Man Didn't Want A Woman With Good Taste

He wanted a woman that tastes good.

A suicide note in the pocket of a man who jumped off the Omni Royal Orleans Hotel late Tuesday led police to the grisly scene of his girlfriend's murder, where they found her charred head in a pot on the stove, her legs and feet baked in the oven and the rest of her dismembered body in trash bag in the refrigerator, according to police and the couple's landlord.
In the five-page note, Bowen claimed he strangled Hall in the bathtub, then dismembered her body before taking it in pieces to the kitchen, police said. An autopsy conducted today shows that Hall was in fact manually strangled, police said. It also appears that Hall's body was cut up after she died, police said.
Police found the victim's head burned beyond recognition in a pot on top of the stove, and her legs and feet in the same condition in pans inside the oven, police said.

Huh. I didn't find any recipes with those ingredients over at cajun-shop.com.

These two were featured in

The New York Times on September 9, 2005
and by Newhouse as well.

As he picked up limbs along the sidewalk, Bowen added, "It's actually been kind of nice. And I'm getting healthier, eating right and toning up."
The house has no phone, no electricity. (Hall points out that she "didn't have air conditioning to begin with.") The water has been turned back on, but the couple doesn't trust it. ("Hell no, I'm not touching that stuff," Hall said.) Bowen guessed they've got enough food for about three months.

Ok, I guess that was maybe in bad taste.

As If I Needed Another Reason To Vote Against Claire McCaskill

"George Bush let people die on rooftops in New Orleans because they were poor and because they were black."

What an ugly woman.

Read more at RedState: McCaskill and the DSCC Race Bait and Politicize Katrina

More at Wizbang: Missouri Senate - McCaskill: "Bush let blacks die"

Honey, I Shrunk The City

Mayor C. Ray Nagin, who has vowed to resurrect his crippled city, conceded Tuesday that New Orleans will shrink to nearly half its pre-hurricane population and will have to make do with one-third of its previous budget.

He expressed continued frustration with a federal bureaucracy that has given him "very little" control over the hundreds of millions of dollars appropriated for Katrina relief. So many businesses have fled that Nagin has been forced to travel outside the state to try to woo them back. And, he said, it will be up to Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D) to decide whether the city's February primary elections will be held as scheduled.

The last thing that city needs is someone as inept as Nagin having more control over relief money.

Hat Tip: brothersjudd.com.

150 MORE Buses Went Unused In New Orleans Evacuation

If Nagin had called the RTA, he might have found 150 city busses that could have been to the Superdome in 10 minutes. They were in perfect condition and the route between them and the elevated interstate was dry the whole time.

Hat Tip: Right Thoughts.

Greed And Corruption - A Way Of Life In N.O.

Zaphriel tells it like it is.

Rita Causes New Flooding In New Orleans

A Department of Homeland Security truck turns around as flood waters swamp a residential area from a second levee overflow on the west side of the industrial canal in New Orleans September 23, 2005. (J.P. Moczulski/Reuters)

"Our worst fears came true," said Maj. Barry Guidry of the Georgia National Guard.

"We have three significant breaches in the levee and the water is rising rapidly," he said. "At daybreak I found substantial breaks and they've grown larger."

Dozens of blocks in the Ninth Ward were under water as a waterfall at least 30 feet wide poured over and through a dike that had been used to patch breaks in the Industrial Canal levee. On the street that runs parallel to the canal, the water ran waist-deep and was rising fast. Guidry said water was rising about three inches a minute.

As for those who refuse to leave, Gov. Kathleen Blanco advised: "Perhaps they should write their Social Security numbers on their arms with indelible ink."

Water rushes over the top of a levee along the Industrial Canal, flooding the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans, Louisiana September 23, 2005. (Jessica Rinaldi/Reuters)

Good thing President Bush gave Mayer Nagin a call Monday and talked some sense into him.

Rita's Rain Begins Falling In New Orleans

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin continued to urge residents to get out of the city. A mandatory evacuation order is in effect for the entire east bank of the Mississippi, and some 500 buses were standing by at the convention center, but few seemed to be taking advantage. Only 27 people had been evacuated by the end of Wednesday.

Mayor Ray Nagin Comes To His Senses

But only after pressure from President Bush and other top federal officials.

Under pressure from President Bush and other top federal officials, the mayor Monday suspended the reopening of large portions of the city over the next few days because of the threat of a new round of flooding from a tropical storm.

"I am concerned about this hurricane getting in the gulf. ... If we are off, I'd rather err on the side of conservatism to make sure we have everyone out," Mayor Ray Nagin said.

The announcement came after repeated warnings from top federal officials and the President himself that the city was unsafe.

The mayor said his original plan was never intended to put people at risk.

"Now we have conditions that have changed. We have another hurricane that is approaching us," he said. He warned that the city's pumping system was not running at full capacity and that its levee system is still in a "very weak position."

Katrina Conservatism

Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, Louisiana's lachrymose governor, wants hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayers' money so that she can "recreate our communities." You know, the community that appalled the rest of America when wall-to-wall television coverage of Katrina showed us just what it looked like: poor, black, with astonishingly high unemployment and welfare dependency rates. Her desire to recreate that community is understandable; it is the community that put her and the gum-chewing, profanity-spouting New Orleans mayor, Ray Nagin, in power.

