Film shows how North profited from slavery
JOANNE OSTROW; The Denver Post
Last updated: June 23rd, 2008 01:23 AM (PDT)
Katrina Browne’s wealthy Rhode Island clan has a secret. The well-mannered Yankees would rather not speak of it, but their forefathers were perhaps America’s biggest slave-trading dynasty.
After introducing her ancestors via distinguished-looking oil paintings in the family mansion, now a museum, Browne sets out to retrace the physical route and the rocky emotional terrain of how her forefathers built their fortune.
The journey – from tearful soul-searching to squirming at the dinner table when confronted with the family’s obvious elitism – makes for a stunning documentary.
“Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North,” airing Tuesday on PBS’ “P.O.V.,” is eye-opening and important, digging deeper than what may be comfortable into what stands in the way of race relations in this country.
The filmmaker, Browne, is a seventh-generation descendant of Mark Anthony DeWolf, the family’s first slave trader. From 1769 to 1820, the DeWolfs trafficked in human beings as part of what was know as the “Triangle Trade.”
They sailed their ships from Bristol, R.I., to West Africa with rum to trade for African men, women and children. Captives were taken to plantations that the DeWolfs owned in Cuba or were sold at auction in Havana or Charleston, S.C. The proceeds bought sugar and molasses in Cuba, which were shipped to the family-owned rum distilleries in Bristol.
Rum traded for slaves, slaves traded for sugar, sugar used to make rum.
Over the generations, the family owned 47 ships that transported thousands of chained Africans across the Middle Passage into slavery. By the end of his life, James DeWolf was reportedly the second-richest man in the United States. He was also a U.S. senator who was granted political appointments and other favors from none other than Thomas Jefferson.
The film upends stereotypical notions about the American North fighting for abolition while slaves toiled away down South. Browne documents how crucial the slave trade was to New England for more than 200 years.
Individual homes may have acquired one or two slaves, as opposed to the masses on plantations in the South, but the textile mills, banks and insurance companies in the North were built on profits from the slave trade.
The documentary, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah, follows 10 of DeWolf’s descendants (ages 32-71, ranging from sisters to seventh cousins) as they retrace the steps of the Triangle Trade: the DeWolf mansion in Bristol, slave forts on the coast of Ghana and the ruins of a family plantation in Cuba.
Family archives document various trades: In one entry, nine slaves (one woman and eight men) were swapped for “tobacco, rum, hats, bread, mackerel.” James DeWolf once gave his wife two African children, a boy and a girl, as a Christmas present.
Back home, Browne delves into questions of repair: How do the sins of the fathers weigh on the sons and daughters; what should be done about it? Are financial reparations due, and what spiritual/emotional work is owed, as well?
The film was nine years in the making and ought to spark conversations on race for at least that long. “Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North” airs as part of “P.O.V.”
When: 10 p.m. Tuesday
Where: KCTS, Channel 9
Monday, June 23, 2008
P.O.V.: Traces of the Trade | PBS
Thursday, June 12, 2008
FEMA gives away $85 million of supplies for Katrina victims
From Abbie Boudreau and Scott Zamost
CNN Special Investigations Unit
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- FEMA gave away about $85 million in household goods meant for Hurricane Katrina victims, a CNN investigation has found.
The material, from basic kitchen goods to sleeping necessities, sat in warehouses for two years before the Federal Emergency Management Agency's giveaway to federal and state agencies this year.
James McIntyre, FEMA's acting press secretary, said that FEMA was spending more than $1 million a year to store the material and that another agency wanted the warehouses torn down, so "we needed to vacate them."
"Upon review of our assets and our need to continue to store them, we determined that they were excess to FEMA's needs; therefore, they are being excessed from FEMA's inventory," McIntyre wrote in an e-mail.
He declined a request for an on-camera interview, telling CNN the giveaway was "not news."
