Fake Games Are Over

Impressions:

• Bush is good. Try not to break him.


• Drew Brees does all the little things that Aaron Brooks never bothered to learn. He makes good decisions. He avoids sacks by feeling his way in the pocket instead of freaking out and bailing. He doesn't drop the ball behind his own head while setting up to throw. On the other hand he is a bit short isn't he? And I still don't think that shoulder will make it through the season.


• Which brings us to the backup QBs. Jamie Martin seems to know what he's doing but he can't carry your team for an extended period if asked to do so. Didn't we know that Todd Bouman was erratic already? Wouldn't it have been more fun to watch Bruce "The Chunky QB" Eugene show us what he can do in the 4th quarter of these pre-season games? I hope they keep MacPherson. Damn you, T-rac!


• Menckles on new coach Sean Payton: "I don't like him. He's got soupy eyes."


• Deuce McAllister has lost some weight and it shows. He looks quicker. If I thought his knee were 100% I'd say this could be a big year for him.


• Of course.. he'll have trouble running behind that O-line. Outside of tonight's game, they haven't even approached competence.


• This year's defense will be known as "The Levee" because it proves spectacularly useless in slowing an opposing surge.


• Add my voice to the chorus of those lamenting the loss of Fred McAfee. Cutting Fast Freddie was a big mistake. I'd like to hope that the same thing won't happen to Michael Lewis but the writing is on the wall there.... which is bad because Jamal Jones looks shaky fielding kicks.


• Already looking at Marques Colston as the find of the draft. Unlike Donte Stallworth, who he replaced, he's a big physical receiver who adjusts well to the ball... oh and he also catches it... something else Donte had trouble with.


• Prediction: SI's Peter King says the absolute best case scenario the Saints can hope for this year is 8-8. I'll buy that. Saints fans know better than to expect best case scenarios. Put aside the emotional investment a city returning from the brink has in seeing the team return to the Dome this fall. There are enough football reasons to believe that this will be a fun team to watch this year. At the same time, that defense is just plain terrible. Look for the 2006 Saints to be remembered as the most beloved 5 win team in NFL history.

One Year Ago Today

MLK Branch underwater.

President's Reading List

Here it is

It's ek-a-lek-tik

Alexander II: The Last Great Tsar by Edvard Radzinsky

American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin (a biography of Robert Oppenheimer, an inventor of the atomic bomb)

Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero by David Maraniss (about the late all-star Pittsburgh Pirates right fielder)

Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power by Richard Carwardine

Lincoln's Greatest Speech: The Second Inaugural by Ronald C. White Jr.

Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday

Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women by Geraldine Brooks

Polio: An American Story by David Oshinsky (discussing how polio affected the United States in the mid-20th century)

The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth by Leigh Montville

The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History by John M. Barry

Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky

The Stranger by Albert Camus

I read Barry's book back in January. It is highly critical of a super-secretive propaganda obsessed US wartime government. Makes you wonder.

My own reading list seems to growing again... but I've been told I'm supposed to read Mile Zero by Thomas Sanchez before I can get moving on it. Can anyone recommend anything else on the ek-a-lek-tik list?

Aaron Brooks: Turdblossom

Via Maitri

This should give you a good idea of why AB failed in New Orleans. Emotional immaturity.

Brooks said even all the coverage from newspapers and television stations doing retrospectives and stories on the rebuilding effort along the Gulf Coast hasn't led him to think about what he and his teammates went through at this time last season.

"No because I'm not from New Orleans," he said. "New Orleans was my place of residency for six years during the season, but I only worked there. I'm not a New Orleans native, I'm from Virginia. So I just worked there. It was a job and I have a new job. And I'm very excited about being here and I look forward to doing some wonderful things here. ... I don't even try to go back. I don't even talk about it."

