Chris Gargano, Raiders -- Your boss needs to hear these broadcast clips

Amy Trask, CEO
Oakland Raiders

Dear Ms Trask:

Please read the attached letter and listen to some of the audio clips at the website. Please note what Brian Sussman and "Officer Vic" of KSFO were saying right before Coach Kiffin's interview on September 7^th. I think you will be disgusted.

Since I sent this letter it has been written about on Crooks and Liars and Media Matters. The website Crooks and Liars alone reaches 172,000 people a day. Yesterday I spoke about this on a nationally syndicated radio program. Although the mainstream media haven't picked this up yet, reporters from CBS, Time Warner, the Chicago Tribune and the Saints flagship radio station WWL, have all read the letter and listened to the clips.

This isn't about people in the Bay Area not liking the politics of the hosts on KSFO. This is about their pattern of morally repugnant comments that your team will be associated with all season long. In light of recent events, listening to Lee Rodgers joking about lighting a dog on fire is especially troubling. (audio link)

Keep in mind what state university your hot new quarterback just played for when you listen to the cruel things Lee Rodgers and Melanie Morgan had to say on the anniversary of the people who died in Louisiana following the Katrina flooding. (audio link)

Does your team need to be associated with these vile comments and bad behavior? I’d like you to listen to what they talk about and joke about and ask yourself, “What does it say about their character? Are they worthy of being your flagship radio station?” And, most importantly, do you support their comments? I would appreciate a response to this question.

Sincerely,

P.S. I'm quite clear what ABC Radio is capable of doing in retaliation for criticism, and I can understand if you would be afraid of criticizing them, however it is YOU who are in the best position to ask for an apology. If not on behalf of the Saints fans, then at least on behalf of Coach Kiffin.

cc
Amy Trask, CEO Via FAX
Mike Taylor, Director of Public Relations
Chris Gargano, Raiders Director of Broadcasting
Greg Bensel, Vice President of Communications, New Orleans Saints
Gary Radnich, Kron4

Bruce Jenkins, San Francisco Chronicle
Gwen Knapp, San Francisco Chronicle
Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronicle

Note: the linked letter was sent on 9/15/2007. (I sent the letter via email on 9/15, but I think it got caught in filters because the KSFO hosts on-air comments triggered email spam filters.)

NFL radio station hosts joke about rape, tell Saints fans displaced by Katrina to stop whining and shut the hell up

Roger Goodell
NFL Commissioner

Dear Commissioner Goodell:

I know you have your hands full with the bad behavior of NFL players and coaches, so you probably didn't hear what the radio hosts from KSFO, the flagship radio station for the NFL Oakland Raiders, had to say about New Orleans Saints' fans displaced by Katrina flooding.

On the anniversary of 1,577 dead in Louisiana and tens of thousands displaced, Lee Rodgers and Melanie Morgan said this about New Orleans and the Saints' fans:

Rodgers: "I don’t wanna hear anymore of this crap from people in Louisiana saying.'Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, Gimme.' Shut the hell up. Solve your own problems. It’s been two years, grow up." (audio link WMA) (audio link MP3) (Windows Media Audio files. Mac users try Flip4Mac download plug in here)

Rodgers: New Orleans is "a sewer"
Morgan: Money going into New Orleans is going down "a rathole." (20 sec audio link WMA) (Audio link MP3)

Rodgers: "Maybe those people down there ought to stop their sniveling and whining...".
(20 sec audio link) (120 sec link for context) (20 sec audio MP3) (120 sec audio MP3)
(Transcript here or KSFO’s own podcasts from Aug. 29-30, Sept. 5-7 2007)

Why should the NFL commissioner care about the on-air comments of the hosts of the official radio station of the Raiders? Because they are tainting your brand with their horrific, cruel and crude comments. They are insulting the fans of another franchise and, to quote from the Fan Code of Conduct from another NFL franchisee, "Harassment of visiting team fans will be considered unruly behavior and grounds for ejection." Why should the hosts of the Raider flagship station be held to a LOWER standard than a fan attending an NFL football game?

Raiders' head coach Lane Kiffin appears every Monday and Friday at 7:45 AM on KSFO's morning program. In the lead up to Kiffin's Friday September 7th, 2007 interview, hosts Brian Sussman, Tom Benner ("Officer Vic") and Melanie Morgan joke about rape in prison right before Coach Kiffin's interview. This is what the coach and Raiders fans were subjected to when they tuned in to hear about a football game.

