September 2008 Archives

An excellent article on Palin in Salon this morning, from Rebecca Traister.  Traister has absolutely no sympathy for the disaster that has become Sarah Palin's candidacy for veep:

It was so predictable that we would get to a pity-poor-helpless-Sarah phase. The press was already warming up for it on the day McCain announced her as his running mate, when NBC reporter Andrea Mitchell speculated that McCain's choice was designed to declaw scrappy Joe Biden, whose aggressive style would come off as bullying next to the sweet hockey mom from Alaska. Now, of course, we know about the hockey moms and the pit bulls; the more-powerful-than-expected Palin juggernaut forestalled the pity/victim/mean boy/poor Sarah phase.

Traister also cites Kathleen Parker's latest column, in which she urges Palin to withdraw, but most of the all-too-predictable response from the wingnutosphere is to blame the media.  As NPR pointed out this morning, she's still a rockstar on the wingnut circuit, pulling in larger crowds than McCain ever would on his own.  Of course, her stump speech is pretty much the same thing she said at the RNC, with the blatant lies removed. 

Keep in mind, debate expectations are important.  It's critical that your candidate not lose a debate.  McCain accomplished not-losing last week by setting the bar so low, all he had to do was to show up.  This week, the pity-party sets the expectation that Palin will treat us to another Couric interview, giving Tina Fey fodder for SNL cold opens all the way through October.  If Palin can put together two coherent answers at the start of the debate, the MSM will lean over their computers and begin the storyline that she's not as dumb as Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric would have you think.

It's all about expectations.  Remember, the campaign is in the hands of Bush operatives.  They only know how to win at all costs.

National Public Radio has done a great job of embracing social networking, particularly Twitter.  Their presence with @nprpolitics has been excellent.  Their staff that work the account live-tweet events and participate with their followers.

NPR's expanded their Twitter presence with another account, @nprbackstory.  It's a "mashup" account that presents a mix of stories from the various network shows, Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Day to Day, even "Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me!"  The subjects are equally broad--music, politics, art, television, lifestyle.

If you're on Twitter and you like NPR, you definitely want to follow @nprbackstory.  Even if you're not, follow the link to their twitter-page and catch the mashup there!

There's something about Judge Martha Sassone, who sits on the bench in Louisiana's 24th Judicial District (Jefferson Parish), that's always bugged me.  It's not the fact that she's well and truly an obnoxious person, who was suspended for 60 days without pay by the Louisiana State Supreme Court (PDF) for acting out against defendants from the bench.  In handing down the suspension, the Supremes all but called Sassone a liar for her explanations of her behavior.

No, it's not all of that that bugs me.  It's her role in Operation Wrinkled Robe, the federal criminal probe into the alleged relationships between judges in the 24th and bail bondsmen who wrote most of the bonds for that court's defendants.  The feds did bag two judges, Alan Green for campaign financial irregularities, and Ronald Bodenheimer for all sorts of stupidity.  In both cases, however, the convictions didn't directly stem from the reasons for the initial investigation.  The evidence against both of these men did come out of wiretaps placed in the Gretna courthouse building.

That's where Martha comes in.  She's standing for re-election to the 24th this fall, and makes a big deal out of her participation in Operation Wrinkled Robe.  According to Sassone, she cooperated with the feds from the get-go. 

Now, think for a moment about the normal flow of a federal criminal investigation.  It's all about working up the food chain.  Arrest a low-level criminal, get them to roll on their middle-management boss, and so on up the line.  Sure, the occasional crusading citizen gets involved, but most corruption cases are built on the testimony from the bottom up.  I remember when the FBI came to my house in Metairie, asking if they could establish a listening post in our driveway so they could monitor Carlos Marcello, who owned a big house at the end of the block.  My mom sent them packing so fast it wasn't funny. 

This is why I wonder about Martha.  Why would a sitting state judge allow the FBI to wiretap her chambers?  Out of the goodness of her heart?  Or did they have some leverage against her, and her full cooperation was a ticket out of whatever trouble she was in.  Her judicial record is not that of a very smart person, so I can't help but wonder...

I

First, thanks for stopping by and checking out my Twitter stream and my blog. If you're curious about who the person behind the YatPundit tweets is, you've come to the right place. The YatPundit homepage is here, and you'll find a list of my other websites and blogs when you get there.

You're more than welcome to follow my Twitter stream, but please be aware that I don't follow everyone back automatically. That's because I've encountered a number of people who click the "follow" button for reasons other than to engage in social networking. As the number of people I follow on Twitter expands, it's difficult for me to keep up with everyone's thoughts here, so let me share with you some of the mental criteria I use for determining who to follow.