Jesus, Aaron, it wasn't about you! The man cannot even empathize with what his fellow spoiled athletes were going through last year much less the plight of a city he called home place of employment for SIX years because, you know, he's not FROM HERE! Wow. What a frickin baby. Good luck, Oakland. Don't expect too much sympathy when that big earthquake comes.

After When the Levees Broke

As I said earlier... today was hard. For a while yesterday we thought that maybe the city would close its offices for the day in observance of... you know. We spent the entire day waiting for the call to come. It didn't come. We spent today going through the motions.. our minds miles (and a year) away. The internets were full of images... startling... hearbreaking images. The mayor played preacher during today's interfaith service. It sounded hollow. The President said.. something... but whatever it was America was listening to some vaccuous TV bimbo talk over it.

I emailed my mom to say I love you. Dad emailed me some hair-brained disaster-proof homebuilding scheme of his. Daisy emailed me from San Jose.. it made me sad. Consuela called me from Memphis... she wanted help with her homework. I invited r over for dinner. She couldn't make it.

I spent this evening cooking a big Louisiana seafood gumbo. When faced with unpleasantries some people do yoga.. or Tai Chi.. or say the Rosary... or run for mayor. I cook. It helped. Well maybe the eight Restoration Ales helped as well but at least I felt like I had done something worthwhile afterwards.

Tonight I watched Spike Lee's When the Levees Broke. Here's what I observed:

Spike put a whole bunch of people on TV.. some you know.. some you don't... some you like... some you don't. Some people you like say things you like.. some people you don't like say things you like.. some people you like say things you don't like.... some black... some white.. MANY from St Bernard and from Gentilly and from Lakeview and from Uptown, and yes MANY from Lower Nine... but there is an obvious sense of family here. Everyone is talking about their home.. our home.. and it's something they all care about passionately and you share that with them.

And they tell you why they care.. and the reasons they care are the reasons you care. The reasons they are angry are largely the reasons you are angry. The issues they push (federal culpability for flood protection, coastal restoration, oil lease revenue sharing, right of return) are the issues you care about.

And they tell you why New Orleans is different.. why, if lost, it cannot possibly be recovered.

In short, this movie speaks to New Orleans, about New Orleans in the voices of New Orleanians. Watching this film on the anniversary Katrina is the best decision I could have made today. Spike Lee has my gratitude.

I came away from When the Levees Broke having learned one thing above all else and that thing is T-P's DAVE WALKER IS A FUCKING WANKER. Thank God my life doesn't revolve around reliable media criticism.

Are we ok?

I have to admit it's really hard today. Would have been nice to have the day off.

Don't miss this NOLA.com then and now gallery.

Watch Spike's film tonight.

Be safe.

Try to be ok.

Where were you?

One year ago tonight I was contraflowing through the state of Mississippi with only a few days clothes and a woman I hardly knew at the time trying to find a place to stay in Hattiesburg, then Meridian, then... anywhere.. until we finally crashed in a red cross shelter in Tuscaloosa, Alabama around 2:00 AM or so. When I went to sleep on the floor of that gym I was far too exhausted to worry. I had no idea it would be October before I was allowed to return home. Moreover, I had no inkling of just how much of my home would be changed forever. When I returned, one of my first tasks was to enter the flooded library branches in search of salvageable materials.. and personal items requested by various staff members. Branch libraries often reflect the character and vitality of the neighborhoods they serve. When a neighborhood suffers, its library reflects that suffering as well. A year after Katrina, these six libraries, still shuttered, continue to provide a window to what is still missing in New Orleans

Robert E Smith Regional ...... Lakeview

Norman Mayer Branch ...... Gentilly

Rosa Keller Branch ...... Broadmoor

Nora Navra Branch ...... Seventh Ward

East New Orleans Regional Branch ...... East New Orleans

Martin Luther King Branch ...... Lower Ninth Ward

Pass the "Stallpepper"

The Saints have apparently traded Donte Stallworth for Mark Simoneau and a 4th rounder. Let's hope this doesn't shake out to be another disappointing hoax.

