The IRS blues~James Gill Mississippi River Commission OKs levee plan~"We should address some sort of plan for this area," said Corps of Engineers Brig. Gen. John Peabody, a commissioner. "I think we should have them (Congress) recognize that we do have authority of the upper Mississippi, from the origins to its Head of Passes. I think they should be reminded of that if they're looking for an oversight body as this plan goes forward." ~Editilla gotta tol'ya~ Obviously many in Congress may beg to differ with this cynical assessment. As well, in fact, many American Tax Payers refuse to assume this position. We The People now Question the Authority of this band of rogue engineers to build a functioning latrine, not to mention adequate flood control. And lest there be any missunderestimations of yer oh'so humble Editilla's view here, from down in da'bottoms: these "Officers" in Command'N'Control of ASCECORPS should be drawn out and shot for Dereliction of Duty in building our Failing Levees. Barring that, We The People can at least Sever these Heads from our National Civil Engineering Psyche, ...after dragging them down the middle of Canal Street in New Orleans, in chains, tarred, feathered, and covered in Mardi Gras Beads! Jus'sayin... More on the Question of Authority.
Faulty design turned border fence into dam~Simply put: The fence did not live up to promises made by officials from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Border Patrol or Kiewit Western Co., the private company that built the fence for $21.3 million. ASCECORPS: Everywhere you wanna'be --or Not!
"When I came to Iowa State, I wanted to make work that would help me cope with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. I was looking for closure from what I had just been through. The emotional and psychological toll that my mind and body endured after Katrina left me questioning everything I had ever learned. The world seemed to be flipped on its axis and I felt as though I was free falling out of control. The ease at which everything I owned was destroyed left me sick to my stomach at times. The total lack of respect for human life at the hands of the United States government during Hurricane Katrina is something I will never forget." ~Michael Stanley
Telling N’Orleans Story in Brass ~The Hot 8 Brass Band plays the kind of music that moves feet, body and soul. Founder of the group Benny Pete says it’s music that “makes you remember, makes you hold on, gives you hope and lets you heal.”
If you found a friend in God please ask them for direction to the places they left those restless souls to drown in their own damn nation ~~under rooftops, in their backyards, ~~behind the family sofa... ~~while their Grand Mas banged against the walls ~~abandoned 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 ...and find your self ~~~losing!
~Thank you Times Picayune. This major media Editorial does much to help repair the damage done this week to rebuilding safe levees by Gambit's acquiescence to ASCECORPS.
ASCE did this latest slight of hand in the smarmiest of ways under the visage of one Tom Jackson, a past president of ASCE who served on the ERP and currently infiltrates the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East, coming off in the Gambit editorial as if we are shutting them, the poor babies, out of the Investigation rather than the other way around. Lemme toll'ya, that conflict-of-interest shit may work for the Bush administration's Contract Procurement Specialists, but no longer walks here in the Land of Safe Levees. It is an obvious Conflict of Interest for this man, Jackson, to be on the Levee Board, let alone being given such a venue for public relations spin, while his group is Under Investigation. What is the benefit of Mr. Jackson pointing out Corps deficiencies if they never get corrected? Oldest trick in da'book of tricky business: offer this to see not that. Well, it certainly serves to give Mr. Jackson the appearance of impartiality, eh? Or, is the purpose of such disclosure simply to give the public a little jerky, something to chew, while ASCECORPS treads water. If Mr. Jackson truly believed a word he said in his faux criticisms, then he would support fellow ASCE member Raymond Seed's 42 page Ethics Complaint --rather than attempt to divert attention away from it as he did in Gambit this week, crying "us'n'them". Doth Thouesttt Protest'thing?
Rather "Us'n'Them", how'bout "Them'n'Them": ASCECORPS ...Our Uncle'Sam'Daddy!
They were approached and solicited for participation and cockily refused, even laughed at the very idea. ASCECORPS has very diligently kept the public shut out of their own Investigative process and now are beginning to act like other Capitans of NOAH's Ark ...as in WHERE Is The Goddamn Money? $36,250,000? How has ASCECORPS blown through So Much Money in such a short time? 3 Years? ~~And With So Little To Show For It? $12,000,000 per Year? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot??? That IPET Report better have pictures!
(Life Matters When Our City Grieves Her Dead.) There is a Real Problem here between the upper echelons of ASCE(CORPS) and their rank and file member engineers, as Dr. Raymond Seed is not acting alone in his Ethics Complaint. Hence, Mr. Jackson must step down from overseeing the repair of our levees until such conflicts in that process are resolved.
