Staying Undecided Until The End

I was sitting here looking at the latest polls for the mayors race in New Orleans. I'm not including a link because what I want to say has nothing to do with who is in the lead. When a pollster calls your house tell them you are undecided even if there is a candidate you like. The reason why we should do that is because when there are polls that show one candidate way out ahead of the others issues start to take a back seat to personal attacks so the other candidates can catch up. Instead of having forums where candidates talk about specific ideas we'll get shouting matches where nothing is really said and everything will be a waste of time. Let's make these candidates work until the end. The folks at the lower end of the poll are good people and their ideas need to be heard even if they don't win. The people at the top of the poll shouldn't take anything for granted and we need to hear from them consistently too.

A Thursday Night Blog : Consequences and Expectations of Character

There are two things that are dominating my thoughts right now. The first one is the Saints NFC Championship game and the other is the New Orleans mayoral election. I have a lot to say about the mayor’s race but I will do that next week. I have something to say before the Saints take the field but that’s coming on Saturday. I have avoided all football related media this week. I’m still working on my energy and positive chi flow for the game. I’m using local hip hop artists and brandy to assist me. That means that whatever this post ends up being you need to deal with it because it might make sense and it might not. We will see when it’s over.

I believe that all human nature and tendencies are the same no matter what the environment or circumstances are. I am a very bias Charles Barkley fan. He was one of my favorite players growing up because he played much bigger than his height. Back when I could still play ball without medical attention I used to mimic his game. As much as I love Charles I have to admit that he’s kind of reckless. He’s been arrested for DUI. He threw a guy through a window. He damn near lost all of his money in Vegas. I am watching Lebron and Kobe on TNT right now. Despite that he’s still is hosting Inside the NBA and has been on commercials since this game started. Every time one of those commercials comes on I think about poor Tiger Woods in hiding at a sex rehab clinic and losing endorsements. Tiger and Charles hang out together and I am sure Tiger is sitting in his room at the rehab center shaking his head. Despite all the wild stories about him the fact is Tiger never told anyone he was a saint. He never told anyone anything. It really doesn’t matter. Charles can be wild and crazy while Tiger can’t because the consequences of your actions depend on other people’s expectations of you and your character.

It didn’t matter how many women came out after the first one. People expected him to be above that kind of behavior in general so even the idea that he was fooling around was a big deal. That’s how it is in the world. I know some of you have a sibling that gets away with all kinds of stuff that barely gets a whisper. You can get mad and say one cuss word that sparks a family meeting and sends your grandmother to the emergency room. I hate to put it this way but it’s much easier to be that guy that people expect to act crazy. I believe you should present yourself as a person above the foolishness but you have to understand that comes with a lot of pressure to keep up every day.

That’s the Democrats problem. People don’t really expect them to get in there and put up a fight. They are the gentle and caring party. They want to do things with dignity. They carry themselves like a pre-car crash Tiger. They are boxed in by the expectations for their behavior. The Republicans are like Charles Barkley. They are in your face with who they are. They say what’s on their mind and they don’t care who they offend. Since everyone is accustomed to them acting that way, they stretch the limits as far as they can go without much backlash. At this point they can’t do what their opposition does because if they do people will be looking around wondering what got into them and they would get some backlash. I think the Democrats need to do something to help them the way Tiger’s drama helped him. They need to pick a fight and carry on in a way that is so out of character that when it’s over no one will expect that soft ass behavior all the time. Maybe then can actually control the message when they present an idea they think is good for the country instead of sitting back and getting slapped around.

365 Days Of Obama at the Wheel

President Obama has been in office for a full year now. Since he is the leader of the country I think it’s fair that everyone has an opinion about his performance. I’m not going to give him a grade or anything because honestly most of the large things he has tried to do haven’t totally taken shape or been implemented. I’ll wait for year two or three for any of that. I only have one complaint. It’s the same complaint I have here locally. I have some friends that are close to some politicians or someone in the political circle. Every now and then during a conversation I will make an uninformed accusation that someone isn’t doing this or that. That’s the point where I am usually corrected with all these facts about how they tried to get something done or they are working with someone on another issue. I have the same thought every time this happens. I always say that if that person is doing so much for my benefit then they need to stand up and say it and stop letting regular folks think they are not. Even if I never tell it to the person I am speaking with I am thinking it.

