Martial law in New Orleans

by **heath7** » Wed Aug 31, 2005 3:53 am

(I am speechless, but feel compelled to protest) Dreams End nailed it (sadly, it seems you were right after all, and surprisingly soon). Criminally mismanaged from the start! How do Blackhawks forget to show up for repairing the levy?!?! That is just fucking ridiculously impossible!! People, I am seriously tripping. I can't believe they are sinking that whole poor city! Inviting martial law seems like the only explanation. What the fuck is going on?! I watched the networks report the levy rescue all day! What? None of them thought to send a reporter to see how it progressed? And the coverage of looting is taking center stage despite the levy abandonment! Priming in us the need for real authority, while they backhandedly loot the entire city! The criminals can't possibly think they are going to get away with today's magnificent 'blunder', can they? I think I am as stunned right now as I was on September 11, 2001.

by **heath7** » Wed Aug 31, 2005 4:11 am

Also... and I'm just saying... they showed an animated graphic of Katrina moving onto shore on Anderson Cooper (*which reminds me). I have DVR and replayed it several times. The shape in her eye is rather eerie. Through the couple revolutions of the eye the graphic showed, there was a distinct, five-pointed figure spanning the eye, rotating with the hurricane. Anybody happen to see it, think it was strange, know where that video would be online? *The news pertaining to the levy emergency was so obviously convoluted that despite there being no repair at all to the levy, Anderson Cooper reported early this evening that the repair was completed and was succeeding in holding back most of the flow from Ponchatrain. He was obviously lying!

