Louisiana official haunted by drowned woman (*note: very emotional)

[sabra]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N04620416.htm

Louisiana official haunted by drowned woman

WASHINGTON, Sept 4 (Reuters) - A New Orleans official was overcome by emotion on national television on Sunday when describing how a woman was abandoned and eventually drowned after repeated promises she would be rescued.

"The guy who runs this building I'm in, the emergency management, who's responsible for everything. His mother was trapped in St. Bernard nursing home and every day she called him and said are you coming, son, is somebody coming," Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish, said as he burst into heavy sobbing on NBC's Meet the Press program.

"And he said 'yeah mama, somebody's coming to get ya, somebody's coming to get ya on Tuesday, somebody's coming to get ya on Wednesday, somebody's coming to get ya on Thursday, somebody's coming to get you on Friday.'

"And she drowned Friday night, she drowned Friday night. Nobody's coming to get us."
"Nobody's coming to get us, nobody's coming to get us," Broussard said through tears.

[The Backlash Cometh]

1. It's time to give these people justice.

As Americans, we must protect our own, even if it is against our own. Bush must go. The impeachment process should proceed without further delay.

[cami715]

3. Call and email all Senators and Reps

Ask for impeachment and for Bush and Cheney's resignations. They have failed America. They must resign.

[Hardknock]

29. done

done

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[arwalden]

11. Heh-heh-heh!

:evilgrin:

[H5N1]

14. Haw-haw-haw!

That was fun.

[kestrel91316]

13. Hell, no words even exist for the black hatred I feel for the f---ups who

let this happen. * especially.

[TahitiNut]

21. Amen.

:grr:

[Wilber_Stool]

2. Yeah I watched it

I thought I was a big boy and could take it. I couldn't watch it to the end.

[sabra]

5. same here. you are not alone. many tears.

one of the most raw emotional things that I have ever seen.

peace.

[vard28]

53. I did too...

... and I was heartsick for that poor man. He got it right when he said he was sick of the press conferences and that Bush needs to just SHUT UP AND SEND HELP NOW! I sure hope someone gets him some help and that someone was there after that interview to give him a hug.

[Trevelyan]

60. Is there any way to write to this poor man who is so good to offer a hug

of support? Comparing the Bush Crime Family evil to a really good person. I hope Jesus comes soon and puts a stop to this BEASTLY "family".

In the Seventh Day Adventist online magazine SIGNS OF THE TIMES, the head of the Church wrote an article in 2004 that he was coming to the sorrowful conclusion that America was the Beast that oppresseth the nations. I don't think the Adventists are noted for being leftest. It is the unmistakable signs of evil and there is a good force in the world and the next world who will stop these monsters soon.

Our battle would be losing
If the right Man were not on our side
A Man of God's own choosing
Dost ask who it might be
Christ Jesus it is He

Martin Luther

[jus_the_facts]

6. .

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=3956844

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=3954289

[NVMojo]

7. Another American dead at the hands of neglectful neocons ...

[henslee]

8. Fuck it. Negligence = jail time.

[norml]

9. Louisiana official haunted by drowned woman

Louisiana official haunted by drowned woman



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A New Orleans official was overcome by emotion on national television on Sunday when describing how a woman was abandoned and eventually drowned after repeated promises she would be rescued.

"The guy who runs this building I'm in, the emergency management, who's responsible for everything. His mother was trapped in St. Bernard nursing home and every day she called him and said are you coming, son, is somebody coming," Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish, said as he burst into heavy sobbing on NBC's Meet the Press program.

"And he said 'yeah mama, somebody's coming to get ya, somebody's coming to get ya on Tuesday, somebody's coming to get ya on Wednesday, somebody's coming to get ya on Thursday, somebody's coming to get you on Friday.'

"And she drowned Friday night, she drowned Friday night. Nobody's coming to get us."

"Nobody's coming to get us, nobody's coming to get us," Broussard said through tears.

Broussard, president of the parish just south of New Orleans, did not give the woman's name.

The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina "will go down as one of the worst abandonments of Americans on American soil ever in U.S. history," he said.


snip


http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050904/ts_nm/drowning_dc

[sam sarrha]

35. get a tape and blair that to the white house 24/7, till Sh*tHead resigns

F'n Jonah.. throw him out..

take him to NOLA and drop him off on a ROOF and let him see what it is like to die alone waiting for his coke head drinking buddies to come and get him out of that one..

