Army Corps Of Engineers To Work On Weak Floodwall ~The Army Corps of Engineers has an emergency plan to protect nearly 2,000 feet of Industrial Canal flood wall it says needs serious reinforcement near the Gentilly Woods neighborhood. Welcome to the 100 Years Score! ~Lawmakers Furious They Weren't Notified Sooner ~"I looked at this and said, 'Oh my God,'" said New Orleans Councilwoman Cynthia Hedge-Morrell. "I'm angry, because I don't think three years after Katrina we should be having this discussion," She was also outraged to find out about the floodwall weaknesses from a newsletter sent to residents. "How dare they not keep us abreast of what's going on,"she said."This is unacceptable, considering we're coming up on the third anniversary of Katrina and we have 85 unidentified bodies to bury three years later."
ASCE 501(c)6 = PAC Memorandum Regarding: Increasing ASCE’s political involvement. From: D. Wayne Klotz, PE, Chairman, ASCE Task Force on Political Involvement During the past year the Task Force has evaluated the Society’s current activities and also looked at ways to increase its public policy and political involvement. ~Editilla say doooo'tella~ We don't suppose Y'all will be supporting Mary Landrieu, eh? Charles Melancon? Is this what $30 Million Plus has gotten us? Considering the comments on the rest of their news letter, it would appear that the LA Chapter of the ASCE has quite a roach up their tight asses for outside engineering critique of their $30 Million still-unborn, yet undead IPET study. Indeed, ASCE, La'chief, largest financial beneficiary of Corps Contract Engineering work, would have the director of Levees.org, Sandy Rosenthal's, head on a platter for exposing their Public Relations Seminars masked as explanations of complex Engineering...if they could just get people to listen! And what better way that forming a PAC. Editilla says this should be illegal just on the hidden face of it. The very organization which owes its paycheck to the Corps of Engineers should not be allowed tax-exemption --so they can lobby My Congress to allow the Corps to flood ME and anyone else near one of their "flood control structures" again and again, providing even more Project Engineering work for ASCE members who toe the levee line. No! No Soup for these Bastads! ~But Wait! There's more.
State parks commission rejects border fence offer ~The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission rejected a $105,000 donation from the federal government in a nixed deal that would have surrendered 2 1/2 acres of state-owned land for the border fence. The rejection effectively adds the commission to the list of border fence opponents, and the US Army Corps of Engineers say they will now go to court to take the South Texas land. Federal officials sought land in the Las Palomas Wildlife Management Area, located in Cameron County. The real estate division <--(????)--> of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers first proposed a land-for-cash swap in May.
FEMA: Aid not requested Well Exuuuuuse Us! Da'Fat Lady Stomped Her A-BOMB SIZED FOOT riiight down on top of all Our Tiny Little Heads--and we have BEEN A LITTLE BUSYWIT'IT...ever goddamned day since 8/29!
~Editilla gotta step in hear'ah~ As Gentle'rillas are well aware, I rant immolatedly about the use of tax-funded Public Relations Spinfiltration by the Exquixotic Corps and their jail cell punk lackeys the ASCE, but what we have he'ah is mo'than a fail'ya ta'comoonicate. This is PR 101, what yer oh'so humble Editilla calls: Seeding the Clouds Planting the Story, just as in the way the Corps/ASCE flood us with media about muskrats, lack of funding, bad lawyers, paid engineering consultants--all prior to We The People finally getting to hang their asses in Public Court. ~Here we have FEMA employing the same tactic (Perchance even the same PR Firm?) to seed the public view and plant their own story before we get a chance to exercise our constitutional rights to Redress from our Federal Government in Our Federal Court. In the Candyman World of Public Relations, the most important thing is To Be the one telling the story, giving the Answer to the Question before it can B. However, Truth is not in play here! First and Foremost the StoryNarrative, the Answers, the Tiny Lies, must be laid before the Questions. Such is the Nature of the Beast in Orwell's 1984... --as fetidly illustrated by our own government using corporate mass marketing and media to actually manifest doublethink in the public's mind, --right before our very eyes! Seeding the Clouds before the Storm, sewing Cancer Cells of contradictory replications into the Fabric of The Story. This explains so many things about their bullshit press conferences and meaningless drivel. More importantly it begs another Question of how our Press has handled their Questions, particularly given our Press' own lack of Answers. But we have met the Reaper and he is Us! FEMA Braces for Slew of Trailer Suits ~Suemedha Sood
