Saturday, August 1, 2009

Samedi

Children in Gaza attempt to set Guinness world record!

Beware of Louisiana beaches!?!
~Robert Zullo

~The report comes as eight of 10 beaches at Grand Isle and Fourchon remain under a bacteria advisory for high levels of enteroccocus and fecal coliform bacteria.
For much of this month, including last weekend’s Grand Isle International Tarpon Rodeo, which drew anywhere from 15,000 to 20,000 visitors to the island, the majority of local beaches were under the advisories.
Photo Above: Enterococcus faecalis
Photo Right: Fecal coliform bacteria
~Editilla Zenzuellas~ Shit Happens, eh?

Culture and Race in New Orleans
~Harry Shearer
~On a larger scale, the city made a statement early on about itself and its culture when the first Mardi Gras after the flood took place, despite the well-intentioned warnings of many that it was "sending the wrong signal".
New Orleans held that Carnival--a wounded, rollicking two-week display of righteous civic sarcasm against all who had failed the city--because, as so many folks here said, "that's what we do".
~Editilla Notellas~ These are different conversations in a TPM Cafe' discussion of Plenty Enough Suck To Go Around. Please fang around and check out the others.

Johnny Adriani catches LSU
"fly in the ointment", LSshUfly!
~SaveCharityHospital.com


More homes rebound from Katrina~John Pope

Mayor: FEMA’s method to label flood areas awry~Bob Anderson
DENHAM SPRINGS — Mayor Jimmy Durbin has challenged proposed new federal flood maps that he said could result in some residents needlessly having to purchase flood insurance.
“Base flood elevations were changed on the flood maps without performing a new flood study,” Durbin says in a letter to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“When verified by our engineering firm through field surveys, the flood maps have been proven to have discrepancies between” proposed new benchmarks and the old benchmarks, the letter states. FEMA officials are reviewing the letter but have not responded, FEMA spokeswoman Cindy Wirz said.

Flood Mitigation and Risk: For every benefit there is a cost. Free lunches are only available in Oz ~slabbed

City Park projects will get $4.3 million from state
~Amber Sandoval-Griffin


Cemetery scandal creates 'a real sense of betrayal' of black history
~Rupa Shenoy


East St. Louis and Vicinity Hydrogeomorphic Project
~Quinta Scott

~Old Channel, Cahokia Creek, Abandoned
~Editilla Photobellas!~ That is a picture of a photograph,
not a painting, or a window through your computer into Nature.
However, that may be a slight breeze down the back of your memory, even the smell of fresh mud between your toes, a thrill
of learning to swim where we called them "Narrows" or "Bogues",
yet Missouri Yankees call'em "Bottoms". Editilla jus'sayin...
the photograph is That Good when it can leave a taste in yer'mouf.

New Orleans’ indoor plantation
~Emilie Bahr


Robin Boudreaux in Chicago

New Orleans great Toussaint feted in hometown
~Stacey Plaisance


WWOZ Servin'up Satchmo Fest!

Visit to Louis Armstrong's home in Queens reveals parallels with Kermit Ruffins' experience
~Larry Blumenfeld


Jus'sayin... ya'gotta be...FLEXIBLE! Talent smooth to the fine.

Friday, July 31, 2009

Vendredi~Extra!

The Mississippi River delta – what the corps knew and when they knew it!~LaCoastPoast
H/T~Eric Rapp

Louisiana officials recommend ways to reform Corps of Engineers' levee and coastal restoration work
~Mark Schleifstein

H/T~Levees.org

Conflicting policies have stalled coastline restoration, leaders say
~Jen DeGregorio


Vital La. oil port left vulnerable to hurricanes~Cain Burdeau

Vendredi

A search for New Orleans' best snowball ~Kathy Price-Robinson
~An employee pours two more flavors of syrup into a cup of fluffy snow at Pandora’s in New Orleans.
But don’t mistake it for a snowcone.
~Silly Editilla Snnnnow'tellas!

New Orleans author Tom Piazza on the importance of Charity
~SaveCharityHospital.com


Notes from New Orleans: Federal Lawsuit Moved to NOLA
~Walter Gallas

~"We learned Tuesday that the federal court has ruled that the case the National Trust for Historic Preservation filed against FEMA and the Department of Veterans Affairs in DC federal court in May will be transferred to New Orleans federal district court.
Our suit maintains that the two federal agencies violated the National Environmental Policy Act when they OK’d the develop- ment of hospitals for Louisiana State University and Veterans Affairs in the Lower Mid-City neighborhood of New Orleans."

