Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

FFS people, this was a good thing. take the win.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

Fuck that bum, let’s go Joe!

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

The lights are all blinking red.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

No one could have predicted…

The willow is too close to the house.

Motown is Joe-Town!

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

Even though I know this is a bad idea, I’m off to do it anyway!

The US Supreme Court is on the ballot in november.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

People are complicated. Love is not.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / Mardi Gras 2006?

Mardi Gras 2006?

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I might have to make some vacation plans:

The New Orleans business establishment-in-exile has set up a beachhead in a government annex here, across the street from the state Capitol. From here, organizations like the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau have begun to plot the rebirth of the city.

In the cramped offices and hallways of this building, called the Capitol Annex, and continuing into the evening at bars and restaurants around Baton Rouge, New Orleans’s business leaders and power brokers are concocting big plans, the most important being reopening the French Quarter within 90 days.

Also under discussion are plans to stage a scaled-down Mardi Gras at the end of February and to lobby for one of the 2008 presidential nominating conventions and perhaps the next available Super Bowl.

So far, those conversations have been taking place largely without the participation of one central player: the city. “They’re still in emergency mode and not yet thinking strategically,” said J. Stephen Perry, the chief executive of the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau. “We’re thinking strategically.”

The hurdles are formidable when so much of the city is still flooded and some are predicting it could be six months to a year before New Orleans is once again habitable. But the power brokers are not deterred.

If they are up and running, they could use the tourism- that you can be sure of…

Reader Interactions

55Comments

  1. 1.

    scs

    Okay, just want to repeat this in this segment. To get N.O. rebuilt, they should make houseboats. Don’t have to worry about flooding there! Or put the houses on tall stilts. Or- use all the rubble from the Mississipi destruction to fill in the low-lying areas in N.O. to build it up above sea level. That’s the way to go to get it rebuilt, right?

  2. 2.

    jobiuspublius

    This is good news and attitude. Hopefully, this means that NO will not be turned into a theme park version of itself, a Katrina museum, or skyscaperville. :)

    BTW, just before Katrina struck, a flourescent shark was spotted for the second time in the Mexican Gulf. This time it was photographed.

  3. 3.

    ppGaz

    Well, just a few logistical details to work out. Power, water, sewage, to name three. Houseboats have to handle those things internally, or via hookups. You are going to need tens of thousands of those hookups. You are going to need tens of thousands of families who, right now, have no houseboat knowledge or skills to become trained in the care and feeding of houseboats. You are going to have the costs of houseboat maintenance and operation being borne by a population largely living in poverty. You are going to have all those problems and costs and exigencies being dealt with 100% of the time in order to provide for the 1% of the time you actually need the houseboats.

    Once you get past all of that, you have to come up with some way to provide the houseboats, in the first place, to all those people who right now don’t have a pot to hiss in, if you get my drift. That’s after you tear down all the existing housing, haul away the debris, and install the infrastructure you need for the houseboats.

    But other than that sort of thing ……. great idea.

  6. 6.

    ppGaz

    Hey, here’s some good news to cheer everyone up!

    Updated: 4:04 p.m. ET Sept. 10, 2005

    Companies with ties to the Bush White House and the former head of FEMA are clinching some of the administration’s first disaster relief and reconstruction contracts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

    At least two major corporate clients of lobbyist Joe Allbaugh, President George W. Bush’s former campaign manager and a former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, have already been tapped to start recovery work along the battered Gulf Coast.

    One is Shaw Group Inc. and the other is Halliburton Co. subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root. Vice President Dick Cheney is a former head of Halliburton.

  7. 7.

    capelza

    I plan on going…I’ll supply the bare breasts…hahaha..er..no.

    I knew they would do it in some form…how awesome would that be if a bunch of folks showed up! And most likely a logistical nightmare, but what the hey..

  9. 9.

    ppGaz

    HOOK ‘EM HORNS!

    Yes, Stormy, you heard it right.

    As a Michigan fan, I’d be pleased to see the Horns give the Buckeyes a bad night. After today’s MI-ND debacle, Big Blue fans need some good news.

  10. 10.

    rkrider

    Does this raise the hair on the back of your neck?

    What is most disturbing is the claim of several Blackwater mercenaries we spoke with that they are here under contract from the federal and Louisiana state governments.

