Saturday, March 31, 2007

New Beer

Strawberry Harvest Lager Hits Shelves SOON

You’ve waited all year and now it’s almost here! Abita Strawberry Harvest Lager is back. Last year when we introduced the new limited edition brew, made with plump, sweet Louisiana strawberries it caused quite a sensation. 6,400 cases of the beer sold out in only six weeks.

Abita Strawberry Harvest Lager is made with ripe, red Louisiana strawberries, harvested at the peak of the season. Strawberry Harvest has the aroma and taste of the berries, with a refreshing and satisfying beer flavor. In response to the incredible demand, a greater quantity of Abita Strawberry Harvest Lager was brewed. However, President of Abita Brewing Company, David Blossman, reminds everyone, “Supplies are still limited and once they are gone…they are gone. We won’t make any more til 2008.”

Don’t miss out, get to the store and grab a six pack to take home. Abita Strawberry Harvest is ripe for the picking.

Friday, March 30, 2007

Watchdog Blogger

Matt McBride from "Fix the pumps blogis featured in the latest issue of Gambit. From Matt's blog, his goal: After Hurricane Katrina, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers agreed to assume full responsibility for repair of New Orleans' drainage pumps. Over a year later, much work remains undone. I am here to push them to do that work.

For all of you people out there who don't understand why 80% of New Orleans flooded post Katrina - read his blog. Read the Gambit article.

Thanks, Matt!

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Roller coaster emotions.

A Mississippi blogger comments about the on-again-off-again depression that affects the denizens of the Gulf Coast


I’ve been trying for 19 months and I don’t think I’ve really have been able to get across the chaos, the fears, the hope, and the shock of seeing a world that you’ve looked upon for over 40 years wiped away in an 8 hour period.

But I believe that the citizens along the Mississippi Gulf Coast well meet this new sense of despondency with the same resiliency that they have shown these past 19 months. It is already starting. Yesterday, Smokin the Sound, after a year’s absence, came back. There were thousands watching the magnificent boats race. But even as I drove away after watching for a couple of hours, I noticed the hundreds more that were playing at the beach and in our parks.

It might seem strange to welcome heavy traffic once again. But I welcome it along Highway 90. For it means that people are coming back to the Mississippi Gulf Coast and are coming back to the beaches..... ..... The Mississippi Gulf Coast is still tattered but little by little those ragged edges are being replaced.


There are so many things that can bring on that sense of depression. I got it as I read comments to a post about New Orleans in Harry Shearer's blog ..... many of us regard N.O. more as a tourist attraction and novelty site than an actual functioning city. That and the fact that Louisiana is a southern state, a red state, a poor, uneducated state, a state with a history of unsophisticated political corruption, yet a state too stupid to vote Democrat even after a Republican administration subjected it to criminal negligence and public humiliation.

Do I know what I'm talking about? Absolutely not. I've never been to Utah, but I regard it as a [messed] up theocracy; and I've never visited Florida, but I have a low opinion of it because of the disproportionate influence its population of anti-Fidelistas has on the rest of the country, its number of executions, and because of Jeb Bush.

Dumb reasons, right? Well, in truth, my reasons for "hostility" toward N.O. are no less reasonable than people's reasons for not liking France (which I've visited) or Mexico (where I once lived), or not liking modern art (which I own).


EJ has found similar feelings here where he links to a blog that thinks like this:

While I can't imagine the personal devastation caused by Katrina, I wonder why other great cities have risen to the challenge of past natural disasters and New Orleans is still paralyzed?


What a fucktard.....not EJ, but this moron who calls itself Machiavelli (it wishes).





Just seeing Ray Nagin in the news brings me down.

Driving home from work brings me down some days.


But this little guy seems happy...even though he has to eat out of this nasty ditch every day on Hwy 90.

But spring is here, life is renewed and we forge forward. Looking forward but not ever forgetting what's behind us. What has happened has made us wiser, stronger, sometimes sadder, sometimes angry. But we survived.

