Ruminations...on awards, a premature announcement and justice still denied

Just a few thoughts to purge...



- Okay, after watching the AMAs - I'm officially old.  But, indulge my old behind - I've been a fan of Whitney's music since she came on the scene and for me, this performance was just right.  Just enough clothes, just enough class, just enough emotion - just right.  Forget all the Diane-Opie-and-whoever else tell-all interviews meant to - according to the MSM - "engineer" a comeback.  In quintessential Whitney-style, she powerfully owned her shit - in song.  And what a song it was!  (And no, I do not know, nor do I care, who the "Carol" was that she acknowledged in her comments to her daughter).

- Since Oprah's been "off the air" for me a long time ago given her near 20-year "sell-out" performance for the King conglomerate, I could care less that she's closing down her show.  But can somebody please tell me why, she had to announce THIS YEAR, that she'd be gone in 2011??!!  Please Lawd get over yourself!!!  Maybe she's just putting her order in for one of those ambassadorships the Changeling's doling out in exchange for all the dollar bills that bought him the presidency. 



- In the conclusion of his January 30, 2008 ruling regarding the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Judge Stanwood R. Duval Jr. advised how the law of the land had "tied his hands:"

"While the United States government is immune for legal liability for the defalcations alleged herein, it is not free, nor should it be, from posterity’s judgment concerning its failure to accomplish what was its task. The citizens of each and every city in this great nation have come to depend on their government and its agencies to perform certain tasks which have been assigned to federal agencies by laws passed by Congress and overseen by the Executive Branch.  It should not be unreasonable for those citizens to rely on their agents, whom they pay through their taxes, to perform the tasks assigned in a timely and competent way. However, because of §702c, there is neither incentive, nor punishment to insure that our own government performs these tasks correctly. There is no provision in the law which allows this Court to avoid the immunity provided by § 702c; gross incompetence receives the same treatment as simple mistake."

That February following the ruling, I wrote "No Way Out" for NOLA means No Way Out for Us to express the shame and disgust I felt for a government and a country whose hearts and minds were closed to their own. And later in April, shame and disgust turned to rage as I wrote, Paper rain, Paper rain...St. Bernard and 9th Ward STILL "Bastards of the Party"  because 1) it was discovered that USACE, adding insult to injury, had stuffed newspaper in some of the expansion joints as an "expedient repair" for water seepage the year after the levees broke and 2) no doubt believing they were litigation-proof, USACE openly admitted their negligence.

But apparently, Judge Duval has figured out a way to untie his hands by focusing his new ruling on the navigation channel upon which much of the rest of the country depends whether they know it or not - the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MR-GO).  He said:

"Clearly, when there is not a mandate, if the decisions at issue are based on policy, the discretionary function exception generally applies. It is the Court’s opinion that the negligence of the Corps, in this instance by failing to maintain the MRGO properly, was not policy, but insouciance, myopia and shortsightedness. For over forty years, the Corps was aware that the Reach II levee protecting Chalmette and the Lower Ninth Ward was going to be compromised by the continued deterioration of the MRGO, as has been exhaustively discussed in this opinion.  The Corps had an opportunity to take a myriad of actions to alleviate this deterioration or rehabilitate this deterioration and failed to do so. Clearly the expression “talk is cheap” applies here. In the event the gross negligence of the Corps in maintaining the MRGO would be regarded as policy, then the discretionary function exception would swallow the Federal Torts Claim Act leaving it an emasculated statute applying to automobile accidents where government employees are involved or medical malpractice where a government physician is involved. This was clearly not the intent of Congress... Safety concerns are not a talisman in deciding whether to apply the discretionary function exception, but certainly are a very significant consideration. Here, there was no balancing or weighing of countervailing considerations. The failure to maintain the MRGO properly compromised the Reach 2 Levee and created a substantial risk of catastrophic loss of human life and private property due to this malfeasance. Nothing the Corps has introduced into evidence tips the balance in its favor."