ASCE 501(c)6 = PAC Memorandum Regarding: Increasing ASCE’s political involvement. From: D. Wayne Klotz, PE, Chairman, ASCE Task Force on Political Involvement In mid-2005, the ASCE Board of Direction created the Task Force on Political Involvement to examine the Society’s involvement in both current and future political activities. During the past year the Task Force has evaluated the Society’s current activities and also looked at ways to increase its public policy and political involvement. The Task Force is preparing to recommend to the Board the establishment of a parallel 501(c)6 organization to allow increased lobbying and political activity on behalf of the membership of the ASCE. The Board will consider the recommendations of the Task Force in 2007. In the interim, the Task Force is seeking comments and suggestions from the membership in advance of any decision to provide the Board more information. At present the ASCE is allowed to lobby within strict dollar limitations, but prohibited from engaging in any political activities such as endorsing candidates. The Task Force recommendations would allow the ASCE greater flexibility in its lobbying activities and allow the ASCE to be involved in political campaigns by forming a political action committee (PAC) and by endorsing candidates. A PAC would be a separate entity from the new 501(c)6 and could allow for voluntary contributions to be made to the PAC by the ASCE members which could then be given to candidates for federal office. ~Editilla say doooo'tella~ We don't suppose Y'all will be supporting Mary Landrieu, eh? Charles Melancon? Considering the comments on the rest of their news letter, it would appear that the LA Chapter of the ASCE has quite a roach up their tight asses for outside engineering critique of their $30 Million still-unborn, yet undead IPET study. Indeed, ASCE, Le'chief, largest financial beneficiary of Corps Contract Engineering work, would have the director of Levees.org, Sandy Rosenthal's, head on a platter for exposing their Public Relations Seminars masked as explanations of complex Engineering ...if they could just get people to listen! And what better way that forming a PAC. I say that should be illegal just on the shifting face of it. The very organization which owes its paycheck to the Corps of Engineers should not be allowed tax-exemption--so they can lobby My Congress to allow the Corps to Flood ME and anyone else near one of their "flood control structures" again and again, providing even more Project Engineering work for ASCE members who toe the levee line. No. No Soup For You Bastads! But this would explain much as to why a Corps Employee, Tim Ruppert, former ASCE VP, the Nameless Blogger insidiously infiltrated onto all the NOLA blogger rolls, would attempt to come on this Ladder to publicly, though anonymously, cowardly, smear Dr. Robert Bea as a paid litigant consultant. I am sure that such an attack has nothing to do with Corps liability in the upcoming Industrial Canal - MRGO Engineering Failure Liability lawsuit, or the ongoing and growing LEAK (not seepage, not "bubbling") at their faux 17th Street Canal Levee Breech "Repair", which is next on the liability scale should the Corps lose. And they will lose because they are illegitimate, just like Nameless Tim Ruppert who draws their paycheck. So this may also explain why ASCE has continuously delayed the release of the $30+M tax-funded IPET report: DEFEAT MARY LANDRIEU FIRST! Do it back door, with a PAC. Do it to her however they can, legal or not. But get the Senator of the 8/29 Investigation! The Bastads! But more than that, how can it be legal for Corps employees, "engineers" like Tim Ruppert, as a non-profit tax-exempt PAC, to Lobby Our Congress on behalf of his employer, the Corps of Engineers, from whom they draw their paycheck as well as future continued contract work? {Editilla apologies for that last redundancy. But, how many nails will it take in their coffins to keep such blood'suckin vampirengineers from haunting our dreams, stalking our levees with sad intent?} Given Rupperts honored, effective spin'filtration and misdirection of last year's wonderful Nola blogger's conference, Rising Tide, with a quaint geography lecture on Dutch polders, but no engineering information, not a word on Our levees --one year after their deadly catastrophic and failure, Editilla begs to diffa should this asshole get another shot at the podium for this year's Rising Tide 3 to ReSpin'filtrate the Corps Narrative. His latest pre-game herring fetish is "sediment deposit flow" --bwhahahaha! Without supporting USGS data or acknowledgment of the Corps' widening of the channel and floodplain beginning at Cape Girardeau thereby drastically reducing the amount of coastline replenishing soil reaching the end of the line, and in typical patsy slight-of-hand job fixation, Nameless Tim would have you believe it is merely the historic "Wild River" that would take centuries to rebuild our vanishing coastlines, so why bother, eh? Oh Brother! When will this Smarmy Corps 9-5'r Suit Shut the Fuck Up and Stop Insulting the Profession. My father was an Engineer. Dr Bob Bea is and Engineer. H.J Bosworth is an Engineer. They have built things. You, shcill'son, are No Engineer. Hell! This ubber- udderhanded puke wasn't even a certified PE before already rising in the ranks of the ASCE. Gentle'rillas know the type. Editilla calls'em... The Fat Man in a Kafka Movie. Frag'catcha! The Guy From Central Maintenance. Nurse Ratchet. This smacks so of pre'gamelawsuit 'framing' of USGS scientist Ray Seed and his learned, relentless and often humorous criticisms of IPET. Seed--ing? HA! And Seed will quote Mark Twain right to their faces! ASCE hatesthis guy! For Gentle'rillas, He Editillero! Sooo, No Soup For You Nameless Tim, without rebuttal or contrary presentations from levees.org --which was conspicuously absent from last years conference. Editilla will strongly beg to diffa with that, probably out front on the street with a bullhorn. Why? Because when their incorrectly repaired levees break again ...people gonna die. Knocked 3 times, no one answer decry. Time to climb upon da'Ladda., as da'Tide draws nigh and da'creepers on da'rise, and when da'levees break, to whom will it matta? While John Barry is definitely Editilla's Herolero her'ah on da'Ladda, he should by no means be the only word on our levees, as he himself has said. So here's to the Rising Tide, lest any boat from that great storm question for whom my bell tolls... every August 29th...it tolls for these...
