http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0902-32.htm

Published on Friday, September 2, 2005 by CommonDreams.org

Bush Strafes New Orleans, Where's Huey Long?
by Greg Palast

The National Public Radio news anchor was so excited I thought she'd piss on herself: the President of the United had flown his plane down to 1700 feet to get a better look at the flood damage! And there was a photo of our Commander-in-Chief taken looking out the window. He looked very serious and concerned.

That was yesterday. Today he played golf. No kidding.

I'm sure the people of New Orleans would have liked to show their appreciation for the official Presidential photo-strafing, but their surface-to-air missiles were wet.

There is nothing new under the sun. In 1927, a Republican President had his photo taken as the Mississippi rolled over New Orleans. Calvin Coolidge, "a little fat man with a notebook in his hand," promised to rebuild the state. He didn't. Instead, he left to play golf with Ken Lay or the Ken Lay railroad baron equivalent of his day.

In 1927, the Democratic Party had died and was awaiting burial. As depression approached, the coma-Dems, like Franklin Roosevelt, called for balancing the budget.

Then, as the waters rose, one politician finally said, roughly, "Screw this! They're lying! The President's lying! The rich fat cats that are drowning you will do it again and again and again. They lead you into imperialist wars for profit, they take away your schools and your hope and when you complain, they blame Blacks and Jews and immigrants. Then they push your kids under. I say, Kick'm in the ass and take your rightful share!"

Huey Long laid out a plan: a progressive income tax, real money for education, public works to rebuild Louisiana and America, an end to wars for empire, and an end to financial oligarchy. The waters receded, the anger did not, and Huey "Kingfish" Long was elected Governor of Louisiana in 1928.

At the time, Louisiana schools were free, but not the textbooks. Governor Long taxed Big Oil to pay for the books. Rockefeller's oil companies refused pay the textbook tax, so Long ordered the National Guard to seize Standard Oil's fields in the Delta.

Huey Long was called a "demagogue" and a "dictator." Of course. Because it was Huey Long who established the concept that a government of the people must protect the people, school, house, and feed them and give every man or woman a job who needs one.

Government, he said, "We The People," not plutocrats nor Halliburtons, must build bridges and levies to keep the waters from rising over our heads. All we had to do was share the nation's wealth we created as a nation. But that meant facing down what he called the "concentrations of monopoly power" to finance the needs of the public.

In other words, Huey Long founded the modern Democratic Party. Franklin Roosevelt and the party establishment, scared senseless of Long's ineluctable march to the White House, adopted his program, called it the New Deal, and later The New Frontier and the Great Society.

America and the party prospered.

America could use a Democratic Party again and there's a rumor it's alive -- somewhere.

And now is the moment, as it was in '27. As the bodies float in the streets of New Orleans, now is not the time for the Democrats to shirk and slink away, bleating they can't "politicize" this avoidable disaster.


See Link at top of page for rest of story.

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Oh, that's a very interesting article. The Huey P Long bridge outside of New Orleans is well known, but I didn't know about the guy it was named after.

Keep in mind that the above is, shall we say, a slightly skewed version of Mr. Long, deliberately done so because most writers from commomndreams can't make an argument not based on half truths and lies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huey_Long

There was a TV biopic made several years ago - I think it starred John Goodman - but I don't know how accurate it is.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113550/combined

Keep in mind that the above is, shall we say, a slightly skewed version of Mr. Long, deliberately done so because most writers from commomndreams can't make an argument not based on half truths and lies.
I took the story with a grain of salt, but that Wikipedia article does seem to be in line with the news article.

Read a little more about Mr. Long's political corruption, his violations of the Louisiana Constitution, and so forth. Long's political machine was corrupt, and did control the state in a manner akin to a dictatorship.

But hey, I understand that if he "taxed" the rich it doesn't matter to you if what he did was legal or ethical.

Huey Long was quite a colorful character, and not apparently much concerned with ethics, or legality, or even common decency. The story I remember about him is a time when, drunk, he attempted to pee between the legs of a taller man using a urinal.