Props and much respect to Judge Duval for seeing the wrongness of the thing and staying the course.  But here's where the rubber should meet the road for supporters of the Changeling in general, and those in New Orleans in particular because according to this, Corps' operation of MR-GO doomed homes in St. Bernard, Lower 9th Ward, judge rules, Obama & Co. do not intend to cry uncle any time soon:

Indeed, the Justice Department is expected to appeal the decision to the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, and then to the U.S. Supreme Court, if necessary..."Until such time as the litigation is completed, including the appellate process up to and through the U.S. Supreme Court, no activity is expected to be taken on any of these claims," corps spokesman Ken Holder said.

Please re-read that quote from Ken Holder (no apparent relation to Atty. General Eric Holder, but we'd have to check with Skip Gates on that one).  I could be wrong, but it sounds like "when hell freezes over" to me.  And if that turns out to be the case, I wonder will the response, particularly from his skinfolk - continue to be, "Just give him some more time, you know those white folks don't want him to give us all that money!"  ::Big Sigh::

And finally, in what should be a no-brainer - but apparently isn't - Harry Shearer gives an interesting entrée into just how long doing the right thing for New Orleans will take.  In his, Why Obama Needs to Weigh In With the Corps of Engineers, he writes about the battle brewing between the State and USACE regarding replenishing the wetlands with sediment dredged from MR-GO.  He closes with his usually succint, no-brainer thinking I've come to love:

"Of course, the Corps' Commander in Chief, a gentleman by the name of Obama, could cut short this process, order the Corps to request the money from Congress (if, indeed, the Corps is correct that helping restore the wetlands would cost more than filling a hole at the bottom of the Gulf), and help preserve New Orleans' main buffer against more severe hurricanes (since hurricanes lose force over land). The question is: will he?"

We shall see.

Paper rain, Paper rain...St. Bernard and 9th Ward STILL "Bastards of the Party"

This draft's been sitting for nearly a month now. Responding to his comment on my 4/30 post, I told Clifton over at Cliff's Crib, "I read how they used newspaper as fill in the levee repair in the 9th Ward – I plan to blog on that today because I need a damn break from this election game!" Well, I did take a break, but as that pesky thing called Life just kept happening, I took a break from all of it - not just the elections. But I'm back now. And after a little catching up, I'll keep moving forward.

The picture above was taken of me standing next to a "repaired" portion of the levee in the Lower 9th Ward during my 2006 volunteer trip to New Orleans. I remember saying to the person taking the picture, "Shit! This is only about twice my height! How much water will this hold back?" Seems that was only one of a couple, more important considerations about which I should have been asking. At least that's what my usual FeedBlitz email update from thinknola.com. said on April 29th. In that update, Alan Gutierrez posted one new article: "Truth Stranger Than Fiction: Army Corps of Engineers Building Levees out of Newspaper." What??!! He was talking about expansion joints - those dark, vertical lines neatly spaced across the floodwall in the photo above (don't some of them look wet?). Who knew?

After reading the post, the comments and following all the links (this April 24th link from a local television station, "4 Investigates: Floodwalls stuffed with newspaper?" had a pretty interesting video showing the actual newspaper, dated May 21, 2006, being pulled from an expansion joint), I just sat back and said, "What the hell else???" It didn't take long for me to get an answer. Two days later, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) scrambled to publicly defend the "leak" (pun definitely intended) in this April 26th article in the Times-Picayune, "Corps explains newspaper's use in floodwall."

Okay, never mind the Corps used unlicensed contractors and paid them a huge chunk of taxpayers' money to do half-assed work. And never mind the Corps said there were only three gaps in which this newspaper-stuffing "repair technique" occurred - I just have to ask, "AND THAT'S OKAY??"

Really now, Hurricane Katrina made landfall in St. Bernard (thanks to MR-GO) and devastated the 9th Ward and it's really okay the three gaps were only in these areas? Jesus!!! Along with impeaching George Bush and indicting every damned member of his administration, can somebody revoke that immunity from prosecution USACE so enjoys so they can feel just a smidgen of the pain and discomfort New Orleanians are still experiencing? Okay I'll admit it -I grew up liking the "The Avengers!"

