NEW ORLEANS (AP) - The view from Kinh Nguyen’s front door these days is nothing like the “abandoned cemetery” she saw upon returning to her New Orleans neighborhood two months after Hurricane Katrina.

Gone are the blue tarps and plywood boards that covered storm-damaged homes in Village de l’Est, a mostly Vietnamese-American neighborhood. Nguyen’s lawn, which turned dark brown after briny floodwaters killed her grass, is now a lush green. Streets once littered with storm debris are as clean and pothole-free as any in the city.

“They’re all back,” Nguyen, a 45-year-old mother of four, said of her neighbors. “Every home looks nicer, newer.”

Village de l’Est’s rebound has been a remarkable success story in this misery-stricken city. At the same time, for better or worse, the hurricane has brought profound political and cultural change to the community.

Amazing, simply amazing, the work that can be done, the stride that was taken, the initiative shown and the accomplishments these folks realized, in New Orleans of all places, a city that was inundated by Katrina, a city that for the most part, still sits in ruin, many sections a veritable ghost town…

But the Vietnamese community is clean, fresh, attractive and thriving, doesn’t that strike you as a wonderful picture of the Great American Success Story?? It does me and I tip my hat to those folks for their hard work and proud spirit…

Language and cultural barriers long kept Vietnamese-Americans on the sidelines of the city’s civic scene after they began flocking to New Orleans upon the fall of Saigon in 1975. Since Katrina, however, they have been emerging as a force in a city where politics is customarily viewed in black-and-white terms.

“In a short period of time, they’ve had a major impact in the community,” said Jefferson Parish Councilman John Young, who represents a New Orleans suburb with a significant Vietnamese population.

The Vietnamese can and do adapt to a new environment quite well, and in rapid fashion, they work in a fluid situation better than any group of people I have ever seen and I am guessing that they are going to become a force to be reckoned with in the New Orleans and Orleans parish government in the near future, and I have to say, I think that’s a wonderful emergence of community and dedication on their part…

An estimated 90 percent of the 25,000 Vietnamese-Americans who lived in southeastern Louisiana before Katrina had returned within two years of Katrina’s onslaught, according to community leaders. They were among the first to start rebuilding their homes and reopening their businesses, and their community is recovering much more rapidly than some other parts of New Orleans.

Like many of her neighbors, Kinh Nguyen didn’t wait for the government’s help to repair her home, a modest, ranch-style house. She moved her family back in in March 2006, about 18 months before she received a federal housing grant.

And now I have to ask the really big question, WHY in the HELL haven’t the CHOCOLATES in New Orleans done the same thing??

You’ll need to read the rest of this story to see for yourself what the Vietnamese people of New Orleans have done to help themselves and see how they did it, and in MY opinion, if they can do the job that they have done, with minimal federal help, without the BILLIONS that the CHOCOLATES believe that they are owed and entitled to, then anyone that WANTS TO can do the same thing, IF they have the initiative and motivation in them…

But the CHOCOLATES that inhabit New Orleans don’t have that drive and determination, the CHOCOLATES of New Orleans are professional welfare slugs, the CHOCOLATES of New Orleans wouldn’t throw a bucket of water if their house was on fire, but the CHOCOLATES of New Orleans will sit back and complain about how the federal government ignores them because they are CHOCOLATES, well, that’s not the truth of it, the feds have ignored New Orleans because of WHAT it is, corruption incarnate, and that corruption is not all because of New Orleans being a CHOCOLATE city, New Orleans was corrupt long before any CHOCOLATE came to power, but if they didn’t help the Vietnamese rebuild and the Vietnamese were able to rebuild on their own, bigger and better in many cases, WHY can’t the CHOCOLATES in New Orleans get off of their lazy CHOCOLATE asses and do the same??

Anyone?? Bueller??

And for damn sure, the CHOCOLATES can’t say it’s because the Vietnamese are rich, white and Republican, it’s because the CHOCOLATES aren’t going to do anything other than be CHOCOLATES, that’s all they know how to be…

Full Story Here:
Vietnamese Rebound in New Orleans

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House scolded the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Friday for staging a phony news conference about assistance to victims of wildfires in southern California.

The agency — much maligned for its sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina over two years ago — arranged to have FEMA employees play the part of independent reporters Tuesday and ask questions of Vice Adm. Harvey E. Johnson, the agency’s deputy director.