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

small victories

Katrina devastated soo much. But Mother Nature prevails. Take that, biatch Katrina!











Monday, March 26, 2007

Talking to C Ray

Once again, Mark over at the Wetbankguide Blogspot nails it in his post to/about C Ray Nagin:
What's happening here is not happening to you in particular, or to the people you believe you represent. Listen, man: you're not Moses, the annointed leader of the Children of Isreal. The entire aftermath of the Federal Flood was not Pharoah out to get you and your people, and acting like that's the story line isn't going to bring about biblical miracles to restore the city to what it was. That's the PTSD and whatever else you have going on talking. Somebody who cares about you needs to take you aside and talk to you 'cause your messed up, and every time you open your mouth you mess us all up.....It's not about you. It's about all of us, the 200,000. Its about everyone who's picked themselves up by their bootstraps and made their way home, all or at least mostly at their own expense because they love this city. I don't have a demographer on retainer so I can't tell you what the current population is. I can only tell you what it looks like, and with every passing day I travel the streets it looks more like New Orleans, the New Orleans you and I both remember. The vast conspiracy hasn't blocked the people I see.


Thanks, Mark

Sleezy Scuzzbuckets



From Saturday's TP

In a macabre identity theft scam, a Slidell hospital employee sent her son cell-phone text messages with the personal information of dying patients so he could submit fraudulent credit card applications in their names as soon as they died, authorities said.


The mother-son team is accused of stealing the identities of more than 100 dead people and obtaining at least 17 fraudulent credit cards, which they used to buy thousands of dollars worth of merchandise, sheriff's deputies said.

He said Ezell used the information to submit credit card applications in the names of the deceased, using addresses of unoccupied homes that had been damaged by Hurricane Katrina near his house at 2218 Bluebird St. in the Ozone Woods subdivision, authorities said.

"He would check the mailboxes regularly to see if any credit cards had arrived," Strain said.



These people are lower than low. Hope they throw away the keys on these bastards.

New Blogger

Here's a blog about New Orleans penned by a writer for the New Yorker.


Dan Baum arrived in New Orleans two days after Hurricane Katrina and has reported on the disaster and its aftermath ever since. He is back in New Orleans until June, working on a book to be published in 2009.

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Status of Wetlands Projects

Click here to view the
Louisiana Department of Natural Resources' list of wetland enhancement projects.

The Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act (CWPPRA) was
passed by congress in 1990. It funds wetland enhancement projects nationwide, designating approximately $60 million annually for work in Louisiana.

This report gives an overview and status of coastal efforts to protect, conserve, restore, and improve the state's coastal wetlands. The Barrier Island Status Report is included in the report as mandated by the
2006 Regular Legislative Session. The report is subdivided into four primary sections by region and also includes information on project location, features, acreage, costs, and funding sources.

Project List
The CWPPRA Task Force annually develops a list of high-priority projects to be constructed. To date, sixteen such priority lists have been formulated. The projects funded by CWPPRA all focus on marsh creation, restoration, protection or enhancement

Lemonade from lemons in Biloxi

Four live oak trees  in the median of U.S. Highway 90 Biloxi that died as a result of hurricane Katrina received new life at the hands of a skilled chain saw artist.
click on each picture for a full-sized version









Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Ray's recurring theme



a recurring theme……
INDIANAPOLIS Aug 18, 2006 (AP)— New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin on Friday blamed racism and government bureaucracy for hamstringing his city's ability to weather Hurricane Katrina and recover from the disaster that struck the Gulf Coast nearly a year ago.

In remarks to the annual meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists, Nagin said the hurricane "exposed the soft underbelly of America as it relates to dealing with race and class."

"And I, to this day, believe that if that would have happened in Orange County, California, if that would have happened in South Beach, Miami, it would have been a different response," Nagin said.


March 18, 2007............. (seven months later)
from today's Times Pic:

The slow pace of New Orleans' post-Katrina recovery is part of a plan to change the city's racial makeup, Mayor Ray Nagin told a national newspaper publishers' group last week.


