Polimom Says....

Yup. Polimom is down... (updated)

2006-12-13T08:58:00.000-06:00

Just a quick little post to let y'all know (those who remember about this old blogsite) that Polimom Says (http://www.polimom.com) has been down since yesterday evening (Tues., Dec 12).

I'm working to get it back up, obviously, but the background technical "stuff" is pretty opaque to me.

Sigh...

Update:

Just a quick note -- it appears that somebody isn't happy with me, and the host temporarily suspended my account because a Denial of Service attack (DOS) crashed all their servers.

Working on it

A new home for Polimom

2006-02-21T19:44:00.000-06:00

Polimom ~~is moving~~ has moved!

http://www.polimom.com

Originally (long months ago), polimom.com was dedicated to the people in Algiers, and New Orleans, so they could regroup after Katrina, check on each other, their houses, find out about insurance problems... you name it.

But now, six months later, Polimom is reclaiming the domain name and moving off of blogger.

The old forums have been preserved in the new location as a Katrina archive. (You can find them here.)

I've also imported all the posts from blogger, and I'll probably spend the rest of my life categorizing them! (No - seriously....) Okay. Maybe not. Maybe just some....

I know this is an inconvenience for many folks, who have set up RSS feeds, etc., from this site. I'm very sorry to be a pain, but I really was about to go nuts with all the up/down time here.

So come see me at Polimom... I'll be looking for you! (And don't forget to change your bookmarks!)

2006-02-21T09:15:00.000-06:00

Posting will be light today (and late, too!). I'm working on a new site...

XX for president!

2006-02-20T09:42:00.000-06:00

It's about darned time!

Poll finds readiness for female president

What's been the hold up, anyway? It's been obvious for years that America is stuck in a political rut.

Polimom's had fingers and toes crossed for months, hoping to see a race between Hillary and Condi. Talk about leveling the playing field, while simultaneously pushing everybody's hot-buttons! A choice between them would give everybody something to get behind (or in front of, depending...).

If, however, the next campaign for the White House includes only one of these ladies, Polimom thinks it's a near certainty that such a race would devolve into a chromosomal bash-fest. In fact, those possessed of the fearless "Y" have already started trying to spin things:

"I don't think the American people, if you look historically, elect angry candidates. And whether it's the comments about the plantation or the worst administration in history, Hillary Clinton seems to have a lot of anger," Mehlman told ABC's "This Week."

Sorry, Mehlman, but I don't see Hillary as a seething volcano about to erupt. By the same token, Condi's foot doesn't fit the hair-trigger warmonger slipper, either:

Rice has a handicap because of her assiduous cheerleading for the disastrous war in Iraq. Before the U.S. attack, she appeared often on the Sunday talk shows to promote an invasion and warning that Saddam Hussein had a "smoking gun" that would turn into a "mushroom cloud."

None of that was true, of course, but we have heard no apologies from her.

I do, however, sense enormous frustration from many Americans, who are positively disgusted with the American political scene.

Time for a change? Oh, yes! Please!?!

Ready? SWAP!

2006-02-18T07:31:00.000-06:00

Last week, in the somewhat off-color spirit of the Krewe du Vieux, Polimom suggested that perhaps Houston could send its "native" criminal population to New Orleans, in exchange for receiving NOLA’s highly over-rated criminal talent:

[On] behalf of Houston, I'd like to acknowledge your generous offering of those one-way bus tickets. I can’t promise, though, that we won’t reciprocate by sharing some of our own, locally-grown talent. Consider it a well-meaning cultural exchange that could have some real economic benefit.

Given the size of the Houston market, I'm thinking we could make up some "Thanks, New Orleans" bumper stickers, and donate a percentage of the proceeds to the police departments in both cities. Outta be good for millions of $!

So much has been made of the crime spike here, and the related drop in crime in New Orleans, that the well-intended and heart-felt “Thanks, Houston” bumper stickers have developed a second meaning.

So I can only be amused by these stories from yesterday:

Houston Police Say Violent Crime Falling

While Houston had a spike in homicides in November and December, Sgt. Brian Harris said Friday the homicide rate has stabilized and is only slightly up from this time last year.

If we’re going to be analyzing trends on a monthly basis, Houston’s in for a wild ride, emotionally. Up one month, down the next… one can’t draw conclusions based on such short-term data. However, there seems to be some sort of corresponding uptick over in New Orleans:

Last week, the St. Bernard Parish Sheriff's Office booked a former MS-13 member with marijuana possession, said Maj. John Doran, head of the Special Criminal Investigations Division.

"The stories this guy was telling," Doran said. "Bad stuff . . . contract killings. We're not used to anything like that around here."

And in Kenner, gang graffiti is popping up on some buildings, including "MS-13" painted on a store on Williams Boulevard. Capt. James Gallagher, a Police Department spokesman, said there's been no indication that the tagging is connected to actual gang activity

Given a choice between the New Orleans housing project punks and the MS-13, which would you choose, Houston? It’s kind of a no-brainer, eh?

