Free Republic

...In 2007, frustrated by the slow pace of rebuilding in the Lower Ninth, Brad Pitt set up a foundation called Make It Right; the foundation then commissioned 13 architecture firms to design affordable, green houses... Indeed, from the main route into the Lower Ninth, the Claiborne Avenue Bridge, it’s impossible to miss the Brad Pitt Houses, as everyone here calls them. They are sprawling, angular buildings in bold hues not usually seen outside a gelateria...

Attempts to locate a statement or press release from Senator John McCain concerning Climategate have, so far, met with negative results. Senator McCain’s website indicates that his most recent press release (Oct 19) was a joint statement issued with Senator Russ Feingold (D.WI) that begins: "A day after a U.S. District Court Judge ruled that the Army Corps of Engineers displayed 'gross negligence' that contributed to the breaching of the levees in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, U.S. Senators Russ Feingold (D-WI) and John McCain (R-AZ), who have led efforts to reform the Army Corps of Engineers, released the following...

In a groundbreaking decision, a federal judge ruled late Wednesday that the Army Corps of Engineers' mismanagement of maintenance at the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet was directly responsible for flood damage in St. Bernard Parish and the Lower 9th Ward after Hurricane Katrina.

New Orleans (AP) -- A federal judge has ruled that the Army Corps of Engineers' failure to properly maintain a navigation channel led to massive flooding in Hurricane Katrina.

So how is the Stimulus like Katrina? For starters, it is a has been horribly mismanaged. Red flag number one was that Joe Biden was put in charge. Obama announced his decision before the National Governors Association in Washington on Monday, saying Vice President Joe Biden will help ensure the distribution of the money is not just swift, "but also efficient and effective." "The fact that I'm asking my vice president to personally lead this effort shows how important it is for our country and future to get this right," he said. Biden, in his new role, would meet regularly...

Remember those free health care clinics MSNBC's Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow played up back in October after Olbermann's hour-long "Special Comment," about Republican opposition to ObamaCare and/or PelosiCare? Well, now it's time for their brand of AstroTurf to be put into action. On MSNBC's Nov. 13 "Countdown," fill-in host Lawrence O'Donnell raised the issue about the potential opposition Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., might have over the current health care legislation being debated in the U.S. Senate. And, Landrieu so happens to represent Louisiana, the site of one of Olbermann's politicized free health care clinics. "Republicans, in a new ad,...

As Hurricane Katrina zeroed in on New Orleans in 2005, government at all levels was lethargic, seemed unprepared, and to some, even uncaring. In the wake of last week’s massacre at Fort Hood, we are learning that the United States Army knew quite a bit about Major Nadal Malik Hasan -- but did not act on the information. Fort Hood could become Barack Obama’s Katrina. In 2005, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff designated the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Michael D. Brown to lead the government’s response to the hurricane. Even though there were charges of mismanagement...

Does anyone recall seeing a thread here a few days after Hurrican Katrina, that linked to a website created by someone who lived in N.O., was a photojournalism student and was here on a student visa? His photos and detailed captions were awesome! They were the quality one would see in Time Life books or NatGeo. The most important part of it all, however, was that he told of out right lies the media were showing to the American public. He was disgusted because he was watching members of the news media who he had idolized up until that point,...

Is the swine flu Obama’s Katrina? And is the CDC Obama’s FEMA? Unfortunately, the answer to both questions could be: Yes. As the swine flu explodes across our population, it is becoming painfully apparent that the federal government’s response is going to be far too little and far too late. At the root seems to be a flawed timetable and a bad case of promising a lot more than is being delivered. Expecting a disease wave to crest after the first of the year, the Obama Administration is being caught flatfooted as that crest is arriving in late October.And the...

Thomas Lee White spent a year in prison for another man's mistake. But White's own error has left him with little legal recourse. A federal appellate court ruled late last month that White -- who was jailed in New Orleans for public drunkenness, mistakenly identified and then lost in the state penal system for a full year after Hurricane Katrina -- has no right to a federal civil lawsuit because he didn't file the suit fast enough. He is one of countless former jail inmates who appear to have been deprived of their constitutional right to due process in the...

NEW ORLEANS ― Ray Nagin will become the first mayor in 50 years to make an official visit to Cuba when the leader of New Orleans travels there with a delegation of officials for a disaster preparedness exchange. New Orleans is serving as a living laboratory for techniques on emergency preparedness and response, including implementing plans that include assistance for residents who are unable to leave the city. During Gustav in 2008, the city helped more than 18,000 residents evacuate as the hurricane approached. The tour is scheduled to meet with the Latin American Medical Centers for Disasters and will...

