Day 1096: A Favre Trade
August 27, 2008 - Filed Under football, funny, wisconsin
Breaking news! “Jets decide against Brett Favre; Green Bay takes him back and trades him to Chicago. In a sudden turn of events, the Green Bay Packers have traded Brett Favre to Chicago. In return, Chicago is giving us Door County, Lake Geneva, The Dells, Minoqua and the left lane of the Interstate back.” Sorry, thought we could use some levity right about now.
Day 1095: The New Orleans Speaks Symposium
August 26, 2008 - Filed Under new orleans, recovery
On August 30th, the New Orleans Insitute will host a New Orleans Speaks Symposium at UNO. Among many notable others, Karen Gadbois will be speaking in the afternoon about her work with Squandered Heritage, Latoya Cantrell of the Broadmoor Improvement Association will moderate a morning roundtable and Pam Deshiell of the Holy Cross neighborhood association will also speak in the afternoon. [SCHEDULE]
What interests and heartens me about the institute is how many individuals and organizations it has been able to bring together, and that one of its main interests is taking the message beyond New Orleans for help and to help.
Day 1095: Damn You, Gustav! [Updated]
August 26, 2008 - Filed Under WTF, new orleans, weather
August 29th, 2008 - finally a day off from work where I travel nowhere and can spend time by myself in quiet contemplation. Now, I have to take pictures of all of our stuff and gather the important items in Rubbermaid containers that fit in the back of the truck. All Just In Case We Have To Evacuate For Hurricane Gustav. This time, our tentative plan is to head straight up to Wisconsin, in order to avoid long waits in westbound traffic.
What a pain.
Dad thinks the storm will head to the Yucatan while Mom utilized her divine powers of prognostication to deem that it will come nowhere near us. This would make me feel better if we hadn’t used up all of our Storm Repulsion Karma over the course of the last two seasons.
All of you out there may be listening to Mahler, but we’re currently rocking Holst at VatulBlog World HQ. Here’s Jupiter - The Bringer of Jollity from The Planets suite. Jollity, indeed, because this five-day storm track is nothing if not jolly. Oh, rapture!
Update: You know what, I’m really stressed out right now while slowly preparing for a possible evacuation and do not need negative Twitterheads, people like Will Bunch and vile commenters at Daily Kos making my mood fouler. Democratic bloggers who think that the hurricane, if it comes here, will be “a potential nightmare for the Republican Party” are, to quote Adrastos, “the left wing equivalent of those wingnuts who want another big terrorist attack because it will help the ‘daddy’ party and hurt the ‘mommy’ party.” Listen up, stupid self-centered faux progressives, we are voters, citizens and humans, not your political lab rats! More from HumidCity.
Day 1094: Oh Yeah, The Convention
August 25, 2008 - Filed Under desi / india, funny, government
Exhausted from the great Rising Tide weekend, it took turning on NPR this morning to jog my memory that there’s a Democratic convention underway in Denver. In honor of Obama’s vice-presidential choice, Sepia Mutiny and Ultrabrown have teamed up once again for this t-shirt design:
If you’re unaware of the backstory, see here and here.
From the convention floor: Athenae (looking lovely today in an FYYFF shirt) is liveblogging and live-Twittering while Abhi and Ravi of Sepia Mutiny serve it up on the blog, Tumblr and Twitter. If there are liveblogs or Twitter feeds you think I’d find interesting, please leave them in the comments section.
Day 1093: Rising Tide 3 - Dénouement
August 24, 2008 - Filed Under blogistas, citizen journalism, new orleans, rising tide conference
Robert Cerasoli attended our pre-party, Lee Zurik was there, we made the Times-Picayune and Clancy DuBos is one of us, one of us.
Follow up posts coming on:
* interconnectedness - why New Orleans and Louisiana are important to the rest of the nation, just as the Dakotas, California and the East Coast should be important to us.
* parallels and dissimilarities with India
* education as a lowered national priority and how that is already coming home to roost
Again, thanks to all of you who made Rising Tide 3 happen. We need to meet more often before next year. Geek dinners, anyone? I’ll bring the Indian food!
Day 1092: Live From Rising Tide 3 - Blogger Award
August 23, 2008 - Filed Under blogistas, new orleans, rising tide conference
Time for the Ashleys! This is an award for excellence in blogging handed out by the Ashley Morris Memorial Foundation. Glass awards created and crafted by Liprap, not just a blogger but also a glass artiste (I’m impressed!).
And the winner of the first Ashley is the late, great Ashley Morris himself.
The next winner is Matt McBride of Fix The Pumps! Go, Matt!
The final winner is … KAREN GADBOIS!!!
And, with that, we’re done. Off to socialize. This was a great conference and I thank everyone for being here, even virtually!
Day 1092: Live From Rising Tide 3 - Politics Panel
August 23, 2008 - Filed Under blogistas, crime, government, new orleans
Adrastos moderates a politics panel that includes Greg Peters (*groan* oops, I mean *cheer*), Brian Denzer, Gordon Russell from the Times-Picayune, Ethan Brown and our very own “queen of the universe,” Dangerblond!