Photos from one of the facilities in Fort Worth, Texas, show pallet after pallet of cots, cleansers, first-aid kits, coffee makers, camp stoves and other items stacked to the ceiling. Watch dismay over "out of touch" FEMA »
FEMA said some of the items were donations from companies after Katrina, but most were purchased in the field as "starter kits" for people living in trailers provided by the agency. And even though the stocks were offered to state agencies after FEMA decided to get rid of them, one of the states that passed was Louisiana.
Martha Kegel, the head of a New Orleans nonprofit agency that helps find homes for those still displaced by the storm, said she was shocked to learn about the existence of the goods and the government giveaway.
"These are exactly the items that we are desperately seeking donations of right now: basic kitchen household supplies," said Kegel, executive director of Unity of Greater New Orleans. "These are the very things that we are seeking right now. FEMA, in fact, refers homeless clients to us to house them. How can we house them if we don't have basic supplies?" Watch the great FEMA giveaway »
Kegel's group works with FEMA and other local organizations to rehouse victims of Katrina, the 2005 hurricane that flooded New Orleans and killed more than 1,800 people along the Gulf Coast. Community groups say thousands of people are still living in abandoned buildings in the city, though fewer than 100 people remain housed in tents.
Kegel said FEMA was told in regular meetings that Unity was desperate for household supplies and that the group has been forced to beg for donations. But she said FEMA never told Unity and other community groups that it had tens of millions of dollars worth of brand-new items meant for storm victims.
She said she learned of it from CNN, which found that those items never made it to people such as Debra Reed.
"An honest person like me didn't get nothing," said Reed, 54, who recently moved from a tent beneath a New Orleans bridge to a home with the help of Kegel's group. "I'm gonna turn, 'cause I'm gonna cry. I didn't get nothing. I fought to get my money, but they wouldn't give it to me. So I ended up going under the bridge."
FEMA confirmed that it had kept the merchandise in storage for the past two years and then gave it away to cities, schools, fire departments and nonprofit agencies such as food banks. In all, General Services Administration records show, FEMA gave away 121 truckloads of material.
McIntyre said that most of the items given away were not "standard-issue type supplies" that FEMA would have distributed after other disasters. He said that using the GSA, which manages federal property, to get rid of those stockpiles was "standard process."
Asked whether FEMA believed that Katrina victims no longer needed the items, McIntyre wrote: "If the state did not request the supplies, then FEMA would not know." Watch Kegel describe "the needs are just overwhelming" »
Pallets at the Fort Worth warehouse were piled high with boxes of buckets, boots, cleansers, mops and brooms. There were stacks of tents, lanterns and camp stoves for people still displaced, as well as clothing, bedding, plates and utensils.
Meanwhile, Kegel said, Unity's clients can take only "one fork, one spoon, one knife; they can only take one plate. We don't have enough to go around."
But FEMA said the items were no longer needed in the stricken region. So it declared them "federal surplus" and gave them away.
Federal agencies such as the Bureau of Prisons, Postal Service and Border Patrol got first dibs on the material when FEMA started giving it away. Other agencies that received items include the National Guard, U.S. Marshals Service, the Air Force and Navy and the departments of Agriculture, Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security, according to a list the GSA provided to CNN.
These items also were offered to all states -- yet Louisiana, where most of the people displaced by the storm live, passed on taking any of them.
John Medica, director of the Louisiana Federal Property Assistance Agency in Baton Rouge, said he was unaware that Katrina victims still had a need for the household supplies.
"We didn't have anybody out there who told us they wanted it," Medica said.
Instead, 16 other states took the free items.
"Louisiana Recovery Authority Director Paul Rainwater is taking the lead on determing where this serious breakdown in communication occured and ... is working to pursue options for the state to still make use of these important supplies," said Michael DiResto of the Division of Administration.
DiResto said Rainwater has already taken up the issue with a FEMA official.
Kegel said she could not understand how Medica could not be aware of the need in the New Orleans area.