Polimom was kidding when she suggested we send the Houston gangsters over to New Orleans. Honest! But I’m thinking I should go ahead and get those “Thanks, NOLA” bumper stickers made. They're liable to start selling well soon...

A cautious thanks

2006-02-17T05:59:00.000-06:00

George Bush has done an about-face and is requesting $4.2 billion more for housing and rebuilding in Louisiana.

‘Tis wonderful, yes? Yes!

But Polimom’s curious as to why this beneficence comes now of all times, at nearly the end of a special legislative session, when there was little or no time for Louisiana to react? Even without this complication, welcome though it is, rivalries and petty infighting have made the session a sad joke, and even the desperately needed housing recovery plan has hit uncertain water. Now, this same legislature has one day left – today - to re-work its approach, so Louisiana can distribute the much different amount of grant money.

There appeared to be some continuing confusion -- and possibly friction -- between state and local leaders Thursday over precisely who would have the authority to dole out the federal grant money.

Though the money initially will flow to the state, New Orleans officials think they should receive an allocation to deal with buyouts and renovation grants in the city, an opinion that may not be shared by state officials. [...]

One key problem for either proposal is that the legislation, which is Senate Bill 49 by Sen. Ann Duplessis, D-New Orleans, could be on life support.

Proponents were unable to wrangle the support of two-thirds of the House members present in the chamber in a procedural vote that would have allowed a committee to consider the legislation Thursday evening. The bill cannot be considered by the full House on the last day of the session without another, successful procedural vote.

Polimom is always suspicious of sudden sea changes, particularly by government. Clearly, something more than love for fellow man is driving Bush’s request. Do you suppose some of the boon stems from this?

Exhibit A is the revelation that FEMA purchased 24,967 prefabricated homes at a cost of $857.8 million, and 1,295 modular homes at a cost of $40 million. The Department of Homeland Security's inspector general, Richard Skinner, told the Senate that "it is unclear how the decision was made" to spend $900 million on the more than 26,000 homes. It is clear, however, that almost every penny of that money was wasted, since FEMA's own regulations prohibit the use of mobile homes in flood plains. […]

Given the acute lack of habitable residences in greater New Orleans and all along the Gulf Coast, how could FEMA waste nearly $1 billion on unusable housing?

As a taxpayer, I’m sick that my money has to be spent twice - but apparently it must. Even though our behemoth of a government has wasted months, and billions of dollars, on ill-conceived “help” for the Gulf Coast (and I’m sure it will continue to do so), New Orleans remains in desperate straits.

Let's just hope Louisiana and NOLA can pull their acts together and get things started down there. Finally.

Apologies won't fix this

2006-02-16T06:31:00.000-06:00

Immediately after September 11, I remember having discussions about what might happen next. I clearly recall feeling that the world was holding its collective breath, waiting for the other shoe to drop... and drop it did, right on Afghanistan and the Taliban.

Had the U.S. stopped there, and not pressed its agenda into Iraq, would today’s situation look different?

Yes and no.

We would not have the Abu Ghraib pictures and films resurfacing, stoking anger in the Middle East. We probably would still have had the cartoon protests. We’d still be having problems with fundamentalist Islam, though.

World War III has come sneaking into our lives when we weren’t watching.

In the 1980s (in some ways another lifetime), Polimom traveled in the Middle East, and the memories from that trip have not faded with time. Traveling with a small group of westerners (male and female), we were careful of our hosts’ cultural mores, covering our heads and bodies, visiting only areas and sites that were permitted, observing border sensitivities… yet we were still treated differently – because we were from the West.

Among other things, Polimom and her female friends were groped and mauled by men on the streets. Publicly. We were told it was because all women from the west are whores, and thus deserving of such treatment. Syria, in particular, was a terrifying place for us, because all the men who approached and groped were armed with semi-automatic weapons.

It just was.

By the time we got to Jordan, Polimom was getting pretty angry. However, a gentle young man and his family befriended me, calming my outrage. He spoke about Mohammed, and a peaceful message of Islam. Before we left Amman, this young man gifted Polimom with a dual-language Koran, which today sits on Polimom’s bookshelf alongside her other religious texts and writings from around the world.

The next country visit, however, put Polimom right over the top with disgust. On the docks of Suez, we were approached yet again by a man feeling as if he could freely touch and handle Western women. But this young many was not armed, and Polimom was done with these sinister abusers. Polimom picked up a rock, threw it in his face, and kicked his ass all the way down the dock. He ran away, and Polimom reported him to the Suez police (who were unimpressed and slightly amused).

Polimom has American female friends who have converted to Islam who have not experienced these problems, so the line actually is not drawn on the West so much as it is on whether one is Muslim or not.

Some years later, Polimom found herself in the military’s foreign language institute in Monterey, where she learned Arabic, and revisited the human, moderate side of Islam. Many of Polimom’s instructors were from Iraq, and all of them were like the young man in Jordan.

