Katrina: Shameful Acts Thread

[DudeAsInCool]

Leaders Lack Disaster Experience

Five of eight top Federal Emergency Management Agency officials came to their posts with virtually no experience in handling disasters and now lead an agency whose ranks of seasoned crisis managers have thinned dramatically since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

FEMA's top three leaders -- Director Michael D. Brown, Chief of Staff Patrick J. Rhode and Deputy Chief of Staff Brooks D. Altshuler -- arrived with ties to President Bush's 2000 campaign or to the White House advance operation, according to the agency. Two other senior operational jobs are filled by a former Republican lieutenant governor of Nebraska and a U.S. Chamber of Commerce official who was once a political operative.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0802165_pf.html

[DudeAsInCool]

Blogged live from the Astrodome, a charming photo-op exchange between Tom DeLay and three young boys evacuated from New Orleans:

The congressman likened their stay to being at camp and asked, "Now tell me the truth boys, is this kind of fun?"

They nodded yes, but looked perplexed.

Their perplexity grew when DeLay continued, "Now you all understand that this is entirely the fault of your state and local officials, don't you? Because one thing Uncle Tommy would hate to do would be to have to send you all to a camp that isn't any fun at all." -- HOLLY MARTINS

http://www.wonkett

[DudeAsInCool]

The Top 25 Most Shameful Quotes

http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/current...quotes.htm?nl=1

[slum_goddess]

2 days after they started, FEMA discontinues the 2000$ aid thing 'requiring aid recipients to ask for cash through the agency’s website.

'Yes, I’m sure all these displaced folks around the country can just take out their Blackberries and laptops and fill out the online FEMA forms to get their direct deposit of cash into their bank accounts at their nearest branch of their bank with of course their proper ID...' from here

[DudeAsInCool]

2 days after they started, FEMA discontinues the 2000$ aid thing 'requiring aid recipients to ask for cash through the agency’s website.

'

It was actually the guy's idea they just fired - seems like it was a pretty good one to me I think the problem is with Chertoff

[DudeAsInCool]

Suburban police blocked evacuees, witnesses say

Police agencies to the south of New Orleans were so fearful of the crowds attempting to leave the city after Hurricane Katrina that they sealed a crucial bridge over the Mississippi River and turned back hundreds of desperate evacuees, according to two paramedics who were in the crowd.

The paramedics and two other witnesses said officers sometimes shot guns over the heads of fleeing people, who, instead of complying immediately with orders to leave the bridge, pleaded to be let through, according to the paramedics and two other witnesses. The witnesses said that they had been told by New Orleans police to cross this same bridge because buses were waiting for them there.

Instead, a suburban police officer angrily ordered about 200 people to abandon an encampment between the highways near the bridge. The officer then confiscated their food and water, the four witnesses said. The incidents took place in the first days after the storm last week, they said.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/091...ina-flee10.html

[The Hunter]

Im not sure if this has been posted before, if it has someone can delete it.

Graft in depth;

Firms with White House ties get Katrina contracts;

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Companies with ties to the Bush White House and the former head of FEMA are clinching some of the administration's first disaster relief and reconstruction contracts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

At least two major corporate clients of lobbyist Joe Allbaugh, President Bush's former campaign manager and a former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, have already been tapped to start recovery work along the battered Gulf Coast.

One is Shaw Group Inc. and the other is Halliburton Co. subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root. Vice President Dick Cheney is a former head of Halliburton.

Bechtel National Inc., a unit of San Francisco-based Bechtel Corp., has also been selected by FEMA to provide short-term housing for people displaced by the hurricane. Bush named Bechtel's CEO to his Export Council and put the former CEO of Bechtel Energy in charge of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.

More here:

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/09/10...reut/index.html

[Wolfie]

Its nice to know the President's friends will always profit from any misery wracked on this country. <_>

[DudeAsInCool]

Maureen Dowd: The Wall Street Journal reported that Representative Richard Baker of Baton Rouge was overheard telling lobbyists: "We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did."

Even those who believe in intelligent design must surely agree that Brownie and Representative Baker weren't part of it.

[slum_goddess]

was actually the guy's idea they just fired - seems like it was a pretty good one to me    I think the problem is with Chertoff

i think the problem is they just don't give a shit.

