Your Right Hand Thief

Seriously, if you are chopping vegetables in the kitchen and Jersey Shore is within earshot, you might hear "I feel like a pilgrim from the friggin' 20s washing [clothes in the sink]!"

And you might lose concentration, along with several digits.

That's something you wouldn't want to explain.

Labels: tv

I approve of this post title.

The Hayride's Ryan Booth is pullin for Jeb Bush in 2012 horse race.

Needed comedy relief: as unsafe as it is funny.

Labels: Jeb

Subject: Does WWL AM 870 Protect Whore Mongering ‘Republican’ Politicians? I say-- indubitably –- YES!!!!!!!!

Don, I am sure the past e-mail that I sent with the evidence (Times-Picayune James Gill Column dated 1/12/2003 – “Who knew the boat did it?”) that you so conveniently are not able to recall is quoted below and is more than adequate evidence to substantiate that WWL’s pal Billy Nungesser, the “Republican” President of Plaquemines Parish -– who is running for re-election, was in fact and indeed a customer of the Canal Street Brothel -– thus making “Republican” Nungesser a whore monger!!!!!!

From the above reference James Gill column:

“At the hearing, attorneys on both sides said that the list of brothel customers provided by the madam includes Billy Nungesser Jr., son of the former state Republican Party chairman”

Astonishingly, on the Jeff Crouere program on AM 990 WGSO on 3/18/2008, Billy Nungesser claimed that he never heard of the Canal Street Brothel! And Nungesser has been a stranger from the Jeff Crouere talk program ever since -– quite a feat considering I know of no “bigger” publicity hound than Nungesser!

Furthermore, Nungesser has not accepted a challenge to undergo a lie detector examination when challenged to such by the Canal Street Madam – Janette Maier – and if the James Gill column is in any way or manner whatsoever a “slanderous” falsehood”-- then why has Billy Nungesser not filed a libel suit against James Gill, the Times Picayune, and Jeanette Maier, hummmmm!!!!!!!

It is my most fervent and sincere belief that if “little” Billy Nungesser were an African-American Democrat holding high public office, and running for re-election, Republicans like Congressman Steve Scalise, who “never” has missed or passed on an opportunity to bash a black Democrat – such as President Obama and former New Orleans Mayor Mark Morial – on the Big 870, the topic of a “black” Democrat most apparently violating the law banging “whores” at a brothel would be “topic” numero uno at the Big 870 AM in New Orleans in an attempt to hang on to the Limbaugh “racist” audience -- which has flown the coop to FM 99.5!!!!!!

And Don, that phone call from Shirley from Kenner on your talk program on July 24, 2010, stating that the earlier caller – whoever “he” was – which you most rudely and indignantly hung up on while copping an attitude claiming “you know we don’t make accusations without any facts to back it up, you know you need to get some facts if you are going to say it on the air!!!!!”

I suppose that the James Gill column that I – excuse me – the caller named “Bob,” which I have e-mailed to you in the past, which “bob” referenced on your program -- is not a sufficient fact – however – again, if only the whore monger were a black Democrat seeking re-election-– well -- I could not help to have the feeling that your high standard of evidence would not be the same and your ability to recall such evidence would be as sharp as the treble hook that I used to win the grand prize in the nation’s oldest bass fishing rodeo in New Orleans City Park on April 10, 1960,–landed a five pound 13 ½ ounce green bass – see photo in Times-Picayune of yours truly holding the prize winning bass in the April 14, 1960, edition (Times-Picayune photo available upon request).

And later on your program when Shirley from Kenner asked you – on air—“where did Jeanette Maier (the Canal Street Madam) ever find a woman willing to have sex with a ‘whale’”– well Don – I busted my gut and what a knee slapper that was! Don, did the board operator take a powder and were you on the wireless headset and too far from the board to cut off the caller?

Don, not that I would ever prompt someone to dial into the Big 870 and suggest to them what to say, but if yours truly were writing material for the Big 870 – well – the ratings would go through the roof of the Superdome!!!!!

Also Don, why is it that talk host at the Big 870 say, as you most rudely said to me, sorry – said to “Bob” from Belle Chase, "Aweee, yeah well, when you call, first of all, use your real name . . ."

You know Don I can’t ever recall a talk host at the Big 870 ever being so indignant when a right-wing caller drops a dime on the Big 870 to accuse the African-American President of the U. S. of being a Marxist -– and with “absolutely” no evidence!!!!!!

Additionally, another example of how a white Republican whore monger gets a pass -– from the above referenced James Gill column dated 1/12/2003:

Had the case gone to trial, therefore, defense attorneys were evidently prepared to argue that acting U. S. Attorney Jim Letten, if he wanted to be confirmed in his job, had an apparent incentive to go easy on the johns, since the elder Nungesser is an old hand at doling out federal patronage.

The elder Nungesser, however, stepped down as party chairman 10 years ago, and may no longer be quite the force he was in the old days when time came to appoint a new judge, say, or U.S. attorney.

Neither Nungesser Sr. or Jr. could be reached for comment.

And Don, when will the Big 870 stop protecting the Republican Sen. David Vitter -- you know the other Republican “whore monger -- and require Vitter to take phone calls from the listeners of the Big 50,000 watt 870 as Vitter’s Democratic opponent -– Congressman Charlie Melancon-- has done on the Big 870, hummmm!!!!!!!

And I challenge you to take my phone call while using my real name!

Moreover, your comment referring to Shirley and me, sorry “Bob,” as “Wacko and gutless callers” is as hypocritical as the whore mongering pals of the Big 870 -- Nungesser and Vitter-— being members of a political party which espouses “traditional family values"!

In fact Don, I say that you are a no class back stabbing coward of the highest order since you resort to name calling when I, sorry “Bob,” merely quoted a factual and well documented James Gill column regarding a high political official who is officially seeking a second term in a public office!

And check out my latest Sen. Vitter exposé proving that Sen. Vitter “lied” at his 2007 national press conference at:

http://righthandthief.blogspot.com/2010/05/commentary-by-david-c-bellinger.html

David C. Bellinger
(404) 762-8779
E-mail: davidc53@juno.com
Atlanta, Ga

Labels: Flaming Liberal

Go here to nominate a deserving blogger, and register for Rising Tide V.

