Samedi

Back from the Breach Indeed!
~Free to the public, this first annual festival to celebrate all things "Gentilly," includes continuous live music, sumptuous food from a variety of local restaurants and caterers, fine art and crafts for sale, activities for children and a variety of practical recovery information. More from Maria Montoya.

FEMA to pay some Hurricane Ike costs

Houma company will receive state aid~Gary Perilloux

La. coastal hazard workshops slated ~The workshops are based on the “Louisiana Coastal Hazard Mitigation Guidebook,” which will be available for free at the workshop locations.

Hurricane shelter summit planned in Shreveport

Area Hospitals Handle Hurricanes

Three years later, 6,500 subsidized apartments fester ~Tenants facing uncertain future ~Katy Reckdahl~First they came for...

New Orleans student sues police over beating

~Based on the lawsuit, here is Rocha's account of what happened: As the cab neared his home, Rocha pulled out his wallet to pay the fare, by then more than $15, only to discover he had just $3. Shortly thereafter, an NOPD officer arrived in a marked car and questioned Rocha, who assured him he intended to pay the driver. The officer allowed Rocha to go into his house to search for cash. But when Rocha returned a few minutes later saying he found no money there, the officer gave the law student "the option of going to jail or allowing the cab driver to
'beat the fare out of him."'
After Rocha, concerned about his finances and future legal career, elected not to go to jail,
the policeman "supervised" as the driver repeatedly beat Rocha with his fists. Then the officer let the cab driver borrow his billy club and watched as he used it to beat Rocha further.

America the Banana Republic ~Christopher Hitchens
~The ongoing financial meltdown is just the latest example of a disturbing trend that, to this adoptive American, threatens to put the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave on a par with Zimbabwe, Venezuela, and Equatorial Guinea.

Privatization an option for New Orleans airport

Public Transportation: Is this Freedom? ~Daneeta Loretta

LEAP strategy will get review
~Lagniappe from Da'Liptrap...

Record number of fleas attacking pets following Hurricane Gustav

Coast is fertile ground for malls ~Mary Perez ~Jacques Pucheu, director of acquisitions for Tellus Development, is bullish on the Coast economy, with the company's Acadian Plaza just complete on U.S. 49 and two more shopping centers to come. The world is going to Mall in a Hand Basket.

'Blessing' for Pass: $25 million going to fund harbor rebuild

Public meetings set for proposed Miss. port plan
~The state would use $575 million in Katrina recovery funds to begin the restoration, which is expected to create more than 6,000 new jobs.
The money initially had been earmarked for housing, and the diversion by Gov. Haley Barbour's office drew rebukes from advocacy groups and some congressional leaders who said too many housing needs had been neglected. The federal government approved the diversion earlier this year.

The Hanover Insurance Group, Inc. Estimates Impact $15B

Aspen Insurance hurricane losses reach $155M

Interactive graphic of Paulson’s Wall Street network ~slabbed

U.S. Army Corps awards over $125M to Hawaii firms

Special Thanks ~Ken Foster and Mz JUDYB

In this week’s Gambit:
Palin-Free Edition

Twitter World~MoM
~Kate Brodock on September 4, 2008 wrote that as Hurricane Gustav threatened the New Orleans area at the end of August 2008, Twitter users from the region mobilized themselves to offer a way of quickly disseminating the information via tweets.

DVD Review - Antonio Sanchez ~drummertalk.org
~Please make sure to check out these ones too.

Randy Newman talks about his music, politics and New Orleans

Vendredi

Pilot: Towboat erratic before Miss. River spill ~Cain Burdeau

Advocacy group challenges proposed suspension of
Los Angeles River kayaker
~Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility says Army Corps of Engineers was retaliating for Heather Wylie's objections to agency's decision weakening Clean Water Act protections for the river.

Superdome Eugenics
~Library Chronicles~It's almost as if the Saints and LaBruzzo are in cahoots. Forget sterilization. Let's fill them full of hotdogs and make them watch Martin Gramatica. Monday night's game...
--itself full of exhilarating, infuriating and hilarious moments-- was perhaps the best evidence yet that such a conspiracy may exist.

Jowanna Six-Pack, Mr. McShuffleboard ~Hrrmph!

Da'Masqued E'vinga Strikes Again! Yaaaaaa!

Very Very Special Thanks~The Huck Upchuck!

