then we dance

Gangstas Need Love.....So do Politicians

Yo Homeys....this allegation came in via the comment section, once again, from an Anon. I'm going to write a poem to my Anons one day, or maybe a rap. The double entendre is just too tempting.

Black Cat Productions is one of Nagin's many mystery companies. So....Ponder this:

Blackcat Productions? That's the outfit through which a major recording industry figure funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars into Nagin's 2002 campaign, skirting the campaign finance laws. Nagin's brother in law convinced this MASTER-Ful celebrity to wash the money so it would look like Nagin put up some of his own cash to run, but it really was some less than pristine proceeds through this well known celebrity who has relations in big trouble with the law in JP.

JP....for all you curious cats....is Jefferson Parish...our next door neighbor. They are a separate nation, when it comes to laws and the perception of...well.... the nature of perception.

So if he took a trip to Hawaii on Imagine's bill...that's a smoking gun. If he actually funneled "hundreds of thousands" of greenbacks in campaign contributions through Black Cat.....that's a bomb crater....as big as the "hole in the ground" he referred to in NYC.

I got another post on AFO...which I already knew about. I was holding off because i wanted to get a better picture. That post is forthcoming.

The new definition of GOP

Graft
ABC article on Rove Abramoff

Oppression
The Nation article on Coombs
Washington Post article on Sen. Allen

Pedophilia
ABC article on Foley

even cowgirls get the blues
....so clever.

just remember how proud Ben would be.

but seriously...no really....

potato...potatoe...let's call the whole thing off....I'm tired.

Ok fuk u casey jones...let's drive the motherfucker into the ditch.

"Ho Ho Ho....Na`u e uku", said Santa St. Pierre

*Unless you're fluent in the Hawaiian language, I offer you a Skeleton Key for translation which you can find HERE.








Christmas, 2004....do you remember where you were?

You say you were on a Maui beach?

Well, maybe you spotted our illustrious chrome-domed Mayor rubbing sunscreen on his noggin. And who was that blindingly white, white guy beached beside him?

Auê!

It's none other than New Orleans CIO, Greg Meffert!!!

`Ano `ê!

Two buds spending Christmas in Hawaii....nothing wrong with that. But wait, what's that?

Aiâ!

You overheard a conversation between them? After sipping his Pina Colada, Nagin asked Meffert, "Who's paying for all this?" Meffert replies, "He mea iki....hakuna matata. Don't ask so many questions Ray Ray....and if anyone asks you about it just say, 'Pehea ho`i'".

Minamina!

I can't IMAGINE who could have paid for that trip. Surely they weren't so Lôlô that they had a city sub-contractor pay for it.

I mean....couldn't that be traced?

No way would they be that kâpulu! But then again, Meffert loves to hô`oio....maybe he was kâpulu enough to leave a trail.

This Howie has some Maha`oi alright.

So come on Ray....explain this one...`Oia ana!

Mr. Clemens...where are you when we need you?

Mark Twain once said, "There are lies, damn lies, and statistics."

If Sam was alive today, he would have to ammend that sentence to "There are llies, damn lies, statistics, and then there's Fox News."

Although, in the absence of Mr. Twain, at least we have Mr. Olbermann.

I love it...he calls Chris Wallace a "monkey posing as a newscaster".

Anon, Anon, Anon....speak to me

Thanks to a shoutout AZ got in the Gambit, I've been getting a lot of posts rolling in regarding the Meffert scandal. These, I believe, are the most pertinent. I have verified this through two separate sources aside from this Anon's post.

Anonymous 1 said...

Dambala, you are right on the money!!! My sources tell me that, during the time that Kimberly Butler was being ousted from the Nagin administration (around March, 2002), the Meffert "Dream Team" discovered that all the email traffic being sent via their Blackberries was being saved in the Microsoft Exchange Server in the city's server room. They also determined that, if you send your messages to the recipient's Blackberry PIN instead of their email address, then the message bypasses the Exchange server. Armed with this information, they could no longer be traced via an email history and could circumvent the "Public Record" problem.

