A virtual standing ovation....

to Karen and Mr. Zurik

WWL-TV's Lee Zurik honored by investigative reporters and editors group for NOAH stories

Aloha....Oy Vey!

Greg Meffert took Mayor Nagin and his family on a trip to Hawaii in 2004

For reference...AZ post on this from September,27, 2006:

"Ho Ho Ho....Na`u e uku", said Santa St. Pierre

That was actually one of my favorite posts....I got to learn a little bit of a new language, I got to photoshop an Elvis movie poster, and I met(virtually) KamaAina for the first time...KA can read that whole post without a skeleton key, incidentally.

Anyway...back to point:

The Times-Picayune intervened in that case last week, and on Monday morning, Meffert's attorney, Michael Hill, mounted a vigorous campaign to keep under wraps a deposition of his client that lasted three days.

3 day deposition along with a vigorous bitchslap by the FED....I bet Muppet would love to take another Hawaii vacation right about now.

We also now know that Muppet has two attorneys? Hill for the civil suit and Smith for......what?

Jones noted that if his April 22 deposition of Nagin goes ahead as scheduled, he expects the city to argue that his deposition be sealed.

He called that issue the "800-pound gorilla in the room, " adding that Meffert's attorneys have provided "no iota" as to "what it is they're trying to protect."

God...can you imagine being Nagin's attorney in that deposition? Trying to get Nagin to keep his mouth shut or give the logical answer? I bet you couldn't drive a nail up that poor lawyer's sphincter with a sledgehammer.

I mean listen to the audio of him being confronted with this:

Audio

That's great....he just pulled David White into it...nice job, Ray....thanks for that. So David White was in Maui at the same time? Who paid for his trip...not that I know...I'm just curious.

Also, I love the line..."I remember seeing him(Meffert)". Yeah...I would imagine you did, Ray, considering you were in the same fucking house. I guess this house could have been so big that you couldn't see an entire family, other than your own, running around in it....but you did remember seeing him once...ok. So at least your memory serves you well enough to verify that you did, in fact, see Muppet while you were there.

Oh, but then your memory failed you once again when it came to who actually paid for the trip. I took a trip like that to Disney World one time when I was four...I had a great time and still have some pictures of it. I'm assuming my dad paid for that trip, but I really can't remember. This trip must have been like that, huh? Your bills and shit were just all taken care of...just like when you were a kid. It's magic...just like the Magic Kingdom!

If the mayor's trip was paid for by Meffert, that would not have violated state ethics rules, according to Gray Sexton, a Baton Rouge lawyer who was the state's ethics administrator for 40 years.

Sexton said a public servant may accept a gift from an employee provided he doesn't demand the gift. Ethics laws forbid accepting trips and lodging from prohibited sources, "and that was always construed as third-party vendors, contractors and third-party wannabe vendors and contractors."

2004...is there a statute of limitations on kickbacks and racketeering?

Once again....if anyone with the power to do so is listening...subpoena Imagine's credit card records.

Tracie Washington....

Firebrand activist or shit-stirring egomaniac.....you be the judge:

Reversal of something or other

wow.

Newspapers last bastion against political corruption, says creator of The Wire

i worry about this. I worry about it a whole lot.

ok, i get it

don't freak out. i'm just goofing off.

Ashe'

pp[d

i eo;; s;esudyd ;pbr upi smfu/

Flashback to the Interoperability Grant

My last post refreshed some people's memory on the scuttled, Department of Justice, interoperability grant for 7 million dollars which New Orleans was offered in 2003. The grant was acquired to create and build a working, storm-proof communication system here in the city.

Had we actually utilized the grant, we would have had that system in place before Katrina....think of the lives that could have been saved.

With that in mind, I thought it would be timely to revisit some of the stuff I uncovered on what happened and why the DOJ retracted the grant from the city.

To recap the story, briefly....the Department of Justice asked a man named Grant Holcomb, who owned a company named eXOS, to HELP spec the bid for the interoperability grant. Holcomb had been working for years with Tulane, developing a working interoperability system. At the time in 2003, he had one of most robust and developed solutions on the market...and possibly the only one. He was probably one of the only people who could properly write the bid, much less fulfill it.

As acting CTO, Meffert was in charge of the bidding process and distributing the grant....7 million dollars. He started fucking with the bid....trying to figure out a way to get his Imagine boys in on some of that cash. The DOJ realized what was going on and pulled the grant from the city.

In Meffert's defense, he claimed that he thought it was unethical to award the grant to the same person that had helped spec. the bid. That's funny, huh? He had a compulsory bout of conscience.

I actually got in contact with Holcomb to find out his side of the story. He sent me a series of emails which detailed a lot of what happened. Here are the pertinent links, in sequential order as I wrote them:

American Zombie: The DOJ grant revisited

American Zombie: DOJ Grant Redux Chapter 2

American Zombie: DOJ Grant Redux Chapter 3

American Zombie: DOJ Grant Redux Chapter 4

American Zombie: DOJ Grant Redux Volume 2; Chapter 1 This one is really good.

I want to prove that you are an unqualified and incompetent appointed public official who has undermined public safety and national security through the serial abuse of authority.

and.....

Does the public know that your first act as an appointed public official was to give yourself and Sherry Landry a raise? At a salary of $150,000.00 per year the public should gain some meaningful benefit, like addressing issues of public safety.

Does the public know that you have a liberal arts degree and do not have the engineering credentials to be the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of anything, particularly the City of New Orleans? Ordering Microsoft Software and Dell computers and hiring a third party to set up a web site does not make you "technical", nor should it cost the taxpayers so much a year.

Does the public know that Sherry's legal opinion against me was rendered after multiple failed attempts by you to kill the $7 million public safety grant? Here is the chronology of events that I witnessed first hand:

and.....

9.) After you reminded the Tulane General Counsel that the University had 27 active contracts with the City of New Orleans, I was told by the Tulane administration that they would no longer pursue the grant or take legal action to stop you.
Even an appointed public official must serve the interests of the community. Your actions reflect that you only serve your own interests.

I am an honor graduate of the United States Marine Corps Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Warfare Defense School. I am a combat veteran. I have a B.S. in Electrical Engineering. After attending the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, I taught Electrical Engineering at the U.S. Naval Academy. I have over 25 years of experience behind my claim that the inability to communicate during a natural disaster or terrorist attack directly results in the unnecessary loss of life. The grant submission presented how vulnerable the citizens of Southeast Louisiana are during a disaster. You intentionally ignored this critical information.
You abused your position and you ignored the safety of the citizens of the City of New Orleans. I personally think your negligence was criminal in nature because your actions were deliberate and intentional.

