17,000 plus homeless people in New Orleans right now, a rate that has tripled since Katrina, and HUD and Alphonso Jackson are determined to tear down 4500 units of public and affordable housing in New Orleans, demolition scheduled to begin next week.
20,000 people lived in public housing prior to Katrina. These are the people, the working poor, that city, state and federal leaders have turned their backs on.
My recent article on indy media, "New Orleans: The Perfect Storm", describes some of the forces leading to this crisis in New Orleans. Today, I'm going to let this short video tell the story:
I told my friend this morning, I think the city is coming apart. An outbreak of robberies, some perhaps by teenagers, authorities believe; homeless population exploding; politicians looking the other way when corruption serves their purpose. I'm reminded, I tell her, of the Bugs Bunny cartoon, where he is busy, furiously, digging underground, trying to tunnel his way to paradise, or a beach, or somewhere pleasant; I can't remember exactly.
He pops his head up, in the middle of the North Pole, and says something to the effect, "I must have taken a wrong turn at Albuquerque".
It can feel like that sometimes. That one wrong turn and you wind up in a very cold environment.
In an essay with this chilling title, "The Next War", Wes Clark provides instruction as to how to win the next war in Sunday's Washington Post Outlook. I wish he and other dinasours would lumber away and take their war loving ways with them.
Halliburton continues to siphon off our hard earned tax money while our leaders are making deals in Congress to never fillibuster except under the most extraordinary of circumstances. We cut deals with the devil while they protect this company from public scrutiny.
I don't know how else to characterize the decision of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence to close yesterday's hearing to the public, after having an open hearing on Monday.
While all talk and eyes are on the nuclear option and its "compromise", certain republican members of the Senate Intelligence Committee want to drop a nuclear bomb on your civil liberties.
I thought this to be a well thought out analysis by Josh Marshall, on this "compromise". It underscores that queasy, pit of my stomach feeling that this is far from over, and, echoes Georgia10's misgivings in terms of what the future holds with this compromise.
All you lovers' of democracy take note: the Senate Intelligence Committee is scheduled to begin hearings on renewing and strengthening Patriot Act 2.This will be an open hearing, scheduled tomorrow, Tuesday, May 24th.
Yes, there is a slight hint of sarcasm in the title of this diary. Can't help it. These reports of Koran abuse have been circulating for some time now, and have already been reported in major media outlets.
This is a horryfying article that details the dubious decisions made by Bloomberg regarding the schools, and how some say Bloomberg is proving to be a disaster to the majority of children in New York City. The article also details the disaster and racial bias of No Child Left Behind.
I'm wondering though, if the bias of No Child Left Behind actually involves low income students of all races? Any answers?
This article reminded me of our situation here in New Orleans, where the drop out rate is high, and some activists say the No Child Left Behind is causing more dropouts.
Don't hold your collective breaths waiting for the democrats to launch the environmental movement sorely needed in this country. This will be a grass roots effort.
William Greider, in this article, highlights reform activities within our own party, and Why California Matters. Ever heard of California Treasurer Phil Angelides? Corporate ceos are quaking in their shoes in California, because Angelides is proposing a radical concept: Corporate responsibility for the pensions promised to their workers.
I don't agree with Greider in the article, btw, that democrats are dispirited, largely. I think some of us are dispirited, some of the time, including myself. I also see great energy around the blogosphere. There is much activity in my hometown on the activist front.
Howard Dean is part of an aspect of reform in terms of who actually influences the party philosophy. This is important, because we are going to have opportunities, and do currently have opportunities, to greatly inflence the measure of the debate and the type of reform that is to take place in the coming years, within our country.
While you expose the Gannons, be careful to keep your eye on the real Bush prize: the elimination of the middle class, and the devastation of the working poor.
A dumbed down, financially struggling class, versus the rich, is what their battle cry is, secretly.
It is my belief that this administration has written off huge portions of our population, in the name of enriching a few, private coffers.
The Bush administration gives lip service to global warming, and wants to keep it from public, international discussion. during the World Conference on Disaster Reduction. That symposium is occuring simultaneously with the World Social Forum in Brazil, and if only the twain should meet.
Our's is not the only country, btw, whose practices on an international basis are harming world citizens.
It was interesting to see Jamie Pilgrim, sitting in for Lou Dobbs last night on CNN, feed leading questions to Frank Gaffney, rather lazily I might add, on the Pentagon's secret intelligence gathering unit.
The obviously biased and delusional Gaffney basically gives the program the green light because Rumsfeld is one of the most "competent" Secretaries of Defense that we've ever had, Gaffney says; and therein is the problem with this report.