President Obama is a smart man and I truly believe he feels his decisions are the best thing for the country. The problem is his administration is depending on Americans to educate themselves about his agenda and that will cancel out the shouting and accusations from his opposition. Things don’t work like that. If you put enough energy behind an idea it can turn into the truth even if it was built on falsehood. At some point you have to counter all of that energy with some of your own. You can’t just assume that Americans will figure out stuff on their own. I know the president knows this because the only way he won the election in the first place was to get out and fight for each and every voter possible. If he would have followed the same pattern during the election that he has now he would be Senator Obama of Illinois trying to help Mrs. President Clinton push her health care bill through. Start calling out some of those legislators that are holding up progress. Stage some dramatic looking media events. That stuff works. President Bush talked everybody into a war doing it. He needs to do a better job at playing politics. He should be able to do that without losing any of his principles provided he doesn’t lie or break any commitments. If he doesn’t realize that some folks are around strictly to make him fail and fight back it won’t matter what his principles or commitments were because none of his agenda will make it through anyway. I know its coming because the situation is going to dictate that he does it. I just hope that he doesn’t let a lot of time pass.

Even after all of that, I still get my pride up when I see a picture of the first family and that makes everything worth it. That feel good image hasn’t worn off for me and it probably won’t for a long time.

Thinking About Dr. King in Today's Times

“Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.”

People always talk about what Dr. King would say if he was here today and saw some of the things going on in the world. That’s a fun topic for this time of year when we celebrate his memory. I am certain he would be proud and ecstatic about all the advances his life’s word laid the foundation for. You can’t get any better evidence of that than Barack Obama being president. I think we would also have to explain how we let so many people continue to struggle at the bottom of the ladder. I know the violence in the community would have difficult to deal with. This is the biggest issue we have to deal with. Maybe he would say we are doing too much celebrating at the top when the folks at the bottom are struggling so much.

We can’t really know what he would think about today’s times because we have no idea what the world would have looked like if he was around another 30 years or so. I could imagine that he never gets into politics and runs for office and the community has someone not tied to any affiliation that compromises his ability to deal with things open and honestly. We probably would have handle education better. I don’t know if the crack epidemic spreads as wide as it did. We’ll never know. That’s what makes his holiday kind of somber when you think about it. There’s always the thought in my mind is that things could have been so much different had he been here.

Dr. King was assassinated in 1968 and to this day no one else is on that level of leadership. I think we have produced people capable but they either went into politics or to private sector to reap the benefits of opened doors. I am not criticizing them for it but it’s the truth. President Obama is not on that level yet. He’s the symbol of Dr. King’s work but we can put him up there with King once we see how things turn out in the next few years. The bigger challenge is the community at large. Dr. King made the speeches and made the case for equality but it was the everyday person that stopped riding the bus and marched behind him. Even if we had a leader like that it wouldn’t do us any good because he would always seem like he’s talking for himself. If Dr. King were here today it wouldn’t matter because the energy in the community is not the same. That’s something he would probably speak about for sure. He might wonder what happened to will of the community to make things better. I’m glad I don’t have to answer that question. I never did well with explaining bad news to elders.

Finish Strong

And Bring the Wood! The championship game post will be coming later this week.

What's Wrong With These People

Haitian Americans have enough things on their minds right now than worrying about Pat Robertson and Rush Limbaugh. Since I know what it’s like to not know if your family is okay after a disaster. I also know how it feels to lose someone you care about unexpectedly like that. You know what makes that feeling even worse? When someone is saying they deserved it. Long after all the bodies have been discovered and the grieving is over you never forget those kinds of words. Who is this mortal human being that feels he’s righteous enough to tell the world what other humans deserve. What you should do is shut the hell up and help somebody. There are people trapped under collapsed buildings and rubble. Why don’t you take that black dude with the blonde afro from the 700 Club or Rush’s pill supplier, grab a couple of shovels and help dig some people out. You have the money. If you are too old and fragile to do anything but run your mouth, why don’t you send a few million of those dollars people call in to your show and contribute so you can stay on the air with your ignorance.