Happy Independence Weekend.

Labels: ashley morris, patriotism, Rising Tide

The main RT conference will be on August 28th at the Howlin' Wolf in New Orleans.

Register here.

Information, discussion, bloggers-in-the-flesh, lunch, vendors, keynote speakers, panels, Q & A, presentations, t-shirts, posters, books, potential confrontations, lurkers, partiers, MC Loki, service opportunities, controversy, solutions... and more!

Labels: Rising Tide

I'm going to become the next opinion blogger for The Lens. So, heartiest self-congratulations to me!

You may say: Good for you. But why?!

Because they're paying me a very part time salary to continue my blog addiction, and because their vision plan is outstanding... ("lens"-- get it?).

Well, there's more to it than that. At The Lens I'll have the opportunity to work with Karen Gadbois, who is one of my heroes. Also, I'll have access to more insider details on news stories, and more investigative resources. Further, The Lens has an editor who can challenge me to justify my arguments so that I'm relying less on clever locutions, scathing snarkasm, and dark humor to carry the day.

You may say: but we like clever locutions, scathing sarcasm and dark humor!

Oh, don't worry. I'll keep delivering. But instead of one good sentence per substantive post like at YRHT, I might be able to manage TWO or even THREE good sentences per post at The Lens. With improved grammar and spelling! Shoot your arrows at the sun, I always say.

So, it's definitely an experiment. However, I think this blog move will force me to discipline my writing and may perhaps broaden my audience. The Lens has imposed no restrictions on what I write, but in the rare case that they decline to publish a post, I'll do it here. One of my goals at YRHT was to relate the personal stuff in my life to events in New Orleans, and to relate those events in New Orleans to larger national issues. Circumstances over the past six years have made that goal much easier to achieve than I originally envisioned. Throughout YRHT, I've always tried to be as entertaining and as funny as possible, while ranting about serious topics like coastal restoration and semi-serious topics like political intrigue. But I feel like I can still crank it up another notch, and I believe writing as Mark Moseley at The Lens will help me do that.

You may say: I don't like change. For example, I'm going to miss that "OMI Melting" blogskin.

Don't be so sentimental. Print out the dark icy frame and tape it around your monitor if ya like it so much.

You may say: What about all that personal ephemera you indulge in at YRHT and those quick, witty posts that offer little more than a clever title and link? Those were my favorite parts.

You can follow me on Twitter: @erster

As for YRHT guest posters like The Flaming Liberal, I will honor my commitments to them and keep this blog open for their judicious use. Occasionally I'll drop by to briefly pimp my stuff at The Lens. (Which I know is annoying, so I won't blame you if you switch me out of your reader.)[Update: Thanks, of course, to all the fellow nolabloggers, readers, fans, lurkers, tipsters, searchers and trolls who visited YRHT throughout the years. I truly enjoyed it.]

In a bit of cheesy symmetry, I'll close by repeating some inspirational words (taken from an oddly topical Fugazi song) from my first YRHT post.

We have a responsibility
To use our abilities to keep this place alive
Right here right now

Do it. Now. Do it.

Labels: oyster, YRHT

In the traditon of Katrina Kids and the Fema rap, are we going to have any federal sing-alongs to help soothingly explain this oil gusher disaster to impressionable youngsters?

...

Close enough.

Labels: Macondo disaster, oil, science

“We Get the Government we Deserve, or the Oil ‘catastrophe’ was Waiting to Happen so Don’t Blame BP!” by David C. Bellinger

Re: “Oil disaster brought to you by deregulation,” by Bob Marshall-- Outdoors Editor, New Orleans Times-Picayune, May 23, 2010 -- http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/05/oil_disaster_brought_to_you_by.html

Dear Blogger:

Congratulations to Bob Marshall for an outstanding Times Picayune column placing blame for the BP/Gulf of Mexico oil disaster where it belongs -– in the hands of the supporters and lovers of deregulation.

Remember Ronald Reagan often saying, while smirking, that government is not the solution, but the problem and Reagan stated at the Republican National Convention, accepting the Republican Party’s nomination for president in Detroit in July 1980, that the way you solve the energy crisis is to let the oil companies handle the problem. Yeah right Ronnie!!!!!! And, as President, Reagan went on to dismantle every alternative energy program I know that President Jimmy Carter either proposed or put into practice -– like President Carter proposing to give Lockheed Aircraft a grant to develop commercial jet aircraft fueled by clean burning, environmentally friendly, liquid hydrogen. And the nation -– with our security at risk should the Strait of Hormuz be closed in a Middle East crisis –- possibly making gasoline unavailable at any price -- is now more dependent on imported oil than at any time in the nation’s history. Care to guess what puppet master was pulling the strings of Reagan like a marionette?

And one could “never” accuse Reagan of passing up a paycheck -- ” The AMA opposed Medicare again in the 1960s, going as far as to hire an actor named Ronald Reagan to read a script to the AMA Auxiliary declaring Medicare as the first step toward socialism, and concluding with the statement that if Medicare were to become law, "One day, we will awake to find that we have socialism . . . " -– (Source: “Dear AMA: I Quit” written by Chris McCoy, MD Huffington Post, 2009.)

Moreover, there was a trip to the bank for the Gipper that the Japanese made possible after Reagan left office -– exiting stage “right” -- for God knows what!

As well, don’t think that George Herbert Walker Bush, and his cronies, beating a path to Kuwait, didn’t have their greedy-grubby hands available for a payday at the expense of the American forces who shed their blood and died while under his command:

{“friends visited Kuwait in the aftermath of the Gulf War and quasi-extorted favorable business deals” – is told in the September 6, 1993 issue of the NEW YORKER: "George Bush's friends and the booty of Kuwait" by Seymour M. Hersh - pp 70-81.

"Bush was accompanied by his wife Barbara, his sons Neil and Marvin and a few of those closest to him during his presidency, among them former Secretary of State James Baker III, former White House Chief of Staff John Sununu, and retired Army Lieutenant General Thomas Kelly who was director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Persian Gulf War.

