Samedi

Voodoo Music Experience 2008
Live from City Park

The Storm: What Went Wrong and Why During Hurricane Katrina --the Inside Story from One Louisiana Scientist~Ivor van Heerden
~Editilla Notellas~
Just wondering folks...
Gift That Keeps on Giving Season and all...
I had the honor of meeting Ivor van Heerden, on the Anniversary
at the Levees.org premier of The Katrina Myth Documentary.
In the City of Living Metaphor, there I was talking with a Dutchboy who most assuredly has had his Finger in the Dike.
Huh! Go Figure. Go Fish! Go to Hell ASCECORPS!
But then again, he made me feel better, safer, for a number of reasons, but chiefly that he foresaw and knew exactly what went down in New Orleans on August 29th, 2005 and he can explain it. I gained another hero: Editillero.

~The Corps seems to be doing what it wants to New Orleans without regard to public input or past performance.
I see Us losing Them winning. Simple enough?
Floods are in essence very simple things, just like Death.
Oh, the causes of Death can be infinite --but once you meet Death, well, ain't a whole lot more to say, eh? Once you have flood on your hands the Existential Quantifier drops to One: The Reaper. While I have seen and Love the many successes and celebrations of Human Spirit of New Orleans over the past three years,
I have seen it all washed away in the blink of my own lyin'eyes.
Today I see our struggles to recover and shine as merely detritus,
flotsam in the 100 Years Score of the Corps.
Yeah, rarely one or two citizens like Matt McBride or Levees.org might catch them out every once in a while, but this is becoming a loosing game --as poignantly evidenced by the way the
Corps Stomped, totally Punk'Slapped, on the advocacy group "Pump to the River" this week...
--as evidenced by the stalled 8/29 Bill
--as evidenced by the continued Delay in Release of the IPET study of our levee failures --as evidenced by their position of power over the people of South Louisiana this past hurricane season. They have even bought out ads with the Times Picayune.

But, the Corps of Engineers has given us nothing to hang our hats on for the future. No Dirt. No levees. Only more Project Engineering Study of Bullshit for more Project Engineering Study, treading water until this current generation of citizens dies off and then the Corps can get on with the real job of Energy Infrastructure Building. The Corps has hired an Energy Company to rebuild the Wetlands which they have obliterated. The Corps has hired an Energy Company to protect it from the Mayhem caused by their obliteration of our wetlands and their crooked engineering in building our failed levees.
They hire Huge Marketing Corporations to spin'filtrate their responsibility for America's Greatest Civil Engineering Failure.
It appears that there is no longer Civil Engeneering in America
apart from ASCECORPS.
The Corps of Engineers is Greater than The People just as any Corporation is Greater than the sum of its Parts taken separately.
Hence, it would seem that We The People work for the Corps...
--not the other way around.

Is this Truth? Jus'axin...

A lot of The People, myself included, have made a grave mistake of misunderestimating their own relevance in the stinky milieu of
The New American Millennium post 9-11/8-29,
particularly the need for people or private property at all...
--in New Orleans or especially in South Louisiana.
Yeah'so, the Place here matters but no longer the people.
What do you need people for? We are just getting in the way.
Those oil rigs are in international waters so you don't even really need Louisianans working on them. They could be workers housed in Mexico just as easily, or on work barges in the Gulf.
All the Pipe line is laid, over 50,000 miles in Louisiana alone.
They will need a bit more and some maintenance and repair but not these towns full of People --who erroneously think they are so necessary to a functioning energy infrastructure. They are not.
Those jobs are gone, their homes no longer needed.
The people of South Louisiana are simply treading water.
The Port of New Orleans does not require a city in which to operate. That is what I am talking about. We can feast and sing and we can dance all night long, but how much longer can we tread water, fishing for seafood that no one actually gives a real damn where it comes from? Americans can and do simply get that from Vietnam or Chile now at half the price.
Welcome to the Future Shock Doctrine and Heavy Weather
Can we get a wit'naaas --or at least a little Faith?
Can We?

