Recently in Da Paper Category

Your blog format sucks.

No, really. That's not a comment about the shoddy writing or the unbelievably vile comments the racist wackos who read it post. It's a technical/design remark.

There's a post entitled "Gubernatorial hopefuls on the recovery" whose entry consists of the following:

The Times-Picayune asked the four major candidates running for governor their views on issues related hurricane recovery. Here are their answers.

OK, where are the answers, folks? Oh, they're in a graphic file that's a scan of the newspaper article.

Most of us who actually read the news on the internet prefer to read text. not open graphics files.

Don't worry, I'm sure you'll do better next time.

Love, YatPundit.

Headline today:

E-mail suggests Blanco asleep at switch

Implies that it's Blanco's fault that FEMA totally screwed up:

An e-mail exchange on the afternoon of Aug. 28, the day before Katrina slammed into the state, indicated that Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff was trying to reach Blanco by telephone. Chertoff's agency led the federal response to the impending storm and an aide was trying to patch through a call.

"Your assistance would be much appreciated," Homeland Security senior intelligence analyst Mark Fischer wrote in a 12:30 p.m. e-mail to Blanco's press aides.

Even the article itself puts the lie to the headline:

Bottcher said she had received calls about the sleeping reference from The Associated Press in Washington and ABC News. The governor is scheduled to testify next week before a congressional committee investigating the response to Katrina.

Asked whether she thought the focus on the exchange revealed an effort to make the governor look bad, Bottcher said: "I find it highly suspicious that only Washington reporters got this e-mail."

Of course, Blanco wasn't the only one not answering e-mails prior to the storm:

"We told these fellows that there was a killer hurricane heading right toward New Orleans," Leo Bosner, a 26-year FEMA employee and union leader told CNN. "We had done our job, but they didn't do theirs."( Watch video of the whistleblower)

Bosner's storm warning came early Saturday, three days before Hurricane Katrina came ashore in eastern Louisiana.

"New Orleans is of particular concern because much of that city lies below sea level," he warned in his daily alert to Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff, then-FEMA chief Michael Brown and other Bush administration officials.

Chertoff wasn't listening to his own people. To characterize him as leading the federal response is laughable. His people want to point out Blanco's e-mails to reporters because Chertoff's ignorance of the situation up to and after Katrina's landfall were acts of criminal negligence. Da Paper doesn't want to go there, though; that would require reporting both sides of the story.

Da Paper continues to phone it in. What a bunch of idiots.

Da Paper wants you to believe that anyone who is against forming a "super levee board" to take over the responsibilities of the boards managing the levee districts in the metro area is a bad politician. In particular, they're singling out state Rep. Ken Odinet (D-Arabi). I don't know why Da Paper's got such a red-ass for Mr. Odinet, because he's just doing his job.

In their editorial, Da Paper doesn't tell you about the super-board proposal is that the final bill to come out of the Senate was not Boasso's original plan. In fact, it was far from it, as their own reporting tells us:

Boasso's bill limped out of a Senate committee earlier in the week, exempting the Orleans and West Jefferson levee districts from its provisions.

But Sens. Francis Heitmeier, D-Algiers, and Ed Murray, D-New Orleans, got Boasso and the Senate to accept an amendment that lets the Orleans Levee Board retain a large amount of autonomy over nonflood-control issues.

The amendment also allows two members of the Orleans board to be a part of the superboard to deal with flood issues. The rest of the seven-member board in Orleans would deal with the Orleans Levee District's other functions, such as operating a police department, leasing land, and running Lakefront Airport and two marinas.

Da News puts it even more succinctly in their reporting:

Boasso's bill didn't conflict with Dupre's and received support from Republicans and Democrats.

But it was gutted in a Senate committee by Sen. Francis Heitmeier, D-New Orleans, who has strong political ties to his city's levee board. Heitmeier changed the bill so that it would prevent the dissolution of that board, a powerful political force: it has a $47 million annual budget and its own police force.

The bill that Rep. Odinet opposed was not the plan put forward by Sen. Boasso. Still, here, here, and here, Da Paper wants you to think that he is corruption incarnate, all because he recommended his nephew to the governor in 2000 for a seat on the St. Bernard Parish Levee Board.