Babar for President? Seriously
~Matt Mackowiak

~Mississippi Gov. Haley Babar has shown he knows how to maneuver his way through a bad storm.
While leaders in neighboring Louisiana bickered about who loused up the recovery there from Hurricane Katrina, Babar was taking bows for his work in Mississippi and cruising to re-election with a higher margin than four years earlier. What? Oh! Well... jus'sayin

Among Babar's other associates are the monkey Zephir, the old elephant counsellors Cornelius and Pompadour (Pompadour was created for the Babar TV series), his cousin Arthur, and his children, Pom, Flora and Alexander. Later, a second daughter, Isabelle, was introduced. The Old Lady comes to live in the Kingdom as an honoured guest. Despite the presence of these counsellors, Babar's rule seems to be totally independent of any elected body, and completely autocratic, however his leadership style seems to be one that works for the overall benefit of his elephant subjects; a form of "gentle authoritarianism".

RE-Starting Today
~Our New Orleans Saints


Success through low expectation ~C.B. Forgotston

Stimulus Hypocrisy:
Louisiana Style~CenLamar


Contractors say stimulus has been slow to kick in
~Mark Trumbull

~The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provides $4.6 billion for the US Army Corps of Engineers, but the Corps has spent just $84 million of that so far.

State Bond Commission approve $67 million in bonds for
New Orleans area projects
~Ed Anderson


Port Sulphur couple asks U.S. Supreme Court to hear 'bad faith' Katrina case against State Farm
~Further Extensive Coverage at Slabbed

Immigrant detainees hunger strike over conditions
~John Moreno Gonzales


My Kindle ate my homework: lawsuit filed over 1984 deletion
~John Timmer
~A suit filed on Amazon's home turf claims that the company's recent deletion of e-books from consumers' Kindles violates its contract with users and constitutes computer fraud.

Kempenfest Marks Artist's Katrina Recovery~This weekend marks the thirty-fourth annual Kempenfest, but for one artist there, the occasion marks another milestone. As the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaches, glass artist Nicole Kibath feels that, with her participation in Kempenfest, she is starting to hit her stride for the first time since the storm.

From animators to students, N.O. computer graphics conference to have diverse turnout ~Stephen Maloney
~New Orleans' digital media industry might not be that of Silicon Valley or Los Angeles, but the birthplace of Jazz is a perfect fit for the 2009 SIGGRAPH computer graphics conference.

Terence Blanchard's new CD explores the concept of "Choices"
~Keith Spera


Curtain to open again on a Carver Theater in New Orleans
~Don Ames, WWL

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Jeudi

Oui'Louie! The Ninth Annual Satchmo SummerFest Is On!
~Stuart South, native New Orleanian, captures the glow and brilliance of Satchmo's spirit within the 9th Annual Satchmo SummerFest Poster. South studied fine art at UNO and Tulane University.
The four-day Satchmo Summerfest begins with a keynote address by Robert O'Meally, founder and former director of the Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University in New York.~AP

Louis Armstrong: If the walls of dilapidated New Orleans buildings could talk ...
~John McCusker


Satchmo Summerfest stages will be filled with musicians who learned their skills at home
~Alison Fensterstock


Yard signs and Bumper Stickers still available
~SaveCharityHospital.com


Tauzin Say He Big PHARMA Geauwanna Drug You Up!

Keeping score #6 – Plaintiffs leading 2-0 on Protective Orders until Walker called Spragins safe on a foul! ~slabbed

White House decides conduct Beer Summit with 1st Daughters' Barbie Beach House Furniture

New Orleans data center annual report shows mixed recovery, economic trends in past year
~Michelle Krupa


Corps must study 'pump to the river,' U.S. Senate amendment says~Mark Schleifstein

Locals cite need to reform the U.S. Army Corps

~Nikki Buskey


U.S.: Levee Uncertainty Weighs on Katrina's Displaced
~Matthew Cardinale


Hackometer: 8,235.0 miles
~Crescent City Hack


Offshore drilling ruling doesn't apply to Gulf

Sen. Dorgan Anticipates Easy Conference on Energy and Water Bill~NYTimes

FEMA's fuzzy chain of command impedes its mission

Some Terrebonne bayou libraries could be at risk
~Naomi King


Senate passes bill to close Nevada's Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site
~LA Times