I pray that Mayor Nagin is successful in rebuilding the City of New Orleans and protecting its citizens. His first act should be to fire you immediately and start a grand jury investigation.

and finally....Holcomb's direct response to my blog posts:

American Zombie: Holcomb responds directly to Meffert's allegations


Remember that Greg Meffert stopped then redirected the grant after it was approved and awarded. He cycled through multiple approaches to kill the grant until his final attempt worked by sending a false official statement to the U.S. Department of Justice. If the U.S. DOJ had only verified Greg Meffert's claims in his letter I am confident he would be in jail right now. It is too easy to prove that he lied. Unfortunately, Tulane does not like bad press, of any kind, and directed me to move on to other efforts.

If it's any consolation Grant, you may finally see him in the clink after all.

It is worth going through all these posts to get a clear picture of what transpired. And while you're reading it....keep in mind that Meffert actually received an award for:

taking decisive and immediate action to deploy IP-technology during a public crisis to ensure ongoing government communications between the City of New Orleans and the outside world.

That tops Nagin's Excellence in Recovery award. Oh and notice the exchange in the comment section of that page....Meffert assumes that the poster "Katrina" is Holcomb, then retorts by signing his own name as Grant Holcomb. 

You're so clever, Muppet.

"I was accustomed to George Jetson, and now I'm in Fred Flintstone's world." - Ray Nagin 2002

I want my goddamn flying streetcars!

E-mails show 'wiz' of the Nagin administration was also working to aid former partners

Randy Smith is Muppet's lawyer....awesome....they make a perfect pair.

One suggestion....while you're reading that article, please note all of the failed ventures Muppet was behind and consider the money that was wasted. Thats the real tragedy of this story, all the money, time and resources which were pissed away under the "Wiz" kid's tenure. And this article isn't even half of it...throw in 311, the loss of the interoperability grant from the DOJ....I can't even remember everything now without going back through the blog. It really makes me sick to think about it....I don't have the stomach to actually sift through that shit.

When he hired Muppet, Nagin claimed that he was going to take the city from the Flintstones to the Jetsons.

Now we know....Meffert wasn't George Jetson....he was Wile E. Coyote and Imagine/Netmethods/Ciber was Acme. Nothing they built works.

I just hope Ray Ray doesn't turn out to be the Road Runner and escape this whole fucking mess.

Black and White? Not so much...

I have been avoiding this commentary for the entire history of this blog. It’s one of those topics I have continually wrestled with because I’m really not sure if I have anything constructive to add to the dialogue. By nature, this blog is pretty accusatory and at times vitriolic…so be it…it is the nature of the beast. So I’ve debated whether or not this platform is the proper place to broach this particular subject. After having reflected on some of my recent posts regarding E-maelstrom…particularly this one…..I’ve decided it would behoove me to pull the trigger on this taboo of taboo subjects.

I think I am obliged to start by explaining who I am and why I see things the way I do.

I am white, of Irish descent (dad’s side…not sure what mom’s side is)….hillbilly to be specific. I grew up in an incredibly racist environment. It was an interesting type of racism though…because it was kind of like an inactive virus. 98% of the people around me were white, we had almost no African-Americans, Asians, Latinos, or any other races around us for miles. The few folks of color who were around, were treated very poorly and looking back, it saddens me to think of the prejudices they must have endured.

I left that environment and went on to get a degree in anthropology. I was always a little different and much more tolerant than my peers, growing up in the hills....but I still had a lot of ingrained prejudices which I carried with me to college.

Having chosen to study social science, anthropology no less, I submerged myself in the study of human culture, religion, behavior, sexuality, ritual, etc. That path shifted my consciousness and global perspective in magnificent ways. I often look back on my youth and experience moments of compunction over the way I spoke and even treated people….but I suppose we all have those moments…with perhaps the exception of Dick Cheney and Karl Rove.

Ok, that’s my background, just so you know who is preaching here.

After 20 full years of studying human behavior, human culture, and evolutionary disciplines, I have come to the conclusion that “race” as we define it….is actually a myth. I could take you down the physiological path of my theory (genotypes to phenotypes), but I don’t think anyone really wants to hear that….suffice to say I would make the argument that speciation is actually a myth as well. Here I will stick to the cerebral interpretation of my theory.

I think more often than not, in the current psyche of the average American, we confuse the semantics of “race” with “culture”.

A good example of this was sometime last year, when the chief of police in Chalmette said they were going to stop everyone with “Chee Wee hairstyles, white T shirts, and baggy pants.” The racism charges immediately followed….even on a national level. I’m not saying the man is or is not a racist, I don’t know….but if you actually look at what he said, he was identifying culture, not race. It was true, and still is, that a disproportionate number of people committing crimes in our city, fit that profile….and that profile did not denote race, it denoted style...which is a product of culture that transcends race. I think it was a very stupid thing for him to say politically, but regardless, what he was denoting was culture, not race. I bring this up because I think it is incredibly important to make a distinction between the two, and more often than not, that distinction isn't qualified.

I also think much of the current turmoil we are witnessing within City Hall is truly a debate of culture…not race. In some cases I think people are purposely using this confusion to their advantage, i.e. Ray Nagin.

Someone once said “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.” We witnessed that first hand on a national level for the past 8 years. In our case (New Orleans) I would say, quite often, racism could supplant patriotism in that adage.



If there is a cogent and constructive point to this diatribe I offer it here:

This city is crippled. It is not crippled by Katrina or the threat of hurricanes….we can overcome that. It is not crippled by a lack of economic development….we can overcome that too. It is not crippled by lawmakers in Baton Rouge….we generate more money than them and we can overcome that as well. It’s not even crippled by it’s education system…I believe we can overcome that and in fact have made great strides in recent years to do so.

This city is crippled by its bombastic perception of race. It’s not actually racism….it’s the perception of race and the confusion created by those invoking racial sentiments.




I think every city in this nation deals with issues of “race” in some form or another…it’s just that in New Orleans….it tends to pervade and eventually destroy everything we do.

Why? Why is that?

Is there truly a grand conspiracy by some group of people, based on their skin color, to gain control of this city’s political process by ousting any other group of people whose skin color doesn’t match theirs? Black, White, Asian, etc?

I believe the answer is no….on all accounts. And I mean all accounts…so don’t extract that question and comment that Tracie Washington and crew are in that number…because I don’t believe that is their true motivation.

I do believe, however, that there are cultural cliques within this city that wield enormous power. I believe those cliques use the perception of race to manipulate, polarize, confuse, and inflame people to achieve their political, financial, and egomaniacal goals. I believe there is a CULTURE of corruption within this city which has rotted everything from our education system to our public transit system to our public housing to our technology systems…..essentially everything that has a public budget behind it. I believe that culture of corruption is race neutral, but the people ingrained in this culture want you to believe race is the motivating factor behind every action within our government.

The bigger the budget, the bigger the corruption….case in point, the pre-K, NOPS budget which topped out as the largest in the state at over 500 million. The layers of corruption within that school system were legendary, from the lowest levels to the highest. The result was the worst public school system in the nation. The number of public officials and private enterprises, white and black, who were grafting money out of that system, at the expense of the children within it, was truly sickening. To make matters worse, many of these thieves portrayed themselves as champions of the children while methodically siphoning off as much cash from the system as they could.

