"Robbing from Peter to pay Paul"

By Remy Benoit

It is 17 months since Katrina and the Gulf Coast, including New Orleans, the Crescent City Jewel, are hurting. Levees, well designed, in place, are the key to the security of this great port city. Yet the new 'plan' calls for moving $$ from one levee project to another, leaving them as usual, well, let's politely say, 'half done.' Anyone who knows anything about the power of water, knows better. Visit Levees.org.

From NOLA, The Times Picayune, and Sheila Grissett Details of Bush levee budget revealed
East bank dollars siphoned across river.

This is the same kind of thinking that sends soldiers into combat without the proper equipment, letting them buy their own, if they can; it is the same kind of thinking that makes Veterans by the thousands and does not fund their care. It is the same kind of thinking that has wasted billions in Iraq. It is the same kind of thinking that makes an 'entrance plan' but not an exit one.

From CNN Truck bomb kills more than 100 in Baghdad market.

From CNN Top Iraqi Shiite: Sectarian bloodshed aids agitators.

We need a new kind of rational thinking.

Thursday night, tornadoes ate parts of Florida, including The Villages, where some dear friends just moved. Can't get through on the phone, so if anyone has spoken with Al and Lourdes, please get back to me. I am very concerned for them.

From CNN Federal aid sought after Florida's ferocious storms.

The news reports say that FEMA trailers are on their way to the damaged areas. Be aware, that FEMA trailers cannot be occupied until they are hooked up to power and water sources. That will not happen over night. Perhaps it is time to give thought to a national catastrophic insurance fund.

Many people are not aware that many people in Florida are still living under the infamous 'blue roofs' from pre-Katrina hurricanes. Doesn't say much for homeland security now does it?

Anyone given any thought to a new Civilian Conservation Corps; a new Works Projects Administration for disaster areas which just keep piling up on us? Hey, would love to see the historians, like Doug Brinkley The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. continue this story as it unfolds, wrinkles, turns back on itself, and goes nowhere fast. Bobby Jindal wants Kathy Blanco's job. We want the Gulf Coast made right. Anybody out there ready to just do it?

We don't see the wounded and dead come home from Iraq and Afghanistan. We don't see anymore pictures of the Gulf Coast in ruins. We see mass media hyping this actor, this tart, this whatever. Maybe some real news...maybe individual papers and stations not owned by a few big corporations is the answer to the news; the answer to mobilizing this country behind itself when it sees, for true, as they say, those without jobs, without homes; when they see the growing gap between the economic groups, when they see our schools, our children, our Veterans, and our cities totally left behind.


From the AP and MSNBC $3T Bush budget to trim domestic programs Monday plan to kick off major debate with Democratic-controlled Congress.

Visit Louisiana Speaks. and speak out.

Coming soon, a taste of the wonder of Louisiana from Pelican Press Louisiana in Words. It was great fun writing it; it will be soul touching reading it! Join us.

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