and SUVs that have massive gas tanks and get shitty mileage. The math is not so difficult. The average passenger car's gas tank holds from 12-18 gallons. Trucks and SUVs start in the 22-gallon range (Ford Explorer) and run all the way up to 31 (Chevy Suburban) or even 35 gallons (Dodge Ram ST). And many of them get 10-13 MPG in stop-and-go traffic, which means they go about as far as a lot of cars with gas tanks half the size. No wonder the storage tanks at filling stations were quickly tapped out.

Texas ranks number two in the country in total SUV registrations, trailing only California. Yet while SUVs account for only about 7.5 percent of Texas registrations, that figure does not count pick-up trucks, and does not begin to do justice to the parade of gas guzzlers that took to the freeways leaving Houston last week. Sunday's New York Times Week in Review section carried a half-page photo of one random stretch of suburban interstate; SUVs, trucks, and vans outnumber passenger cars by a roughly 80-50 margin.

Posted by Steve Perry at September 26, 2005 8:31 AM | Comments (2)

 

Fatalities mount prior to Rita reaching land

Filed under: National

A passenger bus carrying hurricane evacuees from a Bellaire nursing home exploded into flames near Dallas killing at least 24 senior residents of Brighton Gardens and injuring several others. A mechanical problem caused the blaze and a passenger's oxygen tank caught fire. The medical examiners of Fort Bend, Harris, and Montgomery counties have all reported deaths related to the evacuation taking place prior to Hurricane Rita reaching landfall in Texas. Extreme heat and no water during the slow-moving trek out of Houston were contributing factors. Earlier this morning, Texas Governor Rick Perry announced that between 2.5 million to 2.7 million people had evacuated Houston in 24 hours, with 15 airlifts taking place yesterday, and nine more scheduled today. KHOU in Houston has a blog set up to track events as they happen.

Posted by Corey Anderson at September 23, 2005 10:55 AM | Comments (0)

 

As Rita approaches, water pours over New Orleans levees again

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According to WWL-TV in New Orleans, a flash flood warning has been put into effect for parts of Orleans and St. Bernard Parish, as well as areas of the Ninth Ward. Rain from Hurricane Rita has begun pouring over the patched levees in the form of a waterfall at least 30 feet wide. On the street running parallel to the Industrial Canal levee, the water is waist-deep and rising at a rate of three inches per minute. Forecasters have called for between 3 and 5 inches of rain in New Orleans as Rita passes Friday and Saturday, dangerously close to the 6 inches of rain that Corps officials say the patched levees can withstand. Read more at WWL-TV.

Posted by Corey Anderson at September 23, 2005 10:32 AM | Comments (0)

 

The long-term plight of the evacuees

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MN resettlement groups picking up slack for Feds

In a way, this was the week that never was for Minnesota and Katrina survivors. Earlier there were initial reports that many evacuees balked at the idea of coming this far north, so far from home. That seemed to ring true when the estimated 1,000 to 3,000 displaced set to arrive at Camp Ripley never came.

But it seems likely that many evacuees will end up here anyway, whether they think they want to or not.

For starters, there are those who are registering with state and charity officials at the State Assistance Center on Energy Park Drive in St. Paul. Yesterday, the first day it was open, the SAC had some 200 displaced come through its doors. Most folks there indicated they'd be staying in Minnesota for a while--and, in many cases, permanently.

But more importantly, there is the long-term resettlement issue. Minnesota has long been a Mecca for refugee resettlement and secondary migration, going back to the Hmong and Laotians who came here in the late 1970s, and continuing with the large number of Somali refugees who came here in the mid-1990s.

The reason is that out of the 11 organizations that do refugee resettlement in the United States, seven of them are in Minnesota. What's become clear in the last two weeks is that the Federal government is in no position to help Katrina victims with any sort of long-term planning. So the Feds are turning to the Minnesota groups--including the Minnesota Council of Churches, Lutheran Social Services and the like--for help.

"We've had billions of meetings with the nationals," confirms John Borden, a resettlement expert at the International Institute of Minnesota. "They want to know if we're willing and able to replicate the refugee work with the evacuees."

Additionally, the state's relatively steady economy has ensured that numbers regarding entry-level jobs and affordable housing are better than in many places. With the hundreds of thousands now without homes, there's reason to believe that eventually, the state will see another significant resettlement wave. After all, the displaced can't all stay in Baton Rouge and Houston.

"It's clear that the Federal government is reaching out to the VOAGs"--volunteer agencies--"now that they've realized the scale and scope of the displacement," Borden continues. "These people need a single point of contact for a long period of time, rather than being shuffled from agency to agency. That's where we come in."

Because places like Borden's International Institute specialize in job training, housing, and helping family members reunite, "we might be in place for the nationals to bring a steady stream of people to us in the Twin Cities," he says.

