This blog is way left of center...
I did some of my growing up in South Louisiana and have always loved Nawlins. I haven't been back in about 5 years and doubt that I will anytime soon.
As an added note, "Democracy Now" had a long piece this morning on Katrina and the aftermath. You can find it here. A couple of very interesting quotes from an investigative documentary that was done recently:
"What kind of evacuation plan would leave 127,000 to sink or swim? It turns out that the Bush administration had contracted out evacuation planning to a corporation, IEM, Innovative Emergency Management. I couldn't locate their qualifications, but I did locate their list of donations to the Republican Party. We went to Baton Rouge to talk to them.
These are the offices of Innovative Emergency Management. They were the ones that were paid a half-million bucks to come up with an emergency evacuation plan for the city of New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina. One problem is, I can't find the plan. So I’m coming here to ask them about it.
So when I showed up at their office, they would only talk to me from behind a glass wall. By phone."
...snip...
"So, can it happen again? Another hurricane, another flood? Well, don't worry because the government has hired a consulting firm to analyze what went wrong with the response to Katrina. It's a little firm from Baton Rouge called ... Innovative Emergency Management."
... and it looks like I fogot to put in a closing in my post above. Sorry.
Yeah, thanks Jami for making a mess of my comment window! 
You said it, Kona. I'll go get the axe.
one thing the rebuilders don't factor in to their equations (republicans are math challenged dipsticks) is that the new orleans a lot of us loved and miss was the product of over 300 years of unplanned, lassiez fare, willy nilly building. from the chickasaw who used it as a winter fishing camp, through spaniards, french, spaniards again, french, then finally the americans it managed to survive and mostly thrive. did ya'll know that the nickname "the big easy" was musician's slang? well, it is. the old blues and jazz babies called it that because it was one of the few places in america where you could support yourself and your family in a reasonable fashion by being a musician. it also had the charm of being a city where race issues tended to be overlooked or winked at. although one of my musical mentors harry "the hipster" gibson was once denied membership in a creole club because his skin was darker than a paper grocery bag. yeah, they have a fucking rebuilding plan, and it won't include a lot of colored folks who tended to register and vote democratic. i miss ol' easy, i know it's gone forever.
But according to Yahoo news, "Bush says Katrina recovery just starting". Sounds like he and FEMA are still doing a heckuvajob doesn't it?
Only visited NO once, while my parents were living there for a few years. Between that visit, and my love of music, the city holds a special place in my heart. It's all I can do not to succumb to sheer rage.
Great post.
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