VOTE!!

There are 8 amendments on the November 7th election ballot.
November 7th is a week from Tuesday. This isn't our usual Saturday election day.


The Bureau of Governmental Research is a private, nonprofit, independent research organization dedicated to informed public policy making and the effective use
of public resources for the improvement of government in the New Orleans metropolitan area. This report is available on BGR’s website

CABL
Council for a Better Louisiana's positions are here CABL's take

The Public Affairs Reasearch Council of Louisiana has done an excellent job of putting each amendment into everyday language and explains what your vote means for each. Click here to read their opinions.

Take some time and write down your positions before you go and vote. You only get three minutes. Hell, I was in and out in September when we had 13 amendments to vote on only because I wrote down my decisions before hand. Other wise, with my diminished near term memory, I'd be wondering why I was in the voting booth at all!!!

Weekend

Spent a pleasant weekend here on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain. The weather was perfect: low humidity and temps hovering below eighty degrees. We couldn't ask for better.

Saturday was spent at a company picnic at Fontainbleu State Park outside of Mandeville, Louisiana. Hubby and I sold photography of southeast Louisiana (Pre-k). Made some money, but the weather was the real payoff.

On Sunday we checked out the Picayune Street Fair in Picayune, Mississippi. Before the storm, Picayune was a sleepy little Mississippi town. With the influx of people looking for new homes after Katrina took theirs, Picayune is going through a growth spurt.

The fair was fun - all sorts of things for sale and a wide array of people. We had a little bowl of gumbo (maybe the Louisiana folks who moved up there will teach Picayune-ites how to season their gumbo) and found an excellent little restaurant at one edge of the Street Fair called Cafe Amore. I highly recommend this cozy little place. They offer wonderful coffees and desserts as well as a sandwich I'm going back for: the Italian Panninni

So if you're in the mood to get away from it all and have a free weekday or Saturday/Sunday, check them out. Only three blocks off of Hwy 11 in the heart of Picayune, Mississippi! You'll go home refreshed.

One more kick in our ass

Homeland Security head Michael Chertoff is the proud recipient of this year’s “prestigious Henry Peterson award.”

The award is given annually in memory of a distinguished former criminal division career attorney, Henry E. Peterson, who later became the Assistant Attorney General for that Division. Chertoff’s honor hasn’t garnered a lot of attention,
but one guy who did notice was Miles W. Swanson, grandson of Henry Petersen himself.

Read his response letters. It might take away some of the disgust of Chertoff receiving the award.

Thanks to Ashley for the heads up .

AMERICAN marshlands

... just after the Iraq war started Bush requested $100 million for restoring Iraq's wetlands, while later actively opposing the restoration of Louisiana's coastal wetlands (until some recent lip service).....Despite some American casualties, Iraq's wetlands were largely restored and the unique Marsh Arab culture was saved.
Oyster has the whole story here

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Louisiana Politicians Want to Use Coastal Restoration Funding for Golf Course


I'm just so angry in so many ways that I can't say anything more right now.

All Saints Day

I'm not a big Halloween freak, guess I don't have the imagination for it. Besides that, horror movies/costumes give me the heebee jeebees.

I do love the history that comes with All Saints Day, though. Living in the Bayou Liberty/Lacombe section of southeast Louisiana with its large population of creoles, All Saints Day is celebrated in quiet beauty.

DuBuisson Cemetery is a very old graveyard that dates back to the 1800's.


(photo courtesty of bonfouca.org)

Every All Saints Day, the graves are cleaned and small candles are lit right around dusk. Seeing this creates a most ethereal feeling. I haven't been there for several years and the last time I went I had to keep an eye on two young children who wanted to climb all over the graves. My daughter is now away at college and I'm thinking that perhaps hubby & I will visit Dubuisson Cemetery tomorrow evening and light a few candles.

an audio slide show on the lighting of the graves in Bayou LIberty



In the meantime, here's a couple of other links to the Bonfouca area

The Lee Galatas house and store on Bayou Liberty Road

Katrina's affect in this area

Bounfouca dot org website.


Bonfouca has many different pronounciations: "BON FOO KA" "BON FUCK A" "BONNA FOOKA". Take your choice. :)

Child Abuse

Shoulda Been

August 29th and the week following it should have looked like this.

