Samedi

Everyone please keep your eyes on Levees.org this week! It is the start of hurricane season and they are ready to Rock'N'Roll fo'da Education & Protection of da'Peoples!

With so much controversy surrounding our levees, how can we be sure they are being built right this time?
On Saturday, we said "NO" to fear and "YES" to the 8/29 Investigation, Senate Bill 2826.
It's time that the citizens of America get the truth on why the levees failed on August 29, 2005.
Sandy Rosenthal

~UPDATE~Statement from Sandy Rosenthal on today's Day of Action!
Please Give These Folks A Hand!

My statement on the city-wide Day of Action:

If we could "do it all again," there is only one thing we would have done differently.

We would have pre-printed more flyers.

The 600 flyers got vaporized by eager engaged motorists passing by the three busy intersections where we rallied!
Sandy Rosenthal
Founder/Executive Director
levees.org

~Editilla gotta tol'yaz~
Sandy Rosenthal ~ Editilletto!
Goddess know some women were just born
to kick holy ass!

Deconstructing Ray Nagin's State of the City Report ~Georgianne Nienaber
~"In May the New Orleans News Ladder quoted the Associated Press regarding water leaks on the infamous 17th Street Canal Levee, which failed catastrophically during the floods post-Katrina."
Editilla begs pardon on'da ass'blushin!
Well...t'ank you...
t'ank you fury'mush, Mz. Georgianne!
Give this Lady an Editilletto, oh yeah!
Why is it always da'womens of da'world
dat'pulls my foot outta'my mout?
But why stop there...
In Charlotte’s Garden...
~la casa de bella luna
~I can smell Jazmine,
covering this morning,
like a wide cotton bed'sheet
of white'class lace.
And I taste her breath of coffee
and cigarettes and mary'jane
and bloody'mary coughing
on the banquette by the gate
of this courtyard in'da Marigny.
I lay me down, my soul to sleep.
But the heat won't let me.
So I lie~~awake~~and dream.

I'm going to take this little bone in my heart.
I'm gonna put it in a Glass Box,
with some candles
and some broken clocks...
just to see the sea of faces
stopping in the dark dark dark.

If you've found a friend in God,
do please ask them for direction
to the places they left the restless souls
to drown in their own damn'nation
--under rooftops--in their back yards
--behind the family sofa
while their Grand Mas banged agains the walls
abandonded in Saint Rita's!
~~~I don't really care what they say.
~~~I heard it all before the breach.
~~~They may think they know what it means...
~~~to bet your soul--to find your self losing!

We may know the sounds of unspoken belief
with a bucket of seed and the pigeons beside us
as we slide down the wet stones of the street
to a little cafe named for the Goddes of Flowers.
There the 8 Ball lines up wit'da Lucky 13
and Snake Eyes and Diamonds
and Demons in Chains...
while The Angel waits for Saint Ann to begin
with her masque made of Sorrow
and her laugh made of sin!

So when I die...
do please carry me down Royal Street
wit'a Brass Band and a Second Line Beat
by the courtyards in da'Marigny.
I lay me down my soul to sleep.

~Editilla O'rilla d'Aphasia
New Orleans~August & December '05, Lundi Gras '06
...last lyric for my friend, Ashley. Sinn Féin!

Our precious hearts are all shattered
Scattered across the land
But I know that I am going back
To the place where I know who I am

Holding all our memories in one hand
So tight that you can't let them go
And in the other hand we pray
That the wind and the panic and the rain
Will all turn to a
Soft and quiet,
gentle peaceful,
N-O-L-A,
Crescent City Snow
~Susan Cowsill

Aphasia: One in a group of speech disorders in which there is a defect or loss of the power of expression by speech, writing, or signs, or a defect or loss of the power of comprehension of spoken or written language. Less severe forms of aphasia may be called dysphasia. Aphasia, literally, means no speech.
From a- meaning lack of + the Greek phasis meaning speech.

"All human nature vigorously resists grace because grace changes us and the change is painful."
-Flannery O'Connor

Faithfulness vs. Faith:
John Huston’s Version of Flannery O’Connor’s Wise Blood
~Pamela Demory
"It is a comic novel about a Christian malgr� lui, and as such, very serious, for all comic novels that are any good must be about matters of life and death.
Wise Blood was written by an author congenitally innocent of theory, but one with certain preoccupations."~Flannery O'Conner

935 Lies~Harry Shearer

Reflecting on books we looked forward to~Chasing Ray

Interview with Poet Katie Ford

Liprap's Lament - The Line

Interesting New Books~Welcome to the Laura Ingalls Wilder Children's Room!

