MUST READ! Greg Palast: Katrina Was BushCo's Version of Ethnic Cleansing

[mhatrw]

This entire interview is a MUST READ!

http://buzzflash.com/articles/interviews/047

Greg Palast: It's unbelievably ugly. You will see in the film mile after mile of destroyed houses. The 9th Ward looks worse than Berlin after the war because there's hardly a building standing. And this was just filmed a couple months ago! This was filmed one year after the flood. In Indonesia, they have rebuilt after the tsunami. The only thing they are rebuilding here is a Disneyland on the Mississippi to recreate a new, white, conservative city. And don't forget, keeping African-Americans from coming back into New Orleans is amazing political gerrymandering. This is going to be crucial to keeping Louisiana in the Republican column in 2008. That's really part of the story.

...

They're talking about knocking down 4,000 public townhouses. These are dry, safe, good houses. That's why they're still there. They literally want to bulldoze these homes because they don't want those "black people back." You'll see in the film a woman, Patricia Thomas. We help break into her home because they've boarded it up. Everything is dry. You could eat the dry cereal. They've shuttered up their houses with steel bars. Katrina didn't do this, she says, "Man did this." And "the man" is in the White House and in the Mayor's Mansion.

...

Look to New Orleans. Golly gee, the black folks haven't come back. There are no labor unions anymore in New Orleans. There are no public schools. It's all vouchers. Worker wages have gone down. It's "Mission Accomplished." This is the plan. This is the program. ... New Orleans residents are locked in these "aluminum Guantanamos," also known as FEMA trailers, as you'll see in the film. There are a thousand mobile homes next to the Mobil Oil refinery. These trailers are in the middle of nowhere, and there's no way those people can get any jobs. It's a cycle. Some businesses and homeowners would like to rebuild New Orleans, but they can't get workers, and those who would like to work live too far away to get any jobs. Families are not even allowed to move their trailer to their own home property. It's a deliberate program of ethnic and class cleansing in the City of New Orleans.

...

You should also know that the White House knew for nearly a full day that the levees had in fact been breached, and were about to drown the people left in the city. The emergency crews and police stopped the evacuation because they thought the city had survived Hurricane Katrina because the storm missed New Orleans. The hurricane watch center didn't realize that the levees had started to crack. The White House knew it because the Army Corps of Engineers sent them photographs. Again, I want to emphasize that the White House had the photographs of the levees breaking, and didn't tell state and local officials who had stopped the evacuation because the hurricane missed New Orleans. Everyone thought they dodged a bullet, but the White House didn't tell anybody the levees broke and were drowning the city.

[stillcool]

1. I'm stunned....again.

it's too much...I can't take it in now. But thanks...I'll return to it.

[King Coal]

12. Stunned? Are you stunned by cheap labor advocates?

I'm way beyond stunned. That was so last week.
:hi:

[stillcool]

14. sometimes...

things strike me as though I'm seeing it for the first time....like my eyes opened a little bit wider and the picture got way more ugly. A new and improved version of shock and awe.

[seemslikeadream]

2. Reason for Impeachment # 3 New Orleans

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/seemslikeadream/131


She calls out to the man on the street

sir, can you help me?

Its cold and Ive nowhere to sleep,

Is there somewhere you can tell me?

He walks on, doesnt look back
He pretends he cant hear her

Starts to whistle as he crosses the street
Seems embarrassed to be there

Oh think twice, its another day for

You and me in paradise

Oh think twice, its just another day for you,

You and me in paradise

She calls out to the man on the street

He can see shes been crying
Shes got blisters on the soles of her feet

Cant walk but shes trying

Oh think twice...

Oh lord, is there nothing more anybody can do

Oh lord, there must be something you can say

You can tell from the lines on her face

You can see that shes been there

Probably been moved on from every place

cos she didnt fit in there

Oh think twice...



Thanks again to Phil Collins for the words
My heart to the people of New Orleans

[jus_the_facts]

28. Thanks for finding this picture...I'd posted it repeatedly in the week following the aftermath....

:cry:

[seemslikeadream]

29. looks like Haiti to me?