Are you social? If your twitter stream is one-way, I'll probably pass. Unless you're interesting (see below), I prefer two-way conversations. After all, if Rachel Maddow (@maddow) and Tavis Smiley (@tavissmiley), as well as the PBS NewsHour (@NewsHour) and National Public Radio (@nprpolitics, @nprbackstory) can be two-way, why can't you? 

Are you interesting? There are a number of one-way feeds on twitter that I find interesting to read, such as @engadget, and @nolanews, the feed for the local New Orleans newspaper. Following folks is a good way to "advertise" your feed to others on Twitter, so feel free to do so.

Are you a kindred spirit? Road warriors, foodies, wine geeks, computer geeks, UNIX enthusiasts, and folks from New Orleans, come on in!

Not to be negative, but there are a few things that will just about guarantee I'm not following you back:

Enraged Republicans. I gladly tweet with Republicans who are social and/or interesting (see above), but if all you're bringing to the conversation are Hannity's talking points and other foolishness from Fox News, please, please, please, go play somewhere else.

"non-partisan" Conservatives. If you expend a lot of twitter-energy posting attacks against Democrats, but then claim to be "non-partisan," because "both sides do bad things," I'll pass on following you. I'm not interested in intellectual dishonesty. Conservatives had control of all three branches of the federal government from January of 2001 to January of 2007. The Democrats' role in where we are now is NOT equal to what we saw from Republicans over those six years.

"non-partisan" Liberals. If you voted for Nader in 2000 or 2004, I'm not the kind of guy who's going to get along with your way of thinking. It's clear there really was a difference between Republicans and Democrats in 2000, and if you don't see it by now, I won't be the one helping you to find a clue.  I'm a "Daily Kos Democrat" who is committed to removing the Republican party from political control in this country.

Thumpers. I was raised Catholic in New Orleans. I've lived my life walking past street preachers damning me for my religious beliefs. If I can ignore you in real life, I'm certainly going to ignore you on Twitter. If religion dominates your tweets to an unhealthy degree, I'm going to take a pass. OH, and Apologetics class is down the hall, take a left--it's the second door on your right. Keep walking right past here, please.

Fundamentalist Pagans. You lot are probably the one thing I have less patience with than Thumpers. I see a lot of value, virtue, and spirituality in Christianity, particularly in Catholicism. There are mountains of crap to go with that value, virtue, and spirituality, but wholesale, angry, bitter rejection of a religion is something for which I don't have time.  I'm actually more patient with "fluffy bunny" Wiccans than fundamentalists.  They may be clueless, but they're usually not so bloody angry at everything.

"Social Networking Experts." That snarky comment in my bio blurb isn't there just to be snarky. I have a job and a life. I have a blog or two as well. I'm not bad at this computer stuff, and I don't appreciate condescension from those who with newly-discovered computer expertise. My work is of a nature that I'm not likely to hire you, so you can scratch me off your potential client list. I may be in a position to refer you to folks I know, however, if you treat me with respect and you're social on here.  Additionally, if all you do is tweet about how you have meetings and phone calls with other supposed "social networking experts," that's not something I find interesting.  You're welcome to follow me and I'll gladly engage you in conversation if you @-reply me, but I'll pass on that strong a daily dose of self-promotion.

Yeah, a lot of this is judgmental, I know.  Feel free to discuss, or flame away in comments.

(Updated 23-Nov-2008)

even as post-season baseball begins in a Presidential election year, and one of them is simple.

Support. The. Troops.

Not the bullshit of putting a yellow ribbon magnet on your car and turning it sideways to look like an early Christian cryptogram, either. I'm talking about the people who really volunteer their time (and often put up their money) in support roles to military personnel.

Two organizations that fit this bill are Soldier's Angels and eMail Our Military. Both organizations work hard to help the men and women in the service and their families. Throwing a few coins to either organization is a much better way to spend money than on a made-in-China magnet for your car.

The ladies I know who work with these organizations are from military families, and consequentially, my liberal politics often run the risk of making their heads explode. We have an informal agreement that we don't get into it on politics. They tolerate my rants here on the blog and on Twitter, and I don't usually respond to their thoughts on their blogs.

Because what they do for military personnel is too important.

Let's face it, the American military looks a lot more like Barack Obama than John McCain. It's the nature of military men and women to be more conservative, though, and I'm OK with that. These folks are doing something I've never done in my almost half-century on this planet, sacrifice years of their lives for this country. I respect their sense of duty and want to do what I can to make the incredibly difficult experience of foreign deployments and combat better in some small ways. eMOM is doing that, getting e-mail and e-cards to the folks in Iraq an Afghanistan.

I also know that, no matter which political party is in power, the DoD is an incredibly arcane and complex bureaucracy, and sometimes military personnel and their families fall through the cracks. Soldier's Angels does what they can to help those families when they need it.

It doesn't matter that the folks running the show don't agree with my choice for President.

