Hurricane George: How the White House Drowned New Orleans

Note from A.M. in the Morning! MUST read. An internationally acclaimed award-winning investigative journalist who works for the BBC, Greg Palast is a native Californian whose work also broke the story on the stolen 2000 election. I admire, trust, and respect Palast's brilliant investigative journalism, and he's a personal friend as well.

Originally published August 23rd, 2007 at GregPalast.Com

by Greg Palast
August 23, 2007

It’s been two years. And America’s media is about to have another tear-gasm over New Orleans. Maybe Anderson Cooper will weep again. The big networks will float into the moldering corpse of the city and give you uplifting stories about rebuilding and hope.

Now, let’s cut through the cry-baby crap. Here’s what happened two years ago - and what’s happening now.

This is what an inside source told me. And it makes me sick:

“By midnight on Monday, the White House knew. Monday night I was at the state Emergency Operations Center and nobody was aware that the levees had breeched. Nobody.”

The charge is devastating: That, on August 29, 2005,

the White House withheld from the state police the information that New Orleans was about to flood. From almost any other source, I would not have believed it. But this was not just any source. The whistle-blower is Dr. Ivor van Heerden, deputy director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center, the chief technician advising the state on saving lives during Katrina.

I’d come to van Heerden about another matter, but in our talks, it was clear he had something he wanted to say, and it was a big one. He charged that the White House, FEMA and the Army Corp hid, for critical hours, their discovery that the levees surrounding New Orleans were cracking, about to burst and drown the city.

Understand that Katrina never hit New Orleans. The hurricane swung east of the city, so the state evacuation directors assumed New Orleans was now safe - and evacuation could slow while emergency efforts moved east with the storm.

But unknown to the state, in those crucial hours on Monday, the federal government’s helicopters had filmed the cracks that would become walls of death by Tuesday.

Van Heerden revealed:

“FEMA knew at 11 o’clock on Monday that the levees had breeched. At 2p.m. they flew over he 17th Street Canal and took video of the breech.”

Question: “So the White House wouldn’t tell you the levees had breeched?”

Dr. Van Heerden: “They didn’t tell nobody knew. The Corps of Engineers knew. FEMA knew. None of us knew.”

I could not get the White House gang to respond to the charges.

That leaves the big, big question: WHY? Why on earth would the White House not tell the city to get the remaining folks out of there?

The answer: cost. Political and financial cost. A hurricane is an act of God - but a catastrophic failure of the levees is a act of Bush. That is, under law dating back to 1935, a breech of the federal levee system makes the damage - and the deaths - a federal responsibility. That means, as van Heeden points out, that “these people must be compensated.”

The federal government, by law, must build and maintain the Mississippi levees to withstand known dangers - or pay the price when they fail.

Indeed, that was the rule applied in the storms that hit Westhampton Dunes, New York, in 1992. There, when federal sea barriers failed, the flood waters wiped away 190 homes. The feds rebuilt them from the public treasury. But these were not just any homes. They are worth an average of $3 million apiece the summer homes of movie stars and celebrity speculators.


There were no movie stars floating face down in the Lower Ninth Ward nor in Lakeview nor St. Bernard Parish. For the ‘luvvies’ of Westhampton Dunes, the federal government even trucked in sand to replace the beaches. But for New Orleans’ survivors, there’s the aluminum gulag of FEMA trailer parts. Today, two years later, 89,000 families still live in this mobile home Guantanamo - with no plan whatsoever for their return.

And what was the effect of the White House’s self-serving delay?

I spoke with van Heerden in his university office. The computer model of the hurricane flashed quietly as I waited for him to answer. Then he said, “Fifteen hundred people drowned. That’s the bottom line.”

They could have survived Hurricane Katrina. But they got no mercy from Hurricane George.

**********
For the rest of the story, get the DVD, “BIG EASY TO BIG EMPTY: The Untold Story of the Drowning of New Orleans,” as reported by Greg Palast from Louisiana for Democracy Now - with Amy Goodman and the music of “the city that care forgot.” Watch a clip on our Youtube page.

And read the full story of our investigation in the added chapter on New Orleans in the new paperback edition of “Armed Madhouse: from Baghdad to New Orleans - Sordid Secrets and Strange Tales of a White House Gone Wild.” Click here to donate to our Investigative Fund and receive a book signed by Greg Palast as a gift from us.

Return to A.M. in the Morning! Home

Read More......

Normalcy Long Overdue in Katrina-Ravaged Region

by Ana Maria

Two days ago, Mississippi voters in the Democratic Primary ousted Insurance Commissioner George Dale, whose cozy relationship with Big Insurance became his electoral albatross. Surely less than a year ago, Dale anticipated his re-election bid to retain the normalcy he had experienced over the last three decades of running for office.

The campaigns for newly-elected Democratic nominee Gary Anderson and his Republican opponent will recuperate from the primary, then redirect their efforts for the usual hustle and bustle of a general election, which will be held this November. Even inside the chaotic nature of every election campaign, there is a sense of normalcy to that chaos—at least for those of us who’ve been in a few.

Here inside the Katrina-ravaged region, we’re still struggling to return to a sense of normalcy. At Katrina’s ground zero, we still have Wal-Mart as our only grocery store for at least a 30 minute ride in any direction. Insurance companies continue to low ball, delay, and fight tooth and nail to break their legal contracts to pay on legitimate wind damage claims. Reliable, solid, and reasonably priced contractors to repair homes are still miraculous to find. FEMA continues to jerk around municipalities.

Jobs are scarce. More scarce are employees. More scarce still? Housing.

Even hotels are difficult to find. On reflection, that makes sense. When Big Insurance decided not to pay wind damage claims for its wind policy customers, it did screwed over all customers—including the hotels.

What is easy to find are the stories of how folks survived in those first few weeks after Katrina hit.

Turning Family Homes into Hotels and Restaurants
Yesterday, I spoke with a young woman who was going into her senior in high school two years ago when Katrina hit. She works as a concierge at one of the local casino resort hotels that re-opened recently. She is working at the hotel as she goes to the local university.

When I encouraged her to stay in school, she looked me squarely in my eyes and said, “Don’t worry. I was valedictorian of my class. I have every intention of getting my degree.” Good. I asked how her family made out in the storm.

She said that her family lives in Guatier (go-sheyah), Miss., near a river, but the family home only had a few shingles fly off their roof. No other damage. Fortunately, her dad owns a local roofing business so repairing was a breeze. Given the family’s relative fortune in coming out of the worst natural disaster, I asked how many people ended up staying at their place.

Notice, I didn’t ask whether they opened their home. I didn’t ask if anyone had asked to come stay with them. Given the innumerable stories that I’ve heard since returning home in March for my, uh, short surprise visit that has since extended past the few weeks I had intended, I knew that it wasn’t a matter of whether, but how many stayed with them.

