Samedi

Corps Public Relations Gets Giant West Bank Pump Station Celebration Under Way
~Friday's event capped a week in which the corps held a three-day closed-door summit at a Metairie hotel (?) to brainstorm ways to cut $200 million to $300 million from the project to keep it under budget. (???)
Tom Podany, chief of the corps' protection and restoration office, said it's unclear whether the goal was met because the corps is still reviewing the proposals. "This is part of the normal process of doing cost containment and trying to find the best value," he said. "We're looking at different construction techniques to keep the project under budget and on schedule."
~Editilla Gotta'Ax, WTF? Nola.opp strikes again!
~4 years, FOUR GODDAMN YEARS, after their structures failed and flooded New Orleans, the Corps is still playing the Funding Shell Game --and is now holding secret meetings in Metarie Hotel Rooms to do their Budget Work??? Oh For Crying Out Loud. What The Fucking Hell? Who goes to a Metarie Hotel room to play with $200-$300,000,000? Riiiiight, like the difference between 200 and 300 Million tax dollars is just 1 digit, chump change to the Corps of Engineers.
Did they talk about the $370,000,000 the Corps has already blown through installing defective and inoperable Hydraulic Pumps on our outfall canals? Did they discuss any of the Hundreds of Millions of dollars they have already shifted off of armoring our levees and over to Plaquamines parish?
Once again, the Corps got their Congressional Mandate. They got their funding. And, once again, they are coming in late and $300,000,000 over budget?
Someone pinch me, I'm having another nightmare. It is the same bad dream over and over, but with a revolving tormentor, this time played by a Red-Headed Public Relations Succubus Boss Lady, on top of me, holding my head under the flood water. She pierces my eardrums with her Lizard-forked tongue and hisses "Ssssilly Editilla, you sssstupid-asssss taxsss-payersss.
You all ssshould have lissstened when we weren't telling you anything! You ssshould have abandoned New Orleansss to the Rissssing Tide --just like my Exquissssite Corpssss Commander: Colonel Alvin 'NO NO Protection' Lee."

Thousands evacuated in Philippines as 4th typhoon in month hits, spins toward flooded capital~Hrvoje Hranjski

Vendredi

New Orleans: The Corps Defends the Future~Harry Shearer

Col. "NO NO Protection" Lee satisfied with local levee effort
~Nikkie Buskey~Col. Al "Give Up NO" Lee, commander of the Army Corps of Engineers New Orleans District Office, visited construction at H-3 in lower Chauvin. H-3, which workers began building in February, is the first section of the local Morganza-to-the-Gulf levee to go to construction.
Morganza-to-the-Gulf is Terrebonne’s proposed system of levees, floodgates and a lock on the Houma Navigation Canal.
The project has been snarled in federal red tape for more than a decade. After the September storms flooded lower Terrebonne and parts of Houma, the Terrebonne Levee Board and state opted to build a scaled-down version of Morganza that will cost an estimated $220 million

An Appropriate Appointment
~Thanks Katrina

Nearly $1M in roadwork begins in preparation for riverfront park~Richard A. Webster

Louisiana Restaurant Association to fight FDA plan to ban raw oysters

Are raw oysters a bigger threat to health than McDonald's fries?
~World Class New Orleans

Clown Car: Some quick notes on the Mayor's race
~We Could Be Famous

Soldier's Angels "Valour-IT" Fundraiser ~YatPundit

Storm Causes Shreveport Methodist Steeple To Crush Car With Man Inside (Photo and Links)~Opinionated Catholic

Oh, this is So Cool! Let's Play Musical Stairs! ~NOLA-dishu

Important New Paper on North Atlantic Hurricanes
~Roger Pielke Jr.

Walmart Undertaking Extra "Friendly Greeter", overkill? ~slabbed

A Review Of Shake The Devil Off
~The Chicory

English-Speaking Union conference celebrates art of biography~Susan Larson

Odd Words
~Odd Bits of Life in New Orleans

Innovation with Crawfish Sauce: What a New Orleans Nonprofit Can Teach the Rest of the Country~Melody Barnes

Anba Dol Festival, & the N.O. Healing Center~Lord David
Stanton Moore Leads Stellar Line-up at 2nd Annual Anba Dlo

Voodoo Fest 2009~Keith Spera

Cyril Neville named ambassador of Chahta Indian tribe
~Paula Devlin

One Love Festival 2009:
Tina Micula: Happy Capitalism
~Plutonian Mac

Jeudi

"Today is a good day to die",
Man barricaded in house tells
T-P reporter: ~Richard Scearce, 59, reached on his home phone, said, "I'm old, fat and crippled. I'm not going out on the streets to live. Let them come get me."
He said he heard police were having trouble contacting him on the television news. "But you can contact me," he said laughing.