"All this is just talk at this point," Borden says, before adding that evacuees "in significant numbers overall" will arrive here at some point. "I don't know if it's a day, a month, or a year, but it looks like it'll happen."

Posted by G.R. Anderson Jr. at September 16, 2005 10:40 AM | Comments (1)

 

New Orleans: a long history of suppressing disaster talk

Filed under: National

When they got round to laying blame for the dismal performance of governments at every level last week in New Orleans, all the reporters invoked some reference to the traditionally "corrupt and inefficient" governments of the city and of Louisiana. True enough, but New Orleans itself has always manifested a more specific and finance-driven schizophrenia regarding the question of looming storm or flood disaster. On one hand, city fathers always wanted more and better reinforcements to the levee system safeguarding their lives and property from Lake Pontchartrain on the north and the Mississippi River on the south. At the same time, any public discussion about evacuations or flood contingencies was avoided through most of the city's history, and any alarming news withheld from New Orleans papers, to forestall panic--not among the citizenry, but among investors in the city's financial and industrial ventures.

As it happened, the book I was reading the week before Katrina hit was John M. Barry's Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America. It's a fine and gripping history of the largest disaster to strike that part of the country pre-Katrina, and far and away the best historical account one could possibly read for purposes of understanding the circumstances that now face the Gulf Coast. Here's a passage in which Barry describes the deliberation of New Orleans leaders, and of the city's newspapers, as the Mississippi River rose to their south:

Hecht raised another point. Even if no river water entered New Orleans, the flood could destroy the city financially. People were building boats, tying them to their porches, stocking groceries. To liquidate inventories, wholesale suppliers were cutting prices in half and begging customers around the country to buy. Daily, hundreds of thousands of dollars were being withdrawn from banks. If the fear grew great enough, if a run developed on a bank, it would hurt, and perhaps even destroy, weaker banks. Short-term credit was disappearing, period. Long term, if the nation's businessmen lost confidence in the safety of New Orleans, serious damage could result. Rival ports were hungry. The Illinois Central recently had--for the first time--shipped a load of molasses from Gulfport, Mississippi. U.S. Steel was planning to ship exports out of Mobile, Alabama....

Three men determined what went into newspapers in the city. None of them cared about the news per se; they used their papers like artillery, to pound their enemies and advance their own goals.... Yet [all three] cooperated on one thing: suppressing news unfavorable to the city. In 1924, when a Greek sailor with bubonic plague was cared for in a New Orleans hospital, all the papers helped the New Orleans Association of Commerce control the flow of news both within and outside the city. In 1925 the papers helped the Association of Commerce circulate seventy-two different articles boosting New Orleans, including one claiming that it was one of the healthiest cities in America. In 1926 the newspapers and the Association of Commerce again agreed "to refrain from publishing anything in connection with" a controversial port policy.

On April 8 [1927], as the local Red Cross began building boats, [one of the publishers] called a meeting of the Safe River Committee... "to avoid the dissemination of incorrect or alarming information." The next day every paper ran a reassuring page-1 story. The headlines in Thomson's own paper read, "River Warning Not Alarming; Levees Can Care for Stage Expected to Exceed 1922 Level." The idea was to calm the city.

So it was hardly a surprise, after the storm, to learn that the city had never gotten together a civil disaster plan of any substance: Merely to discuss the possibility of a major disaster was always deemed bad for business and therefore bad for New Orleans.

Pre-Katrina, the city's lack of an evacuation plan was no secret. Just a month before the storm hit, the Times-Picayune wrote of a DVD local officials had prepared on the subject:

City, state and federal emergency officials are preparing to give the poorest of New Orleans' poor a historically blunt message: In the event of a major hurricane, you're on your own...

In an interview at the opening of this year's hurricane season, New Orleans Emergency Preparedness Director Joseph Matthews acknowledged that the city is overmatched. "It's important to emphasize that we just don't have the resources to take everybody out," he said in an interview in late May.

Read the T-P story.

Posted by Steve Perry at September 12, 2005 5:05 PM | Comments (0)

 

R. David Paulison to replace Brown at FEMA

Filed under: National

Three administration sources have told the Associated Press that R. David Paulison, a top FEMA official with three decades of firefighting experience, has been tapped as the new head of FEMA. This follows the resignation of Michael "heckuva job" Brown earlier today. Information on Paulison can be found here.

Posted by Corey Anderson at September 12, 2005 5:03 PM | Comments (0)

 

Noblesse Oblige

Filed under: National

NOLA elites' rebuilding plan is underclass-free

It's a truism, of course, that one can never say the right thing at a funeral. But you'd think that someone might have advised New Orleans' top-drawer families not to be quite so chipper--or honest--when explaining to reporters their desire to make sure many of those poor citizens who did not drown or die in the Superdome never come home. We can only assume that the fact that the reporter in question works for that bastion of capitalism, the Wall Street Journal, loosened lips.