by **Starman** » Wed Aug 31, 2005 5:35 am

My heart too has been aching all day for the incredible tragedy and suffering and heartache -- It's just too awful for words. The immense destruction along 100 miles of coast was horrible enough, described as like the a-bomb destruction of Hiroshima, but with New Orleans' levee with Lake Ponchetrain breaking, the situation is almost too awful to imagine -- they are now saying that the water will rise (at least) another 9 feet tonight. Ever since the Superdome was mentioned as being used for a shelter, I suspected things could spin out of control. It's gotta be one of the last places in the world I'd ever want to be stuck in. With conditions getting even worse -- that's gotta be just absolute hell. The budget-cuts that confounded ongoing levee-repair and studies, deflected to serve Homeland Security 'Terrorism' preparation and the Iraq war is simply unconscionable -- as is the lack of evident preparation in not staging critical pumping equipment and repair materials, or having a comprehensive public evacuation system in place. The economic and social impact is just incomprehensible. And what's the deal with the levee-repair -- I too find it very odd that there wasn't any 'news' reportage on this critical issue with coverage of the repair-attempt -- or WAS the helicopter/sand-bag operation botched by mismanagement? Isn't there ANYBODY who can take effective charge and take the drastic measures necessary, like airlifting and dropping railroad-cars to give sandbags and ballast something to wedge into, or mooring construction or tow-barges against the break? What about pre-positioning diesel locomotives on reinforced track-sidings that could be rigged to power water-pumps on attached railcars -- each self-contained 'train' equipped with materials and construction equipment and rails and crews to build a right-of-way to wherever it was needed for pumping-out water. The locomotives could power the pumps -- they're basically self-propelled power-generating plants. I haven't seen much yet on the toxic-gumbo that the bowl of New Orleans is now breeding, as all the many toxic-chemicals and petroleum/oil contamination, sewage and decaying organic matter and animals and humans flooded all up the greater Mississippi River drainage and in NO now is a huge environmental catastrophe in its own right, a majot disease vector. And what about the toxic-mold that so many of the older structures now flooded will be prone to? And: 75,000 National Guard troops in 40 nations around the world. 2000 troops doing duty at Superdome -- doing the Drug-search outrage thang. At least a million people are now homeless, a great many have lost whatever home they had completely -- so refugee camps will need to be established, and IF the nation was forward-thinking, at least a quarter-million new homes will need to be built, with low-interest loans in communities that have social-services and prospects for economic growth. New Orleans evacuation is going to be a monumental challenge -- but then, where are the people gonna GO? My heart just breaks. Let's at least hold the robber-baron politico crooks who abdicated their responsibility by shortchanging the duty they had to fund NO's flood-control projects. Some thoughts from Daily Kos, <a href="http://cindysheehan.dailykos.com/story/2005/8/30/162831/182">cindysheehan.dailykos.com...162831/182</a> Third World America.... ..while George W Bush & Company have decided to wage war on civilians around the world and spend exhorbitant amounts of money on bombs and wonderful tax breaks for the wealthiest citizens and corporations, while sending billions of dollars a year to Israel, Egypt and beyond....OUR INFRASTRUCTURE IN AMERICA IS CRUMBLING!! Can't blame natural disasters on the government but it boils my blood that nothing's been done to enhance the quality of America's infrastructure over the past 5-10 years. It's not like Louisiana and Mississippi and Alabama all of the sudden noticed to be ill prepared for hurricanes. We are supposed to be the best country in the world with the smartest engineers and builders and inventors, yet what I see happening in New Orleans and Biloxi and other places is purely out of the Third World. It's shouldn't have to be like this. My heart goes out to all those suffering right now from Hurricane Katrina. My God give you some peace. by francophile A-fucking-Men (none / 1) The shortsightedness and poor judgement of this administration is astounding. Loot the treasury for a bullshit war, and now we're caught with our pants down. No one can blame the Republicans for the weather, but we can all surely blame them for not being better prepared for it. Too bad Gulf-coast Americans have to pay such a high price for their ineptitude. by cdodd The Irrelevancy of Pres. (sic) Bush (ie. cuts his vacation short two-days, eagerly offers his expert 'brush-clearing' advice to help Katrina victims) The Washington Post states that Bush returns to "monitor" the relief effort - I guess even they realized the word "lead" would have been laughable. Prior to 9/11, he was off in Crawford clearing shrub and practicing his golf swing. On August 6, 2001, he definitely wasn't busy reading Presidential Daily Briefings. On 9/11, he was concentrating hard on reading My Pet Goat together with a class of Florida School Children, after being told that a plane had flown into The World Trade Center. He kept on focusing hard on the book after being told another plane had struck the tower. He launched a war on the wrong country, against the wrong enemy, creating a groundswell of support for the enemy he should have been fighting. And while his soldiers were mired in Iraq, going on the third year, of what should have been "a cakewalk" according to his advisers, he went on vacation. Just after the attack on Iraq, a war for all the wrong reasons, there were suggestions from rabid Republican politicians that Bush's likeness should be carved on Mount Rushmore. Today, as he scurries back to the White House he never should have left in the first place, the total bankruptcy of the Bush White House is evident to all. As the greatest tropical storm witnessed in modern times was marshalling its strength in the Gulf of Mexico, and advancing on the heart of the US oil infrastructure and towards one of the nation's great cities, the president stuck to his vacation schedule, and offered offhand remarks only. As Katrina struck, the president remained oblivious. He should long since have taken charge of this emergency - no matter the outcome, this was a serious emergency developing with slow-motion trainwreck pace. But this president is incapable of understanding the threats and dangers this nation is facing. He invents enemies and threats, when it suits his policies, and denies the truth of reality and science, when it doesn't suit him. President Bush denies evidence of Global Warming, in spite of the fact that scientists everywhere are pointing to clear-cut facts that should lead any responsible leader of the world's greatest contributor to Global Warming to take a long, hard look at the facts. Rather, the president passed an Energy Bill that ignores the threat, and instead exacerbates it. Mr. Bush's total and complete irrelevance as a leader must soon become clear to all. The man is an utter and complete failure as a leader and as a visionary. He is delusional and rabidly insistent upon his delusional policies. He is, in fact, a threat to the health of the nation and its people. President Bush should retire to the White House in shame, putting his mountain bike away as he slinks into the Oval Office, and when there, he would do well to ponder the folly of his ways. As New Orleans went under, this president started his fifth week of vacation. He will, without a doubt, become the least popular president ever - and it's advisable that he should never show his face anywhere near Mount Rushmore, it certainly won't ever appear on the side of that mountain. Shame! "I don't do quagmires, and my boss doesn't do nuance." by Stein Many, including myself, have been focusing on the racial dimension, but when we look over the destruction and death tolls the storm left behind, we'll know what 95% of the victims will have in common: they were poor. If I may be political for just a moment, I HOPE poor white Southerners wake up and see how much they really have in common with their African American brothers and sisters. Maybe they will wake up and ignore the preachers, and realize that it wasn't "God's special plan" to live paycheck to paycheck, and be the first to suffer when disaster arrives. And I hope against hope they will wake up and stop listening to the political hacks that tell them year after year that their black neighbor's gain comes at their own loss. Bill Clinton always said we're all in this together. Today, after the worst disaster to hit the South, we truly are. "We must all hang together or assuredly we will all hang seperately." - Ben Franklin by RandyMI And if anyone needs proof The Census Bureau released new numbers today. U.S. poverty rate rises; ranks of poor whites expand WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. poverty rate rose in 2004 for the fourth year in a row, driven by an increase in poor whites while the median income for Americans as a whole remained roughly flat, the government said on Tuesday. The percentage of the U.S. population living in poverty rose to 12.7 percent from 12.5 percent in 2003, as 1.1 million more people slipped into poverty last year, the Census Bureau said in its annual poverty report. Continued ... by bumblebums How out of touch is George Bush on this disaster? permalink <<a href="http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/08/how-out-of-touch-is-george-bush-on.html>">americablog.blogspot.com/...h-on.html></a> My prayers are with all the Katrina victims, and in the days to come. Starman

