Samedi

Nagin fires back at IG gun request, Times Picayune issues Devestating Pun, Mayor Baby- head, Chocolate Don, Demolition Man wit'da Murder Brand, Rat'a'Tat- Ray angry at not getting to Play with Guns First ~Frank Donze
~Editilla toes'ya da'Bat Signal~ Our Mayor in many names only is stunned that this insolent IG is from a big time Yankee Mafia Town --even has a Vowel in his last name--
and he can't muster da'Manners, da'Mannish Respect to comesee Da'Don for Protection?!??!
Hasn't this stupidio even seen the movies?
Dirty Harry? Big Easy? Easy Rider? JFK? Flakes?
We Ahrrah Do Things... Lil'differnt, down heah, ya'heoird me?
Whoa he betta wash his back this naive northerner...
--else Baby'Head gonna Rub Him Up!

La., New Orleans sign flood control deal ~Allen Johnson Jr.
“The Corps of Engineers makes you do the same damn thing 20 times over,” Garrett Graves, director of the state Coastal Protection and Recovery Authority, said afterward, smiling.

Louisiana US Sen. Landrieu Questions FEMA's Housing Strategy Release~BBuzz

Bywater apartment building nears completion~City Business

Pfizer's love poem to the city of New Orleans
~Your Right Hand Thief

Sulu make pretty nuts for Obama
Oh! Zulu! Coconuts! Ooooh!

FEMA decries flooded Louisiana
as Glutton for MREs, sayz:
Let them eat Crabcake, aaaand,
FEMA, state at odds over new flood-zone maps
~Robert Travis Scott
~A dispute over the validity of FEMA's new flood-zone maps has turned into an escalating feud between the federal agency and state officials that carries profound financial and social implications for many communities across southern Louisiana.
~Editilla wisha'youz rotza'ruck trying here for your NFIP maps.

MEMA halts auction of damaged Katrina cottages

Galveston County Recovery fund raises $1.7 million~Leigh Jones

Congressional Inclusion of Libraries in Recovery Package Stirs Response ~Library Journal

Vendredi

Ponchatoula farmers fear frozen strawberries
~Benjamin Alexander- Bloch

Levee panel backs markers denoting Katrina flooding levels~Allen M. Johnson Jr.
The measure did not pass without debate.
Commissioner Tom Jackson, the authority’s first president (former president of ASCE and Corps Medal Winner), warned the resolution could result in lawsuits by residents who are trying to sell their homes.
Jackson said the public would be better served by an educational program to clarify confusing technical jargon and what the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is “doing and not doing” to protect the metro area. Uncle Sam'Daddy Tom hates The Line.
Photo by Sandy Rosenthal.
Watermarks are clearly visible on the home to the right in this May 2007 photo of two homes adjacent to the 17th Street Canal breach in the Lakeview neighborhood of New Orleans. We hold These Lines to be Self Evident!
~Edtitilla mout'ta'tollya again~ we told Conflicted Tom Jackson to step down from the Levee Board months ago, and he is still there? Jeez Louie! What is this ASCE Pres'Corps conspicuous consultant ASCECORPS lackey doing opposing one of the most viscerally evident tags of that Flood of '05 as The Line? What does Tom Jackson have against The Line? Tom Jackson opposes us seeing The Line that his Corps of Engineers drew across our lives on August 29th, 2005. Why? Editilla gonna'tollya. While we don't begrudge him his cowardice, we also beg to differ. We face The Line. Everyone faces The Line and every time someone else faces The Line they will see The Flood and Remember the Corps. That is what Tom Jackson is afraid of and what he will always oppose: The Line.

New deal sends $1.3 million in drainage funds to area; state Coastal Protection and Recovery Authority to take reins of SELA program ~Rich Rainey

Locals learn new flood maps’ potential effects~Ben Lundin

Commercial traffic all but gone from Missouri River
~Lauren Donovan

Levee near bankruptcy
~ChaCha Pitoulas

3rd Annual Baton Rouge Jewish Film Festival

~The festival premieres January 21st with a screening of the hilarious Circumcise Me, a documentary told by Hassidic comedian Yisrael Campbell.

