What have we come to, that this should be allowed to pass unnoticed.

This woman's account has made me weep as no other story about this horrendous tragedy has done so far.

And the horrible crime is it IT DID NOT NEED TO HAPPEN.

There's a term for what our so-called leaders allowed to happen. It's called "negligent homicide."
Technowitch | Homepage | 09.07.05 - 1:43 am | #

This woman is a hero. Her fortitude and courage is beyond anything shown by our country's leadership.
SirHelm | Homepage | 09.07.05 - 1:54 am | #

SirHelm, you are right. This woman is a hero.

But so much for anyone who talks about people who "chose" not to evacuate deserving their fate. I hope we can let that rest from now on.
LiberalDave | 09.07.05 - 1:55 am | #

let drownie, jackoff and bush face this woman

rather than the faux photo op people

i am disgusted

im gonna cry again
bacci40 | 09.07.05 - 1:58 am | #

These stories are going to come out.
And the lies will not hold up.

And guess what? The media CAN'T drop the ball this time, because they are so sensational...they'll be on the set.

This time to all of our benefits, the world will know the truth.

I'm weeping, but I'm feeling better now, because some of the liars and spinners that get on this site...

Your time is up...you have a short period of time left.
Theresa | 09.07.05 - 2:01 am | #

Charmaine Neville is the daughter of Charles Neville of the Neville Bros.

This is her website:

http://www.charmainenevilleband.com/
Rick Banales | 09.07.05 - 2:11 am | #

I have been worried about the disabled and the elderly because I work with them. While many looked at the pictures of the people at the Convention Center and saw only "the poor."

I was looking and seeing wheel chairs, oxygen concentrators and tanks, amputees, and the elderly in that crowd.

Charmaine spoke of loading the two amputees into her boat, and the wheel chair patients onto her bus.

So often these are the invisible victims in our society in the best of times. In the worst of times they are abandoned except for heroes like Charmaine.
Flint | 09.07.05 - 2:14 am | #

I am almost never at a loss for words but after seeing this...I am too sad to think.

PEACE
ProJecKt2501 | 09.07.05 - 2:18 am | #

ProJecKt2501...

Its an incredible story and I wept when I heard it too, but after sitting with it a while it really is uplifting.

What a wonderful human being she is. She cared and fought the good fight not just for her self, but for the disabled and elderly she saved.

She is an inspiration!
Flint | 09.07.05 - 2:35 am | #

Here's a transcript of the video. It isn't perfect but gets the point across:

"I was in my house when everything first started. ... When the hurricane came, it blew all the left side of my house off, and the water was coming in my house in torrents. I had my neighbor, an elderly man, and myself, in the house with our dogs and cats, and we were trying to stay out of the water. But the water was coming in too fast. So we ended up having to leave the house. We left the house and we went up on the roof of a school. I took a crowbar and I burst the door on the roof of the school to help people on the roof. Later on we found a flat boat, and we went around the neighborhood in a flat boat getting people out of their houses and bringing them to the school. We found all the food that we could and we cooked and we fed people. But then, things started getting really bad. By the second day, the people that were there, that we were feeding and everything, we had no more food and no water. We had nothing, and other people were coming in our neighborhood. We were watching the helicopters going across the bridge and airlift other people out, but they would hover over us and tell us "Hi!" and that would be all. They wouldn't drop us any food or any water, or nothing. Alligators were eating people. They had all kinds of stuff in the water. They had babies floating in the water. We had to walk over hundreds of bodies of dead people. People that we tried to save from the hospices, from the hospitals and from the old-folks homes. I tried to get the police to help us, but I realized, we rescued a lot of police officers in the flat boat from the 5th district police station. The guy who was in the boat, he rescued a lot of them and brought them to different places so they could be saved. We understood that the police couldn't help us, but we couldn't understand why the National Guard and them couldn't help us, because we kept seeing them but they never would stop and help us. Finally it got to be too much, I just took all of the people that I could. I had two old women in wheelchairs with no legs, that I rowed them from down there in that nightmare to the French Quarters, and I went back and got more people. There were groups of us, there were about 24 of us, and we kept going back and forth and rescuing whoever we could get and bringing them to the French Quarters 'cause we heard that there was phones in the French Quarters, and that there wasn't any water. And they were right, there was phones but we couldn't get through. I found some police officers. I told them that a lot of us women had been raped down there by guys [unintelligible] the neighborhood where we were, that were helping us to save people. But other men, and they came and they started raping women [unintelligible] and they started killing, and I don't know who these people were. I'm not gonna tell you I know, because I don't. But what I want people to understand is that, if we hadn't been left down there like the animals that they were treating us like, all of those things wouldn't have happened. People are trying to say that we stayed in that city because we wanted to be rioting and we wanted to do this and, we didn't have resources to get out, we had no way to leave. When they gave the evacuation order, if we coulda left, we would have left. There are still thousands and thousands of people trapped in their homes in the downtown area. When we finally did get to, in the 9th ward, and not just in my neighborhood, but in other neighborhoods in the 9th wards, there are a lot of people still trapped down there... old people, young people, babies, pregnant women. I mean, nobody's helping them. And I want people to realize that we did not stay in the city so we could steal and loot and commit crimes. A lot of those young men lost their minds because the helicopters would fly over us and they wouldn't stop. WE would do SOS on the flashlights, we'd do everything, and it came to a point. It really did come to a point, where these young men were so frustrated that they did start shooting. They weren't trying to hit the helicopters, they figured maybe they weren't seeing. Maybe if they hear this gunfire they will stop then. But that didn’t help us. Nothing like that helped us. Finally, I got to Canal St. with all of my people I had saved from back then. I, I don't want them arresting nobody else. I broke the window in an RTA bus. I never learned how to drive a bus in my life. I got in that bus. I loaded all of those people in wheelchairs and in everything else into that bus, and we drove and we drove and we drove and millions of people was trying to get me to help them to get on the bus. But..."

At this point she breaks down and is consoled by the priest.
LiberalDave | 09.07.05 - 2:41 am | #

I really want to put Rick Santorum in a headlock and make him watch this... and then smack the sh*t outta him.
Marko | 09.07.05 - 2:54 am | #

CIRCULATE THIS VIDEO AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE.

MIRROR IT ON YOUR OWN BLOGS.

What part of that is *not* clear?

MEME THIS.

NOW.

Doing it myself.
Anonymous | 09.07.05 - 3:31 am | #

This is not the country I grew up in. Not that it was ever perfect, but this is not the same country.

If we don't do something soon, we will never get it back.
charmaine | 09.07.05 - 3:33 am | #

I'm speechless.

That was an amazing testimony as to the true horror our Federal Government allowed to unfold.

What in the God Damned Hell is the Government doing with all of our money? If ever there was a reason for the Government to exist, it's to help its citizens out of disasters as quickly as possible and to make sure shit like this doesn't unfold they way it did.

This is the worst PREVENTABLE disaster that has ever occured in the entire history of the United States, under George W. Bush's watch.
Fletch | 09.07.05 - 3:36 am | #

We're losing our country. What do we do now? Someone tell me, because I don't know what to do about it.
charmaine | 09.07.05 - 3:42 am | #

Charmaine,

This is SO far from the country we group up in it's unrecognizable.
Ever since the election in 2000 it's felt different.
Ever since 9/11 it's felt different.
Ever since the War it's felt different.

Now, it IS DIFFERENT.
Fletch | 09.07.05 - 3:43 am | #

We are almost out of options. The Democracy is compromised to the point of uselessness.

When the leaders fail, they appoint point people to investigate themselves. Nothing ever is learned. Everything is covered up. There is nothing the system can do anymore to have people held accountable AND punished.

We may soon need a revolution. If this doesn't do it, nothing will.

I mean, how much more could the Government FAIL it's citizens than in New Orleans??? Seriously.

How many fucking people have to die before the people wake up and realize they are all just stealing our money for their corporate cronies?

Goodnight.
Fletch | 09.07.05 - 3:49 am | #

nothing short of impeachment folks..
turn up the heat !!
igfee | 09.07.05 - 3:52 am | #

This is a criminal government, and impeachment is certainly due, but we can't do it . That's for Congress. Look at who runs Congress.
charmaine | 09.07.05 - 3:55 am | #

Exactly, Charmaine. We're dealing with all branches made up of the same party, which is supported by just enough people in this country - without fail - that the rest of us can do nothing about this sorry mess. I'm not even convinced that after Katrina the Republican right will change their vote. How many of them do you see actively defending the government's incompetence? Literally the same day Karl Rove came up with the "blame local Louisiana authorities" talking point, I've seen them all parroting it like it's some direct feed from the White House spin machine. We can see the tactics of these people, we know what they're going to do, it's obvious how the Republicans will try to spin their way out of it, but without the support of a real majority of Americans we're not going to be able to do anything.

