Bieber? Seriously?

Now, here's something I probably wouldn't have suspected.  Justin Bieber, BadAss, hangs out with Mike Tyson, Crazy BadAss.



Egad.  Just seeing the words "Justin Bieber" and "BadAss" in the same sentence -- not to mention those words being being related to each other -- just shakes me to the core.

Where's New Kids On The Block when you need a little wholesomeness?

Or Hammer?

Mercy (and, forgive me!), I loved those pants!

An American Tragedy

The five-year-old, a recent Kindergarten graduate, was said to have asked her preacher, "What color are Jesus's eyes?"

Today, a day after she was murdered at a cousin's 10th birthday celebration (during which he also suffered gunshot wounds), her preacher told the world that she now knows firsthand what color those eyes are.

A mother of three young children was also killed, the victim of being in the right place at the wrong time, blocks away, in a rental car she was returning to Enterprise.

A 13 year-old and his 15 year old companion  have been arrested.  The 13 year-old was apprehended based on data from his ankle bracelet.  His frickin' ankle bracelet!  His rap sheet is reported to be lengthy, but it can't be released due to his age.  Of course.  Young relatives of the slain are reportedly not cooperating with investigators.  Ya think?  How much longer before we read about their untimely deaths?

What will it take to stop this senseless violence.  Apparently the young President doesn't make this blight a priority.  Way to dodge your "mandate" there, President Obama.

Thankful in New Orleans on this Memorial Day

Pepper and I headed over to the National WWII Museum this afternoon, thinking that we would support it on Memorial Day.  But once we got there, we discovered that nearly everyone else near the Gulf Coast had the same idea!  We left without eating at either of the fine restaurants there, grateful that our Museum has grown in such stature that it's overwhelmed on a national holiday.  We decided to go back at another time when they might could use our business.

Speaking of gratitude -- I spied this over at IMAO.  Harvey invited everyone to steal it and post it.  So, without further ado:

I am thankful indeed.

Memorial Day 2012

I know I'm a day early, but this is just such a moving picture that I needed to share it today.

Truly a dramatization of the old adage about a picture and a thousand words.

Never forget.

Now I Know How the Dinosaurs and Buggy Whip Makers Felt

Everyday life as we know it in New Orleans will cease to be come autumn. 

The grand old lady of print journalism, The Times-Picayune, will beef up its digital alter-ego and reduce the number of days it publishes a print version from everyday to Wednesday-Friday-Sunday only.  The move will leave New Orleans as the largest city in the USA without a daily newspaper.

The staff was blindsided, but that's another issue.

After carefully monitoring the outpouring of confusion, grief, anger, and disbelief on social media  following the announcement yesterday, the powers-that-be at the paper ratcheted up the spin machine.  Today's headline screams, "NEWSPAPER TO MOVE FOCUS TO DIGITAL."  The first paragraph lauds the upgrades to be made to NOLA.com (which said upgrades I already dislike -- but then again, I'm not a big proponent of change): "As the digital world has evolved, so too will we." 

Glossing over what the reading public will lose, it continues,"Beginning in the fall, the newspaper that so many of you rely upon will continue to publish on a reduced schedule of Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays." Thanks for throwing us a bone there, guys, by "continuing to publish."

Intellectually, I understand that the shift to digital service is inevitable -- heck, I do a lot of research and news-gathering online already.  But, there's just something so physically satisfying about unfolding that newsprint, and popping it open, and having to wash my hands afterwards to get rid of the ink that rubbed off on my fingers.  There's something so comfortable about digging through the yellowing recipes I've clipped over the years; the favorites not only yellowed, but also stained with splashes of their ingredients.  I can already attest that the effect is not quite the same when perusing through recipes that I've sent through the printer on sterile white typing paper.  (Is there such a thing as "typing paper" anymore?)

When we started having work done on the house that displaced the kitchen table, Bouie and I began to lunch on the front porch, and we both enjoyed it so much that we've continued the practice even after the kitchen is (mostly) put back together.  I take my lunch, a Milk Bone for Bou, and the "Living" and "New Orleans" (that also contains the editorial pages) sections so I can read them at leisure while Bouie stands sentry duty.  He keeps all those evil, marauding people pushing strollers or walking little yappy dogs at bay.  It's just not the same holding the iPad.  Even Bouie seems to sense how rapt I'll tend to be, depending on whether I'm holding flapping newsprint or a tablet computer (that doesn't always hold its Wi-Fi connection).

*sigh*

So, as the Young President "evolves," so too does print journalism, I suppose.

At least kids will still be able to sprawl on the floor to read the funny papers on Sunday morning.

For awhile.

Wanted: Grown Ups To Populate the New Orleans City Council

We have quite the kerfuffle going on in the City Council, and very few of the Council members are acting their age.

It all started last summer when At-Large member Arnie Fielkow announced that he was resigning effective October 1 to assume the CEO position with the NBA Retired Players Association.  His departure left a vacant spot on the Council, and the usual suspects began circling their wagons in preparation for a brutal election to fill the spot which had been filled in the interim by a top aide to Fielkow.

Elections in New Orleans are nothing if not racially charged.  I know you're surprised to hear that. 

Fielkow is a white guy; Sanderson, the interim member, is a black guy.  When the dust settled after the primary in April, the run-off saw a white woman pitted against a black woman, both veterans of the Council, and it was a gloves-pulled-off, brutal, hair-pulling cage fight with a decidedly racial spin.  The final tally on election night gave the race to the white woman, Stacy Head, by a razor-thin edge of 281 votes.  It took several days before the black woman, Cynthia Willard-Lewis, finally conceded; Stacy Head was sworn in on May 2nd.