The young college student told me that after Katrina, her family helped everyone clear out yards and streets. For at least a month, and maybe six weeks, after the storm, though, they didn’t have any electricity. She said that sometimes they were cooking for 50 people—breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They didn’t know how many or who would show up much less when. It was like running a hotel.

Amazing.

My cousin Eric was living in Slidell at the time Katrina hit. Slidell is 30 minutes east of New Orleans and 30 minutes west of Bay St. Louis, Miss.,--one of the three tiny beach towns that comprise Katrina’s ground zero. When the New Orleans levees broke, parts of Slidell flooded. Eric and his immediate family did ok. His older brother, Chip, who lives in Diamondhead, Miss., just a bit up the road from the western part of the Gulf Coast, lost everything. Recently, Eric shared with me part of his post-Katrina story.

One Big Garage Sale—With a Twist
Like the young woman’s family in Gautier, Eric and his wife Lisa had opened their home to Katrina survivors never knowing how many would be eating with them at breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Fortunately, Lisa is a great cook and loves cooking. Eric said it was like running a restaurant because they had to cook big batches of everything.

Every room in his home housed survivors—including a woman in the last month or two of her pregnancy. He felt badly because the better beds were upstairs which she had to climb for the more comfortable sleeping quarters.

Eric holds a leadership position in an international Catholic prayer circle dedicated to Medjugorje. He put out a call to those members who live on the west bank of New Orleans, because they didn’t get hit by either Katrina or the levee breaks. With creative flare, he asked for everyone to clear out their garages. If it isn’t being used, donate it to those who lost so much in Katrina.

Calls poured in. On his lunch hour, after work and on the weekends, Eric would go pick up furniture, baby clothes, appliances, or whatever people had and networked to give it to those who in need.

He said that he had learned of a very elderly African American lady—around 90 years old, if I recall correctly—who had 15 family members in her home, but she had no stove to cook the meals. A call came in about a brand new stove sitting in someone’s garage waiting to be installed in the house. The family decided that the old stove was fine, and they could donate the stove to the effort.

Eric had one lady tell him that she needed a bed. But the catch was that her husband was a BIG man requiring a king sized bed. Oooo. That’s gonna be a tough one. He told her to pray for it. He had not even reached his home when a call came in—someone had a king-sized bed. Did he know who could use it?

Eric regaled me with story after story similar to that one. In one instance, a mother told Eric that just before the storm, she had just finished decorating her young daughter’s room with everything Shortcake and how devastating losing it had been on her daughter. Now the woman was clearly just sharing with my beloved cousin part of her family’s Katrina story.

Yet, before he knew it, he got a call from a woman who told him that her daughter had outgrown her bedroom, which had been decorated in everything Shortcake. Did he know of anyone that could use it?
Around Christmas time, Eric’s boss approached him asking what he is doing on his lunch hour. He had been watching Eric—a longtime, valued employee—dart in an out for a few weeks. So Eric told him of the garage-emptying project he started. The boss was impressed, of course. What did he do? Noting that Christmas was coming up, he asked how he could best help provide for those families. Eric said “gift cards.”

If I recall correctly, the boss put out an email to all the employees. The company ended up donating piles of $25 gift cards, which Eric and his merry band of friends personally delivered to various families so that the parents could shop for their kids. One woman, whom I’m sure represented the reaction from many recipient, simply cried when Eric handed her the package of gift cards tied neatly with a pretty ribbon. She said that she had no idea how to provide some normalcy in her children’s lives. She thanked him profusely.

Another lady opened her door when Eric knocked. She listened as he said what he was there to drop off. He handed her the gift cards wrapped in pretty ribbon, and without a word, she closed the door. Months later, she got word to him that she was so stunned, so in shock, that she couldn’t say a word. She, too, was grateful for the sense of normalcy the gift cards would bring to her children at Christmas.

Normalcy? What normalcy?
We’re just shy of the two-year anniversary from any sense of normalcy here in the Katrina-ravaged region.

Those who live in New Orleans are suffering because of the levee break and the breakdown in our federal government, which has utterly failed to live up to its obligation to the American people.

Those who live outside of New Orleans, but inside Louisiana—such as those in Slidell, and those of us who live anywhere along the 50 miles of the Mississippi Gulf Coast and into Alabama, also yearn for normalcy.

A sense of normalcy. That is what everyone here yearns for. Anytime some small effort is put forth, all one has to do is take a drive down beach boulevard in Bay St. Louis and Waveland, Miss., then cross the bridge and continue down highway 90 from Pass Christian through Long Beach, Gulfport, Biloxi, and Ocean Springs. The stairs leading to no where represent homes that have not been able to be rebuilt. Same with the slabs that are cleared of debris but overgrown with weeds. And the steel beams standing erect waiting for the walls to be returned to their pre-Katrina place.

For all of us here, a sense of pre-Katrina normalcy is long overdue.

As I hear of all these wonderful, arms wide-open stories of folks making do and doing more than good enough to get through this ongoing crisis, I keep thinking why in the living heck George Bush and the vast resources at his fingertips didn’t and still doesn’t bother to lift much of a finger to restore a sense of normalcy.

Oh, I see.

I forgot to look carefully at which finger he and his administration were collectively lifting.



Return to A.M. in the Morning! Home

Read More......

A Breath Of Fresh Air In Post-Katrina Mississippi

by Ana Maria

Today’s a big day in Mississippi. While there are plenty of contested local races throughout the state—particularly on the Republican side, the insurance commissioner is the most important statewide race because it impacts every individual, family, community, and every form of government inside the state.

Here on the coast, electing Gary Anderson as the Democratic nominee and booting out George Dale from office would clearly send more than a few ripples of joy throughout the Katrina-ravaged region. You see, the insurance crisis impacts so many things that most of us—myself included—just don’t think about until it is pointed out.

For example, I’m hearing how drug and alcohol abuse among teens and adults has dramatically increased since Katrina. Kids have no where to go—not a movie theater, skating rink, nothing. What is there to do? How are they to channel all the usual that comes with being a teen and all the unusual that resides inside of them because of Katrina’s impact?

Their friends may be scattered to the winds. The kids may have had to deal with death of friends or family members. Their homes may be gone, schools destroyed, social groups evaporated. Their families finances shattered because of jobs no longer available since most businesses were lost in Katrina. On top of that, little to no money for rebuilding the family home.

We know that communities everywhere struggle with this issue of teens and having places for them to go and activities to keep them occupied in healthy ways. Put on top of that having lost everything they’ve ever known including their social network that helps them go through those difficult years that transform kids into young adults. No wonder drugs and alcohol are rampant.

This past weekend, I attended a Democratic Women’s annual picnic in which many candidates or their surrogates spoke. I was honored to speak on behalf of Gary Anderson. The park was stupendously gorgeous with water to the one side of us, beautiful homes on another, and the beautiful green grass and trees everywhere.