A few blocks from Mr. O'Dwyer, in an exclusive gated community known as Audubon Place, is the home of James Reiss, descendent of an old-line Uptown family. He fled Hurricane Katrina just before the storm and returned soon afterward by private helicopter. Mr. Reiss became wealthy as a supplier of electronic systems to shipbuilders, and he serves in Mayor Nagin's administration as chairman of the city's Regional Transit Authority. When New Orleans descended into a spiral of looting and anarchy, Mr. Reiss helicoptered in an Israeli security company to guard his Audubon Place house and those of his neighbors.

He says he has been in contact with about 40 other New Orleans business leaders since the storm. Tomorrow, he says, he and some of those leaders plan to be in Dallas, meeting with Mr. Nagin to begin mapping out a future for the city.

The power elite of New Orleans -- whether they are still in the city or have moved temporarily to enclaves such as Destin, Fla., and Vail, Colo. -- insist the remade city won't simply restore the old order. New Orleans before the flood was burdened by a teeming underclass, substandard schools and a high crime rate. The city has few corporate headquarters.

The new city must be something very different, Mr. Reiss says, with better services and fewer poor people. "Those who want to see this city rebuilt want to see it done in a completely different way: demographically, geographically and politically," he says. "I'm not just speaking for myself here. The way we've been living is not going to happen again, or we're out."

The Wall Street Journal's website is subscription only, but the Times of London today carries a synthesis of the piece--complete with a little indepcipherable nostalgia for New Orleans' "lawlessness."

Posted by Beth Hawkins at September 9, 2005 9:44 AM | Comments (0)

 

Bush in New Orleans: If I give up the last two days of my vacation, the hurricanes win

Filed under: National

Steve Monaco at Couch Pundit sent along this pic and a note: "Of course it's Photoshopped-- these assholes could never catch a fish that big."

Click on the image to see a larger version.

Posted by Steve Perry at September 9, 2005 8:29 AM | Comments (1)

 

Arrival of evacuees confirmed

Filed under: National

MN Nat'l Guard, Public Safety revise date and numbers

According to a press relase that came from the state's Department of Public Safety earlier today, FEMA has confirmed that evacuees will be arriving in Minnesota.

"FEMA has notified the Minnesota State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC) that Minnesota is scheduled to receive hurricane survivors on Tuesday, September 13," according to the release. "The state can expect a maximum of 500 survivors to arrive then, but FEMA emphasizes that the number of evacuees and arrival date is subject to change."

In fact, while this soldifies news of the arrivals a bit, Guard spokeswoman Lt. Shannon Purvis warns that the troops at Camp Ripley are still awaiting larger numbers, "maybe up to 1,000," and concedes that this might just be an initial phase. Then again, it might not.

To read the full press release, click below.

FEMA SAYS HURRICANE SURVIVORS SCHEDULED TO ARRIVE IN MINNESOTA ON TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13

Up to 500 Survivors Could Arrive as Part of 21-State Relocation Plan

ST. PAUL -- FEMA has notified the Minnesota State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC) that Minnesota is scheduled to receive hurricane survivors on Tuesday, September 13. The state can expect a maximum of 500 survivors to arrive then, but FEMA emphasizes that the number of evacuees and arrival date is subject to change.

FEMA has developed a relocation schedule for 21 states, including Minnesota. The schedule begins today and continues through Wednesday, September 14.

"Minnesota is prepared and ready to welcome hurricane survivors," says Michael Campion, commissioner of the Department of Public Safety. "Our state is committed to helping these survivors through this difficult time. The response across Minnesota, from volunteers to state officials to our National Guard, has been overwhelmingly positive."

State officials continue to request that Hurricane Katrina survivors who have already self-evacuated to Minnesota contact the State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC) hotline at 651-297-1304, 1-800-657-3504, TTY 1-800-657-3822.

Survivors will be asked if they have registered with FEMA, Red Cross and their local county social service agency. Survivors will be asked of their immediate needs, and needs of their sponsor organization/family.

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SEOC#7-9/8/05

Posted by G.R. Anderson Jr. at September 8, 2005 5:39 PM | Comments (0)

 

How many body bags are on order?

Filed under: National

25,000: figure cited in AP dispatch datelined New Orleans

40,000: figure cited in Shelbyville (TN) Times-Gazette, quoting a local mortician deployed to emergency morgue in Gulfport, Mississippi

Posted by Steve Perry at September 8, 2005 11:41 AM | Comments (0)

 

Survival of the richest

Filed under: National

Who needs a disaster plan when you've got a free-market economy!?

