President Obama, cabinet officials to New Orleans next week

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/62501-obama-cabinet-officials-to-new-orleans-next-week

President Barack Obama and several cabinet members will travel to New Orleans next Thursday, more than four years after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the city.

Obama will survey the recovery efforts in the city in his first public event there since becoming president, and will participate in a town hall meeting in the area.

The visit demonstrates Obama's "strong commitment to Gulf Coast rebuilding and recovery," the White House said Friday in its announcement of the trip.

Joining Obama on the trip will be Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan, and Education Secretary Arne Duncan.


Obama adding event to Thursday visit
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2009/10/obama_adding_event_to_thursday.html

President Obama's visit to New Orleans Thursday will include not only a town hall event to talk about recovery issues but a second event to be named later, the White House announced Friday.

Additionally, the White House announced that members of Obama's Cabinet -- including Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan and Education Secretary Arne Duncan -- will each participate in events to review recovery progress and timed to the president's visit.

"President Obama's visit to New Orleans Thursday will include not only a town hall event to talk about recovery issues but a second event to be named later, the White House announced Friday.

Additionally, the White House announced that members of Obama's Cabinet -- including Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan and Education Secretary Arne Duncan -- will each participate in events to review recovery progress and timed to the president's visit."

Put some of those community organizing mad skills to use!

Vitter has expressed concerns about Obama's visit. It will be too short. :eyes:

lol

the Make it Right Foundation (Brad Pitt's recovery organization)
http://www.makeitrightnola.org/

I think you should send that to the WH hotline and let them know.

... unless you actually commit, and I've seen none of that from either Obama OR his predecessor on this issue.

Photo ops are not progress. Town halls are not progress. Cat 5 protection levees and wetlands recovery and protection are progress. Getting studies done which aren't totally controlled by the Army Corps of Engineers is progress.

That's one of the reasons why I'm perfectly fine with Landrieu voting the way she does. Our ability to be protected from future storms and catastrophes down here dwarfs any other issue, and both Landrieu and Vitter have been totally committed to this issue. If they both remain thorns in Obama's side when he nor Congress aren't actually DOING anything about this, then I'm all for it. If all he does is come down here, eat some good food, and then go back to Washington and say that we need more adequate public housing, then he's a fool and he'll deserve every bit of the derision he'll get from people in New Orleans and Southeast Louisiana. Even though we need it, building more public housing won't save a single person from drowning.

Someone once said that all politics is local, and this is the single BIGGEST issue for people down here.

I'll be delighted if he proves me wrong, but I won't hold my breath. Gotta save it for the next time we're unprotected down here when a big storm rolls through.

... without stopping, let me know about it. If he cuts birthday cake and plays an air guitar while people are drowning in attics, we'll talk. If he shows up with his own light crew, has a photo op, packs up the lights and leaves the city in blackness -- THEN we'll have something to go on.

There's quite a contingent of DUers who lived through Katrina and the flooding -- so even those of us who live far away are aware of what they and you went through. I wish you all the best.

If President Obama can bring public and Congressional attention back to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast by taking this trip, that would be a good start -- right? Contrary to public opinion, there's an awful lot of things he cannot do "with the stroke of a pen."

Hekate

Do the Obama haters ever shut the hell up and give this man a chance to do his job? I guess he was supposed to fix all of the problems in the gulf coast last month.

I realize what's being done is not enough and not fast enough. Part of the problem, I'm sure you know, is local and please give President Obama some credit for what his administration IS doing (and that he took action only weeks after his inauguration.)
From Essence interview w/Janet Napolitano http://www.essence.com/news_entertainment/entertainment/articles/obama_administration_says_new_orleans_is_not_forgotten/ Exerpts:

In early March, President Obama dispatched Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan to the region to assess and report back the rebuilding efforts. In the three weeks since their tour, the administration says it has freed hundreds of millions in federal aid for affordable housing and city construction projects. ESSENCE.com spoke with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano about what she found most disturbing during the trip, why money was kept from flowing to the local governments for so long, and how she believes this administration will make good on their promise to restore New Orleans. <snip> NAPOLITANO :...Everywhere you have huge areas that are simply not yet touched by recovery funds. The second thing that struck me is that the recovery process was going too slowly. Things seem to be stuck in paperwork at different levels, and we needed to unclog that. <snip> ESSENCE.COM: So how are you going to get around the bureaucratic red tape?
NAPOLITANO: We've done a number of things. We have moved special teams to Louisiana to speed up decisions on projects that need reimbursement or need to be paid for. We have consolidated management so projects don't have to go from one office to another to be approved. And we're working with state and local governments in their own recovery efforts. <snip> ESSENCE.COM: The administration certainly sounds enthusiastic about getting work done, but it feels like government officials have been spouting similar promises for the past three years. How soon will people in the region start seeing improvements?
NAPOLITANO: They already are. We've already sent down the teams to begin moving project monies through. We've already announced funding for police stations, schools, colleges and so forth, so they can begin or complete their rebuilding process. We're very close to being able to announce the arbitration process. The acting head of FEMA, Nancy Ward, is down there right now. I sent her to make sure that, administratively, we have smoothed things out and speeded things up, and that's exactly what she's doing. <snip> ESSENCE.COM: How can we be assured that something like Katrina doesn't happen again—both with regard to engineering of the levee system and governmental response?
NAPOLITANO: The levees themselves are done by the Army Corps of Engineers. I don't know that there ever is a levee big enough to withstand a Katrina-size storm is the plain fact of it. But my understanding is the levees are being redone, and they will be much stronger than they were before. One thing we are doing, however—as I was going through New Orleans with Senator Landrieu, she told me there are canals through the city that need to be cleaned out so they don't risk flooding in the rain. I was able that day to arrange with the Coast Guard to come do that dredging. It's that kind of attitude we have: let's identify the problem, let's figure out what we need to do to fix it, and see how quickly we can move. If we can't resolve differences with the local government, then let's get things to a decision-maker who can.

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... or will he be allowed some lunch?

Hekate

hardest working president of my lifetime, and he gets little credit for his troubles, even on DU.