Clown Car: Some quick notes on the Mayor's race

School Board killer and yurp magnet Leslie Jacobs is almost guaranteed to announce her candidacy for Mayor, from what I've been hearing. She can self-finance, perhaps almost to the level that local monopoly man parody John Georges can.

Jacobs' likely entry into the race means that rumors of a possible reentry by Mitch Landrieu are untrue. Jacobs would not be doing focus groups and polls and taking possible campaign organizers out to lunch if she hadn't been personally assured by the Lieutenant Governor that he was not going to be running. Jacobs and Landrieu are deferentially close.

I generally agree with AZ's analysis that Jacobs might be wiser to take on Jay Batt in District A and also with the general point about how important catering ability is for a potential Mayor.

I have not heard any inkling, however, that Jacobs is considering anything less than a full-out run for Mayor. She was also recently seen at a GOP heavyweights for Jay Batt fundraiser.

Aaaand, I've just thrown up in my mouth a little bit.

I don't understand why Jacobs (or those that are personally close to her) think it is in her or her family's best interest to run for Mayor right now. Not only do I think she has little chance of winning but I also think she could potentially undermine her efforts outside and adjacent to government.

I'm told that her focus groups indicate that African American women are open-minded to her candidacy. I don't want to by cynical but I have never in my readings about the politics ever heard of gender trumping race in a municipal election, especially a municipality with the poor civil rights record that this one has.

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Former Judge Nadine Ramsey is actually running she says. I have seen two Nadine Ramsey bumper stickers so it must be true. Her climb is so steep - I have no idea why she's running or how she plans to compete financially.

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Troy Henry is also running kind of sort of I think. Troy Henry was President of United Water when United Water was gunning to get New Orleans to privatize the water board. Henry was in charge in Atlanta when that city actually did. That experiment failed in spectacular fashion amidst staff problems, financial issues, and multiple instances of water contamination. There were boil orders. Lots of them. Thankfully, New Orleans learned from Atlanta's mistake.

I'd like to know if Henry has had a change of heart about whether privatizing basic and critical municipal services is smart policy.

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Rep. Austin Badon has announced his exit from the Mayor's race and entrance into the race for District E. The pay raise likely made this office more palatable. I see no reason he won't take it easily though I am excited to see what seems at first glance to be a progressive challenge out of the Vietnamese community.

James Perry has announced a leave of absence from the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center so that he can concentrate on running for Mayor. Though he claimed a fund-raising victory for the last filing deadline, his new campaign staff is seems to be sucking up a huge share of whatever was taken in. I doubt they'll have enough money to invest in advertising. Will they have enough for yard signs or mailers?

I've seen some calls for volunteers but I'm not sure the extent to which those calls have been met. Is the Perry campaign planning on doing any organizing work? Have they been knocking on doors?

Maybe I'm missing something but I don't see much evidence that the campaign has done anything to penetrate the electorate. An underdog won't win using traditional campaign tactics.

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Giant Ed Murray signs are proliferating like crazy. He's the front-runner until further notice.

Breaking: Impossible looking increasingly possible

The Senate healthcare reform bill will create a national public option with an opt-out provision to allow states to choose not to participate.

Remember four weeks ago when the public option was declared dead?

A few thoughts:

1. The progressive grassroots organizations that took all that heat for running tough ads against wayward Democrats deserve some credit. They refused to cave.

2. Harry Reid deserves some credit. Though grassroots pressure made success on the public option absolutely critical to the Senate leader's reelection next year, Reid had to do the heavy lifting to get Baucus and other moderates on board with a public option. He is forging ahead with the preferable opt-out compromise even though the trigger policy seems to have had more votes. That shows backbone.

3. The White House deserves slightly less credit. Though I wish we'd used single-payer as a starting point and think we'd be much further along if we had, you have to give the White House some applause for preaching patience and for allowing space for the Senate to negotiate.