We will find out, Mr. Jackson, who signed-off on this crappy, illegitimate engineering. We will discover the names ofwho came up with this criminally negligent flood control system. God help anyone who is behind our failing levees as Goddess Damns those who built them.
Did you sign your Corps work, Tom Jackson? Dr. Raymond Seed signs his work. Dr. Robert Bea signs his work. They wear The Engineers Ring. Do you wear the Engineers Ring, Tom Jackson?
Do you? Or is it another Ring? One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, one ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them.
Hardin's Good Deed ~John Brummett ~Magazines of high literary standards simply don't make money. Some of the biggest and best have been turned into not-for-profits. Others have been salvaged by wealthy people or allowed to exist as parts of more vast publishing empires. Being merely regional in scope, and in a region hardly the nation's richest, the Oxford American never had a chance as a strictly private enterprise.
Danny Glover, Amnesty International Join Local Groups ~As the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaches, Actor Danny Glover will join Amnesty International USA (AIUSA), Kimberly Rivers Roberts and Scott Roberts, Tia Lessin and Carl Deal and Zeitgeist Films at the New Orleans Center for Creative Artson Sunday, August 17th for a sneak preview of the documentary "Trouble the Water."
Louisiana's ban on cockfighting takes effect Friday~Ed Anderson Link to Book site~Click pic to enlarge. Jus'sayin... on the 3rd day, Editilla could only get to within a few blocks to the right in this photo on a mountain bike. They had just unchained the doors and finally released over 12,000 people out onto the ramparts for fresh air and to smoke. It smelled like the outhouse at a deathcamp. There were maybe 100 Guard Troops looking very nervous and tiny amongst 12,000 other evacuees. But there was just no where for them to go. The water was too deep. I saw a few people jumping off into it, with a guardsman hailing to Stop but then just letting them go. Imagine yourself locked two days in this building with 12,000 strangers, the doors Chained Shut and the Air Conditioning Off . Imagine There's No Heaven.
End the War of Words? ~Editilla hates Squeezably Soft Issues~ Words matter. Who are we tryin'ta kid here? "Sometimes Ah laaks mustert on'mah biskit mhmm." The American Society of Civil Engineers is just as much Under Indictment for these Levee Failures as their bosses at the Corps of Engineers. Not the American Civil Engineering Profession... -but ASCECORPS. Ethics Also Matter to Real Engineers. Therein lies the da'rub, said Hamletilla. Contrary to what this article would lead one to think, this is not about levees.org -vs- the ASCE. Levees.org is not against anyone but for safe levees. That is all, and they have remained remarkably focused on that Hard Issue. It is much easier to lure the public into thinking that this Ethics Problem is with a little citizens group of uneducated bystanders, when in fact this Corps Ethics Problem with ASCE comes directly from one of their own engineers, a 400 pound Guerrilla named Dr. Raymond Seed, and his 42 pages of Ethics Complaints.
So, of course ASCECORPS will want to be in on the investigation of itself! Yeah…that’s the Ticket! And Pay No Attention to that Water Leaking Under the 17th Street Canal Levee "Repair". Here...try this "Softer Issue"? Hey everybody? Let's not Investigate the Hard Issues like the Engineering behind those failed levees? Let's do Soft Issues like...funding, Congress, Presidents ...Katrina the Clown.
ASCE –particularly its Presidency–has proven its Word Suspect, inconsistent at best, as recently as this week when its President had to contradict the spokesman for the Ethics Committee in their initial response (Bad Cop) to levees.org demanding answers, after nearly a year!
Reading this commentary and watching this Past ASCE President Jackson spinfiltrate the "Soft T'issues" reminds Editilla of catching a child with their hand in the Candy Jar and listening to them try to explain all the reasons that they can't get their hand out of the Candy Jar -except the obvious: they won't let go of the Candy they were trying to steal! HA!
Now we get Mr. Jackson (Good Cop) to ask us to focus instead on “Soft Issues”? What now, group therapy? What? The? Hell? Is? He? Talking? About? Well, Editilla gonna toll'ya. “Jackson Past President of ASCECORPS" has been to class. “Soft Issue” is an “AD WORD” in PR 101 lingo, pablum, as opposed to discussing any real issues, the Hard Issues, to wit: Why did these levees fail? Who built these failed levees? How do we build safe levees? That is the Hard Issue. Levees. Hard Ground. Not how the President relates to the Corps or how the Corps relates to Congressional Funding –But What Went Wrong With Our Failed Levees. That is the Question in the 8/29 Investigation. It is not an Easy Issue but a Hard Issue and an understandable one. We do not need “Soft Issues” leading astray this Investigation of Hard Issues. Yeah, surrre ASCE would like us to look Anywhere Else... at Anything else under the sun BUT the Engineering behind those Failed Levees because the same engineers have built levees and such All Over This Country Yeah...we just all need to get together. Fine, but can't we Get Rid of the Perps First?
