| Not Right to Joke, McCain? |
[Sep. 25th, 2008|09:41 am] |
McCain said Letterman was out of line to joke about McCain canceling his appearance at the last minute to do a CBS interview with Katie Couric, but as a Katrina Survivor I find it totally hypocritical that he would say that when he had a birthday party while my area was being hit by Katrina. Instead why didn't he tell Bush that he felt it was wrong to have a birthday party when people on the Gulf Coast were going through one of the worse hurricanes in history so he would suspend his birthday party and urge the President to take care of the people in harm's way.
How does McCain expect this to not sound like a political move when he didn't even care enough about Katrina Victims and Survivor to suspend his own birthday party? No the man is not interested in the welfare of the people of the USA and as one who has suffered from his neglect in the past, I demand he issue an apology to the Katrina Victims at the debate at Ole Miss on Friday. He should be part of it since it is held in a state that still hurts from Katrina. Oh that's right, he had a party that day didn't he? |
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| McCain Suspense Campaign? |
[Sep. 24th, 2008|02:53 pm] |
Oh McCain has to be kidding! When we were having lives suspended due to Katrina, McCain didn't even suspend his birthday party with George W. Bush and yet he wants us to believe he is going to suspend his campaign for PRESIDENT?
First, there are NO meetings scheduled for Friday in the Senate, and there is no votes in the Senate since it goes to the house FIRST!
Secondly, how is his not appearing at a debate on Friday going to solve anything but his cowardly avoiding Obama who will eat his lunch anyway.
Thirdly, Can't he do more than one thing at a time? Maybe this proves he IS NOT fit to be President! |
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| FEMA has problems with doing it right |
[Mar. 13th, 2008|10:42 am] |
DID FEMA attack WQRZ because WQRZ and Jesse Fineran have spoken out
about FEMA obscuring the fact thatFEMA knew the Occupants of FEMA
trailers were suffers for the TOXIC Agent that was hidden in the
housing that FEMA leased to Hurricane Survivors. After being removed
from the position of FEMA mobile home operations in Hancock County in
December 2006 for speaking out about formaldehyde, health/safety and
core value issues, Fineran filed Equal Employee Opportunity against
The FEMA and Biloxi TRO for attempting silience me crys to protect
occupant and worker from the dangers of formaldehyde. The Hancock
County EOC had requestred that FEMA protect these victims of FEMA
gassing in 2005, just weeks after the first trailer arrived. FEMA knew
the survivors were suffering. FEMA continues to retaliate against
Fineran, his family and now WQRZ. Fineran is disablied from back
injury in the 1987, WQRZ is operated by individuals who are
disabled, appears that the bullies from FEMA have a history of picking
on the disablied. FEMA designed and had trailers constructed to
house the injuried and disablied, it is interesting that these unit
contained more poisons that models that were available to the general
public. Children are more affected by what FEMA training manuals
identify as a toxic chemical agent, Katrina took our homes and FEMA is
taking our babies lives.
CDC acts like this is an opportinuty to do a study on the health
issues, and offers nothing to the families they thier malfeasance may
have facilitated injury.
Lawyer: Documents raise new questions about FEMA trailers
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS • MARCH 13, 2008
NEW ORLEANS — Federal officials issued trailers to Hurricane Katrina
victims even though some workplace safety tests detected high levels
of formaldehyde at government staging areas for the structures just
weeks after the storm, a lawyer for hundreds of occupants said
Wednesday.
Documents from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration raise
new questions about how much federal officials knew about the units,
which were sent to tens of thousands of displaced residents, said
attorney Anthony Buzbee. But they don't say whether the tests in the
weeks after the August 2005 storm were conducted inside or outside the
trailers.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which issued the trailers,
has been moving residents out for several months because of health
complaints.
Recent tests on hundreds of FEMA trailers and mobile homes in
Louisiana and Mississippi found formaldehyde levels about five times
what people are exposed to in most modern homes, the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention announced last month.
At its peak, more than 143,000 trailers were in use by Katrina victims
across the Gulf Coast. About 34,000 are still occupied.
Buzbee said he reviewed a 10-page summary of test results from air
sampling at FEMA staging facilities in Mississippi that found
formaldehyde levels exceeding maximums set for federal workplace
safety. Buzbee said the documents show some tests were performed as
early as Oct. 11, 2005, and as late as Jan. 17, 2006.
"This is astonishing," Buzbee said Wednesday in an interview. "How
could they feign ignorance that this was an issue even before they
sent these trailers to residents?"
It was unclear whether the tests were performed by OSHA or FEMA. Clyde
Payne, OSHA area director, said he couldn't comment on the test
results obtained by Buzbee.
FEMA spokesman James McIntyre wouldn't immediately comment on Buzbee's
allegations, but he said formaldehyde tests at work sites are required
under federal law.
"These are just safety tests for personnel," he said. "They were never
designed for the occupants."
Formaldehyde, a preservative commonly used in construction materials,
can cause respiratory problems and is believed to cause cancer.
FEMA lawyers had discouraged officials from investigating residents'
health complaints because of liability concerns, according to
documents released by a congressional panel in July 2007.
Buzbee wrote about the test results in a letter Wednesday to Louisiana
Gov. Bobby Jindal and several members of Congress.
Adam Sharp, a spokesman for Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., said the
information provided by Buzbee will be fodder for a congressional
panel's review of FEMA's response to formaldehyde concerns.
"One of the essential questions this investigation will answer is,
'What was the timeline?"' Sharp said. "How much of a lag existed
between when FEMA became aware of the (formaldehyde) dangers ... and
when did they first start notifying trailer occupants about the
dangers?"
In testimony before a congressional panel last week, a CDC official
said problems with formaldehyde in trailers date back to the 1980s.
Howard Frumkin, director of the CDC's National Center For
Environmental Health, said the problem seemed to "recede" until FEMA
used tens of thousands of travel trailers to shelter victims of the
2005 storm.
"FEMA has never denied that trailers have formaldehyde," McIntyre
said. "We haven't tried to hide anything."
Times Picayune
EDITORIAL: Blowing the deadline
Monday, March 10, 2008
After Hurricane Katrina, thousands of New Orleanians waited for months
for FEMA and the federal bureaucracy to deliver post-disaster housing
-- and the agency blamed most of the delays on the catastrophe's
magnitude.
That the federal government was unprepared to house tens of thousands
of people after Katrina was one thing. But the Federal Emergency
Management Agency really has no excuse now, more than two and half
years later, for not having come up with a comprehensive strategy to
house survivors of the next big catastrophe.
Congress ordered FEMA to come up with such a plan post-Katrina and set
a July 2007 deadline. Eight months after the deadline the agency has
not delivered. On the contrary, at a congressional hearing on
emergency preparedness last week, the agency said the plan won't be
ready until April 1.
Sen. Mary Landrieu appropriately chastised a top FEMA official for the
delays, which put survivors of future disasters at risk of getting the
same misstreatment Gulf Coast residents suffered after Katrina. A
California earthquake could strike at any time, and the next hurricane
season is less than three months away.
Harvey Johnson, FEMA's acting deputy administrator, told the committee
that the plan has been delayed while the government figures out how to
deal with possible formaldehyde contamination in more than 34,000
travel trailers still occupied along the Gulf Coast.
But FEMA officials were alerted of the formaldehyde issues shortly
after the storm -- they simply chose to ignore complaints until last
year. Even then, they have had months to come up with an emergency
housing plan that takes into account the formaldehyde problem.
"These are very difficult issues," Mr. Johnson said. "There are very
few simple answers."
Whining that the task is hard won't house disaster victims.
FEMA's lack of preparedness has already affected its response in a
much smaller disaster. After tornadoes ripped through several states
Feb. 5, the agency said it would use some of the thousands of unused
trailers stored in Hope, Ark. But a few days later it said there would
be a two-week delay while the trailers were tested for formaldehyde
and aired out.
That's the result of not being prepared -- and that's why Congress
needs to keep pressure on FEMA to complete the emergency housing plan. |
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| (no subject) |
[Feb. 20th, 2008|03:35 pm] |
I called FEMA and asked a press rep the following. She sent me this reply and thought I would share it with you.
Below is response and links to information that you requested.
When was FEMA first aware of formaldehyde? See link for information we have provided on formaldehyde: http://www.fema.gov/media/fortherecord.shtm
Who will do the AR testing? This has not yet been determined, we are still in the contracting process.
What is FEMA doing for applicants in travel trailers and what is being done for personal property? FEMA’s plan of action can be found here: http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=42611
This should provide you a good deal of background information - let me know if you need anything else. |
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| Hillary, What is Important to YOU? |
[Feb. 18th, 2008|02:07 pm] |
Recently Hillary Clinton decided Barack Obama is guilty of using someone else's words and not crediting them properly. The questioned statement is not at all improperly used as it was stated as a question and doesn't legally meet the requirements of plagiarism. Another is the anger of a poor use of words by a MSNBC person about "pimping out" the former first daughter to get super delegate votes. The words were poorly chosen maybe, but doesn't state sexual allegations. The man does seem to have a history of sexist remarks, however in this case it is making inferences with a bit of a reach.
Hillary, why all the mud? Let's face it, Obama is a great speaker. I think it is making issues that any neocon would be tickled to use when we have serious problems that NEED addressing. How about the Katrina issues that still are very much creating death, mental stress, and denying aid they are in serious need of? How about immunity for criminal activities of telecom companies BEFORE they are even investigated for? How about credit bureau rip offs like Experian that keeps disputed information up on folks without noting it is in dispute, and their other company, Triple Advantage who, in a round about way, charge for free credit reports, and this lowering credit scores with a "secret format" on how you get your credit rating? Also what about Iraq, Blackwater, and missing money in Iraq?
I have tried to contact Hillary's campaign to appear on my radio show, and to give them contacts on Katrina, but these request have not been even addressed. I also contacted Barack Obama's and they have contacted me. I am working with them on getting them on my show. I got to question why Hillary thinks republican tactics would win a Democratic Primary when we WANT ANSWERS not Mud.
Formaldahyde and FEMA News:
SEACOAST ECHO
> >
> > News
> > FEMA will 'never use trailers again'
> > By Dwayne Bremer
> > Feb 15, 2008, 16:29
> >
> > FEMA Director David Paulison and Center for Disease Control Director
> > Julie Gerberding speak Thurs. at a press conference in New Orleans.
