March 2007 Archives

This sounds more like a tactic the tobacco industry would use to avoid litigation:

If State Farm and Travelers insurance companies have their way, taking out Small Business Administration disaster assistance loans would prevent policyholders from pursuing insurance claims in court, leaving home and business owners stuck with debt instead of insurance proceeds.

In motions to dismiss a class action lawsuit about what insurance companies pay for contractor overhead and profit, the state's largest residential insurer and largest commercial property insurer each argue that policyholders lose their legal right to file suit against their insurers if they take out SBA loans.

OK, so if you borrow money from the SBA to fix your house, you can't pursue claims against your insurance company?

I have to believe it's possible to make a profit in the insurance company without being immoral pieces of shit.

The drama over a possible run by former US Senator John Breaux (D-LA) for governor continues as two state legislators have contacted the state's Attorney General, Charles C. Foti, for his opinion on Breaux's status. In response, two other legislators have asked Foti to not issue an opinion:

Reps. Eric LaFleur, D-Ville Platte, and William Daniel IV, R-Baton Rouge, asked Foti to issue an opinion in the next five days on whether Breaux meets the requirements as a "citizen" of the state. Foti, like Breaux, is a Democrat and is expected to seek re-election on the same ballot that Breaux wants to be on.

Just hours after Foti's office received that letter, Rep. Jim Tucker, R-Algiers, and Sen. Noble Ellington, D-Winnsboro, asked Foti "not to accept the request to render an opinion" on Breaux's qualifications.

At issue here are the eligibility requirements that one must meet to run for LA-Gov. The state constitution says that one must be a "citizen" of the state for five years to throw one's hat in the gubernatorial ring. The problem is that Breaux is currently a resident of Maryland, but says he's still a Louisianian:

LaFleur also asked Foti to consider if Breaux is eligible based on the fact he owns a home and immovable property in the state and has paid taxes on the property since 1969; has paid income taxes to the state from 1968 to 2006; leases a residence in the state; owns a vehicle that is titled and "physically located in the state of Louisiana" and has exercised his right to vote only "in Louisiana and in no other state."

LaFleur said Breaux also owns homes in Maryland and the District of Columbia; claims a homestead exemption on his home in Maryland; has a Maryland driver's license because he owns a vehicle that is licensed and titled in Maryland; and declared his residence in Maryland, but not his citizenship, when he registered to vote there in 2005.

This is a very important issue that must be resolved as soon as possible if the Democrats have any hope of successfully challenging Republican Congressman Bobby Jindal's campaign. Naturally, Jindal's supporters want Foti to keep out of this, because an AG's opinion in favor of Breaux will start a juggernaut of activity. By asking Foti to back off, any discussion of Breaux's status would be put off until election qualifying 90 days prior to the race. If the courts were to rule in favor of the Republicans at that point, there would be no time for another Democrat to get in the race.

The principle of Occam's Razor is very simple: entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity. When analyzing an event, it's a good idea to keep Occam's Razor in mind. Sometimes an outburst is really very simple.

Last week, Dr. Ralph Lupin, a resident of the French Quarter and a member of the Vieux Carre Commission, didn't agree with one of Mayor Ray Nagin's department heads on the subject of trash in Da Quarters:

During a commission meeting last week, Lupin was among several members criticizing Sanitation Director Veronica White's insistence that French Quarter residents must begin putting out their trash in wheeled plastic bins that are designed to be lifted by mechanized arms on new garbage trucks.

"I don't understand Ms. White's obstinance other than that she's a bitch," Lupin said.

The VCC is the body that regulates a number of issues concerning the French Quarter, and the issue of the large plastic garbige bins the city wants Quarter residents to start using for garbage pickup is typical of the sort of thing brought before them. Lupin's perjorative remark in such a public forum has touched off a small tempest, with both Rainbow/PUSH and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference calling for him to step down from the VCC.

