OCTOBER 2005

incompetence, or taking planned action?The guilty brow of michael brown



"This story's not about me. This story's about the worst disaster of the history of our country that stretched every government (?) to its limit. And now we have to help these victims. That's all I've wanted to do."

-- FEMA Director Michael Brown



"huggies", white response - for the history books

"It's amazing what can happen if you just put your arm around somebody. It's the truest thing and the simplest thing that does the most good a lot of times, and I hope that we can all just reach out to each other."

-- Actress Julia Roberts

September 13, 2005 -- According to a Federal government insider, FEMA outsourced its public relations functions prior to Hurricane Katrina. News media members who were trying to contact FEMA's public relations office in Washington after Katrina struck the Gulf Coast were in for quite a surprise. Not only were they directed to a private public relations firm in New York, they were informed by a tape recorded message that the office was closed until September 6, the day after Labor Day, and over a week after Katrina slammed into the coast.
Wayne Madsen Report.

Aztlan's"The Great New Orleans Land Grab" - referenced as one of the theories of what happened.
from xymphora blog comment.
While many "inner cities" in the North, which have high populations of blacks, were founded in flights from the conditions of Jim Crow, I have been doing a little research which indicates that New Orleans - 2/3 or more black - is an entirely different sort of place. Black homeownership is high.

And not only that, they represent descent from the original European inhabitants from Latin countries, with the Anglos from other parts of the US being latecomers. And the immigrants from Ireland and Germany, mostly, came before most of the Anglos from the States, who look to have been a minority during the antebellum period.

Therefore, New Orleanian blacks have a unique position in their city. It somewhat resembles that of the black bourgeoisie of Washington DC, in which the mixed race children of plantation owners took up residence there, again in the antebellum periof.

In fact, I cannot help wondering if Washington DC is next on the hit list for clearances of black people. There is already a shoving match in the neighborhood directly behind the Capitol (which has a feel of the better and more gentrified sections of Harlem).

If We Understand New Orleans; we understand the Bush strategy?

By Mike Whitney



September 13, 2005

New Orleans provides us with a reliable template for judging what the Bush administration will do in the event of a massive "casualty-producing" terrorist attack. However depressing, this is useful information.

Special military units will be deployed to the affected areas to patrol the streets in heavily-armored vehicles; conducting house-to-house searches according to their own discretion.
The cities will be placed under martial law; invoking shoot to kill orders for anyone either looting or out of doors after the designated curfew.
Heavily-armed mercenaries and paramilitaries will be used on various assignments that require secrecy or additional security. We assume they will be used to protect dignitaries, perform harsh and illegal interrogations, intimidate dissidents, and subvert efforts by the media to provide accurate information from the region.

A massive media campaign will be mounted to create a narrative of an "involved and compassionate government" providing security to their people in times of crisis.

Is this a fair description of what is taking place in New Orleans?

There's little doubt that the Bush administration capitalized on the hurricane to activate its strategy to militarize the city. There's ample evidence that they had extensive knowledge of the magnitude of the disaster, and yet, chose to do nothing. In fact, for more than 3 days they prevented food, water or medicine from entering the stricken city.
Headlines:
``FEMA won't accept Amtrak's help in evacuations.''
``FEMA turns away experienced firefighters.''
``FEMA turns back Wal-Mart supply trucks.''
``FEMA prevents Coast Guard from delivering diesel fuel.''
``Homeland Security won't let Red Cross deliver food.''
``FEMA bars morticians from entering New Orleans.''
``FEMA blocks 500-boat citizen flotilla from delivering aid.''
``FEMA fails to utilize Navy ship with 600-bed hospital on board.''
``FEMA to Chicago: Send just one truck.''
``FEMA turns away generators.''
``FEMA first responders urged not to respond.''