[Hell Hath No Fury]

10. I saw this...

and frankly wanted to kick the shit out of our "leaders".

We have only really been seeing the nighmare of NO, not of the surrounding areas that were just as hard hit and have yet to see any type of federal presence, including rescues.

When I think of all the foreign search and rescue teams that were ready to come into our country and help -- they could have been saving that man's MOm, saving a hundred Moms -- and Bush the Fucker said no.

He should be run from office.

From know on the mantra should be "Everything Bush touches turns to shit", becasue that is the hard, unvarnished truth.

[Nay]

36. I was in Canada during this whole debacle, and Canadians were

STUNNED to hear that their help, offered the first day, was REFUSED. LTTE's to the paper expressed total bewilderment -- Canada had planeloads of copters, people and med/food supplies at the airports, ready to go, but they couldn't go until * gave the word. I think * grudgingly said OK today. Unbelievable.

[Trevelyan]

61. I read that Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin was so outraged that he

said he was going to contact bush the next day and find out Why?? WHY?? was he letting these people die.

I have been writing to Congress through Congress.org, I read a letter against this genocide and whichever Congressperson it is I ask them to ARREST the whole Bush Regime Immediately and paste the article of the NorCom Lieutenant who said they were ready to go before the hurricane hit but they had to wait for an order from the President to act which never came.

[pitohui]

67. canadians have sent aid to the area & thank you

st. bernard parish sheriff stephens said he did get assistance from canadians while fema was MIA

unfortunately the nursing home patients were already dead & they had to focus on airlifting out the living

i don't know if these canadians had official sanction or if they just showed up w. choppers but they did a hell of a lot more than usa authorities

[iverglas]

69. on Friday night when that woman was drowning, the Canadians

had finally just arrived:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/04/national/04recuse.html

Sheriff Stephens, interviewed on the Cajun Queen, also said federal assistance had been minimal. "I have Royal Canadian Mounties who have gotten here faster than the federal government," he said. "I have made more life-and-death decisions in the last four or five days than I have in 22 years."

The Canadians were actually members of a 47-member search-and-rescue team sent from the municipal government in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Its members have gone from house to house, extracting survivors who have weathered the storm and its bitter aftermath. At least 200 were identified yesterday, said Terry Nikolai, a member of the Canadian team.

http://www.canada.com/vancouver/story.html?id=43c5047a-6007-4a21-a94e-f7cb8e7ff576

Friday, the team was designated to lead rescue efforts in St. Bernard Parish, where an estimated 30,000 homes were flooded to their rooflines.

Armstrong confirmed what many refugees have been saying for days -- those unable to leave New Orleans and the surrounding area are in dire need of help, and rescue efforts are haphazard at best.

"There was no rescue effort. He was struck by that," said Vancouver deputy fire chief John McKearney, who spoke with Armstrong Friday.

... McKearney said Armstrong told him the team planned to spend yesterday establishing a functioning command post to organize further rescue efforts and to continue combing the area, zone by zone, for survivors.

The Canadians were there because the Governor of Louisiana requested them directly from either the Premier of British Columbia or the Mayor of Vancouver. The Canadian federal govt could not send aid without a request from the US federal govt, and much as it pressed the offer, that request was only made about 2 days ago now.

But there was a delay in getting permission for the team to enter the US. And once they got to Louisiana --

The team of 45 left for Lafayette, La., last week and was transferred from there to Kenner, a suburb of New Orleans. Rescue operations were initially postponed Thursday because armed gangs of looters made leaving the staging area in Kenner too dangerous.

McKearney said the team heard gunfire as it was barged into the area, but has not been shot at.

And that's why the U.S. MILITARY should have been there on day one.

Meanwhile, Canadian divers have still not been deployed:

http://www.herald.ns.ca/stories/2005/09/06/f242.raw.html

Prime Minister Paul Martin will be in Halifax today to see off three navy ships and a coast guard vessel heading for the Gulf Coast to join teams of navy divers who flew out of Halifax on Monday to take part in Operation Unison.

... "It could be in the river, it could be working around the levees. Everything is up in the air right now," he said, moments before he and his colleagues were set to board a Hercules aircraft Sunday night.