4. We have a bit of a ways to go and a lot more work to do. Call Mary Landrieu and urge her to support the opt-out compromise. Reach her in New Orleans at (504) 589-2427. Reach her in D.C. at (202)224-5824.


We are so close to passing a pretty damn good healthcare reform bill.

Simple solutions to simple problems

Louisiana University chieftans have been talking recently about having too many students.

Due to a handshake agreement, I can't name names but recently I heard a brief talk by the head of a local public university who was proudly describing the course of action he took when faced with a surplus of aspirant students.

"We doubled the price."

For him, it was a no-brainer. That is what you do when demand outstrips supply, right? That this policy clearly discriminates against poorer applicants is a consequence of the marketplace.

I wonder if it occurred to him that an alternative choice for an institution of higher learning looking to deal with over-enrollment would be to raise the academic standards for admittance.

I can tell you that this University head honcho was not Chancellor John Lombardi of LSU, though he shares Mr. Lombardi's strategy.

The Chancellor of LSU is already on the record favoring higher tuition for his students instead of the consolidation of university boards populated by people who make enormous six-figure salaries from the money students and their parents often go into debt to pay into the system.

To Chancellor Lombardi and his compatriot from another public institution of higher learning in Louisiana, consolidating university patronage positions and raising academic standards is the bad choice here.

I think they're confused about what their mission is.

GO PHILLIES!

The best team to ever come out of my home town is going back to the Series for seconds!

CBS: Nation will be pulling for non-phony, non-corporate Phillies

David Duke Vitter

This is worst kind of politics. A sad legacy is revived as David Vitter's reelection strategy.



It takes one second to issue a press release condemning Keith Bardwell. We're still waiting on Senator Vitter.

Update: Vitter still unable to bring himself to call for the judge's resignation or to condemn his actions as racism.

Public option gaining steam? (updated)

Polls are showing support for the public option holding steady or growing. I am starting to believe that the pressure exerted from the grassroots on this aspect of healthcare reform could ultimately prove to have worked. Progressive dissatisfaction with Democrats for waffling on the issue is being noticed in incumbent campaign bank accounts to the point that I think Harry Reid's only chance at reelection is to be perceived as a fighter for the public option.

Today, Organizing for America and others have called on supporters of healthcare reform to inundate members of Congress with over 100,000 phone calls.

Here is how you can team up with OFA to do that.

Senator Landrieu and Congressmen Melancon and Cao are right in the middle of this and their votes carry considerable real or symbolic influence.

They must hear from their constituents. Please take five minutes to be a part of this effort.

Update:

I made my calls to the D.C. office today.

Have you done yours yet?

Congressman Cao's staffer was very friendly and she willing to discuss the Congressman's position for good amount of time. We bonded. Senator Vitter's office noted my call. Senator Landrieu's office didn't pick up the phone after 10 rings.

Organizing for America shattered their goal of 100,000 calls to Congress. They've more than doubled it, as a matter of fact.


Update II:

Senator Mary Landrieu says she doesn't like the public option because she suddenly doesn't like medicare and medicaid. I didn't know she had such distaste for those programs. That's the first time I've ever heard her say anything like this before and I find her logic to be quite misleading and discouraging.

I don't think she'll join a GOP fillibuster but given the momentum for healthcare reform right now, her recalcitrance is deeply troubling considering the promises she's made to working families in Louisiana over the course of her career.

It's Obama's fault!

Here's a hypothetical scenario that I'd really like to collect reader thoughts on.

If the President or local Congressperson were to propose a $20 billion program to fund a variety of Gulf Coast infrastructure projects and social programs, would it pass? What if it were $10 billion? Or $5 billion? What do you think the tally in the House and Senate would be?

My initial assumption is that there would not be sufficient votes in either chamber but I haven't given it a whole lot of thought.