Studio at Colton presents The Arts of Mardi Gras Workshop
Sewing, Suiting, Singing, Strutting and Related Design Skills


Flat Track Fever
If you can't wait until then to get your derby on, the Red Stick Roller Derby is having their first public bout at 6:30p this Saturday, January 17, 2009 at Baton Rouge River Center Arena. See the Red Stick ladies take on the Beach Brawl Skater Dolls from Fort Walton Beach, Florida in the Inaugural Brawl.

Sidney Torres IV offers citizens the 'Mayor Ray Nagin Rate' for Real Good Smelling Mardi Gras in Orlando~French Quarter residents can experience a Mardi Gras concert series like no other, with performances by Billboard Chart-topper Ne-Yo, American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson, country music-duo Montgomery Gentry and Grammy Award-winning rapper Nelly.
Other headliners include the hit artists behind classics such as "Hit Me with Your Best Shot," "Too Legit to Quit," and "Y.M.C.A." - Pat Benatar, MC Hammer and The Village People, respectively. In addition, New Orleans bands will showcase their authentic bayou music in the French Quarter, a replica of New Orleans' famed district.

Drew Brees is a finalist for the Fed Ex Air Player of the year
~If Drew wins, then Louisiana Safe Kids, a program at Children's Hospital, will receive $25,000 to use for a pedestrian safety program in the New Orleans area. We ask that you to cast your vote for Drew and then pass this information to as many people as possible. If Drew gets the most votes, he and Louisiana Safe kids are the winners.
You can vote as many times as you wish.
T'n'T~Charlotte ~Photo of Drew waving to Editilla: Priceless!

The Dictionary of Word Verifications~Citizen K
Prestifigitation: Bushticulation of inner conflict, akin to a faint call for mercy across a killing field, even rescue from the screaming small words that battle within his mind to form one just one complete sentence.

Staying on course~John Wirt

Jeff Albert, New Release:
Similar in the Opposite Way ~Alonzo Weston

Or, the Whale:
Light Poles and Pines
~Tone Marrow

Yolanda Adams, a B.J. Crosby benefit, a Tipitina's anniversary and more music in New Orleans Jan. 16-22 ~Keith Spera

Al Green, Sonny Rollins & 'Beiderbecke Affair'
~all about Jazz

NolaFunk Lagniappe

Jeudi

Inspector General Enforces Law
IG Orders Weapons, Amm0, Handcuffs~WDSU
~Inspector General Robert Cerasoli has ordered thousands of dollars of weaponry and ammunition for investigators in his office."The office is a law enforcement office by ordinance and by state law," Cerasoli said.
We gotta watch our Boy'z Back like a Bat Signal!
~Editilla gotta ax~ What about his daily King Cake?
Are we making sure Mr. Cerasoli has had his King Cake?
And ummm'errrrah, let's not toll'him wit da'baby, ok?
~Editilla decrillas~Everyone Packing for Mardi Gras must have King Cake every morning before stepping out into it.

Rat Race Wars:
New York Over New Orleans
~By building mini-models of city layouts at the Tel Aviv University Research Zoo, Prof. Eilam and his colleagues found that grid-like city layouts — like that of Manhattan — are much more rat- and people-friendly than cities with unstructured and winding streets, like those in New Orleans.
~Ratitilla begs for change~ Yeah, well, aside from the big mistake in this research for not including the 3rd Dimension of Rat Living that has made New York Rats such vicious sociopaths, to wit: the ability to Go Down Deep Beneath the Naked City, New Orleans Rats are obviously smarter than New Your Rats because they have a more Complex Cognitive Resonance (CCR) goin'on down'heah, within such an arguably reso'phonic environ. Though our Rats also display a bit o'dat Complex Cognitive Dissonance (CCD) goin'on too, Ratitilla remains hopeful that we can also win that racewar between population and rythmystical density.