Here's the other problem: Where is the Democratic party right now? Why won't they do something? We can't change this country without them.

I'm so disillusioned I can't even tell you.
Anonymous | 09.07.05 - 4:05 am | #

Ooops, the previous post was mine. I must have deleted my name off it.
LiberalDave | 09.07.05 - 4:15 am | #

I'm wondering where Oprah is? All these black women have been raped and murdered in New Orleans and Oprah could be giving this major air time. A lot of people, including white people watch Oprah and love her...she could be airing this video on her show and talking about it.
Lesley | 09.07.05 - 4:15 am | #

Holy sh*t. What an incredible woman. And that is the clearest, most horrible account I've seen.
Keev | Homepage | 09.07.05 - 4:19 am | #

LiberalDave,

Yeah, I feel the same about the Dems. They seem to have become apologists for the right-wing, too.

So disheartening, and so unnecessary. It seems to me they would win more often, if they would just stand up for what's right. And if they'd call these criminals in the WH on what they've done.
charmaine | 09.07.05 - 4:21 am | #

Tales coming from the tenches are sanity-threatening. Sickening. Heartrending and Gutwrenching.

God help us.

A King/Koontz collaboration while both were under the influence of LSD couldn't do this this ongoing real-life horror show justice.




Impeachment would be letting these ghouls off easy-- I say we load up the lot of them-- Bush, cabinet,congress and senate and imprison them in the convention center.


God help us!
Karla | 09.07.05 - 4:38 am | #

Yes, Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rove, and Rumsfeld could be on overflowing latrine duty. After they're done cleaning up the convention centre of the corpses and the filth, we could drop them off on a rooftop somewhere for 6 days and have helicopters fly over and ignore them. Then perhaps we could drop them off at an alligator infested part of the city and threaten to say bye bye.
Lesley | 09.07.05 - 4:42 am | #

Karla,
In the Convention Center just as it stands today. With the same provisions the victims had.
charmaine | 09.07.05 - 4:43 am | #

Charmaine is a hero of the first order - an ordinary person who did the extraordinary in a time of crisis and despair. My heart to her.

Do we foresee a fricking Medal of Freedom in our crystal ball for her? No damn way.

We cannot let this pass like some other bankrupt Admin talking point. This is our very own goddamn Darfur here, gang.

You say you want a revolution? Well, you know.....
ET | Homepage | 09.07.05 - 4:45 am | #

This video rendered me speechless.
My first thought is that even though many people here in Europe, my self included, loathe the Bush administration, I think many of us -- on some level -- has always looked up to the US because there is a sense that the country is not only extremely wealthy, but is also a huge salad bowl that has institutionalized democratic transparency and responsiveness to an extent that it makes these kinds of overt government crimes as well as structural collapse impossible -- at least on US soil. I don't know. I don't know what to think anymore.
LodinLepp | 09.07.05 - 4:46 am | #

ET,

HOW do we go about it? We're faced with the serious limit of a democratic society in that no matter how evil, no matter how imcompetent, no matter how wrong one group of our population is, if they outnumber us at the polls we can't do anything. There's something seriously wrong with 50% of the population being more than just disenfranchised, but completely helpless.

I hope that Katrina changes things, but that would require changing people who voted for Bush twice. How can we trust them?
LiberalDave | 09.07.05 - 5:01 am | #

That is Aaron Neville's (of the Neville brothers) daughter!
Andrew | 09.07.05 - 5:13 am | #

Lesley,
I have been watching the streamlined live video feed from a pbs station in NO . which has been showing Oprah speaking to the people at the convention center Saturday. She promised to use the media to talk about their stories. So that the USA and world will never forget. She have been there several days.
MissCiara | 09.07.05 - 5:19 am | #

Yes. As horrible as these stories are they need to be told to as many people as possible, or nothing will change in this country. What happened in NOLA is utterly despicable. I heard on NPR this morning that Democrats in Congress are calling for Mike Brown's resignation. They better as hell not just stop there.
Aperturius | 09.07.05 - 6:43 am | #

has anyone found or made a file of this yet? my prog. wont do it. Archiving here, please email steffey@ameritech.net
also, if anyone knows of collective efforts to gather all stories incoming from survivors, please let me know urls etc... thanks all
brettsteffey | 09.07.05 - 7:12 am | #

http://www.brettsteffey.com/Katr...ville9-2- 05.mp3

made an mp3. please download and mirror.
(please mirror, cannot handle linking! )
brettsteffey | 09.07.05 - 8:07 am | #

Actually Oprah had a "special" on Katrina on Tuesday. Today she has on Travolta, Lisa Marie Presley ect. BUT DON'T FORGET SHE HAD BUSH ON HER SHOW, AND KISSED HIM. I for one will never forget as it forever changed the way I look at Oprah.
Michigander | 09.07.05 - 8:09 am | #

Christ America! How long are you going to allow that bumbling idiot Bush to stay in office? Speaking as a UK citizen I'm really worried that as well as taking you guys down he's going to drag the rest of the world with him.

If you have tears for Charmaine Neville, save them and use that energy to try and get that idiot out of the White House before his term ends.
ilyas | 09.07.05 - 9:08 am | #

"Yes. As horrible as these stories are they need to be told to as many people as possible, or nothing will change in this country. What happened in NOLA is utterly despicable. I heard on NPR this morning that Democrats in Congress are calling for Mike Brown's resignation. They better as hell not just stop there."

Aperturius

The administration "leaked" the memo from Brown out of HSD. He is their first offerring to the "mob" and a distraction (they hope).

How frickin' cynical is that? Bring back the Guillotine and lets reenact Bastille day in DC with all of 'em! (just joking C&L)
Flint | 09.07.05 - 9:26 am | #

When Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco resign they should really be brought up on manslaughter charges.
JK | 09.07.05 - 9:34 am | #

My thoughts and prayers are with Charmaine Neville and all the survivors. Contact your local TV stations and have them link to that station (WAFB) and video.
Tom DeLay said that the problems with rescue were not the federal govenment's fault.
We need to review a few things:
Bush-GOP-controls the Executive Branch, and it includes the cabinet, agencies, and the military.
GOP-controls the House of Representatives
GOP-controls the Senate
Conclusion:Bush and the GOP flunkies screwed up!
Mary | Homepage | 09.07.05 - 9:44 am | #

Barbara Bush said this turn out to be a better deal for them, I wonder if it's possible to make the old bag listen or meet this women and hear her story? Naww She would just dismissed it as all lies since HEY its a better deal for them........BUSHES MUST GO!
In The Cold | 09.07.05 - 9:56 am | #

When Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco resign they should really be brought up on manslaughter charges.
JK

And Bush ought to hang right alongside them. First, even.
actor212 | Homepage | 09.07.05 - 9:57 am | #

Who are the fucking dirtbags who decided to use this hurricane as an opportunity to rape women and children?
Bridget | 09.07.05 - 10:11 am | #

aaaaahhhhhhhhhh

why????
redjb | Homepage | 09.07.05 - 10:15 am | #

"Your doin a great job, Brownie."
mudkitty | 09.07.05 - 10:15 am | #

Charmain's courage and toughness is so cool. This is what a real American is. Too bad she so outshines our leaders.

Charmaine, you are one incredible woman.
john | 09.07.05 - 10:21 am | #

There's something about her story that doesn't jive.

There are thousands and thousands of people that deserve our aid, whether it's food, shelter and/or monetary help. But there are going to be a lot of scammers out there to get a free meal and make a lot of money. I've watched hours and hours of video and everyone I've seen I've wanted to reach out and help. When I watch this woman tell her story, it's the first time I've heard someone I don't quite believe. It's not so much her story, but the way she tells it. Listen again.
dave | 09.07.05 - 10:21 am | #

willful disregard of human life, negligent homicide, gross incompetence, deceit, lies, graft, nepotism, ignorance and a war on the poor and disadvantaged both at home and abroad. the bush legacy. i have no expertise in legal matters but someone should start cataloguing these stories and begin preparing to file charges against the perps...er, administration. in the mean time, you should start a campaign to flood the white house with letters and telegrams demanding the resignation of bush, cheney, condi, rummy and the rest of the crooked horde. folow that with a similar campaign to flood the senate and congress with demands for impeachment, a speecial prosecutor and federal frand jury. we here in canada are aghast at the crimes of the bush administration. our thoughts and love are with you, the people of the united states. but your government needs to be karina'ed.
lazlo pink | Homepage | 09.07.05 - 10:25 am | #

sorry for my spelling above, hard to type through the tears
lazlo pink | Homepage | 09.07.05 - 10:27 am | #

When something doesn't make sense (trapped people shooting at helicopters and "rescuers") there's usually a REASON IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE! If what she says is true, and I have no reason to doubt her because it fits with the imagery we've seen, I can understand people shooting at helicopters after you've watched them pass over you for days on end. These people can never in a million years, with these evil clowns in office, ever receive the justice they deserve. I am sickened.