(Audio wma from 5 minutes before Kiffin interview. Audio MP3)

Sussman: Officer Vic and I just about lost our lunch when I mentioned, "What do you expect, one of these prisoners to snap on a condom in the shower just before he ramrods some weakling?"
Benner: (Officer Vic): (Laughter)
Morgan: Oh for gosh sakes.
Sussman: I'm serious you know, this is a jail! It's not a frat house!

(Audio WMA from 1 minute before Kiffin interview Audio MP3)

Benner: Would those be ribbed condoms for added pleasure?
Morgan: Stop it. Stop it. No. No No.. Zip it.
Benner: the basic kind? ..
Sussman: Let's get the coach on the line,
Benner: or with reservoir tips
Sussman: it's Hot Talk 560 KSFO

As you know, Commissioner, based on your own radio interview experiences, Coach Kiffin was almost certainly on the phone listening to the show prior to his interview. Is that the kind of lead in that you would want before an interview? Would you want your daughters listening to this while waiting for daddy's interview? Did the hosts hope Kiffin would join them in joking about prison rape? Sadly, this is not the first time that KSFO radio hosts have gone beyond the bounds of simple human decency, nor is it even the most egregious.

Lee Rodgers called for the torture and execution of a common criminal on broadcast radio -- but when 28 advertisers pulled their business due to comments like this, KSFO/ ABC Radio and Disney management shut up their critics and didn't demand that Rodgers apologize. (link) In fact, Rodgers brags about never having to apologize: he boasts that management strongly stands behind his comments and considers anyone who disagrees with him terrorists. (audio link WMA)
(Audio link MP3)

Please consider what that tells you about the values held by ABC Radio management, what they consider acceptable on-air broadcast behavior -- and what it means to the NFL for the Raiders to be affiliated with this station.

Melanie Morgan has called for journalists be hanged and electrocuted, and that people simply suspected of criminal behavior be hogtied and burned alive.(audio link wma link MP3) (With the recent passing of Richard Jewell --who was falsely accused of a bombing before all the facts were in-- I am reminded why responsible broadcasters don't incite the violent death of anyone suspected of criminal behavior.)

Recently you demonstrated that your organization will not condone abhorrent behavior in its players. There are some things fans will not tolerate. If your fans who are animal lovers need further proof of the depths that KSFO hosts will sink to, here is an audio clip of Lee Rodgers joking about lighting a dog on fire (audio link wma) (audio link MP3) I believe even Michael Vick wouldn't joke about lighting a dog on fire.

Of course KSFO wouldn't pass on any listener complaints to you. Morgan is married to the KSFO operations manager and if you disagree with Rodgers he suggests, "We'll trace you back, run you down and kill you like a mad dog." (audio link) (audio link MP3)

• I would like you to condemn these comments and ask Rodgers and Morgan to apologize to the fans, friends and families of the New Orleans Saints.

Coach Kiffin can speak for himself, but he might also seek an apology from Sussman and Benner and request that they refrain from joking about rape and other disgusting talk before his interviews on the Raiders' flagship station

• If all the hosts and management do not apologize on air and in writing, I would ask you to consider revoking their status as an official NFL flagship station.

Other radio stations take action when a host's comments cross into foul territory. Other stations don't tolerate this kind of talk. When a corporate partner doesn't respect you and your brand, maybe it's time for that partnership to be dissolved.

Of course ABC Radio, and their new parent Citadel Broadcasting, will say that it's just a numbers game and that all you care about is if they deliver the audience. Given your experience at NFL Ventures, you might want to verify the numbers and demographics they really deliver. KSFO's hosts constantly attack liberals, immigrants, non-Christians and the victims of natural disasters. Considering the diversity of the Bay Area, it's reasonable to believe that many Raiders fans fall into one or more of those groups being attacked. Is insulting the majority of your potential audience members a good way to attract listeners to your franchise? Rodgers even tells everyone who doesn't like his comments to not listen to the station.

I believe the head of your legal team, Anastasia Danias, spends a tremendous amount of time ensuring that companies don't state or imply an association with your brand unless you approve. Does an ongoing licensee with the NFL come with any responsibilities on the part of broadcasters? Or can they assume that once locked in, there is nothing they can ever say or do that would jeopardize their license with the NFL?