Exquixotic Corps Cancels Update "We have some challenging situations to address in St. Bernard. We realize the community would like more information, but right now we are taking the necessary measures to conduct additional analysis before providing a proposed action," said Christophor Gilmore, senior project manager for St. Bernard Parish."Everyday, we continue to work towards our goal of providing the 100-year level of protection by 2011 throughout the system." Huh? ~Editilla reposta'mindas~ Why, just the other day it was Kevin Wagner! Whozzit gonna be tomorrow? PO Cephus? What, do they just have a string to pull like a One Trick Dolly with that 100 Year Thing again? That meaningless misnomer of malfeasant miscreants? Yeah We Hea'Ya Mouf'Talkin! 100 Year Flood? Did he say, 100 Year Flood? Sloooowly Editilla toins! Step by step...inch by inch ...miiiile by mfkn mile! Corps of Engineers nears a decision on levees for eastern New Orleans ~Kevin Wagner, the senior project manager for Orleans Parish levees, flood walls and armoring, says the corps and state officials are closer to making recommendations. ~Editilla no'tellas~ Kevin Wagner is neither a registered engineer in Louisiana nor a member of the ASCE since 1995 when he was listed as merely an "Associate Member", a designation usually reserved for Non-Engineers. If anyone goes to these Corps Public Relations Events any more, would you ask This Mouthpiece if he is in fact an engineer and if so what has he ever built? This is the dork who said stuffing newspapers in the levees wasn't such a bad thing. As well this: "We are going to finish these repairs, but I don't think a 1-inch separation between a flood wall and a slab of concrete 10 to 20 feet wide would let enough water in to cause a catastrophic failure," Demo stimulus bill has $3 billion in Katrina aid~Bruce Alpert ~The legislation would give Louisiana 30 years, instead of three, to repay more than $1.7 billion as its share of levee upgrades in metro New Orleans; $350 million to help hospitals in Louisiana and Mississippi deal with cash-flow issues and other post-hurricane problems; and $75 million to help fight increased violent crime and rebuild police fire and criminal justice facilities.
RTA to seek deal with French firm ~Frank Donze ~By Labor Day, the monumental task of rebuilding New Orleans' struggling bus and streetcar system likely will be in the hands of Veolia Transportation, a major player in the world of transit management.
"So I don't want anybody telling me that we have to offset a disaster relief package for the Midwest where people are hurting, when we didn't do it for New Orleans. Why the double standard? Is it because people aren't on rooftops complaining for helicopters to rescue them, and you see it on television too much? We aren't doing that in Iowa. We are trying to help ourselves in Iowa. We have a can-do attitude. It doesn't show up on television like it did in New Orleans for 2 months."
~Editilla chingrrrillas~Can somebody hit the Bat Signal on this Freakin'Ass Mouth?