.
Outraged | 09.07.05 - 10:28 am | #

Finally.....leadership. SHE has a face and a name.
Allyland | 09.07.05 - 10:33 am | #

dave

You are wrong. What is the "something" that doesn't jive?

I have now witnessed the lowest of humanity. Charmaine's experince brings that out, and then a comment from someone compainging on this web site.

These people are going through this and have litterally died because of our sins.
Theresa | 09.07.05 - 11:08 am | #

I would recommend the information you find on the internet concerning Katrina be converted to PDF or take a snapshot of the articles.

Of particular interest is information which clearly shows the goverments failure to act as well as documents pertaining to it's responsibility.

Why? This information may be removed from sites in the future in order to portray events as "conspiracy theory." We saw that after 9/11 a lot of articles went down the "memory hole."

If possible, burn it on a CD or DVD. If you cannot "Print to PDF" save the articles in a common format such as word, html or jpg. Make a few copies and pass it around, encourage other to make copies to get the word out.

The best source of information is the original source. If you find the source/link on a "Liberal" site or blog which points to a major media outlet (CNN /Post/ Times) make the PDF from the original site. At times even FOX News will goof and air a story unfavorable to the Admin. Capture it and expose the hypocrisy!

Information is ammunition.
FormerRepublican | 09.07.05 - 11:15 am | #

I don’t believe this woman, and here’s why:

“...So we ended up having to leave the house. We left the house and we went up on the roof of a school. I took a crowbar and I burst the door on the roof of the school to help people on the roof....”

Suspicious. Her house was torn away by the water. She was able to get into a school that presumably was flooded covering the main entrance. She got up to the top floor of the school, found a crowbar and burst open the door. Where was the crowbar found? Finding a crowbar near the roof exit of a school doesn’t sound right. This isn’t enough to discount the whole story, but creates a question in my mind.

“Later on we found a flat boat, and we went around the neighborhood in a flat boat getting people out of their houses and bringing them to the school. We found all the food that we could and we cooked and we fed people....”

How did she cook the food with no electricity or gas?

“...But then, things started getting really bad. By the second day, the people that were there, that we were feeding and everything, we had no more food and no water. We had nothing, and other people were coming in our neighborhood....”

They had cooked food and water for the first day. How did things become so desperate by the second day? Granted, the temperatures were in the 90s. But many people survived for days with little or no water and NO food.

“...We were watching the helicopters going across the bridge and airlift other people out, but they would hover over us and tell us "Hi!" and that would be all. They wouldn't drop us any food or any water, or nothing....”

We saw over and over the rescue of thousands of people by helicopter. That was the first, most reliable form of rescue going on. To say these rescuers were so callous doesn’t make any sense.
dave | 09.07.05 - 11:17 am | #

“...When we finally did get to, in the 9th ward, and not just in my neighborhood, but in other neighborhoods in the 9th wards, there are a lot of people still trapped down there... old people, young people, babies, pregnant women. I mean, nobody's helping them. And I want people to realize that we did not stay in the city so we could steal and loot and commit crimes....”

Again with denying the looting. Isn’t there something about those who repeatedly deny something are trying to hide it? Was Charmaine one of the looters? Or is Charmaine trying to commit a crime right now by scamming us and the world?

“...A lot of those young men lost their minds because the helicopters would fly over us and they wouldn't stop. WE would do SOS on the flashlights, we'd do everything, and it came to a point....”

So she knows morse code as well.

It really did come to a point, where these young men were so frustrated that they did start shooting. They weren't trying to hit the helicopters, they figured maybe they weren't seeing. Maybe if they hear this gunfire they will stop then. But that didn’t help us. Nothing like that helped us....”

Sure, if I was in a helicopter and someone fired at me, my first thought would be, “Hey, I think those people need help. Let’s drop on down and see what we can do.” Sure, there’s desperation, but if Charmaine was as cool and collected as she says she was, she would have realized how irrational such an act would have been.

“...Finally, I got to Canal St. with all of my people I had saved from back then. I, I don't want them arresting nobody else. I broke the window in an RTA bus. I never learned how to drive a bus in my life. I got in that bus. I loaded all of those people in wheelchairs and in everything else into that bus, and we drove and we drove and we drove and millions of people was trying to get me to help them to get on the bus. But..."

Again with the superhuman behavior. Again with the concern about not arresting anyone for the looting. I really wonder if she was one of the people looting in the city and she made up this story to protect herself. That’s my gut feeling.

Also, watch how she behaves on the video. She doesn’t look the man in the eyes when she tells her story. She looks off to the side. Her gestures didn’t fit the story either. Also a story as harrowing as that--as she’s reliving it by her retelling it, all of the horribleness would surely overcome her and I would expect her to either breakdown in tears or withdraw in denial of the whole thing. I don’t know, her behavior is not believable compared to others who have told their story. I’ve seen scammer work in the past and after watching her tell her story I have a lot of questions about her motives.
dave | 09.07.05 - 11:18 am | #

It's a good thing I'm not God, because of I was Bush, Cheney, Rice, Brown, Chertoff, and Rove would be spending eternity standing in the mucky, filthy, sewage that they let flow into that city for all eternity. It makes me sick to hear these stories. This one and the one about the 5 year old child that was in the convention center who was gang raped and had her throat slit. I can't even imagine what these poor people had to endure because of Bush's lack of empathy and incompetence as a "Commander in Chief".
BNL | Homepage | 09.07.05 - 11:19 am | #

The following should have been my second post in the series:

"...Alligators were eating people...."

Alligators eating people? From the roof of the school? I know of no other account of such events. I heard of a policeman speak of snakes and alligators in a certain area of the city, but eating people?

"...They had all kinds of stuff in the water. They had babies floating in the water. We had to walk over hundreds of bodies of dead people...."

I realize that there are many, many bodies in the water that need to be recovered, but the impression that they are stacked or layered under the water to the degree that they had to “walk over hundreds of bodies” seems exaggerated to me.

"...I tried to get the police to help us, but I realized, we rescued a lot of police officers in the flat boat from the 5th district police station. The guy who was in the boat, he rescued a lot of them and brought them to different places so they could be saved. We understood that the police couldn't help us, but we couldn't understand why the National Guard and them couldn't help us, because we kept seeing them but they never would stop and help us...."

This part seems credible to a degree. But were the National Guard in the city and not rescuing people? I know we didn’t see a Federal presence until Friday, but were they there and not rescuing people prior to Friday? I’m not sure about this part. I thought the National Guard was in a staging are OUTSIDE the city, not inside where Charmaine would have seen them.

"...Finally it got to be too much, I just took all of the people that I could. I had two old women in wheelchairs with no legs, that I rowed them from down there in that nightmare to the French Quarters, and I went back and got more people. There were groups of us, there were about 24 of us, and we kept going back and forth and rescuing whoever we could get and bringing them to the French Quarters 'cause we heard that there was phones in the French Quarters, and that there wasn't any water. And they were right, there was phones but we couldn't get through...."

Her efforts were superhuman.

"...I found some police officers. I told them that a lot of us women had been raped down there by guys [unintelligible] the neighborhood where we were, that were helping us to save people. But other men, and they came and they started raping women [unintelligible] and they started killing, and I don't know who these people were. I'm not gonna tell you I know, because I don't. But what I want people to understand is that, if we hadn't been left down there like the animals that they were treating us like, all of those things wouldn't have happened...."

I heard rapes were occuring in the Superdome and presumably in the Convention Center, but on the roof of the school? It’s possible, but, again, it’s the credibility thing. It’s too coincidental that all the bad stories we heard on the news happened to this one woman as well.

“...People are trying to say that we stayed in that city because we wanted to be rioting and we wanted to do this and, we didn't have resources to get out, we had no way to leave. When they gave the evacuation order, if we coulda left, we would have left. There are still thousands and thousands of people trapped in their homes in the downtown area....”

How would she know there are thousands trapped? We know that from the news stories but how could a woman who saw specific areas of the city know there were still “thousands and thousands” trapped? Also who said that people wanted to stay in the city to riot?
dave | 09.07.05 - 11:23 am | #

Any word about Allan Toussaint?
mudkitty | 09.07.05 - 11:38 am | #

Scammers play on people's emotions and they count on people not using their rational thought to catch them in their lies. I'm convinced this woman is scamming us. There is an unprecedented amount of money being donated to those who were evacuated out of New Orleans and Louisiana. Undoubtedly there are going to be many people looking for a free ride and to make a buck. I've seen scammers in action and based on my experience I think Charmaine is putting on an act.
dave | 09.07.05 - 11:41 am | #

I don't want to crab, but could there possibly be some kind of summary posted with these things? Just a sentence or two so that we get the gist of it? As a Mac user, I'm finding this website increasingly frustrating. For some reason, the instructions for downloading these non-Quicktime videos onto my machine are no longer working. They don't run "fine" from my desktop. They don't run at all.