"I felt sleazy'," one American banking official recalled. "It embarrassed me as an American. Kuwaitis were snickering after dinner. We take such a self-righteous view in international business: 'We don't do family deals, and we don't take tips.' And then, during a period of celebration and congratulation, to have the President's children and the Secretary of State to come to Kuwait to get handouts"”}

So now, and How God awful, the conservative Republican lovers are blaming BP and not the deregulate crowd after electing the Reagans, the Vitters, and so so many other like thinking laissez-faire advocates such as Bush and Cheney.

And Mr. Republican Billy Nungesser, president of Plaquemines Parish -– who is non-stop bellyaching on every media source imaginable for sand levees constructed as of last week to protect the seafood producing marshes of his parish, whose father was the chairman of the Louisiana Republican Party, and others of their ilk, -– as Bob Marshall so correctly argued – are the actual culprits responsible for the oil leak and environmental nightmare.

Too bad, and what a damn shame, with the livelihood of untold thousands in Gulf coast seafood producing states reduced to a role of the dice, that conservatives did not shout as loud as a scowling bull alligator during mating season for a more prudent and responsible oversight of oil developers such as BP, but greed and power all too often trumps principle and ethics.

Now Billy Jr., and other irresponsible parties, with hands as “clean” as the tainted blood stained hands of Macbeth, is calling for a “finger – while pointing same at Washington -- in the dyke” solution to stem the oil catastrophe after the BP horse is out of the barn and off and running down a track of converting Plaquemines Parish, exacerbating coastal erosion, into a sandbar of what once was one of the world’s richest marine and waterfowl estuaries.

Where were the politicians Mr. Bob Marshall said should look into a mirror to find the persons responsible when Vice-President Dick Cheney was operating under an iron curtain shroud of secrecy developing the nation’s energy policy?

Example: From a Paul Krugman New York Times column -– “A Vision of Power,” April 27, 2004 -- http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/27/opinion/27KRUG.html

“Here's a deep mystery surrounding Dick Cheney's energy task force, but it's not about what happened back in 2001. Clearly, energy industry executives dictated the content of a report that served their interests. The real mystery is why the Bush administration has engaged in a three-year fight — which reaches the Supreme Court today — to hide the details of a story whose broad outline we already know.

One possibility is that there is some kind of incriminating evidence in the task force's records. Another is that the administration fears that full disclosure will highlight its chummy relationship with the energy industry.”

And some Democrats as well, like Sen. Mary Landrieu -– a sheep in “Givenchy” designer clothing, who has been at the beckoned call of the oil industry in an exchange to sell her vote and influence, as Landrieu sold her office to the “thieving” confessed “26 count” confessed federal felons -– Nick and Keith Baroni –- for campaign donations.

An example of the extent, and how far, Sen. Mary Landrieu, and Sen. Vitter, will put their Senatorial offices up for sale, excuse me, serve campaign donors -– to the extreme detriment of their constituents -- from a Times-Picayune Drew Broach column on February 18, 2008 -– “Landing Those Contracts the Baroni Way” -- http://www.nola.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/news-0/1203315644106280.xml&coll=1

“And, as laid bare during Baroni's sentencing last week, the form of legal bribery that we call campaign financing. Baroni knows quite a bit about how it works. He spent 19 years on the Kenner council, serving in the 1980s and '90s as an occasional brake on the more outlandish ideas of then-Mayor Aaron Broussard.”

Additionally from the February 18, 2008, Drew Broach column which will cause you to turn as red as a creole tomato and your arteries to stand out in your neck in ire:

“Baroni contributed generously to local politicians, and lo and behold he ended up with tens of thousands of dollars in government contracts. Soon he began trying to break into the federal market, and over a six-year period beginning in 2000, he and his son, Keith, shoveled more than $20,000 into the campaign accounts of congressional candidates. They didn't have to wait long for results. A former executive for the prime contractor on the Navy job that ultimately led to Baroni's legal problems testified last week that Urban Planning came on board in 2001 as a result of a "congressional plus up," extra money added to an appropriations bill by Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., and then-Rep. David Vitter, R-Metairie. A Landrieu spokesperson confirmed that she plused up the pork "on behalf of a Louisiana company that sought the project."

And more Baroni hair -raising outrage from the Drew Broach column:

“Wouldn't you know it: The Baronis in 2000 and 2001 gave Vitter $4,500 and sent $1,846 (later corrected to $3,846) to Landrieu.””

A kinfolk often e-mails to say that we get the government we deserve, and how so right he is.

And kudos to Drew Broach for exposing the dirty and corrupt underbelly of Louisiana illicit politics.

So, to use a worn and tattered, but still most appropriate political adage, ”the nation has the best politicians money can buy,” still rings as true as ever.

However, with oil already saturating the beaches of a Louisiana jewel -- Grand Isle and pushing into a breadbasket of one of the world’s greatest sources of delectable seafood -- Barataria Bay, expecting politicians to clean up the gooey polluted environment and no longer betraying decency -–selling their office and influence as fast as a SEC worker could find porn on the internet (http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/04/22/us/politics/AP-US-SEC-Porn.html?_r=1), Or as quickly as a MMS (Minerals Management Service) employee can pocket a bribe, accept drugs, and participate in the horizontal “Lum Bod A” with oil execs while on the clock (http://www.truthout.org/joe-conason-oil-rules59678) -- would be like expecting Sen. David Vitter to come clean and confess his relationship with former French Quarter prostitute Wendy Cortez. A topic I expect to have more to say in an upcoming column.

David C. Bellinger
(404) 762-8779
E-mail: davidc53@juno.com
Atlanta, GA

Labels: Flaming Liberal

One of my all-time favorite Louisiana bloggers returns from hiatus to vividly express his frustration with the oilcano polluting our seas and wetlands.

Six years ago, Timshel, Library Chronicles and 2 Millionth Web Log helped inspire me to create Your Right Hand Thief. I want to thank them for that.

We'll have an announcement soon about some coming changes to YRHT.

Labels: Macondo disaster, oyster, Pelicans, YRHT

2 parts purple kool aid from the vat of formaldehyde we got in the back store room with Huey Long's Michael Brown's brain in it

1 part Naturally Nagin chocolate liqueur

dash of sauvignon blanco

serve in a cracked ACE tumbler with ice

garnish with ball of ants

Karen alerts us to this Wapo Investigations blog post:

The Houston-based company's efforts to repair Navy facilities following Hurricanes Ivan and Katrina were deemed shoddy and substandard, auditors say, prompting one technical adviser to claim that the federal government "certainly paid twice" for many KBR projects because of "design and workmanship deficiencies," according to a report (see PDF here) released today by the Defense Department's inspector general.

