Do you believe?

Bush Renews Vow to Aid Katrina Victims

I dunno why, but I'm somewhat skeptical, Mr. President.

There should be a law

This house on Prytania was demolished last week with no plans for salvage of any of the beautiful details . There should be a law.

What are the odds of this?

Men's Room

Ladies Room

Posts and photos of restrooms on two separate blogs.

I'm looking forward to Maitri's series on The Ladies’ Rooms Of New Orleans.

Scuzzbucket Part Deux

This lovely couple - Delores & Joshua Thompson - were GIVEN an $75,000 home in Memphis after evacuating there after Katrina. They never lived in the house and sold it for $88,000.

I really don’t like this area”, said Delores Thompson. I really didn’t, and I didn’t know anybody, so that’s why I didn’t move in and I sold it.

Scumbags. By the way, the scuzzbuckets are back in New Orleans

Thanksgiving Miscellanea

Happy Thanksgiving.

for your post Thanksgiving day browsing pleasure, I present the following:
Thanksgiving in New Orleans


guerrilla art in Mid City

Wet Bank Guide discusses the physical/emotional/psychological struggles of those who choose to stay and rebuild their lives and the city that they love

Get It Done Louisiana , a website dreamed up by Senator Walter Boasso. Still in its infancy, this site contains contact info and links for state and federal senate and representatives and state legislatures. Good place to bookmark. Unless we get involved, the same old crap will go on and on.

Now that you have that link bookmarked, you may want to use it to communicate with Baton Rouge about the proposed $135M sugar mill in Bunkie.

Dark humor brightens life in battered New Orleans

Vicky Moos shares a story that gives us a glimmer of hope for the good people out there

Rebuilding

Tim details the beginning of rebuilding his home post-k and, as usual, gives his personal positive perspective.

Thanks, Tim.

scuzzbucket of the week

He called two black hecklers the "n-word" and enthusiastically referenced a time when blacks were often victims of civil rights abuses, but former "Seinfeld" star Michael Richards said his verbal barrage during a stand-up comedy routine was fueled by anger and not bigotry.


"For me to be at a comedy club and flip out and say this crap, I'm deeply, deeply sorry," Richards said during a satellite appearance for David Letterman's "Late Show" in New York.

"I'm not a racist. That's what's so insane about this," Richards said, his tone becoming angry and frustrated as he defended himself.

Richards, best known for playing Jerry Seinfeld's eccentric neighbor Kramer on the hit TV show, described himself as going into "a rage" over the two audience members who interrupted his act Friday at the Laugh Factory in West Hollywood.


"Once the word comes out of your mouth and you don't happen to be African-American, then you have a whole lot of explaining," comedian Paul Rodriguez, who was at the Laugh Factory during Richards' performance, told CNN. "Freedom of speech has its limitations and I think Michael Richards found those limitations."

His Laugh Factory tirade began after the two clubgoers shouted at him that he wasn't funny. A videotape of the incident was posted on TMZ.com.

Richards retorted: "Shut up! Fifty years ago we'd have you upside down with a f------ fork up your a--."

He then paced across the stage taunting the men for interrupting his show, peppering his speech with racial slurs and profanities.


Sorry Mr. Richards, but even in the worst rage, there are some words that should never pass your lips. And if you're that uptight when someone heckles you, you shouldn't be doing standup. JMHO.

Thank You

At this time of year it is tradition to give thanks for the good things that exist in our lives.

I can't begin to individually name all of the caring, unselfish people who have travelled to the gulf coast from the comfort of their homes to give relief, feed, gut houses, build houses, clean up debris and comfort Katrina survivors. The kind people who have welcomed Katrina survivors into their homes and home towns. All of the electrical linemen, telephone linemen, debris haulers who have been working seven days a week for over a year to bring this devastated area back to functioning condition. And yes, all the immigrant workers who tirelessy do jobs that others won't do to clean up and rebuild the miles and miles of waste left in Katrina's path.

Thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

I'm also thankful that the end of hurricane season 2006 is ten days away and we have not had any of the unthinkable tropical devastation that visited us in 2005.

Thanks for the thoughts

New Orleans is not optional for the United States' commercial infrastructure. It is a terrible place for a city to be located, but exactly the place where a city must exist. With that as a given, a city will return there because the alternatives are too devastating. Taken from an article written in September 2005 from the stratfor dot com website

and it is in response to these posts

Should New Orleans be rebuilt?
Don't Refloat
Cities aren't forever
"To rebuild New Orleans the way it was last Saturday is not just a waste of money, it's unethical," said Dave Schultz, Northwestern Univ. Infrastructure Inst

Okay, searching for articles with similar to the above links is getting me angry again. The naysayers have no idea just how devastating their words are to people in the city of New Orleans. Yes, the city has its ugly side, just as all cities world wide do. And everyone has opinions on what should be done to/for New Orleans.
the NYT
If the rest of the nation has decided it is too expensive to give the people of New Orleans a chance at renewal, we have to tell them so. We must tell them we spent our rainy-day fund on a costly stalemate in Iraq, that we gave it away in tax cuts for wealthy families and shareholders. We must tell them America is too broke and too weak to rebuild one of its great cities.

Our nation would then look like a feeble giant indeed. But whether we admit it or not, this is our choice to make. We decide whether New Orleans lives or dies.


It's the truth, folks.

Healthcare Needed

New Orleans is having a healthcare crisis. There are not enough qualified medical people in the city where too much has been going on for the last 15 months.


it affects elderly people


trauma centers are few and far between

The NYT wrote about this problem almost a year ago

The psychological pain is glaringly obvious

Where the rest of the country think we should "be over Katrina by now", the real
truth is spoken in this article. Here's an excerpt:
We are at the mercy of a sort of disturbance in the force, and we’ve been there for so long, we’re accustomed to it. New Orleans was never like the rest of America, which is easy to forget, but now, especially after a year, there seems to be a tendency to accept madness as norm, fragments as wholes.

Attending to Sick Children Along a Gulf Coast Still in Tatters

In this time of giving thanks, the people in the city of New Orleans are still praying that someday they may be able to give thanks for decent medical care.

Scuzzbucket of the week

I know I should, but I cannot believe the audacity of this bastard.


In an interview, this son of a bitch discusses his upcoming book "If I did it".


“O.J. Simpson, in his own words, tells for the first time how he would have committed the murders if he were the one responsible for the crimes,” the network said in a statement. “In the two-part event, Simpson describes how he would have carried out the murders he has vehemently denied committing for over a decade.”


Rot in hell, Mr. Simpson.