HumidCity

I do not have much time to write before leaving to go to work, but there are two issues that I ran across this morning that almost made me choke on my coffee. Acording to the Daily Advertiser our illustrious House of Representatives has voted for a bill authorizing raises for the Gov. and various other State Gov. officials. Have these lackwits earned a raise? In the Governor’s case a 40K raise pushing the job 10K above the national average for State Governors?

When the bill came up for a second vote Wednesday, 22 lawmakers who voted against it or were absent in May switched their votes and supported it 57-42. Another 13 who voted for it or were absent last month voted against the proposal.

The vote exchange puzzled even Speaker of the House Joe Salter, D-Florien, who said, “I can’t explain it.”"I don’t think some people knew what they were voting on,” said Rep. Monica Walker, D-Marksville, who with Rep. Kay Katz, R-Monroe, voted against the raise both times.

Katz agreed “some people weren’t paying attention.”

The bill, which now goes to the Senate for consideration, seeks to increase the governor’s salary from $95,000 to $135,000 and the salary of the lieutenant governor, secretary of state, treasurer, attorney general, commissioner of insurance and commissioner of agriculture from $85,000 to $115,000.

Does this seem like a well deserved raise? Does this seem like people who are supposed to be steering the state (HA!) were paying attention? Does it seem like a bad acid flashback? Is there any sanity left in Louisiana?Was there any to begin with? And what about Naomi?

So as I’m choking on my coffee reading this I get another jolt. I wish I could say it was a shock, but it was not. More like getting confirmation from your doctor that you have cancer…

The Corps. Deception. Corruption. Reckless endangerment of every life in New Orleans. Hardly new news, but the scope of things as revealed by their own internal investigation is something out of a delusional paranoid’s fantay world. The unfortunate thing is that it is not. I have leave and go t a contract job so I will steer you over to Fix The Pumps to get all the gory details from an actual engineer.

Top points
The Corps New Orleans District has lied to New Orleans and the nation for over a year.

• The pumps are far from ready.
• Millions of taxpayer dollars have been misspent or are unaccounted for.
• Multiple cover-ups have taken place.
• New Orleans remains nearly as vulnerable to flooding as it was immediately following Katrina.

His article includes excellent documentation and reasoning as well as a link to the Corps Report itself. Prepare to become nauseous as you read.

Big Hat Tip to Greg at Suspect Device for the info on the raises. Huge bow on bended knee to Matt at Fix The Pumps, our very own homegrown NOLA Sperhero!

Xposted on  the Livejournal New Orleans Community

This comic is a beautifully condensed and accurate take on the whole Hurricane Season brouhaha. As usual Greg Peters applies his deadly wit to the painful absurdity of our situation. The comic in question can be found here>>Suspect Device | Greg Peters

Greg Peters hits it!

Suspect Device Blog

And Atrios (and Kos) are correct in that Louisiana’s legislature and Governor have better things to do. I suspect that Blanco signed this ridiculous bill without a peep as a measure of political payoff for some of the surprising gains she was able to push through this session. Still: Lousiana is dying on the table, and these assholes are obsessed with sex and ghost stories, as per usual.

What disgusts me more than even the venality of our leadership, though, is how quickly the lefty-liberal rabble (see the comments on both the atrios entry and Kos’s) have decided that THIS is the straw that will ensure they willl (sniff) NEVER visit Louisiana! (follow the links in Greg’s post to the comments made on Atrios and Kos. The replies show an amazing array of rampantly emotional and kneejerk reaction as they confuse Blanco’s idiotic stance with the harsh realities of living in New Orleans. -Loki)

But no fish, no nuts knocks it out of the park!

To cut New Orleans off from tourist dollars because of the fundamentalist bent of red Louisiana and the realpolitik decisions of Gov. Blanco is like refusing a rape victim the morning after pill because her Daddy’s a Bush-supporting Baptist preacher.

New Orleans is NOT the rest of Louisiana. We do not vote the same way, live the same way, or have a whole lot in common. And right now there is, to our detriment, a fight to survive getting bogged down by this crap. Oh, Atrios? Kos? Deciding you are going to leave us to rot over this is self indulgent on your part as well as showing up the mere lip service paid to the values you claim to espouse. Liberals talk. Conservatives act. Thats a major reason we are in such a mess right now, both here in NOLA and in the White House.