I know, I know: another petition. It seems like I’ve been posting an undue amount of dry, political stuff lately, but to be honest, this is pretty freaking important. For the past few years, the National Guard has helped maintain a semblance of order on the streets of New Orleans. No, it ain’t Disney World (thank goddess), but without the extra manpower, the situation could’ve been far worse.

Unfortunately, the National Guard doesn’t serve for free, and Jindal wants to pull out the troops next month. Keep in mind, he’s doing this at exactly the same time that lawmakers are (a) debating what to do with a projected surplus in the state budget and (b) talking about eliminating the state income tax.

I mean, no, really, that’s fine, Bobby: New Orleans is only the state’s goddamn economic engine, so what does it matter if you wreck it? As Katrina showed everyone, the state can hobble along without us just great.

Fucktard.

The National Guard is scheduled to leave NOLA in June! Take 5 to Help Us Keep Them in the City!

Crime rates across the city have skyrocketed since Hurricane Katrina. Murder rates have spiked, and assaults and burglaries are up. Meanwhile, the police shortage makes NOPD patrols in the storm-affected areas, especially in the Lower Ninth Ward and eastern New Orleans, nearly non-existent. It also pushes response times to 911 calls to an hour or more. Citizens for 1 Greater New Orleans is supporting the Holy Cross Neighborhood Association in their efforts to keep the Louisiana National Guard in New Orleans until the following goals are achieved:

NOPD sub stations are rebuilt and re-staffed in all the storm-affected areas of the city. The number of NOPD officers reaches pre-storm levels. FBI crime statistics show a decrease in violent crime rates.

To date, they have only received 2300 signatures with a deadline to acquire 10,000 by June 2008.  It is imperative that you let your voice be heard! Take 5 Minutes To: Send a pre-formatted email to Gov. Jindal…> Read the complete petition…> Forward this to your friends…> Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter.

I’m not what you’d call a political activist, but this crossed my inbox a couple of minutes ago, and I thought it was worth passing on. I hope you’ll consider signing the petition, whether you live in New Orleans or not.

Right-wing pastor John Hagee says Katrina was New Orleans’ fault. John McCain sought out, and embraces, Hagee’s support. MoveOn members are trying to deliver a petition to McCain in New Orleans just a few hours from now: will you sign?

Here’s the background: McCain wants America to see him as a compassionate, mainstream politician. So he’s going to New Orleans today for a photo-op in the 9th Ward.

But he’s still trying to shore up his right-wing base—so this past Sunday, he again welcomed the support of right-wing evangelist John Hagee, who said "Hurricane Katrina was, in fact, the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans."¹

MoveOn members in New Orleans have organized an emergency rally outside McCain’s event today. With the media looking on, they’ll try to deliver our petition asking him to stop pandering to right-wing bigots like Hagee. They’ll announce an up-to-the-minute number of signatures, and we’ll have a real impact if we can say that hundreds of thousands have signed in only a few hours. Clicking here will add your name:

http://pol.moveon.org/mccain_pander/o.pl?id=12500-5148471-J6FuvA&t=3

The petition reads: "John Hagee continues to blame the people of New Orleans for the catastrophe of Katrina. Senator McCain: If you reject intolerance and bigotry, reject Hagee’s political support and stop courting hate-mongers like him."

This is not a gaffe or a "gotcha." Hagee has a history of bigoted comments and he stood by his New Orleans remarks just days ago.² And McCain’s strategy is intentional—he’s been working hard to court far-right leaders like Jerry Falwell and John Hagee, despite their hateful views.³ Even when he was pressed about Hagee’s hateful views, McCain said he was "glad to have his endorsement."⁴

Hagee’s words matter. Katrina was a terrible reminder of the consequences of bigotry and exclusion. People without resources, without political power, literally sank beneath the waves while our government did nothing.

John McCain is relying for political support on a man who preaches bigotry and exclusion, who spreads the kind of hate that allowed Katrina to become a man-made tragedy. While the media is focused on his New Orleans visit, we need to call him on it.

The more folks who sign the petition in the next few hours, the greater our impact. Clicking here will add your name right now:

http://pol.moveon.org/mccain_pander/o.pl?id=12500-5148471-J6FuvA&t=4

We need to let Senator McCain know that he can’t use New Orleans for a photo-op while still courting the political support of hate-mongers like Hagee. New Orleans deserves better and America does, too.

Thank you very much for all you do.

