New Orleans Ladder: 3/13/11

Saturday, March 19, 2011

April 10th, Benefit for Japan at the Rock 'n' Bowl
~Featuring Jeremy Davenport, Bonerama, Papa Grows Funk, Big Sam's Funky Nation and more!

~ReTweet @ Editilla the Pun~ Patio @ Satsuma, wakin- bacon, Charlotte Dayberry just came up & sat on mah foot #Home #Nola twitpic.com/4b2pr9

~ReTweet @RebirthFinance @humidbeings See how we help NOLA business get affordable financing using crowdfunding. Don't forget to follow us back http://cot.ag/hWr8QB

City Council zaps ‘aggressive’ panhandlers in New Orleans business district~Karen Gadbois, The Lens

Slabbed visits the “secret garden” of River Birch’s Fred Heebe and his wife Jennifer Sneed Heebe: Our business stinks and we live it up!

Study Projects Louisiana Pension Funds To Run Dry in 2017
~The Pelican Post ~Hat Tweet @ Noladishu

~Jus'sayin...

NPR, Bill Moyers Pining for Bygone Faux News Days~Take Zwerdling's investigations as just one example: Over the years, he has sorted out the complexities and secrets of the 1986 Challenger space shuttle disaster and the warnings that preceded it, dangers posed to humans by the plant pesticide Chlordane (it eventually was banned by the Environmental Protection Agency) and the failures of the Corps of Engineers to maintain safely the dikes and dams around New Orleans -- among many other stories.
~Editilla Notellas~ Emphasis mine. Forgive me, but I'd like a list of News Stories where NPR framed the Destruction of New Orleans as a Man-Made Disaster, or Federal Flo0d as a result of Engineering Misfeasance (Federal Judge Duvall's word in Court Ruling) by the Corps of Engineers.
If Gentle'rillas know anything about me and this Ladder, y'all know that covering the coverage of the Crucifixion of New Orleans 8/29/05 remains one of our main raison d'etres. As this has been more-or-less what I do every day and late into the evening, to wit: scouring the Internets for News on Nola and the Federal flood, I haven't seen NPR on "our side" of those levee failures. Indeed, given the way they shat in the mouth of long-time supporter and Editilla Herolero Harry Shearer over the release of his copiously factual documentary, The Big Uneasy ---even going as far as to require that he ReFrame his own words to SAY KATRINA DID IT--- begs the question of NPR's impartiality regarding their Corporate Sponsors who are also major stakeholders in Corps Projects across the country.

A family, not a statistic…
~Disenfranchised Citizen

Third drilling permit issued
~Kathrine Schmidt

Oil Spill Reported Near Deepwater Drilling Site in Gulf

10,000 cypress goal~Richard Burgess

Gumbo and Sunshine~NOLAFemmes

Abita Beer's Top Of The Hops Beer Fest TODAY, Fontainebleau State Park

Cajun Claws in Abbeville just might have the best crawfish around
~Bret Anderson

Mardi Gras Indians, New Orleans police meet to avoid conflicts on St. Joseph's Night

Friday, March 18, 2011

New Orleans' Floodgate and levee maintenance costs expected to increase dramatically~Mark Schleifstein

A reflection and offering
~American Zombie

~Editilla Rolellas~ Special Thanks to Ladder Correspondent and Known Felon in Drag, Georgianne Neinaber, for pegging us.
We've been on the train it seems for days. Hence, our internets have been stretched, so we'll just keep hangin'em though a tad later than sooner ahem.
My oh my but it is good to be back home in New Orleans.

More writs from a dishonest bitch are ditched as Randy and the gang at United Fire Group get their asses kicked again ~slabbed

Chinese drywall remediation guidelines revised by U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Yearlong Justice Department probe blisters NOPD for constitutional violations: Update
~ReTweet @ skooks Ah here we go http://www.justice.gov/crt/about/spl/nopd.php

NPC Luncheon with Harry Shearer (Video & Photos) and The Big Uneasy Q & A the following night!

