Samedi

Nudges
~Tools of choice for libertarian paternalists and choice architects. Examples include default rules, structured choice systems, incentives (market-based or socially created), feedback mechanisms, social cues, frames, and transparent designs.

Panel backs proposal on Charity Hospital~Jordan Blum

Residents, experts express concerns at LSU design meeting
~Save Charity Hospital.com

SLABBED (weekend edition)

Liprap's Lament - The Line

NAS IPET Study Member Shows How Stupid Is As Stupid Speaks, Parrots Smart Talk for the Corps
~Living on Earth
~"For 80 billion bucks you could do a lot of other things that might be a lot more beneficial than rebuilding levees or making them higher. You might be able to relocate people. You might be able to create jobs in areas that are substantially at less risk.
It requires some additional analysis that has not yet been publicly released. It requires some additional analysis that has not yet been publicly released. It requires some additional analysis that has not yet been publicly released. It requires some additional analysis that has not yet been publicly released. It requires some additional analysis that has not yet been publicly released."~Dr. Moreau, National Research Council expert committee member, co-author: Water Resources Development: Recent Trends in the Decision Making Process <-published by the Institute for Water Resources, Corps of Engineers
"The committee recommended that in fact the IPET staff actually hire a firm that specializes in communicating with the public to take the findings and translate those into common, everyday language." ...A Fantasy Island of Dr. Moreau
~Editilla parabellas~ The sound of broken record spin.
"It requires some additional analysis that has not yet been publicly released." breaks all records for spin.
Redundle! Redundle! Let down your fey airs!
We are getting goddamn tired of this game with the Corps and their fellow engineers, to wit: Spend more money for One More Study of what went wrong with the Corps engineering failures on 8/29/05, wait soooooo long for them to delay the release of this expensive study report,,, and all we get again is "Hello! You have a problem? We Hear You! We'll get on it and Get Back To You --since we need MORE STUDY on The Problem...Oh! And btw we gonna need $80 Buttzillion More Dollar$$$ to do this New $tudy for more assessment on methods of decision-making research into modeling real gibberish... or we get this creepollero Corps researcher/water biz spinner-bait from the NAS committee making ass-stupid statements like that last one in the article --over and over and over and over and over, in Kafkan Pile Driver Rhetorical Syllodomy. More Study, more study... we have waited sooooo long on this IPET Report report, for the Fat Lady to Sing, and all we get is a Fat Man in the Bathtub!


Corps to unveil plans for Bonnet Carre spillway~Matt Scallan

St. Clair study won't end dispute ~Tina Lam~The Georgian Bay Association Foundation report said that 1962 dredging by the Army Corps of Engineers not only enlarged the river, but allowed continuing erosion, making its outflow into Lake Erie faster. The report likened it to an enlarged bathtub drain that let billions of gallons of water flow out too fast, hence leaving Lake Erie levels tending higher than levels of lakes Michigan and Huron.

What Does the St. Louis Corps of Engineers Say to $250 Million Stimulus Check? ~Chad Garrison

Esplanade Avenue near Fair Grounds puts on a parade of Creole finery ~Stephanie Bruno

New Orleans~Quincy
~"I had the wonderful opportunity of going to New Orleans from April 22-26 with my high schools jazz band. We did SO many extraordinary things--the city is amazing. Here's just a few photos to share."

Swine Flu Fears Doesn't Stop Jazz Fest

vendredi

Floodwall builders can't be sued for Katrina failure on 17th Street Canal~Mark Schleifstein

Sen. David Vitter blocking Craig Fugate's nomination as FEMA director~Bruce Alpert

New Orleans, Houma Areas Tops For US In Low Unemployment Rates~BBuzz

WWOZ ~offBeat~NOMENU
Support WWOZ online! I renewed my membership online and so can you.
(:-->Join OZ Online<--:) Thank you!

Jeudi

Delay in release of hospital plan criticized ~Allen M. Johnson Jr.
~“It’s awful late in the game,” said Sandra Stokes, spokeswoman for the Foundation for Historical Louisiana, a preservationist group that favors restoring Charity Hospital, “It would have been nice to study the plans” before the meeting.
Andrew Thomas, a spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said the LSU designs were posted at 10:30 a.m., eight hours before the meeting began.

Residents criticize hospital plan process~Bill Barrow

Elite engineering panel says New Orleans needs better protection
- duh!~Levees.org

Plaintiffs wrap up their case in MRGO trial~Cain Burdeau
~"I think, today, that the corps and the steamboat association should be indicted for murder.
That's how I feel about the whole thing."
~Henry "Junior" Rodriguez Jr, president of St. Bernard Parish when Katrina hit Louisiana on Aug. 29, 2005, killing more than 1,500 people.