Proposal for New Orleans charter school for disabled children is withdrawn
~Sarah Carr

What Bush Forgot About the Katrina Event~Harry Shearer

Architects present concept for redeveloping New Orleans riverfront~Jen DeGregorio
~Editilla Krewellas~
We surely hope that these talented developers and architects working with superhipster Sean Cummings can save us from this clear and present danger to public safety.

Jindal announces major state support for local levees
~Robert Zullo

Gov. Bobby Jindal visited breaks ground on Morganza-to-the-Gulf levee ~Mark Schleifstein

Corps decides on "unsafe" gates for waterway~Sheila Grissett

A breakthrough in water war? Agreement may be possible
~The Anniston Star

Judge Walker picks up the drum and issues new marching order in Gagne v State Farm ~slabbed

Recovery continues after TVA ash spill~Andrea Hall
~But in the midst of the testing and spill in Kingston, arsenic was found in the water just over the border of Alabama near TVA's Widow's Creek Fossil Plant, after a spill occurred on January 9.
It has been reported by the TVA Web site that both sites drinking water is safe and meet standards.
Gregory Button, an anthropology professor at UT, has been studying disasters for the past 30 years and traveled to the sight of the spill. "In terms of toxic contamination there are certain chemicals that are undisputable harmful particularly in large quantities and we are beginning to see that might be a problem," Button said. As of right now Button said we don't understand the magnitude of the problem yet so people that live in close proximity will have live with that uncertainty or leave.

Michael "Jerk'Ya" Chertoff: Military ready if drug gangs cross border

Mrs. Francis Toomy’s Fresh Corn and Shrimp Chowder

Film Krewe
~Noah Bonaparte Pais

The New Orleans Jazz Centennial Celebration and the French Market
January 13th through 18th
~Editilla T'n'T~Cistizen K

'Come out and have a funky good time' New Orleans' Porter Baptiste Stoltz will bring jazz to Bennie's Boom Boom Room

Mercredi

What New Orleans Lost in Cayne ~Karen Dalton-Beninato

BREAKING LEVEE NEWS:
Marinello's 'piece' to pen tell-all book

Creationism ban stripped, exorcized, from rules by fun'mentalists d'oh'minions of Darth Mon'Jindal

Being Bob Cerasoli
~Kevin Allman

New Orleans' 2007 census figure to be revised upward by 50,000

Good Job Brownie: Bushie’s remarks invite a blizzard of editorial reaction. Historical forecast? Ask the ghost of Herbert Hoover ~slabbed

Gulf Civic Works: Last chance for Gulf recovery? ~Facing South

Army Corps of Engineers' delays outrage state lawmakers
~Mark Schleifstein

Waggaman residents oppose corps' borrow pit proposal
~Paul Rioux

Is the Problem with Finger- Pointing That We're Using the Wrong Finger? ~Harry Shearer

Dam discharge that swamped Pacific, WA spurs finger-pointing

We misread the river, Army engineers admit, Corps officals embarrassed, apologetic over Pacific flooding~Mike Archbold

Take the Levees.org challenge ~Humid Haney

Crude Reality: How Long Can Oil Stay Down?~Andrew Mickey

FATA, North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan: Threat Center of the World ~SEMP

Beyond Marriage: Broader Implications and Unforeseen Consequences of State Defense of Marriage Acts~Tulane Journal of Law & Sexuality

Writers learn about Cajun Mardi Gras~William Johnson
~While in St. Landry Parish, the group of writers from California, Indiana, New York and Canada, learned about rural Cajun Mardi traditions, which are more about costumed horse riders and chasing chickens than throwing beads from floats.

Abita brewery tank explodes
~Jeff Adelson

JEEZ De'Jesus!

