HumidCity

As the hearts of New Orleanians go out to the folks in Texas and West Louisiana who felt (and continue to feel) the brutal force of Hurricane Ike, it is rather demoralizing that our knucklehead mayor continues to work miracles by actually making an unfathomably bad situation decidedly worse – and in such spectacularly imaginative ways. In a sense, he is a wonder. I mean, this shouldn’t even be possible, right?

For those unfamiliar with Hizzoner’s latest stunt, it seems C-Ray held a press conference Thursday afternoon in which he encouraged people in Texas to evacuate to New Orleans, with promises of cheap, flat-rate hotel rooms in the city. He told the people of Texas, “Just ask for the Ray Nagin Special.” He later explained that his message was “to say to our friends in Houston and Texas that we want to take care of you, since you have taken care of us.”

Isn’t that sweet? I think so.

Problem is, he forgot to mention the “Ray Nagin Special” to hotel owners across the city. Problem is, it’s actually against federal anti-trust laws to create such a flat rate, even voluntarily. Problem is, it’s not voluntary anyway – it can’t be voluntary if the people being asked to donate don’t even know about it. Problem is, New Orleans businesses are still limping along economically since the 2005 storm and can’t really afford to do something like this – especially without any sort of a plan or information at all beforehand so they can figure a way to make it work. Problem is, it just isn’t nice for The Mayor to be so generous with other people’s money. Problem is, it’s not exactly brilliant to ask disaster victims to evacuate to a far-from-fully-recovered disaster area in the first place. Read the rest of this entry »

When the attacks in Lebanon started I had the TV on with the sound off. As I saw the first images of the destruction I was puzzled. I could not place which New Orleans neighbohood it was that I was looking at. That, in and of itself, is a barometer of how things are close to a year after the Storm. How surprising that American citizens should have to wait through danger for the slow and plodding footsteps of governmental action…

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Shuster: “The image of Americans, terrified and having to wait for days to be rescued, is an image that has burned the Bush administration before, namely a year ago following Hurricane Katrina. This time around, amidst the violence in Lebanon, no Americans have died waiting for help. And with U.S. Navy ships streaming towards Beirut and Israel pledging safe passage for all evacuees, Bush administration officials are convinced the greatest political danger they are facing in all of this here at home will be over within days” (”Hardball,” 7/18).