Polimom re-evaluated yet again, and opened her mind back up to the possibilities of diversity and tolerance. It’s much easier to do from a distance.

Today, people are writing and talking about a gap that “has opened between Islam and the West”. Offended by the Danish cartoons (and corresponding support for free speech), the mullahs and leaders in the Middle East are citing grievances against America, against Europe, and against Western ways, in general.

This culture clash didn’t spring up overnight, folks. There is a vast chasm between these societies, and what we’re seeing has been coming for a long time.

Christianity has extremists, as does Islam. But in the West, our extremists tend to be a fringe group, universally condemned and mocked by us. Contrary to WaPo’s slightly bizarre article and theories yesterday, Christians long-since internalized a “turn the other cheek” philosophy. That, to Polimom, is tolerance. The West is far more capable of overlooking cultural gaffes, and we’re notorious for lampooning pretty much everything.

Islam’s fundamentalists are not a fringe. They exist in enormous numbers, from the very lowest street-cleaners to the leaders of entire countries. Unlike the secular west, where we ridicule religious zealots (think Pat Robertson), Islamists one-up each other in their quest to demonstrate the depth of their fervor.

One simply isn’t Muslim enough if one isn’t outraged by slights to the point of raving.

American papers are apparently under the impression that if they don’t re-publish the cartoons (or new lampoons), the zealots will not focus anger against the U.S. Such a stance is naïve. The fundamental discord is much deeper, and everything is fuel now.

There is no room for accommodation of extremists or threats, and apologists in the West are missing an important component that distinguishes the Islamic culture from the Western: contrary to our expectations of a civilized society, the moderates are not running the show, and there is no way to rationalize with the insane.

Polimom still has many moderate Muslim friends, and she’s sad for them. They are voiceless and powerless in their own societies, and while Polimom wishes it were not so, neither they, nor we, can change that.

World War III was coming, whether September 11 had happened or not, and we’re going to have to get used to the idea.

Masochistic Christians

2006-02-15T15:15:00.000-06:00

Polimom's been wondering about an interesting phenomenon: Why does the American stance on free speech only apply to lampooning some religions, but not others?

WaPo's Neely Tucker has an interesting article about how blasphemy is apparently okay against Christianity, but not against other "minor" religions. One of Tucker's sources is Mark Galli, who apparently provided this gem:

First, he notes, Christians worship a man who was persecuted, beaten and killed. The sense that people might persecute Christ's followers is an inherent part of the Christian ethos, he says, so Christians are inherently likely to tolerate offense. Muhammad, a prophet who died after an illness, did not leave behind a religion with that mindset, he says.

Let me see if I understand this correctly... Because Christ was abused, Christians have internalized an expectation of persecution. Maybe that explains self-flagellation, too (something else I've never understood).

A religion of masochists... hmmmmm.....

American mediocrity

2006-02-15T07:04:00.000-06:00

The Houston Independent School District has been fretting lately about how to improve math and science scores, and widen the district’s Gifted / Talented programs. Like George Bush’s SoTU speech writers, they seem to finally be waking up to an unpleasant truth: America is producing mediocrity.

We’ve lost our edge.

Polimom keeps wondering when somebody will just come out and state the obvious, so we can have a National Hissy Fit and move on. Since it’s pretty evident everyone’s going to pussy foot around this indefinitely, I thought maybe I’d help the process a bit.

We are NOT all created equally – at least not in terms of intellectual ability.

(Gasp. Polimom! What are you saying?)

I’m saying that little Johnny, who was reading books at age 3 or working negative numbers at 5, has much different educational needs from little Jimmy who learned letters and phonetic sounds via circle time in Kindergarten... and those needs are not being met.

We're producing mediocre thinkers because the Holy Grail is the middle of the Bell Curve. We've forgotten that the curve is very wide; in our zeal to bring the left side toward the center, we've ignored those on the right.

America does a pretty good job educating “to the middle”, and public schools have also made enormous strides toward helping those who have learning disabilities or are otherwise "at risk". These are laudable achievements, but we've sacrificed the children who have the capacity to soar along the way... and everything has a price.

We’re failing them, we’ve been letting them down for years, and now it's time to pay the piper.

Blockade, anyone?

2006-02-14T18:40:00.000-06:00

Rex Noone at Voices of New Orleans thinks maybe it's time for a fresh new approach:

No more. The time has come to line up our boats, to tie them together and to stop the traffic on the Mississippi. We should do this right by the Crescent City Connection, the big bridge that connects downtown to Algiers.

This will be our sit-in on the river.

We should stop the traffic on that river until the country realizes who we are. There is no more time to wait patiently, to trust the government. There is no more time to be the Big Easy. It is time to get angry.

Think that might get some attention?

Iranian Freedom Fries!

2006-02-14T14:20:00.000-06:00

This is kinda fun!

TEHRAN, Iran - Not content with pelting European embassies with Molotov cocktails to protest against cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, Iranians have decided to rename the “Danish pastries” relished by this nation of cake lovers.

