Saturday, June 4, 2011

In South Dakota, some blame Corps for flood threat~"I think they screwed up royally," former Gov. Mike Rounds said of the Corps, as he moved some possessions from the riverbank house he and his wife built and moved into after he left office in January. "I think they forgot their No. 1 mission, and that's flood protection."

~Hat Tweet @ Levees.org~I am now Webmaster of our brand new site. (My son Stanford is Web Designer.) Loving it, but new at this. Suggestions?

~Hat Tweet @ the Pun~ in Baton Rouge tonight for 5 Bucks!

Corps alleges it has completed levees around St. Bernard Parish

Water receding in most areas of Cenla, but some evacuees remain in shelter
~Alexandria Town Talk


The Red Snapper…what am I supposed to make of this?
~Disenfranchised Citizen


Our wetlands: World's greatest disappearing act~Nikki Buskey

Tax Fairness Commission delivers suggestions for New Orleans tax system

12 revelers charged in dustup with NOPD over 2nd-line Mardi Gras parade

~I remember when this happened, June 4-5th, 1989 Anti-Democracy Crackdown


Team Freeland would like a word: Chooses Patsy Brumfield to respond to the Oxford allegations ~Slabbed

UMC - City Council Caves, Financial Uncertainty Rages On
~SaveCharityHospital.com


Welcome to the LOUISiana Digital Library ~The LOUISiana Digital Library (LDL) is an online library of Louisiana institutions that provides over 144,000 digital materials. Its purpose is to make unique historical treasures from the Louisiana institution's archives, libraries, museums, and other repositories in the state electronically accessible to Louisiana residents and to students, researchers, and the general public in other states and countries. The LOUISiana Digital Library contains photographs, maps, manuscript materials, books, oral histories, and more that document history and culture. We hope that you find the items in the Digital Library as diverse and interesting as the people and places in Louisiana. ~Hat Tweet @humidbeings

Samedi: The Two Jeans (Part II)
~HoodooQ


From pleasure gardens to neutral grounds, author Lake Douglas reveals New Orleans' 300-year romance with its landscape~Judy Walker

The National WWII Museum Unveils New $3.2 Million Restoration Pavilion

"504Paws" at Mimi's Sunday afternoon

New Orleans Oyster Festival and WYES Beer Tasting today in Nola

Who loves a mojito? Well... Editilla!
~He Said/She Said NOLA


N.O.'s best Cuban restaurants?

Friday, June 3, 2011

The Big Uneasy in Baton Rouge tomorrow night for 5 Bucks!
~Join Filmmaker Harry Shearer for this special screening.
~Also~A Letter From New Orleans: Year 6 of a 5-Year Lifespan

Happy Hurricane Season (again)
~Library Chronicles


Corps tests world's largest drainage pump station ~WVUE
~Construction workers watch pump test at giant West Closure Complex ~Click pic to enlarge

Debris Part 5: Debris throughout West Bank levees~Fix the Pumps

Now Way, you say? Some blame Corps for flood threat in South Dakota

Corps of Engineers' New Risk Reduction Ethos: RUUUUUUNNN!

New USGS land loss map misses the forest for the blades of marsh grass ~Len Bahr, LaCoastPoast~“This is not just a story about land loss, but it’s also about land gain,” said Phil Turnipseed, director of the USGS National Wetlands Research Center in Lafayette.

Sediment Plume in Gulf of Mexico
- Big Dead Zone Ahead? ~SkyTruth

~NASA/MODIS satellite image taken June 2, 2011, showing sediment plume from Atchafalaya River filling coastal bays and nearshore areas along the Louisiana coast, west of the Mississippi Delta. Click pic to enlarge.

Time is here to renew fishing license

Scientists confirm Gulf residents' claims about oil dispersant dangers
~Sue Sturgis, Facing South


US says it will inspect Repsol Cuba offshore rig

MS Republican Gov. Babar now angles for BP fine money on Capital Hill
~Editilla gotta axeth God: What Hath Thous Wrought, Big Man? I mean, after Babar did BP-paid-for commercials about how little their oil crime impacted MS, after spoutulating Repugnican Big Biz Assholery to protect BP... what da trump does Babar have to complain about? What can he possibly expect in return for his own jail-house punkery? Well, what every girlfriend gets on cellblock #9: Mo' Lessons On Jail Etiquette!
~Also~Babar Rejects House GOP’s Disaster Relief Position
~In a rebuke to House GOP leaders, Mississippi Governor Babar told reporters on Friday that Congress should authorize disaster relief funds even if they are not offset with spending cuts.

