In case you have been living under a rock and missed this, the recent Op-Ed by Comstat veteran, Brian Denzer, in the Times-Picayune blasted the continued, irritated concern of citizens regarding the release of crime statistics from the NOPD as a real tool for addressing violent crime in the city simply by transparency. The theory is that if the NOPD would release timely information, citizens can then provide more eyes and ears on the ground and use it to create new tools in their own neighborhoods and assist NOPD in stemming crime by identifying trends earlier with on-the-ground observation.

Many people are wondering what has happened to the Crime Camera contract the Mayor has been promising. In the meantime, potential witnesses who happen to see the wrong thing, at the wrong time are still being killed in our streets, like Helen Hill. Crime cameras could help alleviate this senseless loss of life and help the NOPD get some solid anonymous evidence to keep violent criminals in jail.

Access to current information has been a long-standing issue among residents who have returned since Katrina. The citizens of New Orleans were called upon to be part of the larger planning process since Katrina and have all been very engaged in making things better with this opportunity to voice their fundamental concerns. Every planning session I attended noted Crime as the number one issue for rebuilding New Orleans with a better qualtiy of life in the city. Citizens were smart enough to know that this issue was closely linked to better jobs, economic developement and improved schools as part of the long-term issue as well. We demanded all of this. Citizens were loud and clear in late 2005. They are still screaming about the issue of crime cameras today. The Nagin adminstration remains cavalier about this and all citizen concerns and despite the continued pile of victims, it seems we have gone nowhere.

However, thanks to the initiative of Thom Kahler’s website which only covers the 8th district, he pushed the T-P to help get faster access to crime reports on behalf of citizens. Thom’s bold and free-speech approach to crime coverage makes us all wish we lived in the 25’s.

Without the Crime Camera project, which remains incomplete, we are all getting more disenfranchised about the administration since this was a huge concern city-wide in the two-years of planning hell we went through. It all seems to have gone out to lunch with the Mayor and his wife in Dallas. Where has that contract money gone?

A few diligent citizens have used the Times Picayune’s statistics to create excellent online tools using this information. Thanks to Thom, and Rob and Brian Denzer and people like Baty Landis and Ken Foster who have pushed the issue for a few years now. Here is where we are today with online tools citywide. If you know of anything in your neighborhood, please let us know.

Current Online Crime Tools:
Citizen Crime Watch
Rob Schafer and Ben Gauslin have created this very useful tool. Using Google Maps, it provides a visual view that’s very familiar and (hopefully) easier to understand than page after page of text. Linking incidents to news and police reports provides much-needed context to the pins on the map. And since every incident is stored in a database that data can be examined to generate statistics over time to help understand crime rates, what areas are dangerous, what crimes are committed when, etc.

New Orleans Murder BlogAll things crime. All things New Orleans. This blog doesn’t condone murder, or death.

New Orleans Crimeline by Thom Kahler.

We believe if citizens have information about threats to their safety they will hopefully be able to take precautions against becoming victims.

Sites with archived information:
Citizen CrimeWatch

This site is not currently mapping crimes in New Orleans but gives some good background information on crime mapping initiatives in other cities. One great example is Washington, D.C.

In 2004, the Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO) was asked to develop a program called Citywide Data Warehouse (CityDW), formerly known as DCStat, to support the District’s Hot Spot crime reduction initiative. To do so, CityDW designed a data warehouse to store agency data and created various presentation tools in an attempt to increase transparency by publishing more information across agencies and to the public.

Today CityDW ’s mission is to provide a centralized access point for enterprise-wide data with a focus on providing real-time operational data from multiple agencies and sources that enables decision support and government transparency. To that extent, CityDW works with the Office of the City Administrator, the CapStat program, and district agencies supplying both data and business intelligence tools. Residents and businesses now have access to information through our Summary Reports and Data Catalog and Data Feeds.

Crime Reports.com Thankfully, we have Citizen Crime Watch, a similar program, created by volunteers who have devoted their time to constructing a similar site for New Orleans. The issue we could press as citizens is to get access to map the “calls for service” as they come in. Running a routine on the computer could extend this current application to map these calls-for- service as they happen, automatically. If only the City would permit access to that information.