The report, released following a Freedom of Information Act request, says the U.S. Navy hired KBR, Inc., then known as Kellogg, Brown and Root, in July 2004 to repair Defense Department facilities after Hurricanes Ivan and Katrina. The federal government agreed to pay the company $500 million over five years.

At the time, the company was a subsidiary of Halliburton, the Texas oil company, whose former chief executive is Vice President Dick Cheney.

Of course, the contract was awarded prior to Hurricanes Ivan and Katrina, but Brown was there for our men and women in uniform-- to give them substandard repair service at massively inflated costs.

Here's a primer on Brown Root's early history.

And here's what happens when a Louisiana native named Bunnatine Greenhouse calls them on their cronyism and waste:

Bunny Greenhouse was once the perfect bureaucrat, an insider, the top procurement official at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Then the 61-year-old Greenhouse lost her $137,000-a-year post after questioning the plump contracts awarded to Halliburton in the run-up to the war in Iraq.
...
Greenhouse, whose case has also become a media event, unloaded more of her burn-the-house-down allegations on PBS's "Now" last week because, let her tell you, Bunny Greenhouse didn't grow up on the black side of the segregated tracks in Rayville, La., to run from a fight -- even if that includes the vice president of the United States.

"[Expletive] yourself!" former Halliburton chief executiveand current veep Dick Cheney snapped at a senator last year in an exchange related to Greenhouse's allegations.

No, Big Time. FYYFF, you kellogg brown root down motherscratcher!

[Video here]



We're Talking Root Down, I Put My Root Down
And If You Want To Battle Me, You're Putting Loot Down
I Said Root Down, It's Time To Scoot Down
I'm A Step Up To The Mic In My Goose Down
Come Up Representing From The Upper West
Money Makin' Putting Me To The Test
Sometimes I Feel As Though I've Been Blessed
Because I'm Doing What I Want So I Never Rest
...
I've Got The Flow Where I Grab My Dick
...
Tears Running Down My Face 'Cause I Love To Do It
And No One Can Stop This Flow From Flowing On
A Flow Master In Disaster With A Sound That's Gone

Labels: Big Time, crime, Cronies, heroes, military, Thanks Houston, weather

So the new recovery czar Douglas O'Dell wants to know where all the hundreds of billions went to. Isn't that precious?

Well, first, do your fucking homework and learn what a bullshit number you're throwing around.

Long term recovery dollars are actually in the 17 billion ballpark.

If you want to know where the rest of the money went to, I guess you had to "be there". Were you there to see all those thousands of blue tarps covering rooftops after the storm? (If not, consult old Google Maps. You won't see one on my old house. Half the roof caved in but we didn't get one.) Put a 3000 dollar price tag on each of them, courtesy of the local Cajunburton.

Were you there during the debris clearing? Well, then put your best subcontracted price per ton on all that.

Were you there when we paid our flood insurance premiums all those years? Yeah, well, that's part of your figure, too.

Were you there when New Orleanians like mominem and Ricardo G. are finally getting out of their (toxic?) FEMA trailers this week?

Were you there, at Restaurant August that Thursday night in November 2005, sitting with drunk Texas contractors who were ordering bottle after bottle of Crystal? They said ... "do you think we're gonna let the locals rebuild New Orleans?" Yuk yuk yuk. Nossiter was there, probably trying to find the racial angle to his latest story. I was there. I struck up a conversation and got their business cards. Ask them where the billions went.

I'd like to see Nagin and Blakely appropriate President Bush's rhetoric when they respond to O'Dell, in a sarcastic over-obvious way. (Currently they do it in an semi-serious way.)

The fundamentals of the recovery are strong and getting stronger. The local housing market has bottomed, so buy some dirt. These new weak Category 3 floodwalls are the best levees the world has ever known. (Until they catastrophically fail... then it's "no one could've predicted...") 2006 or 2007 or 2008 or 2009 will be the tipping point, just you wait (and wait... and wait) You're either with the recovery or against it.

It's frustrating, isn't it, when feckless leaders tell you everything is fine while billions are wasted and nothing is being accomplished? Yes, it's frustrating when such people are re-elected while you think everything is going to hell. Yes, perhaps other reality-based Americans have had the same feeling over the past six years or so. Join the club.

The Marsh Arabs in Iraq are enjoying their restored wetlands, while New Orleanians live around the fastest disappearing land mass in the world, inside WEAK CATEGORY 3 levees, trying to rebuild during hurricane season.

Where' s the leadership, where's the money?... Bush's latest appointee asks. Wonderful questions, those. How courageous of you to ask them in the Year of Our Lord two thousand aught eight.

The Gambit Weekly has had a string of excellent feature articles, and this week is no exception. Alison Fensterstock's piece on the unheralded closing of Big Daddy's strip club in the French Quarter is engrossing, and chock-full of interesting details and anecdotes.

For example:

In the 1970s, Big Daddy's was one of many topless go-go joints on a street in transition. Bourbon street's days as a glittering hub of jazz and burlesque were behind it, and its future as a slick tourist attraction with "gentlemen's clubs" was years away.

"There was not a single T-shirt shop on the street then, if you can believe that," says Eddie Jones, who played keyboards with the Southside Blues Band in Big Daddy's courtyard patio between 1976 and 1978. The patio, between Big Daddy's and Unisex Love Acts next door, has featured female wrestling and male strippers, but in the mid- to late-'70s, it was an extra stage for Big Daddy's dancers, magicians, contortionists, escape artists, fire-eaters and live bands.

Bourbon Street in the 1970s, Jones remembers, was not for sightseers — or the faint of heart. He recalls a night when police lobbed tear gas grenades into the Bastille nightclub on Toulouse Street. At Funky Butts, a biker bar next to Molly's on Toulouse, "you could buy any drug you wanted," he says. You could even rent a handgun there.

"Rent" a handgun? That's amazing. Are we talking monthly, daily or hourly?


Goodness.