President Obama's visit to New Orleans

I have a whole bunch of really fuzzy pictures from my increasingly useless digital camera right here on the flickr. I took pictures of political people I recognized. From the New Orleans City Council, I spotted Shelley Midura, Cynthia Hedge Morrell, Arnie Fielkow, and Jackie Clarkson. From our Baton Rouge delegation, I noticed Jim Tucker, Walk Leger, Ed Murray, and Karen Carter Peterson. Of course I also spotted Mayor Nagin, Governor Jindal, State AG Buddy Caldwell, as well as Representatives Cao, Scalise, and Melancon. As far as aspirant candidates are concerned, I saw Murray and John Georges but wasn't able to pick Badon or Perry out of the crowd. They may have been there; this is certainly not an exhaustive list.

I had a great time and came away satisfied with the experience. Seeing a Presidential speech in person is not a bad way to spend a Thursday afternoon. Being close enough to shake Mr. Obama's hand was also very exciting, as I've obviously been an admirer of his for some time.

More substantively, I found his comments to be largely uncontroversial, and therefore, somewhat unsatisfying. Some have criticized the President for what he did and did not say during his junket here. I don't necessarily disagree with many of the critiques I've read, but I'm going to take a different approach and discuss what I think are some significant signs of progress specific to our region during the administration's first nine months.

1.Housing

To me, this is the area in which the administration has been most proactive. Before HUD's Shaun Donnovan can even begin to evaluate housing policy here, he has to at least have people on the ground with the credibility to tell him what's happening. I'm encouraged by Donnovan's decision to send in an entire team to gut and rebuild HANO after Alphonso Jackson's pathetic receivership of the agency. In fact, I'm not sure I've ever heard of such an intervention before.

2. Coastal Restoration

The Obama administration has created the Gulf Coast Interagency Working Group to deal with environmental issues and coastal restoration. In part, this move seems to be designed to force the Army Corps out of isolation and into a collaboration with local agencies in Louisiana and Mississippi.

3. Criminal Justice

The Department of Justice and FBI have opened up a series of investigations into the NOPD's conduct during and after Hurricane Katrina. I've speculated that this could result in the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division possibly pursuing a consent decree with the city of New Orleans.

4. FEMA/DHS

President Obama has cleaned out the local FEMA office, appointed a new director who everyone seems fired up about, and established an arbitration system that will resolve ongoing reimbursement pursuits in less time than the traditional appeals process that local agencies had previously been muddling through.

5. Schools, healthcare, infrastructure

The stimulus bill has allowed Louisiana to compete for lots and lots of money - to accelerate school construction, to fix roads and build new train lines, and to keep clinics open. It is unfortunate that our Governor has decided we shouldn't try for some of this money but that's not the administration's fault. It's also unfortunate that our Congressional delegation - especially since Congressman Cao was not prepared to be effective when he was first sworn in - wasn't able to do more to push important Louisiana-specific infrastructure projects in the stimulus bill.


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To me, that's an okay first nine months considering everything the country faces right now while also keeping in mind that President Obama is not the Mayor of New Orleans or the Governor of Louisiana. It's not fantastic, but it ain't bad.

The biggest problem is that our local officials are really poor advocates for the needs of the city.

The most common critiques I've seen from others and the biggest complaints that I have myself, revolve around the perception that the federal government isn't really serious about coastal restoration or levee protection, the sense the the administration doesn't care about punishing those who abused their power during Hurricane Katrina, and the idea that the administration isn't resolved to invest in infrastructure and opportunity here on the Gulf Coast.

Are our Congressional Delegation and our Governor all on the same page when it comes to proposing and advocating for the grander initiatives we need to move forward?

Is anyone from our local delegation calling for investigations into post-Katrina racism? John Conyers is, but he's from Michigan.

Is our local delegation united on an independent commission to look into the army corps and the federal levee failures? As far as I can tell, there isn't a significant lobbying effort by our Congressional delegation or our Governor for such a commission.

Are our local elected officials making a case for expanded federal funding of our infrastructure needs? Absolutely they are not. In fact, Governor Jindal seems to be consciously working against federal funding of infrastructure projects. When the stimulus was being negotiated, was the really city prepared ahead of time with a list of projects that need additional federal support? Were state agencies on the same page with the Congressional delegation about the needs of the region?