Don't get me wrong, I'll be the first to bust any of my conservative friends if they perpetuate incorrect information about Barack Obama or other Democrats. I'll also be on them wicked fast if they perpetuate the lies of Sean Hannity or the rest of the filth at Fox News Channel. But I know it's not personal, and they know I don't get in their face on matters of opinion, but to correct matters of fact.

Now, go click those links and help these gals out. Because some things are just that important.

Reading a HuffPo article on how the Team Country First formulated a response for their candidate on this week's financial fiascoes offered some interesting insight. Floating out the notion of criticizing BushCo for the mess is a strong step:

In private late Tuesday evening, the McCain campaign circulated a draft statement on the Wall Street crisis that attacked the Bush administration for a slow and "inconsistent" response, and charged that executives at several financial firms had made "misleading and false" statements.

Not surprising that this tactic was abandoned when donors in the financial industry got wind of it, but McPalin's inability to come to grips with what to do about Bush 43 is more telling. My first thought was, this is Gore 2000 all over again.

Most liberals and Democrats believe that the 2000 election was stolen by Bush and poor Al Gore should be President. While I agree that BushCo did indeed steal the show for the drunken frat-boy, we still must hold Gore accountable for allowing the election to get close enough for the steal to be possible. When a team loses a futbol match 1-0 over what they think is a bad last-minute call by a referee, they don't have much ground on which to complain if they blew 4-5 chances to score earlier in the match. Team Gore should have put one or two of their opportunities in the net, rendering Florida inconsequential.

One of the contributing factors in Gore's 2000 defeat was his decision not to stand strongly on the accomplishments of the Clinton-Gore administration. Team Gore went out of their way to argue that their guy had the chops to be prez, but didn't want to remind everyone of the Big Dog. "Clinton Fatigue," the media would sigh, and it scared Team Gore to death. Air Force One flying into town with one of the most popular presidents of the 20th century aboard would have been a powerful tool to nail down the electoral vote, but no, Gore listened to the same voices in the media that savaged him on so many points.

We're seeing the same thing now with Team Country First. George Walker Bush is pure political poison this fall. Nobody wants him anywhere near their state, district, county, or town. It's no surprise that McCain wants to put as much distance between himself and the toxic waste dump in the Oval Office, and Obama has hit him hard, forcing him to take ownership of BushCo. There's a very compelling argument to be made for McCain totally disavowing Bush. The MSM darlings would have renewed the "maverick" meme in full-force.

But it wasn't to be. They floated the idea, as you can see, and it sunk, probably taking the entire McCain campaign with it.

Allow me to brag on my youngest for a moment.



Kiddo is now a Life Scout. Life is the rank just below Eagle. I'm both very pleased and proud. Pleased because he's managed to work hard and come this far, leaving himself from now (he turned 14 in July) until his 18th birthday to make Eagle. It gets tougher and tougher for the older boys to keep up with Scouting as the additional activities and pressures of high school start in on them. Kiddo is in the marching band, has already started a successful run in Academic Games, and this year, is one of the school's "Ambassadors," kids that provide directions and assistance at big functions. When he was in 7th grade, he didn't have all these complications, so doing Scouts was one of his main activities. Now, he's talking about having to maybe miss the weekly Tuesday night troop meetings so he can catch up with homework.

This is very typical of the boys his age, so the sooner they reach Life, the penultimate hurdle, the better. He's done it, and his Scoutmasters (one of which is his dad) are very, very proud.

because that's usually the pricetag in such a situation:

WASHINGTON — John McCain's campaign says the Republican is picking up the support of a top Hillary Clinton fundraiser and member of the Democratic National Committee's Platform Committee.

Lynn Forester de Rothschild has said she thinks Democratic nominee Barack Obama is arrogant and has a problem connecting with average Americans.

Unless the McPalin people are lying, but they'd never do that about such a trivial thing.

Interesting article yesterday on Politico.com goes into the various issues involved when political campaigns use music at their rallies and other events.  Suz Redfearn provides some good background on the issue, going back to The Boss' unhappiness with St. Ronald of California's 1984 campaign, where they used his "Born in the USA" at their rallies.

The McCain campaign has really stepped in it, however, having been rebuffed publicly by Heart, Van Halen, Fleetwood Mac, John Hall (D-NY and co founder of the band "Orleans"), and John Mellencamp.  Jackson Browne has gone as far as to sue the campaign over its use of his song "Running on Empty" in a TV commercial.

With the exception of the Browne issue, the use of tunes at public rallies is pretty much legal.  McCain events are like spinning tunes in a bar on ladies' night.  You pay the ASCAP fees for public performance, hook your iPod to the public address system, and your legal.

What's interesting, however, is why McCain's people give musicians a public forum for hand-wringing?  With the exception of Browne's complaint, which is over TV use, there's no legal issue here, but the perception will still be that McCain is at fault.  Most people don't know how royalties and ownership work in these situations, so they'll assume that the artists are in the right. 

