Katrina and Me

As I mentioned earlier, I just finished reading Greg Palast's Armed Madhouse. Near the end of the book, I ran across a section on Huey Long, the New Deal and New Orleans that was a bit too personal. See, the City of N.O. hired Palast to investigate Entergy several years ago, and a couple of years ago he investigated the privatization of FEMA's disaster plan for New Orleans--a contract granted Innovative Emergency Management of Baton Rouge. What Palast uncovered was disturbing enough. But then there's the fact that recently I produced and helped design Entergy's 2005 online annual report--a curious report in that, with all its fake sentimentality and dedication to the "workers" who restored power, nowhere was it clear how, given Entergy New Orleans bankruptcy, the parent company managed to come off with such extraordinary high profits. But Palast knows how. Even worse, I used to be a technical writer and editor for Innovative Emergency Management. So was Mr. Suspect Device, after I left (had I stayed, he would've been my boss).