Officials 'Outraged' After Being Ousted by Army Corps of Engineers~Sloan Brewster MIDDLETOWN CT - The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the National Guard held a meeting with members of the media at the Inn at Middletown but closed the door on the public and elected officials. With the exception of Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who quietly observed, no one save the military, the media and speakers was allowed in. "I'm outraged that this is our government - our federal government - prohibiting the mayor and a state representative and a state senator from coming in, based on Connecticut Freedom of Information Laws, kicking out the officials would be illegal."~ State Sen. Paul Doyle, D-9th District
Corps of Engineers meeting asks local leaders to fill out questionair on "value" of levee trade-offs, offers NO information on status of levee ~Mark Schleifstein Survey asks about acceptable sacrifices. The results from the computer scoring exercise won't be known for some time, corps officials said. ~Government, business, environmental and neighborhood leaders on Wednesday helped Army Corps of Engineers planners choose which of dozens of alternatives should be included in a new master plan for protecting Louisiana's coast. But instead of studying maps and voicing concerns about particular footprints for levees and coastal restoration projects, the dozens of participants in two meetings at the University of New Orleans filled out complicated computer matrix forms that measured how they value saving lives, protecting property value or jobs, creating or protecting wetlands and other natural resources, and keeping historic properties and neighborhoods or archaeological sites from being flooded. The program asked each participant to place a weight between 0 and 100 on each of the metrics, or trade-offs.Then it compared the values of those decisions, in dollars, lives and homes saved, allowing each participant to reconsider their decisions based on the results. ~Editilla gotta ax~This has WHAT to do with the current state of our levee rebuilding? Fucking as much as Ice Water In Hell! This is a PR tactic. We come to these meetings to meet with these alleged "Engineers" to discuss and become Informed as to the status of our levees and flood control and they ask us to fill out complicated computerized "Risk Assessment" surveys? Can you believe this Gall and Hubris and out-right SHELL GAME PUBLIC RELATIONS??? What a goddamned waste of tax money and our precious time! Meanwhile, water is leaking big time underneath their faux repair job at the 17th Street Canal Levee Breech "Repair". Is this connected to their impending Lawsuit? Will this be entered as evidence of where New Orleanians stand on Flood Control? What?Does the Corps have any information on our levees? Are they DOING anything with our levees? And what about this IPET report? Where is it? Will they come up with hugely overstated funding request based on this data? Who in the Dante's Hell thinks that We The People Flooded owe the Corps of Engineers who FLOODED US any kind of obsequiousness? THE CORPS OF ENGINEERS IS NOT ALLOWED TO REQUIRE ANYTHING OF US SUCH AS THIS CIRCUS ACT! This strategy has NOTHING to do with Geotechnic Engineering, yet Everything to do with Framing a Story, Laying out a Public Relations Narrative. This tactic has NOTHING TO DO with their job. Their job is building levees--after they repair the ones they built wrong in the first place. Please can we fire these assholes? Can finally get at least the 8/29 Investigaton? They are behaving like Kafkatrina Torturers, by doing this bullshit over and over at each meeting. No information. Hoops to jump through. Weird Surveys to pit one area of town against another. The Corps of Engineers is not psychologically qualify to conduct Group Therapy Sessions. Meanwhile our "Repaired" levees are leaking. Not Seeping. LEAKING!
A 'Dead Zone' in The Gulf ~Scientists Say Area That Cannot Support Some Marine Life Is Near Record Size. "I would think an area the size of Massachusetts where you can't catch any fish or shrimp, that's significant."~Nancy Rabalais, executive director of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, which conducted the study.
Parts of northeast Missouri struggle with new floods ~Flooding woes aren't over yet in parts of northeast Missouri, where a man-made lake closed to boaters Tuesday and dozens of people living along a river below it did not return home due to high-water worries.
Can we make our house a tree? Can we make our lives mean more of us getting along with everything, around a framework of growth changing biotecture probabilities?
State senate president speaks out about Shepherd ~"He's certainly got to get his affairs in order to be able to continue to serve in the Louisiana senate," said State Senate President Joel Chaisson.
Homeland Security Capital Corporation to Keynote Disaster Recovery Virtual Tradeshow ~Former Congressman Chairman & CEO C. Thomas McMillen of Homeland Security Capital Corp, HOMS, international provider of specialized technology-based radiological, nuclear, environmental, disaster relief and security solutions to government and commercial customers, will keynote the Ziff Davis Enterprise Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Virtual Tradeshow. The Virtual Tradeshow is slated to commence at 9:00 AM EDT on Wednesday, July 30th with opening discussion topics at 11:00 AM EDT. McGlinchey Stafford Law Firm Relocates to Pan-American Life Center
Levee lawyer dealing with breech of a different kind~slabbed ~Editilla stirs on da'slab as da'Pot thickens- "First they came for the Trial Lawyers and who the hell would give a damn?" Anyone who might think this case is unrelated to the Multi-Billion Dollar lawsuit against the Corps is a goddamned fool and Editilla wants the name of their pharmacist. Not only has the State of Louisiana joined this tea party, but also City of New Orleans ($77B), Entergy ($655M) and Serwage and Water ($460M). Call it Beotchwulf Battles wit'da Exquixotic Corps? Suddenly, what the US "Justice" Dept (their lawyers) has planned for Plaintiff's Lead Attorney O'Donnell in this "unrelated" (yeah, right) case takes on a sinister salience. Whoa! I'd wager this will make their prosecution of Insurance Attorney Dickie Scruggs look like a Grade School Bully'Punk Pile'On. No, this is "Justice at the end of a Rove", and as such will be much meaner, more akin to a Jail Yard Shank Partay. Mark my words...or these: Et tu, Brute?
