I just came from the Orange Zone. Despite all the front page exuberance about her accession to power tomorrow, and how this is going to make American history, I just cannot feel anything for Nancy Pelosi just yet.
Here is what I wrote in response one diary:
Madam Speaker, two words.
NEW ORLEANS
I’m effing sick and tired of excuses from the true THUGS.
I’m scouring your list to find anything having to do with rebuilding New Orleans, and I SEE NOTHING.
I’m tired of seeing Louisiana AND New Orleans being considered less than a stepchild.People need to be rebuild their lives, if not their homes.
The wolves are not only at the door in New Orleans.
They are living inside the broken houses that are left, with people and families living cheek by jowl with strangers, acquaintances and friends whose patience are at the breaking point. People are being raped, shot, and molested.
And killed.
People get kicked out of FEMA trailers without warning and lose their whatever valuables, clothing and money that they have left. They are left with no place to go. They are left homeless.
The wolves will indeed turn on the rest of the country, if you and the Dems continue to DO NOTHING about NEW ORLEANS. You don’t have the Repubs to blame anymore for inactions.
Here’s a few suggestions:
**Get the BushCo symps and former Administration hangers-on out of The Road Home Program.
**Give Program applicants a fair price for their property–based on pre-Katrina values.
**Upgrade and reopen hospitals and schools. And about those schools: put them under Department of Education supervision and get some security that won’t put bullets into youngsters’ heads or walk off with equipment and materials to fence.
**Put the NOPD under Department of Justice supervision again.
**Give Katrina evacuees the choice of a one-way ticket back home so that they can retrieve their dead from locked homes, bury them with honor, and figure out whether it is worth it for them to stay. If Europeans did it with their refugees, why not Americans with their evacuees? Nothing less breaks the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights.
You’ve got six months. I’ve got a scorecard.
The clock is ticking.
Isn’t it that simple?
Because if they don’t do anything–Pelosi, Dean, Frank, Conyers and I don’t care who–I am, and a lot of other people are going to believe that the Dem leadership are practically in cahoots with these murderers.
We did not put them in office so that they could ‘surge’ with Bush and do nothing about New Orleans and the families with kids, husbands, wives, cousins, et al. in Iraq.
Out of Iraq and into New Orleans.
I am so sick of congratulatory BS when Raw Story is reporting that Dems may go along with Bush escalating into Iraq.
One more thing.
Tillie Olsen, a woman writer who raised her kids and then managed to publish and was recognized for her work later in life, died January 1.
She was 94.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tillie_Olsen
I met her about 20 years ago, when I was once a poet.
Glad to see this on the front page!
Oh–and I don’t think you can ever be a former poet. :<)
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/15361934.htm
He sounded the alarm about Katrina; calling and calling Nagin and the governor and others. He was reportedly highly upset over the loss of life that occurred, and it was also rumored that the Bush Administration had wanted to scapegoat him, saying that he didn’t do his job. The hurricane center was his life.
Of course, Ivor van Heerden continues to draw fire within LSU, the state and the Feds:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/30/books/30stor.html?ex=1306641600&en=0e0db3ff031f3f7a&ei=508
8&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
I think that I heard yet another rumor that they were trying to engineer his ouster. The university did tell him to shut up regarding his book, The Storm because they feared that he was endangering needed public and Federal funds for LSU.
I agree: we need to purchase tickets for those who were forcibly evacuated from the region; and we must eliminate any and all remnants of the Bush administration from the Louisiana Road Home Program. I am also concerned about FEMA’s allocation of money to states affected by Katrina. According to Mary Landrieu, Mississippi will receive four times the amount of money for housing than will Louisiana, although we suffered three times more damage than did Mississippi. Pelosi and Melancon should mobilize the caucus around these very simply requests. In fact, I will telephone a few key Democrats tomorrow.
Being that I am not a Dem… I agree. I will give them an opportunity to show their true colours. And I will be quite vocal about what I see if it is wrong.
I would hate to see the Democratic parrty end up as fractured as the GOP has become, but it is all up to them whether or not they keep deserving the benefit of the doubt or lose it all on “right-wing-politics-as-usual”.
We need to focus all of that wasted money in Iraq on something more useful… And NOLA is one of the first things that comes to mind.
thanks so much for keeping the spotlight on this outrage blksista, and thanks to Steven D for rightfully elevating it on this day.
The new congress need only go to their local newspaper today to get the lowdown:
Many residents of New Orleans are rebuilding houses in flood-prone areas without elevating their foundations, inviting future disaster, the Washington Post reports. Various levels of government point fingers at each other as residents with limited resources try to rebuild as best they can…
Hopefully, Hegel’s warning will prove overly gloomy in this case: “What experience and history teach is this — that people and governments never have learned anything from history, or acted on principles.”
History certainly is being made, but at what cost?
Dems, it’s still there today.
IT WILL BE THERE TOMORROW.
IF YOU CONTINUE TO DO NOTHING.
I love that the Out of Iraq into New Orleans line is being used. Didn’t Clammyc accidently write that one day and Military Tracy picked up on it? It should be on every Americans lips right now. Thanks so much for keeping this in the forefront. What can we as ordinary citizens do to help?
Patricia Thomas, resident of Lafitte Housing Development, died in a car accident last weekend. Lafitte remains closed even though it barely suffered any damage from Katrina.
Patricia moved 7 times since Katrina. She was worn out,but she was involved in the struggle to reopen public housing in New Orleans.
People are dying from stress, from other causes. People get tired of fighting. Thanks blksta for keeping the flame for New Orleans alive and burning on this site.
Patricia Saveria Thomas
THOMAS Patricia Saveria “”Sista-Sista” Thomas passed away on Saturday, December 30, 2006 at 1pm of a car accident. She was 47 years old. Beloved daughter of the late Gwendolyn Thomas. Also survived by 5 sisters, Cynthia Townsend, Lucretia Terrence, Joanell Bell, Alanda and Troynetta Thomas; 4 brothers Chris, Bruce, Cordell and the late Danell Thomas and a host of other relatives and friends. Relative and friends are invited to attend the funeral service on Friday, January 5, 2007 at Ephesus SDA Church 2400 Delachaise St. NOLA. at 10:00am. Visitation at 9:00am. Rev. T. Ron Weeger, Officiating. Interment in Mt. Olivet Cemetery. Majestic Mortuary in charge of arrangements.
Published in The Times-Picayune on 1/4/2007.
and bringing a needed dose of reality to what is in fact a historic and momentous day.
Like I said in an earlier comment, looking at the democratic house members is like looking at the true America. Let’s make sure that we truly become more inclusive and ensure real lives for people irregardless of race and income.
Thanks also for the heads up on Tillie Olson, I came across her story many years ago. An amazing women and a true inspiration when the chips are down and you’re feeling whupped, beat and finding it hard to move forward. Kinda like Scribe’s posts! 🙂