Louisiana legislators tinker with the Decalogue.

2theadvocate.com | News | Panel edits Ten Commandments:

"“We are not adding any commandments, are we?” quipped Rep. Billy Montgomery, D-Haughton, as the panel finished its editing.
No one besides Malec testified for or against the measure."

Minor changes. One re-defines a chicken as human.

Gentilly map project to help plan rebuilding

Dartmouth News - Project color-codes New Orleans neighborhood for recovery status - 06/05/06:

"As part of ongoing recovery efforts in post-Katrina New Orleans, Dartmouth College's MOSAIC project, helmed by Quintus Jett, a visiting professor at Dartmouth's Thayer School of Engineering, is taking advantage of web-based 'open organizing,' an organizing framework based on the principles of open-source programming. The newest MOSAIC initiative relies on GIS (Geographical Information Systems) to build an online community map showing color-coded levels of recovery. Among those helping to create the GIS map are a group of Dillard University students who are taking part in the project as part of a graduation service requirement."

Some Latin Lover.

WWLTV.com :

"Lafourche Parish officials reported Tuesday the arrest of a man who allegedly gave beer to his eight-month-old baby, then laughed at the way the infant was acting.

Deputies said they could smell beer on the baby’s breath.

The suspect, Carlos Cruz, was arrested, and while en route to the police sub-station allegedly offered the arresting female officer money and “a night to remember” if she let him go.
. . . . .
Deputies said Cruz urinated in the middle of the intake room before he was transported to the Lafourche Parish Detention Center in Thibodaux, La.
. . . . . .

They said they are checking to see if Cruz is an illegal"

Yes. I imagine it would be "a night to remember." But not fondly.

Snakes are very hard to kill.

NOLA.com: Times-Picayune Updates:

"BATON ROUGE — Landmark legislation passed in February to consolidate authority over the New Orleans area’s fragmented levee districts came under surprise attack Tuesday by former opponents of the initiative.

Amendments placed on unrelated bills in the House and Senate would peel back some provisions in the levee board overhaul championed by the governor and Sen. Walter Boasso, R-Arabi, setting the stage for a reprise of the emotional confrontation that characterized the controversial political issue four months ago. "

Should we be rebuilding on the backs of illegals?

NOLA.com: Times-Picayune Updates:

"Illegal immigrants make up about one-fourth of the laborers rebuilding the New Orleans area, according to a study that also suggests they are less likely than their documented counterparts to get protective gear and be informed about health hazards such as asbestos and mold.

These workers are paid about 40 percent less than legal laborers, and they are much less likely to get help for medical problems, according to the report released by Tulane University and the University of California, Berkeley.
"

This article makes clear why the immigration debate is so complicated in the country. Contractors NEED the cheap labor labor. Any reform ought to extend workplace protection to immigrants, provide a path toward citizenship, guarantee at least a mimimum wage, let them contribute to Social Security, Medicare, and other benefits. It is shameful that New Orleans was first built on the backs of slaves. It shouldn't be rebuilt on the backs of abused, underpaid immigrants.

Here's the CBS take on the same report>

I-49 -- N.O. to Lafayette will be a very good move

The Daily Advertiser - www.theadvertiser.com - Lafayette, LA:

"BATON ROUGE - With so much windfall money landing in the state's hands, the I-49 South Coalition wants Gov. Kathleen Blanco and the Legislature to set aside $50 million to jumpstart the project, both for hurricane evacuation and economic development reasons.

At a Capitol news conference, six Chambers of Commerce presented Blanco's chief of staff, Jimmy Clarke, with a specific priority list of projects for the upgrading of U.S. Route 90 to Interstate 49 to connect New Orleans with the southern terminus of Interstate 49 at Lafayette."

A second major hurricane evacuation route for NO, Morgan City, Houma -- less truck traffic than I-10 -- all very good -- It's almost as fast to go the southern route to NO now from Lft -- It will be great when the Lafayette / New Iberia overpasses are finished.

Imagine contraflow on both I-10 and I-49 heading west.

Southerners -- hell all Americans -- need to pay more attention to math and science.

