Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Sour Grapes

Supposedly professional people talking about the Saints win over the Vikings last week reminds me of preteens in a playground.

The two Fox announcers were gushing all over Brett Farve all during the game on Sunday (Joe Buck and Troy Aikman). It was nauseating.
Hakim Drops the Ball puts it better than me .

From "al.com":
Saints brutalized Favre
What did the Saints did to Brett Favre bordered on criminal. The only way they could win was to knock him out of the game.


Jeesh, guys, that's what happens in football.

From the Mississippi press Saints played dirty football. huh?

And the all time "wah, wah" reaction to the Saints routing of the Vikings comes from than that wild and crazy kind of guy, Deion Sanders.
From his public tweets, we see that he's got the mind of a 12 year old..... girl:

Well, let's go colts!!!! Let's go Peyton!!!!!!!
7:38 PM Jan 24th That's horrible
7:35 PM Jan 24th I'm not even gone congratulate yall.
7:34 PM Jan 24th Watch, those refs are gonna be on 60 minutes in a few years talkin bout how they got paid to help the saints win.
7:32 PM Jan 24th Ya booo the saints! They're cheaters!!
7:31 PM Jan 24th Cowboys should of been in the super bowl first of all
7:30 PM Jan 24th Duce mcallister is kind of fat
7:29 PM Jan 24th Yall saints fans can't seriously be happy with yall selfs. Yall did not win this fair. The refs helped yall!
7:27 PM Jan 24th RT @DHarrisIV: welp the superbowl is gonna suck -- amen
7:24 PM Jan 24th @mackmaine they cheated bro. Vikings should of won
7:23 PM Jan 24th in reply to mackmaine These refs need to jump off a building.. Head first
7:22 PM Jan 24th I love Bret. I wanted him to win so bad.
7:21 PM Jan 24th Man I'm bout to cry.


Later, in a recap of the game on TV, Mr. Sanders said something to the affect that the jails in New Orleans would be full of drunks on Sunday night.

Deion, there was no rioting, no overturning of police and other cars, no buildings set on fire, no looting and hardly any arrests on Sunday night....unlike other cities that have won championships. All that occurred was jubulation by
Saints' fans.
Where else would the fans come prepared with tubas and other brass instruments to celebrate their team's victory? Only in NOLA, baby.



So let's let the sour grapes just move on and turn into raisins. We know how hard our Saints worked to get to Superbowl and that's all that counts.

Freedom of Information Act

From the Levees dot org website:


The Corps is telling us we have to pay big bucks for documents we’re entitled to under federal law!

We requested documents from the Corps’ Public Affairs Office after we discovered they’re paying a PR company called OPP almost $5 million of our tax payer money to improve the Corps’ image after its levees failed in August 2005.

Levees.org wanted to know more about this PR Campaign by OPP, so we filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) last June.

The Corps partly fulfilled our request but now say we can’t see another page unless we pay! We applied for a waiver – since Levees.org is requesting information for the public good – but we were DENIED."



I'm just an uneducated person when it comes to laws, but the above statements make me scratch my head. How can the ACOE demand money for articles requested under the Freedom of Information Act?

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

The Soul of New Orleans

Embedding is disabled for this fantastic video that discusses "The Soul of New Orleans".

Wright Thompson
narrates the amazing recovery for New Orleans post-Katrina, through the excitement over the Saints Superbowl run.

h/t Greg Peters

Thursday, January 21, 2010

How the press gets it wrong again...

Billy Sothern-a criminal defense attorney and writer in New Orleans-and the author of "Down in New Orleans: Reflections from a Drowned City."
Nola Nik: Billy's on Salon.com Today. discusses how the press is inconsistent in telling the stories in Haiti....just as they were in New Orleans after Katrina. A good read. Here is an excerpt:

While I admire some of the reporting I have seen from Haiti and feel like I am getting a picture of what is happening there (while having to hold back tears at the horror of some of the things that I am seeing), it is worth remembering that there will be things, like the "Babies Getting Raped in the Superdome" story after Hurricane Katrina, that may not hold up under the clear light of day, which will hopefully come soon for Port-au-Prince and Haiti.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Ugly American

As usual, times of disastrophies bring out the best and the worst of people.

It's no surprise that Rush Limbaugh has never disappointed us. From latimesblog dot com:


After President Obama urged Americans to contribute money to earthquake recovery efforts and directed them to the White House website to learn how they can help, Limbaugh suggested that visiting the site will just get someone on Obama’s campaign e-mail list. (We checked the website's short blog post, which has direct links to the Red Cross and the Center for International Disaster in neat bullet points -- no e-mail forms to be seen.)

"We've already donated to Haiti,'' Limbaugh told the caller on his radio show. "It's called the U.S. income tax."

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Helping Haiti

This area, which shares a diverse cultural treasure trove with the devastated country of Haiti now has one more thing in common: coping with unbelievable disaster.

I'm not trying to compare the Katrina and the horrific 7.0 earthquake that hit the country two days ago, along with dozens of aftershocks. But after listening to the news this morning and crying - knowing we now share in the aftermath experience of waiting for help while our fellow citizens suffer and die.



The logisitics of disaster assitance are far more difficult for Haiti. The country has no heavy machinery and must rely upon it to be air dropped or shipped in. Keep these people in your prayers. So many are suffering.

The most important donation a person can make now is the donation of cold, hard cash.
Due to the technological advances of social networking, you can donate thru your cell phone and the donation is added to your bill.

Mark over at Toulouse Street mentions how to donate via Wyclef Jean's website here.

Architecture for Humanity is supporting rebuilding efforts at this website .

It's looking like the Red Cross is getting all the biggie donations. If you would like to donate to them , here's the website. But heads up. The CEO for the Red Cross - Gail J. McGovern - earns a salary of $565,000. (thanks to Lisa/Loki for the link to a great website called Charity Navigator , where you can check out all charities).

On the same hand, there's a Charity called Hope for Haiti, whose charter states "....works to improve the quality of life for the Haitian people, particularly children, through education, nutrition, and health care." Their CEO makes 53K/year.

People short on cash can donate their frequent flyer miles.

Here's a site that lists seven reputable charities to donate to. You can check them out at Charity Navigator dot org.

Newsom trolls drumpf