This came as the result of the sneak preview at the Rising Tide blogging conference last weekend.

Click here for the review from the Guardian (UK):

The Guardian reviews “The Katrina Myth”

In the meantime, my heart goes out to all New Orleanians who are currently being terrorized by the weather news and the realization that the levee problems have nowhere near been corrected.

If you can make it to the premiere tonight, great. If not, I certainly understand.

Three cheers for Sandy Rosenthal of levees.org for keeping up the fight.

We didn’t have the runtime in the video to make a dedication, but if we had, we would have dedicated “The Katrina Myth” to her. No one has done more to fight against the Katrina myth and for the future of New Orleans than her.

Info on the premiere of “The Katrina Myth”

I haven’t posted in a while because I’ve been busy.

One of the things I was up to was putting the finishing touches on the production and promotion of a film I wrote and produced called “The Katrina Myth: The Truth about a Thoroughly Unnatural Disaster.”

In an ideal world, this film would have been out sometime in early September - of 2005 - but as Mark Twain said: “A lie can get half way around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.”

I’m pretty sure that even before the levees came crashing down, Karl Rove was filling up his friends at Fox News with bullshit in order to cover up the fundamental inconvenient truth about “Katrina”:

‘Tweren’t no natural disaster. It was an engineering one. And the engineers responsible were the US Army Corps of Engineers. A FEDERAL failing and a federal responsibility.

As for the people “stuck” inside the city, they were held in the city at gunpoint by representatives of the Bad Old South who drew guns and fired warning shots (sometimes into the backs) of people who tried to walk out of the city to food, water, and safety.

Instead of the truth, we heard about looters, snipers, cities built below sea level and all other manner of assorted distractions, some manufactured - and nothing about the epic heroism and kindness of tens of thousands of New Orleanians in the face of inhuman pressure.

Anyway, the future of New Orleans depends on three things and they all begin with the letter “L.”

Love, luck and levees.

The love is there. No problem.

Luck? Personally I don’t like to count on luck. Waaaaaay too fickle.

So that leaves us with levees.

Good levees, New Orleans survives. Bad levees, New Orleans drowns again.

Sorry to be so ugly about it, but there it is.

As far as I’ve been able to tell, there is only one group in the known universe that is focused on the levee issue and needless to say it is not a governmental group or even a traditional NGO (the new Orwellian-speak for a non-profit.)

Right now, the only thing standing in the way between New Orleans and future disaster is a kitchen-table-based enterprise called levees.org

If you’re not a member, please correct that right away.

And make sure you tell everyone you know who cares about the city that Step One in rebuilding the city is to swell the ranks of levees.org until it reaches a size that is capable of making noise and creating an agitation that can’t be ignored.

To help this along, I made a simple 10 minute film that addresses and demolishes the five key Katrina Myths that enable the government crooks in Washington DC, Baton Rouge and indeed New Orleans itself to “make believe” that everything is OK and they don’t need to do anything about the levees.

I don’t mind telling you I busted a gut writing this thing and getting it ready to go in time for the Big Three.

(Huge thanks to Goodman Green who provided rapid-fire video magic I’d be hard pressed to find anywhere on earth, New Orleans or elsewhere.)

There will be a sneak preview tomorrow at the annual Rising Tide conference for New Orleans bloggers.

Then on Thursday, August 28th, there will be a public premiere.

Be there. Bring friends. Tell friends in New Orleans and elsewhere.

In a week, we’ll be launching a YouTube campaign and we’re shooting for 100,000 views in seven days or less. Watch for the announcement.

Real levee repair and building cannot go forward until the bullshit about New Orleans laid down by Karl Rove, Fox News and the rest of the media ratpack back in ‘05 is thoroughly cleaned out of people’s heads and replaced with the TRUTH.

I’ve done all I can do. Now it’s up to you.

Please make sure that everyone you know, inside New Orleans and out, sees this film and are enrolled to make sure their friends and colleagues see it too - and join levees.org.

It’s three years out. It’s do or die time. Fresh momentum or the mortuary.

I think New Orleans is worth saving.

How about you?

Click here for info about the August 28th premiere:

http://www.levees.org/blog/sandy

Ken McCarthy
FoodMusicJustice.com

The criminality went straight to the mayor’s office.

The good news is that San Francisco city government got cleaned up somewhat as a result of the scandal.

Maybe the same will happen for New Orleans.