MRGO - USA signed waiver of rights to seek disquali- fication of counsel ~slabbed

ExQuixotic Corps' own Sancho Pansy bends over another windmill, would have us accept more Risk instead of Better Engineering! ~Nameless Tim Strikes Again!
~Editilla Rotellas~ As Nameless Tim Ruppert seems loathe to post poor old Editilla's comments where he drops his little pissives... our submitted comments below.
Funny though, and just so'z'yaz know I didn't just find this cowtard stuck on the bottom of my shoe, it was his comment printed on your New Orleans Ladder, a full year before the MRGO trial, that brought this Co'Intel'Bo and his professional spin- filtration in front of Editilla's train in the first place.
That is when this pellucid spincter showed up on my Fey'dar.
Go Fish... perchaps we wee'd in little Timmy's cool aid.
~Tim, you're the engineer here so you do the math: if your air bags are improperly built and wrongly installed then your chances of survival in a crash are greatly reduced, particularly if your actions have been dependent on the reasonable expectation those air bags are legit. You can build your air bags as high as you want, they can be guaranteed to overtop... but if they are built wrong and fail, that has nothing to do with potential risks.
That is just one thing that the NAE Report leaves out. I've read it twice so far, and am half-way through the IPET but that mother is a 9000 pound bear.

This report leads one to believe that the problem with IPET is one of accepting inherent risks. That is incorrect and you know it. You work for the Corps. You know this. The problem with IPET is systemic substandard engineering in building our flood protection, the corrupted methods of reviewing that catastrophic failure and the attempt to reframe that as Inherent Risk. There are many things which this report misses, but that is the most glaring to me thus far.

Your entire Narrative of Risk Appeasement rests solely on the notion of real, sound, competent, believable engineering. However, your employers, the Corps of Engineers, do not fit that bill. Indeed your entire system of project engineering has proven itself time and again to Not deliver safety.

That is what the NAE report leaves out.

Thank you,
Editilla~New Orleans Ladder

Harry Shearer: Obama 100 day window of opportunity closes on Louisiana~Lacoastpost
~"Although Mr. Shearer doesn’t speculate on a possible connection between our governor’s recent statements hostile to the new administration and our not receiving special post-Katrina resources, it’s very hard not to connect the dots.
It may or may not be significant that the president was hosting a town hall meeting in our upriver sister city of St. Louis on this special day, rather than at Jackson Square in New Orleans."

Corps Gets $162 Million For Louisiana Projects

Michael Brown Moons Obama Over Disaster Responses

Government officials may offer more housing aid to New Orleans hurricane victims in trailers and hotels~Michelle Krupa

San Luis~Squandered Heritage

Arthesia
Editilla T'nT~Smart City Radio

La. House panel OKs deductible restriction

NASA starts first major round of Space Shuttle layoffs

Child-Governor Jindal spotted alive and in French Quarter, dancing in the shadow of Tupac
~The Exorcist was seen on the scene hoisting Grenades and getting all Jiggy Wit'it, sort of following around the entourage of a Tupac Tribute Artist,
one Desireeli "DD" Debonairness.
TMZ got photographs and we swear the little guy in the baseball hat is the next GOP Presidential Candidate. Since he cannot find a live girl or dead boy, Louisiana's own Bobby Brady has fallen to stumbling in the chimmera of dead actors... poor little Piyush.

APA members will see planning on display in New Orleans next year ~Scott Carlson

NOLA Dog Park breaks ground May 5~Chris Bynum

Inside the Mind of Mencia
~Greg LaRose~Comedian Carlos Mencia is on a mission when it comes to people still upset with his jokes about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. “I’ve got to teach New Orleans that the comedian Carlos is different from the human being Carlos,” Mencia said.

“My take on it is, I think black people, you’re f---ing funny. You’re hilarious,” Mencia said during a late 2005 concert. “You will get on a bus to go to Million Man March, but you won’t get on a bus to get away from Katrina.”

~Editilla Ho'tellas~spoken even before all the dead had been counted among those poor stupid niggers-who-weren't-illegal-aliens, the other "others" who stayed behind, right Carlos?
Was that your sucker-punchline, Carlos?

Got To Hell, You Capitalist Pigleto!

Do this creepollero really expect us forking funny New Orleanians to come into his faux restaurant and Pay Him to Feed Us More Poision?

They may ass'punk each other back in Carlos' hood but we don't hang that nail in the 504!
Sinn Féin!

Saints in New Orleans until 2025
~Canal Street Chronicles

Film boomlet hits New Orleans ~Rick Jervis

Steven Soderbergh to host pair of New Orleans screenings
~New Orleans Film Society
~We are delighted to announce two events hosted by director Steven Soderbergh coming up on May 6th and 7th. Please don't miss your chance to see these fantastic films!

Bonerama: first ever studio track "Hard Times"
~Here Comes The Flood

Seasoned volunteers keep the Jazz Fest food stages cooking
~Judy Walker

Our Lady of Perpetual Crawfish
~A Bowl of Distinction

Reflections on New Orleans Jazz Fest 2009~David Lind

Tony Bennett donates musical instruments during Jazz Fest ~Stacy Plaisance

Mercredi

Hello Piggy! First possible cases of Swine Flu in Louisiana

Exquisite Corps to spend only small portion of its stimulus cash on Louisiana levees, coast
~Mark Schleifstein

Bill to strip LSU of hospital oversight moves forward
~Jan Moller~Legislation to strip Louisiana State University's control of its New Orleans hospital operations and give power to a new, independent board sailed out of a House committee Wednesday.

