HELP!

Blogger is going psychotic on me.  Does anyone know of  surefire way to archive the blog ASAP?

Thankee

Thank all of you who kindly donated yesterday...and today.  And much thanks to my best bro, Jonathan Ferrara, for lending me his art gallery's cargo van to deliver the supplies to Epes.  And...tons of thanks to my friend Bill for co-piloting the mission.

In the interest of disclosure,  I received about $350 in donations...Wow!  And CC...you rock.  I thought it would take about $100 in gas...not.  It took about $250.  Remind me not to travel anywhere this summer, jeez man.

I may volunteer for another trip, so I will sit on the extra 100 bucks.  If any of you donation makers want to grab a drink and rap, let me know.

Remember, together we're heavy:



BTW, this concert was the closest thing I've ever experienced to the rapture....hope you guys had a good rapture day.

Ashe'

I get by with a little help...

...you know the rest.

Yo peeps, I'm  driving a cargo van with some badly needed supplies, baby formula and diapers, from New Iberia to Epes, Alabama today for tornado victims.  If you can spare a few bucks to help with gas bill, please donate on the PayPal link.  Thanks to Sharon and Aunt Nancy for their contributions.  5 folks with a ten spot would do the trick. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>PayPal.

Ashe', J.

It's not funny any more

Really.  I stopped laughing a long time ago.  Now it's embarrassing.  It's been over a year since Ciber's departure.

Could someone in IT at City Hall please change the domain addy?  Please?  The dirty bastards raped us out of a gazillion dollars and we still have an IP addy which suggests our city is a subsidiary of Ciber.

Please, can someone change that?

BTW, I asked then and I'll ask now...how can a compnay DBA an entire city?  I want to DBA city of New York and cash their checks.  Does that mean if someone wrote a check to City of New Orleans, that Ciber could have cashed it?   

Le Petit....now a place to eat?

I've never considered myself a preservationist, at least not in this city where it is more akin to a religion.  In any other city, where they tear down buildings to make way for an endless slew of strip malls and Wal-Marts, I would probably be considered a building hugger but in N.O. I'm just left of center.  Or in this case would it be right of center?  You know what I mean.

Anyway, I just caught wind of a very shady transaction going down by the board of the Le Petit Theater.  Reportedly, the board members are tight lipped but they apparently had a super-secret meeting yesterday with one of the top restaurant developers in the city.  I have heard word that the board is "intent on selling" the theater and had two solid offers on the table but both offers would "repurpose" the building into a restaurant.

That bothers me.  That theater is one of kind.  It's a magical experience just to visit the place, much less see a show there.

I've heard the theater is under a mountain of debt.  It is  struggling to make mortgage and insurance payments so if it has to be sold, I get it...it has to be sold.  The question is why the place isn't being put up for sale at auction.  I've been told there are a handful of capable buyers in Nawlins who are eager to buy it and keep the theater in tact but the board members seem intent on selling the place under the table and letting it get converted into yet another restaurant.  I'm not anti-restaurant but I'd hate to see the city lose something this unique and it's not like we have a shortage of restaurants in the Quarter.

Also, has the building received the OK by the Vieux Carre Commission to be converted into a restaurant? 

If anyone knows one of the board members, could you please find out what is going on and post the 411 in the comment section?  Thanks.

UPDATE:  WWL report here.   Ah...so Dickie Brennan is "saving" the theater by putting in a restaurant?  Right.    Until they decide it's not economically feasible to keep it open?  This story is going to get bigger...I've been told the board does not have the authority to make this deal.  I was also told they made it under the table and cut the deal without a quorum.  I know the VCC has not granted a change of use permit for the property, so that's another can of worms.

Yuppers

Read this comment...I've been waiting for it to come in:



Anonymous said...


Speaking of donations...You can add on the $1.85 million for educational software (GoalView from LTI & CIBER) that the New Orleans taxpayers so lovingly paid for, which ended up being given to Chicago Public School's. That is the same Chicago where the Nagin fundraiser was held and the same Chicago that CIBER gave untold amounts of work to Mark St. Pierre & crew. You can thank Ed Burns, CIBER, Nagin & crew for keeping themselves before the people and city of New Orleans.

I've got some documentation coming which attests to this fact.  I've just been tied up with another bullshit move BP and the oil and gas industry is trying to pull in this legislative session. 

This may be the smoking gun on Nagin and Ciber.  While I haven't been able to directly trace back this loop, what I can tell you is that the City of New Orleans paid 1.85 mill for the Learning Tree (Ciber subsidiary) Software package to Ciber and we never received it.  Curiously enough,  that same software package was donated to the City of Chicago shortly before Ray Ray flew up there for a very successful fundraiser....plane tickets paid for on the MeffCard.  

Hold tight...I have some dox you will be interested in....and maybe even some names.

