So… the West Bank Levee Board is demanding $1.4 M from the East Bank Levee Board… Algiers’ reps have no vote over there, BTW.
I think the answer is best summed up by “No taxation without representation”. ‘Nuff said WB.
LINK
March 31, 2007
WB Levee Board Demands…
March 28, 2007
GAO Looks Into MWI Pump Poop
From WDSU comes this piece by Cain Burdeau-Â LINK
May the shit storm begin!
March 26, 2007
Pump Poop III: The Fire
Matt over at Fix the Pumps has a long piece concerning the failure of a pump test (MWI) that resulted in the test building badly damaged by fire and one worker dying due to his burns.
Matt tells it better than I can…
March 20, 2007
More Pump Poop
This is probably what they’ll do next for our pump situation:
Thanks to the Toledo Blade.
March 19, 2007
Unstable Foundations
I found this wonderful piece posted at Common Dreams.It is a well done presentation by Rebecca Solnit on the state of recovery in New Orleans.
Here’s some snippets:
“Despite its decline, New Orleans remains a port city and a major tourist destination. But it also matters because it’s beautiful, with its houses — from shacks to mansions — adorned with feminine, lacy-black ironwork or white, gingerbread wood trim, with its colossal, spreading oaks and the most poetic street names imaginable; because the city and the surrounding delta are the great font from which so much of our popular music flows; because people there still have a deep sense of connection and memory largely wiped away in so many other places; because it is a capital city for black culture, including traditions that flowed straight from Africa; because, in some strange way, it holds the memory of what life was like before capitalism and may yet be able to teach the rest of us something about what life could be like after capitalism.”Â
“We all owe New Orleans and those who suffered most in Katrina a huge debt. Their visible suffering and the visibly stupid, soulless, and selfish response of the federal government brought an end to the unquestionable dominance of the Bush administration in the nearly four years between New York’s great disaster and this catastrophe. In China, great earthquakes were once thought to be signs that the mandate of heaven has been withdrawn from the ruling dynasty. Similarly, the deluges of Katrina washed away the mandate of the administration and made it possible, even necessary, for those who had been blind or fearful before to criticize and oppose afterwards.”Â
We need more thinking people such as Rebecca.
March 16, 2007
More on MWI’s Past Dealings
I love Facing South, from the Institute For Southern Studies. Here’s their piece on Moving Waters Industries (MWI) and some deeper info concerning their past pump deals.
March 14, 2007
Corps Install Faulty Drain Pumps in 2006
This story has been all over the Blogosphere today. I picked it up late last night, but was too tired to address the report.
Tonight, Matt at “Fix the Pumps” hands us a link to the Memo of the testing of these pumps by MWI, the pumps’ manufacturers (Bush-community friends, BTW.).
I spent almost ten years as a Nuclear Engineer with the Navy. I know how to read reports on equipment specs and testing. These memos show a horror story of the desire for money over providing a product that many people must depend on for their safety and the safety of their property. I am completely appalled at the lack of oversight and integrity in the construction of these pumps that were to protect us from flooding in New Orleans. I am also furious that the Corpse installed pumps that they knew were faulty, and then telling the city and the State that things would be okay pre-’06 Hurricane season!
It’s past time to hire the Dutch.
March 10, 2007
Levees.Org Has Videos
Levees.org has come up with some good short videos that outline what is needed to protect the Metro area from Tropical storms and flooding. They also cover MRGO and levee failures in the city.
Give ‘em a look-see!
March 9, 2007
I Want Don Powell’s Head on a Pike in My Yard…
WWL had this piece yesterday, and I was just way too fucking angry to respond then, but I’m a little calmer now (NOT!)
“President Bush’s top man in charge of the Gulf Coast recovery said that 18 months after Katrina, conditions in New Orleans are ‘better than he thought’ they would be.”Â
WTF exactly does Powell mean by this? Better? Dammit! Folks have no homes, no jobs, no healthcare, no Psych care… Freakin’ nothing after 18 months of living in Post-Federal Flood New Orleans. That cesspool called NYC got immediate relief after some Saudis decided to crash planes into the WTC. We here in New Orleans are still trying to rebuild our lives a year and a half later whilst wading through red tape and misery.
And then this walking penis states that, “Things are better than he thought they would be.”? Shit white boy… we have recovered much faster than this from natural disasters, but I just guess that it being a Federally mandated catastrophe makes stuff different. Wake up and smell the mold asshole: WE ARE NOT FREAKIN” OK! (Only a policy wonk could see things this way.)
Donnie boy? I want you to walk through Gentilly with me, through the Lower Ninth, Mid-City, Lakeview and NW Carrolton and then look me in the eye and explain how things are doing better than your guv’mit expected. I want you to face me and tell me what you jerks “expected” to happen. Then I’ll behead your sorry ass and place your pained expression on a pike in my front yard.
The excesses and material nature of your National Culture are slowly killing us down here in the swamps. You pay lip-service to helping us rebuild after a Federally created disaster to our lives. I want your damn lips to kiss my panty-clad ass, and then make things right.
March 6, 2007
Last Chance- Part Three
Here’s the link for the last of the T-P’s special report on Coastal Restoration and the dire need we have down here in the swamps.