City of New Orleans, NOPD:
The NOPD website doesn’t map crimes in a timely manner, they wait til reports are cleared through a larger bureaucracy, which gives them the opportunity to manipulate the numbers to their advantage, not ours.
NOPD Crime Stat Maps

Advocacy Groups Related to Crime:
Silence is Violence

New Orleans Metropolitan Crime Commission

Court Watch New Orleans

Police Assoc. of New Orleans

Safe Streets NOLA

Times Picayune Forum, for when you just want to bitch about the problem:
Times-Picayune Crime Forum

…another earworm from Johnny Nash….

Anyway, thanks to our friend Rae for taking me to the Saints game yesterday. Focusing on football was a badly needed break from focusing on food supplies and service and all the other things that have absorbed attention for the past week. Frankly, I’d have gone if it was McNeese vs. Louisiana/Monroe — anything to take a break and just be diverted for awhile.

Looks like this Ike thing is gonna blow into Texas. Sucks to be them, I know, but, for now, it’s certainly a relief here. I don’t want to wish ill on anyone, but things here need to get recentered on the day-to-day. It won’t be long before the weather moderates a bit and people start coming out of their summer funk and into a more sociable fall attitude. It will help us all to look forward to things like Halloween and the holidays — if even in the mode of store decorations. New Orleans shines best in the fall and spring — and the winters are pretty damn neat too.

A couple of notes — yesterday at the Superdome the scoreboard’s “KissCam” focused on the usual collection of teens, middle-agers and elderly. But one shot showed a couple of hot women kissing each other. They held it too. The crowd went wild. We also got a chance to boo Hurricane Ike’s progress.

Gustav knocked over our big hibiscus out front. It’s still alive, however, and efforts to re-establish its domain are already underway. It was also good to see the school kids out and waiting for their buses early this morning. And, God bless the RTA, the streetcars are already running again on St. Charles.

As mentioned in an earlier post, the national chains are having a hard time coming back after the minor bump that Gustav created in our daily back-and-forth. The Wal-Mart on Tchoup is open, but with limited hours. La Madeleine at the St. Charles turn hasn’t yet re-opened. There are many other examples, while the local/regional folks seem to be pretty much back to business as usual here in Orleans Parish. Please remember this when you’re shopping. You might pay a few cents more per item, but at least you know they’re there — and will be the next time as long as you continue to support them.

“…High black water’s like the devil’s daughter
She’s hard and she’s cold, and she’s mean
But we’ve finally taught her that it takes a lot of water
To wash away New Orleans…”
–Leon Everette

That said, continued prayers tonight for folks in Terrebonne, Ascension and other parishes much more tartly affected. There’s some serious hard times for a lot of people down in Da Swamp this evening, and anything that can be done is appreciated.

The last couple of days have been busy, to say the least, and I’ve left the laptop at the shop. The one we’ve had there has crapped out and we haven’t had any Internet service at the house until today. It’s useless for me to try to post from the shop, since I get all diverted and can’t focus. It’s much easier at home. Forgive me if the post is a bit all over the road, but a lot has happened in the wake of the storm.

We took Alex home to Mid-City this evening. This was an area that was heavily flooded by Katrina (and where we used to live), but this evening all (or most) of the lights appear on and things are getting back to normal. That’s great, since the area has come such a long way since Katrina and was one of the big question marks for Gustav. We truly do love Mid-City.

I cried briefly this morning. I’m not usually prone to that but….
Those of you who know the restaurant know that our biggest seller is our redfish sammich. One of the reasons for this is that it’s made with ciabatta bread we get from La Boulangerie up Magazine St. This bakery is owned by a Frenchman named Dominique (we met his parents during a catering gig a few months back) and we’ve been consistent customers nearly since we opened. Dominique closed his shop before the storm, posting a sign in the window, and I just assumed he wouldn’t be back until this weekend or so. We had plenty of fish in-house and we’ve just been serving it on regular hamburger buns or on whatever cheapass French bread we could find. I called La Boulangerie Tuesday and left a message for Dominique to call whenever they got up and running again. This morning, Dominique appears about 9:30ish at the restaurant with 15 loaves of this wonderful ciabatta. Needless to say, I was beyond touched and, I guess, I could have kissed him (him being all Gallic and all). But suffice to say I ordered MORE for pickup tomorrow. Sweet.

