Your Right Hand Thief

I know that there's been a drought along the Gulfsouth since Katrina, but do we really need to do this in order to sustain our gardens?


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Update: Oh. I didn't read the whole post before getting all snarkastic. If you can, help b. rox find Lucy the cat. I'm sure Muad'Dib would approve.

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Update #2: Water water everywhere, but not a drop to drink.

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Update #3: Here's a quote from a recent T-P article on the N.O. Fire Dept:

If New Orleans firefighters had half a moment to ponder their problems, they'd probably spontaneously combust: flooded and ruined equipment, 50 percent of their stations out of commission, a nearly 10 percent drop in personnel, drought-like conditions, anemic water pressure and a long, hot hurricane season staring them in the face.

Distracting these firefighters from their litany of woes is, ironically, fire. A seemingly unending rash of calls has kept the department scrambling day and night, stretching already taxed resources but somehow boosting the squad's sense of purpose, District Capt. Norman Woodridge said.

Jeffrey has been covering the fire story so closely that he's considering changing his blog's name from Library Chronicles to Fahrenheit 452 (or something like that). More here.

You're invited to a TV Party at my place to watch the United States play Italy. Saturday 1pm: Bring refreshments and good cheer.

Note: If our boys come out flat and listless like they did against the Czechs, I reserve the right to change the channel to FUSE's Dance Your Pants Off (which I believe is Medium Jim's favorite show.) One way or another, we'll have some fun.

We're located on the river side of Prytania, midway between Napoleon and Gen. Pershing. It's the house with the purple door. Email me at oystersliq at gmail.com if you need more specificity.

Whoopsy poopers! ... Ah'm so sorry.


Some say it was a typical Duhbya blunder, but I'm not so sure. YRHT speculates that Bush had been told the reporter was a macular degenerate, but thought the term meant something else.




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* Old Mothers

Via Suspect Device, we find this Chicago Trib article on Mayor Ray Ray:

New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin visited Chicago on Tuesday as part of a national tour in which he's calling on "partners" to help re-build his hurricane-ravaged city, a project he estimated could take 7 to 10 years.

"There will be an economic boom like we haven't seen in this country," said Nagin, who was recently re-elected. "This will be the biggest work site in the world."

During a speech at the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition's national conference in Rosemont, Nagin criticized the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina and his state's handling of recent municipal elections.

"It exposed the soft underbelly of the United States," Nagin said of Katrina. "It exposed poverty, it exposed racism and it exposed a government that was overwhelmed and was not capable--and is still not capable--of dealing with a disaster of that magnitude."

The hurricane, Nagin said, was an "unimaginable event," one he implied may have been designated by God.

Before Katrina, Nagin said, New Orleans was a city of "haves and have nots," with one of the highest rates of poverty, one of the worst public school systems in the nation and a high percentage of young males involved in crime.

"Then, you know, God looked down on that and said, 'You know, I need to change that'," Nagin said. "And then Katrina happened. And in the midst of all that devastation, God is now allowing us to have an opportunity to reset the table, and that was what the election was all about."

...

Nagin's inauguration ceremony this month drew Jackson and other national figures. He said his victory signaled support that he would ensure a city of economic equity.

More than $10 billion in insurance resettlement funds, an equal amount in federal dollars earmarked for homeownership and rental units, and several more billion in investment dollars will flow into the region, Nagin said.

Trying to make light of his controversial call earlier this year for a "chocolate city," Nagin said he's encouraging "all folks" to help rebuild New Orleans.

"My white-chocolate friends, come on down," Nagin said. "My medium-chocolate friends, come on down. And my dark-chocolate friends, definitely come on down."

It might take several posts to unpack all of the Naginspeak in this article.

The thing that strikes me first and foremost is not the idiotic "God sent Katrina to 'cleanse' New Orleans" line. Although I utterly loathe that way of thinking (if you can even call it thinking) Ray Ray has already been there and done that. One wonders why God (or Wotan) waited until the Nagin administration to send Katrina. Was that the absolute nadir apex of poverty and crime in New Orleans? Or did the Almighty begin working on this disaster decades ago, influencing the Army Corps of Engineers' faulty levee designs (which caused many of the failures that led to most of the city's catastrophic flooding)? Still, these are the words that the city's Salesman-in-Chief is using to attract investors to New Orleans. What's the new slogan for the city, "God doesn't hate us so much now"?

What strikes me most is how Nagin's "economic equity" comments will be interpreted by all the Couhig Naginites who decided the election for him. ("Couhig Naginites" are the Rob Couhig-type conservatives who voted for Nagin over Mitch Landrieu because they hate the Landrieu name and believe Nagin "understands business"). If Mitch Landrieu had been elected and went before Rainbow/PUSH and made comments about economic equity, conservatives would be howling like mad.

As far as Nagin saying Katrina was "unimaginable"... that's worse than Bush's "no one anticipated the breach of the levees" comment.

The mayor was right about two major points, however.

1. In the important months and years ahead, there WILL be an economic boom in New Orleans (while the rest of the country flirts with recession.)

2. Katrina did expose America's "soft underbelly". America watched masses of desperate poor people, waiting for days while no one helped them. This searing episode became a political Rorschach test: the Left saw racism, and gross incompetence in the Bush administration's response . The Right saw a lack of "personal responsibility" on display, as well as the corruption and incompetence of Louisiana politicians.

Luckily, a national discussion about poverty, race and govt policy was narrowly avoided.

That would have been uncomfortable.

Suspect Device compiles all the news articles that caught my eye today, and throws in a link to some tits as a reward to the attentive.


(Warning to easily-disappointed preverts like Ratboy: I'm not saying SD's tits link is as good as Phoebs leaving the pool NSFW. But it's better than YRHT's previous tease along those lines.)

Good friend and champion oyster-griller Dillyberto is now a dad! Go over to Our New Orleans Saints and congratulate him and especially Mrs Berto. I have not yet seen Lil Berto, but I hear he's a big boy.

Excellent.

After doing our darndest to affirm Senator Vitter's credentials as an eager breeder, it's disappointing to see unfounded allegations emerge while he is fighting to protect Louisianans from hurricanes the deadly catamite agenda.

Never fear: if you want to float some published reports (pdf) about a closeted, self-loathing, hypocritical, anti-gay marriage Gooper, you needn't look outside the state.







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Bullmoose:

After years of conservative claims that the Clinton Administration sold out to the North Koreans with the deal that gave them a nuclear reactor, the Bushies have largely replicated that bargain for the Iranians. Peace in our time!

Let us put this in perspective. If a Kerry Administration had offered this deal, there would be the equivalent of conservative rioting in the streets. An impeachment resolution would be offered. The theme of the day on talk radio would be the betrayal of America.

Too true.

Read this Gadflyer post, which links the Administration's recent policy flip-flop to Iran's endorsement of President Bush in 2004. (Yes, they endorsed him, just as Al-Qaeda did.) And why shouldn't they do so, after the U.S. helpfully overthrew their most-hated enemy? Iran understands the U.S. will talk tough in public, and then covertly trade arms for hostages, and allow Halliburton to make profitable deals. (Hell, Dick Cheney bent over backwards to give nuclear technology to Iran in the 70's. Nowadays he plays dumb and asks cryptically why a country with so much oil would want nuclear energy.)

But conservatives can't get distracted by the threat of Iran when Mexicans and Gays (and perhaps some Gay Mexicans!) are undermining the very foundations of our nation. We must find a way to send the Mexicans back to Mexico, and the gays back to Homoslavia, and then let's build a big wall to prevent their return, because... they both talk funny, and parade with strange flags, and ....spread diseases!!

Yesterday was a big news day, but I was at a real estate conference at the New Orleans Hilton, and hadn't time to comment. Sadly, there are no other websites on the internet that have "instantaneous" commentary on news developments, so I know I disappointed a lot of you. Where else could you possibly turn?

1. I must say, it put a little spring in my step to learn Zarqawi ate some red hot steaming death. What a complete asshole that guy was! And I liked how Zarqawi was meeting with his "spiritual advisor" when the 500 lb. bombs exploded.

This beheading shitstirrer was about as "spiritual" as an unflushed toilet.

2. The House/Senate conference committee hammered out a compromise on the Iraq/hurricane bill which preserved $4.2 billion in CBDG housing money for Louisiana and $3.7 billion for levee upgrades. This is great news, because it was touch-and-go there for a while regarding the housing money. Mississippi and Tejas wanted to split it, and Senator Landrieu (and others) helped Louisiana maintain the $4.2 billion it needed for housing.

I must also give some credit to President Bush. Previously, my operating assumption was that Bush was committed to doing as little as he possibly could for Louisiana. But I must say, his advocacy for the full $4.2 billion is more than the bare minimum he could have done (politically) for Louisiana. I was very suspicious that his administration was (again) working behind the scenes with the House to trim and cut our housing funding under the rubric of "fiscal discipline". Luckily, that didn't happen, and I'll have to adjust my simplistic operating assumption about Bush's attitude toward post-K Louisiana.

3. The Real Estate conference was immensly optimistic about the future of New Orleans. And not all of it was blind optimism, either. I'll discuss it in more detail soon.

4. Congratulations to Dallas Mavericks coach Avery Johnson. I've been a longtime fan of his, and am pleased that his team won Game 1 of the NBA Finals. Johnson, a graduate of Southern University, is the reason why I am rooting for a Dallas sports franchise for the first time ever in my life. (Oh, I also have a story about Mavs asst. coach Del Harris, too. I'll share that later on also.)

... why is it absent from Senator Vitter's "Issues" web page?



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Update: Quote of the day, courtesy of Loki: "You know David Vitter was in my class at De La Salle back in the 80's. We did not share many classes (I was in Advanced Placement,) but I knew him."


Letter of the day can be found at Spasticrobot. Go read it. (Hat tip to Blake.)

Louisiana Senator David Vitter says of gay marriage:

I don't believe there's any issue that's more important than this one.



For Vitty-cent, nothing can top a constitutional amendment defining marriage. Nothing!! Not hurricane protection. Not economic stimulus. Not even the war on terror. Nothing is more important to Vitter than defining marriage in a Constitutional Amendment, because our beloved junior senator wrote the freakin' book on marriage.

This is the most idiotic thing he has said since 8/30/05 when he declared: "I don't want to alarm everybody that, you know, New Orleans is filling up like a bowl. That's just not happening."