~Many T'anks Youz, Citizen K~


A big SLABBED welcome to Paul Volcker’s common sense comments ~"It seems to me what our nation needs is more civil engineers and electrical engineers and fewer financial engineers…"

So When Will Banks Give Loans? ~Joe Nocera ~In point of fact, the dirty little secret of the banking industry is that it has no intention of using the money to make new loans.
But this executive was the first insider who’s been indiscreet enough to say it within earshot of a journalist. (He didn’t mean to, of course, but I obtained the call-in number and listened to a recording.)

Who wants to take part in building New Orleans'
first culinary incubator?
~Editilla Notellas~These Cookin'Cats will also be 2nd Lining on All Saint Day, Nov 1st, from St Roch to'da School.
Do ax about that when making contact.
~From David Aman,
The Kitchen at Colton's... ~~click pics to enlarge~~
primary job is to give local professional cooks a place to showcase their skills and develop recipes.

The fallout from having a kitchen full of local cooks is the knowledge and great food they can impart to the community.

From the after school cooking program 'Family Meal', to 'Chef Nights', to supervised 'Open Kitchen' time, the Kitchen at Colton is a cooperative of professional cooks making good food using local suppliers while educating their community.

BUT... We have to revamp the kitchen 1st!
And that is starting this Monday, October 27th.
<-{That, Gentle'rillas, is
One Honkin Gumbo Cooker!}


We have to move all the equipment out (so they can seal the cement floors), then move it back in 24 hrs. later.
We need Service Industry Volunteer Strong Backs!

We'll need about 10 strong volunteers (hopefully -but not necessarily- in the hospitality industry) for about 6 hours of work.

Some of this equipment is Extremely heavy and will need several dedicated hands on deck.

Every Service Industry person who is part of this
1st move will have a stake in this kitchen (and I don't
just mean theoretically, I mean you will have dibs on
utilizing it for the 1st few months that it's usable).

Please spread the word and be part of this 1st phase of the Kitchen at Colton!

Contact me through this email:
davidaman@hotmail.com
Talk with you soon!
Sincerely,
David Aman
Special Thanks to Ken at Food Music Justice
~Com'Posted at OpEd News

BANKSY gets Radtke(D) in
New Orleans~William Greiner

Vendredi

Corps plans to rebuild wetlands
~Mark Schleifstein
!DISCLAIMER! !WARNING! !BAT SIGNAL!
~With Blog'Ass Link'A'mentation Thanks Katrina!






Burma's Suu Kyi Under Arrest For 13 Years
~Richard S. Ehrlich

Slip Sliding Away~jlp




~Professor Longhair’s residence,
from the rear elevation
facing the new New Orleans
~Special thanks- Just An Uptown Girl

Lafayette prospects touted
~Speakers at an economic forum Thursday said Lafayette is a prime location for the state’s new pet economic development project: digital media.

FEMA extends deadline for individual assistance

Hospitals learn power lesson

All disasters have much in common~It is a little-known irony that the ongoing meltdown of the global credit market occurred at about the same time that the world was actually commemorating the International Day for Disaster Reduction (Oct. 8, 2008).

Texas talking - the latest from both sides of its mouth ~slabbed

Treasury May Purchase Stakes in Insurers in Expansion of Capital Injection

`It certainly beats having these troubled banks end up being taken over by the government,'' said David Havens, a credit desk analyst at UBS AG in Stamford, Connecticut. ``It's better for just about everybody that you have a private-market solution and the government facilitating to make sure it happens.''
~In textbook Doublthink Shock Doctrinaire Reference to "the government" giving one Huge Bank 7.7 BILLION DOLLARS to buy another failed Huge Bank for 5.2 BILLION DOLLARS... as part of a plan for "the government" to give 250,000,000,000 Godzillion Tax Dollars to the failed "private-market solution"...at a cost/benefit ratio to the Food Stamp Program of 1,738,297,222-to-1.