Afghanistan--A Voice for the Choice Obama Has Rejected
~Harry Shearer

Louisianans react to proposed federal ban on summer oysters
~Nikki Buskey

Catching up on Katrina litigation ~slabbed

Reinventing Paradise...
New Orleans and the Invisible Coast~Robert Corsini

Mitch Landrieu Convenes Louisiana Cultural Economy Summit ~BBuzz

Entergy asks to cancel Little Gypsy coal-burning project, wants rate payers to foot the bill: $209,000,000
~Rebecca Mowbray

Analysis: Friday's Victory in Civil District Court
~Save Charity Hospital

FYYFF, Christian Moises, NO City Business "News" "Editor"
~"This whole Charity Hospital debacle — reopening it or something in its place and what to do with the building — has just gotten downright funny, but not in a good way. It has become the poster child for the flawed recovery over the past four years"
Editilla hates drive-by PR Astro'turf blogger attack- commentary masked within an Actual News Outlet.
Hey Punk "Editor", Fuck You You Fucking Fuck!
I own my Statement as Independent of SaveCharityHospital.com.
They are fine nice folks who work tirelessly for our Recovery.
This is Editilla's oh'so humble opinion of a Carpetbagger Pig Looter who would use faux journalistic public relations to car- jack our recovery and further line their nefarious baggage.
~For years, New Orleans City Business, a weekly publication in the metro area, has provided glowing editorial support for the proposed LSU/VA medical complex in spite of a broken process, numerous funding hurdles, and a series self-inflicted delays. However, it has failed to disclose to its readers a blatant conflict of interest involving LSU with its president and publisher, D. Mark Singletary.

Island Road to be rebuilt by spring~Naomi King

Y--SELA-19, Southwest Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, Widening of Florida Avenue Canal, Mazant Street to Suction Inlet of Drainage Pumping Station No. 19, Orleans Parish, LA, ED 09-177

Locals can tell feds their disaster recovery ideas in online survey
~Jonathan Tilove

TransGenRx wins hormone contract~Ted Griggs

Fairfax Third-Quarter Profit Rises on Underwriting

The Role of Design Centers in Urban Regeneration
~Fred Scharmen

White House Garden goes through 2nd major harvest
~Darlene Superville

‘Zeitoun’ as Cartoon: Demme Plans Animated Film of Eggers Book~Dave Itzkoff
~A film version of a book about a man’s true-life experiences in post-Katrina New Orleans would seem sufficiently pregnant with artistic possibility. Still, Jonathan Demme plans to take his adaption of “Zeitoun,” the best-selling Dave Eggers work, one step further by making it as an animated feature.

John Lee Hancock on his Will Smith Katrina movie and talking Sandy Bullock into Blind Side
~Editilla Rotellas~ We are really hoping to communicate to these Movie Makers the difference between Man Made and Natural Disaster, between peeing down our backs and telling us it was Katrina, between proffering the Lie of Katrina Shorthand and Telling The Real Story. That is our Hope we Float, that someone anyone will get this Message to these Creatives before they get it wrong: on 8/29/05 Hurricane Katrina Hit & Devastated Mississippi, on 8/29/05 the US Army Corps of Engineers Devastated New Orleans. This is such a simple difference that makes a difference, now that the Facts are out. But breaking the ASCECORPS PR Meme, the Lie that Katrina flooded New Orleans is proving not simple at all. We need help.
It is bad enough to have this Lie pushed now around the country by the Editor of Nola.com.
K'ville sucks admit it. But, to add major motion picture capital and distribution into this barrel of voodoo dolls cranks Editilla's bones like a nervous bitchy screw indeed.