[DudeAsInCool]

Stories From Survivors

JoAnn, Nicole and the dogs were bundled into a milk truck crowded with people. Once again they thought the worst of their ordeal was over, and once again they were wrong.

Packed with hot and filthy evacuees (and crates of rapidly souring milk), the truck crossed a bridge from New Orleans to Jefferson Parish, where the desperate occupants were promptly and grotesquely humiliated by several heavily armed plainclothes officers.

There were dozens of men, women and children in the truck when it was stopped. They were hungry, thirsty and frightened. It should have been obvious to any sentient being that they were fleeing the flood. Nevertheless, said Nicole, they were ordered out of the truck at gunpoint, with their hands up. One young man was thrown to the ground. The others were ordered to get on the ground, face down.

The occupants of the milk truck were black, and they were in dire need of assistance. But in the midst of one of the greatest emergencies in the nation's history, the opportunity to gratuitously humiliate them proved irresistible.

"They laid us out on the ground," said JoAnn. Her voice quivered and tears began to leak down her face. "I was pleading. I was saying, 'Sir, please - - ' And then we all went to praying. Crying and praying.' "

"We were all praying," said Nicole, "because we were afraid, the way they were acting, that they would shoot us."

Eventually, the officers let the group go. No one was charged with any crime. "They even helped us start the milk truck," Nicole said. "The last thing they told us was, 'Y'all get on out of here. And don't come back.' "

http://nytimes.com/2005/09/12/opinion/12herbert.html?hp

--------------------

[DudeAsInCool]

G.O.P. Sees Opportunities Arising From Storm

HOUSTON, Sept. 9 - Republican leaders in Congress and some White House officials see opportunities in Hurricane Katrina to advance longstanding conservative goals like giving students vouchers to pay for private schools, paying churches to help with temporary housing and scaling back business regulation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/10/politics...serland&emc=rss

I guess I shouldnt be surprised to see the GOP see political opportunities in the midst of a national tragedy - but I am... :reallymad:

[Potato]

re: stories from survivors

What is the point of stopping a truck full of people fleeing a disaster area? Racism? Wanting to feel powerful? It's a sick and sad world we live in.

[DudeAsInCool]

More agencies require journalists to file formal requests for info

WASHINGTON - After badgering the Environmental Protection Agency for days to learn where dangerous chemicals were leaking after Hurricane Katrina, Mark Schleifstein still couldn’t get a clear answer.

The top hurricane reporter of The Times-Picayune of New Orleans filed a request under the federal Freedom of Information Act, asking for any reports on spills, accidents or fires.

More than a week later, he has received no response.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9318343

[DudeAsInCool]

National Rifle Association slams New Orleans for confiscating guns

RAW STORY

The National Rifle Association slammed New Orleans authorities Monday for seizing firearms in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, saying that citizens must be able to "protect themselves" during a time where there is "breadown of law and order," RAW STORY has learned.

The release was issued on their website Monday.

"What we've seen in Louisiana - the breakdown of law and order in the aftermath of disaster - is exactly the kind of situation where the second amendment was intended to allow citizens to protect themselves," NRA chief Wayne LaPierre said in a statement.

"When law enforcement isn't available, Americans turn to the one right that protects all the others - the right to keep and bear arms," LaPierre added. "This attempt to repeal the Second Amendment should be condemned."

A Louisiana state statute allows the chief law enforcement officer to "regulate possession" of firearms during declared emergencies, the NRA notes.

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/National_Rif...iscat_0912.html

[DudeAsInCool]

09.12.2005

The GOP Finds the Silver Lining in Death and Destruction

The GOP message machine has now moved into the latest stage of its Katrina response: gleeful opportunism.

First there was denial. The lowlights of this stage included Bush strumming his guitar, Condi taking in Spamalot, and Cheney shopping for luxury digs -- all while New Orleans flooded.

This was followed by the clueless stage, which will be best remembered by the president telling Michael Brown “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of job!”, his mother saying of Katrina’s victims, “This is working very well for them,” Tom DeLay asking young evacuees in the Astrodome, “Now tell me

the truth boys, is this kind of fun?”, and the president vowing to rebuild Trent Lott’s house, “I’m looking forward to sitting on the porch”.

Next came head-ducking. Repeat after me: “This is not a time for finger pointing,” “We are not going to play the blame game.”