Historical Hurricane Activity
~ESM Research

Allstate Posts Loss on Investments, Hurricane Ike

EMC Insurance Posts Q3 Loss On Hurricanes Ike, Gustav Impact

Union Pacific’s Profit Rises

Charting a path through uncertainty to reduce team anxiety ~Cinda Voegtli

National Guard Provides 'Security Blanket'
~Sgt. Michael L. Owens

Which matters most:
Quantity or Quality of posts?
Let’s Discuss…
~There's a Blog in my Soup
~Editilla hopes~ we have already established our own, a'hem, psychologically disqualified funny'bonafides here...
I have even been asked if I have a job, called many things by other "real nola bloggers"... aggregator, clinical (as in need of), Beotchwolf, even blogger (booger too!:)
To which I usually reply that climbing this Ladder every morning keeps me out of McDonald's with a rifle, or at least I no longer scream at people in check-out lines. I usually don't tell them that I have to look for my lost City That I Can Not Forgot, every day, because we can't afford the levees failing again, or the therapy of excising that tiny little bone from my heart. Gentle'rillas keep us.
I used to be a living artist now I do maintenance for a living.
Arguably that flood ejected me from all categories,
leaving us listless... wit'a tic and tendency to get all plural...
--but it is when Editilla gets mail that we know there is really a Santa Clause on 42nd Street! HA! I was born here on da'Ladder...
after that goddamned Federal Flood put us on the back hand path, the long road home, and have come to realize doing this that often we just don't know where we're going until there we are...
--often staring in awe at the posts of the Nola Blog'0'Reamery, perspicuously amazed as Oliver before a Krewe of Artful Dodgers --and that after spitting my soup out laughing so hard or crying or getting more and more Pissed Off-- alone, away...but always moved to da'Beat. Jus'sayin...who'dat, mon'chere Sinn Féin? ...after a while I figured we might could use a Ladder.
~~As for the best way to get hits? HA! Correspondence.
Everyone ...every one hung lo upongst this Ladder
...has heard from Editilla ...one way or a'nudder.

NoLA Rising at Voodoo Fest!
~NoLA Rising will be joining our Brothers and Sisters from the NooMoon tribe this weekend at VooDoo Fest. Stop by and see us. We'll be having us some fun and painting on everything we can get a'hold of.

Kid drummer to be envoy in US
~Drumming prodigy Daniel Petersen is taking his drumsticks to the United States after becoming Cape Town's youngest tourism ambassador. Just six years old, Daniel, from Kraaifontein, is to travel to New Orleans on Saturday to perform at Voodoo Fest, as guest of the New Orleans South Africa Connection as part of a week of African music celebrations.

Matthew Golombisky and the ears&eyes Festival ~Laura Mayer

Jeudi- Time the Leveelator

Corps nixes 'Pump to the River' project, tells citizen advocates to MRGO Fish Themselves.~WWL

Those backing Pump to the River argue far more hangs in the balance if their program isn't implemented. Lisa Ludwig says she and others have been strung along by empty promises from the Corps. "There's a big difference between asking us to give comment after you've yanked the rug out from under us,"
said Ludwig in response to Bradley's invitation for more public opinion on the plan.

{Which as we can see means: "Yeah, of course we'll look at your plans (HA!) AND THEN DISREGARD THEM. What ever you losers want to hear we will say to you, Silly Little Tax Payers."
Is this not the oldest bully'punk trick in the book?
Obviously I am not the only wet spot here?
How Long, People? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?}

~Editilla Crowellas~We do not have 100 years to wait on the Exquixotic Corps! What is more, this Band of Ganstas does not have 100 Years to Wait-Out today's Flood Survivors,
That is exactly their end game here. But No! We beg ta'diffa!
While they are obviously operating with such Hubris, all the cute meetings in the world will not change that Fact of Apparent Conflict of Interests: Ours and Theirs...Us or Them.
We want to Live, while the Corps wants us to Die. They plan to Delay after Delay until We Die Off --or are wiped out, rubbed out, erased by more Flooding just like in South Louisiana with the Morganza to the Gulf Levee system. But all their Marketing Firms, their PO Cephus Spokespeoples, their continuous rotation of key personnel in and out of theater, will not put their Humpty Dumpty Levees back together again...
--nor will such slight of hand hold back our rage.

We trudge along mile after mile on the Long Road Home,
heads looking down to the recovery.
The Corps knows this.
Everyone is busy trying to get it all back together.
The Corps knows this.
The Corps knows that Time Marches On like Water Under their Levees--and they (think) have Time on their side.
We may not have Time on our side --or our own local newspaper.
But what we do have on our side is much greater than time.
It is called by many names Sinn Féin.