Bomb is dropped

Just got word that Jimmy Goodson testified that he hired a landscaping company to do work on Nagin's house, paid for by St. Pierre.

Correction, Goodson didn't testify but the contract workers for the company, Custom Transportation, confirmed that lawn work was done on Nagin's yard.
Bye Bye Ray.

The Best Show in Town

Ok homeslices, for the first time in a berry, berry long time, I am actually "in the mood" to bloggerbate.  As you may already know, I spent the whole day at the Mark St. Pierre trial in Judge Fallon's courtroom.  And man let me tell you, Judge Fallon hosts one helluva show.  I hope I get invited to one of his dinner parties cause today was about the best entertainment I've had since the post-K Mardi Gras...and this time I was stone-cold sober all day.

Hang with me cause I warned you it was going to be a rant.

First thing...today was a totally self-indulgent experience for me so this whole post is gonna be highly subjective and masturbatory.  I read the MSM reports of the court room preceding yesterday and then had some sources fill me in on what wasn't reported...that left me with an enormous sense of discontent.

I laid in bed last night thinking, "Man, Jaybird (my schizo second person persona)...you owe it to that blog and it's readers to go that trial tomorrow....shit...you may even owe it to Meffert."

A couple of hours later, I got up out of bed, walked outside to take a piss in my back yard at about 2 am and it hit me, "Man, fuck that blog and Meffert and the readers...you don't owe them shit or shinola...but you do owe it to yourself to go that trial."

In case you're wondering why I was pissin' outside, my homestead air conditioner is broke as the ten commandments.  I was sweatin' like a whore in church; couldn't sleep so I figured it would be cooler to step outside.  Judge me as you may.

That's the prologue...here's my blissful day.

Arrival

I got there about ten minutes before the trial started and Meff was sitting in the back of the courtroom transfixed on his Blackberry.  He did indeed have "longer hair" as 'da paper reported.  At first I was thinking it was kind of a Richard Marx thing...but not early Richard Marx and not late Richard "I chopped it all off" Marx...it was somewhere in between.  You know, now that I think about it, it was more like Daryl Hall:

Of course I'm exaggerating...but not that much...it was like this Daryl Hall era:

Yeah....that's more like it.

When the St. Pierre Posse arrived, I soon realized I was sitting on the brides's side of the chapel.  My first moral dilemma, "Should I move over to the prosecution's side, or should I just mingle with the sinners?" I mingled.  I chose wisely.

The Bride and the Groom

As I sat there, I couldn't stop staring at the Meff.  I wanted to "feel it" man.  I wanted to see where he@.

You know what?  He was humble.  I hate to disappoint but what I saw was a broken, humiliated man.  I felt no schadenfreude , nor did I feel pity... but I did feel for him.  He had a Pierrot thing going on, a perpetual frown and a general sense of confusion.  I took one look at him and I knew I was ready to listen...all day long I listened.

Now the St. Pierre Posse (6ish...7ish peeps) was a different story.  Jesus fucking Christ, I was spellbound with these folks and by the end of the day I had stopped listening to the defense's cross-examination altogether and just watched these guys.

Let me start with physical descriptions.

SHE was the show.  There are those that demand attention and then there's Stacy St. Pierre.  A 5'9ish brunette sporting a white jacket covering a beige...frilly (like Purple Rain-Prince-frilly)....blouse.   Down below, a pretty tight, but not skin-tight, black pair of....I swear I want to say jeans but I just couldn't tell.   Open-toed shoes...I know you're curious.  Toes manicured and almost flawless.

It's called Belle Chase chic....remember, you heard it here first.

Lady St. Pierre has kind of a Maria Shriver...but hot Maria Shriver....thing going on.  Her gait was more akin to a horse than a bunny's, as were her facial expressions.  She smiled a lot, in fact too much.  Lot's of hair flips and hair twirling.  She would also cock her head at rather bizarre moments...like she was reacting to some invisible arrow being shot at her head.

Marky Mark had this priestly vibe about him.  You know, the kind of priest that wants your kid to be the altar boy.  He had a little bit of a Clint Eastwood glare but more of a Bryan Brown appearance.  He also had a blinking thing going on...he kept blinking....a curious idiosyncrasy.

He wore a bright red tie.

Aside from their physical appearance, the Posse's emotional state was...well...careless.  In fact, it was even joyous at times.  I couldn't take my eyes off this anomaly.  These motherfuckers were not just comfortable in a federal court, it was like they were hanging out in a MLB dugout.  Lot's of laughs, lot's of smirks, lot's of head shakes...this was a well practiced team, the St. Pierres.

In fact, the king and queen arrived at the playing field in a pimped-out (white boy pimped out), black Mercedes.  I mean, sweet Buddha....you're getting charged with public graft in federal court and you show up in a "ride"?  Damn, the gonads on these folks.

