Welcome to FDL Sunday at the Movies and a warm welcome to Tia Lessin and Carl Deal, the directors/producers of Trouble the Water. For those of you who are new to our discussion format, you’ll type your questions/comments in the comment box and hit “send comment.” To reply to a specific question or comment, click the “reply” button under that comment and type away. Oh and I am not a great typist..so please pardon my typos!

Please refresh your browser every minute or to see new questions, replies and comments.

Today we’ll be discussing Trouble the Water and the amazing story of Kim and Scott Rogers the film’s protagonists, Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, FEMA and the Bush administration’s response, the city’s recovery/lack thereof…

Welcome Tia and Carl!

How did you two meet Kim and Scott and get involved wiht them?

thanks lisa, we are so happy to be online with you! this is my first chat!

Carl and I were stunned by the failures of our government before, during and after Katrina. Like so many others, we decided to channel that outrage into action…

We set out to make a film in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina that we hoped would help us make some sense out of the tragedy, and the outrage that so many of us felt. We connected with Kimberly and Scott in a shelter in Central Louisiana a few weeks after the levees broke. We were impressed by so much about them – their courage, their optimism, and the way they reached back for people in their community when everything around them was coming down….

Welcome Tia and Carl. Best luck at the festival. Looks like a must see movie.

Welcome Tia and Carl.

I haven’t seen your movie but do have a question. Have you provided copies to folks like Joe Lieberman, Mary Landrieu, and Susan Collins? Seems they could all use the reminder of Katrina.

Tia, just remember to keep hitting refresh every minute or so and you’ll be fine! Thanks for trying out this new way to mass interviewing/chatting. It’s a blast!

Ha! Nancy could get them all together in the YOU LIE center for a viewing!

Senator Mary Landrieu actually attended a screening a the DNC in Denver last year, and tearfully embraced the stars of the film, KIimberly and Scott, and told Kimberly she should run for mayor!

They are an amazing couple, astounding backstory too!

That’s cool. Is Kimberly considering running?

Kim has incredible peopel skills..and a strong spirit! She should be in a political position. How is her rap career going? He song “Amazing” is actually really good.

Kim and Scott really exposed themselves to us, and to the world through this film. And enabled so many to understand their triumphs and challenges…

that’d be a nearby “naval base” ..

check out her website http://www.bornhustlerrecords.com

she’s a star!

Indeed. Kimberly, AKA BlackKoldMadina, and Scott, AKA Deezy 3000, are writing and recording new music on their label Born Hustler Records all the time. They have a lot to say.

sorry for the delayed responses, carl and i are both online…

Katrina was such a huge failure of America. And I wonder if it had been, oh say Martha’ Vineyard or Bel Air, CA if the response might have been different…

well all you need to look at is the $700 billion bailout to see how different a federal response can be.

there has yet to be adequate federal, state or local action to deal with the man made disaster that was katrina.

It was really subtle how you revealed their story, allowing “amazing” to tell us the ugly facts f their lives after we had gotten to know them…and really showing us that the stereotypes of drug dealers as hard-ass criminals are not even close to truth–these were people who had no real options of choices until nature and the government did some serious damage.

Iloved seeing Scott LOVE his job, a ob he got simply because he was a nice good guy–the goodness of both Kim and Scott shone through, thier love of their neighbors and the city..beautiful!

Have you tracked any of the money that was identified for the Katrina Response? How much really got there to the people in the street?

Love love love this movie, 10 stars. So sorry they ever had to make it! I just wanted to bring Kim and Scott home all through it. Even without the storm it masterfully describes the plight of so many Americans today.

What happened to their friend, Derrick (?), did he go back to New Orleans as well?

It may be too late to evacuate the 100,000 poor people who were abandoned to the Katrina floods, but it is not too late to start doing right by those who have returned home, or who still want to return. There are dozens of groups fighting for this who are listed on http://www.troublethewaterfilm.com who need your support.

And where did the billions go that was supposed ot to releif–not all of was melted ice in warehouses…

we considered ending the film with that spontaneous performance of amazing…

It’s the ultimate self-affirmation “I don’t need YOU to tell me that I’m amazing” , this after she sings about surviving a childhood surrounded by poverty, violence and neglect.

Brian was their gentle friend who accompanied kim and scott on their journey out of the city. he’s back in new orleans with his family.