"Corps Decision Makers"
Whine Like Babies about their
100 Years Score!
Corps proposals get rowdy reception.
!DISCLAIMER! !WARNING! !BAT SIGNAL!
Due to Apparent Conflicts of Interest between the Corps of Engineers and the Times Picayune <-which has no Stated Company Ethics Policy-we hang this article warily, with the greatest trepidation and much the same apprehensions as opening the front door to find a burning box of cat litter.
So thus, is my need to highlight the difference between
relevant news journalism (such as with WWL in the top lede)
and this irreality we have here from the Times Picayune...
--to wit: "A Fail'ya Ta Comoonicate."

One year ago the Corps told Lisa Ludwig (and us) this: "While plans to pump water in Hoey's Basin to the river instead of the lake have yet to reach a design table, advocates received encouragement last week when local representatives of the Army Corps of Engineers agreed to consider the project as part of a broader plan to build a new pump station at the Lake Pontchartrain end of the outfall canal.
*Why did the "Reporter" fail to point this out?!!!?

What "federally mandated environmental assessment process" is the Corps talking about? Reporter? Hello Boss?
What has happened to the IPET Levee Study which has been Delayed Release again to until after the first of the year?
What is going on with the MRGO lawsuit coming in January?
Why can't the Times Picayune get off its ass and ask these questions? I mean, come on...my/our future deserves answers!
NO SOUP FOR YOU, TIMES PICAYUNE!

In water war,
science is on our side
~Atlanta Journal Constitution
~In effect, the corps is playing a dangerous game, protecting its bureaucratic hide even if it increases the risk of serious water shortages that would affect not just metro Atlanta but downstream users as well.

The $23 million dollar solution for the levees
~49 News was the first to tell you about the deficiencies in the levees along the Kansas River. Now, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers aims to fix the problem and other flood control issues in the city of Topeka.

KBR Selected for Security, Disaster, Infrastructure, Construction Work on U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Contract
~The company offers a wide range of services through its Downstream(??), Government and Infrastructure, Services, Technology, Upstream(??) and Ventures business segments.
~Editilla Chick'A'littas~Uhmmm hey everybody???
Errrrah, akhem! Is not the US Army Corps of Engineers... getting a'tic paranoid, hiring their own Private Soldiers now?
We guess that Blackwater was already booked?
What about funding for the Levees? Remember the Levees?
Stupid is as Stupid Contracts.
IT'S THE LEVEES, STUPID!
IT'S THE WETLANDS, STUPID!
IT'S THE ECONOMY, STUPID!

U.S. forces rescue kidnapped American in Afghanistan
~The Army Corps of Engineers worker was seized by militants in August.

"This guy didn't have any money at all. It was like a personal life mission for him to help others,"
said Bruce J. Huffman, a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers in Afghanistan.
~We say the Corps of Engineers are Proven Liars, despicably pulling our heartstrings. We say show us the money this man was getting paid as a Private Contractor or whether he is an actual member of the Corps.
We say war is Hell and We are Sick of This Shit,
--risking our Brave Soldiers while the Exquixotic Corps
has the Funding to Hire Private Security?
“Without these guys we would not be able to get around,” said Colonel Mike Moon, of the Corps of Engineers.

Sierra Club and Local Communities Seek to Stop Destructive Mining

~"Either the Corps can't add two and two, or doesn't know what 'cumulative impacts' means, or something really rotten is going on,” said Vivian Stockman, project coordinator for the Huntington-based Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition. “Because, to issue these permits, the Corps had to ignore its own findings on the counties' already-impacted waterways."

Breakbulk Transportation Conference & Exhibition
in New Orleans exceeds revenue and attendance projections

The “F” word hits the road
- finds Wall is dead end Street
(Part 2 of 3)~slabbed

Déjà vu~Your Right Hand Thief

Club Desire (THREATENED)
~Regional Modernism ::
The New Orleans Archive

New Orleans Speaks: We Are the Ones We've Been Waiting For ~Saturday, October 25th

Harvest the Music Thursdays at the Square ~NOCM

Jack Herer’s: Marijuana & the Jim Crow Laws
~Antonio Della Rocca

WWOZ, Radio Johnson & iClips webcast Voodoo Music Experience 2008
~NolaFunk NYC

Preservation Hall debuts ‘Village’
~Jason Andreasen

Jon Cleary at the Maple Leaf Halloween!