Obama makes stop in N.O., bypasses Miss.Posted: 10/16/09 - 12:10:33 pm CDT NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Supporters of President Barack Obama lined the streets leading to a town hall meeting at the University of New Orleans and erupted in cheers as the president’s motorcade arrived Thursday. Even before Air Force One landed, hundreds were lined up at UNO for the town hall at the school’s 1,500-seat fitness center. About 150 demonstrators were ushered behind barricades about 400 yards away. Some were Obama supporters, others were there to protest the president’s health care proposals. “I’m a small business owner and the...

Obama: 'We Will Not Forget' Troubled New Orleans ASSOCIATED PRESS October 15, 2009 NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- President Barack Obama is promising the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast that his administration ''will not forget'' them as they work to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina. Obama says he makes no excuses for the fact that the federal government didn't work effectively with state and local officials in the aftermath of the storm four years ago. But he says his administration is ''working around the clock to clean up red tape and eliminate bureaucracy.''

In Norway they may think that President Barack Obama has a great knack for peace, but around here his forte seems to be stirring up strife. New Orleans is mad because Obama's visit tomorrow will be little more than a whistlestop. The Mississippi Gulf Coast is mad because New Orleans gets all the attention, such as it is, while the lingering effects of Katrina over there are ignored. And from southwest Louisiana comes the cry, "What about Rita, Gustav and Ike? The president really needs to take a look at Cameron Parish." Obama is also being denounced for an apparent...

D'IBERVILLE, MS (WLOX) - It was his first official role as the new D'Iberville City Manager. On Monday morning, Michael Janus helped celebrate the opening of Newk's Express Restaurant in the new Promenade Shopping Center. "It's exciting," said Janus. "I mean, you can't imagine a better job. Within three hours on the job, you already have a ribbon cutting." Janus took the opportunity to learn new names and catch up with some familiar faces. Then it was time to head back to City Hall for a busy afternoon. "I haven't filled out my employment paperwork yet. I was wondering if...

<p>A federal jury on Thursday rejected a New Orleans family's assertions that the government-issued trailer they lived in after Hurricane Katrina exposed them to dangerous fumes, in the first of several trials that could lead to hundreds of similar claims being resolved.</p>

Ok, now the SE has been flooding for days. Deaths keep climbing. WHERE IS THE MSM OUTRAGE AT THE LACK OF ACTION BY THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION?

I first experienced ACORN in post-Katrina New Orleans. I was part of a relief organization, Common Ground Relief, which had been delivering much needed aid to the 9th Ward, an area that had been hit especially hard by the flood waters and by neglect. Rumors immediately began surfacing, questioning our motives and intentions. I was very confused by these rumors. Who was behind them? How could anyone question the vital work we were doing in the community? We lived and worked in the 9th Ward. We suspended our regular lives and, in many cases, left our families to travel to...

    Four years after Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc on the City of New Orleans, leaving anarchy in its wake, the Department of Justice is reportedly putting on a full court press investigation of the police in that city, with the main focus being on two shooting incidents that left three people dead.    Let’s be up front about this: Since the Second Amendment Foundation and National Rifle Association (and nobody else!) stepped to file a landmark federal lawsuit to stop authorities in New Orleans from illegally seizing firearms in the hurricane’s aftermath, nobody has been held accountable for that treachery....

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Marsha Swopes survived Hurricane Katrina and came to live in a free house from Fanny Mae. For two years she's called Antioch home, until Sheriff's Deputies showed up to evict her. Tuesday was moving day for Swopes, her two daughters and two grandchildren, but they had nowhere to go. "I'm just tired of moving. I want a place of my own that I can afford. I don't want to move anymore," said Swopes. For the last two years Swopes has lived in a home on Fanny Mae's dime. The company launched a relief program to help evacuees...

New information has surfaced regarding euthanization of elderly patients at a New Orleans hospital during Hurricane Katrina. A doctor has admitted administering a lethal dose of morphine to one patient knowing that it would kill her. "There's no question I hastened her demise," Dr. Ewing Cook told an independent investigation organization. "I gave her medicine so I could get rid of her faster, get the nurses off the [hospital] floor." The patient, Jannie Burgess, 79, was suffering from uterine cancer and kidney failure. "To me, it was a no-brainer -- and to this day I don't feel bad about...