But the flight was delayed to Monday, after officials at the Florida airbase set to receive the Canadians said they were not able to accept them. The divers left Monday and were set to arrive in the late afternoon, according to navy spokesman Mike Bonin.

http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/news/shownews.jsp?content=w090639A

In addition to help from other Louisiana and Alabama departments, a Canadian task force of firefighters and police arrived four days after the storm to help, St. Bernard Fire Chief Thomas Stone said.

"If you can get a Canadian team here in four days, U.S. teams should be here faster than that," Stone said, referring to Vancouver's Urban Search and Rescue Team, which has been working with the Louisiana state police in the St. Bernard Parish area, about 30 kilometres east of New Orleans. The team's command post is now set up at a firehall in Chalmette, La.

The Canadian team -- and much more -- could have been there IN ONE DAY if anyone had asked for them. So could the full resources of the US emergency relief and military organizations.

[JNelson6563]

12. I will never, ever forget that footage

I was completely stunned by that. It doesn't get much more raw than that. Heartbreaking, truly.

There's going to be a mighty reckoning for this atrocity. A mighty reckoning.

Julie

[maddezmom]

15. imagine how the the son feels

:cry:

[blitzen]

16. Link to Video here

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2005/09/04.html#a4784

[scarlett1]

23. I think the links are overwhelmed

I can't get to it on Crooks & Liars or MSNBC

[Sapphire Blue]

26. Another link...

http://www.canofun.com/blog/videos/JeffersonParishonMTPviaDU.wmv

[Sapphire Blue]

27. And link to MTP transcript...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9179790/

[scarlett1]

31. Thanks for the link

I finally got to see it.

[bpilgrim]

32. and another...

http://news.globalfreepress.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=102&pos=12

more...
http://news.globalfreepress.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=102

peace

[ignatius 2]

34. OMG,I had not seen that. We can only imagine what suffering and pain

the people of New Orleans are having to endure.Bush,Cheney,Rumsfeld,Rice and the rest of the psycho administration should have their eyes propped open with toothpicks and be forced to watch that scene over and over and over..perhaps it will instill an ounce of humanity into their wicked souls.

[sam sarrha]

48. yesterday a police officer helping the injured, just shot himself dead..

he just walked away to the other side of the aid area and shot himself in the head.

the aid people are becoming victoms themselves it is sooo bad.

but doesnt that Dubya know how to have a good time when his stupidity is killing people..!! what a guy

[Sugarbleus]

51. Where did you learn of this?

I "saw" a police chief break down on TV and walk away...but, if what you are saying is true, this is EVEN MORE AWFUL than TV can even convey.

SOMEONE NEEDS TO KEEP TRACK OF ALL THESE LITTLE DETAILS. They could come in handy in later "proceedings"....and, perhaps LAWSUITS.

Where's the ACLU I wonder...

[colorado_ufo]

56. There are now two police suicides.

What these people are undergoing is unbelievable. My brother is a fireman, helping with rescues. In two days, his partner has been shot at six times.

God bless Aaron Broussard, Gov. Blanco, Mayor Nagin, Sheriff Harry Lee.

[Trevelyan]

59. God Bless and Help These Good People, We Have to Keep Posting the Truth

I think it helps people like Fitzgerald and the 3 Grand Juries and other Whistleblowers to keep searching for the truth.

Please email or call members of the Black Caucas who have stood up so courageously against these monsters, Tom Flocco or Stew Webb wrote on their sites that the Bush crimes are so monstrous they are starting to read like a science fiction novel and that was before this deliberate bush satanic crime family horror.

Please write to your Congresspersons to demand the immediate arrest of all of the Bush Regime. Send some of these mainstream media articles showing how the starvation and death from having no water was caused by deliberately withholding any aid.

[liberalhistorian]

17. Well, hey, if she didn't

bother to evacuate when she could have (even old disable people have to follow the rules, ya know), and if she was living in NO where she knew this could happen and if she didn't give a ton of money to the repubs, then what the hell else should she have expected? Sheesh, some people want everything for nothing. :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

[madrchsod]

22. i see you made it out there

[Cyndee_Lou_Who]

18. omg

:cry:

http://www.katc.com/Global/story.asp?S=3805681

On edit, ok, not Broussard's mother... but still

With tears streaming down his face, Broussard ripped into the feds, saying he's "sick of the press conferences." He then bluntly sent a message to Washington -- quote -- "For God's sake shut up and send us somebody!"