Mercredi

Pumping could be quick solution to eroding south La. coastline
~Tri-Parish Times

Imagine trying to prepare a meal...
but the seafood is gone.
What if you need a caffeine fix...
but there is no coffee?
How about driving your car...
but there is no gas to fill the tank?
The scenarios are real.
That is what could happen if Louisiana's coastal land loss issue is not solved, according to a new documentary film, "Harvest to Restore."

"It's The Wetlands, Stupid!"
The Voice of the Wetlands Festival 2008, Part 1: Mr Bill and the Gulf Restoration Net ~Mac McKinney

Parish gets piece of recovery money ~Daily Comet

Buddy, can you spare a paradigm? ~Jams Gill

Adviser urges New Orleans to put off bond sale

Defense Lawyers Descend on New Orleans

Fuck Every Miserable American disputes formaldehyde study of Iowa trailers --blames residents for cancerous habits
~FEMA officials are saying that high levels of formaldehyde in trailers given to flood victims are the result of residents' storing cleaning chemicals and other potentially hazardous materials.
Officials say new test results are not valid.
Fuck Every Miserable American spokesman Michael Lapinski replied that residents unhappy with their trailers could move out. Fails to offer his resignation.

"You can have a health concern regardless of what the formaldehyde reading is," Lapinski said. "If you have a health concern and you want to move out of that housing, you're free to move out of that housing." But moving out of that housing could cost the residents, said Bill Vogel, FEMA's coordinating officer for disaster recovery in Iowa. "If they've already received the maximum of $28,800 in a housing-assistance grant from FEMA, then they'll be moving out on their own dime."

Attention Snipers (and everyone else)~Breach Bang Clear

Perry wants more full federal payments over Ike
~Houston Chronicle

Corps Ought To Give It Up
~Hartford Courant
~LEGAL OPINION •Its refusal to publicly release this document is unfair. Meanwhile, the Army's judge advocate general, Maj. Gen. Scott C. Black, has rejected a request by state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal for a copy under the federal Freedom of Information Act, citing attorney-client privilege. (Funny; we'd have thought the American people were the Corps' clients. But never mind.)

A policy ear-mark to prevent the issuance of a CWA 404 permit survives interpretative and constitutional challenges
~Ear To the Ground

~"Of note, the Corps of Engineers is directly responsible for only about 20 percent of the levees across the nation." ~Major Don Riley

Watch Karl Rove Nearly Handcuffed by Activist Who Tried to Put Him Under Citizen's Arrest for 'Treason'
Hump Day Hrrmph Day!

New law may help Amtrak bring back Sunset Limited
~Sun Herald

Rising from the Ruins
~A documentary film about the role of businesses in New Orleans' recovery from Hurricane Katrina will be shown at 8 p.m. Thursday at Massey's Professional Outfitters, 509 N. Carrollton Ave.
~Hat T'n'T- City Business

Bakery Shows Its Heart
~Ian McNulty

Maple Sausage Breakfast Casserole ~Serious Eats

This week's recipe for maple sausage waffle casserole is surprisingly light. Traditionally, breakfast casseroles are made with a custard composed of heavy cream and up to 8 eggs. The folks at America's Test Kitchen found that whole milk and 6 eggs produced airier results, and let the flavors of the sausage and cheese shine through. Substituting frozen waffles for regular bread lightened the recipe even further, and was a perfect compliment to the maple syrup.

- makes 6 servings -

Adapted from The Cook's Country Cookbook from the Editors at America's Test Kitchen.

Ingredients

6-8 frozen waffles (1/2-inch thick, not Belgian-style)
12 ounces maple breakfast sausage, crumbled
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
6 large eggs
1 1/4 cups whole or low-fat milk
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper

Procedure

1. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 375ºF. Arrange the waffles in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake until crisp, about 10 minutes per side.

2. Brown the sausage in a nonstick skillet over medium heat, breaking it apart with a spoon, 8 to 10 minutes. Drain on a paper towel-lined plate.

