Hey you, this is caliblog, all of this is based on a true story... all of this is our lives my life in a nutshell.

"the largest reconstruction efforts the world has ever seen"

posted on Wednesday, September 27, 2006 by

It's hard to know how to go about a post like this - you read a news story that sparks so many strong emotions and when you want badly to express how you feel... you draw a blank. I know I won't be able to do justice with this - but I'll do my best:

This morning I read an article titled 'Who Paid For The Refurbished And Upgraded Louisiana Superdome?' - which went into to detail on the $184 million spent on the Superdome alone. Most of it paid for by FEMA.

Looking at the 184 million a little closer it appears that FEMA put up $115 million, the State of Louisiana spent $13 million, the NFL was willing to pay for $15 million, and the rest was picked up by a LSED Bond for $41 Million. Which works out to 62.5% being paid for by our federal government - less than the 75% required by law. I strongly recommend reading the full breakdown.

But to put this story into perspective and why exactly it makes my stomach turn: on August 22nd two reporters, Matt Pascarella & Greg Palast, interviewed several of the 73,000 people still, over a year later, living "behind barbed wire in a trailer park encampment a hundred miles from New Orleans". Apparently, people living inside these ghettos are not allowed to talk with media without FEMA personal present. Both reporters were charged by Homeland Security for filming a "critical national security structure" [aka - an embarrassing and tragic failure that Bush really doesn't want people thinking about].

Beyond these barbed wire fences - in New Orleans only half of the city has electricity. Half its hospitals still remain closed. Not even half the population has returned. There exist no real timetable for moving these people [out of the trailers] to more permanent housing. Insurance settlements are mired in red tape [on-top of red tape you have whistle-blowers revealing State Farm was systematically defrauding thousands of Katrina victims]. The city still has no overall rebuilding plan. And although a great deal of debris has been cleared - much remains untouched.

So we have Bush's photo-op on the now "pristine" beaches of New Orleans - we have Monday night football in the newly remodeled football stadium... and we are supposed to be stupid enough to assume or believe that Bush's promise of "the largest reconstruction efforts the world has ever seen" is well underway? It's not - at all, and people should be rioting in the streets. Or I'd even settle for them being allowed to talk to media without FEMA breathing down their neck.



4 comments for "the largest reconstruction efforts the world has ever seen"

and Blogger Jeans Pants was all like...

It's funny, I was prepping a blog or vlog about the same thing. You see they needed to fix something everyone loves, Football. Once Football is fixed everything is OK. I was sick when I saw that the superdome was all fixed. Money well spent America. What they need to do is build a superdome in Iraq. That way America will just focus on the positive giving them the feeling that everything we've been fighting for has had a purpose.

What are they called? The Louisiana Saints is it? Don't they suck anyway?

  6:00 PM, September 27, 2006
and Anonymous Anonymous was all like...

I think it's the New Orleans Saints isn't it?

But that is just crazy, it's such a mess there and they put THAT much money into a football stadium?

That's just wrong!

Bon

  5:07 PM, September 28, 2006
and Blogger Mike Ambs was all like...

Yay! I'm so excited to get a comment from Bonnie on a [somewhat] political post :) that never happens.

Now if my Mom leaves a comment also - I'll be overwhelmed.

  11:25 AM, September 29, 2006
and Anonymous Anonymous was all like...

lol

  12:49 PM, October 01, 2006

Post a Comment

Take me back to the main page