Three months after Hurricane Katrina, the Sun Herald described in a front-page editorial “Mississippi’s Invisible Coast.” It spoke of the fact that the further removed in time we were from Katrina, the less attention outside news reports paid to the plight of our region and its people, and the more it seemed history was being rewritten in a way that would render South Mississippi no more than a postscript to the greatest natural disaster to befall the nation. Already the trend had begun for the national media to cover South Mississippi’s part of the story with an add-on phrase...

For the past several months, the federal building on Poydras Street has seen a steady stream of New Orleans police officers trudge in and out, all of them testifying before grand jurors gathering evidence of possible civil rights violations in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina -- allegations that center on police misbehavior. Federal agents, meanwhile, have been studying police e-mails and documents obtained by subpoena -- as well as through a surprise search warrant executed on the New Orleans Police Department homicide office -- in an attempt to ferret out exactly what happened in the chaotic days after the storm....

OCEAN SPRINGS, Miss. -- In the four years since Hurricane Katrina swallowed Barbara Lambert's Gulf Coast house, her family has slowly rebuilt its life - moving out of a FEMA mobile home and to another city, finding a job for her husband and enrolling the kids in new schools. Then, the recession hit. The Lamberts and others in the hurricane-stricken region are struggling through renewed hard times as federal recovery dollars dry up and the recession chokes off jobs and charitable help. For the Lamberts, paying next month's rent is the latest worry as a federal hurricane assistance program ends....

Four years have elapsed since one of the most amazing cases of Republican-bashing media bias in the television era began. The media elites laugh when preachers say immorality causes God to send hurricanes, but they suggested with straight faces that Hurricane Katrina was a death sentence President Bush and his cronies brought to the less fortunate. In the early spin, race-baiting rapper Kanye West and "objective" anchors like Brian Williams were in rhetorical sync: George Bush didn't care about black people. On "The Daily Show," Williams said "everyone" knew Bush would have done better if white people were endangered: "Everyone...

Monday August 29 2005 Black America got her own 9-11. She was hit with an act of terrorism in New Orleans that was just as devastating if not more than what took place when those Twin Towers were felled by planes… Yes, you read that correctly.. Most people mistakenly believe that the city of New Orleans was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Lets make sure folks understand this once and for all.. Much of neighboring Mississippi was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina which hit the state with its full level 5 impact. New Orleans which was initially in the path of Hurricane...

NEW ORLEANS, Aug. 31, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A doctor has admitted that he gave orders for a lethal dose of medication to be administered to a patient under his care during the hurricane Katrina disaster in 2005 - a decision that he says he does not regret having made.Dr. Ewing Cook said that as staff at Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans were struggling to evacuate patients from the flooded building, he gave the order to give Jannie Burgess, 79, who was dying of uterine cancer and kidney failure, a dose of morphine that he knew would kill her."Do you...

Every once in a while I just get lucky. I make an offhanded remark on the air that sends the looters into such paroxysms of angst and outrage that I get about a weeks worth of a free ride in blogs, columns and radio and TV shows.

Retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré, the blunt-talking, cigar-chomping military leader who stepped into the political feuding that followed Hurricane Katrina and sorted matters out, will be guest speaker at the annual Freedom Fund Banquet of the Shreveport Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. snip

The president marked the fourth anniversary of Hurrican Katrina by remarking on his administration's preparedness for the next storm and other disaster. He first used a dubious statistic. He claimed that over 1000 people died as a result of Hurrican Katrina, though he also once claimed that 10,000 people died from a tornado in Kansas.

The palpable hunger for new leadership in the GOP makes most interesting the 2010 Senate run in Louisiana reportedly being mulled by Hurricane Katrina hero General Russell L. Honoré, for the seat currently held by David Vitter, seriously damaged by his name turning up in the client list of a prostitution ring in Washington DC, in 2007. One primary opponent announced yesterday, US Rep. Charlie Melancon. Shortly afterward, this intriguing post appeared in Bayoubuzz.com: The Louisiana Weekly and Bayoubuzz.com have learned that the hero of Hurricane recovery, General Russell Honore is seriously considering entering the Republican Primary for the U.S....

Dear Mr. President, Tomorrow we will mark the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which claimed the lives of 1,400 Louisianians and nearly killed a great American city. We will miss having you in our midst. We know you don't lack passion for our community and its recovery. Though you haven't been here as president, as a senator you visited five times after Katrina. We remember well the fervor of your speech at Tulane University on your last visit, a year and a half ago. "I promise you that when I'm in the White House, I will commit myself every day...