Reading some of these entries has become like reading those infuriating theads on Demo Underground where someone posts something along the lines of "WOW! Did you SEE what just happened on CNN?!" without a link or an explanation for us cube rats and no follow up comments other than, "YEAH, that was FANTASTIC!" "I couldn't BELIEVE it?" etc., etc. etc.
Pamela Troy | 09.07.05 - 11:52 am | #

Dave, go fuck yourself, no one here wants to hear your bullshit.
Pink | 09.07.05 - 11:54 am | #

BNL,

"This one and the one about the 5 year old child that was in the convention center who was gang raped and had her throat slit".

This is folklore.
john | 09.07.05 - 12:12 pm | #

Well dave, her dad's pretty famous. So it'll come out if it's a scam.

You never know. If she's scamming, she should get a movie roll.

Dave...I can't help but think of God here because of my faith. People around here knock faith but you know what? The most warped people, like yourself, are the ones without it.
Someone that sees that and reacts the way you do has no healty fear of a creator. This is really sad.

I would imagine that when she was rescued she had questions, like WHY weren't we being picked up? And then was told some things...and then she wanted to answer.
Theresa | 09.07.05 - 12:23 pm | #

"The most warped people are without faith?" A casual stroll thu a lunatic asylum shows that faith doesn't prove anything. It's a false comfort. Give me evedence over faith any day. And extrordinary claims about gods require extrodinary evidence, of which there is zero.

Reason may not be the only virtue in the world, but give me reason over the lack of reason.
mudkitty | 09.07.05 - 12:27 pm | #

mudkitty, don't start a war
I'm talking about the type of depraved indifference going on from the right.

These people are godless.

THAT'S ALL
Theresa | 09.07.05 - 12:30 pm | #

My faith comments, ergh..
It just goes to show that's not an easy subject to brush over...I mean I consider the right wing Christians to mostly be phoney and false with their faith. They seem to have no healthy fear of letting down a creator with their treatment of people. The type government they want is a taliban.

And I don't know the whole truth about this video, but I'm no idiot and it moved me. So give her an academy award if it's phoney.
Theresa | 09.07.05 - 12:35 pm | #

Theresa, why is it that if someone expresses disagreement with the majority on this site they are labeled "godless", "right-wing", "indifferrent", "warped", etc., etc.? I can safely say that none of these things apply to me. Perhaps I was wrong in how I perceived Charmaine just as you were wrong in your perception of me. Time will tell.
dave | 09.07.05 - 12:39 pm | #

Dave:

Did you miss the post above about her being in the Neville family? One of the most well known families in NO. Aaron Neville. Ring a bell? Now I can't see the video so not sure if it's her.. but you can check her website out and see. If she is Charmaine Neville she's got all the money and attention she needs!
Deb | 09.07.05 - 12:46 pm | #

I've heard of Aaron Neville but I've never heard of her. Maybe she wanted to be as famous as Aaron. But I could be wrong.
dave | 09.07.05 - 12:50 pm | #

It's your reaction to her story. That's what I think is godless.

But take the benefit of the doubt for yourself, I don't know you.

What did you think of Geraldo and Shepard Smith at the Supersdome?
The governor of my state can hang me out to dry and FEMA can hang me out to dry and my president doesn't do anything. Even now Donald Rumsfield is saying there are enough NG soldiers. Geraldo on the show disagrees.

I can't help but question the heart and sense of someone that's not getting this. And people can make themselves feel elevated and smarter than others because they block out emotion when evaluating things. Sometimes to do so, is completely inappropriate. A trained heart knows better in times like these.

And if people watch it over and over they might get desensitized. I don't think it's a good idea to analyze this and pull it apart. That's just me.
Theresa | 09.07.05 - 12:52 pm | #

Hey Dave, I never drove anything larger than a 1/2 ton pick-up until faced with an emergency, but funny thing, I managed a 38' motorhome full of kids without a hitch. And morse code? Nope, don't know that either, but aculturation through TV and movies would lead anyone with half a brain to pick-up on ---...--- Is that SOS or OSO? WTF? Just run it together SOSOSOSOSO. People who dare to face down the challenges with which they are presented seem to shrink your winky. You may want to seek psychological help.
Vagina Dentata | 09.07.05 - 1:02 pm | #

Theresa, I saw the Geraldo segment. I watched Anderson Cooper all last week grilling goverment officials over the lack of a Federal response and shared Anderson's anger. I saw the contrast between the people who were suffering under indescribable conditions with the CNN commercials for vacation get-a-ways, massages and mud baths. I saw a basic disconnect between the reality of what the people in NO were going through and the bickering of government politicians in Washington. I personally think we need to chuck the whole system and start over.

When I saw Charmaine, it was the first time I questioned someone's story as not being believable. Undoubtedly there will be others with so many millions of dollars up for grabs. Hopefully they will be few and far between.
dave | 09.07.05 - 1:04 pm | #

It's sad that someone feels a need -- yes, a need -- to cynically analyze, word for word, a survivor's story. I can't begin to fathom this writer's motives in doing so. I'm sure this person is capable, at other moments in his life, of great love and compassion, but at this moment, those virtues seem to have abandoned him.

I've been listening to the music of New Orleans, and the music of the Neville family in particular, for decades. I've been out to hear Charmaine's band more times than I can count. This family has such deep connections to the city -- they have been the musical expression of the city's heart and soul.

"I've heard of Aaron Neville but I've never heard of her. Maybe she wanted to be as famous as Aaron. But I could be wrong."

The thought that Charmaine would engage in a career-enhancing publicity stunt in this way is disgusting. To suggest as much is not just "wrong." It reveals a lack of understanding, of compassion, of humanity that boggles the mind.
BobzCat | 09.07.05 - 1:07 pm | #

"Scammers play on people's emotions and they count on people not using their rational thought to catch them in their lies."

Funny that you say that Dave... That's the most enlighting thing you've said thus far in light of the fact we have the a Scammer/Liar in Chief in the White House along with the rest of the lot.

Do you take just as much time and effort to scrutinize what comes out of the "mouth" of this administration? Do you hold them to the same Charmaine standard? If so, based on what this administration has said and done (not only with about this disaster, but with previous fuck ups), would you allow that they too are scammers hoping for a pass from those not using rational thought? If not, do you then have rational thought?

Just a thought...

By the way, you are suggesting she has to know morse code to be able to signal SOS (... --- ...). There have been countless "disaster" movies that show the transmission of an SOS signal, so spare us your racist bullshit that Charmaine is too stupid (and black) to be able to learn an easy combo of dashes and dots...

You assume way too much...
Ben Dover | 09.07.05 - 1:09 pm | #

to the person claiming that this story is made-up.

1) she rescued cops in the flat boat. if she's lying then this story will be exposed in days, if not sooner.

2) she says there were thousands trapped downtown - wasn't/isn't this true.
rectis | 09.07.05 - 1:11 pm | #

There's another interesting angle on this one person's reaction to Charmaine's story that is worth noting, in a general sense.

It is apparently easy to be moved by the reports of (mostly white) journalists, and also be moved by the the brief snippets of distraught individuals of color in their cries for help and expressions of anguish.

But now, when an African-American emerges and delivers an impassioned, emotional, and very articulate account of her experiences, doubts must be raised. It almost seems as though the very image of an articulate, intelligent, informed black person is itself somehow threatening.

This is not just a slam -- it's something we all as a country have to deal with. Even the most liberal of us still have the vestiges of our racist heritage lurking inside us. This event is perhaps bringing them out into the open, and all of us have to deal with it.
BobzCat | 09.07.05 - 1:26 pm | #

I WANT TO KNOW WHY THE VIDEO WAS EDITED?!

HER COMMENTS ARE CENSORED. THE TRANSCRIPTS SAYS [UNINTELLIGIBLE] BUT IT'S NOT THAT, IT'S BEEN CENSORED.

SHE SAYS, "MEN WERE RAPING WOMEN DOWN THERE..." ETC AND HER NEXT WORDS ARE CENSORED/DELETED.

WHY IS SHE BEING DENIED THE RIGHT TO SPEAK FREELY? WHY ARE WE BEING DENIED THE RIGHT TO HEAR HER SPEAK?

THIS WOMAN MAKES IT OUT OF HELL, AND THESE PRICKS ARE GONNA CENSOR HER TESTIMONY??

