Thanks Rayne.

digg

It’s the least I can do.

Although I support and voted for Obama, he was not my first choice; I originally supported the candidate who’d actually gone and worked in NOLA after Katrina, the one who spoke so passionately about two Americas.

He may have been a little too, um, passionate, but he was still right; there are still two Americas, and the citizens of the Gulf are on one side, and Lieberman on the other of that unnecessary divide.

thanks Rayne. rec. dugg

the ol BP was through the roof the last two days with all that talk about revenge and retribution – grrrrrr

Thanks Rayne,
this needed to be said aLOUD

and reddit

Nor am I going to forget that he fails every damned day he does not conduct a hearing on our behalf to prevent such losses from happening again.

has anyone actually checked to see whether JoeLie even *knows* that he can call for hearings?

and do it even without republican consent?

These human beings are on Leiberman’s head.

hey, give the guy a break – he had two hearings this week (to confirm bush appointees – i kid you not)

Who was in charge of the hearings they had right after Katrina, the ones where Brownie was grilled and exposed for who he really was? Must have been a different committee.

I think this administrations tragic response to Katrina and its reluctance to rescue the auto industry are related. Specifically, I think it has to do, in part, with the racial demographics of the Big Easy and Motown.

A commenter (last night iirc) reminded that W has done the same thing to Galveston as to NOLA.

There were 2,974 dead and 24 missing from 9/11. Katrina 1,836 dead and 705 missing. In other words, Katrina was on par with the defining event of the Bush Presidency and yet Joseph Lieberman who has had his hair on fire ever since about the one can’t be bothered to even look at the other. The reason why Lieberman could get away with this is because most of those who died in New Orleans were poor and African-American. And to put it bluntly the Senate is a very white place.

We are supposed to ignore this fact because it is uncomfortable, but let’s face it even Mary Landrieu (D-LA) supported Holy Joe, a pity she could not represent her African-American constituents half as well.

Senator Susan Collins of Maine was Chair – now ranking member

Rayne, according to Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, she and Joe LIEberman rescued the people of the Katrina ravaged areas with their hands. Spit.

These two should be in jail just for using their power to cover up for the Fuhrer Bushitler!

Katrina was the ‘line in the sand’ for a lot of Americans – seeing people abandoned on rooftops and motorways and the government’s totally incompetant and negligent response sent Bush’s approval numbers straight into the dumper. Lieberman is Bush’s man, body and soul – he was not about to put the Administration on display in hearings to make things even worse for Bush.

Sen. Susan Collins at the time Katrina drowned Americans was the CHAIR of the Senate Homeland Security and refused (along with Joe) to subpoena the Bush White House, because as Sen. Suzie-Q said, she was fine with their answer that they did nothing wrong!

Again, pass me some handcuffs while I point my car to the Bangor, Maine area!

According to Susan & Joe, everything was fine after Katrina hit so just go shopping:

http://www.unbossed.com/media/…..200001.jpg

http://news.nationalgeographic…..g_eats.jpg

http://sitemaker.umich.edu/356…..ssippi.jpg

http://www.greenflashproductio…..20FEMA.JPG

http://scrapetv.com/News/News%…..atrina.jpg

http://garymonro.blogsome.com/…..alshot.jpg

Spit.

http://www.unbossed.com/media/…..200001.jpg

http://news.nationalgeographic…..g_eats.jpg

http://sitemaker.umich.edu/356…..ssippi.jpg

http://www.greenflashproductio…..20FEMA.JPG

http://scrapetv.com/News/News%…..atrina.jpg

http://garymonro.blogsome.com/…..alshot.jpg

And Collins is the big moderate that all the pundits say will help the dems with the 60 vote thing?

I worked for JRE, myself, and if he didn’t get scalded by scandal would have the right to say the biggest fat “I told you so” today. We can say it for him! And the jury is still out, or maybe not completely in, on Obama and the lobbyists. After FISA I am concerned. And like you, I liked the emphasis on the two Americas. Let’s see … top 1% owns 75% of the wealth. That is pretty dramatic.

As the unpopular Mr. Nader has mentioned, Obama does not refer ever specifically to the lower class, let alone homeless … just the middle .. and that concerns me. Was that political pragmatism for the election so as to avoid socialist label? Maybe. But I pray he does the right thing.

Apparently word is that Lieberman is generous with the earmark dispersal on both sides of the aisle. Like him in that power position and I am assuming Dems are trusting they will get some time at the trough now.