But after staggering through those stages, Republicans have regained their footing and are now hard at work finding the silver lining within all the death and destruction – i.e. a chance to trot out their pet shibboleths and push for their pet projects.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huff...er-_b_7241.html

[DudeAsInCool]

Got this via email - I had heard the latter part starting at the Bridge from a femal victim on NPR.

***

Two friends of mine-paramedics attending a conference-were trapped in

New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina. This is their eyewitness report. -Phil

Gasper

Hurricane Katrina-Our Experiences

Larry Bradshaw, Lorrie Beth Slonsky

Two days after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, the Walgreen's

store at the corner of Royal and Iberville streets remained locked. The

dairy display case was clearly visible through the widows. It was now 48

hours without electricity, running water, plumbing. The milk, yogurt,

and cheeses were beginning to spoil in the 90-degree heat. The owners

and managers had locked up the food, water, pampers, and prescriptions

and fled the City. Outside Walgreen's windows, residents and tourists

grew increasingly thirsty and hungry.

The much-promised federal, state and local aid never materialized and

the windows at Walgreen's gave way to the looters. There was an

alternative. The cops could have broken one small window and distributed

the nuts, fruit juices, and bottle water in an organized and systematic

manner. But they did not. Instead they spent hours playing cat and

mouse, temporarily chasing away the looters.

We were finally airlifted out of New Orleans two days ago and arrived

home yesterday (Saturday). We have yet to see any of the TV coverage or

look at a newspaper. We are willing to guess that there were no video

images or front-page pictures of European or affluent white tourists

looting the Walgreen's in the French Quarter.

We also suspect the media will have been inundated with "hero" images of

the National Guard, the troops and the police struggling to help the

"victims" of the Hurricane. What you will not see, but what we

witnessed,were the real heroes and sheroes of the hurricane relief

effort: the working class of New Orleans. The maintenance workers who

used a fork lift to carry the sick and disabled. The engineers, who

rigged, nurtured and kept the generators running. The electricians who

improvised thick extension cords stretching over blocks to share the

little electricity we had in order to free cars stuck on rooftop parking

lots. Nurses who took over for mechanical ventilators and spent many

hours on end manually forcing air into the lungs of unconscious patients

to keep them alive. Doormen who rescued folks stuck in elevators.

Refinery workers who broke into boat yards, "stealing" boats to rescue

their neighbors clinging to their roofs in flood waters. Mechanics who

helped hot-wire any car that could be found to ferry people out of the

City. And the food service workers who scoured the commercial kitchens

improvising communal meals for hundreds of those stranded.

Most of these workers had lost their homes, and had not heard from

members of their families, yet they stayed and provided the only

infrastructure for the 20% of New Orleans that was not under water.

On Day 2, there were approximately 500 of us left in the hotels in the

French Quarter. We were a mix of foreign tourists, conference attendees

like ourselves, and locals who had checked into hotels for safety and

shelter from Katrina. Some of us had cell phone contact with family and

friends outside of New Orleans. We were repeatedly told that all sorts

of resources including the National Guard and scores of buses were

pouring in to the City. The buses and the other resources must have been

invisible because none of us had seen them.

We decided we had to save ourselves. So we pooled our money and came up

with $25,000 to have ten buses come and take us out of the City. Those

who did not have the requisite $45.00 for a ticket were subsidized by

those who did have extra money. We waited for 48 hours for the buses,

spending the last 12 hours standing outside, sharing the limited water,

food, and clothes we had. We created a priority boarding area for the

sick, elderly and new born babies. We waited late into the night for the

"imminent" arrival of the buses. The buses never arrived. We later

learned that the minute the arrived to the City limits, they were

commandeered by the military.

By day 4 our hotels had run out of fuel and water. Sanitation was

dangerously abysmal. As the desperation and despair increased, street

crime as well as water levels began to rise. The hotels turned us out

and locked their doors, telling us that the "officials" told us to

report to the convention center to wait for more buses. As we entered

the center of the City, we finally encountered the National Guard. The

Guards told us we would not be allowed into the Superdome as the City's

primary shelter had descended into a humanitarian and health hellhole.

The guards further told us that the City's only other shelter, the

Convention Center, was also descending into chaos and squalor and that

the police were not allowing anyone else in. Quite naturally, we asked,

"If we can't go to the only 2 shelters in the City, what was our

alternative?" The guards told us that that was our problem, and no they

did not have extra water to give to us. This would be the start of our

numerous encounters with callous and hostile "law enforcement".