WTF!!!
Ben | 09.07.05 - 1:35 pm | #

"Careful...Joe is finally sounding real military man. If so, I will not disrespect his serice, just his jaded outlook on humanity. Peace, Joe, charmaine, and rich
Mark"

Mark - we caught this "Military Man" - not knowing what a standard issue can-opener is. Come on that's hilarious, isn't it?

A p-38 is something that EVERY soldier is issued and uses. Now this is not a large item. It's tiny, so tiny and useful - in-fact - that I still have one attached to my keychain to this day. There is not one single U.S. soldier from any branch that does not know what a p-38 is? And your point that he is NOW, all of a sudden, and after all that.... -- that he is now sounding like a soldier - when BEFORE he was completly clueless. That should tell you something. It should tell you that he did some google research or he's got a new GOP lying hack friend sitting next to him. I was right about this lying fool before - and I am right now too.

After he was busted... I was happy to see his New humble attitude and I did not rub-it-in like he would have done to us. But now that he is trying to prop up the same lie, yet again - come on - this horseshit has to stop.

And this is not just a lie. This is much-much-worse. This is how the lying scheming GOP bastards manipulate us and the public. It is integral to maintaing their "reality" and it is how they took over the public's consciousness.

Joe - you disrespected everyman and woman that has ever served or died for this country. You have no honor and you should bow your head in deep shame. That's all I have to say to you. (Hock-tooie -spits on ground)

"Well... you folks certainly had fun playing in sociopathic trollshit last night.

Show of hands... did it accomplish anything contructive in terms of the thread, the discussion, or anything.

Joe is a very succesful troll and played you folks like a violin. When are you going to learn... don't feed the frickin' trolls! That is his objective.

Scoreboard:

Troll 1000 pts.
C&L board 10 pts.
Flint"

Flint, I disagree. We layed wide-open the shameful lies of a manipulative Troll last night - for ALL to see. We demonstrated right here (and in real time) an example of how these bastards operate. We also deeply shamed a foolish lying dog. Though that was not my goal. He set himself up for that.

Although, We libs are smarter, wiser, and more honest by leaps and bounds - for-the-life-of-me I cannot comprehend WHY they are so "married" to Bush and the CONservative party that they have to tell what they themselves know to be lies in order to defend their support.
Super Stevens | 09.07.05 - 1:45 pm | #

Folks, (especially WhyLie - ScreenName) they (your average GOP supporter) too are being maniupulated and lied to, and they know it - so what do they get out of this? Is all driven by FEAR and a desperate need to feel superior to their fellow man and also by hate of their fellow man? I think they must also hate themselves because they have to breathe the same polluted cancer causing air and eat the same dangerous gene-manipulted/over-used anti-biotic food that we do, etc. Nevermind, I answered my own question. Sigh* "Whata buncha Maroons!"
Super Stevens | 09.07.05 - 1:47 pm | #

Sorry - - folks, I put my previous two comments in the wrong section. They should be in the one below this. In any event you should go read what transpired, last night. It was rare event AND it was a hoot. I promise it's worth reading.
Super Stevens | 09.07.05 - 1:53 pm | #

ATTENTION !!!! ATTENTION !!!!ATTENTION !!!!ATTENTION !!!!

This Video was EDITED since I saw it late last night !!! It was CENSORED !!! She talkes about how the police turned her band of survivors away at gunpoint twards the end of the clip last night. Today the whole section talking about the police turning them away at GUN POINT has been edited out !! Please everyone call the station and tell them not to censor the clip.

thanks
Jason Cohen | 09.07.05 - 2:27 pm | #

Did she really say that? That the police turned them away at gun point? The same police who worked countless hours trying to help the residents of NO? The ones who behaved so heroically are accused of turning away Charmaine at gun point? Boy, I sure hope the police can explain this one.
dave | 09.07.05 - 2:31 pm | #

Super Stevens,

Good job! And you're right. Outing that guy was worth all the sleep I lost.

The way he kept stumbling on MAC, TAC and SAC was telling in itself. But the p-38 scam? PRICELESS!
charmaine | 09.07.05 - 2:34 pm | #

Yeah, that thing about the police was on there last night! They pulled that part? Everyone needs to call about this.
charmaine | 09.07.05 - 2:36 pm | #

Jason - Thank God that they censor the news. If the public got the Whole Truth and they knew what we knew - "whooooweeee" - there would be Civil War. It would tear the counrty completely apart. I mean, the TV pundits and media owners wouldn't be safe to walk the streets. They'd have to do ther propaganda, oops, I mean, -- they'ed have to do the news from behind bullet proof screens with armed guards at every corner - while wearing protective clothing. It would get that bad.

Now taking back this country isn't that important, is it?
Super Stevens | 09.07.05 - 2:37 pm | #

Thanks again, Charmaine. It was also the reason I stayed up. And yeah, you were exposing him before the p-38 bust. Great job!

Part of me had hoped that we had a breakthrouugh and that we could (for once) have had some open and honest discussion with a BrainWashed Freeper. Oh well, maybe it's better that we don't know what really goes on in their minds. I am sure it's a confused, dark, scary, and most of all - a LONELY place.

I too enjoyed your comments. You showed yourself to be a wonderful human being - and I hope we can do it again soon. Your New Friend. Super Stevens.
Super Stevens | 09.07.05 - 2:45 pm | #

Super Steven,

"Mark - we caught this "Military Man" - not knowing what a standard issue can-opener is. Come on that's hilarious, isn't it?"

Late last night another military, or was he, got on line and they seemed to carry on a pretty legit conversation about the military. Of course it could have been another idgit pretending by throwing out allt of militaristic acronyms and the like, but it sounded sorta convincing. but maybe the trick ws on me. ?????
Mark | 09.07.05 - 2:47 pm | #

Oh no - Mark I didn't mean to imply that ALL commentors are pretending they are Military. For sure, they are are on all sides of this issue. Just like the public.

It's the lying, the manipulating, and (especially) the impersonating of a soldier - that is what I find disgusting and shameful.

Get it?

P.S. Mark - I though you did a great job. I sure hope that you stick around. Thanks.
Super Stevens | 09.07.05 - 2:52 pm | #

Super Stevens,
Thanks, my new friend.

I know some of those brainwashed freepers first hand. You're right. It's best not to try and understand them, and I stay as far away as possible.

The worst part is when you really think you are having an honest conversation with them, like you were saying, and then find out they're just playing you.

Keep your back to the wind, and your face to the sun. Hope I catch your next act.
charmaine | 09.07.05 - 2:54 pm | #

Shit. The military hacks don't scare me. I have quite a few friends that are military who are more liberal than I. They are the best of both worlds, eh?
Mark | 09.07.05 - 2:56 pm | #

Oh! Yes! I get it now! You snuck that one right past me, ya rat bastard! That's what being bi-polar does for ya. :>)
Mark | 09.07.05 - 2:58 pm | #

charmaine,
how are you this fine original American morning?
Mark | 09.07.05 - 3:00 pm | #

ONE VERY STRONG WOMAN ,GOD BLESS HER IF ONLY SHE WAS IN CHARGE OF FEMA ,I THINK EVERYONE WOULD BE RESCUED BY NOW.
rb,bushisaliar | Homepage | 09.07.05 - 3:02 pm | #

afternoon... oops.
Mark | 09.07.05 - 3:04 pm | #

LOL - Mark!

good advice, friend - Charmaine.

I hate to say bye (for now)- but I've spent way too much time in here, lately. I have so-much work to do and I have to find time to train my son for an upcoming championship MA tournament and to watch his football game and my daughter's play, etc. I am so proud of both of my kid's. They are growing up to be worldly, kind/compassionate liberals, and tough-as-nails-too - when they need to be.

Everyone, please hold down the fort.
Super Stevens | 09.07.05 - 3:08 pm | #

Hey Mark,

I was about to say morning has passed you by! But I see you must have looked out the window, and realized the sun is not in it's morning spot.