Watch: The Saenger Theater flickers back to life~Martha Carr

Derek Trucks Band's
"Sweet Inspiration"

Mercredi

Nola.com Grows Audience, Continues to Attract Expats Post-Federal Flood
~Mallary Jean Tenore
~Editilla begs'ta Crotella~Allow us to introduce:
The Deuce of K'ville, Dealer of Katrina Shorthand, PR Punkster:
James O'Byrne, pumping his own horn, who failed to mention the man who built nola.com and to whom we owe a great dept of gratitude for keeping it rolling post flood: Jon Donley, the man who kept his ass in gear during the Deluge and thus kept me in touch with my lost friends.
This Was The Only Place To Find Anyone,or at least some word.
Jon Donley should win a Combat Pulitzer for Hangin'da Word'Up.
Mr O'Byrne came onto running nola.com after the outlet "laid off" Mr Donley, the former founder editor in chief.
I'm not saying that was a smart move or anything.
I just have a real problem with the way O'bryne continues here to try to pee down our backs and tell us it was Katrina. It wasn't Katrina as it wasn't Obryne who brought nola.com to the rescue.
It was the Flood, and it was Jon Donley.

But, all the figures and data for which Mr O'bryne is taking credit truly and actually resulted from Mr Donley's leadership before during and after the Federal Flood. You see, it wasn't the Storm, as Mr O'bryne is attempting to Miss-Frame. It was the Flood.
He is proffering what the New Orleans City Council just voted unanimously to stop: Katrina Shorthand in the Media.
It wasn't Katrina that devastated New Orleans and sent everyone running. It was the Corps of Engineers Bad Flood Walls Failing.
Natural -vs- Man Made Disaster is a difference which makes a difference --especially in regards to Mr. O'Bryne's career arc.

I can tell you this, as a voracious fan of nola.com (since the Flood) and the Times-Picyune (for a loooong time), since Mr' Obryne took over at nola.com back in February (a mere 9 months ago) I have seen the Corps Investigative Coverage drop to nearly zero.
Hell, for example, we had to drag them kicking and screaming just to do a fluff-piece on the Inoperable Pumps the Corps has installed on our outfall canals!
And still no follow-up on those Bad Pumps! Grrrr.
I don't know whether that is Amoss or O'Bryne, but so much boondoggle civil engineering has seeped under our levees due to the Corps of Engineers POST-FLOOD that it would make anyone wonder what has happened to the Times-Picayune?
We have serious problems now today with the Corps and yet nola.com would rather turn itself into a Social Networking Glory Hole along the Facebook business model.
But, Gentle'rillas, please remember one thing here, don't let O'bryne fool'yaz...to him and all Lazy Faux Journalists I say:
IT'S THE LEVEES STUPID!

Aaaiiight Now! Oyster-Ban Joke ain't funny no'mo
~FDA to ban sale of raw Gulf oysters to fight bacteria; restaurants, harvesters cry foul ~Cain Burdeau/AP

Louisiana blasts FDA plan to limit oyster production
~Chris Kirkham
~“It’s not only going to include raw oysters. You can’t fry oysters for a po-boy, you can’t put oysters in a gumbo and you can’t charbroil oysters unless they’re post-harvest processed,” said Tommy Cvitanovich, owner of Drago’s restaurant, a mainstay for oysters in the metro area. “That’s ludicrous.”

Developers Eye "Completely Destroyed" Charity Hospital
~Save Charity Hospital.com

With Charity Hospital, it's nice to see Conflicts of Interests don't enter into LSU Biased Coverage by NO City Business

Pulitzer winners to discuss Hurricane Katrina recovery
~Two journalists who were central to The Times-Picayune’s Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of Hurricane Katrina will speak at the University of Southern Mississippi Thursday, Nov. 5, as part of the College of Arts and Letters’ World of Words lecture series.

"Scabies of the heart"
~Your Right Hand Thief

The Warning: The Incredible Story of Brooksley Born. How the Financial Crisis Might Have Been Averted ~slabbed
~Editilla Notellas~ Slabbed is flat on the 50 pound Hammer today so we jus'gonna leave a general link, don'wan no major, or even private link --an'sho don'wanna get corporal on they ass.
So make sure to fang the whole page like a fresh bag'0'beignets.

Guard equipment to return from Iraq, Congress told
~Rep. Gene Taylor, who represents Mississippi, said that one of his state's National Guard units that had returned from Iraq had only 60 percent of its equipment to use when Hurricane Katrina hit. He asked if equipment currently in Iraq will be made available to state and local agencies.