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I don't mean to absolve the President of any criticism. It does seem like the President isn't interested in a transformational platform to make Southern Louisiana sustainable or to extend opportunity to its residents. It does seem like he's only taking President Bush's programs and making them work a little bit better.

That's not enough.

Nonetheless, it is the job of our local officials to work toward a consensus vision for rebuilding this region, not the President's. Until our local leadership can articulate that vision and mobilize New Orleanians to support it, this President and future Presidents are not going to risk political capital on big ideas for Southeast Louisiana or New Orleans.

We touched

It was a privilege to have been able to see the President speak today. I took pictures. They'll be up after the Phillies game.

In other news, I won't be washing my right hand any time soon, my seasonal allergies are gone, and I don't need my glasses anymore.

Strange.

Interference

According to LJI, the State Fire Marshall made a surprise visit to MLK Charter in order to nitpick enough to order it closed in advance of President Obama's visit.

For Immediate Release
October 15, 2009

On Tuesday afternoon, October 13th, the Louisiana Fire Marshal made an unexpected, surprise visit to, and inspection of Dr. Martin Luther King Charter School for Science and Technology, ordering the closure of the high school campus for 30 days citing alleged fire code violations.

This news is significant because the school was the site today of President Barak Obama's first stop on his visit to New Orleans, and because of the nature of the purported violations.

King Charter School Principal Doris Hicks said couldn't she believe such a thing could happen on the eve of a visit to the school by the President of the United States.

"We expanded our campus two years ago and have been safely operating the high school in trailers since then without any problems. Suddenly (they say) we're endangering our children?" Dr. Hicks said. “Nothing is more important to us than the safety of our students. "

The Louisiana Fire Marshal reports directly to Louisiana's republican Gov. Bobby Jindal.

The alleged code violations included having enough fire extinguishers, but purportedly the wrong size, and failing to have sufficient ingress/egress to an empty building.

Dr. Austin Allen, a pro bono architect for the school and professor at the University of Colorado at Denver, indicated the cited problems were in no way life threatening. "We were able to resolve most of the issues within 24 hours; I can't understand why the fire marshal set this 30 day penalty," Dr. Allen said.

King Charter School can only hope this incident actually exposes the extreme school facility crisis being experienced in districts throughout Louisiana.

Louisiana Justice Institute Managing Director and King School attorney Tracie Washington expressed frustration with the situation.

"I can only hope Louisiana's Fire Marshal and Governor Jindal will care about all the children in Louisiana, not just those being visited by President Obama. Interestingly, neither offered assistance to King School in mitigating any safety issues for our students, which certainly raises questions their motives, “ Ms. Washington said.

The Presidential visit to King Charter School was a complete success, despite this Fire Marshal interruption.

Really? A closure for wrong-sized fire extinguishers just a day or two before the President's visit?

That's just bad form.

Dear Mr. President

I've got this blighted property on my block. I call code enforcement. They tell me to call 311. 311 doesn't work. The street lights are still going out all the time and I blew out my tire on a pothole just the other day. I couldn't get my road home check and then the contractors suckered me out of it. I got a bench warrant for some measly traffic violation, my brother's getting kicked out of NOAH. I've got this nasty cough, stage 8 diabetes, and my shoes are untied. How 'bout them Saints?

Jumping in

I've been thinking through some things the last few days related to this discussion and the pursuit of justice for victims of unrepentant vigilantism during Hurricane Katrina.

After I suggested that some instances of abuse of power might be more easily prosecutable than others and wondered aloud whether or not some sort of truth commission deal might be appropriate for some of the cases, an anonymous commenter points out:

So the family of Emmett Everett, the black man killed by Doctors at Memorial hospital, only deserves an apology while the white cop who torched a black man deserves prison? The family of the black woman who died at the convention center because homeland security blocked ambulances deserves an apology while the police at Danzinger deserve jail?

