Free Republic

NEW ORLEANS, Oct. 23, 2008 – As Joint Task Force Gator continues to help with security in New Orleans, many of the city’s residents are becoming comfortable with the attention the soldiers and airmen of the Louisiana National Guard have been giving them. A Louisiana Army National Guard soldier and New Orleans police respond to a vehicle fire in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans. The soldier is a member of Joint Task Force Gator, which helps the New Orleans Police Department provide security. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Michael L. Owens  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available....

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - President Bush commemorated Hurricane Katrina's devastating blow Wednesday with a somber moment of silence. Across town, in a symbol of a federal-city divide that persists two years after the killer storm, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin marked the levee-breach moment with bell- ringing. "We're still paying attention. We understand," Bush said in remarks afterward. The president and his wife, Laura, were spending Wednesday's anniversary in New Orleans and Bay St. Louis, Miss., determined to celebrate those he said have "dedicated their lives to the renewal" of the region. But with New Orleans and the Gulf...

Laying aside all pretenses about the city's interest in the New Orleans Saints, Mayor Phil Hardberger said Sunday he plans to pursue actively the permanent relocation of the team to San Antonio. Hardberger said Saints owner Tom Benson has agreed to participate in discussions, likely at the end of the current season, aimed at making the team the "San Antonio Saints" before the start of the 2006 season. "He (Benson) understands that we will sit down and talk," Hardberger said while attending Sunday's Saints-Atlanta Falcons game at the Alamodome. "That is his desire as well. I'm pretty comfortable in saying...

DR Bill Bennett is being excoriated for his alleged racist comment, while the racist press coverage of Katrina has gone unreported. The question is whether the press believed rumors of rapes, murders and thuggery because New Orleans residents were mostly black? Did reporters not confirm reports of crimes in the Superdome because it's what they expected from a black New Orleans population - where the murder rate is ten times that of New York City? The press lied -- they should be vilified for their exaggerated reports . The Los Angeles Times story, "Katrina Takes a Toll on Truth, News...

NEW ORLEANS — Keith Lafonta labored Monday at a squat building on Chef Menteur Highway, picking through a row of BellSouth trucks to see what equipment was worth salvaging as the company faces an unprecedented challenge restoring phone service to storm-battered New Orleans. He wore gloves to guard against a foul dust of dried mud left behind after floodwaters were pumped out. Sweat seeped through his white BellSouth polo shirt as midday temperatures crept toward the upper 90s. "All this was underwater," Lafonta said, sweeping his hand toward a bleak scene of battered vehicles that were flooded by polluted water...

The last time I talked to my dad, he didn't seem too perturbed. He was a little tired and amused that my brother and I had taken turns calling him in New Orleans from our Florida homes all morning. At 8 a.m. Monday, I could hear the hurricane creeping up on his end of the phone. A tree limb that had threatened our roof for years was pounding a loud hole into my youngest sister's room. A neighbor's tree had fallen in our front yard. "Luckily it missed your sister's car," he chuckled. That was hours before the levee hemorrhaged....

The attached is a video from WWL TV in New Orleans. The mayor of New Orleans gives a very detailed report of the condition of the city. As bad as the national news is painting the picture, it falls short of the devastation that has occurred. There are 8 refineries located in the New Orleans to Mobile areas. Nearly 1/2 of all the gasoline in the country is refined here. These are all shut down, and they don't know for how long. Even if they were capable of running the refineries, there will be a huge shortage of workers as...