Didn't we have us some fun last night? I'm still laughing.
charmaine | 09.07.05 - 3:13 pm | #

Super Stevens,
We'll hold it down. Bye!
charmaine | 09.07.05 - 3:14 pm | #

Fun? You bet your red ass we did!
Mark | 09.07.05 - 3:17 pm | #

Mine was red from sitting all damn night arguing with souless fools.
Mark | 09.07.05 - 3:18 pm | #

Mark,

Go back on that thread, and check out all the posts Joe placed, one after the other. It looks like he was talking to his invisible friend.
charmaine | 09.07.05 - 3:20 pm | #

Super Steven,
Keep up the good work with your children. Your daughter should be an actress (stage) it is the most noble profession.
Mark | 09.07.05 - 3:21 pm | #

Mine's a little sore too. I normally can't sit that long at one time. But, it was fun, and worth every minute.
charmaine | 09.07.05 - 3:22 pm | #

charmaine,
Well... the joke was on me then! Fuck! I never even thought he might be taklking to himself! I still questioned his ethics, but I thought maybe he just might be militaristic- I mean military... :>)
Mark | 09.07.05 - 3:22 pm | #

I am so glad to be talking to the one true american on this blog at this moment. we, white America, don't even fathom our slaughter of a whole peoples and most have their asses so far up their heads they don't see the slow genocide of their own asses!
Mark | 09.07.05 - 3:25 pm | #

Goodbye. Until we meet again. To hell with patriotism and all its trappings.
Mark | 09.07.05 - 3:29 pm | #

When he didn't know what an SAC was, I figured he was a hoax. He thought they were for Cargos.

What a jerk! I guess he'll have to change his name before coming back here. Unless he likes being punished!
charmaine | 09.07.05 - 3:32 pm | #

This doesn't make any sense. Rush said that all of the people in NOLA are inhuman savages who hate America. Rush is always right.
Steve | 09.07.05 - 3:33 pm | #

Mark,
You are a very good person, and I thank you for the kind words.

See you later!
charmaine | 09.07.05 - 3:34 pm | #

This woman is a true hero and should be commended publicly for her actions. I'm sure many more stories of great courage and heroism will emerge as time goes on. All of our hearts ache for the innocent victims of this storm, and this woman's testimony really helps bring the human suffering to life in a way that Geraldo Rivera's overstated monologues never will.

Having said that, I have zero sympathy for the murderers and rapists mentioned in her story. There is absolutely no excuse for their actions.
Many local, state and federal authorities are to blame for mismanaging this crisis, and heads should roll when all is said and done, but to blame them for acts of rape and murder is absurd.

The frontline rescue personnel on the scene were clearly overwhelmed and outmanned, yet they still managed to save thousands of lives during the first 48 hours after the levees broke. Conversely, the men who raped and killed did nothing to improve the situation or help in any way. They are evil to the core and their actions are inexcusable. Period.

While people like this woman were busy saving lives, these shameless criminals were going around preying on others' misfortune and vulnerability. I hope they all get what's coming to them in the form of deadly diseases and life sentences.

Unfortunately, we've fostered a culture among our nation's disadvantaged today that believes their government is either to praise or to blame for everything good or bad that happens in their lives. The concepts of rugged individualism and accountability--things that made this country great--have been lost by those born into a poor society that is inextricably attached to an overinflated government tit.

My heart aches for the woman in this video, and I admire her deeply for her courage and compassion, but I cringed when she hinted that our government is to blame for the evil deeds of the unidentified men who entered her neighborhood. Please.
dp | 09.07.05 - 3:39 pm | #

dp,

So hearing the truth makes you cringe?
Must be tough not being used to it, huh?
charmaine | 09.07.05 - 3:45 pm | #

I can't stop crying after watching this.

At first I wondered if that was the back of Dick Cheney's head and thought it was a sick photo-op. But I should have known better.

When this brave woman finally breaks down, it is just too much. Although I do not attend church or believe in organized religion, I am spiritual simply because the spirit of humanity lives within us and reaching out is the spirit alive.

I can honestly see the need for clergy watching this video. People need people. This is just so fucked up and sad. I sm sitting here sending out thoughts to this woman, call it praying or whatever. I just can't believe this ever happened here. Why didn't anyone help them?

It is beyond me.
sphinx | 09.07.05 - 3:51 pm | #

dp, I agree, but the position is abandonment. These people committing the crimes could have been put down, handled, had the feds really cared.

That's why we're outraged.
I'm sure there are some political folks that take the hardline that people just mechanicly turned in to monsters because of the government...but who cares, that's not the point! These people need help to get out of there.

The only reason to focus on the maniacs should be to solve the problem, not fantasize about how some might be viewing the cause of their behavior. It's not the point.

This administration has failed me, and it's still failing me. I want to be Sean Penn and go in a boat and get people. I can't.
Theresa | 09.07.05 - 3:52 pm | #

Imagine

Imagine there's no heaven,
It's easy if you try,
No hell below us,
Above us only sky,
Imagine all the people
living for today...

Imagine there's no countries,
It isnt hard to do,
Nothing to kill or die for,
No religion too,
Imagine all the people
living life in peace...

Imagine no possesions,
I wonder if you can,
No need for greed or hunger,
A brotherhood of man,
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...

You may say Im a dreamer,
but Im not the only one,
I hope some day you'll join us,
And the world will live as one.

I hope... I only hope.
Lee | 09.07.05 - 5:09 pm | #

I love that song. I still miss John Lennon.
charmaine | 09.07.05 - 5:51 pm | #

And yet the Bush supporters around here im Memphis just looooove what "W" is doin' to help those people. They see the photo ops and hear the sound bites and see mamma and pappa Bush say their son is a great guy and 'compassionate' and still think all is well in the world.

If WE who oppose Bush are in the majority, then WHY can't we change things, NOW?
Charles | 09.07.05 - 6:01 pm | #

The damned site keeps on telling me I need a WMP plugin to see the video. I HAVE THE DAMNED PLUGIN and it works perfectly…
Zzorglubb | 09.07.05 - 6:05 pm | #

Cnn fox and msnbc arent showing these types of storys,thats why 38 per cent of America say no one is to blame and no mistakes were made.
steve | 09.07.05 - 6:40 pm | #

Zzorglubb, I HATE streaming video. It's a waste of bandwidth. I used a program called SDP to download it so I didn't have to put up with poor connection speed.

http://get.to/SDP or http://sdp.ppona.com

I wasn't sure if it was edited, or if the stream was breaking up.
Railroad Stone | 09.07.05 - 8:05 pm | #

Pelosi urged Bush at the White House on Tuesday to fire Michael Brown.
''He said 'Why would I do that?''' Pelosi said.
'''Because of all that went wrong, of all that didn't go right last week.'

And he said 'What didn't go right?'''

What more evidence do you need, that he is a self-serving shit-bag? A socalled man, that has never went without food or shelter. He's never even had to fulfill any of his responsibilities. Even in the public position of prez, he can still just shrugg it off.

Undeniable proof, that he's nothing more than a puppet for corporate scoundrels. His job is to read stuff that's written for him.
theDrizzle | 09.07.05 - 8:09 pm | #

[quote]I don’t know, her behavior is not believable compared to others who have told their story. I’ve seen scammer work in the past and after watching her tell her story I have a lot of questions about her motives.
dave | 09.07.05 - 11:18 am |[/quote]

Brilliant!

Call off, Fred, Shaggy, and Scooby, for this crime has been solved!

And she would have got away with it too, if it hadnt been for that meddling dave.

Read a book.
theDrizzle | 09.07.05 - 8:12 pm | #

[quote]If WE who oppose Bush are in the majority, then WHY can't we change things, NOW?
Charles | 09.07.05 - 6:01 pm | # [/quote]
Money.

When your election is a choice between billionaire #1, or #2, it should be clear.

Another example would be, that Cindy Sheehan cant get a meeting with the prez, but if you write a check for $5k, you're in.

That, is the definition of a true whore.
theDrizzle | 09.07.05 - 8:16 pm | #

Teresa, I'm godless. Don't compare me to those people.
mudkitty | 09.07.05 - 8:55 pm | #

Dave,
You are my hero. Your ability to see through the lies is like a beacon in the harbor. Our president is such a caring and committed man. We must stop all this bickering and finger pointing so that we can get back to the business of licking the shinola off of his shoes. I just love that taste, don't you?
davesid | 09.07.05 - 9:30 pm | #

"Alligators eating people? From the roof of the school? I know of no other account of such events. "

As the US Government tries to batten down the hatches on your media once again there are still foreign jounalists running around loose...
you want alligators?
The Germans'll show you alligators.
(Charmaine did't say,btw,that the people were alive.)

http://www.stern.de/politik/pano...Get/ 545649.html
Cameron in Vancouver | 09.07.05 - 9:36 pm | #

Hey Dave if Charmaine is kin to Aaron you should pray he never finds you. You'd have a better chance against a gator!

BTW if Aaron singing "Louisana" doesn't make you cry you don't have a heart!
Margaret | 09.07.05 - 10:40 pm | #

I don't know Charmaine Neville personally, but I've seen her in concert and I've heard her speak. That is one tough woman. Trust me on this one: she's not after fame or notoriety. She's not shot at anything other than local celebrity for years.

There's only one part in her whole story that doesn't feel quite right - and it's something minor, but still: She said she didn't have the resources to leave. Uh... she may not be fabulously wealthy, but she's a well-established local artist with more than enough ability to leave. If she was staying on behalf of someone else, then that's understandable.