Who’s going to / whom do you want to run for Mayor? Boos for Jackie Clarkson and Rob Couhig. Yay for Karen Carter, Mitch Landrieu and our Eli Ackerman.
District Attorney race: Ethan Brown says that the blogosphere the law enforcement establishment in New Orleans (thanks for the correction, Ethan!) has a “zombie narrative” going that New Orleans entertains a very liberal/lax policy when it comes to incarceration. New Orleans has a high incarceration rate for drug-related crimes and Louisiana has a very high number of people in prisons. High rate of 701 releases, yet only 2% of NOPD arrests are for violent crimes. Dangerblond says we need a DA who does not spend the first term preparing for the second term. We need a DA who is not going to prosecute every low-level “jughead” with “resin and a crackpipe.” Any avenue for social restitution for these people is now squandered because now they have a criminal record in their background. Greg Peters wants our new DA to have good managerial skills, not just lawyer finesse. Schroeder reminds us that we don’t have good metrics - “making quantitative records available to the public is important.” violent offenders tend to be repeat offenders and need to be put behind bars, but crack-pipe criminals may be able to go to Drug Court, as proposed by Linda Bizzarro as well as Jason Williams, who is with us at RT3 today.
Jason Williams says we need to prosecute cases using a Quality of Life dynamic. 95% of arrests are small change offenders. “Repeat violent offenders are allowed to go back to the street very quickly. First there are the 701 releases, but the justice system here is ill-equipped to deal with all of the cases.” So violent offenders are thrown back out with the low-risk folks. All was cool until the “Vote For Me” plug at the end - so unnecessary.
2nd District Congressional Race: Adrastos refers to William Jefferson as “a tragic figure, but, man, does he like money.” To help us understand the race better, Brian “The Nerd” Denzer gives us statistics, maps and visual aids. The thrust is that the 2nd District is majority black and this is going to be a major factor in this race. Based on a Southern Media poll, Brian says that Byron Lee, Dollar Bill and Kenya Smith together will garner about 16% of the vote. The poll shows Troy Carter, James Carter and Cedric Richmond going head to head, with Helena Moreno not making it to second primary.
(I don’t know who to vote for. *sigh*)
Gordon Russell is unsure how the voting is going to play out, but agrees that race is a factor. Helena Moreno is the only white candidate and could benefit from white votes in a sea of all black candidates. Greg states that Dollar Bill is not going down because of scandal but because he is no longer adept at bringing home federal money. Dangerblond is on the OPDEC and says James Carter (?) has national appeal and has OPDEC endorsement - yet states that people don’t know whom to believe. (My indecision is vindicated.) Ethan: “I’m from California where no one cares about the garbage contracts … We have a smaller pot of money so everyone is fighting over it.” Brian brings up coastal restoration and the Stafford Act: “They all lack the ability to speak to particular constituencies.”
Senate Race: Question is “Will Obama at the top of the ticket help or hurt Mary Landrieu’s chance for re-election?” Greg thinks it doesn’t matter because “John Kennedy is as useful as tits on a bishop.” Brian: “It helps because it increases black voter turnout.” Gordon: “It doesn’t matter.” Dangerblond brings up a $50 reward for anyone who can prove a credible story of corruption on the part of Moon Landrieu or anyone in his family. At this conference, Dangerblond raises the reward to $100.
Bobby Jindal:
Me: “Bobby Jindal exorcised me!” Adrastos points out that the exorcism obviously hasn’t taken and introduces me as his friend with lovely eyebrows. “I don’t get them waxed, either.”
Greg: “He’s a hydroponically-grown prototype,” “fake ideologue persona who will do what it takes.”
Brian: “He’s got a long way to go as an elected official.”
Gordon: “His ambition seems to have no limit and he will run for president.”
Dangerblond: “He’s a glib phony.”
Q&A Time a la Oyster:
* Are crime cameras and traffic cameras of any political relevance? Dangerblond says that we as a nation have turned into sheep allowing ourselves to be searched before flights, on trains, etc., so NOLA is not different. Brian wants crime cameras to be taken off streets and placed outside City Hall.
* Gary Wainwright gives a rambler of a sermon. And then asks us to vote for him?!?!
* Jimmy Huck brings up shifting populations and demographics and the Latino vote. Brian is disappointed with Helena Moreno for running as a white candidate and not as an advocate of the growing Latino population. Gordon asks, “If we have more Asian and Latino voters, would we have more sophisticated politics instead of I Look Like You, Vote For Me?” Yes! Adrastos supports immigration and that we have more people identifying as other than White or Black. (Hello! Dedra jokes that they have me lumped in with the Vietnamese.)
* Cynthia wonders how to go about advertising New Orleans as a destination for living. (We need to keep crime down and grow better schools for that.)
* More Latino community discussion. It’s puzzling to me that there are people here named Hernandez and Juarez (historically Spanish folks) who don’t want Hispanic immigrants moving in here or don’t advocate for them.
Ok, I’m done with this panel. Time for the Awards Ceremony.
Now watching a sneak preview of Ken McCarthy’s “The Katrina Myth: The Truth about a Thoroughly Unnatural Disaster.” Sandy Rosenthal of levees.org introduced it. 0 comments #