I am sad that this man is on the Levee Board and question if Mr. Jackson Officially Speaks for the Entire Board here in this commentary from Gambit. Methinks he doth Mythspeaketh! I also strongly regret that Gambit has chosen to support this obvious attempt at misdirection, for that is what this is: Miss Direction, the evil twin sista to Miss Behavin. Bad Gambit! No Soup For You! And to correct Gambit on another salient point: Contrary to your insinuation of their quick response as somewhat "knee-jerk", it was not levees.org who "responded immediately" to ASCECORPS' spin-release, but Real Civil Engineers across the country ---who knew... immediately upon sight that those levees had failed --contrary to what ASCECORPS was immediatelytrying to spin --that they had overtopped, and saw in that press conference a conflict of interest in the stated findings. I remember. Don't y'all remember? Sure you do. Let's keep it on point here. Levees. Levees. Levees.
We can handle the Hard Issues. It is Gall that yer oh'so humble Editilla has a Redrum Real Problem Wit'...sheer bald'faced unmitigated Gall. For example as when the Perpetrator (ASCECORPS) of a Crime (Failed Substandard Levees) insists that Fairness Would Dictate that the Victims (We The People Flooded) of that Crime (Engineering Malfeasance) work together with the Perpetrator (ASCECORPS) to clear the Perpetrators name (ASCECORPS) in the Crime (Flooding the City of New Orleans). Quiche Capiche? That is Exactly the type of Rhetorical Jail House Punk Covenant to which this Perp (ASCECORPS) would have Levees.org enter into as through the Gates of Hell.
Such "Interest of Fairness" is Voodoo Rhetoric. We ask ASCECORPS questions, we deserve answers --not counter-proposals for questions about other matters. By offering such an unethical deal to the public this Past President of ASCE would like to leave the impression of levees.org as looking like the obstinate one, the excitable boy, for refusing to get distracted from the point: levees. No. One does not enable the Abuser. No. We do not work forASCECORPS. We do not answer to their tune. They answer to our tune. They answer our questions. Why? Because we paid them to Flood our City. That is why. We paid them for this IPET Report that appears now is Compromised by their financial connections to the Corps of Engineers. No. ASCE does not get to investigate itself without redress. No. No. No. They have proven themselves to be completely compromised by the Corps of Engineers --if not a cloned Franchise of the Corps. Hence: ASCECORPS. NOTE:IPET is the corps-sponsored levee study costing taxpayers $35 million. ERPis the ASCE external review panel, costing taxpayers $1.1 million. Not to mention an extra $250,000 that the Corps threw to ASCE this past year to top off this brew'haha. It was the ERP that was supposed to be the "assurance that IPET was robust and independent."
Now we are gatha'd he'ah today... Now you call, ASCE. What have you got? What is in your hand that you refuse to show the American People? CALL!
Answer the Goddamn Questions! Stop Running From The Questions! Stop this Bull Scat Obfuscation!
Gambit, stop Enabling ASCE to skirt the issue. How could you let this ASCECORPS PR go unchallenged? Ain't y'all got any Ad People working there? Perchance you should think of moving them over here to the Commentary Section. What does Gambit have to gain from "supporting" ASCECORPS? Why not simply present the Fact that ASCECORPS continues to Stall the Release of our $35M IPET REPORT? Because now that we find collusion amongst the Ranks, standing with these Perps is beginning to look messy.
Why? Because Never Again! No One will Ever stand between the City of New Orleans and Our Levees with an ASCECORPS Hand Bill in their mouth. No.
Stop treating the Leaders of ASCECORPS as Engineers, since they are not acting like Engineers but like Liars with something to hide. Do this in the Interest of Fairness. Gambit, do not ask us to support ASCECORPS, the very Perps responsible for flooding our city. They had no intention of doing anything even remotely like this 8/29 Investigation. They were offered participation and refused. They have crimes to hide, hence a true, honest public peer review works contrary to thier aims.
NO. Someone in ASCECORPS needs to go to jail. They stand on shaky ground of their own making. They stand accused.
While we are at a loss to find Any Issue in American Experience Harder to Accept than the Failure of our Engineering Profession to Right Itself, we refuse to accept this bullskidoo spinfiltration of "Soft Issues" regarding that Esteemed Group's Catastrophic Demise.
Lives are at stake. We need Real Engineers for our levees.