Re-opening of Confederate president's home a success story

New study on Katrina-mental health; group presses for help

Sam Friedman on Dickie Scruggs and the Courtroom as a Profit Center~slabbed

Active Illness in Children due to Passive Politics: Is This Another Tuskegee Experiment?
~Robin Wilson

The Hurricane Digital Memory Bank ~FoodMusicJustice.com

Professor recalls bout with Katrina~Indiana Penn Gazette

Spilled mud causes crashes in La., 18 people hurt

CSX Transportation to hold annual meeting in New Orleans next month
~Editilla wondas if this would be a good venue to ask the railroad company about the nearly 20 tank cars of sulfuric acid and 15 tank cars of chlorine and natural gas and dozens of others that I saw parked next to my former home, along the sea wall and downtown in New Orleans, during hurricane Katrina's 100+mph winds and hell raising? And what could they have done if those tank cars had torched off like the city-block wide explosions of the produce company 3 or 4 blocks away? I mean, really, that is a valid and good question, right?

A direct hurricane hit could push oil to $150

New Orleans 17th Street Canal leaking as hurricane season begins
~propaganda press! boycott Carifesta X
~Editilla had to have this one fo'da great updated photo of Exquixotic Tech Support Director Con "What Me Worry" Jolissaint: "Mr. Wet Spot".
It just keeps getting better all the time!

Report shows little land recovery
~In the year after hurricanes Katrina and Rita turned 217 square miles of Louisiana’s coast into open water, researchers found little in the way of land recovery, the U.S. Geological Survey reports.


Flood Stage Levels current 'real-time' guage readings ~USGS

Tropical Storm Arthur forms, no threat to New Orleans

Hurricane Predictions Of Little Use

Loophole could cost landowners

Al-Ahram Weekly, Privatizing War~Peacekeeper99

According to The Washington Post (12 August 2007), the US military has paid $548 million over the past three years to two British security firms that protect the US Army Corps of Engineers on reconstruction projects, more than $200 million over the original budget, according to previously undisclosed data that shows how the cost of private security in Iraq has mushroomed.
The two companies, AEGIS Defence Services and Erinys Iraq, signed their original Defence Department contracts in May 2004. By July of 2007, the contracts supported a private force that had grown to about 2,000 employees serving the Corps of Engineers. The force is about the size of three military battalions. The size of this force and its cost have never been documented.
The Pentagon has said that about 20,000 security contractors operate in Iraq, although some estimates are considerably higher. AEGIS and Erinys work side-by-side in Baghdad’s Green Zone.

Experts Available as 2008 Hurricane Season Begins

Scots Firm to Help Restore New Orleans Hospital~H T'n'T-NTHP

New Orleans Aqua Aces to Donate $1500 to Children's Hospital from Upcoming Spearfishing Rodeo

China/Mynamar Disaster Relief Drive~This fundraiser will follow the same design as our previous Hurricane Katrina and Greensburg Kansas Relief fundraisers.

UN: Myanmar Junta Butchers forcing cyclone survivors out of camps

I Heart New Orleans (part 1)
~Capatain's Log

Pictures from New Orleans - Monday ~ Part I
“Take care when you handle Cliche’ lest you draw offense of Metaphor as neither will honor what they seem in life nor what you would wish of them in death.”
…said Down
the Gravedigger

So Long, New Orleans
~words are not enough

POP BOTTLES~NOLA RISING

The Drinking Age Conundrum
~Aroma Cucina

New Orleans-shot indie film is one of two in the works about the Chess Records label

New Web Site On Michael Gerzon, Surround Pioneer
~Michael Graves

Vendredi

WWL has Levees.Org release of two new videos as the lead video on their homepage!

Ads push investigation of N.O. levee failures
~Thank you Times Picayune!

Seepage - and what the Corps is holding back~Humid City

Third party to sort out levee seepage from that of a baby's diaper~"The corps has defended its work, but also has been digging a trench to find the precise source of wet spots inside the levees."

Editilla saw no evidence of this alleged work what so ever. As sited in yesterday's Ladder Report of my Monday trip to the 17th Street Leak, I did see a bulldozer over by Robert E Lee blvd and lots of deep still wet mud, but no Corps work at all at the four Leak Spots--especially trenches or any of that boohoo'rah. None. They lie like dogs. I was there Monday, the 26th. Perhaps they had already covered over a previous Leakage Spot but what I saw then was the same spot ReEmerging? What? Folks need to go and see with their own lyin'eyes. Jus'sayin...
~"I have agreed with southeastern (Louisiana) levee authorities as well as the state to go ahead and do an independent peer review, to put to rest what the issues are with the seepage," said Karen Durham-Aguilera, director of the corps task force responsible for restoring levees in the five-parish area.
Who will conduct the review has yet to be determined, she said. Editilla belches: No Duh?
And who is behind Doh! #3?
Hell, the Corps of Engineers can't even determine which different "Spokes'people" they will slide before us on any given day like so many stage doors.
Who is behiiiiind dooor Number 3 today?
No, Who is on First.
Buuut...What is behind door Number 3?
No...
Who is on first.
What is on Second.
I Don't Know is on Turd.