by **Dreams End** » Wed Aug 31, 2005 9:31 am

<blockquote>Quote:<hr>Mayor blasts failure to patch levee breaches Wednesday, August 31, 2005; Posted: 7:21 a.m. EDT (11:21 GMT) story.new.orleans.3.ap.jpg Floodwaters fill the streets Tuesday near downtown New Orleans. Image: Chaos and looting in Katrina's aftermath (1:25) Photos of widespread devastation and loss (1:30) A timeline of the hurricane's devastation (2:34) New Orleans (Louisiana) or Create Your Own Manage Alerts | What Is This? NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- A day after Hurricane Katrina dealt a devastating blow to the Big Easy, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin on Tuesday night blasted what he called a lack of coordination in relief efforts for setting behind the city's recovery. "There is way too many fricking ... cooks in the kitchen," Nagin said in a phone interview with WAPT-TV in Jackson, Mississippi, fuming over what he said were scuttled plans to plug a 200-yard breach near the 17th Street Canal, allowing Lake Pontchartrain to spill into the central business district. An earlier breach occurred along the Industrial Canal in the city's Lower 9th Ward. The rising flood waters overwhelmed pumping stations that would normally keep the city dry. About 80 percent of the city was flooded with water up to 20 feet deep after the two levees collapsed. The Army Corps of Engineers is working to repair the levee breaches, the agency said Tuesday, but it gave no timetable for repairs. The Corps has workers assessing damage at the two locations. The National Guard, Coast Guard and state and federal agencies are working with the agency to speed the process, it reported. "These closures are essential so that water can be removed from the city," a statement from the Corps of Engineers' headquarters in Washington said. Walter Baumy, the agency's engineering division chief, said the Corps is trying to line up rock, sandbags, barges, helicopters and cranes to patch the damaged levees. Col. Kevin Wagner, a Corps official in Baton Rouge, said that engineers also were eyeing the prospect of filling shipping containers with sand and lowering them into the breaches to stanch the flooding. The National Weather Service reported a breach along the Industrial Canal levee at Tennessee Street, in southeast New Orleans, on Monday. Local reports later said the levee was overtopped, not breached, but the Corps of Engineers reported it Tuesday afternoon as having been breached. But Nagin said a repair attempt was supposed to have been made Tuesday. According to the mayor, Black Hawk helicopters were scheduled to pick up and drop massive 3,000-pound sandbags in the 17th Street Canal breach, but were diverted on rescue missions. Nagin said neglecting to fix the problem has set the city behind by at least a month. "I had laid out like an eight-week to ten-week timeline where we could get the city back in semblance of order. It's probably been pushed back another four weeks as a result of this," Nagin said. "That four weeks is going to stop all commerce in the city of New Orleans. It also impacts the nation, because no domestic oil production will happen in southeast Louisiana." Nagin said he expects relief efforts in the city to improve as New Orleans, the National Guard and FEMA combine their command centers for better communication, followup and accountability.<hr></blockquote> Keep in mind, no one has explained why the levees broke yet. It was not the hurricane...or I should say more accurately, that it didn't happen DURING the hurricane. It's not that the waters are passing OVER the levees...it's that two of them failed. The fact that they won't try to patch them....I wondered if there was much hope of that working anyway, but there may be. They have little time left now to try it. As for Superdome: I assume (note sarcasm) that massive amounts of food, water and chemical toilets are being airlifted into Superdome? If you can't get the people out, you can get stuff in, right? Anyone seen any indication of that?