Let's pause and consider Odinet's actions. First, the levee board appointment. St. Bernard Levee Board members get a $75 per meeting per diem. Their meetings usually run anywhere from three to five hours. While I'll concede that seventy-five bucks buys a lot of macaroni and cheese at Rocky and Carlo's, I'm not too concerned that Odinet is doling out huge patronage here. Unlike the Orleans and Jefferson levee boards, St. Bernard's doesn't manage a casino. It doesn't have an airport to run like the OLB does.

Now let's look at Odinet's opposition to the Boasso bill as passed by the State Senate. What came over to the House was something totally different than what Boasso proposed. With the exemptions stuck into the bill by Heitmeier, the much-maligned OLB would maintain the bulk of their authority.

It's important to keep in mind that Mr. Odinet lives in Arabi. Arabi is the neighborhood in St. Bernard Parish that is right next to the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans. There's the Lower 9th, then LA National Guard's Jackson Barracks facility, then Arabi. Mr. Odinet and his neighbors weren't flooded out because of breaches in levees under the control of his nephew and the rest of the St. Bernard Levee Board. They were flooded out by the breaches on the down-river side of the Industrial Canal. After the flood waters passed through the Lower 9th, they went into Mr. Odinet's house.

If you follow the logic of the Boasso bill, that the local levee boards can't handle flood control, that means that Mr. Odinet and the rest of the state House were being asked to approve a measure that would allow the people who flooded Odinet's house to remain in control.

One could argue that the tarring that Odinet has received by Da Paper is partly his fault, because perhaps he hasn't articulated his position on the issue well enough. Of course, it might help if Da Paper would ask him. In all those articles damning Odinet for making the procedural objection that killed the amended version of the Boasso bill, there are no quotes from Odinet, or even a statement by a reporter saying that they tried to contact him. They phoned in the original reporting and editorialized from there, basing their rhetoric on incomplete and inaccurate information. I know Frank Donze's got a mobile phone. I'm sure he keeps it charged enough. It's not that hard to call Mr. Odinet and ask him his side of the story, particularly when your paper is going to rip him up so much. I can't say for sure, but I think it's a pretty safe bet that Odinet's able to take a few minutes out of his day to talk to Donze or another reporter on this story.

I'm trying to find a motive for Da Paper's actions. At first I thought it might be because Boasso is a Republican, and the very-partisan editorial staff of Da Paper found Odinet a good target because he's a Democrat. St. Bernard's other state rep is Nita Hutter of Chalmette. She's a Republican like Boasso, and voted along with Odinet. She's mentioned in the editorial, but not in the news pieces. Sen. Heitmeier is also a Democrat, and he's more responsible for trashing Boasso's bill than Odinet is, yet he's not vilified.

It's hard to say that Da Paper's editorial board are partisan, disingenuous liars. Certainly they're disingenuous and liars, but it's looking more like they're also just plain stupid.

Leave it to Da Paper to make what appears to be a valuable conference/panel discussion look like a bunch of goofs because of a stupid headline:

Rebuilding should begin on high ground, group says

If that's all this group did, they could have saved a bunch of money by just calling me. My extensive training in Secondary Education and lots of years working with computers makes me eminently qualified to proclaim that we should rebuild on high ground. What is it with Da Paper, they get settled back in on Howard Avenue and they go back to pre-Katrina stupidity.

Thing is, this conference did come away with some interesting recommendations:

Firing off a collection of bold ideas, the group also proposed creating a public development corporation that would buy and sell property to speed the city's redevelopment; establishing an oversight board with broad powers over the city's finances; and engineering a secondary flood-control network inside the city that would use natural ridges, levees, water reservoirs, and green space to stop widespread flooding.

This panel had folks on it who advised Los Angeles and San Francisco after their big earthquakes. We're talking about some intelligent people, and their ideas were well-received:

When the panel concluded its hourlong presentation, members of Nagin's commission said they were extremely impressed by the detail of the draft report and the panel's wealth of ideas. Although the ULI panel stopped short of advocating a merger of Nagin's commission and Gov. Blanco's Louisiana Recovery Authority, it did stress that city and state leaders must craft a single vision -- and move more quickly in their rebuilding efforts.

"I appreciate your bluntness," said commission co-chair Barbara Major. "You have challenged us to make more difficult and controversial choices. As my aunt used to say, 'God can put a ram in a bush.' There has to be some behavioral changes across the board. I think we just have to kick a little butt and do what we have to do."