Then there's the "implied endorsement" issue that Redfearn mentions:

In the case of “Barracuda,” “You could argue that this is a form of
implied endorsement by the members of Heart, and the writers of the
song, and you need their permission to do that,” explained longtime
music industry copyright lawyer David Altschul.  None of the artists who have spoken out against the public performance
of their songs for McCain’s campaign appearances have taken this tack
yet.

It's surprising that the artists take the copyright road when they should just fight this one in the court of public opinion.  Call a press conference, say you disagree with what the man stands for, and that he's abusing your music.  Make a public appearance for Obama.  Do what Roger Fisher, Heart's original guitarist (with Nancy Wilson), and the co-writer of "Barracuda" is doing--every time McPalin play the tune, he donates the royalties to the Obama campaign. 

Nola did a meme started by Moondance about what you'd take with you if you had to evacuate. I don't usually do memes here on YatPundit, leaving that sort of thing to my LiveJournal. Being one that's focused on hurricanes, though, I decided to do it here:

1. Tell us what five things you would take with you from your home if you had to evacuate for a storm or forest fire or other emergency, and there was a chance you couldn't come back.
2. Include a link to this post, and pass on this list of instructions.
3. Leave a comment below, so we can find your post.
4. Think of something you can do for someone who actually had to make that decision in real like, and share that idea with us, too.
5. Tag three or more people to pass it on.

Five things I would take from my home:

1. Backups! I've got essential stuff from my computers on a couple of hard drives, and the photos from my streetcar book on CDs.
2. Ritual tools. My athame, my katana, chalice, crystal wand,and BoS. Too much invested in charging these to let them go.
3. Masonic stuff. I have some old records from my Lodge, as well as my apron and other regalia.
4. My first-edition Silmarillion and my autographed copy of Frenchmen, Desire, Good Children, and my copy of Of Time And Chase, since those are probably the only books I own that are irreplaceable.
5. I guess I'd throw personal electronics into a box as well, the XM radio, cell phone, PDA, etc. just because they're not cheap to replace.

wow, I'm almost 50 and that's it??? I've got a lot of earthly possessions here, but If I get this stuff out, and family and cat are safe,that works for me. After K, it's amazing the extent to which I don't really give two fucks about a lot of worldly possessions. I lost most of my board wargames that were on the bottom shelves of my bookcases here in my study. I lost a LOT of books that were stacked on the floor. I lost three perfectly good computers and countless peripherals. Next time, all that will be 4' up, minimum. If that's not good enough, I'll buy more at some point in the future.

OK, so to the meme.

1. done.
2. Link to Moondance.
3. i'll comment on her blog.
4. a lot of us had to make that decision three years ago, look back in archives here or in many other blogs from NOLA folk.
5. do or do not. there is no tag.

I'm really trying not to get too deep into politics today, so I'll suggest two things you can do to make a positive, pay-it-forward memorial to the folks who lost their lives on 9/11.



Soldier's Angels sends letters, care packages, and comfort items to the deployed, and we support their families here at home. They also provide assistance to the wounded, continuing support for veterans, remembrances and comfort for families of the fallen, and immediate response to unique difficulties.



Using eMail, eMail Our Military (eMoM) provides a safe way for people to continue the tradition of "Any Service Member" mail with a much more personal touch. Service Members register with us for support and are matched with civilians who have registered to send and show their support to our troops.

Both of these organizations are reputable and worthy of your support. How and why our men and women in the Armed Forces ended up deployed into war zones isn't relevant today, helping them and their families get through those deployments is.

I'm late to the party in terms of telling my tale from Sunday and Monday. That's because Cox Communications took over 100 hours to restore business internet service to my office. Now, I know that Cox pretty much sucks as a business continuity solution, that's why I have T-Mobile and a phone I can plug to the computer and use as an Internet connection. So, now that my blog server is back online, here goes the story:



My favorite Gustav story has to do with the time in 1977 when my friend and fraternity brother Gus Altobello wanted to buy a copy of Byte Magazine and the guy at the newsstand on Gentilly Road pointed the way back to the porno section to us. Oh, yeah, back to the storm.

I use the National Hurricane Center's predictions and tracks to make informed decisions with respect to tropical events. There are two things specifically I look at when evaluating a storm. First, where their 3-day and 5-day cones place the storm track, and second, what the storm's overall composition looks like via satellite photo. If the storm track passes in/near the city, it's a concern, and we move to step two. If the track doesn't, time to send positive energy to TX, FL, or Mexico, and get on with the day.