One day in Mississippi right after Katrina there was a man standing on a sidewalk with a big sign full of religious sayings. He was screaming at the top of his lungs about how the great flood came to wash out the sinners. I thought about my grandmother who went to church a few times a week and who I never heard utter a curse word. My post traumatic stress almost made me pull over and hurt that man really bad but I realized that none of the washed out sinners who raised me would want me in prison for doing him anything. I took the high road and didn’t acknowledge him. I hope all Haitians do the same to Pat Robertson. I would like to say not to acknowledge Rush Limbaugh but if I saw him in a parking lot I couldn’t make any promises.

These guys are supposed to represent the values of America? You have to be kidding me. If making insensitive comments about a natural disaster that has killed over 50,000 people is acceptable then we are doing something wrong.

To My Favorite Blue Note

Rest in peace....

I gave up my extra pocket money and donated to the people of Haiti.

I want to give a shout out to my old school comrade Nelson and all his family still living there. I hope everyone is okay. There are some things that I can't say too much about.

Working On My Negro Dialect

I understand politics and the big picture but here is my official opinion on issues like the comments made by Senator Harry Reid.

I believe that if you go all out to make one person pay for something they do but turn around and let someone else slide strictly because they are supposed to be on your side then it makes everyone else you try to hold responsible after that seem like a double standard and personal instead of based on principle. That’s how I feel and all I have to say.

What I really want to know is what is Negro dialect and how come President Obama never told us how to turn it on and off? It’s not Ebonics because that’s the same as slang. I think it’s the same as slang. I am so confused. This could be keeping us from getting jobs and I never heard of it.

Sitting On My Porch Part Thirty Eight

It's about 65 degrees below zero outside. The thermostat might say about 30 but it feels much colder. I am not equipped for this. This is not Minnesota this New Orleans and some folks don’t even own a heavy jacket. In true local form it's a perfect excuse to get a drink to 'warm you up a little'. Mr. Roy and his crew stood in front the green store on Forstall Street and St. Claude Avenue in the Lower Ninth Ward for 20 years with nothing but sweaters on in weather like this. The moral to that story is that cheap wine is human antifreeze but I will go with some black CDM coffee instead.

I volunteered to help out with the Health and Wellness fair at KIPP Central City School today. It was warm the day I signed up and I didn't see this freeze coming. I guess they are handing out cold medicine at the door. Not only will I be cold but there will probably be a handful of daddy volunteers and I know they are going to make us lift all the tables and heavy stuff. How am I supposed to collect all the free handouts from the vendors and steal food from the refreshment table if I am busy working.

As a avid internet reader that has had to sit through negative and mean spirited comments about his city from people in the surrounding areas, I am going to enjoy every minute of news coverage as the corruption story in our neighboring parish comes together. It's going to be a lot of fun. I'm pretty sure that the actions of those officials will only reflect poorly on them unlike when something happens in New Orleans and it means that everyone is like that. I wish New Orleans politicians would have taken a lesson from their neighbors. Corrupt suburban politicians made sure to take care of their constituents enough where they didn't pay attention to all of their deals. Aaron Broussard will have a lot of support in Jefferson Parish. Things look so run down in the city that people have to look into everything constantly. If crime cameras would have led to record convictions and reduced the crime rate by 50% hardly anybody would have worried about who got the contract. When things don't work, don't see anything, and so many other things are going wrong then the public wants life in prison for whoever messed up that deal.

That’s enough for local politics but I want to say visit Janis Lemle's website. She's running for assessor and she's good people.

I have a question. How paranoid can we be as Americans about terrorist attacks when the guy who tried to blow up the plane in Detroit boarded the plane in Amsterdam? Shouldn't we be questioning the Amsterdam government instead of our own? You can't get on a plane in America with a bottle of water. Is every country in the world going to adopt whatever changes we make? Now everybody is worried about the body scanners as an invasion of privacy. If letting security see my New Orleans Saints boxers and a birthmark will assure that I land on the other end in one piece then so be it.