The Center for the American Experiment, the conservative Minnesota think tank that spawned Strib columnist Katherine Kersten and Powerline's Scott Johnson and John Hinderaker, among others, has an archived piece on global warming that might explain the Bush administration's strategy for dealing (or not dealing) with natural disasters.

Of course the science of global warming is an unfounded hobgoblin, the Center claims, no matter that the 900-plus scientists who have studied the effects of carbon emissions have reached the same conclusion that the earth is being slowly suffocated. But more important than the future of the earth, according to the Center, is a free-market economy and deregulation of the energy industry. The best strategy to combat global warming, if it indeed exists, and resulting natural disasters is to devise a resiliency strategy. That strategy, the Center says, is simply a prosperous economy. In other words, the upper class gets golden life preservers and first-class tickets to the lifeboat departing from America's sinking ship:

Only a prosperous economy has resources available to protect against probable risks and to undertake remedial activity when events or changes do occur. In a newly released book, The Costs of Kyoto, Fred Smith of the Competitive Enterprise Institute describes an appropriate analogy for the resiliency strategy.

"When a hurricane occurs in Florida, people are alerted early and move out of the path of the storm. [The widespread availability of private automobiles gives people the mobility to do so.] The wealth of our society makes it possible for people to incur the expenses of temporary relocation, and it funds rapid clean-up, restoration, and recovery. The storms in Bangladesh are not dissimilar. Yet Bangladesh lacks the wealth, the communication technology infrastructure, and the mobility needed to respond to such risks."

The consequences of storms reflect differences in resiliency. There are few fatalities in the United States, while fatality lists are tragically long in Bangladesh. The economic well-being that America enjoys helps to reduce our exposure to risk and improves our recuperation when disasters do occur.

A resiliency strategy, which builds on economic strength, freedom, responsibility, and limited government - the recipe that generates America's prosperity - better prepares us to face global warming among other risks.

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The book excerpted, The Cost of Kyoto, also makes other blind assertions:

Warmer weather will certainly have benefits--lower heating bills in the winter and greater agricultural productivity...

...A true "no regrets" policy [for responding to natural disasters] would focus on improving our resiliency and capacity for adaptation. This would involve a series of policy initiatives like deregulation, elimination of government subsidy programs, and privatization of government enterprises which inhibit our ability to offset any natural disaster.

Apparently the resiliency strategy backfired this time. Then again, if the only "resilience" being offered is the cushion that is the growing upper class, then it makes sense the victims of Hurricane Katrina were left abandoned by cuts in government programs and ongoing efforts to pad the wealthy. Under the proposed increased privatization policy, perhaps hurricane victims should look to corporations like TCF Bank, where Scott Johnson serves as vice-president, for much-needed assistance in the recovery effort. On second thought, it looks like the folks at TCF have their hands full with wads of cash reserved for a bigger issue: The bank is hoping to toss $35 million at the U to get its name on a stadium.

Posted by at September 8, 2005 10:34 AM | Comments (0)

 

A long way from New Orleans

Filed under: National

But will Katrina victims come to Minnesota?

The Strib reports online this evening that state officials are beginning to wonder if "evacuees" will ever make it to Camp Ripley in central Minnesota. Local Guard officials claim that the unfortunately named "Operation Northern Comfort" is ready, with some 3,600 beds good to go in the barracks.

Kevin Smith, spokesman for the state's Department of Public Safety, notes that many of the victims are saying they don't want to go as far away from home as Minnesota.

And Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson (DFL-Willmar), a Guard chaplain himself, offers this slightly distasteful quote: "Everything is in place for the party to begin, but we don't have anyone to dance with right now. It's just wait and see."

Truth is, nobody knows for sure what's going on.

It's considerable how little we know what happened in the aftermath of the hurricane, how how little we know what's going to happen next. (An influx of 5,000 refugees might change the landscape of Minnesota for years to come, the likes of which we haven't seen for 25 years, since refugees of the Vietnam War came here from Southeast Asia 25 years ago.)

Even so, the folks at Camp Ripley seem prepared for ... what? I called around the base today, trying to see what press access would be like if and when the displaced victims come.

"We've been told to be ready for 3,000 to 5,000 people," one Specialist told me over the phone late this afternoon. "We're expecting the low side, but we're ready for the high side."

As far as the time frame, he told me that they expected 24 hours notice, and that the camp might be seeing evacuees by Friday afternoon. But even that seemed precarious: "It might take a month, for all we know."

The specialist directed me to another number, one that some "federal" command had set up outside the base. But the person reached on that line seemed as in-the-dark as anyone (they all really were trying to be helpful), and referred me back to a "public affairs" number at the base.

Much has been made, even in the mainstream media, about the friction between local and federal officials leading to a lack of communication all around. Camp Ripley, it would seem, is not immune from this.

