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WASHINGTON -- Four African-American New Orleans residents told a House committee Tuesday that they felt a sense of abandonment from all levels of government when Hurricane Katrina hit three months ago and believe more lives and homes would have been saved had the victims been predominantly white and wealthier. "People were allowed to die," said Leah Hodges, who told the panel she still doesn't know if her brother survived the hurricane. She likened what happened to New Orleans, and many of its black residents, to "genocide and ethnic cleansing."

South Park is my absolute FAVORITE TV show. I always look forward to flipping on the tube at 9:30 PM with a glass of rum in hand to watch that show. Even if it is a re-run I still love watching South Park. Therefore it was with great anticipation that I watched this season's NEW episode last night. If you missed it, you missed a gem. It was a satire on media misinformation about Hurricane Katrina along with panic over Global Warming. What happened was that Cartman and Stan accidentally caused the collapse of a dam that flooded Beaverton...

"Reasonable" African Americans in New Orleans believe that the Bush administration engineered the levee breaks during Hurricane Katrina in a bid to save the city's white sections by flooding black neighborhoods, Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson said Sunday. "I was stunned in New Orleans at how many black New Orleanians would tell me with real conviction that somehow the levee breaks had been engineered in order to save the French Quarter and the Garden District at the expense of the Lower Ninth Ward, which is almost all black," Robinson told NBC's "Meet the Press." "These are not wild-eyed people," Robinson...

HOUMA -- During the information vacuum following Hurricane Katrina, locals made scores of frantic calls to area newspapers and police to report the unimaginable: Evacuees from New Orleans were being stripped of loaded guns at a Houma shelter. Roving gangs from the inner city were patrolling local neighborhoods. A woman was carjacked at the mall. From the shocking to the unbelievable, none of the anonymous rumors called in to police and other agencies over the past two weeks were true. In fact, police report overall crime in Terrebonne Parish has dropped 40 percent since the hurricane made landfall, forcing thousands...

Billionaire Democratic Sen. John Kerry has finally sent his own aid package to hurricane-ravaged New Orleans more than two weeks after the storm hit - and a week after most of the city had been successfully evacuated by the Bush administration. Kerry traveled to New Orleans on Monday aboard a UPS Boeing 757 loaded with 5,000 bottles of baby formula, 5,000 pairs of sneakers and an array of cleaning supplies, the Associated Press said. "Everything that any of us can do is so welcome, and it provides just a little bit of help at an extraordinary time," the Massachusetts Democrat...

There is a shot where Blanco is being set up several days ago for a TV interview, and her press secretary is helping her adjust her mic. They’re having a personal conversation, but the cameraman catches it!! In it, she kinda jokes to her press secretary something like “yeah, well I guess I really need to ask for troops,” and a couple more things she says. A bit later in hte segment she gets into a semi-argument with Miles O’Brien, and he’s pointedly asking her exactly WHEN she asked the President for troops.She gets frustrated and says she didn’t even...

Controversial film-maker Michael Moore is planning to make a hard-hitting documentary based on US President George W. Bush's handling of the Hurricane Katrina rescue operation. Moore grabbed international acclaim with his scathing 2004 film Fahrenheit 9/11, which studied Bush's handling of the September 11th terrorist attacks. The Oscar winner is now "seriously considering" documenting the catastrophe in America's Gulf Coast region. He tells the New York Daily News, "There is much to be said and done about the man-made annihilation of New Orleans, caused not by a hurricane but by the very specific decisions made by the Bush administration in...

Briton tells of Katrina nightmare By Helen Neill BBC Radio One Stuart Bird's summer-of-a-lifetime trip turned into a nightmare when Hurricane Katrina bore down on New Orleans. When the eighteen-year-old and his friends got the order to evacuate the city, like many tourists, they found they had no way of getting out. Their hotel manager initially persuaded the boys to ignore advice to go to the city's now notorious Superdome. The pictures Stuart, 18, from Rugby, took show the devastation of the hurricane, and rising flood waters, taken from his room. Then, running out of food and water by the...

'Gatemouth' Brown, legendary singer and guitarist, dies Musician fled to Orange before Hurricane Katrina wiped out his Slidell, La., home BATON ROUGE, LA. - Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown , the singer and guitarist who built a 50-year career playing blues, country, jazz and Cajun music, died Saturday in his hometown of Orange, where he had gone to escape Hurricane Katrina. He was 81. Brown had been battling lung cancer and heart disease, said Rick Cady , his booking agent. Cady said the musician was with his family at his brother's house when he died. Brown's home in Slidell, La., a bedroom...

I found this audio clip of Mayor Neglect and I think might help the Freeper Investigation, since Freepers seem to be the only ones who have a clue right now. If Nagin told the press he didn't need the Feds, wouldn't he tell the Feds the same? It's no silver bullet, but I think this peice of evidence might help.