Ya know, Ray, you ought to see a psychiatrist about your paranoia. You also need to look deep inside your little heart and
see the fool you are making of yourself.

Here's what people
around the area are saying.


Instead of traipsing around the country complaining about the "plot against the blacks", get your ass back to New Orleans
and start being the leader you were ELECTED to be.

Local reaction to this idiot.....

Thanks, Ray. New Orleans has enough problems without your big mouth. Time dot com has an article on you now, dog.

From the 3/22/07 T.P., here's the transcript of what he said

TRANSCRIPT OF MAYOR NAGIN’S SPEECH
Ladies and gentleman, that was quite
an introduction. I’ve been called a lot
of things but I don’t ever remember
anyone calling me the greatest
mayor that ever lived. But thank you
Harry, that was awesome.
Good evening ladies and gentleman. It
is indeed an honor for me to be here
tonight. We flew in today from the
wonderful city of New Orleans. On
behalf of all the citizens of our great
city we want to thank each and every
one of you for everything you have
done to keep the light shinning on the
city of New Orleans and its citizens.
We also want to thank you for taking
our citizens in. In the many cities
across America you’ve been treating
us with such respect and taking
care of our people.
I want to thank the NNPA Foundation
for this tremendous award. I never
thought I would see any press organization
honor me as a newsmaker.
So this is extra special, extra special.
And to the honorees, congratulations
to you. You are also very deserving
of this award.
And you know they always give you
a script, but I never follow it. So I am
going to try to do a little bit of this
script and I promise I won’t take any
more than 10 to 15 minutes of your
time to talk to you a little bit about
my favorite city. But, I just want to
spend just a moment to thank particularly
the African-American newspapers
in New Orleans. We have
three great publications in our city.
You honored one in Data News; We
have the New Orleans Tribune, and
of course we have the Louisiana
Weekly which you are also honoring
one of its founders, C.C. Dejoie, for
82 years in the business.
We have a steep history, a deep history
in African-American publications
and also in African American history
that is unique to many places. You
know I get in trouble a lot for some of
the things I say. I like the Clintons. I
like George Clinton. It wasn’t until I
described my city, y’all know the
story, until everybody in America
started to wake up and say way wait
a minute, what is he doing? What is
he saying? Maybe we should try and
do something different to make sure
that this man does not go any further.
Because they realized that I
wasn’t a person to be controlled. I
was going to speak my mind especially
when I saw our people suffer.
I look in this room and I see the
wonderful Congresswoman Maxine
Waters, and I see all the great work
she has done around the country.
This lady, when we were in the
midst of the election cycle, when
they put the golden boy up, and all
the prognosticators were saying
there’s no way you are going to win
because see they had dispersed all
our people across 44 different
states with one-way tickets out.
They thought they were talking
about a different kind of New Orleans.
They didn’t realize that folk were
awake and they were paying attention
and they weren’t going to let a
plan unfold that changed all the history
of what we have fought for
over many, many years. And Maxine
started to talk around the country.
I remember when we went to
Memphis. She talked to black folks
around the country and tried to
wake them up and say look at
what’s happening. Because ladies
and gentlemen what happened in
New Orleans could happen anywhere.
They are studying this
model, this model of a natural disaster
dispersing a community and
changing the electoral process in
that community.
We need to really understand
what’s going on. When I stood up
and spoke out and they started to
vilify, I knew there was going to be a
reaction. It’s a law of physics. For
every action there’s a reaction. I
knew it was going to happen, but I
didn’t realize how strong it was going
to happen. My Google hits probably
went up a million that week.
And it’s been a heck of a ride ladies
and gentlemen. But, you know,
what? It’s people like you who give
me strength and give the people of
New Orleans strength, and we will
prevail. I believe Almighty God has a
special plan for this moment. It’s
not by accident that Democrats are
controlling Congress right now.
That’s not an accident. One of the
things that propelled us into power
was the Katrina fallout. Republicans
are now sitting back and saying wait
a minute, maybe we should have
done better, but it’s too late. Maxine
and them are in large and in
control. They got them scrambling
on Capitol Hill. And they’re talking
about what they should have done;
and what they’re going to do.
Let me close by saying to you the
tragedy is still not over. Katrina was
one thing. 1,700 people lost their
lives but now in the city of New Orleans
because of the stress in the
wake of broken promises people
are dying every day. The number of
deaths in the city of New Orleans
are up 45 percent compared to
pre-Katrina. People who should
have gotten grants to rebuild their
lives and their homes particularly
senior citizens are still waiting on
their checks. 112,000 people are eligible
and 3,000 have gotten checks.
There’s a health care crisis in city of
New Orleans because they closed
down the Charity Hospital so poor
people and black people can’t go
get health care where they need to.
Our public education system was
taken over by the state and earlier
this year they had children on waiting
lists trying to get into public education.
They have over a billion dollars
worth of obligations that they owe
the city of New Orleans to rebuild
our water system, our sewer system.
The fight is not over.
So as I close I have one wish of
you, I want to ask of you, keep the
message going, tell the story of
about what’s really happening. Relate
it back to what’s going on in
your community. Let’s collectively
come together and build a national
agenda on what we need to do for
our urban cities. We have the
power ladies and gentlemen, the
timing is perfect. We have a black
man running for president. It don’t
get much better than that.
So I’m not going stand up here and
moan and groan about our struggles
in New Orleans. I’m telling you,
New Orleans is coming back. Y’all
come visit us during Essence Fest.
You’re going to have a good time,
and we are going to have some entrepreneurs
in New Orleans that will
be making big bucks because, guess
what, they can’t hold this money
back much longer because its starting
to hurt other folks, and ya’ll
know what I’m talking about, so they
got to let it loose. And in New Orleans
and the Gulf Coast they estimate
they will spend within 60 and
100 billion over the next five to
seven years. If you don’t hear nothing
else I say tonight, buy some dirt
in New Orleans, buy some dirt in
New Orleans. Real estate values
are going to go out the roof and you
need to be a part of that. We have
programs where you can buy adjudicated
and blighted properties for
half their appraised value and you
hire your own appraiser.
I’ve asked the city attorney if I can
participate in this program and
she’s keeps saying no Mr. Mayor.
But let me get out of here. I thank
you and I’m honored, and I accept
this award on behalf of all the citizens
of New Orleans, the ones who
are here with us and the ones who
have passed away. This is our moment
ladies and gentlemen, to take
a tragedy and turn it something
special where we have growth and
opportunity not only along the Gulf
Coast but throughout America. This
is our time and let’s seize the day
and make it happen. God bless you.