This is moral relativism at its worse. If you killed someone under the color of law or in an official capacity as a medical care provider, you should pay the price.

We developed the Nurenberg acccords and International Court precisely to prevent people from using "special circumstances" as an excuse for murderous behavior.
Every human has an individual conscience and the history of human progress our of the ranks of primitive primates has been to get them to use it when mob mentality takes hold.

All true.

But earlier in the thread, the same (I think) Anonymous commenter points out:

Trust me, if these ever go to jury no white juror is going to hold the white defendants accountable. In their minds, blacks went wild and they share a collective guilt for the actions of a few, so the innocent ones deserve no sympathy.

So I guess I'm still not sure exactly what it is you do here.

If we have a moral standard for what justice should be in this case - i.e. appropriate criminal penalties for those that committed crimes during Katrina - but no practical means of enforcing the standard, how do you move forward?

Anon is right both about the plank you walk off when discussing moral relativism and about the low likelihood that a local jury would ever convict a DHS bureaucrat that blocked ambulances from the Convention Center or the Doctors at Memorial.

That's why I'm having a hard time resolving this.

Let's take the Memorial case.

I would applaud a criminal case being brought against Anna Pou. I think it is pretty damn clear that she killed Mr. Everett when he could have very easily made it through the evacuation.

But I highly doubt she'd be convicted. The trial would be highly polarizing, perhaps more so than the other cases, since I think people are naturally inclined to be sympathetic toward a medical professional and because of Ms. Pou's public exoneration tour.

So what kind of justice would be handed down from that kind of circus?

I'm curious to engage in a frank discussion about this. I'm pretty sure that the vast majority of my readers are in agreement that these cases should be pursued. But I wonder to what extent impediments to justice exist and whether those impediments limit the ability of our traditional system to actually deliver. Are there practicalities to consider?

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Moving sideways...

I'm at least comforted by the knowledge the Eric Holder is the Attorney General of the United States. The administration is serious about empowering the Civil Rights Division to do what it is supposed to do. It's not a coincidence that the feds are now actively investigating some of these post Katrina horror stories to see what they might be able to successfully prosecute.

I am hoping Holder will utilize the powers established under the Clinton administration for the Civil Rights Division to take over police departments characterized by rampant civil rights violations. Forces with a "pattern or practice" of civil rights abuse can be effectively taken over using consent decrees. Cities are threatened with civil rights lawsuits unless they agree to a federal police monitor to implement sweeping reforms. Holder came to oversee the Civil Rights Division as Deputy Attorney General just as it began pursuing consent decrees against police departments in Pittsburgh and Los Angeles.

New Orleans was once a candidate for a consent decree from the Department of Justice. This outside pressure played a role in Marc Morial's decision to hire Richard Pennington, who presided over a pretty damn successful reform of the NOPD. Some background here.

This is something that people should pressure our Mayoral candidates about. Would they sign a consent decree to bring in federal oversight of the NOPD or not and why?

Don’t like to hear where I can’t go - updated

Is it true that President Obama's scheduled trip to New Orleans coincides with Mayor Nagin's scheduled trip to Cuba?

How convenient!

I wonder if President Obama - juggling two wars, a limping economy, a critical healthcare reform initiative, and the coming climate change catastrophe - was asked to reschedule to accommodate Mayor Nagin?

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My own views on Cuba are similar to those of Jackson Browne:

Maybe I’ll go through Mexico
Old Jesse Helms don’t have to know
Anyway all the allies of the USA
Travel to Cuba everyday

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Update: Mayor Nagin has, I'm told, rescheduled his trip to Cuba. I suppose this does confirm that Obama's trip to New Orleans coincided with Nagin's junket - which is interesting. I didn't mean to suggest that the Mayor was giving serious thought to going ahead with his trip. I don't have those kinds of sources.

While we're on the subject, let me applaud Mayor C. Ray Nagin.