Things I learned at Rising Tide

1) Talented and motivated individuals with only a few summer months to work with can indeed pull off an engaging day of meaningful discussion fun and food worthy of the sacrifice of one's Saturday.

2) The after party was worth missing the Saints game.

3) There is indeed some substance to the theories about the disconnect between the news and op-ed departments at the Wall Street Journal.

3-b) Buy Chris Cooper and Robert Block's Disaster: Hurricane Katrina and the Failure of Homeland Security in fact buy two so you can use one as a hood ornament or Christmas tree topper.

4)Something very much like the Burr Conspiracy is alive and well in Louisiana.. mostly in the person of Shane Landry.

5) Dangerblond knows how to make an exit. Video available here.

6) According to Ray, Da Po'Boy is actually..... Peggy Wilson!

7) We need to this again soon.

How is Hillary Clinton exactly like Richard Nixon

Matt Taibbi explains

The Iraq war has surely produced many landmark moments in the history of American cynicism -- Bob Ney storming the House cafeteria to crusade against French fries before jetting off to a Scottish golf junket with Jack Abramoff is a particular favorite of mine -- but no one in the whole course of this conflict, not even George Bush, has yet sunk as low as Hillary's Democrats are sinking now. They're making a conscious effort to try to cash in politically on the Iraq catastrophe without making any admission of culpability or responsibility, hoping to limp across the finish line first in the midterm elections with nothing but a semantic absurdity -- for the invasion, against its "execution" -- for a war policy.

Read the whole thing.

Getting Desperate

Not a good sign

The New Orleans Saints have acquired LB Scott Shanle from the Dallas Cowboys for an undisclosed draft pick in the 2007 NFL Draft. Entering his fourth season, Shanle has been one of the Cowboys' top special teams performers since joining the club in 2004 and has also started 11 of 37 games in his career. The trade is pending the player passing a physical.

Shanle (6-1, 240) opened eight of 15 contests in 2005 and had 50 tackles and 1.5 sacks. In 2004, he finished fourth on the special teams units with 15 stops and recorded 26 tackles as a starter over the final three games of the season.

If you're still looking for players at this point, you're not in good shape. And you certainly aren't going to acquire any quality without giving up something other than future low draft picks. They could still shop Donte Stallworth around... but his value seems to diminish daily. Ashley Lelie, another reciever drafted in the same year as Donte, was traded to the Falcons earlier today.

I swore I'd never do this

I'm using my personal website (pictures make that link load funny.. scroll down to see disclaimer) to promote a library event. If you have nothing going on this morning you can see the Charmaine Neville band at the Nix branch (Carrollton & Willow) in about an hour from now.

Happy Blog Day

Yup it's been three years since I let my daily emailing to everyone I know of news stories that pissed me off finally evolve into this stupid Aol Journal and ultimately to the yellow monstrosity you see here. Unlike some of the truly talented individuals who comprise the NOLA blogosphere, I harbor no illusions that anything produced here amounts to any sort of journalistic service. Instead it's just evidence that I, like many other internet users and conusmers of news, have learned that the news is slightly more entertaining when you can kind of holler back at it a little. Incidetally, lots of stuff has happened in the three years that I've been hollering. We've seen and learned a few things. We've seen a failed attempt to bring about meaningful regime change in America. We've seen the Boston Red Sox win the World Series. Yup that happened! We've learned that literacy advocate Aaron Brooks makes public appearances in his pajamas. We've learned that our 30's suck every bit as much as our 20's. We've learned not to trust Daisy with our library card. We've become familiar with the dark underbelly of life in the slums. We've learned that some mornings bring truly awful books to our attention. We've learned that viable music criticism necessitates gratuitous use of the word "fuck". We've learned that we never want to become a public school principal. We've learned that skookses float. We've seen what happens when the world very nearly ends. And, of course, we've seen what happens when it actually does.

But I think, above all else, we have learned that Chris Rose is an enormous douchebag!