[meganmonkey]

19. Yeah, that was quite an intense thing to watch this morning

:(

[booksenkatz]

20. Yeah, who was it that said Katrina caused 90% of the deaths?

Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu said it this morning. But anyone with 3rd grade mathematics abilities will tell you that MOST of the horror occurred AFTER Katrina had already moved on. MOST of it. That means 50% or greater... AFTER KATRINA. I'm pretty emotional on this issue, but I truly don't think I'm being emotional about the math. But that sure as hell is how I see it.

I'd love to see an investigation, but they'd just whitewash everything, like they did with the 9-11 "investigation." "How could we have known, if only we had known, blah blah blah." Any true justice will have to come from we the people.

Are you hurting enough yet, America?
:grr:

[chomskysright]

24. "Your house could burn down, your baby could drown..."

...Wouldn't none of them Bush Men care.

USE THIS HOWEVER YOU LIKE (AND WE HOPE RANDY NEWMAN DOES NOT MIND):

(paraphrased from Randy Newman's song, Kingfish: Good Ole' Boys: 1974)

NEVER FORGET NEW ORLEANS

There's a hundred-thousand BushMen in New Orelans
In New Orleans there are BushMen everywhere
But your house could fall down
Your baby could drown
Wouldn't none of those BushMen care.

Everybody gather round
Loosen up your suspenders
Hunker down on the ground
I'm a cracker
And you are too
But don't I take good care of you

(HERE WE'D NEED TO SUBSTITUE WHAT BLANCO/ MAYOR NOLA, LANDREAU ARE DOING)

Who built the highway to Baton Rouge?
Who put up the hospital and built you schools?
Who looks after shit-kickers like you?
The Kingfish do.

Who gave a party at the Roosevelt Hotel?
And invited the whole north half of the state down there for free.
The people in the city
Had their eyes bugging out
Cause everyone of you
Looked just like me

Kingfish, Kingfish
Everybody sing
Kingfish, Kingfish
EVERY MAN A KING

Who took on the Standard Oil men
And whipped their ass
Just like he promised he'd do?
Ain't no Stnadard Oil men gonna run this state
Gonna be run by little folks like me and you

Kingfish, Kingfish
Friend of the working man
Kingfish, Kingfish
The Kingfish gonna save this land.



(I think you can substitute 'Bush Men' for 'French Men' here; French Men, meant to imply the upper class in LA, is what Newman was alluding two as re: his research; the King Fish, of course, was Governor Huey P. Long who, in 1928, JUST LIKE BLANCO IS DOING, told the Federales to stick in their pipe and smoke it as they were moving way too slow for him and the people. Later labeled as a 'dictator', he was a populist. A crazy dentist assasinated him about 10 years later in the marble halls of the Louisiana State Capitol. Its a great album all the way through, documenting seminal events in the South).

Below also is the link to a site that Gov. Blanco has set up in order to pull in money for the clean-up and restoration, keeping it out of the hands of BushCo. Look down after the lyrics of Newman's song. Pass this around please.

KICK THEIR ASS BLANCO: KEEP THE SPIRIT OF THE KINGFISH WRAPPED TIGHT AROUND YOU



The Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation has been established in order to help provide immediate assistance to our citizens in need through a network of Louisiana charities, non-profit and governmental agencies, including clearinghouses like the Louisiana VOAD (Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster). The Foundation is also designed to support long-term family restoration and recovery by focusing on education, housing, health care, legal assistance and jobs for Louisiana families whose lives have been altered by Hurricane Katrina.

By postal mail, please make donations payable to Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation, Inc. and mail to:

Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation, Inc.
Fed. Tax ID No. 20-3399944
c/o Division of Administration
1201 North Third Street, Suite 7-240
P.O. Box 94095
Baton Rouge, LA 70804-9095
Inquiries may be directed to: [e-mail]

http://www.katrina.louisiana.gov/donate.htm

[NightOwwl]

30. They can run but they can't hide.

The death and destruction is happening right in front of us. We can see it with our own eyes.

This time, there will be no whitewash.

[Olney Blue]

39. Yes, there will be an "investigation" and a "report."

But just as the damning 9-11 investigation report was ignored by the GOP, this one about the Hurricane Katrina disaster will be too.