As for Big Daddy's, I've only been in there once and it was because Lovely and her friend forced me to go inside with them. "Pretty seedy" would describe both the atmosphere and the dancers. That's not necessarily a criticism-- I wouldn't mind it if I were there by myself or with male companions... but it's sort of uncomfortable when your wife is at the table. I wanted to appear courteously interested without ogling. Then Lovely made a big deal about how I folded and inserted the dollar tips in the dancer's garter belt. Where'd you learn to do that so well? (Certainly not in the nineties at Centerfold's watching "Natasha" do her goth dance, and certainly not with Ratboy at the Onyx, where a dollar goes a looooong way.)

"I think I saw some guy do it like that in a movie."

Labels: guns, oyster

Standing on the street at night, I notice Marcus looking at something. Far, far into the distance, I can barely discern a vaguely humanoid figure approaching. Squinting hard, I can't decide whether the shadow is male or female. Marcus, however, has made an assessment.

"Ooooh Wee! That girl could put Viagra out of business."

"How can you tell this far away? And from the front, no less."

"Oh I can tell alright."

"Um, please don't use your line when she walks by."

"Which one?"

"You know. You ask her how she's doing, and she says 'fine', and you say 'it shows, it shows.'"

A vat on the rooftop of the banquet hall erupts into a geyser of water and steam. Huge sheets of hot water rain down from the roof about 20 feet away from us, splattering the building and sidewalk. We observe the watery commotion for about half a minute, and then simultaneously return our attention back to the approaching woman, who is much closer now.

Labels: Les Bon Temps, oyster

Bad Bet on the Bayou pg 98

What they objected to was Hemmeter's imported brand of sin. George Schmidt, a bandleader, summed up that view in an interview with National Public Radio. "It's his immorality, it ain't our immorality," Schmidt said. "Now he's trying to tell us what we are supposed to be, you see. And we don't want to be that way, I can assure you. This city is suddenly going to be turned into... a gambling theme park, and we don't fall for that kind... of Disneyland crap down here."

I agree with Dambala's belief that "race" is a myth, and that race and culture are confused, often purposely (by people of all pigments), in massively unhelpful ways.

This is why I have the label "race" in quotes. "Race" and culture should be discrete notions, but of course acting as if they are discrete notions ignores so much history.

I approach the subject-- or the persistent confusion-- of "race" elliptically in this blog, because I think ignorance and language strangle the topic. Also, I'm also probably too cowardly, too often.

During a recent conversation about "race", an associate of mine recently said "I'm not African-American. What does that even mean? Don't call me that. I'm black." Unhelpfully, another associate of mine jumped in with the complaint that he couldn't be proud of his "white French Cajun heritage" without being called racist. I wanted to ask why he included the word "white" in his description-- surely he feels closer to black cajuns than many white non-cajuns... but I didn't.

One of the most racist comments I ever heard was yelled at Barry Bonds in San Francisco while he trotted to left field between innings. The guys in the stands behind me yelled something so hideously crude I couldn't believe it. I was gobsmacked. "Here, now, you say this?" I thought. I acted like I hadn't heard them, but everyone heard them, including Barry Bonds. Unfortunately, Barry was in left field looking directly at me, like I said it! Between each pitch, he'd shoot the coldest, hardest stare I'd ever felt ... at me! I turned... white. I nearly pissed my pants. He seemed so large, and so close, and so intensely seething. Wide-eyed, I motioned with my thumb and eyes toward the guys behind me. It's not me, it's them. Shoot that stinkeye at them, Barry. It was incredibly uncomfortable. Lovely and I left early, and I think Barry hit a home run that game.

Another profile in racial courage by Mr. oyster.

I'm extremely cognizant and protective of my eldest daughter's race-consciousness, or lack thereof. She's five, and was blissfully unimpressed by differences in skin color until about a year ago. I don't think I've ever used the terms black people or white people around her. So, this year, occasionally, very rarely, she has started talking about peach people and brown people. I just listen and don't "correct" her. (As if the incredibly crude terms "black" and "white" are bursting with descriptive accuracy.) I'm sort of waiting to see where the contamination will come in. She asked who Martin Luther King was this year and I told her he was a great person who wanted everyone to love one another.

Eventually history and/or someone else's prejudice will have to be discussed. I just don't have the heart to introduce it into her mind. Perhaps I should bite the bullet and just do it. Yeah, maybe when we're riding the streetcar this spring I'll pipe up with a charming little "didja know?" I can tell her about when there used to be a metal screen in the middle of the streetcar, and the "peach" kids got to sit up front while the "brown" kids sat in the back. It's different now, but that's how it used to be. Why, why, why? she'll ask. That's what I'm afraid to endure: the thousand why's and follow up questions-- I just don't have the heart for it right now. But that conversation is coming sooner than later.

I also agree with Dambala that studying Anthropology can be an extremely helpful way to remove racisms, provincialisms and other dumb theories about "race". I was never saddled with racist encumbrances at home. Somehow, heroically, my grandfather grew up in Selma Alabama during the turn of the century-- and yet, early on, just two generations separated from his slave-owning ancestors, he concluded that Christ's love was colorblind. He totally rejected racism and became a pastor at one of the oldest un-segregated churches in the nation (up North). My parents never uttered a racist word, or shared a racist view. No jokes, no derogatory slang. Nothing. It simply wasn't in them to begin with. I daresay it's not in me. Not that I deserve much credit for how I was brought up, and for not having to overcome notions inculcated in my youth, like many of my friends had to do. (Note: the absence of a racist upbringing doesn't mean I fully understood "white privilege" or the plight of the "black underclass" or many, many, many other applicable things. I was just basically lucky to have the parents and grandparents that I did. The best thing I developed on my own was a keen eye for when stereotypes were broken, rather than confirmed.)
===

* (title ref-- song not relevant to substance of post)

Labels: "Race"

Newsweek Ambassador Crocker:

I think many people understand by now that this fundamental mistake—underestimating local rivalries and the intensity of resistance to occupation—was repeated on a grand scale in Iraq. That is not to say that Saddam Hussein did not deserve to be removed. Let's be clear about this, because I think it's something many Americans today, especially American liberals, have failed to recognize. Internally, in Iraq, Saddam was the most murderous, vicious ruler the world has known since the fall of the Nazis, with the possible exception of Pol Pot in Cambodia. He terrorized pretty much everyone in the country, even his inner circle. I was serving in Baghdad back in 1979 when he turned a congress of his Baath Party into a public purge, ordering dozens of his former comrades to leave the room and face immediate execution. Regionally, he invaded two of his neighbors. In the case of Iran, he touched off one of the bloodiest conflicts since World War II. He invaded Kuwait and subverted or attempted to subvert the Gulf states as well as Jordan and Syria. And I haven't even talked about weapons of mass destruction, which he undoubtedly wanted and which we genuinely thought he had acquired.

