Senate Report: Disband FEMA

The Raw Story | Senate investigation of Hurricane Katrina says FEMA should be disbanded:

"A bipartisan Senate report investigating Hurricane Katrina will assert that FEMA is so flawed and beyond repair that it should be disbanded, RAW STORY has learned.

According to a story set for tomorrow's New York Times, 'The report, which is scheduled to be released on Thursday, says that the effort by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to 'retool' FEMA will not work.'

Officials for Homeland Security tell the Times that they're 'not impressed' with what they've heard about the report."

And good riddance.

Still unprepared.

Guardian Unlimited | World Latest | Report: U.S. Unprepared for Major Disaster: "The U.S. is unprepared for a disaster of Hurricane Katrina's scale, according to a Senate inquiry that lawmakers said Wednesday took a critical look at failures in responding to the storm.

The final report is ``fair and tough, and it charts a course to strengthen our nation's emergency preparedness at all levels,'' leaders of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee wrote their colleagues.

The Associated Press on Wednesday obtained a copy of the letter written by the committee's head, GOP Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, and the top Democrat, Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut. The report's title is ``Hurricane Katrina: A Nation Still Unprepared.''"

Who is calling?

Yesterday I got a recorded message in which a man asks me to call my state senator to ask him to vote against Senate Bill 655. The argument is that the bill benefits "big oil" and refers to the windfall profits the oil companies have made lately. But the caller does not explain what the bill does.

I looked up SB 655, and it seems to say that if anyone in the state sues an oil company for environmental damage, the state may step in and sue as well. But even the bill's digest (pdf) is difficult to understand without legal training and experience in the field of remediation law. Can anyone tell me what this is about, and who is making these automated phone calls? I'm suspicious.

A thoughtful reaction to Alfonso Jackson's preference for "the best"

Polimom, Too: Myths, strawmen, and "the best" for New Orleans:

"It's impossible to know the context of this quote, but it's presented as if he said it in a single paragraph. If he did, then the U.S. Housing Secretary has apparently bought into one of the most damaging myths accompanying New Orleanians: that poor = criminal. This is a strawman that has caused astounding damage, and by lumping everyone together in the same breath, he compounds the problem."

More bad news: Pumps catching fire.

Beleaguered but vital New Orleans pumps catching fire:

"Three massive drainage pumps, each of which can move 7,500 gallons of rain water per second out of city streets, caught fire during stormy weather on Wednesday and will be out of commission for at least a month, Sewerage and Water Board officials said."

Damage from being immersed in salt water.

It's Nagin vs. Landrieu

Runoff Election Is Set for New Orleans Mayor's Race - New York Times

I'm just glad that Forman didn't win.

More corruption. But not in Louisiana.

Audit: $7.8M Overpaid on Katrina Contract - Yahoo! News:

"The government overpaid by 20 percent on a $39.5 million, no-bid Hurricane Katrina contract for portable classrooms because the Army Corps of Engineers passed up chances to negotiate a lower price, a federal audit says.

Government Accountability Office report on the contract with Akima Site Operations LLC, a subsidiary of an Alaska Native-owned firm, said the government wasted at least $7.8 million on the classrooms in Mississippi. It's the latest in a series of audits detailing waste of hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars in the hurricane recovery effort."

Take that, Tancredo.

Not that I don't appreciate it, but . . .

I wonder why someone is checking in to this site more than a hundred times a day. It's flattering to get so many hits, but I think someone's browser has gone haywire. I think the source of all the hits is in Alaska.

ABC26 poll shows Landrieu lead.

No link here, but just go to the NOLA.com site and click on the headline that reads "ABC26: New mayoral poll."
Landrieu and Nagin lead with Forman a close third. Severteen percent still undecided. Nagin has lost almost all his white supporters.

Hoping against hope.

Chron.com | Next hurricane season looms over energy in Gulf:

"About 22 percent of Gulf oil production and 13 percent of gas production is still out of service, according to a government report Wednesday. Concern that the storm season, running from June to November, may bring further disruption helped push oil prices to records this week.

'We just have to basically hope that we don't have a hurricane come back into the Gulf of Mexico this summer,' said Matt Simmons, founder of Simmons & Co. in Houston, an oil and gas industry investment bank. 'We haven't fixed yet, by any stretch of the imagination, everything that got broken.'"

What are the odds that there will be a hurricane in the Gulf this summer? Something approaching a certainty I imagine. Is Mr. Simmons joking?

Texas' patience wearing thin?

That's what the headline implies, but the article seems to say otherwise.Storm Evacuees Placing Strains on Texas Hosts - New York Times:

"Houston's school system has also experienced fighting between local and New Orleans students in its schools — 27 students from the two sides were arrested in one melee — but school crime is down over all.

'It has been a challenge,' said Terry Abbott, a spokesman for Houston Independent School District, 'but generally the vast majority of the children are well behaved and many are grateful to be here.'

But results on standardized tests suggest that 'the students from Louisiana were substantially behind the Texas kids,' Mr. Abbott said."

This is mainly about the aim of Texas politicians to grab some of that Federal money for Katrina relief.

Nothing wrong with keeping the spotlight on New Orleans

DNC meeting set to begin in New Orleans:

"The choice of New Orleans for the Democratic National Committee meeting that begins Thursday was part of a political calculation, as is a three-day agenda for the 400 delegates that combines party business with community service.