Finally, I know the temptation when reading these comments is to simply dismiss Rodgers and Morgan as ridiculous talk radio hosts whose views couldn't possibly represent the NFL let alone the Raiders. The station management may say I am complaining because I don't like the politics of the hosts and that they have no control over their "free speech". First, I will point out that these comments are NOT about politics but are repugnant comments directed toward fans, family and friends who lives were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina's flooding. Second, asking for an apology is not limiting the hosts' commercially-sponsored speech, but simply asking people working at the official station of a NFL team to maintain a level of human decency in their broadcasts in order to maintain the privilege of an NFL broadcast license.

My good friends in New Orleans and Louisiana tell me they feel the rest of the country have forgotten them, but some of us haven't. I challenge these disgusting comments and misinformation from the official radio station of the Raiders and I hope you will too.

Thank you very much for spending your valuable time investigating this issue and I look forward to hearing your response.

Sincerely,

P.S. Considering the Raiders #1 draft pick, JaMarcus Russell, played for Louisiana State University and hosted friends and family following Katrina, he might want to educate Rodgers on post Katrina problems.

cc
Anastasia Danias, Assistant General Counsel, National Football League Properties LLC

National Football League
Greg Aiello, Vice President of Public Relations
Peter Murray, Senior Vice President of Partnership Marketing and Sales
Jaime Weston, Director Brand Management & Integration Marketing & Sales
Beth Colleton, Director of Community Affairs

New Orleans Saints
Tom Benson, Owner Via Fax
Mickey Loomis, Executive Vice President/General Manager
Greg Bensel, Vice President of Communications
Ben Hales, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development

Oakland Raiders
Amy Trask, CEO
Chris Gargano, Raiders Director of Broadcasting
Mike Taylor, Director of Public Relations

ABC Radio Networks
James M. Robinson, President, ABC Radio Networks -- Phone (212) 887-1670

Entercom Radio Network
Ken Beck, VP, General Manager of Entercom New Orleans
Kenny Wilkerson, WWL, flagship radio station of the Saints
Bobby Hebert, WWL

KRON, Channel 4 San Francisco
Gary Radnich

LSU
Charles Baglio, Director of External Football Relations

Oakland Assemblymember Sandré Swanson

UPDATE: If you are having problems with the WMA audio files try the Mac plugin called Flip4Mac download from Microsoft here. Mac people I trust recommend it. I also have the same clips in MP3 format.

Katrina refugees are sniveling whiners and freeloaders says SF Radio Host for ABC Radio Station KSFO

Michael Marsh
Anchor, 5, 6 & 10 p.m.
WBRZ
mmarsh@wbrz.com

Dear Michael:

Last week while the rest of the country was wondering how the refugees from the Katrina flood were doing, Lee Rodgers of San Francisco radio station KSFO called them sniveling whiners and freeloaders and told them to shut the hell up and "Get off your butt and go to work." (audio link)

Rodgers: This two year pity party has gone on long enough and then some.

Rodgers: But two years later for god's sake people, solve your own bleeping problems, we're sick of hearing about you. And eh, and if you are sick and tired of the whining of the people in or from New Orleans about the government not doing enough for them and doing the rebuilding job for them. Maybe those people down there ought to stop their sniveling and whining and watch an example of self reliance right there in their own community. ( audio link)

Rodgers: I don't wanna hear anymore of this crap from people in Louisiana saying "Gimmee, Gimmee, Gimmee. Shut the hell up. Solve your own problems. It's been two years, grow up. (audio link)

Melanie Morgan, the co-host, called New Orleans "a rathole " (excluding the French Quarter). Lee Rodgers call New Orleans a sewer.

Rodgers asks, "Is one hurricane supposed to be a permanent life long ticket on a bleeping gravy train? Come on!" (audio link)

Rodgers suggests that the displaced people, "Get the hell over it!"

Morgan also alleged that, "...kids in the schools became the worst bullies and offenders and disrupted many of the fine Houston schools." I'm not really sure what evidence she has, but I doubt she has facts to back up her claims.

If you want any more information, see the complete transcripts and longer audio links below. Note: KSFO, 560 AM is an ABC Radio station and is owned by Citadel Broadcasting.