Thanks for being clear enough so that even a liberal could understand.

Quick question: If Saddam was more vicious and murderous than anyone since Hitler (He wasn't. Pol Pot was, but let's grant your point.), why did we assist him?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_support_for_Iraq_during_the_Iran%E2%80%93Iraq_war

[More here.]

These facts, that make patriots like Rep. Joe Wilson so mad, came from an investigation of the Iran Contra affair. Pruning Shears recently summarized the scandal quite pithily saying The Iran Contra scandal was

an entire shadow foreign policy being run out of the White House that involved selling weapons to the very regime that took our people hostage in order to secretly and illegally fund a civil war in a country of zero strategic importance

Surely our moral leaders Reagan and Bush called Saddam out, and denounced him for being so bloodthirsty-- right? They didn't wait till he invaded a rich monarchy, and then slather the rubric of human rights over their overwhelming military response. Surely.

In 7th grade I was horrified to learn that Iran was sending waves of children with green key necklaces into battle in its war against Iraq. I figured, with my simplistic manichean worldview, that iraq had to be relatively "good" if iran was that "bad". Later I became a bit wiser when I joined Amnesty International and learned Iraq was bad as well. The only difference being, he was "our" bad guy. (Notwithstanding the covert arms dealings with Iran.) With AI, I wrote letters to Congress and the President imploring them to stop aiding Saddam, because of his multitudinous human rights abuses.

So I don't need a lecture about how bad Saddam was-- I was a freakin' teenager and knew that he was "bad"!! I repeatedly raised my concerns, in writing, to conservatives in power. THEY. DID. NOT. CARE. ONE. IOTA.

So kindly fuck off, Ambassador, with your oh-so-patient explanations of what liberals need to understand. Of course Saddam "deserved" to be removed. He "deserved" to be removed back in the eighties, when we were assisting him and snot nose liberal teens like me were dismissed as part of the human rights dreamers who didn't understand realpolitik. But the 2003 Iraq War wasn't about "deserve", was it? Further, are we supposed to remove everyone who deserves to be removed?

Thomas Frank WSJ:

Conservatives of the 1930s, led by an upper-crust outfit called the American Liberty League, certainly felt that way. "That Roosevelt was a dictator there was no doubt; but Liberty Leaguers were not quite sure what kind," wrote the historian George Wolfskill in "The Revolt of the Conservatives," a 1962 study of that organization. "Some thought he was a fascist, others believed him a socialist or Communist, while others, to be absolutely sure, said he was both."

Southern Baptist pastor prays for Obama's death.



GOP House member says "Obama is an enemy of humanity".



Glenn Beck says Obama is a "racist" with a "deep seated hatred for white people"



Rush Limbaugh says Obama "is racism".



Fascist rope a dope bullshit


‘SILENCE EQUALS ASSENT:’ WHY POINTING OUT CONSERVATIVE LUNACY MUST BE DONE RWNH


Rush LIMBAUGH: Now that's -- I don't think that's naïveté, it certainly is ego. But, folks, we're dealing with a guy who is out to destroy the whole concept of the West -- western civilization, the West in terms of a geopolitical organization of nations, out to destroy it. We've never seen anything like this.

Click the link to GOP.com's "Republican Heroes: see them all"

So glad that there was an official, exhaustive collection at our disposal.

There's Ike, Reagan and several black Republicans from distant history that the average conservative wouldn't recognize if their lives depended on it.

Today, Ike would be too liberal to get the GOP nomination. And Lincoln is ... controversial.

Labels: GOP

The Washington Monthly reviewed "Tinsel", an observant book about the surbabanite culture in the Metroplex during Christmastime. It quoted this delicious paragraph from the book, which I will reprint.

Where the LBJ [Freeway] meets U.S. 75 is an interchange of stacked ramps called the High Five, which is so revered by drivers that the Dallas Morning News asked its readers to send in their most stirringly artistic photos of it. Lately a few citizens have been leaping to their deaths off the High Five. I can think of no greater compliment to the builders of intricate freeway spans than to attract both poetry and despair.

Labels: Roads

Balloon Juice reminds us of this oldy but goody.

And if by some chance you are still not convinced, how ‘bout this quote of sheer genius:

[Utah Rep. Chris] Buttars doesn’t disregard evolution completely, rather he believes God is the creator, but His creations have evolved within their own species.

“We get different types of dogs and different types of cats, but you have never seen a ‘dat,’ ‘’ he said.

“He told us he was going to take crime out of the streets. He did. He took it into the damn White House.” --Rev. Ralph Abernathy, talking about President Richard M. Nixon


Wapo:

In 1972, in one of the most bizarre and overlooked chapters in American political history, [journalist Jack] Anderson was the target of a Mafia-style hit ordered in the White House itself. Two Nixon operatives admitted under oath that they plotted to poison the troublemaking investigative reporter at the behest of a top aide to President Nixon. Ultimately the plot was aborted and the conspirators were arrested a few weeks later, as part of the Watergate break-in.

Labels: Nixon, wet work

Read the whole thing if you haven't, but I quite like this line in Hitchens "The New Ten Commandments" piece in Vanity Fair:

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. This ostensibly brief commandment goes on for a long time—for four verses in fact—and stresses the importance of a day dedicated to the lord, during which neither one’s children nor one’s servants or animals should be allowed to perform any tasks. (Query: Why is it specifically addressed to people who are assumed to have staff?)

Nobody is opposed to a day of rest. The international Communist movement got its start by proclaiming a strike for an eight-hour day on May 1, 1886, against Christian employers who used child labor seven days a week.