I visited New Orlean for the first time in 2006, and again in sprin 2007, and even not having seen the city before, it was clear to me–aside formt he damaged building, the street cars not running..that there had been a very profound change in the make up of the city…the patois I had come ot associate wiht New Orleans form phnes calls made for work (I fact check a travel guide) was dissipating, the accent of city wa sbeing replaced because so many long time residents were gone

Well, lets put it this way: barely half of the federal money allocated to katrina recovery has been delivered. And no renters received financial assistance from the $10 billion federal rebuilding program called the Road Home.

yes, there’s a large population of “internally displaced people” living in Atlanta, Houston, Baton Rouge…we have met many of them during our time on the road with this film. they want to return, but just can not. no means to get home, no jobs when they get there.

Did Brian ever get his FEMA funds? I thought it was so lovely how the three of them bonded in the storm, never having known eahc other really before–and he had a few set backs, but it’s good to knwo he’s returned. NOLA needs her people back.

Thank goodness for Habitat for Humanity, Make It Right NOLA (whihc is rebuilding homes in the Ninth Ward, New Orleans Musician’s Relief Fund and other grups working to restore the city’s flavor..it is a truly American city, quintsstianlly so.

Wasn’t that infuriating. How on earth do soldiers turn their own people away like that (with guns)? How on earth could commanders order them to do so?

It’s appalling that renters weren;t helped–that’s disgusting. seriously! But hey, harrah’s opened.

We have both (Tia and Carl) falling in love with new orleans. And while the city is changing, and tens of thosuands still wish to return, but can’t, those who are home bring a fight and a spirit and a love of place that inspires, which is part of what we tried to capture in Trouble the Water.

yes, brian finally did get his emergency evacuation assistance from FEMA. too little, too late.

Thanks. Glad he’s home.. hope he is too.

we hold the former commander in chief, GW Bush, responsible for that one…

to date there has been no accountability for this and for so many other human rights abuses suffered by the residents of that city.

Yes, I’d certainly like to know what the excuse was for that.

And that Louisiana has the highest incarceration rate in the WORLD…And you would think that wiht the billions available schools should have been rebuilt and improved–the city has so much to offer…

the soldiers in Trouble the Water said it on camera–there job was to protect “the interests of the US government”. apparently those interests did not coincide with the interests of kimberly and scott’s community.

My 80 year old parents lost their home in Katrina. They were with us in Sacramento during the storm. We spent weeks yelling at the television. Now, we have spent years yelling into the ether.

MS got three times the money per capita that LA received. Has any of that been rectified at all since Obama?

Every time I go back to New Orleans I am more disheartened. They have been so lucky not to have had another storm. The levees are not ready. The pumping stations have bad pumps in them. New bad pumps.

Yep; the contrast with the ‘gotta do something about this NOW!!” that took place with the bank bailout last fall, the seeming concern about all the big money people in the financial industry, and the total incompetance, negligence and unconcern with the “not rich” of New Orleans is pretty stark, isn’t it? Shows where the priorities of the last Administration were.

it seems that the way that the government approaches it, all that the city has to offer is for the tourists, not for its own residents.

fortunately, there are so many on the ground fighting for change. we’ve listed some of them on our website http://www.troublethewaterfilm.com

Didn’t you show in the film that the soldiers returning from Iraq – came home to live in shelters?

So sorry for the loss of your family home. It is appalling that there has been so little accountability for the failures of government, that have cost so many people their homes and also the loss of life.
You can share your story on our website at http://www.troublethewaterfilm…..storiesnew – we’ve passed on thousands of comments to lawmakers.

there were 7500 louisiana national guardsman deployed in baghdad when katrina hit. we saw many of them return to central louisiana homeless. they went from one war zone to another.

i believe that if those guards men and women hadn’t been overseas, the city could have been evacuated and many lives would have been saved.

and imagine of the $350 million/day we were spending on the war in iraq had gone into rebuidling the levees in new orleans…

and Bush cut back repairing the levees to give the money over to the Iraq war. He got two birds with one corrupt evil stone. I hate him and his ilk.

Remember, Trouble the Water is not just about Katrina, it’s a story about navigating through hard times, through storms manmade and natural… these are hard times for so many right now, not only along the Gulf Coast but throughout the country. We hope our film can provide some hope and some inspiration.