African Americans and the Future of New Orleans

RISOTTO WITH SALAMI AND BORLOTTI BEANS

- makes 6 to 8 servings - Editilla T'n'T~Serious Eats

Reprinted from The New Mediterranean Diet Cookbook by Nancy Harmon Jenkins.

Ingredients

3/4 cup borlotti or other speckled beans, soaked overnight
4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 large onion, halved and thinly sliced
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/3 to 1/2 pound salami, skin removed, chopped coarsely
1 1/2 cups Italian short-grain, such as arborio, vialone nano, or carnaroli rice
1/2 cup well-flavored dry white wine
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons freshly grated parmigiano reggiano cheese, or more if you wish

Procedure

1. Add the drained beans to a saucepan with 2 1/2 cups of water. Bring to a simmer and cook gently, covered, until the beans are tender—about 40 minutes. Add a little more boiling water from time to time if necessary to keep the beans from scorching. When the beans are done, set aside, but do not drain.

2. Bring the stock to a gently simmer and keep just below the boiling point while you prepare the risotto.

3. In a large heavy-duty saucepan, combine the onion and garlic with the oil and cook, stirring, over medium-low heat until the onion slices and garlic are softened. Stir in the chopped salami and the rice. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes or until the bits of salami are softened and the rice is well coated with the fat in the pan. Add the white wine, raise the heat slightly, and cook more rapidly, until the rice has absorbed the wine.

4. Stir in the beans with their cooking liquid and continue cooking until most of the bean liquid has been absorbed. Now cover the contents of the pan with a ladle or two of the not quite simmering broth, stirring to mix well. As the rice absorbs the broth, keep adding more, a ladle or two at a time, stirring as you do so, until the rice is done. The rice should always be just barely swimming in liquid but never awash and never let to dry out.

5. When the rice is done but still al dente, remove from the heat, taste, and add salt and pepper. Then stir in the 2 tablespoons of cheese, cover the pan and set aside, away from the heat, for 5 minutes or so to combine all the flavors well. Serve the rice, if you wish, with more grated cheese on the side.

Expanded SIGGRAPH Computer Animation Festival in 2009

Literary events in New Orleans ~Susan Larson

One-Named Guitarist Honors One-Eyed Pianist~Marc Silver

The Blue Note 7: Mosaic
~Between the Grooves

Mardi~30 Grand!

Heckuva Job Bushie!, Easy Internet Activism Experiment
(And more thoughts on Katrina, the Left, and New Orleans)
~We Could Be Famous
Can't be said enough...


Bushwacked: Bushie goes down swinging. Deaf dumb and blind ’till the bitter end ~slabbed

TVA Disaster Spreads Far and Wide~Erin Brockovich and Robin Greenwald

Archbishop comments on New Orleans parish evictions
~“A parked police car in front of a church on a Sunday morning? Where are we, in Russia?” asked one parishioner.
~“I believe that we tried to do this in a profoundly spiritual way,” Archbishop Hughes said yesterday. “We had made every effort to persuade people voluntarily to leave.”

Where Hope Died~Burning Cane
~When President Obama assumes his office there is at least one great American city that he has yet to earn the trust of. He must convince the disillusioned people of New Orleans that although the government has failed them before it will not happen again.

It's Carnival Time!
~Louisiana Weekly

Art Killers and Mercury
in Retrograde ~PWALLY
Apartment buildings sprouting on Mid-City corridor in New Orleans~Kate Moran

