Author: duranta

This is from Andrea Garland, who is from New Orleans:

There are supplies sitting in Baton Rouge for the folks in New Orleans,
but the National Guard has the city surrounded and is not letting
anyone in or out. They are turning away people with supplies, claiming
it is too dangerous. If we have planes that can drop bombs on people in
Iraq, certainly we can air drop supplies into the city. Our goverment
is KILLING the people of New Orleans. This is the message I am now
sending to all major media sources, national and worldwide, as well as
posting to email lists, blogs, etc. The story is getting out that the
people there are not getting supplies, but the truth of WHY is not.

Please help spread the word, we must get this story out. Please so not
let any more of my friends die.

I can be reached at 254.640.8441 – feel free to call me or give my
number to any media that needs a contact person to talk to.

Here is my message:

I am a resident of the Bywater in New Orleans (9th Ward). I am one of
the lucky ones that was able to evacuate before the storm.

I have recently managed to speak to some friends stranded in New
Orleans. They are starving and dehydrating and there is no news of when
they will be receiving food and water. I have spoken to relief efforts
and understand that there are plenty of supplies waiting for these
people, BUT THEY ARE NOT BEING ALLOWED INTO THE CITY.

The National Guard has the city surrounded and is not letting anyone in
or out, except the buses being evacuated. The excuse that they can not
bring supplies into New Orleans because of the looting and gun fire is
not a valid excuse – if they are too afraid to enter the streets of New
Orleans, they need to be air dropping supplies into the city. If the
United States is capable of sending planes that can withstand enemy
fire to drop bombs in Iraq, certainly they are capable of air dropping
supplies into a city where the worst of the gunfire they could encouter
would be from semi-automatics.

Our government is killing the people of New Orleans. By witholding
supplies, they are ensuring more deaths, and I hold them complicit.

Please bring this matter to the attention of the people of the United
States. They need to know that New Orleans is deliberatly being denied
food and water. Perhaps if the people there had food and water, they
might not be shooting off guns.

Please feel free to call me for further information or with any
questions. I appreciate your attention to this most serious matter.

I fear for my friends.

Sincerely,

Andrea Garland
Get Your Act On! (getyouracton.com)

[From the diaries by susanhu. Some good news — they’re alive — but amidst horror. Anderson Cooper is on Larry King now — he is deeply upset — duranta refers to him below.] I’m alive. I’m with my sister in Baton Rouge, and my parents, and two sisters. I have four sisters. One is trapped in New Orleans. Her name is Caroline. She is in Mid City with her boyfriend in their two story house, but belive me, they are the lucky ones. MORE BELOW:
They have ample food and water because of their resourcefulness, but they are surrounded by water and the smell of dead animals and possibly dead people, dead creatures in the water. I’m considering hiring a boat to get them out. Don’t believe the FEMA director, who turned down international aid on live TV. All is not well. In fact, it is absurd to consider the notion that there are enough resources in operation to deal with this disaster.

If ya’ll don’t recommend this diary to high heaven I’ll be disappointed. Because the people of New Orleans are sacrificing their lives to deliver you a message: It is time to stop relying on those who’s interests are not the people’s. It is time to stop relying on politicians.

I just heard Anderson Cooper take Mary Landrieu to task for taking her TV time for thanking other politicians. Her face barely cracked. We are talking lizard brains here. Then Anderson Cooper nearly lost it on live TV. He’s basically a good person.  

Yea, I’m over-wrought. Not sleeping well. Too much wine tonight, just like the French/Irish family I was born into often indulged in.

I prayed to the virgin Mary today. I don’t do that often. The truth is, that this disaster is happening to warn everyone that until and unless we put people before profits, we are lost.

I hope ya’ll appreciate the sacrifice of the people of New Orleans to alert ya’ll to the fact that the structure of our society is not working. It is not working because there are many who feel their lives don’t matter. There are many who felt this way before Katrina.

It is time to look at the structure of our economy and decide that our so-called free market is not working. It is not working when the help is not getting where it needs to go.

No one paid attention to the homeless before this storm. Now that there is an entire city homeless, including myself, and ya’ll are finally listening.

I hope everyone is checking in to Stu Piddy who is writing for the forgotten, for the discarded.

I feel like BAton Rouge is ground zero for all that is reacting to New Orleans. Let us not forget the Gulf Coast. The same issue is happening there. The poor are stranded and are being ignored because our resources are stretched thin because of Iraq, and, they never cared anyway.