[madrchsod]

25. "what ever you do unto the least of these

you do unto me" said jesus as the `sorrowful angels wept into their wings`...

[Trevelyan]

28. If you go to Congress.org to send Impeachment messages to your

representatives. Congress.org publishes your letters online if you check the second box at the bottom of your email. Stays online until pushed down by other letters and for $3.95 you can post a Soapbox at the righthand corner that stays up for a month I think.

Some Congressperson's only accept mail from their constituents and redirect you to your own representatives if you go directly to their websites but you can send a letter to Congress that votes on issues affecting ALL AMERICANS even if they are not your Congressperson on Congress.org and have it stay up online for others to read.

I sent letters also to Hastert, Frist, DeLay, other top members of the "majority" party and democrats I could think of - I haven't been able to get through to George Bush, always get some kind of error message but although in the past he has gotten namby pamby letters published, some very angry letters have gotten through and on the George Bush page of Congress.org you can read them.

[1democracy]

33. What is the value of each life...

That woman died because of *ush incompetence. Was her life worth his presidency? I hope the press runs profiles on the lives of all the victims who die in this tragedy.
A lot of people can join Cindy Sheenan asking "What did my mother die for?' "What did my child die for?" "What did my husband die for?" I pray the group of angry protests swells like the water in NO and sweeps *ush away in our collective righteous anger.
Back to the first question- why did this woman die? In this case, incompetence at best, because otherwise it was murder, but now there's a thought...which degree- premeditated? or negligence? perhaps indictments could be handed out, to all the offenders, *ush on down certainly including Brown, who was fired for incompetence from an arabian horse association.Cronyism has consequences!
By the way, I think non-Repukes should jump on the bandwagon because not only was it the poor and black that were ignored by *ush, the hurricane was politicized allowing non-Repukes to die. There is no America anymore. There are REpuke-Americans and the rest of us who *ush will let die-- innocent civilians, which makes him a passive-terrorist

[babywatson]

37. I love how Tim Russert

...tries to spin this into blame on everyone in the New Orleans government.

Oh yeah, don't you ever question the top dogs. Same as in Abu Ghraib. It's just a few bad apples in them N'Awlins offices, right?

[Sugarbleus]

50. Well, I watched TR REAM that sack of bones Chertoff..even

aske the pig if he was going to turn in his resignation after this.

TR went on to point out articles and documents (that were in FEMAS hands already) showing what a huge storm would do in that area if nothing was done aforehand or quickly afterwards.

TR even pointed out the "contract" with FEMA that states it's their job to help evacuate people ... but they did nothing.

It was riveting and I thought, DELICIOUS.

[Bluzmann57]

38. I know bush doesn't read these posts but...

Let's pretend he does for a minute or two.
You sonofabitch, how do you sleep at night knowing that you and your fucking neocon buddies are responsible are directly responsible for hundreds, if not thousands of deaths? People would be alive if not for you and your fucked up war and your fucked up policies and your general incompetence. I truly hate you, you bastard. Hatred is an unhealthy emotion, I know, but it cannot be helped in this case. WE ARE ALL AMERICANS! If you don't care about those who are less fortunate, then all I can say is fuck you, I hope you burn in hell.

[daninthemoon]

40. Heard a report that two NO policemen have committed suicide.

[I Have A Dream]

41. That interview was just about the saddest thing that I've ever heard...

and it's just one of thousands of similar stories that we'll never hear. The weeping of this man was so honest and desperate. He is the voice for the thousands of others who otherwise wouldn't have a voice.

I just can't fathom how many, many Americans still don't get it and somehow find a way to blame these poor, innocent victims of carelessness and neglect. I love America, but I am so, so ashamed to be an American right now.

[BigBearJohn]

42. A friend of mine KNOWS this man and says he is solid as a rock.

For him to be crying like this indicates how utterly tragic and serious things are in Louisiana. This guy has alwyas been UNflappable.