Just like ballplayers in a dugout, the St. Pierre Posse had a ton of sugar.  Marky Mark was drinking Dr. Pepper at fucking 9 am in the morning.  Who drinks Dr. Pepper at 9 am?  I mean, fuck, that's like drinking Mountain Dew with your Frosted Flakes before going to school.  They also had this endless stash of certs, lifesavers, and general candy items...oral fixations.  They could have opened up a frikkin' Circle K with the amount of condensed sugar they had on person.

I worry about these fuckers...if this trial extends for any length of time they're gonna end up with type 2 diabetes.

This was the cast.

Oh!  Deus ex machina was flawless as usual.  Letten made his presence known at the beginning of the day and casually slid out within the first hour after the lead prosecutor hit stride and was running like a finely tuned Bugatti.

The First Act

The prosecution began by establishing the ownership of Imagine software.  Much to my surprise, of the principals, Mark St. Pierre, Scott Domke, Mark Kurt, and Paul Hastings,  Marky Mark only owned 25% of the company.  The defense would later harp on this fact during cross-examination.

Meffert confirmed that he was traveling to other cities to pitch Imagine/Netmethods while presenting himself as the CIO of the City of New Orleans but he was never successful in procuring contracts for the private enterprise.  The prosecution asked him why Mark St. Pierre continued to pay him kickbacks and supply him with the infamous credit card if his pimp job kept failing.  Meff replied that the New Orleans contracts were big enough and lucrative enough to justify St. Pierre's continual kick backs.

There were some various charges on the MeffCard which were brought up, including a year long family membership to Elmwood for 600+, tickets to Voodoo games, a brofest in San Diego with St. Pierre and bodyguard/ship captain/landscaper/welder/chauffeur/pimp/fill-in-the-blank, Jimmy Goodson, but the really interesting stuff was that Meff bought C. Ray and his wife plane tickets to Chicago for his 2006 mayoral fundraiser.  He also paid Ray's 50th b'day party bar tab at Sweet Lorraine's with the MeffCard...that was about $1200.

Eventually the story led to Nagin campaign contributions and Meff stated they were given the responsibility of raising 250k.  He said that Marky Mark and Ed Burns (Ciber) were assigned with raising 100k each for the campaign.  Meff said all of them eventually produced their assigned amounts.  When asked how they legally donated that much money in regards to campaign finance laws, Meff suggested they used the "conduit campaign contribution" method in which employees from St. Pierre's firm and Ciber's firm donated 5k each (the maxium) to Nagin's campaign with the understanding that they would be reimbursed.  Meff said, "We all (Ciber, Imagine, and himself) had a vested interest in getting Nagin re-elected."

I found this line of questioning interesting.  Remind me to tell you peeps a little story about that mysterious educational software package we purchased from Ciber for 1.8 million and never received.  It has to do with the Chicago fundraiser and Ed Burns.


Another item on the prosecution's list is how Meffert allowed St. Pierre to write the Request For Proposal for the 2005 contract which brought Ciber in as the prime technology vendor replacing ASC.  I've hashed all this up before, but I didn't realize Meffert allowed St. Pierre to actually write the damn RFP.  Meff went on to describe how he tilted the bidding process in Ciber's favor and how the members of the committee making the decision to award the contract were kosher with the Ciber fix.  The inital contract was for 5.5 million but of course it expanded to literally 10 times that amount by the time Ciber/Imagine were done fleecing the city.

ACT II

Moving on to the juicy shit, the questioning started leaning toward Jimmy "Renaissance Man" Goodson and that's when the dirty did arise.

By now you all know Meff confessed to buying the Silicon Bayou..the boat, the muthafuckin' boat... to provide more privacy for the stripper/poker parties they were having on Tuesday and Thursday nights.  As I was sitting there listening to the line of questioning, I started to sense this was about to take an ugly turn...so did the jury as they were visibly squirming in their seats.

Meff confessed that Jimmy Goodson, a childhood friend of St. Pierre, would procure "strippers" for the party nights on the boat and that St. Pierre would pay for it all.  As this was going on, I thought "Well, I guess they had to bring that up to the jury but it'll end there."

It didn't.

The prosecution then asked what these "strippers" did at the parties.  Meff retorted, "They performed sexual acts."

Oh shit, methought.  Surely they aren't gonna....

Prosecutor:  "Who did they perform these sexual acts on? On you?"

Meff:  "On me and everybody...."

He was mumbling like a 3 year old who just pissed his pants.  Meanwhile, not only the jury, but everyone in the room was shifting in their seats like they had stomach problems.

