Open letter to blogosphere from David C. Bellinger
“If Re-elected, Vitter’s Shame Will Become Louisiana’s Shame”
Dear Blogger:
Re: “Sen. David Vitter's sins are yesterday's news,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, by James Gill, October 4, 2009
James Gill’s assertion that David Vitter’s history of whoremongering is no longer an issue that could defeat Vitter could be, and is likely, correct -- but only if Vitter’s lack of character is eliminated from the debate.
The evidence is overwhelming that Vitter was complicit in a criminally adjudicated racketeering prostitution organization that led to the suicide death of Deborah Jeane Palfrey, implicitly violating his sworn oath of office and his responsibility of being an officer of the court.
Furthermore, when I challenged Vitter on talk radio (transcript of first challenge on talk radio is below) in two well-documented conversations regarding a newspaper account in the Louisiana Weekly written by Chris Tidmore concerning allegations of Vitter engaging in sex outside his marriage with a prostitute, Vitter not only had the arrogance of evidently lying to the public, but in a response to a follow-up caller -– social activist and people’s champion, known as "Zorro," -- maligned an accuser -– referring to Republican activist and dual Republican office holder, Vincent Bruno, as a “thug and a liar.” An allegation Vitter promptly apologized for stating when threatened with a law suit by Bruno in a letter of apology delivered via courier to Bruno’s home -– evidently Vitter had the wisdom not to be placed under oath and lie in a legal procedure -– transcript of Vitter’s letter of apology is below:
Transcript of my first challenge to Vitter on talk radio, later played for Larry Flynt and Wendy Cortez on the Dan Abrams program on MSNBC network television and mentioned in Max Blumenthal’s book -– “Republican Gomorrah:”
{RingsidePolitics -- Host: Jeff Crouere Guest: Congressman David Vitter WTIX 690 AM July 25, 2002
Flaming Liberal: Thank you Jeff for taking my call, always a pleasure to talk to the Congressman. Congressman, since spokesperson for the Republican Party William Bennett has said character counts. I would like to put the same challenge to you that I put to Representative Perkins and he accepted. Would you be willing to sign under the penalty of perjury an affidavit saying you have never had an extramarital affair and you have never known, met or been in the company of one Wendy Cortez.
Jeff Crouere: Are you finished Flaming Liberal?
Flaming Liberal: Yes Sir
Jeff Crouere: Ok sir.
David Vitter: Flaming Liberal thank you for repeating all these vicious rumors that my political enemies are trying to bandy about and those rumors are absolutely true and they really don’t belong in any political campaign and I’ve stated very clearly that they’re lies, but I’m not going to start jumping through hoops and taking orders from my political enemies who have absolutely no credibility. So, I’ll speak very clearly about that. I have in the past; I’ll continue to do so.}
Vitter stating that the rumors are “absolutely true” is not a typo, but actual statement and comment.
Vitter’s carefully crafted letter of apology to Mr. Vincent Bruno:
{July 27, 2002
Dear Mr. Bruno:
On Thursday July 25, a caller on a WTIX radio call in show asked me if I would agree to participate in a radio debate with you. I said I would not because you are a “thug and a liar.”
This was an emotional response on my part prompted by numerous ugly rumors which had been repeated about my family and me.
After the incident, I realized that you may believe these rumors and allegations. I cannot say that you know them to be untrue and lied by repeating. Therefore I should have not said that you are a thug and a liar.
With this in mind, and in an abundance of fairness, I hereby retract my statement about you referenced above. Please accept my sincere apology.
By copy of this letter, I would ask Jeff Crouere, the host of the radio show, on which I made my original statement to broadcast my retraction using at least an equal amount of time.