When faced with accusations of corruption and theft in the documentary, Left Behind, former school board member, Ellenese Brook Simms responded, “I’ve been black my whole life…these are my children…what is your motivation…what are you after?” She went on to accuse Jackie Clarkson of being “racist” because she was backing another candidate for her position on the school board.

Within a year of that interview, she was indicted for accepting kickbacks for favoring a specific software package being offered by Mos Jefferson, former congressman Bill Jefferson’s brother. She plead guilty to the charges.

There were many other crimes she committed while seated on the board which will probably never come to light…when confronted with her transgressions, her immediate response was to portray her accusers of racism.

Was Clarkson’s support of another candidate (Lourdes Moran of Honduran heritage) to run against Simms motivated simply because Simms was African-American? Or was it because she knew Ellenese was corrupt? I think, perhaps, the track record now speaks for itself.

But here we are again….and now the target is Stacy Head. Head has been instrumental in routing out issues regarding trash contracts, and in case you didn’t know this…..MIS/Tech contracts including the crime cameras. Now that these issues are being brought to the public’s attention, she’s suddenly being charged with racist motivations.

Veronica White, Tracie Washington, and Ray Nagin would have us believe that Head has spent the last three years of her life digging into contracts and trying to get a hold on city expenditures for the sheer motivation of ill will towards black people. They would have us believe that Stacy Head’s primary motivating factor in life is to expunge New Orleans' government of any black person which may hold office.

Never mind that White has been unable to produce any semblance of an audited report on our city sanitation contracts….which is her job. Never mind that our Inspector General’s office released a painstaking report which detailed massive corruption within Nagin’s technology office….with the lynchpin (Meffert) being as white as the driven snow. Never mind that the majority of the contract and financial benefactors of Nagin’s 8 years were white republicans, i.e., HSOA/Benetech. Cipher, LSI, Imagine & shell companies.

No don’t pay attention to the facts….this is a “racist” conspiracy.

I bet there is a group of old and young, white aristocrats who meet every full moon in the backyard of an uptown mansion on St. Charles street. There, they burn effigies of black politicians and dance naked around a fire, while chanting racial slurs and worshipping a 30-foot tall, ivory (of course) statue of Stacy Head.

No, not really....

That kind of stuff happens on the North Shore, because there are some true freaks up there.

No, not really....

That kind of stuff happens in Baton Rouge because they're so consumed with religiosity and moral confusion they have to act out their frustrations in deviant, orgiastic, rituals.

Maybe? Sounds plausible to me.

Sarcasm aside, my hope in this whole scandal….E-maelstrom, Crime Cameras, and everything else that is transpiring….is that justice is served blindly and the public sees clearly that this is truly about corruption. It’s about a culture of corruption which transcends race or the notion of race. The only motivating color in this scandal is green. Oh how I hope, we as a city, come to Buddha on this…I believe our future is contingent upon this realization.

Correction:

KamaAina has left a new comment on your post "Black and White? Not so much...":

Jack Strain, of "Chee Wee hairdo" fame (or at least notoriety), is the sheriff of St. Tammany Parish, not Chalmette.

Then again, half of St. Bernard Parish (literally) seems to have resettled over there...

Update: My somewhat irate mother informed me that I am German on her side. She also mentioned Bohemian, but I'm not sure I can claim that as a nationality...Oh what the hell, its sounds cool. I would say above all....I am hillbilly, which for all it's faults, I am rather proud of.

I think it's time

China Takes Aim at Dollar

A very important FYYFF

Hey Louisiana Family Forum: FYYFF

Thanks, Ryan, for keeping us in the know @ The Daily Kingfish.

This is outrageous. Folks, I wasn't kidding when I told you the LFF was the most influential lobbying organization in the state. Now they're trying to re-district the entire state to get what they want.....a religio-fascist empire.

There is no FYYFF big enough for these pricks. Ryan sums it up pretty good here:

FYLFF.

Not only because you're attempting to destroy the Democratic Party here in Louisiana, but also because you're attempting to wield your supposed cultural superiority on the rest of us. Not all of Louisiana buys into your conservative religious stances on everything. On top of that, not all of Louisiana is white. We've got Asians, Blacks, and Cajuns too. Did I mention the growing Latino population?

Guys, once again....I sound the alarm....this shit is very serious. The Nagin/White/Meffert crap is a big deal....but that's now in the hands of law enforcement.

Unfortunately, the LFF is running amok in this state, unchecked and unchallenged. If you think the LSEA(Louisiana Science Education Act) was an embarrassment...wait until they push a law banning homosexual kids from attending public schools....or something even worse. They are determined to make us the laughing stock of the civilized world.

Memo to Tracie Washington and Cabal: If you're really looking for racist conspiracies....here it is on a silver platter. Turn your attention towards Baton Rouge and quit inventing battlefronts in New Orleans to protect slimy crooks. Go after the LFF with all your energy....you'll get the national attention you so desperately crave.

Memo to Adam Nossiter: Bro! Here it is.....the story of your lifetime! This has pulitzer written all over it. A lily-white, religious lobbying group (one generation removed from the Klan) meddling in state political structures in order to marginalize the black populous' voting prowess and influence....all with the unrestrained backing of the state's governor, a potential RNC presidential candidate. The world is waiting man.....write this story....let the world know just how fucked up and backwoods this state really is.

Memo to myself and fellow bloggers: Pay more fucking attention to the LFF.

"Oh, the cleverness of me! " - Frank Rich

Has a ‘Katrina Moment’ Arrived?

Frank, let me help you with this....Katrina was "the Katrina moment". Obama is just part of the clean up crew, buddy. Obama is the new king, but the king still has no clothing. It's not about the man, we've been in a steady descent for the past 7 years..."The Katrina Moment" as you put it, was just the moment when the country realized how impotent and corrupt our government had actually become.

It seems like you're looking for Obama's jugular.....but shit bro.....we're all feeding off a dead carcass here. Obama didn't kill it, he's just trying to convince the rest of us it isn't really dead.

What made Jon Stewart’s takedown of Jim Cramer resonate was less his specific brief against CNBC’s cheerleading for bad stocks than his larger indictment of the gaping economic inequality that defined the bubble.

humph..er...(cough)....what?

I thought it resonated because Stewart was the first person with a national audience to brush past CNBC's complicity in manipulating the market for naked short sellers. If you want to call it the "gaping economic equality"....that's cool....my mind is still trying to wrap itself around exactly what the fuck that means....but hey...I appreciate the semantic creativity.

The only MSM outlet that's coming close to exposing the truth of what has actually happened in our financial market is The Daily Show. If you want to see the really nasty stuff....go here:

http://www.deepcapture.com/

Happy Bday Mama Earth

Should I be happy about this?

Despair over financial policy

"The zombie ideas have won."

Cool...so should I be expecting a promotion or something? Maybe a call from Geithner or Bernanke?

eerrrhh......holy shit?