Despite concerns, development still heads to the coast
~Curtis Morgan

New cell phone device offers way to communicate during disasters

Dr. Edwin H. Place’s Encounter with JFK at South Department, Boston City Hospital, 1920 ~SEMP

New Orleans Jazz Fest Volunteer Photographer Program 2010 ~NOPA

Dear Editilla, we've just finished a new video for
New Orleans poet Chuck Perkins.
If you're from New Orleans, you'll get it right away. If not, you'll get a crash course in the city's quirky and colorful street names.
We filmed this at Chickie Wah-Wah's back in May and hope to have the whole show up by the time Chuck heads to Europe in November. Enjoy - and if you like it share it! ~Ken
P.S. Please share Food Music Justice videos with your friends inside - and outside - of New Orleans.


Krewe du Vieux 2010 theme announced~Kevin Allman

Mardi

Levees.org says Corps General's Surrender of New Orleans to flooding is "Childish Cop-Out"
"Protect the city no, reduce the risk yes." ~ Lt. General Robert Van Antwerp, Chief of the US Army Corps of Engineers
~Flood control advocate Sandy Rosenthal of "levee.org" says General Van Antwerp made the statements at the Great Mississippi River symposium she also attended, last Friday in New Orleans. "For the top gun at the Corps to be saying this now is we consider a very childish cop-out," said Rosenthal.
~Rollicking Commentary Here

Watchdog group reports widespread violations in Army Corps cleanup following Katrina
~Desiree Evans

Charity Hospital floated as home for City Hall?~Rebecca Mowbray

Master plan critics call for clarity in standards~Ben Meyers

Zombie City: Public Nuisance Properties on NCDC Agenda
Nov. 2nd~Laureen Lentz

UN Special Rapporteur on Housing heads to New Orleans
~Jordan Flaherty

Chemical plants bristling at House terrorism bill
~Jeremy Alford

Slabbed always wanted to be a Contenda Sports Blog? But...

Corzine calls for legal action to prevent Corps dredging of Delaware River

Report: Amtrak loss comes to $32 per passenger
~ Kevin Freking

N.O. students write, act out their own Epic Flood Odysseys
~Sarah Carr
~The students, mostly freshmen, started by reading portions of Homer's Odyssey. Working in groups, they then wrote their own "Louisiana Epics" about heroes returning to New Orleans post-Flood. They followed the characteristics of the form: An opening invocation to a muse, vast and varied settings, a hero with superhuman powers and a fatal flaw.

Old Woman, Scorned and Laughed At, Expressionist Dance by Avanha, Part 1 & Part 2 ~Plutonium Mac

Punk rocker’s peculiar death lures pilgrims to N.O. hotel
~Richard A. Webster

George Clinton epitomizes the Voodoo Music experience
~Geraldine Wyckoff

Wednesday night brings Galactic to Starkville, MS!
~Bailey Singletary

Six Generations of Blues from Mississippi to Chicago ~WWOZ

New at Voodoo~Gambit

BOO'DAT! ~6-0 SAINTS!

Stop Katrina Shorthand Media
NOLA City Council Resolution
Passed 5-0~Levees.org


Levees.org New Bumper Sticker!
~~Jus'One Dolla! Maka You Holla!~Available Wherever Particular People Congrooviate~
~On Levee Failures and Weather Event

Now Do You Believe?~WWL

WHO'DAT!~Canal St. Chronicles
~Twitter~
reggie_bush Great Win for the Saints again! Probably our toughest test yet! Hats off to Miami Dolphins. God is good! Need to get in ice tub ASAP!!
usama_young28 6-0!!! Tough one but we pulled it out.
Thanks for the support... Who dat! One more thing...Y can't it b an icetub on the plane? Stay focusd
ChaseDaniel Who Dat nation came put in full force in Miami!
So many Saints fans there! Huge win!
robyslyfe We have the best fans in the world!!
Tha NOLA support was deep in MIAMI...hard game but as a TEAM we pulled it out..6-0 WHO DAT!!
jeffduncantp in the 1st 642 games of their existence (1967-2008), the Saints scored 45 or more points 5 times. They've done it 4 times in 6 games this yr
ChaseDaniel Just touched down in Nola...can already see the thousands of fans outside the gates flashing their lights!
reggie_bush Man Saints fans are crazy! Lol! It's at least 500 people out here waiting for us at the airport! Best fans in football!
reggie_bush Ok maybe a thousand fans!

Final hearing on New Orleans master plan to be held Tuesday

N.O. education dollars from federal stimulus package in limbo~Bruce Alpert

Corps' commander: N.O. can't be completely protected from flooding ~WWL
~Flood control advocate Sandy Rosenthal of "levee.org" says General Van Antwerp made the statements at the Great Mississippi River symposium she also attended, last Friday in New Orleans. "For the top gun at the Corps to be saying this now is we consider a very childish cop-out," said Rosenthal.

Terrebonne, Lafourche among most vulnerable climates ~Jeremy Alford
~A new study on climate change says Terrebonne and Lafourche are among the most vulnerable, and best prepared, communities on the Gulf of Mexico coast. The vulnerability study, released earlier this week by Oxfam America, details “hotspots” across 13 southeast states where climate-related hazards exist.
The study, “Exposed: Social Vulnerability and Climate Change in the U.S. Southeast,” is the first of its kind to combine climate-change risks with social variables such as poverty, a process that Oxfam officials say identifies the people and places likely to be most impacted by climate change.

Global warming rally has NOLA flavor~C.J. Lin

Environment What????
Gene Taylor’s Aide on the Environment Could Stand a Few Lessons on the Topic ~slabbed

United Fire's earnings still hurt by Hurricane Katrina
~Karen Mracek

Suit: Fatal bridge fall in area was avoidable~Steve Jones

'Old-Fashioned California Water Grab'~Bass Times

In a hole, Amsterdam tunnellers just keep digging
~Harro ten Wolde

The Franken Slapdown That Everyone's Talking About
~Air America
~Watch as he schools Diana Furchtgott-Roth of the Hudson Institute--which until recently employed disgraced health care "analyst" and serial liar Betsy McCaughey--on how people in other "socialized" countries don't go bankrupt trying to stay alive.

Calling all HBO 'Treme' extras!
~Dave Walke

Old Woman, Scorned and Laughed At, Expressionist Dance by Avanha, Part 1 & Part 2 ~Putonium Mac




Pumpkin Whoopie Pies
~Serious Eats


Coloring book satirizes N.O. Mayor Nagin~Becky Bohrer
~The scathingly satirical Ray Nagin Coloring Book pairs the mayor's at-times baffling comments with illustrations that creator Karen Ocker hopes will do more than make people chuckle. "I hope people think carefully about the last eight years," she said, "and what they want for the future of the city."

Tom Waits Recording w/ NOLA´s Preservation Hall Jazz Band
~TwentyFourBit

Bingo! Parlour Profile #16:
MC TRACHIOTOMY

GDIF: Gesture Description Interchange Format, a tool for music-related movements, actions, and gestures ~IMT

You Can Never Go Home Anymore ~John Swenson
~More than four years after the federal flood, Cyril Neville still can’t shake the nightmares. The ordinary ones are bad enough—images of his home and neighborhood before Katrina, happy memories lost over and over again in the recurrent dreams. But it’s the other nightmares that really give him the creeps, images not reflecting his own experience but based on stories others have told him about being trapped in New Orleans for a week, then herded like animals and sent to faraway destinations.

Dimanche

Making the Louisiana coast a priority while allowing post-flood
New Orleans to drown
~Editilla lances this Editorial Botox, proving again that the Pen is Mightier than the Boil~
~Wow, yet again not a word from the Times-Picayune about the Gatzillion Ton Gorilla in the Living Room: the Corps of Engineers.
Would they have us think this amorphous "Oil and Gas Industry" just dropped 50,000 miles of canals and pipelines into Louisiana without the requisite Permits?
What if it turns out that the Corps of Engineers has decided to abandon its mission in New Orleans?
Here is the Corps Commander as quoted in Huff Post Friday, in a sobering article by Paul Brown, appropriately titled:
"US Army Corps can't stop floods in New Orleans"

Lt. General Robert Van Antwerp, Chief of the US Army Corps of Engineers would not answer my question "Should New Orleans be abandoned?" But the General, whose job it is to protect New Orleans from future hurricanes, did admit he could not save the city from storm surges.
"Protect the city no, reduce the risk yes. We can develop better early warning systems, better evacuation plans, better levees to hold back most of the water but we cannot stop levees being overtopped and the city flooded."

Editilla gotta'ax: how does one reduce risk by increasing risk?
General Van Antwerp just Increased Risk 1000 fold for Future Investments in our New Orleans. And by the way 2+2=4
Thanks for Nothing, Lt Gen AnTwerp, ya'Fuckmook. And BTW, your flood walls Did NOT Overtop on 8/29/05. They failed at Half Load. They failed in 56 places. It was Not Storm Surge.
I for one am getting pretty sick of these Military Commanders who Publicly Contradict their Commander in Chief.
Can anyone explain to me how the 3rd largest airport in Europe thrives at nearly 11 feet below sea level, and yet our US Army Corps of Engineers cannot protect from flooding even one of our nation's busiest port cities when half of NOLA is above sea level?
How do we plan for our Future if we Deny the Past...
--and Lie to ourselves about the Present?

Regulations require reuse of more dredged material
~Amy Wold

Winning people's support said key to making "post-Katrina" plans work, reforming the Corps of Engineers is not in discussion of "Post Federal Flood"
~Editilla Rotellas the Co'tella~I hope Gentle'rillas can exuse my Existential Angst here after the head of the Corps of Engineers has now stated publicly that protecting New Orleans is "not in his brief", buuuut, Mr. Vargas (and all of you ill-informed journalists) New Orleans exists today by the grace of the Goddess, in a "Post Federal Flood" Corps-PR-Cool-Aid-induced-Haze --not "Post Katrina". That is like saying you plan to Reduce Risk by Not Protecting New Orleans from Flooding. All these smart people plans, and not a word about flood safety.
Need I remind y'all that hurricane Katrina missed New Orleans and hit Mississippi. It was the Corps of Engineers that hit New Orleans and flooded our city. Until you folks can get past that, then what I saw in front of Charity Hospital that first week of the Flood will happen again and again and again. All this pretty planning means Nothing in the background of Bad Civil Engineering, such Wrecking Ball Roulette with our Flood Safety.
So please drop the Katrina Shorthand. It's the Levees, Stupid.
Oh, it is also the Opt 1 Bad Flood Walls that the Corps refuses to replace. D'OH, and the Inoperable Pumps they installed on our outfall canals. Dbl D'OH, and the failing leaky levees in Morerro, Metarie and Lakeview. Triple'ought D'OH.. and tens of millions of dollars the Corps keeps shifting between flood control projects to cover their ASCEs.

Vera Smith's makeshift Garden District grave endures as a most unlikely -- and poignant -- Katrina memorial ~Chris Rose

Senator Mary Landrieu impersonates John Cornyn
~Geoff Berg~Democratic Senators like Max Baucus (D-MT), Ben Nelson (D-NE), Kent Conrad (D-ND), and Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) oppose the public option.
Most recently, conservative Louisiana Democrat Mary Landrieu reiterated her opposition. She says we should trust private enterprise — the same corporations that got us into this mess — to continue doing what they’ve been doing. Under no circumstances, Landrieu says, should working people have access to the same government-run insurance plan she gets as a Senator.

Sunday Funnies~Citizen K

Seasoning lawsuit hits Houma entrepreneur~Kathrine Schmidt


Confused? We sure are, caught between the "Yo" and the "Ya". There is "YoYo" and "YaYa". There is "Yo'Honky" and "Where'ya at", "Yo'Bros" and "Ya'Ya Sisterhood"... when the only question that really matters today is: WHO'DAT?
6-0 BABY!!!!


Maison St. Charles Hotel Introduces New Orleans Bicycle Tour Package

"Here Kitty, Kitty" ~PWALLY
~I jokingly said, “I hope you are not allergic to cats, because I have two of them!” She was allergic, she said.
She turned her nose up when I said cats so I figured she had the allergy called, “I hate cats” so I told her they were outside and wouldn’t be coming in while she was visiting. Little did Suzy know she was sitting on the very sofa that my cats slept on, night and day. The upholstery showed cat fur, too, if you looked really closely. "Goodbye Judith" 24 x 20" Oil 1995