    Blackwater is one of the leading private “security” firms servicing the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. It has several US government contracts and has provided security for many senior US diplomats, foreign dignitaries and corporations. The company rose to international prominence after 4 of its men were killed in Fallujah and two of their charred bodies were hung from a bridge in March 2004. Those killings sparked the massive US retaliation against the civilian population of Fallujah that resulted in scores of deaths and tens of thousands of refugees.

    As the threat of forced evictions now looms in New Orleans and the city confiscates even legally registered weapons from civilians, the private mercenaries of Blackwater patrol the streets openly wielding M-16s and other assault weapons. This despite Police Commissioner Eddie Compass’ claim that “Only law enforcement are allowed to have weapons.” Link

    When are you going to wake up Cole, are you going to wait until the rifle butts are banging against your front door?

  12. 12.

    Brian

    I am in the process of reading a book on the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Immediately after the quake settled, the same thing happened as is happening with NO: business leaders banded together to get the city going again as soon as possible. One such person was A.P. Giannini, the founder of Bank of Italy, which became Bank of America. It was an admirable example of a city resurrected by business leaders, who joined together essentially as a de facto government amidst the chaos of the quake’s aftermath. However, the downside was that the city’s poor, shunted aside and suffering much of the burden of the disaster, not unlike the poor of NO, we again left out of any concerns during the city’s rebirth. I suspect that the poor will be left out of the equation in the rebuilding of NO, and we will likely see their plight played out again in our lifetime.

  13. 13.

    jobiuspublius

    Blackwater = American Foreign Legion?

    I hate how NO is being militarized. How about MA, AL, FL, or the rest of LA?

    Not only that, Worst POTUS Ever suspended prevailing wage. Stossel spews.

    Just when I think I understand how hell bent over the cliff Worst-POTUS-Ever is, I find something else he want to break.

    I guess some silver linings have clouds. Just when I was happy about something, I should have known better.

  14. 14.

    Stormy70

    Go Texas! PPGaz – I’m married to a Sooner, which usually means dirty looks at Christmas from the family, since Texas keeps getting beat like a drum by the Sooners. Even my husband was amused by his team getting beat by TCU, of all teams. Said it should punture their egos a bit.

    Once again, thank you everyone for your condolences about my Raven kitty. Although my heart is heavy, I know she is at peace.

  17. 17.

    ppGaz

    Speaking of hurricane stories, DougJ, have you seen this story?
    Kevin Drum is about as mild-mannered as they come, and a reliable source.

    If this story is accurate, and I think it probably is because I’ve seen several similar reports out there …. it’s the most chilling and disturbing thing yet out of the Katrina story.

    I’m an equal opportunity basher … this outrage appears to have nothing to do with Bush, or FEMA …. If these people did this, I would expect them to face criminal charges.

    Escape Blocked by Cops?

  18. 18.

    ppGaz

    Brooks, as pointed to by DougJ:

    But liberals who think this disaster is going to set off a progressive revival need to explain how a comprehensive governmental failure is going to restore America’s faith in big government.

    I think Brooks is on the wrong track here. It isn’t a matter of “government” being feckless. It’s a matter of the leadership being feckless. An agency, or a company, or a squadron of fighting men … same thing. The effectiveness of the effort can be destroyed by crappy leadership. Or it can be lifted up by good leadership.

    How Brooks misses this point …. oh wait. It’s Brooks. Missed points are his specialty. Never mind.

  19. 19.

    DougJ

    It isn’t a matter of “government” being feckless. It’s a matter of the leadership being feckless.

    Be that as it may, he’s right: from the public’s perspective, it’s a government failure. Tha’s why he says “need to explain” not are wrong. I think it’s a great piece because it brings up somethings people don’t talk about much here or in Iraq: (1) the government does have experts who produce fantastic reports and (2) these plans are too often ignored. From the public’s perpsective, these represent governmental failures, yet they really represent, as you say, a failure of leadership not of knowledge. So that’s the challenge everyone has — not just progressives, but small government people (like me) too — to explain to the public what government can do and what it can’t in terms of both expertise and function. I probably didn’t phrase that very well.