That was shocking, to be giving your live for you country and come home to that–and on the other the National Guard who were in NOLA got shipped to Iraq…

It was to me a lot about community..and OMG, where did Scott find that truck he used to drive his neighbors to Alexandria?

And is Kim’s brother still working?

It was shocking. The guys we met wanted nothing more than to protect their own communities, and were pained that they were fighting a war overseas when they had signed up to essentially to do hurricane relief.

it’s all about community. and kimberly and scott are examples of reaching back and helping others — family, neighbors, strangers — make it through. the government had abandoned them, but they didn’t abandon their community.

Blackwater sure showed up quickly after the storm. They were patroling in boats in Old Metairie. At least, I think that is who those f’ers were that I saw in pics my brother took. Protecting homes in six feet of water rather than saving people.

Senator Mary Landrieu actually attended a screening a the DNC in Denver last year, and tearfully embraced…

the only thing that Mary Landrieu has a right to shed a tear for is her own pathetic, inadequate, ineffective, inefficient, insufficient, and non-existent efforts to help New orleans.

Does she even remember, or take into account, that she represents these people?

*spit*

Scott and Brian kept thanking and reminding the Ntl Guard–telling them the real war was right there—and it wa…

yes, blackwater was there in the alexandria airport when we first arrived in the region. we almost got a ride with them–until they realized our bags were not rifle bags, but tripod bags…jeremy scahill has documented blackwaters activity in post katrina new orleans in his book BLACKWATER. pretty outrageous.

It “Trouble the Water” we see the boats going by and hear phone calss to 911-the message was “no rescues”

Late to the thread. Excellent documentary on such a shameful and heartbreaking subject. GWB and his many failures, the handling of the Katrina disaster being one of the biggest, will always be an embarrassment to the country. Kim and Scott’s will to survive, and help others survive, was inspirational and was so brilliantly presented in the documentary. Thanks for stopping by the lake Tia and Carl.

those phone calls were devastating to listen to. hours of the same thing–desperate people stuck in their own homes, being told that rescue wasn’t coming.

Again, had it been wealthy white areas, I think there would have been a different response. I rememeber the fires in North County San Diego–lot sof $$ there, lots of resources

So glad to be here. Thanks for your comments! Where did you see the film?

and free yoga and massages, courtesy of fema…

families of those who died on 9/11 were paid an average of 1.8 million from the federal government. families of those who died because of the flooding as a result of the failure of the federally maintained levees were not compensated at all for their losses.

that just doesn’t make sense to me.

Where do Kim and Scott live in NO now – they are not back in their previous house are they?

Vertical as opposed to horizontal cultures.

And thna you both for the post on Trouble the Water’s site about Glenn Beck and asking people to support ColorofChange.org

kimberly and scott live in a different house, one that’s on higher ground.

This quote by Danny Glover is so true–and I think many many peopel in the USA (and outside) sont realize the vast poverty that is in our inner cities

When hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf and the floodwaters rose and tore through New Orleans, it did not turn the region into a Third World country… it revealed one.

I watched it on DVD and will surely recommend it to others

thank you for helping to expose the right wingers hate speech on FDL!

ColorofChange.org is leading the charge in connecting the hate speech of people like Beck to the seething extreme right who use the threat of violence to try and get their voices heard.

I just want to remind people that you have a GREAT list of resources on your site and that the DVD is available for sale there–and you have links to help set up screenings.

Has Mayor Nagan see the film? his comments? did you offer to interview him for the film?

Thank you for watching it!

We have found over the past year and a half, since the film premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film festival, and it has screened theatrically in over 300 communities, that people all over the country find connections in this film to their own lives and their own communities. That is why we chose the tag line, “Its not about a Hurricane, Its about America.”

You two produced Fahrenheit 9/11–what is your next project?

poverty that came as a result of 30 years of conservative administrations that de-industrialized the U.S. and eliminated protections for workers, consumers and communities impacted the most.

We know that Mayor Nagin has seen at least a few minutes of the film. He walked out of the screening at the Democratic National Convention. We hope he has since seen the entire film, and that he realizes what a positive portrayal of his city, and its citizens, it is.

yes, please consider bringing Trouble the Water to your campus, your local library, your community center, your living room! We have had so many groups view this film, from professional associations, to student groups, to activists. http://www.troublethewaterfilm.com

carl and i just finished working with Michael Moore on his new film CAPITALISM A LOVE STORY which opens nationwide in october!