> >
> > The Federal Emergency Management Agency said Thursday it will never
> > again use travel trailers as a means of emergency housing after
> > results from a test conducted last December by the Center For
> > Disease Control (CDC) found that about one third of the trailers
> > issued after Hurricane Katrina contained a toxic amount of the
> > chemical formaldehyde.
> > "We will not ever use trailers again," FEMA Director David Paulison
> > said Thursday. "We may use mobile homes. But that (travel trailers)
> > is not a good housing alternative for us." The official report comes
> > after more than two years of complaints of illness caused by the
> > chemical and intense speculation and media scrutiny.
> > Paulison and CDC Director Julie Gerberding met with the local and
> > national media Thursday at a press conference at the FEMA
> > headquarters in New Orleans.
> > The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the results of a study of
> > 519 travel trailer units for the chemical formaldehyde.
> > Gerberding said the trailer sample was only a "snap-shot" of the
> > total number of trailers, but she felt like the sample was reliable.
> > "There is no magic cutoff for formaldehyde which indicates safe or
> > unsafe," she said. "A majority of the tests revealed a low level of
> > formaldehyde. About a third of the homes did have levels that could
> > be expected to cause symptoms to people who were vulnerable.We
> > recommend that all people living in travel trailers be relocated."
> > She said those most vulnerable would be young children, the elderly,
> > and anyone with respiratory problems, she said.
> > Paulison said the agency did not know a whole lot about the problem
> > two years ago, but it is now taking a very "aggressive" approach to
> > relocating the people still in travel trailers.
> > "Hindsight is 20/20," he said. "We can look back and say,' yeah, we
> > should have done something different.' We did the best we could do
> > with the information we had. We do care about the people.
> > "We did not have a lot of information two years ago, that is why we
> > asked CDC--who are the experts--to come in and test these trailers.
> > Our primary concern is health and well being."
> > But some people have said FEMA has known about formaldehyde for a
> > long time, but did little or nothing about it at first.
> > In an exclusive interview last July, Jessie Fineran, a former
> > hazardous materials specialist who worked alongside FEMA officials,
> > said he began informing FEMA and the Hancock County Emergency
> > Management staff about the potential problems in November 2005.
> > Fineran said that on request from Hancock County, the Occupational
> > Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) conducted tests on FEMA
> > trailers in Kiln in December. 2005, and found alarmingly high levels
> > of formaldehyde.
> > He said he personally told FEMA officials such as Sid Melton -- the
> > current Mississippi Director-- and former Director Benjamin Watson.
> > "They knew people were suffering," he said.
> > Several deaths in Louisiana and Mississippi--including the death of
> > an infant in Diamondhead--have been questioned and many think
> > formaldehyde could have had something to do with it.
> > Paulison said FEMA will now be taking measures to deal with the
> > recent findings.
> > "We are going to take a more aggressive approach," Paulison said.
> > He said part of that information is finding alternative housing
> > sources for people still in trailers and continued education about
> > the dangers of formaldehyde.
> > He said FEMA will be speeding up the process of getting people out
> > of travel trailers.
> > One hindrance, however, is local government restrictions on mobile
> > homes and trailers. While local entities allowed the travel trailers
> > at first because of the emergency state, mobile homes and the new
> > Mississippi Cottages have had to meet zoning approval first.
> > In Bay St. Louis, for instance, residents who have wanted upgrades
> > to cottages have had to go in front of the city council for approval.
> > Paulison admitted it may be a challenge to relocate some people
> > because of the local laws.
> > "We have no control over local and state law," he said. "All we can
> > do is talk to them and encourage them."
> > Currently there are 7,878 trailers or cottages in Mississippi. In
> > Louisiana, there are more than 25,000. At the peak, there were
> > 144,000 families in travel trailers.
> > Thursday's news that the government is acknowledging the problem and
> > taking steps to deal with it comes as a relief to some, who say it
> > is long overdue.
Plaintiffs' Steering Committee, a seven-firm law group which
represents thousands of Gulf Coast residents, was not allowed in the
room for the press conference, but did issue a statement.
"Although it took FEMA nearly two years to investigate the trailer
residents' concerns, the families we represent are relieved to see
that the long-term health risks, including cancer risks, associated
with formaldehyde exposure," Attorney Raul Bencomo said, "finally
has the attention of the federal government. The fact is that these
trailers represent a serious health risk. It was a good first step
to some trailers, but limited testing is not enough. The government
needs to test every single trailer."
FEMA and MEMA set up a hot line for any who think they are having
medical problems possibly associated with formaldehyde.
The number is 1-800-CDC-INFO.
(c) Copyright 2007 Bay St. Louis Newspapers, Inc.
You can contact me at sargeunn@gmail.com |
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| My Endorsement for President |
[Jan. 31st, 2008|04:42 pm] |
I have been carefully considering who I would choose to vote for and I have now decided that my choice is Barack Obama.
I went to his rally in Phoenix (over 13000 in attendance), and was very impressed with what he said and how the crowd left convinced that he would live up to his word.
I know many feel Obama doesn't have the long record of service, but like Obama said, he is a hope mongerer. Truthfully, what I see is experience of Pelosi and Reed covering the law breaking of the Bush Crime Family, and personally, I don't want this kind of "experience". Yes it is time for a change, and I think Obama should be given the chance to prove he will make that change.
To see and here the event go to http://arizona.barackobama.com |
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| Experiant, and other two needs reform |
[Jan. 15th, 2008|12:16 pm] |
Jan. 16th update on this story.
Seems this problem has grown out of control. I called the Attorney General's office of Arizona and was told there was no regulatory branch for the credit bureaus, but after contacting Christine Baker, I found this is not true. Seems that this industry has a very rogue method and spend mountains on making sure they keep their vile procedures in place. They even appear to lie to congress, as stated in the follow article. I strongly urge you to check out the following,
http://fight-back.us/forum/index.php?showforum=24
2) Ok, they suck, now what?
http://creditsuit.org/credit.php?/blog/comments/phase_3_hitting_where_it_hurts_stop_paying_the_banks/
Also from law.com site:
Consumer Lawsuits Against Credit Bureaus Are Multiplying
By Tresa Baldas
The National Law Journal
08-16-2006
The nation's three top credit bureaus are being slammed with a growing number of lawsuits filed by consumers who allege that the agencies are severely damaging their credit worthiness.
Scores of lawsuits challenging credit-report errors and low credit scores are pending in several states, including California, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico, South Carolina and Virginia.
Consumers allege that the bureaus -- Equifax, TransUnion and Experian -- are engaging in a practice that artificially lowers their credit scores, and that they are ignoring pleas to remove inaccurate information from the reports.
"It is becoming more and more prevalent that people are fighting back and suing credit bureaus and information furnishers who can't get it right without filing a lawsuit," said James Fishman of New York's Fishman & Neil, who has handled about 100 credit lawsuits in the last five years on behalf of plaintiffs.
"I've always told clients who come in and have been banging their heads against the wall, 'It takes a lawsuit to get your thing solved,'" he said.
Fishman, who settles about 99 percent of his cases, believes litigation works.
"When I go to court, the first thing I'm handed [from the defense] is a clear credit report," Fishman said. "You don't get that unless you walk into the courtroom."
Adam Taub, a Michigan consumer attorney who has handled numerous lawsuits against the credit bureaus and debt collectors, noted that "[i]n the last two or three years, just the number of calls on this particular issue has increased by 100 percent, probably more.
"Most of the people who come to my office are not particularly interested in filing a lawsuit right out of the gate," said Taub of the Lyngklip & Taub Consumer Law Group in Southfield, Mich. "Most of them have a problem. They're tearing their hair out. They're losing sleep. ... They're hopeful that the credit bureaus are going to do the right thing and remove the bad information."
But all too often, he added, nothing happens, so then comes the lawsuit.
"After being ignored over and over and over again, finally you have to do something to get their attention, and in this particular arena, it appears the only option is to bring a suit," Taub said.
ID THEFT SPURRING ACTION
Attorneys noted that in recent years, consumers have been spotting mistakes on their credit reports because they've been checking them more often, largely because of identity-theft fears. With free credit reports now available in all states, mistakes aren't hard to miss. And "credit-freeze" laws enforced in 22 states -- that bar lenders or anyone from reviewing a person's credit history -- also prevent identity thieves from opening fraudulent accounts.
There are also those who learn about bad credit the hard way: They go to buy a house or a car, and they are denied a loan or a lower interest rate because of a tainted credit report or a low credit score they were not aware of.
In both cases, plaintiffs allege that the credit bureaus are shirking their responsibility to maintain accurate records and thoroughly investigate cases involving false information, which is required under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
Plaintiffs making those claims got a recent boost from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled on July 24 that the credit bureaus are ultimately responsible for the reinvestigation of disputed information in their systems and cannot shirk that responsibility by blaming another group for the false information. Morris v. Equifax Information Services, 2006 WL 2043567.
Officials at Equifax and TransUnion declined comment for this story, as did attorneys contacted who are defending them in a number of lawsuits.
Experian also declined comment on the pending litigation, but defended its reputation as a gatekeeper of more than 215 million credit files.
"We have many decades of experience in both managing and safeguarding the privacy and robustness of the consumer credit files under our care, and we take that responsibility very seriously," said Experian spokesman Donald Girard.
"One of the newest challenges for Experian is the relentless attack of phishers, scam artists, identity-fraud cheats and others who would seek to exploit the nations' credit system for their own gain," Girard added.
"Experian has developed increasingly sophisticated tactics and tools to safeguard its databases ... and it will continue to do everything in its power to ensure that consumers' data is used only for the purposes allowed by federal law."
In a recent lawsuit that Equifax settled with a New Mexico woman who sued over an allegedly botched credit report, Equifax also defended its record-keeping tactics. The case involved a small-town teacher whose credit report contained information that belonged to another woman with the same name, but who had bad credit. The woman sued Equifax over the mix-up and for allegedly allowing the false information to remain on her credit file for more than two years. Apodaca v. Discover, No. CIV-04-0717 (D.N.M.).
"At all pertinent times, Equifax has acted in good faith and without intent to injure plaintiff," Equifax stated in court documents. "[A]ny alleged damages sustained by plaintiff were, at least in part, caused by the actions of plaintiff and resulted from plaintiff's own negligence, which equaled or exceeded any alleged negligence or wrongdoing by Equifax."
