Oompa Loompa Dippidy Do
I've got another Picture for you.
Posted on 01/29/2007 1:33:05 PM PST by nctexan
Typical, to cover up his own ineptness he has to play the race/class card.
I am real tired of the whining.
"I think it's more class than anything, but there's racial issues associated with it also," Nagin said."
Uh huh. Soooooooooo, the fact that Mississippi IS rebuilding though it shares many of the same socio-economic issues means what, Mr. C. City Mayor?
That's a tag team there!
The price of chocolate is awfully high these days.
Everyone line up and take your turn getting a knife between the ribs. Who wants to carpool down?
"Send More Chocolate! "
I will say this as a local, still living in the N.O. area until I can get certain family members to agree to vamoose for good: A combination of factors is killing the 'recovery'.
First- there IS NO unified will to fix N.O. from the State. The rest of Louisiana has always hated N.O., and( if they're honest and not PC) the state lawmakers and citizens will say that.
Second- We have advertised the city as a place to " Party, Parade and Puke" for so long, that is its only value in the minds of the rest of the US taxpayers. Paradoxically, the fact that the Vieux Carre and other tourist destinations escaped real damage from The Thing only hurts. Now it has been proven that tourists can come and do their usual thing WITHOUT having to rebuild anything that isn't already functioning.
Third- Reality. The 'Big Reason'. New Orleans is now marshland. It cannot be protected from the Gulf of Mexico. It is sinking. More hurricanes WILL strike, destroying whatever pitiful levee work is being attempted, and the whole area continues to sink. Infrastructure was ancient, barely functioning, and is now destroyed.
The ENTIRE CITY would have to be razed, an entirely new network of drainage installed, fill added to a ludicrous depth before anything is rebuilt, and levees 4 stories tall built on reinforced land.
Nagin is right in a way he doesn't want to go into. Class IS a factor. The middle class evacuated and isn't returning. The upper class plain doesn't give a damn as long as their mansions are above water and they have the money to escape.
The lower class cannot support themselves, much less rebuild a city, and the criminal lower class is running rampant. Thugs have bred thugs and its Bartertown.
Race- yep. Truth is, that criminal lower class is almost exclusively black. And since they are the power base Nagin is trying to pacify in order to vault himself into national prominence as a 'defender of black people', he certainly isn't going to alienate them. He's not kissing up to Jackson and Sharpton because he wants to stay in local politics.
He wants a black city- but a poor, easily duped, black city. If he comes down hard on the blacks that are left ( mostly the poor and the criminal) then he'll have a white city. The WORST thing he can imagine!
And ALL of this is in the national consciousness, and is responsible for the disdain the rest of the country feels for an American city.
The entire N.O. area south of Lake Pontchatrain should be Federalized, all property bought by the government, and the 'land' given up to the swamp that has reclaimed it.
The ORIGINAL city- the Vieux Carre and the Sliver by the River- can remain , along with the Port of New Orleans, as a self-sustaining island until nature overwhelms it too.
"A city that is 3/4 below sea level should not be rebuilt."
Nope. Open the floodgates, let the entire city go underwater then change the city into an underwater theme park, hotel & conference center.
The S.Cal argument doesn't hold water here( pardon the irony).
If S. Cal DID go off the continental shelf in the Big One, would rebuilding it be sane?
N.O. HAS been 85% destroyed, and the factors that did it still exist and cannot be changed. Geography and weather.
****
Isn't this the problem?
It certainly is, and Nagin is trying to cast off the blame for his inadequate leadership.
Nagin isn't liking all the white chocolate he's seeing.
Well, at least they can't cpmplain that they were slighted on their party name.
-PJ
that is beautiful. I'm ROTFL!
And what issues are at stake keeping HOUSTON from recovering from Katrina? We still have 100,000 refuges, many of whom haven't gotten jobs or taken up paying rent for themselves.
And a rising crime rate, that while is not solely the result of NOLA transplants is seeing a contributing factor.
And much of the problems that led to the levee breaking in NOLA was from corrupt politicians (state and local) who didn't do the tasks they were required to do. Instead they pocketed money.
Isn't that the problem? They do not have the ability to produce the required documentation, much less be accountable to the taxpayers for hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars. If his people can't get it done, let him fire their arses and get some people who can. Oh yeah, they're civil service. They're Brahmins.
According to the Wikipedia entry, Jefferson's party was called the Democratic-Republicans.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.