New Orleans CityBusiness -- The Business Newspaper of Metropolitan New Orleans:

"Education officials in the South need to do more to raise awareness of the importance of math and science careers and education, the report said. Again, the report noted a national problem — only half of 2004's high school graduates took four years of math in high school and only a fourth took a course in physics — and said most Southern states lagged behind those numbers."

Take a look at the lists of graduate degrees awarded by Louisiana colleges. You might be shocked to see very few "American" surnames among the science and engineering graduate degrees awarded. Most, at least 80%, are identifiably asian or middle-eastern. Are all our other students going to be pop stars or artists? Or what?

Blanco's threat makes the WSJ.

WSJ.com - Governor Seeks Oil Revenue For Louisiana:

"WASHINGTON -- Federal officials want to open part of the Gulf of Mexico to oil drilling this summer. But their plans are being complicated by Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, who says she'll try to derail the effort unless Washington shares the proceeds with her state.

Gov. Blanco is bucking an industry she generally has favored, and risks the ire of Washington, which is providing billions of dollars in reconstruction money to her storm-racked state. Even so, she says she will try to block the August auction of offshore oil properties in the western Gulf unless the federal government agrees to help restore the state's wetlands, which scientists say are disappearing at an alarming rate.

These scientists say decades of oil exploration have taken a toll on Louisiana's marshes, which are seen as the most effective way to combat storm surges that accompany hurricanes, such as those of Katrina and Rita, which hit the state last year. It is a problem Congress began addressing last year, when it agreed to provide some $500 million in restoration money. But with federal estimates projecting the state will need as much as $16 billion to restore the Bayou state's marshes and swamps, Ms. Blanco wants a sustained stream of money to address the problem.

Unlike onshore oil drilling, in which the federal government shares royalties from leased lands through a 50-50 split with the state, Washington has never shared the proceeds from the biggest offshore properties it leases to energy companies. Ms. Blanco aims to change this. 'All we want is what the interior states get,' said Blanco spokeswoman Denise Bottcher, who says Gov. Blanco risks angering Congress and the Bush administration just as Capitol Hill is debating the merits of providing several billion dollars in reconstruction money to the state."

Heh.

Another unexpected consequence of Katrina.

Lexington Herald-Leader | 06/05/2006 | 'Death tax' may live, thanks to Katrina:

"WASHINGTON - A decade-long drive to repeal the estate tax permanently is about to come to a head, but proponents are finding it surprisingly difficult to get their political football into the end zone.

The repeal proposal might be an indirect casualty of Hurricane Katrina, which forced Senate leaders to postpone a vote on the plan in September, when hopes it would pass were high.

Now, with the Senate poised to vote as early as this week, even some of the most ardent supporters of estate-tax repeal predict they will come up short. Some of them are pushing an alternative that would reduce but not eliminate the tax.

Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., a longtime estate-tax critic, is urging a tactical retreat because he thinks support for permanent repeal is eroding at a time of big budget deficits. And he fears that the political climate would be even less hospitable after the 2006 elections if Democrats win control of either the House or the Senate."

It's an ill wind . . .

(I know, that cliche is getting pretty tired, but killing the repeal of the estate tax is some consolation for Katrina. Not much, but some.)

A Must read article: RFK, Jr. : Was the 2004 Election Stolen?

Rolling Stone : Was the 2004 Election Stolen?:

"X. What's At Stake
The mounting evidence that Republicans employed broad, methodical and illegal tactics in the 2004 election should raise serious alarms among news organizations. But instead of investigating allegations of wrongdoing, the press has simply accepted the result as valid. ''We're in a terrible fix,'' Rep. Conyers told me. ''We've got a media that uses its bullhorn in reverse -- to turn down the volume on this outrage rather than turning it up. That's why our citizens are not up in arms.''

The lone news anchor who seriously questioned the integrity of the 2004 election was Keith Olbermann of MSNBC. I asked him why he stood against the tide. ''I was a sports reporter, so I was used to dealing with numbers,'' he said. ''And the numbers made no sense. Kerry had an insurmountable lead in the exit polls on Election Night -- and then everything flipped.'' Olbermann believes that his journalistic colleagues fell down on the job. ''I was stunned by the lack of interest by investigative reporters,'' he said. ''The Republicans shut down Warren County, allegedly for national security purposes -- and no one covered it. Shouldn't someone have sent a camera and a few reporters out there?''"

