Three years after Hurricane Katrina plowed into New Orleans and much of the Gulf Coast, thousands of people are still picking up the pieces. Despite some hopeful claims by a certain president, the situation on the ground is still a virtual housing crisis.

A new study released today by my organization, PolicyLink, shows that there are still far too few rental homes to come back to and homeowners are finding it nearly impossible to get enough money to actually rebuild.

And guess who's bearing the brunt of the problems? Low-income workers and residents of historically African American neighborhoods. Check out below the fold for some pretty sobering details from "A Long Road Home: The state of Housing Recovery in Louisiana 2008."

UPDATED with new title thanks to some smart folks in the comments...

This story has been covered already by a few blogs, but not here, and none seems to have presented the graphic shown below.

Jowie Chen, a doctoral student in political science at Stanford, obtained the records of 2.6 million applications for FEMA disaster assistance in Florida in 2004.  (This happened not because the Bush administration made them available voluntarily, but because four Florida newspapers won a Freedom of Information Act suit.)  Chen then mapped these applications and the subsequent FEMA grants into counties and precincts, added data on actual weather conditions in these locations, their demographic characteristics, and finally local voting patterns in recent Federal elections.  The paper can be found here.  The following map shows part of his results.

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If what I've just read is true, the John McSame Public Relations Department hasn't learned a thing. Or, they're honing in on those ignorance is bliss skills. Either way:

Marc Ambinder:

What's the wisdom in John McCain's pre-announcing, to conservative-friendly media, the date (August 29) and location (Dayton, Ohio) of your vice presidential announcement?...Next week, it ensures that the press pays at least mild attention to McCain.

Really, John McCain? REALLY? August 29? As in, the third anniversary of the worst natural disaster in U.S. history? The response to which the worst president in U.S. history botched?

The REPUBLICAN congressional years 1994 - 2006 (and 2000-2008 President Bush years) will be remembered for all they've accomplished...

Seven year war in Afghanistan, 5 year war in Iraq with close to 660 billion dollars spent, part of which we now owe China to pay for them.

North Korea, Iran and now Russia, are all greater powers then before the GOP took control of government. Pakistan with nukes is about to lose their (U.S. picked) leader. China is now listed as having the most manufacturing companies in the world.

August 13, An Undisclosed Location. Do you agree with Florida Democrat Robert Wexler and Ohio Democrat Dennis Kuchinich that Bush and Cheney should be impeached? Do you feel that the war in Iraq was conducted with the incompetence that rivals FEMA in New Orleans? Or that it was a mistake? Do you feel that rather than enhance our national security, the war - 4,000 dead, 19,000 wounded, and $1 Trillion spent, has strengthened Iran and weakened the United States? Do you feel that the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, should be an effective emergency response force, or an agency of incompetence and a gold mine of patronage? Do you believe that the Department of Justice should focus on race, religion, party and politics when hiring and firing staff and investigating and prosecuting corruption? Do you work? Do you need health care? Do you want your children to be able to get an education, then find rewarding work? Do you believe in "government of the people, by the people, and for the people?"  The "DemoPunks" don't.

After Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast in August 2005 the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) purchased more than $85M worth of basic supplies for storm victims. For more than two years, until last month FEMA let the supplies sit in warehouses at a cost of $1M/year.

During that two year period local government officials and non-profit relief organizations in Louisiana and Mississippi made repeated public pleas for donations of the exact sort of items FEMA had already purchased and were even stored locally.

That these supplies people have needed for years just sat in warehouses until mid-June of this year is bad enough, but FEMA was able to find a way to make this story even more sad and depressing the way only George Bush's administration can.

Attention all DKos members in the San Francisco and New Orleans areas!

Although this is my first post, I have been a long-time member of the DailyKos community. It is the rare day that I don't check in and find myself inspired, uplifted, outraged, or challenged by the words of so many inspired writers and progressive activists. I am posting today in the hopes that members of the DailyKos family can unite to reunite a man with his own family. I hope someone can help. In fact, I'm counting on it. (Please recommend to get the word out.)

My dearest friend in the world, Liz, a sassy Cajun woman from Lafayette, Louisiana, was in San Francisco last week enjoying a well deserved vacation. She and her husband found themselves one afternoon walking around Union Square when she noticed him...a man from Louisiana who, it was clear, had seen better times. She did what most people would not...she stopped, introduced herself, and asked him to tell her a little about himself. She hasn't been able to stop thinking about him since.

Follow me over the jump for her story...and his.

As the great wheel turns, and the gloaming fades into the summer night, I place my hands once more on the monitor. Once more, the distance between us dissolves, and I am overwhelmed by your insistent voices. Oh yes, I sense you out there in the dark American night, and yes, I still have my suspicions about you.

Not much to expand on here, so you will have to accept it for what it is.