~Above right: Harry addresses the National Press Club on the incongrooviencent state of News Media Myth Heads, to wit: the Editorial fetish for inaccurate narratives like say Katrina flooding New Orleans.
~Above: Harry and Maria Garzino, who's brave whistle-blow on the Corps figures solidly in the movie The Big Uneasy, answer audience questions in the packed Silver Theater in Silver Spring, Maryland. Ahem, the latter is before I presented Ms. Garzino with our 1st Editilla's Civil Engineering Brass Balls Award, and Harry with an honorary pair for his place as a linchpin for getting our story straight, getting the Accurate Narrative to a national audience and keeping it there clearly.

Limbaugh’s clownish guess at Katrina costs no laughing matter
~Mark Moseley, The Lens

Statistics Are The Enemy of The Status Quo~Cliff's Crib

BP protest organizers undaunted by low turnout~John DeSantis
~SCHRIEVER — Grilling sausage and rib aromas wafted on a steady breeze, past parade-style barricades and over a wide alligator-inhabited ditch. Bright white tenting and a DJ’s gospel music added to perceptions of a church picnic rather than a promised protest.

New Orleans Tennessee Williams Festival kicks off with world-premiere and gala

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Big Media Operates in a “Culture of Impunity” says Harry Shearer ~Levees.org

~At left~Sandy Rosenthal "standing the colors" at the National Press Club Luncheon, Washington DC.
~Editilla Goes To Washington
~Given that Harry's NPC Luncheon was the root of the entire reason I came to DC, we were also Blessed to catch The Big Uneasy with Harry and Engineer Maria Garzino doing Q & A! Not only that buuuut at the end we presented our 1st ever Editilla's Civil Engineering Brass Balls Award to Ms. Garzino for her role in the movie: Standing Up to the Corps of Engineers regarding worthless pumps they installed in New Orleans' 3 outfall canals after they flooded the city 8/29/05 -and thus suffering professional recriminations. It could be argued that Matt McBride, or Bob Bea should have gotten the 1st Award, but this is how the voting shook out in Editilla's excited mind. Aaaand we gonna get them boyz anyway don't'cha know.

To see the smile on Maria Garzino's face when she held up her Balls made this entire trip to our nation's Capital worthwhile for me. We will award more of these Brass Balls to Engineers, probably during the next Flood Anniversary.
Though not an Engineer, (and doesn't even play one on TV;) Harry Shearer also received his own pair of Brass Balls from Editilla ---in honor of his place as a linchpin in the entire narrative of our Kafkatrina Federal Flood Crime. His work on The Big Uneasy alone says indisputably that We Won't Back Down Don't Know How!
A Charter Member, advisor and supporter to Levees.org and his relentless coverage of New Orleans' Flood on his Huffington Post blog have put Harry on the front lines of this Battle of New Orleans' Narrative.
Harry is my personal Herolero, on many levels, and an integral influence on the development of Your New Orleans Ladder.

Army Corps of Engineers' mission questioned by some House Republicans
~Bruce Alpert

US Army Corps of Engineers to inspect Miss. River levees twice a week because of rising water

New Orleans neighborhoods without grocers targeted by $14 million program

Louisiana pols fiddle with facts while Japan’s reactors burn
~Mark Moseley, The Lens

Regents support SUNO, UNO union ~Jordan Bloom

New Orleans police vs. the Krewe of Eris was no Clash of the Titans
~James Gill

I’m the Engineer DING DING DING DING DING! ~slabbed

Crabbers distressed by what they're harvesting~John DeSantis

Well Ken, I suppose congratulations are in order?~Disenfranchised Citizen

Sen. Boxer promises quick action on bill to give Gulf states bulk of BP fines

Prepared to do a heckuva job
~Library Chronicles

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Editilla Goes To Washington!

~Apollo/Soyuz used in famous Space Meet'N'Greet!
~Please forgive the B&W, but I couldn't seem to return my Android smarter-than-me phone to just normal light filtering. It got stuck in the 'solarizing' or 'posturizing' kinky color stuff grrrr!

