HumidCity

Schroeder

Originally uploaded by Humid City.

The second in the series of NOLABlogger Parodies is the man(?) who started this photoshop mudfight, Schroeder. People Get Ready, this one is a doozy!

(As always, click the picture for a larger image)

Since war seems to have been declared on me via the machinations of Schroeder, Lisa and (the most henous offender of all) Adrastos I am left wth no choice but to retaliate. Look for the Heavily Photoshopped “NOLABlogger Saints” Calendar, coming soon!

EDIT: I have now uploaded the final version and replaced the tiny one above. Click it to see a readable size image.

Blogged with Flock

The score is 14/16 with the Saints just having scored a touchdown. The really interesting part is the vacant streets outside.

I just got back from walking to the store for cigarettes. It reminded me so much of those first weeks back after our exile. In the course of walking six blocks on a fairly major street (Prytania)  I saw only one car. When I entered the store there was only one other customer and the staff were howling as the Bears scored on the TV set up on ther counter.. Everywhere the exterior face of the city is deserted. I’m willing to bet that no crime will occur during this window either.

With the exception of that period when there were so few of us in the aftermath of the Katrina/Levee Failure/Rita apocalypse this is the emptiest I have ever seen the city streets…

so the saints are in the NFC championship game… but does that fix anything? maybe delays a murder? or makes us forget about the mess for a few hours? football the new opiate of the people? call me crazy but i think the grand distraction is just a distraction, none too grand…

maybe if the FEMA trailer were bigger… maybe if the gov’t had not lost my mom’s body for six weeks… maybe if the insurance companies, police dept, criminal justice system, and other institutions we relied on were more reliable… maybe if i felt like this post katrina new orleans was part of america…. then perhaps then i could get caught up in the hoopla of america’s team…. but would this happen in america? maybe hell has frozen over… check the weather channel and then BLOG THIS!

p.h. fred
notthat.com

The discussion generated by my Jail the Bloggers article has unearthed a number of interesting perspectives and opinions. I think the most telling are the following:

Promoted From The Comments:

Crystal :
With this I am thinking of, for example, the Oil Company lobbyists who paid the CEI company to put out pro-global-warming propaghanda commercials to be played on certain tv stations, and the 8 million dollars Exxon mobil has paid to people then went out and masqueraded as scientists to convince people there was doubt about the effects of too much carbon in the atmosphere. This could now be prosecutable if the origins of the attempt are not disclosed.

In fact, I suspect myself that the grassrootsfreedom.com website, could have been just such a set up. Lobbyists created that website as a front to misrepresent this bill and get people angry and signing petitions to take it out. They are the ones who stand to lose the most from such an amendment.

Doesn’t that scare you that no matter how good your intentions, you could be duped so easily, if that were the case?

Yes, yes it does. Very astute observations which tab nicely with this little gem of data…

Jim :

Grassrootsfreedom.com is run by Richard A. Viguerie, he owns American Target Advertising. American Target is a direct mail advertising company with a special focus on conservative candidates.

Richard has written several books on how to use the alternative media to influence politics. Wiki Richard Viguerie ( Read the wiki, you will find it very interesting -Loki)  I’d be willing to bet that Richard would have to do more reporting then he wants if this legislation passes.

This would seem, along with Nathan Morrison’s constitutional dissection of the situation, to be cause for a sigh of relief. The thing that prevents me from doing so is the one voiced here:

Maitri -
Yes, but what about a group of 100+ New Orleans-esque bloggers who actively campaign for any given change through their writing, along with some funding from a non-profit or grassroots organization?

What the unprecedented alliance of New Orleans based bloggers has done so far is impressive and unique. This bears continued watching as I am sure someone down the line might try to squelch our collective voice. Hmmm……

There are three lines of conversation on this, all with very good input from a variety of sources, ranging from constitutional analysis to pure invective.  To see all of the discussion across platforms visit the following links:

Crosspost on LJ New Orleans With Comments
Comments on the original posting (Humid City/ Powers and Morrison)

OFF TOPIC, GO SAINTS!: Let me start by saying that I am a rarity, an American male who cannot stand football. Keep that in mind. Now even I cannot miss the fact that the Saints have one more game to go in oder to make it to the SuperBowl, if they make it I will watch my first SuperBowl ever! Not only that, but I will als go so far as to state (are you listening, Ashley? Rachel G? Oyster?) that if someone provides the garb I will do so wearing a Saints Cheerleaders outfit. Something this momentus deserves some spectacle, don’t you think? If it comes to pass I will make sure that incriminating photography is arranged. Uh… (cannot believe I am saying this) Go Saints!

While the Saints game is undeniably bread and circuses, garnering attentiion and participation in far greater quantity that things like housing or elections, it still has its good sides. For the first time (yes, first time, I am NOT a sports fan of any stripe) I watched the Saints pound Atlanta into the ground the other night. Besides the awe of the impossible I also felt that the game might help bring us back into the national consciousness. From the looks of things it has. Here is part of an excellent article from (Ta-Daa!) Sportsline:

New Orleans, ravaged by Katrina, far from recovered - CBS SportsLine.com
You hear how New Orleans is coming back, that the recovery is progressing, then you come here, to the mostly black neighborhoods, and you see it is a lie, and our shame.

There are few houses left totally intact within eyesight. Debris still lines some of the streets. There are people moving about but not many. There is a deserted feel. Football might be coming back to New Orleans on Monday night, but the money from the federal government seems to have not quite made it, so many of the homes stay annihilated, and people remain lost in the bureaucracy.

When part of an American city — in these times of the mega-rich, where wealth spills onto the streets by the c-note — looks like the surface of the moon all this time after Katrina, something is wrong. You want to say the Ninth Ward looks like bombed out Iraq, but Iraq is being rebuilt with more rapidity. Saying the Ninth Ward looks like Iraq is an insult to Iraq.

In fact a columnist for a weekly newspaper here asked the question: “… are you safer in the streets of New Orleans or Iraq?”

This Monday, the New Orleans Saints are at home and eating red beans and rice with some smoked rare bird. They burned the Atlanta Falcons to the ground tonight. 3-23. First Monday Night win in over a decade. I hear there is a new snowball stand in hell.

The Saints blocked two kicks in the first half. They were good. Really. If our levees were as strong as the Saints’ precision defense we might just stand a chance against a Cat 5. The Falcons were only at catagory 1 strength the whole game, with brief gusts. Perfect weather for a party. The Saints? Precision? It just gets stranger and stranger in this town.

Perhaps the Saints have been cleansed of their sins, perhaps the fans finally “got faith”, or maybe we just had one good day. Whatever it was, folks here are happy tonight. Enjoy your red beans and barbeque and bless those fast running men in shiny gold pants with gobs of holy hot sauce. Amen.