She said she had not heard of the agency and was not registered with them, but after CNN's interview, the agency contacted her about registering Unity of Greater New Orleans so it could qualify for available supplies in the future.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Catholic Priest rips Fox News a new one
Looks like Fox News thought they were going to embarass Obama supporter Father Michael Pfleger, by sending out one of their henchmen to ambush him over his ties to and support of Barack Obama. Instead they got their tiny, little bigoted and ignorant heads handed to them.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
The NEW JESSE VENTURA EXPOUNDS ON THE TRUTH
JESSE should run for independent president 2008 he would smoke everyone else if he was allowed to debate. Listen to his messages as he confounds Donny DOUCHE!
Donny asked Jesse why we cannot find Bin Laden if you remember Bush said he no longer CARED about BIN LADEN!
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
1 Media Outlet is Just Now Reporting on the Poisoned Katrina Trailers Issue
OBM: I guess the chocking, headaches, and other side effects that the people have been experiencing all this time isn't really important. Really there just refugees...remember.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
City of New Orleans Starts Demolition of Public Housing
Thu, 13 Dec 2007 03:41:03
Posted by mcarr December 12, 2007 09:35AM
Demolition crews this afternoon began tearing down 14 brick buildings at the B.W. Cooper public housing development -- work that had been scheduled long before Hurricane Katrina struck two years ago.
That meant nothing to protesters who tried to block a second crane that arrived to the 3400 block of Erato Street after 3 p.m., chanting "Housing is a human right."
"This is immoral and must be stopped," said Don Everard, an activist who stood right in front of the wrecking crew's path. "It's a hate crime. It's a hate crime against poor people."
Attorney Bill Quigley, a Loyola Law School professor who is leading a civil rights lawsuit against the demolition of public housing, said that more protests will follow the wrecking crews, which are set to descend on Cooper and two other complexes Saturday.
"At least," said Quigley, eyeing the scores of protesters, which included members of Safe Streets New Orleans.
Known as the "new side" to Cooper residents, the flat-topped dormitory-style buildings were opened around 1950 and were designed much differently than the handsome pitched-roof style buildings that flank Earhart Bouelvard.
With open, common-use hallways, the buildings became crime havens, said B.W. Cooper Resident Management Corporation president Darrell Williams.
"They were never upgraded," said Williams. "The criminal element was always present. We welcomed those being torn down."
Sharon Sears Jasper, who lived at the St. Bernard complex before the storm forced her out, held a bullhorn and led protesters to condemn the demolition. By 6 p.m., a crowd of about 500 protesters had winnowed down to around 200, and backhoes had been silent since about 3 p.m. The crowd was a mix of residents with small children, and seasoned protestors who alternated chanting into a bullhorn.
In June, the Housing Authority of New Orleans and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced they would demolish the city's four largest developments -- B.W. Cooper, St. Bernard, C.J. Peete and Lafitte, to make way for "mixed income" modern-day housing.
Demolition on all sites except Lafitte is scheduled for Saturday
Monday, December 10, 2007
AT&T saying good-bye to its last pay phones
By Jon Van and Wailin Wong
Tribune staff reporters
December 4, 2007
After years of seeing its public pay-phone business migrate to cell phones, AT&T Inc. said Monday that it will phase out its pay phones in Illinois and 12 other states by the end of 2008.
While AT&T's decision doesn't mean the end of the pay phone -- independent firms still will offer the service -- public phones will become even more difficult to find.
The days when pay phones were stationed on nearly every busy street corner ended a decade ago. In 1998, there were an estimated 2.6 million pay phones operating nationwide, a figure that has declined to 1 million today, according to AT&T. About 250 million cell phones are in use in the United States.
The trend has been obvious for a long time. A decade ago, Ameritech Corp., the Chicago-based phone company that was dominant in the five Great Lakes states, tried to sell its pay-phone business, which included about 70,000 pay phones in Illinois, but failed to make a deal. When Ameritech was taken over by SBC Communications Inc., SBC executives also shopped around the pay-phone business and found no takers.