Some May Day history here.

Not totally unrelated, here's some Po Boy history.

The video version of Hitchens' piece is below. However it is condensed and doesn't have all the neat little digs that are present in the article. Some of which, like the highlited one above, made all the difference for me.

http://barkbugsleavesandlizards.com/?p=2488

Labels: Weeligion

I direct everyone (but especially the so-called "constitutional conservatives" who keep citing the tenth amendment in opposition to health insurance reform) to consider the following seductive argument by Austin Bramwell:

The Fourteenth Amendment reads, in part:

No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Now, what does that all mean? Nobody knows! These words are almost totally opaque. Clearly the states are prohibited from doing… something. From doing things that are... well, things that are fundamentally bad. That’s about as close to the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment as one can reasonably hope to get.

In its the very opacity, the Fourteenth Amendment sweeps aside the system of limited and enumerated powers created by the Founders. For the Fourteenth Amendment also gives Congress the power to enforce its provisions by “appropriate legislation.” In other words, Congress gets to stop the states from doing anything that’s fundamentally bad. What’s fundamentally bad? Well, that can only be for Congress to decide, since it’s the only branch of government expressly empowered to enforce the Amendment. Thus, Congress might prohibit the States from discriminating on the basis of race. It might also prevent the States from denying access to free health care, or refusing to advance the progress of minority groups by affirmative action. So long as Congress deems a policy to be a fundamental right, it can force the States to uphold it.
...
In its original meaning, the Fourteenth Amendment enforces all fundamental rights against the states, whether embodied in the Bill of Rights or not. The Amendment gives Congress and the Federal government virtually unfettered power to rule over the States.

I wish it weren’t so. I wish... the Constitution vindicated limited government. But it doesn’t. If we want to actually acquire limited government, a good first step is to be honest about this.

Pat says "Drink in these images. Drink them deep. This is war, and war is hell." Indeed.

There's a false distinction between deciding to go to war, and waging it-- this is part of what war looks like. Hideous, horrible, tragic. Innocents will be slaughtered. This is what you sign up for when you go to war. Though not all war crimes are equivalent, war entails them. They will occur. Because of this, war is a crime. But sometimes it is necessary.

The key idea is the decision to go to war in the first place. Bush decided that waging a preemptive war while already being engaged in another conflict was a desirable course to take. He "doubled down" on a war of choice, and threw in a massive nation-building exercise for good measure. It was a war marketed with false claims and sold to the American people with false choices-- we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud, better fight them over there than over here. Little sacrifice will be required-- keep shopping, and tell your liberal friends to be vigilant and watch what they say.

In college I had a Newsweek quote from a military commander explaining why video footage of the first Iraq War wouldn't be made public. It showed Iraq soldiers getting mowed down and sliced in two from Apache helicopter cannon fire. The commander said (I'm quoting from memory) "If we let the public see that tape, there would never again be any war."

My view: Roll film!

Re: David Vitter's prostitute scandal is target of Louisiana Democratic Party video, New Orleans Times-Picayune, By Bruce Alpert, April 28, 2010 -- http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2010/04/david_vitters_prostitute_scand.html

Dear Blogger:

Quoting Edward Chervenak, a University of New Orleans political scientist, from the referenced article, "Everyone knows Vitter had an affair with a prostitute, so the only thing that could hurt Vitter is some previously unreleased bit of information."

With David Vitter -– enjoying a lock on the Republican nomination, and riding high in the polls against his likely Democratic opponent, Rep. Charlie Melancon, in the November general election, given the current environment, one would be hard pressed to quibble with the words of Prof. Chervenak.

But, here is the dragon fly in the ointment, the previously unreleased information to the general public, that I feel should overturn the Vitter reelection applecart.

After the publisher of Hustler Magazine Larry Flynt discovered that Sen. David Vitter’s telephone number appeared numerous times on a list of calls to the D. C. Madam-—the late Deborah Jeane Palfrey, and after Vitter emerged from a self-imposed exile from the public, a press conference was held by the Senator.

In a statement, in a timbre as bitter as vinegar, at the press conference in Metairie, LA, on July 16 2007 -– with Vitter’s wife standing next to him, Vitter strongly asserted that nothing happened in New Orleans. Clearly Vitter’s remark was a flat-out emphatic denial of having adulterous sexual relations with Wendy Cortez, and Ms. Cortez has submitted to a polygraph examination -- which supported her contention that she exchanged sex for money with David Vitter at her apartment in the New Orleans French Quarter.

Vitter’s opening statement taken from a You Tube video of his July 2007 press conference at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxlqiDn2zM8&feature=player_embedded -- “Unfortunately my admission has incurred some longtime political enemies and those hoping to profit from the situation to spread falsehoods too, like those New Orleans stories in recent reports. Those stories are not true.”

“Not true” you say Senator! And oh what a tangled web we weave . . . .

In Vitter’s world of lying paranoid-schizophrenic behavior, given so many dishonest denials, and accusatory remarks, perhaps the below letter of apology -- written, and signed by David Vitter, under the threat of a lawsuit by Vincent Bruno -– a dual office holder in the Republican Party, and delivered at warp speed to Vincent Bruno’s home via courier -- somehow “conveniently” slipped the Senator’s memory.

Vitter’s carefully crafted “signed” letter of apology to Mr. Vincent Bruno, and the authenticity of the letter has been authenticated personally by Mr. Vincent Bruno:

{July 27, 2002

Dear Mr. Bruno:

On Thursday July 25, a caller on a WTIX radio call in show asked me if I would agree to participate in a radio debate with you. I said I would not because you are a “thug and a liar.”

This was an emotional response on my part prompted by numerous ugly rumors which had been repeated about my family and me.

After the incident, I realized that you may believe these rumors and allegations. I cannot say that you know them to be untrue and lied by repeating. Therefore I should have not said that you are a thug and a liar.

With this in mind, and in an abundance of fairness, I hereby retract my statement about you referenced above. Please accept my sincere apology.

By copy of this letter, I would ask Jeff Crouere, the host of the radio show, on which I made my original statement to broadcast my retraction using at least an equal amount of time.