New Health and Human Services Secretary: 30 year Jazz Fest'er!
~Keith Spera
~Editilla Krewellas~ Yes! Such should be a prerequisite qualification for any high level Federal Post!
At least 5 Jazz Festivals, a few Mardi Gras and a couple of Halloweens! And and they have to publicly declare their Love for New Orleans. Jus'sayin...that's pretty damn cool. 30 Fests...

Will Kathleen Sebelius Bring The Doctor's Note to D.C.?
~Save Charity Hospital.com
~LSU Academic Medical Center Design Meeting
When~Wed, April 29, 6:30pm – 9:00pm
Where~Grace Episcopal Church, 3700 Canal Street (map)

Update from Levees.org
Levees.org has requested a statement regarding LSU's decision to fire Dr. Ivor van Heerden and downsize the LSU Hurricane Center from these elected officials:
Senator Mary Landrieu
Senator David Vitter
Congressman Charlie Melancon
Congressman Joseph Cao
Congressman Steve Scalise

The responses so far:
“As we move forward in rebuilding the hurricane protection system in New Orleans and building new, comprehensive protection throughout coastal Louisiana, Rep. Melancon believes independent review and expert analysis at each stage are essential to making sure we don’t repeat the mistakes of the past.”~Robin Winchell, Communications Director
Rep. Charlie Melancon (LA-03)
Tue, April 28, 2009

“I talked to Senator Landrieu today and she has declined to comment.”~Aaron Saunders, Press Secretary
United States Senator Mary Landrieu (D-La.)
Tue, April 28, 2009

New Orleans City Councilman at Large Arnie Fielkow has provided a statement unsolicited. It can be viewed here.

Levees.org requested, on Sat April 11 and again on Mon Apr 13,
a "few minutes" with the Governor to discuss LSU's action.
The Governor has yet return the phone call. No answer even, which is "unusual" because previously Bobby Jindal was one of the grassroots group's earliest supporters.

Ruling could postpone drilling tract auction in New Orleans
~Jen DeGregorio~A federal auction of drilling tracts in the Gulf of Mexico slated for this summer in New Orleans could be postponed after a federal court rejected a five-year energy plan by the administration of George W. Bush.


MRGO Update ~slabbed

Millions targeted at local levees, drainage ~Nikki Buskey

Exquisite Corps to Insert Devices to sniff out source of Persistent Levee Leaks~Sheila Grissett
Editilla jus'axin... Perchance those Leaks come from...
(drum roll)...Holes in the Levees?

Poll: GOP Presidential Candidate, Jindal ranks on par with Foster, Blanco...Sarah Palin? Satan?

Temporary Gulf fishing ban to help sea turtles~Cain Burdeau

Xof1 solar car team victims of theft in New Orleans

New Orleans bakery brings back McKenzie's buttermilk drops
~Judy Walker

Meet & Eat, Chris Bicknell, Crawfish Berl Master
~Serious Eats NY

Step into the second line in Andrea Boll's new novel
~Susan Larson

New Orleans: Inspiring change, one community at a time
~Kelli Peterson

Tony Fitzpatrick and a Stew Called New Orleans~Citizen K

Eighth Annual Ponderosa Stomp
April 28th and 29th,
House of Blues and the Parish

Jazzfest Recap and New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund Benefit

Mardi

The First 100 Days
in New Orleans~Harry Shearer
~All during the campaign, and then during the first 50 days, Obama partisans would say to me, "his heart's in the right place, just give him some time, he's got a full plate." Yet, the Corps is making decisions right now that chill the blood of New Orleanians concerned about their city's future, and Simon Cowell will be on welfare before this Congress will pass another stimulus bill.
The money window is shut, and the administration has been content to focus the nation's attention on Latin American relations, on high-speed rail, on Bo -- on anything but the near-destruction of a great American city.
Nice 100 days' work. Happy Jazzfest.




SLABBED Daily - MRGO update
~"However the title of item three, Memorandum in Support of Motion for Expedited Hearing re: Motion to Compel Reliance Materials of Defendant’s Expert Bruce Ebersole is almost as long as the text of the motion - which is asking to have an expedited hearing on the motion asking the court to compel the government to produce Ebersole’s Reliance Materials.
Somehow, I don’t think Judge Duval is going to be happy!"
~Exquisite Corps' "Expert Witness" got no Beef?
Where's da'Beef? Hey Timmy Ruppert,
where is your expert witness' Beef?