WE ARE THE ONES WHO CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE. IT WON’T BE EASY. BUT WE HAVE TO TRY. WE MUST BEGIN TO SHIFT THE RESOURCES OF THIS COUNTRY TO THOSE WHO BELIEVE THAT THEIR LIVES DON’T MATTER.

Why do you think this is happening? Do you not think that everything is connected? My eyes are red and swollen but I move with my feelings. My feelings are telling me that the nation must listen and learn from what is happeing in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

We must begin to put people before profits or this nation won’t survive.

Help. Help each other.

Signing out: duranta from Baton Rouge.
   

and all of the Gulf Coast. Katrina is a menacing storm, and the worst that I have ever faced. I rode out Hurricane Betsy and Camille, but this is the worse for New Orleans. We are heading out to  Baton Rouge this morning to ride this out, but please pray for those lower income, sick and elderly who can’t afford and have no means to leave New Orleans.  
If the storm stays on its projected path, the storm surge will overcome the levee system around New Orleans. I’m hoping Mayor Nagin opens the superdome for all those who can’t afford to leave. We appreciate your prayers and thoughts.

We know the army is broken. We hear the tales of inadequate equipment and armor. But no one knows this better than the troops themselves. Here is a letter from a soldier in Iraq to Senator Olympia Snow’s office. This letter is making the rounds in anti-war email forums. I’ve changed his initials, until and unless he would give me direct permission to use his name.  

We heard the bad news today on Bolton’s impact on the UN. Looks like at least some of these United of States may pick up the slack when it comes to Federal inaction and creation of obstacles in fighting global warming.
This is from the Guardian, reposted on Common Dreams.org:

This is exactly what it is going to take to fight the Bush administration’s efforts to block progress on global warming: local and statewide initiatives. If you can’t go through them, go around them.

George Bush is diving in the polls in relation to Iraq, but these last several months, he’s had virtually no trouble moving this country closer to a corporate/fascist state, and he’s accomplished this, with the aid of many democrats in Congress.
 Born of paranoia and fear, there is the Real ID Act.

Voted down last fall, this legislation slid through Congress in the spring, tacked onto the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations for Defense, the Global War on Terror and Tsunami Relief. No one in Congress dared to debate more support for the troops. There were no hearings, no debates, on one of the potentially greatest threats to our right to privacy to ever pass as “law” in Congress. One must question, at this point, if there is any real, active form of democracy left in Congress.

Various groups have warned us about this legislation, but apparently, not many were listening.

This bill is going to be one hell of a monster to pay for. Even CNN is calling it a mess:

The potential for abusing the power in such ID requirements, according to some commentators is as real as Mussolini was real:

The Real ID Act potentially violates international law, though this should be of no surprise in this administration.

We the people, need to respond. Bad legislation, can be repealed. And this is one maggot infested whopper that doesn’t deserve consideration in a true democracy.

Be patient. I’m going to get to what Cindy has taught us. And I’d like to hear from all of you on this question. It’s a good one.

Perfect time to ask it also, because this Mom is changing the face of the anti-war movement.  Giving it depth and scope.

We’ve got to learn from her. We are learning from her.
The dog days of August have never been easy here in New Orleans. So Hot it dries your tears before they happen. I look out to Crawford for inspiration these days, and like Cindy said, “We’re mad as hell and we’re not taking it anymore”,  only, I’m not even sure where to start.

I could start with the Rolling Stone article detailing the functioning of a dysfunctional Congress, operating largely below eye level and getting away with fucking murder when it comes to ripping off the American people in the form of corporate-backed legislation.

We might start with the Bankruptcy Bill. This is a bill that allows corporations to file for protection, under any circumstance, including mismanagement, but you the “consumer”, even under the burden of a medical catastrophe, gotta pay.

 You wanna start with the Real ID Act? Everyone will now need these federally mandated ID cards, to do everything. How ’bout the Patriot Act? Do you really want the FBI to have unlimited access to your personal belongings, and having to answer to no one in choosing to search them? Tuck that in your pillow and sleep well on it.

Maybe we might wade into the putrid waters of energy, and see how they gave billions away in the energy bill. That bill gave the federal gov’t the ability to override local opposition when it comes to planning liquified natural gas facilities. This type of facility may do harm to local fisheries, and we’ve got enough problems here what with coastal erosion. And the energy bill repealed PUCHA, New Deal legislation designed to protect the nation’s energy system from monopoly. Goodby PUCHA? Hello Enron…again.