The woman's attorney, Rob Treinen of Feferman & Warren in Albuquerque, N.M., said that Equifax put up a tough fight, but eventually settled in May for an undisclosed amount.
"It basically takes a lawsuit to get these things sorted out," Treinen said. "Our client gave Equifax everything that they would need to fix that. ... They absolutely would not own up to what had happened."
Meanwhile, in South Carolina, the credit bureaus are battling a new kind of legal claim that has caught the attention of consumer rights lawyers nationwide. A consumer has filed three class actions against the bureaus claiming that they are engaging in a practice that is artificially lowering credit scores. The practice involves allowing credit card companies -- in this case, Capital One Financial Corp. -- to withhold a customer's credit limit from his or her credit file, which lowers the credit score. Harris v. Experian Information Solutions, No. 6:06-1808-GRA (D.S.C.).
Attorney William Narwold of Mount Pleasant, S.C.-based Motley Rice, who is representing the plaintiff in the suits filed on June 15, explains how it works.
Credit card companies typically submit two numbers to the credit bureaus: a high balance, or how much is typically owed over time, and a consumer's credit limit. The scoring system used by the credit bureaus compares the high balance against the credit limit. But if the company neglects to report the credit limit, the scoring software automatically assumes that the high balance and credit limit are one in the same.
For example, if the consumer has a $5,000 credit limit that goes unreported, but only a $1,500 balance, it will appear as though the consumer has maxed out his or her card at $1,500, which results in a lower credit score.
And that, argued Narwold, causes consumers to lose out on lower interest rates for cars, homes and personal loans.
"All of a sudden, their not reporting information costs you money," Narwold said.
Narwold's suits claim that by not requiring credit card companies to report credit limits, the credit bureaus are violating the FCRA by not taking reasonable steps "to ensure maximum possible accuracy."
"That's the magic language from the statute. It's a pretty tough standard," Narwold said.
TOUGH CASES TO PROVE
Attorney Ian Lyngklip, co-chairman of the National Association of Consumer Advocates, who trains attorneys in the area of identity theft and fair credit reporting, noted that there has been a growing interest among lawyers who want to litigate such cases. Currently, there are about 200 lawyers nationwide experienced in this area, he said, noting that as many as 270 lawyers have participated in his training seminars in recent years.
Lyngklip, whose Michigan firm is handling about 20 lawsuits against the credit bureaus over erroneous credit and is investigating another 40 such cases, stressed that credit-reporting lawsuits against the bureaus are tough to prove.
For example, he said, a credit bureau might remove false information from a file. But a debt collector will continue to go after the person, then submit another file to the credit bureau -- and the information pops up again.
"It's a very difficult suit to win," Lyngklip said.
Difficult, but not impossible, as Virginia attorney A. Hugo Blankingship III can attest to.
On July 14, a jury ordered Equifax to pay his client, an identity-theft victim, $351,000 over erroneous information that kept appearing on her credit report. Sloan v. Equifax Information Services, No. 1:05-CV-1272, (E.D. Va.)
Sloan had filed against all three bureaus, but Experian and TransUnion settled for undisclosed amounts. The case involved a woman who had her Social Security number stolen by a hospital employee while giving birth to her child in 2003. The employee used it to open numerous accounts and ran up huge debts.
The identity thief was arrested in March 2004 and later sentenced to two years in prison. But the victim spent two years trying to clear up her credit.
"She wrote letters. She called them. They saw the problem. They just didn't fix it," said Blankingship of Blankingship & Associates in Alexandria, Va.
Attorneys at Kilpatrick Stockton in Atlanta, the firm that represented Equifax in the Sloan trial, declined comment, as did company officials.
TransUnion and Experian officials also declined comment on the Sloan case.
Original Article:
Recently I found out I am a minor according to Experiant. This comes as a big shock since I have a daughter about 30, a disabled service connected Vietnam Era Vet, and yet I have to jump through several hoops to even get that status removed. I talked to a nice lady at Experiant as a media person, (since I have this site, as well as a radio show, I qualify to do so) only to find out any business can send in false information on anyone. I found the only way you get this mess straight is to mail in a letter to complain to Allen Texas, then they will tell you what they need in another letter, no phone calls are allowed even though they have 3 call in numbers. There are offices all over the world, but no matter you still have to send a snail mail letter to them without knowledge of what you need to get them to even consider taking off this false information.
My investigation also turned up that lawsuits against all of these credit bureaus have multiplied, and Experiant even has what is called Triple Advantage that promises a free credit check for a monthly fee. To cancel your membership in it, you have 30 days, probably like in my case, you have to snail mail a letter to get it even considered, although I have found in some cases some have gotten through on the phone to a hostile operator without success of correcting the false claims. The website for it does state you will be charged, but it is placed in the smaller writing and easy to overlook. My question is how can it be free if you have to PAY for it?
If any of you have had problems with these people, I would love to hear from you, and I might even do a radio show on this at some future date with you on it, or at least your story. Your name will be kept private unless you allow me to mention it. Please send me an email at SargeUNN@gmail.com or post a comment here, to give my your stories.
More on this later in more details. |
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| Truth about Obama and Muslim Email attacks |
[Jan. 14th, 2008|09:47 am] |
Contact Sarge at SargeUNN@gmail.com or sarge@unreportednews.net
Debunked Insight Magazine and Fox News Smear Campaign
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Printable Format
Contact: Tommy Vietor or Robert Gibbs, 202-228-5511
Date: January 23, 2007
Debunked Insight Magazine and Fox News Smear Campaign
In the past week, many of you have read a now thoroughly-debunked story by Insight Magazine, owned by the Washington Times, which cites unnamed sources close to a political campaign that claim Senator Obama was enrolled for “at least four years” in an Indonesian “Madrassa”. The article says the “sources” believe the Madrassa was “espousing Wahhabism,” a form of radical Islam.
Insight Magazine published these allegations without a single named source, and without doing any independent reporting to confirm or deny the allegations. Fox News quickly parroted the charges, and Fox and Friends host Steve Doocy went so far as to ask, “Why didn’t anybody ever mention that that man right there was raised — spent the first decade of his life, raised by his Muslim father — as a Muslim and was educated in a Madrassa?”
All of the claims about Senator Obama raised in the Insight Magazine piece were thoroughly debunked by CNN, which, instead of relying on unnamed sources, sent a reporter to Obama’s former school in Jakarta to check the facts.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/01/22/obama.madrassa/
Video: http://thinkprogress.org/2007/01/22/cnn-obama-debunk/
If Doocy or the staff at Fox and Friends had taken the time to check their facts, or simply made a call to his office, they would have learned that Senator Obama was not educated in a Madrassa, was not raised as a Muslim, and was not raised by his father – an atheist Obama met once in his life before he died.
Later in the day, Fox News host John Gibson again discussed the Insight Magazine story without any attempt to independently confirm the charges.
All of the claims about Senator Obama’s faith and education raised in the Insight Magazine story and repeated on Fox News are false. Senator Obama was raised in a secular household in Indonesia by his stepfather and mother. Obama’s stepfather worked for a U.S. oil company, and sent his stepson to two years of Catholic school, as well as two years of public school. As Obama described it, “Without the money to go to the international school that most expatriate children attended, I went to local Indonesian schools and ran the streets with the children of farmers, servants, tailors, and clerks.” [The Audacity of Hope, p. 274]
To be clear, Senator Obama has never been a Muslim, was not raised a Muslim, and is a committed Christian who attends the United Church of Christ in Chicago. Furthermore, the Indonesian school Obama attended in Jakarta is a public school that is not and never has been a Madrassa.
These malicious, irresponsible charges are precisely the kind of politics the American people have grown tired of, and that Senator Obama is trying to change by focusing on bringing people together to solve our common problems.
