Dicks

You may remember the video made by New Orleans high school kids that I posted last week. It effectively utilized humor in a critical treatment of the Army Corps of Engineers and the American Society of Civil Engineers and called for support of an 8/29 investigation.

Well  ACE and ASCE are not happy about it and want the video pulled from YouTube though it is true that ASCE was paid $1 million by ACE and that...

The American Society of Civil Engineers confirmed the launch of an internal ethics probe of its staff and members based on complaints by a University of California-Berkeley professor, who served on a separate independent panel investigating levee failures.

SNIP

The video was produced by Stanford Rosenthal, a senior at Isidore Newman School and the son of Levees.org President Sandy Rosenthal, who said her group would remove the video from the Web by Tuesday night, although she believes the allegations it contains are accurate. It has become an Internet phenomenon, garnering tens of thousands of viewers in just a week.

"I told them, yes, we'd take it down, but our Webmaster is 17 years old and is on a field trip and out of town," Rosenthal said Tuesday. "That same youngster is going to be honored this week with the outstanding youth and philanthropy award of the Association of Fundraising Professionals." The student she is referring to is her son.

SNIP

"The reason we're taking it down, quite simply, is we just don't have the personnel or resources to wage a legal battle with the ASCE," Rosenthal said, "even though we stand by every word of the public announcement and contend it's completely accurate." (my emphasis)

I see now that the video is no longer publicly available at YouTube (though it can still be seen at the Times Picayune site)

UPDATE: OK weird and funny. The video at the TP is in fact a YouTube video apparently posted a day ago by someone TP. The one which had been posted by Levee.org though is not publicly available anymore.

Anyway here is the video (1 minute)

Comments

[MapleStreet]

So satire is illegal now ?

Silly Lawsuit Against Participation.

[Elspeth R]

Satire is illegal unless the bad guys are using it against us. Sadly, the Federal Levee Failure was their really bad attempt at satire. They got away w/murder and that is NOT funny.

On a brighter note, there is a vid on NOLA.com that shows (supposedly, I couldn't get it to load except for the first few sounds which were music to my ears) the St. Charles Streetcar on a demo run!!! And it is narrated by a veteran driver! I hope it's the great gentleman that I first experienced driving the streetcar on my first run on it! He was a delightfully cantankerous fellow who had no patience for cars blocking the streetcar lines! "I'll crack you like an egg!" and "I'll split you like a watermelon!"
Just hearing streetcar noises, I started crying...I can't wait to go back...it won't be too soon to visit again.
:)
Elspeth

[GentillyGirl]

Don't worry, we'll keep this video alive in spite of the antics of the ASCE.

Those liars were bought and paid for in doing the whitewash on the ACE's shoddy work and designs. They now have blood on their paws too.

[mooncat]

This is so disappointing from a professional organization like the ASCE used to be.

[pansypoo]

simply. how dare they stifle the truth.

[skippy]

the american society of civil engineers threatened legal action against a bunch of high school students?

they don't sound all that civil to me...

[spocko]

the american society of civil engineers threatened legal action against a bunch of high school students?

they don't sound all that civil to me...

Gee. This all sound very familiar to me. Some big powerful group doesn't like the truth so they simply sue the people who put the truth up.

Sounds like me vs. Disney. Sounds like I should let the EFF know about this.