Sincerely,
David Vitter cc: Mr. Jeff Crouere and Mr. Ed Butler}
And my second challenge on talk radio to Vitter, regarding his whoremongering, was detailed and documented in the Louisiana Weekly on March 28, 2004, “Congressman Denies Affair with Prostitute, Says Charges Are Politically Motivated,” written by Chris Tidmore wherein, in response to my challenge, Vitter stated, "I think you know that that allegation is absolutely and completely untrue... I have said that on numerous occasions... I'll say that in any forum...Unfortunately, that's just crass Louisiana politics, now that I am running for the Senate. I have made that clear that it is all completely untrue...And, it's obviously politically motivated."
Moreover, prominent politicians involved in sex scandals have paid the piper for their behavior -- President Clinton was impeached, and had his law license suspended, and Democratic Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned.
In addition, Republican Sen. Larry Craig did not seek re-election, Gov. Mark Sanford is an object of recall and impeachment by fellow Republicans -– including South Carolina Republican Lt. Gov Andre Bauer and Republican Bobby Harrell, the Speaker of the South Carolina House, and Republican Senator John Ensign’s political future is headed for the chopping block -- as well to a likely criminal investigation.
However, in Louisiana it is politics as usual, tolerating reprehensible immoral behavior detrimental to the image and well being of the state, and one cannot help to get the feeling that in Louisiana there is a signpost straight ahead that reads “Twilight Zone.”
And Vitter had the sanctimonious mendacity to express reservations to grant a pardon or commutation of sentence for former Gov. Edwin Edwards in November 2008.
If the citizens can condone and accept Vitter’s apparent lack of rectitude and unmitigated paranoid-schizophrenia while flaunting the law and disgracing high public office, then Vitter’s shame becomes Louisiana’s shame.
David C. Bellinger (404) 762-8779 E-mail: davidc53@juno.com Atlanta, GA
Open letter to blogosphere from David C. Bellinger
“Gov. Jindal More Concerned Over Image than Louisiana’s Interest”
Dear Blogger:
Re: Rep. Anh 'Joseph' Cao calls on Gov. Bobby Jindal to support rail project, Times-Picayune, by Lolis E Elie, October 3, 2009
How interesting Gov. Jindal considered applying for-– that is, before he was against the request -- a federal stimulus grant for a rapid rail system between New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
Given the no-brainer advantageous economic and environmental benefits the rapid rail system would create, Gov. Jindal’s refusal to apply for the grant is entirely rooted in the detrimental blow back to his political image -- which applying for the funds would create.
After Gov. Jindal was belittled and berated on the Keith Olbermann Countdown program on MSNBC in August, having chuckled while ridiculing President Obama’s proposed rail project on national television in the Republican response in February to the President’s stimulus package, Jindal’s consideration to apply for the funds, for a decades-overdue rail system, suddenly had the emergency brakes applied.
Jindal’s apparent high speed aspirations for national office, sparing Gov. Jindal from future criticism -– being before rapid rail, before being against it, I believe, has indubitably trumped the interest of the citizens of Louisiana, and what a shame.
In addition, to counter Jindal’s argument that the state could not afford the $18 million annual expense to operate the system, fewer helicopter rides to politic -– at the taxpayers’ expense -– disguised as trips to attend church service on Sunday would be a good start.
As well, the rail system would be a huge complement to a future regional airport between New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
And I thank and congratulate Congressman Anh 'Joseph' Cao, state Sen. Ed Murray, New Orleans City Councilman Arnie Fielkow, and state Rep. Neil Abramson for providing vital leadership.
David C. Bellinger (404) 762-8779 E-mail: davidc53@juno.com Atlanta, GA 30315
In his latest post, Grandmaster Wang at Moose Denied leads the revelry here in "SufferJet City", with choice stats like:
The Saints currently lead the league with 316 yards on interception returns. There are four teams in the league who have fewer than 316 rushing yards on the season. (And two of those teams are Atlanta and Carolina. I’ll pause for a second while you chuckle.)
Then things turn for the serious, and Grandmaster says what no one else is saying but what everyone knows is true.
