Thanks, Dallas!

Consider these things briefly when choosing a mayoral candidate:

1. The only politicians capable of winning (Kucinich excepted) are rich people.
2. Really, really rich people have nothing in common with anyone but other really, really rich people.
3. Unless you're a really, really rich person, you shouldn't vote for a really, really rich person.

Since Ron Forman pulls down half a mil a year from one job, not to mention his other interests, I'd say that he and I have different ideas about how best to rebuild NOLA.

Of course, since almost the entire rebuild NOLA commission is rich people, typically Republican campaign contributors, he may be their dream candidate.

Note how the people backing Forman are also really, really rich businesspeople. My guess is that they want to turn NOLA into a nice vanilla city. But who's going to work at Popeye's? Who's going to bus the dishes at Commander's? Who's going to make up the rooms in the Royal Sonesta? Where you gonna get the brass bands? I guess they think that we can keep busing them in from Baton Rouge.

That being said, I haven't decided for whom to vote, but it won't be Ron.

---

This makes me sick.

In case you missed it, this was a photo of a woman and her daughter who decided to come to Mardi Gras. They couldn't just enjoy it and behave like everybody else, oh no. They decided to try and pour some cayenne on the open wound. Here's the Yahoo caption:

Laurel Keating left, and her daughter Rebecca Keating age 15 both from Dallas, catch some beads at their first Mardi Gras in the Uptown area of New Orleans on Sunday Feb. 26, 2006. Their sign says "We're from Texas you Owe us," which makes reference to the many displaced people from the New Orleans region that went to Texas.

(deep breath)

Ok, listen to me Laurel Keating, you rancid cunt. First of all, you got no bidness even being here. This is our town, bitch, so go back to Dallas and talk about how happy you are you don't have to live near black people. Second, what kind of fucking example are you setting for your daughter, by not flashing your tits? Third, we don't owe you shit, rather, you owe us.

Think about the capital that went to Texas and went out of Louisiana. All that eating out, buying food and clothes, buying cars, paying for gasoline and hotels...all that money went to Texas, and Georgia, and wherever else, and all that money should have been spent in Louisiana. I don't want to hear another word about how we should thank Houston; Houston should thank us. Fuck you all. The infusion of cash to these border states has increased their revenues and tax base to levels they couldn't have dreamed of.

Fuck Houston.

Oh, and I hope somebody saw Laurel Keating's sign, and clocked her upside her motherfucking head with a Zulu coconut.

Comments

[Mr. Clio]

I'm just glad you took a deep breath first. I don't want to think about what would've happened if you hadn't paused first.

Thanks for kicking off my week right!

[Kent]

We watched the parades from across the street from that awful sign.

I wanted to pelt her with beads, but I was afraid that she would get the wrong impression, that I was actually supporting her sign.

Everyone I talked to on the passenger side of Napoleon hated her sign. I believe one summed it up best when he simply said, "That's pretty shitty."

[saintseester]

Dammit - new orleans did change. Too many people who normally would have been around this year, must have relocated - because in years past, that sign would have been confetti!

[Brownsavvy]

Ashley, I have been a reader of your blog for a while now. Dude, are you me because you say EXACTLY what I think about the whole post-K madness, Forman, all of it?

[ashley]

I got run over by a taxi in Chicago 3 years to the day before Katrina, and had a severe head injury. So, I may be you, Brownsavvy, and not even know it.

Later blog post: how to get tenure when you have had a severe head injury and can't write for 2 years.

[Ian McGibboney]

I'd like to dismiss that sign as a joke, but unfortunately it's right in line with my experiences with a lot of Texans.

Immediately after Katrina, I got flak from a Texan blogger who didn't like that I said, "When even Texans help, that's amazing." He said I was unfairly classifying Texans as self-important Louisiana haters. And then something like this happens to prove me right.

[Polimom]

I must have been asleep at the keyboard when you posted this. Nasty woman! Shame on her arrogance.

"Owe"? As in... an acquired debt? 'Scuse me while I thumb briefly through my "respect and caring for fellow humans" manual....

Nope. Can't find it anywhere. I betcha dollars to donuts that I'll find her under "sanctimonious jerks", though.

[Ray]

I look forward to seeing Rebecca's naked bead-besotted tits in "Best of Girls Gone Wild, Mardi Gras 2010".

[KamaAina]

A Zulu coconut? Would not a Muses shoe have done as well -- or better, with the potential for a nasty puncture wound?

Now we know why tomorrow is known as "Ash" Wednesday!