3. Butter an 8-inch square baking dish. Add half of the waffles in a single layer. Add half of the sausage and 1/2 cup of the cheese. Repeat layering the waffles, sausage, and 1/2 cup more cheese. Whisk the eggs, milk, maple syrup, salt, and pepper in a medium bowl until combined. Pour the egg mixture evenly over the casserole. Cover the dish with plastic wrap and place weights on top. Refrigerate the casserole for at least 1 hour or overnight.

4. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 325ºF. Let the casserole stand at room temperature for 20 minutes. Uncover the casserole and sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup the cheese over the top. Bake until the edges and center are puffed, 45 to 50 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes. Cut into pieces and serve.

Antoine's Restaurant and What Hurricane Katrina Did to
Its $1 Million Wine Collection
~Guy Martin

BayouSalvage is Vending at Voodoo Music Experience Artists Village~Thrifting in Oblivion

Accordion to the latest polls…
~Michael Giordono

Bingo! Parlour Profile #17:
SNUFF SUGAR

Complete Interview with guitarist Brian Stoltz~Jim Reed

Mardi

Banksy: Let Them Eat Crack

Jindal says state economy sound

Nonprofit Sharing
~Noah Bonaparte Pais

Fund Raiser for the Village
~Food Music Justice

New Bay
St Louis Bridge Wins People’s Choice Award ~slabbed

The House on New Orleans Street ~Squanderd Heritage

Much to learn, love about
New Orleans~Jarvis Deberry




House in Utopia ~Time
~"No more architecture than a piano is music" was a model of a queer pear-shaped house hung on a pole exhibited in Manhattan for the first time last week.
It was the latest development of Richard Buckminster Fuller's famed "dymaxion house" (from "dynamics" and "maximum service").
In Harlem's Savoy Dance Hall for black men and women last week, a white man with a thinker's head and close-cropped gray hair, spun his partner away, came walking toward her, flattened palms forward in the gesture of pushing as his shoulders twitched in the dance called the Lindy Hop. It was Architect Fuller, fifth generation in a line of Harvard men, onetime class drunkard, twice expelled from Harvard, great nephew of Emerson's friend Margaret Fuller, Wartime U. S. Navy lieutenant, engineer, a prophet of civilization.

Appeal vs. Corps carries threat

Levee restoration price rises

Exquixotic Corps opens hearings on water sharing

Looking for casual good food near FQ where a single can eat at the bar~Chowhound NOLA

Voodoo Podcast Episode Two: The funky and the freaky
~Alison Fensterstock

The Zydepunks, Finisterre
~Pop Matters

Horns For Guns events slated for Nov. 1st~Louisiana Weekly
Editilla's not gonna say it. No. Stop It! Yaaaaaaa OK!
"Only in New Orleans: Horn / Gun Exchange."

New Releases~Burning Wood

Free Festival at The O2
Celebrating New Orleans Music and Culture on 24 & 25 October
~A View from England

Lundi

Report: Engineering society needs ethics policy
~Cain Burdeau
~The panel did not attach blame or look at the accusations about details in the engineering studies, but rather concentrated on ASCE policies and procedures, where it found glaring holes.
Most significantly, it faulted ASCE for not having a conflict-of-interest policy.
~Editilla Crowellas~This article is an example of Journalism, not to be confused with the Conflict of Interest apparently in operation at the Times Picayune. Much like pesky head lice, Conflicts of Interest are such crabby little things, eh?

Ike leaves task of reburying dead ~Melinda Deslatte
~Sgt. David Conner, an officer with the Phelps Correctional Center in Dequincy, Joe Johnson and an inmate from the Phelps Correctional Center load a coffin onto an air boat in the North Big Lake area of Cameron parish on Oct. 8. This is the second recovery for this corpse, identified through methods employed during coffin recovery after Hurricane Rita.

In lockstep on lock project
~Louisiana Sens. Mary Landrieu and David Vitter are continuing to back the widening of the Industrial Canal lock in New Orleans, despite a new report that says the cost of the project has ballooned from $770 million to $1.3 billion.

Sand Creating Problems in
Port Aransas, TX~Hurricane Ike piled up a couple of feet of sand near the beach dunes, but the town cannot move it. It seems the Army Corps of Engineers won't let them touch it until they get a special beach maintenance permit.