[Is It Fascism Yet]

43. Whether you live or die is now completely a function of how much money

you have. Only VERY wealthy Americans can have health care, we have already seen that nightmare materialize under guidance from The Shrub, and now it is also true that only the affluent will survive disasters, those too poor to evacuate left to starve, drown and rot. If you haven't got any resources, you don't count. Wait only a few months and you will hear The Son of a Bush bragging about how the unemployment rate has gone down, which, of course, will only be because so many of the poor will have died. Neither the president nor his cabinet did anything to prevent this very preventable tragedy. They were warned of global warming but to this day persist in denial. They were told by engineers that the levees would collapse in any major storm if they didn't have renovations, and they cut the funding and refused the renovations. We all, even the common man, knew a full 24 hours in advance that it was going to be a direct hit with a category 5. As Chavez pointed out.."The King of Vacations only said flee, he didn't say how". They did nothing to help these Americans, and refused to allow other countries to help. Apparently Condi Sleezy Rice wasn't much moved by the suffering in NOLA, she went to a Broadway play, shopped on 5th Avenue, and bought some thousand dollar shoes. This administration is clearly being run by the minions of hell and Shrubbery is clearly Satan himself. I am only surprised because I always thought Satan would be smarter, somehow. Shrub is a hoe. It sucks to be him. It sucks to be Big Dick or Condi Sleezy too.

[pitohui]

66. this is actually not the point of the story at all

broussard is not poor nor does he lack for funds or influence in normal times

this is likely the first time in his life that all the money in the world couldn't buy something he wanted

you can be rich, you can have influence, but if you are elderly & incapable of moving yourself, you were abandoned in st. bernard parish by federal authorities, apparently even if the top official in another parish was lobbying to get aid yr way

i know friends who spent seven hrs in a small boat & had to cut another older couple out of their attic to save them

they were saved not by any federal authorities but by the heavily over-loaded st. bernard parish sheriff's dept

the feds were MISSING IN ACTION

rich or poor, it didn't matter

the feds left st. bernard parish to die

yr $$$ didn't save you there

the next time there is such a disaster, how many emergency workers will abandon their posts to save their own family members first?

[demo dutch]

44. Saw that, just heartwrenching! - For once Rusert did an adequate job

[despairing optimist]

45. Just as Cindy Sheehan is every soldier's mother, the mother

who drowned in that nursing home is America's conscience finally waking up. As Malcolm X said when JFK was assassinated, the chickens have come home to roost. The neocons won't give up easily, but they're finished. American society is far more than the sum total of individual wants and assets; it is a dense network of commitments that people have to one another and among generations and classes too. To those who wave flags and say These Colors Don't Run, I say These Ties Don't Break. Nice try, though, you selfish, meanspirited, arrogant lowlifes.

[cloud75]

46. if Kennedy and Clinton are african-american's heroes what is shrub.

[ropi]

47. *cries*

This moved me beyond words! I saw the report on the news.

It is not the LA Governer's fault
It is not the NO Mayor's fault

THE FAULT LIES WITH * and his officials. It lies with our representatives who did NOTHING. They gutted programs...they allowed for this to happen. They dropped the ball.

I am beyond angry.

Impeachment is not good enough for *!

I am tired of * passing the buck and then running behind his fat little doughboy pig who tries to spin him as a compassionate conservative. I am tired of those freeper types who would be in the same situation as these people if a natural disaster hit their residences.

Someone better light a fire under the asses of those in Washington DC...

God... I cannot believe this... every day it becomes more and more horrific..and * just smirks and stumbles over his words...

:-(.....

:grr:

[Sugarbleus]

49. I watched this live on MTP when it first happened earlier this morn

I wrote about it then. I wept..................My S.O. wept too and he's usually rather stoic.

Mr. Boussard is "president" of Jefferson parish...

There are still countless smaller communities around NOLA proper who are just now getting noticed for their desperation

I want to see Bush and his crony's heads on a stick!

[derby378]

52. This is Nero's America

Everyone who voted for Nero in 2004: We warned you.

Are you happy now?

[Lifelong Protester]

54. words to Randy Newman's Louisiana 1927

This song is about the flood of 1927, and if you know anything about it, the Mississippi flooded, and they had to intentionally break the levees to aleviate the worst flooding. The breaking of these levees would either put to perish the wealthy neighborhood or the poor. Which do you think were washed away?

This flood started another of the great migrations of African Americans to the north. It is quite clear who was being washed away and by whom. Coolidge blamed the river, but we know it was politics as usual that washed away the poor folks.