This goes out to Reggie Bush, who'll never let me down again:
BEIRUT: Anyone out for a late-afternoon stroll on the Beirut’s Corniche on Saturday may have got a bit of a shock. A pair of actors spat, slapped, made obscene gestures, shouted, cheek-squeezed, hair-patted, mocked and mingled with the audience. Thankfully, the reaction comprised mainly helpless guffaws, the most adverse reaction being a slight recoil.
In fact, it was the interaction between performers and audience that made “Rickshaw” – a piece of physical theater from Dansk Rakkerpak – such a success.
2. Apparently, an improvised "performance" of rickshaw theater broke out in NYC:
More than nine years after the city killed Turtle Taxi, its last rickshaw-based business, “PJ” Patrick James Lynch is ready to give it another go.
Lynch, a former manger and operator of Charleston Bike Taxi in South Carolina, left the company, packed his belongings in the back of his car and moved to New Orleans in July with the intention of resurrecting pedicabs in the Big Easy.
“There are over 100 cities in the U.S. that have these and there is no city more perfect for it than New Orleans,” Lynch said. “This is a flat city that is heavily based on tourism. Plus the speed limit isn’t fast on most roads so it’s safe. Over the last two years it seems like, from a tourism perspective, New Orleans is really coming back and I want to get on board.” ... But Lynch will be going up against the taxi cab companies who were instrumental in defeating Turtle Taxi and are prepared to go to the mat to defeat any new venture that could possibly cut into their business, said United Cab Co. President Pat Murphy.
I suddenly have more sympathy for the rickshaw driver in the video.
4. Kevin "Dow 36,000" Hassett and the Heritage Foundation's J.D. Foster mock Obama's "Green Jobs" incentives, and sarcastically argue that promoting the rickshaw industry would be the logical conclusion to all this talk of green technology and renewable energy. Foster writes:
Rickshaws are the way to go for green jobs. There are no rickshaw drivers in the United States today, so every rickshaw job is a new job. Even more new jobs would be created as the auto companies shift, with a little urging from Uncle Sam, to rickshaw production in the United States...
Often wrong, never in doubt, Hassett and Foster's record at forecasting is so spotty, they should get jobs as hacktacular economic pundits.
A 26-year-old American tourist travelling in India hitched a ride in a rickshaw last week and married the driver a few days later, a report said Friday.
Whitney from Chicago met her prince charming in Jaipur in Rajasthan, a state west of the capital famous for its stately palaces, after hailing a motorised rickshaw and hiring the driver for her stay in the city, the Mail Today newspaper said.
"On the third day, he surprised me by popping the question," Whitney told the paper. "'I want to spend the rest of my life with you', he told me. I fell in love."
After the Saints' defensive domination of the Jets on Sunday, some have decided that the Defense should have a nickname. This morning on WWL 870am the discussion was so painful ("snakes"-- really?) that I'm tempted to intervene.
But first, let's do our due diligence and see how far this topic has progressed on the fan forums. Oh dear. Right now, "Domeland Security" seems to be the top moniker. I'm not saying that's awful, but I'm sure we can do better than that. The aim is to conjure up a fearsome, descriptive image that is catchy. So, for the rest of this post I will attemtp to brain storm a nickname for the Saints Defense, and I invite my readers to contribute in the comments.
Just remember: "There are no bad ideas when you're brain stormin'" ====
1. Williams and the Conquerors (umm, not great, but at least that got things started)
2. Without David we are Goliath (spiteful and not really a nickname, more of a phrase)
3. Buddy Defense (cuz the D is a team effort, they use the Buddy system, Buddy D... get it?)
4. Engineers of Corpses (nice-- grim, scathing, slightly esoteric, very much my style)
7. Cancer Alley (horrible name, horrible timing, this being Breast Cancer Awareness month... bad oyster! And yet... no, no, no... we can't do that-- but remember: no bad ideas when you're brain storming.)