From now on, the sweet, flaky pastries which dominate the shelves in Iran’s cake shops will be known as “Roses of the Prophet Muhammad,” the official IRNA news agency reported as pressure on Denmark over the cartoons took on a new dimension.

Way to go, Iran! That's showin' those Danes!

I bet this'll have about the same global impact as Americans renaming French Fries "Freedom Fries".

::shaking head in wonder at the stupidity of it all::

What excites the MSM?

2006-02-14T14:00:00.000-06:00

Let's see...

More rioting in the Muslim world about the cartoons.

(MSM: Yawn...)

Hmmm... Carlie Brucia's killer whines and snivels about his tough life.

(MSM: snore...)

New Orleans gets a hospital opened!

(MSM: Where's New Orleans again?)

The White House didn't tell us IMMEDIATELY about a hunting accident!

(MSM: OHMYGOD! THAT'S REALLY CRITICAL!!)

The man accidently shot by Cheney has a heart attack from bird-shot lodged in his heart.

(MSM: Was that the guy Cheney didn't want to tell us about?)

Polimom actually thinks this last one outranks the ridiculous hysteria about Cheney's press-release protocols by rather a lot. But then... I'm not the MSM.

Thank goodness we all have something to get excited about today.

Update 7:15pm: I guess I don't pass the inkblot test. I really dislike the current administration, but I still think the MSM has lost its metaphorical marbles over the "Cheney's Got a Gun" event.

NOLA's CJ system - another failure

2006-02-14T09:28:00.000-06:00

How broken do you suppose a Criminal Justice system can get? At what point does the problem get so bad that a state recognizes it has failed?

Would this be bad enough?

If the state can't find more money for indigent defense, the defenders' office plans to seek the release of its estimated 4,000 defendants, White says. "This is unprecedented. The majority of the accused crimes are going to be serious offenses. In New Orleans, they don't prosecute forgery and stolen cars very often."

This problem pre-dates Katrina; all the storm did was hasten the total breakdown.

Without divine intervention (since LA's Legislature obviously isn't much help), Polimom thinks New Orleans will have to free all of the indigent accused. Their constitutional right to a "fair and speedy trial" has already been stomped into the dust, given that many of these individuals have already languished for six months - in jail - without even a call to an attorney, much less a trial.

Combine that with the moldy, flooded evidence and lost DNA, scattered accusors or witnesses, and I don't see any way this situation can be salvaged.

Why on earth was Louisiana the only state in the union allowing traffic fines and court costs to fund the public defenders' offices?

Funding local public defenders' offices has been a problem across the nation. Louisiana is the only state that relies almost exclusively on local traffic-ticket revenue and parking fines — rather than a significant contribution from the state — to finance its low-income residents' constitutionally protected right to a lawyer.

This is just stupid, considering that Louisiana is one of the poorest states, per capita, in the country, and has a greater need for public defenders as a result. Last week, nola.com reported:

Citing state laws that require the Legislature to provide adequate funding for the program, Hunter issued subpoenas for state Senate President Donald Hines, D-Bunkie, House Speaker Joe Salter, D-Florien, and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin.

I'm curious: If there are state laws requiring adequate funding from the Legislature, why wasn't that happening?

Oh. Lemme guess. This wouldn't by any chance be yet another example of the beautiful, harmonious, well-oiled Louisiana Legislative Machine, would it?

Almost 4,000 folks will no doubt be rejoicing that Louisiana has elected these people, as they walk away from whatever crimes they were accused of - whether they commited them or not.

Well done. Again.

Un-American

2006-02-13T11:38:00.000-06:00

It's hard to imagine a better summarization of the Katrina reponse failures than this:

A congressional report to be released this week slams the government's response to Hurricane Katrina, calling it a "failure of leadership" that left people stranded when they were most in need. "Our investigation revealed that Katrina was a national failure, an abdication of the most solemn obligation to provide for the common welfare," the report says. "At every level -- individual, corporate, philanthropic and governmental -- we failed to meet the challenge that was Katrina. In this cautionary tale, all the little pigs built houses of straw."

Yup - I'd say that about sums things up - right up into today's failures. I can hardly wait til the report actually releases Wednesday.

And this just makes me sick:

The two audits, released at a Senate hearing, found that up to 900,000 of the 2.5 million applicants who received aid under FEMA's emergency cash assistance program — which included the $2,000 debit cards given to evacuees — were based on duplicate or invalid Social Security numbers, or false addresses and names.

Lovely, eh? And worst of all - FEMA and the Red Cross were actually doing the right thing there by cutting red tape and moving money into the hands of people who needed it. I'm thoroughly disgusted that people apparently ~~took~~ stole money so desperately needed - still - in the region.

Polimom says that's flat-out un-American. If we catch these people, can we put them on a slow boat someplace? Maybe with some leftover MRE's (about 3 days worth...)?

Baffled by the bullshit

2006-02-13T09:15:00.000-06:00

Louisiana, you guys appear to be in a world of hurt over there. Even if the entire elected legislative body was as clean as a whistle, and there’d never been Whiff One of corruption or cronyism, the parochial yahoos running the state would appall.