The Citadel: Europe’s First Floating Apartment Complex
~Bridgette Meinhold


New Orleans Burlesque Festival gets the spotlight in September
~Ann Maloney


New Orleans Cake Cafe and Bakery
~My Life In Cake


Terence Blanchard Group: Live in New Orleans ~all about Jazz

The Neville Brothers, Dr. John, The Lower 911 @ Austin Music Hall 7/31~Austin 360

New Orleans Helsinki Connection at Snug Harbor Tonight~New Orleans Music

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Mercredi~What Hump Day

Editor of Times Picayune replies to readers on Corps Internet Scandal ~Levees.org~T-Ps down the public's leg like punk'dog with bad Amoss.
~Editilla bites da'billet wit'a 50lb rat'bat~
T-P Editor Jim Amoss responded to these questions with no response, which is still possible these days with the invention of the non sequitur. What gets Editilla's Goat is the way Poor Amoss shows the unmitigated gall to play the Victim Card in a fey attempt to trump the Survivor Card, to wit: the "We stayed for the Storm so How Dare you think We would "coddle" the Corps" misnomer. I am assured by former employees that this Editor is much much smarter than this.
Yeah, so Jim Amoss saw dead people too, eh?
Different ghosts for different boasts I suppose, but...
The problem here is not one of insult, but of Corps' violation of Federal Code governing Computer Fraud on Federal Property.
It would be way'mo'betta if Editor Amoss could suck it up and answer Questions of Culpability and Conspiracy After The Fact,
--rather than crying Mommy over Spilled Lake Water.
I'm sorry, but it just makes me Tremble when people try to pull that logic'rape equivalency horse shit.
I too survived that Flood in the City, and in fact laid eyes on the T-P headquarters building. That is precisely why they don't get the benefit of the doubt when they take Corps Flood Funding for Advertisements and yet seem to miss things like the Big Leak at the 17th Street Canal (until we raised Hell) or how they have admittedly catered to the Article Placement Whims of the Corps $5 Million PR firm: OPP, or became goddamn flood wall filler for the Corps of Engineers!

In the interest of Full Dixcloz'ya, Editilla wanna'tollya...
WE LOVES the journalists at the T-P/nola.com, and spend an inordinate amount of time following them throughout each and every day. No Lie. Gentle'rillas find their names hung all over this Ladder with Honor and Affection. I could list them all or just the few who really put a Flea Up Editilla's Bum, but suffice to tag the one I follow the most and who is absent from Poor Amoss' links:
Mark Schleifstein.
I call him Big Schleif.
He walks The Line.
He is for me Editillero Gumshoe, Gonzo Gold Standard,--real beat reporting the way they used to do it.
Mark Schleifstien is Better than Pulitzer.
The men and women of the T-P reporters are definitely top of the pack nationally regarding covering our fare city. BUT...
it appears that their feckless editors have corps issues.
Talk about the Death of Gutenberg, Press Rolling in his Grave!
How Ironic that Poor Amoss failed to mention that he, the boss, was busted by the city's preeminent TV station: WWLTV,
--or even that they got to bust him again, when former nola.com Founding Editor Jon Donley came out with his sworn affidavit citing over 700 instances of Federal Code violation at the T-P AFTER Col Alvin Lee publicly apologized claiming to stop it.
WWL performs Real Journalism.
They do things like Follow-Up, Context. They ask their Own Questions. And, WWL watches our Friggin'Backs thank you.
WWL also does not carry Any Corps Adverts --either on the tube or on their website. Editilla asked them many times lemme toll'ya.
WWL politely demurred, "No. We don't do That Sort of Thing," while the T-P/nola.com laughed at yer'oh'so humble Editilla --and yet is up to their ass in COPPPR (Corps OPP Public Relations) money. So is it true or not, do you really get what you pay for?