WHILE I SIT HERE TRYING TO THINK OF THINGS TO SAY


SOMEONE LIES BLEEDING IN A FIELD SOMEWHERE

SO IT WOULD SEEM WE'VE STILL GOT A LONG LONG WAY TO GO

I'VE SEEN ALL I WANNA SEE TODAY

WHILE I SIT HERE TRYING TO MOVE YOU ANYWAY I CAN


SOMEONE'S SON LIES DEAD IN A GUTTER SOMEWHERE

AND IT WOULD SEEM THAT WE'VE GOT A LONG LONG WAY TO GO

BUT I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE

SWITCH IT OFF IT WILL GO AWAY

TURN IT OFF IF YOU WANT TO

SWITCH IT OFF OR LOOK AWAY

WHILE I SIT AND WE TALK AND TALK AND WE TALK SOME MORE

SOMEONE'S LOVED ONE'S HEART STOPS BEATING IN A STREET SOMEWHERE

SO IT WOULD SEEM WE'VE STILL GOT A LONG LONG WAY TO GO, I KNOW

I'VE HEARD ALL I WANNA HEAR TODAY

TURN IT OFF IF YOU WANT TO (TURN IT OFF IF YOU WANT TO)

SWITCH IT OFF IT WILL GO AWAY (SWITCH IT OFF IT WILL GO AWAY)

TURN IT OFF IF YOU WANT TO (TURN IT OFF IF YOU WANT TO)

SWITCH IT OFF OR LOOK AWAY (SWITCH IT OFF OR LOOK AWAY)

SWITCH IT OFF

SWITCH IT OFF

SWITCH IT OFF

SWITCH IT OFF

SWITCH IT OFF

TURN IT OFF


thanks phil collins for the words
my heart to the people of Haiti

[jus_the_facts]

30. Class Warfare...same fight over here...as it is over there....

...lest we forget. :nopity:

[TomInTib]

3. Brother Ray doesn't look too good in this one, does he?

I am ordering that DVD tonight.

[durtee librul]

4. One of the things hubby and I

talked about after Katrina was that the one solid democratic voting bloc had been decimated.

After more discussion, we decided that this was going to backfire on Bushie and here's why....

1. He may have destroyed the voting bloc, but think about it, when you scatter the seeds to the wind (and in most cases, they went to 'red' areas), you only plant more plants......

2. Therefore, he may have messed up one thing, but he may have created a lot more 'blue' blocs than he ever intended.

Ok, so go ahead and point out the errors in our thought patterns...we don't care, it's our story and we are sticking to it.

[IndyOp]

6. Welcome to DU, dl... I think it is pretty human and compassionate to try to

find the good even in the midst of horror. I hope you are right that the truth will be known far and wide and the blue will spread.

:hug:

[intheflow]

8. This is amazingly hopeful.

But something that I have thought about with the entire Bush administration. The seeds they're planting now will backfire on them a hundred-fold. I've always thought about it in the context of history, seeing parallels with the rise and fall of the Robber Barons at the turn of the last century. Their greed and deviousness eventually led to the rise of labor, women, and human rights, and I believe this administration's greed and deviousness will have the same effect on U.S. history. This is just another example of how it will play out, as part of another rise in labor, women, civil and human, as well as GLBT and environmental rights.

[SoCalDem]

5. If Greg had read DU from 8-29 on, he would have known that

from day one.

WE all knew that was what was happening.

[IndyOp]

7. Greg used to work for New Orleans housing - he knew the score. (n/t)

[truedelphi]

11. Phone lines to Am Radio talk shows in San Francisco were blazng

Hot with numbers of people calling in to protest the genocide going on in New Orleans.

And Oprah featured two days worth of shows that let people there tell their stories - O. usually
keeps her responses in terms of politics very neutral - but TV viewers could clearly see her fury with the powers that be.

[teryang]

9. another Katrina NO film taken contemporaneously documents

...police and military contractor abuse of the population during the crisis. I can't remember the producers name or the name of the film. It was discussed on Alex Jones radio show within the last few weeks.

The description of the events is so unbelievable breaking into homes, abusing occupants, disarming them, taking their food and property, in areas where there was no flood threat as well.

The behavior of the mercenary forces, police etc. reminded me of a theoretical urban domestic warfare strategy laid out by Frank Gaffney just a few months before 911. At that time he described urban unrest and civil disorder as major threats to national security that would have to be resolved by the Pentagon as its major mission objective. He discussed getting rid of posse commitatus and the need to detain large numbers of the population etc.

This documentary discussed in the first person by the producer as the eyewitness of the events he documented on video, suggested that the PMIs and some police and military forces deliberately provoked and aggravated emergency conditions. They intentionally and deliberately blocked food, water, and emergency supplies from getting to victims for days. They intentionally pointed their weapons at virtually everyone without cause (this is a first degree felony, assault with a deadly weapon.) They verbally and physically abused many people in full view of the public as if they were trying to provoke the use of deadly force.

