Sad, a very sad and compelling story.

There is money to rebuild, but as the author points out, the story of this area near 'Nawlins is yet another tale of buddy-system, take-care-of-our-own, cash-in-while-you-can politics that is so prevalent today in America. It's been destructive to this country on so many levels, and in this case, so damaging to this region. God bless Biloxi for what she's had to endure, and God have mercy on the souls of her leeches.

Chertoff for AG? Let's take a poll. And Jimmy Buffett -- you should be ashamed.

When Katrina hit, millions of people gave money - at the supermarket, through web sites, etc. - has anyone figured out what happened to all that money?

If not, why not? How could billions be donated and apparently none of it got to the people we meant it to go to? I'm sure I didn't give a couple of hundred dollars so that some casinos could refurbish their lobbies.

Business is War…it is…and the enemy has intelligence on you the-middle-class -

They pay your salary…some of you working for 8-10-20-28 dollars an hour in the local business community….You are the needy naive suckers they are trying to use for profit and discard into your trailers and a change back to - 4 jobs a week - when they are finished with you …

They will find enough outsiders to keep their plans for cheap wealth a secret from you;, gained from your depressed condition. Economically and mentally?

…Now - turn your job around on them while being a pleasant hard worker…trusted to be effective - and a little naive to what you are carrying out – while working for subsistence - in the name of the Moneychangers….

Are you with me still?

Right?

It is up to those locals and realistic inhabitants of the-middle-class to investigate…

(Not Neo-Republicans. Who seek wealth at the expense of people motivated by something other than money, like family or circumstances)

(difficult but not impossible with web-sites. blogging and conventional social networks, bars?)

Hint: Someone is directing the money, licensees contracts bids, reading solicitations, etc.

Alot of labor is brought in from outside to keep the secrets...

Locals and interested individuals also work for all of these interests...

Listen to every word, read every document, information is Power, you need fuel to prevail in this War.

You need a well-designed Grass roots? web-site, to take hints, tips, rants - from a fifth-column of informers through-out local government and investment and building interest...

Share this information and you can put a wedge in the wheels of Crooked commerce.

The crooks will move to easier pickings...

You who wedged the issue will see them leave

Pass on your intelligence to the place they go next...or sell it like as capitalist.

Either way have the intelligence grow and follow the wealthy..

At the worst those of you who start this will be in a position to get rich by joining the enemy or incarcerated for fomenting domestic terrorism…after all, if you are not with the neo-cons they can dis-appear you…so go hide – or fight back – your choice,

“Pussy.”

Says, Bushie?

All those nasty casino businesses opening up and expanding, bringing jobs. Pity they're driving out all those companies that wanted to build high-tech manufacturing facilities including beautiful new housing and pay unskilled workers $50/hour. Oh, no, wait, they aren't.

But it did not help my argument so I left it out.

See we learn from you sneaky little devils:)

Thanks again for your considered guidance:)

I do admit I hear the Casinos are paying mexican master craftsman 35-50 dollars an hour...

The same coincy-dentily they pay their government workers who help with the flow of paperwork profits worth 500-5,000 percent.

Equal pay for equal profit be dammed.

They are doing the right thing...

Again I admit my wrong head-n-ness and slink back to my mastabatory.

I think the takeaway is that at some point you have to accept that the government is not going to help you. Now they can abandon NOLA to the snakes and the gators or they can try to salvage what they can. But the idea that these people are ENTITLED to be restored to exactly where they were before Katrina is naive. We here have hurricanes all the time, and the notion that somehow the government, any government should move mountains and restore shorelines 100% and rebuild whole flood plains even where entire towns have been wiped out is a myth. Perhaps it's time to revisit those planning assumptions about where and what to rebuild.

I wrote this article and it was posted to the OpEd News site exactly one year ago. I don't want to say, "I told you so", but.......

Rebuilding New Orleans - Bush Style

One of the biggest mistakes Americans make is to accept the spin that Bush Republicans actually believe in, as one columnist put it, "a conservative ideology that is leery of Federal bailouts". Nothing could be further from the truth. The fiscally fickle Bush Republicans have absolutely no trouble using Federal bailouts when they or their friends are the recipients. In fact, the only time Bush Republicans don't like Federal bailouts is when they might help non-Bush Republicans. Then bailouts are bad, very bad. Then it's all about 'starve the beast'. And Bush Republicans only starve the beasts that don't serve them.

What does this have to do with New Orleans? Quite simply, it is the underlying motivation for what passes as reconstruction in the Bush Administration, or, more accurately, the lack of reconstruction. When it comes to rebuilding New Orleans, as with everything else, only those things which serve the interests of Bush Republicans will actually receive funding and support. By that standard, it is completely acceptable that a good part of New Orleans, including citizens, can be left to rot, a large portion of the city's population can be permanently relocated, and great swaths of destroyed city can be claimed and redistributed to Bush cronies to achieve their political and financial goals. That's Reconstruction, Bush-style.

Some people think that when Mr. Bush finally flew over New Orleans and viewed the hurricane damage from Air Force One, he finally grasped the extent of the devastation. More than likely, he was seeing what Condi would term the "opportunity" side of a "crisis", and hearing the "ka-ching" of potential profits. How many days after that flight did Halliburton have its first no-bid Federal contract in New Orleans?

This new Southern Reconstruction will serve all of the Republicans' deliciously low partisan aims. The once blue state of Louisiana will be remade as a red state, simply by making it economically improbable, if not impossible, for a significant portion of the once predominantly Democratic population to ever return to their lives in New Orleans - redistricting that Tom DeLay could only fantasize about. How brilliant are Bush Republicans for not losing sight of political ideology when presented with disaster-induced opportunity?

After all, who's the hero, the one who reaches across partisan lines to help countrymen in a time of natural disaster or the one who cleverly uses that disaster to increase their own fortunes and those of like-minded individuals? We know which choice this White House made. All the same players who brought Bush-style Reconstruction to Iraq were brought into New Orleans faster than Katrina breeched the levees. They had years to hone their highly profitable, misery-inducing, corrupt, self-serving skills in Iraq and they were handsomely paid to bring that expertise to New Orleans. The Big Sleazy comes to the Big Easy. Now, as we pass the first anniversary of Katrina, instead of a rebuilt New Orleans, we have Baghdad on the Bayou; a ruined city, rife with corruption and misery.

Some people think that the rampant corruption of Bush Republicans is a sign of incompetence. But it would be another really big mistake to confuse their corruption with incompetence. Bush Republicans are not incompetent about the things that matter to them. In fact, they are frighteningly competent when they want to be. One year after Katrina, they have failed as miserably here as they did in Iraq, but only in areas which do not matter to them. When it comes to avoiding responsibility while simultaneously profiting off of disaster and corruption, they remain unsurpassed.

It doesn't take a Bourbon Street psychic to see the future of New Orleans. She will rise again. She will exist as a testament to the Machiavellian use of leveraging disaster for political and financial gain, visible evidence of the real moral code of today's Bush Republicans. New Orleans will see the widespread use of politically and racially motivated eminent domain in place of genuine reconstruction. African Americans who have lived for generations in New Orleans will find insurmountable obstacles impeding their efforts to reclaim or inherit their own property. They will face a burden of proof beyond the capabilities of many of them. And many of those who can prove their right to their property will find eminent domain used to deny them their inheritance anyway.

Big-time Republican donors and corporate interests will then divvy up New Orleans amongst themselves like the Romans under the cross throwing lots for Christ's meager possessions. And the Bush Administration will use Federal bailouts to reward them for doing so.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_ruth_lop_060828_reconstruction_redux.htm