CNN reports this morning on the value of supplies actually given to Katrina storm victims. The Bush Administration, GSA and FEMA proudly claimed they had given away $85 million in relief supplies, but apparently this total was accomplished by assigning the value of a crate of toilet paper to a roll of tp, etc. The real value was a paltry $18 million and not all of that was distributed. Imagine that! A whopping $18 million to an entire city destroyed with hundreds of thousands of people displaced, and much of it never distributed. How generous!

The General Services Administration, which manages federal property, over-counted cases of toilet paper, plastic sporks and other cutlery, by mistakenly counting a single item as being worth as much as multiple items contained in a package of goods.

It has been nearly three years since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the gulf coast region, leaving behind a wake of suffering and human misery unmatched in recent American history.  Sadly, the victims of this crisis are still suffering and residents of the Gulf Coast region are still waiting for the government to do the right thing by investing in the region, cleaning up and rebuilding New Orleans and surrounding communities.  The scale of this crisis is unimaginable for a modern, developed nation with the industrial strength and collective will we have to remedy the situation.  As a country, it is time for us to come together and call for justice for the victims of Katrina and Rita with a comprehensive, public works program designed to address the real needs of people who are still suffering from this natural disaster.

The Bush administration has done its utmost to butcher regulations that were in place to protect people and/or the environment.
Regulatory bodies, such as the EPA and FEMA have been stripped of competence and budgets. Instead, management positions are filled with incompetent cronies (brownies anyone?), while internal and external oversight are made perfunctory tasks.

But this administration will never cease to amaze in finding new ways of gutting corporate and public responsibility and accountability at the cost of the common man.

Follow below::

Ever since the Reagan Revolution, we've treated the open market as a solution to all problems. Considering the track record, why do we keep doing this?

And the hits just keep coming.

After years of government officials feigning ignorance on just how harmful FEMA trailers were for Katrina victims, Democrats investigating the formaldehyde levels in these trailers have found out that the companies who sold us these "toxic tin cans" knew all along how poisonous they were. Their own employees were suffering many of the same symptoms that have been found in Katrina victims who have used these trailers as housing while trying to rebuild:

nose bleeds, shortness of breath, dizziness and bleeding ears. One employee told investigators that there was a foul odor throughout the plant.

For years, we've allowed these companies to poison our own people, all the while throwing billions of dollars in no-bid contracts to do it. And as usual as the depths of the moral depravity of companies like Gulf Stream Coach, Inc come to light, House Republicans are working hard to make sure justice is served- for the trailer manufacturers.

Crossposted from Calitics

The numbers are staggering - 1,400 wildfires burning around the state. Over 70 homes destroyed and 7,800 under threat. The entire Big Sur coast has been evacuated and nearly 1,500 homes there face ruin. President Bush has declared the fires a federal emergency and released $50 million in federal aid, announced by FEMA administrator David Paulison - surely a sign that the feds are fully engaged in the fire aid effort, right?

Not so fast. There is a difference between an "emergency," which frees up something like the $50 million in firefighting funds, and a "federal disaster" declaration, which frees up the full range of FEMA assistance to fire victims, including relocation shelters and financial assistance.

How you can help those that have been flooded out.

First an anatomy of the Great Floods of 2008, in my untrained, but observant, view.  The Floods began around Thanksgiving of 2007.  How is this??  Quite easy, that's the first snow fall we had in my part of the world.  For the next three months there was measurable snow fall every other day to every third day and snow continued into March.  In Cedar Rapids, the airport (the official measuring location and well to the south of town) measured around 63 to 64 inches of snow for the season.  

In a 'normal' year there would be between 30 and 35 inches of snow and there would be a significant January Thaw.  However, this year, the thaw didn't really occur.  We did have a brief thaw, but not a 'real' one.  Normally, at least half of the snow would melt off during the January Thaw.  Then Spring came.  And its rains.  It rained darn near every day in the months of April and May (or at least it seemed that way).

My photos of the flooding:
http://good-times.webshots.com/...

Read on....

1819 - Bicycle was patented by W.K. Clarkson, Jr. of New York City.

1958 - Vanguard SLV-2 launch failed to reach Earth orbit

COINCIDENCE? I think NOT!

Quote:
"I feel no need for any other faith than my faith in human beings. Like Confucius of old, I am so absorbed in the wonder of earth and the life upon it that I cannot think of heaven and the angels."
-- Pearl Buck

FROM THE CHURCH OF INEFFABLE STUPIDITY:

It's become a hallmark of his presidency, climbing up on some rubble or a nicely cleaned town square to give a rousing speech about fixing a place he really doesn't give two spits about. Now, with the Midwest floods, Bush is calling for OUR tax dollars to support his photo-op FEMA.

Hat tip to RSN.com:

President Bush, speaking in his weekly radio address on Sunday in the wake of disastrous floods in the Midwest over the last three weeks, requested that Congress pass an emergency spending bill that would provide ample funds for photo opportunities in Iowa as well as potential other natural disasters that strike this summer.

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing


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