This is why I do as much business locally as I can. Dominique goes out of his way to help us without being asked. Our crawfish guy (David from Lafitte) shows up religiously — no matter how little I happen to buy from him. The wonderful folks at Rouses have pushed to re-open and are pretty well stocked. Our main supplier (F. Christiana) has come back on line and already made a major delivery. The BreauxMart on Magazine is blowing and going. Where is Wal-Mart? Where is Sam’s? They’re still closed — as are most of the big national chain joints. Bite me.

Speaking of bite me — it’s been pretty easy to tell who stayed during the storm and who evacuated. Those who stayed have been patient and shown a good sense of humor as we’ve come back up to speed this week. They’re just glad to have someplace to go that has power and a/c and is serving a semblance of a normal menu. A lot of them don’t have power at home yet, so they’re pretty much just happy to show up. But a lot of those who bugged out are just coming back — and they expect (they sometimes DEMAND) that things be just like they were a week ago, before the storm kinda threw everything out of whack for awhile.

I threw one of them out of the restaurant yesterday. We were crazy busy for breakfast and, for the most part, folks were understanding that we were short of employees and inventory. We were the first place on Magazine to re-open after Gustav passed and we remain one of the very few with any breakfast at all. It indeed took a long time to fill this woman’s (to-go) order. The to-go folks are automatically bumped to the back when we have a house full of sit-down customers. But this woman pissed and moaned and bitched and griped and got on everyone’s nerves until she finally got her order and TBK comped it for taking so long. She continued to bitch about the service and I went out and apoligized and she kept griping so I finally told her that if she wasn’t happy she could go to the freaking McDonald’s on St. Charles (which hasn’t reopened yet). She continued bitching and I told her just get out. Get out of my place and go tell her friends who are just like her that I don’t want them in my restaurant and I don’t want her in my place again. Kristen also yelled something as she was slinking away. It was great. The customer is always right until they’re an asshole. Then they’re just an asshole.

I think we’re each put on earth to do one of three things: 1) to make someone smile, 2) to make someone think or 3) to help someone who needs help. If we’re lucky, we can accomplish all three. I’ve been extremely fortunate in the past week to see all those traits in a lot of wonderful people. It’s just a shame some folks don’t get it — and, frankly, I don’t want them in my place of business no matter how green their money is.

I’m going to the Saints game Sunday! Rae was nice enough to invite me and we should be staffed up enough for me to take a few hours off.

I can’t say enough about TBK and Stu and Kristen and all their work this week. We’re truly a family operation. Milo and Alex and Melanie and Matt are right in there with us and Jessica’s early return was a tremendous boost. We should be about back to full staff by Sunday.

Sleep now. There’s a lot to wake up for tomorrow.

Attention, people at the National Hurricane Center:

I know it’s a little late for this, but my partner, Jonno, and I have some suggestions for future storm names. Not that there’s anything wrong with the ones you’ve chosen but…oh, who are we kidding? They totally suck.

Seriously: Gustav? You’re trying to get people interested, to make them pay attention, and you’re going with Gustav? Do we really need to tell you that NO ONE KNOWS Flaubert? He’s like someone you’re supposed to read in French class, but you slink by with the Cliffs Notes summary, and Madame Washington is none the wiser. And of the (maybe) 12 people who remember him, NO ONE remembers his first name.

That said, we have some great suggestions that ought to liven things up. They appeal to a broad demographic, including literary types, pop culture junkies, and ‘tards. Check out these babies:

• Hurricane Ignatius P. Reilly (A storm any bookworm would love!)

• Hurricane Jan Brady (They still run that show in syndication, you know.)

• Hurricane Kenickie (Everybody remembers Grease!)