The alleged bomber pleaded not guilty today. 300 people on an airplane watched him set his ass on fire and he pleaded not guilty. Even the late Johnnie Cochran couldn't have won this case when it goes to trial.This sounds like it's going to be a waste of tax payer dollars. Just plead guilty and get it over with.

I know there hasn't been a Saints post from me but it's not because of the losing streak. I'm just resting on the bye week and seeing who we are playing. I'm no bandwagon fan. I'm 30 years strong win or lose.

Basketball players are high in the urban hierarchy. Not only do they possess all the material assets that most guys in the neighborhood risk their lives to have, their money is legal. They can buy the cars and clothes without fear of attracting the police. Even though their money is legal they still embrace the same destructive culture the rest of us do. We already know that instead of changing how they carry themselves and bring the hood up to them they ignore the advances money and access have given them and come back down to a level that puts them in position to lose everything. The only part I am surprised about is that it was Gilbert Arenas. He’s never seemed like the kind of guy that would wanted to play that role. I don’t believe in putting extra responsibility on famous cats to change the culture we have now but if the situation in their old neighborhoods where family and friends live is so bad they feel the need to be protected them should want to change that environment more than anybody.

What Does It Mean When The Leading Black Candidate Drops Out

State Senator Ed Murray dropped out of the race for mayor of New Orleans. In his statement he cited financial reasons as well as not wanting to divide the city by race in a runoff against Mitch Landrieu. That's a little interesting because despite all the loses after Katrina New Orleans is still 60% African American. An election that split on race should have benefited someone like Senator Murray. I believe that if he was sure he could win the financial sacrifice would have been worth it. I think he's dropping out because he's not certain that enough African American voters are going to come out during the election to offset the black vote Mitch Landrieu is going to get. That's a legitimate concern. I understand why Mitch Landrieu waited awhile before he decided to run. He and his camp see the same thing I am seeing. The old black political power structure is dead and the new generation hasn't gained enough ground to challenge him. We may not need a runoff for this election. It could be a Landrieu landslide. There was a time not too long ago where all a man like Ed Murray had to do was stand up there and not embarrass himself to get elected. He can't do that now because the black voting base in the city has no energy and no passion for politics. It's not Senator Murray's fault. He just ran for mayor at a bad time.

It doesn't take a political science major to figure this out. All you need to do is pay attention to the last 30 years of this city's history. I like James Perry, Nadine Ramsey and Troy Henry. They are all young and new enough to the political scene in this city to build a foundation and get their names out there and make a difference if that's what they want to do. The problem they are having this year is that they are trying to energize a base that has little confidence and hope in their political leaders and that's a hard thing to fix in the short time of this election cycle. If they were going to do this effectively enough to win they should have started last year going door to door and explaining themselves to the folks in the neighborhoods. Win or lose they should still start doing that now and continue throughout the next few years because the people need to have their faith restored. They lost it a long time ago because even though we had the power to elect men and women from our own community, we failed to create a better quality of life for the most struggling part of the community killing our progress and sucking the support for political leaders out of this city. Sure a lot more black people made money from contracts and high profile positions in the last three decades but most of those people were already connected and in position to have that kind of success.