Everyone is entitled to their own excuses, not their own facts
~Your Right Hand Thief

Rev. Al Sharpton to visit Houma

The Young and The Restless’
Eric Braeden At The 19th Annual
New Orleans Film Fest!
~The Young and the Restless actor Eric Braeden
(Victor Newman) will be out and about in the New Orleans area this coming week to support his new film, “The Man Who Came Back,” during the
New Orleans Film Fest,
which is set to run for seven days - starting today!

Burlesque~"Sic Luceat Lux"
~Editilla consuellas & chin'shillas~It started with the lede for Burlesque, as Gentle'rillas love to keep up with Da'Girls, and then took a great turn where we all up in'dat Warrior Goddess don't'cha knowz.
Everyone please go see The Art of Portia St Luke!!!

"Gift of Peace to a War Goddess"

New Orleans Red Hot~DANOMI

Any Given Block, Any Given Year
~This 1845 copy of a 1724 map of New Orleans by cartographer De Pauger shows the Vieux Carré during the time period of study in an honors colloquium course, “New Orleans: Social and Material Fabric.” (Maps courtesy of the Louisiana Collection,
Howard-Tilton Memorial Library, Tulane)

Baltazor Fabric Boutique
...continuing a New Orleans tradition...

George Rodrigue becomes Louisiana artist laureate

The 60-Second Interview:
Michael Almereyda~Chris Rose

SWAN PEAK~James Lee Burke

Om: Books of Louisiana~VoNO

Ed Sanders presents:
“Poems for New Orleans”

Music highlights in and around New Orleans ~Keith Spera

New Orleans Jazz Master
Donald Harrison Introduces:
Max Moran, Conun Poppas, Joseph Dyson, Jr. and Victor Gould~all about Jazz

Jeudi~Rain Rain Go Away...

Vexing water is just rain, corps says~Sheila Grissett

~Silly me! I thought the Corps was just pissing down my leg again. But it is Rain! Rain Rain Rain!
Editilla apologizas for kicking up a such a stink.
With aggressive, unbiased reportage like Mz Grissette's and the clear, accurate and trustworthy Word of the Corps of Engineers, paying to advertise in her newspaper, our levees are gonna be juuust fine. Right?
Can I getta WitNaaasss!? At least a Disclaimer?? Riiight.
Silly silly me. Shame on anyone who would 2nd guess the Corps of Engineers! Who's Yer'Daddy Warbucks?
Levee Board Scllleppy Board. They know what they're doing right? They have Big Time Corps Medal Winner Tom Jackson sitting on the Board --and recommended for re-appointment. What? Me Worry?
The Great News is this:
that newspaper they stuffed into St Bernard's floodwalls really wasn't a newspaper...
--just as the water I tasted, flowing from the 17th Street Leak, really didn't taste salty!
Oh... and by the way, those levees were over-topped in 2005, just like the Corps initially said. Remember?
The Corps said so. I should'a known betta...
than to question the Corps' Word on safe levees, eh?

Question: When was the last time it was tested?
Answer: Water across the street was tested approximately three weeks ago. Wet spots closer to the canal and floodwall were tested approximately six weeks ago and were determined to be brackish.
~Editilla Laments~The only other places I have tasted brackish rain water is in Hell, The Flood '05 --and my own tears, you bitches!
Oh... or in Lake Pontchartrain.

Government bails out
~The New Orleans Levee
~Wall Street wants Category 5 levee protection.

Plan to drain water to river snagged ~Richard Rainey
Corps lacks money for Jefferson Parish request
~Editilla say Whaaaat?~Say it ain't so, COE!

Feds seek new flood strategies
~What about The 8/29 Investigation?

U.S. officials told to act fast on Des Moines levee offer

Corps Biologist Faces 30-Day Suspension for Kayaking L.A. River~Off-Duty Challenge to Ruling River Was Not Navigable "Undermined Authority"

New Orleans Eats Its Young
Hat T'n'T~CONSTANT SIEGE

Brad Pitt plays rewarding role in Katrina recovery ~The first homes in Brad Pitt's Make It Right rebuilding project are complete, and some three years after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, Lousiana, 68-year-old Gloria Guy was on hand to give the actor a big hug.