• Hurricane Linda Lavin (It’s alliterative!)

• Hurricane Marcelle Marceau (Also alliterative!)

• Hurricane Nanette Fabray (I lobbied for Nana Mouskouri, but no dice. Sad face.)

• Hurricane Otis Spunkmeyer (But only if he sponsors it.)

• Hurricane Pussy Terwilliger (A celebrity, but only in in my mind.)

That’s all we’ve come up with so far, but we can totally go all the way to Z if necessary. Just give us the word.

Nick Showing Off His New Uniform and New Church Shoes

Going back to school myself this week and getting the neighborhood charges, Nick and Josh, ready to go back to school has occupied my life lately, along with the other usual peripheral civic/property related responsibilities. This new stuff on top of an unusual and insane attack of ants at home has made for a week of transitional wackiness. One of my readers has adopted the Causey kids along with me and another neighbor in the area and it’s really having a positive impact on all of us to have their support.

Miss M. bought Nick and Josh a bunch of school supplies including some really fancy Trapperkeepers binders which they were very excited to receive. She also offered financial assistance with school uniforms which has been rather challenging for their mother Betty, M. and I. Miss M. got the details about the requirement for uniforms for Wicker School which is pale yellow polos and black pants or long shorts . . below the knee. She also got them more t-shirts for layering, we are keeping in mind that it will get cold at some point.

Among the first batch attempt to meet their needs, Miss M. bought some pants for their older brother, Mike, who is 15 yrs old. Mike is a really attentive big brother who sustains a 3.8 grade point average at Craig High. He needed Grey Dickies and T’s. Miss M. got them for him but they were a little big and Miss Betty, their Mom, had to take them back to WalMart to get the right size. Having gone into WalMart and Academy myself, we learned that we should have started this back in June because it was a mad scene in all the stores this past week with everyone scampering for uniforms at the same time. Since I am not a parent, this was a lesson learned.

The search for yellow polos for the younger kids was a real challenge. After a trip to WalMart where they only had men’s polos, which I returned from Miss M’s initial venture, I found none in stock in their size, there weren’t even any at Academy Sports, not even in the girls section. Betty, being in the know, as their Mother, persisted, and found some at Soul Train Fashions in Gentilly, off the beaten track. Meanwhile Miss M. also persisted and found them at a great price online and found some for only $3.99 each!

The RSD is very strict and the kids have to wear black shoes too. Back in May, I had made a deal with Nick and Josh that if they passed the LEAP, I’d get them new shoes. Nick passed and we ventured over to the new Nike Store last weekend and found compliant shoes in his size which was really fortunate.

Josh’s score on the LEAP was marginal and he has a learning challenge, so he ended up not being held back but I have learned that they have a provisional grade for students like him and he has advanced to this 4.5 grade. Josh got an MP3 player which was left behind at my neighbor’s house, that was on his list of ‘immediate needs’ out of sheer coincidence and served as a prize for not completely failing. I know Josh has ADD issues and emotional issues, he occasionally turns into Franken-Josh . . .but, hey, don’t we all.

After working with them all summer, I see that most of their challenges in reading our summer reading centered around attention span issues. My friend in KC who has kids totally attributes this to video games and computers/mulit-media. After watching Josh spend countless hours on the computer without any trouble being focused completely on printing out coloring pages and playing Monopoly with Mike does struggle with focusing on his reading, so I have to agree with her that the multi-media proliferation is having an impact on learning at their age. It is best that Josh had some form of encouragement in getting the MP3 player yet is also retaking some subjects to be sure he knows them. It seems to be about balance.

Since I am going to law school, it is worth mentioning that some recent academic studies are revealing that having computers in the classroom is detrimental as a distractiion for adults as well. Some professors prohibit computer use in class because it causes students to adopt a transcription mode of operation rather than slowly pondering the cases discussed. Taking hand written notes suffices and I prefer it.

So the boys started back to school this week at Wicker and through the collective efforts of their Mom, Miss M. and MaPo, they are all set with uniforms and we all had a great first week.