Posted by G.R. Anderson Jr. at September 7, 2005 7:24 PM | Comments (0)

 

Mike Brown's resume

Filed under: National

It's at FindLaw. (Link via Jeff St. Clair at Counterpunch.)

Posted by Steve Perry at September 7, 2005 5:08 PM | Comments (0)

 

FEMA: no pictures of the dead

Filed under: National

The Bush administration may have had no plan for dealing with natural disasters, but its efforts at using the media to contain criticism are unstinting as ever. This short dispatch from Reuters late yesterday:

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said on Tuesday that it did not want news photographers to take pictures of the dead as they were recovered in New Orleans.

FEMA rejected requests from journalists to accompany rescue boats.

An agency spokeswoman said that "the recovery of the victims is being treated with dignity and the utmost respect."

The dead are of course a vital part of this story. Extensive photographic records need to be made at every stage. The Bush administration (correctly) sees the looming threat of another Abu Ghraib dust-up when those images hit the wire, and means to head it off at the start.

Posted by Steve Perry at September 7, 2005 9:15 AM | Comments (0)

 

Minnesota prepares for up to 3,000 Katrina refugees and 5,000 Hmong refugees

Filed under: National

Camp Ripley near Brainerd is preparing to receive 3,000 Hurricane Katrina refugees within the next week. The refugees with be housed in 20 dormitories with 184 beds each. "The goal of Camp Ripley is basically temporary housing," Department of Public Safety spokesman Kevin Smith says. "We would like to move people into their own places or other places as quickly as possible." The influx coincides with the absorption of 5,000 Hmong refugees from Laos which is taking place with the help of a $23 million federal grant. In related news, buses from the Palmer Bus Company in south-central Minnesota passed through Willmar, Olivia, and Stewart recently, acquiring supplies for their trip to New Orleans. They will return with 82 evacuees who will be temporarily housed in the Olivia Armory once they've been processed through Camp Ripley. Local church congregations will take turns providing meals for the evacuees.

Posted by Corey Anderson at September 5, 2005 4:49 PM | Comments (0)

 

Rasmussen poll gives federal government low marks in Katrina response

Filed under: National

Forty-five percent of Americans give the federal government a failing grade in responding to Hurricane Katrina. Just 28 percent say the government has done a good or excellent job and another 25 percent call it a fair job. Check out the rest of the numbers here.

Posted by Corey Anderson at September 5, 2005 2:18 PM | Comments (0)

 

They Say: Sheri Glover of Military Families Speak Out

Filed under: National

Houston native Sheri Glover was one of the 50 or so pro-peace activists who traveled from the Veterans for Peace Convention near Dallas to Bush's Crawford, Texas ranch on August 6. After spending most of her time in a ditch on the side of the rode in hopes of seeking a meeting with Bush that never came, Glover, who has a 20-year-old daughter in the Individual Ready Reserves and a son-in-law stationed in Talafar, Iraq, has since embarked on a nationwide tour with other military families and Iraq war vets speaking out against the war. Glover and others will be taking part in a rally at the state capitol tomorrow from 12:00 till 2:00.

Living in pro-Bush Texas and surrounding herself with those actively involved in the military, Glover says she lives in fear of retaliation against her and her family: Glover's husband, a Vietnam vet, is a counselor at the VA in Houston who works with victims of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Her daughter, who has a four-month-old baby, could be called into Iraq at anytime. And her son-in-law, an Army Specialist, tells her he's too scared to talk about what's going on around him. Still, Glover says her fears are nothing compared to what the soldiers are experiencing in Iraq, and drastic and immediate changes must be made.

CP: Was there a single incident that prompted you to become involved in the pro-peace movement?

At first I didn't have a problem with the war. The war had already started before my daughter enlisted. I thought we'd get out quickly. But I didn't have all the information about it. I had to dig and get it. The more I learned, the angrier I became. We made a left turn from Afghanistan and went into Iraq, which had nothing to do with 9-11.

CP: What specifically angered you the most?

The Downing Street memo, the depleted uranium weaponry, Gulf War Syndrome, it's all there. The Downing Street memo is in black and white, for anyone to see. I see people who are bullies in our government and they're getting away with it. We have worked for 200 years to get where we are, and we're going backwards. I'm very proud of this country, but we're going backwards.

CP: How did you feel when your daughter first enlisted?

The way the recruiters presented it to us, I thought it was a great deal. But then I started to feel deceived. This is my only daughter. I've already lost a 16-year-old son. I'm not about to lose her for something based on lies.

CP: Your group says we need to pull the troops out now. How do you respond to critics who say that doing so will only result in chaos? That it's a problem that we created and need to stay and clean up?