But why is no one in the Corps actually seeming to take the responsibility of signing their engineering names off on paper for these "repairs" at the 17th Street Canal Leak?
That shows the most glaring difference between the Corps of Engineers and Real Engineers like their arch nemesis, Robert Bea--who they continually disparage to site as a paid litigant consultant (see: Tim Ruppert)(see: Mxz. Aguilera's own statement), as if the satisfaction for the victims of their bad engineering somehow weakens his engineering analysis.
Robert Bea signs his name at the bottom of his work and can back it up in court, unlike the Corps of Faux Engineers. Notice Mxz. Durham-Aguilera's misdirection to: The "Southeast Louisiana Levee Authorities" and the State of Louisiana, as if that gives the impression that others are involved in the decision processes of rebuilding and repair of these Failing Levees. NO, Gentle'Rillas! It is the Corps of Engineers wit'whom anyone must agree--as they have so mandated over and over regarding these levees. NO ONE ELSE can touch these levees but the Exquixotic Corps--or any other levee, river, tributary, bayou, ditch, latrine or lake front all across the United States. The Exquixotic Corps of Engineers is everywhere you want to be. According to the Corps--They are the Southwest Louisiana Levee Authority. They are the Total Authority on American Waterways.
Why can't the Corps back up its own Goddamned Work? Real Engineers sign their work and the Corps of Engineers offers referals to people who don't even exist the next day. Yesterday is was Tech Support Director Jolissaint and his coining the term: "This Little Wet Spot" for the AP. And today? Mr. Bill say Nooooooo...
MRGO Blow Smoke up Sluggo's ass please?

A couple of months ago when we caught them out as having stuffed newspaper in the repair section joint seals we got Kevin Wagner who told us he was project director for levees in Orleans parish. After nailing him as not even belonging to the ASCE since 1995 and even then having only "Affiliate Membership" the paper of the original quote changed his status on the website article to: "Corps Spokesman". Mr GO Figure.
Which brings us Mike Park, Hurricane Protection System Program Manager for the Corps weighing in on these Levee Leaks. He was (a couple of weeks ago) or is supposed now to be the one in charge of building that little berm thingy they intend to put across the MRGO outlet to stop navigation but not storm surge, their idea of "Closing MRGO".
We will deal with that later but right now I guess he can take off for lunch, walk across the hall, to come in on the Press Media the 17th Street Leak and jump in there with today's Corpsiclar: "Karen Durham-Aguilera, director of the Corps task force responsible for restoring levees in the five-parish area".

And above all this I assume we have their fearless leader: Brigadier General Michael J. Walsh, commander of the corps' Mississippi Valley Division--who has warned the residents of the Ninth Ward to "get ready to be a little wetter"--and they know why?
Huh? Say What? You tawkin'ta me?
Is that a Threat or a Promise, General Walsh?
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?
Stop it with the damned Clueless "SPOKESPERSONS"!
STOP IT WITH THE PUBLIC RELATIONS CHEERLEADING!
You do not talk down to the American Citizenry. Shame on You!
No Soup fo'da Corps!

Editilla hates to belabor an issue, with Ms. Durham-Aguilera's belaboring Robert Bea's position as a litigant consultant, in that she is noted on the Corps site as being a registered engineer in the State of Louisiana, however her name draws a Zero at the State's own site. We trust that she gained experience about these levee structures in New Orleans from Oregon or from wherever they transfered her. Perhaps she read the Corps IPET 25 Million Dollar peer review. Hell, maybe she wrote it. Perchance she has just let her lisence lapse. It happens all the time. Maybe I am going blind.
Who knows? Jus'sayin...
Ms. Durham Aguilera could easily conduct her own review of her Corps' current "issues with the seepage" as did yer oh'so humble Editilla: to wit, go and stick her damned hands into the flowing water at the four Leaks in front of the Corps DisRepaired Canal Street Levee "I Wall". Don't real engineers get their own hands dirty any more? Her own Corps of Engineers built that "I Wall" so she she has no fear there, eh? It is safe...right? I mean, Mxz. Aguilera, are you going to bet Your life on this flowing water? I could smell the canal water from the other side of the "I Wall" 50 yards away--3 Months after those leaks were reported to the Corps and as well reported in the Times Picayune.
Same Leak 3 Months Later? Different Leak?
Whaaat, Me Worry?