Groundbreaking set for
new New Orleans school

Group tells how to build green

BBC star moves to New Orleans and more found recipes

New Orleans Film Festival gets set to unspool

Susan Cowsill: Still Fighting for New Orleans

Astral Project Blue Streak ~all about Jazz
~With three of the four members in the group since the start and only one lineup change in the last 20 years, there’s no reason to think Astral Project won’t continue to be what it is.
“It has as much a future as it does a past,” Vidacovich says. “There’s 30 years that led us up to now; that’s a pretty good foundation.”
The latest effort, "Blue Streak," will be celebrated -- along with the anniversary -- at Snug Harbor on Saturday, October 11.

Mercredi~Yea! 0-20,000 hits! 0-120 hits/day ...in 331 posts, everyday for 11 months! ~~~Thank You Gentle'rillas!

Storm study to model warming effects ~Mark Schleifstein
~In a hurricane modeled at 185-meter (202-yard) resolution, a smooth ring of strong wind appears around the eye (left). When the resolution is increased to 62 meters (68 yards), the ring breaks into a set of small, turbulent segments (right). Each image covers an area of 37x37 km (23x23 miles). (Illustration courtesy Yongsheng Chen and Rich Rotunno.)

Levee panel seeks more applicants ~Sheila Grissett
~In addition to these four openings, the committee is recommending reappointment of one east bank commissioner, Tom Jackson.
~Editilla gotta ax~ 2 questions...
1) Why have you not asked the Levee Board about Tom Jackson's past and current ASCECORPS associations and the glaring Conflict of Interests reflected therein?
2) Did you by chance ask for (and can you please give us) a list of the other Applicants names?
We The People should be given a chance to check them out, as we simply cannot trust the Levee Board's own deliberations --while they still involve such a prominent former ASCECORPS consultant contractor
as Tom Jackson.
We ask everyone to join in soliciting this information from the Levee Board so we can report it forthwith upon receipt or not. So we can get back to having Trust. However, we tire at having to once again ask Picayune Questions while your "reportage" Provides No Answers, but merely "Announcements".
3) Why ask Why.

Ex-corps chief admits $70K credit-card embezzlement
A former U.S. Army Corps of Engineers director pleaded guilty to federal embezzlement charges for allegedly stealing more than $70,000 from the government. Hat T'n'T~The Masqued Accountant.

New Orleans to Return Guns Confiscated During Katrina

Best thing about the debate
- It’s over~slabbed
~"What a waste of time and opportunity - not to mention incredibly bad television. I felt like I was watching the monitor for a security camera a good portion of the time - particularly when McCain was lurking in the background."
~Editilla can't stand it~
~Grunting Butthead Mood Swing Bobble'head Doll
Really though, I thought the Little Guy sounded more like a South Parked Character from the horror movie
"Boys from Brazil"
--only with McSame, the Creepy Vicodinchurian Can'O'date, they seem to have cloned one of Ronald Reagan's Turds since all the Little Hitlers had turned into Mules and Mr. Hankey only comes out at Christmas.
As if we needed further Evidence that the World is going to Mall in a hand basket? Ronnie'Mac say Bitch!

Auditor reports wrongdoing in Katrina cottage program
~Michelle Millhollan

Official: Cottages will be on time

Deadline for Road Home

La. asks FEMA to cut paperwork

Homeland Security and Economic Recovery~HS Today

US credit crisis threatens
New Orleans' recovery
~Becky Bohrer

Corps of Engineers calls for new dam construction

Animal control officer returns with horror stories from Ike

City of Living Metaphor
~Editilla d'Aphasia
~One can often see more of New Orleans in the blink of an eye or casual glance... than in all of the photographs, television exposes or movies every shown. Hidden in plain view, bundling out of flower pots or cool, shaded courtyard gardens behind little wrought iron doors with tiny windows in the middle of them, she is a city of living metaphor...

Food and Music is Best
in New Orleans

October Surprises
~Margarita Bergen


Screening of “Talkin’ Water” at NOMA
~Screening of Talkin’ Water, a coming-of-age story shot by four African American teenage girls set against the backdrop of post-Katrina New Orleans, with live appearances by two of the star filmmakers and the director/producer, preceded by Your Neighbor’s Steps, about a New York artist’s project for New Orleans art collective Art in Action. ~Tonight 6pm~NOMA
Hat T'n'T~ASJ&R

Radiators see decades of NOLA changes

Center for Music and Arts Entrepreneurship at Loyola

Mardi

US Military rips away pet of deployed US Soldier shortly before Baghdad Pups can send puppy to safety in Minnesota

~Commanding officers ordered the confiscation of a dog, Ratchet, befriended by a group of soldiers during a 15th month of extended deployment.
Ratchet has been a lifeline to Sgt. Gwen Beberg. This morning, Ratchet was on his way to SPCA International rescue experts at the Baghdad Airport to be flown home to Gwen's parents in Minneapolis, when Sgt. Beberg's commanding officers ordered Ratchet confiscated and held in Iraq to face certain death.~SPCA International

"Soldiers can face immediate court-marshal
[for befriending animals] and some even see their animals brutally murdered by a direct gunshot to the head from commanding officers who will not bend the rules."