We never changed the mind state that made people think that you had to know someone to get ahead and it was almost impossible to do well if you didn't. That's why so many people we know hit the road for other cities and never came back. The people that did stay and try everyday to make things work are aggravated because we know what we don't have and get reminded of it everyday. It's pretty obvious. Just look at our schools for instance. A few weeks ago I was driving with my girl and we passed the old Fannie C. Williams school site. I looked over and saw those trailers and flipped out. "How in the hell it's been four years since the storm and those babies are still going to school in damn trailers?" Now I know the state took over the schools after the storm but it's not like when the brothers and sisters were running it before the storm they were top of the line. This is why no matter how valid the case is for local control of the school system you don't see thousands of parents down there fussing about it. They have already suffered themselves through poor local leadership. This is why the leading black candidate in the mayor's race can drop out from the weight of a candidate that's already been beaten more than once for the mayor's office and whose campaign has been on cruise control since he announced. That's why when people announce new things or bring up new issues dealing with the city no one gets excited or pays attention. Morale for the political process is low and no matter how many positive things are going on in some one's life in this city they don't contribute any of it to political leadership unless they roll in that circle. If the little of what we have was gained through our own perseverance and hard work, why does it matter who is in charge? The disenchanted working and middle class are the key to the future of this city. They don't much attention from the media but there are more of us here than anyone else. They are the ones that stayed in other places with better schools and job opportunities after the storm. They are the ones most likely to get frustrated with how things are now and leave for greener pastures. They are the reason Ed Murray dropped out of the race because they are not coming out to vote just because some one's black. The only way it would have happened is if he would have turned Mitch Landrieu into a KKK member and scared everyone during the runoff and that wouldn't have helped the city. Other than a person running for president the power of that symbolism is gone. Who cares if a few rich black people get richer because a black person has the power to give them contracts if 300,000 other folks are grinding everyday to survive. If deciding who gets the big money at the top is the only difference in our situation then it doesn't matter who the mayor is to regular people. It's time for a new effective approach.

Ready For The First Week Of The New Year

I am glad all that holiday stuff is over with. Now it's time to take down the tree, put up the lights, and finish all the holiday drinks if you had any leftover. It's time to get back to work and remove all those out of office messages from the email system. The last few weeks it felt like me and my crew were the only ones working. It's hard to look busy in that situation and it might have been a problem but none of our bosses were working either. They don't know what the hell we were doing. I know there are a bunch of people who haven't gotten up early in awhile. There's gonna be a bunch of sad looking faces in the morning from adults and all the kids that's been out of school. I'll be next to them at the stoplight singing in my car. It's been a rough holiday season and I am glad it's over. In my last post I said I wasn't going to make any list of things to look forward to for the new year and I won't but there are some things that will be doing a little different.

* I am no longer working on any laptops full of viruses from people using Limewire or clicking on the wrong things. They keep using the computer for weeks and then when it is so infected that they can barely turn it on they want to bring it to me and I am supposed to save all their documents and stuff. This is a pain and I won't be doing it again unless its someone really close to me.
* I will be throwing away all the junk I have been saving in the event something happens and I need it. I keep saving all this junk and nothing ever happens where I need it. It's time to fill up my trash can. I have wires, tools and parts to stuff that I have no idea why I have them. That junk has to go.
* I will take more vacation days and try to end the year with less than ten weeks worth. I hardly ever take off from work but I am going to start doing it a little more. I figure I could take at least four weeks of vacation and still have about nine weeks at the end of the year. That sounds good. Don't be jealous.


Maybe 2010 will be the year Jay Electronica finally releases his new CD and one of these local stations will give him some of that hometown love they give Lil Wayne.

Reflecting On Ten Years Of Change

When the decade started I was in my mid 20's. I could still eat, drink, and party as much as I wanted. My life was really all about hanging out and having a good time. Nobody knew what a blog was and I damn sure wasn't trying to write anything. There have been a lot of changes in ten years. The country had a terrorist attack. I became a father. All the elders I started the decade with are no longer here. A black guy is president. Michael Jackson died. Tupac never came back from Cuba. I finally paid off Discover Card. A flood turned my life and city upside down. Somewhere in the middle of all that I gained about 75 pounds, started wearing eyeglasses, lost my hair, got laid off, ended up with the best job I ever had and started writing this blog as a hobby. It seems like the last ten years gave me all the stress that I didn't have for the first 25 years. If that pattern holds true then I am in store for 25 years of stress free living. Feel free to be jealous whenever you are ready.

