Thursday, February 04, 2010

Typical

Mayoral frontrunner Mitch Landrieu targeted by rivals in televised forum

Perhaps the night's most shocking moments came as candidates responded to the question about how they would heal New Orleans' long-standing racial divide.

"There's a bigger issue out here, and it has to do with Mr. Georges," Couhig said. "I was so disappointed today when I was presented with evidence that an organization he ran had people in blackface, parading around. I mean, how can you be mayor if you condone that in an organization that you were the president of?"

Couhig referred to allegations posted this week at the Web site of a local blogger connecting Georges with a controversial Tulane University fraternity.

Georges denied participating in racist activities: "You know, you don't respond to blogs. It's not true. Those are all misrepresentations. I never condoned such, and it's just last-minute political tactics."




They just can't bring themselves to do it can they?

But seriously, I want to know what's not true, Mr. Georges.

I guess you think blogs are beneath you...you know the average guy asking you to take responsibility. You want to lead an entire city into the future but you can't take responsibility for your own past....amazing.

I guess you can go ahead and try to chalk it up as the privilege of youth. The rest of us now know the truth... you were a youth of privilege who never learned to take responsibility for your own actions.

33 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's all about "Who Dat" these days. Am a huge Saints fan, but the choice on Saturday is real. Yeah, the Pic is in the tank with Mitch, and doesn't want to rock the boat. Frankly, I was shocked how bad Mitch looked and responded tonight. He gave one of those, "Not gonna lose" performances. Heck the guy has barely shown up. Oh well, it is what it is. At leas Clancy has some balls.

My vote is still very much up in the air. Even before 2 days.

whatever said...

How can he say he didn't condone something when he was the President? What year was that, 1981? Didn't this blog publish pictures of the parade from that year?

Anonymous said...

John Georges is a coward if he refuses to address this serious issue.

He was President of a group that annually paraded in blackface and did all sorts of racially intolerant actions. He has nothing to say about that? Admit it. Condemn it. Condemn those who did it. Condemn yourself. Ask for forgiveness. But to deny it? The pictures don't lie.

Which is worse: the local chapters of the KKK, which are filled with openly white supremacists, but who have no power or acceptance in society.

Or men in positions of power (doctors, lawyers, politicians, actors, judges) who parade in blackface with spears and pay homeless black men to pick up cotton balls around their home, but publicly say they are for racial equality

Which is more dangerous to the racial balance of opportunity we strive for?

Jason Brad Berry said...

- whatever said...

How can he say he didn't condone something when he was the President? What year was that, 1981? Didn't this blog publish pictures of the parade from that year?


Oh wow...The picture in question is actually from 1980. I bet he was a Freshman that year, so that would place him as a pledge. Interesting stuff.

Fast Eddie said...

Yawn. Fair play to Georges. You can't act like a blogger and expect to be treated like a real journalist. Find yourself some scruples or stop whining.

Oh... right. The no orders thing.

It might... behoove you to find some scruples.

Anonymous said...

I hear the Georges house was in his in-laws name until recently. I guess he is just learning how to be a big boy.

Anonymous said...

AD, his bio says he was born in 1960. "He continued working throughout college and graduated on the dean’s list from Tulane University in 1983." But it does not say when he started. At any rate 1980 would have him as anything from a Sophomore to Junior. Some people start college when they're 17, who knows. Kind of odd it also does not say where he went to high school or when he finished there.

http://georgesformayor.com/meet-john/biography/

Anonymous said...

Anyone remember John Georges "Plantation" remark?

Anonymous said...

Georges went to Sam Barthe a boys school that went out of business not too long after he graduated. Got an old yearbook here, he was in third grade in '70.

Jason Brad Berry said...

So that would mean he graduated High School in 1989 and put him as a freshman at Tulane at 1980. The 1980 yearbook is where the blackface picture came from, so those facts seem to match.

Interesting.

I love it when people get pissed off and start yapping, they almost always provide useful information in the process.

Jason Brad Berry said...