Feds Shut Banks In Georgia, Colorado, Kansas

FDIC Bair: Banks Lost $32.1 Billion In Fourth Quarter

I've been thinking a lot about gardens lately. What do you think about gardens? I think they're a rather pregnant idea right now.

UPDATE:

Steve Picou has left a new comment on your post "eerrrhh......holy shit?":

Regarding gardening, welcome to the club. I've been cajoling, harassing and begging my superiors to head to Washington to get Extension Service written into stimulus packages. The LSU AgCenter teaches people how to feed themselves. I've been increasingly frantic in pushing this fact. I have a garden. Everyone needs one. Every school needs one. Orleans and Jefferson have a total of 2 AgCenter horticulturalists serving the population. They are increasingly overworked.

Steve, can you elaborate on why you think gardens are important right now and who to contact to get more info?

I wasn't kidding when I suggested gardens as a good idea. Yesterday, one of my friends said he was going to dump all his money into gold. My reply was....you can't eat gold. The potential for things to get very bad, very quickly is more prescient than most would like to imagine. Growing a garden is a damn smart thing to do right now. But don't take my word for it...take Steve's.

Who is the SEC working for?

Hedge Funds and the Global Economic Meltdown from Judd Bagley on Vimeo.


My guess is the same people CNBC work for:

Jim Kramer on Daily Show

Why is this news?

Higgins High School teacher arrested after allegedly masturbating in classroom

I don't get it....one more teacher jacking off in a New Orleans school? Since when is that news?

Oh wait...they mean he really was jacking off.

He was booked with obscenity? No shit? I thought he would get charged with some new Homeland Security law like: H.R. fifty-eleventy-three - Jacking off within 1000 feet of a school.

So ethically, I'm trying to qualify this story and here's what I don't get....did the guy purposely expose himself or was he just rubbing one out and got caught? I'm not saying either situation is appropriate, but for me, there's a world of difference between the two.

If he exposed himself on purpose....book him, Danno.

But....now bare with me here....if he was just getting an emergency testosterone call, decided to answer the bone-a-phone and got cold busted....well that's another story.

Had he any other job....even at a restaurant....his face wouldn't be plastered all over the paper tonight.

The kid is 22 years old and he's sitting in a classroom all day with 17, 18 year old girls? That's kind of a fucked up recipe from the get-go, no?

His excuse was hilarious:

When Lehrman was questioned by deputies, he admitted exposing himself, but said he was applying lotion because of a medical condition, according to a news release from the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office.

Now what medical condition is that called???? Oh yeah....an erection.

Oh yeah and wait, this is priceless:

Branley said the school system does not have a written policy to notify parents because incidents that require notification happen infrequently.

They don't have a policy which tells them what incidents require parental notification because they never have those incidents.

Well guess what Beth....You do now, baby.

This is funny too:

She also said the system's collective bargaining agreement along with state and federal regulations prevent it from disclosing certain personnel matters.

"I'm sorry mam'...we couldn't tell you that your child's teacher is having one man tug-o-war competitions in her classroom."

What the fuck can they tell them?

Balls as big as church bells....

Nagin has.

New Orleans cites 'unlawful' activity in suspending former tech chief; Jones plans appeal

Even after we (bloggers mostly) have spelled out how Anthony Jones was systematically being set up as the fall guy for the crime camera scandal....Nagin goes ahead and drops the axe on him.

The letter says Jones' "objectionable transgressions include but are not limited to ... unlawful receipt of a gratuity from Ciber," a city contractor that paid for Jones to attend and speak at a conference in Colorado; "authorizing the preparation and subsequent payment of a false invoice" to contractor LSI Research Inc.; and "intentionally making material changes to cost and performance specifiations" in LSI's crime camera installation bid and Ciber's network services contract.

That's really funny, Ray. How about that fat ass Christmas trip you and Meffert took to Maui on Imagine's dime? Or how about the fat ass trip you took to the 06 Chicago Playoff game on HSOA's corporate jet...then went back and paid 400 bucks for after it became public knowledge?

And as far as "intentionally making material changes to cost and performance specifications"....why did he have to make those changes?

If Jones takes the whole wrap on the crime cameras....it will be a travesty. I hope the AG's office read the IG's crime camera report and threw the city's report out the window.

King Carpetbagger

I would rarely ever, ever, "endorse" anything (not that I have any special endorsement power in the first place). Putting your ass on the line and saying you believe, or don't believe, in something is a very serious choice. So I guess there are very few things I would actually stand up for.

But those things do exist.

Meucci and Predator pool cues, Crabby Jack's Duck Po-Boy, Don Cazayoux, wet toilet paper.....and then of course Dirty Coast and Blake Haney's ventures....yes because he's a friend, but also because most of his experiments are just plain interesting and hip.

One thing I do well, however......is condemnation. And I have a pressing one at the moment.

Go to this website....ONLY to know what it is and avoid it at all costs.

Apparently this carpetbagging, Baton Rougian (ughhhh), Josh Harvey....having no original ideas of his own....is methodically trying to imitate...no rip off....Haney's business ventures.

Check this out:

Dirty Coast T-shirt designs:


























compared to dickwad's designs:



















































As if that wasn't bad enough....he now opens a store on Magazine (vis-a-vis Dirty Coast store on Magazine) and attempts to copy Haney's Humid Beings venture:

Humid Beings

Fuckmook's venture

You know there's absolutely nothing I hate more than someone north of I-10....actually north of the lake....trying to commercially enterprise on New Orleans culture. This asshole can't even come up with his own ideas.

So the business is located on 2126 Magazine Street.....Do me a favor....when you drive by it, honk your horn and give 'em the one finger salute....I mean every time you drive by. All day long...I hope all they hear and see is a constant stream of horns and birds.

God I hate preachers

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "breaking on the wind...":

The sparks flew about 30 minutes ago when Rev. & Police Officer Dyson went on an all out assault on Stacy Head in the City Council chambers. NOPD had to be brought in to escort him & his large friend out of the building.

Ms Head was routinely threatened by Rev. Dyson during the verbal assault. I worry about her well-being and his mental stability. This Rev. needs some mental help ASAP.

Put that motherfucker in jail and let him rot....rot....rot....rot. What would Jesus do? I guess he'd hurl threats at a woman because she's white.

Dyson...you punk ass bitch...if you truly believe what you preach...remember this:

breaking on the wind...

or breaking like the wind....


o.k. thats probably funny only to me.

Anyway...word is that Harrison Boyd is now lawyering up. Don't know what significance that has....but now you know.

The Devil and Mr. Jones

Former New Orleans tech chief Anthony Jones is suspended for 120 days without pay

I'm reminded of the chorus to a BTE song:

So set him up,
Then let him fall.
Turn him over in your hands.
God save the King of New Orleans.

Did Anthony fall on the sword to save the King? I doubt it...I think the King is just trying to smuggle him out of the kingdom before the grand inquiry starts and the peasants call for heads to roll.