"Louisiana 1927" by Randy Newman
What has happened down here is the wind have changed
Clouds roll in from the north and it started to rain
Rained real hard and rained for a real long time
Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline

The river rose all day
The river rose all night
Some people got lost in the flood
Some people got away alright
The river have busted through cleard down to Plaquemines
Six feet of water in the streets of Evangelne

CHORUS
Louisiana, Louisiana
They're tyrin' to wash us away
They're tryin' to wash us away
Louisiana, Louisiana
They're tryin' to wash us away
They're tryin' to wash us away

President Coolidge came down in a railroad train
With a little fat man with a note-pad in his hand
The President say, "Little fat man isn't it a shame what the river has
done
To this poor crackers land."

CHORUS

[Shallah Kali]

55. AFP article on Yahoo with this

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050904/ts_alt_afp/usweatherdrowned_050904184547

This really gets to me. How can america have fallen so low as to let our people die like this?

[apple annie]

57. What a great political ad for 2006

Someone should take this clip of Aaron Broussard and make a very simple political ad to use in the 2006 campaigns...just show it without comment and at the end run these words across the screen: "Vote for the Democratic Party. We care about the American people---ALL of them" (or something to that effect). What an impact that would have!

[countmyvote4real]

58. This thread is really scary.

Seems like the NOLA Katrina experience should make us more sympathetic to tragic loss of life. (I guess blondes don’t count here for some people.)

Blame the fucking media. They are the ones that sooth you and entrance you and pretend to inform you. They do this by milking a tragedy. And even if it is a selective tragedy NO left them little choices, but the media still managed to frame and spin with looters and refugees.

And yet, for a brief moment, it felt like we were all one people suffering both a natural disaster and the incompetent (or even willful) disengagement of the government designed to protect us. But I guess that’s all behind us since some can now rail against the blonde mother of her missing (and probably dead) blonde daughter.

My first response was to blame the media for their choice of subject to cover it. Consequently, I totally tuned out on all things Holloway and Aruba. However, the Katrina coverage has brought it home.

We either suffer the same or we don’t. At first I thought that I could defer to the victims of NO because they were governed and the responsibility of *’s Homeland Security. Guess what? Blonde, Black, Latino, Viet, Whatever. Unless you can pay (contribute) you are lost under the * adminstration.

[I Have A Dream]

62. Kick

:kick:

[DarbyUSMC]

63. I thought they said that there was no way to communicate. I guessed that

meant no phones of any kind would work. If so, how did this woman call each day and, in addition to that, if the other residents were rescued, she would have had to go with them as she doesn't have a choice in a Louisiana nursing home, unless things have changed a lot. They couldn't leave a patient in a hospital or a resident alone in a nursing home.

Just a thought. I'm sure the man in the article was as sincere as all get out but it could be the story got a little changed as it was repeated. Then again, maybe they had walkie-talkies.




I'm very thankful that I had a chance to spend a month in LA a few years back and made four trip to New Orleans. I have a lot of nice pictures that will now be very special.

[BlueStateBlue]

64. Land line phones (not cordless) are still working in N.O.

Mr. Broussard made a statement on Meet The Press regarding FEMA coming in and CUTTING their phone communications. I wonder why they would do that? Did they want the people to just shut up and go away (die)? Or did they just not want any news getting out of New Orleans? I hope these people rot in hell.

[pitohui]

65. her son was in emergency services in east jefferson

broussard clearly states the son was in emergency services w. him in east jefferson

the point of the story is, even a connected guy next to broussard couldn't get help into st. bernard parish

st. bernard parish was left to die

sheriff of st. bernard says no one came from fema, they finally got some help from canadians & from dept. of fish & wildlife

nothing from fema

the point of mr. broussard's story, & maybe you have to have lived in kenner & known how it runs on kickbacks to fully understand this, is that no matter how rich you were, no matter how well-connected you were, no matter how lily-white you were, your pull was suddenly worth nothing & st. bernard parish may as well have been on the other side of the moon

the feds abandoned everyone

not just poor ppl

everyone

the sheriff of st. bernard has already confirmed an entire nursing home of dead had been found there

ppl aren't making this stuff up just to bother you, whether broussard or the son talked to the woman by landlines (some of which survived in kenner) or whether by walkie talkie, who cares, sheriff stephens already confirms it's true, they have at least one entire nursing home of the dead

ppl are still not "getting" it w. regard to the size of this disaster

[defiant1]

68. Horrifying....

Just sickening.

:puke: