The Dangerblond Ticket
The election is tomorrow and dangerblond urges everyone to vote early and vote often. Please talk to your neighbors and co-workers and encourage them to vote. This election will be a squeaker and your vote could be the one that decides it. Remember the chads in Florida? We have a lot of really lousy people in our government right now because of low voter turnout and apathy. Let’s put a stop to that and start getting some of these people off the payroll. Here are my recommendations, and I urge you to consider the source.
TAX ASSESSORS: My I.Q. candidate has already gone down, but Municipal Districts 1 and 4 are still in play. In District 1, incumbent Darren Mire is running against I.Q. candidate Maria Elliot. I have been told that Mire is not a bad guy and that he is in favor of combining all the assessor’s jobs into one, which would save the city about $5 million a year. That’s nice, but he has not signed the pledge. So, vote for Maria Elliot because a verbal agreement is not worth the paper it’s written on. In District 4, incumbent Betty “It’s None of Your Business What I Do” Jefferson is running against I.Q. candidate Chase Jones. I am on a one-woman campaign to get the entire Jefferson family back into the private sector. Betty is Dollar Bill’s sister and she has been kept in office by virtue of his very powerful political machine. She is incompetent and venal. She does not see any reason at all why she should tell the public or the press what she is up to. Let’s fire Betty so she can get back to watching her soap operas. Rage against the machine and vote for Chase Jones.
CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT A: Jay Batt is dumb and he’s a liar. He claims to “mean business,” but I have not seen one intelligent business-like decision come out of him in four years. He has done nothing but try to do favors for his friends. He is good on historic preservation, but if I lived in Lakeview I would not give a shit about that. The way he has desperately attacked Shelley Midura makes me think he has no integrity at all. This is my district and I am voting for Midura. She is new and an unknown quantity, but it would be hard for her to be as ineffective as Batt. We reelected way too many incumbent council members in the primary, and if we don’t get some new people we will be back in gridlock with no contraflow. Vote for Shelley Midura if you want to EVER see anything happen.
CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT B: Incumbent Renee Gill-Pratt is another cog in the wheels of the Jefferson political machine. I feel quite certain that when she is faced with a decision the first thing she asks herself is, “what would Dollar Bill want me to do?” We should no longer put up with that. What’s good for the Jefferson family is not necessarily good for New Orleans. These are the kind of people that when they come over for dinner, you need to count the silverware when they leave. Her challenger is Stacy Head. She seems smart and, so far, honest. If I lived in District B, I would definitely pull that lever for Head, no question.
CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT C: I don’t know much about either James Carter or Kristen Palmer. As nosy as I am, that’s amazing. Carter is a criminal defense attorney and Palmer has a good record of community service. Neither one of them has ever screwed New Orleans over to my knowledge, so I encourage you to vote for either of them. If they fuck up, dangerblond will be all over that before the next election.
CLERK of CRIMINAL DISTRICT COURT: This used to be Kimberly “Disneyland” Williamson Butler’s job and the next occupant is going to be spending a lot of time cleaning up the mess that crazy broad left behind. Arthur Morrell is an old political name around here (state representative and husband of one of the Cynthias on the city council) and he has not got much to show for it. Nick Varrecchio is a lawyer. Morrell seems like a real piece of work. He was fined $1,000 recently by the state ethics board for using his elected office in an attempt to benefit his private legal clients. Based on this type of corruption, I do not think we need him in charge of our criminal court records OR our elections. Especially the elecions. Vote for Varrecchio. This one is important, Morrell is dishonest.
CITY COUNCIL AT LARGE: This is between Jackie Clarkson and Arnie Fielkow. It’s a tough choice. Clarkson is the mother of one of my favorite actresses and she loves New Orleans. Arnie Fielkow is a brilliant lawyer who was fired by Tom Benson for standing up to him about keeping the Saints in New Orleans. I have nothing against Clarkson, but she has recently been showing some Sugar Ray-style petulance. It pisses me off when these incumbents don’t realize that anyone who was driving this baby when she went right off the rails has got a lot to answer for. They need to start every speech with, “I’m sorry I didn’t do better when the shit hit the fan.” I am voting for Fielkow. This is a guy who has enough money and a wide enough reputation to go anywhere he wants. He wants to be here and he wants to help. I think we would be crazy to take a pass on this guy, he is world-class. And he has no problem standing up to assholes. That said, I will hate Fielkow forever if he loses and then packs up his toys and moves out of town. There are other ways to help.
MAYOR OF NEW ORLEANS: This election is going to be closer than anyone would have believed. I have always been a fan of Sugar Ray Nagin. In fact, I am all kinds of hot for him. But our needs have changed. I think Ray desperately wants to be re-elected so he can go out with a better legacy. I don’t blame him, and I will support him for any office he wants to run for. But not Mayor of New Orleans. I am not one of those who think “no one else could have handled it any better.” The fact that these dead cars are still all over town should put the lie to that. I am voting for Mitch Landrieu. As Lt. Governor, he has surrounded himself with a staff who actually knows what they are doing. His instincts led him to jump right on the problem of improving Louisiana’s image nationally as soon as the water went down, unlike Sugar Ray who went straight to drama and never left. He has never been less than respectable in his demeanor. He plays well with others. He will do well for New Orleans, I have no doubt. And, of course, back when he had hair, it was blond.
