The Confederate States of the GOP

I for one would LOVE to see this poll question tried out elsewhere, particularly in the rest of the South.

Links

Good posts abound.

1. Jeffrey on Blakely

This latest about charitable contributions from ordinary Americans going to pay off Blakely's university salary is beyond the pale. This ordinarily would be a HUGE story but because so much other totally objectionable and offensive stuff is going on right now... Bill Simmons of ESPN coined the term 'the Tyson Zone' to refer to when a personality or situation gets so out of control that literally nothing could happen that would shock or surprise you. New Orleans entered 'the Tyson Zone' right around the time that we learned that White is black and Head is white. Actually, to pin point a very specific event, I would say it was when the city sent out a former attorney to invoke Huey Long's ghost in his argument against Arnie Fielkow's transparency ordinance. That was in December? Who knows? Maybe we've always been in the Tyson Zone.

2. Red on Oliver Thomas and Ray Nagin

This is just really well-written and heartfelt. And totally right.

3. T-P on area politicians views on the rule of law


First of all, I have a hard time forgiving Cao for many of his votes to date, but by coming out for prosecutions of those who broke the law to authorize torture, he has shown himself at least to be honorable and human in a most basic sense. How one calls oneself a patriot, a defender of American values, while supporting unequivocal torture....

Senator Vitter, unsurprisingly, sees nothing wrong with torture. I think he's the worst Senator in America and I can't wait to kick him out of office. To simply tow the Dick Cheney line without at least demonstrating some level of introspection about American values and our supposed moral exceptionality... the man is a stooge.

If there's anything resembling fascism in America today, it's the rump of the GOP standing up enthusiastically in favor of torture. Some of these sickos don't just defend it, they celebrate it.

It makes me want to vomit.


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P.S. According to several sources, Blakely is still scheduled to be out of here by the end of June.

Fishing

I'm certainly not saying that you shouldn't pay the taxes you owe on time, but is this really news?

Mid-City is getting cheated

Big master plan meeting tonight for District 4 (Mid-City).

Check out what I mean.

Been Busy

Apologies for the light posting here.

Wanted to second Suspect Device by flagging this Al Giordano piece. Good stuff.

Read it.

Afterward, I considered how it would read if he were talking about local organizing here in New Orleans...

I think Sullivan might call this an "Yglesias award nominee"

From Danny Fisher at ORR:

I want to believe in these tea parties, I really do. But they bug me just a little bit. First of all, the Boston Tea Party was an act of outright rebellion by fed up colonists, this is a planned rally by the dorkiest segments of the GOP.

Already, organizers are trying to preempt any liberal backlash by saying “it’s coming, they’re going to call us racists.” This is exactly what Obama did in the campaign by “predicting” that conservatives would try to scare voters because he was “different.” It might have worked, he did get elected after all. The thing is, the vocal part of the anti-tax crowd overlaps with the lock-and-load gun lovers, the Jeffersonians and the John Birch Society. I hate taxes and government excess, but I would never trust any of these people under any circumstances. There’s internet kooks, then there’s the REAL kooks!

Glad to see some good folks on the Right are giving these things some consideration.

Kudos.

Sad

Link

Some of those on the Right who have been so flippant about giving mainstream credibility to fringe conspiracy theories need to more think more seriously about what they say. This guy was obviously unstable all by himself but given the stresses that this economy is already putting on people, some of the more ridiculous secessionist rhetoric needs to be toned down. I think a little self-censorship might be appropriate, don't you? A little bit. I think elected Republicans should voluntarily publicly disassociate themselves from some the nonsensical fear-mongering as a way of marginalizing the tin-foil hatters that are clearly getting some people irrationally paranoid.

Nobody wants this or anything like it to happen again.

"no major policy decisions"

From Transom:

“At times the city feels a bit paralyzed and daunted. You may feel that way too, looking at us,”she said, going onto to say that that the city’s master plan, which was unveiled online in draft form online today, would be “one of the guides to help us form policy” moving forward.