I immediately looked at Lady St. Pierre and was expecting to see a Jerry Springer scene unfold in front of me.  To my surprise, she was sitting there, head cocked high, grinning like a shit-eating possum.  My Jerry Springer moment suddenly turned to a Ferris Bueller - "So that's how it is in their family"- moment.  I was thrown aback.  I started having delusions of LSP kissing Marky Mark on his way out the door on Tuesday/Thursday nights saying, "Make sure you wear a condom, and pick up some 2% milk on the way home."

Also, at this point, can we discuss the Chinese wall which separates strippers from hookers?  OK, maybe not.

 ...alright I gotta go to bed....I'll finish later...and edit later...

Back.

Goodson is a gold mine.  The prosecution questioned the home repairs to Meff's house that St. Pierre paid for, via Jimmy G.  Pool repair, landscaping, electric work, and a new roof that cost about 9k were mentioned.  I was hoping the big, burning question would come up, "Did St. Pierre pay for any home repairs for Mayor Nagin?"  No luck.  Although if I was a betting man, like Jay Batt, I would put good money down that Goodson was strolling next door and fixin' up Ray Ray's house as well.

Speaking of Batt, Meff revealed that he lost "a stupid bet" with Jay Batt over who would win the Orleans Parish Sheriff's race.  He had to pony up $9600 and buy the Battman...wait for it....a Rolex.

What is it with politicians and Rolexs?  Can we just set up a fund that buys every crooked, incoming politico a Rolex?  We can call it the Jack Sutton subsidy.  At least then we can budget for the expense.  And is there a bet Jay Batt won't take?  Hey Jay, I bet you that Rolex St. Pierre gets convicted.

One other thunk that ran through my head about this story and why it bubbled up in the courtroom..."In what cozy moment did Meff and Battman make that bet?"  I wonder if it was made at a poker table, on a boat, with a stripper under the table.  Just a thunk.

The stripper sex on the boat act was hard to follow...unless Meff claimed he was fucking a mermaid or something.

Indeed the line of questioning then shifted to more mundane subjects like Lafayette CIO, Keith Thibadoux, and his wife.  Meff set Thibadoux's friends up with bullshit jobs in exchange for Netmethods' contracts with the City of Lafayette.  Some interesting facts were thrown out, including a name I didn't quite catch that the prosecution referred to as a Mississippi lobbyist.  That reference brought an immediate objection from the defense for leading the witness, the objection was sustained.  I couldn't tell if they were concerned about revealing the guy's profession or if they were just trying to keep the prosecution in line.

The Tropos donation (nodes for a mesh network for the crime cameras, wi-fi, and interoperability system) was briefly discussed which led to the discussion of Meff's decision to bring in a "rich internet company" to install public wi-fi in the city after Katrina.  He said three companies were initially interested in this initiative, Google, Yahoo, and Earthlink but in the end Earthlink was the only one willing to move forward, and in particular, use the Imagine crew as a sub.

They went on to discuss the crime cameras with not much new ground broken on that front.  However, it led to the prosecution introducing a curious item as evidence, none other than the infamous WWL radio interview between Garland Robinette and the Meff.

When this came up I was thinking "Jeez, they're not gonna play this whole thing are they?"  Yes...they were.

I've heard that interview no less than 10 times so I knew everything in it but I was a little befuddled as to why they were introducing it into the courtroom.  About that time I saw the defense counsel and Marky Mark, subtly look back at Stacy St. Pierre who immediately stood up, flipped her hair, and exited the courtroom.  Then it hit me....no, couldn't be.....was Meff going to identify her as Saint Tammany...the caller at the end of the show?

As the WWL interview rambled on I was watching Meffert sink on the stand, it seemed like he was visibly ill being forced to sit there and listen to the inane bullshit he was spouting in that interview.  The gay Scientologist reference got a few laughs out of the audience, including the jury, but the real show stopper was Garland going apeshit on Tammy, the caller at the end of the show.  Garland's voice thundered through the courtoom, "I don't know who you're working for but let me tell you I've given Mer-fert every opportunity...!"  That rant never gets old no matter how many times you listen to it.

The crowd seemed quite amused with the interview.  When questioning resumed, Meffert commented "It's really difficult for me to listen to that."  Yup, everyone else too, Greg.

The prosecution then dropped the bomb, "Did you recognize the voice of that caller?"  My ears perked up, Meff responded, "Yes, I immediately recognized the voice as Stacy St. Pierre, Mark's wife, and I was mortified."  BAM!  I called that one...in my own head, but I called it.

I was thinking, "Man, they totally slipped her out the back door and got away with it."  Not so fast, the prosecution then turned to the bailiff and told him to go out in the hall, find Mrs. St. Pierre and bring her back in the courtroom.  A tense 30 seconds ensued, the doors swung open and Stacy not only came back in....she was fuckin' working it, baby...doin' her little dance on the catwalk.  She had that horse gait strutting like a Tennessee Walker...it was all about her.