My pitch was easy—all Gary Anderson voters, of course. Yes, I gave them a political hell raising activity: get out their address books and call all of their friends and family to ensure that they remembered to get out and vote. (I'm the same me on paper and in person—only a lot more lively in the flesh.)

The lady who spoke with me about the teen issue also talked with me about the level of depression hitting teens as well as adults and how she is losing friends to suicide, those who lose hope that their lives will ever get back to some level of normalcy.

I listened as she told me that another issue facing the Gulf Coast is the lack of affordable housing in the area and how the insurance companies have made it so that apartment complexes cannot afford to rebuild and that those that may be rebuilt will have to substantially raise the rent to cover the insurance rates.

I recall talking with a grade school friend some months back. Before the storm, her elderly mother’s apartment rent was about $500 a month. After Katrina, the rent nearly doubled—$900 a month. I don’t know about you, but if my monthly costs for housing doubled, that would be more than a bit difficult to absorb.

Most of us could not absorb it regardless of whether we are Democrats or Republicans, seniors or not yet seniors, single or married, Caucasian, African American, Vietnamese American, Sikh, Latino, disabled veteran, coach, nurse, lawyer or doctor. Whether we are salaried, self-employed, hourly wage or fixed income households, we all have “X” amount of money coming in—if we’re among the lucky ones, that is. Increasing household expenses in such a dramatic fashion makes life more than difficult to say the least.

By the way, my grade school friend’s family who received this shocking increase on mom’s rent? The family is Republican.

Increased teen drug and alcohol abuse, adult depression so overwhelming that suicide seems the only out of the unnecessary misery, skyrocketing financial burdens unfair under any circumstances. And what does Mississippi Insurance Commissioner George Dale have to say about all of this?

“My mistake after Katrina was saying . . . some claims are not going to be paid because of water damage.”

WHAT?! The financial ruin of an entire region because Dale chose to turn his back on these communities, cities, towns, and every person inside of them. The emotional devastation that came as a result of Dale assisting his insurance industry buddies to create the largest financial disaster to hit the area probably since the Great Depression in the 1930s. And all he can think about is that his mistake was blurting out what was that he shouldn’t have gone public with insider knowledge that he was going to let the insurance companies get away with ripping off Gulf Coast residents?

Dale’s comments seem to have come from a set of talking points that the insurance industry would have supplied him.

I don’t know how a public official can be so completely devoid of taking personal responsibility for the ruin his own public policies have had on an entire region. I don’t know how a public official can be so completely devoid of an ounce of genuine compassion.

Who am I kidding? George Dale publicly campaigned on behalf of George W. Bush.

I pray that tonight will bring everyone on the Gulf Coast great joy at having helped to give George Dale his walking papers through electing Gary Anderson as the next Democratic nominee for the state’s insurance commissioner. While the insurance industry will have the wind knocked out of it, electing Gary Anderson will be a breath of air that surely to goodness we could all use especially here in post-Katrina Mississippi.


Return to A.M. in the Morning! Home

Read More......

Fake Emergency Management . . . Again

Rows of trailers for those displaced by Hurricane Katrina line the Renaissance Village trailer park in Baker, La. Trailers like these have been found to contain high levels of formaldehyde.

(By Ricky Carioti -- The Washington Post)

by Ana Maria

Bush's FEMA, the agency responsible for handling disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, has itself been disastrous. As catastrophic as Katrina’s damage has been for everyone from New Orleans through the Mississippi Gulf Coast to Alabama, nothing—and I mean nothing—comes close to the catastrophe that Bush’s FEMA embodies in terms of its deliberate neglect, callous disregard, and compassionless actions toward those whom Katrina impacted.

After being publicly castigated for deliberately ignoring reports regarding the enormous toxic levels of formaldehyde inside the trailers that house Katrina’s survivors, the Bush Administration’s latest chief FEMA buffoon has announced that the agency would—finally—begin testing the trailers.

The agency’s own on-the-ground reports had long ago informed FEMA’s upper management that the trailers were causing significant health problems. In fact, the agency’s attorneys have known since early 2006 that these sardine can sized trailers were toxic to the degree of being 75 times the healthy level. From the onset, on-the-ground FEMA employees pushed for testing. So, what directive came down from one of the attorneys with Bush’s FEMA?

"Do not initiate any testing until we give the OK. . . . Once you get results and should they indicate some problem, the clock is running on our duty to respond to them."

This FEMA attorney apparently missed the part of law school that would have informed him that being told of the problem automatically put him on notice. At that point, he should have acted. Period. It’s like trying to put toothpaste back into the tube. It’s doesn’t work. You cannot un-ring the bell, bucko.

The “reasonable man theory” might apply to the situation. What would a reasonable man or woman do under these circumstances? Now, the word to focus on is reasonable as most of us would agree upon its meaning.

A reasonable individual could conclude the following.

1. The trailers may be posing health risks to the families living in them.
2. FEMA’s responsible for protecting the health and welfare of these families.
3. FEMA should quickly provide appropriate and rigorous tests to determine the extent to which formaldehyde levels exist in the trailers.
4. Once the tests confirmed the toxic levels of formaldehyde, FEMA must immediately determine the remedy for the situation including providing alternative housing that would be safe and healthy.

So what would a reasonable man or woman do as a result of these conclusions? Test the trailers with the best testing equipment and personnel available. After all, the health and safety of those living in the trailers is paramount.

Instead, FEMA’s upper management told its on-the-ground employees to turn a blind eye to the unnecessary suffering of these families living in the formaldehyde-filled trailers within the Katrina-ravaged region.

The Washington Post reported

A trail of e-mails obtained by investigators shows that the agency's lawyers rejected a proposal for systematic testing of the levels of potentially cancer-causing formaldehyde gas in the trailers, out of concern that the agency would be legally liable for any hazards or health problems. As many as 120,000 families displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita lived in the suspect trailers, and hundreds have complained of ill effects.

How utterly irresponsible, compassionless, vile and contemptible Bush’s FEMA continues to be.

FEMA Resentfully Relents
Only after being verbally lashed at a very public congressional hearing last Thursday did FEMA’s leadership announce it had capitulated to the demands that it live up to its responsibilities. This, too, appears to be a continuation of the administration’s PR scam.

From the new flyer it is providing the residents living in the formaldehyde-filled trailers to the false and misleading information on its website, FEMA exhibits a vile contempt for us, the American people.

With great interest did I read FEMA’s new flyer. In keeping with the deceptive PR practices so prevalent with the Bush crew, this flyer is exceedingly misleading. First they try to pretend that formaldehyde is as common as oxygen and then to blame on dust, mold, or smoke the symptoms toxic levels of formaldehyde can produce.

“Formaldehyde is a common indoor air pollutant that can be found in nearly all homes and buildings.”