FE, if you're going to live up to your moniker you're going to have to troll harder, you didn't make a comment until 3 in the morning...you've got to put me on speed dial if you're going to be an effective troll.

If you end up being the 4th or 5th commenter, you won't be able to shift the conversation away from the topic and put it back on me.

Just some tips for you.

I want my trolls to be in top shape.

Anonymous said...

Just a follow-up:

He graduated Sam Barthe High School in 1979. He was born 10/16/60, so that might have indeed meant he was a freshman 1979-80.

As I recall, Sam Barthe was a school for rich kid badasses who could not make it elsewhere (or had been thrown out elsewhere) and needed "discipline." That school today is Ecole Classique, though its atmosphere or rep may have changed after the old man Barthe passed on. But maybe that's not fair.

http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/stbernard/20070930/015774.html


**********


I also found this old comment on a post at Adrastos: "the reason why georges has posters on empty midcity builtings is that his friend Marcello, right the son of Carlos, owns these buildings. All this dick is about is enriching himself at the expense of smokers, gamblers, and junk food junkies. As gov. he would push for more low stakes gambling and further erosion of the family unit."

http://adrastos.blog-city.com/malaka_of_the_day_john_georges_1.htm

And then this comment from a nola.com story:

"... The Video Poker industry really put John Georges financially in the Big League. It gave him they capital to buy out many competitors in the coin operated machine business accross southeast louisiana. He has acquired, AMA Distributors, which owned Lucky Coin Amusement, he bought A Ace vending which was one of the biggest vending companies in Louisiana, he even acquired the reminance of the old Marcello family business, Jefferson Music Company/ Master Video Poker, seems like Georges is the new boss of New Orleans, only problem he is not Italian. ..."

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2010/01/post_261/5520/comments-6.html

*******

Hey, he's coming out of JP and he's an old Marcello pal, what could possibly go wrong?

Favorite Georges quote:

"I have no real dark secrets. If anything, what you see is what you get with me."

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2010/01/post_261.html

Clay said...

Pretty pathetic that they only dedicated a couple of paragraphs to the biggest news of the night and never credited you.

Typical Times-Pic-Your-Nose. Even the usually solid Gill is slipping:
http://righthandthief.blogspot.com/2010/02/never-letten-me-down-policy-of-truth.html

Mike said...

I agree AZ. I don't understand why NOLA.com refuses to give you proper credit. In a previous article they did mention the blog, but did not hyperlink.

Just left a comment in the latest article that it was AZ that brought it up and linked to the site.

KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK!

Anonymous said...

off topic I know but: Sam Barthe himself was well-known as a strict but fair disciplinarian so a lot of punks were sent to his school but not only them. And just a clarification on Ecole Classique: Ecole actually was established in '56 according to its website. I am almost positive Barthe biz died out and after Barthe went out of business, Ecole assumed the campus and a lot of it's students.

Anonymous said...

Guys, I have a thoery on why the media won't give AZ attribution:

It's their thing.

They don't want people knowing where they're getting their scoops.

Anonymous said...

Oh lord. I really don't like JG's but you guys are off on Sam Barthe, I went there until the end. Ecole bought Sam Barthe, it was a business transaction. Barthe students transitioned to Ecole from whatever grade they were in to the next. If you look at the yearbooks you'll see ALOT of good people went there. It was not some school for drop outs. Anyway, just my view of Sam Barthe since I went there for quite some time.

Anonymous said...

just a thought. if it is true that only pledges did this, that most likely means they all had to as a part of hazing. which means John would have had to as well or he would have taken the chance at being blackballed from the frat.

Anonymous said...

Anon 9:31- Four years- fifth grade?

Who Dat! LOL

Jason Brad Berry said...

- just a thought. if it is true that only pledges did this, that most likely means they all had to as a part of hazing. which means John would have had to as well or he would have taken the chance at being blackballed from the frat.

Oh so you mean he would have had to make a decision based on principle or peer pressure?

His dilemma being that if I don't dress in blackface, I can't hang out with all these racist assholes...and I really want these racist assholes to accept me?