The administration's criminal negligence in the deaths of hundreds if not thousands of New Orleans occupants is not in doubt, nor is their predictable response in countering the bad press. Michael Brown said it best when he noted that he wanted "to convey a positive image of disaster operations to government officials, community organizers, and the general public." Brown's "positive image" of the catastrophe has been left to the usual Bush media-operatives, who have deftly shifted the national dialogue away from "criminal negligence" to the more benign-sounding "government unresponsiveness" or "failure of leadership." Neither of these have anything to do with the facts as we now understand them. Many of the people who died in the disaster were murdered by their government just as surely as if Bush had personally held their heads under water himself.
Now, the city is a fully-militarized war-zone no different than Baghdad or Kabul. Already, reports are coming in of doors being kicked down by armed soldiers and terrified residents being shunted off to special detention camps in hand cuffs.
We should not expect a different scenario when America's major cities come under terrorist attack sometime in the not-to-distant future.

A great deal has been written about the ethnic-cleansing operation of New Orleans poor and black, that has paved the way for America's flagship corporations to set up shop in the Big Easy.

What more can I add to the volumes that have been transcribed about this global project? Americans have been warned that they would be treated no differently than anyone else, and that the masters of new world order claim no regional loyalties. New Orleans merely adds an exclamation point to what everyone should already know.

It should be instructive to die-hard supporters of the commander-in-chief that the military deployment was accompanied by orders for all residents to "surrender all legally-registered firearms" to the authorities. I can only imagine the fidgeting at the next NRA meeting when the membership conducts an open forum on the governments' plan to disarm the nation in the event of a terrorist attack. I am reminded of George Washington's sage advice:

"A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government".

Or, Thomas Jefferson:

"The constitutions of most of our states assert that all power is inherent in the people. That it is their right and duty to be at all times, armed."

That, of course, was before the reign of George 2 and the hasty rescinding of the Bill of Rights. Did gun-lovers really believe they would be spared Bush's terrible swift sword?

The "disarming" of America is a similar ruse to the WMD-scare that was used to invade Iraq. The New American Century is predicated on the belief that only the overlords will have weapons. A careful comparison of Haiti to Iraq provides an interesting contrast in the benefits of self-defense.

The deployment of mercenaries to the region should be of particular concern to Americans. Currently, more than 40,000 National Guardsman from Louisiana and Mississippi are serving in Iraq. It would have been quite simple to return them to their home states to meet the needs of the tragedy. Instead, the Bush administration chose to use exorbitantly-paid mercenaries.

Why? Is it because pacification on a large scale cannot be accomplished without a well-paid, elite-corps of corporate-warriors who are free to carry out orders with complete impunity? Are mercenaries imperative for neutralizing resistance, or is there another motive; perhaps, covert or illegal operations directed against American citizens that require additional secrecy?
In any event, paid killers should never be used on American soil.

New Orleans is looking more and more like a dress rehearsal for an ambitious cross-country strategy. It is unlikely that any plan for militarizing the country will evolve at a "snail's pace" of one city at a time. The administration would have to take advantage of massive "casualty-producing" events occurring in many strategically important cities at the same time. (Coordinated terrorist attacks?) This would provide the necessary cover for the same scenario we see presently unfolding in New Orleans.

It's worth thinking about.

Courtesy and Copyright © Mike Whitney

take note, property owners...

Bush's New Orleans
Rebuilding Scam
By Wayne Madsen

9-16-5

Bush announces plan to help big business to "recover" from Hurricane Katrina. Speaking in a Karl Rove-staged photo op from New Orleans last night, President Bush announced a series of measures that will ensure tax breaks for big business, a permanent Diaspora for the city's poor, and the future gentrification of poor and middle class sections of the flooded city. The Bush speech was full of corporate contrivances that dodge the type of assistance that is actually needed for the displaced population of the New Orleans metropolitan region.

 

Bush recently named CIA Leakgate suspect Karl Rove as his point man for the rebuilding efforts on the Gulf Coast. The Bush speech reflected both Rove's emphasis on spin and a lack of interest in the plight of the poor. Although Bush accepted responsibility for the "problem" of his administration's poor response effort, he quickly diverted his priorities to workers' recovery accounts (something that sounds suspiciously like medical savings accounts); a "Gulf Opportunity Zone" offering big tax breaks to corporations in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama; and a homestead lottery scheme to build homes on federal lands.