Here's a link to the video of the speech.

what makes NOLA special



Click here
to see pictures of the beautiful New Orleans Mardi Gras Indians in full regalia this past Sunday

Thanks to Ashley Morris.

Monday, March 19, 2007

The slow road to recovery

Around this area, recovery spans from non existent to "wow". Here's what we saw over the weekend


Irish Bayou, Louisiana


Coin du Lestin subdivision, Slidell


Coin du Lestin subdivision, Slidell


Slidell VoTech


Carr Drive, Slidell


Laurent Road, Slidell


Bayou Liberty Road, Slidell


Bayou Liberty Road, Slidell

The grounds of St. Genevieve, Slidell

Another reason to live here


click picture for full size

It doesn't get any better than this

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Why I love where I live

click on photos for full size versions

Taken at 7:30 a.m. March 17, 2007
Bayou Liberty



Friday, March 16, 2007

Lower 9th Ward

Cold Spaghetti blog has pictures of the Lower 9th taken 18 months post Katrina.

A lawyer to love

The NYT has an article on Pascagoula lawyer Richard F. Scruggs who isn't exactly loved by insurance companies.

Mr. Scruggs, 60, slim, often folksy and smooth as molasses in court, is using techniques that he honed in his earlier legal fights. He is arguing now, as he did before to such good effect, that he is fighting for the little guy who cannot stand up alone to big anonymous companies.

