You are from what country? New Orleans.

The title was an actual conversation at passport control.  I got in.

Q from a colleague in Poland: "What does it look like there?"

A: "Dresden.  Hiroshima.  Nagasaki."

Q: "I thought it had all been rebuilt?"

A: "Over 80% hasn't.  Look at the images on Google Maps.  This is how we have been abandoned.  Those pictures are current."

Q: "But you're the richest country on Earth!"

A: "We have the richest people on Earth...also, we have some of the most evil.  That's why New Orleans needs help from countries like Venezuela and Cuba."

Q: "What can I do?"

A: "Let everyone you know that New Orleans is not OK; that we've been abandoned.  Tell them to look at the pix on Google Maps and my blog if they don't believe you.  Those pictures are current."

And Anderson Cooper breaks some news about how some family of 4 was forced to live in a trailer for 18 fucking months and didn't return it in pristine condition.

Go fuck yourself Anderson.

What about all the FEMA trailers left to rot in Arkansas?  What about that waste?  What about Allstate and State Farm overbilling the government over royally, while FEMA goes after the little guy to bleed him fucking dry?  What about that, Mr. Vanderbilt?

What about the levees and the pumps, Anderson -- or do you have to do another segment on Paris fucking Hilton, you hard news journalist you.

What about that Mr Bush?  What about that Mr Nagin?

Where's the leadership?  Only at the march and through the Saints is there a modicum of leadership.  Make the wrong fucking decision, but at least make one, you fuckmooks.

This image, I'm gonna copyright for the cause: the picture of Che, but with a red FdL instead of a star on his beret.  All proceeds go to the Irish Channel Republican Army.  Because we need some lunatic to line all these idiots up and get rid of them.

Sinn Fein.

Comments

[Lisa Palumbo]

Right on, Ashley!

[Mr. Clio]

Ah, I can see the pleasant European summer climate is having a salutary effect on your mood.

You speak only one language, sir.

The truth.

[dambala]

Viva la revolucion' & Solidarność!!! Oh yeah...and Ya Heard Me!!!

[Marco]

The Poles know destruction and abandonment. Tell it loud and often. Easy on the vodka.

[coach joe cullen]

Paris is fucking Hilton? Huh?

Oh. Never mind.

[ashley]

Pleasant Euro summer climate my ass. These people wouldn't know A/C if it fell on them, cold side down. No AC all day long in a room full of computers can't be a good thing.

And last summer in Kyiv weaned me off of Vodka.

[Aaron]

The whole no air conditioning in Europe and surrounding countries thing just blows my mind. Developed countries who are not in the arctic circle should have air conditioning, it gets hot. I was in France the summer all of the old people died (2003) and I can attest it was HORRIBLY hot. The REALLY funny thing was that the buildings which DID have air conditioning had them set to 85 instead of the 95 it was outside. So you only sweat "a lot," instead of profusely.

It all boils down to people being too stingy to pay for it - air conditioning units were for sale at the stores all over Europe.

[GentillyGirl]

Good for you Perfessor!

Maybe we can get Dirty Coast to make the berets for our Army. It'll raise some funds.

[Alan Gutierrez]

How do we communicate with America? It gets harder don't you think? When Lakeview residents talk about closing the mouth of the Mississippi, we're really losing a sense loyalty to the Union.

[Cousin Pat from Georgia]

One of the cats down at Juan's already got a copyright and started making t-shirts (in red) of a logo very similar to this.

Tho the face was different...

http://www.myspace.com/razorink

[Carmen]

Gaaaahhhh. I forgot that the Misinformation Act gets disseminated internationally until I read your post. Small wonder our tourism is down. I haven't heard so much as an Australian since the levees "broke".

Then again, I don't like Australians. Glass half full again.

[bigshot]

And now there's a pro-Bobbly Jindal group that has similarly adopted Che as their own... http://www.theind.com/blog/2007/06/bobby-jindal-meets-che-guevara.asp

[KamaAina]

"Bobbly" Jindal? Typo -- or fiendishly Freudian new nickname??