Lupin's characterization of Ms. White as a "bitch" was inappropriate for a person in such a public positon, but op/ed writer Jarvis DeBerry of Da Paper is carrying it a step further, saying that Lupin is racist:

Outraged that New Orleans Sanitation Director Veronica White insists on picking up the Quarter's trash her way and convinced that her stance has no logical support, Ralph Lupin, the chairman of the commission, decided that she needed to be put in her place.

DeBerry offers no support for his not-so-subtle use of language here. Let's face it, calling someone a woman a "bitch" is a fairly common insult. In fact, I heard the barista at a local coffee shop mutter it about a customer just after the customer left the shop counter. I'm sure if I go through the blogosphere, I'll encounter it numerous times. What I don't think I'll encounter much of is the use of "bitch" as a racial epithet. DeBerry's logic in arguing that Lupin's remark is racist is also a bit of a stretch:

I'd like to believe that I would have been just as angry if Lupin, a white man, had used that term to describe a white woman he disagreed with or an Asian woman or a Latina. But I can only speculate. The fact is Veronica White is black, and black women with any gumption about them are seriously at risk of having that assertiveness used against them.

This quote says more about DeBerry's bigotry than Lupin's. Let's go back to Occam's Razor for a moment. Two people are having an argument. One doesn't want to compromise or "agree to disagree." He's angry and resorts to a personal insult. Sounds like the comments at more than a few of the blogs I read daily. Was it inappropriate for a public forum? Certainly. But to apply racial overtones to this is way too much of a stretch. Unlike DeBerry, who would rather go on about loud-mouthed black females and some show on VH1, I'm going to offer some support for my position.

For starters, Lupin's record is not one of a racist. He's not only a gynecologist, but he's a Brigadier General in the Louisiana National Guard and worked tirelessly at Da Dome in the aftermath of the storm. A guy who doesn't like the Eebil Coloreds wouldn't have been down there. Additionally, as I've previously mentioned, "bitch" is a common perjorative.

Now, if I were to venture into the realm of speculation, as Mr. DeBerry has done, I might wonder if there was anything Ms. White might have done or said to provoke such an outburst from Dr. Lupin. Consider this thought from DeBerry:

Intentionally or not, Lupin evokes those hurtful and deplorable images when he calls White out of her name. Where does she, a black woman, get the crazy idea that she can maintain a position he abhors? Certainly not from her brain. Why, it's got to come from that store of bitchiness she and her kind are born with.

OK, since DeBerry has dealt a whole hand full of race cards here, I'm going to run with it. Ms. White is black, and Dr. Lupin is not only white, but wealthy and Jewish. If it is in the realm of possibility that Lupin's a racist, it's fair to ask the same question of Ms. White. Perhaps Ms. White has had her full of ne'er-do-wells from Da Quarters. The neighborhood was only marginally impacted by the storm, and the complaints of "his kind" really are minor in the grand scheme of things. Department heads at City Hall are working their butts off, and, let's face it, life with C. Ray is probably not a bed of roses. If Ms. White came to that VCC meeting with a chip on her shoulder, that attitude could have projected throughout the room.

Or, we could simply return to the notion of Occam's Razor and keep it simple: two passionate people disagree and one called the other a name.

Gee, ya think?

In the future, I propose that, if anyone want to insult someone else, they call them an asshole. "Asshole" transcends racial, ethnic, and sexual boundaries.

From their emotion-charged return to Da Dome last September to the NFC Championship loss to the Chicago Bears in January, this past NFL season was the best evah for Da Saints. That means we now must endure the dance between the state of Louisiana and the owner of the New Orleans Saints, Tom Benson. This is always a painful time for New Orleanians, because, well, the owner of Da Saints is pretty much an asshole who is very difficult to do business with.

OK, I know, a city that has an asshole as the owner of a major sports franchise is not unique. A number of cities can lay claim to such a distinction. The difference is that, while many owners say and do things that often drive their teams' fans to drink, Tom Benson has made it clear that he has little desire to associate himself with New Orleans. The feeling is mutual when it comes to Mayor Nagin and a large portion of Da Saints' fan base. But it's more than mere personality issues that make negotiating the future of Da Saints problematic. The biggest stumbling block is that Tom Benson's public statements since the storm have crossed from aggressive negotiation tactics to outright distortions of the truth.