by **Dreams End** » Wed Aug 31, 2005 10:31 am

Just saw a moving interview with the former mayor of New Orleans. He said that they need the military mobilized IMMEDIATELY. He wasn't just talking martial law but talking rescue operation. He said the President is the only one who can pull together all the resources needed to save what's left of New Orleans. Soledad, the CNN talking doll had her string pulled and said (I'm not shitting you, here) "but the President would say, 'we declared it a disaster area and I'm coming to visit on Friday, what else do you want?'" I thought the former Mayor was going to cry. "Friday may be too late" He kept pleading...PLEASE, if we can help (sic) Iraq, we can save New Orleans. He estimated that without this help, 80,000 people could die. And while they still keep talking about evacuating those in the Superdome, they have no plan to do so...and still no reports of food and water drops into the superdome. I could actually see a scenario in which the military, if not activated soon by Bush, actually moves on their own...and for legitimate reasons. I'm not a supporter of military takeovers as the military has a way of, well, not "un-taking over", but Jesus, Mary and Joseph...rescue those people. They should have started flying in troop transporter type helicopters last night. If the water rises too far, And where's DHS? They are supposedly there to deal with terrorist attacks. Well, the terrorist is named Katrina...where the fuck are you? I hope they will do a written story about the former mayor's plea. If so, I'll link it.

by **Dreams End** » Wed Aug 31, 2005 10:38 am

Here's a report that looks much more encouraging as far as Federal assistance mobilizing military personnel and equipment. While I haven't seen much evidence of this equipment in news reports, if it is there, it will help...I'm not sure why they aren't flying the people out of the Superdome. <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/08/30/katrina.recovery/index.html">www.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/...index.html</a>

by **Col Quisp** » Wed Aug 31, 2005 12:28 pm

Usually I don't watch TV. But last night I was looking at television before bed, and on Ted Koppel's Nightline, they showed footage of some overturned cargo, and ZOOMED in on the side of one container that said "Crowley." It was kinda weird.

by **seemslikeadream** » Wed Aug 31, 2005 12:56 pm

<a href="http://www.psywarrior.com/PSYOPHurricaneAndrew.html">www.psywarrior.com/PSYOPH...ndrew.html</a> PSYOP IN SUPPORT OF HURRICANE ANDREW RECOVERY OPERATIONS By SGM Herbert A. Friedman (Ret.) ... Psychological Operations (PSYOP) are seldom practiced within the Continental United States. The military rightfully knows that some citizens see connotations of brain washing and control in the term "PSYOP." As a result, active duty troops from Ft. Bragg and reservists from the various PSYOP and Civil Affairs units will deploy only in the case of a great disaster or emergency. Such was the case when Hurricane Andrew slammed into the east coast of Florida in August 1992. A United States Army Southern Command document dated 1 July 1998 justifies the use of psychological operations in cases like Hurricane Andrew. "Psychological Operations (PSYOP) are prohibited by law from targeting U.S. audiences. The National Command Authority has granted exceptions for specific disaster situations, such as Hurricane Andrew. PSYOP is used for the preparation and dissemination of Command Information essential to each phase of the operation. The PSYOP product approval chain may include one or more Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) officials. PSYOP commanders and personnel must remind civilian agencies and populations continuously that they are only in a supporting role and solely for purposes of communication and information dissemination. At the same time, PSYOP personnel and the US Southern Command staff need to convey the special capabilities PSYOP offers FEMA and other agencies in support of disaster relief." However, we note that because of the worry about the term PSYOP, the psychological operations task force (POTF) was called the Humanitarian Assistance Information Element and the PSYOP troops were referred to as humanitarian information support teams. Alexander Cockburn's article CNN and PsyOps <a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/cnnpsyops.html">www.counterpunch.org/cnnpsyops.html</a> Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=seemslikeadream@rigorousintuition>seemslikeadream</A> at: 8/31/05 10:57 am