These election endorsements are presented by dangerblond only and do not reflect the opinions of the writers or Powers That Be of Metroblogging New Orleans. But if they don’t vote like I tell them, they are crazy.
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Landrieu? Nothing will get done under Landrieu. He is a bureaucrat who will set N.O. back 50 years. If you want N.O. to become Detroit, vote Landrieu. If you want N.O. to become Dallas, chose Nagin.
Now I wanna’ see a picture of Nagin when he had hair!
I don’t even wanna’ know what you’ve been doing
with him in your head.
I might vote for Mary Landrieu if she runs for president.
But, then again we need some one on the inside
to stand up against the presidente’.
Laurie
The Picayune a while back published high school pictures of a bunch of people. Nagin had a HUGE, perfectly round afro, circa 1970s.
Mark B, New Orleans has ALREADY been set back 50 years. And no one wants it to look like Dallas. A little less like a war zone would be fine.
As a faithful reader of this site and even though I have only been to NO three times I am interested in the outcome of this electon, so, Dangerblonde, after it is over please post who won and if they were your choices. Thanks
Why, but why in God’s name would we want our New Orleans to become Dallas??
Nagin had his chance and he blew it. He’s not a bad guy, just a poor leader. How will we ever explain to the rest of the world why we voted him back in? Nagin (along with a few others..) have managed to make us the laughing stock of the country. I say let’s move forward.
The the other choice was worse.
The last time I visited NO was March of 2005, and as usual, had a fantastic time. For the past several years, New Orleans had become a “must visit,” I always had a good time, liked the people, and always found something new to try.
When K hit, I cried while watching the horrific images on the tube. Places I had been to earlier in the year were flooded and getting looted. In the aftermath, to be brutally honest, I really saw no hope for y’all. But I was wrong because of the resolve of the citizens.
Being several hundred miles away in dry, dusty west Texas, I may be speaking out of turn here.
I’m saddened that Nagin was re-elected. I feel that he, as well as others, did almost as much harm to New Orleans as Katrina did. And Covingtongirl…by no means is NO the laughing stock of the country. We pray for you, we help as best we can (some of us at least), but no way are we laughing.
Sadly, I made a promise that as long as Nagin is mayor, I won’t go back. I took offense to his “chocolate” remark. I’ll miss the food, drink, people, and great times. I hope to return in four years. And I hope in the next four years, he gets a grip on the situation, rises to the occasion, and does a good job in restoring your city.
Learn from the past, deal with the present, and plan for the future.
Really you got to see it on the tube?
We waited five months for those images to be released!!
What we had was the Times-Picayune through out almost its entirety.
‘Ya really wanna’ know what happened, it’s in the Times Picayune.
Or hit this sites archives to August 2005, for more on
our state of insanity before K hit go back to June 2005.
Follow hurricane season with us.
The national media did not do the event justice sir.
Laurie
Look closer at Cueball, he’s chocolate himself - he’s making fun of himself.
He needs a new barber.
All the cars, the Katrina cars if we wouldn’ve gotten
them out cheaper they would be making no money the bottom
line is always money there are enough Katrina cars trying
to be sold without those lemons getting in the market.
The less they pay the more emphasis to get more out of them
the more likely they reenter the automotive market.
Cue Ball get those cars off the street ‘fore the weeks out, got it!!
I happen to like Jarvis’ idea about the Katrina house too.
Fill in MRGO no more talking - action!
And, leave the dolphins on top of the Harvey Tunnel out of this!
Don’t let Chocolate Man keep you from visiting he
wasn’t the worse choice.
I rather have some one tell me what I don’t want to hear
than say all the right things Landrieu might have been
elected without the “New World Order” remark.
Get the Mexicans health cards if they’re gonna’ work the
streets that means they have to get tested.
Laurie
Jim, please do not avoid New Orleans because of Nagin. I live here and I never see him around. If everyone did that, we would go completely broke.
After thinking about it and discussing it with some friends, I’ll be heading back to your neck of the woods. Nagin could care less whether I come back or not. Fact is I’d have serious withdrawals for the food, music, drink, and most of all, the people that give your city character and make it truly unique. He’s not the first politician to have foot in mouth disease, so I’m just going to consider the source.
And Laurie, I didn’t mean to offend or step on any toes. There’s no way that any media could have done justice to this tragedy. But what I saw “on the tube” made me cry, made me mad, and made me help as best I could.
I hope and pray that Naygin, as W.C. Fields once said, “grabs the bull by the tail and faces the situation.” I have looked at past and present posts, and there’s work to be done that’s beyond the comprehension of anyone that hasn’t seen the damage first-hand, and I’m first on that list.
I’ll be reading posts here and elsewhere, and checking out the Times Picayune to see how y’all are doing. And first round’ll be on me!
Did Jim,
I wasn’t offended, we have to yell a some one now and again,
it helps us have the illusion of sanity.
It wasn’t personal.
I’m a lateral thinker - so when is presidente’ Bush resigning?
Laurie