8. Jimmy Fallon's Monologue (the only thing I can think of more hideous than cancer)
12. Polanski's hot tub (if I'm just gonna be stupid, I might as well stop)
13. Three Four, shut the door
14. Serious Sinners
15. Demolition Krewe (looks better than it sounds)
16. Catholic Discipline .... (go ahead, I'm done)
--- Bonus: Here's a preview of a shamelessly stolen game photo from Nola.com that Jeffrey will likely use in his Weekly Football recap, which should be published no later than Friday. Caption: "going down like a lead zeppelin".
Greg Meffert has always been a big talker. When he was New Orleans' chief technology officer, he bragged to anyone who would listen at City Hall that he was taking Mayor Ray Nagin on vacation to Hawaii. He bragged about owning a yacht where he held parties for the mayor. ... Then he contended [in court] that in his day job -- for which taxpayers paid him $150,000 a year -- he wasn't as involved in the crime-camera deal as the plaintiffs allege because he was essentially Nagin's right-hand man, overseeing several major city departments.
During his City Hall days, he would call himself "deputy mayor," a title that didn't exist. In court Tuesday, he repeatedly called himself the city's "recovery czar" after Hurricane Katrina, long before Nagin created the position by bringing in Ed Blakely.
...Meffert even laid claim to being Nagin's first choice for the czar position.
"I didn't even get home for six months after Katrina," he said. "I worked all the time. That's why I almost quit twice. I voluntarily resigned two days before the mayor was going to announce me as the recovery czar. I was burned out... precisely because of that schedule."
If we are to believe Muppet, then that means Nagin's top two choices for Recovery Czar were Meffert and Ed Blakely. Some quinella, huh? Who was third on the list, Godzilla?
In a splendid and delightful column Clancy Dubos at The Gambitwrites:
To hear former City Hall technology guru Greg Meffert tell it, it’s hard out here for a pimp. A pimp for the city, that is. ... Poor Meffert. He took a 50 percent pay cut to take a job that enabled him to help his friend and former business associate, Mark St. Pierre, score a multi-million dollar crime camera contract from the city-- but, like aspiring rapper DJay in the film Hustle and Flow, he’s still gotta get money for his Cadillacs — not to mention his yacht, strippers, and some first-class vacations for himself and Mayor Ray Nagin.
Muppet as aspiring rapper... I never really thought of it that way. But it resonates. So let me take this opportunity to "pimp" Calliope Var, a rapper with whom I've had sporadic contact over the summer. When I told Levar (as I know him) about my bus story from the summer, he was terribly unimpressed. "How do you get stuck on a bus like that?" he chided. Then he handed me a few promotional cards for his new album. Because I'm a white geek, I gave him this weird nod/salute with the cards, as if to thank him for giving me more than one, and saying: "These are in good hands, Mr. Calliope! I'll be sure to only distribute them to my most trusted rap aficionado friends, who can truly appreciate your collaborations with C-Murder... etc.".
Anyway, here's Calliope Var, the biggest Uptown Gangsta this side of Meffert, performing "Like Yeah". There's lots of talk of "ice" in this song and I think that has to do with summertime beverages or restocking the neighborhood snowball machine:
People were complaining that the Saints and Brees weren't getting enough attention, so USA TODAY featured him on the front page of their super duper Fri/Sat/Sun edition with this wonderful little factoid [in the article]:
Brees is more average Joe than "Broadway" Joe Namath, the Jets icon. He has a 120-year-old house in the city's oldest neighborhood.
After Brees came to New Orleans, he moved into a 120-year-old house in Uptown, the city’s oldest neighborhood. For the first month, neighbors filled his porch with Southern delicacies, leaving biscuits, brownies, even seafood.
Instead of at hello, New Orleans had Brees at gumbo.
The city's about to celebrate its tricentennial, and editors at two major papers didn't blink when they read "120 year old house" and "the city's oldest neighborhood" in the same sentence.