Let’s see…. So far, in this second emergency legislative session, the obviously unenlightened leaders of Louisiana and New Orleans have managed to derail or kill the government consolidations and the assessor reductions.

He called the duplication of courts, sheriffs, clerks and other offices "arcane and ancient" on the "Isle of Orleans" at a time when post-Hurricane Katrina dollars are short in the city. He said other large parishes in the state survive well with one sheriff, one district court, and one clerk of court who also who performs the duties of the conveyance register, notaries archivist and recorder of mortgages.

"It has nothing to do with the individuals," he said. "It has everything to do with the system. . . . Less means more savings to the taxpayers."

Rep. Joseph Toomy, R-Gretna, a friend of the sheriffs and judges and sponsor of several pay raises for them over the years, said now is the time to change the system in New Orleans. "Consolidation will be best for the city of New Orleans," he said.

"Why are we picking on Orleans?" asked Rep. Arthur Morrell, D-New Orleans, a major opponent of the bill. "Is it because a lot of citizens are not there? And why are we doing it in a special (legislative) session. . . . ?

Hunh? Picking on New Orleans? Can somebody help the esteemed Representative with a reality check?

Now, these short-sighted non-cooperatives are derailing the proposed consolidation of the levee boards / districts. Do these officials think New Orleans’ future is completely unlinked from Jefferson Parish, the southeastern Louisiana parishes, and/or the rest of the state? They seem to believe that the success or failure of the largest city in Louisiana has no bearing on their little kingdoms.

It's kinda hard to understand how Louisiana can get upset with the federal government when things look this bad at the state level.

From here, this all looks like Grade-A bullshit.... and Polimom's totally baffled.

Neighbors for life

2006-02-13T06:58:00.000-06:00

Between the Houston Chronicle and the Times-Picayune, there was an abundance of articles the last few days about the New Orleans evacuees in Houston… and I don’t know about you, but Polimom thinks a total change of focus is required. New Orleans isn’t coming back “on-line” in the near future, and many of the people who think they’re here temporarily are probably going to be Houstonians for many years.

Unfortunately, there’s a problem. The city of Houston could not be more different from its Louisiana neighbor, and Polimom is worried that without some enormous effort, many of our new residents aren’t going to make the transition.

If you’re thinking this isn’t your problem, Houston, you’re out of your freakin’ minds.

For instance:

"The combination of everything the kids have gone through — all the complexities in moving to the city, the standards being so much higher (in Texas), them being so far behind and them missing so much school — yes, I think there is going to be a huge dropout situation," warned Gary Robichaux, principal of New Orleans West, or NOW, College Preparatory School, which opened in Houston several weeks after Katrina. "And especially the kids that stay in Houston. This might end up being an issue for Houston."

This isn’t a short-term situation; the people who lost everything in New Orleans are here for the long haul – and how well they integrate into Houston’s city culture (or not) is going to have enormous impact.

Early on, much was made of the term “refugee”. It understandably offended people who had to flee their homes along the Gulf Coast, because it implied a “foreign-ness” – a sense of not belonging to America. Unfortunately, pressing that distinction subjugated an important fact: culturally speaking, New Orleans was totally, profoundly unique.

Houston has to reach out further to the folks from NOLA who are (probably) permanently transplanted for precisely that reason. The way of life in New Orleans wasn't superficial; it was bone-deep. Wiithout a major shift in how cities and communities perceive their new neighbors, the transition may fail.

Sunday's Times-Picayune ran an article and a series of vignettes describing the impact Houston is having on New Orleanians here, some of which were hopeful, and some that were not.

Do you know what this Houston Police officer is seeing, when he describes the New Orleans attitude?

"I've met three nice people from New Orleans," King said, "out of hundreds."

He said the difference between the hometown folks and the evacuees is in their demeanor.

"Their attitude is not something we're used to encountering," King said. "Most of them are -- I'm trying to think of a good word -- wiseasses. Yep, wiseasses."

Is he describing everybody? NO. However, Polimom doesn't think he's fantasizing, either. I've encountered that attitude myself - many times. He’s talking about something the New Orleans Police Department understands well: an incredible disconnect between law enforcement and/or authorities and the population they are sworn to serve. The NOPD knows this attitude intimately; it’s a large part of how they’ve ended up with their reputation.

Do we want to see the HPD go the same way? Hell no! But they will, if we don’t find a way to shift perceptions and help the evacuees integrate.

And what future do you see for these seven kids (story linked above)?

Fondren Middle School is 27 blocks from her apartment — too far, she says, to send the children walking in an unfamiliar city. Powell, who dropped out of school in the 11th grade, knows the children have to return to school, especially her oldest daughter, Brittany. "She's a bright girl."

They tell her they want to go back.