120 day suspension? Doesn't that sound somewhat absurd? 4 months? Why would he even stay on the job for that period....I'd just move on...try my luck in the merchant marines or something.

Just curious

If anyone has an extra 1000 bucks laying around and they want to get rid of it.....I'm really jonesin' for this:

zombies is sooooo sloooowwww

Here i'm getting my balls busted because I'm apparently not doing a good enough job of trying to piece together an incredibly, complicated story of government graft through anonymous comments:

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Yeah, I know, I know...":

Its about time you started putting the pieces together. Baton Rouge is going to cause some people some serious heartburn and guess what Jim Letten isn't involved in that because its outside of his jurisdiction. The rats have jumped ship and threatens to take Baton Rouge politicians down now. Keep up the good work federal law enforcement agents.

509 posts later....I finally see the big picture. Not really...but apparently this anon does.

You see I'm not like one of those "28 Days Later" Zombies....I'm more like a "Night of the Living Dead" zombie. I move really slow...so people have a better chance of getting away before I can eat their brains.

UPDATE: Definitely read the comments section. It's complicated...Anon...if you could summarize for us that would be great. But check this out:

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "zombies is sooooo sloooowwww":

http://www.accela.com/products/includes/assets/wireless.pdf

Who hosted the wireless for Accela? What did Safety & Permits pay? Uh ohhhhh So Accela didn't have a wireless mesh system in place in New Orleans? But but but Netmethods did thanks to Tropos.

Anyone see that RFP or that contract or what Safety & Permits spent and who they sent those checks too?

It sounds like a bait and switch....or rather a shell game. This makes sense of the mesh network vs. relay network issue which Ciber bamboozled. I am assuming LSI and Ciber suddenly decided to upgrade their new Sony camera array (the bait and switch...they actually bid with a cheaper non-Sony array) to require a mesh network even though the existing network didn't support that system. Luckily...Netmethods had that system in place thanks to Tropos....wwhhheeeww....thank goodness.

Summary: They (ciber/Muppet...via A. Jones) changed the camera system network in midstream so we would be forced to utilize Netmethods.

Am I right anon?

Have we found our pancake?

Here is what I do know....or at least what I think I know:

Someone within Muppet's cabal has flopped and filled the Feds in on (at least some of) his numerous transgressions. Anthony Jones? Word is no. Could it be someone on the A-Team...St. Pierre, Kurt, Drake? It would seem those folks would best benefit each other by keeping their mouths shut...so I'm seriously doubting that possibility. My guess is that an underling within the city IT/MIS department is the most likely suspect.

With that in mind...Anon #3 in the comment section of the previous post made this connection:

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Yeah, I know, I know...":

Ok, you'll enjoy this:

If you look up the Logistix website on a Who Is search the domain is registered to Michael LaFrance at the same address as Logistix. Well, guess what, LaFrance also appears in the Nagin email story from the 3/5/09 TP online from some random blogger "Popmartian" as follows:

"--Mayor's Office of Technology--

M. Harrison Boyd - Interim Chief Technology Officer Heads up the Office of Technology Anthony Jones - MIS Enterprise Director He currently is responsible records management. Janice Darby - MIS Project Lead She is Responsible for Data Networking, Voice and Email, etc…
Dalta Watts - Software Security She is the manager of Passwords
Michael Lafrance, IT Systems Operator Works in the Main Server Room"

http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/03/new_orleans_mayor_ray_nagin_ca.html

http://www.networksolutions.com/whois-search/logistixco.com

Pure speculation...but the fact that Lafrance is the registrar for Logistix URL and the city IT Systems Operator tells us that he either 1. Did a favor for Muppet and crew or 2. Is moonlighting with Muppet and crew or 3. Muppet had him register the Domain while working for the city....which would mean Muppet had him doing private work on the city's dime.

Regardless...I'm betting Lafrance has some very interesting stories. I AM NOT SUGGESTING HE HAS DONE ANYTHING ILLEGAL. I'm just bringing to light this connection and that it's a rather curious thing. He has been with the IT department since 2002...the beginning of the Nagin/Muppet dynasty. But with a face like this:





I can't imagine him being up to much. He looks like he's 16.

Michael...if you're out there and have any insight you'd like to provide...I'm all ears.

Honestly...I think any one of the above listed names...and maybe all of them...could be coughing up dirt to save their own asses.

Oh and while we're digging into the City technology staff....check this out:



Can we get an audit on how many Pastors we have working in city government?

Are we running a ministry or a city?

More importantly...how does a pastor become qualified to become an IT specialist? Or for that matter, how does a pastor become qualified to be (and the irony here is just too thick to even joke about) a child abuse detective. What a great idea....put the clergy in charge of investigating child abuse.

I just watched Bill Maher's "Religulous" (which I highly recommend) so I'm a little sensitive to the subject right now.

Yeah, I know, I know...

Anon posts this reminder of an oft overlooked, yet critical player in the Crime Camera/MOS/MIS/CTO/Imagine/Netmethods/Logistix/Veracent....techie thingie....blah, blah, blah.....e-maelstrom....scandal....happening....like....thing:

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Crime Cameras finally in Focus":

Principal
Logistix, LLC
504-722-2329
cdrake@logistixco.com

Chris Drake currently serves as a principal at Logistix, a consultancy providing vision, strategy, marketing and execution advice and management to corporate executives and municipal leaders focused on using wireless networks to deliver next-generation services and solutions.


Prior to Logistix, Mr. Drake served as CTO for NetMethods, where he designed, and successfully implemented major Wi-Fi mesh, video surveillance, public safety and communications projects for customers such as City of New Orleans, City of Baton Rouge, City of Lafayette, EarthLink, Motorola, British Telecom, New Orleans Police Department, and Louisiana Region 1 and 2 Homeland Security. Prior to NetMethods, Mr. Drake held various management and technical positions at a large insurance provider, a regional bank, and his own technology consultancy.



Mr. Drake attended Baylor University, where he earned a BA degree. He also earned a Masters degree from Tulane University, and a Master in Business Administration from SLU.

Most of my posts and the TP's reports have focused on Muppet, St. Pierre, and Mark Kurt....but I am constantly being reminded that Drake was plucking just as many strings in this quartet as the other 3. The truth is...I don't know a lot about Drake or his machinations. If all you Anon's who keep bringing him up would like to do a short Bio on him....I would be happy to post.

Update: Check the comment section

E-maelstrom

Eli has officially named this tempest....and defined it methodically well to boot. It's a must read.

Let's start the guessing game

Clancy DuBos gets all legalese and speculates on why Veronica White's computer was confiscated and what the Fed may be up to. I'm not sure about his hypothesis....because I'm not smart enough to understand how conspiracy charges are formed, but I totally agree with his notion that the computer seizures were probably executed to shore up an ongoing investigation (s).