But don't take my word for it, dear victim... I mean.. reader. Just take a look at some of the feedback this site has generated over the years.

• "Fun read...Militant librarian" Dangerblond
• "Blatant disregard for everything" Daisy
• "Yellow ocean of ingratitude" Oyster
• "A fun and gentle site" Kate J

Here's to continued useless inanity. See you around.

Your Weekly Gambit Preview

This week's Gambit (not yet available online) features an interview with Mike Tidwell, whose new book The Ravaging Tide Strange Weather Future Katrinas and the Coming Death of America's Coastal Cities predicts that American coastal cities from Miami to Baltimore will soon face flood control problems similar to those of New Orleans due to rising sea levels and soil subsidence.

Coincidentally I have recently picked up Tidwell's Bayou Farewell: The Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana's Cajun Coast (2003) in which the author visits the Louisiana bayous with a mind toward writing a travel/adventure article and comes away having written an engaging account of Louisiana's problem of rapid coastal erosion and the threat it poses to the entire region's way of life. I plugged Bayou Farewell the other day in resonse to this YRHT post to which Greg Peters responds

Jeffrey: Tidwell has gone around the bend lately. He's recommended that NOLA be abandoned and claims that the NWS prediction of a less-busy-than-last-year hurricane season this year is the result of a secret government conspiracy. Whee.

This would be unfortunate.. but I don't see Tidwell arguing that the city be abandoned in the Gambit piece.. or on his website. And the farthest I can find him going into "government conspiracy" territory is criticism of the Bush Administration's shameful downplaying of the evidence for global warming.. as well as its effects on tropical weather. I'm not saying I don't believe Greg. I think he may be referring to this LA Times OP-Ed where Tidwell lays out the choice, either fund coastal restoration and flood protection in Louisiana or abandon the city... which is sadly closer to reality than hyperbole.

Also in this week's Gambit: Greg's two-page Katrina anniversary cartoon which, in his usual dark and biting idiom, is one of his best.

Broken Levees

Schroeder has started the inevitable discussion. I'm reposting my comments below:

From what I've seen and heard of Spike on the subject, it seems that his intention was to let his subjects speak for themselves. Not having seen the film, I deduce from that the interviews are going to be all over the map with some (perhaps many) people saying nutty stuff absent of any editorial correction. I'm okay with that. I want to see this movie.

Secondly, I'm certain I don't need to tell any of you that the existence of the "myth of the dynamite" true or not speaks volumes about the history of the well earned suspsicion of the powerful by the powerless.

We've all read Rising Tide so I don't have to repeat to any of you that there was at one time an actual conspiracy by the powerful to sacrifice the powerless by dynamiting levees.

I don't believe the industrial canal levee was dynamited. But I also don't believe that it would not have been if those with the means to so believed they would benefit from it.

The fact that the myth exists says something relevant about the context of New Orleans and its history. I don't have a problem with its inclusion in a film.. particularly given the film's format.

I may change my mind when I see it. I don't think I will.

You might have guessed

That I'm still too busy to do much posting today so consider this a friendly hello.. with notes.

This weekend:

1) Consuela's birthday. Consuela is still Katrinaed to Memphis. Lets hope there's room to party there.

2) I'd like to attend the Alternative Media Expo and Geek Dinner 2.. but suspect I will have time for neither... or just one. We'll see.

Further notes:

1) August 21 marks three years of this particular yellow internet tube you are currently reading. I may do some obligatory navel gazing at that point.

2) The quote nobody got from a below post is from an obscure apparently Devo-inspired GBV outtake called Phase IV: The Rise of the Ants which appears on Suitcase 2: American Superdream Wow.

Final Question:

During the past few weeks, increasing numbers of people have been coming to the library with this agenda: "I just moved to town and need to get a library card." Where are these people coming from? Furthermore with so many displaced and unable to return why are they able to move here? (they all are moving to Orleans parish) Further-furthermore these people all are of the upper-middle class white professional type. What are they coming here for and is this not evidence that the city is indeed becoming gentrified and ethnically cleansed?