Da'Pin is Mightier than da'Sword ~Thank you, Masqued E'vinga! ~Editilla dixclosas~ We made a six-pack of Abita bet wit'da Big Molluski over at YRHT: we say'd Pa!trae!us! Pa!trae!us! would be McSam's VP pick ('cause let's face it --the old fart's gonna kick so whoeva gets his last nod is the one to fear)(and yes'm~ya'betcha, Vocodin'Cindy has her steel-eye on the only, true Straight Shooter in this neo'bunch)(ewe) but, now given Bad Vlad's Judo Jump on Georgia, Editilla gotta'go D'OH'NO! --and double-down: 2 Sixes Abita saaaayzzz... Condi! Condi! Condi! We forgot not the disdain held by the NeoCowards for State as a limpid facility at best and Verily They Parked the The Heeler from Hydra Park there for safe keeping. So, who's wit'me? Neo'Condi VP? Con! Di! V! P! Con! Di! V!P! ...jeep'jeep'jeep... Gambit cover story: Sissy rappers ~Kevin Allman The Past, Present, and Future of Elementary and Secondary Education in New Orleans ~Rising Tide III Panelists: ·Dedra Johnson – professor and blogger, author of Sandrine's Letter to Tomorrow ·Jeffrey Berman - teacher, Booker T. Washington High School and Schwarz Alternative School ·Grayling Evans - teacher, Coghill Elementary School ·Leigh Dingerson - Education team leader of the Center for Community Change, editor and contributor to Keeping The Promise?: The Debate Over Charter Schools ·Clifton Harris - concerned parent and blogger ·Christian Roselund - UTNO Communications, blogging at Dirty South Bureau Moderator: Patrick Armstrong, former Recovery School District teacher and blogger
Flood lawsuit going forward, but Broussard can't be sued for negligence~Still, the case continues to inch closer to a jury trial. The same ruling kept alive the plaintiffs' separate allegation that Broussard acted with "willful misconduct" when his administration sent drainage pump operators to safety more than 100 miles away until the storm passed.
Morning in New Orleans ~VoteforBusiness Bandwagon rolls out of the French Quarter and heads toward the Upper Ninth Ward - site of the storm's greatest devastation - to support Habitat for Humanity workers' reconstruction efforts.
Friday night, 8/22, 7:30 PM- Meet and Greet at Buffa's Lounge, 1001 Esplanade Avenue. Pick up your badges, grab some refreshments, and chat with other bloggers. ~Editilla gotta toll'ya~The above statement is errrah, a tad of an understatement. HA! "other bloggers"? HA! HA! Aside from the really great food and spirits... Last year's Buffa Soiree proved to be the Goddessent Sssmaackulate Conception for your humble Editilla, as we launched the Ladder the following Nov. 11th, based in no small measure on the supportive experience dealt out here by people who should not exist in real life... --let alone apart from the Blog-0-reamery-- ...yet, exist they do still Sinn Féin. And, they are Rising. Marée croissante longtemps de phase trois! On Belonging~Mallory Josol
Thanks to Today’s Global Youth, a Rosy Tomorrow? ~John Zogby did not achieve a reputation for polling prescience by asking Americans whether the woolly mammoth ought to be brought back from extinction by present-day scientists. The historian charting the evolution of American values would pay more attention to Hurricane Katrina than to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
An End To Mountaintop Removal Mining? ~“Mountaintop removal” is, to some, a contro- versial term. It refers to the blasting away of mountain ridges to get to the coal underneath, a process that evolved with technological advancements over the decades from traditional contour mining. What makes this type of mining cost-effective is a valley-fill permit, which allows the overburden – dirt and rock removed to expose the coal – to be dumped into adjacent valleys. With a long list of plaintiffs and defendants, the West Virginia lawsuit seeks to put a stop to valley-fill permits, which are issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Exquixotic Corps Drains Atchafalaya Basin
Georgia 'pulls out of S Ossetia' ~Russian PM Vladimir Putin earlier suggested it was unlikely that South Ossetia would re-integrate with the rest of Georgia, saying the country's territorial integrity had "suffered a fatal blow". Eastern Europe sees de ja vu all over again. US Presidents W&W Bush, toast Olympics, Totalitarianism, America presents world with Picture of Appeasement in Communist China. What Will Best Represent The Bush Legacy? ~The Political Voice of Women