The Council immediately began debate on how to tweak the At-Large election procedure.  Naturally.  Priorities, priorities.

In the meantime, Stacy Head recommended a successor for her District B seat (which just happens to be the District that represents Moogie's Mansion), Errol George, a black guy, and he began interviewing with the other members, being led to believe that he was a shoo-in.

But, oh no.  This is New Orleans where we may call ourselves "The Big Easy," but we rarely do anything the easy way.

The Council was to meet for a regularly scheduled session on May 3rd and on the agenda were, among other things, amending the At-Large election process and the appointment of the interim successor to the District B spot.  After three members (all white women) changed their minds about voting for the new procedure, preferring instead to defer a vote until June to allow for more debate and public hearing, the measure failed.  And, up hopped Members Cynthia Hedge-Morrell (yes, we have lots of Cynthia Hyphenated-Names in New Orleans politics) and Jon Johnson (both black), and walked out of the chamber.

They walked out of the chamber, leaving in their wake no quorum for the Council to carry on further business.  Including the confirmation of Mr. George.  Among all the other city business.  They have yet to attend either regularly-scheduled or specially-called meetings since, offering lame-to-no excuse. 

Ms. Hedge-Morrell told the press yesterday that the change of heart about the election procedure voted on at the May 3rd meeting left her feeling "marginalized."  If the Council can't muster a quorum before June 1, the task of appointing a successor will fall to the Mayor, and it's looking like that's exactly what's going to happen.  Woo.  Hoo.

So, Ms. Hedge-Morrell is feeling a little put upon, is she?  Bless her heart.

Well, guess what?  Her childish antics, which effectively shut down all city council business -- some of which addresses some pretty heavy issues, including a proposed unnecessary, tremendous increase in sewerage/water fees -- are leaving Moogie feeling significantly worse than "marginalized."  Her behavior is leaving me feeling quite disenfranchised.  Literally.

I don't even want to get into Johnson's role in the whole thing.  He might just be the unwitting victim in a parish-wide cat fight.  But, he could be a brother and stand up for the other black guy who just wants to fill a spot on the Council until November -- when he'll even be ineligible to run for the permanent position.

I'm thinking we need a little adult supervision in the playground Council chambers.

99Airlines? Seriously?!?!

From today's in-box from MoveOn.org (yes, the espionage continues!):

Dear Moogie:

This is shaping up to be the dirtiest presidential election ever. And the most expensive, with pro-Romney super PACs and huge corporations spending like drunken sailors, thanks to Citizens United.¹ The sheer quantity of misleading ads will be stupefying.

But even if they buy the airwaves, they can't buy the skies. So we can "rise above" their dirty ads—literally—and fly messages from the 99% over dozens of Mitt Romney events. We already did it successfully when we hired a plane to fly over Romney's Liberty University graduation speech towing a banner that read: "GOP = HIGHER SCHOOL DEBT."²

We can't afford hundreds of millions of dollars of TV ads. But it turns out, if we all chip in a bit, we can afford to fly banners over Romney's head. All the time.

Call it 99airlines.

Here's the plan: if we can raise $150,000 today, we'll use the opportunity of high-dollar Romney fundraisers to fly a plane overhead towing a message that reminds voters how he represents his corporate and 1% donors.
It'll be fun—and it's sure to grab the media's attention. But most importantly, with Mitt leading in many polls, it's a way to let millions of voters who are concerned about the economy know whose side Mitt is really on. Will you chip in?

. . .

With 99airlines, we'll transform Mitt Romney's 1% fundraising tour into an airborne progressive message machine. If we hit our fundraising goal, we can secure enough plane banners so that at every Romney event, instead of looking at the podium, the reporters' eyes and cameras will be pointing up, on the lookout for our banners.

According to Gallup, only 1/3 of voters under 29 are registered to vote and say they'll definitely do so in November (far less than every other age group).³ That's enough to swing the election. So with your support, we'll also reach these voters by making 99airlines huge online—using Facebook and a Tumblr site, to post pictures of the best plane banners.

This summer, we're pulling out all the stops to win the fight against the Romney super PAC ad assault. The 99airlines planes—and the messages they carry—will transform Romney fundraisers into an opportunity to remind voters what he really stands for—corporations and the 1%.

There is so much wrong with this on so many levels.

First, I don't recall seeing any media coverage of a banner flying over the Liberty University graduation -- and I actually searched -- so the plan doesn't seem to be garnering the free media blitz it seeks.

Next, um, hiring planes to tow banners ain't exactly a 99%er activity.  The price tag to do that can get right on up there.  So, do you suppose there are some 1%ers picking up the tab for the planes?  I would be shocked to learn that!  Shocked, I tell you.

And, then there's that "reaching the under-29 vote" thing using Facebook and Tumblr and Twitter. Well, duh.  The Romney camp is already working Facebook (Obama probably is, too, but I just cannot force myself to "friend" him).  Unlike John McCain, Mitt apparently has learned how to operate social media.  And to hire folks who can make computers stand up and do tricks.

This campaign maneuver isn't as much fun as the Poetry Refrigerator Magnets, but then they're asking contributors to kick in only $5.00 instead of $6.00.  Fun must cost extra.

Finally, super PACs and corporations "spending like drunken sailors?"  Need I remind MoveOn of Reagan's aphorism about drunken sailors and spending? 



Like those tipsy sailors, those PACs and huge corporations (not to mention the SuperPACs on the left!) are spending their own money.  And probably having a lot more fun than those stuffy ol' MoveOn guys.