Harry Shearer's excellent piece on the Obama administration's neglect of post Katrina New Orleans

[rudy23]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/harry-shearer/playing-the-inside-game_b_266746.html

Harry Shearer wrote an outstanding piece yesterday about his frustration with the Obama administration's lack of attention to the rebuilding of New Orleans. He talks about being given the runaround as he tries to talk about post-Katrina N.O. with the people Obama has put on the case:

"...Some days later, an aide with the real-sounding name of "David Washington" called me on the best-quality telephone connection I've ever heard. He asked me to explain my position, which was, in a nutshell, that the stimulus package had included zero money for coastal restoration or stronger hurricane protection, even while the Corps of Engineers announced it was adopting a "technically not superior" approach to part of the new system because of lack of money. I suggested that this situation was irksome to people for whom "technically not superior" did not live up to promises of rebuilding better. Mr. Washington listened, and said he'd have somebody who knew more about all this get back to me. Progress.

Except... that somebody turned out to be a legislative liaison person for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. I had called to complain about a robbery in progress, and they had connected me with the P.R. woman for the robbers.

<snip>

Near the end of the conference, I relate this tale to an acquaintance wise -- or at least schooled -- in the ways of media and politics. I say I might try one more time to reach out to Axelrod himself. "Don't bother with Rahm Emanuel or Axelrod," he advised. Why? "Their only interest in all of this is destroying Bobby" -- a reference to the state's fast-talking Republican governor and possible 2012 Presidential candidate Bobby Jindal.

"You mean, the same way that the Bush crowd only cared about destroying Kathleen Blanco?" I asked. His smile was part-rueful, part-"It's never too late to get wise, bud".

<snip>

[babylonsister]

1. Except for this...

http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/08/obama_keeps_close_tabs_on_new.html

snip//

Obama hasn't been back to New Orleans since, nor, in the seven months of his presidency, has he turned his oratorical gifts more than fleetingly to the continuing struggle to bring the city back from the brink. Unlike his sweeping pronouncements at Tulane in 2008, his approach to recovery along the Gulf Coast as president has not been one of bold strokes or grand gestures.

But his administration has shown a dogged dedication to bending the federal bureaucracy in what Flozell Daniels Jr., president and CEO of the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation, describes as a "kinder, gentler" direction.

With "federal agencies finally working as partners and not adversaries, " Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-LA, said, "in its first seven months, the Obama Administration has made significant progress toward making the Gulf Coast recovery effort quicker and more efficient."

"I would say what they have demonstrated in this first year is a low-key but genuine commitment to accelerate the business of recovery, " said Amy Liu, deputy director of the Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program, which publishes an annual New Orleans Index, detailing the city's progress since Katrina.

Or as the president put it in an Oval Office interview in advance of the fourth anniversary, of Katrina: "In terms of rebuilding, two of my best Cabinet members, Secretary Napolitano of Homeland Security and HUD Secretary Donovan, have been spending an extraordinary amount of time thinking about how to deal with the blockage of assistance in the region."

"As a consequence of their efforts, " the president said, "we have already seen a billion dollars that had already been appropriated, but was stuck, now released. Projects like Southern University of New Orleans now getting million of dollars for reconstruction. Schools, they are now getting the help they need, police departments, fire departments, infrastructure projects finally getting on line."

Obama may have not visited New Orleans as president -- though he says he will by year's end -- but in the first six months of his term, half his Cabinet has visited the Gulf Coast, with 19 senior administration officials making a total of 30 trips to the coast, 20 to Louisiana.

And so Zach Rosenburg, co-founder and CEO of the St. Bernard Project, which is helping homeowners rebuild their homes, said he recently found himself spending four or five hours with HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan discussing ways to expedite reconstruction efforts.

"There seems to be a sense of light and doing right that was not there before, " said Pam Dasheill, co-director of the Lower 9th Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development. "For me there's a trust that's never been there before, a sense that somebody has our back."

In the view of Paul Rainwater, who as the executive director of the Louisiana Recovery Authority is the state's chief hurricane recovery adviser, the Obama administration has exhibited an understanding of something fundamental about Hurricane Katrina that the Bush administration never did: that this was not another disaster, but a catastrophe beyond "anything anybody's ever seen before."

"They appreciate that recovery is recovery and that it doesn't always fit into a nice, neat package of rules, it's a messy business, and it's tough, and if you really want people to come back you have to look at it in a different way, " he said.

more...

[redqueen]

2. Thank you. (nt)

[stray cat]

3. How much damage over 8 years can you reverse in 6 months?