Jindal urging death penalty for child rapists ~Gov. Bobby Jindal said Saturday his administration is working with prosecutors on a bill that would reinstate the death penalty for rape in limited cases, especially for "monsters" who prey on young children. ~Editilla stigmatas da'pixelata~ We do remember disgraced US Attorney General "Berty" Gonzales' own subterfuge to go after these pedophiles, by Mining the Private Data of every American. This was before we caught his office firing Federal Prosecutors and attacking the Governor of Alabama from off a list provided by Carl Rove. This is before we discovered the inefficacy of this Vaunted Anti Child- Porn Program. This was even before the continuous G-String of Outings of Dream Weavers & Sexual Dealers: Republican Senators Craig, Vitter, closeted gay Evangelical pederast Congressman Foley, Cheerleader Lott (hey, jus'sayin, it looks weird...), Ubber Boy Hunter Carl "Carly's Coven" Rove... But really, this McSame Insane One-Eyed Beat-Off just goes on, ...as the beat goes on, eh? We remember all this Boo'hah that Republicans shoveled into the road for traction for their Political Machinations. Yeah, Death to Pedophiles. Riiight... Who can be against that, least of all the perps? But must we hand over the Keys to our City Databases --to The Exorcist for God's Sake? Gadzooks! "Is that all [Phelps' god] can do? Have a nutter murder a carny on a bus?"~Your Right Hand Thief
Connecticut Senator Demands Federal Investigation of ASCECORPS' Fascist Groove Thang~State Senator Paul Doyle (D-Wethersfield) wants officials from the United States Army to investigate and provide a written explanation as to why lawmakers and the general public were barred from entering a publicly noticed press conference. In a letter sent yesterday afternoon to Secretary of the United States Army Peter Geren and Army Corps of Engineers Chief of Engineers and Commanding General Robert L. Van Antwerp, Senator Doyle detailed how on July 31, 2008, he was barred from entering the meeting, held at the Inn at Middletown, along with Representative Joseph Serra and Middletown Mayor Sebastian Giuliano.
ASCECORPS’ action on Santa Cruz ruffles feathers ~The chairmen of two influential congressional committees are challenging the basis being used by the Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency to determine “navigability” of the Santa Cruz and the Los Angeles rivers. Such a determination has been necessary since the 2006 U.S. Supreme Court decision in United States v. Rapanos, which reduced the authority of the Clean Water Act. Failure to get a navigability determination might mean that the act does not protect all or parts of a stream or any of its tributaries from potential polluters.
WA county's dilemma: Cut trees or lose federal funds ~Greenery on Washington levees must go, feds say Part of the trouble is the lack of a consensus in the engineering community on the effect of trees on levee stability. Those working to protect fish argue that levees dominated by big rocks represent an outdated approach. "The corps has in many cases in other places been slow to get with the times and adjust its policies to the most current science," said Michael Garrity, associate director for the Seattle office of American Rivers, an environmental group. After the corps told King County to choose between greenbacks and greenery, the county carefully reviewed 14 levee-repair projects scheduled for this summer. It decided to withdraw five projects needing the least costly repairs that were the most vegetated, mostly along the Snoqualmie River. It saved 379 trees -- but lost almost $400,000 in federal funding. ~Editilla gotta Whoa!~ Is this not some Haaard Balling! Damn! With friends like the Exquixotic Corps who needs Capitalism, eh? And some people think Editilla ranteth too much???HA!
Oh Insurer Where Art Thou --Part 4: The Soggy Bottom Boys ~slabbed ~Editilla struck speechless~ Song Dick Burnett Lyrics by Sop81_1 and Nowdoucit Performed by: Gene Taylor and the Soggy Bottom Boys ~I am the man of constant borrow I’ve seen trouble a thousand days Few now fare well in ol’ Biloxi The place where I was born and raised. The place where he was born and raised ~For three long years we’ve been in trouble, no coverage for here on earth I’ve found And in this world, I’m bound to Qui Tam-ble, I have no policy to help me now. He has no policy to help him now. ~It’s fair thee well, my old true adjuster, I never expect to see you again. For I’m bound to ride that windless hurricane, Claims all die upon Lecky’s desk Claims all die upon Lecky’s desk. ~You can file me in the finance committee, For as many years as they say. And you may learn to insure another While I am here to save it from the grave. While he is here to save it from the grave. ~Maybe your friends think I’m just a stranger My face seen by fewer not more But there is one promise that is a-given, I’ll meet you in Dodd’s conference committee He’ll meet you in Dodd’s conference committee
Hughes rejects plan to stop closings~Archbishop Alfred Hughes Friday rejected a plan that might keep open three small Uptown Catholic parishes, effectively telling parishioners at 93-year-old Blessed Sacrament parish that this Sunday's service will be their last.
Special Thanks ~WCBF
Saint Conch?