We walked to the police command center at Harrah's on Canal Street and

were told the same thing, that we were on our own, and no they did not

have water to give us. We now numbered several hundred. We held a mass

meeting to decide a course of action. We agreed to camp outside the

police command post. We would be plainly visible to the media and would

constitute a highly visible embarrassment to the City officials. The

police told us that we could not stay. Regardless, we began to settle in

and set up camp. In short order, the police commander came across the

street to address our group. He told us he had a solution: we should

walk to the Pontchartrain Expressway and cross the greater New Orleans

Bridge where the police had buses lined up to take us out of the City.

The crowed cheered and began to move. We called everyone back and

explained to the commander that there had been lots of misinformation

and wrong information and was he sure that there were buses waiting for

us. The commander turned to the crowd and stated emphatically, "I swear

to you that the buses are there."

We organized ourselves and the 200 of us set off for the bridge with

great excitement and hope. As we marched pasted the convention center,

many locals saw our determined and optimistic group and asked where we

were headed. We told them about the great news. Families immediately

grabbed their few belongings and quickly our numbers doubled and then

doubled again. Babies in strollers now joined us, people using crutches,

elderly clasping walkers and others people in wheelchairs. We marched

the 2-3 miles to the freeway and up the steep incline to the Bridge. It

now began to pour down rain, but it did not dampen our enthusiasm.

As we approached the bridge, armed Gretna sheriffs formed a line across

the foot of the bridge. Before we were close enough to speak, they began

firing their weapons over our heads. This sent the crowd fleeing in

various directions. As the crowd scattered and dissipated, a few of us

inched forward and managed to engage some of the sheriffs in

conversation. We told them of our conversation with the police commander

and of the commander's assurances. The sheriffs informed us there were

no buses waiting. The commander had lied to us to get us to move.

We questioned why we couldn't cross the bridge anyway, especially as

there was little traffic on the 6-lane highway. They responded that the

West Bank was not going to become New Orleans and there would be no

Superdomes in their City. These were code words for if you are poor and

black, you are not crossing the Mississippi River and you were not

getting out of New Orleans.

Our small group retreated back down Highway 90 to seek shelter from the

rain under an overpass. We debated our options and in the end decided to

build an encampment in the middle of the Ponchartrain Expressway on the

center divide, between the O'Keefe and Tchoupitoulas exits. We reasoned

we would be visible to everyone, we would have some security being on an

elevated freeway and we could wait and watch for the arrival of the yet

to be seen buses.

All day long, we saw other families, individuals and groups make the

same trip up the incline in an attempt to cross the bridge, only to be

turned away. Some chased away with gunfire, others simply told no,

others to be verbally berated and humiliated. Thousands of New Orleaners

were prevented and prohibited from self-evacuating the City on foot.

Meanwhile, the only two City shelters sank further into squalor and

disrepair. The only way across the bridge was by vehicle. We saw workers

stealing trucks, buses, moving vans, semi-trucks and any car that could

be hotwired. All were packed with people trying to escape the misery New

Orleans had become.

Our little encampment began to blossom. Someone stole a water delivery

truck and brought it up to us. Let's hear it for looting! A mile or so

down the freeway, an army truck lost a couple of pallets of C-rations on

a tight turn. We ferried the food back to our camp in shopping carts.

Now secure with the two necessities, food and water; cooperation,

community, and creativity flowered. We organized a clean up and hung

garbage bags from the rebar poles. We made beds from wood pallets and

cardboard. We designated a storm drain as the bathroom and the kids

built an elaborate enclosure for privacy out of plastic, broken

umbrellas, and other scraps. We even organized a food recycling system

where individuals could swap out parts of C-rations (applesauce for

babies and candies for kids!).

This was a process we saw repeatedly in the aftermath of Katrina. When

individuals had to fight to find food or water, it meant looking out for

yourself only. You had to do whatever it took to find water for your

kids or food for your parents. When these basic needs were met, people

began to look out for each other, working together and constructing a

community.

If the relief organizations had saturated the City with food and water

in the first 2 or 3 days, the desperation, the frustration and the

ugliness would not have set in.

Flush with the necessities, we offered food and water to passing

families and individuals. Many decided to stay and join us. Our

encampment grew to 80 or 90 people.