  20. 20.

    ppGaz

    From the public’s perpsective, these represent governmental failures

    Yes to all of it, but I’d add that “government” is something that we — who are obsessed with the subject and the with the politics that surrounds it, and I think that includes Brooks — is slightly off-point. I think it’s really “institutions” that people care about, because in the end, its their own situations, their safety, their health, their prosperity that they care about, and the Big Things that affect them are institutions, which include government, corporations, HMOs, etc etc.

    So my point, if I have one, which is yet to be established … is that the people don’t care as much about government effectiveness as we do. What they care about is that institutions do what they are supposed to do, regardless of what those institutions are.

    And of course, then I’d get in a pitch for my “leadership” notion, in that same context.

    Last but not least, since we are in Katrina mode, when it comes to lousy leadership, I think you can’t do much better (which means worse) than Nagin, Blanco, Bush, Brown and Chertoff …. so far. Others will emerge to take their places in the Hall of Shame, I’m sure.

  21. 21.

    DougJ

    Ppgaz, I think that what we’re seeing nowadays is the blurring of the line between different institutions. You have “faith-based” institutions doing work (in some cases very well, in others laughably poorly) that government used to do. You’re seeing people explore privatized solutions to things like public education. The case the progressives have to make is that there are certain things the government does much better than any other institution. And when it comes to disaster relief, I agree with them completely. But they have to make an argument the man on street will get. That’s going to involve good talking points, not using acronyms like FEMA, probably making references to faith and God. Are they up to it? I hope they are up to it enough to get FEMA funded and in order but not such a good job that the government expands its reach more generally. My guess is that they’ll fail completely.

  22. 22.

    jobiuspublius

    David Brooks is a mercenary. He looked in his history books and found out that disasters make big changes. Yes, the opposition has a communications, and organizational, problem. But, Brooks continues to use that idiotic language. This obsession with the size of the government is totally fucking us over. Size is subserviant to purpose and function. So long as Brooks continues to use the same old tired dumbdown language, he will be just another hack.

  24. 24.

    DougJ

    David Brooks is a mercenary.

    Aren’t all journalists? For years, I thought he was just Jeff Foxworthy (most of his Red Stater jokes were taken directly from the “you might be a redneck if” series) with a bigger vocabulary and an inexplicable belief in the ability of the United States to ram democracy down the throats of Middle Eastern countries. But he’s been good lately. Better than Tierney, who started off strong, but now writes columns that only a Rove could love.

  25. 25.

    ppGaz

    an inexplicable belief in the ability of the United States to ram democracy down the throats of Middle Eastern countries. But he’s been good lately. Better than Tierney, who started off strong, but now writes columns that only a Rove could love.

    Har, yes, that “inexplicable belief.” Well described. It’s the spoiler in every discussion about the war. Mainly because the idea is contrary to every rational interpretation of history, current affairs, and our own stumblebum foreign policy gyrations for the last 30 or 40 years.

    And Tierney … well, isn’t he the replacement for Safire?

    Safire is about as close to Satan as I think you can get without having actual horns coming out of his head. I always considered him a true monster, a true sociopath.

  26. 26.

    DougJ

    I like Safire. He’s a nut but he’s funny, self-deprecating, and beloved by most who come into contact with him. Should the Times have let him write the infamous Vince Foster piece or tell the discredited story about the secret meeting in Prague? No. But he’s not the devil.

  27. 27.

    jobiuspublius

    Milton Friedman, not my favorite person. Alan Greenspan, longest serving hack. John Stossel, worse than Giraldo. Now that Giraldo has gotten a little redemption, a billion times worse.

  28. 28.

    ppGaz

    Not me. He was a paid liar for Nixon, and as near as I could tell, never changed that behavior. Sure, he could write those literate language-pieces, and make Maureen Dowd giggle.

    But when we talk about Up being Down, and Black being White, it pays to remember who invented the modern-day Republican house of mirrors. Guys like Safire, who perfected the art of manufacturing relative morality — as a tool for putting lipstick on pigs, or, as a source of faux outrage if your opponents stooped to it.

    Here’s a piece on Safire’s ginned-up bullshit Al Qaeda/Iraq connection:

    Safire as Satan

    His litany of lies and distortions surrounding the Iraq thing from the get-go, alone, put him into Satan category. But the thing about him? This was nothing new, he had been carrying and sloshing the water of Republican lies for decades.

  31. 31.