 

Bush did not address the immediate and long-term focused concerns for the people of the Gulf Coast. For example, FEMA continues to block needed assistance to the homeless residents of the region.

 

Bush failed to provide incentives for people to return to their homes. He also failed to insist on incentives for minority-owned businesses to participate in rebuilding efforts. Yesterday, Rev. Jesse Jackson told a Washington, DC press conference that there are 300 trucks in Memphis loaded with ice, water, and food with an additional 1000 trucks standing by at warehouses across the country. These trucks have not been granted permission by FEMA to move out to the Gulf Coast, where some poor towns, particularly in Mississippi, have not yet seen either FEMA or the Red Cross. 1800 children are still separated from their parents and Bush said nothing to assure parents and their children that they will soon be reunited.

 

What many members of the Congressional Black Caucus and African American national leadership have called for in relief and reconstruction efforts were not addressed by Bush.

 

There were no proposals by Bush for

 

* an "adopt-a-family" tax credit

 

* a one-time FEMA help grant for orphaned and homeless children

 

* a bankruptcy relief provision, provide temporary housing at all available federal government assets (including many closed military bases in the Gulf Coast region)

 

* the setting of a 50 percent residency target for all contracts

 

* setting a 40 percent minority vendor target for all reconstruction

 

* a moratorium on all contracts until civil rights provisions are restored (Davis Bacon minimum wage requirements, minority contract set asides)

 

* permit the admittance of minority community-based counselors in evacuation facilities nationwide

 

* Justice Department assistance in individual cases of arrested and detained individuals, ensure evacuees can vote in state and local elections (including February 2006 election)

 

* ensure home owners have the right of first refusal to reclaim property

 

* freeze all foreclosures against property in affected area for a minimum of 12 months

 

* legal protections against predatory lenders

 

* prohibition of collections and deficiency judgments on real and personal property

 

* prohibition on negative credit reporting or omission of negative events from credit scores

 

* voluntary waiver of late fees or interest on loans for a period of at least three months

 

* establish a diverse commission to monitor the equitable distribution of relief resources by FEMA,

the Red Cross, and Salvation Army

 

* develop an action plan to secure wetlands in coastal areas of the U.S.

 

* stop the rollback and waivers of environmental laws

 

* and develop a comprehensive strategy to address the poverty crisis in America.

 

Many Gulf Coast residents see a lot of promises from Bush's plan with no guarantees he will follow through. Already, House and Senate conservative Republicans are carping about the Federal price tag for the reconstruction. These include Sen. John McCain, who is already politicking for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination on the backs of the people of the Gulf Coast who lost everything. McCain has no problem spending billions of dollars on a failed war in Iraq -- a ploy by McCain to further ingratiate himself to the neo-cons in the Republican Party.

 

Bush asks America to trust him to plan the recovery of the Gulf Coast when he couldn't even plan to use the potty before addressing the United Nations on its 60th anniversary. The fool embarrassed America before 160 assembled world leaders. A Reuters photographer snapped this unforgettable presidential bloated bladder moment.

 

http://waynemadsenreport.com

 

 

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The Storm That Ate The GOP
By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Just listen. Isn't that Dick Cheney, lying awake at night as the leeches drain his soul, muttering his woes to a well-narcotized Lynne? "Dammit, Lynney, what went wrong? We've got the House locked up and the Senate locked up and we can cram through any law or any referendum or toxic Patriot Act we like with next-to-zero outcry and no discussion on the floor ..."

"We're successfully stuffing the lower courts with hundreds of homophobic neoconservative misogynist appointees and now we even own the Supreme Court -- the Supreme Court, pudding-thighs! -- and even the increasingly impotent California governor is more in our back pocket than we imagined. We've had the whole goddamn country under our thumb for five years, squirming like a stuck rat as we make out like robber barons."