An Open Letter to LSU Chancellor Mike Martin
Re: The van Heerden Affair ~Levees Not War


At state Capitol, Nicholls students protest cuts
~Colin Campo and Jeremy Alford

Construction program's approval encounters snag; senators say they didn't get data in time
~Ed Anderson

Gulf states prepare for hurricane season

Exquisite Corps Releases Listing of Recovery Act-Funded Civil Works Projects
~Everglades projects get $103M from stimulus
~Nashville district gets $166M

USS New Orleans in Dry Dock

"FUTURE 5" - Loyola Graphic Design Group Show
The best and the brightest senior graphic designers come together at The CANARY Gallery for the month of May. Opening reception for the artists is Saturday, May 2nd from 6pm-9pm.

To paint a mural in New Orleans
~Tina Tarnoff

NoLA Rising :: U.S. Mint Show

Bar owner: Spotted Cat to become Jimbeaux’s
~Stephen Maloney
Editilla T'n'T~ Humid Beings

Institute of jazz taps new pupils
~John Pope

New Orleans swing dancers honor Lindy Hop pioneer Frankie Manning
~Keith I. Marszalek

Scofield blasts tribute to New Orleans sound~Scott Murphy
~Anyone expecting a mellow evening of jazz guitar and musical restraint knew they were in the wrong place about five minutes into John Scofield's JazzSLC appearance.
And despite the wonderful collection of New Orleans-sounding gospel selections played Monday, the biggest applause of the night arguably came during a solo in which Scofield quoted Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze."

Lundi

Groovy Update! Corps Engineer
deploys to Re-Frame MRGO trial testimony in bloggeesphere
~Corps Soft-handed Engineer, past president of the LA/ASCE and Nola'Blogger Co'Intel'Bro operative Tim Ruppert compares MRGO court testimony to engineering jokes --and in a feat of logical phallusy, somehow seeks to disparage Plaintiff's Expert Witnesses by framing Norm Robinson's testimony of personal suffering as irrelevant!
"Mr. Robinson is neither a scientist nor an engineer and it would appear all he had to offer was his sad story and dramatic telling of it. If plaintiffs are relying so heavily on emotional appeal, it betrays their lack of confidence in proving their case based on science and factual evidence."
Who let this obsequious jail'punk gimp out of his cage?
Nameless Tim's disclaimer:
Name: Tim
Location: New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
My blog might be nameless, but I'm Tim. Basics: 47 years old, married, one child. I'm a Registered Professional Engineer in Louisiana and an active member of the American Society of Civil Engineers. I have over 15 years experience as an engineer working in the private and public sectors. I currently work for the Corps of Engineers in New Orleans.
This is my personal blog.
The views expressed here in no way represent the views or policies of the Corps or any other group or organization discussed here.
This blog is entirely my thoughts, my personal observations and my vision for New Orleans, my home.
~Illustration Special Thankz~Da'Masqued Evinga!
~Editilla Crow'tellas~
"...based on science and factual evidence," the Corps must not trust their own recovery engineering, since they bought Timmy his new home up on Esplanade Ridge, above sea level of course.
Editilla suspects that the only lesson the Corps has learned from flooding New Orleans is to make sure the next time (and we know now there will be a next time) their structures fail that their own engineers are able to hit dry ground running.
One question though, Timmy, why aren't you in court testifying? Don't think your bosses would be interested in your Expert Levee Testimony? I mean, they know how much actual engineering of levees you have done, right? You wrote down your hours... right?

I first met this specious Corpsuckled Spin'filtrator when he showed up anonymously on your New Orleans Ladder, almost a year ago before this MRGO trial, already sighting-in on one of the expert witnesses, Dr. Robert Bea, with disparaging drive-by attack commentary. I didn't know who he was at the time, since he left no trace and didn't have that "disclaimer" on his blog until after I found out he worked for the Corps of Engineers and got on his ass and confronted him for it. The Flaming Cowtard never answered me directly of course. I had to track him down.
And track this lying bastard down I did. And I will not let go of little Timmy until he cries Uncle Sam Did It.
So in this past year I have witnessed this Co'Intel'Bro working on Norm Robinson as early as a year before this trial as well.
If it was me smearing a victim of the Corps Malfeseanse that would be one thing, but this is a Corps of Engineers employee attemting to Re-Frame the narrative surrounding the truth of his Boss' catastrophic engineering failures in advance (a full year) of their trial on their liability for that very criminal negligence.
And here he is again, the day before his Bosses openning defense?
Y'all try to stop me if I'm mixed up here but this looks an awful lot like Defensive Blogging Ops.
At the very least Timmy stinks of unethical fuckmookery.

Stop pissing down our backs and telling us that it was Katrina!!!
IT'S THE LEVEES STUPID!! AND YOU BUILT THEM
YOU MURDERING PIG!!!!
Ahem... yes, well...
Not to pee in Timmy's unCool Aid or anything, but I phoned them this morning and axed Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.
Hell, let's make it a partay!
ASCECORPS New Orleans District:
Legal Affairs (Office of Counsel) 504-862-2824
Public Affairs 504-862-2201
Information Management 504-862-2121

Below is Editilla's comment on Tim's Nameless Blog where he speaks for the Corps without speaking for the Corps... or how ever he has this figured. However, he has figured this, and we can only figure from their modi operandi that he ran this unethical horse sh*t by his bosses down at Leake Street and they said go for it.
At any rate, we don't expect Nameless Tim Ruppert to have the balls to post my comment, so...