From a woman with a battery powered radio we learned that the media was

talking about us. Up in full view on the freeway, every relief and news

organizations saw us on their way into the City. Officials were being

asked what they were going to do about all those families living up on

the freeway? The officials responded they were going to take care of us.

Some of us got a sinking feeling. "Taking care of us" had an ominous

tone to it.

Unfortunately, our sinking feeling (along with the sinking City) was

correct. Just as dusk set in, a Gretna Sheriff showed up, jumped out of

his patrol vehicle, aimed his gun at our faces, screaming, "Get off the

fucking freeway". A helicopter arrived and used the wind from its blades

to blow away our flimsy structures. As we retreated, the sheriff loaded

up his truck with our food and water.

Once again, at gunpoint, we were forced off the freeway. All the law

enforcement agencies appeared threatened when we congregated or

congealed into groups of 20 or more. In every congregation of "victims"

they saw "mob" or "riot". We felt safety in numbers. Our "we must stay

together" was impossible because the agencies would force us into small

atomized groups.

In the pandemonium of having our camp raided and destroyed, we scattered

once again. Reduced to a small group of 8 people, in the dark, we sought

refuge in an abandoned school bus, under the freeway on Cilo Street. We

were hiding from possible criminal elements but equally and definitely,

we were hiding from the police and sheriffs with their martial law,

curfew and shoot-to-kill policies.

The next days, our group of 8 walked most of the day, made contact with

New Orleans Fire Department and were eventually airlifted out by an

urban search and rescue team. We were dropped off near the airport and

managed to catch a ride with the National Guard. The two young guardsmen

apologized for the limited response of the Louisiana guards. They

explained that a large section of their unit was in Iraq and that meant

they were shorthanded and were unable to complete all the tasks they

were assigned.

We arrived at the airport on the day a massive airlift had begun. The

airport had become another Superdome. We 8 were caught in a press of

humanity as flights were delayed for several hours while George Bush

landed briefly at the airport for a photo op. After being evacuated on a

coast guard cargo plane, we arrived in San Antonio, Texas.

There the humiliation and dehumanization of the official relief effort

continued. We were placed on buses and driven to a large field where we

were forced to sit for hours and hours. Some of the buses did not have

air-conditioners. In the dark, hundreds if us were forced to share two

filthy overflowing porta-potties. Those who managed to make it out with

any possessions (often a few belongings in tattered plastic bags) we

were subjected to two different dog-sniffing searches.

Most of us had not eaten all day because our C-rations had been

confiscated at the airport because the rations set off the metal

detectors. Yet, no food had been provided to the men, women, children,

elderly, disabled as they sat for hours waiting to be "medically

screened" to make sure we were not carrying any communicable diseases.

This official treatment was in sharp contrast to the warm, heart-felt

reception given to us by the ordinary Texans. We saw one airline worker

give her shoes to someone who was barefoot. Strangers on the street

offered us money and toiletries with words of welcome. Throughout, the

official relief effort was callous, inept, and racist. There was more

suffering than need be. Lives were lost that did not need to be lost.

[DudeAsInCool]

Hospital Staff Tried to Comfort Dying Patients

NEW ORLEANS -- Describing a desperate and harrowing struggle to comfort dying patients as floodwaters rose and the city descended into chaos, hospital staffers from Memorial Medical Center said today that 45 people died there during a six-day vigil.

Dave Goodson, director of support services at the hospital, said rescuers came and left — sometimes they helped take someone from the hospital and other times they brought new evacuees plucked from rooftops.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/na...-home-headlines

[DudeAsInCool]

FEMA Requested Only 455 Buses To Rescue 20,000... Then Canceled Order And Took Until Sat. After Storm To Send Enough Buses...

As the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency stepped down yesterday, government documents surfaced showing that vital resources, such as buses and environmental health specialists, weren't deployed to the Gulf region for several days, even after federal officials seized control of Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.

In addition, FEMA's official requests, known as tasking assignments and used by the agency to demand help from other government agencies, show that it first asked the Department of Transportation to look for buses to help evacuate the more than 20,000 people who had taken refuge at the Superdome in New Orleans at 1:45 a.m. on Aug. 31. At the time, it only asked for 455 buses and 300 ambulances for the enormous task. Almost 18 hours later, it canceled the request for the ambulances because it turned out, as one FEMA employee put it, "the DOT doesn't do ambulances."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thenewswire/#a007281

[DudeAsInCool]

Nursing Home Owners Charged in Deaths

The husband-and-wife owners of a New Orleans-area nursing home where 34 people died in Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters were charged Tuesday with negligent homicide.