“These are not just legal wars,” Mr. Scruggs said in a recent interview. “They are public relations and political wars.”

The insurance companies counter that Mr. Scruggs has portrayed them unfairly and misleadingly.

“Mr. Scruggs has taken a tiny portion of the claims associated with Katrina and tried to paint the entire insurance industry with a brush of malfeasance,” said Robert P. Hartwig, president and chief economist of the Insurance Information Institute. “And that is an entirely incorrect characterization.”

random photos



A dumpster lies in the marsh off Carr Drive in Slidell (3-9-2007)



A heron looks for lunch at the Northlake Nature Center in Mandeville. (3-9-2007)



A new house goes up on Bayou Liberty Road (3-9-2007)



The bulkhead construction at the Bayou Liberty Marina is progressing

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Books in need of a school

Got this in my email tonite:

Dear Judy,
My class (1st. grade) is collecting books to send to an elementary school that was damaged by Hurricane Katrina. We would like to contact a school that is really in need of books for their library or simply classroom teachers that lost their materials.
I am unfamiliar with the area, so I am not sure of the names of the local schools. I keep tring to search the web, but I am not very lucky. I have e-mailed a couple of principals and receive little or no response.
It is very important that we donate to a school that is in real need. My students have worked very hard. They have collected their bonus points all year from our book orders and have purchased the entire set of Junie B. Jones books.
Our project is called Operation Storybook. They even have a motto: Storybooks across the miles. Storybooks for every child. If this goes well I hope to make it a yearly project.
Thank you for your quick response. I hope that you will be able to help us.

Barbara Sovereign
1st. Grade
Barnard Elementary School
Tecumseh, Okla.

Fresh Scuzzbuckets of the Week

No shortage of scumbags lately, is there?

From today's TP:

Three St. Pat's float riders are arrested
They're accused of hurling beads, insult at black man at parade
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
By Michelle Hunter
Three white riders in the Metairie St. Patrick's Day parade were pulled from a float and arrested Sunday after they were accused of hurling packs of beads and a racial slur at an African-American in the crowd, hitting him and others -- including a baby -- in the head, according to a Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office arrest report.

Brandon Burke, 19, and Thomas Doussan, 18, both of Metairie, and Colby Painter, 19, of Kenner, were each booked with three counts of aggravated battery, according to Col. John Fortunato, spokesman for the Sheriff's Office.

Injured were a 27-year-old black man who had swelling around the middle of his face, an 11-year-old white boy whose face was visibly reddened, a 25-year-old white woman who had bruising and swelling around her left eye, and an infant whose injuries were not available Monday, according to Fortunato.


Allegedly, the 27 year old threw a beer can into the float when he didn't get a stuffed animal for his daughter.

What a bunch of idiots.

Katrina Pictoral Essay


Photographic Realities dot com
put together a pictoral essay in September 2005 from the 9th Ward, Irish Bayou, Waveland, Biloxi & Gulport.

Worth the visit.

Monday, March 12, 2007

the i-rack

Power Access Culture


Dambala ponders How realistic is the notion of secession?
........ I can envision hundreds of shrimp boats forming an armada in the Mississippi to block all traffic up and down stream. Although we couldn't really stage a Boston Tea Party....dumping oil and coal into the Mississippi probably isn't a good idea. The blockade is possible though....call it "The Pirogue Armada".....we could run steel cables across the river and back it up with shrimp boats and pirogues.



It's a great read.

Katrina Pictures


An excellent series of full panoramic photos
of the Katrina disaster made by photographer Edward Fink shortly after Katrina from a helicopter 700 feet in the air. This site now includes photography showing the recovery in the Gulf Coast area.

The series was first seen on the Washington Post website and his website bigeyeinthesky.com, which has the whole series, is linked here. The photos were shot several weeks after Katrina before any debris was removed.

Scuzzbuckets of the week



State farm CEO gets 82% raise after posting "a record profit" in 2006.
Greedy Bastards.




Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Ed Rust Jr. earned $11.66 million in 2006, including a base salary of $1.77 million and results-based bonus of $9.89 million, spokesman Dick Luedke said Friday. Rust made $6.4 million in 2005 and $5.5 million in 2004.

Call me what you want, but after seeing what insurance companies like State Farm have done to residents of the Gulf Coast after these people had experienced loss of everything makes me feel like spitting at them.
These bastards try every trick in the book to avoid paying claims after gladly taking premiums for decades. They decide to completely
stop offering coverage to whole swaths of land because of post-Katrina claims.

And they've been doing it for years.

Road home for Ray

Brad, Angie say they'll take Ray:

New Orleanians breathed a collective sigh of relief last week, as celebrity super-couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie confirmed they are in late-stage negotiations to adopt New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin.

The couple had been frustrated in their recent attempts to adopt a Vietnamese child, due to international legal restrictions preventing unmarried parents from adopting. No such restriction applies to Nagin, according to Ann S. Williamson, Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Social Services.

Married, unmarried, gay, straight, space aliens, hell. They can have him, Williamson said at a joint news conference with Jolie, Pitt, and a scowling, towel-swaddled Nagin.

Although it is hoped that simply removing Nagin - or "Baby Ray," as Jolie has nicknamed him from City Hall and remanding him to a nursery in the couple's renovated French Quarter mansion will dramatically accelerate the city's recovery, residents have not given up hope that the couple will also adopt District Attorney Eddie Jordan and New Orleans Police Superintendent Warren Riley.

Well, you know, those two do tend to fight a lot, and they're sneaky, Jolie said. "Let's see if we can get this one to play nice first."

Gov. Kathleen Blanco announced that citizens can apply for adoption by Pitt and Jolie through the governor's new "Road to Someone Else's Home Plan." Delays began immediately, and the program is expected to make its first awards no later than 2013.

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Don't Run, Kathleen!

Scott Jordan of the Independent writes an open letter to Kathleen Blanco

Don't Run

Some excerpts
In the face of the tragedy and hardship that came out of Katrina and Rita, Louisiana residents and voters have become involved in the political process like never before. We are tired of Louisiana’s recovery languishing in bureaucratic red tape and ineffective policies. What was once a wink-and-a-nudge Louisiana tradition — laughing and groaning at colorful or corrupt politicians — is no longer funny, and never will be again. .....Before your poll numbers started dropping precipitously, you realized you had one chance — a possible golden ticket, even — to re-election.....The Road Home Program.....You staked out your turf in dramatic fashion, making it unequivocally clear that the program’s failure or success didn’t depend on New Orleans legislators or the federal government. This was your Road Home program, your solution....... Let’s not mince words: The Road Home has been a disaster......Time is of the essence. The longer you stay in the race, the longer it will take for other candidates to declare their candidacy and present their platform to the public..... That’s why I’m asking you not to run for re-election.


I hope she takes his advice.

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Saving Louisiana

Click here for a short audio slideshow about Louisiana's quickly disappearing coastline


click on photo for full-size version

Experts agree we have 10 years or less to act before the loss becomes irreversible.

There is hope. State officials expect to get a jump-start on building restoration projects as early as this August, thanks to $523 million in offshore revenues provided under the federal Coastal Impact Assistance Program.

A permanent dedication of offshore revenue to the state will kick in only $20 million a year until 2017, after which the state should be collecting a minimum of $670 million a year, Coffee said. But the state can borrow against that revenue stream immediately.

And that almost certainly will be required, because by 2017 the coastal erosion problem likely will have become irreversible. By issuing bonds backed by future offshore revenue, the state will gain the flexibility not only to speed up construction but to launch projects not authorized by Congress.


The Chicory has some images from google showing Louisiana's land loss here

Kudo's to the Times Picayune for this special series on coastal restoration.

David vs Goliath

Michael Homan has been fighting Allstate since Katrina devastated his home. Today he testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The first panel of speakers includes senators such as Mary Landrieu and Trent Lott.