New Orleans attorney Joe Bruno, the plaintiffs' representative on a committee helping plan for trial of all Katrina-related case on Duval's docket, said the MR-GO case ruling will be useful for court challenges to more than 100 corps-built levees around the nation that a recent study deemed unsafe. But in the near term, Bruno said, Friday's ruling in the MR-GO case could buttress his plans for a new federal lawsuit aimed at holding the corps responsible for the 17th Street Canal floodwall break that left 80 percent of New Orleans flooded after Katrina. Bruno said the suit will claim that the corps gave the city Sewerage & Water Board a permit to dredge the 17th Street canal, work that allowed water to undermine soil beneath the floodwall, ultimately causing the wall to break.
For further reading please go here, here and here. This would also explain why Recovery Scar O'Dell's every 3rd statement on his recent tour was "Beware of the corruption!" "We haf'ta knock out the corruption!" "Watch out--Corruption!" (Editilla cops to a tiiiny bit of paraphasing her'ah:) Seeding the clouds in advance of planting a story is how we have come to regard that type of PR spin'filtration, like when the Corps spent the summer trying to tell us that everyone BUT them is responsible for the catastrophic failure of their flood control engineering, to wit: Congress, Muskrats, God, Iowa farmers, local governments, Katrina the Clown. However, Pierce O'Donnell begs to differ.
Campaign-Finance Indictment Threatens Lawsuit Against Corps ~People close to Mr. O'Donnell suggest that he is being pursued aggressively because of the Katrina lawsuit and because he has been a vocal critic of President Bush -- a charge the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles vehemently denies. And if you believe the post Rove/Gonzales Justice Dept then Editilla has a few choice lots over in the lower 9th Ward in New Orleans that you can get cheap cheap.
Heavy rains put residents below Clarence Cannon Dam in peril ~Paris, Mo. - The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at Mark Twain Lake is cautioning citizens, especially those below the lake’s Clarence Cannon Dam that precipitation during recent days has pushed elevations at the lake to above-record levels.
Nart Villeneuve: The (b)Logosphere - Part 1 & 2 While bloggers are quite aware of the danger of government censorship and surveillance, the same skepticism concerning free expression and privacy often does not extend to the corporate sector. The blogosphere looks more like the logosphere, unlike the nologosphere of earlier incarnations of independent media. ~Editilla gotta'axa~Do we mean this logosphere? This Logosphere? Or the Legosphere? While some open, decentralized elements remain, particularly the use of open source software such as wordpress and open licensing such as creative commons, most of the tools and platforms used by bloggers are corporate, proprietary products: Blogger/Blogspot, Twitter, Gkype, Gmail, Feedburner, Flickr, Technorati, Facebook, Myspace, Youtube etc… This is not necessarily a bad thing, it just presents a different set of challenges. The companies that provide blogging, social networking and video hosting services are becoming aware of the fact that a core user constituency is engaged in citizen journalism (yikes!) and digital advocacy. (Go Finger!) And that this also presents challenges. These companies are in a position in which they are are compelled to comply with the censorship and surveillance demands of governments and corporations in addition to protecting the privacy and freedom of expression of their users. Louisiana latest state to reject REAL ID~Hat T'n'T-Gentilly Girl Agency's new list raises more questions
U.S. Senate Housing Bill May Help Katrina, Rita Victims ~The Senate voted 72-to-13 to send the bill to President Bush, who said earlier this week he will not veto the bill. Sen. David Vitter, R-Pamp, was one of only 13 senators to vote against the bill.
New Orleans mayor plans low-key Katrina events ~Mayor Ray Nagin plans to mark the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina with a low-key bell-ringing at the time of the first levee breach, and later in the day, a candlelight vigil at Jackson Square. There will be other events, but Nagin spokeswoman Ceeon (SAY'-on) Quiett says city officials will focus on these two. ~Editilla can't sit stilla~ Spokeswoman (Say'-ON) Quiett??? Spokes Woman Say On Quiett. Does anyone else hear this echo in my admittedly cluttered imagination? Jeez Louie.
Thank You Masqued E'vinga!
New Orleans Red Dress Run
Special Thanks, Photos-Tin Pan Fortune City
A fest...
