Day: November 4, 2010

From the archives – and why we

While we knew in August 2008 this post would go down as one of our best ever we continue to be humbled by the high quality traffic it receives literally from across the world to this day, mostly from Universities and think tanks but also from governments, both domestic and foreign. It has certainly worn well with time because it has gotten more traffic each year since it was published in August 2008 with almost half the total views coming this year and it is one of our top 10 posts in terms of page views. Though the insurance battles for coverage are largely over, 5 years after Katrina and a massive oil spill later, it still remains not what you see but what you don’t here on the post Katrina coast. ~ Sop November 4, 2010

Not what you see but what you don’t…the post-Katrina coast (published August 11, 2008)

Gulf side of Beach Boulevard August 2008

For someone who can be a real “chatty Cathy,” I sat quietly with my camera in my lap as Sop drove me down Beach Boulevard – the first time I’ve done that on the post-Katrina coast and the road still isn’t completely open, it’s just no longer blocked.

Before the storm, there wasn’t a prettier stretch of highway in America. I’m convinced of that. With the Gulf on one side and one beautiful home after another on the other, it was a sight to behold.

The Gulf side is as beautiful as ever; but, not so the other where all that remains of many of those beautiful homes is a drive way and an otherwise vacant, weed-filled lot.

By the time we headed into the Bay-Waveland area, I’d seen more slabs that I could count and was feeling like an empty lot myself, the experience was so draining.

Lot on Beach Boulevard 3 years after Katrina

What made it so draining and me so sad was how much those vacant lots looked like those I saw right after the storm almost three years ago.

If this slab was the place I once called home, I can only imagine that I would have been overwhelmingly sad; leading me to believe that the empty lots on the Coast leave others empty and sad – depression is the clinical term.

According to cognitive-behavioral psychologists, depression in humans may be similar to learned helplessness in other animals, who remain in unpleasant situations over which they’d initially had no control.

Once we began to eat, meet, and greet, it wasn’t possible to be sad; and I bounced back and took these pictures the next day. However, others on the Coast are having more than the just a brief depressing experience like my encounter with the empty lots. WLOX, Biloxi television, ran a related story the day before I arrived. Continue reading “From the archives – and why we”

Election 2010 fallout: Media from across the country weigh in on Gene Taylor’s election loss.

The Marine Log: Shipbuilding champion Gene Taylor loses re-election bid

U.S. shipbuilders are losing a staunch Congressional ally. After 11 terms in the House, Rep. Gene Taylor has lost his bid to be re-elected to the Mississippi District 4 seat.

…His eleven terms brought a seniority that placed him well to defend shipbuilding interests as Chairman of the key Seapower and Expeditionary Forces Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee. He is also Co-Chairman of the Congressional Shipbuilding Caucus.

The Journal of Commerce: Maritime Advocate Taylor Loses Election

The wave of Republicans taking over the House on Tuesday swept out Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., one of the most passionate supporters of the Coast Guard and U.S. merchant marine in Congress.

Taylor has served 11 terms in Congress. He is chairman of the House Armed Services subcommittee on seapower and expeditionary forces and chairman of the Congressional Shipbuilding Caucus. His district includes the Northrop-Grumman shipyard at Pascagoula. Continue reading “Election 2010 fallout: Media from across the country weigh in on Gene Taylor’s election loss.”

Jim Brown

Thursday, November 3, 2010
Baton Rouge, Louisiana

DOES THE DEMOCRATIC COLLAPSE GIVE THE REPUBLICANS A MANDATE?

The Republicans were big winners in last Tuesday’s national election, taking control of the House of Representatives, and coming close to a takeover of the Senate. But is it enough to say that you are winning solely because the other side blew its opportunity? The reality is that the same thing is happening now that happened in 2006 and 2008. Voters are simply voting against the party in power. Numerous polls show a majority of Americans view the Democrats as the party of big government and the Republicans as the party of big business. And frustrated voters are wondering just who represents them.

This was an election to fire, not an election to hire. Two messages came across loud and clear. First, “Throw the bums out,’ was the battle cry. The Democrats in charge were not doing their job. But secondly, there was a veiled threat to Republicans. It was not “we love you guys,” but rather “we are going to give you one more chance. Don’t blow it, or we will look for options again in 2012.”

A new Rasmussen poll finds that 59% of voters indicate they will be disappointed with Republicans in Congress before the next national election. Voters are saying that Republicans don’t have their trust, but they are going to have to earn it. Obama has not been a bargain for American taxpayers, but neither was Bush. Continue reading “Jim Brown”

Slabbed Jefferson Parish News Miscellany: Work for the Parish and travel the world plus the Parish Council weakens the disclosure law.

Channel 4 has a pair of reports that we must highlight.  First up is the travel habits Cherreen Gegenheimer, Aaron Broussard’s Chief Administrative Assistant.  We have mentioned the Gegenheimer name here on Slabbed a time or two as Cherreen’s hubby, Clerk of Court Jon Gegenheimer was recently caught in a lie regarding his office’s affiliations with soon to be indicted former Lagniappe Insurance guy Tim Whitmer. Jon evidently likes to travel too with his wife on the taxpayer dime including two trips to the French Riviera accompanying the Missus as this Mike Hoss 4 Investigates report illustrates:

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Was John Young on the Parish Council when these travel expenditures were approved? I thought so. Continue reading “Slabbed Jefferson Parish News Miscellany: Work for the Parish and travel the world plus the Parish Council weakens the disclosure law.”

Failing public schools in Jefferson Parish? Let’s examine how the Gretna mentality contributes

Given the 24th Judicial Districts Courts are located in Gretna I suspect it was a simple matter of time before the phrases “Grenta Style” and “Gretna Mentality” would enter into the lexicon of the Slabbed Nation in the aftermath of the impeachment proceedings against Tom Porteous as the systemic corruption of the state and federal courts was laid bare for the country to see as the participants tried to explain their behavior away by saying stuff like, that’s the way it was done in the Grenta courthouse.

But alas Porteous is yesterdays trash and there are a new group of hogs looting the public purse and doing favors for themselves such as Jefferson Parish School Board member Mark Morgan, who we profiled the other day. Morgan comes from the cesspool that is the Jefferson Parish DA’s office as did his Momma, who evidently was a political hack in her own right back in the day. Not as commonly known about Morgan was that he was a collegiate student athlete swimmer who so loved his “root suit” he had it framed for use as office decor.

Pigs like Morgan could not ply their self serving trade driving the local school district into the ground without a higher political patron however and that is where Jefferson Parish Councilman Chris Roberts comes into play. Here on Slabbed we know Roberts best as one of the crooked Jefferson Parish pols that appeared on Anderson Cooper 360 nightly back during the oil spill pumping Bobby Jindal’s sand berm boondoggle as he was evidently cut in on the back end graft associated with the no bid dredge contracts.

So now that we have the players set up let’s review. Continue reading “Failing public schools in Jefferson Parish? Let’s examine how the Gretna mentality contributes”