Which would totally explain why they went in at exactly that time period and performed a "system upgrade" and "accidentally" erased the email archive. I wonder....I just wonder.....if some IT employee was sly enough to copy any of those email exchanges before they erased them. Wow....if you're out there man...please contact me. AZ will protect your anonymity and publish whatever you have....because if you do have something, it's public record. The city deserves to see what we were paying for.

and then there's this one

Anonymous 2 said...

In addition to Continuous System, you should also check out www.netmethods.com. This company is also owned by Mark St. Pierre as well and has only one product; The NetMethods Intelliport. If you look closely, you'll see that the NetMethods Intelliport is the same portal used for the City of New Orleans website (cityno.com). Yes, that's right, it was developed by, you guessed it, Imagine Software on the City's nickel. Oh, and apparently, it's all perfectly legal as the contract for Imagine Software with the City of New Orleans states that anything developed by Imagine Software for the city becomes the property of Imagine Software. And who wrote the contract for Imagine Software? Yes, Greg Meffert. And who signed the contract for the city? Yes, Ray Nagin. What a nice little gig... the City of New Orleans is Imagine Software's R&D department!!

I'm not sure I really have any issues with Imagine retaining ownership of any software appz they write for the city. That's not unreasonable. However, the reason I really think this post is pertinent is because it introduces us to NetMethods, St. Pierre's company. I can assure you there will be more info forthcoming on this.

Also,

Anonymous 3 said...

Blinging-est kickback - a Yacht!

in addition to unlimted tabs at LOA, Ricks on Bourbon St, free rooms for romps at International House, straw poker games where Meffert always won and the Imaginary guys always lost. . . Did the Imagin-ary guys really believe they could give Meffert a yacht paid for with their dirty money profits from no-bid deals with City Hall, and get away with it?

Am I the only one who thinks that the special executive order to exempt from RFP requirements so Imagine could corner the market on city IT work amounts to a criminal conspiracy involving Nagin, Meffert, Kurt and Imagine to send all the work and money to a company that Meffert (and maybe Nagin) shared in the profits of -- through the yacht, straw poker games where Meffert always won and the Imanginary guys always lost, unlimited tabs at posh watering holes, private entertainment by "professional" dancers, etc.

Meffert has been a fraud all along. .. his vaunted private sector success was underwritten by a govenrment program that allowed insurance companies in louisina to invest in new businesses in lieu of paying premium taxes (CAPCO). Meffert got millions to start his company, sucked out the money, sold the company to some suckers and what was left of his firm moved to Virginia or somewhere.

One thing I want to mention is that AZ is not interested in stories of sexual indiscretions....unless they involve the misuse of public money. I've got a lot of those comments which have come in that I've deleted as I didn't feel they were pertinent to the real issues. However, the more information I've gleaned, the more suspiscious I've become that there are issues revolving around their "partying" which may be considered as kickbacks....the post by this Anon broaches that issue, particularly with the poker games where Meffert always won. I'm not sure if that's money laundering, a kick-back scheme, or both. Regardless I feel this Anon comment deserves attention on AZ.

As to the legality of the procurement, I concur, sir. I'm curious as well. That stinks as bad as a post-K fridge....as bad as the meat department at the Sav-a-Center on North Carrollton...as bad as...ok, you get the point.

I am even more curious about AFO investments, which I believe is potentially THE ethical issue at the moment, but I'm the only one who seems to be interested. If we have a mayor investing in real estate in this city with his campaign manager, David White, who was also appointed to the BNOB commission....we have a serious ethical breach. I am still calling for full disclosure from Nagin about what AFO investments is actually investing in and where their money is coming from.

My favorite commment so far...

lilith said...