‘We cannot allow it to be said by history that the difference between those who lived and those who died in the great storm and flood of 2005 was nothing more than poverty, age or skin color.” - Representative Elijah Cummings It’s painfully difficult for me to wrap my mind around images of Americans lying dead by the score, their corpses being eaten by rats and dogs. As a brave new America trudges forward into the 21 st Century armed with a new set of national priorities, there’s something acutely unnatural about this disaster. First of all, it didn’t have...

Brinkley, a professor at New Orleans' own Tulane University who accompanied Penn on his voyage through the under-water city, was among the first to denounce the report. "There was never a leak," he said in the Daily News. On Larry King Live, Penn concurred: "The boat never sank." According to Brinkley, the boat did take on water--because it was "overloaded" with storm survivors. According to Penn, his "entourage" consisted of "a couple of friends." (The actor's camp denied the existence of the "personal photographer.

Part of New Orleans's southern charm comes from its green canopy of live oak trees. Many of those trees have been standing in water for more than a week, depriving their roots of oxygen. (this is lead-in. Audio .wav file of the report at NPR site)

With all that has happened in the state, it’s understandable that the Louisiana chapter of the Sierra Club may not have updated its website. But when its members get around to it, they may want to change the wording of one item in particular. The site brags that the group is “working to keep the Atchafalaya Basin,” which adjoins the Mississippi River not far from New Orleans, “wet and wild.” These words may seem especially inappropriate after the breaking of the levee that caused the tragic events in New Orleans last week. But “wet and wild” has a larger significance...

The Red Cross has confirmed to Fox News Channel's Major Garrett that they had requested permission to take food and medical supplies to the Louisiana Superdome in the hours immediately after Hurricane Katrina's landfall. That request was denied by none other than Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco.Garrett appeared on Hugh Hewitt's syndicated radio program this evening to discuss the shocking revelation.MG: Well, the Red Cross, Hugh, had pre-positioned a literal vanguard of trucks with water, food, blankets and hygiene items. They're not really big into medical response items, but those are the three biggies that we saw people at the New...

The number of Katrina evacuees counted at Houston's largest shelters is dropping dramatically as people leave for new accommodations, new jobs and new lives. Today 8,066 hurricane victims are still stranded at the three Reliant Park shelters and the downtown George R. Brown Convention Center, down from 25,400 reported just Tuesday. It's evident at a glance that evacuees have more breathing room than they did last weekend, but it's hard to track how many people are simply switching shelters, moving in with relatives or actually finding more permanent housing. After Reliant Park imposed a curfew for the first time last...

http://www.infowars.com/articles/new_orleans/police_loot_walmart.htm

When night falls, Charlie Hackett climbs the steps to his boarded-up window, takes down the plywood, grabs his 12-gauge shotgun and waits. He is waiting for looters and troublemakers... Two doors down, John Carolan is doing the same on his screened-in porch, pistol by his side. "We kind of together decided we would defend what we have here and we would stay up and defend the neighborhood..." Many of the homes appear only slightly damaged, or even untouched. But the neighborhoods are stunningly empty, and so quiet that they sound like a forest. ...it reminds me of Dac To." They...

HURRICANE Katrina was a horrific natural disaster. To America's Angry Left it was yet another occasion to score political points against President George W. Bush. In the same spirit of opportunism that animated looters who stole television sets, Bush's political foes frantically sought to blame the devastation on him. A measure of the anti-Bush Left's derangement is that it blames him for bad weather. "Complacency will no longer suffice, especially if experts are right in warning that global warming may increase the intensity of future hurricanes," The New York Times editorialised on Thursday. "But since this administration won't acknowledge that...

Tensions color Bush, Blanco meeting Gov. Kathleen Blanco canceled a scheduled trip Monday to visit Louisiana evacuees in Houston shelters to stay in Baton Rouge to meet with President Bush. Blanco Communications Director Bob Mann said the governor did not learn about the Bush visit until early Monday morning. “We had no idea the president was coming,” Mann said. Tension between the Blanco and Bush administrations has surfaced in recent days as state and federal officials try to coordinate recovery efforts in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The Blanco administration clearly wanted to express their irritation with the communication about...

NEW ORLEANS - New Orleans turned much of its attention Sunday to gathering up and counting the dead across a ghastly landscape awash in perhaps thousands of corpses. "It is going to be about as ugly of a scene as I think you can imagine," the nation's homeland security chief warned. SNIP With large-scale evacuations completed at the Superdome and Convention Center, the death toll was not known. But bodies were everywhere: floating in canals, slumped in wheelchairs, abandoned on highways and medians and hidden in attics. SNIP The U.S. Public Health Service said one morgue alone, at a St....