President Bush has a grander yet far more sensible vision. Not exactly the construction of a Ronald Reagan-style shining city on a hill, an impossibility since most of New Orleans sits several feet below sea level. But a city that will be built "higher and better."

Following the advice of his other hero, Winston Churchill, Bush sought to recover some of his lost popularity last week by reacquainting Americans with his, and their, natural optimism. "A pessimist," the great Briton said, "sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." And the president has always been at his best when relying on his can-do, Texas-size optimism.

A great article by Irwin M. Stelzer in The Weekly Standard.

Will Bush Be Blamed For The Next Nagin Blunder ?

In what appears to be yet another nutty Nagin decision (the city’s residents are still reeling from his refusal to transport them out of the city on New Orleans’ buses), the still-current Mayor has decided to allow 180,000 residents back into the city next week—with no potable water—and a levee system that is barely functional.

Great decision, Mr. Mayor! It’s almost as brilliant as yours and Governor Blanco’s pronouncement to the Red Cross to “stay out of the Superdome” with its food, water and hygiene kits. Didn’t want your “guests” overstaying their welcome by actually feeding them—did you?

Despite the fact that Coast Guard Vice-Admiral Thad Allen has called Nagin’s plan both “extremely ambitious” (this politely means Nagin has no idea of what he’s doing) and “extremely problematic” (this still means the Mayor is clueless), Nagin is forging ahead with his apparent foolhardy plan. Ever since the rest of us in the nation and the world heard his name and discovered who he was and is, Nagin has made one bone-headed decision after another; from not following his city’s disaster emergency plan through refusing through not transporting the city’s residents to a safe area to not allowing them to be fed and watered.

A great post on The American Daily. forgive his grammer and spelling, he was on a roll.

Read the rest.

Fuel Oils In Sediment In New Orleans

Mike McDaniel, Secretary for the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, discusses some of the results from environmental testing in New Orleans, at a news conference Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2005, in Baton Rouge, La. The floodwaters in New Orleans still pose a health risk because of dangerous levels of sewage-related bacteria and toxic chemicals, according to government test results released Wednesday. (AP Photo/Rogelio Solis)

A new health risk emerged Friday from the sediment of New Orleans - test results showing that diesel and fuel oils, which can take years to break down, make up as much as a 10th of the weight of some sediment samples.

Earlier tests turned up dangerous amounts of sewage-related bacteria and lead in floodwaters and more than 100 chemical pollutants.

The Environmental Protection Agency said Friday it also found E. coli bacteria in the sediment - the residue left from water, soil from backyards and road and construction debris - as well as slightly elevated levels of arsenic and lead. It didn't report the levels of E. coli bacteria, and there's no health standard for how much E. coli can be in soil or sediment.

"The presence of E. coli, however, does imply the presence of fecal bacteria and exposure to sediment should therefore be limited if possible," EPA said.

Fuel oils such as kerosene, jet fuel, range oil and home heating oil irritate the skin and, if breathed, cause nausea, headaches, increased blood pressure, light-headedness, appetite loss, poor coordination and difficulty concentrating. Breathing diesel-fuel vapors for long periods can cause kidney damage and lower the blood's ability to clot.

William Farland, EPA's acting science adviser, said he was not seeing anything in the sediment that suggests a big public health risk, "as long as people are careful to remove the sediment, keep it from getting on their bare skin and clean it off if they do."

None of this bothers New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin !

New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin said this week he expects some of the city's neighborhoods to reopen and up to 180,000 people to move back over the next two weeks as electricity and water are restored .

"The sediment itself will not be the only issue that determines whether people can move back in," Farland said in an interview Friday. "There are significantly larger and more important issues, such as the structural integrity of homes, the ability to have functioning water and wastewater, the question of whether there is appropriate electrical support and whether there are gas leaks."

Scientists worry that as the sediment dries, the pollutants in it can evaporate and, as gases in the air, they could be inhaled by people. Some chemicals found in fuel oils can easily evaporate, while others more easily dissolve in water. The agencies plan to collect air samples.

Hugh Kaufman, a senior policy analyst at EPA who has been a longtime whistleblower within the agency, called it "reckless and irresponsible" for EPA to imply that people moving back into New Orleans will be safe.

But what the hey ! Mayor Nagin says "Y'all come back now,Yahear?!"

Are The Environmentalist Wackos Going To Get Their Due ?

The Justice Department is seeking information about whether lawsuits by environmental groups hindered efforts to improve New Orleans levees, an effort the Sierra Club and Democratic lawmakers say is aimed at shifting blame for the massive flooding.

Excuse me Sierra Club and Democrats, it's already been established that improvements to the levees were in fact blocked by environmentalists because of concern for impact on wetlands. As I said in an earlier post, they got their wetlands, and it now includes the city of New Orleans.

"Has your district defended any cases on behalf of the Army Corps of Engineers against claims brought by environmental groups seeking to block or otherwise impede the Corps work on the levees protecting New Orleans? If so, please describe the case and the outcome of the litigation," said the communication, which was read to The Associated Press on Friday by Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse.