The company, now operating under the name AT&T, has been phasing out pay phones and is down to 9,000 in Illinois. That is fewer than the 11,000 pay phones in the state that are operated by about 50 independent firms.
AT&T will walk away from the pay-phone business, turning phones over to independent pay-phone companies in some cases and taking out the phones altogether in others.
"We expect that independent providers will pick up much of this business," said David Huntley, AT&T senior vice president for customer information services.
These days there are no visible pay phones along Michigan Avenue from the Chicago River to Ontario Street. The closest phones are on Ontario at LaSalle Street and are owned by Schaumburg-based Express Telephone Systems, a five-employee outfit that operates roughly 600 public phones in Chicago and Milwaukee, according to company President Mike Simon.
Simon said pay phones remain important for public safety, especially in emergency situations when cell phone networks suffer major disruptions or overloads, like on Sept. 11.
OBM: Ok I thought local utilities were suposed to serve the local public??? That's suposed to be apart of of their exscluive city deal. Also...should the pay phones in lower income areas not still be maintained??? OH...I forgot...low income people are not citizens. Privet companies will not maintain the few phones properly because they are under no regulation. Are pay phones important for public safety, especially in emergency situations when cell phone networks suffer major disruptions or overloads, like on Sept. 11 & Katrina. Ok so during desaster or trouble we "the phone company" will assure there are few or no working pay phones, we will turn off cell towers and disable cell phones, but you can gladly take our RFID Tracking Arm band for your processing & safety....
AT&T RFID Tracking
"We're just trying to survive and provide a good service I think is necessary," Simon said.
He acknowledged that the boom in cell phones has caused pay-phone traffic to drop off sharply, but Simon said the real culprit is the growth of toll-free dialing. Simon estimates that 70 percent of calls made from pay phones and 80 percent of call time are toll-free calls. On his pay phones, it costs 50 cents to make a 10-minute local call.
In exiting the business, AT&T is following a path taken by BellSouth Corp., which quit operating pay phones several years ago. When that happened, independent operators took over many of the phones, said Michael Ward, an attorney for the Illinois Public Telephone Association.
"BellSouth's exit helped the independents," said Ward. "The business has been difficult for incumbents and independent operators."
Because most people carry a cell phone in a pocket or purse, few bother with putting 50 cents into a public phone to make a local call. Five years ago, AT&T stopped allowing people to make long-distance calls from pay phones using coins, requiring that they use a credit card instead.
Ward said that much pay-phone traffic these days comes from people whose cell phone batteries have gone dead or who are getting poor reception, as well as from people who don't own cell phones.
"The industry has suffered from some bad public policies," Ward said. "Some municipalities wanted them removed because city officials wrongly associate pay phones with crime. We've argued that if there's crime on a street corner, don't tear out the phone, put in a video camera."
AT&T's decision will affect some 65,000 pay phones the company operates in 13 states, said Chris Comes, a company spokesman based in Chicago.
Qwest Communications International Inc., the one-time Bell company based in Denver, also has left the pay-phone business, leaving only New York-based Verizon Communications Inc. as the only large U.S. telecommunications carrier that maintains a pay-phone business.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Democracy Now! Report: BUSH Plans to Demolish 4,500 Public Housing
Republican Congressman Richard Baker
The Bush administration has given the Housing Authority of New Orleans the go ahead to demolish the city’s four largest public housing complexes. The Department of Housing and Urban Development approved the demolition of the 4,500 housing units on Friday. Democratic Seantor Mary Landrieu criticized the ruling but other lawmakers have endorsed such moves. Shortly after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, Republican Congressman Richard Baker said: “We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn’t do it but God did.”