"I want for them to finish school and educate themselves as much as they can so they'll be able to handle their things," Powell said of her own children, Brittany, 13; Brione, 11; and Brishawn, 7; her nieces, Jhoqueal, 16, who is three months pregnant; Bionne, 14; Deiondrea, 12; and nephew Myron, 2.

Those kids have already been out of school for FIVE MONTHS! They came from a school system that failed its children so miserably, they are way behind their peers. Do you suppose they are going to be able to provide for themselves, or get good jobs, or even finish school?

Guess what? These kids – and 20,000 more – are likely to be part of the fabric of Houston’s tomorrow.

Houston is not New Orleans – and that's both good and bad.

The good? We have excellent schools in the area, tremendous employment opportunities, affordable housing, and genuinely warm people.

On the bad side, we are not a walking city, and we are transitory. People here move around. A lot.

For a population without cars, education, job skills, and family networks, Houston must seem more than alien. It must feel hostile – and that unintended hostility is going to set this city up for failure unless we get in front of this now.

Last September, Houstonians absolutely redefined the terms generosity and neighborliness. They opened their hearts, wallets, and city right up to those in need, but at the time, nobody knew that this was a permanent situation. Everybody was thinking in terms of weeks, or a few months.

The evacuees are not going home tomorrow. They may not be leaving Houston this year – or next. In fact, many of the folks from New Orleans – perhaps most – are here to stay, and that alone is setting up further unintended problems. Because they don’t want to be here. They want to be back in New Orleans…. and they can’t.

What on earth are we going to do?

The Christ of Politics?

2006-02-12T17:44:00.000-06:00

Polimom laughed right out loud at the Italian Prime Minister for this one:

"I am the Jesus Christ of politics," Italian media quoted him as saying at a dinner with supporters on Saturday night. "I am a patient victim, I put up with everyone, I sacrifice myself for everyone."

It makes Ray Nagin's gaffe look pretty tame, eh?

What a dope.

Now, I'm sure good Christians all over the world could take Berlosconi the wrong way (and totally overlook the obviously warped ego). I sure hope we won't be reading about how the Italian embassies are being attacked...

Is fear winning?

2006-02-11T11:43:00.000-06:00

The Mohammed cartoon insanity has taken a turn in Sweden that is bothering Polimom enormously:

The Swedish government has moved to shut down the website of a far-right political party's newspaper over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

The site's host, Levonline, pulled the plug on the website of the Swedish Democrats' SD-Kuriren newspaper after consulting with the government.

It is believed to be the first time a Western government has intervened to block a publication in the growing row.

It seems that the Swedish government initially said that they didn't make specific demands of the ISP, but it looks to me as if they leaned on Levonline pretty hard. Evidently, Islam is pleased (and here).

Apparently - at least in Sweden - fear (not to be confused with respect) is winning out over freedom of the press.

Thanks, New Orleans

2006-02-11T08:46:00.000-06:00

I laughed til I cried at Markus’ latest West Bank Guide blog entry. Consider it a type of Mohammed-cartoon for New Orleans. If you don’t find something that offends you personally, or you can’t laugh at yourself yet, be sure to drop Mark a note; no doubt he’ll be glad to lampoon your group or area specifically.

For instance:

The bridges will no longer be called the Crescent City Connection, but will revert to the proper name, even though there are now two of them. If you don’t like the fact that New Orleans [is] in the name, why do you tell everyone when you’re out of town that you’re from New Orleans? You are not. You are from Marrero.

Yes indeed, Markus – I’m with you. I stumble all the time with that CCC thing. I suspect, however, that Gretna has finally managed to put themselves on the map. They should have no trouble at all these days with name recognition.

The King of the Ferries will greet every boat and bus arriving from the West Bank, and be empowered to conduct full strip and cavity searches of everyone arriving from over there, to make sure they are not the wrong sort of element.

I wanted to see if Markus would make an exception for Algiers with that strip and cavity search, but when I read this in NOLA.com this morning, I decided he probably had it right:

Algiers residents will hold a rally today to protest plans to establish a trailer park in their neighborhood that would house emergency officials and other residents displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

Between Algiers' NIMBY-mania, Jim Tucker's stance on the levee board unification, and Jeff Arnold's support for the traditional bajillion (sp?) assessors, Algiers isn't standing up well to the scrutiny. (Since I'm having a lot of trouble laughing at that just now, I'm hopeful Markus can come up with something...)

And finally - I think the suggestion for the School Board has real merit. They’d end up with an enormous cash surplus for a change, since there’s NO chance they’d ever agree on how to split it up amongst themselves.

The Orleans Parish School Board will be relieved of its responsibilities for public education, but the board members and all of their family member formerly employed by the school system will hold the rights to the concessions at all future Hornets games. They can divvy up the takings from the popcorn and cokes and beers anyway they like.

Thanks, Markus, for the laugh. I was having a lot of trouble finding anything “fun” out there in the world this morning…

Oh! And on behalf of Houston, I'd like to acknowledge your generous offering of those one-way bus tickets. I can’t promise, though, that we won’t reciprocate by sharing some of our own, locally-grown talent. Consider it a well-meaning cultural exchange that could have some real economic benefit.