LLAP,

Spocko

P.S. Michael, I see you spent some time at KPIX in SF, they did a story about some of the other horrible things KSFO hosts say and the lengths they went to to shut up their critics.


cc Tony Jones
Whitney Vann

Complete KSFO Audio Links and Transcripts

I've provided links to the audio clips below for your convenience. I've also transcribed their comments. To verify that what I'm including is not out of context or manipulated in any way, I suggest that you listen to the audio podcasts that KSFO puts up on their own website. I've listed when the audio clips starts in real time as well as when the audio clips start on the KSFO podcast (The KSFO podcast doesn't include the first ABC Radio news broadcast).

NOTE:Melanie Morgan's 501 c. 3 group, Move America Forward, is embarking on a nationwide tour this week "fighting back against the anti-war left" and her concern that money is going down a "rathole" of New Orleans is rather ironic considering that she supports the money going into the war in Iraq and into a country that is NOT populated by US citizens.

---------------------------------xxx--------------------------

What do ABC Radio host Lee Rodgers and Melanie Morgan think of "those people" in New Orleans and people who had to leave during the two year anniversary of this massive tragedy? These are transcripts and audio from 8/29/2007 and 8/30/2007.

Rodgers: Save New Orleans? For what? The French Quarter..

Morgan: For another hurricane.

Rodgers: Now they got the French Quarter up and running again. Okay fine. It's a theme park, but that's what it's been for years anyway.
The rest of it's a sewer.

Morgan: Well the French Quarter wasn't even that badly hit. I mean..

Rodgers: No because it's on higher ground.

Morgan: Exactly so there wasn't much of a problem there to begin with. But they are trying to fix the unfixable in the rest of the city and in the mean time every politician in the country is pandering, spending billions of dollars and putting it in what? A rathole.

Rodgers: These transplanted New Orleans. [in whining voice] "Oh it's my home I gotta go back" No you don't. People have moved all over the world through out human history. You can do it too. Get off your butt and go to work.

Morgan:[laughing]

From KSFO on 8/29/07, broadcast time 7:44 am: (Audio link, MP3, 49 seconds )

( Longer audio link, MP3 1:50 seconds)

Location of clip in KSFO podcast # 2117503 on August 29, 2007 is at the 2 hours 40 minutes. http://www.ksfo560.com//sectional.asp?id=17750

---

Rodgers and Morgan 8/29/07 05:15 am ( Link MP3 9 minutes )

http://www.ksfo560.com//sectional.asp?id=17750

Rodgers: "Did you know that parts of New Orleans where some these silly people are trying to rebuild houses are 14 feet below sea level and sinking by another inch every year ? And nothing has been done really that would prevent another Katrina. Nothing. Now where in god's name is the logic about trying to rebuild a city in a location like that?"

{Snip. he blames the French and says keep the French Quarter as a Theme park'}

"I for one, I'm all in favor of helping needy people, but at what point do you say, 'Hey it's time that you people got off your asses went to work and earned your own way"? Two years later, Dallas Morning New, some of the refugees from New Orleans were settled in Dallas and the community had an outpouring of generosity and they were giving them all kinds of freebies housing, so on and do forth.

Morgan: Yeah

Rodger: Two years later, the people have been freeloading for two years are whining because the gravy train is slowing down. ( Link)

Morgan: Oh. No! That's terrible.

Rodger: It says, I'm looking here at the Dallas Morning News, say "Hurricane Katrina relief, once an outpouring of support for evacuees displaced in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, has slowed to a trickle on the second anniversary of the storm official figures are available, an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 evacuee households, [people from New Orleans and vicinity-this fragment was inserted by Rodgers and is not in the linked story text] still call North Texas home, [according to advocacy groups- he left out this phrase]. And countless evacuees still need help paying for basic necessities such as rent and utilities."

Ah at what point after a disaster and personal hardship are people expected to start taking care of themselves again? Is one hurricane supposed to be a permanent life long ticket on a bleeping gravy train? Come on! (link)

[Morgan then proceeds to tell about during her experience the Ruskin Heights Tornado in 1957 her family recovered and not one of us received a dime from FEMA or any other Federal agency (Note FEMA wasn't created until 1979 by Jimmy Carter) She of course doesn't count the National Guard that came in to help as a Federal Agency. Of course the Menorah Hospital , doesn't count either even though they cared for her (they reattached her toes) and her bother and mother.]