Mxz. Aguilera should stop the bullshiting about how they will, what, appoint/convene/contract another future peer study of, what? The four Leak Spots that I saw and reported flowing water Monday? What? Hire the ASCE for another cool 25 Mil AGAIN?
The Corps is lying. Out and Out, Shell Game, Slight of Hand, P.T. Barnham Carney Press Conference LYING! Just because they say something does not mean they are saying anything at all. What are they saying? Listen to what they are saying. What are you saying, Mxz. Aguilera? Who the hell are you?
To simply just say something, anything and think the public will go away is PR 101. That shit might work on Shell'Shocked Iraqis and Wise Blooded Christ Mongerers or drug'adled middle'class Americans too busy working their asses off, to get gas to get to work even harder, too distracted to notice the slow process of soil errosion ---but that dog just won't hunt here in this swamp.
We know. I was there. They have not done a thing to these "little wet spots". They are flat lying. What gall...as if these arrogant bastards (and bastardettes) think we will not actually go out and look at what they say they have done, as now with the 17th Street Canal Levee Failure. I did. Sandy Rosenthal did.
Go and see for yourselves, Gentle Nola'rillas--but I suspect y'all had better make it fast before the Corps covers up their mistake again with fresh dirt!
Directions to the 17th Street Leak.

Who ya'gonna call?
"Bringing in what we hope is a truly independent review to look at the leaks at the 17th Street Canal — that is commendable," said Sandy Rosenthal, founder of Levees.org, a group that has lobbied for overhauling the Corps. Aside from that, Rosenthal said in an interview, "I'm not aware of anything that was presented that would give the citizens of this area any reason to feel safe."

And a Big Editilla Schilla Shout Out
to the Food Blog: Aroma Cucina
~Who have jumped on this and spread it around to their foodies up in...New York? And well beyond...
Yeah, what I call Fireony!
If you gonna love Food you gotta love New Orleans--and this blog does love our city through special hat tips and all anyway. They pay attention. I listen to those who listen to me. Like most normally sane human beings confronted with utter bullshit, they jumped to The Line to stomp it out into the open, and through their Stitch'hiking this story, other blogs around the country, outside of New Orleans' blog'a'reamery, have jumped on the Ladder and grabbed ahold of it.
The Nola Blog'O'sphere is already rocking loaded dice with tons of other focuses to take care of, of other snakes to doctor--and doing rather well at it too Sinn Féin, effecting change for the city's future, her music, her education, making the place livable again thank you vury'mush. Like all Americans they are busy.
I follow all of this through my Secret da'Coda Ring.
But it is when I see how quickly the rest of the country will tend now to care for New Orleans in a crisis, it just breaks my heart with such heartening,
or...leavening if you will!
Hell, Y'all know by now yer Editilla will...
I used to be a nice guy. Fun at parties. Laugh'a'minute. My favorite thing to search for the Ladder was articles on groups around the country who come to work Recovery in New Orleans, or were into her food, or new books, or expecially da'music and pretty pictures, videos. It keeps me out of trouble. But Nooooo! The Corps of Engineers continues to attempt to remake our world into a place about as fun as a pile of poinionous snakes and fleas.
I do not enjoy the taste they leave in my mouth or the way they are making me feel unsafe by their slight of hand faux re-engineering to cover up their guilt for the negligent homicides they began on August 29th, 2005.
I know this has taken over my posts and that makes Editilla very sad.
Thank you Aroma Cucina!
To quote Randy Newman: "You give me Reason to Live!"

Corps says seepage at 17th Street Canal is normal
"And we're attributing that to seepage that's passing through the joints between the sheet pile sections," Mike Park, Hurricane Protection System Program Manager for the Corps, said. [This "program manager" also does not show up on the State of Louisiana's Engineering certification Site above]

Officials: New Orleans area hurricane protection best ever~But they say they don't have parish-by-parish risk estimates, let alone estimates by neighborhood.
Brigadier General Michael J. Walsh, commander of the corps' Mississippi Valley Division, did say that leaders in areas such as the 9th Ward of New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish know that their areas will be -- in his words -- "a little bit wetter than others," and why this is.
~Excuse me General Walsh, but why do you say the 9th ward will be a little bit wetter than other areas? Enquirin'Rillas want to know!

One of these bitches is not like the other.
One of these bitches is kinda the same!
One of these bitches is not like the other.
When the bell rings...
Can'Yaz tell me their Name?

Howd'yaz all like this cotton'mouth, dry-run photo-op: Commander in Theif, Raptor'fine First Lady, VP Jungle Book Jindal, and da'Genral watching the presidente's ass, backing it all up so to speak? Fly Opening.
How McCain's Katrina Record Undermines Criticism Of Obama On Iraq~Sam Stein

Recovery: The Shame of Disaster Response~CJO's Avenger212

Legislature free to correct its own (as if)~James Gill

Perdigao v Adams & Reese: Robert Wooley You Magnificent Bastard, Welcome to Slabbed

RTA rolls out first new bus since Katrina losses

Laura Bush visits New Orleans,
~Drops Profundities about Historical Dialogue, Gushes Over Christian Privatized Disaster Responses

Telecom Junkies On Disaster Planning & Recovery~Michael Graves

Snake Doctors ~Rurality
Editilla gotta brand new thang! Ya'jus never know where you will find a diamond stuck in yer toe! Such as this blog, like discovering a steaming pan of cobbler on an empty park bench alone on Christmas Day. Thus da'nature of Rurality!
This is so what I needed right when I needed it!

