New Orleans — our own little Baghdad USA

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  1. Nagin is the wrong man at the wrong time in the wrong place – that much is certain. It’s less certain than anyone could make a difference in N.O. so long as the city is governed according to “peace time” rules.
    It’s also uncertain whether or not N.O. shouldn’t have been razed to the ground; it’s a dubious claim to say that it will be worth the expense.

  2. …and without invasive and massive intervention, I don’t know what will stop this.

    If we do decide to invade, may I suggest that we find a more competent executioner for Ray Nagin’s hanging?
    ~EdT.

  3. Hey, just a thought… are the troops going to need a deck of cards to help them ID the main scoundrels in NOLA when they go in? If so, maybe someone can get a contract to sell them on the civilian market, with the proceeds going to rebuilding NOLA (or at least resettling whoever is left.)
    Of course, I don’t know how useful such a deck of cards would be, since the only possible value for all these folks would be the JOKER…
    ~EdT.

  4. Ed — massive intervention under the direction of this particular commander in chief would hardly help in New Orleans… though I very much appreciate the attempt at humor, my friend, because I’m quite beside myself with worry.
    Slate (who I quoted above) has it right, I think: there is perhaps no way to reclaim the lives of some of these insane young people with guns. They’re lost to us. However, I don’t — can’t — accept that nothing can save the city somehow… but unless they replace Nagin, and Riley, and Jordan (the DA), I really don’t know what the answer is.
    I’m sick.
    And I’m not the only one who thinks this same old song and dance ain’t gonna be enough, as this poll running on NOLA.com shows (link).  As I post this, it’s running at nearly 86% “no”.

  5. There are actually more olice per capita now than before the storm. Of course every time I see them they are either harassig someone nonthreatening or sitting in their police cars readingthe paper and surfing the web. This has, to the observant gotten noticably worse since the Danziger 7 drama began. The NOPD (Not Our Problem Dude) and the DA’s (First word is Dumb, second word unprintable due to commenting policies) are all wrapped up in an adversarial realtionship. Meanwhile the ship continues to go unhelmed as C. Ray (Not Lately) does the worst impersonation of a mayor I’ve seen since Marion Barry got busted for crack.
    The Fight goes on. Ijust want to know why we have to fight our supposed leaders… BTW, I like many I know that were actually here in NOLA, voted for Landrieu.

  6. Loki — that police per capita thing is very strange. From Nagin to the NY Times, everybody’s repeating that same ole thing: “trying to get the NOPD back up to pre-storm numbers”, and that’s hogwash. Why isn’t anybody in the MSM calling them on this? Other than me, and now your comment, I’ve seen little or nothing.
    I’m so sorry, Loki, that things are going this way. I really, truly am.

  7. It is common knowledge here (the per capita thing) and we are going t push it into the public consciousness if we can.It very hard when most of the country seems shocke a the idea that we are not back to normal here. Thank you SO much for being one of the exceptions. Drinks on me if you ever make it down!
    I did want to comment on one ther thing, the idea of a curfew. On the surface it seems a spiffy idea, but none of the crime perpetrated would ahve been affected in the least by one. Really it is more like punishing a child because he got beaten up by the neighborhood bully.
    I will be posting a lot more on this soon on my own blog…

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