OBM: Remember .....most of these units were not flooded or damaged by the storm. The residents have been trying to get back into their homes since the storm ended. Fences have been used to prevent the residents from entering their homes allowing the apartments to go un-kept and with out maintenance or utilities. There is no honest reason for this to be happening. The so-called media has not and are not reporting this government & corporate theft. Someone please get a mesg. to Al Sharpton & Jesse we desperately need to march in New Orleans to shut this down.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
The Privatization of New Orleans: Curtis Muhammad on Tycoons, Trump and Gulf Coast Oil
Curtis Muhammad is giving up on the United States
Part 1
Part 2
Fight to Reopen New Orleans Public Housing "Horrible Slow and Tragic"
Tracie Washington about the fight over housing in NO
Part 1
Part 2
Sunday, September 02, 2007
The Danziger Bridge Killings: How New Orleans Police Gunned Down Civilians Fleeing the Flood
Download & watch - realplayer needed
Seven police officers been indicted for opening fire on two African American families on the Danziger Bridge days after the storm, killing two people and wounding four others. At the time, the official story was that they gunned down snipers. Now the question is why they shot at two families fleeing the flood.
Jailed in New Orleans Two Weeks Before Katrina, Fmr. Corrections Officer Held for Four Months Without Charge
Download & Watch - realplayer needed
Roderick Dean, a former corrections officer, recounts his harrowing ordeal two years ago when he was arrested and jailed without charge on August 11, 2005 - two weeks before Hurricane Katrina. When the storm hit, Dean was in New Orleans Parish Prison where he narrowly escaped drowning after the jail flooded. He was never charged and released four months later.
Friday, May 11, 2007
FEMA provides toxic trailers for Katrina Suvivors
By Guest Blogger
Posted on May 10, 2007, Printed on May 11, 2007
www.alternet.org
This is a guest post from Josh Dorner of the Sierra Club.
We know the Bush administration must just have a serious case of amnesia about Hurricane Katrina, right? I mean, the only other explanation for failing to keep their promises to rebuild New Orleans would be sheer incompetence and a total lack of compassion for humanity in general. FEMA seems to have a particularly intractable case, as they keep sending their toxic trailers to disaster victims far and wide.
As air tests conducted by the Sierra Club found out over a year ago, the levels of the chemical formaldehyde in the air inside FEMA's toxic tin cans are through the roof. In fact, levels were on average AT LEAST THREE TIMES higher than the levels the Environmental Protection Agency concedes will make people sick.
Subsequent tests by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration found formaldehyde levels as much as FIFTY TIMES higher than the EPA's "elevated" limit. And wouldn't you know it, the storm-addled folks housed in these trailers immediately began complaining of watery eyes, burning in the eyes and throat, sinus infections, nausea, and respiratory distress. Only FEMA could spend billions of dollars on brand new trailers for disaster victims that were unfit for human habitation.
And what did FEMA have to say at the time? No worries, they're safe!
Fast forward to this February -- despite continued warnings from the Sierra Club and others, FEMA begins trying to sell off the toxic trailers on the cheap in Hope, Arkansas of all places.
And now this week, just in time for FEMA to ship its carcinogen-spewing boxes to victims of the Kansas tornado, it released its own study on the trailers -- a study conducted due to Sierra Club pressure. While the study acknowledged the high levels of formaldehyde present in the trailers, its conclusion simply beggars belief. Did it call for getting trailers without high levels of toxic chemicals? NOPE! FEMA's suggestion for disaster victims: open a window!
Talk about the cure being worse than the disease. Who's going to save us from the folks trying to save us?
Friday, March 30, 2007
NRA: The Untold Story of Gun Confiscation After Katrina
Click on the UTUBE Link in the bottom right corner to watch video
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
INDICATIONS THE HURRICANE KATRINA DISASTER WAS PURPOSELY ALLOWED TO HAPPEN
| hurricane, katrina, new, orleans, conspiracy, martial law, gun, confiscation, search, warrant, | |
Prisoners of Katrina
| In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, while thousands fled New Orleans, the city's prisoners were trapped. Fresh eye-witness accounts reveal what really happened to those left behind, and how crucial forensic evidence was simply washed away. | |
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
What Really Happened at Danziger Bridge in New Orleans on September 4
Something Doesn't Add Up:
1. This story has seven cops arrested for shooting two black looters.
2. The only footage/images of the officers only include them being surounded by supporters.
3. Every...and I mean....EVERY!!! news report focuses on these cops being heros and not the details with this case.
4. A Mystery Helicopter
A civilian helicopter crashed next to the Danziger Bridge. That chopper was a Puma-321, a military type.