Music Of My Mind: A Living Soundtrack
~noah bonaparte pais

TONIGHT: New Orleans is Forever GOOD!
Republic~828 South Peters Street
Warehouse District ~New Orleans, LA

MADE IN NEW ORLEANS

Jeudi

More On New Orleans'
Failing Levee Repairs
by Editilla O'rilla d'Aphasia
I just returned from New Orleans, The City That The Corps of Engineers Handed to Pontius Pilate.
My bare-handed live'blogged eyewitness report from the city of the Leaking 17th Street Canal Levee Repair has garnered around 2000 hits since that Thursday. This is wonderful!
So I decided to repost it with an update or two and some gin'you'whine Editilla schmilla on text book ASCE spin'filtration for the Corps of Engineers Bad Engineering in the form of Tim Ruppert, the nameless blogger. We deserve better than this insulting horse shit.
UPDATE...further UPDATE.

AP Photo/Bill Haber
~In this area, water seeps under the levee of the 17th Street Canal levee, background, Tuesday, May 20, 2008, in New Orleans. Outside engineering experts who have studied the project told The Associated Press that 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.

~I rode the bike out to this 17th Street Leak
May 26th, noon-7pm, to see it for myself. It is four "wet spots" of flowing water directly in the middle of the new repair job of "T Wall" about 40 yards out from the base of the levee. I say flowing water because when I flicked a cigarette ash into it, the flow was evident across the ground. Just looking at the "spot" it looks like a wet spot but when you see the water running it makes more sence...10 seconds for my sample ashes to flow 1 foot. That seemed fast to me. I mean, as soon as the ash hit the water it started moving towards the Lakeview neighborhood. This largest Leak (pictured) is appx 15 yards long. X5 yards wide. You can sorta see from the picture the flowing water but not as good as getting up close, even in it. There are three other spots just outside the photo, which may represent one large leak or four separate streams of moving water. One of the spots, I sank into the mud immediately 3-4 inches. Upon this one pictured above, the largest, I stood and pushed gently up and down with my feet like we used to do at the beach at the water's edge to watch the water come up through the sand, because right by the ocean the beach is virtually sitting on top of water...well, when I pranced on this spot water splashed up around my ankles within seconds and I sank down about 6 inches in no time. Just pushing my feet up and down caused the water to come up out of the ground. What if we plied a couple of shovels into them? How far could we go? And I thought the Corps had told AP that they would do just that? Well, where the hell are they? Perhaps the other spots have formed there since the photo was shot the week before. All four wet spots had flowing water. I really wish Mat McBride or some other smart blogger would go out there and look at this.
I wish everyone would go and see this ass'backwarded
ACTIVELY FAILING LEVEE.
Now on to the levee and flood wall itself. OK, this is right at the pump station so the wall sections count 1-17 from Robert E Lee away from the lake until they get to the "T Wall. There are 17 sections of this new "T Wall" then the older wall begins again. On the other side there are rocks piled all down the "Repair" except on the section of "T Wall" and then a short section of the older wall has rocks then no rocks the length of the Canal that I saw. Right at RE Lee there is bulldozer and other equipment that has done fresh and Extremely Muddy still, work there and then you walk along the wall to the New "T Wall" to see the Leaks. This area where the bulldozer is represents a new thing for me. Deep fresh wet mud. With my hands I was able to dig down nearly a foot and it was wet entirely.
On the "wet spots" pictured I could not dig down because the hole filled with water at just 6 INCHES...FLOWING WATER...I COULD SEE IT MOVING WITH MY OWN LYIN'EYES. I could however with a bit of effort stick my bare hands into the saturated soil up to my elbows. I suggest everyone try this but be very careful when retracting your arm from the succulent mud...slow and easy. Just be still and You can feel the water moving over your skin. It feels kinda cool and interesting actually. Four active leaks--not one "little wet spot"...all four in a radius of 30 yards. I paced all of this off. Then I walked the wall all the way to 17th Street and back(you have to climb through a gate along the wall and there is fencing along Fleur dis Lis street) This jaunt revealed that the houses along the levee have indeed developed their yards right up to the base of the levee and have trees along the base with 6-8 foot diameters and 40-50 foot limb spreads which means their roots stretch out and into the levee by at least 20 feet under ground. Most trees' root systems