Not surprising to anyone familiar with academic timidity.

Ivor van Heerden's 'Storm' Draws Fire at L.S.U. - New York Times:

"To many in Louisiana this outspokenness has made Dr. van Heerden a hero. But at his university it has gotten him called on the carpet for threatening the institution's relationship with the federal government and the research money that comes with that. Last November two vice chancellors at Lousiana State — Michael Ruffner, in charge of communications for the university, and Harold Silverman, who leads the office of research — brought him in for a meeting. As Dr. van Heerden recalled in an interview in Baton Rouge, La., the two administrators — one of whom controlled his position, which is nontenured — said that 'they would prefer that I not talk to the press because it could hurt L.S.U.'s chances of getting federal funding in the future.'

The administrators told him to work through the university's media relations department instead."

Damn stupid. But par for the course for academic administrators who are more nervous than rabbits in a dog pen.

Thanks to Wet Bank Guide.

Popsci on how to save NO.

5 Bold Ideas For A Hurricane-Proof New Orleans - Popular Science:

"Shielding New Orleans will require an arsenal of technologies that work collectively. We consulted experts from around the world to identify five innovative solutions that together could provide a category-5-strength de- fense. Although such a system would entail a ground-up reengineering of New Orleans and much of its nearby coastline, the payoff is a city more defensible against nature's wrath than any other. Here's our vision for safeguarding the city. "

Bold maybe, but mostly unworkable.

Ivor van Heerden interview.

Levees Not War: "

The bottom line is, civil works projects like levees are long-term projects, but the Corps’ management is extremely short-term. The colonels come and the colonels go. And if you think about Colonel Richard Wagenaar, the present chief of the New Orleans district, he’s having to clean up somebody else’s mess and before you know it he will be off and we will have another “rookie” running the New Orleans District. "
. . . . . .
IVOR: The state needs to make a decision and do it. It’s been an argument for years and years and years, and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to be resolved any time soon. We’ve got to say, “What’s best for everybody? What’s best for the greater good?” The problem is that nobody’s doing that. Nobody’s asking what’s best for the greater good. Everybody’s saying I want my piece. I want to be taken care of. And that’s not going to work. You’ve got to ultimately say what’s best for the greater good of everybody? And then set up that system.

Van Heerden has been one of the few consistently correct experts on the levees. As a local, LSU professor, he has a strong emotional bond with New Orlenas. Read the whole thing.

Blanco: threat is not "idle."

Blanco firm on threat to block Gulf lease sale:

"'Some might see this as an idle threat,' Blanco cautioned at the event organized by Women of the Storm to sharpen the focus of the relationship between the restoration of coastal wetlands and hurricane protection as well as the reluctance of some members of Congress to visit the hurricane-torn areas of the Gulf Coast.

'They shouldn't,' Blanco said. 'For decades, Louisiana has made its case. We have asked for a reasonable share of outer continental shelf revenues. And we were snubbed. We were ignored.

'Challenging the OCS lease sale is more than merely getting the feds' attention. It's a way to force them to recognize our problem,' she said. 'That's why I plan . . . to block the August lease sale and fight the legal battle necessary to enforce Louisiana's right to protect our coast and our coastal communities.'"

Full overhaul of levee system needed.

NOLA.com: Times-Picayune Updates: "

“We say this was a system failure in that the system designed to protect New Orleans failed on many levels, but it also shows how the system — the business model — we use to build these things is so flawed,” said Ed Link, the University of Maryland professor who headed the task force. “The way we determine need, assess risk and go about funding and approving these things is based on a model that might have been appropriate for the way we lived 50 years ago, but is sorely outdated today.”
Link said Congress requires the corps to use an “American business model” that doesn’t measure the cost of failure in human lives and doesn’t free the corps quickly to adjust designs to changing environmental conditions. Those flaws proved catastrophic to New Orleans, a 288-year-old city built on a steadily sinking landscape repeatedly challenged by hurricanes.