Not much time to update

Too much worky type work. I'll try to be back by the end of the week. Meanwhile keep an eye on these upcoming events.

Alt Media Expo: August 19 Howling Wolf

Rising Tide Conference: Visit the site. Check out the cool artwork. Register. Participate.

Please Raise the Flag of Disaster

Rising of the..

A press release:

Rising Tide NOLA Bloggers Conference

The Rising Tide Conference on Saturday, Aug. 26 2006 at the New Orleans Yacht Club will be a gathering for all who wish to learn more and do more to assist New Orleans' recovery from the aftermath of the natural disasters of both Hurricane Katrina and Rita, the manmade disaster of the levee and floodwall collapses, and the incompetence of government on all levels.

Keynote speakers will be Christopher Cooper and Robert Block, authors of Disaster: Hurricane Katrina and the Failure of Homeland Security. Other featured guests include Jon Donley, editor of NOLA.Com on the Journalists and Bloggers panel, and Michael DuPlantier, Shane Landry and Peggy Wilson on the Blogging New Orleans Politics forum.

We will come together to dispel myths, promote facts, share personal testimonies, highlight progress and regress, discuss recovery ideas, and promote sound policies at all levels. We aim to be a "real life" demonstration of internet activism as the nation prepares to mark the one year anniversary of a massive natural disaster followed by governmental failures on a similar scale.

Official Schedule

Saturday, August 26th
WHERE: New Orleans Yacht Club, 403 N. Roadway St., New Orleans, LA

8:00 - 9:00: Keynote Address: Christopher Cooper and Robert Bloch, authors of Disaster: Hurricane Katrina and the Failure of Homeland Security.

9:15 - 10:15: Panel Discussion: Personal Viewpoints moderated by Mark Moseley

10:30 - 11:30: Think New Orleans by Alan Gutierrez

11:30 - 1:00: LUNCH (possible viewing of Katrina-related films)

1:00 - 2:00: Panel Discussion: New Orleans Politics moderated by Peter Athas

2:15 - 3:15: Panel Discussion: Influence of Journalists and Bloggers moderated by Maitri Venkat-Ramani and Mark Folse

3:30 - 4:30: Panel Discussion: Bloggers & Neighborhood Associations moderated by Morwen Madrigal and Peter Athas

4:30 - 5:30: Mixer and cash bar.

No you will NOT get the reference in the title. I DARE you to even TRY

Your Weekly Gambit Preview

Since, on Monday mornings, this week's Gambit exists only in the archaic print form I cannot yet link to its articles.. raising the question If trees were felled to produce a Clancy Dubos column, and it isn't posted on the internet how do we know those trees ever existed at all?

Actually it is Clancy's column I'd like to draw attention to this morning because

1) It is titled Don't Count Jeff Out which is a sentiment we can all share.

2) The argument is basically that Bill Jefferson has a very good chance of being reelected to his House seat. Which I think is probable.

3) I think Clancy might be reading some of our blogs these days. For example.. the following excerpt.

Yep, having lots of opposition actually plays into Dollar Bill's hands - as far as his re-election prospects are concerned.

Now maybe Clancy has used this nickname before and I just missed it... but I could have sworn that it orginated here.

Any thoughts? Oh and hi, Clancy... You only bug me a little bit.

Out for the weekend

Coming soon.. internet at home. No one will be safe. Until then, all questions and complaints go to Raul.

Oh and also to Farney.

Notable

Last night on the RI forum, "sunny" wondered "So, if the plot was foiled, why was the terror alert raised? That in itself tells me everything I need to know."

link

Better yet... coming soon to theaters.

If ever there was a reason to stop voting Republican

Just remember, New Orleans, it enables these fuckers who hate you enough to go on TV and call you "potential terrorists"

via World Class

Update: Don't miss Michael's graphic take which perfectly captures the paranoid zietgeist.