Homeowners chafe at long wait for Blue Roof tarps
"Are you solving problems, or are you just signing people up?" Trellen Russey asked U.S. Army Corps of Engineers employees at an information center in a Pasadena mall. "I signed up three weeks ago, and now it's supposed to rain."
~Editilla gotta ax~
1) Why are we required to sign over our property rights to the US Army Corps of Engineers?
2) What is the Exquixotic Corps of "Engineers" doing administering this expensive subcontracting program?
3) What does Roofing material have to do with Safe Flood Control.
4) Are they going to shoot my dog?

Deregulation, New Orleans Schools, and the Kindness of Strangers

Katrina's Children
~Professional educator Carolyn Gillman has been working in New Orleans’ Recovery School District for the past two years. Now, she’s hitting the road to raise awareness about the obstacles facing New Orleans’ school children. Her educational tour will feature the documentary film, “Katrina’s Children.”

Watchdog called lax in FEMA trailer fiasco~Bruce Alpert

Bling Killers~Jeremy Alford

Citizens increases rates by average of 14%~Ed Anderson

Hard drive recovery

Rep. LaBruzzo loses House vice-chair of the House Health and Welfare Committee over sterilization remarks

Microloans for the Gulf Coast?
~"We thought if you could do it in the developing world, there must be a way to do it in the US...
--for people who don't need millions and are often overlooked," says Simon Greer, president and CEO of Jewish Funds for Justice (JFSJ). "Their families' lives and their communities could be truly changed with relatively small loans."

Up and Down~1603 Katrina

Film Fest Premiere~Will Coviello

Leroy Jones: A New Orleans State of Mind ~Trish Richardson

New Orleans's musical scene that's Free and Freeing
~Louisiana Weekly

Lundi

Ike leaves oil spills, displaced alligators, all kinda mooky'muck

Galveston National BSL-4 Laboratory and Hurricane Ike ~SEMP~A biosafety level 4 (BSL-4) laboratory
is one in which infectious agents are exotic with potential for aerosol transmission and for which no vaccine or therapy currently exists.
These agents pose a high risk of exposure and infection to laboratory personnel, the community, and the environment. Work practices and safety equipment are complete isolation of the laboratory worker from aerosolized infectious materials through working in a Class III BSC or in a full-body, air-supplied positive-pressure personnel suit. Facilities are generally a separate building or completely isolated zone with complex, specialized ventilation requirements and waste management systems to prevent release of viable agents to the environment. Representative pathogens and microorganisms include (but are no limited to) Ebola, Marburg or Congo-Crimean hemorrhagic fever viruses, anthrax, plague, typhus, West Nile virus, influenza, and drug-resistant tuberculosis.

Development board wants a closer look at tax exemptions ~Ariella Cohen

Someone objected to Bywater sidewalk art, and city crews demolished it~Chris Rose

Storm phone system good call ~Valerie Faciane

In Hurricane-Ravaged Galveston, Echoes
of New Orleans

17 Poets! Gold Mine
~featuring readings & book signings
by poets Gina Ferrara and Jimmy Ross
Thursday, October 9, 8:00 p.m.

A New Look at Old Bay with Classic Shrimp Scampi
~Serious Eats

Gretna Heritage Festival
- Photos and Video from Day 2
~Lisa Heindel

Dr. John heads HOB Benefit
~A New Orleans Film Festival Closing Night Celebration

Loki Music Festival in Mills River

"Songs and poems for our friends of the congo"
~Susan Cowsill, Eliza Gilkyson, Irma Thomas, Caroline Aiken, Karen Protti-Bailey & Brian Perry, Claire Holley, Kim Carson, Theresa Davis, Neko Case, Mary LaSang, Ruby Rendrag, Gospel Gossip, Herman Put Down The Gun, Karen Garrabrant, Dede Vogt, Caroline Herring, Janet Bean, Leilani Rivera Bond.
Hat T'n'T~GN