5. A Judge Is Jailing Seven Cops?
6. Too Many Story Versions
Ver 1: ---- Police had a confrontation with some mysterious security contractors, and shot five.
Ver 2---- Mystery gunman shot Army Corps of Engineers, and police killed the gunmen
Ver 3---Five looters shot at cops, so the cops killed them
Ver 4---Police shoot two looters
Here's the full text of the Associated Press article on something that happened at Danziger Bridge in New Orleans on September 4:
"Police shot and killed at least five people Sunday after gunmen opened fire on a group of contractors traveling across a bridge on their way to make repairs, authorities said.
Deputy Police Chief W.J. Riley said police shot at eight people carrying guns, killing five or six.
Fourteen contractors were traveling across the Danziger Bridge under police escort when they came under fire, said John Hall, a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers.
They were on their way to launch barges into Lake Pontchartrain to help plug the breech in the 17th Street Canal, Hall said.
None of the contractors was injured, Mike Rogers, a disaster relief coordinator with the Army Corps of Engineers, told reporters in Baton Rouge.
The bridge spans a canal connecting Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River.
No other details were immediately available."
This is a revision of the first version:
"Police shot eight people carrying guns on a New Orleans bridge Sunday, killing five or six, a deputy chief said. A spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers said the victims were contractors on their way to repair a canal.
The contractors were walking across a bridge on their way to launch barges into Lake Pontchartrain to fix the 17th Street Canal, said John Hall, a spokesman for the Corps.
Earlier Sunday, New Orleans Deputy Police Chief W.J. Riley said police shot at eight people, killing five or six.
The shootings took place on the Danziger Bridge, which spans a canal connecting Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River.
No other details were immediately available."
The Associated Press had severe second thoughts about the first version:
"Stations: The latest New Orleans-datelined urgent series Hurricane Katrina-Shootings has been KILLED. The Army Corps of Engineers says the contractors were shot at, then police fatally shot the gunmen who'd fired on the contractors. The contractors were NOT killed.
A kill is mandatory. Make certain the story is not broadcast.A sub will be filed shortly.AP Broadcast News Center - Washington"
The difference between the two AP stories is that one story has the police shooting and killing armed contractors, while the later story has them shooting and killing people who were shooting on armed contractors. A fairly significant change.
Reuters has what appears to be an even later version (or here) of the story:
"New Orleans police killed four looters who had opened fire on them on Sunday as rescue teams scoured homes and toxic waters flooding streets to find survivors and recover thousands of bloated corpses.
A fifth looter was in critical condition but no more details were available about the incident in a city where authorities are slowly regaining control after a wave of looting, murders and rapes in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
'Five men who were looting exchanged gunfire with police. The officers engaged the looters when they were fired upon,' said New Orleans superintendent of police, Steven Nichols.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers contractors working on a levee breach were fired on by gunmen but no one was hurt, said the Corps' Mike Rogers. It was not clear if the two incidents were connected."
So now it appears there were two incidents, one where U.S. Army Corps of Engineers contractors were fired upon but no one was hurt, and one with no contractors, where police killed looters who were firing at them. The incident appears to have been reported on Australian television, together with the sound of live gunfire.
Quite the story. It made a considerable impression on various right-wing bloggers, who felt it showed how these dangerous black looters were so evil that they were preventing repair of the levees in order to keep the city flooded so they could continue looting.