A good reason to steal HBO

I have a feeling Spike Lee's Katrina film is going to be really really good.... despite the NYT reviewer's unfortunate descent into cliche. Regardless of your opinion of Spike, try to keep an open mind about this film. My impression is that he really gets it.

Lee interviewed more than 100 local newsmakers and citizens for the project, and he said he learned something about us from them.

"What I was really amazed by was the spirit of the people of New Orleans," he said, during a recent meeting with TV critics in Los Angeles. "We know that there are people that aren't coming back, but the majority of them are going to stick it out. And we interviewed so many people who said, 'I was born here. I'm going to die here.' And they mean that.

"Another thing I found amazing was the humor. Even though all the stuff they'd gone through, there were still many times where the stuff they were saying had the crew dying laughing. I know it might seem like it's gallows humor, but just the spirit of the people -- I think that's what makes New Orleans the most unique city in America.

"And that's tough for me to say, being from New York. But I got to give it up. New Orleans does hold that distinction. And you see it in the people."

I could be wrong. It might suck. I don't think I'm wrong though.

Breeswatch '06: Fake Game #1

How many hits will Drew Brees's surgically repaired shoulder be able to take before it comes apart permanently? We'll get our first look Saturday. I think I posted a poll on this back in the spring. Voting is still open.

Also... there is a really good piece on nfl.com on the symbolic importance of the Saints' return. I continue to expect two things this year 1) A truly enjoyable and renewing football season for New Orleans. 2) 3-5 wins.

Killing the internets

Call Mary and Vitty. Get them to stop DOPA or library patrons and students everywhere will lose the ability to use any net resource the "enables communication among users." Included in this would be... blogs, email, Amazon, e-bay... pretty much anything on the internet that is actually useful.

Yes it has already passed the House. Yes this is a big deal.

P. S. I am not a crackpot

Let's review the sequence of events:

1) Leading Democrat is toppled as anger against war shakes up party

2) Rove Offers Help to Lieberman

3) Bush says U.S. still at risk of attack

Message: "Vote against the imperial war, and we won't let you take your soda and hairspray on the plane anymore" Or something like that... In any event I hardly think that it's going to far to say that today's sudden return of the terror alert system is unrelated to the coming election season.

Geek's Progress

The Rising Tide event schedule is looking like something to see. You guys rock.

Nightmarish

Yes I did see this! Not on white linen night... just some day recently while ambling around the quarter. I had blocked it from my memory.. but yes.. it does exist.

Did you do White Linen Night? If so, perhaps you happened to mozy down to the Quarter to the Egan Hand Gallery where "personal photographer" to Mayor Nagin, Bernardo Wade, held an exhibition of photographs taken of our illustrious mayor during the Katrina crisis...exhibit or homage, it's hard to tell.

Hundreds of little C Rays adorning every surface of the room. Really really super freaking creepy. Thanks for helping me recover that memory.

Oh and there is also some actual substance to that Dambala post so check it out.

Term of the day: "Carpet-Blogger"

Credit for that goes to Maitri in this thread.

Oh yeah... it's that much of a hot-button issue don't miss this discussion either.

Or this one.

Or, if you like, this one.

Must be election season

U.K. Foils Plan to Bomb Planes; Terror Alert Raised

Today's note to the T-P

Want to improve the reporting over there in a hurry? Get somebody to hire Dambala and David and put them on the municipal affairs beat.

Oh and Michael as a graphic artist.

Echo Chamber Time

Just to keep it in circulation, I'm linking to Schroeder's excellent Where's Ray Ray? post. Everything you want to know about what's going wrong in New Orleans is there.

Story Time this morning

One of my goofier duties. (Click here for the only surviving photographic evidence of such activity from pre-K times) Here's what we're planning this morning.

Click Clack Moo Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin
Cows acquire a typewriter use it to express greivances to farm management touching off a brief labor relations crisis.