David Bookbinder, Sierra Club senior attorney, said the administration "is more interested in building a case to deflect blame than actually underscore what went wrong before, during and after the crisis."

Well of course he would say that. He knows that the law suits brought on by groups such as his did have a direct impact on improvements to the levees.

Some conservatives have complained that environmental groups have escaped blame for their opposition to levee projects. The Competitive Enterprise Institute posted on its Web site an article noting that "the opposition of environmental activist groups to building levees in the first place" has drawn little attention in the hurricane's aftermath.

It cited two groups, American Rivers and the Sierra Club, for their federal suit in 1996 to block an upgrade of 303 miles of levees in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi. Most of those levees are on the Mississippi River and did not fail during Katrina.

Separately, an environmental lawsuit in 1977 stopped an Army Corps project designed after Hurricane Betsy in 1965 to protect New Orleans from storm surges.

Hopefully when this all comes out the Environmental Nazis will be discredited in the eyes of the American public.

New Orleans' Health System Faces Crisis

This city's health care facilities have been shattered to an extent unmatched in U.S. history, and its hospital system faces grave challenges as residents begin returning, the vice president of the National Hospital Accreditation Organization said Sunday.

"Essentially the health care infrastructure of New Orleans is gone - it no longer exists," said Cappiello

That doesn't bother Mayor Nagin though !

Nagin's plan is to start repopulating the city neighborhood by neighborhood, starting Monday with the Algiers section, across the Mississippi River from downtown New Orleans. Over the next week and a half, the Garden District and the French Quarter, the city's historic heart, are due to open to residents and businesses.

"I hope there's someone looking at all the health care assets and making sound decisions as the mayor faces overwhelming political pressure to let people back in," Cappiello said. "The federal government needs to go in there and make sure the hospitals are a safe environment before they're reopened."

In other words, someone needs to stop that idiot Mayor from making things worse... again.

Here We Go Again ?

Hey Mayor Nagin ! You might want to check with the National Hurricane Center before telling people to come back to New Orleans !

Tourists were told to evacuate the lower Florida Keys on Sunday as a new tropical depression strengthened over the Bahamas and moved toward the vulnerable, low-lying island chain.

Long-term forecasts show the system heading generally toward the west in the Gulf of Mexico toward Texas or Mexico later in the week, but such forecasts are subject to large errors. That means that areas ravaged by Hurricane Katrina could potentially be in the storm's path.

Tropical Depression Moves Over Bahamas

Mayor Ray Nagin Acting Irresponsible Again ?

Mayor Ray Nagin defended his plan to return up to 180,000 people to the city within a week and a half despite concerns about the short supply of drinking water and heavily polluted floodwaters.

Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen, head of the federal disaster relief effort, said Saturday that Nagin's idea is both "extremely ambitious and "extremely problematic."

Allen said a prime public health concern is the tap water, which in most of the city remains unfit for drinking and bathing. He said he was concerned about the difficulties of communicating the risk of using the water to people who return and might run out of bottled water.

Another concern is the risk of another storm hitting the region, threatening an already delicate levee system and possibly requiring residents to be evacuated again, he said.

Jockeying Over Return to Big Easy Ongoing

New Orleans' mayor has the authority to let residents return to his hurricane-damaged city, but the Coast Guard official in charge of the federal disaster response said Sunday that all the information from health and environmental experts recommends against it.

"We must offer the people of New Orleans every chance for a sense of closure and the opportunity for a new beginning," Nagin said.

I don't know if Nagin is stupid, crazy or both. It was this kind of nonchalance on his part that got his city into this mess to begin with.

Nagin's re-entry plan concerns federal official

An End To The Posse Comitatus Act ?

I have mixed feelings about that. After the appalling performance of Louisiana Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin; the MSM, Blanco, Nagin, most Democrats and Rabid Moonbats quick to blame the Federal Government for everything... we may have no choice but to repeal the Act. Let's hope it doesn't end up turning the United States into a Banana Republic.

America Strikes Back At The Environment

President Bush has spoken to the nation from the rooftop of a flooded Seven Eleven in downtown New Orleans yesterday, vowing a swift and decisive response towards the environment. "We are up against ruthless weather systems that wish us harm," the President said. "But we are going to hunt them down and strike them at their bases. Make no mistake, and I want to be absolutely clear about it - this is not a war against all environment. We are not fighting animals and forest, just the weather."

Hat Tip: The Independent/NeoLibertarian Reader

What Happened To New Orleans ?

A hard hitting piece over at Dagney's Rant.

I will have to look into this further.

Congressman Used National Guard To Visit Home

Rep. William Jefferson (D)

Two Heavy Trucks, Helicopter Were Involved in Lawmaker's Trip at Height of Crisis

New Orleans Strip Joint Wants To Get Back To Work

There's no water for the "wash the girl of your choice" service and there aren't any girls either, but Big Daddy's strip club on New Orleans' Bourbon Street is getting ready to bring back erotic spectacle to the devastated city.

Well thank God someone has their priorities in order !