When you think about it, that theory seems to give the looters a degree of planning and organization which is not credible. It makes more sense that the police would get into a gunfight with looters, or even use the excuse of looters to explain why they killed a lot of people, but how then did the AP get the whole story so wrong - twice! - by adding the contractors to the mix?
Mystery Helicopter:
It was a big day at Danziger Bridge. Later in the day a helicopter crashed there. From USA Today (or here):
". . . in the evening, a civilian helicopter crashed near the Danziger Bridge, but the two people on board escaped with only cuts and scrapes, according to Mark Smith of the state office of emergency preparedness."
More, from CNN (more CNN here):
"On Sunday, a helicopter that had been involved in rescue operations crashed northwest of New Orleans.
No evacuees were on board the Eurocopter AS 332 Super Puma and the pilot and crew were rescued safely, according to an official with Helinet Aviation Services, which had a chopper flying above the crash site."
More, again from the AP:
"A civilian helicopter that was not involved in rescue operations crashed in New Orleans on Sunday and the two people on board were slightly injured, a state official said.
The helicopter crashed in the area of the Danziger Bridge, said Mark Smith, spokesman for the Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.
'The helicopter came down hard and rolled over on its side and broke its blades off and broke its tail off,' Smith told reporters in Baton Rouge.
'There were two civilians on the helicopter. Both sustained cuts and scrapes,' he said.
It was not known why the helicopter was in the area, Smith said.
The US military and Coast Guard have conducted hundreds of helicopter flights in the New Orleans area in recent days searching for Hurricane Katrina survivors and have rescued thousands of storm victims.
Early media reports said the crashed aircraft was a Coast Guard helicopter.
Live television footage from the scene showed the red helicopter lying on the ground near a roadway, with smoke drifting from its cockpit. The ground around the wreck was blackened and churned up by the aircraft's rotor blades.
Smith said he did not know if shots had been fired at the helicopter. Gunfire has been reported on numerous occasion in the New Orleans area in recent days.
'It could have been mechanical failure,' he said."
So now a coast guard helicopter has morphed into a civilian helicopter, which is showing a peculiar fascination with the Danziger Bridge. This mysterious helicopter was also described as a 'rescue helicopter' and a 'Coast Guard Super Puma helicopter":
"A rescue helicopter has crashed in New Orleans, US television networks say.
The two crew members from the Coast Guard Super Puma helicopter were safe, MSNBC said.
Live television footage from the scene showed the red helicopter lying on the ground near a roadway, with smoke drifting from its cockpit. The ground around the wreck was blackened and churned up by the aircraft's rotor blades."
This is an awfully specific description to be wrong. On the other hand, the Coast Guard doesn't appear to use the Super Puma, but rather another Aerospatiale product called the Dolphin. Of course, the Coast Guard might have contracted with somebody with a Super Puma, so you never know. You have to wonder why a rescue helicopter was flying around the Danziger Bridge, not a residential area where there would be somebody in need of rescue, and on all accounts a dry enough area for quite a bit to be going on.
Some good questions:
1. "For certain, the Danzinger Bridge is nowhere near the breaches nor should the industrial area be a magnet for looters looking for television sets."
2. "The implication is that something is occuring on and near the Danziger Bridge which is both extraordinary and alarming.
3. A simple mind says the helicopter was a news aircraft gone out to follow up on the shooting and was forcefully not permitted to photograph.
4. A dull person could think that 3:00 pm in the afternoon is an odd hour to be on foot in the hot Gulf sun and rather late in the day to be getting around to starting repairs on breached levees.
5. A disinterested so-and-so might wonder about the police escort after having heard press accounts of the reduction of New Orleans police to skeleton crew on the point of exhaustion."
6. It has to be noted that it is an odd way to make repairs in a breech in the 17th Street Canal by launching barges into Lake Pontchartrain.