Morgan: People took care of each other and this kind of sentiment you don't hear expressed about the Katrina victims, what you do hear about are those people is those people who were transported to Dallas and brought with them all kinds of crime and just awful, awful behavior.

Rodgers: And Houston even worse

Morgan: In fact many of those kids in the schools became the worst bullies and offenders and disrupted many of the fine Houston schools.

Rodger: Well they brought the habits of the New Orleans public schools with them and those were widely and reliably reputed to be some of the worst schools in the country.

The President is going to be down there today and there's going to be endless babbling by him and other politicians, about "Oh we gotta rebuild New Orleans" Where is it written that we have to rebuild New Orleans so the whole damn thing can happen all over again?
Morgan: (crosstalk)

Rodgers: That's just plain simple minded stupidity

Morgan: I agree

Rodgers: And of course now it's come out. Big surprise, Louisiana er um which is a moral sewer in terms of political responsibility, one of the most corrupt states and New Orleans is one of the most corrupt cities in the country and big surprise yesterday or day before it was in the news that millions perhaps billions of dollars of aid that's gone down there has never reached the intended....

Morgan: Victims

Rodgers: recipients, the victims of Hurricane Katrina. No. No. No. Some how it got siphoned off by crooked contractors and crooked politicians you know the kind who go around bribe money in home freezers and stuff like that.

Get the hell over it! Rebuild New Orleans? Why? Why? Alright, it was a lovely charming old city it's gone and I don't care how much money they stuff into the pockets of crooked contractors down there, it ain't ever coming back. Never. Never. Never. 14 feet below sea level! For god's sakes think about that for a moment. ( Audio Link)

Another Katrina. It's isn't if, it's just when. And then you do it all over again. That's why I resent the government subsidizing flood plan insurance. People get flooded out, the government gives them a check to go back and build another house in the exact location to get flooded out again. The next time the Mississippi or the Missouri river is up or a Hurricane comes ashore what are we doing? This is insanity! Thank you.

Morgan: You are welcome very much, and truer words were never spoken.

Rodgers and Morgan 8/29/07 05:15 am ( Link MP3 9 minutes )

http://www.ksfo560.com//sectional.asp?id=17750

---

FROM 8/30/07 6:40 AM

Rodgers: Yesterday we have the orgy of media coverage of course that's spilling over into today about the second anniversary of Katrina. The elected leaders of in Louisiana and New Orleans and let's never forget they were elected.

Morgan: Mm hmm.

Rodgers: The people down their picked them, the elected leaders two years after hurricane Katrina. Still they can't seem to do much of anything beyond whine and beg. "Somebody come fix our problem." ABC's Steve Ocinsamie is down there in New Orleans as part of the coverage of the anniversary and talks about what NOLA, New Orleans Louisiana is like today today.

AUDIO from ABC News

"Two years after Katrina and much of this city still looks like it did the day the city was flooded. While many people have come back it just doesn't have the life that New Orleans have that we all remember. It seems that people are more distrustful of government people don't trust anything that they hear. There is very little faith in the levees, which supposedly have been mostly rebuilt but only to category 3 protection. That doesn't sit well with many residences.

Rodgers:: Then do this people, Get OUT!

Morgan: Yeah.

Rodgers: Move somewhere else. Hundreds of millions, billions of human beings before you have done exactly that. Conditions aren't good here, let's go somewhere else, why do you think you have to live in a bleeping swamp?

This two year pity party has gone on long enough and then some. And this may also help explain why so many people who left New Orleans after the hurricane have decided, no they are not coming back. Now the population of the city of New Orleans is only about two third what it was before hurricane Katrina, but boy one group that is back in force, the crime element.

The criminals, mostly drug dealers have certainly come back and taken up residence. One hundred and 60 people have died in street killings in the last year, many of them residences killed by thugs looking for money. This past weekend in New Orleans east a Vietnamese couple was gunned down in their home in front of their kids.

What a contrast between the endless whining and begging by the crooks who run Louisiana compared to the post Katrina rebuilding next door in the state of Mississippi. There is still more to be done there, but a whole lot of progress is being made along Mississippi's gulf coast two years after the Hurricane. ABC Robin Roberts reports from Pass Christian Mississippi

Eleven of Mississippi's thirteen casinos big employers are back. Employing 18,000 people. That's a thousand more than before Katrina. Almost every school is back, enrollment at 94 percent of what it was before the storm.