Of course, there's a flat-earther who denies the obvious in every group. In this one, it's the Councilwoman for Da East, Cynthia Willard-Lewis:

While the proposal was immediately questioned by New Orleans City Councilwoman Cynthia Willard-Lewis, who represents eastern New Orleans and the Lower 9th Ward, others attending the panel's presentation were more receptive to the idea, but questioned whether the political will exists to make it happen.

It's interesting to watch a politician's brain explode when a trap door is sprung under her feet. Willard-Lewis can't visualize representing Da East without its majority-black population. Perish the thought that she'd move forward with whomever is willing to come back now.

While I agree with Broach in his column yesterday that Alan Green should be "retired" since he was convicted in federal court, he's pretty clueless about the political fallout of Green's conviction. On Judge Martha Sassone, he writes:

Judge Martha Sassone, prime mover behind the federal investigation that resulted in convictions of Green and Judge Ronald Bodenheimer, lost a 5th Circuit race in 1998. She could run again, but she also has talked of leaving the bench altogether when her current term expires in 2008.

He's got the facts staring right in front of him. Sassone is considering leaving the bench because she was the "prime mover" behind Wrinkled Robe. Since Bodenheimer's arrest, people walk into Sassone's chambers wondering if they're still bugged, or if she's wired. There's a trust issue here, and it's hard to see her ever recovering from it.

On other judges in the 24th:

Most of the rest seem to retain political aspirations, either on the District Court or as 5th Circuit candidates. At least three -- Joan Benge, Kernan "Skip" Hand and Ross LaDart -- have seen their reputations tarnished a bit by the federal investigation of Gretna courthouse corruption and might have to answer tough questions if they run again.

The reputations of these judges weren't so much tarnished by Wrinkled Robe as they were by Broach's paper. Da Paper tried to beat the notion that Joan Benge was in some way corrupt like a dead horse. In spite of clear evidence that she did not get involved in fixing a verdict for a buddy of Bodenheimer's, Da Paper published numerous articles trying to paint her as on the take. If Benge was corrupt, why did the guy she supposedly help appeal her decision to the 5th Circuit because he felt her judgement award was too low?

The other aspect of judicial elections in Jefferson Parish that Broach doesn't grasp well is his idea that these judges have to "answer tough questions." Tough questions from whom? To be a judge, you have to be a lawyer first. Lawyers in Jefferson Parish don't often run against sitting judges unless the incumbent is a sitting duck, and none of the three Broach mentions (Benge, Hand, LaDart) are in that position. The lawyers who want to be judges still have to appear before these folks regularly, and that's a good incentive to wait for an open seat.

It would take more than a few dubious articles in the newspaper to give an opponent ammumition to run against a sitting judge in the 24th.

I've looked at three sites so far. It's 1125CDT and Nagin was scheduled to brief at 1100CDT. Here's what I see:

Da Paper is clear and concise - Jeff Parish, voluntary evac, Nagin's not ordering/suggesting anything for the city
Channel 6 headline is also clear - "City Remains Vigilant, But No Evacuations Imminent"
Channel 4 has no updated info, they're focused price gougers and hotels that take pets. Very disappointing.

One In Five Web News Readers Use Online Instead

Of those Web users who read newspapers, 20% go to the online editions of their newspapers instead of reading the print versions.

Top Five print columnists in New Orleans

1. Ronnie Virgets - Gambit Weekly
2. Lolis Eric Elie - Times Picayune
3. Clancy DuBos - Gambit Weekly
4. Geraldine Wyckoff - OffBeat
5. James Gill - Times Picayune

Hump Day Politics

State Senate election (District 6) - Julie Quinn. OPSB. Da Paper on Kenner and David Rosen.

Da Paper, in its continuing efforts to pander to conservatives in the metro area, ran three page-one stories about the trial of Clinton aide David Rosen in Los Angeles:

18-May
Demos' hijinks may stay secret
Rule 'salacious' tape off-limits, judge urged

19-May
Witness says gala expense fudged
Clinton fund-raiser is accused of lying

20-May
Lavish Clinton gala costs detailed
N.O. politico testifies expense was no secret

All three stories were about the prosecution's side of the case; the defense presentation was not reported.

Rosen was acquited today:

Sen. Clinton's Former Aide Acquitted

LOS ANGELES - The former national finance director for Hillary Rodham Clinton's Senate campaign was acquitted Friday of lying to the government about a lavish 2000 Hollywood fundraising gala.

The jury of seven men and five women deliberated about six hours before reaching its verdict.

I'm wagering the story will be around A16 if they publish it at all.