Actor Harry Shearer blasts mainstream media during trip to Washington
~Watch Harry's remarks on C-Span

Senator Jim DeMint Introduces Army Corps of Engineers Reform Bill

~ReTweet @ SkyTruth~Hi-res satellite pic showing damage to Fukushima reactor buildings 3/14 http://bit.ly/gJonXJ - damage analysis (PDF) http://bit.ly/f3cvSZ

Texas Goes Nuclear…
~Disenfranchised Citizen

U.S. International Trade Commission votes to keep tariffs on imported shrimp

Meeting pits assessors against oil lobby

Politicians side with parents asking review of plans to put KIPP charter at Colton site~Ariella Cohen, The Lens

Monday Masques as Tuesday~slabbed

It’s an oldie but a goodie: Sunshine is the best disinfectant, and we need a good dose~Steve Beaty, The Lens

A reflection and offering
~American Zombie

20 Baby Steps to the Revolution
~Miss Malaprop

Taking It All Off: Saint Baldrick’s Oak Street Block Party
~He Said/She Said NOLA

The Ham Sandwich~Blackened Out

French Quarter Fest lineup announced

Monday, March 14, 2011

Actor Harry Shearer Remarks on the State of Journalism ~C-Span
~Editilla Crowtellas~ We really enjoyed our Big Herolero Harry Shearer's remarks today, thrilled as well to be in the Club of Journalists. There they were, all walking about out in the open. Harry didn't pick on them as I'd hoped, but he did deliver a stinging rebuke to profit driven editorship. I'm always impressed with how smart and quick Harry is, a mind like a steel trap. We got to meet him too and he is Very Gracious as well. Thanks Harry fo'watchin our back!

Harry Shearer of ‘Simpsons’ visits D.C. to screen post-Federal Flood of New Orleans film
~Washington Post
~ReTweet @ Editilla the Pun~Today I will have lunch with @theharryshearer http://bit.ly/ho8mJv and then maybe the Air & Space Museum #EditillaGoesToWashington

City of Lafitte aims to sue U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

FEMA taking another look at Lafourche levees

Endangered plants flourish at Nicholls State University Farm outside Thibodaux

TLC for the After-Mardi Gras Spirit ~NOLAFemmes

You Say Tagalongs. I Say Peanut Butter Patties~Blackened Out

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-bound Dr. John is a lifelong rambler looking for redemption~Keith Spera
~Hat Tweet @captainswallow

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Editilla Goes To Washington!

~Follow our 1st visit adventures as we whodat the nation's Capital!
~Retweet @ Editilla the Pun~ Aw'right! Sidewalk cafe on K street, heads up for the ubiquitous, cunning Lobby Rat name droppings on the walk. #EditillaGoestoWashington

During tsunamis and hurricanes, wanting the best for family and the world~Jarvis DeBerry

Termite service announcement
~hungry termite

My Two Cents on the Rail... ~Disenfranchised Citizen

~ReTweet @ nolamaven Susan Whelan

Louisianians need to get moving: Kim Chatelain: mobile.nola.com/advnola/db_265…

New Orleans DA singles out Judge Laurie White for criticism

Mississippi River is rising, but is unlikely to reach flood stage

Gulf residents launch walk to Washington, D.C., for awareness of post-spill health issues, other concerns

Field of Dreams, Nucor plans will change the face of St. James Parish

Chauvin boat blessing will go on

A Crown Jewel in New Orleans
~Judyb54, NOLAFemmes

Sinn Féin

New Orleans Ladder
Chere'yat Bourgeois Nievete?
Every goodbye ain't gone.
Every shut eye ain't sleep.
Gonna' build up this Living Ladder.
Gonna lean it up against the world, so we can pass over our damn nation, so we can always find the long road back home.
Stitch-hiking the Web for Daily New Orleans News, Bloggery, Videos, Poetry, Photography, Music and Humor, yeah where'yat, post Kafkatrina Recovery for the City That Care Forgot and Presidente Bush left for dead.
The New Orleans Ladder accepts no advertising revenue.
To contact or submit articles please leave a comment.
Anything goes on the Ladder, except no kiddy- porn ~{which will be forwarded immediately to someone who can track you down quicker (if you're lucky) than I (if you're not), no lie, believe it, faster than a speeding bullet and with as much regard as a dragon fly, perched upon the head of a water moccasin, waiting for its prey} --and no gratuitous profanity.
Just paste the articles' url in the comments.
Contact me directly on Twitter.
Please tell your friends about the Ladder.
Lassezes Le Bon Temp Roule'!!! Who Dat!
Thank You All,
Editilla the Pun.

