One Way Bus Tickets

[DefenseLawyer]

Lost in the disgust over Barbara Bush's disgusting "working out well" comment was her suggesting that "Almost everyone I've talked to says 'We're going to move to Houston'. What I’m hearing is they all want to stay in Texas." I have questioned since the beginning why the poor people were evacuated so far from New Orleans in all directions. I don't recall Hurricane Andrew's victims being sent to other states for shelter. I can only conclude that those who are already planning the rebuilding of New Orleans hope to do so with a lot fewer poor black folks in the neighborhood.

[dogman]

1. That was raised by Jackson.

He asked why they're being moved to Minnesota when there are empty military bases nearby. I s it also to keep them from the rebuilding jobs? Will guest workers be brought in for those jobs?

[DefenseLawyer]

2. Personally I think

it is so they can rebuild New Orleans in their own image so to speak, with condos and Starbucks where the Desire Projects used to be. "Urban Renewal" will create such higher property values without those pesky poor black folks around to deal with.

[dogindia]

3. Barbara said that at the end Of Larry King.

Better New Orleans.

They have just taken the Missiissippi Port and all of oil distribution and no one at DU is understanding this.

This is big.

[mourningdove92]

5. It sure looks that way.

This is not just incompetence. This is deliberate and your explanation is as good as any I have been able to come up with.

[dogman]

7. Just like 9-11 was an opening for Iraq, Bushco will use this to redo NO.

It's not a tragedy to them, it's opportunity. I've felt this since last Thursday when it became obvious these people were not going to be helped. You can see how well it has worked when you hear many say they won't return.

[wli]

8. yes, it's gunpoint gentrification & gerrymandering too n/t

[DawgHouse]

9. The people are what defines NO.

And you are correct and NO will never ever be the same.

[Minstrel Boy]

10. and "safer" she added

I had to wonder what she meant by that: higher levees or a "better" class.

[2Design]

4. this is why people don't want to leave or evacuate now

they can see what government is up to

[Rainscents]

6. I really feel for the poor people who went to Taxes...

Once this is all over, thoes poor will get thrown out on street with no money and no jobs!!! I really don't think, none of this have suck in to any of them! As DUers know lot about the way Taxes government work... Don't give a fuck about poor! I am very happy that they're helping right now... but this will be short lived.

[carpediem]

11. I said to my husband this morning "they are going to gentrify

this city."

When they start planning the rebuild suddenly the developers are going to jump in and want to build condos communities, etc that will kick these people out once and for all.

Build New Orleans AS IT WAS... HOUSE FOR HOUSE. (just improve the levees and fix the coast)

[Trillo]

22. I've always hoped that one day before I die

I would be able to visit New Orleans, to experience the local and unique culture there. As I've gotten older, I've seen more and more communities turned into generic-town USA, with the same corporate entities overwhelming the landscape. The same chain restaurants, the same hotels, the same big-box stores, etc.

Under these conditions, I've asked myself why travel if where you go to visit is the same as the place you've come from? Sometimes a different facade is placed on a building housing a corporate chain, but it's still just a facade.

Without the people there that were there, it'll never be even close to the same.

[pitohui]

12. you honestly don't know why?

there is no mystery to me, i was evacuated twice & ended up in tennessee because there ain't no place closer

do you understand that there was no electric, no clean drinking water, ppl fighting over the last bag of ice or last gallon of gas as far north as jackson & meridian, mississippi

the entire mississippi gulf coast has been destroyed

waveland, bay st. louis gone, maybe the pass too

gulfport & biloxi, cities, not towns, destroyed

trees down, no electricity, heat index of 104 degrees in rural areas of louisiana and mississippi

i realize the governor good-hair has already tired of hosting our refugees but it's too effing bad

baton rouge & jackson are overwhelmed, the other nearby cities are overwhelmed

al gore brought ppl to tennessee, do you think he did it as part of a plot, don't think so, he did it because we can get some damn food, water, shelter, and electric here

sheesh

jesse has a good heart, he wants to save ppl's jobs, but he doesn't have a clue the geographic size of this disaster

[DefenseLawyer]

13. I don't know about your experience

but I have two good friends from the Gulfport area, one is in Jackson and one is in Tupelo now and those places are fine, relatively speaking, according to them. I just think there are places with water and utilities closer than Houston and or Minnesota. The area destroyed by Andrew was large too and it just seemed those people weren't displaced quite as far away. I don't know that it is a "plot", it just seems they have gone a lone way to remove and scatter those residents.

[Sgent]

18. Tupelo

Is a town of 30,000 -- where are you going to put those refugees? It also has a lot more in common with Memphis or Birmingham than New Orleans or the MS Coast.

Jackson is larger, but not a lot larger when compared to the size of evacuation needed.

This isn't Flordia. In a state the size of FL, you have 20X the population density of the southeast. Its no wonder that evacuees have to go hundreds of miles.

[DefenseLawyer]

19. What does population density have to do with it?

I'm not suggesting that everyone should have been evacuated to Tupelo, or any one place, I just haven't heard a particularly compelling reason why the poorest of the poor were sent so far away. I lived in New Orleans for four years, so I understand the geography, and I know that there are plenty of gymnasiums, military bases and other facilities plenty closer than Houston. Only like 15K are in the astrodome, the rest are in smaller facilities. You can't tell me that there weren't plenty of such smaller facilities closer. I am not a conspiracy theorist, but I do think that very little concern was given to when or if, those folks would ever make it home; and when I hear Babs pushing home the point that they should all stay in Houston it makes me wonder a bit more.

[liberal43110]

14. Thank you

We're talking about a couple MILLION people who are in a toxic waste zone with nothing. People are taking them to arenas and shelters and hospitals wherever they can.

This is not a conspiracy.

[targetpractice]

15. Are they diluting democratic votes?

I'm too tired to research, so I'm wondering out loud...

Are the feds parceling out the evacuees in such a way to minimize the demographic impact to Republicans? It seems clear that many are not going back to New Orleans. So, why not spread the evacuees wide and thin in order to minimize their voting impact wherever they land?

Just speculating. I truly think feds are trying to save lives.

However, tonight I heard that the TX governor said, "We can't take any more evacuees." I instantly wondered if there was an unspoken "cap" on how many people a red state can take in -- a number significantly below the margin of the last presidential election.

[MadeinOhio]

16. I saw the whole thing, it was a scathing letter...She was horrid.

[blonndee]

20. This was in a letter? I thought it was a TV interview? nt

[philarq]

17. have workers at the Astrodome pass out Halliburton applications

http://halliburton.com/careers/index.jsp

swamp them with people who want to work on the re-building

[theHandpuppet]

21. It won't be long before the military recruiters show up

Bet on it.