Fuck you Bush, Brown, Chertoff. Thanks to all who cared then and
those who still care.

It still hurts a lot to watch this.




Thanks to Ashley & Oyster

Katrina's Lives Lost

When I started receiving the Times Picayune a few weeks after Katrina, I noticed a recurring article on the bottom of the front page. They named it "Katrina's Lives Lost" and each story was a short bio of people who died in the storm. I found these stories sad, yet I was fascinated at an inside look as to why these people stayed. The TP stopped carrying these stories a while ago and I was a little saddened that these stories would be available in the years to come. But I've found the the paper has created an archive of Katrina's Lives Lost at this site.

Thanks, TP and Legacy dot com.

The Corps don't get it

Though it is well over a year since Katrina made landfall in Mississippi, the Army Corps of Engineers still has not learned how important wetlands are for flood protection. The Corps is currently proposing to gut the rules that protect wetlands in coastal Mississippi. Under a new proposal, any development that destroys up to five acres of wetlands (almost 5 football fields!) would be exempt from the regulations that apply everywhere else in the country.

Destroying wetlands will only put coastal communities at greater risk for future flooding. Ironically, this proposal is being made in the name of hurricane rebuilding. Irresponsible developers, with help from the Corps, are hoping that nobody will notice as they rush to pave sensitive wetlands in the aftermath of Katrina. Luckily, we have citizens like you who are paying attention.

Help stop this disastrous proposal by taking action now. Communities working to recover from Katrina should not have to fight for their safety.

Help is still needed

Even though Katrina happened 14 months ago, there are thousands of people who still need the basic necessities.

From a blog in
Pearlington, Mississippi


WHERE IS PEARLINGTON, MISSISSIPPI ???????????????????
We Are The ForGotten Town !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
DO NOT FORSAKE US!!!!!! WE ARE HERE, WE ARE NO FOOTNOTE!!!!!!!!! WE ARE AMERICAN CITIZENS, NOT A THIRD WORLD COUNTRY !!! OR WORSE !! WE LIVE !!!!!!!

Frustration is a daily chore. These people were overlooked from before the storm hit. The eye of the storm passed right over them.

Pearlington is a very small, old logging town
on the Louisiana - Mississippi border. It is an example of the lingering affects of Hurricane Katrina. The citizens of Pearlington, as well as hundreds of other small towns in Katrina's path, are having an extremely difficult time surviving. But as is said in the above blog, they are survivors.

If anyone out there can help in any way, please go to the following websites to see how to best use your time/money.


Presbytarian Disaster Assistance


Pearlington Relief
Relief information regarding Pearlington, MS - Located in Hancock County. This includes organizations assisting in the recovery effort and municipal needs.


The home of C.O.D.R.A - the Coalition of Disaster Relief Agencies - and the online journal chronicling the recovery of Pearlington, Mississippi from Hurricane Katrina.
C.O.D.R.A. is an association of INDEPENDENT relief organizations - each with its own agenda and direction - which exists to encourage Resource to meet Need, as its Member Agencies assist the once-forgotten town of Pearlington in getting back on its feet....


Volunteer Resources in Hancock County

Thank you from the bottom of all of our hearts for what you've done and what you've yet to do.

Nothing on the scale of Katrina has ever happened. People think that because they're not hearing about it on a daily basis that all is "normal". There is a new normal now and it ain't easy.

Katrina Victim Database

John Mutter of the Earth Institute has compiled a Katrina victims database. According to
his website
The purpose of this web site is to assemble a comprehensive list of all those who died directly and indirectly from the effects of Katrina and its long, tragic aftermath. We would like to compile as comprehensive a list as possible of the names, age, race, sex, cause of death, circumstances of death and way of life of all those whose deaths could plausibly be attributed to the hurricane or its consequences.

The list of all the victims is an act of remembrance. In addition, if we can obtain all the information we can about the way they lived and how they died, we will be able to better understand how natural disasters such as Katrina affect all levels of society and devise measures to save more lives in the future.

Thank you Mr. Mutter.

And thanks to Greg at Suspect Device
for the heads up.