No need to adjust your screens. I would like to genuinely tip my hat to the Mayor for reaching out to Cuba and I hope he can reschedule his trip as soon as possible. I think the next Mayor should market New Orleans as destination for transnational tourism and immigration. The embargo against Cuba is going to end sooner or later. Our cultural similarities are so similar we'd be really dumb not to position ourselves to capitalize on the opportunities that may arise from loosened restrictions on travel and trade. It almost always seems like we fall behind the curve on stuff like this but this time maybe New Orleans might be shrewd enough to get ahead.

Since we're here, I really think New Orleans should do more to attract immigrants both legal and illegal. I think we should become a sanctuary city - like most other major cities - by adopting laws that protect illegal immigrants. Though I'm sure there are economic benefits to derive from opening up our arms to the world, my rationale is more based on my own anecdotal observation that this place would be more awesome if we had more immigrants from more places - I'm thinking especially Brazil, West Africa, and Cuba - to hang with.

Not a pretty picture

When the NYTimes holds up a mirror.

Great article but not fun to read.

Note to the advance team

I am really looking forward to President Obama's overdue visit next Thursday.

A White House memo, provided by Louisiana members of Congress, said the president would be in New Orleans for a town hall, but didn't provide any details.

Sorry but I'd like to know some details.

What kind of town hall are we talking about here?

Will it be come-one come-all? Obama-style? Room to accommodate a thousand of us or so?

Or will it be invite only? Landrieu-style? Room for only a few hundred?


I want to see the President speak. He might not be back again for a while.

It would make me real sad to miss out.

Get a big space reserved, mmkay?

This sounds promising for the country but not so much for us

Healthcare reform is finally creaking forward in the Senate. The CBO score on the Baucus bill should pretty much guarantee that the thing is going to finally get out of the finance committee.

Senator Schumer has been leading the charge to rally Democratic colleagues to support sort of public option once the Baucus bill is married to the one that emerged from the HELP committee.

On that front, it appears that a compromise is in the works that seems like it could win the support of blue dog Senators without alienating progressive votes.

The bill would include a national public option healthcare plan, which I think, is a major victory.

But it would also allow individual states to opt out, to prohibit its citizens from choosing the public option.

Now for most of the country, this is a great deal.

For people in Louisiana and elsewhere in the Deep South this might not be so great.

Though I think the politics of denying Louisiana residents the opportunity to participate in a national program like the public option is quite a bit more difficult than halting the creation of the program in the first place, I don't think there will be a shortage of ultraconservative politicos willing to roll the dice.

It also exposes what I consider to be the central challenge to progressive politics in the United States. To what extent can the Democratic Party and the loose progressive coalition that brought it back to power continue to throw overboard minority, poor, and working class families of the South and other ultraconservative areas when it comes to enacting policies that poor and working class families in conservative districts and states need more than anybody else?

If families and individuals from Louisiana, perhaps the state with the absolute worst healthcare outcomes of all, can't take a crack at a national public option program because of ridiculous GOP intransigence and Democratic cowardice, it would be tragic.

Still, I think the right thing to do is to swallow hard, embrace this sort of compromise for the good of the country, and take our chances fighting any state politicians that want to deny Louisiana residents the right to choose the public option.

What say you?

OIG Report on Budget Processes (Updated)

I've been looking forward to this report for a long time. The way we do our budget is a major source of frustration and a major impediment to some of the easier changes we'd like to see.

Last year's budget battle was awful for every single member of City Council. I'm not sure there is enough time before this year's negotiation but hopefully this report will stiffen the Council's resolve on items where there is common ground.


OIG Report on Mayors Budget

I'll be updating this post with different noteworthy items that I might find as I read through this. You should feel free to do so yourself in the comment section below.


UPDATE:

We've also learned that the city budget is now $68 million in the red, not the $43 million originally estimated.

I have a hunch that we will see the deficit go up again before the next budget is signed, perhaps to close to $100 million.