However it does make it sound less like a personal story, and more like a group history, which is, I suspect, what she's doing, however unconsciously. Groups who go through traumatic experiences together often emerge with single narratives - it's not uncommon.

And to the poster who listed out his doubts about her story: yeah, alligators on the roof - trust me, it was that bad. If you want further, more horrifying stories than the one Neville gave, drop me an email. My family was down there.
Brad | 09.08.05 - 12:10 am | #

From www.aaronneville.com

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hanna joergel | 09.08.05 - 12:11 am | #

How did she cook the food with no electricity or gas?

So Dave, you've never heard of FIRE? You right wingers really are that stupid, aren't you?
Michael Leza | Homepage | 09.08.05 - 1:12 am | #

Ilyas, you're right - Bush & gang removal now top priority politically.

Dave - you are a daft right-wing troll who's never heard of fire or barbecues.

Cameron in Vancouver - thanks very much for the German magazine "stern" reference! I've saved it! I read it all the way through as I speak/read German, do you? The alligator in the picture was dead, BTW. I at first thought that blood was from someone it had just eaten, but thankfully the National Guard shot it. Least they can shoot natural pests. Pity rapists don't have scales eh??

Yeah... the atrocities business. I'm glad that crooksandliars has given me this link to one very sharp recording, a testimony by someone well-known in that locality... Charmaine Neville. (Can anyone tell me how to RECORD these videos, or post links to them - I don't know how! If I can't paste the link at the top of my browser I'm at a loss I'm afraid!! Well ACTUALLY, on crooksandliars, right-clicking might be enough, as it has an actual highlighted link. But I don't know how to save these things off news site's own integrated players... does anyone?)

Which is why I can't show people ANOTHER clip about rapes going on in the Superdome - I don't know about in Texas. We have German TV to thank for this one. Whoever it was above - john somebody I think - that story about a girl getting raped and their throat cut in the Superdome WAS NOT an "urban myth": there is actual testimony to it, albeit brief, by an eyewitness who found the murdered body. It was of a 14-year-old girl, she doesn't say the race. There apparently WERE younger children raped or killed (hence the mention of 5-year-olds) but I don't know whether their throats were cut... I think it's just a confusion of two different "atrocity" stories from the same location. Anyway, it's on http://www.zdf.de. Do this: actually, better yet: go to: http://www.heute.de/ZDFheute/, you'll find a list towards the bottom right, click on the bottom of the list where it says "Zur Mediathek" - Mediathek is their video clip thingy. You'll find the title "Hurrikan Katrina" on that, click on the button underneath with the title: "Mehr aus: Hurrikan Katrina". There you'll find the relevant video clip. It is entitled: "Helfer bergen Hurrikan-Opfer" (it means helpers save hurricane victims) and was broadcast on the 4th of September. ACTUALLY - just go to zdf.de and type "Helfer bergen Hurrikan-Opfer" into their search engine, you'll probably find it quicker! It's not far in: (20 seconds, I think, on the time counter?) and only lasts a few seconds. The narration is of course all in German: the interviewee's English pokes through occasionally. The words in German for with her throat cut are: "mit ihre Kehle durchgeschnitten" and the other words you want are "14-jaehriges Maedchen" (14-year-old-girl) and "Kuehlschrank", (fridge), where she was found by this witness. Not hard to pick out for a speaker, I assure you!

Well... as to what crimes are going to be INVESTIGATED and PROSECUTED in the aftermath of Katrina, I have no idea... I can't imagine! However, I HOPE the authorities don't concentrate on "looting/ers" and those few unfortunate individuals they managed to pen up in the bus depot (like in Seattle!); most of those are probably innocent. I hope rapists, murderers and crack-high gangbangers (ie, the ones cops are generally too scared to go near in such situations) are the ones who aren't allowed to get away... but I bet lots of them will be!!
lizfrombritain | Homepage | 09.08.05 - 1:43 pm | #

Yup - there it is, found it again!! The ZDF German TV clip. Translated transcript: "I was on a search for food, opened a refrigerator and there lay a dead girl, raped and with her throat cut.... [we saw with our own eyes..] her voice comes through in English after the narrator's. Audria Thornton is the name of the witness; her name only comes up briefly, so if the player's playing up and doesn't show all the frames, you'll miss it - trial and error! Another testimony to join Charmaine Neville's.
lizfrombritain | 09.08.05 - 2:04 pm | #

The American Dream is dead. The nightmare has begun. I cry for her, I cry for the dead, and I cry for the future our children will suffer through.
crazymonkeylady | 09.09.05 - 12:08 am | #

God, I can't believe the people who are so detached that they are sitting around analyzing alligator stories.

To the heartless boob-tube latchkey grownups: JUST SHOVE IT.

You are a social phenomena that is unfortunate, and there needs to be much more studying of Suburban insanity and its weirdo logic.

God, the vacuous ambien/zoloft users rear their ugly,zombified,breast enhanced faces all over suburbia with an "Isn't my broker job great as I rip people off so I can buy 50 dollar lipstick at the newest fad place, you know the one, it's called 'Barf Bag'? Oh, and let's do a line. Sniff, sniff. It's the best shit." (as mariah carey softly shreds my brain in the background)

Yuck, grew up in that shit and will never be able to explain how it felt to have the world unexpectedly lifted off my shoulders when I had this weird moment of realization/catharsis after I moved to a very big American City and after a few months suddenly thought "whoa, I don't need to hide my intellectual, curious mind that I strangely had managed to hide even from myself during big-ten sorority college years.. and shit, life is actually worth pursuing in so much more of an interesting way. In a fuck-keeping up with the joneses kind of way.

I would go home to the old college town where I was raised and literally duck behind ketchup stands or head out into the parking lot to avoid being forced to talk to people I had always known who were now pushing shopping carts with designer baby shit that I never even heard of, afterwards taking me out to see their huge suburban houses with navigators, escalades and an actual vintage Bentley in one of their garages. Which is cool and all, but when you have nothing to talk about besides your possessions...it's pretty fucked.

It's really sad to go back home everytime, because we'd all do the get together for old time's sake at our big college hang out and I would just sit there and think: Who are these people and what are they saying? I'm pretty sure the stepford wives truly exist in my home town.

But anyway, none of them ever watch the news, they all talk about how so and so's husband's job doesn't make as much money as theirs' and then stare at me blankly as I talk urban type of things, whatever that is. I'm beginning to think it means, I read books and heard of Iraq or something.

Two of my old friends live across the street from eachother and each secretly told me during seperate drunken bathroom episodes that each of them thinks the other's house is not as well decorated as theirs. WHAT THE FUCK.

The kicker is that the next day was the Katrina human tragedy and they were like, oh? and then proceeded to run their babies in some kind of run your baby stroller on opposite sides of the street and later Cami actually "confided" in me that she thought Carey had had botox and her baby stroller was so 2003.

Yet later on, Carey asked me if I noticed that Cami's ass was even bigger then in college since she had a baby.

THE BIG QUESTION IS: SO?

AMERICA IS WATCHING TOO MANY EPISODES OF FRIENDS AND TOO MANY COMMERCIALS.

I dread seeing these people over Thanksgiving. One of them even said that she wishes her husband had a good body like George W. Bush.

And I am from a Blue state.

Goodnight everyone.
nymph | 09.09.05 - 7:58 am | #

Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with this country. We worry about policing other countries when we dont have our own shit together. Sure send a few of our soliders over to other countries to get shot at, mutilated, and murdered for a hidden agenda, but when it comes to taking care of the home so to speak, we just put it off until the worst case scenario happens. It is truly sad when it takes things like 9/11, or hurricane Katrina for Americans to get off of their collective asses. As far as the tradgedy in New Orleans goes, I find it very difficult if at all possible to trust a government that neglects to protect the people that appoint it. The true tradgedy of this is the fact that this will be somewhat forgotten over the next few years unless another natural disaster strikes. Within the first year of the 9/11 attacks, everyone was so concerned for this country, and getting together and all that crap. A couple years later, we turned our attention to more important issues like Janet Jackson's superbowl performance, and whether or not Britney Spears signed a goddamned prenup. If this shit keeps up, I'm predicting Canada will be the next superpower within 40 years because, and most of the US will recede back to Mexico (that is if they would want it) because you can only have so big of a size of boot before the bullshit overcomes you.
aghis | 09.10.05 - 3:11 am | #

I too cried the first time I heard Charmaine but then I also started wondering, like Dave, because somehow it didn't compute. And if she did all that, how did she keep her long nails? I can't manage a few dishes and chores without tearing my hands up. Her nails are what does it for me -- make me wonder.
jpm | 09.12.05 - 6:38 pm | #

Alright, this is the third time I've seen Charmaine's video, and I wish that you would all stop bashing Dave. Read his post again, and stop accusing him of things that he isn't. You say to not overanalyze Charmaine's story, yet you analyze Bush's statements down to the last detail.

