Democratic Underground Latest Greatest Lobby Journals Search Options Help Login
Google

Will the devopers make a bundle off the disaster?

Printer-friendly format Printer-friendly format
Printer-friendly format Email this thread to a friend
Printer-friendly format Bookmark this thread
This topic is archived.
Home » Discuss » Archives » General Discussion: Presidential (Through Nov 2009) Donate to DU
 
genius Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Sep-06-05 07:55 PM
Original message
Will the devopers make a bundle off the disaster?
Randi Rhodes has been comparing the handling of the disaster to Bush's theft of land below cost to create the Rangers Stadium. We need to make sure that the people who lived there get there land back and their homes rebuilt or good value for their homes and land. We cannot let this turn into one of those situations where we look back and realize we should have been wiser to Bush.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
YDogg Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Sep-06-05 07:59 PM
Response to Original message
1. I'm guessing there will be vast rebuilding ...
... and that nobody who has been displaced will be able to afford to return. I'm envisioning a Grapes of Wrath wandering of displaced persons. Too sad to contemplate, but I fear this will happen. Many will hail the New New Orleans - many will never be able to return.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
BrklynLiberal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Sep-06-05 08:00 PM
Response to Original message
2. You bet your ass they will...BIG TIME! The Disney-ification of New Orleans
Edited on Tue Sep-06-05 08:01 PM by BrklynLiberal
Criminal Plot Underway in the New Orleans Swamp
It is mighty suspicious the New Orleans "refugees" (as the corporate media call the Americans removed from the disease-ridden swamp left in the wake of Hurricane Katrina) are being relocated far and wide. Most of them will probably never return and will end up in ghettoes in Baton Rouge, Houston, and elsewhere (it appears Baton Rouge is being groomed as an expansive slum, since the rebuilt New Orleans will be a casino and tourist destination with time-share condos and luxury housing). It should be noted that the usual suspects will "remove debris" and supposedly "restore electric power" and "repair roofs" (an absurd declaration, considering many if not most of the homes in the New Orleans swamp will be condemned). "The Navy has hired Houston-based Halliburton Co.," the Houston Chronicle reported on September 1, well before the current effort to "rescue" and "evacuate" those not killed outright during the storm and afterwards, as Bush was on vacation and FEMA twiddled its thumbs, allowing as many residents as possible to die before people who actually have a conscience and are not neoliberal sociopaths began to scream and demand Bush be impeached for criminal negligence. "Halliburton subsidiary KBR will also perform damage assessments at other naval installations in New Orleans as soon as it is safe to do so," that is to say after the "refugees" have been relocated in distant slums. "FEMA privatized hurricane disaster recovery planning for New Orleans and Southeastern Louisiana. The firms that received the contract are big GOP contributors," writes Wayne Madesn.* For some reason I am not surprised.

As for the hardy who have stayed behind, determined to rebuild their lives and city, expect the swamp of New Orleans to be declared a health hazard and the remaining residents (or poor and middle class residents with no stake in the new corporate Las Vegas on the Mississippi) to be removed by the National Guard and Army at gunpoint. "On the sixth day of disaster and despair, an urgent new problem erupted: disease. A suspected outbreak of dysentery compelled authorities in Biloxi, Miss., to hurriedly evacuate hundreds of people from a shelter. Medical experts have warned of epidemics sweeping through crowded, unsanitary shelters," reports Knight Ridder.

"By early Saturday morning, buses had evacuated most people from the frightening confines of the Superdome," notes al-Jazeera. "At the equally squalid convention centre, thousands of people began pushing and dragging their belongings up the street to more than a dozen air-conditioned buses, the mood more numb than jubilant." It is obvious the fiasco that was the Superdome -- in essence a prison where old people and babies died from neglect and gangbangers roamed free to terrorize, murder, and rape -- and the convention center are designated departure points for depopulating the ruined city. Abandoning people at these departure points -- sans water, food, or medical care -- was part of the psychological warfare plan: people are desperate to escape these two fetid and disease-ridden prisons and are thankful to be relocated, probably to never return. Most of them are unaware their homes will be bulldozed by Halliburton and the land sold for pennies on the dollar to corporate developers.

<snip>

http://kurtnimmo.blogspot.com/
.....................................................................................................................................

* http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/
September 4, 2005 -- WMR contacted by spokesperson for James Lee Witt. Yesterday, WMR reported that according to a June 3, 2004 press release from Innovative Emergency Management (IEM), Inc. it received a FEMA contract to develop a "Catastrophic Hurricane Disaster Plan for New Orleans & Southeast Louisiana." The IEM press release stated that among its team partners was James Lee Witt Associates. Witt was FEMA director under President Clinton and he restored that agency's disaster recovery effectiveness after President George H. W. Bush's ineffective response to Hurricane Andrew in 1992. According to Witt's spokesperson, James Lee Witt Associates continues to be fraudulently listed on IEM's web site as a team partner for the over $500,000 FEMA contract work.The IEM press release that contains the erroneous information has been disappearing and reappearing, another sign of something suspicious with the contractor.