So long story short, while Louisiana keeps begging the federal government to come in and fix everything for them, Mississippians simply got to work and did it.

Morgan: Begging and blaming. That's their favorite pastime. To blame the Federal government for everything that went wrong in Louisiana and that it's all their fault that Katrina victims don't have any money, and God after two whole years, their benefits are running out.

Rodgers: At some point, at some point you gotta say, you people are gonna have to stand on your own two feet. Of course FEMA made a total bleeping botch of their what should have been immediate response to the hurricane it's like, it's not like they didn't know the hurricane was coming. So they screwed that up. But two years later for god's sake people, solve your own bleeping problems, we're sick of hearing about you. And eh, and if you are sick and tired of the whining of the people in or from New Orleans about the government not doing enough for them and doing the rebuilding job for them. Maybe those people down there ought to stop their sniveling and whining and watch and example of self reliance right there in their own community. ( Audio Link)

Now the only really surprising thing about this story is that USA Today ran it, they run a story with out the focus of beating up on the Bush administration, http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20070829/1a_coverside29_dom.art.htm

"While much of the rest of New Orleans is still the same disaster area it was the day after the hurricane two years ago. One neighborhood has rebuilt itself. It's the neighborhood of Versailles a few miles east of downtown New Orleans where the houses have been rebuilt and repainted, nearly all 7,000 residents of that neighborhood has returned. And you might ask what's different about that neighborhood. Here's what's different, it's made up of Vietnamese refugees who came to this country after the Vietnam war, they knew about untenable circumstances, they did something about it. They moved. And they, most of these people come from the Mekong river delta in Vietnam which is the rice growing area, why because it's lowlands and the Mekong river floods regularly so they know something about that. And they didn't wait for the government to come in and solve their problems for them. They just went to work fixing things. One of the early returning residences in the neighborhood a woman named Linda Tran, she is 55 she and her husband and their son slept on air mattresses while her family and other neighbors worked together to rebuild each other's house fix them up repaint them. She owns a restaurant in the neighborhood and she used money from her insurance to rebuild and she says, "I didn't want any money from the government. We needed our home. We worked all our lives for it," so she like her neighbors when to work and they did it themselves. And instead of Bush going down there and engaging in another hugathon and making more promises about how much more money we are going to pour in to that area. He should have said, "Hey people look at your neighbors the Vietnamese, see what they did and stop bitching and moaning, 'Oh the government is supposed to ffff fix things!' Here's a little footnote by the way, President Bush and the congress have committed over 127 billion dollars to relief for New Orleans and the immediate gulf cost region around there. Now to give you some perspective, adjust for inflation, so it's an apples to apples comparison. Dollars for dollar, 127 billion dollars is more than the 107.6 billion dollars we spent rebuilding 16 countries in Europe after World War II.

Morgan: Wow.

Rodgers: I don't wanna hear anymore of this crap from people in Louisiana saying "Gimmee, Gimmee, Gimmee. Shut the hell up. Solve your own problems. It's been two years, grow up.

It's 13 minutes before seven o'clock. Hot talk. 560 KSFO.

--X-X-X--

-------------------------

Rathole

Gravy Train
Rathole Sewer
Freeloading whiners
Permanent gravy train
Get over it
Sniveling Whining
Shut the hell up

Sniveling Whining

NOTE: If you want to send this to other media, use the brilliant Spotlight project!
http://www.thespotlightproject.org/

Just plug in the permalink from Spocko's Brain and pick a few TV, Radio and Print journalists in the states/cities that are mentioned.
Dallas, Houston, New Orleans, San Francisco, Phoenix, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arizona and California

Katrina and the Federal Flood

Graphic from New Orleans blogger Suspect Device.

No, Bush didn't cause the hurricane and NOBODY IS SAYING THAT he did, except right-wingers throwing up strawmen. But the major damage in New Orleans was from the Federal Flood. The ACOE has admitted their culpability. I'd like to see that included in ever story this week.

As the magical El Gato Negro reminds us, Scout Prime at First Draft has been on top of this story since the beginning.

Why Must We Fight This Nightmare Every Day?