“. . . your symptoms could be from indoor pollutants that may include formaldehyde or other indoor pollutants, such as dust, mold or smoke. ”

If the Bush Administration were serious about rectifying this situation, if it were serious about accurately educating the American public about the potentially hazardous nature of the government-provided housing, then it would provide clear and convincing language to instruct these residents to seek medical treatment immediately.

But, the Bushies are not serious about anything other than lining their own pockets and, with government sweet heart deals, the pockets of their big wig friends.

Abroad, the Bush Administration hands out multi-billion dollar, no bid contracts to companies like Cheney’s Halliburton. Here at home, Congressman Gene Taylor (D-MS) exposed the Katrina fraud involving Bush supporter Riley Bechtel who received “$16,000 to haul a trailer the last 70 miles from Purvis, Miss., down to the Gulf Coast, hook it up to a garden hose, hook it up to a sewer tap, and plug it in. $16,000.”

Who this administration hurts with its price gouging, deceptive practices, and elimination of our governmental infrastructure is irrelevant to them. The Bushies cloak themselves in Old Glory and hide behind language central to the Christian faith as they fake being men and women who receive special delivery messages from heaven. Oh, I’m sure they get messages. However, I’m equally certain that they have grossly misinterpreted those messages.

Yep, the Bushies fake a lot of things like patriotism and religiosity. Now, the Bush Administration is faking any appearance of a serious mea culpa on the part of FEMA’s deliberate – what was that phrase the Democratic Congressional Committee Chair used? Ahhh, yes! Chairman Waxman termed it “premeditated ignorance.”

FEMA’s Website: A Portal of False and Misleading Information
FEMA’s website is riddled with false, inaccurate, and deceptive language with regard to formaldehyde-filled FEMA trailers. As a result, the information on FEMA’s website misleads the American public. Let’s look at three examples which highlight FEMA Director Paulison’s failure to ensure that all deceptive pieces of information regarding his agency’s formaldehyde-filled trailers were taken down.

Example 1
On FEMA’s homepage under “FEMA Continues To Address Formaldehyde Concerns” the following sentence remains.

“Although tests of air samples from travel trailers in the Gulf Coast have demonstrated that ventilating the units is effective in reducing levels of formaldehyde.”

Of course, FEMA fails to tell the WHOLE truth of their pitiful previous “air samples”. Last week, TIME Magazine reported on the pitifully pathetic way that the Bush folks conducted its “tests.”

“Trailers were left with windows ajar, air conditioning on and all vents open for days before interior air levels were tested for the gas — conditions that did not nearly approximate actual living conditions.”

Example 2
On FEMA’s website, Paulison has left intact deviously misleading information on the health hazards of formaldehyde as well as its remedy. In its set of frequently asked questions (FAQ) titled FEMA Actions to Minimize Formaldehyde in Travel Trailers, FEMA’s questions #2 and #3 are of particular note.

2. I thought FEMA had already done a travel trailer study.

Yes. Last summer the Environmental Protection Agency and the Agency for Toxic Substances and the CDC’s Disease Registry testing of air samples from travel trailers. That study showed that ventilating the units is effective in reducing levels of formaldehyde. However, FEMA believes additional research is needed to address
concerns about the health effects of living in travel trailers for prolonged periods of time. [Emphasis added.]

What?! The so-called study was no study at all, and the conclusions based on it are ready for prime time amateur hour! The fact of the matter is that the Clarion-Ledger, the daily paper in Jackson, Miss., which is the capitol of the state, reported "Becky Gillette, vice chairwoman of the Mississippi chapter of the Sierra Club, said testing of some FEMA trailers and mobile homes showed elevated levels of formaldehyde, even in those that have been aired out for months.” [Emphasis added.]

The answer to FEMA’s question #3 blames the residents for creating the toxic formaldehyde levels that are 75 times the healthy level.

3. What will the new study do?

The study will involve testing actual air quality conditions in travel trailers when they are used for longer periods of time under real-life conditions. In the study conducted last, the testing was done in new, unoccupied trailers so that we could determine formaldehyde levels in the units themselves, excluding any changes related to activities by the occupants, such as smoking.

Smoking causes formaldehyde to jump to 75 times the healthy level? Again, Bush’s FEMA folks are prime time for amateur hour. Get them off the government payroll!

Example 3
On FEMA’s website is a piece titled Statement On Travel Trailers and Formaldehyde. In it, Bush’s agency retains more reality-free material through which to mislead the American public seeking factually-based information.

Our investigation of formaldehyde and travel trailers indicates that ventilating the units can significantly reduce levels of formaldehyde emissions.

The Sierra Club’s testing disputes the Bush Administration’s assertion.

Once again, Bush’s government betrays our trust and jeopardizes our health and welfare. So what can we do about this situation?

Today’s Political Hell Raising Activity has us contact FEMA Director Paulison’s office to demand the removal of all the false and misleading information regarding the agency’s formaldehyde-filled trailers. Let’s bombard his office with calls so much so that we interrupt their routine.

That is our point. To interrupt their routine of deception, deviousness, and callous disregard for the health and safety of the families living in the FEMA trailers.

Our point is to call the director's office and tell the FEMA staff member at the other end of the call that we want the government website that our tax dollars pay for to be based upon reality and not someone’s fantasy.

While FEMA’s upper management is faking emergency management . . . again, we can demonstrate that we’re fully engaged citizens who will take out 3-5 minutes to live up to our end of the democratic bargain that is the great American experiment in representative democracy. Nothing fake about that. All very real.

Return to A.M. in the Morning! Home

Read More......

Democrats Shame, Skewer Insurance Shills

by Ana Maria

Eloquent, down home as well as brutally truthful and direct in a classy manner, Congressman Gene Taylor (D-MS) shamed 6 witnesses who testified at the House of Representatives’ Subcommittee hearing on Housing and Community Opportunity. Each of these witnesses asserted that from the perspective of the insurance industry, the status quo was good enough. One after the other with painful repetition in this four hour subcommittee meeting that I watched online, each of these corporate shills reiterated the same talking points with a single goal in mind: protect the status quo.

I couldn’t have been more proud of Congressman Taylor’s performance if I myself had personally verbally skewered each of those shills. But I sure as hell would love the opportunity, and I guarantee you that I would not necessarily be nearly as nice or classy about the matter. Over and over again, these shills said the same industry-produced talking points.

1. The Federal Government would loose money if it got into the business of covering all natural perils.


2. The private market can take care of consumers.


3. The Federal Flood Insurance Program should be allowed to do its job.

Of course, the whole lot of them operate in a fact-free bubble which attracts those with similar inclination.

For the majority of the country that comprise the rest of us, we live in a factually-based reality in which fairness and protecting families play an important role in our core values. We believe in fiscal sanity and financial security for our families, our businesses and our country. And that is clearly the primary goal that the Multiple Peril Insurance Act of 2007 achieves.