IG’s report on arrests for petty crime slams city’s arrangement with sheriff
~Matt Davis, The Lens/WVUE


Presenting the NOPD's new $350,000 Drunkmobile BAT-mo-bile ~Gambit

Bills to roll back N.O. education changes defeated in Legislature

UNITY combats homeless problem

The Green Project Hosts Week of Free Building Supplies for New Orleans Community~Humid Beings

NO Fleas Market


New Orleans Most Interesting Market
~cheekycherry504, NOLAFemmes


Christy Lorio: Did you buy a bike yet?
~Uptown Messenger


~Hat Tweet @ the Pun~ I'm completely taken with these Images by Matthew D. White

The 610 Stompers invite you to their second annual pub crawl

New Orleans Oyster Festival celebrates the Louisiana bivalve~Todd Price
~Also~NOLA Brewing plans to sell cans by the fall

Video: The Man Who Ate New Orleans ~Defend New Orleans

Better Looking Beakfast: Refuel Cafe
~He Said/She Said NOLA


June at Rock'N'Bowl!

Thursday, June 2, 2011

A Letter From New Orleans: Year 6 of a 5-Year Lifespan~Harry Shearer

Homeless population in New Orleans rises 70 percent since Federal Flood 8/29/05 ~ Katy Reckdahl
American Zombie: Let's call it Krewe du Peckerhead @ The Rattlesnake Rodeo


Inspector General breaks protocol to clear NOPD Chief Slurpy of wrong-doing for Mayor Mitchmo?

Today’s rapid fire segment is sponsored by Bellesouth and Blue Moon ~Slabbed

Bills increasing Louisiana college tuition, fees move forward
~Monroe News Star


State, NOLA ahead of construction economist’s 5-year forecast
~New Orleans CityBusiness


More properties on auction block this month as New Orleans fights blight

New Orleans neighborhoods: a matter of evolving perception
~Richard Campanella, The Lens


A Plea from New Orleans ~dwell
~I recently received an email from filmmaker Evan Mather, alerting me to his most recent—and urgent—project, which I thought I'd share with you. It's a short video about the Phillis Wheatley Elementary School in New Orleans, which despite its standing as a rare and important work of modern architecture (one of the best examples of regional modernism in the city), and despite surviving the storms and levee breach of 2005, is currently slated for demolition this summer.

National Hurricane Center on Twitter!

~Hat Tweet FEMA, once again, you prove to be a giant dickhole.

Residents of Birds Point floodway in SE Mo. face the aftermath of intentional levee breach

Concerns Raised About Water Releases, Impact on River Communities
~Missouri Ruralist


Flooding risk eases; rivers fall

Louisiana is losing a football field of wetlands an hour, new U.S. Geological Survey study says~Mark Schleifstein
~Louisiana’s coastline has been losing wetlands at a rate of 16.57 square miles a year during the past 25 years, equal to the loss of a football field of coast every hour, according to a study released today by the U.S. Geologicial Survey.
That’s five square miles a year faster than measured by the USGS between 1985 and 2004, the last time such a study was done.

St. James tank farm group seeks $15 M state loan for dock

UWF Study: Corexit and oil probably worse than oil alone…
~Disenfranchised Citizen


Local rugby club to play for national title ~WWL ~Hat Tweet @ Ian McNulty

Passive House Design from Canada Wins Competition For New Orleans

~Hat Tweet @ Defend New Orleans~Things That Look Like Other Things: Neil Conley's Glasswares Advocate Transparency Transparently -...

