CNN reports that Joe Allbaugh is involved in the NO rebuild. Now that his college roomie is gone, I suspect the path is clear, but there's a pattern to the steps:
*New Orleans' vulnerability to a Category 3 or higher hurricane has been well known for years.
*The federal government also has been cutting money to deal with New Orleans' vulnerability for years.
*When Hurricane Katrina threatened New Orleans, the federal government declared a national emergency, but did not respond in a timely way for a week.
*FEMA, however, responded immediately to four hurricanes which hit Florida in 2004. Also, when the tsunami hit Southeast Asia in 2004, the United States responded within two days.
*FEMA has gone to great lengths to block efforts to reduce suffering and save lives.
*People connected to the Bush administration have, especially in relationship to 9/11, demonstrated high intelligence, planfulness, patience, and the ability to capitalize on opportunity.
*People connected to the Bush administration have, especially in relationship to 9/11, demonstrated unorthodox means toward enhancing their own wealth and power, and a facility for getting away with them.
*It is probable that FEMA Director Michael Brown was a team player.
*Michael Brown is a protégé of Joe Allbaugh, director of George Bush's 2000 Presidential campaign and Bush's first Director of FEMA. *Allbaugh left government in 2003 to found New Bridge Strategies, which was "created specifically with the aim of assisting clients to evaluate and take advantage of business opportunities in the Middle East following the conclusion of the U.S.-led war in Iraq." (
http://www.newbridgestrategies.com/whoweare.asp)
*Thousands of displaced New Orleans residents are in the process of being relocated to other parts of the United States, an unprecedented post-disaster response.
*New Orleans will be rebuilt, but by whom, and for whom?
*Keep your eye on Joe Allbaugh and New Bridge Strategies, and who eventually moves there.
*From the American Heritage Dictionary - "Ethnic Cleaning: The systematic elimination of an ethnic group or groups from a region or society, as by deportation, forced emigration, or genocide."