What a pathetic, hissing little pack of heaving vampires! As for you, dambala: you need to get your sick mind around the fact that there’s no point trying to claim higher moral or intellectual ground on anyone while you’re spewing forth vulgarities and pounding around on all fours in your own filth. You are no doubt an inspiration to vile right-wing freaks everywhere.

PS - "Comment moderation has been enabled"?? Is that some kind of zombie in-joke??

but Lilith, predecessor to Eve, vulgarity spewing is so much fun! Forgive me, but it is the nature of a child of Dambala to writhe in the snakepit and spit venom on occasion.

Hissing, heaving vampire...that's a great visual...






Thanks for the feedback.

An interesting factoid is that some mythologists refer to Lilith as the first vampire, as she defied Yaweh and would not become subservient (have sex) to Adam. She was actually created from "filth and sediment" but was banished from Eden and hid out at the Red Sea, which was swarming with demons. Her curse for defying God was that she would become perpetually impregnated by "The wasted seed of men" which of course comes from masturbation and nocturnal emmisions. Hence, it is also thought that she is the temptress who invades men's mind in sleep with erotic images, causing what we refer to as a wet dream. The result of her constant fertilization by this sinful waste of DNA is that she bears more than a hundred lilim (demons) a day. She is the closest thing to a female version of Lucifer in Hebrew myth, she is in some aspect, a Hebrew zombie.

So even in 6000 B.C. (if you believe Old Testament chronology), people had dirty minds much like me.

In our modern culture, Lilith has taken on a newfound respect from feminists who have discovered the myth, mostly thanks to Sarah McLachlan and her Lilith tour. Now, Lilith has come to represent female independence and empowerment over male oppression and influence. Don't you just love happy endings?

So thanks for posting your name with the comment...it provided a strange synchronicity to your perspective.

Oh...and comment moderation is turned on because of the political nature of the blog. I filter comments which I suspect are grossly innaccurate or that aren't pertinent to public officials in the misuse of of public funds.

Ashe'

Titanic on the Bayou

Gordon Russell and the TP are on the trail, or should I say in the wake of the lifestyles of New Olreans rich and infamous public officials.

Here we have New Orleans politics as usual...manipulating a city contract for personal gain, bullshit emergency procurements, strongarming employees into personal politics with veiled email threats...and not so veiled ( Kurt's F-bomb email was priceless)..and they're just scratching the surface.

I give you an unconfirmed (deal with it...it's a blog beeoootchh, I'm not the NYT) report:

A TP reporter apparently picked up the scent of something fishy going on with Meffert about 2 years ago, and started filing for documents under the Freedom of Information Act. Meffert and the Imagine crew let their imaginations run wild and basically freaked. They literally shut down the entire city server system (payroll for city employees, everything) in order to wipe out all emails stored on the email server(s) to ensure that the information couldn't be obtained by the TP. They performed this feat under the guise of a "System Software Update" which after completion, accidentally erased the email server archives. Doh! Convenient isn't it?

If this report is accurate, there must be city employees in the IT department who are aware of what happened. I wouldn't be surprised if Paul Bible, listed in the TP story, isn't aware of it. If they did in fact erase the emails that is a clear violation of law...destroying public record. It would probably be nearly impossible to prove in a court of law, but I'm sure there were city IT employees (non Imagine) that knew what was going on. I would love for one of those employees to either confirm or dismiss this story...so if you're out there, please post a comment on this post about the plausibility of this story.

................................fuck

my heart is heavy. there's just been so much loss. i just want it to end. i want it to get better.

another friend says goodbye

I first met Mark Krasnoff on the phone. I was working at the House of Blues and I had written a screenplay, which somehow Mark had gotten his hands on. I had heard his name, and knew he was an actor, but had never actually met him in the flesh...he was someone you must meet in person to really understand how powerful his personality was.

He raved and raved about the screenplay for a good 20 minutes on the phone...after our first meeting at True Brew in the CBD, I understood why he liked it as he was perfectly suited for the supporting role. I would later learn that he was perfectly suited for almost any role you gave him...he was so extremely talented.