Duck On A Bike David Shannon
Another farm-themed tale. Duck steals a bike goes around showing it off and making all the other animals jealous inspiring them to emulate his liscentious thievery resulting in a farm-wide bicycle riot.

How I Became Champion of the Universe Kenny Harrison
Epic tale of interstellar sporting triumph.

Thought of the Day

Mr. Melpomene:

All of this yuppie utopian elitist blather about urban planning is a distraction from the bigger issues -- everyone now knows where the high ground in the city, just look for the waterline.

Read the post. I think he's on to something

T-P

If you intend to spend half of your feature article debating the merits of measuring population change through post-office change-of-address filings, the headline New "Population Statistics Gloomy" doesn't quite capture the essence of the article does it? No it actually reads more like an endorsement of numbers which the article itself begrudgingly points out are questionable at best. Maybe you meant something like "Collecting Reliable Population Statistics A Gloomy Business To Be At Due To The Inexactness Of Measuring A Population Which Remains Largely In Flux" But maybe you just ran out of space. You might have said "Population Difficult to Measure" but that might not have come as close to reality as "T-P Misleadingly Edited."

New Weekly Must-Read

Matt Taibbi has a new online column in Rolling Stone. Word of advice, pay attention.

Zero Tolerance for Douchebaggery

The following Saints players should be cut immediately:

• Mike Karney
• Zach Hilton
• Donte Stallworth

Why, you ask?

That's it for me for the weekend. Any complaints or questions between now and Monday should go directly to my brother Raul.

Thanks, Houston

Many of the kids who have been hanging around the library this summer are going back to school in Texas this fall. Thus we have noted that the "superior" Texas public schools compile summer reading book lists that prominently feature the Left Behind Kids series.

Terror Tactics

The obscene score-card for death in this latest war now stands as follows: 508 Lebanese civilians, 46 Hizbollah guerrillas, 26 Lebanese soldiers, 36 Israeli soldiers and 19 Israeli civilians.

In other words, Hizbollah is killing more Israeli soldiers than civilians and the Israelis are killing far more Lebanese civilians than they are guerrillas. The Lebanese Red Cross has found 40 more civilian dead in the south of the country in the past two days, many of them with wounds suggesting they might have survived had medical help been available.

Link

More here

Attention NOLA geeks

Free idea.

I just noticed this on Americablog

It's an easy-to-use public-accessible internet crime database thingy for DC. I'm hardly the one to try.. but.. it seems like some of the folks on the blogroll here could put together a New Orleans version of this pretty easily.

Update: Looks like the source data for their site is not available for New Orleans.... but it should be.

Score one for NCAA

The organization once referred to by Dale Brown as "gestapo bastards" has stepped in to put a stop to LSU's offseason yogalates program. Lets hope they've acted in time to placate the football gods.

I don't like it

The ominously named and soon to be hurricane Chris appears to be taking a rather unfortunate track.

Chocolate Alert Status upgraded to:

Toblerone Bar

Wistful "Night Out" In

Adrastos has some neighborly photos from his 'hood's Night Out Against Crime event last night. For me it's yet another occasion to throw pre and post-Katrina New Orleans into high contrast.

I've lived on the edge of the "Triangle of Death" for six years now. Every year prior to this one, our neighbors on Carondolet street have hosted a popular block party on NOAC night. Lots of people.. free food... all that good stuff. In all these years, I've never participated. It seemed I always had other plans. Last year, for example, Consuela and I spent the evening taking in Rob Zombie's Devil's Rejects. (Reviewed by me here, BTW) On our way out to the car, one of the neighbors stopped us and invited us to join the party. As we were already close to being late for the movie, we had to decline.

After returning to the neighborhood this past October, I thought a lot about the opportunities I've missed to better know the neighbors. I've actually taken to sitting out on the sidewalk in a lawn chair with a book in the evenings in a stupid effort to... I don't know.. participate? Last night came and went and there were Night Out block parties all across the city. But not on our block. The hosts have moved away. Their old house is currently occupied by what looks to be ten or so itenerant laborers. You never know what you end up missing.