Hey Tim, since you stand to benefit financially directly from your employment with the Corps of Engineers don't you think it just a tad unethical of you to publicly spin jokes about your Boss' liability in the MRGO trial? Perhaps your attempts to Frame court testimony are actually legal, as surely you ran this by your bosses down at Leake Street. You did run this by your bosses didn't you? We will know that soon enough. But really, are you speaking here for the Corps by not speaking here for the Corps?

But all that aside, and your windfall of a new house on higher ground, just how much true engineering experience do you have, Tim? 15 years to Robert Bea's 50? When did you ever work in the private sector?
Is your name on any building permit?

We know you guys at the Corps think that flooding New Orleans is just a bunch of engineering jokes. That much is obvious. What is not so obvious is whether you all down on Leake Street actually get the punchlines.

Hey Timmy, here's an engineering joke fork'ya:
Q: What's the difference between mechanical engineers and civil engineers?
A: Mechanical Engineers build weapons,
Civil engineers build targets.

Editilla~New Orleans Ladder

Scientist's ouster boosts LSU athletics~New Orleans Levee

Slabbin'MRGO, gavel to gavel!
~Editilla Motellas~
Trying to keep up with such prolixious slabbin'copious coverage is like running behind the ice cream truck wit’ya shoes tied together …tied in lots'a knots that fold in and out of each other like tiny peep'holes through space and time into another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind… a journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination, and litigation.
That’s the signpost up ahead - your next stop, the MRGO Zone!

LOSING LOUISIANA
How Restoring Gulf Marshes Can Bring New Orleans Back
~Aaron Viles
~Corps faulted for failing to mitigate MR-GO

Has Change Come to Post-Katrina New Orleans? Bush, Obama, and the First 100 Days~Jay Arena

Has anyone asked James Carville if he is working for Landrieu?

Despite much ado over the influx of young professionals since Katrina, the 25- to 44-year-old population has declined since 2000 ~Jaquetta White

On Recycling~Sloane Berrent

Kentucky Derby Bought Bar For Arkansas Native In New Orleans
~Katherina- Marie Yancy

Lafitte: 2009 pirates suck
~ChaCha Pitoulas

Cyril Neville - Brand New Blues

Irvin Mayfield and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra Release New CD, "Book One"
~all about Jazz

Bob Dylan - Together Through Life / Playing For Change - Songs Around The World
~Mike Ragogna

Heritage Forever
~Odd Bits of Life in New Orleans

Dimanche

Report: Shrink N.O.’s ‘footprint’,
pay no attention to that Corps
behind (the curtain) the levee!
Engineering Academy sayz Run!
~Allen M. Johnson Jr.
~The 41-page review of an upcoming voluminous report by the National Academies, an advisory panel of scientists and engineers, also proposes the “voluntary relocation” of entire neighborhoods, “elevating” homes of remaining residents; buyouts, and improving local and regional shelters to make hurricane evacuations “less imposing.”
Editilla pulls a nail-studded Louisville Slugger,
swats this Carpet'bagger's testicles into a flood gate:
“Mother Nature always bats last.”~Ed Link
Hey Ed, you ain't Yogi Berra,
this ain't a forking baseball game,
--this ain't even Rocket Surgery...
IT'S THE LEVEES STUPID!!!
Katrina "walked" at bat you ingrate bastard! Katrina hit us a fowl ball and the Corps of Engineers could not field even that!
New Orleans did not flood because Hurricane Katrina missed the city. New Orleans flooded because the flood control structures failed because the Corps of Engineers built them on the cheap with substandard materials. New Orleans flooded because the Corps of Engineers built, deepened and widened the MRGO Navigation Channel, not only destroying tens of thousands of acres, hundreds of square miles, of natural surge protections but creating a man-made funnel to focus the flooding.
Stop pissing down our backs and telling us that it was Katrina!!!
The Corps did this on purpose for more make-work funding.
This entire "report" is beginning to look like ASCECORPS PR.
These are the Perps who flooded our city --NOT KATRINA!!!

Part~1 of this interview

Corps seeks public comment on proposed eastern N.O. lakefront projects

Morganza structures concern businesses~Kathrine Schmidt

Bull’s Eye Project sets next site on New Orleans~Durham Police Department Crime Analyst Jason Schiess has been selected to present “Operation Bull’s Eye: Reducing Violent Gun Crime in Durham” during the international Tenth Crime Mapping Research Conference this summer in New Orleans. The conference is put on by the Mapping and Analysis for Public Safety (MAPS) program of the National Institute of Justice (NIJ).