Take the notion that New Orleans can't support Da Saints economically. This tired meme gets trotted out by anyone and everyone who doesn't understand the metro area. So-called "analysts" point to the loss of half the population of Orleans Parish as support for the no-support argument, but they fail to mention that the population increases of the surrounding parishes have offset the losses in the city. The reason support for Da Saints has been lukewarm is because Benson has repeatedly put a mediocre-to-poor product on the field every season for the last decade. Now that the club is putting a quality product on the field, community interest is more than there. Benson has sold out all 137 of the luxury suites in Da Dome for the 2007 season, and has a waiting list of over 25K looking to purchase season tickets.

The disconnect between the "analysts" and the reality of very serious economic support for Da Saints is simple: The money is in the suburbs. It's a cold fact, but the people who didn't come back to the city after the storm weren't the people who were going to buy individual season tickets, much less luxury suites. Mr. Benson knew this, but he wants to leave town, so he's willing to play the lie along.

Then there's the issue of a new stadium. Benson regularly claims that Da Dome isn't up to snuff and that the city and state should build him a new place for the team to play. Once again, Benson isn't telling the truth. The NFL average for luxury suites is 120 per stadium; Da Dome has 137. What moves Benson from the category of bald-face lying is the fact that he wanted to move the team to the Alamodome in San Antonio. That facility has 38 suites, and would cost between $50-$136million to expand that number to 60, still less than half the number that were sold out in New Orleans.

Still, if there ever was a good time to convince the voters of Louisiana that it was time to build a new football facility, it's right now. A one-time tax/bond issue to finance new construction would probably even sail past die-hard, anti-tax Republicans this fall. If the stadium could be built in 3 years, Fletcher Mackel of WDSU-TV thinks that the city would be a shoe-in for a 2012 Super Bowl.

Putting more money into Tom Benson's pocket is not a sufficient reason for Louisiana to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a stadium, but the significant economic impact of hosting the Super Bowl would be. A new stadium would also force Benson to agree to a long-term agreement with the state to keep the team here. Given the extent to which Benson negotiates in bad faith, it would be appropriate to craft such an agreement with penalties sufficient to essentially pay for the stadium should he try to break the lease. That would make it possible for the state to put together a package attractive to investors in a new franchise.

Corporate welfare deals to the owners of sports teams run contrary to just about everything I believe in, but sometimes corporate welfare is an investment as well as a gift. In a city whose economic base is tourism, a successful NFL franchise generates a lot of free publicity and advertising. New Orleans needs success stories, and Da Saints riding high right now. Even if it means helping out someone as obnoxious as Tom Benson, the greater good is served.

I can't agree with Sirota more, Katie Couric should be ashamed of herself. This about sums it up:

I wonder how Katie Couric would have reacted back in 1997 if people started interrogating her about why she was working during her husband's tragic illness? I'm guessing she wouldn't have reacted too kindly to it (which she shouldn't have - she would have every right to be pissed off). That's why I couldn't believe she of all people insisted on this line of interrogation. I was, frankly, amazed that the Edwardses didn't get up and walk out on the third or fourth question along these lines.

Let's forget the Alterman's mantra, "What Liberal Media?" for a moment. I agree with Sirota's commenters who point out that Couric would never go after Mr. Cheney, the foul-mouthed Dick, with the same aggressive style she attacked John and Elizabeth Edwards, but that's not the real issue. Politics is politics, after all, and after 2004, he's bound to know that about the only interview where he doesn't have to worry about being sandbagged is his next appearance on "The Daily Show." No, this was just a human issue. Couric used to regularly wear her late husband's wedding ring on a chain to honor his memory. It's a shame he can't rise from the grave to bitch-slap her for her behavior last night.

Of course, if Couric wants to even the score by treating the Bushes or McCains the same way in an interview next work, that works for me.