Toward the end of the film, Kim and Scott were getting rousted by some cops, I think police as opposed to military police. What was the deal on that and what happened from it? How did their dog get shot and why?

When W’s library opens, I’m gonna go and ask where the Katrina exhibit is.

and carl and i are in production on another film of our own…

Nagin WALKED out??? OMG.

Noted scholar/Princeton professor Melissa Harris-Lacewell is supporting he boyfriend, the very qualified James Perry for mayor

I was very upset about the dog, I have to say, that dog was wiht them the whole way and helped them get back home.

haha.

Hi. Here is some more background of what happened after Hurricane Katrina went through New Orleans. This was written a few days later back in Septmeber 2005:

The Bush flooding of New Orleans: an unnatural disaster.

To the Editor: (published in the Berkeley Daily Planet newspaper)

“We don’t care, we don’t care” was the chant of pro-war, pro-Bush hecklers across the street from the Camp Casey peace vigil in Crawford, Texas in late August, 2005. This “we don’t care” chant pretty much sums up the attitude of the Bush Syndicate (B. S.) towards the rest of us in America. Actually, Bush, Cheney and the rest of this idiotic neoconical government believes that the only true function of the federal government is to create private money-making opportunities for themselves, their friends, and their corporate contributors. Any activity other than waging aggressive war to steal and colonize other countries’ natural resources falls into the category of “we don’t care.”

The Bush flood of New Orleans happened after the massive Hurricane Katrina had passed the city. It was both predictable and preventable. The Bush flood and the slow-as-molasses-in-January Bush response to it has ripped off the facade of the inept Bush Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its subsidiary, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The upper echelons of both of these massive federal bureaucracies have been staffed by incompetent and uncaring Bush buddies, cronies, hacks, frat brothers, former roommates, horse attorneys, contributors and other miscellaneous nincompoops. In making his appointments to the executive management of DHS and FEMA, Bush gave little if any thought to their actual qualifications in the field of emergency management.

Over the last several years, Bush and the GOP-controlled House and Senate have poured over one hundred billion tax dollars into “Homeland Security.” What did we get as the federal response to Hurricane Katrina? We got homeland stupidity. After the massive flooding of New Orleans, which initially covered about eighty percent of the city, thousands of residents were herded to the Superdome where they denied water, food, medicine, bedding, toilet facilities and police protection for several long days, meanwhile the Bush gang partied and carried on with their “business as usual” and “let them eat cake” imperial attitudes. George strummed his guitar, raised campaign funds, cut cake with Senator McCain, while Connie Rice did her Imelda Marcos imitation, shopping for expensive shoes in New York City before going to a Broadway play, while Cheney went on vacation, first fishing in Wyoming and then mansion shopping in Maryland, and Rumsfeld went to a professional ball game.

In the first several days of the flooding of New Orleans cable news reporters had to point out the severity of the suffering of thousands of people in the Superdome to the heads of FEMA and DHS. These two had apparently followed the lead of the ever-clueless Bush by not watching the unfolding disaster being revealed on television.

The searing images of human suffering that were shown on television in the first several days after the flooding of New Orleans showed thousands of poor people herded into the Louisiana Superdome and the New Orleans Convention Center without any water, any food, any medicines, any toilet facilities, any bedding or any police protection.

The conduct of the inept corrupt Bush regime in this unnatural disaster (the Bush flood and the slow spastic Bush response of flood relief) is nothing short of criminal. Since the illegitimate Bush regime came to power in January 2001, they have allowed and encouraged massive developments in the natural low-lying wetlands around New Orleans. The presence of these wetlands traditionally helped to protect New Orleans from the storm surges which accompany hurricanes.

The first actions of FEMA after Hurricane Katrina and Flood Bush struck New Orleans was to try to stop almost all of the volunteer, state and federal help from coming into the disaster area. FEMA blocked volunteer help from WalMart, the Coast Guard, the Red Cross, AMTRAK, hundreds of airboats from Florida, the City of Chicago emergency teams, Loudoun County (Virginia) sheriffs, the Nevada police, the New Mexico National Guard, fire-fighting planes from the U. S. Forest Service and even the U. S. Bataan, a hospital ship stationed in the Gulf of Mexico. FEMA also stopped or ignored offers of help from foreign countries including Canada, Cuba and Venezuela, over twenty European counties and Asian countries including Iran and India.

