New Orleans, 6 months on

Democracy Now reports :

'The storm displaced some 770,000 residents and destroyed over 300,000 homes. Nearly 2,000 people are reportedly still missing in Louisiana alone, at least 130 of whom are children. In the city of New Orleans, whole neighborhoods remain obliterated. In the city’s hardest-hit areas, such as the Ninth Ward, there is still no power or running water.'

Jordan Flaherty, activitst and editor of http://www.leftturn.org :

“You know, Bush knew -- we didn't need to see that videotape to know that Bush knew. Scientists knew. Journalists knew. It was in our local paper. It was on television stations. Everyone knew the levees were in danger. Everyone knew that we needed to do coastal restoration to protect the city. And Bush did nothing. He cut the funding for coastal restoration. He cut the funding for shoring up the levees. He did not care. And that's why we need to do for ourselves and stand up and fight back.”

“They're attacking our school system, they’re attacking our healthcare system, they're attacking public housing system. It's this whole neo-conservative privatization agenda, and we're being hit with it really hard.

..there are several thousand units of public housing that were not damaged, and yet they still have not been opened. Our At-Large City Councilman, Oliver Thomas, said the other day, “We don't want any soap opera watchers in these.” The Housing Authority of New Orleans is going to set up testing. The people have to have job experience and training to go back into their homes, the homes that they used to live in. And, you know, we say, “What about the elderly? What about caretakers? What about women with children? Isn’t that work if they’re carrying with kids?” Apparently not to Oliver Thomas. So people are being kept out of public housing, and that's a tragedy.”