"What a run we've had! We've threatened major media into numb compliance and we run the FCC the way a pimp runs a cheap hooker and we've got a loudmouth right-wing pundit manning nearly every ideological outpost in every corner of the media globe while millions of stupefied 'Murkins still believe Fox News is a genuine source of integrity and honesty. Look at us go! "

"And don't forget, we back it all up and shore up the base, we've got so many hate-spitting religious bonk jobs broadcasting their bile across roughly 1,600 militant Christian Midwestern talk-radio shows it would make Jesus himself cringe in pain, and even that soulless cretin Pat Robertson is comfy enough to start suggesting we assassinate foreign leaders who dare to dis BushCo. "

"Look what we've accomplished! We launched two brutal, devastating, unwinnable wars. We've let Osama bin Laden run happy and free for over four years, and counting.We just passed an obscene $12.3 billion energy bill that ensures our heroin-like dependency on foreign oil for the next two decades while misinformed 'Murkin GIs die in Iraq protecting us from $5 gallons of gas. Damn, we're good!"

"We torture innocent detainees in Iraq and abuse inmates at Guantánamo and chip away at women's rights and demonize homosexuals, and we strip the forests and gut the Clean Air Act and pollute the water and devastate the economy and cut welfare spending (whew!), and still the lemming people think we're gods because we keep them wrapped in fear and a whole pile of carefully orchestrated Rove-ian lies. We are, in short, f--ing geniuses. "

"But now, this !!. Now!! BushCo's spineless Katrina response and our obvious contempt for lazy poor people who don't own SUVs and Lockheed-Martin portfolios means Dubya's ratings have plummeted, as many of his precious pet agenda items head for the dumpster, including the gutting of Social Security and the gutting of Medicare and even more tax cuts for his wealthy cronies. Damn you, Mother Nature! "

Even the media has stepped it up, taken off the kid gloves and begun hurling angry pointed questions at BushCo for the first time in four years, ever since we muzzled them with one part threat and one part Rove and all parts corporate stranglehold. Hell, the damn media was on the ground in New Orleans within 24 hours of Katrina, beating our untrained monkeys from FEMA by three days. Who the hell do they think they are? "

"Ain't it a bitch? And now there are those who say the impermeable fortress o' pain known as the GOP might just lose the South next election due to its obvious lack of care for the lower classes, unless we can somehow scare them poor people into not voting again, or tell them if they vote Democrat they won't get any health care or food stamps or relief money or any of Barbara Bush's patronizing rich-grandma cookies....Hey, it worked last time. "

So goes the nightmare lament. Of course, it's not all bad (others say). Hell, the oil companies are as giddy as schoolgirls at being able to falsely jack up prices to over whopping 70 bucks a barrel, despite a recent (temporary) glut of supply. Halliburton is squealing like Jenna Bush at a kegger at scoring the contract to help rebuild New Orleans' infrastructure thanks to the fact that the former head of FEMA is now a Halliburton lobbyist, and the GOP plan to decimate FEMA and militarize emergency efforts is going -- pardon the pun -- swimmingly.

But something has shifted. Something is ugly and toxic in the water. This is what, I imagine, the GOP overlords are asking each other over cocktails and baby seal kabobs and whale-blood transfusions: Do you think the people are finally beginning to sense it? Are they finally waking up? Do you think they recognize that BushCo isn't really spending a dime on Katrina relief, that the $52 billion they just crammed through Congress without any discussion isn't actually going toward repairs and rebuilding at all?

You think people sense that all of it, every single dime, is going toward -- you guessed it -- PR? Spin control? You know it's true. Every government truck and every National Guardsman and every aid package and every miserable FEMA agent you see is merely in place to try and shore up Bush's miserable poll numbers, his dwindling support. Hell, it's the only reason Bush -- or his party -- does anything for the "good" of the nation.

But holy crap, it sure is expensive. It sure is annoying. It sure takes the GOP off its game of warmongering and finger-pointing and padding the pockets of the rich and pulverizing the economy like a ... like a ... yes, OK, like a hurricane.............

Mark Morford© E-mail him.

Mark Morford's Notes & Errata column appears every Wednesday and Friday on SF Gate and in the Datebook section of the SF Chronicle.