While the screenplay never materialized into an actual film, I developed a very close relationship with Mark over the years. I would edit his demo reel for him and package it whenever he needed it. He hooked me up with a contractor to fix my house when I was completely out of options and in dire need.

Mark always had some potatos boiling in the pot.

I was one of the first people to buy a pair of Z-coils from him when he opened his shop behind the big Rue on Magazine. Whatever he was selling, I would buy it. His presence was just magnetic...you couldn't help but hug him when you were around him. He radiated agape.

He would love to tell me the story of how he initially followed suit with his Acadiana peers and took a job on an off-shore oil rig . It soon became apparent that Mark wasn't cut out for the manual labor required to work on the rig, so they put him in the kitchen and tried to make him a cook. He said he only knew how to make red beans and rice, so he made it the first day, and the crew loved it. But by the 3rd or 4th day, they were ready to kill him. He said they finally fired him when he nearly got crushed by a helicopter after falling asleep sunbathing on the helipad on the rig. He loved to tell me that story. I think he loved it because he knew he wasn't cut out for the status quo....he knew he was exceptional.

He was prone to wild tales sometimes, and wild tales surrounded him as told by others.

He became quite a movie star in the French speaking provinces of Canada. He made a movie in Mexico about an Elvis conspiracy. The film was based on a claim that Elvis retreated to a small Mexican village after faking his death. Mark swore to me the story was true...he almost made me believe it. There were so many curious stories surrounding Mark, one never knew what to believe.

Right after Katrina, Mark sent a mass e-mail out that described an apocalyptic scenario taking place in Ville Platte. It was a harrowing description of death and depravity which was most certainly embellished, but I know it came from a place in his heart of deep compassion....mixed with an even deeper anxiety. That was Mark...he cared so much, he couldn't separate himself from the suffering of the world...he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders day in and day out.

The post-K world was a burden too heavy even for his brave heart to carry.

I'll say goodbye to him with the words of Dylan Thomas, as I think the two shared a similar sentience:

And death shall have no dominion.
Dead men naked they shall be one
With the man in the wind and the west moon;
When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone,
They shall have stars at elbow and foot;
Though they go mad they shall be sane,
Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again;
Though lovers be lost love shall not;
And death shall have no dominion.

And death shall have no dominion.
Under the windings of the sea
They lying long shall not die windily;
Twisting on racks when sinews give way,
Strapped to a wheel, yet they shall not break;
Faith in their hands shall snap in two,
And the unicorn evils run them through;
Split all ends up they shan't crack;
And death shall have no dominion.

And death shall have no dominion.
No more may gulls cry at their ears
Or waves break loud on the seashores;
Where blew a flower may a flower no more
Lift its head to the blows of the rain;
Though they be mad and dead as nails,
Heads of the characters hammer through daisies;
Break in the sun till the sun breaks down,
And death shall have no dominion.

Goodbye my friend...you did not go gentle into the night...your gentleness touched all you met. I love you.

Why the Picayune rocks

I make no secret that I'm a fan of many of the journalists at the TP. But Gordon Russell, is in fact, the schnizzel in the TP's wizzell.

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-6/1158477073165140.xml&coll=1

Through the trauma that we've gone through in the past year...the one constant has been the TP. They have done their job and done it well....if there's one thing that has kept this community together, I think it's the Picayune.

Just keep tellinig the truth mi bruthaz, it will set us free.

location, location...do you share my consternation?

This comment comes from Schroeder at People Get Ready:

I remember seeing on the City Council Web site -- somewhere between 1998 and 2001 -- (as I recall) that Morial was seeking a waiver to be allowed as an investor in a real estate company to develop areas near the St. Thomas project (in the process of being demolished). This was before the City Council recognized that actually letting citizens in on proceedings might reflect poorly on them. They have since stopped posting proceedings shortly after I sent email requests for the ultimate decision on Morial's request. I never heard back from anyone. Needless to say, the fact that Morial was, at the same time, promoting the demolition of St. Thomas (a matter about which I remain conflicted), is at best unethical -- or (I'm no attorney), illegal.