But if step one is problematic, then it's time to look at the satellite. The thing to look for is the structure of the eye wall around the center. A well-defined eye is Bad News. In 2005, I woke up at about 0400 on Sunday, 28-Aug, 2005, took one look at that bulls-eye that was K's eye, and started packing. With Gustav, the storm's overall development wasn't that great, until just before it hit Cuba, when it was ramping up to be a nasty Cat4. Then it hit the western edge of Cuba and entered the Gulf.

That entry into the Gulf is the critical time in terms of evac prep, because the Gulf of Mexico is warmer and the weather patterns are so very different as the storm approaches the North American land mass. In the case of Gustav, a western high pressure system pushed "dry air" into the Gulf. That air hindered Gustav's development and concentration, and the storm rapidly dropped from a Cat4 to Cat3. Things were looking better, but still, it was going to be a big storm and it was pointed right at us. Even if the flood threat from a storm isn't significant, the wind is likely to knock down power lines, trees, and blow all the crap from my neighbor's back yard into the side of my house. The power issue is a huge one for many. My mother-in-law, for example, is 82, and doesn't do well without air conditioning for extended periods of time. It's impossible to predict who will and will not have power after a storm on the day before landfall; when in doubt, get north.

Problem was, I didn't want to leave. I'm not concerned about living without electricity for a while, and the notion of me, Mrs. YatPundit, kiddo, my mother-in-law, and the cat all cooped up in the car for 10-18 hours on the highway was just not appealing to me. We decided on Saturday night that it would be best if Mrs. YatPundit took her mother out of town, and kiddo and cat would stay in the house with me. By morning, that plan had modified, she wanted kiddo with her. He's 14, a Star Scout, smart, and responsible. Best to have an extra set of hands and eyes on the road. That left me and the cat in the house. We get along fine, I leave her alone, she bites my ankle when she wants food. I booked them a room at the Courtyard near GaTech (they could go visit firstborn), but wife's nephew had a reservation at a Residence Inn in Birmingham that he wasn't going to use, so that would be their destination.

By mid-morning on Sunday, the eastern evac routes were looking ugly. I-10E up to Slidell was a parking lot all the way back to Elysian Fields Avenue, and I-59N wasn't any better. Randi The Traffic Babe on WDSU said that I-10W and I-55N were moving smoothly, so the plan became to go west to LaPlace, then north to Jackson, then east to Birmingham. They had little difficulty getting up to Jackson, and it was slow going from Jackson to B'ham, but they got there safely and in one piece.

For me and the cat, Sunday was watch-and-wait night. We were encouraged by, of all people, Bob Breck. Somebody didn't give Breck the memo that you're supposed to foment panic and validate SeeRay's mandatory evac order, because he kept saying he didn't think Gustav would be as bad as hizonner said the day before. I stayed up for a good bit, updating people who were on the road or out of town via Twitter. I knew that, if we lost power, this server would be history, so Twitter made more sense for periodic updates. (Amazingly, I never lost T-Mobile service, even when everything else knocked out on Monday.) Dinner was grilled tuna steak and green beans, and I crashed at some point Sunday night, waking up again around 0400 Monday.

The wind was starting to pick up Monday morning, and the weather projections were much more optimistic by then. Once everyone had driven or been bused out of town, all the weather people sounded more like Breck, the storm wasn't going to be the "mother of all storms." Sure, it was going to be serious, but your house was going to be there when you got back. Even the cat figured that out by this point. I didn't even have to re-do her litter box; she would just run out in the backyard, do her business, and scamper back in. When the winds started gusting to over 50mph, she camped in the dining room windowsill and rode the storm out from there.

In terms of dramatic events, Gustav wasn't much. Not even a lot of rain while the winds came through, in fact. The squall lines came in like you'd expect with a tropical system, but there wasn't enough rain to even temporarily flood the street. Mad Aaron Broussard's modifications to Jefferson Parish's drainage plan were never really tested. Since the thundershowers were minimal, the threat of tornadoes on Monday was also minimal. (Tornadoes scare the crap out of me, btw, will tell that story in another post soon.)

When I wasn't letting the cat in and out, I spent most of the early morning flipping channels between Channels 4-6-8 (local CBS-NBC-FOX affiliates), aggregating the opinions of the weather folks. Of the three, I leaned mostly towards WDSU (ch 6) when I wasn't flipping. I made a breakfast of eggs over easy and grits, to use up some of the eggs and butter in the fridge in case we lost power. By 0830 I was yawning, and by 0900 it was time for a nap. The stage was set, the winds weren't bad yet, it was time to rest.

I woke up around 1100 and it was hot in the house. We lost power at some point while I was napping. I noted the time on the phone so I could make a decision about moving food from fridge to ice chest. I dumped the ice maker's contents into the igloo the night before, then dumped again when I woke up, so I had a good, cold, location for stuff. Since the fridge is post-K and relatively new, I trusted in the seals for now. The wind had picked up a bit more by now, gusts up to 60+mph at points, but still not much rain. I pulled out my 25-year old Realistic AM/FM/Cassette portable from the closet, turned the dial to 87.7FM (WDSU-TV), and continued to listen to news, tweeting stuff back out to the rest of the world from the phone. My phone these days is an HTC Touch, a model T-Mobile calls their "Wing." Windows Mobile, touch-screen like the Treo, slide-up full keyboard below the screen. Still had 2-3 bars of signal in spite of the wind.