Below please find facts and citations rebutting the claims in the Insight Magazine story to help inform your editorial discussions about this issue. Attached also please find a letter from an ecumenical coalition of religious leaders denouncing this brand of negative politics. Download file
CNN Reporter: I've Been to Madrassas in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and Obama's Indonesian Elementary School Is Nothing Like That. On January 22, CNN Reporter John Vause reported, "I came here to Barack Obama's elementary school in Jakarta, looking for what some are calling an Islamic Madrassa, like the ones that teach hate and violence in Pakistan and Afghanistan.. I've been to those Madrassas in Pakistan and Wolf, this school is nothing like that." [CNN, Situation Room, 1/22/07]
CNN: Former Students Said It Was A Mixed Public School That Did Not Focus On Religion. CNN's Vause reported, "There are religion classes once a week - most of the 450 students are Muslim, and are taught about Islam…the handful who are Christians, learn that Jesus is the Son of God. The deputy headmaster tells me he's unaware that his school has been labeled an Islamic Madrassa by some in United States, and bristles at the thought." Hardi Priyono, the school's Deputy Headmaster, said, "This is a public school we don't focus on religion…In our daily lives, we try to respect religion but we don't give preferential treatment to." Bandung Winadijanto, a classmate of Obama's, said, "It's not Islamic School, it's general, there is a lot of Christian, Buddhist also Confucian . . . so that's a mixed school." [CNN, Situation Room, 1/22/07]
Indonesian Embassy: Besuki School Attended by Barack Obama "Has Never Been an Islamic Madrasah Type of School." In an informal communication, the Indonesian Embassy stated that "Sekolah Dasar Negeri 04 Besuki in Menteng, Jakarta, Indonesia has always been a public school. It has never been an Islamic madrasah type of school." [Email From Indonesian Embassy, 1/19/07]
CNN Reporter: Obama's School Taught A National Curriculum of Science and Math, Students Were "Neatly Dressed In Uniform," and Teachers Wore Western Style Dress. In front of boys and girls playing in the quad of the school, Vause reported, "In the quadrangle of this elementary school - boys and girls, aged from 6 to 12, neatly dressed in uniform - playing together, just as a young Barack Obama would have done almost 40 years ago." In front of a science class, "Here they're taught science and maths." Vause said, the school, "'Besuki' elementary follows a national curriculum, just like it did in the sixties and seventies…take a close look at Obama's teachers, women and men, all in western style dress." [CNN, Situation Room, 1/22/07]
CNN Reporter: Obama's School Was One of the Wealthiest In Jakarta, Down the Road From the US Ambassador. CNN reporter Vause said, "Basuki is typical of almost all Indonesian public schools - except this is one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Jakarta, the US Ambassador lives up the road...and this school is probably better off than most." [CNN, Situation Room, 1/22/07]
Time's Joe Klein: Attacks On Obama's Elementary School Are "Laughable" Given the Moderate Form of Islam Practiced in Indonesia, Especially in Those Days." Time's Joe Klein wrote, "The effort to slime Barack Obama has begun in the slimiest possible way." Describing attacks on Obama's elementary school, Klein wrote, "Now, this is nonsense of course. Obama's stepfather was not a Muslim extremist (among other things, he worked for Shell Oil). Obama attended public school for two years in Indonesia, in addition to the two years he spent in catholic schools--although, as Obama's staff points out, Indonesia is a Muslim country, so the public schools undoubtedly reflect the dominant relgious culture. The notion that the Obama's school was a Wahabi madrasa is laughable, given the moderate form of Islam practiced in Indonesia, especially in those days." [Time Blog, 1/22/07 , http://time-blog.com/swampland/2007/01/disgusting.html]
Main Radical Islamic Movement in Indonesia Crushed in 1962; Obama Attended School There Beginning in 1967. Indonesia's indigenous radical Islamic movement, Darul Islam, was crushed in 1962 by Soeharto's army and because they "failed to gain support from mainstream Muslims." The vast majority of Indonesian Muslims remain tolerant and inclusive, as they have been traditionally described." Barack Obama attended school in Indonesia beginning in 1967. [US-INDO Conference, 2/7/02 ; "Dreams from My Father," 1995]
Militant Madrassas Linked to Taliban Did Not Emerge Until Late 1970s, Early 1980s. Madrasah is the term used to describe an Islamic religious school. However, the type of madrasahs linked to the Taliban did not emerge until the Afghan war against the Soviets. During that war (1979-1989), a new kind of madrasah emerged in the Pakistan-Afghanistan region -- not so much concerned about scholarship as making war on infidels, and financed by Saudi wealth. [PBS Frontline, 10/25/01 ]
Indonesian Islam is "Tolerant, Inclusive, [and] Compatible With Democracy." "Azyumardi Azra, Director of the State Institute for Islamic Studies (IAIN), said it is 'simplistic' to think of Indonesian Islam as the same as Islam in the Middle East. Because of its slow, peaceful penetration over centuries, accommodating to and integrating with local beliefs and customs. The conventional wisdom of Indonesian Islam as tolerant, inclusive and inherently compatible with democracy is valid." [US-INDO Conference, 2/7/02 ]
FULL TEXT OF CNN STORY
CNN debunks false report about Obama
Story Highlights
• Report alleges Illinois senator attended radical Muslim school as a child
• CNN reporter visits Indonesia school in question, sees no radicalism
• Former classmate calls school "general," with multiple religions
JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- Allegations that Sen. Barack Obama was educated in a radical Muslim school known as a "madrassa" are not accurate, according to CNN reporting.
Insight Magazine, which is owned by the same company as The Washington Times, reported on its Web site last week that associates of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-New York, had unearthed information the Illinois Democrat and likely presidential candidate attended a Muslim religious school known for teaching the most fundamentalist form of Islam.
Obama lived in Indonesia as a child, from 1967 to 1971, with his mother and stepfather and has acknowledged attending a Muslim school, but an aide said it was not a madrassa. (Watch video of Obama's school)
Insight attributed the information in its article to an unnamed source, who said it was discovered by "researchers connected to Senator Clinton." A spokesman for Clinton, who is also weighing a White House bid, denied that the campaign was the source of the Obama claim.
He called the story "an obvious right-wing hit job."
Insight stood by its story in a response posted on its Web site Monday afternoon.
The Insight article was cited several times Friday on Fox News and was also referenced by the New York Post, The Glenn Beck program on CNN Headline News and a number of political blogs. (Watch how the Obama "gossip" spread)
School not a madrassa
But reporting by CNN in Jakarta, Indonesia and Washington, D.C., shows the allegations that Obama attended a madrassa to be false. CNN dispatched Senior International Correspondent John Vause to Jakarta to investigate.
He visited the Basuki school, which Obama attended from 1969 to 1971.
"This is a public school. We don't focus on religion," Hardi Priyono, deputy headmaster of the Basuki school, told Vause. "In our daily lives, we try to respect religion, but we don't give preferential treatment."
Vause reported he saw boys and girls dressed in neat school uniforms playing outside the school, while teachers were dressed in Western-style clothes.
"I came here to Barack Obama's elementary school in Jakarta looking for what some are calling an Islamic madrassa ... like the ones that teach hate and violence in Pakistan and Afghanistan," Vause said on the "Situation Room" Monday. "I've been to those madrassas in Pakistan ... this school is nothing like that."
Vause also interviewed one of Obama's Basuki classmates, Bandug Winadijanto, who claims that not a lot has changed at the school since the two men were pupils. Insight reported that Obama's political opponents believed the school promoted Wahhabism, a fundamentalist form of Islam, "and are seeking to prove it."
"It's not (an) Islamic school. It's general," Winadijanto said. "There is a lot of Christians, Buddhists, also Confucian. ... So that's a mixed school."
The Obama aide described Fox News' broadcasting of the Insight story "appallingly irresponsible."
Fox News executive Bill Shine told CNN "Reliable Sources" anchor Howard Kurtz that some of the network's hosts were simply expressing their opinions and repeatedly cited Insight as the source of the allegations.
Obama has noted in his two books, "Dreams From My Father" and "The Audacity of Hope," that he spent two years in a Muslim school and another two years in a Catholic school while living in Indonesia from age 6 to 10.
Also Snopes.Com runs their debunk of this vicious attack at http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/muslim.asp so why does Fox Noise continue as well as the mean spirited people who send this crap? How can anyone continue a well debunked attacked when our nation has so many more REAL issues of grave concern? It is time to quit buying the hate and lies folks, and GET INFORMED! |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 15th, 2007|12:53 pm] |
Years of hiding attempts to smiles, laughter and other actions that exposed my mouth's lack of teeth are now history. Thanks to the wonderful folks at Denture Specialist. They were very informative, paid attention to my being as comfortable as possible. They finished in about an hour's time although making sure I felt no pain.
Today I have a nice smile, new friends, and best of all, people who care about others. They also volunteered to be a drop off point for the KPHX Homeless Drives. I proudly recommend them for all your dental needs.
Sarge |
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| Katrina Anniversary AGAIN!!! |
[Aug. 31st, 2007|02:03 pm] |
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Here I sit now just past the second anniversary of Katrina, wondering why the hell my home area is still crapped out from that storm. It is remarkable how slow slow slow this is. I have relocated to Arizona, got a radio show, but still I morn for my fellow home area folks as they face the high insurance rates now, in many cases, more than the mortgage on their homes. If they have one of course.
Casinos, condos, and cronies are making out great while the regular people live in FEMA trailers, smelling of horrible odors, and the rich laugh all the way to the back with money that is suppose to go to these people.
I am horrified at the attitude of many, who range from not knowing about Katrina, to those dim wits who still have the dumbness to believe it is the VICTIM'S fault. The fact of many of Haley Barbour and his family and cronies are making sure the money goes to those who can get filthy rich at the expense of just average Americans, with many still displaced, leaves me shameful that I served in two branches of the military. I have been shocked for decades at how the vet is treated like a second rate citizen, but even more shocked that as a Katrina survivor, now I have fallen to the rank of a third class citizen.
Americans need to wake up and see that our lack of interest, concern, and awareness of the suffering our fascist Super Chicken Bush has inflicted on our own is not a disgrace, it is morally decayed attitude which WILL come back to bite us in the rear. Come on let's stop this crap and do something.
One thing to do is go to http://www.jccsc.org and donate, buy a raffle ticket of $20, or best yet volunteer to go help.
You can also see my on channel 12 in Phoenix at this site, http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=novamradio |
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| Great Experience with only one Small Cloud |
[May. 19th, 2007|02:02 am] |
My arrival in Phoenix has been a very pleasant and wonderful thing. I found Jeff Farais to be a gracious host, and the whole of the KPHX community like a long lost family. I am looking for an apartment, and plan to visit one tomorrow that might be the right place at the right price.
Leonard Clark is everything I expected and even more, Pam, Karen, and the others have been nothing but great with almost nothing having caused me anything but a wonderful feeling. However, I did get hit with one thing that disappointed and saddened me since the organizations involved are both great ones. I have not mentioned the thing since I felt it was resolved and everyone felt ok with the final decision, but apparently I was mistaken.
Remember in previous entries I posted about the caravan starting in North Carolina as a protest and would go into Jackson County Ms. as a working mission to help rebuild homes and lives there that the Federal and Mississippi Governments seem hell bent on ruining? Well, I was told by one member of Veterans for Peace that is was bad how they were done on this and to hell with the Jackson County group. I was totally surprised and confused since I had dealt with both groups during the thing and the story I know didn't match this response.
I still think highly of both organizations and feel it was a bad case of ego on the part of one person in specific who refused to tell the story correctly only choosing what he felt matched what he wanted to get it told as. Therefore to correct the story and to show that both organizations deserve better told information, I will tell it as I know and I know the story from being involved directly on both ends.
The caravan was to start in North Carolina as a war protest go through the states up to Alabama as such then in Jackson County Mississippi turn into a working mission to help get homes built and launch the 100 homes in 100 days 5 organizations, including the Jackson County Community Services Coalition were kicking off thanks to the horrible response of getting them done by the Federal and State officials. Part of the lodging for volunteers was being furnished by the City of Pascaqoula and one that has many who want to see the 100 homes project fall on it face, so they have, along with Haley Barbour tried to throw roadblocks up where they can. Since the area still is in a major state of disarray, lodging is also hard to come by and such as volunteer lodging is pretty important in getting things where people can stay while they help.
The bus leading the caravan had a sign on it that said Impeach Bush, which many in the area would support, but the powers that being would be glad to see such a sign on property they can jerk away, thereby ruining the 100 homes project and not having it come back on them, but from the radical protesters who don't care about the people, just protesting.