In the meantime…

It looks like Mayor Ray Nagin’s brother-in-law and others in the Nagin circle were billing the federal government for repairing homes that did not exist, for work that was never done and for work that was done by volunteer church groups.

Details at: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/13/us/nationalspecial/13activist.html?em

I’m hiding out in the cool weather of the Catskills.

But if I were in New Orleans, I’d made sure I was at this event. It looks like it will be absolutely beautiful.

Click here and be inspired: http://www.weshallnotbemoved.org/

Yeah, that’s right. Slowly, but surely the rest of the country is getting a clue.

New Orleans was first and not the last. It all started 40 years ago when the country decided we could afford massive military adventures overseas.

It’s a national problem, not a New Orleans failing.

More: Gaps in Aging Levees Leave Washington DC landmarks exposed

It’s the home of more than 1 out of 10 Americans. All by itself, it’s one of the ten biggest economies in the world. It’s the source of much of America’s fresh produce.

And it has a fatal flaw that could render it largely inhabitable for three to five years: poorly built, badly maintained levees.

Part Three of a three-part series.

Here’s Part Two of the story:

There’s more. Click here for PART THREE: Earthquakes, Levees, and the Fate of California

That’s the conclusion of group of respected civil engineers who have studied natural and engineering disasters (New Orleans was an engineering disaster) all over the world.

Here’s Part One of the two-part series.

There’s more. Click here for PART TWO: California’s levees are even worse

It used to be as easy as contacting the Corps local librarian. Now all the records have been removed to a warehouse and the public no longer has access to them.

Is this one of the Corp’s post-Katrina improvements?

From Coney Island’s 2008 Mermaid Parade

“
The “Boots” commercial that brought the song back to life in the UK

Here Come the Girls” was written and produced by Allen Toussaint. The Meters provided the funk.

From New Orleans to the UK to New York…

How often has the arc of popular culture traveled this way?

For example, did you know that the first song John Lennon ever learned to play on the guitar was Fats Domino’s “Ain’t That a Shame.”

Here are the CORRECT lyrics to “Here Come the Girls”…

There’s lots of laughably bad transcriptions out there. This may be only place on the Internet you can get them straight.

“Here Come The Girls” Lyrics

Chorus
Here come the Girls! (Girls, Girls, Girls-Girls)
Here come the Girls! (Girls, Girls, Girls-Girls)

Looking so good, its a doggone shame, that they couldn’t all be mine.
Looking so pretty, its a doggone pity - Oh! - you’re looking so fine. (Fine)

Look out brother. Let me get one, a little closer to the one I love.
Anything better than the opposite sex they must have kept it up above.

Chorus
Here come the Girls! (Girls, Girls, Girls-Girls)
Here come the Girls! (Girls, Girls, Girls-Girls)

I can live without coffee, I can live without tea.
And I’m living without the honeybee.
Now the Philly Steak,
I can leave or take,
but the girls are part of me!

And oh water.
I don’t need no lemonade.
But to live without girls,
I can’t live without girls,
It’s like a man with a hole in his head.

Chorus
Here come the Girls!
Here come the Girls!
Here come the Girls! (Girls, Girls, Girls-Girls)
Here come the Girls! (Girls, Girls, Girls-Girls)

Going out of my head, (Hey!)
While the foxes do their thing, (Hoo-hoo-hoo!)
You make me feel so good inside,
I got to jump up and sing! (Aaah!)

Naa, naa, naa, naa!
Naa, naa, naa!
Naa, naa, naa, naa!
Naa-naa-nana-na!
Naa, naa, naa, naa!
Naa, naa-nana, na!
Naa, naa, naa, naa!
Naa-naa-nana-na!

OOOOoooooooOOOHH!
I’m not saying I can live on love alone.
OOOOoooooooOOOHH!
But that’s the only thing that turn me on.
OOOOoooooooOOOHH!
I was born to be free just once!
Freedom of choice,
Ring that bell,
Give all the girls to me!

Chorus
Here come the Girls!
(Girls, Girls, Girls!)
Here come the Girls!
(Girls, Girls, Girls!)
Here come the girls!
(OOOOOOOHHHH! waaaah!)
Here come the girls!
(I don’t need…no lemonade!)
Here come the girls!
(girls!)
Here come the girls!

Here come the girls!

Here come the girls!

(I’m taking about them fine foxes)

Here come the girls!

(Oooh they really turn me on)

Here come the girls

(Repeats until fade)

— All in all, a very apt anthem for the Mermaid Parade