The most concerning thing I heard on the radio all day was when Travers Mackel was reporting from the Judge Seeber Bridge over the Inner Harbor Navigation (Industrial) Canal (IHNC). It was the breaches in the IHNC that inundated the Lower Ninth Ward during K. This time, the water was surging in and topping the seawall on the upper side, causing street flooding on Poland Avenue. Mackel really started to panic, and I even tweeted that someone needed to settle him down a bit. I'm sure WDSU didn't take my advice, but detected it on their own, because they started an interview with Sen. David Vitter (R-Huggies) to get Mackel off the air. When he came back, both he and the water had settled a bit. The IHNC seawall held; water was coming over, but no breach.

Sat on the couch, alternating between tweets and reading The Far Side of the World (Aubrey-Maturin novel by Patrick O'Brian). Made Blue Runner red beans and some rice for lunch--a hurricane tradition for me. Cat was still fine as the worst of the wind passed by the evening.

Power kicked back in around 1800CDT on Monday. We live very close to East Jefferson General Hospital, so we usually get back on the grid when they get the hospital re-established, and this time was no exception. Cable TV and broadband internet came back up immediately when power kicked back in. I could hear several explosions in the distance, the sound of the transformers on the light poles exploding in the neighborhood as power surged and spiked the lines. I resumed flipping channels as the storm continued to move inland over Cajun Country.

I bought a pack of chicken breasts on Saturday, anticipating kiddo being home with me. I grilled them up anyway, and made a sauce of white wine, onions, and garlic, serving it over pasta. I was down to box wine by this point (memo to self-make sure to buy more good wine before a tropical event), but it got me through. Continued twitter updates by listening to WDSU throughout the evening and late into the night.

Tuesday dawned grey and nasty. I was up around 0400 again. Pop-tarts for breakfast this time, though. Gustav packed a 1-2 punch, the first being the wind, and now the second was hitting us--rain. We got all the rain on Tuesday, squall line after squall line of thunderstorms. My tweets seemed like nothing but passing on tornado warnings. The current generation of weather radar enabled the weather guys to identify localized storm cells that were likely to spawn tornadoes. One tornado materialized and touched down in Westwego, across the river from us, taking down 15 buildings but no injuries. That storm cell passed over the house about half an hour after the tornado spawned, making the most anxious time of the storm for me. Street flooding started to get serious by now, because the wind from the day before was blocking/clogging many of the catch basins. Water came up over the curb, but didn't reach the sidewalk; Mad Aaron's pumps were working.

Now that I had power, I was able to hook the T-Mobile phone to the laptop and use the computer for Twitter. I switched my ebranley.com domain to Google Apps to get one of my domains back active; so far so good, I think I'll keep it there for now. The only frustrating thing about not having broadband at this point was that I couldn't watch streaming video from RNC08. I wanted to see Palin's speech, and then The Daily Show's mockery of it.

Once the worst of the thunderstorms passed, things were settled down. I stayed in touch with family up in Birmingham, and we decided it was OK for them to come back on Wednesday morning. The return journey was as slow as the outbound for them, but they made it back by the late afternoon. I roasted a pork loin for them for dinner, with a sicuhan-teriyaki sauce and fried rice. That wiped out all the meat purchases I made on Saturday.

Thursday's weather was much improved. Kiddo and I ventured out to the grocery, which had re-opened the previous afternoon. We re-stocked on a few things, but the only meat delivery they got was beef. I bought a rump roast that I cooked that night, and some ribeye steaks last night. Kiddo doesn't go back to school until Monday, so he was frustrated because of the lack of cable TV, in spite of being in possession of a Nintendo DS, Wii with RockBand, an Xbox, and a zillion DVDs. Wife went into her office to check on things, and it was OK there. Lakeway Center by Causeway had power and their internet connection was up fine. I continued to work using the T-Mobile phone.

Cox finally restored internet/cable service to us by Friday afternoon, some 105 hours after they went out. Yay for quality business continuity.

We (metro NOLA) had been spared once again. The most serious event of the week was the threat to the IHNC seawall, and that held. Of the three outfall canals in the city, only the London Ave. canal in Gentilly had its new floodgates at the lake closed. Flooding was not an issue for Orleans and East Jefferson, even though storm surge was a huge threat in Plaquemines and Lower Jefferson. The power situation is still not good, with Entergy giving outrageous projections about restoration. Fortunately, we're OK at the house.

