CNN just ran a story about Kenner, Louisiana. The town is a New Orleans suburb that was damaged by Katrina, but not to the point of being uninhabitable. Except for one area.
The city has a sizable Hispanic population. According to the report, the mayor, Phil Capitano, has refused to open a shelter to house people living in one area of the city. The Hispanic area. It is also the only area where the power has not been turned on, and apparently, according to the CNN report, by the order of the mayor. The police chief,who was interviewed said that there was no reason he knew of why it could not be turned on. They even showed a confrontation between the police chief (who is one of the good guys, but doesn't have the final say on anything) and an angry resident about racism. The CNN report made it pretty clear: Pure and simple, the mayor wants a 'whites only' town. In fact, he has now ordered all of the Hispanic residents forcibly removed to another town 50 miles away (his excuse is so they can avoid Rita-- keep in mind that they all stayed during Katrina).
So, I did a little digging. I found on this site. According to the lead story,
La. officials probes pilfered donations
9/18/2005, 7:39 p.m. CT
By MICHAEL RUBINKAM
The Associated Press
KENNER, La. (AP) — Officials are responding to complaints that city workers helped themselves to cases of Gatorade, brand-new clothing and other donated items that were intended for victims of Hurricane Katrina.
This town is evil.
It's also an "excuse" (opportunity actually) to create libertarian heaven in America (since we're not doing so well trying to create it in Iraq).
ReplyDeleteHow? Besides suspending the prevailing wage laws - something the libertarian tail that wags the GOP has been trying to do for decades, the Bush administration is also waiving some affirmative action requirements for reconstruction contractors.
The Republicans in Congress are reportedly planning to pass legislation to
limit victim's rights to sue,
introduce vouchers for schools,
eliminate environmental protection laws,
and give tax breaks to companies working in the reconstruction areas.
And that's just the beginning - Rove's in charge of reconstruction.