Analysis: Louisiana budget cuts reveal little pain
~Melinda Deslatte

Ecosystem Restoration as Infrastructure–MRGO, Part 3
~Quinta Scott

Ascension Parish looking for drainage relief~Cheryl Mercedes

Season a mixed bag for La. sugar cane farmers~Becky Bohrer

Deal would see New Orleans' Saenger Theatre reopen by 2011~Michelle Krupa

Corps of Engineers talks down to small town Iowa about the stupidity of trusting Corps engineering.~Residents of Iowa and the Midwest learned important lessons about Corps Competency during this past summer's catastrophic flooding. Now, as the Corps of Engineers deliberately flooded little towns in Washington State this weekend, they are extending their Corps Office of Corporate Communications (COCCs) around the country to further Spin the cause of those failures back onto the tax-payer: Corps officials were asked IF they personally owned property in Park View Terrace (below the failed Coralville Damn) and IF they knew the information provided Saturday whether they would stay.
Although the corps' policy is to never tell people where they should or should not live, "I would not," said Ron Fournier, chief of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Rock Island District corporate communications. "I live on a hill."
~Editilla Gross'tellas~
Ron Fournier is a Public Affairs Director (PAD) fo'da Corps Office of Corporate Communications (COCCs). Gentle'rillas will hear more of this PAD COCC in the near future as ASCECORPS pumps up their COCCs' Spring Rut of Accepting Risk of Failure in American Civil Engineering across the nation. Ron Fourneir could not engineer his way out of a flooded outhouse.

Roast Suckling Pig opportunity in New Orleans -Sat, Jan 17th



Layla the dog is sooo good!
~Cupcake Takes The Cake

Lil' Wayne Donates $200,000 To Hurricane Katrina Relief Project

'American Routes' marks 10 years with concert, broadcast from New Orleans

Lundi

Momentum continues for switch to charters~Steven Maloney

No Man's Land~Chris Kirkham

Artists gather to support "David's House"

Oscar Grant III, Adolph Grimes III and the Outmoded Outrage Debate~Ethan Brown

What to Do When the Bishop is Wrong? 5 Options (Though Most Might Not Work)~Errol Laborde

Kimball to take oath as 1st female chief justice~Allen Johnson Jr.

BYOB and celebrate RICO Settlement~slabbed

Engineers survey damage to levees in Pacific, WA
~Army engineers: Sorry for the man-made flood

High court to hear dispute over Alaska gold mine
"The whole reason Congress passed the Clean Water Act was to stop turning our lakes and rivers into industrial waste dumps," Waldo said. "The Bush administration selected the Kensington mine to test the limits of the Clean Water Act."
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued a permit for waste disposal at the proposed Kensington mine north of Juneau in '05.
Under the plan, tailings would be dumped into Lower Slate Lake.

Gold mine wants court to OK dumping waste in Alaska lake ~Matthew Daly
~But mining company lawyer Theodore Olson told justices that the waste is more accurately defined as "fill." And, after a decade or more of mining, he said, the lake could be restocked with no permanent harm to the environment. "There will be more fish in a bigger lake, and more livable conditions for the fish and the aquatic life after this process is finished," Olson said.
Justice David Souter called that logic "Orwellian." He said the mining company, Coeur Alaska Inc., and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which granted a permit for the mine, were "defining away" the problem by calling the wastewater discharge fill.

Guerrilla Tactics at Oil-Lease Auction, Activist Drives Up Prices With Bidding~Karl Vick

Keeping home life-support up when power goes out
~Lauran Neergaard

Students at Loyola University New Orleans Gain High-Performance Wireless

Co-op provides resources to musicians, filmmakers
~Jason Brown

“The Bad Lieutenant:
Port of Calls New Orleans”
Scored by Mark Isham

The Ensemble Theatre Presents World Premiere of the Man Who Saved New Orleans

Derek Trucks Band – 'Already Free'~Squeeze My Lemon

Dimanche

The fact that he was born on Valentine's Day should not be ignored~Big Red Cotton

Houston Mayor Asks Black Leadership To Assist In Addressing Black on Black Homicide Problem