Region-wide, private companies took premiums from families and businesses then deliberately instructed its agents not to pay on the wind policies. That’s called stealing. When the companies deliberately sent erroneous bills to the Federal Flood Insurance Program—bills for which they had engineering reports that specifically stated wind caused the damage, these companies defrauded the U.S. Treasury thus stealing from the American taxpayers through an inflated $23 billion bill.

ABC News was able to obtain a copy from State Farm files of the original FAEC [Forensic Analysis & Engineering Corp.] damage report, which included the image of an attached "Post-it" note that read, "Put in wind file - do not pay bill - do not discuss"

Image at ABC's The Blotter.

In so doing, the private insurance companies have betrayed American families and business owners. These are the values of the Bush White House. However, betrayal and theft are not mainstream American values.

The corporate shills who testified before this Congressional subcommittee had one message: keep the status quo. Basically, these corporate shills testified that insurance companies should be allowed to continue to steal from American families, businesses, and taxpayers. It’s good for their bottom lines, good for their businesses. The testimony that these shills provided merely protected the industry’s $108 billion in profits earned in 2005 and 2006. They had no concern for the very real impact that their corporate thievery had on Americans.

Does any compassionate and sane individual really believe that these obscene profits at the expense of fiscal obligations to those whom the companies promised financial security are not blood-drenched profits? These shills, these men and women who testified are compassionless corporate cronies. Yes, even the FEMA dude recited the same talking points which surely to goodness came from Bush’s buddies in the insurance industry.

Last week, former GOP Chair Marc Racicot, who now heads the American Insurance Association, sent to Congress and the media a fraudulent report with the same messages embedded in its reality-free rambling. Bush appointed Racicot to head the Republican Party in 2001. Racicot chaired the party while remaining an active lobbyist for Enron.

One after the other, in calm and deliberate fashion, Democratic Congressional members skewered those six panelists. Many of these subcommittee members drove home the reality that insurance companies cheated lower and middle income families out of their rightful claims on their homeowner wind policy provisions. These Democratic congressional members talked of families and business owners who had to hire attorneys and engineering firms to fight their insurance companies for claims that should have been paid within months after the hurricane had hit the area.

Today, many of these businesses are not up and running. Many of these families remain living in FEMA trailers or with other family and friends both inside and outside of the region. Is this the American Dream we want everyone to embrace? Cheat and be rewarded? As Taylor said, his constituents played by the rules and got screwed by the insurance companies.

The reality is that insurance companies betrayed their policyholders. The reality is that insurance companies are jacking up their premiums by god awful amounts or abandoning homeowners throughout the country from the Mid-West like Oklahoma or the West, East, and Gulf Coasts.

Look, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency, 55% of us live within 50 miles of the nation’s coastline. These towns and cities are where we live, worship, educate our kids, visit with family and friends, and work. Other than the corrupt Mississippi Insurance Commissioner George Dale, who would suggest that over half of the U.S. population ought to move inland?

The enormous impact from Hurricane Katrina should leave Mississippians wondering if they should live "in harm's way."

With insurance companies failing to protect the financial stability of our families and businesses—and insurance commissioners like Dale helping companies to rip us off blindly, we have turned to the federal government to protect us through expanding the government’s federal flood insurance policy to include wind damage. Indeed, some of the subcommittee members suggested that the new legislation should also include earthquakes and fire both of which are continual threats.

Of its own choosing, the market driven insurance industry has failed to protect us.

The era of insanity of profits over people and of financial greed over family financial security is coming to an end. We will beat the drum until we have enough votes in the House and Senate to pass this bill because we must protect America’s fiscal sanity, fiscal stability for our families and businesses.

If Bush vetoes the legislation, then we will again pass this legislation under an expanded Democratic majority after the 2008 election. Then the newly inaugurated Democratic President will sign this legislation, perhaps as part of a legislative package titled something along the lines of Protecting American Families Financial Security.

That is the point of the legislation. Protecting families, protecting businesses.

Additional resources

1. H.R. 920


2. FAQ regarding the Multiple Peril Insurance Act of 2007


3. Rep. Gene Taylor Asks AIA to Retract Report


4. Trent Lott's letter of support

Return to A.M. in the Morning! Home

Read More......

A Southern Moonlit Sauna Has Me Thinking of Bush and Jesus

With the beauty of Saturday night’s moon beaming brightly upon the water, hundreds of people gathered at the Bay St. Louis Yacht Club to listen to the deliciously divine music of Deacon John, a New Orleans legend playing all the favorites going back some fifty years. I couldn’t believe how hot it was or that sweat was running down my legs! A young friend informed me, “That isn’t sweat. It’s the humidity stuck to your legs.” I guess it’s been a while since I went dancing under the moonlight with humidity in the night air making life almost unbearable were it not for Deacon John’s music.

I immediately thought, “Thank GAWD I wore shorts and a t-shirt.” Looking around, I saw sweat poring of off everyone. Thus the reason for the HUGE four to five foot fans under the tent where the band played and the rest of us danced. Now, if you thought this was some uptight-dressed-to-the-nines-with-diamond-jewels kind of crowd, you’d have been wrong as wrong could be. At best, everyone wore picnic attire, the same thing many of us had worn earlier that day when we went to the annual Crab Festival at Our Lady Academy, the Catholic all girl high school I attended.

I bought myself a shrimp po-boy—a New Orleans specialty—and sat down at a table filled with folks I didn’t know. Like me, they were enjoying the divinely mouth-watering delicacies for which our region is so well-known. Across from me was a couple who had lost a 5,000 square foot home in Katrina. What did their insurance carrier offer for the damages? $19,000. What a jaw dropper!

Being smart business people, they had tried to get flood insurance and were denied it because they didn’t live in a flood zone. This insurance nightmare pushed this couple into joining one of the Scruggs Katrina lawsuits.

After we finished our meal and concluded our discussion, we parted knowing that we’d be seeing each other at THE event of the weekend: dancing to Deacon John that night. Indeed, we ran into each other soon after the gig began to crank up. Music and dancing are a strong part of our cultural history here which can be most easily understood when taking into consideration the fact that many families, like my own, are originally from New Orleans. Our heat and humidity are other similarities to the birthplace of Jazz.

The South’s Natural Sauna
Saturday night, I voluntarily re-experienced the “Southern Sauna,” as my brother Michael called the horrendous humidity with which we grew up. Of course, being out under the moonlight dancing with my friends was pleasurable play time. I was just out having a good time as sweat ran down the back of my t-shirt and the humidity grabbed a hold of my legs then rolled right down. At least, I could go over to a fan and cool off occasionally. Eventually, I would return to my car with air conditioning which I would drive to my mother’s home that was also air conditioned. I could jump into the shower. These are choices that most of us take for granted.