Poor Amos forgets that Reckdahl tried to portray her former editor Donley as an "internet consultant". Editor Schmeditor.
How quaint, disarming. Y'all remember that, right? Grrr...
The T-P tried to pitch a Grease Ball Slider. Oh silly Editilla!
Poor Amoss links to the very faux journalist's redirect below!
...after two editorial opinions and a letter to the editor...
Yeah, right... coverage my ass, covered like a Rat Bag Diaper!
We can see who stands on which side of the failing levees.
How dare James Amoss insult us with such Schoolyard Peccary.
It is my deep admiration for the Craft of Journalism and the People who practice it at the Times-Picayune that drives this issue home for me, makes Editilla crazier than a Drunken Hornet!
This is important. Our major local news paper does not need to sell out its journalists to the Corps of Engineers.
These days of crumbling print media business models offer a stark choice to any Editor, to wit: Are they part of the problem or part of the solution? Very simple, Get Clear Or Die.
InFormation is Artifacts not Politics. We can handle da'truf!

Editilla would like to thank Editor Amoss for deigning to respond to literally hundreds of letters asking WTF, but WTF difference does it make if he just wants to Blow More Smoke Up Our Ass?
If this is James Amoss' idea of Editorial Leadership, then we can certainly understand why former Editor in Chief Jon Donely would prefer to go milk real goats!
Indeed, here we can separate the Goats from the Sheepfakirs.
Here is Poor Amoss' retart, (with special thanks to Jay).
But I must correct this "editor" on his portrayal of T-P "coverage of this story" to more of Response to Getting Busted --hardly Coverage of possible Corps Felony at the T-P.
Editilla would also like to see Mr Amoss give the Name
of "the person who is spreading those allegations."
Come on, Jim, you know that dog don't hunt! HA! Really.
I mean, for me, the thing about "Allegations" is this: If you've got the balls (or ova) then you need to Put Up or Shut Up,
Pull Out or Get Out, Get Down or Sit Down!
Dear readers who have written to me in the past several days,

I am the editor of the 172-year-old daily newspaper of New Orleans. We pride ourselves on intensely local coverage of the New Orleans metro area. Most of us, myself included, stayed in our New Orleans newsroom during Hurricane Katrina. All of us were deeply and personally stricken as we watched the floodwalls of the drainage canals, shoddily engineered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, collapse and inundate our city. We were and continue to be in the vanguard of coverage of what went wrong, who was responsible and how a recurrence can and should be prevented. When an aspect of that story broke last fall -- Corps employees sending negative comments about stories critical of the Corps posted on NOLA.com, our affiliated web site -- we covered it. Please see the list of related stories at the end of this message.

I am a native New Orleanian. I deeply love my city. My parents and my brother lost their houses in Katrina. It took my wife and me two years to restore ours, in the Bayou St. John area. The editor of NOLA.com, James O'Byrne, had to have his Lakeview house demolished after it sat, inundated, for weeks.

The notion that either James or I or anyone in our news operations would deliberately withhold information lest it upset the Corps is both preposterous and deeply offensive. Therefore, please forgive me if I choose not to respond to or engage in dialog with
the person who is spreading those allegations.

However, you who have written and who are readers of The Times-Picayune deserve to hear back from me. For those who know our newspaper only from a distance, I hope to acquaint you better with who we are and what we stand for. The following are links to material we've published relating to the Corps emails:


Http://blog.nola.com/editorials/2008/12/the_corps_responsibility.html

http://blog.nola.com/jarvisdeberry/2008/12/snipers_lurking_at_the_corps.html

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/letterstoeditor/index.ssf?/base/news-14/1246425619220660.xml&coll=1

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/metro/index.ssf?/base/news-34/1245389035317980.xml&coll=1


If this story develops further, we will cover it, though, like most newspapers I'm familiar with, we don't discuss in advance what stories we're working on or what issues we're investigating.

If any of you wish to follow up on this message, I'll do my best to reply.

Thank you for your abiding interest in New Orleans and in The Times-Picayune.

Sincerely,

Jim Amoss, editor
The Times-Picayune
3800 Howard Ave.
New Orleans LA 70125
Special thanks fo'da paper~Masqued E'vinga!

What Makes a Natural Disaster Worse? When it's Man-Made
~Harry Shearer


Wednesday meeting in Houma will address reforming the Army Corps

Terrebonne levee board conducts annual inspection trip

~Nikki Buskey


"American politics has jumped the shark"~Cliff's Crib

Afghan presidential candidate hires James Carville?~NPR
~Ghani says he's also taking advice from U.S. Democratic Party strategist James Carville about "staying on message."
"Part of the discipline of campaigning is to stay focused, to be able to deliver one's core messages in a consistent manner,"
he says. And, he adds, laughing, "New Orleans is not very different from Afghanistan" — referring to Carville's roots and Louisiana's reputation for political corruption.
~Editilla Ha'ha Go'rillaz ~Funny Little Rug'Rat Who'dat! Buuut, Who shares the Needle?