A rumor reached one such person of power about the bus apparently, and they ran to Jim Yancey demanding to know about it, which prompted Jim to call me and ask. I called St. Louis Mo. and asked with the response they didn't know and who to contact that would. I then emailed that person and they NEVER answered it. Again I tried but this time saying to contact Jim Yancey and seeing how to handle this since Jim didn't want to intrude on their right to protest, but under the situation the coalition operates that sign would ruin them. The local TV station WLOX is managed by one right wing thug who has blocked several FEMA wrong doing stories, glossed over how contractors for in and out of the area had scammed people and told me, the recovery was going good, much better than Louisiana. This response from him made me say, It is not a game it is people in both areas in need and such an attitude is not only stupid, but harmful. He tried to argue but I told him to go to hell and hung up. Dave Vincent would certainly be sure to use an impeach Bush sign Bus and the members staying in a city building as the organizations trying to use 100 homes to embarrass the governor and bring unwanted attention into a stricken region, and Vincent would with the blessing of Haley Barbour.
Jim explained the problem to one leading the caravan and tried to work out a way to have their help in the work but also to allow them a way to get out their message without hurting the coalition. The leader refused and Jim told him, sorry but I can't accept your help since it would be not only kill the project with bad press, but probably end the coalition. A shame since it is one of the few things that are putting people back in their homes, but Jim said he hoped they would come and put out their message if they liked to do so, since he fully believed they had that right, but he just couldn't allow his coalition to be part of it since it would be so harmful in getting the homes up. Jim called me informed me of the story, but to this day I have yet to the hear from the leader of the caravan and will be contacting the national office to see how this story got so badly told that one of the Phoenix VFP people would be lead to say, "To hell with them."
I also talked to other VFP people and they had gather the same impression which disturbs me since the "to hell with them" is saying to hell with people suffering, trying to survive under situations that would make Iraqis shake their heads. The proof of the mission plans are posted in this column in the form of the email I received to back up the fact the mission changed in the last days, and I was never told different until a problem was already being brewed by the right wing thugs wanting to see these homes don't get built. The National office of VFP didn't know about it and the one leading it seemed to have decided to change the agenda without informing me, the national office, or JCCSC, and letting us find out when it happened.
I don't believe the VFP would have intentionally caused the problem and I feel the leader of it probably got caught up in the spirit of protest and decided he was going to have his protest regardless. Certainly a spirit I have gotten caught up in so I understand it, but there is also a way where coming in, doing the work and then leaving with the Sign displayed after leaving the lot would have been of far greater value to all. I feel no anger about that, but I am not happy that the story was so slanted that it caused people to say to hell with them, when the them are people who are suffering mightily at the hands of this corrupt Bush Crime Family and right now needs their lives not a sign.
Sometimes discretion is more powerful than a loud voice or a sign. Certainly covering ones ego can be harmful, just look at Iraq, so we must always remember to think and not let emotions overtake our judgment, The Mississippi Mission to this day draws talk of how great that was and has the people thanking the liberals for Arizona, but no such thing from the VFP aborted mission. Was it a missed opportunity? We won't know since a false wall was built and the good went undone. Too bad, too bad indeed. |
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| Posted by R! for Sarge... The Saga Continues...--"It's Not FEMA's fault--it's other's Fraud!" |
[Apr. 1st, 2007|11:51 am] |
Katrina fraud stretches far beyond Gulf By SHARON COHEN, AP National Writer
An Illinois woman mourns her two young daughters, swept to their deaths in Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters. It's a tragic and terrifying story. It's also a lie.
An Alabama woman applies for disaster aid for hurricane damage. She files 28 claims for addresses in four states. It's all a sham.
Two California men help stage Internet auctions designed to help Katrina relief organizations. Those, too, are bogus.
More than 18 months after Hurricane Katrina decimated the Gulf Coast, authorities are chipping away at a mountain of fraud cases that, by some estimates, involve thousands of people who bilked the federal government and charities out of hundreds of millions of dollars intended to aid storm victims.
The full scope of Katrina fraud may never be known, but this much is clear: It stretches far beyond the Gulf Coast, like the hurricane evacuees themselves. So far, more than 600 people have been charged in federal cases in 22 states — from Florida to Oregon — and the District of Columbia.
The frauds range in value from a few thousand dollars to more than $700,000. Complaints are still pouring in and several thousand possible cases are in the pipeline — enough work to keep authorities busy for five to eight years, maybe more.
"The reason we're seeing such widespread fraud is individuals were evacuated to all 50 states. Katrina was a national phenomenon," says David Dugas, U.S. attorney in Baton Rouge, La., and director of a command center that's part of a special Hurricane Katrina Fraud Task Force. "Everybody knew what was going on. Therefore, criminals knew what was going on."
Major disasters and fraud frequently go hand in hand. It happened after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and Hurricane Andrew's devastating sweep through Florida in 1992. People tried to cash in, falsely claiming to be victims.
After Katrina, the same thing happened: Disaster aid was sent to inmates who applied from prison and to people who claimed property damage and provided addresses of vacant lots or cemeteries, among many abuses documented in Government Accountability Office reports.
"We found several dozen schemes. There are probably a lot more out there," says Gregory Kutz, a GAO investigator who has testified about Katrina fraud six times on Capitol Hill. "The real clever ones cover their trail and disappear and they'll never be caught."
GAO undercover investigators demonstrated how easy it was to cheat the system: Using phony names, Social Security numbers and addresses of damaged residences — such as the 13th floor of a two-story building — they still received several checks.
While many people filed bogus claims, the growing roster of the accused goes beyond the usual con artists. It includes employees of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers, other public officials, business owners, even temporary workers for the Red Cross.
"You can find criminals in every walk of life and that's what we're seeing here," Dugas says.
The GAO has referred more than 22,000 potential cases of fraud to the Katrina task force, though Dugas says the majority probably will not pan out. In a recent audit, the GAO also concluded FEMA had recovered less than 1 percent of some $1 billion investigators claim was fraudulent aid.
FEMA believes the fraud total may be inflated but says it won't have an estimate until later this year. Kutz's response: "I don't think they know the magnitude of the problem."
FEMA also says the relative scope of Katrina fraud isn't that unusual.
"I don't think the numbers are proportionally too far away from what we normally experience in a disaster," says David Garratt, FEMA's acting recovery director. "It's extraordinary only in terms of the size of the population that was affected."
A recent Associated Press analysis of government data obtained under the federal Freedom of Information Act suggested the government might not have been cautious enough as it doled out nearly $5.3 billion in aid to storm victims. The analysis found the government made more home grants than the number of homes in one of every five neighborhoods after Katrina.
The nature of Katrina fraud already has shifted as the Gulf Coast has begun reconstruction. Dugas says there now are more elaborate schemes with bigger losses.
In Mississippi, for instance, three people, including a Florida contractor, recently pleaded guilty to falsifying records of Katrina debris cleanup and billing the federal government $716,677 for the work.
Charges also have been filed against organized rings in Florida, Texas and Oregon.
The Oregon case offers a textbook example: Ten people have pleaded guilty to applying for disaster checks. In their scheme, a few ringleaders recruited friends, neighbors and relatives, then split the proceeds. They collected about $324,000.
None had any connection to Katrina.
"The folks who originally thought this up (discovered) ... this is kind of easy and said, 'Let's use some others to make applications,' " says Lance Caldwell, an Oregon prosecutor who won punishments ranging from probation to several years in prison.
Disasters create opportunities for people who are inclined to exploit others, says Dr. Lynne Tan, a psychiatrist at Montefiore Medical Center in New York who has counseled Sept. 11 survivors.
After traumatic events "there's chaos and no one is accounting for the money that well (and) they see it as a time to come in for the kill," Tan says. "It's almost like leaving a house wide open. People come in and burglarize it."
The federal government isn't confronting this problem alone. The Louisiana attorney general's office has received more than 2,000 complaints related to contractor fraud and made dozens of arrests. Louisiana State police have made nearly 50 arrests for suspected insurance fraud. And the Red Cross has investigators ferreting out scams.
The Red Cross says 104 people have been charged with cheating the charity in hurricane-related fraud; 86 have been convicted so far, according to Devorah Goldburg, an agency spokeswoman.
About three-quarters of those accused were temporary contract workers at a Red Cross call center in Bakersfield, Calif., she says. Hired to authorize cash payments to storm victims, they allegedly helped family and friends file phony claims.
Some 2,500 other fraud cases representing about $5 million in losses have been referred to law enforcement as potential cases to prosecute, while nearly 21,000 allegations totaling another $34 million are being checked out, Goldburg says.
So far, the Red Cross has recovered $2.6 million in overpayments or fraudulently obtained funds, some of it returned in anonymous envelopes, Goldburg says. "People realize we're serious about investigating allegations," she adds. "They're seeing it. They're hearing it."
Besides false claims, types of fraud include extortion, bank larceny, overbilling, public corruption, identity theft and using fictitious Social Security numbers or those of the deceased.
"We expected all these things. We just know that criminals follow the money," says Alice Fisher, assistant U.S. attorney general and head of the fraud task force, which also is investigating scams connected to Hurricanes Rita and Wilma.
Among task force cases in the last several months:
• In Illinois, Tina Marie Winston claimed she watched as her daughters, 5 and 6, drowned in the raging waters. She also said her New Orleans home had been swamped. Winston has no children and was living hundreds of miles away when Katrina struck. A judge acknowledged Winston's mental troubles but sentenced her to four years in prison for defrauding FEMA and others scams.
• In California, two Romanian nationals were charged with helping stage bogus Internet auctions that duped victims into thinking their contributions — bids for items such as a motorcycle that was never awarded — would help Katrina relief groups. Losses exceeded $150,000. Leontin Salageanu pleaded guilty; Teodor Manolache is a fugitive.
• In Louisiana, Jesse Pingno, former police chief of Independence, and Brian Lamarca, a former captain, await sentencing after pleading guilty to overbilling FEMA for overtime and vehicle use after Katrina.
• In Alabama, Lawanda Williams was sentenced to 75 months in prison for using false Social Security numbers and different names to claim losses in Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and Florida. Her Alabama home was not damaged. Authorities say she collected $277,377 and will have to pay restitution and forfeit items she bought including real estate, a mobile home, three cars and a 50-inch TV.