The best guess is that the police killed some people and used the Army contractor story to cover it up. The victims are unlikely to have been looters, but may have used guns in self-defense. The police story inadvertently disclosed that people working for the army were up to some mysterious job, a job that was supposed to be a secret. The helicopter went to take a look at what was going on, and was shot down. Discrepancies in the official story are starting to lead to theories that at least some levees and floodwalls were intentionally destroyed, theories that gain some credence in that even the experts are baffled at what happened to the floodwalls. Its a bit too convenient that storm surge gauges stopped functioning during a . . . storm surge, thus removing inconvenient questions about how a nine foot storm surge went over a wall designed to stop an 11.5 foot storm surge.
OBM.....People you must pay attention at all times!!!!!
We may never know What Really Happened!!!!!!
Monday, September 25, 2006
Houston Radio Ad Asks Houstonians to Arm Themselves Against "Katricians
Radio ad plays on Katrina evacuee tension
By JUAN A. LOZANO
Associated Press
A radio commercial for a local gun shop advises Houstonians to arm themselves against "Katricians," adding to the growing tension between Houstonians and the Katrina evacuees who have been blamed for a rising crime rate.
OBM: Most of the people from N.O. are poor blacks....so instead of offering more jobs, Education/vocational programs, and requesting more job assistance for the criminal government that caused them to be there anyway...this radio stations is saying lets shoot & kill the poor black people who don't have money or jobs to feed their families. I'M NOT GOING TO SAY WHAT SHOULD HAPPEN TO THIS GUY, THIS RADIO STATION, AND ANYONE ADVOCATING THIS B.S. ...IT WOULD BE INCRIMINATING!!!!!!
Gun shop owner and radio talk-show host Jim Pruett said today he started running the ad a few weeks ago after hearing a local television interview with a Katrina evacuee living in Houston who implied he would have to turn to crime if his government assistance ran out.
"There are many evacuees here who are working," said Pruett, who has owned Jim Pruett's Guns & Ammo in northwest Houston for five years. "They have become Houstonians now. That is fantastic. That is what you are supposed to do. You are not supposed to threaten the place you are working in."
Katrina evacuees are suspects or victims in 59 of Houston's 262 homicides between Jan. 1 and Aug. 26.
Residents in upper middle-class west Houston have blamed evacuees for violent crime rates that have increased almost 14 percent in one district and homicides that have nearly doubled in another.
Earlier this month, the FBI reported that violent crime in Houston jumped 2.4 percent last year, slightly above the national figure of 2.3 percent.
Pruett's radio ad says, "When the 'Katricians' themselves are quoted as saying the crime rate is gonna go up if they don't get more free rent, then it's time to get your concealed-handgun license."
Department of Public Safety statistics show that from January to Sept. 1, the number of applications for concealed-carry permits have risen almost 25 percent in Harris County, which includes Houston. Texas has no other gun registration laws.
Black activists planned a community meeting Thursday evening to "end the conflict" between Houston and New Orleans. They indicated they would discuss Pruett's radio ad.
The meeting was also expected to address comments made earlier this month by gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman, who attributed a spike in Houston's crime rate to the "crackheads and thugs" who evacuated New Orleans.
Mayor Bill White has said most evacuees are law abiding citizens but that lawbreakers will not be tolerated. He has also called for "able-bodied" evacuees to find jobs.
Pruett, 62, said while crime in Houston was an issue before Katrina evacuees came to the city, they have contributed to the problem.
"It's a serious crime epidemic, no matter what the mayor says," said Pruett, whose store Web site offers the following advice: "Be polite and courteous, but have a plan to KILL everybody you meet."
As many as 120,000 evacuees remain in Houston since the city welcomed at least 250,000 after Katrina swamped New Orleans last year.
Pruett said gun sales as his store are up 50 percent from last year but he couldn't be certain it was due to concern over evacuees.
Classes his store offers so people can get a concealed handgun license are always full. Pruett said he doesn't think he is profiting from fear in the community about evacuees and crime.
"I'm profiting from people who want to protect themselves. We provide a great service and one that may save people's lives," said Pruett, who added that he has also sold guns to evacuees.