Exquixotic Corps Prepare Basrah Contractors for Success
~The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)
(aka: ASCECORPS, Exquixotic Corps, Uncle Sam'Daddy, Big Sahib) is working closely with Iraqi businessmen to teach them how to bid on contracts for work with the U.S. government.

The “F” word hits the road - finds Wall is dead end Street~slabbed

8,800 Road Home properties to return to private hands
~Actor Wendell Pierce and trumpeter Terence Blanchard have come back to their old neighborhood, Pontchartrain Park, and are poised to take over one of every nine properties there -- so they can build and sell affordable homes.

N.O. board approves agreements with developers
~The New Orleans Redevelopment Authority has approved developers' plans to rebuild housing in two middle-class neighborhoods devastated three years ago by Hurricane Katrina.

Labor chief part of history
~Jordan Blum~Louisiana’s powerful labor union chief, Victor Bussie, was once scheduled to check into a Galveston, Texas, mental institution. Instead, Bussie and the famed Long family brought Gov. Earl Long in his place.

Changing Models of Local Emergency Management~SEMP

Soldier's adopted dog finally leaves Iraq for U.S.
~Sgt. Gwen Beberg adopted Ratchet after soldiers rescued him from a burning pile of trash in May.

Emergency Overload: St. Bernard Parish Shelter

Pawprints of Katrina: Pets Saved and Lessons Learned

Starbucks Works with Local Groups to Support New Orleans' Rebuilding Efforts
~The events are part of the Starbucks 2008 Leadership Conference in New Orleans. The efforts represent the single largest block of community support in the history of New Orleans -- mobilizing 10,000 people, contributing more than 54,000 volunteer hours and investing more than $1 million in local projects.

My Advice to the President ~Aquanomics

Invention: Hurricane pacifier
~Justin Mullins

Halloween in New Orleans!
~Cherry Girl

1950s New Orleans photos displayed in downtown hotel

Poems Ready-To-Eat,
A collaborative poem by the city of New Orleans
~Oxford American

Matisyahu: Shattered
~Here Comes the Flood
~Brooklyn Hassidic rap reggae man Matisyahu is busy recording a new album that will be released in 2009. His new 4 track EP Shattered serves as a taster for that album. He has just started a massive USA tour and will be in New Orleans at the House of Blues November 9th.

Forest Whitaker to Play Louis Armstrong in Biopic~Oscar-winning actor Forest Whitaker is continuing his unofficial New Orleans period, with plans in the works to star in and direct his third local film in a year — a biopic focusing on jazz great Louis Armstrong.

Farewell Steve Coenen

The Marsalys Family~Jazzofilo

Dimanche

Public to grill Corps on pump sites, Times Picayune does Corps Public Relations~Sheila Grissett
~"The reason it's taking so long is because of the vast and competing interests . . . in these complex projects," said Rick Kendrick, program executive chief for the corps' Hurricane Protection Office.
~Editilla begs to diffa~ DISCLAIMER!
-The Times Picayune has no published "Statement of Company Code of Ethics" --while at the same time accepts tax-payer funded Public Relations Advertising from the Corps of Engineers (see also).
Hence, we must issue a Caution and our own Disclaimer as to the bias in this article and the truthfulness of the Corps' Word.
For example: Mr. Kendick's opening statement above is unmitigated ho'snot spin'filtration. To put it nicely, ASCECORPS continues to pee down our backs and tell us it is raining. Its purpose is an attempt to re-frame this story as one of Public Participation and Corps Competency, straining credulity...
--stretching of the truth like a ripped prophylactic, piniattique newspaper'stuffed levee <-an irony of incest which continues to exfoliate Editilla's sense of taste and timing, especially in light New Orleans' unique facet for Living Metaphor, for making it real. The lede quote contradicts the Corps own statements of last year,
(when Kendick first came on the job after laying out missile fields) and flies in the face of outside engineering investigations cited on Matt McBride's entire website <-(Matt McBride can also be found heroically and serendipitously syndicated at Humid City)
and the findings of the ILET study <-(you can find Dr. Robert Bea testifying against the Corps in their upcoming MRGO Liability Lawsuit, and Dr. Raymond Seed right here in this 42 page Ethics Complaint) ~~IT'S THE LEVEES, STUPID!

