Our friend Jacob Appelbaum has made his way to Houston and has been interviewing and photographing people who are being housed in the Astrodome. His goal is to help setup an emergency radio station to help deliver news and information to those who are stying there. So far he has run in to some major roadblocks. You can follow his progress on his blog jacob.wordpress.com and view his amazing photos on his Flickr photostream.
photo by Jacob Appelbaum
Related Posts:
- Jacob Appelbaum’s Zombie Flash Mob Photos
- HOPE Number 6 & Defcon 14 Photos
- Chaos Communication Camp 2007 Photos
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I’m headed to Houston with 826 Valencia on Monday to set up (basically) a temporary 826 Astrodome for displaced kids. 826 talks about the effort as an attempt to create ‘meaningful distractions.’ Thus far no mention has been made of hiding the efforts behind an independent spaceman supply store, much to my dismay. Redeemably, we _are_ furiously making 1000 good coloring books. Check out more about the efforts at http://www.826valencia.org.
High fives to everyone who’s doing the good work. Keep it up, Jacob Appelbaum and crew.
rachel weidinger
Right on Rachel! I’m glad to hear that!
Responding to your comment about the possibility of the levees being dynamited.
Mysterios Deaths of 5 Army Corps. of Engineers
LORDS OF MISRULE
When first hearing of this news report, saying police shot and killed 5 looters on a bridge in New Orleans, I thought how odd that all 5 of men would be shot dead. Then, I saw this report a couple days later saying, oh, by the way, they weren’t looters, they were Army Corps. of Engineers contractors, hired by the Defense Department. The police (if they were that) supposedly made a mistake.
Now, wouldn’t you think that this should be a pretty big news story and investigation? Wouldn’t you think that our government would want to know how and why levee repair contractors were shot dead? And especially by our own law enforcement officers and at such an important and pivotal time. They were going to repair the 17th street levee. Don’t forget how they reported and showed the gruesome images over and over of the U.S. contractors who were murdered in Iraq. Although, here in the US we barely hear a peep from the media about this very strange phenomena (See the AP report of their deaths below).
Not another odd news story? I also heard on the day the levees collapsed, that the helicopters which were sent in to fix the breaks, were diverted from this vital task, to go and do water rescue operations. OK, you save 20 or 30 people with your helicopter or you save a whole frick’n city from going underwater with your helicopter! Which would you choose George Bush or Michael Brown?
Also, residents in the area reported hearing explosions right before the levees broke. Now, don’t start thinking conspiracies, you know our government would never lie to us, nor do absolutely anything to mislead us whether into wars or with levee breaks. By the way, they dynamited parts of the New Orleans levees in 1927, to save the more affluent parts of the city. See: http://www.newstatesman.com/World/200509120005
There is a website titled “Katrina Wasn’t The Problem”, it has interesting pictures and diagrams and has a plausible theory of why certain elements within our government and corporate world would be so eager to make certain mostly black and poor people leave the city.
See: http://judicial-inc.biz/katrina.htm
Just this morning a CNN reporter told how some of the New Orleans poorer residents whose homes were not damaged in the flood were being forced out of their homes in New Orleans. They can get in and out of the city just fine, but the government says they have to leave. When the reporter asked why, government officials replied that the glass on the streets are a hazard and would cause tires to go flat and that was the reason they must leave. Although the reporter showed that his tires have been just fine in the last 6 days driving around over the glass. There appears to be no legitimate reason to force these people out of their homes, unless the ultimate agenda is what the following website suggest, that real estate land developers, can’t wait to get their hands on that land.
And for those who can’t fathom the idea that maybe those levees were dynamited into collapsing, just has to look back in history. The Army Corps of Engineers during one of the worst floods in New Orleans, with the approval of Hurbert Hoover dynamited portions of the same levee systems 1927. They did it to save the historical and more affluent districts of New Orleans. It is interesting to note that the two levee collapses on August 30, 2005, caused the same perishes to experience the most serious flooding in the area.
Please take a look at the articles and get this information out, we need to be questioning whether it truly was massive incompetence surrounding this issue or was it something else? We must demand answers and most importantly we must demand accountability.
God Bless Us,
Rose
BREAKING NEWS
Five dead were army workers: report
Herald Sun
05sep05
Associated Press reports that at least five people shot dead by police as they walked across a New Orleans bridge yesterday were contractors working for the US Defence department.
A spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers said the victims were contractors on their way to repair a canal. The contractors were on their way across the bridge to launch barges into Lake Pontchartrain, in an operation to fix the 17th Street Canal, according to the spokesman.
The shootings took place on the Danziger Bridge, across a canal connecting Lake Pontchartrain to the Mississippi River.
Early on Sunday, Deputy Police Chief W.J. Riley of New Orleans said police shot at eight people, killing five or six.
No other details were immediately available.
Here is are a few excerpts:
1) “A close friend of mine who has a house in the French Quarter tells me his immediate area is still dry. It’s on high land. It’s also where the rich live.”
2) “As the storm surge rose, somehow a levee gave way.
Here are videos: ~ # 1 , # 2, #3, # 4 that show what really happened. Katrina hit on Sunday, it was a day later, the levees broke in three places — along the Industrial Canal, the 17th Street Canal, and the London Street Canal.
There were explosions heard, but officials say they were transformers blowing up. See: http://judicial-inc.biz/katrina.htm
3) “Social tensions were also prominent in the 1927 flood – to date, America’s greatest flood disaster. Early in the year, the Mississippi River Commission had announced that the levee system was “in condition to prevent the disastrous effects of floods”. By April, the Mississippi had climbed above its banks and spread to a width of between 50 and 100 miles along 1,000 miles of its course to the Gulf. Though white and black people suffered alike, racial conflict ran high about who was to undertake the necessary labour to rebuild the levees, and about the way in which aid was distributed. Violence erupted and lynchings proliferated.
The “Great Migration” of blacks to the north predated the flood, but the events of 1927 pushed it forward with a new impetus. When New Orleans itself was threatened by the flood waters, intense politicking and the power of the city produced a bold solution. A levee was dynamited to relieve the pressure on the city, destroying much of the St Bernard and Plaquemine parishes and leaving 10,000 homeless. Politicians should take note, however: anger in Louisiana at the handling of the crisis propelled Huey Long into the governor’s chair.” See: http://www.newstatesman.com/World/200509120005