In Part 1 of this diary, we looked at the state in terms of four regions: North, Central, Southwest, and Southeast. That leaves Metro New Orleans for today.

Metro New Orleans consists of three sections. There's the original "tri-parish" area, Orleans, Jefferson, St. Bernard, then there's the Northshore (St. Tammany), and the extended metro area, which includes St. Charles, St. John, and parts of St. James and Tangipahoa.

Yesterday's announcement that Governor Kathleen Blanco has announced she won't seek a second term, everyone is re-analyzing and re-handicapping the race for La-Gov. The conventional wisdom is that the big winner today is former US Senator John Breaux, and the big loser is Congressman Bobby Jindal. The problem is quantifying just how much each man has won or lost.

To fully understand the dynamics in play here, let's review the playing field. There are basically four regions in Louisiana that are significant in statewide elections, North, Central, Southwest, Southeast, and Metro New Orleans. Some thoughts on each region below the fold.

Northern Louisiana
The northern parishes are mostly rural, Southern Baptist, and Republican. Like many areas of the Deep South, there's a lot of racism here, and it's the "under-the-radar" voters that contributed to the rise of former KKK leader David Duke in the 1980s. They're also one of the reasons that Kathy Blanco won the governor's race in 2003. Republican Pollster Bernie Pinsonat claims that Jindal is garnering 72% of the white vote in the state at the moment, but his poll is based on the notion that white voters will come out for him simply because he's Republican. This flawed logic is one of the contributing factors in Jindal's loss in 2003.

The storm did not alter Northern Louisiana all that much. While a number of people temporarily evacuated to the Shreveport and Monroe metro areas, they didn't stay there permanently.

Central Louisiana
This is the most conservative part of the state. While the Southern Baptist influence is strong in the northern parishes, religion doesn't dominate there as it does in the center. Gambling is a huge factor in this influence. In metro Shreveport/Boissier City, the shouts of bible-thumping street preachers are drowned in a sea of green cash from the casinos on either side of the Red River. Central Louisiana has no casinos or casino cash to counteract the influence of fundamentalist, evangelical, and dominionist Christians like Louis "Woody" Jenkins. There is a strong religious/racial undercurrent to politics here, in all its code-word glory. This undercurrent is stronger than in the north because the black populations of Baton Rouge and Alexandria are larger, provoking racial reactions among white people on election day. Still, Jindal talks the Conservative Christian talk, and the preachers are open to his candidacy, mainly because they know a Catholic has a better overall chance than a dominionist.

Since the storm, Central Louisiana has changed dramatically. In the immediate aftermath of Katrina, the population of Baton Rouge doubled within a month. Many of those people have since either moved back to the New Orleans area, or they've moved out of state. The black population of Baton Rouge has increased, but not enough to alter the overall landscape. The biggest problem with blacks currently in Central Louisiana is that many still consider their "domiciles" to be in New Orleans. That means they haven't changed their voter registration status. To vote, they have to go back to the city, and that often doesn't happen.

A Blanco-Jindal race wasn't impressive to voters in the North and Central in 2003; 2007 hasn't changed them all that much. The storms did not impact these regions like they did the southern parts of the state. There's no grassroots blame-game going on in Alexandria or Ruston, no "road home" to Shreveport. In both regions, it's about classic Louisiana politics, and Bobby Jindal's skin is awfully dark for many folks to be acceptable. Now that Blanco has bowed out, John Breaux has the opportunity to turn some of those voters from staying home to actually voting for him. Breaux was extremely popular as a Senator. He was one of the original "Blue Dog" Democrats, and was a tennis partner of then-VP George H.W. Bush in the Reagan years.

Southwest Louisiana
Catholic and Cajun are the best ways to describe this part of the state. Lake Charles isn't as Catholic as the area roughly from just west of metro Baton Rouge to Crowley, but the strong fundigelical influence is muted here by casino gaming, as it is in Shreveport/Boissier. The other huge influence in Southwest Louisiana is oil. One of the reasons this region of the state easily abandoned Al Gore in 2000 after supporting Bill Clinton twice is that he was running against two oil men. The combination of black gold and Catholicism is why Southwest Louisiana produces some of the most conservative Democrats in the country. Their Catholicism makes them anti-abortion, but it also makes them very distrustful of the fundigelicals who have told them all their lives that they're going to burn in a lake of fire for all eternity simply because they're Catholic.