I asked specifically about their getting out at 4:30pm, the new longer days adopted by the RSD this year. They are totally fine with the longer days because they were deadly bored and bickering by the end of summer vacation and their Mom often works later than that anyway.

I, too, am back in school beginning my life as a 1L in law school and we are all sharing a mutual enthusiasm, fueled by the support of those around us. Thanks to all who have lended help and encouragement! We are all off to a solid start. Thank god I do not have a dress code but I am sick of capri pants and look forward to wearing sweaters and jeans.

Also returning to school is my niece, Cassie who is med student at Tulane. Today, the boys helped me load all of Cassie’s dorm stuff from my place to the van this morning. We picked her up at the airport and we did the frenzied unload of her stuff together once at the dorm on campus while illegally parked. That whole situation is fucked up. There is no loading zone. You have to have unload in spitfire fashion because you WILL be blocking someone in. Having the boys there for extra help was great and more fun.

For their help I gave the boys $20 each and they have each recently been spending their money earned from odd jobs on pay-per time cell phones. Josh got one last week. They spent today’s earnings on more minutes and Nick got a phone too and is spending this rainy day learning to text message me! Woo hoo! It’s fun. My mom can’t even figure out how to adjust the volume on her ringer, so this is really satisfying. I also just set Nick up with his own Gmail account and he’s been able to send thank-you notes to Miss M. via email. By incorporating the technical with the traditional I am hoping he’ll be excited about working on his written communication skills if he can do it via computer and I am teaching him to use spellcheck too. Forward Motion!

I was honored to be invited to help a team of local preservation minded people to review properties for the Louisiana Landmarks Society’s New Orlean’s Nine list last year in order to raise public awareness about historical properties in the city which are/were at risk of being lost forever. It was a rocky year for the Louisiana Landmarks Society and all of New Orleans Preservation organizations in the post-Katrina environment and the list never really got the public notice it deserved. The New Orlean’s Nine selection process is long and complicated. It’s a very formal process which, due to staffing, wasn’t able to be properly unveiled at the time. Interestingly,  the list does appear on their website today, though the 2008 list does not. New Orleans Nine 2007.

As is often the case in the world of non-profit/volunteer work, you never know where things will lead. I was so happy to see this lead story tonight in the Times Picayune regarding one of the final Nine properties that made the 2007 list.
Clear for Takeoff. It relays the current work underway to restore the historic New Orleans Lakefront Airport.

I take the consideration of historic properties seriously and am compelled to see them ‘in person’ to really have a solid opinion of their historic value. Thus, I have this great set of Photos of Shushan Airport from my visit to Shushan last year with Karen Gadbois as part of my research for the New Orleans Nine list committee.

It was rather spooky going in there last year and I am so glad Karen was game to accompany me, we marvelled at the murals and art-deco metalwork which is finally getting the recoginition it deserves. 

Many people worked hard to review the 2007 list of 40 properties to narrow them down to only nine. I  learned a lot in the process and even though it was not officially able to be published at the time, I am so glad to see some good news on this one and so glad I went to see it for myself, despite the risk of getting busted for trespassing.

In case you might be interested and because I did it, here is my own rather pedestrian write-up of the property as well:

The Shushan terminal building was designed by the architectural firm of Weiss, Dreyfous and Seiferth, it compliments their other significant work, the Louisiana State Capitol.  Their design was used as a model for other art deco airport terminals throughout the country between 1934 and 1940. The building is home to significant murals by WPA-era artist Xavier Gonzales.  The Shushan terminal was prominent in several major events in the U.S. and aviation history.  Amelia Earhart spent the night at the terminal’s hotel facility prior to her final global flight.  When it was completed, Shushan Field was the largest airport in the United States, strategically located on a man-made peninsula in the waters of Lake Pontchartrain.  New York and Washington, D.C., were in the process of developing similar airfields but New Orleans accomplished this engineering feat first and over 10,000 spectators applauded the feat at the ribbon-cutting ceremony.  It served served nearly one million visitors during the “Golden Age” of air travel.