IEM, which is an 8-A minority-owned firm, apparently used Witt's name as a "buy in" ploy to lock in the FEMA contract. What is fishier is that the IEM press release was reportedly sent out before the FEMA contract was actually awarded. After IEM began the work on the FEMA contract, it never once used Witt's company and did not pay it one cent. Informed sources claim that IEM, owned by a big donor to the GOP, is notorious for not completing work after contracts are awarded. The Catastrophic Hurricane Disaster Plan for New Orleans and Southeast Louisiana was no exception. Mr. Witt is now acting as a pro bono disaster recovery adviser for Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco. Witt's spokesperson was frank is stating, "you don't really think the Bush administration would have given a contract to someone who worked for Bill Clinton?" That is very true. The issue with the incomplete FEMA hurricane preparedness plan is in IEM's and its actual partners' court. James Lee Witt, likely America's most effective FEMA Director, had nothing to do with the IEM work and he now needs all the support the nation and state of Louisiana can muster as he prepares to confront America's worst natural disaster in its history.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
genius Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Sep-06-05 08:02 PM
Response to Reply #2
4. Post this as a lead topic. Everyone should read this.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
BrklynLiberal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Sep-06-05 08:06 PM
Response to Reply #4
6. I reposted it in GD
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
unblock Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Sep-06-05 08:01 PM
Response to Original message
3. the key is proving ownership
with the city records buildings equally affected by the disaster, many landowners might not be able to prove ownership.

the question then becomes how will the government handle that situation?

given the federal folks in charge -- look out!
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
genius Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Sep-06-05 08:09 PM
Response to Reply #3
7. I hadn't thought about that.
Does anyone know the location of the County Recorder for the New Orleans area and whether the building was submerged or blown away? The deeds won't be the first thing on the minds of those grabbing for their belonging. I wonder if the Louisiana state government has copies of the records. Often, it's just the counties. Private corporations like Choicepoint may have the information on file. We saw how helpful they were to the Republicans in 2000.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
xray s Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Sep-06-05 08:14 PM
Response to Reply #3
9. wouldn't it be parish records?
Edited on Tue Sep-06-05 08:15 PM by xray s
usually land deeds are filed with the county. and tax records are usually kept electronically. I would think they would have disaster backups somewhere, but who the hell knows...
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Sugarbleus Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Sep-06-05 08:04 PM
Response to Original message
5. a BIG YES!!!!!!!!!!
Someplace I read that real estate "speculators" are already wetting their pants...

On the other hand; many many people said they DO NOT WANT TO GO BACK. Perhaps this is their chance to get the hell out of the stinking poverty and cramped "Projects".. Of course, staying in Texas SCARES that OINK, Barbara Bush!!!

We shall see.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
zulchzulu Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Sep-06-05 08:10 PM
Response to Original message
8. A Home Depot on Canal & St. Charles would make a mint
You can bet there will be one right there,
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
yellowdogintexas Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Sep-06-05 09:04 PM
Response to Original message
10. current mortgage loans will have imaging of the
deeds of trust or mortgages.

I know my employer does. The imaging file on one of our loans has everything that was in the closing package.

The system file will have records of payments, and any contacts made by the homeowner with our company.

One thing the mortgage companies don't want is for the homeowners to default.

Depending on how long ago a loan was paid off, this info could still be in the imaging files.

Now a house that was paid off 25 years ago, probably not. Those would be the many many rent homes more than likely.

Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
electron_blue Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Sep-06-05 09:39 PM
Response to Original message
11. they always do
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
DU AdBot (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view 
this author's profile Click to add 
this author to your buddy list Click to add 
this author to your Ignore list Wed Apr 24th 2024, 11:54 PM
Response to Original message
Advertisements [?]
 Top

Home » Discuss » Archives » General Discussion: Presidential (Through Nov 2009) Donate to DU

Powered by DCForum+ Version 1.1 Copyright 1997-2002 DCScripts.com
Software has been extensively modified by the DU administrators


Important Notices: By participating on this discussion board, visitors agree to abide by the rules outlined on our Rules page. Messages posted on the Democratic Underground Discussion Forums are the opinions of the individuals who post them, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Democratic Underground, LLC.

Home  |  Discussion Forums  |  Journals |  Store  |  Donate

About DU  |  Contact Us  |  Privacy Policy

Got a message for Democratic Underground? Click here to send us a message.

© 2001 - 2011 Democratic Underground, LLC