State finances go from riches to rags in a year of Child-Governor Jindal's GOP Presidential Campaign~Mike Hasten

Texas GOP Governor pusses up to US Government for Flu Shots, swears state may still secede maybe after dinner but they could, really~Wonkette

Sunday Funnies~Citizen K

Planning firm keeps Louisiana cities’ stories in mind with projects ~Ellyn Couvillion

Post-production studio under construction in Esplanade mansion~Kate Moran

19th-century New Orleans brothels revisited in new book
~Susan Larson

Last day for Festival International de Louisiane 2009


Special thanks~ Georgianne Nienaber

All around New Orleans, it was a day to remember~Chris Rose
~"There have been better days in New Orleans. I'm sure of it. After all, we've been around, what? -- 300 years? Certainly, there must have been.
But I dare you: Show me one.
Saturday, we owned it. Everything.
The Center of the Universe. Again."

From discipline comes freedom
~Andrew Gilbert~At its conception, jazz melded the blues and street music of African-Americans with the European classical tradition carried by New Orleans Creoles of color. Rooted in Crescent City culture, Jonathan Batiste is in the midst of creating an ambitious new synthesis that marries the conservatory with the nightclub.

The Genuine Cajun
~Walter Tunis~The carnival barker voice that begins the new BeauSoleil album, Alligator Purse, suggests the music that follows is a genuine and rare commodity.

“Folks, this is genuine Cajun breakdown music as heard in Evangeline Country. Let’s go, boys.”

Samedi

Civil Engineer testifies of 'hurricane highway' in MR-GO trial~Cain Burdeau
~Bob Bea, a civil engineer with the University of California at Berkeley,
said Katrina's flooding would have been minimal if the 76-mile
Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet had not been built or if the Army Corps of Engineers had maintained it properly.











^1950^
2005-->
"This was not a natural disaster, this was a man-made disaster," said Bea, who specializes in studying engineering disasters and risk management and who, by his own account, has spent about 10,000 hours studying the levee failures of Katrina.
~The New Orleans Hurricane Protection System: Assessing Pre-Katrina Vulnerability and Improving Mitigation and Preparedness
~Independent Levee Investigation Team Final Report

American civil engineering cannot be trusted says
Nat. Academy of Engineering
~Sandy Rosenthal, levees.org

~Editilla Ho'tellas~ On the advise of expensive legal counsel, we hang the above Flash Advert as a stated News Artifact. Hence, we are protected form trademark or copyright violations --due as well in no small measure to the fact that
We the People paid our Taxes for this advertorial spin'filtration.
Please click the offensive Flash Advert or here for more detail.
Jus'sayin... anyone wanna put a SLAP on ol'Editilla can come on!

How would you invest $242 million on the coast? ~lacoastpost

Will The Re-Flooding Of New Orleans Be Another Predictable Surprise... Again?~Roger Pippin

The Confederate States of the GOP~We Could Be Famous

Draw the line, now
~Ashley Morris

<~Photo by: Ray in New Orleans
Hasta la victoria siempre.
New Orleans über alles.

Levee board OKs confiscating Waggaman land for clay pit despite neighbors, owner protests~Paul Rioux~The corps estimates it needs 75 million cubic yards of clay -- enough to fill 16 Super- domes -- to raise more than 300 miles of levees by 2011 to protect the area from a so-called 100-year storm, defined as one that has a 1 percent chance of hitting in any given year.

'Save Charity Hospital' reports: Questions go unanswered in frustrating New Orleans Master Plan meeting

N.O. area's March unemployment rate remains unchanged~Christian Moises

Earth from Space: Vietnam’s ‘rice bowl’

David Duke, Former KKK Leader, Ordered To Leave Czech Republic

New Orleans Museum Aids In Recovery Of Aviation Artifact ~WDSU

Aaaaw Mam... BBQ Shrimpses!

'Little Dog Laughed' brings laughter to New Orleans' Le Petit

Lost Characters Of New Orleans
~Zack O'Malley Greenburg

2009 Jazz Fest opens to sunny skies, expectations
~Lolis Eric Elie
~Ediditlla Cam'rillas!~Liuzza's Cam

Vendredi

Save Charity Hospital
~this black sista's page

Saving NOLA’s Charity Hospital: An Interview With Jonah Evans
~EA Hanks

100-year flood protection not enough for New Orleans, Long-delayed new report says... RUUUUUNNNN!
~S. Grissett and M. Schleifstein
~The previous four reports by the NAE and Research Council examined various draft volumes of the IPET. This report reviews the 7,500-page IPET draft final report, reflects upon the lessons learned from Katrina, and offers advice for how to improve the hurricane-protection system in the New Orleans area.
But the report warned that in this fourth year after Katrina, it looks like the New Orleans region has returned to a policy of business and building as usual.
"... It appears that post-Katrina rebuilding activities are taking place largely according to the pre-Katrina hurricane protection system design without discussions of how a safer and more reliable design might be configured," the report said.
And the reviewers repeated a warning from an earlier report that there are still competing theories for the exact process in which the 17th Street Canal wall failure occurred, and that the IPET's version, "while plausible, is not fully convincing."
Report in Brief / Full Report

No hurricane money in new spending bill~Gerard Sheilds

LSU defends cutting van Heerden’s post in hurricane center~lacoastpost.com

Transport for NOLA
~Advocating to improve the existing transit in the city, and also pushing for a vision of a world class transportation system in New Orleans—including a light rail system they are calling
The NOLA Overground.