A note to advertising types
~From your ho'ho homble
Editilla the Pun,
thank you for asking.
Here's the Deal: what we hang upon this Ladder we do so with LOVE, HONOR and AFFECTION. Heart'stopping Awe and Adoration...Aw'dat
--especially this right side.

Of what we hang here I want our Gentle'rillas to know: We accept no ad revenue,only Blessings of Thanks -and Tons-O-Traffic!- from All Youz who'z contacted us with Notes of Glee at finding yourselves thusly hero'hung --by this Ladder with Care-- and we hope y'all get some Gat'zillion hits there!
Please put ya'Finger on'em...
--let'em know we're here!

New Orleans...
a courtesan, not old and yet no longer young, who shuns the sunlight that the illusion of her former glory be preserved.

The mirrors in her house are dim and the frames are tarnished;
all her house is dim and beautiful with age. She reclines gracefully upon a dull brocaded chaise- longue, there is the scent of incense about her, and her draperies are arranged in formal folds. She lives
in an atmosphere of a bygone
and more gracious age.

And those whom she receives
are few in number, and they come to her through an eternal twilight.
She does not talk much herself,
yet she seems to dominate the conversation, which is low-toned but never dull, artificial but not brilliant. And those who are not of the elect must stand forever without her portals.

New Orleans… a courtesan whose hold is strong upon the mature,
to whose charm the young must respond. And all who leave her, seeking the virgin’s unbrown, ungold hair and her blanched and icy breast where no lover has died, return to her when she smiles across her languid fan…

New Orleans.

William Faulkner~1925

My Name Is Burma

Please check out my friend Moe Swe, who emailed me wonderful Burmese Music after we met through my online work with the Burma News Ladder, during the Democracy Crackdown in that country in September-October '07.
I had just joined in New Orleans with Rising Tide, btw, at the 2nd Flood Anniversary. Synchronicity?
One song's lyric: "A drop of rain is now a Raging Tide. Burma How Long?" You tell me. Heads or Tails?
Lotta music there. Take your time.
Use the pause button. Fang though the playlist. Tell yer friends. Enjoy!
As with my love for New Orleans,
I cannot think of a better, quicker way to know Burma than through her music: the song of her soul, the instrument of her dreams, the expression of her hopes & fears.
Burma Sinn Féin!
Burma Rocks World Boogie!
Please shout'out and say hello to
Moe Swe--Let'em know we care.
Kyay Zoo Pyu Pea...Koo NyiBar
Kyay Zoo Tin Bar Dae
8-08-88~~8-08-08
8-28-08

Crucifixion Road

by Karl Demolay

This is for the city that care forgot...
the city that forgot to care.
This city, carelessly forgotten,
our party time's behind us now, sensual drums in the dank and virile heat. City of culinary delights, musical giants, simple pleasures, squalid splendors.
A city of dust, now shrouded in mold, forever succumbing to entropic bliss on pause.
This city of history, a living archive of revelry and regret. The past and the future collide in slow motion. This is the city that must be remembered and rebuilt, this bastion of visceral pleasures and historic decadence. All to our collective delight and nagging melancholia.

This is for the ones that evacuated...
the people who left it all behind. The ones that lost almost everything, or maybe just the one thing they cared about most of all. The ones marooned on highways for far too long, no way home, even as the storm unleashed its initial fury. Those left deserted, no place to rest their heads, thoughts still heavy with guilt or fear or resignation.
This is for the people that won't go back, can't go back, afraid of possibility and all of its attendant pitfalls.
This is for those that have nothing to return to at all, not one single thing.
This is for the ones that relocated, expatriates forced into strange lands with odd customs.
This is for the terminally restless,
the suddenly homeless,
the penniless brave.

This is for the ones that stayed...
the insane, the stranded, the curious tribes, erstwhile survivors and civic warriors alike.
Those souls who stayed calm and true despite the chaos, or lost their minds to apocalyptic fancy.
Battened down and hunkered low, sipping bottled water with hushed first glances, suspicious demeanors and flashlights at the ready.
Proud and defiant holders of the line, sometimes criminal in intent, quick movement on the perimeters, shoot to kill orders...
For all those who were trapped in makeshift shelters, replete with suicides, murders, and rapes: victimization rank and feral.
For the bitter end of salvation, acrid tastes on parched tongues dry, even as bids for escape were made.