Two years ago when Katrina hit, electricity and safe-water were near non-existent commodities. My older brother Rosie told me that he would put water in jugs and sit them out in the sun to warm up all day. That way he would have relatively warm water for an evening wash up. Because the water source wasn’t safe for weeks after the storm, he’d put bleach in the jugs to kill the germs.

Rosie said he noticed that those who failed to put bleach in their water ended up with sores on their bodies. And the weather was more scorching than it is at this point in the summer. As I think and write about these things, I cannot imagine the turmoil and nightmare that family, friends, and strangers all lived through in those months, particularly with the horrendous weather.

The worst weather comes in August and September, the two months in which hurricanes tend to hit the Gulf Coast region. Hurricane Betsy hit New Orleans on September 9th, 1965. Camille hit the Mississippi Gulf Coast August 17th, 1969, and Katrina hit on August 29th, 2005, devastating my beloved Gulf Coast and breaching the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers’ levees which flooded our New Orleans.

Sister cities: New Orleans and Baghdad?
I have often thought that the destruction, betrayal, and their accompanying mental toll along the Gulf Coast and in New Orleans resembles that experienced in war-torn areas of the world.The other day, I came across an excerpt in a Daily Kos Diary of an Iraqi blogger writing about his experience in New Orleans. I thought his words particularly insightful.

New Orleans Isn't Very Different from Baghdad!
What shocked me the most in this trip was how the city looked like Baghdad. New Orleans looked like Baghdad after the war in 1991; I swear I kid you not. The devastation, empty houses, the people returning to their life in the city, the "rituals" people practice before they completely come back, the bumps in the streets and the smell of destruction (it has a distinctive smell people. Yes it does.)

I arrived to New Orleans Thursday. On the way to the hotel, I saw the same thing I saw on tv two years ago, destroyed buildings. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Two years later and the scene is the same? Where are we? A government that spent hundreds of billions of dollars on wars overseas is not capable of dealing with a crisis on its own soil! A crisis that all what it needed was money!

Priorities, Hearts, and Money
I grew up with a saying that my mother would recite. It went something like this. “Show me where you spend you money, and I’ll show you where your priorities are.” Other times it would end with “I’ll show you where your heart is.”

When it comes to the priorities and heart of George W. Bush, his White House, and his cronies in the corporate insurance industry, evidence abound. Plenty of taxpayers’ money and resources for his big time campaign contributors even if fraud is committed in padding his contributor’s pocketbook. Nothing much for the rest of us, including his Republican supporters in the Katrina ravaged region.

On the floor of the House of Representatives, Gulf Coast Democratic Congressman Gene Taylor showcased these fraudulent-riddled priorities with regard to Katrina recovery. Specifically, Taylor discussed FEMA trailers that were

“delivered by a friend of the president by the name of Riley Bechtel, a major contributor to Bush administration. He got $16,000 to haul a trailer the last 70 miles from Purvis, Miss., down to the Gulf Coast , hook it up to a garden hose, hook it up to a sewer tap, and plug it in. 16,000.” [Watch the video.]

Clearly, Bush’s priorities are heartless.

Families remain in the toxic formaldehyde-FEMA trailers. Grants remain unpaid. Insurance companies refuse to pay appropriately on claims without the force of attorneys, refuse to provide insurance at reasonable rates, and/or refuse to write policies anymore. Bush has turned a deaf ear refusing to respond appropriately to the heartfelt prayers of the families in need of real leadership in Katrina Land.

Bush and Jesus
My return to the annual fair that the Catholic elementary school of my youth had put on this weekend has me thinking. At Mass and Catholic school, I learned about charity and service to others. More than anything, though, I learned about taking one's responsibilities seriously. Truly, God forbid if I didn’t follow through on some responsibility. I have no idea what would have happened had I been a slacker like George W. Bush. All I know is that I was taught to be responsible. Like many of you across the country, I learned this at home, at school, and at my family’s place of worship.

When it comes to the many responsibilities that Bush neglects especially here in Katrina Land, I’d like to ask Mr. “I’m the nation’s Preacher-in-Chief” one question. What responsibilities would Jesus neglect?

Return to A.M. in the Morning! Home

Read More......

State Farm, Partners, and RICO: What a Racket!

[At end of this piece are additional resources on the RICO case including a video of the press conference annoucing this historical lawsuit.]

I’m not talking tennis either. The whirlwind of news swirling about is almost dizzying. Shortly after Katrina hit the Mississippi Gulf Coast and breached the New Orleans’ levees, rumors floated around implying that the insurance companies would rig their claims process to wiggle out of paying what was owed to Paula and Peter Policyholders.

I thought to myself how criminal and cruel, heartless and calculating the people running a corporation would have to be to actually pull off something like this.

I envisioned a set of companies passing back and forth among themselves responsibility for the Katrina claims. I had thought this would be a way to shift its costs to other companies depending on which of them had the flood insurance policies. I was unaware that the private insurance corporations had bailed out of the flood insurance business some forty years ago.

I didn’t realize that our U.S. Government was taking care of what the private market neglected. When corporations failed to fill the market needs of American families and business owners, the federal government stepped in. Indeed, a lesson in the absurdity of arguing in favor of straight up laissez faire economics.

What I had envisioned was in the right direction of what occurred. I just didn’t realize that the US taxpayers would get stuck with the private corporations’ bill.

Courageous Whistleblowers Step Forward
Thankfully, two courageous women—Cori and Kerri Rigsby—blew the whistle on what has turned out to be a scenario worse than imagined. These very brave Rigsby sisters came forward with evidence that allegedly proves that State Farm defrauded policyholders by manipulating engineers' reports so that claims could be denied.

Photo of Cori and Kerri Rigsby

ABC News was able to obtain a copy from State Farm files of the original FAEC damage report, which included the image of an attached "Post-it" note that read, "Put in wind file - do not pay bill - do not discuss"

Below is a post it note on a file that appears to embody the essence of the allegations.

Cori and Kerri Rigsby turned to attorney Richard Scruggs to represent them. A few years back, Scruggs had won his fight against Big Tobacco costing the cigarette industry a “$246 billion settlement to help states defray Medicaid costs for smoking-related illnesses.”

The sisters say they ultimately printed out and copied roughly 15,000 pages of claims records. In addition to providing the material to Scruggs, they say they gave copies to Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood and U.S. Attorney Dunn Lampton's offices on June 5, the same day they told a supervisor they were cooperating with Scruggs. For eight years, Cori and Kerri Rigby had managed State Farm claims adjuster teams.

Of course, State Farm is doing everything it can to suppress the use of this information in any legal proceeding. Doesn’t this sound just like they took a page straight out of the playbook for their Republican buddies in the White House?

Remember how the Administration went ballistic when we learned that someone in Bush’s employ had leaked the identity of CIA undercover operative? The White House wasn’t upset that someone had betrayed the country and put at risk Valerie Plame’s life and all those with whom she was associated as well as compromised her work on weapons of mass destruction. No ma’am. Bush and his team were upset that they had been caught. Well, this is the same game State Farm seems to be playing.