–Eli, Justin, Lenore, Patrick S., Anna, and the MoveOn.org Political Action Team, Thursday, April 24th, 2008

Sources:

1. "Will MSNBC devote as much coverage to McCain’s embrace of Hagee’s support as it did to Obama’s rejection of Farrakhan?" Media Matters, February 28th, 2008
http://mediamatters.org/items/200802280018

2. "Hagee Says Hurricane Katrina Struck New Orleans ‘Because it was ‘Planning a Sinful Homosexual Rally,’" Think Progress, April 23, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/04/23/hagee-katrina-mccain/

"Will MSNBC devote as much coverage to McCain’s embrace of Hagee’s support as it did to Obama’s rejection of Farrakhan?" Media Matters, February 28th, 2008
http://mediamatters.org/items/200802280018

3. "Hagee: McCain ’sought my endorsement,’" ThinkProgress, March 20th, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=3603&id=12500-5148471-J6FuvA&t=5

"McCain Gets Into Bed with the Religious Right," People For the American Way, February 28th, 2008
http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=25053

"McCain Woos the Right, Makes Peace With Falwell," ABC News, March 26th, 2006
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=1779141&page=1

4. "McCain Flip-Flops In 30 Seconds: Hagee Endorsement A ‘Mistake,’ But ‘I’m Glad To Have’ It," ThinkProgress, April 21st, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/04/21/hagee-flip-flop/

Those who don’t live in the Mississippi River Basin might not know that the river is currently at or above flood stage along its lower route. To ease the pressure on the river levees–which, for the ten millionth time, were not the levees that failed during Katrina–the now-attentive Army Corps of Engineers has opened the gates to the Bonnet Carré Spillway, injecting Lake Pontchartrain with some of the Mississippi’s silty goodness.

I didn’t think much of it when the floodgates swung open a couple of weeks ago (although some people clearly think about it a lot). But then I drove over the spillway en route to Baton Rouge yesterday, and…well, it’s kinda cool. Water is rushing through little inlets and bayous, and a couple hundred yards into the lake, there’s all this mist–presumably where the warm-ish river water reaches the colder depths of the lake. I didn’t get so obsessed that I pulled over to take pics or anything, but, yeah, it was nifty. See it if you can.

YES, THERE IS VIDEO!
Unfortunately Metblogs makes it impossible to embed, so you’ll have to follow the link.

We’ve had a little rain around here for the last couple of days. We also held a local and statewide election on Saturday. The election was frankly a big giant dud. A belly flop into that water that’s been blocking half the city for the last two days. Some change, hopefully for the better, but still not enough to matter in the big picture. Voter apathy ruled the day, especially in Orleans Parish.

I find it almost cosmic that the areas that generally got the worst of the flooding yesterday were the ones that deserved it. Yeah that’s right, I said they deserved it. The West Bank of Jefferson Parish and New Orleans East still had standing water (or flowing in some cases) Tuesday, almost 24 hours since the heaviest rains fell. Do I know that people who lost personal property were deserving? No I do not. But I also know that every New Orleanian isn’t on welfare but that’s the way we are still portrayed in the national media. Life isn’t fair sometimes, just the way the world works.
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An open letter to America:

Good afternoon my fellow Americans. Everyone here in New Orleans wanted to thank you for paying attention to us yesterday. We really do appreciate this country taking time out to say hello on the 2nd anniversary of the thing.

To all the mass media that took time away from covering the latest Lindsey Lohan or Paris Hilton exploits, thanks for stopping by! It was nice to see you for a change. It’s been what a year or even two for some of you so again, thanks for passing through.

To our wonderful fantastic leaders in Washington D.C., thanks for taking time away from sending taxpayer dollars to either your cronies or to some far away land that needs a windmill. We know how busy you all are, either shooting things in Texas or trying to move a moron from one disaster (see Homeland Security) to another (see Attorney General).

Thanks for giving us that wonderful news President Bush. Even though you made a decision to not speak with anyone who lives here, except for other losers like yourself (meaning politicos), we thank you for noticing that things here are so much better. I know that view from a schoolyard is a really good way to understand what folks here are going through.

Once again, we cannot express how grateful we are for everyone paying attention for a day. It has really made everyone feel safer and just gives us a tingling feeling.

Don’t forget to mark your calendar for August 29th 2008. We know we probably won’t see you until then but I’m sure we’ll still be here, waiting for your yearly drop-in.

It’s that day again. Yeah it is a Wednesday this time. Year number 2. I wonder if it will feel different somehow when it falls on a Monday. Let’s hope I’m here to find out.

It’s a question I think most American’s ask or want to ask any New Orleanian. Why are ya’ll still there? I get it from friends, former co-workers, hell even people that live here ask me “the question”. It’s different for everyone. Here’s one dude’s reasons.
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My fingers are just doing their own thing people; I have no control at this point.

It’s a question that I guess I’m just now confronting. Seems kind of strange in my mind that I’m just getting around to asking myself, just what will become of us, New Orleans?