Save Bayou Saint John!
~Gentilly Girl

"Rome is fully aware"
~Your Right Hand Thief

Line Up Flood Suckers!
Mark Shiftstein sayz bend over New Orleans, open mouth wide, the Corps of Engineers is hiring and has jobs for everyone!
~Editilla Dixclosas~Our repugnance and viruently nauseous eruction to this piece of Corps Public Relations Ass Buff (CPRAB) led Editilla to the toilet twice before emailing this Corps Whore to ask him how he takes his tea. Since I have had real trouble even posting this heinious garbage journalism for fear of drawing vultures to the Ladder, I will offer you (some) this post en lieu correspondence to Mxr. Shiftstein (he responded only once)
Mr. Shleifstein,
why don't you just go hire yourself out to the Corps down at Prytania Street.
This article in the Sunday TP is unforgivable in its parroting the Corps Word without ANY context of investigation.
The Corps is bad enough but you folks are far more dangerous to the public.
This piece is absolute Corps Public Relations, replete with contact link at the bottom above your name.
Hell, they spend enough on Public Relations people, considerably more of my taxes than you are getting paid by the TP. So, I would like to see you employed by them as a copy writer. That is essentially all you are doing at the TP anyway and for half the money.
You need to hang up your pen and go work for the Corps officially.
All the work you appear to have done in your Wetlands pieces is thrown into a completely different light now.
Goddamn you and all your kind who continue to pose as journalists in order to distract us from the real threats to our county and its citizens. You are going to Hell and I will be there waiting for you.
Editilla

~Response~
Thanks for your note.
So it's not news that the corps is going to be bidding out these contracts?
It would be better if they didn't raise the levees higher?
Local businesses who might want to bid on the work shouldn't be provided with information on how to do so?
Mark Schleifstein
~Retarts~
Do your job, Mark. Follow the money. Study those contracting procedures. This is horse shit. Bidding my ass. Come on Mark. Why can't you do your job?
All Corps All the Time.
Editilla
~Mark,
Goddamn you and your Shock Doctrine Disaster Capitalism. Who gets those contracts? What local firms? You mentioned "out of town satellite offices". Do you even know anything about the local Civil Engineering scene in and around New Orleans? This is creepy. You are clueless as to who gets these contracts and how. These are the same procedures used in the decades before their structures failed on 8/29.
Again, you should be working for the Corps officially instead of trying to pass yourself off as anything close to an independent journalist.
I have given you way more benefit of the doubt and you continue to publish Corps Fluff PR.
In the meantime, hurricane season is coming again.
~Mark,
I have been reading your fluff piece over and over. I literally no lie had to go throw up. Vomit. Can you tell me how this works? Does the Corps just hand you a media package and you just print it under your byline as a journalist for the only daily news paper in New Orleans? The jobs angle, the stimulus package, the flood risks statements, the notice that the Corps is hiring... how does this work? Do they pay you on the side or what? Really, why are you so in their pocket?

Flooded WA residents angry
~Apparently the Corps of Engineers did not anticipate that opening a dam during record flooding would add to the record flooding flood level... or something like that. I can't tell, ask Mark Shiftstein at the Times Picayune. He knows the Corps Issues.
One thing is for sure, the Corps will have a lot of jobs available for this fuck up too, eh Mark Shiftstein?

3 WA rivers remain at flood stage

Feds vague on city uranium site, Corps of Engineers downplays risk~Dan Stockman
~Almost four years after saying they would examine the site, federal officials are still unsure whether they will clean up the radioactive legacy of their atomic weapons program.

Jindal, La. political leaders want to tap oil royalties
~Maya Rodriguez

Tennessee: Costly spill cleanup spurs debate over who pays ~Dave Flessner

Oyster gardening on Alabama coast~Garry Mitchell

Oberstar’s Infrastructure Bill May Define the Transit Equation

Is a 'Katrina-Like' Space Storm Brewing?~Science Pal

Six reasons to love the downtown public library
~Daneeta Loretta Jackson

RUBARB: LiteracyAmeriCorps Helps Rebuild 9th Ward Bicycles

Mardi gras a month early taste of Music, Sophia's Place
~blogtalkradio

'American Routes' makes its way to audiences on new double CD