I suspect that real estate has always been one of the areas where unscrupulous mayors exploit their position for personal profit.

Not just mayors, bro....I know you read Gordon Russell's incredible story on Renee Gill Pratt, Mos Jefferson, and Frozen Dollar Bill's convoluted snarl of non-profits and real estate ventures.

That's why I want to know exactly what the hell Nagin's AFO investments is "investing" in. There are so many crucial decisions affecting the real estate market which will be addressed in the coming months and years that it's impossible for him to maintain any level of autonomy if he's investing in real estate in this city. The French Quarter hotel moratorium is ripe for the plucking in particular.

If AFO is investing in the New Orleans real estate market....at the very least, he should publicly state any and all investments the company makes.

My Spidey Sense is Tingling

"See-Ray-Rape-Nawlins" launches a real estate company with developer David White (owner of McDonalds' franchise, Table One on Magazine, and appointed to the BNOB committee by Nagin) 2005 pre-K. Here, we have a Mayor who is in the real estate business in the city he's governing...conflict of interest? One would think.

Keep your eyes on this, I know I will.

Also, by all means keep your eyes on Ray's stance on the French Quarter hotel moratorium...I don't have anything solid on this yet....just speculation.

More to come.

Oh by the way...I was just reading YRHT's rant against that dead pelican schmuck .....David White was Nagin's campaign treasurer. Hmmmm.....according to Oyster, Nagin finished the campaign well in the black. One wonders...

Ogun is giving me hell

I just realized I haven't been getting comments in my email and hence haven't posted them. Sorry.

I'm having a lot of technical difficulties in life....Ogun, the Yoruba God of iron and technology is pissed at me. I've made numerous sacrifices to him including a $3000 laptop, three hard drives, a $10,000 Video VTR, a cell phone, and the mother board on my Mac G5....that all comes out to about 17 grand.

His ire is insatiable and nothing seems to appease him. The only thing which can appease him is Oshun, the female deity of water and all things life-giving....and in New Orleans and Carribean, rum is supposed to do the trick. So far nothing has worked.

Any suggestions for a sacrifice to appease him?

Have We Flatlined?

When a patient's heart becomes asystolic on an operating table, the attending doctor must announce the time of death to officially declare the patient's demise.

Who announces the death of a city?

I don't know if we can announce that New Orleans, as we once knew it, is officially dead...but I can tell you that we all know it. Some of us may not want to admit it, some of us may be delusional, some of us may be in a pharma-fog....but I think that sub-consciously New Orleanian's know this city is in a very dark place and there's no light at the end of the tunnel. Nor is there a messiah who would resurrect us.

I'm not omniscient and I don't want to pretend I know what the fate of New Orleans actually is, but if I were the metaphorical M.D. and had to write the autopsy report...it would look something like this:

Name: New Orleans
DOB: 1718
Age: 288
Sex: Female
Path MD: Dambala
Death Time: May 20, 2006

Final Diagnosis:

Asphyxiation caused by drowning led to the patient's demise but was not the final cause of death. The patient was sustained on life support for several months following the accident. A government agent was responsible for the accident and hence was federally protected from manslaughter charges. While there was much optimism about the patient's recovery, the subsequent neglect the patient was subjected to from it's assigned caretakers eventually led to the patient's demise. The patient's fate was sealed on May 20, 2006 when an incompetent caretaker was chosen to oversee the patient's recovery by the patient's family. Upon being appointed, the caretaker mysteriously disappeared for an extended and critical period of time in order to leverage what was left of the patient's estate to further his own self interests. The caretaker's neglect led to the patient's eventual demise.