Aside from the master plan, Reed said, “no major policy decisions… would be coming out in the next year.”

And that, she said, “is because of the (coming in 2010) change in administration.”

Deputy Director for Housing Policy Victoria Reed also assured housing wonks in the crowd that the city had funding from a foundation to do a study of housing needs in the next year. “So we will know what the needs are and where we should be focusing development,” she said.

Four years after the storm is definitely the appropriate time to possibly start a study on what our affordable housing needs might be.

Good Start Byron Clay

I've generally been very critical of the modern Southern Christian Leadership Council at WCBF.

This is something, however, that I can enthusiastically support. Good stuff from their new interim Prezzy, Byron Clay.

Abso-lutely

Signs the Mayor might be psychopath.

Bad Cao

Lame!!!!

Newt Gingrich loves courting Louisiana pols.

Free For All

This ish is out of control.

It's the little things

This piece from 538's Sean Quinn is surprisingly interesting. An article like this would never have been written before the age of the newsblog. Traditional Beltway media doesn't pick up on these kinds of angles.

Philly Confronts Reality

In Philadelphia, tax increases are preferable to spending cuts.

Mayor Mike Nutter, elected by the largest margin in City of Philadelphia history, has had a rough first year on the job as a result of recession-induced budget deficit.

His proposed library branch closures were met by a huge public outcry. This environment has contributed to the long overdue reevaluation of the tax hikes v. spending cuts debate.

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New Orleans should go this route as well. We should stop rolling back the millage and start improving services. Obviously, something for after May of 2010 when hopefully a grownup will start restoring some basic financial accountability and public credibility to City Hall.

Ahead of the story

Don't know if you read the Times-Pic over the weekend but you didn't have to if you'd been keeping up on your trusty We Could Be Famous.

This is why you should cancel your subscription to the Times-Picayune and instead:

1. The weekly Saturday politics column totally bit off WCBF's Thursday post on the difference between Chicago's vanguard integrated crime camera system and New Orleans' reckless camera contract funnel scheme, down to one of the articles I cited as evidence. All the T-P did was get a spokeswoman from the City of Chicago to say that Mayor Daley was out of the office.

2. Bill Barrow's Saturday look at the LSU/VA latest cites a FEMA report which WCBF discussed extensively all the way back on Monday.


That's right, you've got your own one man news team right here at We Could Be Famous - ya know - dot blogspot dot com.

So it goes

NOPD needlessly brutalizes another submissive suspect.

"Liberal Blogger B.S."

A day of lies from the Jindal administration. Must be humiliating for them to have to deal with skeptical media. And the chess game continues.

This is stupid. I'm done talking about this.

Gotta Give It Up

Congressman Cao is slaying these FEMA assholes.

I'm done. I have implemented transparency.

Most transparent administration EVER!

Most of the Nagin administration's emails from 2008 have been deleted.

Conveniently, he's heading to Washington D.C. tomorrow.

This is one of the more outrageous things to come down the pipeline in some time.

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More: WWLTV on the issue of public meetings.


Well someone's recovered those emails apparently.

Indeed indeed. Pay attention.

The relevant memo: html or pdf

Fear of retaliation

Essential City Business story about a jerk cop and a friend of mine who knows his rights.

Wexler said his first impulse was to file a complaint with the NOPD’s Public Integrity Bureau, but he doubted the independence and effectiveness of the unit. If the police department can’t be trusted to treat citizens with respect, how can it be trusted to investigate allegations of abuse against its own officers, Wexler said.

Even his attorney, Sam Dalton, tried to discourage him from filing a report.

“I’ve seen what happens when people bring complaints,” Dalton said. “The police try to intimidate them from continuing their protests. It’s a very uncomfortable situation. One thing I know is that this officer won’t be punished.”

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A woman who works in the area at the time of the incident verified Wexler’s account to CityBusiness but refused to provide her name for fear of police retaliation.