If you want to be reasonable, look at everything. FEMA and Bush are absolutely reprehensible for their lack of response in New Orleans, but that's irrelevant to Charmaine's story as Dave's trying to say. After listening to this story several times, and seeing all of the signs of a women who has undergone trauma, but it is fabricating a story in order to make herself seem more heroic. I'm sorry, but as much as you'd like to believe Charmaine to be a true American hero due to her inspired artistry, that doesn't mean we have to take everything she says at face value. It doesn't mean we're being racist, right wing, or stupid, it just means that something about that video doesn't click. As Dave already thoughtfully wrote about (And was bashed for expressing his opinion, which is remarkably close-minded for a group of people who take such pride in being the intelligent liberals) many elements of her story seem to jar, and seem to not fit together. This doesn't mean that she didn't endure hell in there, or that she doesn't have a story to tell, but saying that she couldn't get out of the city because she doesn't have enough money seems a bit suspect. (She's part of the Neville family)

We'll see if anything more comes to light in regards to credibility, and as I've said before, I wouldn't blame her for not telling the truth after undergoing such trauma, but I don't think that an overrexaggerated story about how one woman always comes out the hero is really the way to show 'Bushco' that they're wrong, the way to do it would be from coherents accounts of the multitude of people who have lost everything.

And honestly, this is the first time I've been on your forums, and I have to say that bashing everyone that disagrees with you thoughtlessly and promoting your ideas as the ultimate truth doesn't make you look more intelligent, it makes you look just as intolerant and uncompassionate as the people you so heavily critisize. And for the record, I am extremely liberal, I speak out vehemetly against Bush, but some of these arguments are simply rehashing of other things I've heard, and not bringing anything new to light.
Joe | 09.16.05 - 10:08 pm | #

I just watched a show this evening, Friday, September 16, where it showed a reporter going to Charmaine Neville's house with her after Katrina. Unless I saw wrong, the cameraman showed them walking into the house and it was as if nothing was ruined. It didn't look at all like flood waters had entered her home. Nothing looked at all ruined or muddy. (I've been flooded out of a N.O. house and EVERYTHING gets covered with mud.) They showed Charmaine walking around inside the house... she showed the reporter some framed photos of her with other people. There was no mud anywhere that I could see. She even told the reporter how lucky she was that nothing was ruined, that she still had all her things when so many other people lost everything.

After I saw the show this evening I was relieved for Charmaine that none of her things were ruined. However, I am puzzled. I don't understand how her "evacuation story" (below) could end with the results I saw in the show (above)... her returning home to find all her things intact. It would be most helpful if Charmaine would explain why there are vast differences in the two stories. I am only trying to understand.

From Charmaine's evacuation story:

"When the hurricane came, it blew all the left side of my house, the North side of my house. And the water was coming in my house in torrents. I had my neighbor, an elderly man who is my neighbor, and myself, in the house. And with our dogs and cats and we were trying to stay out of the water, but the water was coming in too fast. So we ended up having to leave the house."
Meg | 09.17.05 - 12:56 am | #

Now I remember. The show I saw on the night of September 16 which featured Charmaine going back to her house after Katrina; it was Inside Edition. They showed a reporter going inside Charmaine's house with her and showed how all her stuff was just like she left it.
Meg | 09.17.05 - 7:42 pm | #

Meg, thanks for the supporting evidence.

Also there was this in today's nola.com website:

Following days of internationally reported killings, rapes and gang violence inside the Dome, the doctor from FEMA - Beron doesn't remember his name - came prepared for a grisly scene: He brought a refrigerated 18-wheeler and three doctors to process bodies.

"I've got a report of 200 bodies in the Dome," Beron recalls the doctor saying.

The real total was six, Beron said.

Of those, four died of natural causes, one overdosed and another jumped to his death in an apparent suicide, said Beron, who personally oversaw the turning over of bodies from a Dome freezer, where they lay atop melting bags of ice. State health department officials in charge of body recovery put the official death count at the Dome at 10, but Beron said the other four bodies were found in the street near the Dome, not inside it. Both sources said no one had been killed inside.

At the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, just four bodies were recovered, despites reports of corpses piled inside the building. Only one of the dead appeared to have been slain, said health and law enforcement officials.

That the nation's front-line emergency management believed the body count would resemble that of a bloody battle in a war is but one of scores of examples of myths about the Dome and the Convention Center treated as fact by evacuees, the media and even some of New Orleans' top officials, including the mayor and police superintendent. As the fog of warlike conditions in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath has cleared, the vast majority of reported atrocities committed by evacuees have turned out to be false, or at least unsupported by any evidence, according to key military, law enforcement, medical and civilian officials in positions to know.

"I think 99 percent of it is bulls---," said Sgt. 1st Class Jason Lachney, who played a key role in security and humanitarian work inside the Dome. "Don't get me wrong, bad things happened, but I didn't see any killing and raping and cutting of throats or anything. ... Ninety-nine percent of the people in the Dome were very well-behaved."


This contradicts the rape story that Charmaine told, albeit she said it occurred on the roof of the school she was camped out on. It also contradicts the "hundreds of bodies" she walked over. As far as I know, no great numbers of bodies were found in the streets. I still believe there was massive governmental failure with the Katrina relief effort, but this evidence is another chink in Charmaine's story.
dave | 09.26.05 - 3:17 pm | #

None of it computes! Come on, folks! Her motivation can only be $ and the hour or two of fame she has... oh yeah, and the book deal and made-for-tv movie. I love the Neville Brothers' music. Too bad daughter-dear can't tell the truth...she mocks the real heros in New Orleans.
Kathy Purvis | 09.28.05 - 11:46 am | #

Charmaine’s account: "When the hurricane came, it blew all the left side of my house, the North side of my house. And the water was coming in my house in torrents. I had my neighbor, an elderly man who is my neighbor, and myself, in the house. And with our dogs and cats and we were trying to stay out of the water, but the water was coming in too fast. So we ended up having to leave the house."

Contrary account from C&L contributor on the Inside Edition segment: "They showed Charmaine walking around inside the house... she showed the reporter some framed photos of her with other people. There was no mud anywhere that I could see. She even told the reporter how lucky she was that nothing was ruined, that she still had all her things when so many other people lost everything."
http://www.haloscan.com/comments...ks/4827/ #213151

Another contrary account: "I was watching Inside Edition today, and one of the Neville clans was on tv returning to her home for the first time. It was so nice to see something postive. She was so concern about her neighbor, becuase she wasn't sure if he got out in time. When she approached her home, their was a note. It was from her neighbor. Apparently he had stayed during the entire tragedy. Not only did he stay back, he watched her home and took car of her pets. Her home had minor water damage and windows were broken fom the storm."
http://com3.runboard.com/ bspeako....fmainchat.t431

Charmaine’s version leaves one with the impression that the north side of her house was wide open to the elements and her house was filling up with water. Was Charmaine exaggerating or are we reading more into her words than was there?

Commandeering the bus:
Charmaine’s account: “...Finally, I got to Canal St. with all of my people I had saved from back then. I, I don't want them arresting nobody else. I broke the window in an RTA bus. I never learned how to drive a bus in my life. I got in that bus. I loaded all of those people in wheelchairs and in everything else into that bus, and we drove and we drove and we drove and millions of people was trying to get me to help them to get on the bus.”

Contrary account from source who interviewed Charmaine: “Greg Mitchell, editor of the trade publication Editor & Publisher, wrote an admiring column about [Charmaine’s story] headlined "Horror and Heroism." Asked whether he believed Charmaine Neville's story, Mitchell replied that Neville later said she didn't drive the bus but was on it. He wouldn't comment further.”
http://www.dailystar.com/dailyst...ystar/ 95370.php

Now if you read what Charmaine said, she never actually says she was driving the bus. But her words and the video give the unmistakable impression she was behind the wheel. Again, was she exaggerating or were we reading more into her words than was there?

Also, don't forget that there's a part missing from the video. According to another C&L contributor who saw the original broadcast, Charmaine said that she and her group were turned back by the NOLA police by gun point when approaching either the Convention Center or the Superdome.

If she was intentionally misleading, what was her motive? If she is a proven liar, maybe it's just a victim-type thing--maybe she just likes playing the downtrodden black female. I mean from what I've read she's made a lot of money as a jazz singer. According to those articles she gives much of her money away to deserving band mates but then chooses to live in an impoverished condition.
dave | 09.30.05 - 9:28 pm | #

Very useful blog. Thank you.
Great blog | Homepage | 02.22.06 - 10:20 pm | #