This is for the politicians...
Federal, State and Local, at once inept and indispensable, some more than others, caught unprepared, unconcerned, unshaven---Playing cat and mouse in a city of smoldering ruins, screams from the darkness of urgent plight, atavism gone awry. Ignorance and obviousness, the slow motion train wreck broadcast for all to see and discuss, obfuscate and ignore. Declarations of me and mine, you and yours, pitted squarely against they and them. This is for too little, too late, the same old song played at precisely the wrong time, over and over. Nagin, Blanco, Brown, Bush, please report center stage to assume the mantle of scorn and blame, everyone gets their turn.
This is for the ones that try to rewrite history or deny it outright, we wish we could deny it all so easily.

This is for the ones that died...
for the loved ones, the foolish ones, the forgotten and cumbersome alike. For the elderly, the infirmed, Vera in her cobblestone grave, the unidentified ones that received no such memorials.
And our beloved household pets, loyal until the end.
The parks and neighborhood greens, flora and fauna turned to a sepia-tone static gray. The houses, once renowned for their architecture, are reborn as new testaments to the destructive coupling of Mother nature and Human Folly. To the spray-painted X's, harsh and unrelenting, omnipresent in their emergency orange hue: 1 dog dead, 1 person saved.
This is for the newest necropolis to rise, our once proud city, our interrupted way of life, breaks in the line of comfortable static. For the evidence of our empire, washed away in the eye of the storm and the turgid, toxic waters that followed.

This is for the ones that rescued...
the Firefighters, EMT's, Police Officers, National Guard. For the people from far and near that just appeared out of nowhere, just wanting to help any way they could, using anything waterborne. And for the locals brave and true, risking life and limb to save just one more person, over and over and over. For all of the endless, tireless, selfless sacrifices and tear jerking humanity. For their shining light of salvation into the boundless dark, onto rooftops, inside of hacked-out attics, out of harms way to higher ground. For beaming from all directions, these beacons of hope, springing eternal and true.
This is for all those who lent a hand, however small or large. Our gratitude, more than could ever be conveyed, is all we have to offer in return.

This is for the media...
the good, the bad, the ugly, for the rescuers and the soothsayers, the shelterers and the kind words, for the dispassionate, the doubters, the cynical and the apathetic.
The pundits and pontificators, their talking points and bad haircuts, feigning interest at all the scripted moments. For the smiles as the makeup is applied, the vacant suppression of harsh, unforgiving reality in plentiful evidence. The ones that control the present controlling the past controlled the future; as always, blissfully unaware of the consequences...
For the sidebars and scrutiny, the breaking news and tight focus close-ups, hands and mouths reacting in opposite directions, in equal amounts, all from the outside looking in. This is for updates at every quarter of the hour.

This is for the hospitals...
the nursing homes and hospices unprotected and ignored. Piling the dead or leaving them where they lay, morgues and freezers packed tight. This is for the generators that failed too quickly. No sleep or food or water or sanity or safety or hope. For our doctors and nurses, in hellish conditions, against impossible odds, this is for the ultimate and undying respect they deserve. This is for the thugs storming the gates for drugs and evil kicks on top of everything else happening, brash and ignorant of their crime...
For the hotels and hostels, kicking guest out to fend for themselves in our city gone mad. Inundation and tragedy, fragility and breakdown, the worst vacation, convention, honeymoon ever.

This is for the looters...
for the desperate, the prescient, the survivalist hordes. Scavenging and pilfering, salvaging and hoarding anything and everything of use in seemingly useless times.
This is for the business owners, opening their doors wide to allow retrieval of water, food, diapers and formula, keeping their cool and doing the right thing. And for the pharmacies, their good intentions torn asunder by destructive addicts and wasteful ignorance like so many store display shelves.
This is for the home invasions, the armed intrusions, for making a bad situation worse, for spreading the fear...
This is for the ones that made it easier even while others made it ever harder by the minute.