    Dulcie

    I read the drum piece, and i’m PISSED. I want to know why no one in the MSM has picked up on this one. Oh yeah, I remember, they’re all too busy congratulating each other on the great job they did in covering hurricane “corrinna”.

    Sorry, i’m just a tad bitter :-)

  32. 32.

    DougJ

    Try going to google and typing “president bush ate a baby”. We come out number one. You’ll also be surprised by how many people have explored this topic.

  33. 33.

    jobiuspublius

    DougJ Says:

    Try going to google and typing “president bush ate a baby”. We come out number one. You’ll also be surprised by how many people have explored this topic.

    lol. Cole owes you a medal. That was a riot.

    John Stossel is that guy Barbara Walters has to tolerate on her show.

    Yup, that bridge story is not a source of happyness. There is a detainee story making the rounds too. Apparently, some evacuees are being shipped to oklahoma to be detained. Don’t have the link on me.

    Oh, and John Warner doesn’t like Posse Commitatus. Lieberman what’s to just tweek it. Just a tweek. Grrrr.

    Sleepy time. nighty night folks.

  34. 34.

    DougJ

    Stossel calls out the federal government in particular, citing its “incompetence” and comparing the FDA to a “malignant tumor”

    This guy is on a regular network? He sounds like a Fox News guy.

  35. 35.

    DougJ

    That blocked quote is from the Amazon review.

    John, you deserve a lot of credit for not linking to anything related to Fox News. It would be an easy target and it’s to your credit that you don’t go for such low-hanging fruit.

  37. 37.

    capelza

    ppGaz..the link you provided, which I don’t even have ro open is about the bridge and the Gretna cops right? It is starting to get coverage. On MSNBC, the couple who are most quoted were interviewed by Dan Abrams. They talked about being kicked off the bridge, and moving to a fairly “safe” place a feww hundred feet away on the N.O. side of the river…and THEN the cop over and told them they couldn’t stay there and it was there he “confiscated” their food and water, threw it in the trunk of his car and drove away.

    He them interviewed the chief of poilce, and rode him pretty hard. The CoP seemed pretty unrepentent and he said he’d investigate it later.

    If anyone else saw that please correct me if I got any of it wrong. I’m going from memory early in the morning.

  39. 39.

    DougJ

    These articles on the hurricane are truly disturbing in terms of what they say about our federal government. You know, I expected screw-ups at the state level — the more I read, the more I think Blanco srewed-up big time as well. But is that really the standard the Bush White House holds itself too. If they were to run again would ther motto be

    “Bush: Not as barbaric as Saddam, no more incompetent than the leader of the second poorest state in the country.”

  40. 40.

    ppGaz

    Bush: Not as barbaric as Saddam, no m

    I think that works pretty well, although it leaves out the required references to Clinton, Ted Kennedy and Michael Moore.

    Almost any corpse that is not a “librul” could get elected by the Red States.

  43. 43.

    ppGaz

    Well kids, I just read the Newsweek piece.

    All I can say is, wow. Chilling.

    Whatever you think about the Spuds, one way or the other, the lesson seems to me to be, if something terrible happens in this country, you are on your own. Which leads me to wonder, what the hell are all those people in DC and all those state capitols doing with all that money? Because they sure as hell ain’t doing anything to help us.

  44. 44.

    DougJ

    But another Bush aide described the atmosphere inside the White House as “strangely surreal and almost detached.” At one meeting described by this insider, officials were oddly self-congratulatory, perhaps in an effort to buck each other up. Life inside a bunker can be strange, especially in defeat.

    If the closing paragraph of the article quoted above doesn’t scare you, you’re not paying attention. Here’s the thing: supporting a president who lives in a bunker is neither conservative nor liberal. It’s just stupid.

    There’s an old saying “A conservative is liberal who has been mugged by reality.” I think a Bushite is Republican who’s been mugged by reality and retreated to a bunker.

  45. 45.

    ppGaz

    Not to worry, Bushites … Help Is On The Way. Your government is there for you:

    By late last week, Administration aides were describing a three-part comeback plan. The first: Spend freely, and worry about the tab and the consequences later….The second tactic could be summed up as, Don’t look back. The White House has sent delegates to meetings in Washington of outside Republican groups who have plans to blame the Democrats and state and local officials.