I'm not sure I believe it will result in chaos. Look what's happening now. It's just as strong a possibility that the Iraqi people will respond by taking care of themselves; I'm not that sure they're so dependent on us. I don't see how we can justify staying. I believe the troops we have over there are magnets for extremists who are coming in from other countries. So you could also say that if we pulled our troops out there would be fewer insurgents. Plus, the Iraqis themselves need to bid on their own contractors and the wages. Not American contractors. That's just obscene.

CP: How does your son-in-law feel about your involvment in the pro-peace movement?

He doesn't have a problem with it. For him, he has a real concern about getting in trouble with his higher-ups. They're afraid of being retaliated against. He's already showing signs of PTSD. There's so much uncertainty around him. Over there, their hands are sort of tied and there's tape across their mouth.

CP: What about your daughter? Is she afraid to speak out?

Her husband is in Iraq, and they have a new baby. He might not ever get to see my grandchild. And she has friends going over to Iraq. When she went to a good-bye ceremony, she saw 7,000 soldiers getting ready to go over there. She said to me, "My eyes got so big." And I knew how afraid she was of going over there. She's involved with the peace movement now. But we share the same feeling as other military families who have spoken a few times: I've been afraid for my daughter, my husband, myself.

CP: You've been threatened with violence?

Texas is not any easy place to be involved against this administration. I've seen two or three things that have been unsettling. A friend had a Cindy Sheehan bumper sticker on her car and a guy pulled up right next to her yelling and flipping her off; a counter protester tried to run my daughter's shuttle off the road; and when I was in Dallas, I went into the grocery story and when I came out, my friend's tire was slashed and her "Bring Them Home Now" bumper sticker had been sliced with something.

CP: What kind of reaction are you seeing on this tour so far?

I'm not preaching to the choir anymore. New people are coming forward. There are faces out there I don't recognize. We had 1,000 people come out in Houston last night. There are more opportunities to speak now. The president is taking a plunge in the polls; the numbers are there. Bush says he doesn't watch the news or listen to the polls: the family is not in touch with the real people. It's getting nastier over there. And it's getting nastier over here, too. But we're turning the corner here. Something's happening. I can feel it.

Posted by at September 2, 2005 4:42 PM | Comments (0)

 

New Orleans: day 5

Filed under: National

"They don't have a clue what's going on down there," Mayor Ray Nagin told WWL-AM Thursday night. "They flew down here one time two days after the doggone event was over with TV cameras, AP reporters, all kind of goddamn--excuse my French everybody in America, but I am pissed."

--AP, Allen G. Breed

7:03 A.M. - [Jefferson Parish emergency management director Walter] Maestri: We had a plan and we followed it (on storm coverage). Mayor Nagin and those in Jefferson believed that within 48 hours food, water and security would be here. It didn't happen.

--WWL-TV Katrina blog, Tom Planchet

Any attempt to flag down police results in being told to get away at gunpoint. Hour after hour they watch buses pass by filled with people from other areas. Tensions are very high, and there has been at least one murder and several fights. 8 or 9 dead people have been stored in a freezer in the area, and 2 of these dead people are kids.

The people are so desperate that they're doing anything they can think of to impress the authorities enough to bring some buses. These things include standing in single file lines with the eldery in front, women and children next; sweeping up the area and cleaning the windows and anything else that would show the people are not barbarians.

The buses never stop.

Before the supplies were pitched off the bridge today, people had to break into buildings in the area to try to find food and water for their families. There was not enough. This spurred many families to break into cars to try to escape the city. There was no police response to the auto thefts until the mob reached the rich area -- Saulet Condos -- once they tried to get cars from there... well then the whole swat teams began showing up with rifles pointed. Snipers got on the roof and told people to get back.

--Interdictor blog, by a trapped New Orleans resident

Angry crowds chanted cries for help, and some among them rushed chaotically at helicopters bringing in food. . . "We're just a bunch of rats," said Earle Young, 31, a cook who stood waiting in a throng of perhaps 10,000 outside the Superdome, waiting in the blazing sun for buses to take them away from the city. "That's how they've been treating us.". . .

Col. Terry Ebbert, director of homeland security for New Orleans, concurred and he was particularly pungent in his criticism. Asserting that the whole recovery operation had been "carried on the backs of the little guys for four goddamn days," he said that "the rest of the goddamn nation can't get us any resources for security."

--New York Times, Treaster/Sontag

So: A crony with no relevant experience was installed as head of FEMA. Mitigation budgets for New Orleans were slashed even though it was known to be one of the top three risks in the country. FEMA was deliberately downsized as part of the Bush administration's conservative agenda to reduce the role of government. After DHS was created, FEMA's preparation and planning functions were taken away.

--Washington Monthly blog, Kevin Drum

A 2-year-old girl slept in a pool of urine. Crack vials littered a restroom. Blood stained the walls next to vending machines smashed by teenagers....