Even though Bobby Jindal is Catholic, the fact that he has been so quick to cozy up to the religious wing of the GOP worries the Catholics. Presented with the opportunity to vote for one of their own, the folks of Southwest Louisiana will almost always take it. That support put Blanco over the top in 2003 and helped John Breaux win every statewide election he entered. Crowley-born Breaux hasn't lost his appeal and charm in Acadiana. Attempts by the Republican Party to paint Breaux as a carpetbagger who has abandoned Louisiana for a Washington-based lobbying career will prove to be disastrous.

Hurricane Rita's impact on Southwest Louisiana was significant, but easier to overcome than the nightmare of Katrina in New Orleans. The area's oil industry infrastructure is too strong and too entrenched for anyone to abandon it easily. Same goes for the gaming industry in Lake Charles.

Southeast Louisiana
The region Morgan City eastward to the New Orleans metro area is similar to the Southwest, Catholic and Cajun, but living in the shadows of the two largest cities in the state has generated different dynamics. Energy is also the dominant industry, as many work in support of the offshore infrastructure. The folks who live in the Houma-Thibodaux area are just as Catholic as those living in Lafayette, and they're just as territorial. Rumors of the Democratic Party's demise in this region are over-exaggarated, and Congressman Charlie Melancon proved this not once, but twice, defeating several Republican challengers to keep his LA-03 seat in Congress. The GOP influence here was mostly a cult of personality, namely that of former-rep Billy Tauzin. Originally elected as a Democrat who then switched to the GOP, Tauzin is also now a Washington-based lobbyist. One of the best ways for the Breaux camp to counter accusations that their man is a carpetbagger will be to point to Tauxin and ask if the same is true of him.

The storm hit the Southeast as hard as New Orleans, and these folks have seen what the lack of overall federal support means. They didn't trust the feds much prior to the storm, and that distrust was only amplified when FEMA did its number on the state in the storm's wake.

Tomorrow I'll address metro New Orleans.

I'm not sure this is so much a racial incident as an anti-old-folks situation:

A Tangipahoa Parish grand jury has declined to indict a boy who said he accidentally shot an Alzheimer's patient who was trying to climb the barbed wire fence around his family's house.

District Attorney Scott Perrilloux, who was asking for a negligent homicide charge against Landon McNabb, 17, said he sees no compelling reason to prosecute without an indictment for Leroy Nichols Sr.'s death on Jan. 3.

McNabb said he was firing a warning shot and accidentally hit the 76-year-old Nichols.

Attorney Terry Bonnie said the Nicholas' family is disappointed but not surprised.

Bonnie said if a white man kills a black man in Tangipahoa Parish, no one takes it seriously.

I don't think this grand jury looked at a white man shooting a black man as much as they looked at a teenager shooting a crazy old man. It wouldn't be hard to sell an all-black jury on the threat of a man crazy enough to climb a barbed-wire fence. That's how the civil suit is going to go down in this case as well.

On the way home from taking Kevin to Brother Martin High School to get him registered for 8th grade there next year, wife wanted to drive past St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Church and School on Paris Avenue. The church, school, and surrounding neighborhood was flooded with over ten feet of water when the storm broke the floodwall of the London Avenue Canal. Helen grew up on Chamberlin Drive, just across the street from Cabrini, and we were married in the church.

The exterior of the building doesn't look all that bad, other than the cross at the top of the high white tower still hangs broken at a 90-degree angle. That's the story of most of Gentilly, of course, the interior damage tells the tale, not the exterior.

The Cabrini campus, along with that of Redeemer-Seton High School next door is slated to be demolished to make room for the relocation of Holy Cross School. The process of moving the Ninth Ward school to Gentilly is moving forward:

The draft memorandum of agreement was circulated late Monday by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which has been trying to balance a move to preserve the storm-damaged Gentilly church, built in the 1960s and celebrated for its modern design, against desires for a successful school in a neighborhood struggling to rebound post-Katrina.