It’s a tough question. One that neither I nor anyone else really has an answer to and it’s distressing to say the least. I think that is the thing that is most difficult to handle-the uncertainty. The feeling of not knowing what’s next, waiting for the OTHER shoe to drop. Damn it, we want our normalcy back. Yeah I know, that’s like asking to win the lottery. Nice thought, but it’s not going to happen.

I like to think that the citizens of this city have control over the future, that we can shape or maybe focus the future to be something that will be beneficial to all of us, those who love New Orleans. And we do have a say, but its not like it should be nor is it like it could be. We haven’t given ourselves to the dark side or any such nonsense, but our future depends on things that are generally out of our control. Yes, we can start electing leaders who lead, who don’t steal for themselves and leave the rest of us behind. We can demand a safe city. We can demand adequate levees. But demanding and getting are two different things.
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The Fox Network’s national debut of the “gritty cop drama” K-Ville will occur September 17th. The locals have gotten a chance to check out the premiere early, thanks to NOLA.com and the Fox Network.

Normally, I have better things to do than to watch a TV show on the internet. But seeing how life is a puzzle right now for the majority of us, meaning we are still trying to put the pieces back together, I thought I’d watch to see how the show will come across to the rest of the nation.

First, I don’t expect this program to depict life as it is for the majority of us in the city. No one wants to watch that frankly. I watched it as a casual observer really, not trying to focus too much on either how good or how bad the producers/writers portrayed New Orleans.

I was really more interested in how Louis in Topeka or Mary in Idaho would view the show. If we, meaning locals, get too bogged down with the “that’s not how we do it” or “I’ve never seen a criminal that looks like THAT” then we’re not getting what the show could mean to the city/recovery. A cop show in general is that, a cop show. Good guys, bad guys, good cops and maybe a bad cop or two. The basics are in there. Just like Ragu spaghetti sauce, It’s in there!

I’m not a TV critic, (Boy that must a tough gig). But I rather enjoyed the show. Is it perfect? No, not at all. But I did vibe with some of the post katrina takes and think that, as much as can be expected, the people involved are trying to do the right thing. Will it work? Not sure on that one. We all know the Katrina Fatigue excuse that we’ve heard the rest of the country suffers from, so some folks will be turned off right away. But it’s not just about Katrina. It kept me interested enough to want to see what’s next in K-Ville.

Take an hour and watch. See if you think that it’s close to realistic or that it’s just nutty. These aren’t sweet and cuddly cops like all the REAL NOPD officers are. Can a TV show help an area recover? Or will it just shed more bad publicity on our 2-sided sword city?

Maybe or maybe not? I really don’t care anymore. Knock yourself out Mayor Kevorkian. What really does interest me is that naginforgovernor.com has been purchased and is “under construction”.

It’s not so interesting that the website/domain name has been reserved. To me, the more interesting part of the whole short story is what company reserved/purchased the website name.

Imagine Software LLC, the company that has essentially run the city’s Office of Technology since Nagin was elected in 2002 is the owner of that domain name.

Imagine Software LLC is the company that was begun by Greg Meffert and other friends who ran the city’s IT department for about 4 years.

Imagine Software LLC is the company that has received large city contracts for “work” that frankly is weak. Anyone tried to use the city web site in the last two years? Anytime I click a link I get an internal error message.

Imagine Software LLC is the company that “owns” a yacht that was used as a “party ship” after Gov….err Mayor Nagin’s re-election campaign.

Imagine Software LLC is the company that was or did bid on crime cameras for the City of New Orleans. They installed some cameras that never worked or did not have any “innards”. Kind of like an empty shoebox. Nice box, where are the shoes?

Greg Meffert btw is the guy that squashed a 7 million-dollar federal grant for interoperable communications before Katrina because the technology companies that Meffert dealt with were not involved in the grant.

So where’s this going? Not sure, but I know registering domain names is rather cheap. Not a big amount of money to be lost if you choose not to do something with it. But I also know and have known since Katrina that something in the mayor’s office really stinks and it’s seeping out of the city’s IT office on a daily basis.

With Oliver Thomas moving on to the federal pen, the city has had mucho discussion about who’s gonna replace Oliver. Well first, they need to not be a crook. That’s the starting point I think. Second and really finally, we as citizens must say no no no to ANYONE who has held a political office before. So before they even get to the point of DECLARING their intentions to run, we can eliminate the following:

Jay Batt: Nothing against you man, like your clothing stores, even frequent them sometimes. But you had your chance. The people of your district said no to you after the storm, so we must say no to you running for any office again. Sorry Jay, but NO RETREADS.

Sherman Copland: Which crooked political organization are you part of again? LIFE? BOLD? COUP? LOSERVILLE? An emphatic NO to you sir.
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