"We pee on the floor. We are like animals," said Taffany Smith, 25, as she cradled her 3-week-old son, Terry. In her right hand she carried a half-full bottle of formula provided by rescuers. Baby supplies are running low; one mother said she was given two diapers and told to scrape them off when they got dirty and use them again.

--LA Times, Scott Gold, on conditions inside the Superdome

There are four levels of hell inside the refugee city of the Superdome, home to about 15,000 people since Sunday. On the artificial-turf field and in the lower-level seats where Montrel sat sweltering with her family, a form of civilization had taken hold -- smelly, messy, dark and dank, but with a structure....

The bathrooms, clogged and overflowing since Monday, announced the second level of hell, the walkway ringing the entrance level. In the men's, the urinal troughs were overflowing. In the women's, the bowls were to the brim. A slime of excrement and urine made the walkway slick....

Within the skyboxes, on the third level of hell, life was dark 24 hours a day, a place for abandonment and coupling. Also up there was "a sort of speakeasy," said Michael Childs, who had some beer in an empty Dannon water bottle....

On the fourth level, the darkest and highest of all, the lurkers lived, scary in the shadows. The fourth level, people explained, was for the gangsters and the druggies. The rumors sprang from there: Two girls had been raped; one girl had been raped and one killed. Someone was abducting newborns. A man had jumped from there and died. A murder had occurred.

--Washington Post, Ann Gerhart, on conditions inside the Superdome

This is the situation. Please Help!!!!

My dad a surgeon and chief medical officer for the hospital. We just got called at 1:30 am this morning that things are deteriorating there.

THEY NEED HELP!!

600 People in hospital

13 patients on gurneys

Staff is dehydrating

FEMA is DIVERTING support being sent in by UHS (owners of hospital) away from the hospital

Temperature 110 degrees with humidity

NO fuel left to operate the hospital tower

NO communication with National Guard to coordinate evacuation of patients

Having to feed 500+ non-patient refugees--they are very close to rioting for the balance of food water and supplies

NO power, NO communication

Everything is manual--no xray--running out of supplies

Patients are on the 2nd floor and 3rd floor--having to carry patients up the stairs and the helicopters don't come back

Without power, the ventilator dependant patients are being manually bagged in 1 hour shifts by staff

Refusing to take gurney patients

FEMA is commandeering all supplies and all private efforts to get supplies including fuel, food, water

Governor is misrepresenting what is going on

Snakes in hospital

Rashes on staff from water

Losing nurses as a result of dehydration

Need FEMA to land on roof and prove what they are saying is correct

No security--uprising for food, water and supplies

Governor did not allow for the evacuation of the hospitals and now won't help

--NOLA.com blog, Ike Barr

The National Public Radio news anchor was so excited I thought she'd piss on herself: the President of the United had flown his plane down to 1700 feet to get a better look at the flood damage! And there was a photo of our Commander-in-Chief taken looking out the window. He looked very serious and concerned.

That was yesterday. Today he played golf. No kidding.

I'm sure the people of New Orleans would have liked to show their appreciation for the official Presidential photo-strafing, but their surface-to-air missiles were wet.

--Greg Palast

Posted by Steve Perry at September 2, 2005 10:55 AM | Comments (0)

 

Is the Bring Them Home Now tour bus running out of gas?

Filed under: National

The Bring Them Home Now Tour, launched August 31st in Crawford, Texas, stops in Minneapolis on Saturday, though you wouldn't know it from the pro-peace tour's website. Either by error, lack of organization, or both, no information about the Twin Cities stop is listed. However, the tour's publicist confirms that an anti-war rally is scheduled for Saturday at noon on the steps of the Capitol in St. Paul. Six speakers, including Iraq vets, parents of the fallen, and anti-war activists, are scheduled to attend. (There is no word, however, if Sen. Becky Lourey will be taking part in the protest.) Given that Bush's current approval rating is on the skids in Minnesota (sliding to 41 percent last month), it would seem the anti-war tour would be met with wide-open arms in dark-blue Minneapolis. So why so quiet?

Perhaps the Bring Them Home Now Tour is still reeling from Cindy Sheehan's head-scratching interview with Neal Conan on NPR's "Talk of the Nation" earlier this week. (Click here to listen.) She has, after all, emerged as the proxy spokesperson for the anti-war movement, mostly through the right singling her out as a lone voice of the left, continually holding her up to the light to reveal all of her flaws and cracks. But whatever she's saying or isn't saying, and no matter really if she's saying it like a "flighty head case" or a mother still grieving the loss of her son, she has contributed to and shed light on a growing grassroots movement, one that has always been about more than a single person. This tour includes members of Gold Star Families for Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out, and Veterans for Peace, some of whom have been speaking out against the war since it began. The tour makes its final stop in Washington, DC on September 21, followed by the United for Peace and Justice Mobilization September 24th-26th.