But as my grandmother used to say when I'd ask her if things would ever change, she'd say, "Yeah, if you sit dey long enuf, it sho' will" (she meant it could get worse if we do nothing). So can enough of us at least get up off our asses and demand that 8/29 investigation? I mean dammit!!

And just as I sat there long enough, here came something else. Hindsight is surely 20-20 isn't it? My earlier question about how much water this will hold back is haunting at best, particularly given this article: "Katrina-Battered New Orleans Levee Leaking." In my February 9th post, I said, "...picture this: You're 6ft. tall standing in a 2ft. hole of mulch. A 6ft. wall of water hits you. Where the hell would you end up? By the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' own admission, areas where the levees broke could not even have withstood storm surges of six feet, forget what Hurricane Katrina threw at them!" Now - more wet spots!

Given the fact outside experts stated in the article, "...the type of seepage spotted at the 17th Street Canal in the Lakeview neighborhood afflicts other New Orleans levees, too, and could cause some of them to collapse during a storm..." isn't it obvious that St. Bernard and the 9th Ward continue to be the pretty much neglected "Bastards of the Party" (you should really check out that documentary!)? USACE, FEMA and a lot of Americans have all just thrown them a bone, still not realizing that the state of their safety remains just as, or even more relevant today as on the day Katrina landed.

If the federal government doesn't own that fact and do something way more significant besides throwing good money after bad - we'll all be holding our collective breaths during this, and every hurricane season from here on out.

I chose not to expound on any of these stories because I'd really prefer you click on the links, read the articles and watch the video for yourselves. After you do all of that, come back and tell me - "it's all good." If you do, idealistic me will know exactly, the kind of "stuff" of which we Americans are made.

"No Way Out" for NOLA means No Way Out for Us

Sitting here watching the CBS 48 Hours Mystery program, "No Way Out," about the trial of the Manganos who failed to evacuate St. Rita's Nursing Home in St. Bernard Parish where 35 elderly people drowned as a result. As I watched, memories of homes I helped gut in the parish back in 2006 came rushing back and all I could think was, "Still no way out for New Orleanians."

Council for the Manganos said that but for the failure of the levees, those 35 people would have survived this "man-made" disaster. All the deaths were attributed to the negligence of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) - never mind the Manganos' reckless decision not to evacuate though there were buses ready and waiting to help. He'd made the perfect argument and he knew it, the jury agreed. Mr. and Mrs. Mangano were absolved of all criminal responsibility for the horror of St. Rita's. No judicial way out for the victims' families.

Now, this past Wednesday, Judge Stanwood R. Duval, Jr. dismissed the Katrina Canal Breaches Consolidated Litigation. As it turns out, the U.S. government (read USACE) is "immune" from legal liability for the devastation in New Orleans. So, again - no way out. No governmental agency will ever be held responsible for what happened in New Orleans then, or for what is happening there now. As a country we should be ashamed.

ColorOfChange.org circulated an email just before the last round of debates asking members to vote for the Katrina question" (sorry, after I voted I deleted the email so I cannot provide you with the exact wording) to be asked of both the Democratic and Republican candidates during the debates. The idea was if enough people voted, the question about what will be done about New Orleans would get asked and hopefully answered by the presidential hopefuls. I didn't watch the Republican debate (already know how they felt about Katrina - the Shrub fly-over said it all for me) but I did watch the smarmy Democratic debate and I don't remember hearing "the Katrina question" mentioned - at all.

What happened to New Orleans forever changed me. And as we stand, knocking at the door of what is inarguably the most historic, democratic presidential run in history, I expect - no, I demand, that the candidate who gets my vote has been similarly changed, and even more, realizes the need to do something life-changing about it. Why? Because, New Orleans is a microcosm of the world in which we live. The rightness of the thing trumps everything else. All this bullshit about vote for Obama because he's Black or vote for Hillary because she's a woman means absolutely nothing to me. What they intend to do for New Orleans matters to me because in my mind, as New Orleans goes - so does the country. And the sooner we all realize that, the better off we will be. And if we don't, there will be no way out for any of us.