The defense asked Meff, "Is this the woman who made the phone call?  Stacy St. Pierre?"  Meffert replied in the affirmative.  The prosecution then asked him, "Is her name Tammy?"  Meff replied negatory.

But honey badger didn't give a shit....for a brief moment...she was the stah!

The courtroom then broke for lunch but I hung around listening to the Posse mumble amongst themselves...I heard one voice say "What the hell? Is Meffert now a voice analyst specialist?"

Stacy and Mark were trading kisses across the divider.  I kept looking over my shoulder to see if the Real Housewives of Belle Chase camera crew was actually shooting.  Dude...these guys are either epically deluded or they're like pirates who have consigned away all concern for their future....maybe a little bit of both.  The only person in the room who seemed more cocky than them was the lead prosecutor but he had a damn good reason to be.

Meanwhile they were popping those fucking lifesavers and shit like candy....oh wait a minute...they are candy....they were popping them like pills.  I got kind of envious and thought about asking them for a Cert, it's kind of like I paid for it anyway, huh?  I mean if St. Pierre really wanted to make amends for the public cash he siphoned he could handout Mentos, Dr. Peppers, and blow jobs to all New Orleanians.  That would make me feel better about things, I don't know about you.

Once the courtroom reconvened after lunch, the prosecution methodically went over the monthly kickback checks written by St. Pierre to Meffert.  I don't see how the defense can make an argument against those checks combined with Meffert's testimony that they were simply kickbacks.... no work was actually done.

Meff went on to say how he is now completely broke and can't get a job.  He said he has become Mr. Mom and commented, "I can always try to get a job." But he seems mentally defeated on that front.  I relate, Meff, I relate....not for the same reasons, but I relate.

The prosecution then started grilling him about lying under oath during his deposition in the civil case as well as lying on the stand in court.

Meff had arleady admitted to lying continually in order to hide "the criminal enterprise" between him and St. Pierre.  To me, this was one of the most revealing moments of the day as Meffert explained why he lied, when he lied, and the moment he realized his ass was in a sling.

He said the moment he realized shit was about to go down was during the civil trial deposition when he was suddenly asked about the Hawaii trip.  He brought this up later on in cross examination as well and stated that up to that point the Hawaii trip was just "on the websites" and had not yet become a real issue.  He said he knew it was on "someone's" radar when the civil case attorneys brought it up while he was under oath.

This, of course, gives me yet another opportunity to showcase my favorite photoshop job of all time on AZ:

http://theamericanzombie.blogspot.com/2006/09/ho-ho-honau-e-uku-said-santa-st-pierre.html
  
My favorite part of that pic is the subliminal "BOO" in the sand behind the title.  Sorry...getting lost in my own schtick.

The prosecution also pointed out that Linda Meffert had two emotional breakdowns, one in 2004 after getting fired by Copeland's restaurant group and again in 2009 after the Feds were closing in on them.  Meff got very emotional and you could see the guy truly felt horrible for what he had done.  Although I don't think Linda is as innocent in the grand scheme of things as Greg portrayed her, I appreciate the guy standing up and taking all the blame.  Later on during cross-examination he said, "I regret dragging her into this more than you know."  Yeah, I feel for you but she wasn't complaining too much when she was transferring the kick back cash and enjoying the good life, not to mention publishing an advice column telling other people how to cope with their problems and live a better life.

Act III

Upon cross-examination, the defense strategy picked up right where the prosecution left off....the lies under oath.  After a series of repetitive questions it became clear the strategy was "You're a lying, fucking liar who lies, and you're even lying when your telling the truth about your lies, so your a liar and that's that."  There was also a push to imply that the Fed was forcing Meff to lie in order to convict St. Pierre.

The way I see it, I don't care what rabbit Eddie Castaing can pull out of his hat, I was looking at the jurors and I'm pretty sure they were all thinking about the same thing me and the rest of the peanut gallery was thinking about....strippers and "sex acts" on the boat.  

It's the boat, it's the boat, it's the motherfuckin' boat!



I'm just saying...they takin' a good hard look at the motherfuckin' boat.

And now a word from our sponsor:

http://boating.com

Castaing was also pointing out that St. Pierre was only a 25% owner in Imagine and that he was "just a member" of the company, not the kingpin orchestrating the graft.  Meff had none of that nonsense and continually stated that Marky Mark was the swinging dick...no doubt about it.  Although I must admit it is a very valid point to bring up, it actually surprised me that St. Pierre only had 25% interest in Imagine.

I thought about it last night and I think I have a way to decide who was the true ring leader...let's find out who got the most stripper hummers, St. Pierre, Domke, Kurt, or Hastings.  And for the bonus round we'll throw in mystery guests, Nagin and Batt....their totals may be 0 but inquiring minds want to know.