One supposes that volunteer help and aid undercuts the Bush Syndicates system of private corporations making bags of money off of the Bush war on Iraq and the Bush expedited flooding of New Orleans.

It is troubling to see many no-bid federal contracts being given to large corporations for reconstruction along the Gulf Coast. The terms of “no-bid contracts” mean that the corporations get to charge their profits as a percentage of costs incurred, so there is no incentive to be thrifty; in fact, it is the opposite, the more money that the corporate contractor spends on construction, the higher their corporate profits. Add to this the fact that Bush just signed an executive order that suspended the traditional requirement that federal contractors must pay labor the prevailing wages, instead the federal contractors can now pay workers as little as minimum wage. So the folks who are the poorest, get kicked again by Bush. He kicks ‘em again when they’re down.

New Orleans should be rebuilt on a cooperative local basis. Habitat for Humanity should be the model used for the reconstruction of the many flood-damaged homes in New Orleans. As many physically-able local residents as possible should be quickly trained and employed in the reconstruction of their neighborhoods. All of the poor renters in New Orleans whose houses suffered flooding should be given title to their new homes and the land beneath them, after the landlords have been properly compensated for the pre-flood fair-market value of their properties. We owe these people a lot as some compensation for the years of neglect that they have suffered at our hands.

Yours truly,

James K. Sayre

11 September 2005

james perry introduced us and our film at a national coalition for low income housing gathering. he was so inspiring! check out his website!

That was a routine harassment by local police. The only thing unusual about it is that it was captured on video. The military police, we are told, are better trained and more courteous when interacting with civilians in their own country than the locals.

The lack of response during Katrina was a blatant message to us all. Citizens are expendable.

(I am having a hard time viewing the videos to the movie. It makes me crazy.)

mary, i know it must be hard for you to revisit all this, but most of the film deals with the journey of kim and scott and brian and their community in the aftermath of the disaster. it’s actually very uplifting.

Yes, it is upsetting. And we also want our film to show that while some in power believe that citizens are expendable, the citizens show us otherwise. The citizens are powerful agents in their own lives, and can inspire all of us to re-imagine and create a better future.

I’m sure the community of NOLA and the surrounding states have at least the same or more cases of PTSD than we have had from Iraq /Afgh. And no medical assistance for the civilians.

He seems pretty cool! Hopefully he can make a difference, if elected. (and maybe put Kim into a community outreach position).

I just want to quickly tell people that if you have a chance, please go to NOLA, it’s an amazing city, so rich and beautiful and everyone is so kind and welcoming–and the food..OMG, sno-cones, gumbo, the alligator cheese cake…

the suicide rate tripled in New Orleans in the two years after katrina. but there was also incredible and profound resiliency on both individual and community levels that continues to this day — along the gulf coast and elsewhere.

alligator cheese cake??

How could we do this to OUR OWN PEOPLE? Kim’s cousin was so powerful when she spoke about not wanting her son to go into the army after seeing how the govt treated its won people, how there’s only a govt if you have moeny or status. Katrina ripped the scab off racism and classism and revealed a festering wound…

ANd your movie shows how beautiful the human spirit is, how in the face of adversity, those people seen as expendable by the bureaucracies are in fact what make America the great country she is. Thank for Trouble the Water

Yes, please go to NOLA and show support for the people who have returned home, and those who still want to. And while you’re there, find a volunteer gig and give something of yourself to the community — it is a powerful act and one that is deeply appreciated.

i think that’s what most deeply affected me and carl, the spirit of people who had lost so much. i come from a family of survivors (my grandfather survived aushwitz) so i connect to the story in my own way. without hope, there is no moving forward.

OMG, sooo good, they have it at Jacques-imo’s, savory, delicious..yum!

… make the connections between the needs along the Gulf Coast and those in your own community. you don’t have to travel that far to make a difference.

Is there a way to support NOLA – tourism – that keeps the money there – not going to large corporations?