    — TIME magazine, via Kevin Drum

  46. 46.

    ppGaz

    Is this what Bushie had in mind when he said to Pelosi,
    “What didn’t go right?”

    Agape Press

    Rev. Bill Shanks, pastor of New Covenant Fellowship of New Orleans, also sees God’s mercy in the aftermath of Katrina — but in a different way. Shanks says the hurricane has wiped out much of the rampant sin common to the city.

    The pastor explains that for years he has warned people that unless Christians in New Orleans took a strong stand against such things as local abortion clinics, the yearly Mardi Gras celebrations, and the annual event known as “Southern Decadence” — an annual six-day “gay pride” event scheduled to be hosted by the city this week — God’s judgment would be felt.

    “New Orleans now is abortion free. New Orleans now is Mardi Gras free. New Orleans now is free of Southern Decadence and the sodomites, the witchcraft workers, false religion — it’s free of all of those things now,” Shanks says. “God simply, I believe, in His mercy purged all of that stuff out of there — and now we’re going to start over again.”

    The New Orleans pastor is adamant. Christians, he says, need to confront sin. “It’s time for us to stand up against wickedness so that God won’t have to deal with that wickedness,” he says.

    Believers, he says, are God’s “authorized representatives on the face of the Earth” and should say they “don’t want unrighteous men in office,” for example. In addition, he says Christians should not hesitate to voice their opinions about such things as abortion, prayer, and homosexual marriage. “We don’t want a Supreme Court that is going to say it’s all right to kill little boys and girls, … it’s all right to take prayer out of schools, and it’s all right to legalize sodomy, opening the door for same-sex marriage and all of that.”

    Shanks heeded warnings to evacuate New Orleans, and is currently staying with friends in the Jackson, Mississippi, area.

    Apparently, Texas Gov. Perry has no problem with it.

    Perry item

    AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

    Sunday, September 11, 2005

    Gov. Rick Perry spoke at two private events this week where a Texas minister wondered if God sent Hurricane Katrina to purify the nation of sins, including homosexuality.

    The GOP leader didn’t object at the gatherings in San Antonio and Houston on Thursday.

    Gubernatorial spokesman Robert Black, contacted Friday, said: “The governor does not agree with that. But far be it for the governor to try to divine the will of the Almighty.”

  47. 47.

    Pb

    At one meeting described by this insider, officials were oddly self-congratulatory, perhaps in an effort to buck each other up.

    Or maybe they’re just imitating their superiors. I wonder if they said things like “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job”…

  48. 48.

    jobiuspublius

    Rev. Bill Shanks, pastor of New Covenant Fellowship of New Orleans, also sees God’s mercy in the aftermath of Katrina—but in a different way. Shanks says the hurricane has wiped out much of the rampant sin common to the city.

    I’m sure the business community will rebuild. In the meantime, Las Vegas can always pickup the slack. Didn’t he read his bible or history book? Soddom and Gamorah didn’t seem to make much of a differance.

  49. 49.

    BadTux

    What puzzles me about the Bush Administration spin that I heard on the radio yesterday is their insistance they couldn’t do anything until Blanco gave them permission. Excuse me? You mean if I see someone drowning, I can’t save his life unless I get someone’s permission?

    I’m sorry, I fail to see how “we couldn’t move to save lives until we had permission” helps the Administration. It implies that paperwork is more important than saving lives, and implies that the governor of the second-poorest state of the Union has more power than the President of the United States. Apparently we can invade Iraq to overthrow a tinpot dictator who threatens no Americans, but we can’t invade Louisiana save lives because, get this, some tinpot incompetent governor didn’t give us PERMISSION?! Oh puh-LEEZE. Like THAT is going to play in Peoria…

    I just don’t see how the Administration’s current spin is going to help. Anybody?

    – Badtux the Spinning Penguin

  50. 50.

    ppGaz

    Oh, you ain’t seen nothin yet.

    In the Steelers Ahead thread, John points to a Bush Apologia site which goes to great (great, mind-numbing) length to essentially say this to you:

    Don’t believe your lying eyes, what you saw the last couple weeks was all the result of lousy reporting, and a big misunderstanding on your part.

  51. 51.