Also...I brought this up once, but I want to bring it up again. In a document released in May of 2008 acting CTO, Anthony Jones, published this memorandum:

Email Guidelines and Policies for
The City of New Orleans

Please take note of this item:

3.6 Recovering Deleted Email via Backup Media or re-managing for data recovery or Forensic reasons.
City of New Orleans maintains backup tapes from the email server and once a quarter a set of tapes is
taken out of the rotation and they are moved offsite. No effort will be made to remove email from the offsite backup tapes. If data is needed for business continuity or Forensics the City State or Local government must designate a representative to re-manage the suspect account maintaining a strict chain-of-custody on said documents until the needs of the city our met.

My question is obvious...why hasn't Judge Ledet asked MIS to produce the tape backups? Let's go out on a limb and say all the emails were somehow lost on the city's email server(s). This item clearly states they were already using an OFFSITE tape backup system which was cycled every three months. The way this works is that the email servers are conducting scheduled backups onto tape drives at given intervals....could be once a day or once a week or once a month, pending the volume of emails generated. So even if the server(s) crashed....and it's damn near impossible for every drive in a server to crash unless someone came in and poured acid over the entire server or put an electromagnet on it....the only emails that would have been lost are the ones that weren't yet cycled to the tape backups. At the theoretical maximum it would have only been 3 months worth of emails.

So IF they were following proper procedure as this memo published on May 13 of 2008 (which I find a curious time to bring this to the MIS department's attention) defines....then there have to be tape backups of the email database.

Is Nagin suggesting that emails were lost on both the email servers and the tape backups....tapes which were stored at an entirely different location than the servers? His original claim that the emails were lost on the servers was hard to choke down....but if he's going to claim that the tape backups were lost as well when they were being stored offsite....dude...he's giving Joe Isuzu a run for his money.

Judge Ledet....Subpoena the tapes!

I'm beginning to wonder if she isn't giving him all the rope he needs to hang himself. I'm betting he's already committed perjury.

...they will undoubtedly hang themselves

Zombie Quiz #2:

Hey boys and girls....it's time for another zombie quiz! For this one, we're going to have to jump in the voodoo time machine and go back to December of 2007. Thankfully the internets does an amazing job of archiving digital information...unlike our City's MIS staff. So here we go....wwwhhiirrrhhhhh.....Kablooeeey!!!




In case you don't remember what this poster was all about...let's ask Eli:

Mobilization Tactics Thwarted By Crazy

and the TP:

Tensions rise over public housing




and Katrina Daily News:

Housing advocates deny role in threat to burn New Orleans; FBI investigates

Now back to the present. If the person who distributed these flyers was actually identified....what would the pending charge be?

A. Felony Terrorist/Arson Threat
B. Defacing Public Property
C. Poor Graphic Design
D. Failure to purchase a color printer
E. All of the above

Breaking numero tres

Anonymous said...
I have not confirmed yet but I understand the Mayor's computers were also seized or in a subpoena to be seized. Working the kinks out now.

Breaking numero dos

Anthony "bowling pin" Jones' computer was also seized yesterday.

So far they've only found World of Warcraft and Whack a Mole games on it along with 100's of nude pictures of Stacy Head and half finished University of Phoenix exams.

no, just kidding....not about the computer seizure....just the games....oh yeah...and the pictures....those pix are on my computer.....no, no.....i'm just kidding again.

Actually they found naked pictures of Ernie Fielkow on Vanessa White's computer....and Ray Nagin's.....

btw....does anyone have any nude pix of Helena Moreno?

If you can't have fun with criminal scandals....what good are they?

Hey Muppet...

Tell me again how smart you are.

I'm predicting that we're about to have a VERY exciting week.  I wish I could elaborate...but...fuck i just can't.

Incidentally, this is my 500th post.  What significance does that have?  Not a lot...but it looks like 500 turns out to be a sweet one indeed.        

Ms. White gets a taste of her own medicine?

I just got an unconfirmed report that the FEDS just confiscated Veronica White's computer from City Hall. Uncomfirmed....I will follow up if I get a confirmation on that.

confirmed.

Set up.....like a Bowlin' Pin....

New Orleans technology chief faces more criticism

Poor Anthony.....I wish your mama would have told ya....if something seems to good to be true, it usually is. 160k administrative position without a college degree, in all fairness it would have been hard for anyone to turn down...but you really should have taken a long, hard look at who was extending that offer and why.

Last week, when the city's independent inspector general alleged years of questionable contracting and $4 million in overpayments for an often-inoperable network of crime cameras, Mayor Ray Nagin's administration released its own audit of the camera program. It focused almost entirely on the last two years of the project, when Jones was interim chief technology officer.

Gee....I wonder why it was limited to Jones tenure? The contract was fucked way before they dangled that 160k carrot in front of him. You've got a totally fucked up contract which began way before Jones took the position...but you decide to just investigate the matter from when Jones took it over...odd, no?

In another section, the audit blames LSI for failing to disclose a joint venture it had with Technology Consortium Group LLC, which provided Norris as a manager in Jones' office on a contract basis. The audit says the city was unaware of the joint venture when Jones tapped Norris to oversee LSI's work, creating a conflict.

Who is Technology Consortium Group? Hard to tell since their website is just a .gif:






A quick google search on the New Orleans address turned up a contracting/construction company called Disaster 24 Seven. Could be a fly by night contractor who is long since gone....but it's interesting that these guys are a technology consulting company and they can't build a fucking website.

After LSI installed the cameras, Jones turned network-connection work over to Ciber, a Colorado firm, by executing change orders in an unrelated contract. The audit notes that Ciber also had Technology Consortium Group as a subcontractor, meaning Norris and others worked on both LSI's and Ciber's parts of the project, something Perryman said his company was not aware of.

This thing stinks to high heaven. What needs to happen is that all payments to Ciber should be frozen...period. Everything....the city website....everything. They have their hands in every fucked up technology contract we've issued from Muppet though Jones.

Incidentally, did I mention that Muppet's 1st CTO replacement and Imagine crony, Mark Curt, now works for Ciber? Did I mention that Ciber was a security contractor for Diebold? Did I mention I'm curious what kind of voting machines were used in the satellite locations during the last mayoral election and if those votes have been audited per precinct? Did I mention that Ciber is doing business as "City of New Orleans"? Did I mention that Ciber is a really stupid, fucking name to call a company?

Anthony...buddy...I want to help you help yourself. If you haven't already figured this out...Dip into your wallet... take a few dollars out of that fat ass salary....get yourself a good lawyer....and you two go have a cup of joe with Jimmy Letten. I'm sure he'd be all ears.

Update: Ah...anon confirms my suspicions that LSI was brought in by Ciber -

Let me fill you in on The Technology Consortium Group LLC.