The case represents the first major prosecution to come out of the disaster in New Orleans.

The owners of St. Rita's Nursing Home in the town of Chalmette "were asked if they wanted to move (the patients). They did not. They were warned repeatedly that this storm was coming. In effect, their inaction resulted in the deaths of these patients," Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti said.

http://www.breitbart.com/news/na/D8CJKVD8A.html

[slum_goddess]

i hope this thread won't get any longer (but i know it will). :(

[DudeAsInCool]

Senate Kills Bid for Katrina Commission

Senate Republicans on Wednesday scuttled an attempt by Sen. Hillary Clinton to establish an independent, bipartisan panel patterned after the 9/11 Commission to investigate what went wrong with federal, state and local governments' response to Hurricane Katrina.

The New York Democrat's bid to establish the panel _ which would have also made recommendations on how to improve the government's disaster response apparatus _ failed to win the two-thirds majority needed to overcome procedural hurdles. Clinton got only 44 votes, all from Democrats and independent Sen. Jim Jeffords of Vermont. Fifty-four Republicans all voted no.

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/09/14/D8CK6RV01.html

:reallymad:

In a CNN/USA Today Gallup poll taken Sept. 8-11, 70 percent of those surveyed supported an independent panel to investigate the government's response to Katrina. Only 29 percent were opposed.

[The Hunter]

No supprise to me. Its called covering your ass, although I think its way too late for that.

[slum_goddess]

Katrina: Another Excuse for Bush’s Failed Ideology

On Monday, the Washington Post quoted former Reagan chief of staff Ken Duberstein as saying that Bush needed to give an address to the nation, a proposal the White House accepted the next day. Duberstein said, “There needs to be a Bush vision for the future of New Orleans… I think a very presidential speech reporting to the country on progress to date and, more significantly, a vision to the future of New Orleans and the region is something that needs to happen sooner rather than later.” Bush’s “vision” for New Orleans and the Katrina recovery effort is being slowly revealed, and unsurprisingly, it’s a vision that’s steeped in conservative ideologies of old that promise little help to actual victims Hurricane Katrina.

“SEPARATE BUT EQUAL” EDUCATION: The Wall Street Journal reports that Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings will ask Congress to waive a federal law that bans educational segregation for homeless children. The Bush administration is arguing, along with states like Utah and Texas, that providing schooling for evacuees – who, in this case, are likened to homeless children — will be disruptive to public school systems, so they want to have sound legal backing for creating separate educational facilities for the 372,000 schoolchildren displaced by Hurricane Katrina. The State of Mississippi is opposed to waiving the Act because they argue the law helps evacuees enroll in schools without red tape. [WSJ, “Schooling Evacuees Provokes Debate,” 9/14/05]

as well, REFUSAL TO EXPAND ELIGIBILITY FOR HEALTH CARE; LOWER WAGES FOR HURRICANE RECOVERY CONSTRUCTION WORKERS; LOWER WAGES FOR HURRICANE RECOVERY SERVICE WORKERS from here

about the fucked katrina commission...i don't have the words, for once...i just dunno about these fucks.

[DudeAsInCool]

Would-be humanitarians sent to clean up casino

What was envisioned as a mission of mercy to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina ended in anger and disillusionment for two Lawrence residents.

Instead of handing out food and water to victims in New Orleans, they found themselves under the supervision of no-nonsense, “kind of scary” foremen who had them cleaning up a hurricane-ravaged casino in Biloxi, Miss.

“I felt really bad about working on a casino for rich people when there are people suffering,” Kalila Dalton said. “I felt like we got scammed pretty good,” Chris Tucker said.

When Dalton and Tucker of Lawrence and others from the Kansas City area said they wanted to leave Biloxi, they were told there was no transportation for them and if they tried to walk away they risked being shot by National Guardsmen enforcing martial law.

“It was like a job we couldn’t leave,” Dalton said.

Representatives for the companies that organized the venture said Tuesday that the matter was all a misunderstanding caused by the chaos and confusion of trying to deal with such a massive disaster.

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2005/sep/14/r...rricane_katrina

:reallymad: