Samedi

New Painting from PWALLY!
~~and a story too!
"Red-Tipped Agave" 33 x 50" acrylic/canvas~Click to enlarge.

The Pussyfooter’s Blush Ball ~NOLAFemmes

Who wants to start drilling in the lake?~Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation

The truth according to FEMA about AR Flood Zones (pdf)

Ivor van Heerden receives award for Civic Courage ~Levees.org

Two Whistleblower Awards
Illustrate Need for Post-Katrina
Fixes~Jeeselyn Radack

Katrina the Clown wants mayor's seat~The New Orleans Levee
~Katrina the Clown has published her bumper sticker in all the major publications in town, and the Times-Picayune and Where Y'at?. She's calling on supporters to affix it to car bumpers or windows, home or store windows or wherever. The campaign recommends tape, and not licking the back.
~Editilla Wondabrellas~Will this affect The Skin Flynt?

The Lens: A New News Outlet in New Orleans
~David Winkler-Schmit

Coming up in Gambit:
Year in Review/Mad Men edition

'Islands of poverty' linger when public housing complexes are gone, study finds~Katy Reckdhal

New Orleans turns to Detroit for advice on blight; ranking Katrina
~Michael Luke

New Orleans police monitor answers more questions than she asks~Laura Maggi

New Orleans Hotels & Hostels
~Lonely Planet

La. snake breeder says he's in Oakdale to stay

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B.B. King Joins New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival Bill ~1960s Psychedelic Hippie Culture and Music

This is why it's so hard in Nola...
~Saturday Antigravity
~Cajun/Zydeco Dance Fest w/ Various Artists, Tipitina’s, 1pm, $10~Dash Rip Rock, Carrollton Station, 10pm
~Dr. John and The Lower 911, House Of Blues, 9pm
~George Porter Jr. and His Runnin’ Pardners, Howlin’ Wolf
~Joe Krown, Wolfman Washington, Russell Batiste Trio, d.b.a., 10pm, $5~A Very Merry New Years, Dragon’s Den (Upstairs)
Whadd'ya gonna'Doooooo????

And, when's the last time you... visited The Swamp?

Vendredi

Singer Vic Chesnutt Dead

Louisiana Land Trust
~Squandered Heritage

America Betrayed featuring Levees.org voted to Top 50 Documentaries of 2009
~Humid Beings

Local to supply clay to rebuild New Orleans levees
~Greg Hilburn

District begins construction on new Morganza section
~Daily Comet~Terrebonne levee officials will kick off 2010 by starting construction on their second new section of Morganza-to-the-Gulf since deciding to forge ahead without federal help a year ago.

MS levee plan would require big tax increase to build
~Andrew Oldham~After being told by the agency's Vicksburg District that it would lose $133 million in federal funding if it didn't support the levee plan, the Rankin-Hinds Pearl River Flood and Drainage Control District (levee board) voted 5-2 to build levees, not lakes, on the Pearl.
The decision came months after the agency admitted that it never studied the Two Lakes Flood Control and Economic Development Plan, the proposal that it was brought on to study, nor did it have any intention of giving the proposal a fair shot.
So let's get this straight. Instead of the corps being forced to do what it has already been paid to do, the board is now being strong-armed into supporting a plan that won't protect Jackson?
Where's the accountability? Better yet, where's the levee board's backbone? Shouldn't it challenge the corps' legal authority to cut off the millions in funding?

Scrooges and Stooges – State Farm attorneys pack the sleigh! ~slabbed

Cause of Ohio River lock failure

Floating Wind Turbines Set Sail

Oh For God's Sake, as if it's Not About the Money~Bob Dylan joins...
Neil Sedaka, Neil Diamond, Barry Manilow in long list of Jewish musicians doing Christmas music.

Cool Music for Christmas
~Plutonian Mac

Henry Butler, Donald Harrison play NYC New Year's Eve

Salutations: Seven New Orleans Images~Karen Dalton-Beninato

Jeudi

Transparency and the Public Stomach~Harry Shearer
~I'll let the policy wonks continue their year-long exegesis (help me, exegesis!) of the health-care bill's details.
But one thing seems clear after the most drawn-out rush in the history of human legislation: this transparency thing definitely needs a re-think.

But rest easy Who'dats!

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YouTube video brings attention to state’s coastal conservation
~Daniel McBride
~In three minutes, Spring Gaines is hoping to save Louisiana's coast. The 24-year-old Nicholls State University graduate recently posted a video on YouTube.
In the video, Gaines calls upon her audience to take an active role to protect Louisiana's rapidly disappearing wetland. Gaines entered the recording as part of Project For Awesome, an annual contest that aims to bring attention to charitable causes. Held this year on Dec. 17, hundreds of videos were posted on YouTube as submissions for the project.

Katrina, levees and Katrina 'shorthand' ~Dallas Digest forum
~Interesting facts here... particularly the fact that more people in S California are endagered by faulty levees than those combined hurricane areas of the SE, dispels a lot of pre-concieved notions.

A Call to Attention
~American Zombie
~Editilla tinks'n'tanks~ Given that we don't believe in a Big Man in Da'Sky wit'a Big Penis and a Big Book wit'our Name in It --and Big Red Check-marks trailing off to Infinity... we still all up and about Wishing Y'all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
It is not lost on yer'ho'ho'humble Editilla that those weirdo'ponk celibate men in the early Church would co-opt this time of year for their Birthday God, as we all know the strength of our Mother Goddess upon these days and nights, twixt the zenith of dark and light, our movements now toward renewal, Spring Delights.
Thus within Da'Spirit of Rock'nRoll we thank Ashe Dambala.


Is Chaney the Grinch who stole insurance industry’s Christmas? ~slabbed

Is There an Irony in the House?
~A suspect in a wheel chair surrenders next to a police robot after an day-long hostage taking at a post office in Wytheville, Va.

FEMA-IPET Mississippi Coastal Flood Hazard Project (pdf)

The $500 million question:
Why repairing our levees keeps costing more~Ken West

Water Woes~Alex Woodward

Biloxi finds plenty of debris during inspection of water, sewer lines~Trang Pham-Bui
~Crews are going underground this week to see what kind of junk Hurricane Katrina left behind. The work is starting in east Biloxi, an area known for its aging drainage system.

Vietnamese Americans Battle Landfill in New Orleans
~Kari Lydersen




~Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc.
is engaged in the exploration of deep-ocean shipwrecks and uses innovative methods and state-of-the-art technology to conduct extensive search and archaeological recovery operations around the world. Odyssey discovered the Civil War-era shipwreck of the SS Republic® in 2003 and recovered over 50,000 coins and 14,000 artifacts from the site nearly 1,700 feet deep. In May 2007, the Company announced the historic deep-ocean treasure recovery of over 500,000 silver and gold coins, weighing 17 tons, from a Colonial era site code-named "Black Swan." In February 2009, Odyssey announced the discovery of Balchin's HMS Victory.

Lawsuit centers on La. carbon plant~Ted Griggs

Disney’s Lump of Coal
~Anthea Butler~Unlike other critics of Disney's "The Princess and the Frog" who will complain that the princess was a frog for the entire movie, and that Disney stinted on the black princess, I’m going to go all out and say that the entire movie is a wholesale desecration of New Orleans, Creole culture, Cajun Culture, religion, zydeco music, the Evangeline story, and Louis Armstrong (I’ll get to that in a minute.)
Rolled up, Disney hates the South, period.

Photography by Leonard Lopp
~OneShotRemedy.com
~Rex Parade, Mardis Gras '06

Merry Majolica Christmas And How To Make New Orleans Cafe Brulot~*visual*vamp*

Music For Landscapes
~Virginia Prescott

Q&A with Leo Nocentelli

offBeat: Still Stirring Da'Pot
~Jan V. Ramsey

Mercredi

St. Scholastica seeking donations for victims of Abita Springs fire

Happy Birthday Harry Shearer!
~Editilla cut our teeth and sharpened our fangs playing
"Kick the Neocon", while Defending our New Orleans against all trollers in the comments section on Harry Shearer's Huff Post Blog that first year or two AD.
It could easily be said that he got me into blogging, though I would hesitate to shovel that dubious honor on such a creative individual.
Finding Harry Shearer online was for me like finally finding one of those huge truck-stops on the road at night in the cold in Wyoming... or stumbling into a bar in Memphis, which was full of Saints fans during this diaspora... or, even, snagging that ride out of town in a pick-up truck on the 7th day of the Flood.
It was such a relief to find a place where we weren't getting ripped to pieces and called all sorts of names, a place where actual issues were being published by Harry (and precious few other outlets) which would draw the usual vitriol but where we were able to respond and confront those stinking trolls and Bury Them.
I say 'we' meaning the commenters, the wounded and angry, the nolafugees, since Harry always plays it straight and smart but always responds --the only major media blogger to work their comments sections in such a way. Really, very few major media bloggers engage their audience in such a way and so quickly.
I have watched him the past 4 years Doggedly repeating the Facts of our Man Made Disaster in the face of Spin'filtration by actual paid Astro-turfers as well as the ignorant masses. Like the lead of a pack of hunting Catahoula, he doesn't back down.
All this other work Harry Shearer has done is funny, masterful and laudable. But, from the view atop this Ladder, New Orleans needs to understand that this man has almost single-handed kept our side of the story in front of the Major Media and Defended our city, his city, before the entire nation --with incredible style, love, intelligence, tenacity and aplomb. Sinn Féin, Harry...
--wit'a Big Happy Who'dat Birthday!

St. Rose drainage pump vandalized~Joy Hirdes

Development of a Multiscale Monitoring and Health Assessment Framework for Effective Management of Levees and Flood-Control Infrastructure Systems

County urged to join effort to require Corps to certify river levees~Saying that property values are at stake, state Rep. Bob Mehlhoff of Great Falls urged Cascade County commissioners Tuesday to get behind a local push to require the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to resume certifying river levees. New federal flood map rules being created by the Federal Emergency Management Agency require local levees to be certified, but the Corps of Engineers is no longer doing the certifications, Mehlhoff said.

Corps trying to kill viable flood control~Wyatt Emmerich

Insurance Department sues Metairie bond firm
~Rebecca Mowbray

La rice may rival Thai jasmine grain in US~The label of LSU's Jazzmen rice features Louis Armstrong.

State ag department organizes shipments of hay to stranded cattle in St. Charles Parish

Relocated Cajuns get homesick during Christmas

Who Dat? New Orleans in Lights ~Jason Perlow

Carol of the Who'dats
~Dat'Family Spud

Free Saints~offBeat

'Shotgun' nominated for best new American play

~NewOrleans.com contributing photographer Jeffrey Dupuis is proud to announce the publication of the 2010 New Orleans Music Festival Calendar. The calendar features the photography of Dupuis, whose work has appeared in Rolling Stone magazine, An Honest Tune magazine, Jambands.com and Jambase.com. Included are shots of George Porter Jr, Art Neville, Ivan Neville, Ian Neville, The Bingo Show, and more. Calendars are available locally at Louisiana Music Factory, Blue Cypress Books, and through www.JeffreyDupuis.com.
Local delivery and shipping are available.

Woodenhead - The Big Picture [1992]~Fusion Jazz And Something Else

Mardi

Corps proposes changes to plans for levee improvements in eastern New Orleans
~Mark Schleifstein

2A: The Only Option~Gambit
~By now it is abundantly clear that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers intends to stick New Orleans with the fatally flawed floodwalls the Corps designed and built along the city's three outfall canals — at London Avenue, Orleans Avenue and 17th Street. No New Orleanian who lived through Hurricane Katrina will ever forget that the London Avenue and 17th Street canals catastrophically failed during the storm, playing a part in flooding tens of thousands of homes and killing more than 1,000 people. We also know that, in the wake of the storm, the defective floodwalls have not been fully repaired but merely patched where they failed. That is unacceptable.
~Editilla Rotellas~
We are growing increasingly uneasy about the Corps shifting Flood Funding around between the parishes, as evidenced in this article Friday in the Times-Picayune. This problem with the Pump funding in Jefferson parish was discussed this Fall in articles about the Corps secret, closed-door meetings in hotel rooms to find ways to slash $300 Million.
Now they are saying they won't have all the funding for some parts of Orleans Parish. The Corps will pit Parish against Parish.
They are setting up a scenario where there simply won't be any way to secure funding for Option 2 or 2A, as we will be scrambling with other parishes for the remaining, quickly dwindling pool of money. Thus, we Will Not get those old Failed Floodwalls replaced or dealt with at all.
Ladder Operative, PWALLY, managed to get this footage of one such Corps Secret Contract Summit, this one in Japan.


On May 26th, 2008, in view of the Huge Leaks flowing then, I inspected the 17th Street Canal floodwall Section 1 all the way to 17th Street and back on foot for about 6 or 7 hours, inch by inch.
You may read the rest of my post on this here.
Here is my description from that time, with a challenge to readers to go back today and survey that Old Bad Floodwall to see how it has remained. This is what the Corps would have us maintain:
The older section seams are what worries me. As far down as a foot in many of the seams (I stopped counting at 20 seams between joints) I could see daylight between the old joint compound and the edges of each section of Wall. I could see day light between the seams within 6 inches of the top on most of the sections, from RE Lee to 17th Street. They have done nothing to refit these seams with new compound or even newspapers. All up and down the seams in 3 out of 5 I could stick my index finger up to the first knuckle and on four seams I could stick my thumb up to the first knuckle and on one or two seams I stuck TWO FINGERS UP TO THE FIRST KNUCKLE at about 3-4 feet up from the ground between the compound seal and the old wall. Had I wanted, I could have easily dug out this very old and corroded joint sealant compound with my bare fingers--easily, a child could do it really the stuff just falls away it is so old. I would like to know why with the water down they did not think of replacing this stuff.
I mean on at least half of the seams I looked at along the older sections I could see daylight between the cracks--DAYLIGHT--at the tops and even sometimes little cracks about 2 feet down from the top of the walls.
Please everyone go and see for yourself. Please also check the seams of the wall for yourself as did I. Reach Up and Touch this joint compound and watch it crumble away.
Please do this and get yer hands dirty as We can get our hands around this threat and perchance feel out solutions together.

Plaquemines Parish residents worry about side effects of Chalmette Loop Levee
~Chris Kirkham

Southern California Public Radio uses Katrina shorthand ~Levees.org

Melancon: Levee projects funded for SE Louisiana~WVUE

Scruggs files a nothing here, move on Motion to Dismiss Young v Scruggs ~slabbed

Pants'd HOPE, Polished Turds ~Library Chronicles

Ho'NO! We ain't Superstitious NO! Big Thanks, ADRASTOS

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It's a Christmas miracle!
~Your Right Hand Thief

Christmas Miracle Needed Here
~Liprap's Lament-The Line

The Ghost of Christmas Future ~Toulouse Street

HELP Needed in the Parish ~Thanks Katrina

I Doubt Other Cities Have This Problem~Signs of Life in New Orleans

Letters I Sent to the Editors in New Orleans and Dallas
~World Class New Orleans

Dinerral Shavers Educational Fund Sponsors Essay Contest ~NOLAFemmes

Nature Center needs people to plant trees

Human trafficking one of local Fulbright studies

Displaced New Orleans Residents in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina: Results from a Pilot Survey ~SafetyLit

Rated X, For ToXic
~Erin Brockovich

perch. Dec. '09 CUE

New Orleans Sausage and Chicken Soup

Eggs Sardou Offer a Taste of New Orleans~John Griffin

Lunch Break - Second Linin' ~YatPundit

Carla's Christmas Carols
~Alex Rawls~Jazz composer Carla Bley’s spent a career examining American vernacular music, so it’s just as weirdly inevitable that she’d eventually get around to Christmas music as it was for Bob Dylan. The results on Carla’s Christmas Carols are just as transforming as Dylan’s, though with more melodic results. Obviously.

Mexican Madness – Una Locura Instrumental (2002) ~doctorfuckwit

R.E.M. records in the Garden District, backed by local horns
~Kieth Spera

Mitch Woods’ Rocket 88s to Perform at Snug Harbor Tonight
~Jay Massa

It's coming Y'all! Jus'sayin, Editilla's Christmas is Mardi Gras.

Lundi

Corps' NOLA 'storm-proofing' running out of money
Although the money was estimated long before any projects were designed, a Hurricane Protection Office supervisor predicted this week that it will be enough to deliver what the corps promised during a lengthy environmental evaluation of stormproofing plans: 15 of Jefferson Parish's 16 priority projects, and 12 of the 15 projects on the S&WB's list.
In New Orleans, where some of the projects are relatively more expensive than in neighboring Jefferson Parish, corps Hurricane Protection Office executive Rick Kendrick said the money should cover a dozen projects. "In Orleans Parish, it's a little more problematic," he said. "We told the Sewerage & Water Board all along, we're confident we can get the top 12 projects there, but we never promised that we could get all 15."

Hurricane-protection levees pit St. Bernard, Plaquemines
~Chris Kirkham

Jon Donley: The Corps is one of most powerful machines in the U.S.

Proposed dock won't hurt spillway operation, consultants say~Matt Scallan

Methodist Hospital rejuvenation deal stalls~Bill Barrow

Oh, what a tangled (Dr.) Webb
Nationwide and USAA are weaving – Hillier v USAA; Politz v Nationwide ~slabbed

Coast is sending a realistic, innovative delegation to the Capitol~Sun Herald

The high cost of hubris
~General Carelessness

Catastrophe Modeling and California Earthquake Risk: A 20-Year Perspective
~Risk Management Solutions

Funeral Tuesday in New Orleans for Chris Henry

It's a Christmas miracle!
~Your Right Hand Thief

Dimanche~ Late post because of you know who'dat...sigh

We'll just leave it to Mr. Gloomy Pants...

The Katrina Myth video will go home with all St. Bernard Project volunteers ~Levees.org
Herolleros!
Editilla's Brass Balls Award goes to Levees.org!

ASIAN CARP: Army Corps has proven itself to be incompetent

~Special Hostilidays Thanks from Mz PWALLY

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Is That $54 Million For The Wine Train Or Flood Control? ~Foolocracy