One of the great things about New Orleans–along iwht the many beautiful old hotels (now mostly owned by chains) there are GREAT B&Bs. (Frommer’s new Orleans ha slots of listings) And oh the food, the food the food..Commander’s palace..Galatoire’s…

thanks for this impassioned statement. hope it circulated far and wide after katrina.

We had some great cabbies too who gave us super good oral histories as they drove us form A to B, local guys.

Don’t forget Langenstein’s Grocery

in the scene you reference, Kim H. (yes, her name is Kim also) when on to connect her story as a single mom struggling to survive in hard times to the feeling of helplessness and abandonment felt in the aftermath of the storm. she spoke in a way as the conscience of America, imploring the president: “if you care, do something!”
the extended interview with her is included as a bonus on the DVD.

muffalettas!

i don’t think tourism is a bad thing, it’s just not enough for the city. the community needs more than low wage jobs…

i agree with lisa, check out the community run businesses. whether they are in NOLA or in your own town.

cher

Nee Orleans is more than just Mardi Gras and Jazz fest–though those are great reasons to go–however if you can handle the humidity summer has awosme bargains and food..food food…

One of the weirdest stories recenlty is that residents in outlaying areas werre complaining about taco trucks serving workers…more fear of the brown?

and support local musicians and artists. we have so many resources on our website:

there was lots of tension when immigrants were brought in to help to rebuild the city–at a subminimum wage. so many weren’t even paid for their work and were working and living in dangerous conditions.

please, encourage your readers to support the GULF COAST CIVIC WORKS ACT.

We’re so grateful for this opportunity to talk about our film, and about the fight for racial and economic justice around the country. Katrina was a man-made disaster that began long before the levees failed, and as brian says in Trouble the Water, is still going on. Thank you all for keepin’ the conversation going!

This was to undermine the local labor market, not to employ the people who needed it the most?

I love all the jazz clubs on Frenchman, and Tippitina’s–there’s Rock n Bowl and okay one of my fave soups ever at Liusa’s by the Track–butternut squash and andoullie sauasage…

I can remember while staying at my grandmother’s house in uptown New Orleans I would here the street vendors walking up Lowerline St. hawking their goods. Strawberries! Strawberries! Outside I would find a beautiful tall black lady with a basket in her head. And I remember the Roman Candy man with his horse and wagon. And a strange pair of brothers with long white beards who pushed a cart around collecting newspapers. This was around 1955. I was 5.

We are so pleased to have you here to go deeper into Katrina–and the Maerican mnd–both the good and not-so-good side…

use that link to send a message to leaders in Washington. If Hank Paulson could leverage $700 billion in aid to the banking industry, surely we can get Congress to take action to fix the levees in New Orleans! Imagine how many jobs that would create!

Mick Jagger tried to get into the Rock n Bowl for free one night and the girls taking the money wouldn’t let him in until he paid.

New Orleans has so much of the history of America–Spanish, French, English, slaves and free peopel of color, and an amazing religious history, the syncretic African diasporic religions combined with catholism whihc gave us voodoo, then mixed wiht irish/English/Germam/Native American to give us hoodoo and the beautiful African American spiritual churches; the jazz music…

there’s so much love for that city. we’ve felt it, traveling throughout the country, talking to people who were born and raised there, and from people who have been there once or twice. we’ve been very moved by this.

hhahaah! That’s why I love New Orleans! Well one reason!

i think that’s why people around the country opened up their homes, their wallets, their hearts to katrina survivors. that just showed the depth of love for the gulf coast and especailly for all that new orleans is, was and will be.

Carl and Tia, thank you both soooo much! And pups, thank you all. Please use that link please to encourage your friends to support the GULF COAST CIVIC WORKS ACT!

thank you so much for having us, and for all your kind words about our film! how time flies!

and please encourage your friends to rent, buy or borrow the dvd to TROUBLE THE WATER!!

Thanks for painting such a vivid scene Mary. What a place it was, and still is!

Do you know what it means to miss new orleans
And miss it each night and day
I know Im not wrong… this feelings gettin stronger
The longer, I stay away
Miss them moss covered vines…the tall sugar pines
Where mockin birds used to sing
And Id like to see that lazy mississippi…hurryin into spring

I think a great holdiay gift is a copy of Troube the Water and a donation to a NOLA charity!

There are a lot of black people from New Orleans living in Oakland. During the second world war shipyard workers migrated from New Orleans to San Francisco. There is a long, historical link between the two communities. I mean Katrina refuges.

