Seriously fucked up--Fake officials "reopen" New Orleans public housing

[tjwash]

Fake officials "reopen" New Orleans public housing

By Peter Henderson and Matt Daily

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - A prankster posing as a federal housing official took center stage at a New Orleans event with the city mayor and the governor of Louisiana, controversially promising to throw open closed public housing to thousands of poor former city residents.

The stunt, which the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development called a "cruel hoax," was the latest by an activist group known as "The Yes Men" who have previously masqueraded as World Trade Organization officials announcing they were disbanding the body.

Activist Andy Bichlbaum, pretending to be HUD "Assistant Deputy Secretary Rene Oswin," told hundreds of businesspeople at a forum the agency would reverse policy and reopen housing units now targeted for replacement by mixed-income development.

He promised to "fix New Orleans, not just for the benefit of a few but for everyone."

The audience applauded the speech and the moderator thanked "Oswin" for the "dramatic announcement."

Rest of story here

[Warpy]

1. These are the Yes Men

and they're particular heroes of mine. http://www.theyesmen.org/

These guys point out the hypocrisy of officialdom better than a thousand Michael Moore movies could.

Once the press gets over being bamboozled by somebody besides the administration, maybe they'll get angry that what the Yes Man said isn't real policy.

[gratuitous]

2. This is by a group called the Yes Men

Read more about it at Talking Points Memo:

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/001432.php

According to CNN, here's what the ersatz spokesman promised (without a trace of consciousness that any of this would be patently bogus):

- Energy giants Exxon and Shell would spend $8.6 billion "to finance wetlands rebuilding from $60 billion in profits this year."

- Wal-Mart would withdraw its stores from poor neighborhoods and "help nurture local businesses to replace them."

- the federal government would spend $180 million to fund "at least one well-equipped public health clinic for every housing development."

- the feds would reverse plans to replace public schools with private and charter schools, and instead create a national tax base to supplement local taxes.

* * *

Now,if you can read those four "promises" and not have your bullshit meter redline, then you either deserve to be duped, or you're a Backwash Republican.

[Ian David]

14. It reminds me of Al Gore's bit on Saturday Night Live...

where he pretended he was still president in 2006.

It's a bittersweet picture of the way things should have been.

[Benhurst]

3. A cruel joke, perhaps; but maybe what is needed to get our

so-called representatives and leaders to address the needs of the people.

[Democrats_win]

4. IMHO, these pranksters are fighting for the People of NO.

Democracynow.org has reported that undamaged public housing near downtown NO hasn't been opened even though so many people need a place to live. They suggest that developers want this prime real estate. So this "prank" shines a light on the crooks who plan to steal land from the people.

[Neecy]

7. I watched that last night....

And I was furious at the lockout of the residents of a public housing complex that was undamaged by flood water - yeah, that was located near prime NO real estate, close to the Quarter.

It looked like the residents weren't even allowed in to get their belongings before the place went into lockout. The elderly resident - who looked like she hadn't had a good meal in months - who Palast helped into her unit had a kitchen full of food. I thought, what the hell? Here's someone who looked like she was starving and the NO Housing Authority wouldn't even let her retrieve her canned goods? She didn't know where she was going to sleep that night. I just wanted to break things watching that segment.

[SteppingRazor]

5. Brilliantly done...

it highlights just how awful the actual bureaucrats are by setting an example of how they should be acting.

[EFerrari]

12. Yes! I'v e never heard of this group. They are brilliant. n/t

[librechik]

6. wow--what is art again?

fake officials like Bush announced much the same thing--and yet they are the "real" ones, supposedly.

:brain explodes:

we need a smilie for that

[Gormy Cuss]

8. It's seriously screwed up to prank homeless poor people.

They may be making a great social statement but I wish they'd direct it somewhere else.

[EFerrari]

10. Except their audience was the mofos who are trying to throw

the poor out of NOLA, not homeless people.

And they got applause from these heartless bastards.

[Gormy Cuss]

18. And no press reported on it before the prank was revealed?

No people got their hopes up just to be dashed down yet again?
I'm sorry, but I see this as only a tasteless prank directed at poor people, regardless of the point they thought they were making.

[EFerrari]

19. As an advocate for the homeless, I wish this would happen

in every major American city, every day.

[Gormy Cuss]

20. As a former low income person displaced by government action,

I would have punched out the pranksters if they did that in my community.

on edit: this is a much better way to get attention:

ACORN Files Suit Against FEMA
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2482508

[gratuitous]

11. On the other hand

You're in the audience, still waiting for someone to do something, and this guy gets up and offers a bunch of suggestions for improvements that are not only possible, but easily possible, except for corporate greed and Republican corruption.

Then you find out it's all a hoax. Of course Wal-Mart isn't going to use its enormous corporate profits to benefit small businesses in poor neighborhoods. Of course the oil companies aren't going to dedicate a tithe of their obscenely inflated profits for the year to restore the wetlands they fucked up over the decades. First, you're made at the prankster; what a cruel hoax! Then, the question inevitably arises, "Hey, why can't Wal-Mart and the oil companies use their fabulous riches to repair some of the damage they've done to the economic and geographic communities that helped them accumulate their wealth?"

[Ian David]

15. Exactly! Why CAN'T it be true! It SHOULD be true! Shame on the GOP!

Republicans are just Nazis who are too lazy to march.

[OrangeCountyDemocrat]

9. Do These Guys Watch Colbert & Stewart? nt

[zbdent]

13. Sounds like a Bush promise

you know, where he's telling one group that he's funding them as he's signing legislation gutting their funding ...

[Fridays Child]

16. Cruel hoax??? The cruel hoax is the banishment of NOLA residents from...

...their homes in public housing projects that were NEVER flooded. For years, corporations, and the public officials they own, have wanted to re-zone the tracts and put them to more lucrative uses. Katrina was a godsend to these vultures.

Hurrah for the Yes Men!

[Kickoutthejams23]

17. I love these guys.

I actually find this very very funny. Of course the real cruel hoax is closing down undamaged public housing during a severe housing shortage.

BTW. are the rules different in NOLA. Where I live local cities are in charge of federally funded housing. The Feds can no more close public housing down here than they can close the interstate freeway.

Just curious