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In a story from Las Vegas, Mayor Ray Nagin of Dallas and New Orleans criticizes the media for “embellishment” of the news. That’s like the pot calling the kettle black. (No racial statement intended.) It was Nagin who shouted about tens of thousands were going to die after the flooding ended. It was Nagin who spouted out that babies were being raped in the Super Dome and that there had been numerous murders there. All of which turned out to be false.

Despite all the fallout and his “heartfelt” apologies for the Chocolate City speech, it appears that the mayor still doesn’t get it. It is said that it is best to keep one’s mouth shut and be thought a fool rather than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.

Finally, what’s with the mayor going to Las Vegas to attend a media forum?

C.B.

Uncategorized CB 8:00 am

Clancy DuBos in his column does an excellent job of showing how words can hurt — economically. Mayor Ray Nagin has hurt the economy of the city of New Orleans and will continue, his apologies notwithstanding, to hurt the city economically as long as he remains mayor.

The mayor is either two-faced or a liar. He has one position on issues before black groups and another before white groups. We can only assume that he has additional faces for brown and yellow citizens. In any case, there is no way that we can trust anything he says. Worse, there is no reason for anyone outside of the city to trust what he says. How can any non-black person possibly feel welcome in our city.

The damage to our economy will continue as long as Nagin is the mayor of the city. Unfortunately, it appears the damage to our city will be extended beyond the end of his term of office. By delaying the elections for blatantly political reasons, Governor Blanco and her lackey Secretary of State Al Ater have prevented us from replacing Nagin for a least a month beyond his term.

The best message that we can send to America and to those still in exile from the city is to knock Nagin out of the running for reelection in the April 22 Primary. Like Clancy, I don’t see Nagin doing the right thing and resigning. He hasn’t done one thing right since August 26, 2005.

Kudos to Clancy for saying what needs to be said and too few lack the courage to say.

C.B.

Uncategorized CB 8:00 am

Here are a few excepts from the AP’s Melinda Deslatte’s column:

Blanco keeps pointing out that Louisiana is estimated to have 70 percent of the damage of the two states.

Expectations also abound that Louisiana politicians won’t spend federal hurricane aid well and that corrupt officials will fritter it all away into their pockets and bank accounts rather than on recovery needs and Louisiana citizens.

Our well-deserved reputation still haunts us. Refurbishing the governor’s offices in the Capitol, spending money on government buildings while citizens remain homeless and displaced all across the U.S. only serves to confirm that the reputation for failing to use tax dollars wisely is not merely perception.

Congress doing the right thing

It’s difficult to justify more money for LA simply because we have a bloated wasteful budget in place. Frankly, I’m pleased that Congress is showing some uncharacteristic sense in not rewarding our poor fiscal practices.They are finally rewarding those who are frugal and not those who are wasteful. We are getting way more money than we deserve. Yet we continue to waste that due to poor priorities, patronage and on-going corruption.

During the 2006 Regular Legislative Session, starting this March, the governor and the legislature will have to make some difficult budgetary choices for the 2006-07 Fiscal Year. The eyes of the nation will be trained on them. If they don’t make the correct ones, we cannot blame Congress for LA’s failure to recover.

C.B.

Vanilla Refugee from Chocolate City

Uncategorized CB 8:00 am