Bill Chauvin, chairman of Holy Cross School's governing board, said the draft indicates that the church will be removed to make way for the Holy Cross campus: a middle school, high school, administration buildings and a sports complex.

According to the draft, the church's stained glass, altar and baptistery will be saved, he said. And the Holy Cross governing board will spend about $15,000 to hire a crane operator to remove the large cross from the top of the church, he said.

Where the church's altar is now will be the space where the church is commemorated, Chauvin said. Ideas include a garden with a statue of St. Frances Cabrini or a garden that includes the church's large cross, he said.

There are neighborhood activists who still hold out hope that the church can be saved, but that's looking less and less likely.

If I was slated to be one of St. Aug's drum majors, I'd live in a FEMA trailer, too:

Montrell is one of an unknown number of children who have returned to attend school in New Orleans and now live with relatives, friends or alone while their parents stayed in far-off cities. Like thousands of other displaced residents, his life morphed into a juggling act. But he returned to reclaim the unique trappings of his life in New Orleans -- St. Augustine and the Marching 100 -- despite the gnawing uncertainty of a post-disaster existence.

From the beginning, the family agreed to let Montrell return to New Orleans. They couldn't deny his fierce desire to be back at St. Augustine -- an all-boys school where young men revel in "brotherhood" rather than merely school -- to finish his senior year and play in the school's marching band. "If I wouldn't have come back, I wouldn't have felt complete as a person," Montrell said one day in front of the trailer.

On the evening of Thursday, August 25, 2005, we were at St. Joseph's Church, watching my son get his Brother Martin High senior ring. On 28-August, we packed up and headed to Shreveport, staying there until the following Sunday, 4-Sep. That day, we drove down to Planet Hooston, where we enrolled Justin in St. Pius X High School. Sr. Donna, Pius' Principal, was fantastic, settling Justin and a number of other kids from metro New Orleans in as best as they could. She and the Pius faculty worked extensively with their student body, educating them on how angry the New Orleans kids were going to be, and how that anger wasn't focused on them or their school, but on being displaced because of the storm.

In spite of the warm welcome, Justin was miserable. It wasn't his school. Two weeks later, when Brother Martin High announced that they would resume classes at Catholic High in Baton Rouge, Justin and I headed back home to check out the house, then drove to Baton Rouge. We had no plan other than to see to it that he was enrolled. By the end of that Sunday evening session, he found out that the family of one of his friends had leased a house in Baton Rouge, and they were willing to let him sleep on the floor of the living room so he could go to his school. We got the house re-built as soon as possible, Brother Martin repaired the Gentilly campus as soon as they could, and the boys were back on Elysian Fields Avenue for the second semester. The Class of 2006 finished the hear at their school and will go down in the history of Brother Martin as the toughest class to ever graduate.

St. Augustine High had a tougher time of recovering from the storm. Not only did their campus take on more water than Brother Martin, St. Aug's all-black student body was scattered to the four winds. The school had to go through a longer transitional phase than Brother Martin, and it's understandable that Montrell Givens didn't want to be part of that transition:

In 2006, St. Mary's Academy, St. Augustine and Xavier University Preparatory, came together to start the MAX School on Xavier's campus and create the MAX band. The LeBlancs had agreed to let their son return to New Orleans at the time, but Montrell stayed in Houston. He wanted to wait. The makeshift school wasn't St. Aug. He had spent two years there and wanted to be only there.

When the LeBlancs learned that St. Augustine would return to its campus for this school year, the final discussion in their Houston apartment seemed almost like just a formality. The decision had already been made. The family sat around a table.

"You go to school and get your education," his mother recalls telling Montrell.

I haven't liked St. Augustine High School since 1971, when I was an eighth grader attending the school that was their biggest rival. I look forward to the day that St. Aug and Brother Martin are both settled back into Gentilly, so I can return to not liking them. In the meantime, I can't be anything but proud of the young men from both schools.