Now comes Ike, but I'm not going to stress over that storm until Tuesday or so.

(Note: this is my third and final contribution for the current Katrina "blogathon" on Daily Kos.)

For the last three days, NOLA Kossacks have been sharing their thoughts about and experiences with New Orleans, to mark the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. I'm going to wrap up the blogathon by making a Gulf Coast case for Barack Obama.

Preaching to the choir, you say? Sure, in terms of the general concept, I'm sure that the only folks here at the Great Orange Satan that don't already accept the need for BHO as President are the freepers and trolls that have joined us this campaign season. The general concept really doesn't give you a full appreciation of just how screwed we are here on the Gulf Coast as a result of the Cheney/Bush administration. What follows is a breakdown by Cabinet Department of some of the issues facing New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in the years to come as we try to reason with hurricane season (apologies to Jimmy Buffett).



Department of State. One word: Kyoto. While the most widely accepted authority on hurricanes, the NOAA's National Hurricane Center, does not see a direct correlation between present-day storms and greenhouse gases, they see a future connection:

It is likely that hurricanes in the future will be more intense on average and have higher rainfall rates than present-day hurricanes.

More intense than Katrina, Gustav, and now Hanna and Ike? Lovely. An Obama State Department will move forward the country's participation in the Kyoto Accords, and will provide the president with what he'll need to make the case for ratification to the Senate.

Department of Treasury. Economic policy is critical to the Gulf Coast. We are the main link between Opec and your corner gas station. I'm not enough of an economist to point at specifics that BushCo have screwed up with respect to this region, feel free to lend a hand on this one in comments.

Department of Defense. Real simple here as well: End the Iraq War. In 2005, over 3,000 members of the Louisiana National Guard were deployed in Iraq when the Federal Flood hit New Orleans. When I came back to Metairie, three weeks after the storm, I was greeted by looters from Houston who were arrested by a patrol from the PA National Guard. That's right, Pennsylvania. There weren't enough LANG troops to position and patrol the city, post-K. What the disrespectful piece of crap who lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue has done to our National Guard, our state militias, is a crime bordering on treason. An Obama DoD should be tasked with rebuilding the National Guard and returning them to the role they've played historically.

In addition to the Guard, DoD controls another government agency near and dear to flood protection in this region, the US Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE). The ACOE has been tasked with building the levees, floodwalls, and other structures that are supposed to keep us safe. The failure of the floodwalls along our outfall canals in New Orleans can be directly attributed to the mis-management of the ACOE. An Obama Secretary of Defense could order a complete review of ACOE practices and procedures, taking steps to make sure there is no repeat of 29-30-Aug-2005.

Department of Justice. One of the reasons the Republican's "southern strategy" has been so successful is the discontent that exists in the south because of federal intervention, particularly in racial issues. These days, the first line of defense that blacks in the south have had in the fight against racial discrimination has been the Justice Department. Eight years of Cheney/Bush reign has severely eroded the DoJ's enforcement arm, the Civil Rights Division. As this recent Nation article points out, treatment of blacks in metro New Orleans is almost regressing back to the Jim Crow days:

Such are the stories drifting out of New Orleans and its environs these days, dispatches from a rebuilding effort that often bears an alarming resemblance to a segregation re-enactment. Throughout the region, historically white suburbs, as well as one African-American neighborhood, have been tightening the housing noose by passing laws that restrict, limit or simply ban the building--and even renting--of homes that traditionally benefit poor and working-class people of color.

Republicans totally dominate the suburban parishes surrounding New Orleans. In terms of Congressional districts LA-01 and LA-02 look like a New York black-and-white cookie. In the past, the usual method of redress for these folks was to turn to the feds. Under Cheney, the feds have spent more time worrying about legalizing torture and less on affording citizens of this country equal rights. An Obama DoJ, run by a competent Attorney General who respects the Constitution, would re-build the Civil Rights Division and would shut down the Republican antics down here. (h/t to Kossack klompendanser for the pointer to the Nation article)

In addition to civil rights issues with respect to the black community of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, New Orleans now has an emerging Mexican-American community, the result of the vacuum left when the drunk from Crawford drop-shipped so many African-Americans from NOLA to other parts of the country. Consequently, immigration laws and policies are now more of a concern to NOLA than they've ever been in the past.

Department of Interior. The most important agency within Interior that impacts NOLA and the Gulf Coast is the Minerals Management Service. MMS controls and administers offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. With all the Republican focus on new drilling areas, there isn't a lot of talk about the old drilling blocks. Before any new drilling is authorized, MMS, headed by competent Obama appointees should go in and properly evaluate the existing situation.

Department of Agriculture. While there's a good bit of rural area in Louisiana, it's the department's National Finance Center that is the big player in the NOLA area. The DoAg's NFC has a huge presence in the metro area, and is one of the backbones of technical-sphere growth. An Obama SecAg should continue that NFC presence in the area, providing the resources to establish solid business continuity polices and procedures.