In 1964, Shushan underwent a major renovation.  Gonzales’ “Wonders of Flight” murals were covered by paneling and the airport eventually was renamed the New Orleans Lakefront Airport.  During this renovation, three of the eight original murals were covered or obstructed from public view as the atrium, a signature element of the building, was modified to create office space.  One mural, “Rio de Janeiro” was removed and sent to the Louisiana State Museum where it remains today.

The Shushan Terminal was punished because of the political backlash of its corrupt namesake.  The airport was named after Abe Shushan, the Orleans Levee Board President who oversaw its construction.  After he was convicted on a variety of corruption related charges, the airport was renamed.  However, Abe had attempted to immortalize himself by adorning every possible surface with his name or initial, which renovators felt compelled to remove, sometimes disregarding the larger impact of this superficial problem.

Shushan’s unique artisanship and its Depression Era craftsmanship is an example of elegance and efficiency that modern construction cost can no longer accommodate.  Though the building suffered some damage from hurricane Katrina, the structure was used by National Guard troops immediately after the storm, it is very sound and worthy of restoration as one of our unique modern architectural gems.

I haven’t been able to read anymore books about Post Katrina New Orleans. Period. As much as I want to. One symptom of Post Traumatic Stress disorder is continually reliving the traumatic experience and I have done enough of that just working with Karen on Squandered Heritage and my continual work on the Neighborhood Conservation District Committeee brings it all back without any artistic flourish. However, Ian McNulty is one of the city’s finest writers.

I have pestered Ian more than once about relegating his talent to the not-at-all challenging work of restaurant reviews, where his adjectives seem to go to waste.  I was so happy to see he’s actually completed a book that will zero in on a new feeling about our experience.  Why do I think this?  Because a few months ago I posted my recommended ”One Dead in Attic” through Good Reads and my youngest sister Kate picked it up and read it.

We discovered that her reading it helped her understand the magnitude of what I/we’ve gone through and are still going through here in New Orleans. She was very understanding when I explained why I have to bring my cats to Illinois when I visit her while on vacation next month. It made sense to her and made her miss New Orleans more. Since she’s visited me here, we have had a great amount to talk about as a result. 

“Season of Night”, promises to bring a new perspective to our lives post-Katrina. I am sure it will pack more bravado than all other books on New Orleans lately.  I am sure Kate and I will read it and compare notes. 

Ian is a very charming man and I love so much of what he does even beyond his writing. He encompasses that superior sense of whimsy that is New Orleans. Ian doesn’t need to ’sell it’. He’s the opposite of Chris Rose, he’s not a-social at all. For example, I love his Tour de Pants event, a bike ride / pub crawl through the neighborhoods of New Orleans which is hosted in conjunction with the final day of the Tour de France.   Ian’s Coolers and Candlight Party also speaks to his higher level of connectedness and ability to discuss this whole big experience in a its real context. Ian has a larger-than-life wit that I am sure will make reading about Katrina related events and emotions adventurous again and breath new perspective into our healing. I know that Ian can deliver us from darkness.

You can come see Ian at The Garden District Bookshop in The Rink at Prytania and Washington on Thursday, July 10th from 5:30-7:30. Having been in the bookselling business for many years, I must say that hearing an author talk about his work is always very enlightening! Hearing Ian speak will be a great treat.

Just in case you miss it elsewhere, here is the official publisher write up on the book:
In A Season of Night: New Orleans Life after Katrina, author and New Orleans journalist Ian McNulty offers an intimate account of that homecoming and the battle between hope and despair in a surreal landscape.
McNulty moved back to his wrecked New Orleans house soon after the floodwaters drained, living on the second floor and writing this book on a laptop by candlelight.
By turns haunting, inspiring, and darkly comic, this memoir offers a behind-the-headlines story of resilience and renewal for a neighborhood and a city. From bittersweet camaraderie in the ruined streets to the first flickers of cultural revival and the explosive joy of a post-Katrina Mardi Gras, A Season of Night delivers an unprecedented tale from the wounded but always enthralling Crescent City.

ps: Being a literary dork, this title reminds me of Celine’s “Journey To The End of the Night”. But that’s pretty French.

pps: Ian, I am really fucking proud of you! Thanks !  