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Louisiana's top prosecutor said Friday he will not reopen a probe into allegations of euthanasia at a hospital crippled by Hurricane Katrina, despite new statements from a doctor that he drugged a terminal patient to "get rid of her faster." Dr. Ewing Cook said that as staff at Memorial Medical Center desperately tried to care for and evacuate patients, making spot assessments of which ones might survive, he scribbled "pronounced dead at" on the patient's chart, intending to fill in time and other details later. "I gave her medicine so I could get rid of her...

'There is a sense of momentum and a desire to get things done'As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama pledged to right the wrongs he said bogged down efforts to rebuild the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina. Seven months into the job, he's earning high praise from some unlikely places. Gov. Bobby Jindal, R-La., says Obama's team has brought a more practical and flexible approach. Many local officials offer similar reviews. Even Doug O'Dell, former President George W. Bush's recovery coordinator, says the Obama administration's "new vision" appears to be turning things around. Not too long ago, Jindal said in a...

The military commander who helped bring order to New Orleans in the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 told people at a Baton Rouge luncheon on hurricane preparedness issues Saturday to start right away getting ready for the next potential disaster. “I often say people in south Louisiana get more excited about getting ready for football season than getting ready for hurricane season,” retired Lt. Gen. Russel L. Honoré said. He was addressing a crowd of about 100 representatives of church groups and faith-based organizations at the Hilton Hotel in downtown Baton Rouge. But the cost of waiting to...

Energy Policy: A new study shows that Waxman-Markey will increase prices at the pump, deepen our dependence on foreign oil and shred our ability to turn crude into gasoline. Even fuel-efficient cars will still need fuel.Oil may bubble up out of the ground, but gasoline does not. It's made in those ugly little NIMBY places called refineries we are loath to build anymore because we're too busy trying to save the Earth rather than our economy and American jobs. When Hurricane Katrina shut down 20% of our refining capacity in a single day and raised gas prices in a single...

HOUSTON — Four Hurricane Katrina evacuees are charged with wrongfully obtaining federal rental assistance after buying new homes financed by Oprah Winfrey's "Oprah's Angel Network." The U.S. attorney's office in Houston says Darlene McGruder Poole, 30, of Houston, and her sister, Lashona McGruder Victor, 37, of La Place, La., are charged with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. Kiesha Murphy, 34, of Houston, and Angela Payne, aka Angela McKinnies, 38, of Houston, are charged separately with making false statements to FEMA and theft of government property. Murphy declined to comment when reached by telephone Wednesday. Calls to Poole and...

Three Hurricane Katrina evacuees who bought houses here with the help of Oprah Winfrey appeared in court today on charges they cheated the Federal Emergency Management Agency by lying to continue to obtain rental assistance for storm victims after they moved into the furnished homes.

I recently finished reading The Great New Orleans Gun Grab: Descent Into Anarchy by Gordon Hutchinson and Todd Masson. To give you an idea of how interesting this book is, I finished all 190 pages PLUS the Appendix materials in just under three hours. Both Hutchinson and Masson are professional writers, and they do an excellent job conveying a story that is fascinating, frightening, horrifying, and often, beyond belief. I found myself muttering, numerous times, "Certainly this did not happen in the United States." Well, it did happen. And every gun owner owes it to himself to at least know...

NDIANAPOLIS, IA—Jimmy Alexander, 38, Indianapolis, Indiana, was sentenced to 57 months in prison today by U.S. District Chief Judge David F. Hamilton following his guilty plea to conspiracy to steal public money, announced Timothy M. Morrison, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana. This case was the result of an 18-month investigation by the Department of Homeland Security, Office of Inspector General and Federal Bureau of Investigation. In sentencing Alexander, Chief Judge Hamilton indicated that stealing from the victims of Hurricane Katrina is about as low as you can go. The Chief Judge also commented that Alexander’s criminal...

WESTWEGO, La. – Blood loss due to an attack by a rat or rats was determined to be the cause of death of the three-month-old girl who died last week in a Westwego home, according to a statement by Jefferson Parish Forensic Pathologist Susan M. Garcia. Also Online Photos of home The official cause of death of Natalie Hill on the statement was "exsanguination due to destruction of soft tissue secondary to murine activity." Authorities had been trying to determine whether bites occurred while the child was alive or dead. Hill was found in her crib, covered in blood and...