Hurricane Katrina will always be the biggest turning point in my life because it changed every aspect of it. A lot of things are not as good as they used to be. Some things on a personal level are better and I appreciate that. It's impossible for me to lose sight of the fact that if the post Katrina world was the cause of some of the good things and they end up being bittersweet. Perhaps the biggest thing I gained internally in the last ten years is perspective. You have to keep a balance in thought and judge each situation and issue on its own. There are times when there is no clear side to fall on and you have to multitask how you feel. This summer when my column was published in the Gambit newspaper I was feeling pretty high about that. Every time someone would send me an email or call me to tell me they read it my chest would stick out more and more. That same day I was riding alone and I thought to myself how messed up it was my grandma didn't see that because she drowned in the storm. She would have sat on the phone and read it to all her friends. I'm not sure if having the ability to cry tears of joy and sadness at the same time makes me crazy. I'm also not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing but that's who I am going into this next decade. Who knows where we will be ten years from now. Whatever it is I hope it's something positive. If something like Hurricane Katrina happens again I just hope we have some solid leadership to get us through it. One thing I know for sure at the end of this decade is that you need strong leadership whether it's at home or in the government because a community with no leadership at all is doomed to not make progress.

As far as 2009 goes, this has been a strange year. It had its ups and downs. I had a whole bunch of optimism going into it. I had a list of things going into it. Now at the end I think everyone is just fatigued. That will happen when your optimism is beating down by the negative actions of other human beings. I think you see it in how people view the government. I think you see it in the president's approval ratings. I know you see it hear locally when we have an election that was supposed to be the most important in our history and can't match the energy of our football team. I think everyone wants to take a vacation day or two and sleep to try and get their energy right. I'm definitely in that number. That's why this year we won't have any list of things to look forward to. I say we play 2010 by ear and adjust to whatever happens when it gets here. I don't believe that you can change your course if your energy is all negative. Changing the calendar from 2009 to 2010 won't help you. If all you need is a little rest and reflection then a few days of letting go of things and relaxing until the clock strikes midnight might help you out. That's what I am going to do. I'll see you guys next year feeling good and refreshed.

Homefield Advantage

I fought off the most incredible sleepiness and stayed up way later than I wanted to just to make this short but important post.

The road to the Superbowl now goes through Poydras Street......This is all we could ask for.

Never Leave It Up To The Kicker

It took less than a week for Garrett Hartley to make me miss John Carney for short range field goals.

As the great Teena Marie once said, "I can feel this for sure. I've been here before." We still have a first round bye and a week to rest but I am getting a little worried. Anyone who really follows the team knows that every year Sean Payton and Drew Brees have at least two games like the one today. Let's hope this is the last one.....and can someone please do something to help Malcolm Jenkins because he is getting ripped to shreds. I just hope Carolina doesn't beat us up so bad that half the team isn't injured for the playoffs. That's an angry football team and we should have never let it come down to winning in their stadium on the last day. This season didn't feel like a regular Saints season for a long time but now it does. If you think losing this game and having to play all out against Carolina next week if the Vikings win is a good thing then you are crazy. Once we lost last week then we should have laid it all on the line this week against Tampa to rest up and get some of our injured players back. The bottom line is the New Orleans Saints choked. I love them but they choked.

In positive news, 'Bernadine's Oldest' fantasy football team is your 2009 champions of The Pitt Fantasy Football League. It won't be official until after tomorrow's game but he's out of players and I am up 7 points. Nothing will help you forget a choke job by the Saints like prize money.

Looking For My Holiday Spirit

I have been trying to find my holiday spirit but it's not happening. I don't know why but it doesn't feel like the holiday time. There's usually a different feeling in the air around this time of the year. I don't feel it yet. I have only listened to Santa Claus Goes Straight to The Ghetto by James Brown only once and that was because it came on the radio while I was driving. I was trying to come up with a clear reason why it doesn't feel that way but I haven't been successful. I did attend my grandmother's funeral service three weeks ago and that kind of put a damper on the holiday season spirit for me. No one around me seems to be really into it. This is one of the few times I wish I had one of those over the top people at my office that wears those ugly Christmas sweaters and reindeer horns with bells on them around the office for the entire month of December. I would have been trying to make them feel good by acting excited and worked myself into the spirit. I still have time between now and New Years to get it going. I'm thinking about going to the store this evening and buying a Hot Wheels race track for myself in an attempt to reconnect with my inner kid. You should always try to stay connected with your inner kid. My inner kid been inside with the chicken pox or something because I haven't seen him lately.