They are based in Chicago (1727 South Indiana, Suite GO4, Chicago, Illinois 60697)(Phone Number 312-212-1650) and they have offices in New Orleans & Atlanta. Also located at 805 West Randolph Street, Chicago, Illinois 60607

Current Owners/Employees:
Joe Sharron--President
Ron Norris--Managing Partner
Royce D. Banks
Leroy Brown
Lester McCarroll, Jr. former Managing Partner 2003-2007 (No longer with the company)



Who did they contribute money too.....hmmmm http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/index.ssf?/elections/content/donations.html

Who are their clients:
Chicago Housing Authority (CHA)
Chicago Public Schools (CPS)
Chicago Tranis Authority (CTA)
Cook County State's Attorney
CIBER
CIBER
CIBER
CIBER
CIBER
Rentokil

WHY ISN'T LSI LISTED ON THEIR WEBSITE AS A PARTNER?
http://www.cityofno.com/Portals/PublicAdvocacy/Resources/Review%20of%20Crime%20Camera%20Program.pdf

Rpn Norris article on crime cameras acting on behalf of his company Technology Consortium Group (TCG):
http://www.firetide.com/assets/0/112/138/C8FF250D-AEC9-4E46-864C-F6223DAB98B0.pdf

Crime Cameras finally in Focus

So if you read this blog you know I have been digging into the crime camera debacle, even before the TP. The IG officially released their investigation findings to Jim Letten and the Fed. Here is the official report:

The Official IG Crime Camera Report

I am not going to revamp this whole story, as I don't have time, but having read the report, I will summarize my take on it. Here's the summary:

Meffert, as CTO,  contracted Active Solutions and Southern Electronic Supply in the beginning to deploy 1000 cameras in the city without a competitive bid. After only 214 cameras were actually deployed, they then fucked Active Solutions and Southern, and pushed the contract to themselves by using Ciber and Dell as shell contractors.

Active Solutions and Southern Electronic subsequently filed suit against Dell. Due to a protective order filed by the city "and other parties" which sprung from the case, much of the details of the contract were not accessible to the IG's office.

Tangent:

I want to share a comment I received from someone within Meffert's crew which I received when I first started digging into this story...I never actually published it until now:

A lot of other people are reading that comment - you know, the one that is making you piss in your pants - with the addition that we all know that you are not interested in the truth. We know you won't publish that comment. All of us. It is so evident to everyone now(the real press, included) that you are not interested in the truth. Greg Meffert is smarter than you are - all legally, too - and you feel like a big political loser. You are right.

He was referring to a previous comment where he thought he had identified me...he didn't, because he was an idiot. "Greg Meffert is smarter than you are" oooooooo......got me man. I just had to post that before I note this part of the report:

Finding 1. The MOT used subcontracts to evade open competition for professional service contracts.

The CTO (MUPPET) set about staffing the MOT with individuals who had formerly worked with him in private sector companies. He accomplished this not by hiring these individuals as City employees, but by using the MIS department‟s information technology contracts with several companies, including ACS State and Local Solutions, Inc. (ACS) and Ciber, Inc. (Ciber), as subcontracting vehicles. The CTO arranged for ACS and Ciber to subcontract with Imagine Software, LLC (Imagine) and other related companies founded by the CTO‟s former private sector associates. The MOT‟s records show that Imagine and its related companies did not act as agents through which prime contractors ACS and Ciber performed their duties, as would be the case in a legitimate subcontract relationship. Instead, principals and employees of Imagine and its related companies reported directly to the CTO and held management positions at the MOT, including the position of project manager for the City‟s surveillance camera project. In essence, the subcontracts appeared to be little more than a mechanism for directing payments from the City to Imagine and its related companies. The Home Rule Charter for the City of New Orleans (City Charter) requires contracts for professional services to be awarded on the basis of an advertised, competitive selection process established by executive order of the Mayor. According to City officials and records provided by the City, Imagine and its related companies were brought in to provide professional services, but were not selected through an advertised competition. The MOT essentially used the guise of subcontractor relationships with prime contractors such as ACS and Ciber to sidestep the City Charter requirement for competitive contractor selection.

Finding 2. The City failed to observe fundamental rules for accountability and transparency in its dealings with subcontractors.

Despite the active roles played by principals and employees of Imagine and its related companies in the management and operation of the MOT, these individuals were not City employees and therefore not accountable for devoting their full-time efforts to the City‟s interests. It was incumbent on the City to ensure that these subcontractors worked under written agreements that included conflict of interest and other ethics rules similar to the following provision, which is included in the City‟s contracts for professional services: In the interest of ensuring that efforts of the Contractor do not conflict with the interests of the City, and in recognition of the Contractor’s responsibility to the City, the Contractor agrees to decline any offer of employment if its independent work on behalf of the City is likely to be adversely affected by the acceptance of such employment. But City officials told the OIG that they did not obtain copies of subcontracts and typically did not know the terms of the agreements under which Imagine and its related companies were employed. The City‟s practice of using subcontractors to manage MOT operations created potential conflicts of interest and opportunities for self-dealing as detailed in Finding 17 and Finding 18. The City appeared to exercise little control over the activities of Imagine and its related companies. In general, the City did not require or receive time sheets, work statements or other documentation to support payments to these subcontractors. The only records the City provided in response to the OIG request for documentation were records the City prepared to substantiate requests to FEMA for reimbursement. The City apparently did not obtain documentation to support payments to Imagine and its related companies unless required to do so as a condition of reimbursement.

Well...how smart are you now dipshit?

Alright back to the meat. So what happens next is that Muppett resigns in 2006 - Post K - and in steps Mark Kurt...Imagine crony 2.0. From the report:

The Resignation of the City‟s First CTO A news story that appeared in the Times-Picayune on July 18, 2006, reported that the City‟s first CTO had resigned and quoted the Mayor as saying that the administration was “now challenged with the task of recruiting a qualified individual to fill his shoes as we continue to rebuild our city.” The City did not, however, undertake a recruitment process. Instead, the CTO position was transferred immediately to a former Imagine co-owner who was working at the MOT as a subcontractor.

After the storm the antennae array for the Camera system was moved by Kurt to the top of One Shell Sqaure and put under a maintenance contract with Veracent...an Imagine company:

After Hurricane Katrina, the City located communications equipment used for some of the surveillance cameras and for other City emergency networks on the roof of One Shell Square in downtown New Orleans. At that time, Veracent (an Imagine-related company) provided professional services to the MIS Department under a subcontractor. The Veracent founder and principal was working under the subcontract as a member of the MOT staff

Veracent then started charging the city to maintain the array. Shortly afterwords Kurt quit (after all this shit started coming to light) and within months Veracent sent the city an approx. 250k bill for "maintaining" the array. The pisser here is that before the array was moved and put under the tutelage of Veracent, it was located on a downtown building in which the owner had donated the space to the city....so Kurt moved the array from a free location to a paid one under Veracent's billing cycle.

