Rebuilding NOLA: A Contrast Between New And Old Thinking
My continuing thanks to C&Ler Mugsy for his assistance in tipping us off to potential posts in the Sunday bobblehead thread. To be honest, I had written off the scheduled interview of Brad Pitt on Meet the Press, because I thought it would be one of those fawning, insubstantial looks at a celebrity within the scope of some pet charity. But Pitt showed himself to not only be focused on helping rebuild New Orleans, but to do so with a more big picture orientation than politicians locked into old school solutions.
Pitt's foundation, Make It Right, has been building affordable, safe and sustainable housing for NOLA residents. Remember when the only thing available to low income displaced residents were formaldehyde-filled trailers? But moreover, these homes are being built with an eye to withstanding the next major storm and with materials that stimulate the economy, both by using green technology and by lessening the utility costs of the residents, thereby giving them more money to stimulate the economy. It's a far more holistic look at the problem.
Contrast that, if you will, with Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-INO) who advocates the lifting of the drilling moratorium to help the "little guys" of the Gulf Coast:
Sorry, but in my eyes that's as disingenuous as the greenwashing American Petroleum Institute ads bemoaning raising taxes on energy companies, because "people" are struggling. Really now? We've got energy companies paying little to no taxes now, posting record profits and complaining about "raising taxes" hurting the "people". Landrieu knows that there's no guarantee that oil BP went after with Deep Horizon would have gone directly to Americans rather than sold to the highest bidder on the open market, and that few, if any, small energy companies have the financial backing to do deepwater drilling. And how badly will "Big Al's Sandwich Shop" suffer if another drilling catastrophe kills the Gulf Coast completely?
It's disappointing "inside the box" thinking. A senator's job is to represent his/her state as well as possible and attempt to bring as much business and federal dollars to their state. This is a golden opportunity for Landrieu to lobby for Louisiana to be at the forefront of the green economy and all the federal tax benefits inherent in bringing green technology manufacturing and development, construction and building to the Gulf Coast, to steer the area away from an oil economy.
But instead, we're stuck with a senator too wedded to the same failed system.
You are very welcome, Nicole (as are the acknowledgments).
* There are two types of Republicans: millionaires and suckers.
"Mugsy's Rap Sheet": Recording history for those who seek to rewrite it.
I'd have given that interview a miss myself even if I had been in town.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
Outsiders like Brad Pitt come and help save the people of NOLA and they are represented in the US congrass by Senators Vitter and Landrieu. It is always amazing to me how much punishment and abuse people will put up with before they actually do something to free themselves from tyranny. Landrieu is a bluedog with no conscience or guts, Vitter is a cheater and a loser.
CarmanK
"Middle class societies don't emerge automatically as an economy matures, they have to be CREATED through political action." Paul Krugman.
Hopefully they'll skip the criminally negligent Army Corps of Engineers in maintaining the levees and find a reputable, transparent, private contractor so that this city won't come close to disappearing again.
nothing of relevance will ever come from landrieu,
she's another corporate whore and vitter is just a
criminal who seeks and sleeps with whores.
She is more than happy to take the green payola her corporate benefactors dole out to buy her off. Who needs integrity when you can cash in at your constituents' expense? I got mine--now f--k you!
"We will find fulfillment not in the goods that we have, but in the good we can do for each other."
Robert F. Kennedy
How 'bout we build them some g-dam state of the art levees and start putting some of our financial and innovative resources towards improving our infrastructure. Damn it.
"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people." ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
As long as the Army Corps of Engineers are involved, another disaster is imminent.
Everyone who is NOT an idiot knows that people need three basic items:
1. Housing
2. Food
3. Employment
No where is "drilling more oil wells" corporate welfare in the mix.
...he uses big words like 'particularly' and 'delicatessen.' -- Jack
to help the "little guys" of the Gulf Coast...
and elsewhere, evidently...
this morning, i saw a new commercial about local oil production... it was all news to me, as is CountryMark...
i'm in s.central illinois... maybe it's an indiana company, as it was a terrehaute station i was watching...
this, from the website the commercial directed to:
Proposed energy legislation in Washington is threatening the future of small American oil producers and the customers we serve. Today, as we have always done in the past, CountryMark and the oil producers of Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky are fighting for affordable American energy and jobs for our local economy. Below you'll see a video and our latest TV commercial.
[...]
http://countrymark.com/
CountryMark is proud to refine only 100% American crude oil from the Illinois Basin. ...
good to know... but i thought most wells had dried up around here... i don't know what to think...
This can't be stressed enough, there are no "mom & pop" deep water oil drillers.
Also notice that these kinds of commercials, PSA's, and talking points---
"CountryMark and the oil producers of Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky are fighting for affordable American energy and jobs for our local economy."
--the salary and benefits of those "jobs for our local economy" are NEVER mentioned.
Unless this "American energy" appeal to national pride includes actually paying their workers a wage high enough to put them in the middle class, and more importantly, KEEP them there, it's about as illegitimate and easily-debunked as it gets.
They should be dragged out to the town squares and locked up in the stocks for people to throw rotten eggs and tarballs in their faces. It's fucking SHAMEFUL that it takes a Hollywood actor to go out there and do what the goddamn GOVERNMENT should be doing for its people. Instead, the elected fuckheads are taking kickbacks to let oil companies further destroy their precincts and voting for more warmongering nonsense to squander the country's money.
This country is so fucked I don't think it's ever going to be right again, despite the efforts of smart, dedicated people like Pitt. And honestly, I don't think it deserves to. If the populace is moronic enough to keep voting offal like Landrieu back into office, then I really don't think this country deserves to survive. Perhaps after the whole thing goes to hell, something better will take its place.
There's always free cheddar in the mousetrap, baby. - Tom Waits
to the same old failed system, it's worked out quite nicely for her and her class. for everyone else, not so much.
At least he is trying to do something to help people, instead of just blowing them off and ignoring the situation.
This made me see something positive. A tiny chip of my despair stopped...
Thanks dude...
I won't condescend...
Mary "the people are disappointed in BP"/ "Disappointed"? I don't think that's the word. Mary may be "disappointed" that her puppet masters at BP are in a bad light but the people I see interviewed aren't disappointed that their livelihoods have been wrecked and that BP is failing to "make this right", they are pissed and rightfully so.
Brian Williams: "Has it (the moratorium on off shore drilling) hurt the industry as much as you feared?"
Mary: "I'm not worried about hurting the industry! I'm not worried about hurting big oil!"
Seems like Brian hit a nerve.
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