C. Ray's on the right track with his remarks to the National Newspaper Publishers Association, but he misses the bigger picture when he focuses on race. It's more than just a black white thang. Nagin said:

"Ladies and gentlemen, what happened in New Orleans could happen anywhere," Nagin told the association. "They are studying this model of natural disasters, dispersing the community and changing the electoral process in that community."

"dispersing the community" is more than just keeping the black folks away from New Orleans. Simple racism is easy to identify. We should all know by now that BushCo isn't motivated by simple racism, but rather acquiring and maintaining power. To that end, there are a lot of white folks that remain dispersed from New Orleans as well as the blacks from Da Ninth.

The media spotlight, when it shines on New Orleans, usually shines on the neighborhoods of the Ninth Ward and New Orleans East. While this focus is good in terms of the loss of a major cultural component of the city, black musicians, it only tells a small part of the story. The loss of the neighborhoods of Lakeview and Gentilly are much more serious to the overall speed of recovery in New Orleans. Both are middle to upper middle class neighborhoods. The loss of the residents of these parts of town means that thousands of professionals and skilled laborers have not returned to the metro area or are permanently relocated to the suburbs. Companies who employed these workers have also either bailed for Metairie, Kenner, or the Northshore, or have left town altogether.

This is the dispersal that worries Nagin, and it's far from an all-black shift. The Lakeview neighborhood was buried in 10+ feet of water when the 17th Street Canal was breached. Prior to the storm, this section of town was as white as a magnolia blossom. Lakeview is joined to most of Uptown to form Council District "A," a long-time bastion of White Republicanism in New Orleans.

If this was all about keeping Teh Eeebil Coloreds out of New Orleans, there would be a mechanism for Lakeview residents to return and rebuild. That's not happening, though, because the last thing the Republicans want is to have these particular Republicans gathered together. They're a bunch of angry folks, angry because the Corps of Engineers lied about the levees and floodwalls. They're angry because they're getting the runaround from the insurance companies, after years of voting for Republican Party-endorsed candidates for Insurance Commissioner. They're angry because they see the money that's flowed into Mississippi for re-building. Most recently, they're angry to learn that the President's brother Jeb is now involved in selling defective pumps to New Orleans.

These folks are also part of the 65% of Americans overall who think the wars are going badly. They had a good thing going before the storm, and now their employers want them to move permanently to Houston, Dallas, or Atlanta. They're often in serious personal financial trouble, because flood insurance claims max out at $250,000 and their houses are often valued at $300K+. These folks have never voted Democrat in their lives. They don't like Coloreds, educate their children at home or in religious schools, and vote "NO" on every tax and bond issue.

They're angry. They may not be angry enough to vote with the donkey, but they're certainly angry enough to stay home completely.

All the better reason to keep them in Texas.

Usually I say, ignore AnnThrax, she's a troll, and it's best not to feed them. Pam from Pandagon points out a number of reasons why this time it's a good idea to stand up and fight back:

Coulter: ‘The word I used has nothing to do with sexual preference. It is a schoolyard taunt.’

When someone hurls the new F-bomb at you, what do you think it’s referring to? Ann doesn’t think it has anything to do with sexual orientation. On Faux News last night (she appeared on there rather than debate John Aravosis on CNN), she also bleated that “It isn’t offensive to gays. It has nothing to do with gays.”

Faggot. (Kevin Aviance brutally gay-bashed in East Village)

Well, now I guess the conservative movement has to make a choice, and it’ll probably be the wrong one — it will continue to love Coulter because she represents The Base. This is who they are, despite the efforts of a few bloggers who were at that meeting and were offended enough to publish an open letter telling people to stop giving Coulter a public platform.