Eight months after Hurricane Katrina and the widespread criticism of the administration's response, Democrats hope their reconstruction work leaves an image with voters that lasts through the congressional midterm elections.

'It's reinforcing an impression that is widely held among the public and one that will be a critical theme for Democrats across the country - namely that this administration is dangerously incompetent,' said Steve McMahon, a Democratic strategist and a longtime adviser to party chairman Howard Dean."

That quote is followed of course by some Republican complaining about how this is dirty partisan politics. Hee hee.

Whoo-hoo. A heavyweight gets after the insurance scammers

Judge sues firm for denying Katrina claim:

"A federal judge who would have presided over some lawsuits that policyholders filed against insurance companies after Hurricane Katrina is instead waging his own personal legal battle against the insurer of his Gulf Coast home."

"Vitter blasts corps' levee work delays"

Times Picayune:

"New Orleans will enter the hurricane season in six weeks without important pieces of its storm protection, not because Congress is dragging its feet, but because the Army Corps of Engineers is waiting for congressional authorization that it already has, Sen. David Vitter told corps officials Tuesday.

Vitter, R-La., said critical projects such as armoring levees and moving pumping stations to the lakefront could have begun under an emergency financing bill passed last year that included broad authorization to cover any flood-control repair work.

'The bill we passed last year was written very broadly to provide a wide range of authorization to avoid these kinds of delays,' said Vitter, who presided over a meeting in New Orleans of the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. 'It's been frustrating to me that they (continue) to hold up (work) while requesting additional language.

'Clearly we'll be entering hurricane season more vulnerable than we would have been had this work been done.'"

The Corps, afraid of criticism and lawsuits, wants Congress to dot every "i" of its proposed levee rebuilding. Leaving New Orleans with substandard protection for this hurricane season.

Dead zone linked to farm subsidies

Dead zone linked to farm subsidies:

"Meanwhile, a new study has traced almost 80 percent of the nitrogen-based fertilizers largely responsible for the low-oxygen zone to a relatively small number of agricultural counties in the Midwest that are heavily subsidized by the federal government to grow their crops.

The study from the Environmental Working Group in Washington says conservation programs intended to offset the runoff of fertilizers from farms have come up woefully short. In some of the counties highlighted by the study, the group said, for every $500 that goes into subsidy programs that could increase fertilizer use, a scant $1 is spent on conservation programs."

An important story, with a very impressive thesis: that the dead zone of the Gulf is actually a direct result of Federal farm programs. The writer points out that important farm and business (e.g. fertilizer) interests will oppose changes to remedy the problem.

Unscientific Poll: Landrieu leads.

Greater Baton Rouge Business Report:

"More than 1,300 Daily Report readers logged in and their expectations for who'll be the next mayor of New Orleans are pretty clear: Mitch Landrieu. The lieutenant governor commanded 71% of the votes in the preference poll, followed by Ron Forman with 13%. Incumbent Ray Nagin, expected to fare far better in the actual vote, received about 10% of the votes."

It's an ill wind that blows nobody some good.

TaxProf Blog: Kirsch: Cheney Tax Return Shows Katrina Tax Benefits for Non-Katrina Charitable Contributions:

"It appears that the VP is a major beneficiary of the Hurricane Katrina tax relief act. In particular, he claimed $6.8 million of charitable deductions, which is 77% of his AGI -- well in excess of the 50% limitation that would have applied absent the Katrina legislation. The press release indicates that the charitable contribution reflects the amount of net proceeds from an independent administrator's exercise of the VP's Halliburton options -- apparently, the VP had agreed back in 2001 that he would donate the net proceeds from the options to charities once they were exercised."

What disasters do these guys NOT make money off of?

Why this election will violate blacks' right to vote.

Louisiana Weekly .:

"If a voter applicant living in New Orleans has reading problems, they can register in person at the Registrars office and an election official will assist them in reading and filling out the application. In contrast, a voter applicant living outside the city must fill out the Mail Voter Registration Application form without the benefit of any assistance from election officials. The registration form has 19 separate instructions and includes the following language (my emphasis added):

AFFIRMATION: 'that I am currently not under a judgment of full interdiction or limited interdiction where my right to vote has been suspended, that I am a bona fide resident of this state or parish...If I have provided false information, I may be subject to a fine of not more than $1,000 ($2,500 for subsequent offense) or imprisonment for not more than 1 year (5 years for subsequent offense), or both. Any false statement may constitute perjury.'

The vocabulary in this excerpt, which includes Latin as well as English, would challenge most college educated readers. I had to find an attorney to explain to me what 'full or limited interdiction' means. Yet the applicant, who could be as young as 17 years old, is asked to sign the 'affirmation' at the risk of fine and imprisonment. Elsewhere on the application, the 40% of the New Orleans residents who lack the reading skills to find an intersection on a map are asked:

'If you use a rural route or and box number, draw a map in the space labeled 'Give Location.' Write the names of the crossroads (streets) nearest where you live. Draw an X to show where you live. Use a dot to show any schools, churches, stores or landmarks near where you live and write the name of the landmark.'

Good luck. Like most voters, I'd rather wait in line at the Registrars office than have to decipher this form and risk a stretch in the Orleans Parish Prison."