From his website I will be speaking in the second panel, along with Bob Hunter, the president of the Consumer Federation of America. We'll both be arguing in favor of Leahy's Insurance Industry Competition Act. Two speakers in my panel will be arguing against the act: Marc Racicot, president of the American Insurance Association, and Susan Voss, speaking on behalf of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. The whole thing should be over in an hour I'm told.

The link above details his experience in fighting Allstate for his insurance claim that they refuse to pay. A David against Goliath tale.

Thank you, Mr. Homan.

Friday, March 02, 2007

Meet the victims


dapoblog has posted a list of the murders in 2007.
This list comprises names and details of the crimes (links to the police reports). Excellent research.

I agree with Traveling Mermaid that all the murder victims should be recognized....they all had family, friends and lives. Even the criminals....who knows why they turned to a life of crime? One factor is the failure of our society and our community. The failure of a strong family structure by which I don't necessarily mean blood family. We need these murders in our faces everyday to motivate us all to do what we can to break this vicious cycle of violence. The big question is, what can we do as a community to turn it around?

they blew up the levees

I got this email last night:



It never ceases to amaze me how people like you can be so opinionated without all the facts. My family was displaced by Katrina. My father used to live in Slidell and my Sister is in the process of moving now.
All of my relatives, whom by the way, live are living and did live in New Orleans and Slidell agree, there was a suspicious explosion in the area of the levy before the flooding began and AFTER Katrina had already passed through. It was blown by the Army Core of Engineers.
Katrina was devastating in its own way but did not cause the damage the mainstream news wants America and the world to believe.
I do not know Mr. Nagin and most probably will never meet him but, I would like to see YOU deal with a situation like this and come out looking good when ALL the help that is normally available was cut off by the Federal Government during Katrina. The aftermath of this tragedy is that, it was ALL created at the top. From my point of view, it was time to get those poor people out of there.
Nagin my not be a genius but do you think Mr. Bush is?
If you ran for Mayor, I would vote for you just to see how well you will do.


I cannot believe how many ignorant people are running around out there. I bet this assclown hasn't even been down here since the storm.

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Seeing is believing


Ronald Shamlaty Jr. traveled to New Orleans this week by way of the Biloxi airport. As he moved westward in his rental car from Mississippi to Slidell to eastern New Orleans, he was arrested by the devastation that suddenly came into view from the interstate.
"as we went over the bridges," ....referring to the Twin Spans, "we noticed apartment complexes just destroyed, their windows all boarded up. What really got us -- we got that frog-in-the-throat thing -- was seeing all the trailers still there a year and a half later."


This is a statement from a conventioneer passing through this week; 18 months post Katrina.

To all of you folks out there who think things are just "hunky dorey" down here, either plan a trip down here or check out the area bloggers at this site


This is a picture taken on February 28th driving along Highway 11 in New Orleans East. Part of the Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refuge, these trees were laid down by the storm's winds. There are thousands of trees that look like this. They will never appear green again.

To get an idea of the strength of the storm surge look at this boat.

It rode over this levee, from right to left.

By the way, this boat is still sitting there.

Yes, it's been 18 months, but those of us who live here and see the remains every day know that this isn't something you just "get over".

Kelly Leahy has written about her trip thru New Orleans east here

Loki oh so eloquently discusses the fact that we had Mardi Gras and what this means to us down here Here's an excerpt:
We exist in a place where Katrina, the Federal Flood, and the ongoing trials infect every aspect of day to day life. Every interaction, every conversation, every walk down the block are tainted with the events of the past 18 months. In this sort of environment catharsis is essential. On Mardi Gras Day a pauper can be a prince, a prince can be a clown, and the clowns that, “govern,” us can be skewered with impunity. Every masker is able to leave behind the wrekage of their former home and cut loose in a collaborative satirization of the pain we are steeped in.

This is how we heal.


Mark Folse pens what Mardi Gras means to him here

If you want to see more of the storm's remnants, go here

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