Happy Birthday, New Orleans

Farewell, Mr. Helm

Levon Helm left us today at the age of 71.

He was awesome.

Here's a link to a short slideshow from the NYT website

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2012/04/18/arts/20120418HELM.html

Pulitzer for Huffington Post

HuffPo receives its first Pulitzer

link: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/17/business/media/2012-pulitzer-prize-winners-announced.html?emc=na

headline of the day

Man arrested for shooting hiker http://www.nbc33tv.com/news/crimetracker/man-arrested-for-shooting-hiker-who-he-thought-was-a-turkeywho he thought was a turkey

Anderson Cooper

Anderson Cooper loses it during a "Dyngus Day" report. It's priceless

Free Choice (?)

Still Missing Ashley Morris

Four years ago today the NOLA blogsphere lost a very strong voice. Ashley Morris passed away YEARS TOO YOUNG on a trip to Florida. At first I thought it was a late April Fools joke. Then - reading other NOLA blogs - I discovered it was true.

I look back in Thanks Katrina for the collective sadness at the loss of Ashley.
Check this link out to find out how one passionate person changed how people reacted. We still miss you, Ashley.

Here's a link to Ashley's blog with his greatest hits on the left side of the page


Charlotte over at Nolafemmes put a lump in my throat with this post.

A WHODAT kind of post

Jason Calbos posts this just in time for our WHO DAT hearts.

excerpt:
"You can hand us the short end of the stick but, we will never bow our heads again. We have had enough of your piety and Holier than Thou attitude. We know we messed up but, what you have done is just plain messed up. Come bring your friends and point out our short comings. Act like your team(s) walk on water never doing anything wrong. Just wait. "

Thanks to a Falcons Fan

A very complimentary post from a Falcons fan regarding Goodell's harsh punishment for the Saints.

Excerpt


But never before has the NFL dumped this kind of acrimony on top of a fan base with such a hereditary disposition to isolationism and contempt. For decades, New Orleans football fans searched for relevance, along with woebegone lots like Atlanta, Cincinnati and modern day Jacksonville. Now that they have that safely in the record books, Saints fans just need the smallest of perceived sleights to brew a righteous indignation and become rebels the likes of which the league's never dreamed of.

Reactions to Goodell's Slamdown of Payton

Well thought out posts regarding the harsh penalties against the Saints for "bounty-gate"


Dave Gladow - New Orleanian and Saints Supporter
excerpt
Root for the best, as ever. Support your team, as ever. The circling of the wagons by your average Saints fan is commendable on some level, though also certainly misguided in its attempts to #freeseanpayton. The team deserves your support right now, Saints fans, this is true. But let the individuals who created this mess pay for their part in it. If Payton needs to sit a year, let him sit a year. If the rest of the suspensions need to happen, let them happen.

Maybe then, we can all move past the mire.

From the blog Hurricane Radio
excerpt:
The Saints aren't supposed to win football games. And the people of New Orleans damn sure aren't supposed to make money selling black and gold items that included a fleur de lis or the words "Who Dat." The league came to remind the people of New Orleans that the NFL owned the colors black and gold, the fleur de lis, the term "Who Dat," and if New Orleanians weren't really respectful about stopping all this nonsense, they were coming after the paper bags, too. If there was any money supposed to be made off the sale of those items, that money should be coming to the league, where it is supposed to be. Stop screwing up the story line here.

But the people of New Orleans told the league to get the hell off their soggy lawns.


My cyberpal Amy Mueller's post on Nolafemmes about the over-the-top punishment given to Sean Payton
excerpt

If you look at the NFL’s roster, it’s full of DUIs, incidences of domestic violence, drug possessions, assault and battery, and weapons charges. The media rarely gives these incidences the attention that they have given the Saints and Bountygate, and Roger Goodell and the NFL CERTAINLY have not handed out the punishments for this behavior. In fact, it seems there exists a culture where they turn their heads, pretend these incidences didn’t happen, and hope that people forget about it come Sunday Game Day.


Cenlmar writes about an Unrepentant Saints Fan (that's what I am) at this link
excerpt:
Greg Williams, incidentally, has taken full responsibility for and ownership of the so-called bounty program, something he also, allegedly, employed while coaching for the Washington Redskins and the Buffalo Bills. Neither of those teams, by the way, have faced any scrutiny; no one is calling for those teams to place asterisks next to their wins. Before ever investigating whether this practice also occurred in other organizations, Goodell imposed stunningly draconian sanctions against the New Orleans Saints– and indeed, by extension, their entire fan base, specifically the City of New Orleans and the State of Louisiana, who directly subsidize the National Football League.



From Jason Calbos at New Orleans Rising blog

excerpt
Sean Payton has been handed a suspension that dwarfs Ben Roethlisberger’s for multiple rape accusations. Payton’s suspension is also longer than Micheal Vick’s suspension for dog-fighting, murdering dogs, and gambling. Payton’s suspension outpaces Ray Lewis’s for being part of a murder committed by his posse… longer than Michael Irvin’s for cocaine possession….. longer than Chris Henry’s for assaulting a teenager…… longer than Tank Johnson’s for his arsenal of guns and assaults… and longer than Plaxico Burress’s for illegally discharging a gun in a New York nightclub. If Goodell says he’s here to protect the integrity of the game I’m gonna throw up. If you play in the NFL it’s Apparently ok to rape women, do drugs, kill people or at least hold them while my buddies stab them, run over people crossing the street while drinking and driving, assault teenagers, own more guns than Ted Nugent and discharge weapons in night clubs. But, the moment you get caught continuing an unspoken tradition that is well-known in the NFL by its participants your hammered to the wall?

ouch!

N.F.L. Suspends New Orleans Saints Coach Sean Payton for One Year Over Bounty Program

 

The National Football League on Wednesday suspended New Orleans Saints Coach Sean Payton for a year without pay for his role in the team’s bounty program, which promised money to players if they knocked opponents out of games. The former Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, who is now in the same role in St. Louis, was suspended indefinitely — but for no less than a year — for his role in the program.

 

Read More:

http://www.nytimes.com/?emc=na