Sincerely,

David Vitter
cc: Mr. Jeff Crouere and Mr. Ed Butler}

Nowhere that I know Vincent Bruno repeated “rumors” regarding Vitter having an affair with a French Quarter prostitute, but actually alleged that Vitter was having such an affair. From a May 31, 2002, column -- “CONGRESSMAN IS ACCUSED OF HAVING AN ALLEGED AFFAIR WITH PROSTITUTE” -- written by Mr. Chris Tidmore of the Louisiana Weekly -- http://www.louisianaweekly.com/weekly/news/articlegate.pl?20020603p:

“In what is becoming a high stakes political battle between some of the most prominent members of the Louisiana Republican Party, Bruno has charged that a prostitute, who stated her name to be Wendy Cortez, allegedly confessed to him to having a paid sexual relationship with the Congressman. ”

Additional quote from the Chris Tidmore column:

“Bruno, who supplied documentation of detailed accounts of his meetings with Cortez, along with specific testimony that she provided against the Congressman, claims that he only came forward with the prostitute s name and personal information when pressed as a means to protect his integrity.”

And the column goes on and on with facts and accounts quoted by Mr. Bruno giving causes and reasons to support that Vitter had indeed conducted a philandering liaison with Ms. Cortez.
No doubt, Vincent Bruno was not repeating rumors as Vitter so cleverly wrote, but outright asserted that Vitter was having an affair with Wendy Cortez. And to think and to assume that Vitter was not informed of Bruno’s charges in the May 31 column would be preposterous!
Furthermore, writing an apologetic damage control letter eating crow, with a healthy serving of humble pie -–likely wishing and hoping to avoid a court room appearance testifying under oath, had Vitter not indeed been “intimately” engaged in the horizontal bedroom “boogie-woogie” with Ms. Cortez at her Dauphine and Dumain apartment, is unimaginable if Vitter’s hands were indeed clean!

So for Vitter to engage in even more lies and accusatory chutzpah and hypocrisy -- while addressing the public at the July 2007 press conference, -- professing repentance, and asking forgiveness, has the pungent stench of some stuff floating in a facility about to be flushed and Vitter is as creditable as a holocaust denier.

Trusting a habitual “liar” -– void of morals and decency, an officer of the court -- possessing no respect of the law or for his family -- to represent Louisiana in the Senate would be like trusting the ill-intentioned serpent Aesop brought in from the snow, and Louisiana deserves better -–much much better.

Aeschylus, a Greek dramatist and playwright, said in five B.C., "In war, truth is the first casualty.” Unfortunately, David Vitter represents such a casualty of politics. And note that the caller in the phone call to Vitter in the You Tube video, played on MSNBC for Larry Flynt and Wendy Cortez, challenging Vitter to sign an affidavit is the writer of this column.

And for more, as Chester A. RILEY would say, “revolting developments,” regarding Sen. David Vitter, I invite you to check out a previous post: http://righthandthief.blogspot.com/2009/10/open-letter-to-blogosphere-from-david-c_07.html

David C. Bellinger
(404) 762-8779
E-mail: davidc53@juno.com
Atlanta, GA

Labels: Flaming Liberal

Over the past two years, I've battled with the notion of saying something at YRHT that would do Ashley Morris justice. Truly, it's been an internal struggle for me. After over-writing and then deleting many a tribute/memorial, I've come to realize I can't do it. It wasn't because Ashley was larger than life (although he seemed that way), or magnificent beyond fault (assuredly not). It's because I'm not talented or subtle enough with words to convey what was there in a satisfactory way. So, the following observations are not satisfactory or comprehensive (in my view), but they'll have to do.

Simply, The Fates put too much on his plate-- physically, psychically, emotionally. They were cruel and relentless in their quest to break Ashley's olympian-sized will, which he often channelled so brilliantly when he ranted on his blog or vented over a beer.

Ashley's technicolor passion for "the only city that ever loved him back" is undeniable. It bleeds through the screen from nearly every blog post he wrote. But beyond the genuine passion shown in his blog personae, he was a gentle and generous friend.

Ashley shared himself with me: sometimes profoundly, sometimes matter-of-factly, sometimes exuberantly, often through implication. Beverages, cigars and laughter were incorporated into the festivities as much as possible. I miss talking to him because I didn't know where his stories were headed. I wasn't bored waiting for my chance to talk.

I miss the beaming pride on his face when he bragged on his kids. I miss the eager anticipation he had for an upcoming parade or concert or Saints game. I miss the comfortable, knowing pauses in our conversations. Like his other friends, over these two years (and increasingly in recent months) I miss the small, seemingly-random moments the most. Unreligious, he was a big spirit in my life.

Ashley shared much more of himself with me than I shared in return, yet he knew me better than I knew him. It's a fact that pains me. Despite triumphing over burdens that would've crushed lesser men like myself, the gods kept piling it on Herr Doktor Morris-- cruelly, relentlessly-- as if they were bent on breaking his stalwart stance.

That he considered me a friend is a deep honor. Selfishly, I can't believe he's not here to take in this high point. The Saints won the Super Bowl and Ashley's not here? How is that cosmically possible? He inspired a character in a David Simon show? Are you kidding me? Ashley deserved this moment. He would have revelled in it. And, selfishly, I'm sad I can't be with him to share his joy.

---
The title refers to an inside joke that made us smile.

Labels: ashley morris

Good.

Marty Beckerman flags this revealing disclosure from the Cato liberty blog:

In a Thursday panel at Cato on conservatism and war, U.S. Reps. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) and John Duncan (R-Tenn.) revealed that the vast majority of GOP members of Congress now think it was wrong for the U.S. to invade Iraq in 2003.

Grover Norquist moderated the discussion, and asked these conservative Congressional Republicans how many of their GOP colleagues now believe the Iraq war was a mistake, even if they won't say so to the MSM. The replies are amazingly unhedged.

Rohrabacher:

“I will say that the decision to go in, in retrospect, almost all of us think that was a horrible mistake. …Now that we know that it cost a trillion dollars, and all of these years, and all of these lives, and all of this blood… all I can say is everyone I know thinks it was a mistake to go in now.”

McClintock:

“I think everyone [in Congress] would agree that Iraq was a mistake.”

What about all that claptrap about fighting them over there rather than over here?

Labels: Cons, GOP, Iraq morass