This could be really good for Senator Vitter. Or really bad. I’m rooting for really bad, but I’m kind of a dick:

A woman who police believe to be Deborah Jeane Palfrey, known as the “D.C. Madam,” was found dead in Florida Thursday, according to Tarpon Springs police.

Deborah Jeane Palfrey was convicted of running a high-powered prostitution ring.

The body has not been positively identified.

“Detectives are investigating an apparent suicide of a (white female) that appears to be in her early 50s,” Tarpon Springs police said in a news release.

Suicide notes were found near the body in a small storage shed next to a mobile home, police said.

Palfrey, 52, was reportedly staying at the home of her mother, who owns the property where the body was found, police said.

The Pinellas County Medical Examiner’s Office will determine the cause of death, police said.

The county sheriff’s office and the FBI are participating in the investigation.

Palfrey was convicted last month in connection with a high-end prostitution ring catering to Washington’s elite. She was found guilty of money laundering, racketeering and mail fraud. She was awaiting sentencing with a potential of 50 years in jail.

At least one lawmaker, Louisiana Sen. David Vitter, a Republican, turned up in the phone records of her business, Pamela Martin & Associates.

State Department official Randall Tobias resigned in May 2007 after confirming he patronized Palfrey’s business.

She argued it was a legitimate, legal escort service.

–via CNN.com

UPDATE: Joe.My.God. has a fascinating addendum to this story:

During several recent appearances on The Alex Jones Show, Palfrey also said that she was at risk of being killed and that authorities would make it look like suicide. She made it clear that she was not suicidal and if she was found dead it would be murder.

–more at Joe.My.God.

Asked whether she could forgive her husband after an extramarital affair…Wendy Vitter told the Times-Picayune: “I’m a lot more like Lorena Bobbitt than Hillary [Clinton]. If he does something like that, I’m walking away with one thing, and it’s not alimony, trust me.”

–ABC News, July 2007

Sadly, Wendy had to eat those words. Maybe she was worried about finding the right knife. Or perhaps she was concerned about the legal ramifications of conducting an unauthorized penectomy. Or maybe she underwent a great sexual awakening and found herself more titillated by her husband’s peccadilloes than she’d imagined. Whatever: her bloodthirsty moment passed.

But now girlfriend may get another chance. Because just as the “DC Madam” case is going to trial, the Louisiana senate has passed a bill that paves the way for legalized castration. Which is not quite the same thing as a penectomy, of course, but it’s in the ballpark.

Back in 2006, some folks in our fair city voted to re-elect William Jefferson even though they didn’t like him. Even though he was (and is) self-absorbed and ineffective. Even though his habit of keeping $90k stashed in frozen Tupperware seemed (and seems) a tad suspicious.

Why would sane, sensible voters do such a thing? Because they assumed that the pending federal investigation of Jefferson would lead to an indictment, which would lead to his resignation, which would lead to another election in which they could elect someone, like, really good.

Those voters, btw, are now officially idiots:

The Supreme Court on Monday let stand a lower court ruling that the F.B.I. went too far in searching the office of Representative William J. Jefferson, a Louisiana Democrat accused of using his position to promote business deals in Africa.

Without comment, the justices declined to review a ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which concluded last August that agents had violated the Constitution by the methods it used in the May 2006 search.

The appeals court did not find that the raid itself was unconstitutional; rather, it found that the F.B.I. violated constitutional separation of powers by allowing agents to look freely through Congressional files for incriminating evidence….

New York Times

So basically, instead of voting for a nice, normal candidate the first time around, a bunch of smartasses who simply didn’t care for Karen Carter have allowed Louisiana’s reputation to languish (note: understatement is the new black). That’s pretty unfortunate, because, you know, given all the senatorial whoremongering and the gubernatorial buck-passing and the mayoral spouting-off, we could’ve used an “in” with somebody in DC.

P.S. Coincidentally, Jefferson illustrates my favorite Obscure Word of the Week: throttlebottom. It works on so many levels.