The Information Super-Frog

New Orleans Magazine: Steppin' Back: The golden days of dance halls

I had the pleasure of going to a private event (musician friend's wedding reception) at the 2nd Luthjen's with live jazz last weekend. Could be a nice venue again if they can get permitted.

Of course, I'm so much of an old timer that I can remember when it was the far LEFT fringe that wanted to destroy the dollar and bring down the US Government. (And I didn't really think I'd ever see the day when Barry Goldwater would seem like a responsible moderate.)

Snarky but interesting early look at next year's mayor race in New Orleans:

The Root: "Who Will Run New Orleans?" by Eli Ackerman

Video by John McCusker, done for the Katrina anniversary last year. Reposted "because little has changed since then":

Times-Picayune Video: Ghosts of Katrina

New look at Memorial Hospital during the great levee failure disaster:

New York Times: Strained by Katrina, a Hospital Faced Deadly Choices

Why do Republicans Hate Our Troops, latest episode:

Veterans for Common Sense: Veterans Demand Apology from GOP and FOX for Lies About VA

29 August 2005: President George W. Bush takes a break from his vacation to fly out to Phoenix for the birthday of his pal Senator John McCain.


Do you remember where you were, what you were doing, how you felt on August 29th 2005? If you live in a section of the USA about the size of Britain, stretching from the western Florida Panhandle to past Grand Isle Louisiana and a long bit inland, you probably remember it all too well.

If you lived in other parts of the country, you may have noticed something about it on the news. Hurricane Katrina.



( Bush & McCain FAILED to defend America )

Okay a year ago, who would have believed that the Republicans would socialize the banks, and the Republican candidate would accuse the Democrat of being like Herbert Hoover. What?

Also, if John McCain wins, he will appoint Joe the Plumber to the Supreme Court and give him a gold plated Cadillac.


[edit]

"The real winner last night was Joe the Plumber!” -- John McCain

So, then: McCain managed to come in third in a 2 person debate.

Handful of links


YouTube: Rep. Marcy Kaptur on the "Wall Street Bailout" Reccomended

Reuters: Chinese regulators have told domestic banks to stop interbank lending to U.S. financial institutions Uh oh.

LA Times: Fact checking the presidential debate

Tom the Dancing Bug: The Maverick

Tongodeon's pro-Obama advice

"We must also prepare, far better than we have, to respond quickly and effectively to a natural calamity. When Americans confront a catastrophe they have a right to expect basic competence from their government. Firemen and policemen should be able to communicate with each other in an emergency. We should be able to deliver bottled water to dehydrated babies and rescue the infirm from a hospital with no electricity. Our disgraceful failure to do so here in New Orleans exposed the incompetence of government at all levels to meet even its most basic responsibilities." -- John McCain

Applause. I'm not planning to vote for McCain, and I may never applaud him again, but he earned my applause for saying this.

Though he said it not "here in New Orleans" but 2 cities over in Kenner, Louisiana.

Also, contrary to the McCain campaign official transcript above, he spoke it as "deliver hot bottled water to dehydrated babies". Whatever.

And more importantly, as bad as the "natural calamity" was, the man-made one was very much worse.

And McCain twice voted against establishing a Congressional commission to examine Federal, State, and local response to devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina. He also voted against emergency relief after the disaster, funding communications for disaster first reponders, and other relevent items.

Perhaps you think such proposals should be opposed on the grounds of keeping the government small.

Perhaps you think William Howard Taft was a damn Commie for authorizing the army to bring food and tents to San Francisco after the great earthquake.

Perhaps you think when the shit hits the fan, it is better to let our citizens die of from lack basic necessities than to spend government funds to save their lives. Maybe you have no problem with America being a country whose government leaves the corpses of its people who die unnecessarily bloated in the sun, to be eaten by rats and dogs.

If so, I disagree with you. But I'd have a modicum more respect for you had the courage to damn well admit it.

20 years ago was the "Black Monday" stock market crash of 1987.

I happened to be in Washington, D.C. visiting an aunt. Taking the subway downtown the next morning, I saw men in expensive suits buying bottles of liquor on their way to work. Possibly that was their usual routine, but I doubted it.

I went to the bank and withdrew cash. I was surprised there was no substantial line. I thought bank runs were supposed to be the usual procedure in such circumstances.

I was a bit frustrated to be away from New Orleans on vacation when this happened, as for some time I'd had a contingency radio show planned to do in case of stock market crash, with tunes from the '29 crash. "Damn, I'm missing my chance."

And President Reagan's words of reassurance were almost the same as Herbert Hoover's. I thought, Don't they keep an index card in a drawer in the desk at the Oval Office, marked "In case of stock market crash, DON'T SAY THIS:"...

Were a few friends of mine and I the only ones who remembered history? A few days later my friends and I talked it over. One said that the Republicans bring a boom, then a bust. I cracked wise "Y'know why people aren't jumping out of windows on Wall Street this time? In modern skyscrapers you can't open the windows." A friend noted some recent murders in the news, which to him showed that investors were a hair smarter this time, since instead of killing themselves, they were killing their brokers.

----

Unlike '29, things bounced back fairly quickly then. Now the $ is below the Euro and falling rapidly -- anyone got "Whip Inflation Now" buttons left over from the Ford administration? I'm sure they'll work just as well now as they did then.

Here in Lou'ziana, we're voting on a pile of stuff tomorrow. We'll see if Eddie Haskell becomes our next governor in the first round, or if he'll have to go to a run off with either John Goodman, Matlock, or Mr. Spock with Stephen Colbert's face. (Eddie Haskell is running under the name "Bobby Jindal" as the Republican Whiz Kid. Is there anywhere outside of the Republican Party in Louisiana and maybe Mississippi where someone who has sycophantically supported everything the Bush adminstration has bungled and advocated teaching Creationism is talked about as supposedly being "very smart"?)

Former National Security Director during the Reagan administration, General William Odom, bashes the Democratic congress... for not standing up to BushCo. He advocates withdrawl from Iraq and impeaching Bush if he stands in the way.
'Supporting the troops' means withdrawing them


67% of USA voters realize that the Iraq war is creating more terrorism rather than diminishing it. 56% believe that the Iraq war is a distraction from the fight against terrorism.
poll

45% think Bush should be impeached. Might that number be higher if that wouldn't result in President Cheney? 54% want Cheney impeached.
ABC story
Polls on American Research Group

Ron Paul, the only anti-Iraq war Republican candidate, is now ahead in campaign contributions cash of John McCain, former front-runner and the most vehement support of the BushCo War Stategy.
ABC article

Fred Thompson's role in the Watergate hearings: A mole for Nixon.
Boston Globe article

BushCo War costing US $12 Billion a month, could top 1.4 Trillion

The Fable of The Bat, or Die Liebermaus, by KnaveRupe (via driftglass)

I laughed at this one, though my tolerance for bad puns may be higher than that of some folks.