liprap Umm, sportswriters all over this country, Imma let you finish, but the SAINTS are the ones going to the SUPER BOWL.

curly_emmy Cop in his car stopped in the middle of Magazine to say, via bullhorn, "can we please have a moment of silence... for the retirement of #4?"

Nolascratch If you want to know what this win means to new Orleans, I just visited a cemetary, and more than one grave had todays newspaper on it.

Well, one can't say we haven't been reveling in the Saints' big win in these parts. This is a big deal for this city. It really is.

If anyone out there can tell me who it is doing the confetti angel on the Dome field, I'd greatly appreciate it.

I mean, a guy who looks for all the world like he ought to be hawking the latest energy drink on teevee kicks it squarely through the uprights and an entire city goes berserk. Signs and portents pertaining to the Big Game seem to be coming hard and fast as the collective consciousness of this town in tune with its biggest stars of the moment does its best to give those boys in black and gold a psychic boost. Hey, it can't hurt.

Something else can hurt us right now, though - and it'll hurt even more if we don't do it before Carrollton/King Arthur/Barkus/Super Bowl Sunday.

DCrais On election day for #nola Feb. 6: 8 parades, and Saints fans in Miami for Superbowl on Feb. 7. Turnout may not break 25%.

First off, if you know you'll be in or at one of those parades or you will be in or at the Super Bowl, VOTE EARLY, PLEASE. Locations are at City Hall, the Algiers Courthouse, and a "Voting Machine Warehouse" at 8870 Chef Menteur Highway. Not sure where your polling location is if you decide to dodge the parades and all, or maybe you're looking to organize a second line to your nearest polling place? Check here.

This is too important to leave behind in the Mardi Gras and Saints revelry. It's tempting to throw it at the bottom of the party pile and claim it's a buzzkill. You want a buzzkill? Try this on for size: The Saints' win over the Vikings killed the community-gouging dreams of two NFL owners. Benson cannot move the Saints ever ever, and Vikes owner Zygi Wilf can't be sure that his referendum to get a new stadium for his team will be met with straight faces by the Minnesota lege.

But this election is bigger than that, even.

There wouldn't even be a Saints team without this city. New Orleans was here long before the Saints franchise was even a thought in Dave Dixon's head. We need to ensure that this place will be here for many more generations to come, and the current mayor hasn't been helping that cause much. We might well be in danger of electing another one that won't be much better than a bump on a log - but we also have city councilmembers, an assessor, judges, and other city officials to elect. Get informed, if you aren't already. Get your votes on, so that we can be a town that can sustain ourselves as well as a world class NFL franchise.

skooks Bracing myself for 2 weeks of national media getting shit wrong about NOLA

That's always going to happen, sadly. But if you love and care for this place as much as I and most of the people I know do, find a voting booth here and get some good people in City Hall working for the good of all of us. It'll even get you back some more time you can devote to the revelry...and to problems such as the one I now have.

My son has watched so many Saints games on the tube with us this season. It ain't easy for a seven-year-old to stay fairly dull-roar-ish while all the adults are watching grown men pummel each other on turf and yelling about it as they eat and drink. He kind of started to feel what the games were all about after the Arizona game, and once the Saints had this one in the bag, his rallying cry was, "I want a Saints jersey, Mom! A Drew Brees one! Can I have one? Can I? CAN I????"

Just checked at a local store: a #9 kid size jersey is $60.

I've created a monster.

Anybody know where I could get one for a lower price than that?

______________________

Update, 2:07 PM: Eli comments on the "distractions" over at The Lens...which, incidentally, is a great place to start to get informed about the issues that affect all us everyday New Orleans citizens. Good on Karen Gadbois and company for getting it up and running at a marathoner's pace.

GOOD GOD ALMIGHTY, 7:25 PM: And these purveyors of PimpGate thought they could put all this attempted wiretapping of a senator's office in a federal building past our recovering-from-euphoria eyes and ears? Umm, NO.

Why the GOOD GOD ALMIGHTY, you ask?, 7:38 PM: Well, check it:

I am friends with Jim Moore, co-author of Bush's Brain and The Architect (in fact, I am in the acknowledgments of this one), and he, like many journalists I have spoken to over the years, believes that Rove bugged his own office as a frame-up.

Now imagine a Watergate corruption alumni like young Karl Rove, training a crop of young Republicans in illegal domestic political warfare. Then imagine this man acting as a consultant to elect certain candidates where this pattern of abuses seems to always occur. Now imagine this individual heading the RNC at the national level, training combatants, and then as a key adviser to the POTUS, issuing directives to those foot soldiers. This break-in is not an isolated incident. It is part of a larger, more insidious political scandal: the recruitment and brainwashing of young Americans into political dirty tricks and illegal activity as part of a political Cold Civil War.

These operatives even have a name for such activity, one less polite than Cold Civil War: ratf---ing. Here is an excellent overview of some recent examples...

...The crime which occurred today is not just a joke gone too far. These are educated young men. These are members of the College Republicans. These are intelligent and well brought up individuals who know what is legal and what is not legal. They knew what they were doing, because as political operatives, they were indoctrinated in this art of war.