And the Congress is so obsessed with money, money, money to buy thier continued existence and power, their popularity with their constituency … hang the rest of the citizenry….. that they have lost an ethical vision. Opportunism seems to beat justice every time. I hope pragmatism won’t exclude justice in this next administration. And the screwy ethics of big money for congressional job survival certainly creates a brick wall between our should-be-trustworthy representatives and the common good.

I think we need an ombudsman branch of government for us, when the other three branches are unreachable. Oh… let’s see. The fourth estate. They are supposed to monitor. Ooops…corporate owned. Glad the net is for the present censorship free.

So much poverty, starvation in the world. So much money went into political campaigning and advertising for CORPORATE-dependent candidates. What a slap in the face to ye old taxpayers one more time.

Thank you for the post. More sunshine on this please.

Levees.org has been demanding an investigation almost since the storm but to no avail. In my opinion it is as important as the 9/11 investigation. When so many die and are in harms way it is necessary to find out what went wrong so we as a nation can make sure it never happens again.

http://www.levees.org/

I have to give credit to Bobby Jindal though. As much as I detest most of his politics he did get everyone out in an orderly fashion for Gustav. At least that is what I am told as I was happily on vacation that week. I must give credit if it is deserved.

Excellent point, Hugh.
We should not let the O administration ever forget it either.

Actually of the people that died many were elderly. The elderly got hit the worst both black and white. People across the spectrum of income also died. Some of the reports I have seen early on had the black to white death ratio as reflective of the overall population.

That is just the people who’s death was a direct result of the storm or being stuck in a drowned city with no way to get out.

There are countless people who died of “natural” causes in the aftermath who are not counted. There are countless people who committed suicide in the aftermath of the storm. Seemingly normal folks who had just had it. I am sure the helplessness they felt was exacerbated by the lack of government assistance.

I know I felt it for a while. It was like a malaise you could not shake. As though all was not right with he world. Luckily I have much to live for and was able to identify that I wasn’t feeling quite right and I am feeling much more hopeful now, at least about New Orleans.

May all the victims rest in peace and that somewhere someday in Washington there is someone who will tell us definitively what happened to our people.

We are about 100,000 people less in this town.

Not that she should have a free ride, but I don’t expect anything at all from Susan Collins. She’s a Republican, after all; expecting her to do the right thing would be like expecting blood from a turnip.

In Lieberman’s case, I did expect something if he had obtained any clue from the primary and the general election of 2006 in his state. But apparently Karl Rove’s support in the general election against Ned Lamont came with a quid pro quo, which was that Lieberman should turn his back on the citizenry and support the criminal behavior of the Bush administration.

There is no hell warm enough for Lieberman’s failure as a human being.

The sad part is that not unlike Elliott Spitzer, JRE’s ability to do good work is now clouded by personal choices.

And his work is so very much needed right now, when the people who strongly supported him (unions) are getting hammered by this increasing divide between the haves (those that made money through firms like AIG) and have-nots (those who have been compelled to watch as their contracted benefits have been used like bargaining chips between corporations and labor).

LOL Yeah, that’s the Susan they’re talking about! Nice, huh? She did nothing after Katrina along with her sidekick Joe. Oh, but they’ll say they were instrumental in protecting the area! Assholes.

Joe Lieberman, Chairman or Minority Leader Homeland Security / Gov Affairs

The record

Ten years after Congress ordered federal agencies to have outside auditors review their books, neither the Defense Department nor the newer Department of Homeland Security has met even basic accounting requirements, leaving them vulnerable to waste, fraud and abuse.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20780840/

The Homeland Security Department did not use a plan for handling catastrophes in its response to Hurricane Katrina, even though some officials say that doing so could have saved lives and brought the chaotic situation in New Orleans under control.

The department didn’t activate a section of the National Response Plan that deals specifically with responding to catastrophes, DHS spokesman Russ Knocke confirmed this week. The section — called the Catastrophic Incident Annex — is tucked deep within the 426-page plan, which was published last December.

http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1005/101805c1.htm

Drawing on exclusive interviews with federal, state, and local officials, Cooper and Block take readers inside the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security to reveal the inexcusable mismanagement during Hurricane Katrina—the bad decisions that were made, the facts that were ignored, the individuals who saw that the system was broken but were unable to fix it. America’s top emergency response officials had long known that a calamitous hurricane was likely to hit New Orleans, but that seems to have had little effect on planning or execution.

http://us.macmillan.com/disaster

DHS Failed Contract Oversight

http://www.scribd.com/doc/6077…..-Contracts

That’s only 10 mins of searching. Heckava job there Joe