Things are not bad despite my lack of holiday spirit. My sister told me she heard her baby's heartbeat for the first time. That doesn't suck. I also found some really old and dear friends on Facebook this week. That doesn't suck either. I'll work through whatever it is. Everything will be good as soon as it stops raining.

Sometimes You Have To Take A Beating

My friend Shawn is the most optimistic Saints fan in America while watching the game. All year when they were starting slow and looked like crap I would send him a ranting text message about how they need to step it up and play harder. He would always send me a reply telling me to calm down and they would make adjustments to get things straightened out. This is the only thing we ever argue about. Last night during Dallas’ touchdown drive at the beginning of the 3rd quarter he sent me a text message that simply said “This is difficult to watch”. When he can see what I am seeing that early in the second half I knew we were going to be 13-1 at the end.

Last night a talented Dallas Cowboys team was playing for their season, the playoffs, and their coach. The played a good game. The dominated out offensive line and defensive lines except for Will Smith and they deserved to win. The score was closer than the game actually looked. They whipped us from the beginning. The Saints finally got burned by a few things we have managed to cover for a long time. Our rookie cornerback got burned early. Our backup left tackle finally ran across a pass rusher that dominated him. We have been sleep walking through the early part of games for weeks and finally we couldn’t come up with the miracle play to change the tide. Drew Brees had his worse game of the season. We deserved to lose. If you want to look at the positive side we still could have won that game if a few plays go our way. As bad as I thought we played we only lost by seven points. I have confidence our coaching staff would attack them differently the second time around. We’ll see what happens if they make it in the playoffs and get through the first weekend.

Let’s look forward to Tampa and try to find some playoff intensity. Home field advantage is still ours to lose but we have to come out sharp and play a full game from start to finish. I kept telling everyone that one of these weeks we wouldn’t be able to come back from starting in a hole but not many people want to hear that when you are undefeated. We need to come out and destroy Tampa and get our focus back. Miami is in our sights but we have to start playing better going into the playoffs.

The President Should Have Seen This Coming

I know it’s still early in his term but I think it’s time to shake things up in his cabinet or get some new blood in an advisory role. I am not as smart as the president or any of the people around him but I can’t understand how any of those educated people didn’t see Joe Lieberman coming. Sometimes you can be too ambitious and ignore obvious human nature and rules for dealing with people. President Obama thought he could show the country that he was above partisan politics so instead of slamming his detractors he bent over backwards to make them feel comfortable. The only problem is that none of them cared about being bipartisan so they turned around and slammed him. If it was only Republicans from the Tea Parties and the Sarah Palin camp then I could chalk it up to learning on the job. I think everyone expected some of that but there is absolutely no excuse for Joe Lieberman getting a chance to stick it to you.

He campaigned actively for your opponent John McCain. He even spoke at the other party’s convention. He couldn’t wait for you to lose. He was on the opposite end of almost every major issue you ran on. He really hates your party now since they pushed him out. You had the power to eliminate that guy and you didn’t. Now you don’t want to seem bipartisan so you are willing to do anything he wants to get to the official 60 votes on the health care bill. That means the public option, Medicaid buy in and any single payer system is dead. That’s funny because the insurance mandate is in there which means that not only will insurance companies keep getting paid, we will all have to buy it from them or face the consequences. That’s enough to make me want to join a tea party. I say this while for the third time in the last two years my employer searches for a cheaper insurance plan that won’t cripple the agency. That’s okay though. We still have our freedom to hire all new employees part time so we don’t have to give them any benefits. I would like to thank Senator Lieberman and the rest off my government for preserving that privilege.

President Obama needed to take the approach that guys used to do back in high school. Back in the day there was always someone who liked the same girl you did and everyone knew it. He didn’t have to be an enemy but you knew that even if you never got the chance to be her boyfriend it wasn’t going to be because of that clown. You should never get played that badly by your obvious opponent. That’s what happened here with President Obama and Joe Lieberman. The scariest part of all is that I am afraid that he will ignore the obvious and keep doing things the same way. If that happens then he really won’t make any real change happen because those people don’t care about change and bipartisanship. They want to win. Ask yourself what would have happened if Lieberman was supposed to be an ally of George W. Bush and his crew while they were in office and then worked to destroy a bill of theirs like this. I’ll tell you what would have happened. Senator Lieberman would have awakened to his champion horse’s head under his bed sheets and Johnny Fontane would have gotten the part in that movie just like The Godfather.

