Gentilly Girl- a part of the 99%

January 30, 2008

“My Hands Are Tied”…

Well Federal Court Judge Duval ruled that the ACOE, though guilty of negligence in the design and construction of the Flood walls for our outfal canals was immune from prosecution due to a 1928 Law.

Here are some of his words: “In his ruling, Duval said he was forced by law to hold the Corps immune even though the agency “cast a blind eye” in protecting New Orleans and “squandered millions of dollars in building a levee system … which was known to be inadequate by the Corps’ own calculations.”

In my way of seeing things, this is no longer a Civil case, but a Criminal case.

More from Judge Duval: “The byzantine funding and appropriation methods for this undertaking were in large part a cause of this failure,” Duval said, referring to the politics-riddled process Congress has for funding Corps projects.”

I understand Judge Duval’s reasoning on this. This case will have to climb the judicial ladder to the Supremes in order to get a just decision. This will most definitely have to go to the Congress. The ACOE committed criminal actions, but the U.S. Congress is also to blame. The point of our Gov’mental system is to aid our citizens, not cheap out their protections that all of us Americans desire for each other and ourselves. (The Social Contract, remember?) We are all in this together, ‘eh?

And today this from California.

As an engineer myself, though not an ACOE-type, it’s beyond time to cleanse house and actually do the J.O.B. they are paid to do, period. As a citizen, and a Veteran, I want to see the ACOE cleaned out and some form of responsibility concerning the building of protections for our Country’s people to be straightened out so there is way for reparations when the Feds fuck up.

That which is authorized by, and paid for by, the citizens of this country must be freakin’ applied properly in each and every instance.

January 13, 2008

Kindly Thoughts (?) From the “New” America

Yesterday some syphilitic ass decided to type a piece that is another slam job against our city and the folks that live here. It is a vile and putrid screed originating from a  “Conservative mind” that relies on USA Today for the information.

Oyster weighed in, and then asked Ashley to take out the garbage. Cousin Pat did his thing, and me… well I just posted some comments. (had crap to do yesterday concerning our house.)  All in all, I think the fuckmook and his little allies got an eyeful of the real truth about New Orleans as they hurridly tried to find the Back key.

BTW- The mook even trashed our cuisine and our coffee. What a piece of work from a “New Amerikkkan”. Many of the comments are also from this herd of brain dead blobs of protoplasm.
Don’t fuck with us swamp people. That’s the lesson for today.

Sinn Fein!

November 20, 2007

Managing Projects: Not the ACOE’s Longsuit

Why doesn’t the ACOE dig big holes in Georgia so that they have reservoirs for the next batch of rainstroms, and just “dispose” of the clay wastes into our levees?

It’s not rocket science you medaled boys and girls of the Army Congenital Order of Engineers. I just saved you billions 0f Dollars, and you can do two good things at once. (Ya’s can do two things at once, right?)

Wanna bet the Feds will find a regulation about this idea that fucks it up?

November 12, 2007

FEMA Trailers Vanish!

Filed under: Federal Flood,FEMA,Levees,New Orleans,Rebuilding — Tags: , , , , — Morwen Madrigal @ 10:58 pm

Over the past week I’ve been seeing FEMA trailers being hauled out of the sacred “Lost Neighborhood” where our house sits. I kept thinking that something is strange since we didn’t have that many trailers in our neck of the woods and I didn’t notice any missing from the neighboring homes.

Well we went to visit “The House” to say hi and all, and then I noticed that an entire FEMA trailer park was gone. There were no craters signifying a meteor strike or wholesale abduction by aliens (FEMA and Shaw Group folks act like aliens…). There were no charred remains of those gaseous emergency shelters either. I figured that it was just magick, plain and simple.

The FEMA park filled Perry Rhoem Park, a football and baseball field that is the center of our neighborhood. So many folks showed up for the games, even if they didn’t have kids playing, and many would be grilling up goodies for all and sundry. It broke my heart to see the fields covered in white boxes on wheels… where would the kids play?

It turns out that there really aren’t that many kids around anymore. I still plan to do some fundraising so that the park will be better than before… a thank you to the fields for being a temporary home for so many folks, but when will our city have all of the various teams of short kids wearing huge shoulder pads or the little ones swinging a bat taller then themselves?

It is progress in the Post-Flood world here, but I will be very much saddened if the park doesn’t get used for what it was meant for very soon.

Crescent City Stories

Harry Shearer is still plugging away for New Orleans. These are wonderful vignettes of life post-Federal Flood here in the city.

I read everything that Harry writes about the area, but I missed this, so thanks to Chris Rose for the heads-up. I cried through all of them… tears of Joy.

I love New Orleans.

Once again, it’s Sinn Fein.

November 9, 2007

The Dutch Seawalls Are Getting Tested…

Filed under: Levees,Netherlands,Sea Walls,Storms — Tags: , , , — Morwen Madrigal @ 3:52 am

Two hours ago a storm hit the UK and the North Sea, pushing a fairly large storm surge into the sea. It is exotropical, so this is mainly a wind and surge type storm.
Last night the Netherlands closed their sea gates in order to protect their Nation. Let’s see how well their concepts of protection work.

November 6, 2007

Bush Veto on WRDA Overidden in the House Of Representatives

” A veto last week by President George W. Bush of a popular water projects bill was overridden by the House of Representatives on Tuesday, moving Congress closer to enacting legislation that would authorize $23 billion for nearly 900 projects across the United States.”

Full Article.

Now it’s up to the Senate tomorrow to do the same.

November 4, 2007

ChatUsHome Alert!: By Nov. 6– chance to get reform of FEMA elevation allowances for Lousiana homeowners

For those who have been following the news concerning rebuilding along the Gulf Coast post-hurricanes/Federal Flood, you might know that Mitigation Grants were being awarded that would aid folks in rebuilding safer and with less cost to the Nation in the event of another disaster.

We were awarded an ICC Grant for mitigation of our dangers by us raising the house to above the Base Flood Elevation and in accordance with the newest flood depth maps provided by the ACOE two months ago, but FEMA had to consider a way to allow those of us who have already done the necessary work to be re-imbursed for work  done prior to their October announcement.

FEMA is now in the process of amending it’s procedures and policy since the situation down here has taken too long and many of us decided that we didn’t wish to hang out and wait for the funds to be disbursed. We decided to work on our homes and do the right thing. We are rebuilding NOW.

CHAT has just alerted us to FEMA’s upcoming procedural changes, but as usual, FEMA didn’t give much of a lead time on these changes, and that’s were we need you to help. Please visit CHAT and send their message to the Feds by Nov. 6th.

This is vital to folks’ rebuilding efforts. Many people here in New Orleans, with the promise of these Grants have moved forward on getting back into our homes and businesses, but unless some of the rules are changed, we will never see those monies. If the latter proves to be the case, those of us who showed initiative in rebuilding will be shorted many dollars that were promised to us all because of forgotten procedural rules on the part of the Federal Government’s part.

October 25, 2007

Blackwater in NOLA

Filed under: Crime,Federal Flood,Katrina,Levees,Louisiana,New Orleans — Tags: , , , , , — Morwen Madrigal @ 12:27 am

Loki at Humid City finally posted the Bill Moyers interview with a journalist that was here during the Flood concerning Blackwater.

Was Eric Prince angling for a Federal contract by bringing his shock troops into New Orleans to prove a point?

September 19, 2007

Shock Doctrine Redux

Here’s another review of Naomi Klein’s “The Shock Doctrine”.

‘Nuff fucking said.

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