[Uncle Sham]

Just because Bush stands up and says we don't have a plan doesn't mean it is a fact. Stop the stalling Mr. President, we are not just another photo op for you and your wife.

[Loyal Buckeye]

I don't think Pres. Bush is the only one who thinks La. does not have a plan; I don't see Congress jumping on the bandwagon either. La. hurt their credibility big time when they offered up the $250 billion request.

[mass55th]

John Kerry had a plan too.

[numberonepal]

Did Blanko borrow one of John Kerry's plans? He seems to have had an abundance of them.

[dirtboy]

The agency would clean up the property and, working with local interests, market it to investors for redevelopment.

And here lies the problem. Take the real estate in the 9th Ward. The current levees could not even stand up to Category 2 conditions. What is the point of bundling up that real estate for redevelopment if it is just going to get flooded again?

And even if we were to build Cat-5 levees, the entire region is subsiding - so they might be back to Cat-3 in a few decades.

And that does not even address the corruption in levee construction that apparently contributed to failures. We could spend 30 billion to make supposed Cat 5 levees just to have them fail because of shoddy construction because the Levee Commission gave a contract to a hack.

So Blanco and company have a plan for buying up this real estate. But the political pathologies that magnified the scale of this disaster are still in place. And until the people of Louisiana get rid of their corrupt hack politicians, there will be resistance to sending a hundred billion more dollars there.

I hate to be so blunt, but that is the overwhelming feeling I get from those I talk to about this.

[basil]

Personally, I'm wondering how much more the taxpayers are supposed to pick up to pay for Louisiana. As for me, I'm sick and tired of it. It's time for these people to pull up their bootstraps, and figure out how to take care of their own problems.

If several billions haven't yet corrected the problems, then something is seriously wrong with the way the money is being used.

As as long as I'm being mean here---I'd love to see all the refugees lounging around at government expense return to Louisiana and be made to help rebuild over there.

[Common Tator]

The people have moved away from Louisiana by the hundreds of thousands. It appears most are not comming back. The Republicans need to adopt the Democratic policy to land development. The president needs to declare all of Louisiana as and environmentally protected wetland. That would cost nothing and really please Democrats as well as Republicans.

[kipita]

Our U.S. senators tried to grab $250 billion on sympathy instead of catalogued needs. The governor and Legislature found money for political projects during the crisis and so far have done little to adjust state government to the vastly different needs. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin famously made blackness, not prosperity, his top goal.

In other words, trust us, we represent the people's interest.

[Jacquerie]

If they have a mortgage, the agency would pay it off

So the people too stupid to buy incredibly cheap FEMA flood insurance are supposed to be bailed out?

[kentj]

They not only don't have a plan they don't have a clue.

[CyberSpartacus]

I have a plan for you. Move to higher ground. I am sick of paying taxes throgh the nose so that morons can have what THEY want.

[Libloather]

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin famously made blackness, not prosperity, his top goal.

Nagin says Vegas-style casino gambling could jump-start ravaged city
10/08/2005

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Mayor C. Ray Nagin hopes to attract tourists and their cash back to his ravaged city with an "out-of-the-box" plan to install Las Vegas-style gambling in the city's biggest hotels.

Nagin put forth the casino proposal Friday as a way to jump-start New Orleans' economy and help its people get back to work in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

The plan calls for a large-scale gambling area in the city's central business district, stretching from Interstate 10 on the west to the Mississippi River on the east.

"Now is the time for us to think out of the box. Now is the time for some bold leadership, some decisive leadership," Nagin said.

Nagin said gambling should be allowed in hotels that have more than 500 rooms, the majority of which are near the city's famed Canal Street. The plan would require legislative approval.

Gambling is already allowed using video machines in roughly half of Louisiana's 64 parishes, but there's only one full-scale, land-based casino, operated by Harrah's Entertainment Inc., in New Orleans.

Harrah's downtown casino has been closed since shortly before Katrina hit and the company has not given a timetable for possibly reopening the gambling hall.

Also, three dockside riverboat casinos operate in the New Orleans area.

Nagin made his proposal after Katrina virtually destroyed all 13 dockside casinos on the nearby Mississippi Gulf Coast. A bill to allow operators to rebuild land casinos close to shore has been passed by both the Mississippi House and Senate. Gov. Haley Barbour has said he will sign the measure.

There are currently nine hotels in New Orleans with more than 500 rooms; Nagin said he thought five or six hotels would add casinos.

Nagin would not speculate what would be involved in getting his casino plan passed, but said he hoped Gov. Kathleen Blanco -- who has campaigned against additional gambling in Louisiana -- would include it in a recently announced special session that's scheduled for November.

"Right now we're a cash-strapped city," Nagin said.

Nagin said he is not fond of gambling, and that he wished he had another solution, "but I know of no other way."

He said Harrah's would have to agree to give up its exclusive rights and acknowledged he did not think the company would "do it for free."

Harrah's spokesman Alberto Lopez declined to comment on the proposal.

Dan King, general manager of the city's Sheraton hotel, did not discount the proposal.

"I can't speak for my company. I guess all ideas are worth investigating. I don't really have a comment because I haven't studied it," he said.

Nagin said he sent a letter to Blanco earlier this week asking for a 50 percent income tax credit for any worker in the city. Nagin also asked the governor to eliminate the tax on manufacturers' debt in the city and for an income-tax-free zone for manufacturers in the city.

[jospehm20]

Just because Nagin and Blanco stand up and say they do have a plan does not make it so either, unless you include the famous "Chocolate City" plan. I believe President Bush on this and trust him more than the La. politicians.

[txoilman]

The only plan Louisiana has is by Gov. Blanco to rennovate her offices ($500,0000).

[OrioleFan]

Nagin's economic development plan is to entice Hershey to move from Pennsylvania to New Orleans - make a "chocolate" city.

[Galveston Grl]

LA is in deep trouble politically. Denying responsibility and blaming the Republicans, race baiting, lying...was not a great strategy for building credibility and trust. In addition, greed and corruption...

It requires political capital for elected officials to take on the expenses to rebuild NO and a great risk of looking like they wasted money on LA official corruption. Especially since LA officials will blame any problems they create on Republicans. It is a costly no win situation.

It felt good for Chocolate Nagin and drugged Blank-o in the moment, to go on a campaign of shriking responsibility with national Democrats and the Media Party; doesn't feel so good anymore. Who will forget that witch Mary Landreu (sp!) threating to beat up the President if he mentioned anything about flooded school buses.

They succeeded in hurting the President's image in the US and abroad with their lies and hysteria. Let's see how it serves them now. And I agree, George and Laura should go no where near LA. The slime will probably kill them.

[toddlintown]

Maybe we do things different up here, but if you have a mortgage, you also have to have homeowners insurance.

Why do LA homeowners need a government handout?

[Getsmart64]

Seems to me the LA plan is to let us tax payers take care of it via the federal government. I personally don't like that plan. I hope the feds learned something after Andrew hit Dade Co. South Metro Dade turned into a cesspool because of all the federal dollars that poured in. I'm thinking nobody wants all of that rift raft to come back and if they delay long enough...they won't and big business is going to move in and scarf it all up saving us tax payers some money.

[hedgetrimmer]

Here's the plan

[Robert A Cook PE]

Where's Alabama and Mississippi - worse hit in many areas than NO! - in Baker's plan to give money to LA politicians?

[Paulus Invictus]

Why should I , a US taxpayer, help pay billion$ to rebuild NO when everyone knows it is certain to flood again. The idiots who built the place below sea level and then expect it to remain flood-protected, were nothing more than the same corrupt RATs who are still in charge in the State and City.