Given the size of the Houston market, I'm thinking we could make up some "Thanks, New Orleans" bumper stickers, and donate a percentage of the proceeds to the police departments in both cities. Outta be good for millions of $!

[smile]

Ego no te absolvo

2006-02-10T05:42:00.000-06:00

It seems Donald Powell was feeling talkative at lunch in Baton Rouge Wednesday:

Louisiana must make do with the $6.2 billion in block grants authorized by Congress on all of its housing relief, and if it spends the money wisely more could follow, Don Powell, the former FDIC chairman overseeing the Gulf Coast recovery, said Wednesday.

Does that sound just a smidge paternalistic to anybody but Polimom?

Looks like they had quite the Q&A session, actually, and a lot of very good questions were asked - some of which he answered (although he couldn't explain where that "lot of money" is being spent). He did address an important one, though, that has confounded many people: Why did the White House stomp on the Baker Bill?

According to Powell, it’s because they feel that if you live in a flood plain, you should have had flood insurance.

Period.

Fifth District Savings and Loan Association chairman Michael Nolan asked Powell: If the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers failed in the levee design and construction to protect the city, why wouldn’t homeowners be made whole by the federal government?

“If a homeowner suffered damage because of a failure by a federal agency of government, why should they settle for less than 100 percent?” he said.

Powell answered that residents living in the flood plain should take responsibility for their own property.

“I have flood insurance for my home (in Amarillo, Texas) where it rains 17 inches a year,” said the wealthy former head of First National Bank of Amarillo. “Is that wasting my money? Yes maybe, but it’s responsible.”

As I said once before, I understand this. However, like the City-Journal, I don't see that the situation in New Orleans as quite so cut and dried:

But the moral-hazard issue here is not as clear-cut as it seems. New Orleans residents understood that their properties would flood sometimes, but not catastrophically; they thought, reasonably, that the levees designed and built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in response to previous floods would protect their homes. Those levees, of course, gave way after Katrina, due in part to failures on the part of the Corps as well as on the part of state and local officials, who were responsible for maintenance.

The article goes on to explain how the federal government could work with the Baker Bill, to create a scenario in which the homeowners themselves take on much of the responsibility:

Baker has shown himself willing to modify his bill in response to reasonable criticism, and the administration could help him perfect his plan by asking him to change it to place more financial responsibility for rebuilding flood-wrecked properties in the hands of exiled Big Easy homeowners. Such a move would join reasonable federal supervision with the power of the ownership society that President Bush rightly values.

[..]

Washington can pave the way for reconstruction by working with New Orleans to build adequate levees, of course. It should also work with local authorities to set out clear and non-negotiable reconstruction standards. No house will be issued a permit for occupancy unless its main living quarters are elevated enough from the ground to withstand future floods. Properties must be built to wind- and flood-resistant standards, as has happened in vulnerable areas of Florida.

But evidently the feds aren't interested. They have absolved themselves.

Taking responsibility for the enormous damage in New Orleans is, I think, a two-way street. Yes, many people did not have adequate flood insurance. To balance that, the Army Corps of Engineers did not build adequate protection.

Polimom isn't ready to say "Te absolvo" for the sin of the failed levees.

Has the non-stop blame-gaming that we've seen since August 29 contributed to this sullen "not my problem" on the part of the feds? I dunno.

Was pushing for 100% compensation what ticked them off? I dunno.

Is there anything that will bring the two sides together in a shared way, so that New Orleanians can find their way out of the tunnel?

Sigh.... I dunno.

This was an option?

2006-02-09T19:28:00.000-06:00

Was this actually under serious consideration someplace??????

Sheehan won't challenge Feinstein for Senate

That poor woman hasn't had all her tools in the mental shed for quite a while. I have to tell ya, just the headline blew me away.

Is this what you want, Algiers?

2006-02-09T06:52:00.000-06:00

UPDATE 12:15pm: Some info in the comments...

Once upon a Katrina time, Polimom’s lens was focused tightly on Algiers – the largely unflooded portion of Orleans Parish that lies across the river from Greater New Orleans. It’s been months since I’ve spoken directly to all those folks, and I don’t know how many of Polimom’s old friends still visit here regularly.

This morning, though, Polimom’s thinking hard about Algiers again – and I have a question:

Did Representatives Arnold and Tucker head off to Baton Rouge this week with your input regarding a unified levee board? Did you ask them to resist?

Polimom is not attacking Algiers; I'm sincerely concerned, because there's a lot at stake.

Polimom has a “here we go again” feeling in the pit of her stomach when she reads:

Levee board consolidation bill passes out of committee while Senators maintain its death

The legislation has been strongly opposed by some West Bank elected officials, who say their constituents are in a different flood basin and are better served by a separate board.

The legislative representatives are purportedly speaking for their constituents on the West Bank, which should mean that West Bank residents agree that their communities cannot be served by a unified levee board. Is that true?