ON DEADLINE: More on the FEMA masquerade

The questions were predictably soft and gratuitous.

“I’m very happy with FEMA’s response,” Johnson said in reply to one query from an agency employee.

Full Story Here:
FEMA workers posed as reporters

I would have gotten up from my death bed to write this, FEMA is a JOKE, a very bad, terribly mismanaged JOKE and we’re paying for it, you’re doing a heck of a job Brownie, words that have become synonymous with You’re fired…

I’m going to cover a few things other than just FEMA in this post but FEMA is directly connected in the entire topic, I am to the point that I have to vent, just a little…

FEMA, and the state of Louisiana showed the nation what incompetence truly looked like when Katrina hit the gulf coast, Bush didn’t rush right down to New Orleans and Mississippi like he did to California this week, federal money has been slow to go to Louisiana to fuel their recovery and everywhere I read I see people making comparisons to New Orleans and the So-Cal fires, well, there is NO comparison other than the fact that they are both natural disasters, right there is where ANY similarity in them ends…

I have seen many comments on the New Orleans Times-Picayune saying that Louisiana will continue to be ignored until they, the state of Louisiana, seat a Republican Governor, I see the same people saying that the reason So-Cal is receiving the massive response to their disaster is because they have a Republican Governor, and the truly terrible part is the ones, and there are MANY, screaming that it’s all about race, New Orleans didn’t get the response they needed because of New Orleans being a majority black city and because California is populated by rich, white Republican voters, and to that I say BULL SHIT!! Yes, there are some rich white folks in California but to the people throwing out the assumptions that this is the reason California is getting a bit more rapid response, I say again, BULL SHIT!!

FEMA messed up in their response to New Orleans but the root cause of that massive failure was the response made by Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco, she turned down an initial offer by Pres. Bush for IMMEDIATE federal help in the form of troops and the supplies that they could have almost immediately moved into the New Orleans area, but Blanco turned Bush down in her belief that Louisiana could handle the aftermath of Katrina all on it’s own and in what I saw as an attempt by her to prove that a FEMALE and Democratic Governor could seriously get the job done, and I think that Blanco may have forgotten that 3,500 members of the Louisiana Army National Guard were already under federal orders and in a period of out processing from Kuwait and making their return to Louisiana after having spent a year in Baghdad, and perhaps she didn’t realize that even if the 256/156 BCT had been able to return to Louisiana immediately, they were still under federal orders for a given period of time after their deployment…

Bush made mistakes in Katrina but the 1st responsibility falls on the state itself, NOT to FEMA or the U.S. military, and I know that many believe So-Cal got a much more expedient response, but their Governor was ‘Johnny on the spot’, he was all over this thing and he exhibited great leadership, and yeah, he did make a couple of off hand comments towards Blanco and the Louisiana response to Katrina but he only spoke the truth, Louisiana initially dropped the ball in New Orleans and FEMA quickly followed up with their own fumbling and bumbling, thus, in my mind at least, bringing to light the fact that we are NOT prepared as a nation, if FEMA and the Feds can’t contain a regional issue like Katrina and can’t respond in an honest manner, you know, like NOT hosting and populating their own press conference, how can we possibly hope that they could get this nation under control in the event of a massive attack or nationwide natural disaster and be what they are supposed to be, the one and only, Federal Emergency Management Administration??

We need a hell of a lot more than political spin, we need to lose the comparisons of disasters and we ALL need to work together to make this nation as safe and as prepared as possible, stop the finger pointing, stop the in-fighting, stop the politics and racial slurs, either get with the program and become a part of the solution or keep doing what you are doing and remain a part of the problem…

Demand that Bush remove incompetent managers within his administration, and the very 1st thing that could be done to help resurrect FEMA from it’s own pile ashes would be the immediate firing of Michael Chertoff, he can’t handle disaster, and that’s because he IS a disaster, his organization has NO scruples, as has been glaringly pointed out by this fake press conference, and that little character flaw falls directly on the man in charge of the agency itself, Chertoff, and yes, I know, many are going to say that Bush himself needs to be removed, and I could not agree more, but he could help his own cause by placing people in positions of authority that could actually DO a job the way it needs to be done, and by removing them and placing BETTER people in the position if they don’t, and by appointing capable advisers and then actually listening TO that sage advice…

God Speed California, you WILL recover, but PLEASE, do us all a favor will you?? Cut the damned brush so this crap doesn’t happen again, a snail darter or some desert rodent or some other little furry critter is NOT worth all this BS with the wild fires, it could be avoided by a little bit of land clearing, no point in being a tree hugger if all you’re going to have is a burned out tree to hug…

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NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has a 15-cent price tag stuck to his Yale law degree, blaming the school’s affirmative action policies in the 1970s for his difficulty finding a job after he graduated.