spread and descend into the ground equal to their above ground presence. Follow me here. These are HUGE trees, not little trees, with root systems which have most surely breached the structural integrity of that levee. But if such a subtle invasion is possible then why has it not happened at these trees before? Well, it DID HAPPEN at the point in the levee of the most water preassure--just before the failed pumps. And that big open space where there are leaks used to have houses and yards and trees on it. When I stood in the middle of these leaks, in muddy flowing water up to my ankles, I looked over to the Lakeview neighborhood and felt the chill graze of the Reaper's Scythe across my heart. Where tons of water had pushed away any notion of defense, that Failing Levee now removed any illusion of safety, even sanity buttressing the few houses being rebuilt.
As for the joints between sections of the wall: the New I Wall seems a fairly tight fit though it is new and hasn't had time to settle. I found the joint compound brittle. All of that concrete will settle I don't care how much pile allegedly driven by the Exquixotic Corps. This is built by the Corps of Engineers, Proven Engineering Liars. Like most people effected by their slights of hand I did not see them build this "Repair" and have only their word for it or what I can see with my own lyin'eyes. But we all have had quite enough of their word since August 29th, 2005.
The older section seams are what worries me. As far down as a foot in many of the seams (I stopped counting at 20 seams between joints) I could see daylight between the old joint compound and the edges of each section of Wall. I could see day light between the seams within 6 inches of the top on most of the sections, from RE Lee to 17th Street. They have done nothing to refit these seams with new compound or even newspapers. All up and down the seams in 3 out of 5 I could stick my index finger up to the first knuckle and on four seams I could stick my thumb up to the first knuckle and on one or two seams I stuck TWO FINGERS UP TO THE FIRST KNUCKLE at about 3-4 feet up from the ground between the compound seal and the old wall. Had I wanted, I could have easily dug out this very old and corroded joint sealant compound with my bare fingers--easily, a child could do it really the stuff just falls away it is so old. I would like to know why with the water down they did not think of replacing this stuff. I mean on at least half of the seams I looked at along the older sections I could see daylight between the cracks--DAYLIGHT--at the tops and even sometimes little cracks about 2 feet down from the top of the walls.
So there you have my eye'witness report. The LEAKS are frightening and they are not just simple seepage. Water does not coagulate like blood and just keeps flowing and eroding whatever it is flowing around. Please everyone go and see for yourself. Go to the wall at Robert E Lee and walk about 50 yards back from the lake and there they are working in a clearing of bare ground. I think this is the one in the AP Photo. Please also check the seams of the wall for yourself as did I. Reach Up and Touch this joint compound and watch it crumble away.
Please do this and get yer hands dirty as We can get our hands around this threat and perchance feel out solutions together.
DIRECTIONS TO THE LEAKS:
NOTE-Please make sure to go on a "dry" day so as not to confuse this with rain'stained soil.
Go to the 17th Street Canal Levee at bridge by the Pumps. To the right you will see the huge pumps. To the left you will see Section #1 Go there. Start at section 1 and walk along the wall away from the lake, until you reach the middle of the New "T Wall" Repair Sections. Then move about 35 yards into the middle of the bare ground in front of the wall from the base of the levee. You have to do this because the Corps has fenced off the area from Fleur dis Lis Street so it is easy to miss these leak-spots. But you can easily access them from RE Lee along the wall. From a distance they do look like "just wet spots" but upon closer inspection it is easy to see the flowing water in some of them. These levee breaches were spotted in March and reported in the Times Picayune. Then nearly 2 months later comes the recent AP article on these very failing levee repairs. They are still there...flowing water. You can't miss them. Please check this out asap as The Corps will probably try to cover these leaks over to hide them with fresh soil. But...flowing water just does not stop flowing until its job is done. That job? Errosion. One could stand over even the mentality of the Exquixotic Corps with an eye- dropper, and it may take 10,000 years but the water will eventually wear a hole through it, though one would still not get any usefull information out of them, despite what our government says about such practices.