Folks, the passage of the god-awful legislation is not about republicans being in control of both houses. I wish it were. Because it would mean we actually have an aware and awake opposition party. But the democrats, many of them, are going along with legislation that is blatantly pro-corporate. I think they believe we aren’t paying attention.

I wonder if we are.

This issue then is not about electing democrats. We have seen the system swallow too many, well-meaning individuals with its promises of largely unchecked power.

The issue is: what is the progressive agenda? What kind of world do we visualize and are we willing to put our time, our energy, indeed, our muscle, into creating such a world? And after the formulation of this agenda, how do we effectively communicate it to our elected representatives? How do we as citizens work to bring it about?

The rise of the corporate/neocon agenda is directly proportional to the lack of an active and vital progressive agenda.

This leads me to this question: what has Cindy taught us? What is she continuing to teach us?  

Here’s my two cents:  That we are stronger when we come together…and….the quality of the issue we come together over will determine the growth of its strength.

It’s an equation, of sorts. People can come together over all kinds of issues, but the strength  of their unity will be measured by the soundness of their principles.

I’m proposing that we develop our agenda and fine tune it, and let it include holding democrats’ and reublicans’ collective feet to the fire over bad legislation. Part of that agenda might include these negatives:

We will not consider supporting a representative or senator who has voted for the bankruptcy bill. We demand that this legislation be repealed.

We will not consider supporting a representative or senator who voted for the Real ID Act. We want this legislation repealed.

We will not consider supporting a representative or senator who voted for the Patriot Act. We want this legislation repealed.

These bills, named above, are anti-democratic, and in some way, threaten the strength of our democracy. If you supported them, as a voting member of Congress, then you must answer to the people.

You get my drift. And I know you are thinking: well, that would preclude just about everyone in Congress.

Exactly my point. They are doing, what they are doing, because there is no accountability. We must create the accountability.

And, as Cindy has shown, we must come together to do this.

John Roberts is a dangerous man. He is a dangerous man because he poses a dual threat: he poses a threat to the environment, and the right of Congress, through the commerce clause, to protect the environment. His environmental record, by far, indicates someone who conforms to the Reagan doctine of rolling back environmental safe-guards with worship of the dollar bill serving as the bottom line.

In fact, one might say that Roberts supports commerce that involves the trade of endangered species for profitable development.

Consider the Hapless Toad:
There is an environmental panel this moment on C-Span, and this panel will air again tonight on C-Span 2 from 9:30 to 11p.m.

I derived my sources for this diary from http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2005/07/22/
gertz-roberts/. (Sorry, need to study links further)

What has many environmentalists quaking in their boots regarding his nomination is his position on the ability of Congress to regulate commerce to protect clean water, clean air and endangered species.

In other words, what is at issue is the power of the people, through Congress to protect and preserve our environmental heritage for our children and grandchildren.

Robert’s snarky opinion was funny to many observors, but the joke is on us, and the environment.

What is at stake, what is endangered, is the power of the people through Congress, and the enactment of laws, to regulate commerce in the name of clean air, clean water, and the preservation and restoration of our natural resources.

There was an environmental panel today on c-span that included some environmental high rollers, all very nervous about the Roberts’ nomination. Yet not a one said, unabashadly, this nomination ought to be opposed.

Well I’m going to say it. This nomination ought to be opposed. Vigorously. No question.

We can’t afford someone who holds beliefs in direct contrast with the protection of environmental safeguards.

We cannot afford doubts as to the motives of a supreme court nominee in regards to the environment.

The commerce clause must be protected as a tool for Congress to regulate and pass laws to protect our environment.

Like it or not, we the people speak through our elected representatives. WE must protect the commerce clause as  a means of protecting the environment.

There are many reasons to oppose John Roberts. Safeguarding and restoring our environmental heritage is just one of them.

This from a London Review Of Books article. that chronicles the looting of our treasury, and the treasury of Iraq since the war. The question must be asked: Mr. Bremer, where is the money?

From the article:

Again, from the article:

Ed Harriman, the author of this article, lists the agencies in charge of investigating the disappearance of billions in Iraq. Rep. Henry Waxman, ranking minority member of the House Government Reform Committee Minority Office, is doing some good work on this issue.  Here is Harriman’s list from the article:

US House of Representatives Government Reform Committee Minority Office
| Link: http://www.democrats.reform.house.gov/
US General Accountability Office
| Link: http://www.gao.gov/
Defense Contract Audit Agency
| Link: http://www.dcaa.mil/
International Advisory and Monitoring Board
| Link: http://www.iamb.info/
Coalition Provisional Authority Inspector General
| Link: http://www.cpa-ig.com/
Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction
| Link: http://www.sigir.mil/

Perhaps we ought to drop Waxman a line to let him know how much we support his efforts.