According to Think Progress, David Keene, president of the American Conservative Union (a co-sponsor of the CPAC), has he not said whether she’ll be invited back again. Andrew Sullivan received this terse email from ACU:

ACU and CPAC leave it to our audience to determine whether comments are appropriate or not. “Ann Coulter is known for comments that can be both provocative and outrageous. That was certainly the case in her 2007 CPAC appearance and previous ones as well. But as a point of clarification, let me make it clear that ACU and CPAC do not condone or endorse the use of hate speech,” said David A. Keene, ACU Chairman.

Faggot. (Gay Bashing Victim Dies After Family Removes Life Support)

At least some companies know what the word “faggot” means — Verizon, Sallie Mae and Georgia-based NetBank have pulled ads from Coulter’s web site. A NetBank rep said: Coulter’s web page “is not the kind of site we want to be on.” Verizon: “This one could be considered an extreme political Web site, should be off the list, and now it is off the list.”

Again, this is less about Coulter than it is about the fact that she is a proponent of homophobia (and clearly schoolyard bullying) if she is going to spew it’s a harmless word without a specific and well-known meaning.

People die, lose their jobs, are beaten and harassed because of homophobia. Is this what the GOP and the conservative movement stand for? That’s fine with me, just don’t try to pretend that’s not what Coulter is saying.

Faggot. (href="http://advocate.com/news_detail_ektid42467.asp" target=_blank>72-year-old disabled gay man killed)

History has shown that the party of Bush has gone out of its way to be hostile toward gays and lesbians, its leaders pushing legislation to restrict and deny civil rights solely because of someone’s orientation.

The GOP has been taken over by extremists and what we are looking at is a fight between the gay-baiting Base and the social moderates who have been silenced and out in the wilderness for years.

The party can choose its path, but the homophobes in the party aren’t going down easily. Those in their movement need to step up and not just talk about Coulter, but about why too many conservatives and the GOP feel the need to rely on bashing LGBT citizens to make a point.

Faggot. (Hockey Coach Charged In Brutal Gay Bashing)

H/t, Joe.

Crossposted.

[via Pandagon]

It's a term I've never liked, and never will like. I don't have a problem with her spewing her usual political shtick, but here she's empowering people who are and will continue to be violent.

This week, the US Supreme Court let stand the conviction of Bernie Ebbers, former CEO of Worldcom. Without comment, the Supremes decided to let Bernie Ebbers die in prison (he's 65, and isn't due to be released until 2028).

Last week, Da Paper ran a story on how former Gov. Edwin Edwards has completed 4 years, 4 months of the 8 years, 8 months he's expected to serve in federal prison (he was sentenced to 10 years). One of his colleagues at the Oakdale, LA, federal prison facility is Andrew Fastow, former CFO of scandal-plagued Enron Corporation of Houston, who is also doing 10 years.

Today, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, former Chief-of-staff to the Vice President, was convicted on four of the five counts with which he was charged. He faces up to 25 years in prison on those charges.

No doubt Libby's lawyers will use the same plea that was used for Edwards, Ebbers, and just about every other convicted felon over the age of 60--they should be shown leniency because a long prison term is tantamount to a death sentence.

I'm OK with that.

Let Them Die In Prison.

There are countless numbers of cases involving old folks committing major felonies, most of them related to one form or another of vehicular homicide. Two cases in the metro New Orleans area come to mind from the 1990s. An elderly man, drunk, drove down Bourbon Street when it was blocked off as a pedestrian mall, killing one woman and injuring several other people. The vehicular homicide charge carries a tab of at least one year in state prison, but the man got sixty days in parish prison and probation, because of his age. A woman who pulled out of a parking lot on Veterans Blvd. and ran over a 24-year old man on a motorcycle didn't do a day of time, even though she was convicted of not looking at all, killing the young man instantly.

As baby boomers get older, the incidence of crimes committed by old people will continue to increase.

Let Them Die In Prison.

If a twenty-something will have to do two years for killing someone in a car accident while intoxicated, so should a sixty-something. I don't care if that person never lives another free day in their life. If we put enough old people in jail, perhaps the rest of us will realize that you can't just commit crimes with impunity. Actions have consequences. Old people have to suffer those consequences in the hopes that others learn from their tragic actions.

Let Them Die In Prison.