Epilogue

Overall, I had a couple of revelations from the day.  One of the most profound was just how close AZ has been to the truth.  This isn't an ego trip, I'll tell you when I do that, but I was amazed to listen to Meff and recapitulate just how close the information on the blog really was.  All through the day I was hearing things that had surfaced here that I had forgotten about.  I'd say the blog may have even been over the 80/20 rule in accuracy, including speculation.

Another thing which occurred to me is just how much this city has changed in the wake of Katrina.  I'm not saying we're clean as a whistle but I don't think a criminal enterprise as large as the one St. Pierre and Meffert spawned could possibly exist in New Orleans' city government today.  The amount of money these guys were throwing around, including the $56 million we pumped out the door to Ciber....man...it's staggering.

The rise and fall of Meffert also weighed on my mind.  I kept thinking about the Enron documentary titled, "The Smartest Guys in the Room".  This documentary would be titled, "They Thought They Were  The Smartest Guys in the Room."  In so many ways, Meff laid the mines he would eventually step on.  The most notable was his inability to keep his mouth shut.  When he was riding high, he was boasting about the Hawaii trip, the boat, and in particular the MeffCard....that's exactly how I found out he had it.

Having said that, I can't stress enough that the Greg Meffert in that courtroom yesterday was not the same man we've come to know on this blog and in the media.  He was visibly destroyed, scared, humiliated and humble.  When the prosecution asked him if he understood what his fate is under the agreement he said (paraphrase), "I can get up to eight years in prison.  My fate lies in the hands of Judge Fallon."  He reiterated that if he lied on the stand the deal was off and having sat there all day and listened to him very closely, I think he did nothing but tell the truth.  I also think he was relieved to do it.

I was relieved to hear it.

Maybe it's because I saw Thor with my kid last Saturday, but I believe even the biggest ego can find humility and atonement....if they seek it.  I'm not being a Meff apologist by any means but I hope when this tribulation is over for him, he finds peace with his family.  If a Norse God can do it, why can't Greg Meffert?

St. Pierre...screw that guy.  I hope he gets 20 years in a fuck-me-in-the-ass-prison while his wife goes cougar, climbs in the back seat of that black Mercedes and bangs a 20 year old like a screen door in a cyclone.  This guy is completely unapologetic and was even flashing his grafted wealth in the public's face.  I hope he rots.

That's about all I got on that.

Oh yeah...Ray Nagin is burnt toast.        

Uhhh....

Guys, I'm not trying to be a conspiracy theorist or anything but the post I made on the Meffert trial has been deleted.  I didn't do it.  I couldn't get into Blogger account last night and  today....poof....it's gone.

Not kidding...  Ok so I guess it's not just me...let's hope it's restored because I ain't got it in me to rewrite that thing.  If anyone happens to have the post on their screen or PDA could you take a screenshot or copy the text and email it to me?  Thanks.

Apparently it was a Blogger issue...if anyone happens to have the post pulled up and can take a screen shot or copy the text and email it I would appreciate it.  I don't have it in me to re-write it.  Thanks. 

Anonymous said... Actually, I was going to post about 'hey dude wher'd the awesome meff post go?' and then thought mayeb you were in editing it.... but then this appeared at this and other blogger sites:

http://status.blogger.com/

"Friday, May 13, 2011

Blogger is back now. We're still working on restoring some of the data. For more details, see this post: http://buzz.blogger.com/2011/05/blogger-is-back.html

Posted by Chang at 10:32 PDT


We’ve started restoring the posts that were temporarily removed and expect Blogger to be back to normal soon.

Posted by at 06:07 PDT


To get Blogger back to normal, all posts since 7:37am PDT on Weds, 5/11 have been temporarily removed. We expect everything to be back to normal soon. Sorry for the delay.

@ St. Pierre trial

Meff just testified the strippers were doing the freaky deaky to the Imagine crew on the Silicon Bayou. He was sweatin bullets but he admitted it.

UPDATE: Doh! They just played the garland interview, the full thing, and meffert confirmed that the caller was Mrs. St. Pierre. She had strategically left the courtroom and the prosecution had her pulled back in. She strutted back in, just to give you a visual.

Commentary on Today's Trial

Meffert said the original plan was that St. Pierre and his associate, Jimmy Goodson, would arrange for a private jet for the Nagins. But the mayor wouldn't commit to a date, so in the end, Meffert said he just gave the credit card to the mayor's secretary to "let her book it whenever."

Hey, he said he hoped Meffert told them everything....well...his hopes are being fulfilled.  The truth is raining down like a sweet sun-shower.

Left Behind Party...and not my Left Behind

As many of you may already know, a group of evangelical folks believe that May 21, 2011 will be the long awaited Christian rapture where "true believers" will be magically swept up to heaven like the transporter effect on Star Trek.  Supposedly the righteous will even rise out of the grave...Zombies!!!