Gentilly Girl gives her "standard truth speech" about rebuilding New Orleans. There are lots of reasons both economic, historical, cultural and personal to bring New Orleans back. They are part of us, and frankly we owe them.

I think it would be useful for the people who think otherwise to have a conversation with some of the NOLA bloggers. I know lots of well meaning people have misconceptions about rebuilding. And then there are the "experts" who willfully get the story wrong and have written off New Orleans.

One thing I get from the NOLA bloggers is that this story is not over, and when they see or read or hear people who have written off the city and the area as not worthy to rebuild they are stunned, flabbergasted, and pissed off.

"What's the point? It's all below see level anyway." or "I thought it was mostly fine by now, I saw Mardi Gras on TV." or "Well it was an act of God, it's not as if the government caused it, they just want to blame George Bush for everything."

- Common Myths and Misconceptions on New Orleans

The media is event driven, and they have a hard time with stories that go on and on and on. Unless people like Matt at Fix the Pumps dig up some juicy incompetence and malfeasance, they will simply report on the next event that makes news.

The people in charge of PR for New Orleans think, "How can we get the tourists back?" that is their job, I get that. But that doesn't include showing all the destruction that still exists and the pathetic, tragic hold-ups. "Why would we want to promote the problems and dig up negative stories?" But someone should be thinking, "How can I keep the attention of the news media to keep the pressure on for the rebuilding?" The bloggers are trying, but it is exhausting to do that in addition to rebuilding their own lives. Here is part of Morwen's "standard truth speech", read the rest here.

New Orleans and SE Louisiana were shattered by the hands of man and the needs of a Nation. That’s what happened on 8/29. (the shorthand is for those who can only remember tiny bits of data)

[snip]

In all of the 200+ years you in the U.S. have “owned” us, we have never begged. We took care of things and kept going. We provided what was needed. (Many of my ancestors lie on the bottom of the oceans because they answered America’s call.)

We here in SE Louisiana have more than given our pound of flesh for this Nation, and it’s time to get a little bit of it back in order to rebuild our homeland. We have more than earned it. Otherwise… you have no idea of the Hell you will have to live in if we are gone from the scene or if we decide to leave your little confederation of states.

Think about it.

I’m Morwen Madrigal, and I must live to be 80 in order to pay the debt of repairing my home that was damaged for the Nation. I gave almost 10 years to this country in service, and am again saddled for another 30 years.

What have you given to America?

Morwen's question makes me think, it might make you think too, read the whole thing here.

When Bloggers Attack! (Houses, that is)

So the First Draft Krewe is in New Orleans Gutting a house that was destroyed during the flooding.


Krewe: Ray in New Orleans, Tom, June, Athenae, Mr. A, Sinfonian, Cynthia, Mike Danablog, Cheri and Harry (archeop). Spork_incident took the picture. This is the picture while we're all still clean and shiny.

Thanks for Scout and Athenae for organizing it.
With blogs we connect with words, this was a connection with actions. I'm proud to be a part of this group of lefty bloggers.

New Orleans to Bush: "We Rebuke You!"

New Orleans Needs Federal Aid, Not Presidential Photo-Ops.

Mr. President: Katrina Survivors Do Not Welcome You, We Rebuke You!

We live in a devastated city and you are a big part of the reason why it sill sits in ruins. Your administration has abandoned our children by savaging their public schools. Your administration has tortured our working class people by refusing to reopen the city’s public housing developments. And your administration is fully complicit in placing our uninsured in harms way by ruthlessly pursuing the privatization of local public healthcare in the aftermath of Katrina. And, finally your administration is guilty of sending our sons and daughters of to war for oil and empire just when we need them most to help us rebuild our community.

Mr. President, we, Katrina Survivors all, do not welcome you to our city, we rebuke you!

Sponsored by Survivors Village, United Front For Affordable Housing.

(504) 587-0080

If you have a blog please consider posting this today.

via Scout Prime at First Draft and via Humid City

BTW, even if you are a 5th tier blogger with 2 readers still post this. Why? Because the main stream press look at stuff in aggregate. As in "200,000 blogs wrote about New Orleans rebuking the President." It's a simple step. Do it. Don't cost ya nuthing.

For me this stuff is personal. Two relatives were directly impacted by the flooding.
I'm not forgetting about this, neither should you.



http://humidcity.com/2007/03/01/rebuke-bush-2pm/