Now on to the Fuckmook of the Flood. Why? Because this is a matter of life and death already, not back handed, snake in the grass, public relations work. This public relations hack spent his "benefit of the doubt" with me at the RT2 Conference last year. You can read him on their blog. Now, last week, Tim Ruppert, you came on my own site, my front yard, to try to defend Jolissaints "Alfred E Newman Whaaat Me Worry" sound bite spread across the country: ~“I personally do not at all believe that this little wet spot is anything that is going to cause a breach or a failure of any kind,” Donald Jolissaint, chief of the corps’ technical support branch in New Orleans~ to mislead my readers and insinuate that Robert Bea was just a paid hack. So I have checked: The cost ratio is balanced like a guillotine of money paid to your group's IPET Corps WhiteWash study and Robert Bea's group's study that, thank Goddess, refuted it with sound and experienced engineering analysis. Let's say a Hundreds of Millions of Dollars to One when you consider the tax money squandered by your Corps of Engineers. So far, the IPET study has cost about $25 million. The corps recently committed an additional $250,000 to complete the risk study. Robert Bea's group was supported by a NSF Grant. SGER awards cannot exceed $200,000 for a period of two years, however most are for smaller amounts and/or for shorter durations.
Innuendo and out the other, you neobitch.

So Tim you are the paid hack here, and a fuckmook in the broadest sense that I ever heard Ashley Morris apply the term. Hence, I have removed links to him on my own blog since you have them on yours and it just feels dirty to me. Idolatrous even. People might think that I agree with you. People may think that Ashley would agree with you. That is none of my business and between you and your maker. I certainly do not need anyone misunderestimating my love for that one truly badass blogger. I do not agree with you.
And, you know, after this past Monday, sticking my bare hands nearly a foot deep in flowing water in front of your groups failing levee repairs, I don't care if I offend any smart nolabloggers. I missed your public relations soiree at last year's RT2 Conference due to other obligations in the city during the 2nd Anniversary of the Corps' Flood. It was an emotional mile stone that trumped your millstone.
That was then and this is now.
Much has changed, not water under the bridge but water under the levee.

While I honestly grieve the loss of your home in Gentilly to fire after the evacuation during the lock down of the city, I am glad you are able to afford a new one as so many have not in New Orleans after your group flooded the city. However, I have seen too much death and destruction to give that much shrift. I don't hang my creds on my shoulders as a calling card until someone asks for it, like supporting the Corps Malfeseant Engineering. Then I step in. By attacking me on my own blog in support of Jolissaint the Head of Tech Support (Mr Key'Word Wet Spot) you passed the first lick and asked for it. Indeed, you typically spin'sucker punched me by not offering contradicting info on Kevin Wagner (Mr. News Paper Levee Stuffer) while disparaging Robert Bea (a real engineer).
The upside to stepping in your shit is that you show me that I am on a true path of investigation and attack.
My dog will hunt. Your dog is a pussy.
From the comments on my post one week ago:

Don Jolissaint is most certainly a Registered Professional Engineer in Louisiana. I don't know why you were unable to verify this from the board of engineering; while you insult and disparage an acknowledged professional you showcase your own inability to perform a simple text search on the Internet.

I'm glad that you recognize the value of a professional engineering license but I'm curious, did you also attempt to check the credentials of Bob Bea? You should do so, because the celebrated paid consultant of plaintiff attorneys is NOT registered to practice engineering in Louisiana or any other state of the union.

Peace,

Tim

Well, because I was so upset that Don Jolissaints Tech Support work for the Corps means that those LEVEES ARE STILL FAILING and I wasn't spelling his name correctly. And I posted an apology and clairification. Little did I know that you are their smarmy, small mouthed, soft balled, boot-licking punk'setter.
If you do not go and check out these levees you are a coward. And if you do not tell me why you chose to support the Lying Murderers in the Corps of Engineers and oppose Real Engineers, who were there the moment the water fell enough to get there, you are an abject failure as a human being. What gives, Tim? You have shown me something even more dangerous than Lying Engineers like the Corps: you have shown me a Spinner Baited Propagandist masquerading as an Engineer. Robert Bea has built levees. You I would bet my left testicle have built nothing. I have balls. You do not. So please take one of mine---but to get it you must get off of your pandering ass and go look at the Leaks in front of those failing I Walls and do your own engineering if you actually can which I really doubt. I am challenging you, Tim. Come off it and help us, the people who read this blog, understand this dire situation in the levees, prove me wrong with engineering rather than picking on me or questioning Robert Bea's almost half a century of marine, coastal and structural engineering experience. Robert Bea was building things before you were born, you spoiled public relations hack. I am just a tax-paying citizen survivor of your group's criminal engineering while you are a big-time mouthpiece. We the People are David and you and yours are the Master Blaster with a methadrine scrambled midget riding your back. You are worse than the Corps other bad engineers because you try to spin the story of those levees failing as if you are an uninterested, unrelated party when in actuality work for them. What insipid passive-aggressive cowardice.
You offer invective and innuendo, anonymously, to mislead my readers around the country and the world that there could be some doubt as to Robert Bea's finding that the Corps was guilty of 1st Semester Engineering Mistakes in building those levees which failed. You are a party panzy flackster'bater. I read all the posts of your honored spin'filtration of the Rising Tide Conference last year. That was then and this is now and your employer's levees are failing AGAIN! Come on, Tim Ruppert, tell me this wouldn't make a great bumper sticker:
DON'T FLOOD ME BRO!

We need real information, Tim Ruppert,
not more of your bullshit spin thank you very much.
One does not honor a sociopath, as so often a vulnerable child denies the violence of the father who beats Mother, by giving them stage to misrepresent to the questioning public their abusive malefeseance. One must put lying abusive engineers in jail. At the very least one publishes the name of such sociopaths, Tim Ruppert, in the interest of public saftey. You may have the Tide swamped into swallowing your wallowing, but not this Delta Boy.

It should be noted that I don't do this sort of thing to individual bloggers. This is not one of those inner blog-o-sphere flame thingies that I have heard of and that (other than you attacking me in the first place) that thankfully I don't have on the Nolasphere. No, Tim, this not personal. This is me--a concerned citizen--finally getting a hold of one of the people responsible for those levees failing in '05. You may or may not have done it then but you have actively done it now. This is not about me but about us and not about you but about them.
You have offered me your ass on a putrid mold covered platter now and I will not let go until you and your punk'lord neoengineer taskmasters either make those levees right or get out of the way.
Preferably y'all just get out of the way. But until then I intend to discredit you of any engineering integrity,
and anyone associated with you of integral honesty.