_In Washington, D.C., Jeffrey Alan Rothschild was sentenced to 8 1/2 years in prison after pleading guilty to trying to acquire more than $100,000 in disaster aid, and admitting other financial crimes. Rothschild created false identities, obtaining some from a legal directory. He was able to get 38 FEMA checks, using mailboxes in Florida, Tennessee, New York and Virginia.
Although some recent cases involve six-figure scams, many involved a few thousand dollars in emergency relief, prompting a watchdog group to question the focus of investigators.
In a report last fall, the Project on Government Oversight said most indictments, arrests and convictions involved people involved in "petty crimes" and claimed "so far the government has picked the low-hanging fruit from the tree."
"It seems like they're picking on the small guy," says Scott Amey, the group's general counsel. "No doubt it's adding up. ... But I don't know if the system is going after contractors in a way to hold them accountable for the larger fraud."
Dugas says those kinds of cases — contracting and procurement fraud and public corruption — will surface in the years ahead, noting that much relief money has yet to be spent.
About 150 to 250 complaints still come in each week, Dugas adds, and more than 9,600 possible fraud cases have been referred to investigators.
Restitution is almost always ordered for those convicted, but "most of the money is gone for good," says Kutz, the GAO investigator. "It really is down the drain. I'm not suggesting they shouldn't try to recoup it ... but the most important thing is to look forward and make sure they have a system in place they've tested in advance."
Garratt, the FEMA official, says changes already have been made. An instant verification system that was available online during Katrina has been expanded to include phone calls. FEMA says about 60 percent of Katrina disaster aid requests came by phone — and were a major source of bogus claims.
How effective will these improvements be?
"I think they'll do better," GAO's Kutz says. "Whether it's enough to stem the full tide of fraud and abuse — I don't know yet. ... The proof will be when the next disaster hits."
Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. |
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| More Problems and Questionable Insurance Deals |
[Mar. 23rd, 2007|02:13 pm] |
By MARY FOSTER, Associated Press Writer
NEW ORLEANS - Sixty-four-year-old Vivian Westerman rode out Hurricane Katrina in her 19th-century house. So terrible was the experience that she wanted two things before the 2006 season arrived: a backup power source and a gun.
"I got a 6,000-watt generator and the cutest little Smith & Wesson, snub-nose .38 you ever saw," she boasted. "I've never been more confident."
People across New Orleans are arming themselves — not only against the possibility of another storm bringing anarchy, but against the violence that has engulfed the metropolitan area in the 19 months since Katrina, making New Orleans the nation's murder capital.
The number of permits issued to carry concealed weapons is running twice as high as it was before Katrina — this, in a city with only about half its pre-storm population of around 450,000. Attendance at firearms classes and hours logged at shooting ranges also are up, according to the gun industry.
Gun dealers who saw sales shoot up during the chaotic few months after Katrina say that sales are still brisk, and that the customers are a cross-section of the population — doctors, lawyers, bankers, artists, laborers, stay-at-home moms.
"People are in fear of their lives. They're looking for ways to feel safe again," said Mike Roniger, manager of Gretna Gunworks in Jefferson Parish.
Citizens, the tourism industry, police and politicians officials have been alarmed by the wave of killings in New Orleans, with 162 in 2006 and 37 so far this year. A Tulane University study put the city's 2006 homicide rate at 96 slayings per 100,000 people, the highest in the nation.
National Guardsmen and state police are patrolling the streets of New Orleans. In neighboring Jefferson Parish, which posted a record 66 homicides in 2006, the sheriff sent armored vehicles to protect high-crime neighborhoods.
In New Orleans, police have accused the district attorney of failing to prosecute many suspects. Prosecutors have accused the police of not bringing them solid cases.
Some people are losing faith in the system to protect them.
Earnest Johnson, a 37-year-old chef who lives in Kenner, bought his first gun recently and visits a shooting range regularly. "Things are way worse than they used to be," he said. "You have to do something to protect yourself."
Kevin Cato, a 41-year-old contractor, bought a .45-caliber handgun for protection when he is working in some of the city's still-deserted areas. "But it's not much safer at home," Cato said. "The police chased a guy through my yard one time with their guns out."
In New Orleans, the number of concealed-carry permits issued jumped from 432 in 2003-04 to 832 in 2005-06. In Jefferson Parish, 522 permits were issued in 2003-04, and 1,362 in 2005-06.
Mike Mayer, owner of Jefferson Indoor Range and Gun Outlet in suburban Metairie, said that despite the dropoff in population, sales are up about 38 percent overall since Katrina.
Just how many guns are out there is anybody's guess. Gun buyers in Louisiana are not required to register their weapon or obtain a concealed-carry permit if they keep the gun in their house or car.
In a measure of how dangerous New Orleans is becoming, guns are finding their way into criminal hands at an alarming rate. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' "time-to-crime" analysis of the interval between the legal sale of a gun and the time it is seized in a crime investigation is five years on average around the nation, said ATF spokesman Austin Banks. In New Orleans, time-to-crime is six months, he said.
This sometimes happens because of "straw purchases," in which a buyer obtains a gun for someone not legally eligible to purchase one. Many guns also are stolen from homes and cars.
While many are buying guns for protection, only two defensive killings of criminals by civilians took place in New Orleans in 2006, according to police. No charges were filed against the shooters.
Westerman, an artist who lives in the city's Algiers neighborhood, is prepared to use deadly force.
"I'm a marksman now. I know what I'm doing," she said. "There are a lot of us. The girl next door is a crack shot."
INSURANCE
Insurance Wind Pool creates more questions than answers. I am trying to get the Mississippi Insurance Commissioner's office as well as the Governor's office and other elected officials to explain it. I will either give you more from the Insurance Commissioner's office or tell you a story of one of the strangest things I ever encountered. Let's hope it is more information since the story would be rather embarrassing to tell regarding one person supposedly in the know. After all the people want answers to problems not some crazy story like I will have to report next week if no other answers are given. -Sarge
http://www.doi.state.ms.us/pressrel/pressrel042806.pdf
http://www.doi.state.ms.us/pressrel/pressrel031907.pdf
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 22, 2007
From Barbour's Website.
GOVERNOR BARBOUR SIGNS ‘WIND POOL’ BILL
(Jackson, Mississippi) - Joined by lawmakers and other officials at the Capitol, Governor Haley Barbour today signed a bill designed to help promote the availability of insurance for Mississippi homeowners and businesses, whose premiums skyrocketed after Hurricane Katrina.
“The wrath of Hurricane Katrina didn’t end when the wind and water subsided in August 2005. As a state, we will be dealing with Katrina’s aftermath for years to come, and the availability of insurance - not to mention its affordability - is absolutely critical to helping homeowners and businesses get back on their feet,” Governor Barbour said.
The bill deals with the “wind pool,” an insurer of last resort for homes and businesses on the Coast that is funded through customer premiums and assessments from every insurance company in Mississippi. Today there are about 32,000 policies in the wind pool, up from 16,000 policies at the time of Hurricane Katrina. One of the main purposes of the bill - known as The Mississippi Growth and Redevelopment Act of 2007 -is to mitigate the increase of insurance premium costs across the entire state.
The bill, unanimously approved by both houses of the Legislature, also creates the Mississippi Windstorm Underwriting Association Reinsurance Assistance Fund. Monies in the special fund may be used by the Department of Insurance, with approval from the Legislature, to defray the cost for reinsurance, lowering the risk for insurance companies writing policies in Mississippi.
This legislation provides $80 million over the next four years from the insurance premium tax to buy reinsurance, which will result in lower premiums for wind pool policy holders. The bill encourages companies to write plans in the wind pool by providing an annual credit against state insurance premium taxes for domestic and foreign insurance companies for new wind and hail policies written in the coastal area of the state.
The total insured value of the wind pool is now $6 billion, and before Hurricane Katrina it was $1.8 billion.
“This new infusion of money into the wind pool, coupled with the many other steps that are being taken, offers renewed confidence that we will rebuild bigger and better than ever,” Governor Barbour said. “As I sign this measure into law as an immediate necessity, we must also remember that the ultimate goal is to re-create the private insurance market so that the wind pool isn’t even necessary. I see this as a step toward that goal.”
Mississippi Insurance Commissioner George Dale, who helped develop the plan and attended the bill signing, said the new law will be a significant one.
“The Mississippi Legislature has passed what, aside from the Toyota plant incentives, could be the most important economic development bill that will be passed this session, House Bill 1500 or the Wind Pool bill,” Commissioner Dale said. “This bill is not just about the Mississippi Gulf Coast but will benefit everyone in Mississippi, homeowners and businesses alike.
“This bill is an example of what we can do by working together. We want to congratulate Senator Dean Kirby and Representative Mark Formby, their respective Insurance Committees, Wind Pool representatives, and the Gulf Coast Business Council, he said.
“The bill will go a long way in stabilizing the Mississippi insurance market and demonstrates that Mississippi is serious about establishing and maintaining a fair and stable market,” Commissioner Dale said. |
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| Why I don't like Confederate Heritage Month in Mississippi |
[Mar. 20th, 2007|09:28 pm] |
The "Confederate Heritage" of Mississippi is one purely racist and totally distasteful in my view. The following is a document that is on file at the University of Tennessee and was written by the ones who drafted the articles of Secession:
A Declaration of the Immediate Causes which Induce and Justify the Secession of the State of Mississippi from the Federal Union.
[from the microfilm collection of the University of Tennessee]
In the momentous step which our State has taken of dissolving its connection with the government of which we so long formed a part, it is but just that we should declare the prominent reasons which have induced our course.
Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery-- the greatest material interest of the world. Its labor supplies the product which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce of the earth. These products are peculiar to the climate verging on the tropical regions, and by an imperious law of nature, none but the black race can bear exposure to the tropical sun. These products have become necessities of the world, and a blow at slavery is a blow at commerce and civilization. That blow has been long aimed at the institution, and was at the point of reaching its consummation. There was no choice left us but submission to the mandates of abolition, or a dissolution of the Union, whose principles had been subverted to work out our ruin.
That we do not overstate the dangers to our institution, a reference to a few facts will sufficiently prove.
The hostility to this institution commenced before the adoption of the Constitution, and was manifested in the well-known Ordinance of 1787, in regard to the Northwestern Territory.
The feeling increased, until, in 1819-20, it deprived the South of more than half the vast territory acquired from France.
The same hostility dismembered Texas and seized upon all the territory acquired from Mexico.