“The system was authorized in 1965 and still wasn’t finished when Katrina hit 40 years later,” Link said. “It was funded in a piece-meal basis, and it was built in a piece-meal way. And even as subsidence caused changes in elevations — changes people were aware of — nothing was done. “This is not to offer excuses for any mistakes (in engineering or design) that were made. But it makes it almost impossible for the corps to adapt to problems when they occur.” "

Contrite Corps? Are they learning?

2theadvocate.com | AP Top Stories:

"A contrite U.S. Army Corps of Engineers took responsibility Thursday for the flooding of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina and said the levees failed because they were built in a disjointed fashion using outdated data.

'This is the first time that the Corps has had to stand up and say, `We've had a catastrophic failure,'' Lt. Gen. Carl Strock, the Corps chief, said as the agency issued a 6,000-page-plus report on the disaster on Day 1 of the new hurricane season."

Harry Shearer: Right on!

Harry Shearer: Where the Corps Leads, Can Politicians Still Be Afraid to Tread? | The Huffington Post:

I have much more to write about this remarkable week in New Orleans, but quite remarkable enough is the fact that the Army Corps of Engineers' culpability for the drowning of this city has finally made major national news, thanks to the report the Corps' own inspection team issued today. Now, who will be the first Democrat, or Republican, to stand up and say, 'HERE is why taxpayers north and south, east and west, have to pony up for the rebuilding of New Orleans -- because we, the federal taxpayers, made a compact with New Orleans that we, through the Corps, would protect it, and we, through the Corps, broke that commitment.

Don't all run to the microphone at once, fellas and gals.

Alleged human Bill O'Reilly slanders American troops to protect the coverup of a massacre

Talking to Wesley Clark, Bill O'Reilly, ever anxious to smear Congressman Murtha and defend the administration against charges of a coverup, attempts to change the subject and minimize the heinousness of the Haditha massacre. In the process he implies that Americans have always engaged in atrocities during wartime. As though it was some homely American tradition.

"'In Malmedy as you know, US forces captured SS forces, who had their hands in the air, and they were unarmed and they shot them down. You know that. That's on the record. Been documented. In Iwo Jima the same thing occurred.'

---- Bill O'Reilly to Wesley Clark at the 3:39 mark in this clip at the redoubtable Crooks and Liars.


Where do such twisted ideas come from?! At Malmedy, German SS soldiers gunned down 71 unarmed American troops. Perhaps O'Reilly was having some sort of brain seizure/attack from reading Nazi apologists who concocted stories like the one recounted below in a more authoritative venue:

With the passing of time this story, too, has been embellished to a point where the surrendered Americans, having recovered their weapons, actually opened fire on the main body of the Kampfgruppe. It is hard to comprehend how supposedly intelligent people can advance a theory that green and terrified soldiers who had already surrendered would pick up their rifles and pistols--they had nothing larger--which hardened Waffen SS soldiers had left lying around, in order to engage tanks and halftracks.

Why did not Clark, who certainly knows better, rise out of his chair in righteous wrath, and smite O'Reilly for sullying the name of American soldiers (apart from the fact that they were not in the same room)? O'Reilly, unable to deny the mounting evidence from multiple sources-- including eyewitnesses, the soldiers who cleaned up the scene of the massacre and took the bodies to the morgue-- that there was a six-month-long coverup which went very high into the Pentagon --O'Reilly unable to deny the evidence, launched a personal attack on Murtha for bringing the atrocity to light. IOW, shoot the messenger.

In fact, Clark held up his end in defense of Murtha against this torrent of spewing nonsense, but how can you counter such flamboyant stupidity? To O'Reilly, presumably there is no difference between a fanatical, disciplined Japanese soldier in a cave at Iwo Jima (where Marines took 26000 casualties, more than the number of Japanese soldiers on the island, and 6800 dead, more than twice the number of the WTC deaths) and a four year old girl.

REALLY, why do Americans put up with such monumental egoistical meat-puppets as the alleged human Bill O'Reilly?

Some D-Day vet or Iwo Jima Marine needs to straighten O'Reilly out.