It's guest-blogging city amongst the NOLA blogpocheh these days.

The Rude Pundit kicked it off with a week of New Orleans-based guest bloggers while he vacations on a faraway isle someplace. Tomorrow's the last day, so get right and catch up on the previous days' posts:

Some things about people from New Orleans:

We don't care what you think. We've been doing our own thing for 300 years.

We don't want to go to your parades, ya'll don't throw anything.

100% humidity is the best moisturizer they ever came up with.

It's "New A'wlins," not "N'awlins."

We would have been fine if the federal levees hadn't broke.

And that's ooooonly the beginning...

Bigezbear's latest post over there has also inspired Maitri. Go read 'em both.


Cliff of Cliff's Crib has become the first of the greater New Orleans freelancers to guest on Gambit's Blog of New Orleans. A big mazel tov to him!

Cliff raises one aspect of all of this NOAH hubbub that can get a little lost in the details of it:

I’m not trying to minimize NOAH, Pampy Barre, or Oliver Thomas. I have said in the past that these little things add up to the huge problems the city has had for decades because it discourages people from coming to the city and investing time and money here. If someone did something wrong they should pay the price for it. All I am asking is that the size and scope of the scheme matches the neglect I see. I see how everyone is rallying around this NOAH story but if you added up all the questionable payments on that list it would be a drop in the bucket of the money that has been drained from this city. That’s what I want to find out about.

I want the folks who caused me to have a ten year old 7th grade English book investigated. What about the people who crippled NORD leaving the poor kids of the city with no organized recreation? What happened to all of the money the gambling industry was supposed to bring? Why isn’t Lincoln Beach open yet? Why didn’t any class I sat in from 7th to 12th grade have air conditioning? Where has all the money been going even before Ray Nagin and Marc Morial got in office?

If someone can find out and indict these people regardless of their color we will make them King of Chocolate City. We would welcome that because no one has suffered because of whatever they did or didn’t do more than we have. Until then please forgive me if I don’t grab my hangman’s noose and storm city hall because a contractor got paid to gut a house that he didn’t.

If we can’t find the big fish that everyone keeps saying is out there, the next logical explanation would be discrimination based on race and class. I don’t really want to believe that but no one is showing me otherwise.

And, finally:

I ganked the above button to the Rising Tide III website from Tim's sidebar. I hope he doesn't mind...

Feel free to add it to your sidebar... after you make a reservation for this year's conference!