by **Avalon** » Wed Aug 31, 2005 1:46 pm

Jeff included the motto of the Northern Command (who are in charge of operations there) in his front page essay. When I saw that their motto is "Defending the Homeland is Job #1," I could take a hint. So I pulled down my Bible, and checked out the first chapter of Job. In verse 10, Satan's chatting with God about Job. Satan reminds God, "Hast thou not made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hast on every side?" They don't discuss the levees much after that, and in fact seem to make pretty short work of going over the ground rules of "Let's fuck with Job's mind and see if this gets him angry and depressed enough to break his loyalty oath." Remember, this is just a game to God and Satan, or so the story says. They don't give a shit about who dies to prove a point. This is just a test -- in the event of an actual emergency, Job would have been told where to go with his family to keep them safe and what to do. The messengers start coming in telling of calamities, of death and destruction. In verse 19, Job gets informed of how his sons died: "And, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee." But don't worry, I peeked at the ending. [SPOILER] God makes Job incredibly rich again, and he just goes out and has some more kids to replace the ones who died in the hurricane. God doubled his herds so now he had 14,000 sheep, 6000 camels, 1000 yoke of oxen, and 1000 she-asses. I guess God must have also increased the carrying capacity of his lands, and the water supply. Job lived to 140 years old, which will really piss off atheist transhumanists reading this. So don't worry, it'll all turn out for the best. [/irony]

by **Peachtree Pam** » Wed Aug 31, 2005 1:57 pm

Hi everybody, Two thoughts spring to mind when viewing this hell-on-earth that is Louisiana and Mississippi: 1) "Some people refer to you as the haves, and have-more. I refer to you as "my base"....(paraphasing GWB in NY at fundraiser) What would be the response if everyone left behind were middle upper-class? 2) Culling.

by **Col Quisp** » Wed Aug 31, 2005 2:32 pm

"I can only imagine that this is what Hiroshima looked like 60 years ago," said Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour after touring the destruction by air Tuesday. I find this an odd comparison. First, Hiroshima was a manmade disaster. Second, people were burned in Hiroshima, not drowned or swimming in a sea of red ants and toxic waste. A nuclear holocaust is quite different from a hurricane aftermath. Does this comparison strike anyone else as bizarre, or am I just wearing my tinfoil hat too tightly?

by **Avalon** » Wed Aug 31, 2005 2:39 pm

No, I found it was a strange comparison too. I'm glad you said it out loud. Then again, it may be that when you are shell-shocked and exhausted, what you say may not always be the most articulate thing you could have said.

by **Col Quisp** » Wed Aug 31, 2005 2:54 pm

"We can use the Astrodome for a place for our folks to begin to normalize their lives," Blanco said. "This will help us immensely." I'm flabbergasted. "This is one of the largest, if not the largest evacuations in this country," said Col. Jeff Smith, deputy director of the Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. You can almost hear the saliva dripping and the hands rubbing together in anticipation. How exciting!

by **Starman** » Wed Aug 31, 2005 3:06 pm

Heyia Everybody; A few more thoughts; CNN seems to following the Psyops script, as officials have claimed the situation has 'stabilized' and is looking optimistic -- water has begun to recede? While live-video shows the 300 ft. canal-breech with still-flowing water and the CNN producer on-scene saying they're being pushed towards higher ground by rising-water. Oh-Myy-God. And repeating the 'we dumped several 3000-pound sandbags' meme despite the mayor having already expressed his extreme frustration that it wasn't done -- CNN's information management is obviously flawed. And I only heard one mention yesterday about the Jail prisoners having taken hostages -- I've seen repeated helicopter-views of several hundred prisoners jammed on a bridge-ramp wearing OOP t-shirts, just sitting, waiting for something I guess. What we're seeing with a birds-eye view is a widespread breakdown of civilization, as people's ordinary lives have been completely changed-- what do they DO? I've noticed CNN spreading the 'looting' message with value-added emotional outrage, giving no understanding of what people go thru when their world is pulled-out from under their feet. It seems so incredible -- the massive resupply and relief effort for New Orleans in light of failure to prepare for repairing potential levee-breaks. This thing could spiral even MORE out-of-control. Culling? I'm sure some people wish it could be done more pro-actively. And consider, the SE. Asian tsunami was perhaps a hundred, thousand times greater. I'm numb. They're saying it could take 3 months to pump out NO -- and that might be more like 6 months. Starman

by **rain** » Wed Aug 31, 2005 3:14 pm

<a href="http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0222-01.htm">www.commondreams.org/head...222-01.htm</a>

Martial law in New Orleans

Re: New Orleans is being sacrificed

Re: New Orleans is being sacrificed

re: Rising water ...

Levee scam

Re: Levee scam

Re: Levee scam

Re: Levee scam

Re:PSYOP IN SUPPORT OF HURRICANE ANDREW RECOVERY OPERATIONS

Book of Job, Chapter 1

Katrina

Katrina vs. Neutrino

ditto

Normalize?

re: Katrina

remember this?

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