New Orleans food campaign urges locals to eat local

Memories of NOWFE
~He Said/She Said NOLA


New Orleans Oyster Festival this weekend!
~The New Orleans Oyster Festival will educate the country about the benefits of the Louisiana Gulf Oyster, honor and celebrate the restaurateurs and oyster farmers who have solidified the New Orleans French Quarters position as the Oyster Capital of America. Proceeds from the event will go to Local Coastal Communities.

Atchafalaya~Blackened Out

From "Rainy Day Women" to "Buddy Bertrand's Blues"~Mike Mills

Greg Dulli brings Twilight Singers home to Tipitina's~Kieth Spera

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Levees.org Releases Video of London Avenue Historic Plaque Unveiling

*

Mayor Landrieu: N.O. better protected --but not enough ~WWL

What metro New Orleans' 100-year protection from hurricanes means
~John Barry


From Across the Web :: Hurricane Season 2011
~Humid Beings


Hurricane season blows in 93L for Central Florida ~Wunderblog
~The Atlantic hurricane season is officially underway, and Mother Nature appears to be taking her cue from the calendar, as we have a surprise storm off the coast of Florida that is a threat to develop into a tropical depression later this week, after it crosses Florida into the Gulf of Mexico.

Early hurricane could be extra trouble for Louisiana, governor cautions
~Mike Hasten, The Town Talk


Louisiana Ham Radio Network

High water adds stress to hurricane season
~At right: Interactive Wind Speed and Elevation Map from the LSU AgCenter

Flooding, drought and pending gulf storms. What’s next, coastal locusts? ~LaCoastPost

Why predicting this hurricane season could be tough

Corps: 'More water is coming’
~Amid concerns of a “man-made disaster,” MO Congressman Sam Graves is asking the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to reconsider the release of record amounts of water from upstream dams this month.

Today's video goes out to our friends in the Atchafalaya. Thanks Yous All.


Revised "Sound Ordinance" posted for public review via Councilmember Kristin Gisleson Palmer's Web Page
~Hat Tweet @lunanola

Maybe GOP should return St. Pierre’s tainted donations
~Mark Moseley, The Lens


Zulu's election of its 2012 king is contested by second-place finisher

Typical Hump Day Slabbed

Insult of the day!~Forgotston.com

What Is The Louisiana Family Forum? ~CenLamar

Feinberg: GCCF claims process winding down ~Disenfranchised Citizen

Anadarko Liable Under Federal Law for Gulf Oil Spill, U.S. Lawyers Say ~Bloomberg

Sea turtle deaths prompt four conservation groups to threaten lawsuit

Drought leads to statewide burn ban

Drink Deck New Orleans!

~Hat Tweet @~Love avocado! YUM RT : [new post] Avocado Ice Cream - creamy, nutty, and green!

To be or not to be…on the Algiers Ferry
~He Said, She Said NOLA


Winesday ~Blackened Out

~Video: Chef Rick Tramanto creates crab and corn bisque from New Orleans restaurant

Alex Woodward on the New Orleans locavore movement and "Eat Local Month" ~Gambit

Chart and Soul: How Basin St. Records Landed 3 Albums Near the Top of the Billboard Jazz Charts
~

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Levees.org unveils new website! ~Editilla reviews!
~Originally designed and built by then 15 year old Stanford Rosenthal --at right with Mark Allain, Oct. 10th, 2005 --while he and his mother were evacuated to Lafayette during the Federal Flood of New Orleans, this website became, for yer Ho Ho Homble Editilla, not only The storehouse of all things Corps-engineered for our collective destruction, but also one of the few places I could go and feel unmolested by Corps Public Relations bias. So, Gentle'rillas may imagine my anticipation of any expected evolution in the vehicle of our ride down the long road home, as well as my pleasant surprise at what Stanford came up with next! Six years have passed for levees.org, young Stan is now kicking ass in college, and the website has grown and evolved to accommodate the immense data resource retrieval needs of his mother, founder and executive director Sandy Rosenthal, ---and so the organization itself, as it has grown to 25,000 members in 5 states.