    BadTux

    Oh, regarding the New Orleans business community: This is the same bunch that got New Orleans into such dire straits in the first place. Their insistence upon low taxes meant that the police force was too small to control crime in the city and that New Orleans police officers were the lowest paid of any major city in America, and thus half of an already-inadequate police force deserted the moment the going got tough, leaving the city to some pretty nasty characters. Their insistance that city workers be paid a pittance meant that most city workers supplemented their incomes by taking bribes and kickbacks in order to do their jobs, and that is toxic to a business environment. And Mayor Nagin is *their* man — they selected him, they put him into office, they wanted a black Republican as mayor of their city (although in order to get him elected, they had him change his party affiliation to Democrat) so that they couldn’t be accused of racism.

    That said, I’d rather this rather venal crowd be in charge of the reconstruction than Halliburton or the Bush Administration. Though they’re not ideal, at least they have a clue as to what it takes to run and manage a city — they’ve been doing it for decades now. The Bushies, on the other hand, are so incompetent when it comes to providing the basic services of city government (water, sewer, garbage collection) that they can’t even get the water and sewer systems working in Baghdad despite years of trying.

    And oh, don’t worry about Mayor Nagin getting in their way. Nagin gets his orders from them, not the other way around. That’s why they installed him as mayor in the first place.

    – Badtux the Louisiana Penguin

  52. 52.

    jobiuspublius

    So, Nagin is their fall guy, unwitting or not? It wouldn’t surprise me, useable and self-disposable, perfect.

  53. 53.

    DougJ

    Don’t believe your lying eyes, what you saw the last couple weeks was all the result of lousy reporting, and a big misunderstanding on your part.

    The problem is that the MSM refuses to report on the good nes coming out of New Orleans. Mayor Nagin’t torture chambers have been shut down forever, his chemical and biological weapons factories are now defunct, and New Orleans is no longer a safe haven for terrorists. The people who insist on staying in their home are dead-enders — their days are numbered. The flooding is in its last throes. Freedom is on the march.

  54. 54.

    BadTux

    If necessary, yes, Nagin is their fall guy. But right now I think they still believe he’s useful for the same reason they installed him in office in the first place — he’s a decent manager despite his B- performance in this hurricane (and be fair, can you name one — ONE — big city mayor who could have done better? And don’t name Rudy Guiliani, because all Rudy had to deal with was two buildings collapsing, he didn’t have to deal with 80% of his city being destroyed or trying to evacuate a city of 500,000 over the same three roads to high ground 90 miles away that another 500,000 people were trying to evacuate over also), and Nagin makes a good figurehead for deflecting accusations of racism on the part of city government. As long as Nagin is mayor, they can reconstruct New Orleans in any way they desire, and his government will simply rubber-stamp it, and all those pesky liberals complaining that New Orleans just got turned into the Hamptons on the Bayou… well, who cares about them anyhow? The way they see it, they don’t need a fall guy — yet. If they end up needing one, Nagin would be thrown to the wolves faster than you could say “abracadabra”, but hey, why throw away a tool that’s still useful?

    Blanco, on the other hand, is toast. I’ve talked to some of my relatives back in Louisiana, and they’re furious with her, because they see her as being a dithering idiot who a) let the Feds play her for a fool, b) didn’t take charge, and c) didn’t have the foggiest notion what to do when she did try to take charge. But they’re not as furious with her as they are with Bush, who they feel should have taken charge when it was obvious that people were dying. Blanco may have been a decent governor when dealing with routine matters of schools and highways, but she simply didn’t have the “right stuff” to handle a disaster of this scale. Bush supposedly did have the “right stuff”, you know, that whole “resolute leader” and “straight shooter” thing that he had going for him. There are a lot of confused folks in Louisiana right now, because Louisiana really was Bush Country big time. And I don’t know whether there’s any spin in the world that’s going to get them to trust Bush again after he’s let them down this way.

    – Badtux the Louisiana Penguin

  55. 55.

    scs

    wow PPGaz, you seem like a man (and I’m assuming man) who knows a thing or two about house boats. Okay, I was being slightly whimisical about it, but I’m not ready to abandon the idea yet. You all didn’t understand that I meant houseboats, strongly anchored that stay on dry land in those low lying areas and rise if the place floods. Do they make those? You could cut down on the fancy connections cause you’d only need the boat part if it floods. Still think it could work! Better than being drowned in your attic.

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