NOSHA will be throwing a soiree on the 21st at Napoleon's Itch at 734 Bourbon to celebrate the long awaited rapture.  Costumes are encouraged...I would suggest the zombie motif, of course.  I'm going to try and make it but I'm also considering scavenging for abandon automobiles as well.  I figure there will be a monster truck or an RV available in St. Tammany or Slidell.   

Hope to see you there, unless of course you win the Jesus lottery and get swept away...send a postcard and let me know what heaven is like...I'll keep you posted about hell on earth in return. 

I Taught the Weepin' Willow....how to Cry, Cry, Cry...

Tip o' th' hat to ACE....they truly aced it.

Cairo is saved but right now the 'Ole Man is bearing down on us.  I think we got this, I think ACE has this,  I have confidence...but don't forget...

'Tis done

Missouri Levee Exploded By U.S. Army Corps Of Engineers 

Let's hope for the best.  

Treme

I thought last night's episode was really good.  In fact, that's the first episode that has really grabbed me.  The character arcs have finally sucked me in, it took a season + 2 episodes to get me there, but I'm finally there.  Whoever wrote, directed, edited last night's episode....I hope they stick with that formula.

Cairo: On the Eve of Destruction?

I was born on February 4, 1969 at St. Mary's Hospital in Cairo, Illinois.  Both of my grandmothers worked at the hospital, one lived in Cairo and the other lived right across the Ohio River in Barlow, Kentucky.  My grandmothers were close friends; they introduced my parents one day at the hospital and...well...here I am. 

The shell of what used to be St. Mary's hospital in Cairo, IL.  Picture from WalkinginPlace.org

I actually grew up in Barlow, my father's hometown.  He worked at a paper mill in neighboring Wickliffe, KY, but I spent a lot of time in Cairo as a youth.  I attended church every Sunday with my mom and brother at St. Patrick's Cathedral and afterward we would usually spend the day at my grandmother's house where I would play with my cousins at St. Mary's Park across the street.

My grandparents house

My grandfather, Norman Hughes, ran the Cairo Greyhound Bus station before it closed due to lack of business; his brother, Raymond, was the chief at the fire department; my grandmother, Rose, (a saint in my mind) not only worked at the hospital, she also cooked meals and delivered them to needy folks through a Catholic charity program.  I can still remember driving all around town in her station wagon with my cousin, Andy, delivering box loads of meals to hungry folks and seeing the smiles on their faces.

My family was firmly entrenched in the Cairo community and my mother's brother even served as Alexander County Commissioner for a period.

The year I was born there was a massive race riot which resulted in the National Guard being called in to patrol the streets and keep the peace.  The city would never be the same after that event and while the economy was already collapsing, the riots seemed to be a catalyst for white flight.  The few companies Cairo sustained would move away over the next few decades and the ones that remained were destined for a slow burn to extinction. 

The city was already in decline when I was born but I did get to see a glimpse of its former glory in my younger days.  In my adolescence there were still department stores, an old pharmacy with soda fountains, a theater (The Gem), an Easter parade, and bars...lots of bars.

The neighboring counties in Kentucky and Missouri were mostly "dry", meaning alcohol sales were illegal, so Cairo was the watering hole for the farmers and factory workers who populated the region, not to mention their wild-ass high school kids (me).  The bars in Cairo were notorious for selling booze to underage kids.  In one bar, The Turf, the joke was if you were tall enough to look over the bar and ask for a beer they would serve you.

Oh, the stories I could tell....if I could just remember them.  The "sin" factor combined with an entrenched sense of racism held by the surrounding farm communities like mine gave Cairo a rather nasty reputation in the tri-state area.  In fact, it was very much like a little New Orleans.

The notorious Turf Club, Picture from WalkinginPlace.org

The city is somewhat of an enigma in that for all practical purposes it should have developed into a thriving metropolis.  It is situated on the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers within twenty miles of the intersection of I-57 and I-55.  Cairo also hosts two key bridges in the area which connect Kentucky to Illinois and Missouri to Illinois.  In the 1800's the city even had a U.S. Customs House which monitored its thriving port industry.

Today the city of Cairo is a shell.  Driving down Commerce Street, what was once the business district for the city, is a surreal experience.  Gutted buidling after gutted building, it's like the Mississippi shed its skin at Cairo and carried its wealth further downstream. 

Recently, the Huffington Post mentioned Cairo in a column on ghost towns in America.  In many ways, Cairo epitomizes the disillusionment of the American dream.  

Just like New Orleans, Cairo is surrounded by levees built by the COE.

Unlike New Orleans, the levee system has served the city well for decades without failure.