Editilla gives their new site an A++ on Site Evolution and overall Informational Congroovience. Though fairly quick before, the new site is much much faster. Furthermore, things that I require of such a website, such as static resource information like studies, pdfs etc, are cleanly listed in the links bar above, while Sharing on the Internets is well blocked in a bar at the bottom of each post. In other words, for me, a site like this for an org like this must work as much as a Resource Library as a Blog Venue for the Word Ya Heard? How many times have I already used that word: "Resource"? I can't say it enough. I use Levees.org in my own blogging about the Corps, and had grown quite fond of the website's former layout. It was big and easy to move around on. But most importantly for me, we can count on the truth in accuracy of everything levees.org says. They have always exhibited a very high IQ or Integrity Quotient. To that end, I'd like to note this really cool little Quote Box Thingy, in the upper right side, that cycles through various smart things said by smart people involved with our Great Flood. Levees.org ain't whistling Dixie ---and we don't have them featured prominently on Your New Orleans Ladder for nothing. I'm just yer humble Editilla, but actual heavyweights agree with our support of levees.org and reflect in their words a certain resonance which may hold us all together, shelter from the storm.

~Click map to enlarge~
This new website succeeds in keeping that info-fidelity, along with a certain graphic stability. On that latter note, I would like to see more graphics stitched into the overall look-design. But, Editilla loves graphics, especially maps --like the levees.org National Levee Map, an incredibly forward-looking piece of work they commissioned from the geographer Ezra Boyd, that we believe influenced the Corps and the Times-Picyune to publish their own maps and address this issue of just how many Americans live behind levees --with the answer: 55% of the pop.
I like to see blogs and websites from around New Orleans and Louisiana visually illustrate and reflect the scene from whence they speak. It is a question of Fabric for me. I'd like to see more on this new website. That said, this is a beautiful website. It should be noted that I watched the former website evolve quickly to accommodate Editilla's graphics fetish. Mrs. Rosenthal has always exhibited a lean and mean learning curve on working her son's previous hand-made website, so we can look forward to the new website to blossom and fill out soon enough.

Another facet I would like to see added, in congroovience with my Resource listings, is a Blog- Website Roll down the side. I have many reasons for this suggestion, but chief among them is the concept of what we call: Stitch'Hiking the Net. Such Site Rolls serve to offer up both Supporters Of levees.org as well as those Supported By levees.org. In short, to quote one of their own t-shirts: We're all in the same boat!
We need to keep stitching the net. We must stay quickly connected for when this all can happen again. Secondly, I know many of our 500 hits/day on the Ladder either come from or come to find a blog or website listed in our Stitch'hikers and 2nd Line rolls. Thirdly, you wanna know peoples' peoples... it shows the 'hood, the culture, literally sewn and sown into the ground beneath our shared catastrophe, our coming together to deal with it and our triumph over Corps intractability despite it.
Nous avons tous
la Nouvelle-Orléans
, Sinn Féin!
I love this organization so, because they've always reflected and expressed the broadest cross-section of our citizenry in that regard, with no bull shit, nothing but the facts, artifacts not politics. For example, to name just a few actions, take the recently installed State Historical Markers, or their campaign to have such breach sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places or, most fundamentally, their campaign for a truly independent investigation into that man-made disaster: The 8/29 Investigation. These artifacts seek to face the future with the past, in a way to insure that they still stand after the next "event". By doing so, levees.org has provided us with tools to deal with disaster, actual machinery to control our message in the aftermath. So too with the new website.

We all have seen how important it is to Own the Word on New Orleans. This has always been the crux of the biscuit with Sandy Rosenthal: Get The Word Out.
The new website compliments, informs and enables that mission splendidly!
~Editilla, New Orleans Ladder

An early start to hurricane season?
~Dr. Jeff Masters, Wunderblog


Vitter warns hurricane protection is not complete ~WWL

~Hat Tweet @Residents who need city assistance in evacuating should call 311 and visit for more information

~Hat Tweet @ the Pun~ Nowhere in this dilettante's screed will you see the words Levee Failures or Corps of Engineers. So, fucke'em.