Thankfully we have nice lady Sandy Rosenthal, a very unsimple Nola'citizen, Levees.org and real engineers across the country to show the world how public relations spin'baters like you and yours actually operate:


STILL rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina 3 years later ~Affrodite

Learn from Hurricane Katrina artist~New Orleans artist Thomas Mann will visit Boise and give a workshop on wearable art.

Town wary of Corps return

Time, money press La. storm project

River's ebb leads to spillway closure

Katrina rent vouchers sought for homeless

Mayor: New Orleans reinventing itself~Interesting and original choice of words from da'mayor, since Baby Ray and Sly Boy Sean have yet to ask the State for any money to "ReInvent New Orleans".
No. It appears in the eyes of all the ByWater / Lower Ninth residences to whom I spoke, that what land-master Sean is doing should be called Reinvesting New Orleans, considering the scale of his property holdings in the target area of the ByWater/Marigny alone. I just as well do not understand how he can "not profit personally"--and profit tremendously--from all of this orgy of interests.

FEMA hurricane preparation info available online finally on the eve of the 3rd Anniversary

Pass Christian yacht club reopens 3 summers after Katrina

“I love the Louisiana swamps!”

Join us this June
~Lagalou New Orleans

New Orleans is thrilled to be hosting Starbucks' leadership conference

Sazerac: An Official Cocktail for New Orleans?

Jazz Music Program for Kids Draws Crowds

Rebirth Brass Band celebrates 25 years of blowing its horns

"Name me one leader who emerged from the crisis of Hurricane Katrina. Congress has yet to spend a single day evaluating the response to the hurricane, or demanding accountability for the decisions that were made in the crucial hours after the storm. Everyone’s hunkering down, fingers crossed, hoping it doesn’t happen again. Now, that’s just crazy. Storms happen. Deal with it. Make a plan. Figure out what you’re going to do the next time."~Lee Iacocca

Mercredi

I'm going to take this little bone in my heart.
I'm gonna put it in a Glass Box,
with some candles
and some broken clocks...
just to see the sea of faces
stopping in the dark
dark.

If you find a friend in God,
do please ask them for direction
to the places they left the restless souls
to drown in their own damn'nation
--under rooftops--in their back yards
--behind the family sofa
while their Grand Mas banged agains the walls
abandonded in Saint Rita's.

Mardi

New Orleans Downtown: Present and Future, Part I

New Orleans?~FMJ

Of Taste and Levees~NO Bull

Requiem for Clarinet and Brass Band~Toulouse Street

Lundi Memorial Day

Editilla Rides Amongst'yaz!
Well, I have to make this fast. No laptop and I can't afford to hang on this cyber'cafeity cool as i'tis. Flora is my jumping off place. I used to run a fresh juice bar here up until 911 and of course business for anyone named Ali went south after that, so I went to work for Benny the Iranian Jew down the street selling Mardi Gras beads nationwide for Mardi Gras Zone. I was bike'delivering food for the Turks at Angeli on Decatur when the storm hit.
I will be performing my music tomorrow night at Neutral Grounds Coffee House on Daneel Street at 7pm. Please come...I consider it heart and soul fine art and hope you all will too. I also plan to donate the proceeds of my set to the FYYFF fund so I hope one of Y'all comes too. I just haven't had the time or inclination to push this on this site or get emails around to some of youz so...
Tuesday, May 27th/7pm.
Have to go...clock is ticking at the Cyber Cafe. If any of youz have laptop that you may want to get rid of cheap please let me know.
Thanks all,
Editilla O'rilla d'Aphasia

Dimanche

Thank you New Orleans Daily Photograph

Small signs of rebirth help buoy Big Easy

Tension follows archbishop's Mass

Revitalizing the Jewish Community

Flood Stage Levels current 'real-time' guage readings ~USGS

Money restricts riverfront project
~A city agency is pressing ahead with plans to redevelop several miles of New Orleans' east bank wharves, but questions are growing about where it will find the money to carry out the nearly $300 million "Reinventing the Crescent" project. Although Mayor "Baby Head" Ray Nagin and Building Corp. Chief Executive Officer Sean Cummings had talked earlier about seeking state money through the annual capital outlay budget, Cummings told a City Council committee on Friday that the city did not ask Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration to include money for the project in the capital budget this year.~Thank you, Times Picayune.

Survival of the silliest
~James Gill

La. same-sex ban may drive away conference

Governor Jindal's counsel defends his work for tribe

Gollott's seafood celebrates 75th

New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival: A Photo Essay
~all about Jazz