Jim Carville Working Landrieu Mayoral Campaign from Tulane?

Sex and The City and the Iberville Gunman Hunt
~Big Red Cotton

U.S. Cities Increasing Use of Armed Mercenaries to Replace Police~Jeremy Scahill

Fund Firm Misled New Orleans Archdiocese, SEC Claims
~David Scheer

Hurricane Katrina Contractor Accepts $4 Million Judgment Under the False Claims Act

Latinos in the South often targets of abuse~Facing South

Cab ride set to get cheaper in New Orleans~Bruce Eggler

Crescent City Hack

KAT 5 Animal Rescue
Editilla T'n'T~Everything Is Under Control

Michael P. Smith Fund For Documentary Photography ~NOPA

Interview with author/musician Susan Fleet by Lonnie Cruse
~Poe's Deadly Daughters

NolaFunk Lagniappe

Jazz Fest loses some sponsors, but didn't have to alter programs ~Jaquetta White

Nighttime options abound in New Orleans during Jazz Fest
~Keith Spera

Still hungry after Jazz Fest? Check out these vendors' restaurants~Brett Anderson

Kermit Ruffins Releases New Album and Plays Jazz Fest
~VentVox

Power of creativity: How a jazz festival is resurrecting the city
~Carolyn Jack, Geniocity.com
Nearly four years ago, in August 2005,Vance Vaucresson’s city drowned in a storm. But when the 40th annual New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival opens today, Vaucresson will be there, as he has every year of his life, to celebrate the Creole culture of which his particular craft is famously a part. He’s a sausage-maker,
the latest in the long line of New Orleans Vaucressons who have produced the delicacies since 1899. His family has been closely connected to the jazz festival ever since Vance’s father, Robert “Sonny” Vaucresson, helped the founders dream it up and began selling his wares at the very first one in 1970.

Characters fueled Chevalier’s Louisiana music
~John Wirt

~~Please Click~~

Jeudi

Newsman Norman Robinson testifies he considered suicide, turned to alcohol after Flood
~Susan Finch
~In the face of losing "stuff that gives you humanity and connection to other people," Robinson said, "then you hear people denigrate you because, 'You're from New Orleans, you're a whiner, why don't you suck it up, why don't you get over it and move on?'"

Idiot Bastard Son, Tom Ridge, Spin'Filtrating the Katrina Lie!

"No one could have prevented the levees from breaking, but I think much of the problem with the Katrina disaster was the failure of political and government leadership at the local, mayor, state, and federal level. "
~Tom Ridge, Ubber'fucktard Bush Man
Editilla T'n'T~Levees.org

The merging of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet with the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, east of New Orleans. (Photo: Tyrone Turner / National Geographic Image Collection)
~Truthout.org


Seeing future without MRGO
~Allen M. Johnson Jr.

Wetlands tract to be preserved
~Cindy Chang
~The tract, in an unincorporated part of the parish near the mouth of the Tchefuncte River, can be viewed from the Tchefuncte River Lighthouse, now being restored by the maritime museum and scheduled to open as soon as early next year. Special thanks, Photo: doncon

Lethal but legal pollution - awful offal!~lacoastpost

Politics with a Punch
~Look for our Ace Herollero, Ivor van Heerden, on this week's panel of unseemly e'steamables!
“Wild” Bill Dykes, Nationally known Comedian
Tom Gregory, TV Producer and Host, Stand Up Comedian
Ivor van Heerden, Hurricane/Coastal Wetlands Scientist
John “Spud” McConnell,WWL 870 AM Talk Show Host
Eric Paulsen,Morning and Mid-Day News Anchor, WWL-TV
Nikki Reyes, Award Winning Television Personality
Vince Vance, Rock Star, Band Leader and Ultimate Showman

Recovery director Ed Blakely cost the city far more than $150,000 salary, e-mails show ~David Hammer

66,000 vacant properties thwart N.O.'s recovery~Scott Satchfield

Dan Aykroyd launches home building project for first responders~David Hammer

La. homeowners face higher humps as insurers ask for double-digit hikes ~Ted Griggs

Plenty Enough Suck to Go Around: A Memoir of Floods, Fires, Parades and Plywood
~Review by Susan Larson
~Writer Cheryl Wagner added her voice to the chorus of New Orleanians speaking out after Hurricane Katrina with her commentaries on NPR's "This American Life."
Now we have her Katrina memoir, with its roller coaster ride through the storm, the flood and the aftermath. Wagner's is a distinctive and funny voice, with that tone of the committed (and at times should be committed) New Orleanian.

