Scuzzbucket on the Air

From Suspect Device,
word that Neal Boortz is at it again.



Spewing his hate filled feelings all over the air waves, such as this:


Boortz has also called the overwhelmingly black, poor victims of the Katrina disaster in New Orleans “human parasites” and “deadbeats,” even suggesting that a victim of Hurricane Katrina consider prostitution instead of “sucking off taxpayers.” Although Katrina’s devastation cost this nation $80 billion, killed thousands, and displaced a million people, Boortz believes “Katrina cleansed New Orleans.”

Pontchartrain Beach Nostalgia

Some may have seen this site....I like it, even though I didn't grow up here.

click here for Pontchartrain Beach history.

note: the typos aren't mine!

Another Guilty Verdict

Supa Gangsta Michael Anderson has been found guilty on all five counts of capital murder.


T.P. picture by Chris Grainger

Anderson was out on bail when police said he gunned down the five teenagers June 17, 2006, first taking out the driver of the Sport Utility Vehicle and then systematically shooting the rest of the passengers before dawn at the corner of Josephine and Daniel Streets. The victims were brothers Arsenio Hunter, 16, and Markee Hunter, 19, along with Warren Simeon, 17, Iraum Taylor, 19, and Reggie Dantzler, 19

Anderson, 23, is accused of murdering the five teenagers in a predawn attack June 17, 2006, an ambush that prompted the state of Louisiana to send in the National Guard to help patrol a city still freshly traumatized by Hurricane Katrina.

The jury of eight women and four men will return to Criminal District Court tomorrow for the penalty phase, during which prosecutors will ask the same panel to sentence Anderson to die by lethal injection.

Congratulations to the jury.

RIP Ted Kennedy

I grew up in the era of the Kennedys. I remember JFK's assasination, Bobby's too. Now Ted has passed. He was a champion of the little guy in my eyes. May he rest in peace.



Eli has a clip of Joe Biden talking about Teddy here

Rebirth is a slow process

This slide show details our vision of the rebirth from Katrina in ground zero, Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, including our two favorite places for great burgers AND Serious Bread: The Mockingbird Cafe and the Buttercup. Also include in this slide show are pictures of Lake St. Catherine, which just recently is realizing the rebuilding boom from the storm. I've also tried to show that recovery is "one step forward, two steps backwards" process sometimes; with the one two punch of hurricanes Gustav and Ike last year set recovery back for some. But it seems that despite these drawbacks, the area is still moving forward with recovery. Please excuse my typo's. Trying to get this done. :). I have done a blog post on everything featured in this slide show if you want to find out more. Just use the search feature at the top left of this site.

Please note: the big beautiful houses in Waveland in no way depict what's happening in that city. Still very, very far from being where they were in '05, Waveland, Bay St. Louis, Pascagoula, Ocean Springs, Gulfport and other points are still undergoing major infrastructure rebuilding as well as other recovery efforts.

August 29th Planned Events

-- New Orleans, 8 a.m. Tulane students, faculty, alumni fan out across the city to perform volunteer work. Volunteers should meet at the Lavin-Bernick Center for University Life at 8 a.m., where they will be bused to the volunteer sites. Visit http://outreach.tulane.edu/ for information.

-- Shell Beach, 8:30 a.m. St. Bernard Parish honors the parish's 163 victims who died in the hurricane. Katrina Monument at Shell Beach.

-- Buras, 9 a.m., Roger Halphen Playground. Plaquemines Parish government will hold a prayer breakfast to mark the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Free food and drinks.

-- New Orleans, 9 a.m. Loyola University Academic Quad Sculpture Garden. Dedication of a bench as part of Hurricane Katrina Remembrance.

-- New Orleans, 11 a.m.- 3 p.m. The New Orleans Museum of Art will host several events, including an 11 a.m. reading of the names of people who died during the hurricane and a screening of the Spike Lee documentary, "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts." Free admission for Louisiana residents, courtesy of The Helis Foundation.

-- New Orleans, 2-6 p.m., 1826 Tennessee St. The L9 Center for the Arts honors the Lower 9th Ward's first responders to Katrina.

-- Chalmette, 3 p.m. A Rosary will be recited at Our Lady of Prompt Succor Church in Chalmette, followed by Mass.