Racketeering
On Wednesday, June 20,2007, the Scruggs Katrina Group filed a federal lawsuit against State Farm and its corporate partners alleging the corporations were violating the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization Act, which most of us have heard of as RICO. State Farm worked with “Forensic Analysis & Engineering Corp. of Raleigh, N.C., and E.A. Renfroe Co. Inc. of Hoover, Ala. Forensic's engineers inspected homes for State Farm, while Renfroe helped the company adjust claims.”

The Scruggs Katrina Group characterized the complaint as "a story of how State Farm and its web of surrogate companies conspired to deny claims that should be paid by State Farm and to shift liability to the federal-funded flood insurance program. Actions taken by State Farm and conspirators included:

• threatening experts who disagreed with their desired result
• concealing information that would work in the policyholder's favor destroying or falsifying reports
• placing pressure on engineers to use scientifically inaccurate and deceptive language
• firing engineers who refused to be corrupted inventing a new policy to exclude all hurricane damage
• using their strength and size to intimidate policyholders in the mediation process

My God alive! Racketeering charges against an insurance company that is known for its jingle claiming “just like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.”

“I've never seen a smoking gun this good, even in the tobacco litigation when I'd thought I'd seen it all,” Scruggs said in an interview. “They collaborated to defeat valid homeowner claims through rigged engineering reports and biased adjusting.”

Boy oh boy. This is sounding more and more like the Bush Administration’s kind of friends. For an analysis of the obscene amount of money the insurance industry invests in Republican candidates, see Soaking U.S. Taxpayers.

Where’s the Federal Probe?
The Rigsby sisters had turned over their documentation to both the state attorney general and the U.S. Attorney. Just over a week ago, Mississippi’s Attorney General Jim Hood, a good Democrat, filed a lawsuit against State Farm for breach of contract. [See State Farm Paying Attorney Fee for Miss. Insurance Commissioner]. As part of that contract, Hood had agreed to drop the state’s criminal probe into State Farm. With State Farm’s alleged breach, Hood has not ruled out reopening the criminal probe.

The Sun Herald reported that the U.S. Attorney’s Office has subpoenaed records from Nationwide Insurance, State Farm, and Allstate. The paper also reported “records indicate a grand jury is hearing evidence. Grand jury proceedings are secret and don't necessarily result in criminal charges.”

I feel the public is in good hands with Attorney General Jim Hood and attorney groups like the Scruggs Katrina Group. But I have reservations when it comes to the federal probe.

In September 2001, George W. Bush appointed Dunn Lampton, a Republican, as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi. The Clarion-Ledger reported that Lampton was allegedly on a White House 2005 hit list for canning U.S. Attorneys. When asked why he would be on the list, Lampton said, “I don’t have a clue.”

How’s about this for a clue, Mr. Lampton? Your office has subpoenaed documents from three of the big insurance companies: State Farm, Allstate, and Nationwide. Your office has convened a grand jury in the federal probe of these companies … and if that isn’t plenty enough, you just successfully concluded the criminal conviction of “reputed Klansman James Ford Seale [for] kidnapping and conspiracy in the 1964 deaths of two black teenagers in southwest Mississippi.”

I applaud you for bringing justice to the families who have endured immense and unthinkable pain for the last 33 years. Bush’s lapdog Gonzales and his minions found out that you were not one of them. I’m quite sure that the compassionless folks in the White House do not share your sense of justice, your values. I think it’s probably quite safe to say that you are a bit out of sync with the Republican leadership, and once again, for this, I applaud you. You have brought justice to these families and a sense of closure for their wounds.

I hope that you will pursue with equal vigor your probe into the alleged criminal behavior of the corporations that have brought a different kind of unthinkable pain and suffering to the families of all racial and ethnic backgrounds here along the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

To top it all off, Mr. Lampton, you’ve stirred up a hornets nest with pursuing a public campaign for gun control. Bravely, you yourself were featured in this public service television spot. As I’ve already stated twice and now shall do so for a third time, I applaud you, Mr. Lampton. This was the right thing to do. However, the Bushies do not share your values, sir. Even though you are a Republican, this may be yet another reason that your name was on Gonzales’ hit list for the political purging of the Justice department.

Be strong, Mr. Lampton. The people of South Mississippi, and for that matter throughout this country, need an honest to God federal investigation into the insurance racket.

Whether it’s the White House once again squirming out of taking responsibility for its own wrongdoing in the political firings of U.S. Attorneys or one of the Bush Administration’s partner industries spinning its PR to cover up their corporate corruption, we need strong public leadership.

What the insurance companies have done to the people of Mississippi and New Orleans will continue to happen to anyone of us anywhere in the country until we bring together every resource to end what is essentially a legal mob ring.

While the legal eagles are taking care of their responsibilities in our grand democratic scheme of government, we can also do our part to put all of our families on safer ground after natural disasters.

Since the insurance companies are obviously bowing out of taking care of the customers, the ultimate remedy is to expand the federal government’s flood insurance program to include all natural perils. Gulf Coast Congressman Gene Taylor (D-MS) introduced the Multiple Peril Insurance Act of 2007. (The bill is H.R. 920.)We can partner with Congressman Taylor to take the wind out of the insurance industry. You know what that means! It's political hell raising time again. We can call and email our own congressional representatives to request that they co-sponsor the Multiple Peril Insurance Act of 2007.

Taking these steps is how we begin to break up this insurance racket so that each of us and our families will truly be in good hands.

__________________________________________________________

Watch the press conference (Quicktime) high-res low-res
Download and install Quicktime to view videos .

Press Release Statement of Atty. Don Barrett
Summary of the case (PDF) Concise Statement (PDF)
Court Documents: Shows vs. State Farm
Original Complaint (PDF) Exhibits (PDF) Note: These are large files and may take over a minute to load.

Read More......

Decency in DC

Listen to this podcast

Republicans love to preach about morals and decency. Former Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich on the importance of marital fidelity. Newt has admitted to cheating on his wife at around the same time the House was impeaching President Bill Clinton over his affair with Monica Lewinsky.

Disgraced Republican Congressman Mark Foley resigned amid allegations that he himself had engaged in or attempted to engage in an inappropriate relationship with an under aged teen in the Congressional Page program. Foley had chaired the House caucus on missing and exploited children and was a champion of sexual predator legislation

Another fine example of a Republican behaving badly erupted on the House floor toward the end of March. This time it was all about what constitutes decency in Washington, DC.

Earning himself membership credits in the Bush–Shill-and-Mouthpiece-Club, Georgia Republican Congressman Tom Price took to the floor on March 27th to help stick it to the families struggling to put their lives back together after Hurricane Katrina. This compassionless conservative sought to restrict housing reconstruction funds for low-income families living in Katrina-ravaged areas of the Mississippi Gulf Coast and New Orleans.