Some of his black classmates say Thomas needs to get over his grudge because Yale opened the door to extraordinary opportunities.

Thomas’ new autobiography, “My Grandfather’s Son,” shows how the second black justice on the Supreme Court came to oppose affirmative action after his law school experience. He was one of about 10 blacks in a class of 160 who had arrived at Yale after the unrest of the 1960s, which culminated in a Black Panther Party trial in New Haven that nearly caused a large-scale riot.

The conservative justice says he initially considered his admission to Yale a dream, but soon felt he was there because of his race. He says he loaded up on tough courses to prove he was not inferior to his white classmates but considers the effort futile. He says he was repeatedly turned down in job interviews at law firms after his 1974 graduation.

“I learned the hard way that a law degree from Yale meant one thing for white graduates and another for blacks, no matter how much any one denied it,” Thomas writes. “I’d graduated from one of America’s top law schools, but racial preference had robbed my achievement of its true value.”

Full Story Here:
Justice Says Law Degree ‘Worth 15 Cents’

I have always had a fairly high level of respect for Justice Thomas, and that level just went UP a notch higher with this story, after reading his feelings concerning race preferences and affirmative action, it’s simply a fact, affirmative action has cheapened the achievements of MANY…

No one, man or woman, regardless of their skin color, religion or nationality, should be given ANY preferential treatment because of their particular gender, race or religious belief…

School admissions, whether to private prep schools or universities, job placements, promotions, nothing in life should be based on racial preferences, a persons advancement in life should be based on ability, qualifications and merit, not skin pigmentation…

There is no doubt in my mind that Justice Thomas was an outstanding student and he IS an excellent Justice, thank God he has condemned affirmative action for the useless measure it truly is, an action that has deprived more people of education and advancement in life than it has helped, and I have seen the result of affirmative action up close and personal, when hiring was done on the basis of race or sex as opposed to qualifications and experience, and when promotions were handed out the same way, “We have to promote him/her, they’re the right race/sex and we have to meet the federal mandate on hirings and promotions you know..”

Federal mandate my ass, all affirmative action ever did was allow the grossly under-qualified a chance to actually prove the ‘peter principle’ to be a cogent point of the ‘nanny state’ mind set…

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NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A black teenager whose prosecution in the beating of a white classmate drew thousands to Louisiana for a civil rights demonstration is back in jail, but a prosecutor said Friday the sentence has nothing to do with the racially charged case.

Mychal Bell, 17, was unexpectedly sent back to prison on Thursday after going to juvenile court in central Louisiana’s LaSalle Parish for what he expected to be a routine hearing, Carol Powell Lexing, one of his attorneys said.

Instead, state District Judge J.P. Mauffrey Jr. decided Bell had violated probation and sentenced him to 18 months in jail on two counts of simple battery and two counts of criminal destruction of property, Lexing said.

“This matter was unrelated to the December 2006 event at Jena High School, and that case was not even mentioned in the court proceedings,” District Attorney Reed Walters said Friday.

Bell had faced charges before the Dec. 4 attack on white classmate Justin Barker at Jena High School. Walters’ decision to pursue adult felongy charges against Bell and others who became known as the Jena Six led to charges of unfairness and, eventually, to last month’s march that drew an estimated 20,000 to 25,000 to the little town of Jena.

Full Story Here:
Mychal Bell of the ‘Jena 6′ Back in Jail

Damn, can’t a brother catch a break?? What’s it gonna take?? The brother just needs a break and some adult mentoring…

I am betting that this will be the reaction from Black leaders Je$$ie Jack$on and Al $harpton, I would bet BIG bucks on it, this only happened because the young man was ‘misunderstood’ and because he’s Black, I mean, you KNOW it has nothing to do with him being a criminal, a juvenile delinquent or whatever the street term for BAD kid is today…

And I am also guessing that the race baiters are going to scream bloody murder that state District Judge J.P. Mauffrey Jr. is nothing but a racist, he just hate da boy, and that’s likely what it is, I mean, District Judges are noted racists you know…

Yes, that IS sarcasm..

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