La. 49th in child welfare?
~Sarah Chacko


OH! So That's How Gravity Work
~We Could Be Famous


U.S. Senate May Drop Public Healthcare Option

United Nations Group Studying Forced Evictions
~SaveCharityHospital.com


Cenla.org~CenLamar

Drew Brees is Deathly Hollow
~Library Chronicles


Late-starting hurricane seasons
~Jeff Masters, Wunderblog


One more Day! One more Day fo- da'Wonderful Woild, Oui'Louie!

Stephen Marley and more music in New Orleans~Keith Spera

Trombone Shorty closes out '09 Summer of Jazz~John Stroud

Mountainside Mardi Gras Adds New Artists for Red Rocks

Allen Toussaint and Marcia Ball to play Bass Performance Hall on September 11~Pegasus News

George Russell, 1923-2009
~Rifftides

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Mardi

U.S: Four Years Post-Katrina, Levee Protection Still Elusive
~Matthew Cardinale


When Will the Army Corps Be Held Accountable?
~Pierce O'Donnell


Brig. Gen. Michael "Yes'Mam" Walsh Gonna'Pump You Up ~Tales from Underdike

Lake group presses fight to save coast~Sheila Grissett
-Corps Advertorial Warning!

Pipeline spill releases 59,000 gallons of crude into Gulf
~Robert Zullo


Child-Governor Jindal parrots privatizing as solution to La. woes~Michelle Millhollon

“Explosive” News in La. US Senate Race?
~Jim Brown's Blog


If you don’t stand for something you’ll fall for anything – Plaintiffs’ growing opposition to State Farm Protective Orders ~slabbed

CenLamar goes AfterBirthers

Challenges to Anti-Concurrent Cause Clauses Linger in Katrina Lawsuits~Robert Redfearn, Jr.

Sale of New Orleans 'GO-Zone' bonds not going well
~Becky Bohrer


Data Centers Go Underground
~Robert L. Mitchell


Road Trip Evacuation: My Family's Experience Evacuating for Katrina~Laurel Smith
~H/T~Survival Mom


Moishe House has become a nexus for young Jews working in New Orleans recovery
~Bruce Nolan


Couple rebuilds green after Katrina ~Tammy Smith

New Orleans, Storyville and Billie Holiday
~Clean Living in Difficult Times

~The photographer E.J.Bellocq is famous for having taken a series of haunting images of Storyville prostitutes, the negatives of which were discovered hidden in a sofa and first published in 1971.
In many of Bellocq's images the prostitutes wear masks or have had their faces scratched out on the negatives to conceal their identity. Some of the photographs are posed as if the subjects are acting out some strange and mysterious narrative, and more than a few of these scenes are suggestive of Erzulie Freda Dahomey and her mysteries. A few of the women are posed next to collections of objects that almost look like altars, as if the prostitutes were devotees of Our Lady.


~Past-Life Cameo by Entrebeaux Sean Cummings?

Spiff Entrepreneux

Architecture students are learning the dying art of touching up New Orleans' tombs
~Molly Reid


Brooklyn cemetery commissions new sculpture to honor
Louis Moreau Gottschalk
~Chris Waddington


After the Stink Goes Away...
~Charles Figley


Tough Haul for The Big Easy
Part 1~Righteous Minds


"New Orleans All the Way Live" is a weekly radio show produced by George Ingmire about the food, festivals, and culture of the Crescent City, sponsored by the New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation. Each hour-long show features live music recorded by WWOZ, as well as audio features on the local events and cuisine of New Orleans.

Today's ANTI-Calendar

Shamarr Allen Announces “Silence is Violence” Music Clinics~New Orleans Music

Get a Room
~John Swenson, offBeat

~The swagger in Jeremy Davenport’s step is a little more exaggerated these days. He’s riding high on the success of his residence at the Ritz-Carlton on Canal Street, a new album— We’ll Dance ’Til Dawn —and the prospect of establishing a foothold in the New York City club scene at the Huckleberry Bar in Williamsburg.

JazzFest is looking for bands to perform at next spring's event
~Masako Hirsch