So… the West Bank Levee Board is demanding $1.4 M from the East Bank Levee Board… Algiers’ reps have no vote over there, BTW.
I think the answer is best summed up by “No taxation without representation”. ‘Nuff said WB.
LINK
March 31, 2007
WB Levee Board Demands…
March 28, 2007
GAO Looks Into MWI Pump Poop
From WDSU comes this piece by Cain Burdeau-Â LINK
May the shit storm begin!
March 26, 2007
Pump Poop III: The Fire
Matt over at Fix the Pumps has a long piece concerning the failure of a pump test (MWI) that resulted in the test building badly damaged by fire and one worker dying due to his burns.
Matt tells it better than I can…
March 24, 2007
Florida’s Bigots Rise Again: Shit Floats
Here’s an interesting piece of news from the area near Tampa.
Here’s a quote from one of the bigots:
“I think we’re pretty well convinced,” Commissioner Gay Gentry said. “You have to believe us, you have to trust us, it is not about transgenderism.”
(If I had a name like Gay Gentry, I wouldn’t be throwing stones.)
When the Hell are these assholes going to let us just live our fucking lives? What the fuck does it mean if we stop wearing pants and don a skirt? Why the Hell does any of this matter?
I have lived for 50 years with ovaries, a uterus, a sewed-up vagina, small testes and a man-made penis. All of my life I’ve been tortured by feelings that didn’t match what Society demanded of me after they, in their damn sexual-polar hubris, decided what sex I was supposed to be. The only thing is: my mind is the same as when I worked as a guy. I do see things differently as I transition, but I’m still the same spirit, just in a different wrapper.
This poop is because of the Judeo-Christian belief system of either-or, male-female, heaven-hell.
Biology doesn’t function under those constraints. Genetics and bio-med chemistry prove the variations that are endemic within biological systems. Trans folk are with us in a ratio of 1 in 500 births (our figures), and a “failed twin mosaic” like myself is about 1 in every 2,000 births. I know of over 50 Trans women whose bodies are like mine.
People like myself work in the aero-space industry, help design weapon systems and airplanes. One of us is the biggest fund broker in the world, and many of us are just store clerks and cooks. I helped run one of the Navy’s biggest nuclear systems years ago. We are everywhere and we do everything that can be done. We ARE PEOPLE!
To see these Judeo-Christian shits fuck someone who has done a good job over the fact that they are Transitioning appalls me. I would never hurt someone unless they were pure evil, and even then my heart would ache.
I wish more people would think in that manner towards us Transfolk.
March 23, 2007
I’m Going to Be on Internet Radio…
Yes… I’m going to do an interview with Ethan on his TransFM Network at 6 PM CDT on Sunday. He wants to hear about New Orleans and I’m going to be playing catch-up on the Trans community. I think this will be educational for all of the listeners.
Betts and I have an Internet station based here in the city, but we have yet to do the live broadcasts that we dreamed of. Advice, talks, tech help would be wonderful in getting another stream of voices and hearts from New Orleans out there to the rest of the world.
March 20, 2007
More Pump Poop
This is probably what they’ll do next for our pump situation:
Thanks to the Toledo Blade.
March 19, 2007
More on Nagin’s Conspiracy Theory …
Well, Mayor “Chocolate City” Ray started spouting crap this last Thursday at a conference, and it seems to be running in the Blogs and MSM.
Facing South has a great Progressive take on the real story here in NOLA .
Good paragraph from the piece:
“Treating property ownership as the sine qua non for policy consideration didn’t raise any eyebrows locally or nationally, except among the ranks of those who were left out. Neither the black Mayor nor the majority-black City Council has shown initiative in taking into account, much less defending, the interests of poor New Orleanians. The city’s evacuation plans notoriously failed to anticipate adequately poor people’s circumstances and needs. Landlords began evicting tenants without a hint of due process as soon as water receded and rumors spread of possibilities for extracting exorbitant rents from construction workers. The state officially prohibited evictions before October 25, but that prohibition was academic for the tens of thousands of people dispersed in shelters around the region and nation. And even that minimal right was flagrantly ignored with impunity. New Orleans City Council president Oliver Thomas complained in February that government programs and agencies had “pampered” poor people and proclaimed that they should not be encouraged to return. As he put it, “We don’t need soap opera watchers right now.” At least one other black councilmember expressed support of his view, as did the New Orleans Housing Authority receiver.”
If “No See’um Ray” wants to face the “enemies” of New Orleans, he should first take a look in his freakin’ mirror.
The same goes for Oreo Oliver Thomas. Yes you assholes, I have your freakin’ Racist numbers. Come down on me for my statements little boys. I’ll even make it smaller for you little boys since I am a “Momma”. Shitheads… Momma rules you morons.
Unstable Foundations
I found this wonderful piece posted at Common Dreams.It is a well done presentation by Rebecca Solnit on the state of recovery in New Orleans.
Here’s some snippets:
“Despite its decline, New Orleans remains a port city and a major tourist destination. But it also matters because it’s beautiful, with its houses — from shacks to mansions — adorned with feminine, lacy-black ironwork or white, gingerbread wood trim, with its colossal, spreading oaks and the most poetic street names imaginable; because the city and the surrounding delta are the great font from which so much of our popular music flows; because people there still have a deep sense of connection and memory largely wiped away in so many other places; because it is a capital city for black culture, including traditions that flowed straight from Africa; because, in some strange way, it holds the memory of what life was like before capitalism and may yet be able to teach the rest of us something about what life could be like after capitalism.”Â
“We all owe New Orleans and those who suffered most in Katrina a huge debt. Their visible suffering and the visibly stupid, soulless, and selfish response of the federal government brought an end to the unquestionable dominance of the Bush administration in the nearly four years between New York’s great disaster and this catastrophe. In China, great earthquakes were once thought to be signs that the mandate of heaven has been withdrawn from the ruling dynasty. Similarly, the deluges of Katrina washed away the mandate of the administration and made it possible, even necessary, for those who had been blind or fearful before to criticize and oppose afterwards.”Â
We need more thinking people such as Rebecca.
March 16, 2007
S&WB Fun and Games
Today I woke up, looked out the front door, and noticed that one of the four water meters just off my porch was spewing lots of fresh water. Turns out it wasn’t our rental, but the shotgun behind us. I did my duty and called the emergency line for the S&WB to report the breakage.
Hours later I return home to find no leaking water, but that my home and others on this block have no public water at all. I guess our repair folks just don’t work after 5 PM and they just shut down the entire area. Yes, I have a call in on this poop too.
We have elderly and children here. I’m permanently disabled, and now none of us can bathe, run water for cooking and our toilets won’t flush, just cause the Emergency Repair boys can have a weekend at the rates they are being paid. ( I do have distilled water for cooking and drinking)
The S&WB is losing over $200,000+ a month for the unknown leaks in our water systems, and when citizens clue them in to obvious, fixable leaks, this is how the response goes down? Shut the block down and we’ll get to it when we want to?
Fuck this kind of shit!We pay handsomely for the services of the S&WB, even if my doc says NOT TO DRINK THE WATER, and this is how they deal with doing their J.O.B.s. and what they think of their charges.
UPDATE-Â Hey! the thing about my water being cut off? It turns out that my landlord doesn’t pay for water in the rent, and he hadn’t told me this over the last year of renting here. I tried to connect this rental to our account in Gentilly, but no go until Monday on that one, which means, judging from the pace at which the water folks move, I might have water come Thursday. I can’t wait to get back into our own home, a place where WE take care of everything, and we don’t have to deal with idiots who lack a first grade education for our existence.