Jindal-as-Che is without a doubt the weirdest thing I've heard since the "Third Position" with its slogan "Hitler and Mao united in struggle". (Really.)

[Cousin Pat from Georgia]

Any way you cut it, and any pic you look at...we need those hats.

[Alisha]

Did you even watch the 360 report? The trailers were just one part of the piece. Cooper also grilled a military engineer about the levees and pumps and addressed the need for proper burial of bodies. It's called "360" because he tries to look at events from all angles. He's been a committed to maintaining the memory of the NO disaster and attention on recovery efforts when the rest of the media has just moved on to whatever will bring them higher ratings. Maybe he's not perfect, but the hostility is deserved elsewhere.

[Carmen]

Poor Alisha. Let's hope she doesn't find the Huffington Post.
http://www.bobharris.com/content/view/1419/

I suppose if a network can't locate Afghanistan, it's too much to expect them to distinguish a floodgate from a pumping station. But the problems resulting from the Corps messing up one system are entirely different from the problems resulting from their messing up the other. By lowering floodgates knowing of potential design failures, their deeds become actionable. Isn't that the sort of thing a reporter ought be covering?

And, just for you, Ashley:
http://www.bobharris.com/content/view/1414/

[Mitraillette]

""A: "We have the richest people on Earth...also, we have some of the most evil. That's why New Orleans needs help from countries like Venezuela and Cuba.""

Dude, please tell me you are kidding. I see plenty of volunteers from Oregon or Massachusetts cleaning up houses, but I haven't met a single one from Venezeula helping out yet. The people of America have many faults, but in spite of all that they have donated a lot of private funding and time to this city.

And having lived here my entire life I can say with confidence that New Orleans is nothing like Dresden or Nagasaki - those people rebuilt on their own, and didn't whine so much.

[Cousin Pat]

Way off topic, but NO Saints are up for two ESPY awards: best moment and Drew Brees as best NFL player. Did you already mention this?

http://espn.go.com/espy2007/#/vote/

[ashley]

"New Orleans is nothing like Dresden or Nagasaki - those people rebuilt on their own"

I guess you didn't pay attention in history class when they were discussing the Marshall plan, huh?

And you must not go to the same places I do, because I have met Venezuelans helping out.

[ashley]

Alisha, I did watch it, and I even spoke to AC when I saw him at the march.

Me:"So why aren't you guys covering us all the time?"

AC:"We only cover what's news"

And no matter how much you fawn over him, he won't turn straight for you, or anybody.

[Mitraillette]

"I guess you didn't pay attention in history class when they were discussing the Marshall plan, huh?"

Yeah, but I don't think they crawled out of the post-war era because of the Marshall Plan, I think they did so because they were hard-working, organized, and didn't rely on the government to rescue them. But that is just an opinion. We all have different ones.

I've still never seen a Venezuelan. Other than Americans, I've only seen Mexicans here.

[Marco]

They're actually Venezuelans disguised as Mexicans. You can spot them by the arepas in their back pockets. Chavez sent them in under cover of nite in those landing craft like the ones used at Normandy. They didn't want his oil so he sent people.

[Marco]

And what about those punta-crazed Hondurans?

[Ray]

Not to fuck up a good thread with some facts, but Dresden was in East Germany and thus didn't receive Marshall Plan funds since the USSR rejected the offer as meddlesome Western imperialism. (Sound familiar? Yet another thing Bush has in common with Stalin.)

And they're still rebuilding Dresden, even now. The frickin' Frauenkirche wasn't finished until 2005, using donations from outside the country, since the government is cash-strapped.

But I really don't get how somebody can say "they rebuilt themselves, without complaining". I mean, were you there? For all we know they incessantly bitched up a storm. They just didn't blog about it, being commies and all.

[natural]

Alisha,

"Grilled?"

Get your head out of the sand. Anderson let Colonel Bedey lie to him for nearly the entire segment. Read my blog and maybe you'll understand how inadequate the national coverage truly is.

Matt
http://fixthepumps.blogspot.com