Posted by at September 2, 2005 10:50 AM | Comments (0)

 

Relief at last: Katrina refugees get free admission to George Bush presidential library!

Filed under: National

If they act now, that is--this offer ends Saturday!

BUSH MUSEUM WAIVES ADMISSION FOR KATRINA REFUGEES
COLLEGE STATION, TX - The George Bush Presidential Library and Museum will waive admission fees for anyone stranded in the Bryan/College Station area by hurricane Katrina.

The Bryan/College Station area is housing a multitude of families in area hotels who are unable to return to their homes. Anyone who is stranded by hurricane Katrina can present their Louisiana or Mississippi drivers license at the museum admissions desk and receive complimentary admission. The offer for free admission runs through September 3, 2005.

The Museum at the George Bush Presidential Library hours are Monday - Saturday, 9:30 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. and Sundays from 12:00 until 5:00 p.m. Museum admission is $7.00 for adults, $5.00 for senior citizens 62+ and groups of 20 or more with reservations. Children 6 and older are $2.00 TAMU and Blinn college students as well as children under 6 are free.

Posted by Steve Perry at September 1, 2005 1:55 PM | Comments (0)

 

New Orleans: key questions for the days ahead

Filed under: National

1) Aside from the 30-40,000 who gathered at the Superdome, how many survivors are left in New Orleans now, and how will they be gotten out before disease or dehydration overtake them?

2) Where and how will refugees be settled after the immediate evacuation crisis of the first week or so? Authorities are saying no one will be able to return for months, but the more salient fact is that a staggering number will have no means to "rebuild" and no reason to come back at all.

3) How soon can the levee breaks be closed? It appears that no more water is flowing through them for now, since the water level in the city is now equal to that in Lake Pontchartrain, but more wind and rain from future tropical storms of any magnitude could change that.

4) How much of New Orleans' urban infrastructure--buildings, water systems, sewer and septic systems--is intact, or even repairable, at this point?

5) If the answer to question 4 is "little if any," does it make sense to build another city on that site?

6) What is in the water trapped inside the New Orleans basin? What sorts of chemical and biological toxins, and in what concentration? This bears most directly on the health of the people still trapped there, but also on the cost of cleaning the site after it's drained, and the potential enviro/health risks of living there in the future.

7) Speaking of draining New Orleans, where do they propose to pump the water once they're finally able to do so, and what will be the environmental and epidemiological consequences of putting it there?

8) What is the real status of refineries and of productive drilling platforms in the Gulf? Yes, we know that a lot of oil rigs were torn loose; at least one wound up on a Mississippi shore 60 miles away. But there's a lot this does not tell us about the region's oil business--most of the rigs erected in the Gulf at a given time are exploratory drills that aren't pumping oil in significant quantities. How badly damaged is the region's oil-processing capacity--and conversely, how much of spiking fuel costs are pure gouging?

Posted by Steve Perry at September 1, 2005 11:15 AM | Comments (0)

 

New Orleans: "looting" in perspective

Filed under: National

The wire dispatches this morning are full of reports of "lawlessness" in the streets of New Orleans. Well, no shit: Local law enforcement personnel who remain there face much the same plight as the citizens forced to forage in the streets--no food or water apart from what they can grab, no access to phones or information, no idea how or when they might get out or whether any assistance would arrive in the meantime. This morning the live WWL-TV feed included a phone call with Jarrod Mayberry, a New Orleans cop who was absolutely embittered at the way everyone left in NO, including police, were left to their own devices. He meant to get out and take his family to Texas, he said.

On TV, the newsreaders have been painting a portrait of a city roamed by armed gangs ransacking everything in sight. Yet every bit of video they can muster seems to depict people with armloads of food and clothing. Talk radio had a field day with reports of young black men carrying shoes out of a Foot Locker store, as if dry--or at least intact--shoes were a luxury in a flood zone.

Jeff St. Clair at Counterpunch passed along this anonymous note from a listserv run by writer and sociology prof Nelson Valdes:

"I have refrained from any political commentary thus far, but i will say this:... The poorest 20% (you can argue with the number -- 10%? 18%? no one knows) of the city was left behind to drown. Period. And this was the plan.

"Forget the sanctimonious bullshit about the bullheaded people who wouldn't leave. The evacuation plan was strictly laissez-faire. it depended on privately owned vehicles, and on having ready cash to fund an evacuation. The planners knew full well that the poor, who in New Orleans are overwhelmingly black, wouldn't be able to get out. The resources--meaning, the political will--weren't there to get them out.

"White per capita income in Orleans parish, 2000 census: $31,971
Black per capita: $11,332"

Posted by Steve Perry at September 1, 2005 9:20 AM | Comments (7)

 

Mayor: "most likely thousands" dead in New Orleans<