Dimanche

Jason Berry Honored
~Noah Bonaparte Pais

The differences between Galveston, New Orleans
~"I’ve been on the ground in Galveston since the Monday after Ike hit. I have not seen a single citizen of the city begging, demanding and weeping piteously for help from big brother. But it may be, for some reason, we aren’t quite as compelling on television, as some aggrieved somebody with a hand out, begging for help." ~Dolph Tillotson, president and publisher
of The Galveston County Daily News.
~Editilla just can't bring my heart to go after this shrill bastard today. Maybe that speaks to healing spirits, but it says nothing about the pain. Wish I had a Bat Signal.
After 3 years, suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, we must bear still the Sour Grapes of yet another Wrathful Dickless Texan's unspeakable lack of testicular fortitude.
We must suppose Big Doph is referring to the photo at right: U.S. Air Force Pararescueman Staff Sgt. Lopaka Mounts, assigned to the 331st Air Expeditionary Group, receives a hug from a resident during search and rescue operations after Hurricane Ike in Galveston, Texas September 13, 2008. (REUTERS/U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. James L. Harper Jr./Handout)
~Please click pics to enlarge.~
Surely, we are glad that Galveston had dry land upon which to shed their tears.
Yes, quite different from the stupid worthless citizens to which Big Doph alludes in the photo at left in New Orleans on Sept 16th 2005: California Task Force 3 Urban Search and Rescue team members Jake Pelk and Geoff Dinger map out a recon mission in the flooded University area of New Orleans. Bob McMillan/ FEMA Photo. Um, errah, what citizens?
Rather, let's see what some of his readers think of this privilaged, butthead VIP (Very gImpish rePublican).

Ike environmental toll apparent
~Hurricane Ike's winds and massive waves destroyed oil platforms, tossed storage tanks and punctured pipelines. The environmental damage only now is becoming apparent: At least a half million gallons of crude oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico and the marshes, bayous and bays of Louisiana and Texas, according to an analysis of federal data by AP.

The map told us we live
in School Board District 4
~Liptrap's Lament - The Line

Don't try to figure New Orleans elections ~Library Chronicles
~"Here you have an election where the same relatively small number of voters overwhelmingly pass a charter amendment to shore up the Inspector General's office AND vote a currently indicted Congressman into first place in a primary."

Morally Indefensible
~Clancy DuBos

Convincing but not coherent - State Farm files Rebuttal to Rigsbys Response ~slabbed
~"Typical State Farm lawyering files motions with points they want to call to the attention of the Court and the public - a strategy similar to Palin’s, described somewhere as producing a convincing but not coherent performance. (wink not included)"

Whoa! That is one fine Piece of Handmaiden's Tail!
~Progressive Conservative End'Times Christian Secessionists Maverick Republican PV Candidate,
Sarah "The Cur" Palin earns a "special place in hell".
~Garnished with some apropos endorsement. (;wink;)
But yes! The women are harder.

CNN discovers downside of 'citizen journalism'


City Fixers are the women,
men and children bringing
New Orleans back to life
~Kathy Andrson



N.O.’s fountain of youth
~NO Bull

Transportation’s Slow Ride to Recovery in NOLA

Company dives into lending pool ~Kate Moran
~Pool Corp., a Covington distributor of swimming pool supplies, has started an in-house brokerage to connect potential pool buyers with loans at a time when many banks are wary of extending credit for such projects.
~Editilla witnesses da'birth of an Eponym!
Like atlas, bowdlerize, Turing machine, Metaphysics Anonymous, Vice Precedent (oops maybe not) ...Naginity? D'OH! I t'ought it meant Epunym.

ExxonMobil Pledges $1.6M to New Orleans High Schools

Blue Roof workers lack roof of their own~The agency’s Blue Roof project is run by the Army Corps of Engineers, which contracts the work to a roofing company that then subcontracts the work to myriad other firms. Subcontractors continue the contracting process until they amass enough roofers to do the job.

Blame corps for slow levee work
~"Is the failure due to incompetence or to the endless delay in its projects that keeps this agency in business in spite of its record?"

Flood plain update stirs fears

Gretna Fest closes out with the Radiators, Rockin' Doopsie and Trombone Shorty
~Free Pedestrian Ferry Ride! Canal Street Ferry Dock to the Gretna Ferry Landing
"On the Hour", 2pm-11pm