Granted, it amuses me that there's plenty of New Orleanians who look at Uptown, this relatively new "American" side of town, as an inauthentic appendage. Not long ago I was listening to two guys in conversation. The first guy was trying to convince the second to do something, but the second guy was having none of it.
"You're trying to take me past Canal Street," the second guy told the first.
"Huh?" said the first.
"He's not interested," I explained.
--- 1718: La Nouvelle Orléans is established at what is now called the Vieux Carré. About a century later "Uptown" started taking shape.
Humid Beings informs us that GRN and the Charitable Film Network awarded its competition’s grand prize to the short film, “The Human Cost,” by Edward Holub and Christian Roselund. Click link to view it.
This is may be the proper province of Ray Lang's blog On Levee Failures and a Weather Event, but I thought I'd help out in regards to the October issue of Harper's.
In it, there's a massively unhelpful article titled "Disaster Aversion: the quest to control hurricanes". It's really something of a personal essay with a sprinkling of a few scientific morsels on weather modification. There's plenty of mentions of hurricane "Katrina" and "New Orleans" without a single attempt to distinguish between the weather event that devastated much of the Gulf Coast and the catastrophically engineered levees that flooded the Crescent City. The city of New Orleans was cited by the author as one of the reasons she became interested in hurricane modification, yet the false story of New Orleans' destruction at the hands of Hurricane Katrina is an abiding assumption throughout the article.
Worst of all was this passage, where the author speaks to Dr. Daniel Rosenfeld of Hebrew University at a conference. Rosenfeld claims his modification models show that salting the base of a hurricane with a silver iodide aerosol might cool it substantially, slow it down, and diminish its eye. Unfortunately, the models showed that the hurricane wind speeds were not weakened. Nevertheless:
Regarding his own work, [Rosenfeld] took pains to point out that even without decreased wind speed, a smaller eye might still mean a less calamitous storm, because the highest wind speeds would be covering a smaller area. The storm surge-- rising seas caused by the wind and pressure changes of a hurricane-- would be reduced, which certainly would have helped with Hurricane Katrina. "According to our calculations, we could have saved New Orleans. But still," as if to ensure that I wouldn't have to say it, "simulation and reality are far apart.
The author offers no correction to this scientist's wild claim that his models show that seeding Hurricane Katrina and reducing its eyewall could have "saved New Orleans". Again: New Orleans was flooded by a catastrophic engineering failure that had everything to do with weak floodwall designs and nothing to do with the dimensions of Katrina's inner eyewall.
First there was the "Causeway Tosser" and now we may have a Copy Cat Cat Killer(?)-- the "Crescent City Connection Catapulter"?
Forgive me if I don't want to talk about how "awful" this is for hours on end, and speculate on the madness inherent in dumping kittens off a bridge. It just doesn't interest me much. T-P:
Kittens were reportedly thrown Friday afternoon from a vehicle driving on the elevated West Bank Expressway and the Crescent City Connection, just two days after Lake Pontchartrain Causeway authorities said they were looking for someone who had tossed two kittens from a minivan on that bridge.
I'm going to assume that the Causeway Tosser was making a weird protest over the planned destruction of the "iconic toll plaza landmark". The other two were just copy cats.
I really don't feel like talking about these other stories either, but they are similar and one of them hits real close to home.
[Note: some small edits made after initial publishing. First link goes to Library Chronicles, as I originally intended to do but mistakenly didn't. Jeffrey was the first I saw use "copy cat" in relation to the kitty toss story. Also, the reference asterisk at the end of this post was added later, as well.]
Roy Rondeno Sr., the veteran U.S. Postal Service deliveryman who was critically wounded last weekend when a vehicle struck him on his postal route, died Friday of complications from his injuries.
Authorities, meanwhile, are reviewing the car collision, which New Orleans police said was caused by Beverly McKenna, a well-known newspaper publisher who failed to yield at a stop sign.