Official Lib-Chron Seemingly-Against-The-Grain Prediction of the Week

Your next US Senator from the State of Connecticut: Joe Lieberman

(Remains to be seen if he has to go indy to do it... but this feels like another example of the insular lefty blogging community overestimating their strength)

Media Event News Flash

The August Antigravity is available for download at the AG site here.. where the following announcement may also be viewed.

ANTIGRAVITY: Your New Orleans Music & Culture Alternative is proud to announce its ALTERNATIVE MEDIA EXPO is set for Saturday, August 19th at the Howlin' Wolf!

The AME is in its fifth edition (four twice-a-year events from 6/03-4/05 make up its previous rounds) and features over 50 exhibitors with 'zines, comics, films, handmade and original clothing, independent CDs and records, indie and grassroots organizations and much more!

The AME is sponsored by the Charitable Film Network, Dirty Coast, The New Orleans Craft Mafia and NOLAFugees.com. The first 250 attendees will receive a swag bag created by the Craft Mafia.

The special guest of the Expo is Treme-based writer Mat Schwarzman, author of The Beginner's Guide To Community-Based Arts.

The AME is modeled after national comic conventions, like San Diego's Comic-Con but more like San Francisco's Alternative Press Expo, but with other types of media included. The point of the Expo is to provide media makers an opportunity to network while exposing attendees to product and another things that mainstream media either ignores or doesn't properly cover.

When: Saturday, August 19th, 4pm-10pm
Where: The Howlin' Wolf (907 South Peters)
Cover: $5

Contact: Leo McGovern
E-Mail: leo@antigravitymagazine.com
Phone: 504.881.7508

All our exhibitors:

504 Whatstyle, Adornments by Draillia, ANTIGRAVITY, Ashe' Cultural Arts Center, Backporch Revolution, Blank The Plague, Bluecamp Arts, Caesar Meadows, Calamity's Ball, Cecelia Hopes, Chris Nicholas, Clothes Rock, Constance, Corey Sanders, Crossroads Project, daFa Fungus, Defend New Orleans, Dismantled Designs, Dirty Coast, Goldfish Jewelry Designs, Humid Beings, Impulss, Iron Rail Bookstore/Library, Itchy Stitches, Jazzy Knits, KK-NOLA, Kelly Baugh, Kick It Fashions, Kill Time Productions, Kina's Kreations, Kody Chamberlain, Live New Orleans, Les Moutons Roses, Mana Media, Media Underground Comics, Midnight Girl, Ms. Placed, New Orleans Filmmakers, New Orleans Network, New Orleans Voices For Peace, NOLA Fugees, NOLA Tonight, Penguin Productions, Reel Fellas, Rising Tide Blogger Conference, Rox, Shutter Magazine, Sigh Co., Spirit Of Humanity Festival, Tedd Walley, Thaddeus Conti, Timecode: NOLA, Toby Craig, Unique Products, Watermark

Hyperlinks added by me to things I've either seen before or have some vague idea about what they are... might have missed some... will correct later... maybe. Looks to be a good lineup.

Update: Chocolate Alert System Adjustment

In a development funny to only a handful of people, this one is called...

Tropical Storm Chris
August 01, 2006

As of early this morning, our 3rd named system of the season has developed near the Leeward Islands. Chris should continue a WNW track through the week, with some gradual strengthening expected.

The exact track over the next few days will be important, for if he takes more of a northerly track, staying north of the islands, he will have a better chance for staying in the Atlantic, while more of a southerly track into the Caribbean would make it more likely to move into the gulf.

His development will also be dependent on the track, for the islands of Hispanola and Puerto Rico can weaken it significantly. Something to watch closely over the next several days.

Chocolate Alert Level upgraded to

A Big Pot of Blue Chocolate