[tnlefty]

10. I'd seen Big Easy to Big Empty on LinkTV and excerpts from it on

Democracy Now, so I bought the DVD from Buzzflash. I was outraged when I watched it unfold on DU, still outraged to this day. At least my kids will have a documentary film about what we witnessed and know to be true.

[bdamomma]

13. yes, and these kids have to be politically savvy and be aware

what's happening in their country, before they are sent off to die in some rich man's war.

[wiley]

15. IS Bushco's ongoing version of Ethnic cleansing.

It's still going on.

[oasis]

16. K&r for Palast.

[bananarepublican]

17. ... a' la Bahgdad! All goes according to plan! n/t

[malaise]

18. Nothing Bush does

shocks me.

[Toots]

19. You know what though, it is going to happen again.

This was just a harbinger of what is yet to come. If blacks do not return IMO they are smart not to. New Orleans and the entire gulf coast will be hit again and with even bigger and badder hurricanes. This was not a fluke but a precurser. Polar bears are not going to be the only victims of global warming..

[EFerrari]

20. I thought you were going to say, the federal government is going to fail

any crisis in an American city again.

We are all at risk and should prepare as best as we can.

[Kolesar]

21. Greg "Hyperbole" Palast

"aluminum Guantanamos,"
The 9th Ward looks worse than Berlin after the war
It's a deliberate program of ethnic and class cleansing in the City of New Orleans.

Gee Gosh, Slobodan Milosovec could have learned a few things from these guys! :sarcasm:

[mhatrw]

23. This is the supposed to be the United States of America.

What concerns you more -- Palast's supposed hyperbolic rhetoric or the tragic devolution of our fine nation as evidenced by our "response" to Katrina?

[Sapphire Blue]

22. Crimes against Humanity.

Since Speaker Pelosi has agreed to take impeachment off the table, I sincerely hope that she is instead focusing on the preparation for bush's trial at the Hague.

[notadmblnd]

24. form what I heard coming across the police scanners

those first few days after the storm, there was never a doubt in my mind that "cleansing" the city was their goal.

[KamaAina]

25. Public schools aren't "all vouchers", but most have been taken over by the state

under the grandiose name of the "Recovery School District". In the process, as Palast correctly notes, the teachers' union has effectively been busted. A number of other schools have reopened as charters, but it's not quite "all vouchers" -- not yet, anyway.

More on the Common Ground evictions mentioned in the article:

In fact, I show an example of a group called "Common Ground" which is rebuilding homes with the residents with their own sweat equity and a few bucks for materials. And this week, they’re being evicted.

You have a group which has already put 115 families into homes that they've built themselves, and now they’re being evicted this week. And by the way, all the money — the million dollars of material and the hundred thousands of hours of sweat equity — are all being stolen away from them by developers who are saying "Oh, you didn't have the right to rebuild those houses, we own them." And they’re literally stealing their houses. That’s what's happening.

Common Ground tells the rest of the story (it is actually an apartment complex rather than detached homes, as Palast implies):

http://www.commongroundrelief.org/taxonomy/term/48

On December 14 City Council member James Carter committed to facilitate the scheduling of a meeting between Common Ground and HANO representatives. The purpose of the meeting was to secure housing vouchers for Woodlands families facing eviction.

HANO set a meeting with Common Ground for today, December 19. However, since making the initial arrangements for this meeting, HANO has not been willing to return Common Ground’s phone calls, nor send a representative for a meeting....

Since then Common Ground has provided approximately one million dollars in labor and material improvements to the complex. While rents across the city have skyrocketed, Common Ground management froze the rents at the Woodlands to pre-Katrina levels, fostered a strong tenants union and ran a workers' cooperative with paid skills training.

It was our goal to make The Woodlands an environmentally sustainable, attractive, safe and affordable home for hard working New Orleanians. The families now face a January 4th eviction deadline after the owner, Anthony "Reggie" Regginelli, sold the complex to Johnson Properties, a Baton Rouge-based group that is unwilling to house the tenants while renovations take place in sections of the complex.

[me b zola]

26. I watched in horror, I saw what they did....

:grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr:

:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

[earth mom]

27. Alot of us knew this from the moment * strummed his guitar & ate cake!

Instead of doing a damn thing to help! :grr: :puke:

[applegrove]

31. Shows they only reacted with sympathy in week two..for political reasons..

because the whole country was angry at the WH for their initial "non-reaction".

[Doctor_J]

32. Katrina turned LA from a blue state to a red one

and Smirk knew it was happening, which is why, during the worst natural disaster in US history, he was palying the guitar.

[TomClash]

33. Third World Banana Republic

Some democracy. Some freedom.

[bobthedrummer]

34. "All is quiet on New Year's Day..." kick