The Wild Magnolias - With The New Orleans Project 1974
~Themonk's Jazz and Blues

Jazz Fest food vendors dish on their favorites~Judy Walker

Mercredi~Happy B'Earth Day Y'all!!!

Special thanks to Bill Thayer for ac'creating our flag.
The importance of coastal symbols, funding and mining the river~Len Bahr, lacoastpost

~The reason I’m particularly sensitive about the word coastline is not just technical or rhetorical, it’s also political. The image of a hard, fixed boundary between land and water lends itself to those who promote the idea of protecting the coast against storms by building a massive Texas to Mississippi “Cat 5″ levee, the “great wall of Louisiana.” This concept is utter fantasy.

Predicted annual rates of sinking in the Gulf coast region, in millimeters per year, based on a numerical model of Earth deformation resulting from sea level rise and sediment deposits. This model does not include sinking from other sources. Credit: NASA/JPL, LSU.

~Nationaltlas.gov Map Maker

Beneficial Use of Dredge Material~Quinta Scott


“The weeds and grass in this portion of the bayou point to the fact that, if but let alone, its entire closure is but a matter of a short time. It was noted that during a falling tide the current was very slight, and this slight current flowed towards Bayou Barataria instead of, as would naturally be supposed, flowing toward Barataria Bay, the natural outlet of the bayou. This abnormal condition of affairs must be caused by the obstructed condition of the bayou below the point where the examination terminated.”
–H.R. Douglas, Assistant Army Engineer, 1881
Photo: Bayou La Loutre, Alluvial City ~Quinta Scott

MR-GO now off limts to vessels at Bayou La Loutre
in St. Bernard Parish
Photo: WikiMapia

Slabbin'MRGO, gavel to gavel!
~the issue and the order (part 1)
-Duval got ‘em told~No one this far south has ever used the word pellucid to tell somebody off; but, Judge Duval did in the Order and Reasons he issued yesterday - and, given the significance of a pellucid telling-off, part one of this two-part post looks at the order of the reasons Duval got ‘em told.
~the issue and the Order (part 2)
- Resio v Van Heerden ~Plaintiffs filed a detailed affidavit of Dr. Ivor Van Heerden in which he opines that it appears that 3456 new COULWAVE runs have been produced in which it appears that entirely different values from the material referenced in his initial expert report of December 2008 were used. Moreover, the supplemental report “adds an entirely new analysis of front side velocities that was not presented in his original report to present the argument that frontside wave attack did not affect the levees.” Id. (Doc. 18514). Plaintiffs contend that because of the failure of the Corps to supply a proper explanation on how the hard drives were organized, to provide the format of the data, to provide any notes on the software needed to read the data, and to provide instructions on reading the data,” it is prac- tically impossible for them to evaluate the supplemental report.
~Slabbed Pretrial Composts
~Editilla gotta toll'yaz~ As this MRGO Suit gets thicker and heavier you will see lots more cross'links, over'links, double'links, downright'kinks and twisted labyrinthin'compostinks... yikes
--hopefully dat'is, hehehe... please bear wit'us, Gentle'rillas.

Did Our Government Drown Us? ~Leigh Graham

Corps of Engineers' self study of levee failures to be released
April 24~Levees.org

Storm shelters sought for levee workers~Sheila Grissett

Pools become nasty mosquito havens in foreclosure
~Pool Study from the Journal of Vector Ecology

Leader in mountaintop removal fight wins prestigious award ~Facing South



Earth Day At Your Service:
...Generation New Orleans
~Karen Dalton-Beninato

Missouri Coalition for the Environment: still growing at 40
~Erin Noble

New Jersey woman canoes from South Florida to New Orleans for a cause~Green Jersey
~On her website, she is described as an “ordinary mother of two” — a woman who has also paddled from New Jersey to D.C. and from Miami to Maine to fight for federal ocean protections.

BR bus boycott analyzed
~Allen M. Johnson Jr.

Gay New Orleans Couple Sues For Right To Wed
~Pam's House Blend

Sometimes They Paid
~We Could Be Famous

Zurich's New Orleans relationship was sealed by Hurricane Katrina
~Rebecca Mowbray

New Orleans Stories: Great Writers on the City by Various Authors~Never Without A Book

It's All About Lit in the City of Indulgence as The Saints and Sinners Festival in New Orleans Kicks Off May 14-17.
~Victoria Oldham

NoLA Rising Art Auction
~Casa de Charlotte della luna

Celebrate Festival Season & Earth Day with the New Orleans Craft Mafia
~Folk Art fellow by Unique Products

Earth Day. Crawfish Bisque. Crawfish Facts. Crab Nebula. Jack. Jancis. Lenin...
993 restaurants are open in New Orleans today.~Tom Fitzmorris

i go down to the river & there i be ~the leather canary


”New Orleans Music in Exile” Wednesday Night at the Library of Congress~Black Plastic Bag

Terence Blanchard Quintet and the Hartford Symphony Orchestra April 24th

Jazz Revelation Records Shows Some "Dedication"
~Straight No Chaser