It has grown until it denies the right of property in slaves, and refuses protection to that right on the high seas, in the Territories, and wherever the government of the United States had jurisdiction.
It refuses the admission of new slave States into the Union, and seeks to extinguish it by confining it within its present limits, denying the power of expansion.
It tramples the original equality of the South under foot.
It has nullified the Fugitive Slave Law in almost every free State in the Union, and has utterly broken the compact which our fathers pledged their faith to maintain.
It advocates negro equality, socially and politically, and promotes insurrection and incendiarism in our midst.
It has enlisted its press, its pulpit and its schools against us, until the whole popular mind of the North is excited and inflamed with prejudice.
It has made combinations and formed associations to carry out its schemes of emancipation in the States and wherever else slavery exists.
It seeks not to elevate or to support the slave, but to destroy his present condition without providing a better.
It has invaded a State, and invested with the honors of martyrdom the wretch whose purpose was to apply flames to our dwellings, and the weapons of destruction to our lives.
It has broken every compact into which it has entered for our security.
It has given indubitable evidence of its design to ruin our agriculture, to prostrate our industrial pursuits and to destroy our social system.
It knows no relenting or hesitation in its purposes; it stops not in its march of aggression, and leaves us no room to hope for cessation or for pause.
It has recently obtained control of the Government, by the prosecution of its unhallowed schemes, and destroyed the last expectation of living together in friendship and brotherhood.
Utter subjugation awaits us in the Union, if we should consent longer to remain in it. It is not a matter of choice, but of necessity. We must either submit to degradation, and to the loss of property worth four billions of money, or we must secede from the Union framed by our fathers, to secure this as well as every other species of property. For far less cause than this, our fathers separated from the Crown of England.
Our decision is made. We follow their footsteps. We embrace the alternative of separation; and for the reasons here stated, we resolve to maintain our rights with the full consciousness of the justice of our course, and the undoubting belief of our ability to maintain it.
So those in Mississippi that value this kind of heritage, what the hell are you so proud of? It to me is a disgrace and something I totally want to make distant history. |
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| FEMA, Lies, And Action to Make Them Tell Truth |
[Mar. 15th, 2007|07:57 am] |
Once more FEMA is spewing anything that pops into their mind. You can hear what they told a woman and when I followed up, I got the same line of crap, until I told them I was with Unreported News Network. Suddenly, they didn't know a damn thing about anything, so I called the Democratic Committee on Homeland Security and reported to them what I had experienced. I talked to the woman who called Bob Kincaid's show on last Friday evening and she called them as well to report what she had been experiencing. You can hear her call at UnreportedNews.Net (or click this link http://unreportednews.net/BeverlyHeadOnwithBobKincaid3907.mp3 ) to see just what a pile of garbage was heaped on her and me by these lower than sewer dwellers called FEMA.
Seems funds are most likely being blocked to both Mississippi and Louisiana as the Mississippi Governor tries to throw up roadblocks in the path of anyone that is willing to actually work to get the people back in their homes. It is a proven fact that a house can be built in 9 days, and be a decent well built house that meets all the requirements of the area, but the so called Katrina Houses the rat in the Governor's mansion in Jackson Ms. is pushing doesn't. The winner of such a home given by the Governor's office can't be used because it doesn't meet the minimum standards, but to avoid this fact getting out this pile of garbage named Haley Barbour keeps it hid.
Now I learn that funds are kept away from anyone who will actually build decent housing, fast, and with the plan that has proven reliable. OK, so tell me why this crooked bastard doesn't want these houses built? I can only say it is because he must be WANTING to kill off the people or force them to leave so he and his crooked pals can steal land from the people.
I have to also give the media credit as a partner in MURDER of the people here. Yes CNN, Fox, ABC, CBS, and the other corporate owned media has as bloody hands as if they took a gun and shot to death each person. I am so GOD DAMN sick of their refusal to report on this crime, and when I see a 4 or 5 year old child with bags under their eyes, or wanting to KILL themselves because they lost everything and no hope of getting their lives back, then I ask what is the problem with these bastards like Wolf Blitzer, Lou Dobbs, Paula Zahn, or the others who don't give a damn that their lack of doing their jobs is making them murderers.
I dare any of them to call me and talk to me. I dare them to bring their crews down and let me take them to the area where the ones who want to hide all this suffering will not take them. I dare them to ask where are the funds and to ask to see the results. What about Enterprise Corporation of the Delta who claims faith based organizations as partners, but when you ask the organizations they say they aren't. Yet grant money keeps flowing from Go To Hell Barbour's office to these flaky folks.
If you want a well written, grammatically correct, great spelling column then sorry if I don't measure up in this one, but if you want to hear from one who has fought like a crazed warrior for answers, for results, for help, and this in spite of physical problems that has him in so much pain that death would be a relief, then I am the one you need. I am so ashamed to be an American and very ashamed of my country for not giving much more concern about the plight of the people being murdered by this administration and the Governor of Mississippi. OK, it is not your f---ing problem, but will you tell me that when the illness spread to your area? Will you tell me that when you watch as your children die from diseases out of this region, spread because the response that should have been there never happened and now thanks to so many not giving a damn, it turns into a national epidemic without enough medicine to stop it? See, now there is time to stop it, but don't think that will last, because give it 6 more months and that could be just enough time for the epidemics to break out here, and then as people travel they will bring it to YOU!
So what you want to do? Wait and hope it doesn't happen, or act and make DAMN sure it doesn't? It is your choice.
Note: not edited for errors because frankly I am too damn tired and hurting too much to much give a damn if I made errors or not. If you won't read it because it isn't perfect then that means you are not going to react any way most likely so I don't much give a damn about what you think. I am just tired of the death, pain and suffering while so many don't want to get involved. |
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| March 17 through 31 Vets For Peace City Schedule |
[Mar. 14th, 2007|09:33 am] |
I will post the planned topic for today, tomorrow. I still have some research to find out about on it and I feel this schedule needs to be put out for public attention. - Sarge
Fayetteville, North Carolina / Fort Bragg
POC: Debbie Liebers, Debbieddl@aol.com, 910.425.6036
Friday (3/16): “Meet and Greet” at Clarion Prince Charles Hotel; 7-8 p.m. informational meeting for Convoy/Gulf Participants (Clarion Prince Charles, Azalea Room 2)
Saturday (3/17): Fayetteville Rally/events
Sunday (3/18): Morning Church Service with Michael McPhearson as keynote speaker
Location: Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Fayetteville, 106-108 Hay St.
Afternoon vigil (tentatively scheduled)
Location: Fort Bragg Gates
Time: 4 – 6 p.m.
Evening dinner at Quaker House followed by Meeting for Reflection and
Skill Building, Contact in Conflict: Clarity for Change I, provided by
Sunny Miller of the Traprock Peace Center
Monday (3/19): Veterans and Families Speak Out Panel Discussion
Location: First Christian Church – Disciples of Christ, 1505 Fort Bragg Road
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Lodging: Pending
Meals: Friday - lunch following press conference at Quaker House by local organizers (approximately 2 p.m.), Saturday –breakfast at the hotel prior to rally, Sunday – dinner by Unitarian Church, Monday – breakfast by VFP at Quaker House for Sunny Miller presentation, Monday – dinner at Spinner’s pizza by local organizers.
Depart: approximately 10 a.m. for 3 hour drive to Columbia
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Columbia, South Carolina / Fort Jackson
POC: David Matos: aiken_peace@yahoo.com, 803-215-3263
Tuesday (3/20): Late Afternoon / Early Evening
Location: State Capital Vigil
Time: 5 – 7
Followed by Discussion/Reception
Location: Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Columbia
Time: 7:30
Lodging: Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Columbia
Meals: TBA
Depart: approximately 8:30 a.m. for 3 hour drive to Hinesville
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Hinesville/Savannah, Georgia / Fort Stewart
POC: Cathy Browning: cjb1146@yahoo.com, 912.996.6523
Wednesday (3/21): Early Afternoon Demonstration (12-3)
Location: Fort Stewart Gate (Hinesville)
Time: TBA
Evening Film and discussion
Location: The Sentient Bean (Savannah)
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Lodging: Fort McCalister State Park, Richmond Hill, Georgia (http://gastateparks.org/info/ftmcallister/)
*Between events we will drive to campground, get situated, and make/buy and eat
dinner.
Meals: Dinner and breakfast at campground.
Depart: approximately 9:00 a.m. for 2.5 hour drive to Jacksonville
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Jacksonville, Florida / Mayport Naval Station / Cecil Field
POC: Cathy Browning & Anne Winfrey
Thursday (3/22): Early Afternoon Demonstration at Mayport Naval Station
Location: TBA
Time: 12-3
Lodging: Jacque Betz’ farm, Waldo, Florida (352-468-2101, jacquebetz@msn.com)
Meals: Dinner and breakfast at Jacque’s.
Depart: approximately 10 a.m. for 5 hour drive to Columbus
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Columbus, Georgia / Fort Benning
POC: Russell Pryor, russell.pryor@gmail.com, 706.366.7054
Friday (3/23): Afternoon – informal local socializing
Location: TBA
Evening Panel Discussion
Location: Columbus State University?
Time: 8 p.m.
Saturday (3/24): Morning Vigil
Location: Downtown Columbus
Time: 11 a.m.