Ten Thoughts From The Mayoral Debate

I made it home in time to watch the first New Orleans mayoral debate. It was moderated by Norman Robinson who did a good job at trying to keep everything sounding serious despite the obvious humor from some of the candidates. I have a few thoughts.

1. After watching the debate tonight I think it would be a good idea for everyone in the city to scale back their unrealistic expectations of one man or woman walking into City Hall and transforming the city with their leadership. I’m not saying that there was no one up there that wouldn’t be a good mayor. I’m saying that it’s time to look at solutions from a broader view than just one person.
2. If I had to name a top five in no particular order it would be Leslie Jacobs, Troy Henry, Mitch Landrieu, John Georges, and everybody else.
3. Ed Murray needs to pick it up but I did agree with his idea that the mayor’s office needs to be more involved with the educational system. This is a great idea even if it’s just serving as a watchdog for the citizens.
4. James Perry should have spent more of his talking time presenting his agenda and not attacking Ed Murray’s voting record. The people have to know you well enough before stuff like that holds weight.
5. There was a candidate named Jerry Jacobs who was trying his best to make Norman Robinson snap by answering every question with his idea to legalize marijuana. I don’t know about legalizing weed but his overall point was the closest to my main concern in the city. Everyone has good ideas but we have no money to implement them. Legalizing marijuana might not be the answer but we do need some cash.
6. Speaking of cash…we pay 9% sales tax in the city of New Orleans and only 2.5% of that goes back to the city. Where does the other 6.5% go and why haven’t I heard anyone go completely bonkers about this?
7. Anytime Rob Couhig says anything negative about Ray Nagin he loses creditability with me because he is one of the people who endorsed him during the run-off and helped him get back in there during the last election.
8. I bet Nadine Ramsey is going to do much better in debates once she gets over her camera shyness. She looked nervous.
9. Someone at the transit authority should go to work in the morning and make the St. Charles streetcar handicap accessible for Jonah Bascle. The first reason is that should already be done. The second reason is that if he wins the election all of you are getting fired.
10. My final opinion is this debate did nothing to move to the corner of one candidate or another but now I know the few that I want to do more research on. Right now the biggest thing that happened to me was finding out the city only gets 2.5% of the sales tax we pay. I need some clarification on that.

Undefeated is a Morale Booster

As I type this there is a downpour going on outside and I am hoping it doesn’t flood again. Normally weather like this would have everyone down and be the only topic of conversation all day. Fortunately we have an undefeated football team to take our minds off all of this rain.

When you live in New Orleans you grow accustomed to not having a lot of good news to celebrate. Usually we rank near the bottom for all the good things like education, and jobs and at the top for all the bad things like crime and poverty. Nothing the Saints do will change any of those statistics but at least for the last 13 weeks and counting we can walk around knowing that we have beat down every city we played. I’ll take what I can get. It just feels good to see the name New Orleans on top of anything positive. We have to find our to the top of other good lists because this feels good. There has to be a way to reproduce this energy without Drew Brees involved. I wonder if one of the mayoral candidates can look off the safety and throw the deep post over double coverage.

The Saints don’t have a lot of competition when it comes to bringing the area together. I think I have had at least 50 random conversations with total strangers about the team. I watched the end of the Redskins game at a Best Buy next door to Chuck E. Cheese in Slidell (no one should ever schedule a kid’s party on a Sunday during football season). By the time that game went into overtime there were at least 100 people watching the game together and everyone was acting like we were watching our family play. I remember thinking how cool it would be to have that kind of feeling in May when there is no football to give us a morale booster. Under normal circumstances I would say it wouldn’t but if we carry this streak all the way to the big game then everyone would be so excited about next season that we might stay on a high all the way to training camp.

I know I am dreaming and taking football way too serious but being 13-0 will do that you.