-- New Orleans, 3-5 p.m., Contemporary Arts Center, 900 Camp St. Panel discussion on lessons learned from Katrina rebuilding.

-- New Orleans, 4 p.m. Rosa Keller Library, 4300 S. Broad St., New Orleans. Broadmoor Community celebrates its post-Katrina revival.

-- Chalmette, 5:30- 8 p.m. Community celebration at Torres Park, W. Judge Perez Drive at Jean Lafitte, in Chalmette. The band Harvey Jesus performs from 6 to 8 p.m.

-- Metairie, 7 p.m. St. Catherine of Siena Church, 105 Bonnabel Blvd., will hold a holy hour in remembrance of those who died and those who are still suffering from the tragedies of Katrina, Rita and the storms of last year.

Sunday, Aug. 30

-- New Orleans, 3 p.m. St. Louis Cathedral. Marine Forces Reserve Band presents "New Orleans: The Spirit of Rebirth" concert. Free.

-- Metairie, 4:30 p.m. Congregation Gates of Prayer and Congregation Beth Israel will hold a program to commemorate the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. 4000 West Esplanade Ave.,

Orphaned Boats

Due to her track, Katrina swamped hundreds, may thousands of boats in her wake. In 2007 we combed areas of south and east Slidell as well as Highway 90 in New Orleans East to capture the images of these orphaned boats. Four years later, the boats are all but gone (I still see a few in Lake Catherine). Here is my slide show of Katrina's Orphaned Boats.



Sorry for any duplicates. When building the slide show, I can only see teeny tiny thumbnails and sometimes am not sure of what I'm picking out!

17th Street Canal Breach

Click on photo for larger version


From WWL TV, a story about the dedication - if you will - of a marker to commemorate

the site of the initial breach in the 17th Street Canal four years ago this Saturday. Not a hint of this story shows up at the Nola dot com website.

From the WWL website:


With the help of Levees.org, Roy Arrigo, a former Lakeview resident, put up the marker, which includes a scathing rebuke of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

"Especially around the rest of the country, there's a lot of misinformation about the cause of what happened in New Orleans,” he said. “There's a lot of tour buses and sightseers pass here, and I hope to get the right message to them of what really happened."


The temporary marker may not look like much at first glance, but it packs plenty of punch, with sharp language designed to raise eyebrows.


One section reads, "This breach and others -- part of the metropolitan New Orleans Hurricane Protection System -- together are considered the worst civil engineering disaster in our nation's history. It is the worst in the world since the Chernobyl meltdown."


Too strong?


Levees.org founder Sandy Rosenthal says, 'No'.


"I'm disturbed at how little progress we've made in helping the nation understand, that what happened in New Orleans was not a natural disaster. To say that New Orleans was wiped out by a natural disaster, would be like saying the Minneapolis bridge was wiped out by traffic."


And while they work to create a more permanent landmark, the group hopes, through a few short paragraphs, they can keep the story going.


It's one they say, the nation needs to understand.


"We look at this as one more opportunity to explain to the people, that what happened in New Orleans was a civil engineering failure, and can happen anywhere."

Bayou Liberty area

Here are some photos taken in the Bayou Liberty area where I live.
The St. Genevieve church photo's were taken two years ago when the church was
demolished. I believe that construction of the new church will take place once
the new ($6.8M) bridge is completed. Also sprinkled in this set are a few places of
Irish Bayou that are no longer standing.

the scars remain

video from the times picayune

Video: The Scars Remain

Slide Show Post Katrina

I "met" a very sweet woman online a few months ago who survived Hurricane Katrina in Bay St. Louis. Yes, she survived being at ground zero. She now lives in Texas and would be very happy to come back home to the gulf coast. She may do that someday, but for now she's rebuilding her life. I can't imagine what it was like for her and all of the other survivors of the storm in those horrific weeks and months following the storm. She sent me some pictures that she took in the aftermath of the storm and I put them together in a slide show format I found in photobucket. During this week leading up to the fourth anniversary of Katrina, I may create other slideshows showing the storms aftermath and our recovery. I've also included some pictures hubby and I took in Lake St. Catherine during the last four years. This is for you, Janice.