This is for the children...
the lost or outright abandoned, the marginalized or used, for the separation anxiety, trauma and tears on long hot nights that just got worse and worse.
The unfamiliar and the dangerous, the abusive and profane, forsaking even common sense, for the lack of decency, for the bad examples and poor supervision. This is for the countless orphaned souls, forced to bear an adults pain with no advance warning, no preparation or guidance...
This is for the countless smiles, the innocence and playfulness, the ability to make it all disappear, if only for a moment at a time. And for their will, unbreakable and resolute in its purest form and function. This is for what we owe them, first and foremost; their satisfaction will be our compensation over time.

This is for the survivors...
all of us, if any of us, also still, the huge debt owed to those who didn't. This is for all of us in our sad, sad group, no matter where we are at the moment, home or abroad. For the hopes and dreams, reborn from the ashes of the ones previous, for our Phoenix on the bayou. For the nightmares and shock and ennui, the blank stares and paranoia deep into the night. And the helplessness, constricting, paralyzing, numbing...
This is for finding a way to get out of bed in the morning to go to work, gut your houses and reassemble your lives. This is for those that mourn their dead, their missing, their damaged. This is for all of us that are left to find their way back to some semblance of normalcy and well being in these dark times.

This is for the rest of the country...
witnesses to our plight, shelters in the storm, final arbiters of our collective destiny. This is for all of the numerous benefits and donations, the concerns and the heartfelt sorrow. The letters and emails, the long talks on the phone into those September nights and beyond, the shoulders to cry on and beds to sleep in. As well as the showers and food, simple things like ice and clean clothes. For the religious intolerance, the thought that somehow, we deserved this,
that this was God's doing...
This is for the stupidity and hypocrisy, for throwing the first stone when we were down and out. This is for their fatigue, their need to move on, not towards a better understanding, but only to the next sad refrain. For helping us stand, then forcing us to walk away stronger and more assured. This is for those that are rebuilding with us, as well as for the ones that make us want to now more than ever.

This is for the world...
the governments and their citizens, for the superpowers and third-world nations alike.
For their offers and advice, their engineers and city planners, the visits of rebuilding and improved protection. This is for the feeling that we weren't alone, that this has happened before elsewhere, only much worse, that it does get better with hard work and cooperation. For the lessons learned and experience shared; the first real promises of something good in uncertain times. This is for the most that we can share, our lessons, our triumphs and defeats, our heartbreaks and celebrations. This is for an open welcome to the grand rebuilding, our glorious comeback and their involvement in all that promises.

This is for the past...
and how not to repeat it. This is for shoddy levees and interrupted communications, driverless buses and improper shelters. For the wild ride to here, the respite in its warming memories, stories and legends yet to be told.
The anecdotes and folktales, the ghost stories and the pirates' songs, for history and the curious wisdom it imparts. For the good times, the bad times, the in-between times, we all had them here in this place we called home, no matter if you're local or not. This is for why we still call it home today, even if we won't, or can't be here now. This is for the sacrifices, the sweat and blood, the personal tales of reward and loss. This is for the chance to finally get it right, to learn form our mistakes one more time, to teach others the same as well; it's that precious and rare.

This is for the future...
and the promise that it holds.
For the chances in abundance, the endless, limitless boundaries presented. This is for the process of starting over, no matter how long or tough it turns out to be.
For the ways to see beauty in the ugliness, to fashion something new and exciting out of something broken and in a state of disrepair.
This is for our city, its legacy, our neighborhoods and families, friends and foes alike.
For our scenes and cliques, parishes and wards, businesses and hangouts, for the determination to rebuild them all, damn the engines.
Our wishes for a better way are here and now, ready and waiting, the concept of building better, stronger, and more secure. All we have to do is make it happen.
This is for the here and the here from now on.

So this is for you, in your own private way. For peace, contentment, steadfast resolve in trying times. For dignity and patience, reassuring calm after the storm. This is for the knowledge that you are not alone, no matter how lonely it may seem right now. For your hopeful return to the place we call home, if not now,
then in due time...
For the knowledge that she will wait for you, she always has,
she always will...
This is for our fair lady,
our New Orleans,
Past, Present and Future...