Friday, April 30, 2010
Deepwater Horizon Spill
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
MG2009 Incident Report and Lessoned Learned
I certainly had a moment while walking through Central City. I know full well that I was strolling my 3 kids through the most violent neighborhood in the United States at 7:45 in the morning. We parked far away and saved traffichell in favor of a long walk. When we got back to the car, the neighborhood gang was chillin on the corner, and guarding our caddy. These kids were probably VERY bad, but they were gentlemen....no kidding in their treatment of the kids and Toni.
After dropping the kids off at home with Julia, Toni and I headed out again. Another great moment here, we parked downtown, then rode our bikes up to Bridge Lounge. Parked on the grounds of St. Aloucious (somebody correct my spelling) and rode up through the back of the Quarter then up to the MoonWalk. On the way, we ran into James, Shel, Leo, Eric and his clan. A lesson here in the simple joy of biking through the city. We felt like celebrities...everyone gave us a nod.
Then we hooked up with the Krewe of Julu. I don't know how to capture in words the moment of passing under the interstate with 700 friends but it is joy. Pure joy, mixed with a sadness thinking of all of those that are missing.
But speaking of those that are missing, I ran into the Krewe of Cayne, celebrating Cayneaval. My friend Cayne died an untimely death while in the custody of the Criminal Sheriff. All durring this carnival I have spotted her in the crowd and across the room. Of course she is gone, but my mind plays tricks on me. Today, though, she was out on the parade with me, and her friends gave me some of her ashes to spread. She would have been cool with me shedding tears for her down Decatur for her. A proper send off.
Happy Mardi Gras to you all. We all missed you and there was plenty of room for you all :)
My Tribe
And so they did. We rolled through the lower garden district, and the first treat was a large family coming off their front porch to shake it with us for a few blocks.
I'll get back on all the other details later. But many of us talked about you, and I really did want to shout out to all of you now and let you know we missed you. I mean all of you out there that we were missing. There was so much room for all of you, and it was your tribe we were rolling with too. This was a great year, and I swear after 20 years steady Mardi Gras has never been better. I can't wait to see all of you next year.
Roll with me!
Thursday, October 23, 2008
NOLA's Slothocracy
In response to HumidHaney's post.
It's when I have to set foot in City Hall that I begin to think that I am in fact a horrible racist. I can get along fine with the folks on the street, and I hate the street corner thugs for their actions, not their skin tone. When dealing with people in business, I have no problems, but these are people who are generally competent in their field. When you set foot in City Hall, you are dealing with people who do not have a resume to freshen up. They are in, and our broken Civil Service system has no ability to remove them. These are people who are not only entitled to special privileges rendered by their friends across the hall, they are entitled to keep their job no matter how incompetently their work is performed. It's unfortunate, but the people that you generally get "face time" with in City Hall are the bitter losers who are sitting at the same front desk for 25 years because they are far too incompetent to be promoted, but because of our failing Civil Service system, they can not be relieved of duty, so they sit and spread their invective.
I don't mean to slander every city hall employee, the staff in Stacy Head's office are excellent and set a standard to be met. I met not long ago with Mr. Nguyen, the City Engineer, and he is polite, competent and efficient, but we all know that he is an exception down there.
It is unfortunate that these hangars on create a environment where anyone who has a work ethic and a level of competence becomes jaded and despondent about their work or quits and finds a "real" job. C Ray and Dr. Blakely are case in point. They entered the job with the best of intentions, but now have realized that their best efforts will be mired in incompetence and corruption to the point that they quit trying. This inertia is killing our recovery.
Something must be done about the Civil Service system. I don't know if this requires a change in the City Charter, but I'm sure some other people from the real world who have work ethic can help to figure it out.
This slothocracy must be replaced by a system that rewards competence and most importantly it must punish incompetence with the possibility of termination. That threat has no teeth right now.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Kristol v. Rich
Friday, July 25, 2008
Parasitic Culture
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Wisdom of Fools.
"Even a blind squirrel will find a nut sometimes."
"Out of the mouths of babes...."
On this particular topic he shows a deep understanding of macroeconomics and human nature.
James Carter for Congress
I knew all this about him before, and I was impressed, but last night I heard Inspector General Robert Cerecoli speak. He made it clear that he would not endorse any candidate, but as he told tales of his first year as New Orleans IG he came to speaking of James Carter. Mr. Cerecoli's comments about James Carter were succinct. "The most honest man I have met in the City of New Orleans."
That about does it for me:
James Carter for Congress!