Department of Commerce. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) is a division of the National Weather Service (NWS), under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), one of the major operating units of the Commerce Department. These are the guys who predict the storms. The NHC predicted the track of Katrina right on the money in 2005, and warned FEMA, state, and local officials that this was "the big one" for New Orleans. An Obama Commerce Department should make sure the NHC remains state-of-the-art and continues its excellent prediction track record. It's hard to trust this sort of thing to a President McCain, since the NHC doesn't have a significant role in terms of waging war on other parts of the world.

Department of Labor. Louisiana has been a right-to-work state since 1974, and there's not much Obama's Labor Department can do in that regard. Still, like the DoJ, there are many areas where workers historically turned to Labor for redress/relief. The deaf ears of BushCo in terms of labor relations are a disaster in an area with oil refineries, chemical plants, factories, as well as a major service industry population in New Orleans. Proper monitoring of OSHA regulations, union organizing, and general workers' rights issues is critical in Louisiana.

Health and Human Services. Simply put, hospitals and health services in New Orleans are still in an absolute shambles three years post-K. The Republican vision of privatization of hospitals and medical care has been a disaster, simply because it doesn't make good business sense to help people who can't afford to pay. Louisiana has long had a tradition of providing indigent care, going back to Governor Huey P. Long, but the "Charity" hospital system he created is an outdated model for the 21st century. HHS under Obama should move to make sure federal resources and "encouragement" are given to the (now-Republican-run) state agency.

Housing and Urban Development. The lack of affordable housing in metro New Orleans post-K is a national disgrace. This housing problem ties back to the racist motives of Republican politicians in the suburban parishes, led from the top-down by Senator David "Diaper Dave" Vitter (R-Metairie). Numerous public housing projects have been demolished, approved by HUD, and it's clear that the department has no clear plans on when or how those housing units will be replaced. Along with public housing projects, thousands of subsidized apartments and homes (Section 8) were lost as a result of the Federal Flood, and several local governmental agencies are strongly resisting any re-building of these units. An Obama-administration-run HUD should, first and foremost, restore NOLA public housing to its pre-K levels, and then take steps to replace the projects with affordable housing that allows people to regain their self-sufficiency and dignity.

Department of Transportation. The Coast Guard is one of the most important federal agencies plying their trade in NOLA and on the Gulf Coast. With the Mississippi River, Lake Pontchartrain and thousands of backwater and bayou areas, the USCG is critical to the area. It's important that the USCG continue its role as the region's "traffic cop" on water, protecting us from ship collisions and the environmental disasters that are associated with those collisions.

It's not just water that's a concern, though. With the many documented failures of our transportation infrastructure around the country we've seen in recent years, the notion of evacuating an entire city over these roads and bridges is terrifying.

Department of Energy. Oil/gas is still a major industry in Louisiana. Responsible energy policies and the implementation of those policies is critical to the long-term economic health of the state. New Orleans, Southern Louisiana, and the Gulf Coast need a DoE that's not in the pocket of Big Oil.

Department of Education. Public Education is a wild-west-free-for-all in New Orleans, with charter schools, state-administered schools, and locally-managed facilities. There's no control, no rules, and little that makes sense in terms of the big picture. There is a need for more and better funding of public education in NOLA, as well as someone to sit on the "innovators who are running amok in the city.

Veterans Affairs. Major VA hospitals on the Gulf Coast and in NOLA were destroyed by the storm three years ago. The VA needs a clear, focused plan to rebuild these facilities and bring them back on-line, not a VA that could care less about our troops.

Homeland Security. The Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) is part of DHS. It's real simple for us: no more "heckofajob Brownies" should come here. Ever.

Additionally, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) plays an important role in New Orleans. Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport is a "destination" airport, the type of airport where most air-travel customers encounter TSA personnel. Obama's DHS must work to re-vamp TSA so it protects fliers in an intelligent, responsible, and professional manner.

Please look back at the blogathon's diaries for the last three days, and join us in replacing the current disaster of a federal government with quality, compassionate, responsible assistance for New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. A federal government led by Barack Obama.

KATRINA THIRD ANNIVERSARY BLOG-A-THON

Blogathon schedule-all times Pacific

Wed., Sept. 3

11AM Mike Stagg
1PM mlharges
3PM neworleanslady68
5PM YatPundit

Thurs., Sept. 4
7AM YatPundit
9AM Mike Stagg
11AM Louisiana 1976
1PM
3PM scorpiorising
5PM Patriot Daily News Clearing House

Fri., Sept. 5
7AM My mom is my hero
9AM Crashing Vor
11AM Avila
1PM mlharges
3PM pkgoode
5PM YatPundit