Chief Tootie Montana, Mardi Gras Indian

Chief Tootie Montana collapsed at the podium at a City Council meeting in New Orleans on Monday. He died after uttering his final words into the microphone, “I want this to stop”. The Times Picayune said he was referring to the “cultural miscommunication” between Mardi Gras Indians and the police that has resulted recently in police harrassment and disruption of the St. Joseph’s Day tribal gathering, a gathering that has taken place for decades now. Other accounts report that Montana was referring directly to alleged police harrassment on that day. In my view, the misunderstanding lies with the police and our city leaders.

African-Americans of lower income in New Orleans are getting it from all sides. From the destruction of the St. Thomas Housing Development, to the secretive plans now to do the same to the Iberville Housing Development. I say secretive, because in April, Hands Off Iberville Coalition attended a City Council meeting in which members stated “nothing” was being planned for Iberville. I heard this with my own ears. Then recently, in answer to the coalition’s Freedom of Information Request, minutes of a March meeting between Councilwoman Jackie Clarkson, developer Pres Kabacoff, and former mayor Sydney Bartholemew, were released to us, revealing the types of alliances and behind the scenes machinations that it takes to demolish and move an entire African-American neighborhood. In the minutes, Kabacoff states there are too many single mothers and their children in Iberville, and they have to be “moved out”. He stated he wants the City Council and Mayor Nagin to lead the way in this.

Kabacoff wants our African-American leaders to lead the way in the removal of the heart and soul, single women and their children, of an African-American neighborhood. Were the civil rights implications not so obvious, we might also be wondering if Kabacoff is not asking African-American leaders to commit political suicide.

How long before such decisions will catch up with those who make them? It’s only a matter of time before black and white citizens become wise to the spin of such destructive projects whose reverbrations do damage to traditional culture and eliminate low income housing and drive up rents all over the city. Then there is another matter, the questionable shooting deaths of several African-American citizens, including that of unarmed Jenard Thomas in the 7th ward of the city on March 24th of 2005 .  It seems like it has become common city practice to victimize the poorest and most vulnerable of its citizens. And the people doing the victimizing are not only the adult children of wealthy New Orleans families, such as Pres Kabacoff,  but its own African American leaders as well.

It could be suggested, that in their race to do well for themselves, African-American leaders are, at times, willing to participate in, and/or watch, the attack on this city’s African-American neighborhoods, culture and citizens. These same citizens are being marginalized, literally, to the outside fringes of the city with the destruction of St. Thomas and now, possibly, Iberville Housing Development. This, despite the fact that it is these same African-Americans who work in the  hotels and restaurants, drive the cabs, serve the chicken and hamburgers, to downtown office workers, conventioneers and tourists, in and around the French Quarter and Central Business District.

Iberville Housing Development is smack dab in the middle of the downtown, on the outskirts of the French Quarter, on prime real estate that developers like the architect of the destruction of St. Thomas, Kabacoff, are drooling to get their hands on. One only has to sit at Popeye’s Fried Chicken at the corner or Rampart and Canal St., as Councilman Oliver Thomas did recently and admitted in a recent meeting, and watch the flow of human traffic to know that many of the people there are flowing from Iberville, wearing the uniforms of the hotels and restaurants of our famed inner city.

The destruciton of Iberville would not only be the destruction of desperately needed and disappearing affordable, inner city housing, but the destruction of a neighborhood as well. Originally constructed during the New Deal era, the thick, red-brick buildings represent one of the last, possibly in the nation, downtown African- American neighborhoods that is so close to the vibrant, central economic hum of an American city, This is where the jobs are, not in New Orleans east, no matter how much money is poured there into sagging cinemas that have little chance of recovery, like the recent decision by the City Council awarding $1 million to Plaza Cinema in New Orleans east.

Goodby, Mr. Tootie Montana, I followed you and your tribe a few times, and aquired some beautiful pictures as a result. I witnessed first hand the splendid and wild energy of the Mardi Gras Indians as they made their rounds in mixed and African-American neighborhoods, that, at least for a while, were able to suspend ordinary drudgery and concerns as you paraded with your spy boys, and anyone wanting a more brightly colored reality.

You were right, Mr. Montana. I, too want the destruction of African-American traditions and neighborhoods to stop before all of the vibrant color of this city is drained of its joy and spontaneity.