But hey, I understand that if he "taxed" the rich it doesn't matter to you if what he did was legal or ethical.
I don't see what this has to do with the thread whatsoever, but I'll play. :)

I think I've made it rather clear that I only intend on doing what I think is ethical at all times, so I'm not sure where you came up with the idea that I somehow support unethical things. I think that not taxing the rich much more than the poor is unethical, for example.

And when have I expressed support for breaking laws? Granted, I think there are plenty of problems with many of our laws, but for the most part, I'm definitely a reformer and think we need to work within our current framework.

But if thinking of me as some unethical heathenous law-breaking beast makes it easier for you to think ill of me, then by all means, wallow in your negativity.

Rather than starting another thread, just thought I'd drop this in here. Local mafia running things in the Superdome!?!?! Pitiful, as if no one had ever considered what to do in the event of major calamities, complete lack of preparation, to me unacceptable from our government.


Published on Saturday, September 3, 2005 by the lndependent/UK
'A Scene from Mad Max': Britons Reveal Horror of the Superdome
by Matthew Beard


A young Briton trapped with his fiancée in the stadium telephoned his father yesterday and pleaded to be rescued, saying that they were in "dreadful danger".

Mark Graydon, 26, had described to his father John Graydon how the stadium, a makeshift home to about 30,000 evacuees from the hurricane, including a group of about 30 Britons, was being run by local mafia. He said that his American fiancée, Gretchen Heiserman, had been threatened with rape.

"He told me he was very concerned about his life and his girlfriend's" said John Graydon from Stanford-le-Hope in Essex, "He said: 'Dad, you have to get us out of here'. He is desperate. They are being seriously intimidated."

Mr Graydon's father added: "He and Gretchen are surrounded by bullies, the local mafia * huge threatening men who seem to have taken over the running of the place. There are rumors a couple of women have been raped and he is scared for Gretchen. It's like a scene from Mad Max in there. One man has been beaten up brutally. There are also reports of bodies inside."

Marisa Haigh, 23, a student from Guildford in Surrey, had managed to contact her parents to tell them that she had been told by the US authorities she would soon be evacuated. She described how conditions were "appalling" .

But last night the New Orleans Superdome was all but emptied of people as the thousands who had been forced to spend the past week huddled in festering conditions were put on to buses and driven out of the city.

They left behind a scene unimaginable to anyone who had previously visited the Dome, or indeed any other sports stadium. Noxious, flooded and littered with endless piles of debris, it was obvious how unpleasant the past week must have been.

Upon entering the doors, one was greeted with a toxic blast of air, but inside it was far worse.

Others told of violence, fights, and sexual assaults * even one man who committed suicide. "There has been no medicine for anyone", said Iiesha Rousell.

Yesterday afternoon people were crowded under the blazing sun as members of the National Guard escorted them on to coaches outside the building.

Meanwhile, in Baton Rouge, Teresa Cherrie, 42, from Renfrew in Scotland, telephoned her daughter, Nicola Cherrie, 21, to tell her she was alive, but stuck on a roof with 10 other refugees, and had had to resort to looting in order to eat. Her daughter said: "She said they had a tin of ravioli and a packet of biscuits for their dinner tonight. They've had to loot supermarkets for food and scavenge what they can."

The Foreign Office said they had sent a team to Houston to help British embassy staff to identify Britons who had been evacuated from New Orleans.

© 2005 Independent News & Media (UK) Ltd.

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jbphburg, "local mafia" is just his cultural ignorance showing (unless he was just making a comparison, but it doesn't really show in the article.) Since most of the people in the Superdome were poor blacks, I don't doubt that many of them were also from the projects which are notoriously filled with people who take their wards (or local areas of the city) very seriously (essentially gangs from different neighborhoods.)

The streets of New Orleans are very dangerous, and those that were left in the city were some of the most dangerous, and I definitely don't doubt that the Superdome was a scary scary place. I was definitely in sketchy sitations once and awhile in New Orleans. I'm sure the whole spectacle was quite eye-opening for the tourists that are mostly used to seeing just the French Quarter and the Aquarium of the Americas (speaking of which, I hope someone is taking care of the animals.)