NEW ORLEANS (FinalCall.com) - The New Orleans community has become a war-like zone in recent months, due to the senseless gun violence and the escalating tensions between the community and law enforcement. Police officials and community leaders have been dialoguing to come up with answers to this violence tearing the fibers of the neighborhoods. Chief of Police, Eddie Compass, seemed to have found that solution in Captain Dennis Muhammad, CEO of ENOTA (Educating Neighborhoods to Obey Those in Authority). On June 10, Chief Compass, while being interviewed on a local morning news show, announced that Capt. Dennis would provide sensitivity...

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - The only lights Saturday night on Bourbon Street were the flashing blues of police vehicles on patrol, the headlights of rumbling military trucks and an occasional flashlight or cigarette glow among bedraggled holdout residents. "Why does any local stay? Because this is our neighborhood, this is home," said Ride Hamilton, 29. He has turned his French Quarter home into a mini-warehouse of supplies for his neighbors. He said he accumulated the goods during daily "shopping" trips to local stores, "trying to get it before somebody else does. We're relying on ourselves out here." Johnny White's Sports...

WASHINGTON (AP) - At every turn, political leaders failed Katrina's victims. They didn't strengthen the levees. They ceded the streets to marauding looters. They left dead bodies to rot or bloat. Thousands suffered or died for lack of water, food and hope. Who's at fault? There's plenty of blame to go around - the White House, Congress, federal agencies, local governments, police and even residents of the Gulf Coast who refused orders to evacuate. But all the finger-pointing misses the point: Politicians and the people they lead too often ignore danger signs until a crisis hits ...

Gov. Kathleen Blanco, standing beside the mayor at a news conference, said President Bush called and personally appealed for a mandatory evacuation for the low-lying city, which is prone to flooding.

  Hmmm... Seems to me that thousands of people owe their lives to the competence and compassion of President Bush. Why Was New Orleans Evacuated?Power Line, MN - 2 hours ago... Gov. Kathleen Blanco, standing beside the mayor at a news conference, said President Bush called and personally appealed for a mandatory evacuation for the low ...   Looters Take To Streets; Martial Law DeclaredNew Orleans Channel.com, LA - Aug 30, 2005... Gov. Blanco said President George W. Bush called and personally appealed for a mandatory evacuation for the low-lying city, which is prone to flooding. ...   New Orleans Mayor Issues Evacuation...

Kathleen Babineaux Blanco On January 12, 2004, Kathleen Babineaux Blanco became the first woman to serve as governor of Louisiana. In her long, distinguished career, Governor Blanco has served the people with a vision of creating a new Louisiana, filled with hope and opportunity for all citizens. As Governor, her top priorities include: providing affordable, accessible healthcare, improving the state’s education system, and creating a strong and vibrant economy. In her inaugural address, Governor Blanco outlined her priorities as governor: “We face important challenges in this new century: expanding our economy and creating quality jobs; building an effective health care...

-snip- Less than 24 hours later, the mayor found himself aboard Air Force One, face to face with the president at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. He repeated his criticisms, he said in an interview last night, and got a positive response from the president. "He said he was fully committed to getting us the resources we need," Nagin said in the stifling heat of the tattered Hyatt Regency hotel next door to the Louisiana Superdome. "I told him I knew we could work together, and he said he understood." In their two hours together, first aboard Air Force...

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco said that it was President Bush that had called and urged the state to order the evacuation. New Orleans orders evacuation Hurricane Katrina's winds nearly 175 mph Sunday, August 28, 2005; Posted: 11:47 a.m. EDT (15:47 GMT) NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin declared a state of emergency on Sunday and ordered a mandatory evacuation of the city as Hurricane Katrina churned toward the city with maximum sustained winds of nearly 175 mph. All of Orleans Parish falls under the order except for necessary personnel in government, emergency and some other public...

NEW ORLEANS — The situation in New Orleans was nearing rock bottom Friday as thousands of National Guardsmen armed with food, water and weapons streamed into the hurricane-ravaged city to bring relief to the suffering multitudes and take back the streets from the looters and armed vigilantes.

AUSTRALIANS trapped in flood-ravaged New Orleans are in fear of their lives as the city descends into lawlessness. Tourists stranded in the US Gulf Coast city and sheltering in its huge Superdome sports stadium in the wake of Hurricane Katrina have told of shootings, rapes and looting, and are growing increasingly concerned for their safety. More than 50 Australians are believed to be trapped in New Orleans and surrounding areas. Brisbane man Peter McNeil said his 22-year-old son John was stranded in New Orleans but had now moved with other foreigners out of the Superdome for their own protection. Violence...