Finding 18. The MOT tacitly approved an improper lease deal that allowed a subcontractor to profit from self-dealing. Despite its subcontract relationship with the City, Veracent entered into an agreement on April 1, 2006, with Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, the owner of One Shell Square, to acquire the rights to the antenna site used by the City. Under the terms of the five-year agreement with Metropolitan Life, Veracent controlled the use of the site, for which it paid a monthly fee of $1,500.00 with 5 percent annual increases. According to court documents subsequently filed by Veracent, the City entered into an oral agreement to sublet the site from Veracent for $3,150.00 per month. A draft of a proposed written agreement indicates that Veracent offered to enter into a written agreement for the City to pay Veracent $6,500.00 per month, increasing to $7,100.00 per month in 2009, but it does not appear that the City accepted this proposal. The City‟s records show that the City paid $4,165.88 per month for the site in 2008. The City‟s lease payments were not made to Veracent directly, but were paid through an unrelated contract with another company so that the City had no records of payments to Veracent, further eroding accountability and transparency. In September of 2007, Veracent sent an email to the City‟s Chief Administrative Officer complaining that the City had not made lease payments for six months and threatening to remove the City‟s equipment from the rooftop site. This action would have shut down much of the City‟s Public Safety Network, including many surveillance cameras and telephone, fax, and internet connections for police and fire stations. The City of New Orleans filed a civil action, seeking an injunction to prevent Veracent from removing the communications equipment. Court records show that the City subsequently entered into an agreement to pay a settlement to resolve Veracent‟s claim, thereby averting a shutoff. The Louisiana Code of Governmental Ethics prohibits public employees from engaging in financial dealings with the public agency that employs them. Louisiana courts have interpreted this law to apply to individuals working under contracts with public agencies as well as to public employees. Veracent was technically a subcontractor and therefore had no contract with the City, hence it is not clear whether Veracent‟s actions in this case violated the state ethics law. Regardless of whether this self-dealing was illegal, Veracent‟s actions and the MOT‟s tacit approval created an appearance of impropriety and resulted in the City paying more than it should have for the lease.

This is rich too:

Finding 17. The MOT named a Veracent employee as the project manager responsible for overseeing Veracent’s work on the project. The MOT‟s records show that the original project manager was replaced by a Veracent employee in 2006. In this role, the Veracent employee was responsible for contract oversight and for inspecting and approving work performed by Southern and by other contractors. The MOT compromised project oversight when it allowed the project manager‟s employer, Veracent, to perform the work. If the MOT followed the inspection protocol called for in the Southern contract for Veracent‟s work, the project manager would have been in the untenable position of inspecting and approving or rejecting his employer‟s work. In fact, the City provided no records of any inspections of Veracent‟s work.

Then comes Kurt's departure:

The Resignation of the City‟s Second CTO On February 12, 2007, the City‟s second CTO resigned after serving in that position for only seven months. In his resignation letter, the CTO informed the Mayor and the Chief Administrative Officer that he had transitioned his responsibilities to the MIS Enterprise Director to make sure there were no gaps in continuity. After resigning, the CTO sought an opinion from the Louisiana Board of Ethics concerning the propriety of his accepting a position with Ciber. The Board of Ethics opined on May 11, 2007, that he was not prohibited from accepting a position so long as his employment with Ciber did not involve Ciber‟s contract with the City of New Orleans and he did not represent Ciber in dealings with the Office of Technology. The second CTO stepped down in February 2007 and the MIS Enterprise Director took over as Interim Chief Technology Officer, a position he held until July 31, 2008.

Enter Anthony Jones....unqualified patsy.

Now the story had broke and they decide to submit a new legal bid for deploying 100 more crime cameras. An Alabama company, LSI (incidentally I suspect Ciber may have introduced this company into the fold), comes in well under Veracent's bid at $49,900/camera array and was subsequently awarded the bid. But this turned into a fiasco. Jones then authorized our BFF, Ciber, dba City of New Orleans, to "just make the shit work....I don't care what it costs.":

Finding 24. In 2008, the MOT entered into a no-bid, open-ended agreement for a major project to enhance its communications network without determining the likely cost. According to Ciber, the MOT authorized Ciber to do whatever was necessary to make the system operational without any estimate of how much it would cost. In February of 2008, Ciber submitted a proposed scope of work for the month to the Interim CTO, with estimated hours of work and material costs. The Interim CTO signed the proposal and Ciber proceeded with the first phase of its work, which was to troubleshoot the existing surveillance network. Ciber expected the City to prepay for proposed services each month and indicated that work would be stopped if payments were not made. The Interim CTO authorized Ciber to implement the surveillance camera project as a continuation of a contract awarded three years earlier, in June of 2005, for professional services to migrate the City‟s business applications from an IBM mainframe environment to a Microsoft browser-based environment.9 The surveillance camera work bore no resemblance to the services Ciber was contracted to provide, but the MOT was able to circumvent the requirement for a competitive procurement by treating the project as a continuation of services under the old contract. In reality, the new agreement with Ciber was a no-bid contract that included an entirely new scope of professional services and implementation of a public works project. Prudent project management practices and the City‟s procurement rules called for the MOT to issue a professional services RFP for a consultant to troubleshoot and design the solution to networking infrastructure problems and then prepare an IFB to obtain a competitive, fixed price for the equipment and labor needed to implement the design. By side-stepping these procedures, the MOT not only violated state bidding law, City Charter and Code requirements, and the Mayor‟s Executive Order, but effectively handed Ciber a blank check in the form of a time and materials contract with no maximum cost. The no-bid arrangement with Ciber included no requirements for payment or performance bonds, no provisions for inspecting work, and no standards or performance guaranty to hold Ciber accountable for the quality or outcome of the project. Each month, from February through July of 2008, Ciber submitted invoices for estimated time and materials based on Ciber‟s proposed scope of work. Ciber began with site surveys and assessments needed to prepare a design then proceeded to purchase and install equipment. Much of the labor was subcontracted to LSI, TSG and other unidentified subcontractors. According to a report submitted to the City by Ciber, the City‟s aggressive timeline contributed to higher costs and by June 2008, more than 15 workers were deployed in the field with 8 bucket trucks involved in installation. According to Ciber‟s report to the City, the project was complete on July 31, 2008, when 205 out of 214 cameras were functional. The total amount billed by Ciber in monthly cost estimates was $2,527,540.53. As was the case with the Southern, Veracent, and LSI work, the MOT did not maintain records to document the work performed by Ciber and its subcontractors. City officials told the OIG that Ciber did not provide a report of actual hours of labor on the project that could be reconciled with Ciber‟s billings, which were based on estimated hours.

Then....of course.....the shit still doesn't work. Read the report for further detail.

Keep in mind that Meffert and crew now have an entire business installing crime cameras nationwide: here and here and LOGISTIX here.

Check these shots out of how the antenna was mounted to pole:

Duct tape....it'll fix anything!
























This reminds me of India:

Just how fucked are we?

Watch this Bill Moyers interview with economist, Robert Johnson:

Bill Moyers Journal: Robert Johnson

This is one of the most sobering and informative assessments I've heard of our current economic situtation.