As it stands right now, the deficit represents almost 15% of the budget.

The Mayor is talking about across-the-board cuts, which as the Times-Picayune points out, is specifically criticized as a poor methodology. The report talks about what is known as 'budgeting for outcomes,' a system that forces a more critical look at what programs actually address municipal priorities and which do not.

I don't really want to talk about boring stuff like budgeting for outcomes but I do want to talk about municipal priorities. That's what immediately jumps out if you page through the OIG review of 2009's budget processes.

If you start at page 27 above and look at where New Orleans ranks on different spending priorities, it will really begin to crystallize.

One of the thing that frustrates me about discourse in this city is that criticism of municipal inefficiencies is too often translated into the language of Jefferson Parish conservatism. The stereotypical impulse to cut taxes and spending as a matter of reactionary opposition to post 1960s political gains has obscured the voices of those who are more-or-less interested in maintaining spending so long as that revenue goes toward programs that extend opportunity and improve quality of life.

It should be really simple to cut waste from the Dept. of Sanitation to shift additional resources to NORD. But it isn't simple here. It is extremely complicated.

I hope that if we can start by producing accessible and accurate budget documents, we'll soon be able to actually discuss whether or not budgets are actually addressing the needs of the city.

Council can win this much for us. This year.

Vitter condones workplace rape by defense contractor employees?

He was one of 30 GOPers to vote against an amendment that would defund contractors that restrict employees from pursuing instances of workplace sexual assault in court.

The basis of the amendment is the heinous story of Jamie Leigh Jones, who working in Iraq for Haliburton/KBR when she was brutally victimized by several male co-workers and prevented from reporting it under threat of termination.

The Best Mayor in America

My man-crush grows.

What this guy did to become Mayor of Newark, running in 2002 and 2006, demonstrates the incredible dedication required to triumph in cities with entrenched political machines and entrenched cynicism.

If you haven't seen it, definitely check out Street Fight, a documentary made about Booker's first run in 2006. You can watch it online w/ Netflix.

It wasn't the money that ultimately made him viable. This guy organized.

He took up residence in a housing project.

He knocked on doors. Lots of them. Every day.

Everybody likes comfortable furniture at rock bottom prices

Kudos to Cliff for bringing us this breakthrough in race relations:

WITHOUT A DOUBT

YES TO HIGH SPEED RAIL

Good luck with Governor Waaaambulance, Congressman Cao.

His administration was working toward high speed rail before he had a child-like reaction to being made fun of for previously opposing it publicly to score a one-off political point.

Ethics Review Board works to avoid filing financial disclosure forms

This is lame. And unfortunately it reinforces earlier concerns.

LJI has the docs.

All governmental bodies that spend more than $10,000 a year are supposed to file financial disclosure forms. The Ethics Review Board requested an advisory opinion from the Louisiana Board of Ethics seeking an exemption.

The Louisiana Board of Ethics ruled(pdf) that members of the ERB are exempt from filing financial disclosure reports based on the premise, supplied by Rev. Kevin Wildes, that the ERB's spending decisions must be approved by the City of New Orleans' CAO, Brenda Hatfield.

Is it even true that all spending decisions by the Ethics Review Board must be approved by the CAO?

Wasn't the Ethics Review Board allocated $300,000 in both 2008 and 2009?

Yup. It's true(pdf, page 350).

This doesn't make me happy.
A legitimate Ethics Review Board is a must if we want a legitimate Office of Inspector General.

This whole thing is a serious mess and a serious disappointment.

The only solution that makes sense to me right now is to totally restructure the Ethics Review Board so that it has some legitimacy with the public.

First of all, Campaign Basics, OK?

John Georges is smart to make his presence known to second liners.

He's going to put his money on the line for this race - he had a drop-top and logo throws ready to roll.

But guess what?

It doesn't take millions of dollars to go to a second line.

Why haven't other candidates made it out on Sunday afternoons to shake hands and kiss babies?