The city was flooded during, "The Great Flood",  which occurred on New Year's Eve, 1927.  I can still remember folks talking about the danger of Cairo being wiped out by a flood when I was a kid but I never really took it seriously, much like the mindset I held about New Orleans pre-Katrina.

As of midnight tonight, May 1, 2010, a mandatory evacuation has been issued for Cairo due to the highest water levels of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers the city has seen since the '27 flood.  The last report I read put the level at 59.19 feet, about 3 inches off the highest recorded level, and slowly rising.  The COE is currently moving barges full of explosives to an area directly across the Mississippi River in Missouri called Birds Point.  They believe they may be able to save Cairo by breaching the levee at this point, however this act of desperation would result in about 200 square miles of farmland being destroyed.  It's a horrible decision to have to make and for the first time in a while, I actually feel sorry for the COE.

When the plan was first suggested, it prompted Missouri House Speaker, Steve Tilley (R), to fire off a snide and callous remark about the worth of the city compared to the farmland:



He later apologized but having grown up in that area I can assure you that comment came from a deep seated sense of racism.  This is the same area of the country that produced Rush Limbaugh.  I can also assure you his comments won't hurt his chances in the next election.

I tried to write a blog post expressing my thoughts on the matter but I'm really having a hard time processing it.  Having lived through Katrina, seeing the reality of an entire city nearly wiped out, it's a cruel irony to see the city where I was born now on the verge of destruction.

In the wake of Katrina I saw a lot of callous comments on MSM websites about how New Orleans would be better off being destroyed.  I'm seeing the same things again: "It would be better off being flooded."; "Cairo needs a face lift."; "Crops are worth more than that hellhole."; etc.

For me, comments like that pick at the scabs.  I can't help but remember all the horrible things people said about New Orleans after the storm.  Those things made me very angry. 

I don't want to be angry about this.

Instead of posting another rant, I asked my aunt, Nancy Joiner, who grew up in Cairo and now lives in Southeast Missouri, to write a commentary on what she's feeling at the moment.  I'm patenting this philosophy BTW, "Don't rant, just ask your Aunt".


Here it is:

There have been many events in my 59 years that I thought would change my life forever.   There were those that brought much joy like the birth of my brother, the youngest of five, who remains to this day my best friend.  There was my graduation from high school and leaving for school in the big city, falling in love, my wedding day, my sons, my grandsons.   And there were losses in my life that brought much pain.  Throughout all of it, there was always one constant.  One place that would always be home to me no matter where I was - Cairo. 

Now my heart is breaking because this special place is threatened.  My dreams of returning to Cairo upon retirement are falling apart.  My life could be changed forever again, but not in a good way. 

A choice must be made.  Will the plan that was put in place so many years ago to save this city be carried out?  Or will politics, bigotry and greed win out?  If they make the wrong decision, it’s because they don’t know Cairo and/or they have no love in their hearts for their fellow man. 

They didn’t spend their childhood in this beautiful, busy town of 6,000 good, hard-working people.  They didn’t look forward to Saturdays and walking downtown with the other neighborhood children,  past the beautiful homes and historic landmarks.  They never had to make a choice of which of the 4 drugstores on the way to the movie theater they would stop at for cherry phosphate or chocolate soda.    A stop by each of the dime stores afterwards, maybe a quick trip up the steps of the historic library to pick up a book or two, then home to spend the summer evening playing kick-the-can on the empty lots across the street.   This was a community where everybody knew you and who you belonged to.  Doors remained unlocked, children could safely play in any neighborhood in town.

The levees that protected us, served as our “Lover’s Lane” and provided us with a place for building bonfires and sledding, may now let the rivers take our town.  But it won’t be the levees that betrayed us.  It will be the politicians and the bankers that value farmland over the homes of over 2,000 residents, who are predominantly black and impoverished. 

I know things change.  Cairo has changed.  But it will always be home to those 6,000 people, their children and grandchildren.   Technology has allowed so many of those people to reconnect.  They all feel the same way.  Cairo is the bond they share, and losing it would not only devastate those that still reside there, but all of those that still hold a special place in their heart for this town.

I watched in horror, from miles away, during Katrina, as lives were lost and homes destroyed.  I kept saying “Somebody, do something!!”  And nobody did.   How could this happen?  I see more clearly now.  And it sickens me.

If they let this happen, not only are they destroying the homes and lives of over 2,000 people, but also our heritage.   A legacy that my own ancestor helped build when he settled there in 1813.  I read his journal and I marvel at the hardships he endured so that I could have that happy, safe childhood.  This could be one of the most painful events in my life.   It’s been very difficult already to find that some I thought were good people, are rooting for the farmland for the same ugly reasons.  The poor, black people are expendable.  And I say again, Somebody do something!! God help us.

   
 Thanks Aunt Nancy.  Let's wish for the best.

Ashe'