Because this is not a small issue. People everywhere are watching to see whether Louisiana (generally) and the New Orleans area (specifically) can work together, or are doomed to be at cross-purposes forever. The New York Times spelled it out clearly this morning:

This week the State Legislature convened its second special session on Hurricane Katrina. Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco and the Legislature had a chance to reform the system at the special session in November, but the governor backed a weaker oversight measure that failed to pass.

That cannot happen again. This time they must overcome rivalries for the greater good. Storms do not pay attention to parish lines, and neither should the system to defend against them. While much of the blame for the failures of the defense system falls at the feet of the Army Corps of Engineers, Louisiana should focus on what it can do to improve organization and accountability on its end.

If you’re still out there reading Polimom, Algiers, could you talk to me about this for a sec? Are your elected officials truly articulating your views on the unification of the levee boards?

Fear is not Respect

2006-02-08T13:23:00.000-06:00

It seems someone has come up with a few more caricatures of Mohammed, and at least one of them sounds pretty funny (although Chirac is not amused):

Besides reprinting the drawings, the satirical French weekly Charlie-Hebdo also printed new caricatures of its own, including one under the headline "Muhammad Overwhelmed by the Fundamentalists" that showed the prophet with his head in his hands, remarking, "It's hard to be loved by idiots."

Indeed. If Islam is truly a religion of peace, as moderates say, then Mohammed must be rolling around in sheer agony at these grotesque displays… and frankly, Polimom has a great deal of sadness for those moderates. They, too, must be absolutely aghast – not just at the outrageous antics of their fellow (but evidently far less civilized) Muslims, but also to be watching years of work toward promoting understanding going right down the drain.

Of course, if one read the editorial in today’s Washington Post, one might have concluded that the original publication of 12 Mohammed caricatures is the work of right-wingers (those devious, bigoted Danes!).

The cartoons, whose vulgarity and offensiveness are beyond question, were published as a calculated insult last September by a right-wing newspaper in a country where bigotry toward the minority Muslim population is a major, if frequently unacknowledged, problem. The Danish government depends for support in Parliament on a far-right populist party with an anti-immigrant agenda: Maybe that's why Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen arrogantly refused to meet with ambassadors from Muslim countries last fall, when the controversy might have been defused.

Yet Charlie-Hebdo is known to be very much on the left.

What Polimom cannot understand anymore is, what are these violent, rioting maniacs hoping to achieve? Is it respect? If it is, then they are failing miserably.

Polimom wanted to find the latest cartoon (the one with the humorous description) so I could show you (like last week), but I'm embarassed to say I've decided not to… but this is not out of respect.

It is because I find that I’m afraid.

I, an American, with a lowly blog and freedoms granted by the Constitution of the United States, am afraid to post a cartoon.

There’s something very wrong with this picture.

UPDATE: Michelle Malkin has a post about the Lying Imams.

The tail of the sick dog

2006-02-08T09:34:00.000-06:00

Polimom is disappointed this morning by the oh-so-fleeting sense of unity in the Louisiana legislative session. One would think that well over 50,000 signatures would send some signal to elected representatives; surely at least a hint of public sentiment should have come through.

The administration rolled out a long list of supporters for the Boasso bills, including the Public Affairs Research Council, the Council for a Better Louisiana, the Louisiana Association for Business and Industry, the Louisiana Home Builders Association, the Business Council of New Orleans and the River Region and the Jefferson Business Council. A grass-roots group called Citizens for 1 Greater New Orleans had collected 52,959 signatures supporting a levee overhaul like Boasso's.

I understand the skepticism coming from the West Bank, and while I agree that historically, Algiers has indeed been the tail on the Orleans Parish dog, wagging that tail right now is counter-productive in the extreme… or hasn’t anyone noticed that the dog is very, very ill at the moment?

"Our constituents don't want to go into a regional board that may not pay attention to the West Bank," said Rep. Jim Tucker, R-Algiers, who submitted House Bill 25 to create a West Bank board called the Barataria Basin Flood Authority. "We remember what it was to be the tail on the dog and we don't want to go back to being a tail on the dog."

In life, one picks the battles. Is this the hill upon which Louisiana chooses to die fighting?

C’mon. Surprise everybody and pull together for a change.

Crazier and crazier

2006-02-07T09:04:00.000-06:00

Just when you thought it couldn't get any wierder:

The West's publication of the Prophet Muhammad cartoons was an Israeli conspiracy motivated by anger over Hamas' win in the Palestinian elections, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Polimom sources say that NASA has intercepted a mysterious inter-galactic transmission:

"Maybe we should have waited a while for this experiment..."

In other news, while neo-Nazis seemed initially supportive of Iran's bizarre attacks on Israel and the Holocaust, they are angered by the demeaning images of Hitler in bed with Anne Frank, and have vowed to kill the Hindus in protest. In a public statement, the leader of one of the more prominent radical factions (who requested to remain anonymous) said:

"We don't like them, either."

Sigh...