Bill gates just filed a patent on a scheme to unplug hurricanes by surrounding them with fleets of pump-boats bringing cold water to the surface: Having posted this idea four years ago myself, I have to admit it's a bit wacky. On the other hand, Hurricane Katrina devastated a substantial chunk of my country, so anything that MIGHT be able to slow these monsters down ought to at least be talked about. The Gates scheme is lumbering and passive. My Hurricane Stopper is agile and active, giving it a better chance of being practical. My idea was to have wind-turbine...

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Weeks after Hurricane Katrina slammed New Orleans and worsened the medical plight of the city's poor, then-Gov. Kathleen Blanco said the publicly run Charity Hospital would not reopen, even though the military had scrubbed the building to medical-ready standards, the retired Army general who oversaw the work said. In a recent interview with The Associated Press, Lt. Gen. Russel Honore said Blanco told him in late September 2005 the 20-story building that served the region's poor residents would not reopen. "'Ma'am, we got the hospital clean, my people report ... if you want to use it,'"...

Weeks after Hurricane Katrina slammed New Orleans and worsened the medical plight of the city's poor, then-Gov. Kathleen Blanco said the publicly run Charity Hospital would not reopen, even though the military had scrubbed the building to medical-ready standards, the retired Army general who oversaw the work said. In a recent interview with The Associated Press, Lt. Gen. Russel Honore said Blanco told him in late September 2005 the 20-story building that served the region's poor residents would not reopen. "'Ma'am, we got the hospital clean, my people report ... if you want to use it,'" Honore recalled telling Blanco....

NEW ORLEANS, LA—WALLACE BOURGEOIS, JR., 35, a resident of LaPlace, Louisiana, was charged today in a one-count bill of information relating to fraudulent applications he made to the American Red Cross for financial assistance during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, announced U.S. Attorney Jim Letten. According to the bill of information, the American Red Cross made disaster assistance money of up to $1,565 available to those affected by the hurricanes of 2005 on a one-time only basis. Documents show that on six occasions between September 2005 and October 2005, BOURGEOIS applied for and received disaster assistance funds from the Red...

The attorney for William J. Jefferson tackled the "elephant in the room" in opening statements Tuesday, explaining the notorious $90,000 "cold cash" discovered in the former congressman's freezer as an FBI setup bid. Prosecutors, for their part, painted a portrait of a debt-ridden man selling out the public good. In his opening speech in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Jefferson attorney Robert Trout addressed the best-known detail in the case - the marked bills found by federal agents in Mr. Jefferson's freezer wrapped inside Pillsbury Pie Crust boxes. He described the money as the trial's "elephant in the room." He...

Hurricane Katrina victims around the Gulf Coast who were told to vacate their temporary trailers by the end of May will instead be allowed to buy them for $5 or less, White House officials announced on Wednesday. The Department of Housing and Urban Development will also give the 3,450 families still in trailers or temporary housing — including many elderly, poor and disabled people — priority for $50 million in permanent housing vouchers. The money for the vouchers was appropriated by Congress last year. Some of those living in trailers are destitute and have no other housing. Others, including many...

Ex-congressman's brother tasted political victory behind the scenesby Gordon Russell, The Times-Picayune Saturday May 30, 2009, 10:56 PM At first glance, Mose Jefferson embodies an archetype of American politics: the man who makes a living, and a life, by attaching himself like a parasite to a famous and powerful relative fortunate enough to win office. The truth is more complicated. While his once-formidable stroke was derived from the political success of his younger brother, former U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, the reverse was true as well. For it was Mose Jefferson, 66, who cut his teeth on politics first, learning the...

Reporting from New Orleans -- Nearly four years after Hurricane Katrina, it is the worry that will not fade, complicating the rebuilding of New Orleans and defining and reflecting this fragile city's racial divisions. Call it the fear of a shrunken city. Immediately after the storm, many residents, often African Americans, worried that low-lying flood-ravaged neighborhoods would be left unbuilt and turned into wetlands. Though that possibility has diminished, one fear won't dissipate: that those same areas may wither as a result of restrictive zoning changes or a waning commitment to rebuilding in certain parts of town. It's the issue...

Nearly four years after hurricanes Katrina and Rita left a million Americans homeless, the government is threatening to throw thousands of storm survivors out of temporary federal housing. A FEMA official told a House panel Friday that the government will send Katrina survivors still living in temporary housing eviction notices starting June 1 and try to connect them to agencies that can help them. But he also said it would be "some period of time," meaning months, before the evictions actually would begin. The $5.6 billion housing assistance program that provided temporary trailers and hotel rooms to victims was supposed...