Lodging (Friday night): Local homes
Meals: Dinner, breakfast, and lunch
Depart: Approximately 1:30 for 1.5 hour drive to Montgomery
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Montgomery, Alabama / Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base
POC: Valerie Downes, vdownes@splcenter.org, 334.462.9522
Saturday (3/24): Late Afternoon Film / Discussion
Location: Civil Rights Theater, downtown Montgomery
Time: 4:30
Lodging: Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Montgomery
2810 Atlanta Highway, Montgomery, AL 36109
Meals: Dinner
Depart: Approximately 9:00 a.m. for 4 hour drive to Pascagoula
(via Mobile, Alabama, for lunch with local VFP members followed by action at
Congressman Bonner’s office in conjunction with The Occupation Project)
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Pascagoula, Mississippi
Arrive Sunday 3/25, approximately 1:00 p.m. |
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| (no subject) |
[Mar. 12th, 2007|03:47 pm] |
'We Called It Hurricane FEMA'
Trailer Park Was Quickly Emptied
By Peter Whoriskey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 12, 2007; A01
HAMMOND, La. -- Shortly after noon, FEMA agents began rapping on the trailer doors, their knocks resounding inside the tinny white homes. Everyone in the park, the agents announced without warning, would have to pack and leave within 48 hours. Where do we go now? Why? What about school? To the residents of the Yorkshire Mobile Home Park, all of them families displaced by Hurricane Katrina, the Federal Emergency Management Agency crews offered answers that were uncertain and sometimes contradictory. As residents spilled out of their homes to meet their similarly bewildered neighbors, the adults wondered where they would be sent next, and how far they might wind up from their jobs. Some began sobbing. Then the children, seeing their parents' tears, began crying, too. A woman fainted, and an ambulance came. "It was like shock and awe," recalled Ron Harrell, 40, a tenant. "We called it Hurricane FEMA." The Yorkshire residents were eventually scattered to other FEMA parks. But their sudden evacuation last weekend illustrates the upheavals that still accompany life in a government trailer park 18 months after the hurricane struck the Gulf Coast in August 2005. About 12,000 households in Louisiana live in such settlements, temporary arrangements that only out of desperation are being stretched out indefinitely. Almost all of the trailers' occupants were renters before the storm; unlike homeowners, they received no direct rebuilding assistance from the federal government. Some parks are rife with crime. Others are in isolated rural areas, far from schools and bus routes. Some trailers are in poor condition. Park tenants are keenly aware that they are not particularly welcome where they have ended up. Fearing blight, many local communities have tried to block FEMA trailer parks, and several are trying to enact deadlines for the removal of trailers. FEMA itself seems torn between closing the parks and serving the poor evacuees squeezed out by the scarcity of housing since the hurricane. Several times since Katrina, the agency has threatened to close the parks, only to grant an extension. Under the latest deadlines, tenants have until August to find other homes, but many seem unsure what they will do then. "People say we shouldn't still be living in a FEMA park," said one former Yorkshire tenant, a Wal-Mart worker who wanted to be identified only as "P." "But take a look at the rents people have to pay in New Orleans now -- who can afford that?" The evacuation of Yorkshire March 3-4 had its roots in the three-way political and legal wrangling among the site's owners, local officials and FEMA. That tension is mirrored across Louisiana and Mississippi, where scores of trailer parks have opened since Katrina. Before it was emptied, 58 families lived at the Yorkshire park. Their trailers were arranged on either side of a gravel road in a rural area about an hour north of New Orleans. Under a contract initiated the month after Katrina, owners Frank Bonner and Ken Albin were to get $42,700 per month in rent from FEMA. The residents began arriving about six weeks after the storm. Eventually, some found jobs as aides for the elderly or the mentally retarded, some as workers at Wal-Mart, and some as housekeepers. Some are disabled. Many are single mothers. The appearance of such parks in Tangipahoa Parish, as elsewhere, was not entirely welcome. For months, Tangipahoa officials sought to slow the growth of FEMA trailer camps. At one point, parish President Gordon Burgess called on Rep. Bobby Jindal (R-La.) to intervene with FEMA. Trailers "were moved in the middle of the night," Burgess explained. "People woke up and they'd have a FEMA site next door." At about the same time FEMA and the property owners were fighting over the terms of the contract, the owners clashed with the parish over approval for their trailer parks. A newspaper article appears to have precipitated the mass evacuation. Two days before the evacuation, the Daily Star of Hammond published a story about the latest power outage at Yorkshire. It was the third in recent months, the newspaper reported, and it happened because the electric bill had not been paid. Owners Bonner and Albin, who are responsible for the bill, which ran about $15,000 a month, blamed FEMA for not paying rent on time; FEMA officials have said they paid promptly after they were invoiced. "Quite frankly, we received press earlier that week that pointed the finger at FEMA for not paying the bills. We were getting beaten up," said Jim Stark, director of FEMA's Louisiana Transitional Recovery Office. "At this point, we said, 'Enough is enough.' " The park would be evacuated, and quickly, FEMA officials decided. Officials began telling tenants to pack up even before the agency had decided where they would go. FEMA told residents and reporters that the people had to be moved for their own protection: The agency feared another power outage, officials said, and the trailer park's sewage system, which sometimes smelled, posed a health hazard. But at the time of the evacuation, the power was on, the bill paid. State health officials deemed the sewage plant, for which the owners are responsible, free of violations, according to Brian Mistich, who oversees state inspections in the area. Although some complained of the stench from the plant, state officials said some odors from the facility are unavoidable -- and legal. In an interview Friday, Stark said he made the decision to vacate the park based largely on the possibility of more power outages. Although many residents said they were told they had to leave within 48 hours, Stark said it was not meant as a deadline. "Could we have done a better job on this? Absolutely," he said. "We just wanted to be out of there." Nearly all tenants interviewed said there was no reason to have moved, or at least no reason to have moved so suddenly. Several tenants fought back tears last week as they explained why they would rather be back at Yorkshire. Even those who said the park did at times stink preferred it to their new location. Shametha LaFrance and her five children were moved from Yorkshire into another FEMA mobile home, where, on the second day, the toilet backed up and the water stopped running. Darcelin Turner, 49, was relocated to a trailer in Belle Chasse, more than an hour away. She commutes every morning to bring her children to their school in Hammond; she does not want to transfer them again. Several others who moved to a site near the Hammond airport said that the new park is crime-ridden and that they would prefer to be back at Yorkshire. Out of fear, they said, they venture outside less and keep a close watch on their children. "They took us from bad to worse," said Lekesha Vernon, 27, a mother of two, one of those moved to the site near the airport. "But when you have no other place to go, you have no choice." The tenants said the sense of rootlessness that comes with the trailer life is affecting their children. "I'm tired of tossing my kids around like a bouncing ball," LaFrance said. "And I hate waking up every day wondering what's going to happen next." When she brought her 5-year-old to school last week, he would not let go of her and began crying. He asked her: "Mama, are you going to be there when I get home?"
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Tomorrow I will give a report on a very strange funding story from FEMA to the American Red Cross, to Bush Clinton Katrina Relief. The word is that FEMA funds are blocked to Mississippi and Louisiana according to FEMA Operator number 48795. I called FEMA for a statement this morning but no reply as of the posting of this article. I also notified the Homeland Security Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives and hope to get them to look into such reports.
Sarge |
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| So How is the Bush FEMA today? |
[Mar. 11th, 2007|09:18 am] |
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LITTLE ROCK (AP) — U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor said Wednesday the Federal Emergency Management Agency has given him "lame excuses" for not helping tornado-damaged Desha County, and he called for a Senate committee hearing on the agency's performance since the Feb. 24 storms. Meanwhile, Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark., whose district includes Desha County, also announced that a hearing he requested to look into the federal agency's response will be held March 15 before the House Committee on Homeland Security. "It has been 11 days since these two tornadoes hit Desha County and FEMA has done nothing," Ross said in a news release. "This is a symbol of what is wrong with FEMA and why so many people have lost confidence in their government." Speaking to reporters in his weekly teleconference, the Democratic senator from Arkansas said he would work with Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., who chairs the Senate's homeland security committee and with ranking member Susan Collins of Maine to schedule a hearing. "It is an outrage. It is inexcusable. This is a community that needs government assistance," said Pryor, who also is a member of the panel. Since the storms, Pryor has been working with Ross and U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., for a federal disaster declaration for the south Arkansas region. The two tornadoes last month injured 27 people in Dumas, destroyed or damaged 150 homes, and put at least 800 people out of work in the small town. For days, the town was without electricity and residents had to boil their drinking water as a health precaution. "If they can say it doesn't qualify for federal assistance, it's just beyond me," Pryor said. Ross cited a news article quoting FEMA spokesman John Philbin as saying "the damages or need for federal assistance are not readily available." But James McIntyre, another FEMA spokesman, said earlier this week that the request was still under review and a decision would be announced when it is made. He said the agency would not comment in the press on comments from the congressional members or Gov. Mike Beebe, who also has asked for a federal declaration. Pryor said Wednesday that he has spoken several times with FEMA officials and agency Director David Paulison and that they have given him "lame excuses" for not sending federal assistance. He said other agencies, including the Small Business Administration, have been more receptive. Pryor said FEMA apparently has decided that Arkansas doesn't meet the threshold for a disaster declaration, pointing out to him that residents there have homeowners insurance and that the state has projected a surplus of $845 million. Pryor called this reasoning "bogus," adding that the federal government shouldn't punish property owners for having insurance and shouldn't penalize the state for doing well economically and returning money to taxpayers this year in the state's largest tax cut. The government's reasoning was even harder to understand, he said, since Georgia and Alabama have been getting federal storm relief under a disaster declaration. Pryor said that FEMA's criteria in advising President Bush on disaster declarations need to be reviewed and that he hoped the response to Arkansas' storms wasn't based on partisan politics. "I don't want to believe that. If that's true, it's criminal. I certainly hope it doesn't have anything to do with how the people of Arkansas vote," Pryor said. Democrats dominate Arkansas politics and all but one member of Arkansas' six congressional members are Democrats. Wednesday, both Ross and Pryor repeated their calls for FEMA to move government trailers parked at Hope to Desha County for displaced residents there. The trailer were originally intended for Hurricane Katrina survivors. Pryor said that while Arkansans opened their homes, churches and shelters to help Katrina evacuees after FEMA failed to respond quickly to the 2005 disaster, the federal agency now won't move the trailers 100 miles from Hope to Dumas to help Arkansans. "It's just bewildering," Pryor said. Paulison has told the senator, Pryor said, that the agency can't move the trailers to Desha County until Bush makes the disaster declaration. Pryor challenged that reasoning, saying Congress passed legislation last year to allow for the "common good use" of the trailers. "They could use them if they wanted to," Pryor told reporters. "That's a bunch of mumbo jumbo. They have the regulatory authority to do this ... they just don't have the will." Pryor said a group from Monticello and Drew County was in Washington on Wednesday to lobby for assistance on south Arkansas' behalf. The senator hopes to visit Desha County on Friday or Saturday, and Lincoln said Wednesday that she also would tour the region Saturday morning. Also Wednesday, the Arkansas Senate passed a resolution calling on the federal government to supply aid and move some Hope trailers to Dumas. The Senate resolution, sponsored by Sen. Hank Wilkins IV, D-Pine Bluff, noted that the town doesn't have much rental property for those displaced by the storm. |
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