Rondeno, 57, a beloved postman in the Uptown area, was struck by a careening car and then pinned between two vehicles Saturday afternoon near St. Charles Avenue and Valence Street. He lost both legs and was in the hospital making progress toward recovery.
An Orleans Parish judge has refused to increase bond for a man charged with vehicular homicide, despite prosecutors' pleas that his family's wealth and ties overseas make him a flight risk.
Abhishek Bhansali, 23, a New Orleans native and son of a prominent cardiologist, quickly bonded out of jail on his own recognizance after police arrested him March 21 for allegedly killing a pedestrian outside an Uptown club while drunkenly operating a 2008 BMW. He has pleaded innocent to the charge.
Michael Keith, 34, a father of three who lived in Metairie and had served in the Marines, was knocked 150 feet into the air while walking in the 3700 block of Tchoupitoulas Street. He was pronounced dead at the scene about 3 a.m.
Bhansali was speeding and had swerved into the wrong lane -- driving against traffic -- when he struck Keith, a police report says. The driver was well over the legal limit for alcohol consumption, registering .128 on a blood-alcohol test, according to police. The legal limit in Louisiana is .08.
Magistrate Gerard Hansen on March 21 gave Bhansali, a New York University business graduate who has worked on promotional campaigns for Absolut vodka, the most lenient of bonds, allowing a promise to return, without financial risk.
3) Father Jerry Kramer resigned. Though I didn't attend his church very often, I'm proud to have known him, before and after the storm, and sure appreciate his incredible efforts to rebuild Broadmoor and New Orleans. ===
Alright, now I'm depressed. We gotta lighten the mood a bit. After all, it's a Saturday morning.
Frozen Bears sent us a classic cut from the Saints (who are in the pantheon of punk rawk originators). Hadn't ever seen the video before-- it's good. Enjoy:
Speaking of underappreciated punk rock-- we're talking, I dunno, 4th wave before it died again-- I can't believe Crimpshrine's "Butterflies" only has 321 hits-- what a travesty!! This is much too raw and sloppy for everyone... never was for everyone. But this cut and the "Sleep What's That" record (yes record) meant a lot to me when I was a certain age during the late 80's, early '90's. And to me, in terms of honesty it sounded unlike anything else, and in its own way has never been surpassed. Here, Ben Weasel explains Crimpshrine's appeal much better than I can. (Lyrics. Also, the song is 4 minutes long, not six.)
===
* Title refers to Ted Nugent's Cat Scratch Fever. Speaking of the Nuge, he recently wrote (but did not explain) why Schindler's List was "probably racist". Sometimes Nugent's ignorance is powerful enough to blast the balls off a white rhino from fifty paces.
[HOGTOWN] - The University of Florida's response plans for a zombie apocalypse are no longer available for public consumption.
UF spokesman Steve Orlando said today the university removed a link to a disaster recovery exercise, which detailed how the school could respond to an outbreak of the undead. The link was taken down late Thursday afternoon.
Orlando says officials felt the joke "didn't really belong" on the site, which also included plans for dealing with hurricanes and pandemics.
I want to thank the T-P for placing Mr. Jones' age right before his "technologist" quote.
The city's beleaguered former technology chief reached an agreement with the Nagin administration Wednesday that allows him to collect several months of back pay and have his termination expunged from his record in exchange for his resignation. ... "I wanted my record cleared," [Anthony] Jones, 39, said afterward. "I'm a technologist with 25 years experience."
After taking the helm of the tech office in early 2007, Jones was a nearly constant source of controversy. Critics complained Jones, who lacked a college degree, was unqualified for the post, which carries an annual salary of about $160,000. He also claimed falsely on at least one occasion to have a degree.
An internal audit also accused him of taking an illegal gratuity from Ciber Inc., a city technology vendor, in the form of a trip to Colorado.
He also was one of several people with a hand in overseeing the city's troubled crime-camera program, and he recently testified before a federal grand jury investigating the camera contracts.