Not quite sure where you're going with that.

Anonymous said...

I was going with, evidence supports that Georges really wanted those racist assholes to accept him, period. No dilemma, he went along with all the others. He did go on to be their president after all.

Jason Brad Berry said...

yeah, for a second I thought you were sympathizing with him.

Anonymous said...

"Come Monday we'll make red beans and rice, but in a different city altogether"...lovely.

Anonymous said...

Anyone else see the Landrieu kills babies flier put out by Georges this week?

Landrieu hasn't had to go negative because he is such a front-runner, but I hope there is a runoff between Georges and him just to see the dirt. You know he has some and is just sitting on it.

TravelingMermaid said...

Excuse me if someone already said this but Clancy DuBois mentioned AZ in his debate review on WWL-TV by name either after the debate or on the 10:00 news. I'm working with a fever here so I can't remember for sure and I haven't read every single comment on the last few threads.
You go, Dambala.

TravelingMermaid said...

Here's the link:

http://www.wwltv.com/video/featured-videos/DuBos-Candidates-played-it-safe-83611087.html

Kevin Allman said...

Not to be teacher's pet here, but it's Gambit's editorial policy to not only credit blogs and bloggers by name when relevant, but also to quote from their work within fair-use and provide a link back to the original.

Journo standards are still evolving on this stuff, but I think we can agree on the pre-Internet principle of giving credit where credit is due.

Anonymous said...

What of the posters on nola who told AZ what to look for and where to find it?

Why are you so desperate for credit when you simply posted pictures of what others told you to find?

Jason Brad Berry said...

Did it occur to you that it means something to the commenters and contributors of this blog to be credited as well?

Happy you brought that up, though.

More to come

Jason Brad Berry said...

- What of the posters on nola who told AZ what to look for and where to find it?

Why are you so desperate for credit when you simply posted pictures of what others told you to find?

You are suggesting that the story I did came from people on nola? I assume you mean comments?

I didn't research that story because of NOLA comments...I got some comments directly into the blog which led me to pursue it. But having said that, I have gotten leads from NOLA before, just not in this case. When I originally looked into the story I found a couple of comments online about it and I actually linked to them, but they weren't the impetus for the story.

I don't think credit is such a big issue as long as the story is told, I was just poking fun at the TP because I thought it was funny that they won't say the blog name. A sense of humor is sometimes lost in intertubes translation.

Most of the people who comment here like to remain anonymous, so the credit comes when we figure out what's going on together.

I think this blog, and all the blogs in the city are very much a community effort, it's just who wants to take responsibility for the discussion.

If you have more information, please share. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

"I don't understand why NOLA.com refuses to give you proper credit"

...credit for what, exactly? showing that Georges was a member of a frat that wore blackface in the 80s? it may be bad form to be linked to it, but theres no FACTS that georges did...well, anything.

thats what the dissenters like myself are say. what facts?

stick to battling technology graft...its what you did well.

Anonymous said...

hah. nice sentiment, there. i love your retorts to neutral-minded dissenters -- tell them to shove their thumbs up their asses.

bravo. good show, dear professional.

Jason Brad Berry said...

Fact: Georges was not only a member, but President of the Dekes in 1981.

Fact: the fraternity had a history of racist provocation for decades, including the period when Georges attended.

Fact: Their charter was revoked in 1984 fro racist and sexist acts, a few short years after Georges left the fraterntiy.

Fact: The Debutramp ball was held every year during Georges tenure at the fraternity.

Fact: Pictures don't lie.

Fact: I contacted the Georges campaign to allow him an opportunity to reply to the post before I published it...he did not reply.

Fact: You telling someone what to do (as if you know best) does not make you a "neutral-minded dissenter"....it just makes you an asshole.

Fact: The show must be good enough to pull down 25k visits in 3 days with an overwhelming amount of people validating the sentiments of the post, many with personal experiences of the Dekes. You seem to be rather preoccupied with it as well, so maybe I am a professional after all.