Mary, I didn’t know that and I grew up across the bay.

Great documentary.

It is still my contention that what the Bush administration and our federal government did (or should I say, didn’t do) during Hurricane Katrina was deliberate.

All the evidence points to an attitude shift occurring in the Bush White House the moment New Orleans flooded, a shift from letting the FEMA disaster coordinator in Baton Rouge handle the federal response (he was assigned there before Katrina hit) to politicizing the devastation of New Orleans for political gain.

For instance, shortly after word started circulating that the levees had broken and New Orleans had flooded, Republicans launched a smear campaign against the Democratic Party leaders in Louisiana and New Orleans, Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin, respectively.

The real question behind what happened during Katrina is, “Why would one political party, after launching a smear campaign against the opposition, especially one involving claims of incompetence, do anything to mitigate the situation, to improve things, even save the lives of people?”

Answer: the political party behind the smear campaign wouldn’t. In fact, the party officials running the smear campaign would make certain that things got worse so their smear campaign would work better against the opposition.

Simple logic. And this is what happened during Katrina, once New Orleans flooded. While one Republican hand launched the smear campaign against Democrats in Louisiana, the other Republican hand held back any federal emergency disaster relief and personnel from making it into the Katrina-devastated areas of southern Louisiana, but especially into the flooded New Orleans.

1) The FEMA disaster coordinator at the FEMA command center in Baton Rouge was heard by a reporter grousing about how his efforts to get federal aid into New Orleans were being blocked, or the federal aid he ordered sent there was being redirected elsewhere. (I read this on a blog the day after New Orleans flooded. I believe it was posted by one of the displaced New Orleans Times-Picayune journalists who relocated to Baton Rouge after their New Orleans newspaper building flooded).

2) The USS Bataan, a U.S. Coast Guard hospital ship rode out Katrina in the Gulf, then moved to a position off the Louisiana coast and anchored, close to New Orleans, where its rescue helicopters and supplies remained either unused or underutilized.

3) U.S. military search-and-rescue helicopters based in Pensacola FL were ordered to stand-down by former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Compare this to the reports by David S. Cloud in the NY Times the weekend after New Orleans flooded about a U.S. military helicopter which did make it into the flooded New Orleans. It had been on a resupply mission to a base outside New Orleans (the one the Rogers were turned away from?) and had responded to a Coast Guard distress call (from the offshore hospital ship, the USS Bataan?), flew into New Orleans and rescued over 100 people off rooftops. Upon their return to their Pensacola base, however, the helicopter pilots received reprimands. They were shocked. They were American citizens helping other American citizens, but got reprimanded. Based on David S. Cloud’s new articles, they had also been shocked to see, while heading westward from Pensacola toward New Orleans, all the activity on the ground up until when they crossed over into Louisiana, at which point there was hardly any activity on the ground nor in the air. (Conclusion: the Bush administration threw every federal asset, including the kitchen sink, at the Republican governors of Alabama and Mississippi, while Bush administration officials withheld all federal aid from reaching Louisiana and the flooded New Orleans, so their right-wing smear campaign against Democrats in Louisiana would be more effective).

4) Boaters who rushed to New Orleans after it flooded, to help with rescue efforts of their fellow citizens, were turned away at the outskirts of New Orleans.

Do you see a pattern forming? I do.

Former FEMA Director Michael Brown became a convenient scapegoat for the criminals over him in the Bush administration, just as the Baton Rouge-based FEMA disaster coordinator did.

There was nothing “incompetent” about what top Bush administration officials did (or ordered not done) during Hurricane Katrina. It…was…all…deliberate. From the launch of their partisan smear campaign to the withholding of federal disaster aid from Louisiana and New Orleans. It…was…all…deliberate!!!

You are absolutely correct. Sickening in the most profound way.

Seems like I recall Bushco turned away many offers of international assistance as well.

This is called murder.

Haven’t read the comments yet, but my wife & I just got back from New Orleans yesterday afternoon; in fact, if I had been a good little FDLer and checked the site when I got home I would’ve caught this discussion live.

We went on two tours during our 3 1/2 days there, and it was an incredible experience. I highly recommend visiting the city if you can to support these people as they try to get their lives back in some semblance of order, and of course for the food, fun and excellent music of all types.