Price wanted to require the demolished local communities to raise matching funds before the Bush Administration provided financial assistance to these low-income Southern residents who are struggling today within horrendous conditions that federal dollars can help alleviate.

Mind you, there is NO tax base from which to raise monies for matching funds. Capiche?! None. Zip. Nada. Democratic Congressman Gene Taylor, whose district covers the entire Gulf Coast of Mississippi, eloquently informed Mr. Price of the dire circumstances of life after Katrina.

“. . . little towns like Waveland, Bay St. Louis, Pass Christian, that have no tax base because their stores were destroyed in the storm, a county like Hancock County, where 90% of the residents lost everything, or at least substantial damage to their home, he wants to punish Bay St. Louis, he wants to punish Waveland, he wants to punish Pass Christian for mistakes of the Bush dministration.”

[See the video. Quite an education in Republican tactics, priorities, and values.]

Price, an obvious compassionless conservative Bush crony, has not even had the decency to visit any of the many Katrina-ravaged communities. He is speaking without understanding what the situation is. Perhaps he doesn’t care what the situation is down here on the ground.

Nevertheless, he had the audacity to cloak his disdain for the good people of the Gulf Coast and New Orleans through feigning concern for government waste, fraud and abuse. [Read: Investing federal tax dollars in rebuilding New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast is waste of money.] Since Democrats represent these good people in Congress, the people's house, Price's display of Republican charity reveals a partisan tinge. Price’s amendment failed in a 98-333 vote.

The first day I arrived here in Bay St. Louis, my younger brother drove me around to see what life is like some 19 months after the storm. Going down Beach Boulevard, he whipped into a dirt driveway and parked. This was the lot where Congressman Gene Taylor‘s home had been before Katrina destroyed it completely. In the back of the lot, new construction for a home was evident. Up the stairs we went. The Taylors were working on their home.Margaret Taylor, the congressman’s wife, told me that during the storm, they had gone to stay with family . . . and today that is where they remain.

The Taylors have received not one dime of insurance money. Not a dime.

As Margaret and I spoke, the congressman was busy hammering away. They are building their tiny home themselves literally. [See Sidebar: Gulf Coast Congressman Gene Taylor—Sticks and Stones: Rebuilding Our Future] In front of Congressman Taylor's house is a hand-painted sign that express clearly his sentiments: “Allstate & State Farm, Axis of Evil.”




Congressman Gene Taylor's sign in his front yard of what used to be his home in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Photo by Ana Maria Rosato taken May 25, 2007.




So when an obtuse individual holding the power of a congressional office pretends to be concerned mostly that the families whose incomes, homes, jobs, and places of worship have been demolished by Katrina may engage in waste, fraud, and abuse rather than worrying about the families themselves, Taylor’s response becomes understandable.

Immediately, right there on the floor of the House of Representatives, Democratic Congressman Gene Taylor filleted Price expertly. [Watch the video.]

"If you want to look for Katrina fraud, look for the Katrina fraud that was perpetrated by the Bush administration. In south Mississippi at one point we had 40,000 people living in FEMA trailers, we're grateful for every one of them. But those trailers were delivered by a friend of the president by the name of Riley Bechtel, a major contributor to Bush administration. He got $16,000 to haul a trailer the last 70 miles from Purvis, Miss., down to the Gulf Coast, hook it up to a garden hose, hook it up to a sewer tap, and plug it in, $16,000. So the gentleman never came to the floor once last year to talk about that fraud.

* * * Mr. Price, I wish you'd have the decency, if you're going to do that to the people of south Mississippi, that maybe you ought to come visit south Mississippi, and see what has happened, before you hold them to a standard you would never hold your own people to, and that you fail to hold the Bush administration to."

Then Price had the nerve to demand that Taylor’s remarks be stricken from the record AND take away for the rest of the day, Taylor’s ability to speak on the House floor.

Why? Taylor used the word “decency.” That’s right. Price wasn’t concerned about the indecency of his own proposal. He wasn’t concerned about the indecent conditions that the good people living in Katrina ravaged country endure daily because of the Bush Administration's despicable and deliberate neglect.

Price was concerned with etiquette and courtesy extended to himself. As you watch the clip, notice how Price’s hissy fit over etiquette and courtesy ended up interrupting congressional action by well over an hour. His indecent proposal wasted time and money while insulting every family and business owner on the Gulf Coast and within the New Orleans area. Immediately, Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) introduced a motion to restore Taylor’s right to speak for the rest of the day, and Frank’s motion passed on a 265-160 vote. Republicans objected to the decency of restoring Taylor's speaking privileges. Afterall, Taylor actually knows first hand of Katrina's ravages and the suffering of families here on the ground. God forbid that they have to endure hearing how the federal government can be a force for good in the lives of these American families, business owners, communities.

Price should have been ashamed of himself for the indecency of demonstrating to the world his uninformed opinion and wholly uncompassionate position. It was Mr. Price who should have kept his own mouth shut for the remainder of the day.

He should have immediately made arrangements to take leave of absence from his office to come down here to see for himself what the situation is. Frankly, he should try living for weeks or months on end in one of those FEMA trailers. You may be thinking that these are house sized trailers. Surprise! They are more like camper trailers in which families and extended families have been living since the storm.

Personally, I am appalled at the indecency that the Bush Administration and its congressional cronies continually display. Decorum over decency, that’s what Price and his ReTHUGlican buddies advocated that day in March.

What everyone down here needs is decent leadership from a White House that will demonstrate it cares by moving heaven, hell, and earth to rebuild our communities, our towns, and our beloved New Orleans.

Rather than a lesson in congressional etiquette, Mr. Price, the folks down here need real federal leadership and federal money that actually gets where it was intended to go and does what it was intended to do. Since Price and some of his Republican buddies have no clue what to do to
rebuild with compassion, here’s a novel idea.

Ask Congressman Gene Taylor what it is going to take.

In the meantime, the rest of us can act on the advice that the great Molly Ivins provided. In her column Time to go long, Molly Ivins, another Southern hero of mine, said it best. "Sit up, join up, stir it up, get online, get in touch, find out who's raising hell and join them. No use waiting on a bunch of wussy politicians."

She must have had in mind politicians like Price.

From one hell raiser (yours truly) to the next (that would be you, dear beloved reader), how’s about calling your congressional representative to request that she/he seek Taylor’s advice on how to rebuild on the Gulf Coast and to collaborate with him. Heck, let's go one better and
provide Taylors' office number in Washington, DC. 202 225-5772. Most likely you'll be talking with a staffer when you call. Here's a script you can use. Look up here your representatives contact information.

Letting your fingers do the walking is an easy way to do an important and effective political activity. Call your reps and just ask them to listen to Congressman Taylor, because . . . it’s the decent thing to do.

Return to A.M. in the Morning! Home

Read More......