But the worst misnomer proffered by this article is the idea that Public Input matters to the way the Corps goes about its business. Public Input is completely anathema to sound engineering. Why? Because most of the Public (me included) are not engineers. So, what we have to say matters not one whit to the soundness and execution of engineering. Period. And that is probably a good thing. But, as is the case with all things Corps of Engineers, once the structures are built we are at the mercy of Proven and Admitted Liars. If you don't believe me then ask all the residents who used to live at the 17th Street Canal Levee Failure and who complained to the Corps for years before Katrina about a persistent leak --right there where the Corps Structure Failed. Or ask the people who complained for decades that widening and deepening the MRGO for Navigation would cause larger flood surges. Or ask Midwest Flood Survivors.
Or just drive down to Terrebone Parish and look around.

"For those who lobbied the corps..." is a perfect example of spin. We do not lobby the Corps. We can try to lobby Congress to effect Corps Actions, but no average citizen tax-payer "lobbies the Corps" --except of course engineering contract consultants, former ASCE presidents and Corps Medal Winners like Tom Jackson who sits on the "Independent" Levee Board.
But, the Public has No Say in how or where the Corps does its business or to whom they give that business. None. Nada.
It is a Grand Myth which the Corps promulgates that they are beholden to Congress for Funding. That we can control the competency of the Corps Engineering through Congressional Mandate is simply Not True while they issue the contracts.
The Reality is that the Work is beholden to the Corps for Contract Awards. That Reality is what gave us the levees that failed in the Federal Flood of 2005 --and hence the delay in these very pumps!
To think that Our Word stands against the Corps Word reeks...
of fuckmookery, of abject jail'house punk'foolery.
This faux "Public Input Meeting" is only to lead The Public to think that their concerns for flood safety matter to the Corps of Engineers. These meetings are to lead the public to feel better about who caused the failure of our levees in 2005, and to misdirect the Public's View of That Liability (tainting the jury pool before trial). The purpose of these articles about so-called "Public Meetings" is to make people feel better about the Corps' still very questionable role in the ongoing funds-theft known as the repair and recovery of our failed flood control systems.
The Fat Lady of Justice has not even begun to sing the end of this story, yet the TP and ASCECORPS would have us all play storytime with our Uncle Sam Daddy... pay no attention to that bad man behind the levee ---Just like Book Promoter Chris Rose's article, also in today's Picayune, about meteorites and omen causing those levees to fail in 2005.

This stuff about sound levees and real flood control is not funny and neither is Chris Rose...not even cute. Like all of us, Chris has bills to pay --and taxes, so that the Corps of Engineers can afford to place PR Advertisements in his newspaper, so it can pay Chris to write more misdirection away from the Corps of Engineers.
Don't we all feel better, safer now? I know I do.
Editilla finds having to navigating the Conflicts of Interests in the TP now about as much fun as eating a bowl of human tongues after losing a long game of Bobbing for Voodoo Dolls.

Keeping the insurers in check
~Kia Franklin
Brenda Wisniewski of Kingwood searches the pile of rubble that was once her Crystal Beach house on the Bolivar Peninsula. Photo-Sharon Steinmann
~As Hurricane Ike survivors rebuild their homes and their lives, their harrowing stories may soon become all-too-similar to those of Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita survivors: people wrongfully denied insurance claims, or offered inadequate payments, for damages they were told their insurance policies would cover. Some details may differ, but what remains the same is that no federal law has yet to hold the insurance industry accountable for how it mistreats Americans in the aftermath of major disasters.

Cranky Old Men
~We Could Be Famous

Highlights from the Crescent City Blues & BBQ Fest~WWOZ

Coming up in this week’s Gambit ~Kevin Allman

Hurricane debris becomes Halloween décor~Daily Comet

Climbing PoeTree's Hurricane Season ~Letter Brown

Money Honey- Punk Rock & Wall Street~Punk Turns 30

Earl Plalmers Up-to-Date Funky Thing~Home of the Groove

The Dylan Doodlebug
~Scott Warmuth