Hurricane projects fueled economic boom for New Orleans area
~Rebecca M0wbray


Senator Mary Landrieu warns of fund shortfall ~Gerard Schields

Strongest Gulf hurricanes ease near coast, study shows


River nears crest @ Morgan City ~WVUE~Also~Kerner Bridge closed after barge collision

Floods cut phones in eastern Montana rains continue

Ala. town hit by tornadoes bans FEMA trailers

Temporary jail buildings beginning to take shape in Orleans Parish Prison complex~Matt Davis, The Lens

Get Ready: A “Revised” Kaufman-Hall Report is likely coming soon
~SaveCharityHospital.com


Louisiana State Senate panel approves ban on oil spill dispersants

Astronauts get set to land Endeavour one last time

Got Ink? Share Your Tats On u local~Are you tatted? Share photos of your tattoos or body art on WDSU's u local page. And please share a little information about your tattoo: the story of why you got it, what it means to you or tell us where you got it! Photos with the best descriptions or stories have the best chance of being used on-air!

The "culture" bubble
~Library Chronicles


Whew~Blackened Out

Sunday, May 29, 2011

~High water and hurricanes, MS River flooding makes 2011 storm season predictions trickier~Amy Wold

As hurricane season begins June 1, New Orleans has unprecedented protection (at the lowest standard)
~Editilla tongues a 50 amp fuse~Really. Let's get right to ripping some asshole here: "The previous batch of individual levee projects was dubbed "a system in name only" by then-corps Chief Engineer Lt. Gen. Carl Strock [that was never upgraded to account for soft and sinking soils, outdated construction materials,] or the likely chance that dramatically larger hurricanes could hit the area than those for which the system was designed."
[ ] is simply not true and is well documented. The Corps was In Fact aware of the soils --- even though their awareness was inadequate and even tainted by their work ethos of Build To Fail. I am really quite stunned and disheartened by Mark Schleifstein's lack of balance here. How could he, the journalist, let that misstatement slide? This piece reads like something you would find on the Corps own website --written of course by OPP.
Again, Strock: ["What does it take to make progress with regard to reducing risk?" he asks. "The answer is a disaster."] Do I really need to point out the total engineering cop out there? Oh? Is this Corps commander actually Agreeing with wit yer Ho Ho Homble Editilla? Does the Corps indeed Build To Fail so they can get more projects Repairing their failures? Again another Untruth: ["This has been sobering for us, because it's the first time the corps has had to stand up and say we had a catastrophic failure with one of our projects, " Strock said on June 1, 2006, in addressing the first draft of a report on why the previous system failed.] That is not true. Start with the Florida Everglades in totos. Start with Nashville, TN last year. Try the Corps and the LA River. Try Maria Garzino and the faulty, inoperable pumps the Corps installed AFTER they flooded the city as Katrina was hitting MS 8/29/05. By saying "had to stand up and say", Strock means New Orleans was the first place that the Corps lost in Court. The Corps didn't stand up to the plate and say anything about their responsibility for 53 failures in their structures. No. Quite the contrary, the Corps immediately set about to tell a lie about over-topping. They continue to refer to their Flood of 8/29/05 as Katrina's Flood, Katrina Damage. The Corps stood up and wrung their red hands is what the Corps did. They were caught by Bob Bea, by Ray Seed, by Levees.org and so now they are trying to Spin the PR that they got religion. They did not come clean. As ill, I believe their present behavior shows that they have Learned Nothing from their failures but how to hire better PR (and to somehow hypnotize and brain-wash journalists). Why can't Mark Schleifstein point this out? Again: [Temporary gates and pumps at the ends of the 17th Street, Orleans Avenue and London Avenue drainage canals will remain in place for as long as three years.] And again, while a true statement it is NOT the whole story and that, in the case of New Orleans, is extremely dangerous. Everyone please go to the blog Fix The Pumps.
Schleif's colleague John McQuaid correctly pointed out on Twitter this morning that this "unprecedented protection" is in fact the Lowest Standard.

From the timing could not be worse files ~Slabbed~Aaand Hat Tweet @~It is clear that Becky Mowbray has lots of catching up to do......

Flood threat wanes but caution remains
across the Atchafalaya Basin ~Nikki Buskey

Farewell Endeavour
~JudyB, NOLAFemmes


Fleur De Lis as The Symbol of New Orleans
~Bingo Man's Place
~Hat Tweet @

Fundraisers for Boucherie owner Nathanial Zimet planned