Cause of Death:

Neglect, Incompetence, Greed

Sign the Petition Now

http://www.gopetition.com/online/9176.html

Please take time to sign this petition to recall Ray Nagin and save our city from 4 years of incompetence.

Lessons in Perserverance

Her name is Charlotte, the name given to her by my son. She (if she is a she) has gone from a nuisance to a novelty to an obsession for me.

She first showed up in the back of my pick-up truck about 3 months ago, or at least that's when I first noticed her web. I took a stick, twisted the web around it and threw it away. The next day the web was back.

This scenario went on for about a week until finally I caught her in the act of spinning it. I was about to take my shoe off and squash her against the tailgate, but I became enthralled watching her do her thing. She intrigued me...impressed me. I decided to give her the real estate for a little while. I knew I'd be travelling to New Olreans from D.C. in a few days, so I figured I'd give her a reprieve until she had to face the perils of I-85 at 90mph.

So I drove back to N.O. and pretty much forgot about her. A couple of days after landing, I got up one morning and walked out to my truck. I'll be damned if the web wasn't re-spun. She wasn't on it, but the web was there. I couldn't believe it...she had made it over 800 miles at speeds of up to 100 mph and two days later came out to build her infrastructure and get back to business. I marveled at it for a second, and noticed she had changed her web strategy slightly by connecting to the tailgate with two strands this time instead of one. It seems like she continually refines that process everytime she spins.

Flash forward three months later. I've driven that route 3 more times, back and forth, and side trips through the South. Charlotte's still hanging in there. She's become somewhat of an obsession for me.

On one of the trips, I went through one of the worst rain storms I've ever experienced driving through Birmingham. As they used to say back on the farm, "It was raining like a cow pissing on a flat rock". I actually had to pull over as my windshield wipers couldn't keep up with the torrent. The whole time I was thinking about Charlotte and if there was any way she could have avoided being washed away.

As I thought about what a storm like that must be like for a creature that small, it occured to me that it must be much like a hurricane. Swirling winds of 100 mph, pounding rain....her home being destroyed, God knows how many times. I keep wondering why she doesn't just do a spidey jump off the tailgate and go find a bush, but she keeps coming back...she just keeps re-building.

Yeah that's kind of a hoaky allegory, but shit,man...I'm kind of a hoaky guy.

My brother-in-law and his cousin just borrowed the truck to move some stuff...I gave them this 5 minute sermon on how to gently open the tailgate and break the web so as not to harm her....they of course, think I'm crazy. When I swim I always put my trunks on a clamp in the truckbed to dry them out...now I make sure I put the trunks in an area where they won't fly off and hit her or the web. She's pretty much taken over that side to the truckbed.

Maybe I'm losing it....but the longer she survives, the better I feel.

If anyone can tell me what species she is, I'd appreciate it.

Which one are you?

I have a couple of addictions....well maybe more than a couple. Right up at the top of the list is billiards. I live to play pool.

Last month I was playing at the R Bar in the Marigny with a guy who was a pretty good shot. I was on my game and I ran the table on him. He walked up to me after the game and said, "You got ya game on, hustla."

"No man, I"m not a hustler...I just had a good game."

"No man...I mean hustla...not hustler...you know, a playa. You either a playa or a hata."

Being one the whitest guys I know, I had no idea what he was referring to. So he schooled me in the "Playa/Hata Dichotomy". I haven't stopped thinking about it since.

Essentially it goes like this, or at least how I interpreted it.... if you're generally just trying to make things better and a have a game going on...You're a playa.

If you are generally trying to make things worse, and you're jealous of people who have game....you're a hata.

The playa/hata thing supposedly has roots in a Notorious BIG song about pimping and stuff. But the point according to my pool companion is that it's taken on new meaning and is becoming part of the lexicon. Being a fan of emerging words and cultural parlance, I've put some thought into the paradigm and come up with some personal interpretations of the "Playa/Hata Dichotomy".